Wan Dao Xiaguang swayed down, covering the Huiyue Forest with a layer of golden tulle.
The huge towering oak tree was decaying at an extremely fast speed, and countless withered and yellow branches and leaves fell with the wind, playing an elegy about life.
Colin slowly let go of Elanthel, who was already silent, but found that the other's body began to change.
poof-poof-
Blossoming golden flames bloomed on Elanthel's body, but they were extinguished instantly, as if all vitality had been burned out.
In this flickering flame, Elanthel gradually grew red feathers, and finally turned into a phoenix!
Seeing this scene, Colin frowned thoughtfully, and his doubts deepened.
The fluttering oak branches and leaves slowly covered Ellanthel's body, as if to bury her.
The clouds in the sky exploded suddenly, and a step formed by the condensed golden holy light extended down from the boundless void, reaching directly in front of Colin.
Colin had already seen this scene when he was promoted to legend in Tinder City.
He didn't climb the steps at that time, but this time, he smiled slightly, his deep eyes seemed to have passed through time and space, and saw the end of the steps.
So Colin stepped up the steps.
Up, and up.
Away from the mortal world, passing through the void, Colin saw an altar at the end of the steps.
In the center of the altar stands a huge column with a huge silver snake wrapped around it—
The silver giant snake that Colin had seen twice in the illusion!
Its body is almost integrated with the cylinder, regardless of each other, which looks a little weird.
"You finally came."
The silver giant snake spoke, but the tone seemed old and weak.
"Are you waiting for me?" Colin was on guard carefully.
"Yes." The silver giant snake looked at Colin with complicated eyes.
"Who are you?"
"Humans call me the Lord of Radiance."
Colin was surprised, but not too surprised.
He had expected that the one who summoned him was the Lord of Radiance, but he did not expect that the legendary Supreme Lord, the god who ruled the beliefs of mankind, would actually—
so miserable.
Yes.
Colin could feel the weakness of the silver giant snake, exuding an aura of coming to the end of his life.
As if seeing the doubt in Colin's eyes, the silver giant snake spoke again:
"Do you feel that the gods you once worshiped are nothing more than that?"
Colin shrugged, but said nothing.
In fact, he didn't have much pious beliefs, so he couldn't talk about disillusionment at this time.
The giant silver snake sighed, and said:
"Actually, I'm not a real god. None of us are just a group of poor people who want to become gods..."
Hearing this, Colin couldn't help but said:
"If I'm not mistaken, you should all be druids who survived from ancient times, right?"
"That's right." There was an unconcealable surprise in the eyes of the giant silver snake, "You are really smart, and you have already guessed it."
Colin licked the corner of his mouth and said:
"Then Elanthel who fought against me just now should be the goddess of fate believed by the elves?"
"Yes, the Goddess of Fate 'Phoenix', the Lord of Radiance 'Silver Snake', the God of War 'White Wolf', the God of Destruction 'Goshawk', the God of Storms 'Monitor Lizard'... the so-called 'monster lizard' served by all races in the world. Gods', but us druids who have survived from ancient times."
Colin's eyes flashed, and he asked again:
"So, there have never been gods in this world, and you nine-level demigods are all pretending?"
The silver snake chuckled and said:
"It is true that there has never been an existence above the ninth level in this world. The so-called gods are not only the imagination of mortal beings, but also our delusions.
However, we have indeed found a way to break through the shackles of the ninth level. If we succeed, we may really become omnipotent gods! "
"This so-called path should be a belief system, right? But why don't you seem to have succeeded?"
"That's right. We firmly believe that the belief system can indeed help break through the ninth order, but we did fail because we discovered a serious problem..."
"What?"
"This starts with the Elf Dragon War in ancient times...
As recorded in the ancient books of the mortal world, the dragon clan is the only race that can give birth to demigod powerhouses, which is why they have been able to dominate the world for thousands of years.
At that time, the most powerful druid of our elves was only an eighth-level legend, far from being an opponent of the demigod dragon.
At that time, the elves were just a vassal race that surrendered to the giant dragon.
Until later, some powerful druids among the elves gradually mastered a terrible power-forbidden spell.
The forbidden curses that are currently circulating among mages are just the fur of the ancient forbidden curses. The real ancient forbidden curses are extremely powerful. a huge threat.
But similar to today's forbidden spells, the casting of ancient forbidden spells also requires druids to pay a huge price, so it can only be used as a deterrent method.
