Game of the World Tree-Chapter 718

【 DISPOSITION 】

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The roots of the World Tree tightly entwined around Luria, completely restraining his power.

Amid a series of startled cries of “Ouch, ouch, be gentle…!”, Evé dragged the fallen archangel through the Gate of Reversal.

Having captured the last evil god who had discovered her secret, Evé dispersed her domain which she had been maintaining.

A true celestial domain was, to begin with, an ability that consumed an enormous amount of divine power. This was especially true when she attempted to manifest it here within the Abyss, where that consumption increased even more dramatically.

Although the divine power Eve had accumulated continued to grow, it was still impossible for her to squander it without restraint.

Just as Evé withdrew her domain, several auras once again emanated from the deeper depths of the Abyss, rolling outward like a silent provocation.

They were unmistakably the presence of mythical beings, drawn in by the lingering power of her domain.

Evé raised an eyebrow, showing no surprise at all.

Just as evil gods were natural enemies of the orthodox gods, the latter were likewise sworn foes of the evil gods.

As mythical beings who had aligned toward the Abyss, every time an evil god destroyed an orthodox god, or dragged an entire realm down into the Abyss, they would receive the Abyss’s boon, thereby allowing their strength to increase to a certain extent.

Even if their own divinities were utterly mediocre, these evil gods could still steadily grow stronger by continually currying favor with the Abyss.

From this perspective, the power of an evil god did not depend solely on its own divinity, but rather on the extent to which it attained the Abyss’s blessing.

Therefore, these abyssal beings had always been extremely interested in ganging up on any True God who entered the Abyss.

Moreover, because the laws governed by these evil gods were corrupted by the Abyss, they were inherently repelled by the omnipresent primordial laws of the universe. As a result, they could not, like orthodox gods, receive the laws’ tacit cooperation or allegiance, leaving their authority unstable and incomplete.

Aside from those evil gods who controlled particularly powerful divinity, most were incapable of even partially manifesting a domain.

For this reason, they were exceptionally sensitive to the power of a True God’s celestial domain.

Being drawn at this moment by Eve’s domain was only natural. However, Eve had no intention of remaining in this section of the Abyss any longer.

Using her true body to temporarily bind those three evil gods at once was already the limit of what she could manage at the moment.

So if another battle broke out right now, just a single misstep could expose her identity.

She cast one deep glance into the depths of the Abyss, then turned and vanished into the golden arch gate.

→⟐←

After leaving that dark world, Evé returned to Garden of Eden.

Whilst sitting herself upon the magnificent Throne of Life, she gently waved her hand, and the golden Gate of Reversal appeared once more within the grand hall of the supreme temple.

The roots of the World Tree then extended outward from the gate and unceremoniously flung the three evil gods onto the floor.

With the restraints of the World Tree’s roots finally gone, the three evil gods reacted purely on instinct, simultaneously activating their divine power in a desperate attempt to flee.

Among them, the Unicorn, Duke Anduria, was the fastest to act.

Letting out a furious roar, his body rapidly expanded to an enormous size, his form swelling with violent energy as a deep and sinister aura erupted from him. With brute force alone, he attempted to burst through the hall and escape.

However, the moment his head struck the ceiling of the temple, he realized in astonishment that the seemingly ordinary ceiling was incomparably solid.

Despite being a mythical being, he could not budge it in the slightest!

In the next instant, without hesitation, he shrank his body and charged toward one of the windows instead. Yet, accompanied by a thunderous impact, his bloated face slammed into the crystal-like window, leaving behind a dark imprint.

That mark was not filth, but fallen divine power forcibly pressed out by the collision.

Afterward, the abyssal beast stood there in a daze. Then, like an orange cat that had crashed into a glass wall, he comically slowly slid down and sat heavily on the floor, utterly stunned.

Even the horn on his head seemed to have been knocked slightly askew.

Sensing the omnipresent power surrounding him, as well as the incomprehensibly incompatible force of the laws imbued within it, Anduria’s mind finally began to grasp the truth.

“Divine… divine kingdom…”

He muttered the words, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror.

A divine kingdom.

Only within it could such a situation arise.

Only inside a divine kingdom could a foreign being like him, stripped of his own domain, be reduced to nothing like a helpless mortal.

Imprisonment?

No chains or cages were needed.

Simply remaining within the divine kingdom of a hostile deity was itself the most absolute and terrifying form of confinement. Here, the very laws of existence bent to the will of their owner, thus leaving the lives and deaths of intruders laid entirely under another’s control.

A soft, almost melodic laugh rang out, and Anduria shuddered, a cold chill running down his spine.

He slowly turned his head and saw her: the beautiful figure seated high upon the Throne of Life, smiling warmly yet with an undeniable authority as she looked down at him.

He swallowed hard, his movements faltering, unsure how to proceed.

Observing Anduria’s fate, the other two evil gods—who had nearly bolted to escape in the same manner—casually withdrew the legs they had already half-stepped forward, as if nothing at all had happened.

