Ch.33. Worship the Great God of Vengeance.

Right after Bjorn pledged his loyalty—or more precisely, his faith—to me and dedicated himself to me.

‘I-I did it!!!’

While inwardly rejoicing to the point of seeming a bit frivolous,

outwardly I continued to maintain a solemn and dignified appearance.

《All that you are belongs to me, and I hereby appoint you as my apostle for my sake.》

Immediately after saying this to Bjorn, who knelt on both knees with his head bowed.

I concentrated my consciousness and split off a portion of my awareness and power.

And right after that.

I injected that split power through the spiritual channel formed by his faith in me.

“……..!! This power…!”

As my power entered his body and settled within him,

Bjorn became both my first believer and my apostle.

Apostle. A word meaning ‘a group used (by someone)’ or ‘a dispatched group,’

which carries a similar but slightly different meaning in this world.

The position of a god’s apostle, also called the Chosen or a god’s Champion,

is simply put, a representative appointed by a god to express their will.

In the game, there are quite a few restrictions on the number of apostles, and it seems to be the same here,

perhaps that’s why even the apostle of the weakest god possesses formidable power.

Becoming a god’s apostle is essentially equivalent to receiving divine status, albeit in a diminished and degraded form.

Because of this, all ability scores fundamentally increase several times,

and regardless of previous occupation (class), one can wield that god’s exclusive divine magic at maximum power.

Additionally, if the god permits, one can draw power directly from the deity, which in the game means MP—magical power—is virtually unlimited,

and one can even become a medium for divine descent or directly exercise authority by borrowing the god’s power.

“……..So this is what it means to be a god’s apostle.”

Perhaps because he now possessed such immense power,

Bjorn was staring blankly at his own body, but there was still more to come.

There were many more things I needed to bestow upon him.

《Not yet, Bjorn. There are still blessings to be given.》

“Blessings… you say?”

I had decided to grant him the rather splendid divine blessing, but Bjorn’s reaction was slightly strange.

Seeming to hesitate whether to speak or not, Bjorn finally squeezed his eyes shut as if steeling himself and addressed me.

“Lord Marduk, I do not doubt your greatness in any way, but… wouldn’t the blessing expose me to the false gods of the pantheon?”

A reasonable concern.

While the degraded divine status bestowed upon a god’s apostle can be deactivated,

temporarily removing the power of an apostle and making it surprisingly easy to conceal… blessings are different.

It’s essentially like walking around openly wrapped in divine holiness,

and since there are cases where visible changes occur, I understand his concern.

But I have everything planned out.

《There is no need to worry. Your shackle will conceal the blessing.》

“This… you mean?”

He replied while looking at the special metal shackle reinforced with iron that he wore on his left leg.

Since awakening one’s aura—the standard for intermediate warriors—transforms the awakened person’s body into that of a superhuman,

the arenas of the Rom Empire place shackles with mana-sealing properties on intermediate and higher warriors to restrain and control them more easily.

This prevents them from using aura and mana that need to be externally released to properly manifest their effects,

but when it comes to divine blessings, the situation is different.

Divine blessings are powers that manifest within the blessed person’s body, closer to passive abilities.

Of course, there are activation-type blessings too, but even those are closer to passives that allow the use of certain powers.

Even if blessed, the shackle’s property of preventing external release means that blessings that take effect internally

will remain hidden from outside detection while still being effective when worn.

In other words, depending on what blessing I bestow,

I can minimize the disadvantages while maximizing the advantages.

“If that’s the case… I will trust you.”

Having apparently gained confidence from my words,

he bowed his head without further objection and swore not to doubt my blessing.

I then channeled power through the spiritual connection to him,

and began processing it into a blessing within his body.

……..Actually, despite calling it a blessing with such grandeur,

the blessings that a lowest-tier god can bestow upon their believers aren’t particularly impressive.

At best, they might increase all ability scores by 5,

or provide bonuses to actions related to the god’s divine domain, but…

When the being bestowing the blessing is an evil god, the story changes.

Like customizing a character in a game,

evil gods can grant superior blessings in exchange for imposing penalty elements.

A blessing that greatly increases magical ability at the cost of completely losing sight in one eye.

A blessing that grants increasingly powerful physical abilities in battle at the cost of gradually losing rationality.

And there are even blessings that grant tremendous power but cause one to lose intelligence and transform into a monster through physical mutation.

Moreover, since most evil gods are fundamentally ‘evil’ in nature, they rarely provide advantages proportionate to the penalties imposed.

Most often, they impose numerous penalties,

while giving meager benefits in return and absorbing the remaining power for themselves.

