Azure Scepter

Page 134

She gazed at Trier, who seemed like a god in the sky, with a complicated expression, then looked down at the groaning wounded and the piles of charred corpses amidst the ruins.

However, the next moment, Futia's astonished voice suddenly came from behind her.

"Is the half-human healed?"

Edith turned her head to look beside her, and was immediately stunned.

The dancer's severed limbs are miraculously healing!

The hazy moonlight, like a thin veil, covered the wound on the dancer's left arm, then transformed into an illusory left arm. After a slight flicker, the illusory left arm solidified again into a smooth, milky left arm.

Edith stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Amputation is an extremely difficult injury to heal. As far as she knew, only some extremely powerful legendary divine spells could restore such a disability! And that often required the church to spend many months preparing the corresponding materials and rituals.

But now, the halfling dancer's injuries have healed just like that?

As a former legendary paladin, the scene before her eyes completely shattered Edith's understanding, and she stared blankly at everything in front of her.

The dancer stared blankly at her newly grown left arm. The next moment, she suddenly closed her eyes, and tears streamed down her face.

She knelt down and looked up at the sky with devotion.

“It must have been Trier who did it,” Faudia said with certainty, her voice rising with genuine joy. “Edith, look over there!”

Edith followed the elf's gaze and looked towards the ruins.

Amidst the ruins, even those severely injured and dying citizens were rapidly recovering.

Edith even saw a man whose intestines had spilled out onto the ground, who had gone into shock from massive bleeding, regrow his internal organs, and then, with a ruddy complexion, prop himself up—with several crossbow bolts still stuck in his back...

At this moment, the princess was completely speechless.

What you're seeing is a miracle!

Looking down at the scene on the ground, Trier couldn't help but smile.

Doing good deeds makes you feel good, and it also makes good use of the power of faith that would otherwise be wasted.

The next moment, he closed his eyes again and entered the divine vision.

On the ground, the dim specks of golden light now shone as brightly as torches, their golden rays merging together to almost illuminate the sky.

If dim points of light represent shallow believers, then these torch-like golden rays represent fanatical believers.

In the game "Azure Scepter", the faith points provided by fanatics far exceed those of ordinary believers; moreover, the residual power of the immortal essence of fanatics after death is often more abundant, so whether they become invokers or are reincarnated into other forms within the divine realm, their power will be higher.

Therefore, all gods attach great importance to fanatics, and they sometimes even send otherworldly divine servants to guide them.

In the Divine Descent version, the Saints walk on the prime material plane, and the fanatics become an important indicator of the Saints' strength. After all, only a sufficient number of fanatics can provide enough faith points, and thus possess enough divine power.

“Good heavens, there are far too many fanatics. There are at least five times more than when I was a demigod lich, painstakingly building and developing a cult over hundreds of years.” Trier opened his eyes with a complicated expression, detaching from his divine vision. “Doing good deeds occasionally actually brings such unexpected benefits.”

The next moment, a golden notification silently flashed across the corner of his eye.

Like Edith on the ground, Trier was completely stunned at this moment.

[Warning: You have gained an excessive amount of Faith in a short period of time.]

[Warning: You have gained an excessive amount of Faith in a short period of time. You have acquired a slight degree of divinity...]

[Warning: Due to a large number of fanatical believers praying in a short period of time, and since you do not yet possess divinity or priesthood, you have been granted the temporary special status "Saint".]

[Saint: A mortal body, a human life, but your essence is entirely different. During this state, you will be immune to damage from any non-magical weapon, gain massive magic resistance, and as a saint walking the mortal realm, your attacks against mortals will not fail due to a major setback.]

[At the same time, you will possess a "condensing illusory godhood." During this state, you will be immune to divine effects such as "life and death control" and "true time stop," as if you possess a real godhood. However, the "condensing illusory godhood" cannot automatically receive or process prayer messages, nor can it distribute divine spells.]

[Warning: This state can be converted into a feat. When the state is converted into a feat, "Condensing Illusory Godhood" will become a godhood.]

what?

Trier's pupils suddenly contracted sharply, and he stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Although he always prided himself on being knowledgeable and well-traveled, he had never seen anything like this before. The previous descriptions of the "saints" were still within his comprehension, because in the version of divine descent, all gods possessed this characteristic.