“Not running anymore?”

Evé leaned one arm gracefully against the armrest of her throne, her gaze shifting across the three mythical beings who now appeared less like formidable evil gods and more like comical deities caught in an embarrassing trap.

“Uh… revered All-Divine Mother, it is my honor to visit your divine kingdom.”

The fallen angel Luria tidied his slightly disheveled attire with meticulous care, speaking with elegance and composure, even as he endured the furious glare of Anduria and the contemptuous stare of Alissa.

Putting everything else aside, if one ignored the oppressive, sinister aura surrounding him and focused only on his black wings and unnervingly handsome, alluring features, this fallen angel could easily be seen as the kind of villain archetype favored by certain female players.

He might even rival that black-bellied rascal, Thranduil in popularity.

However, Evé merely cast him a fleeting glance, her expression indifferent, treating his words as nothing more than empty hubris.

Ever since his divinity had been stripped away by Etriōu, this fallen angel had wielded only the lesser divinity of betrayal and lies. Hence, anyone foolish enough to trust him was bound to suffer the consequences.

No, more accurately, any mythical being who still dared to cooperate with him possessed a courage bordering on recklessness.

Speaking of which, it was Queen of Pain Alissa, this evil god who governed over the divinity of pain and conspiracy, who genuinely piqued Evé’s interest.

For her to be able to remain so close to Luria, yet never be deceived by his schemes, and instead even orchestrate repeated schemes along with him to ensnare others, required a skill that was truly commendable.

Perhaps it was the Divinity of Conspiracy at work, guiding her every move?

Even Evé could not deny the effectiveness of such a rare combination of insight and daring.

Letting her gaze sweep across the three evil gods, Evé finally fixed her eyes on Anduria.

When he felt her gaze fall upon him, the demonic unicorn shuddered involuntarily.

“Anduria… is that correct? I recall that you were supposed to be sealed deep underground in Seigües. Tell me, when did you break free of your seal, and how did you end up in that dark world within the Abyss?”

Evé asked the question she cared about most.

At present, the planar passageways of the Realm of Seigües still remained completely sealed. So in theory, it was quite impossible for any mythical being to enter or exit for at least the next several years.

Even that passageway, accidentally discovered by the player named Cypher, only allowed someone at the Silver-rank to pass through it, making Anduria’s sudden appearance in the Abyss all the more alarming. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Anduria opened his mouth, then snorted coldly.

“Hmph. All-Divine Mother, even you will not learn the secrets of the Abyss from me!”

Yet his slightly trembling body betrayed the depth of his fear.

He was clearly forcing a show of bravado.

He was rather like a ferocious dog with its hackles raised, outwardly vicious, but inwardly panicked beyond measure.

Evé glanced at the somewhat simple-minded Abyssal beast with mild surprise, when another refined voice suddenly interjected.

“All-Divine Mother,”

“It was Lord Leviathan who used a loosened planar passageway, hidden within the underground, to summon us back into the Abyss through a sacrificial ritual. As for Lord Anduria, he broke free of his seal a little over three months ago.”

The one who spoke was Luria.

Anduria’s eyes widened almost instantly as he glared furiously at the fallen angel.

“Luria! You traitor! Lord Leviathan should never have taken you in!”

Luria let out a soft, almost amused chuckle.

“Lord Anduria, you are still as naive as ever. You alone willingly became Lord Leviathan’s hound, not me. So do not drag me into it.”

“You!”

Anduria’s eyes burned with rage.

Watching the two bickering evil gods, Evé felt a trace of surprise.

She recognized the name Leviathan.

He was none other than one of the Seven Demon Lords of Hell, the ruler of the Third Layer, an ancient demon who commanded the divinities of jealousy, the ocean, and storms.

Because he wielded the divinity of the ocean, even the deepest seas of Seigües were perpetually roiled by violent tempests and destructive currents. In fact, the sentient races of Seigües often referred to the colossal sea beasts that worshiped him as Leviathan Behemoths.

Among the seven great demon lords, he was the only one with a vast number of devoted followers in Seigües, and his strength was second only to the First Demon Lord, Herael.

Incidentally, in the Heavenly Crusade against the demons that would take place a few months later, Leviathan would also be the enemy Evé was tasked to face alongside the God of War faction.

Evé narrowed her eyes slightly and gently tapped the armrest of her throne.

The sound was light, but sensing the increasingly oppressive force of the laws within the grand hall, the two evil gods fell silent at once.

Quite obedient and well-behaved…

Good.

Evé nodded internally.

“The location.”

She spoke softly.

The fallen angel Luria smiled faintly, offered a respectful bow, and extended his hand, using his abyssal power to manifest a sphere of light.

With a mere thought, Evé drew the sphere toward herself.

She first purified the abyssal aura clinging to it and then immersed it into her consciousness.

A specific coordinate then appeared within her mind.