Ah, of course, this is only when they exercise restraint to minimize the burden on the believer.

From the beginning, if they pour blessings at full power, both good and evil gods,

regardless of their divine rank, can bestow quite powerful blessings.

Of course, if this method is used,

most mortals cannot withstand the divine power and die as their bodies twist and contort.

An extremely small minority of mortals with vessels large enough to contain the blessing survive and gain powerful abilities,

but their minds collapse or their souls become twisted, turning them into monsters.

Only an extremely small number with talent that can truly be called “chosen” maintain their sanity while gaining power…

but even then, their bodies may mutate, or in severe cases, they become entirely different beings from what they were before the blessing.

Of course, even though I am an evil god, I had no intention of doing such underhanded things,

and planned to bestow a fair blessing commensurate with the price.

‘Let’s see…’

If this were a game, I would grant powerful blessings in exchange for losing elements unnecessary for combat, like taste or compassion…

but now that this has become reality, such shortsighted actions were unacceptable.

Additionally, Bjorn’s vessel was large and sturdy enough to potentially become one of the strongest in this world,

far exceeding my expectations.

Unlike the blessings typically bestowed upon mortals,

he could easily withstand a full-power blessing from a lowest-tier god like myself.

‘Will it work? Will it work? Will it work?’

Therefore, I decided to push the maximum blessing I could possibly give him—

‘Success!’

In conclusion, three categories of blessings successfully settled in his body.

First,

a straightforward blessing that enhances physical abilities and various resistances.

It boasts an enhancement multiplier of 1.5x to all ability scores—a level that would be considered broken even in turn-based games—and

he will be able to easily resist various status ailments like poison or paralysis unless they are of an overwhelmingly high level.

The second effect is simple but beneficial:

resistance to elemental attacks and increased magic resistance.

It reduces the power of any elemental damage by about 20-30% and magical attacks by about 30%, and

these two effects stack with each other.

So for elemental magic, the most major form of attack magic, he will effectively take only 49-56% damage, about half the normal amount,

which will serve as an excellent shield for him.

And the final, most anticipated effect is a blessing befitting my divine domain:

granting stat bonuses when fighting against targets of vengeance.

Even against the weakest enemy, if there is even a slight desire for revenge, ability scores increase by 1%,

and this effect can increase up to 100% depending on the intensity of the vengeful feelings.

Moreover, this effect is multiplicative, and since he currently harbors powerful vengeance against the entire Rom Empire,

when facing the Rom Empire’s army, his ability scores could theoretically surge dozens or even hundreds of times higher.

………What’s even more frightening is that even Bjorn with these blessings

is no more than a common mob compared to the original Bjorn who became the apostle of dozens of gods.

“This power… thank you!”

Anyway, having received the blessing directly, Bjorn expressed his gratitude to me, but it was still too early for that.

《Bjorn, son of the wolf. I have one final gift to bestow upon you.》

“What might that be, Lord Marduk?”

《Receive this, a divine artifact forged with my power.》

Finally, I needed to give him the divine artifact I had created.

Divine artifact. Essentially an object-version of an apostle, a tool created directly by a god,

typically treated in the game as top-tier level 5 equipment on a scale of 1-5 equipment levels.

And the divine artifact I bestowed upon him was an amulet attached to a necklace.

The amulet consisted of a red gemstone about the size of a king’s egg of unknown origin, surrounded by a silver border,

and a chain made of flowing silver links. This amulet contained powerful defensive properties.

It provides the wearer with defense equivalent to level 3 full-body armor—the level where national treasure-class equipment belongs—

and allows the wearer to wear another set of full-body armor on top of it,

theoretically securing the defensive power of two sets of full-body armor.

Additionally, the wearer gains complete immunity to various external mental attacks or interferences,

as well as protection against negative mental status effects originating from within.

Finally, this divine artifact grants the wearer high regenerative abilities comparable to a swamp troll that can even regrow severed arms,

reflecting my will to never let Bjorn, its wearer, die.

“Lord Marduk, this is…”

《It is my will. Put it around your neck.》

Following my instruction, Bjorn placed the amulet around his neck,

and the amulet seemed to melt into his body as if taking root…

Then Bjorn suddenly made an expression as if he had realized something.

“Thank you! Great, great Marduk!”

Perhaps he even felt my will to never let him die contained within it,

as Bjorn was shedding tears of emotion and joy as if he had just met long-lost parents.

《…Please, spread my name to those like yourself.》

While it was nice to feel such emotion transmitted, it was more burdensome for me,

so I left those final words and fled.