Ch.176176. Rebellion in the Spirit Realm (1)

At the same time the battle in the material world came to an end, the Divine Realm.

No, to be more precise—my Divine Realm connected to the realms of the gods of the Pantheon.

[Advance!! Don’t leave any of them alive!!!]

[[[[[[[[Catch!! Reap!! Kill!! Catch!! Reap!! Kill!!]]]]]]]]

[I-Iris—]

—Crunch!

Currently, here I was leading a campaign to eliminate the remnants of the old Pantheon and the 12 Major Gods through soldiers commanded by my avatar.

In truth, while it was called a remnant elimination, it was practically just a cleanup operation when examined closely.

First, regarding the Major Gods killed by Bjorn’s demon sword on earth. Their Divine Realms remained—but absolutely nothing else was left.

The soul of the god, which served as both the anchor and power source maintaining the Divine Realm, had evaporated, and all that returned was just a portion of divine power I couldn’t absorb.

Therefore, while the Divine Realms desperately held on in the soul realm by consuming what power remained, the divine servants were in an equally desperate situation.

What do you think a divine servant is?

They’re commonly treated as minions created by gods separating portions of their power, and this isn’t entirely incorrect.

However, to explain more precisely….

Servants created by gods using their power ultimately have their essence belonging to the god.

They’re made in forms relatively advantageous for activity in the material world and may have individual consciousness separate from the god… but that’s where it ends.

Servants are ultimately nothing more than divine power made for convenient use, and regardless of their thoughts or movements, the control ultimately lies with their master god.

Even servants made from former mortals aren’t much different in this regard, as the process of turning a mortal soul into a servant—first requires absorbing that soul.

While maintaining its form to prevent it from completely breaking down into soul particles, the god absorbs the mortal’s soul as part of their own.

The servant created by using this absorbed soul in place of divine power, though appearing separate, is ultimately still part of the god.

As such, the core of these servants’ souls originated from their gods, but now those gods had been shattered by Bjorn’s hand.

Like summoned creatures in the material world whose summoners—their anchors—had died.

The servants, feeling themselves breaking apart because the gods who maintained their existence in the soul realm had disappeared, ultimately had to desperately absorb magical power however they could to prevent their dissolution.

To use an analogy, it was like trying to maintain a certain water level in a cracked jar.

Just as continuously pouring water can maintain the level in a cracked jar, consuming massive amounts of magical power might barely keep them going.

But… who could supply such magical power?

The servants, unable to generate magical power independently within their souls, eventually began absorbing the terrain and objects that made up the Divine Realm.

And after these were completely gone… they ultimately had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Thus, a hellscape unfolded.

Some of the “valuable souls” living in the Divine Realm were completely consumed.

They were absorbed as fuel to maintain the Divine Realm itself, or frequently caught and devoured by passing servants.

But the number of souls they could devour was extremely limited, as most souls had already been consumed by the gods themselves.

Therefore, the servants ultimately survived by devouring each other, but naturally, these wretches had absolutely no chance against me.

‘…Well, one more.’

From the beginning, with no gods left to directly oppose me, this invasion was merely a task.

A repetitive process of connecting, capturing, crushing, and absorbing.

After absorbing the Divine Realms of the seven Major Gods killed by Bjorn’s demon sword, the remaining Divine Realms—or more precisely, the ones assigned to me—numbered only three.

One was the realm of Iris, Goddess of Discord and Betrayal, which I was currently invading.

Thanks to Horus killing her once, Iris had been considerably weakened.

《Grrgh!! You insolent one! H-How dare!! How dare you—》

Crunch!!

Without needing to describe it further, the goddess Iris died instantly and had her soul completely absorbed.

And the same happened in the Divine Realm of Justitia-Astraea, Goddess of Justice.

With her soul damaged after being killed by the White Dragon, Magica’s servant, she had no will to fight from the beginning.

Well, what could you expect from someone who fiercely opposed the true nature of the Pantheon’s 12 Major Gods, only to have her soul shattered and corrupted in the same way?

Perhaps because a sliver of conscience remained, she quietly submitted and offered her neck, for which I showed mercy.

In addition to granting her a few conveniences, I ensured she felt no pain at the moment of death.

Anyway, after destroying a total of nine Divine Realms, there were technically three Divine Realms of the 12 Major Gods remaining… but in reality, only one remained—the divinity of Jupiterius.

The Divine Realm of Bacchus, God of Pleasure and Entertainment, had been transferred during his corruption into an evil god, and Phobos, God of Fear, had been absorbed by Horus, so he was… well, an ally.

So all that remained was the monster who had approached the level of the highest-ranking gods.

The Celestial God, Ruler of the Heavens, also called the King of the Pantheon, the Great Major God.

Jupiterius—invading his Divine Realm was next.

Fortunately, although much of this era was minimally implemented in-game, the battle with Jupiterius was implemented in quite a detailed form.

Especially since Jupiterius was famous in many ways, his strategy guide was one of the most well-known.

Therefore, I confidently led my Blood Warrior battalion forward into the beyond.

※ ※ ※

Jupiterius’s Divine Realm has a completely different environment from other Divine Realms.

Unlike other Divine Realms, its entrance is blatantly exposed, located right in the Pantheon with its coordinates fully disclosed in all directions.

There are no forces guarding the entrance, nor are there any traps.

This is partly due to these arrogant gods being quite careless, but more than that—it’s their unique mechanism of imposing restrictions and conditions.

Like gaining points for positive traits by adding negative traits when creating characters in simulation games including D&A.

Jupiterius’s Divine Realm gained the advantage of preventing entry by any means other than the entrance, at the risk of openly exposing that entrance.

So while the entrance is restricted to just the Pantheon’s meeting hall, the passage itself is quite wide, making it seem like merely a penalty….

Of course, this is only true if you don’t know the next condition.

First, only those of lower-rank status or below can pass through this passage, meaning I cannot send my main forces through it.

Additionally, this passage naturally blocks all divine interference, so ultimately, only lower-rank troops can be deployed to break through.

The fortunate aspect is that all these conditions apply to the opponent as well, and once even one soldier enters the Divine Realm, they can serve as a medium for invasion.

But… here’s where the real problem begins.

The fact that they imposed such strict conditions to ensure only lower-rank battles means they were confident in winning such battles against anyone.

To put it simply, the forces stationed in this passage—number over 5 million in total.

Moreover, these are souls meticulously selected through all sorts of harsh methods from among all those who served in the military since the founding of the Roman Empire.

Thanks to regularly held tournament-style gladiatorial matches or battle royale survival games, where winning souls were injected with the essence of losing souls, the quality of each individual is excellent.

Furthermore, even if they die, they periodically revive beyond there. Setting everything else aside, just facing 5 million troops is daunting enough.

Even if they were just common soldiers with clubs, it would be challenging, but these are carefully selected and enhanced troops numbering 5 million.

At that scale, trying to wear them down would lead to our own destruction first, and they wouldn’t even flee in terror.

But despite these adverse conditions, I couldn’t help but smile.

Because I knew better than anyone that this passage, with its seemingly impenetrable conditions, was actually all flash and no substance.