96: Divinity
Many years ago, when the world of Stellaria was still young, Zeshia was still a Goddess. Goddess of Destruction Zeshia. The God Realm has many gods. Together all the gods watch over each and every mortal realm. However even the God Realm is governed by rules. And those rules are established by the 3 heavenly pillars of the God Realm.
Goddess of Time Chronoa, God of Reason Phobos and the Heavenly Father, Creator of all Gods, Krysallios. These 3 stand above all other gods, both in strength and hierarchy. In short, if they ever tell you to do something, you have to do it. As you would expect, an almighty God doesn't accept no for an answer. However, that's the exact answer Zeshia gave them once.
Zeshia wasn't the only God of Destruction. Her mentor also had that title. And one day, the Gods ordered Zeshia to kill her mentor. Well… not technically kill. It's more like ascending from a gods' point of view. Giving the soul eternal rest. However she couldn't follow that order. Naturally the gods didn't like that.
But Zeshia was on another level. After all, for her the Hakai Mode series was like second nature. It took 15 Gods to finally restrain her. However just because she refused to obey an order, that doesn't make her an Evil God. Yet, the God of Reason had to punish her. So Zeshia was transformed into a sword and banished from the God Realm. And the world she landed on was Stellaria.
More years passed and the very first Maou found her. He used Zeshia as his weapon. However when Zeshia tried communicating with him like she is with me… he mostly ignored her. She didn't like one bit how she was being used. So when the Maou died, she used her power to control his corpse and plant herself into a stone.
She was treated as tool, not as a person. She never wanted to be used like that again. So she sealed herself and slept all this time, spending her immortal life in her dream world. Until I showed up. Thanks to Ariadne I knew that pulling her out wasn't the solution.
Now, how do you determine if someone is an Evil God? If a God is to ever break the rules of the God Realm and tries to interfere with the natural order of life, then you would be labeled as an Evil God.
For example there was one diety that wanted to shroud a world in eternal darkness and eliminate all life forms. He even dared to attack the 3 pillars, but ended up being destroyed.
Sometimes an Evil God manages to escape the God Realm and create their own dimension, hiding his tracks and presence and making it impossible for the other gods to track him down. And from the sound of it, this is the enemy I'm up against right now.
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"You had it pretty rough Zeshia."
"I'm just doing the same thing as you. Doing what I want."
"You think we can beat these dimensionals?"
"Well the rift can be closed. As long as I can slash it, whatever magic is creating and holding it open should easily be destroyed. The problem is the Evil God. If it gives them some sort of weapon…"
"Didn't you say you can cut through anything?"
"Technically yes, but there is an exception. It depends on the enemies' divinity. Much like you mortals, gods are also ranked by their divinity. For example, your elf demi-goddess slave has a divinity rank of D+. Which is pretty much the highest divinity rank a demi-god can have. However, my divinity rank is A-.
Now, if the Evil God we are facing has a divinity of A+ or higher and enchants a weapon with his power… even if I am a Goddess of destruction, I won't be able to break that weapon."
"I see."
"Moreover, you also need to worry about yourself."
"True. My powers may have sufficed 10 years ago, but against this possible threat, I need to get stronger. And not just myself. I need a way for all my slaves to get stronger too. I'll need to come up with plan eventually."
"Sounds like a plan to me. It will be fun to watch."
As we were having this discussion, a small spider crawled out of my hair. It was one of Nelia's spiders. She left this one for me for communication. At first I was reluctant cause I thought it was creepy and my hair is gonna get filled with web. But this small guy is harmless. He got close to my ear and started whispering something.
"Hmph. So it's happening."
"What's happening?"
"It seems very soon we will be under attack. So we need to get back and prepare."
So, this is the approach you're making, Liliana?
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I imediately teleported back in town. Nelia was waiting for me already. A lot of spiders were gathered at her feet. They probably have important intel.
From what Nelia told me, a large army was marching towards this place. It's unknown who is leading it though, so I can't be sure Liliana is with them.
Furthermore, bad news spread across the demon realm. Liliana spread the word that I obtained Zeshia through disrespectful means. Adding to that the fact that I killed both Byron and Volmund… the factions believe I cheated and will not hand over the Maou crest to me. It seems to me like Liliana has some sort of backup plan. But at this point I can't tell what that plan is.
Regardless, I need to get this town ready. Our military force won't be able to handle a powerful assault. Technically I shouldn't be scared. I alone am enough to make up the difference in power, but the clash I had with Guilford made me realize that I shouldn't be overconfident.
Playing it safe and setting up a form of defense is a safer bet. Alright, Liliana. You made your first move. Now it's my turn. Let's see if you can even make it inside the city. No matter what, you won't get by me. And soon, I'll have you in my clutches.