However, the "condensed illusory godhood" that followed was completely beyond Trier's comprehension.

Theoretically, a sufficiently large amount of devout faith could give rise to new deities, but in practice, this is almost impossible. Therefore, the total number of deities across all planes is finite.

Trier once joined forces with all the legendary mages he knew to try to artificially create a new godhood, but the experiment ended in failure after paying a heavy price.

But now, that newly created godhood, which was once something he could only dream of, has appeared right in front of him.

For a moment, Trier was speechless.

The next moment, the deep voices of the crowd resounded in his heart.

"Just as I thought." The voices of the crowd rose in layers. "You really are the incarnation of a saint of a certain god in the Radiant Pantheon. Have you finally made up your minds to eliminate Losevie?"

Trier remained silent, and the others wisely kept quiet as well.

According to Trier's original plan, he intended to use the protection provided by the crowd to become immune to the "life and death" and "time stop" abilities that Saint Sel, Losevie, or Lady Bloodthorn might possess, but now they are completely useless.

Chapter 261 Preparation (Part 1)

"What I need to do next is sneak into the upper city while things are in chaos, and then reap the benefits after Lorseway makes her move," Trier thought to himself.

"However, before we set off, we still need to make arrangements for the treatment of the citizens. After all, faith is extremely precious. Just to be on the safe side, let Futia and Edith help Noi."

Upon realizing this, Trier immediately gave the relevant command to Noy in his mind, and after receiving Noy's affirmative reply, he snapped his fingers lightly.

"Snapped."

A ripple appeared in the air, and the next instant, a phantom that looked exactly like him appeared out of thin air in front of him—while Trier himself silently entered a state of invisibility.

"Old tricks, classic and effective."

Trier looked at the lifelike illusion before him and nodded in satisfaction. Then he canceled his Avenging Angel form and used the Featherfall spell to quickly descend to the ground.

As Trier descended from the sky, the people on the ground were arguing. Just as he was about to land, Trier overheard the end of the argument.

“So let’s just stay put and not cause any trouble for Trier,” Edith said softly. “If conditions permit, we’ll go and help some citizens.”

Futia immediately shook her head.

“But these Asmo soldiers who massacred the city were all summoned. If we don’t deal with Oris, who summoned the Asmo soldiers, then they will come back sooner or later. No matter how strong Trier is, he will eventually be overwhelmed by those monsters.”

Fatiya paused for a moment, her azure eyes reflecting the silhouette of the Star Tower in the distance.

"So...so we need to find Trier, tell him where Oris is, and then eliminate Oris."

"..."

Edith was silent for a moment, her gaze darkening slightly, before she let out a barely perceptible sigh.

Her best friend, Faudia, was oversimplifying things—Auris was merely a puppet.

Beings capable of summoning so many Asmos could not possibly be mere mortals, especially since they had just witnessed at least three living otherworldly divine servants.

Even in myths and religious stories, otherworldly deities are high-ranking beings. Their appearance in the prime material plane means that behind the massacres, plagues, and other such events are those saints who have been lurking in the shadows of history.

From this perspective, the appearance of the Demon Lord becomes reasonable.

This also means that Trier's schemes are not limited to the southern duchies or even the Kingdom of Orco; his targets are the saints.

The question now is, what exactly is the combat power of those saints?

Can they really erase a city so easily with a sculpture made of sand, just like in mythology? Can they really, like their ancestor Laurence in their dreams, burn the heavens and split mountains with a single sword, crushing the demon army?

If the answer is yes, then what is it that constrains them?

Since Trier is plotting against the Saints, it means that the Saints must have their limitations. So what are their weaknesses?

Can legends defeat them?

Just as the princess was pondering, Futia suddenly tugged at her wrist.

Edith paused for a moment, then saw Futia silently point to her side.

—Someone's here!

Although her best friend didn't say anything, Edith instantly understood. She pretended not to notice at first, then suddenly drew her longsword.

"Om-"

The moment the sword was drawn, Trier also canceled his invisibility spell.

"Eh?"

Edith froze, frowning as she looked at the figure that had appeared out of nowhere.

It's Trier!

