Cthulhu Gonfalon

Souls were delicate for both humans and gods.

To finish transforming Elder Grand’s soul, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had been refurbishing it repeatedly with Divine Power. Though she tried hard to control the power each time to avoid even the slightest backwash and minimize any possible harm to Elder Grand’s soul, the refurbishment turned out to be so much that it exceeded the limit.

What was worse, it was the “limit” of the god’s part of the soul that had been used up. In other words, since the god’s part of the soul had failed in getting through to the injuries, the remaining human’s part of the soul had collapsed.

Before that, the elder’s soul had been supported by the surrounding transformed parts of the soul like a solid foundation. But once the foundation had broken down and couldn’t support anymore, the soul became as fragile as sand sculptures exposed to violent storms and waves. It collapsed in no time.

Moreover, the broken part of the soul was exactly the core part of Elder Grand.

That made sense. Over the past few years, he had been continuously pursuing his own dream and tempering his soul. Though he had decided to give up now, the last bit for him to give away would surely be the most critical part.

He was like an old man who would sometimes forget about house chores or what he had eaten or seen, but his most unforgettable memories would never fade away. Old men usually enjoyed talking about stories of their young age, their great successes, bitter failures, saddest partings, unforgettable reunions, romantic love, etc. They recalled their parents, their wife, and their children, even though they might not still be around because these were the greatest memories.

For Elder Grand, the most unforgettable and difficult thing to let go was the path he had been going along all throughout his life.

His unwillingness to abandon his path had prevented him from taking the one proposed by the Goddess of Bumper Harvest. Once his most critical path had been destroyed, so had his entire soul.

This had happened so fast that there was no chance to save it. Though the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had reacted in time and immediately tried to force the breaking soul to gather again with its Divine Power, her efforts would just be in vain. Saving a core-breaking soul would be impossible even with the joint efforts of several great Divine Powers.

In no more than one or two seconds, Elder Grand’s soul had completely shattered into countless luminous spots.

His body, though without the soul now, was still transforming with Divine Power. Without the binding soul, the physical body quickly finished the last phase of transformation and turned into a glowing figure.

That was an Oracle who was far more powerful than Elder Grand had ever been in his life. But it was meaningless for the Goddess of Bumper Harvest or the God Ceremony.

It was so disastrous to lose an Oracle created only with sufficient time and Divine Power and sacrifice the only demigod in the church!

Apart from Elder Grand’s death, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had also been injured.

She was connected to Elder Grand by the Divine Current while leading the God Ceremony. She had been seriously injured by the disturbed current caused by the collapse of Elder Grand’s soul.

Having taken a hit, the Goddess of Bumper Harvest’s body in the God’s Kingdom started to topple, and blood came out from her nose and mouth. Instead of cleaning or healing herself, she struggled and insisted on dealing with the more urgent thing—the thing on the ground.

Elder Grand’s soul had collapsed, the ceremony had failed, and the great Divine Powers were smashed; an earthshaking explosion was about to take place any minute.

It would carry no smaller power than the previous one that hit Garth City. Being filled with Divine Powers, the entire Rem City was like a giant bomb. Once it was blown up, even the Goddess of Bumper Harvest’s God’s Kingdom would be affected by the Divine Current!

Gods saw their God’s Kingdoms as the real entity of themselves, so an exploded God’s Kingdom would be like losing a part of themselves. That was why the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had to ignore her injuries to control and reorganize her Divine Powers and prevent the likely explosion.

After her tireless efforts, she finally managed to bring back control of the Divine Powers to her God’s Kingdom. She had no more energy to look after the praying followers on the ground or those church seniors who had already come to realize what was going on there.

This was a grievous defeat, and now she needed to heal and recover herself even though she didn’t know how long that would take.

During her recovery, the Divine Powers to be released would be limited and so would be the response to praying. She would be able to maintain a much smaller size of the church.

Of course, this newly created “God’s Kingdom” would have no future and eventually disappear to a negligible page in history.

The Goddess of Bumper Harvest sighed when she finally got her chance to heal her terrible injuries. The gods who had been watching all shook their heads, sighed and left. There was a nice beginning and middle, but the ending was bad, stopping abruptly while the most exciting part was going on. This was such a dissatisfying event.

At least five or six gods murmured, “Finished already? There’s nothing else?”

At this moment, the “else” was coming.

A wild howl was heard, and no less than a dozen lights raised from the ground and went straight to the God’s Kingdom of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest.

“What?!” Yorgaardman, the God of Justice, yelled in surprise as he stopped in his tracks. He was surprised to see those rushing to the Goddess’ God’s Kingdom. “Devils?! Why are they here?”

All the gods stopped to watch including Sui Xiong.

The gods in the Pantheon temple who were about to get back to their own business now looked around again with more alertness but less curiosity.

But devils should not be worth much attention.

Devils were masters who were as powerful as gods but refused to become one. They lived completely different lives from usual gods, though something common could still be traced.

Their most prominent strength was having priesthood-like capabilities and thus with similar powers to gods including taking in and responding to belief, using Divine Powers and granting divinity. Some devils built up their own kingdoms that were no weaker than the weak Divine Powers and low-level Divine Powers.

There was a rumor that certain devils were already as powerful as mid-level good gods, and that would guarantee them a superior place in the Pantheon temple if they wished.

Yet they rejected becoming a god or taking any priesthood. They refused to be held responsible while gaining powers. They insisted on being the way they were rather than have anything change.

When a devil had been asked about the reason, it said: “freedom was more important than powers.”

It was true that gods owned great powers while carrying the corresponding responsibility, especially the God of Belief. Even the more liberal Nature God was also held responsible for his own part of priesthood.

Take the four elemental gods as an example; they were in charge of the crucial parts of the four elemental planes. It was their duty to manage these places and prevent the four elements from being thrown into chaos. In the meantime, they had to combat other elemental gods to make sure their own element always dominated in the universe.

That was why the God of Fire Element had tried so hard to be the Sun God. He was actually trying to enhance his control of fire elements and promote his status in the world!

And since he had become the Sun God, all places with sunshine had higher temperatures. South of the Main Plane had more rain, the north had become warmer, and droughts had shown signs in the heart of the Orc Empire in the middle of the mainland…

Even the God of East Wind, the relatively more disadvantageous Nature Gods, had also been strengthening monsoons moving around the world and thus become hostile to the God of West Wind. They even fought from time to time.

Unfortunately, the God of East Wind didn’t own any weapons called nuclear bombs. Otherwise, it would have defeated the God of West Wind easily.

The devils wanted pure joy from their powers, so they were seen as “devils” which represented the distorted part of the world. Gods looked out for them, and they were feared by humans.

In many places, devils were even more unwelcome than evil gods. Though the latter was horrifying, they had rules and were easy to please through their priesthood. But trying to please a devil would rather irritate it and result in disasters.

But devils usually kept a low profile and were rarely seen. They knew they were not popular, so they often hid. It was unimaginable to have a dozen devils show up together!

“What are they here for?” someone among the gods asked. The god immediately realized this was a stupid question.

A group of devils showed up together and rushed towards the seriously injured Goddess of Bumper Harvest’s God’s Kingdom when it had just failed in promoting a god follower. What else could it be?

To attack, of course!