However, this aroused the fear of the giant dragons. They wanted to eliminate this threat, so they decided to sever the Druid's inheritance.
Of course, the Druids refused to be caught without a fight, so they led the elves to fight back, and finally started the war between the dragon and the elves that lasted for thousands of years.
In the early days of the war, the giant dragon had a huge advantage. After all, the dragon clan has real demigods, and we druids can barely threaten each other by relying on expensive forbidden spells.
But in the latter part of the war, the elves once again ushered in a turning point.
The reason is that a druid has researched a brand new arcane art of transformation through the remains of ancient monsters that have been wiped out by giant dragons.
Using this arcane spell, a druid can take the form of an ancient beast and gain some of its strength and innate skills.
You must know that although these ancient monsters have been exterminated by the giant dragon, they were once deeply threatening to the existence of the giant dragon, and there are many demigod-level powerhouses among them.
Although the transformed Druid has not yet reached the strength of the ninth-level demigod, it has already surpassed the eighth-level, and with the advantage of the number of elves, it is already possible to fight the dragon head-on.
Gradually, the balance of the war began to tilt, and the dragon retreated steadily in front of the druids who had mastered the arcane art of transformation, and was finally wiped out.
The elves, or more precisely, the druids among the elves, became the masters of this world.
We call ourselves the High Elves and establish a new dominion.
In the situation of being invincible in the world, the druids began to concentrate on studying arcane arts, especially the arcane art of transformation. We firmly believe that this arcane art contains the secret that allows us to break through the shackles of the eighth order.
The first to make a breakthrough was 'Phoenix' Elanthel. She discovered the secret of faith, established the Church of Destiny among the elves, gathered a large number of believers, and began to develop dependents—that is, today's The so-called 'holy occupation' ranger.
Through this belief system, Elanthel quickly broke through the shackles of the eighth level and reached the real ninth level.
The sudden change in Elanthel's strength quickly attracted the attention of other druids, and everyone joined forces to force Elanthel to hand over the secret.
Subsequently, various churches sprung up among the elves, and the druids crazily divided up the beliefs of the elves.
At the same time, a war for faith began.
There are also some druids who find a different way, thinking that since elves can provide faith, can other races also do it
Therefore, the battle for faith began to spread to all major races in the world, humans, trolls, orcs, Naga...all were not spared.
However, during this process, we discovered another phenomenon, that is, the beliefs of different races cannot be integrated.
For example, Elanthel, since she accepted the belief of the elves, she could no longer absorb the belief of humans.
As a result, interracial wars gradually turned into intraracial struggles.
After all, Elanthel has a first-mover advantage. Her Church of Destiny was the first to unify the beliefs of the elves and became the only god served by the elves—the goddess of fate.
Later, several other major races also completed the unification one after another. 'White Wolf' Wrynn became the only god served by the trolls - the God of War, and 'Goshawk' Magni became the only god served by the orcs - the God of Destruction , 'The Monitor Lizard' Alonso became the only god served by the Naga—the God of Storms, and humans... "
Having said that, Silver Snake stopped suddenly and looked at Colin with complicated eyes.
Colin said thoughtfully:
"I'm afraid it wasn't you who was the first to unify the beliefs of mankind, right?"
Silver Snake smiled slightly and said:
"Yes, it was indeed not me who unified the beliefs of mankind in the first place, but 'Blood Bat' Winsos. He was the original Lord of Glory."
"Blood Bat..." Colin chanted the druid's nickname, which strengthened his guess. "Could it be that I just accepted the inheritance of this 'Blood Bat' Wensos?"
"Yes. After the 'Blood Bats' unified the beliefs of humans, we discovered a terrible problem. That is, humans can gradually cannibalize other races!"
"Cannibalization?" Colin immediately understood what Silver Snake meant. "You mean that humans are the only race that does not have reproductive isolation from other major races?"
"Reproductive isolation?" Silver Snake obviously heard this term for the first time, but he quickly understood, "Yes, through the incompatibility of racial beliefs, several of the most powerful druids have already After dividing the sphere of influence, the belief of elves belongs to the goddess of fate, the belief of trolls belongs to the god of war, and the belief of orcs belongs to the god of destruction...
But humans have become an exception!
Because they can intermarry with other races and give birth to offspring, and these half-elfs, half-trolls, half-orcs... etc. can actually transmit faith to the 'blood bat'!