She subconsciously looked up at the sky and then saw a Trier in the sky...

“That’s an illusion created by light and shadow; it’ll break with a single touch,” Trier said with a laugh.

At this point, Trier suddenly stopped, realizing that the crowd's reactions seemed a little strange.

—Livitt, the vessel of Lady Bloodthorn, was bowing her head, clutching the hem of her skirt, her knuckles white from the force. She looked timid and dared not look up at herself.

Beside Livitt was the half-human dancer Trier had once seen in the tavern in Vercingetorie. Now, the half-human dancer had grown limbs back, and upon seeing her, she excitedly knelt on the ground, her palms and forehead covered in sticky mud from the rain.

Although he had not opened his divine vision, Trier instinctively felt that the dancer was his fanatic.

Futia quietly tugged at the dancer's blood-stained gauze dress, but the halfling dancer insisted on kneeling on the ground.

Edith's expression was complicated; her bright green eyes revealed undisguised joy, but she also frowned slightly.

Edith held the holy sword, but the inscription on the spine of the sword had faded—she had broken her vow.

Trier immediately realized that the oath was broken because the other party had killed Vercingetorie.

He couldn't help but feel a little absurd.

The cowardly and brutal Oris did not break his oath, nor did those paladins who openly slaughtered cities. Ironically, it was Edith, who almost conformed to the narrow definition of a paladin, who broke his oath.

“Trier…” Futia said softly, looking hesitant and blinking repeatedly.

After a moment's thought, Trier realized that behind the strange reactions of the crowd was a faint sense of apprehension.

After all, the strength he had just displayed was indeed somewhat excessive.

Whether it's slaying an otherworldly divine servant with a single sword strike, the residual force of which condenses into a torrential rain to extinguish the flames burning the city, or shattering rain clouds with a single finger to restore a large area of ​​a wounded person's severed limbs, these effects are all somewhat exaggerated.

Edith and Fythia hadn't heard the whole story she was telling, and they didn't know that when she was clearing the route to the north, she was already able to deflect meteors with a single sword strike and flatten mountains and fortresses—their impression of her was still stuck when the demon cultists were causing havoc in Eraf.

Therefore, their current reaction is quite normal.

With this thought in mind, Trier took the initiative to step forward, stretched out his arms, gently put his arms around Fythea's waist, and then gently picked her up.

Futia's body stiffened slightly, but in an instant, a blush rose from the base of her white neck to her cheeks. Surprised, her pointed ears perked up. A moment later, Futia also reached out and hugged Trier's neck, then buried her head next to his face.

Trier whispered in her ear, "Fodia, can you help defend Noi? She has reorganized the Guardians."

"And what about you?" Futia asked.

Trier glanced at Edith out of the corner of his eye. At that moment, the princess was shocked, her pupils contracted sharply, and her hand holding the sword was trembling slightly.

The best way to deal with an emotion is to cover it up with another, stronger emotion.

Although the method might be a bit strange, at least Edith and Feudia have completely overcome their fear of themselves...

"This will completely resolve the crises of the massacre and the blood plague." Seeing that the method had worked, Trier gently put the elf down.

“Auris is in the Tower of Stars.” Fythia hesitated for a moment before continuing, “But Trier, the crisis of the massacre is not just about Oris. I heard the Asmo soldiers who were massacring the city calling out ‘My Lord.’ I suspect there may be an incarnation of a god on the Tower of Stars right now.”

Edith was completely stunned. She suddenly realized that Futia was also well aware of the enemy's strength, but due to her identity, she did not yet understand that Saint Seir was not the only one behind the incident.

Upon realizing this, Edith quickly suppressed her shame and anger and looked at Trier.

“Not only Saint Seil, but also Loseweye!” Edith and Trier said in unison.

Trier glanced at Edith with surprise: "How did you know?"

“Intuition,” Edith said, smoothing her hair and looking serious. “Trier, may I ask you a question?”

Trier nodded.

"Can legends threaten the gods?" Edith asked softly.

Chapter 262 Preparation (Part Two)

Theoretically speaking, it is impossible for a mortal to kill a god on their own.

Because every god possesses a special ability called "life and death control," which allows a god to kill a mortal without any judgment.