Ch.181181. Yupiterius (3)

And so, it has come to this.

The gods of the Pantheon, unable to overcome their greed and desire for power, tried to cleverly devise ways to safely obtain the power of pleasure, but…

From the beginning, their very attempt to absorb pleasure was, in fact, their most fatal mistake.

This wasn’t the kind of malignancy that could be filtered by merely placing a higher deity as a filter.

The malignancy filtered through Bacchus was only what appeared on the surface; since the power itself was integrated with and composed of malignancy from the start.

Although the gods of the Pantheon believed the divine nature of pleasure to be safe when they accepted it, they gradually began to be corrupted by the malignancy.

Even before this, being personified deities primarily modeled after Greek mythology, the Twelve Olympians could hardly be praised for their character or virtue.

While not inherently evil, they were quite impulsive and emotional, with strong mood swings and pride so high they remained unbending even when they should have yielded.

This led to incidents like sowing their seed among humans on earth, lacking familial propriety, being sexually promiscuous and immoral.

And when they judged their pride or dignity to be even slightly damaged, it was all too common for them to directly and terribly punish those responsible.

But despite the distance between their supposed benevolence and their actual deeds, at the very least, these Twelve Olympians held love for their believers.

They consumed faith to bestow slightly better fates, and when rare devout followers appeared, they rewarded them generously.

Despite the penalties inherent to personified deities of divine lineage due to their physical forms and personalities, the gods of the Pantheon at least did not neglect their divine duties.

However… after the malignancy infiltrated them, their way of thinking became twisted and distorted.

Their concern for believers warped completely into a craving for pleasure, and the empire that had prospered under the divine nature of pleasure instantly became a mere tool.

Their emotional and capricious nature, which had once been fitting for gods, became distorted, causing them to view mortals as mere instruments for satisfying pleasure.

As a result of these changes in the Twelve Olympians directly affecting those below them, the Roman Empire eventually transformed into its current state—before its downfall.

Pleasure-supremacist thinking took deep root throughout society, rotting the empire. The miasma of corruption and hedonism seized everyone from the imperial leadership to the poorest citizens.

The Senate, which had at least agreed on allowing humans to live with dignity, became something worse than a rubber-stamp parliament of a typical third-world country.

The Pantheon and its subordinate temples fell from being places of divine worship to mere groups of merchants seeking profit derived from their gods.

The strengthened survival-of-the-fittest mentality contaminated the empire’s values and social norms, establishing a selfish and disgusting mindset worse than modern Communist China.

The final blow came when predation upon sentient beings, which had been strictly regulated except in extreme situations, became treated as merely a matter of culinary preference.

Having crossed the point of no return—their Rubicon—the empire’s society completely degenerated, directly creating the perfect environment for the evil god of pleasure to be born—

The empire ultimately collapsed with the complete deification of pleasure, and thus I came to encounter Jupiterius, preserved in the Divine Palace.

…Enough digression; let me return to the main point.

Looking at the miserable end met by the ruler of gods before me, I felt compassion as a sentient being—but regardless, he was ultimately an enemy.

Therefore, the only mercy I could grant was eternal rest.

CRACK!!

Without even a moment’s hesitation, I struck the preserved Jupiterius’s head with an axe, liberating him from his preservation.

《…Th…ank…y…ou…》

After speaking with a voice that seemed to melt away, using his last ounce of strength, Jupiterius immediately crumbled completely and vanished from this world.

※ ※ ※

The collapse of the Roman Empire, once considered the greatest empire, became a certainty with the annihilation of the imperial main force, which had been the empire’s last hope.

The holy city was completely erased by the “Revenge Cult” that had annihilated the imperial main force, and its territories were utterly shattered by evil gods and their followers.

Consequently, neighboring countries trembled in fear of the evil gods who had destroyed the most powerful nation, forming a Grand Anti-Evil God Alliance to counter potential attacks.

Given the situation where one wrong move could cause them to collapse like dominoes, these countries set aside differences in race and ideology to join hands, at least for the moment, but…

Precisely because they thought rationally, the Grand Anti-Evil God Alliance couldn’t imagine it.

That despite circumstances so favorable to the evil gods, instead of expanding outward, they would fragment and start a civil war.

Evil gods, being the furthest from cooperation except in rare circumstances, entered an infinite selfishness mode once they became reasonably comfortable.

Fighting each other, fragmenting—literally a mess with no allies whatsoever.

Interestingly, amid all this, only the Revenge Cult remained peaceful.

Partly because they were the largest faction and others feared the consequences of carelessly provoking them, and partly due to the military might that had crushed the imperial main force of 500,000 troops.

But if one had to pick the most important reason for this peace, it would undoubtedly be Bjorn Wolfson.

Bjorn “The Chosen” Wolfson.

He is currently acknowledged by all as the strongest being of this era—a Transcendent (Rank 0), who has reached the level of a quasi-deity capable of becoming a god through his own power if he obtained divine status.

Typically, even reaching the entry level of Rank 3 would make one considered a one-person army, so how powerful must Bjorn be at Rank 0?

Naturally, he is treated as a walking strategic weapon and deterrent, becoming the reason why the Evil God of Revenge could declare non-interference to all other evil gods.

And now, he is…

[Here it is, sir.]

“…Thank you, Ben.”

Working on paperwork that hardly suited his aptitude, reorganizing the cult into a nation.

In truth, by objective standards, Bjorn is an exceptionally capable leader.

He united the Nordic tribes, which had been at a nomadic level, into a single nation, becoming a serious threat to the empire in its prime—no further explanation needed.

But his success came solely from his personal ability and charisma; he had never properly organized an administrative structure.

Fortunately, as Bjorn became a Transcendent, his intelligence (stat) also improved, and with the assistance of first-rate administrative slaves Ben Gaitenpeng and Gracchus, he was able to reorganize the Revenge Cult, albeit somewhat inadequately.

Among the priorities was, naturally, the territory of the nation that the cult would become.

The southern region, including the former holy city, was a given, with the northern territories that once belonged to Bjorn added as well.

Additionally, the underground city located in the mountains where the Blood Sanctuary stood couldn’t be overlooked, along with several key strongholds established throughout the land.

Overall, while the territories seemed scattered and disjointed, this issue was resolved through the permanent warp gates in the Blood Sanctuary.

Originally eight in number, but now ten as I grew stronger, this facility allows registration of specific points for free access.

Beyond this, another task Bjorn needed to address was gathering the scattered underground temples.

While they served as spies during the Roman Empire’s containment period, such a cell organization wasn’t particularly helpful in these chaotic times.

Therefore, they were working to withdraw the cult’s secret temples and bring back the priests and believers who had been dispatched.

Normally, other evil god cults would interfere with such operations, especially ones that removed population from their territories, but…

This time, they turned a blind eye.

After all, there was no reason to stop those who were internal destabilizing elements from leaving, and what if the strategic weapon Bjorn were to deploy if they interfered?

Thus, the Revenge Cult’s large-scale relocation seemed to be proceeding smoothly, but…

“…What? They attacked?”

[Yes! The Legion of Terror under the god Horus has attacked our people!]

Whether unable to break old habits from their days as an imperial legion or for some other reason, the corrupted legion under the Evil God of Fear had attacked the believers who were in transit.