This gives the 'Blood Bat' a great advantage in this battle for faith. If things go on like this, the rest of the pan-human race will grow stronger and stronger, and the 'Blood Bat' can also use this method to gradually eat away at the other half. The belief of the god druid!
This obviously made the 'Blood Bat' offend the public, so the four demigod druids immediately united to kill the 'Blood Bat'! "
Ke Lin suddenly remembered a record in the "Glorious Scripture", and asked:
"Could it be that what is recorded in the scriptures, that the Lord of Radiance sacrificed himself for the future of mankind, and sprinkled his flesh and blood on the earth, strengthening the power of mankind, is actually alluding to this matter?"
"Yes. The most powerful ability of 'Blood Bat' is immortality, but this is not true immortality. There are no immortal creatures in this world, unless they are real gods.
He was torn into pieces by the four demigod druids and completely wiped out, but he was indeed very powerful, and he actually used this method to integrate his inheritance into the blood of mankind.
From then on, human beings have a very small chance of awakening, mastering the innate skills of 'Blood Bat', and becoming his inheritors... "
Colin thought of the Ghanaian Emperor who made him feel very kind, and immediately realized:
"So before me, Garner San Lorenzo was the first human being to awaken the 'Blood Bat' inheritance?"
"No. He's not the first, there are several before him." Silver Snake smiled faintly, "But they all ended up miserable."
Seeing that Ke Lin was puzzled, Silver Snake continued to explain:
"After the death of the 'Blood Bat', the human race was divided, and all the druids, including me, began to carve up the faith of the human race, but since the four demigod druids did not want to see another new 'blood bat' Since the birth of the bat', it has been monitoring the movement of human beings at any time, preventing the unification of human beings.
Moreover, they are always paying attention to the birth of strong human beings, and if they find out that they may be the inheritors of the 'blood bat', they will kill them without hesitation! "
Colin couldn't help asking:
"How did the Ghanaian emperor survive like this? How did he establish a unified human empire?"
Silver Snake smiled bitterly and said:
"Because our belief in the way of becoming a god has created new problems..."
Ke Lin looked at the weak demigod in front of him, and said thoughtfully:
"Could it be... there is backlash in this method?"
"Yes." The silver snake squirmed its body with difficulty, and immediately showed pain.
Moreover, Ke Lin also noticed that the body of the silver snake was really fused with the cylinder, and the slightest movement would cause the flesh and blood to peel off.
"Did you see? The belief system made us, but also firmly bound us. Moreover, as time went by, this restraint became more and more terrible, and even began to assimilate us!
Not only me, but all druids who have adopted this method have encountered this problem, and it cannot be solved!
If things go on like this, we will only be overwhelmed by the vast power of faith and become mindless puppets.
Hehe, perhaps, this is the real appearance of the gods..."
Colin thought of the holy pools below the church where the power of faith overflowed, and immediately understood: "No wonder you don't absorb the power of faith anymore."
"Yes, we dare not absorb any more. However, even if we no longer take the initiative to absorb, this assimilation process is still going on, but at a slower rate. It won't take long before we will still be completely swallowed by this belief system." Silver The snake sighed, and then said, "But there is only one exception!"
"who?"
"Fate Goddess Elanthel!"
"Why?"
"Because what she absorbed was the belief of elves."
Colin immediately came to his senses: "Could it be that the key to not being assimilated by the belief system is to absorb the beliefs of the same kind?"
"Yes." Silver Snake nodded, "When we discovered that Elanthel was the only druid who was not affected by assimilation, we thought she had discovered a certain mystery, so we united again to question her.
But she bluntly said that she has no secrets, and the secrets of the belief system have long been announced.
Naturally, everyone didn't believe it at first, so they teamed up to attack her.
Elanthel's strength surpassed ours, but after all, he was outnumbered, and was soon seriously injured by us to the point of death.
In the end, even when we had destroyed her altar of faith, so that she could no longer absorb the power of faith, we still didn't get the 'secret' we wanted.
Only then did we realize that this secret does not exist at all.
The reason why Elanthel was not assimilated was only because she absorbed the beliefs of the same race, while other druids absorbed the beliefs of other races, so the problem of assimilation occurred. "
Hearing this, Colin finally understood why the Goddess of Command was so strong, and why the elves were reduced to what they are today.
Immediately, he thought of another question:
"Then, why did she mislead me several times? What happened to the Emperor of Ghana back then? Is it also related to Elanthel?"
(end of this chapter)