That coordinate lay within the third layer of the underground, beneath the southern region of the Desert of Death.

Eve’s thoughts stirred, and she withdrew her gaze.

She looked once more at the three evil gods, before finally fixing her eyes on Luria, her expression growing increasingly amused.

“Luria, you have told me everything so readily. Are you not afraid that I will purify you here and now?”

“Uh… All-Divine Mother, you were able to annihilate Apophis with a single strike, yet you brought the three of us into your divine kingdom instead. I assume you never intended to purify us from the beginning…”

“Since that is the case, I think it’s better to cooperate honestly with you. I trust that, with your benevolence, you will grant me a chance to atone for myself later on.”

Luria spoke with deep respect.

As he spoke, his expression turned sorrowful.

“All-Divine Mother, perhaps you do not know this, but in truth… although I dwell in darkness, my heart has long yearned for the light all along.”

“As such, I beg you to grant me a chance to return to the ranks of the orthodox gods.”

It had to be said that this fallen god who governed over the divinity of lies was extremely deceptive. At the moment, he even looked exactly like someone paying a courteous visit to the divine kingdom of a friendly god.

Even his current expression was especially devout.

Nonetheless, Evé still did not believe a single word spoken by this fallen god who controlled the laws of lies.

That being said, she indeed had no immediate desire to purify or devour these three evil gods.

After all, the divine power within her true body had already reached its bottleneck. So any further increase to it would require she either advance in rank or store the excess divine power within her divine kingdom.

Furthermore, she was not particularly lacking in divine power to begin with.

Compared to directly devouring these three evil gods and storing their power, Evé felt that perhaps they could be made to serve a greater purpose…so to speak.

For example… finding some “assistants” for Azazel, thereby expanding the capabilities of a few dungeons, and the like.

Moreover, if she truly were to devour them right now, then dealing with the remnants of their divinities would be another troublesome matter.

This brought up an important point.

Many abyssal evil gods had divinity that were deeply eroded by Abyssal power, making purification extremely difficult.

Furthermore, because the laws underlying most Abyssal evil gods’ divinity tended to be inherently negative, even after purification they could easily slide back into corruption, giving rise to new evil gods.

On top of that, many evil gods relied on the Abyss as a foundation and possessed various contingency measures for revival, which made them even more troublesome to deal with.

For this reason, when facing evil gods, True Gods would in most cases choose to seal them instead.

Even after destroying an evil god, True Gods would seal the remnants of their divinity and wait for it to dissipate naturally.

In fact, from the time Evé began deliberately targeting evil gods up to the present, she had only directly or indirectly eliminated three of them.

They were the Dragon of Despair, Nidhogg, the God of Twilight and Sunset, “Anos,” and the Abyssal World Serpent, Apophis.

Nidhogg’s Black Dragon racial divinity had not been corrupted by the Abyss and was handed over by Evé to Meryer so that lazy punk could fuse with it.

On the other hand, Anos had directly self-destructed his own divinity, leaving Evé with only a small amount of divine power.

As for Apophis, his very existence had been completely erased beneath Eve’s sword strike from the weapon, Damocles.

For this evil snake god, who bore an irreconcilable blood feud with the elvenkind, Evé had never intended to spare him from the beginning. She had not even planned to reclaim the mere few hundred points of divine power he possessed.

Aside from concerns that his despair might drive him to self-destruction and harm the elves at the Cliff of Sorrows, another reason was that his divinity was useless to her and his divine power was weak, chaotic, and unstable.

So even if she were to absorb it, the efficiency would be low.

An Abyssal mythical god who could not swiftly kill even two elven demigods, and who could not even deploy a partial domain, was obviously of a very low divine rank.

As for the various other so-called evil gods that Evé casually killed and devoured during players’ summoning missions, they were in fact merely fallen demigods, referred to as evil gods by mortals.

While thinking this over, Evé narrowed her eyes and looked at the three evil beings.

Leaving aside Anduria, whose intelligence was clearly lacking, although Evé could sense Luria’s and Alissa’s fear of her, she keenly perceived that their fear was far from the level of fearing true annihilation.

This further confirmed her suspicion that after fleeing from the prime material realm into the Abyss, they had already left behind contingency measures for revival.

This made Evé even more convinced that sealing the two of them was the better choice.

As for the divine power on their bodies, it could be harvested slowly over time.

With this thought in mind, she smiled faintly.

“I indeed have no intention of purifying you.”

The auras of the three Abyssal mythical beings paused almost simultaneously, their spirits lifting.

“However,” she continued, “I intend to send you to accompany an old friend of yours…”

Her gaze swept over them.

“I imagine he will very much appreciate your presence, and you three… will certainly come to like your new residence in time as well.”

Evé said with a gentle smile as she looked at the three evil gods.

Yet, despite her seemingly benign expression, for reasons they could not fathom, the three evil gods felt an inexplicable chill rise within their hearts.

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