BOOK 4: CHAPTER 16.2

Electra’s presence changed life in Orhain drastically. The townspeople were skeptical at first. Their emotions were a mess, and David was forced to untangle them, to dissolve their fears and uncertainty.

Fortunately, the bonds of Favor were firm, allowing him to soothe the worried hearts of the Followers and Believers. He ensured Electra belonged to him, that she was a part of him, and the Sacred Beast worked hard to earn their trust. Her version of hard work, however, mostly revolved around the destruction of Orhain’s enemies.

A few days had passed since David returned to Orhain with Electra, but life in the town had already changed a lot. First of all, the townspeople quickly integrated the survivors. They accepted them readily, filled the empty houses, and redoubled their efforts to build new residences so that everyone had a roof over their heads.

Electra was displeased since the massive centipedes were needed to carry tree trunks and other resources, which was why the gargantuan Sacred Beast decided to help. She was seen traveling across Orhain, helping where she could. She didn’t mind carrying a few things if it meant rendering the massive centipedes useless. As long as she could retrieve the Blood droplets that rightfully belonged to her, she didn’t care about the work she had to do. Then again, she would have loved to crush the centipedes right away. That would have made everything less complicated.

David was happy Electra was there. Not only did she help carry resources from A to B, she joined the hunting units and helped them grow stronger. She protected the townspeople from a Rift break and ensured everyone’s survival. All of this, in a matter of days, had been more than enough to transform the Sacred Beast into Kamia’s mascot. She was scary, but the Sacred Beast never attacked the townspeople, though her bloodlust and temper were an ordeal everyone had to get used to.

Electra’s tireless work gave David all the time he needed to stay in the land of the dead. He focused on the Source’s recovery while also paying attention to his experiments with Vitae. Using Vitae when his consciousness entered the Weave was interesting, and it allowed him to reach farther than he should be able to. That was how he’d been able to access the Law governing Rend, and it was something he wanted to exploit to acquire more Intents and regain access to Rend’s Law.

David knew it would take some time, effort, and a lot more Vitae to achieve everything he had planned, but he had more than enough time at his disposal. At least for now.

As for the land of the dead, it was perfect for him. Sure, it didn’t provide him with the life force he needed to replenish Blood rapidly. It was hard to train his Skills and experiment with his Sparks in a land filled with the walking dead. But that made it all the more suitable for unleashing his other abilities. David could unleash Vitae Nihilum without any hesitation. He did not have to hold back in this place and devoured everything that could no longer be salvaged or used.

Even better, growing Vitae resulted in growth spurts. The more undead David consumed with Vitae, the stronger it became—and with that, the Divine Seed grew as well. It was still unclear if the removal of the undead and the death presence, or Vitae’s growth, resulted in the reinforcement of the Divine Seed, but the exact details didn’t matter for the time being. The only thing of importance was his growth and his pursuit of becoming a 1-Star Ascendant.

***

“Are the statues to your liking, Your Excellency?” the Ancient Sculptor asked, sweat pouring down his temples as he looked anxiously at him.

David controlled the twitching of his lips with every bit of willpower he could muster, and he hoped the Ancient Sculptor didn’t notice it. He looked at the four massive objects depicting the Mythical Electra in her second combat form as a twenty-meter-long winged serpent. At first glance, it looked like the statues were sculpted from ordinary stones, but David knew better.

He knew Electra had been spending the last few weeks with the Ancient Sculptor, pushing a tremendous amount of pure Blood and refined Aether into the stones, creating veins that resembled Energy Pathways. Additionally, the Sacred Beast inserted the very Might that transformed her into a Champion inside one of the statues.

Electra nearly lost her status as his Champion when she lost the majority of her Might, and it was only when the System took her title that he intervened—or tried to. Until he realized what the Sacred Beast was doing.

He had been foolish not to notice it earlier, and he felt stupid for not thinking about doing this earlier.

Electra, in her wisdom as a century-old Sacred Beast, had begun with the creation of David’s first Idol. It was a replica of the statues that could be found in every Panthea in every single System Sanctuary. However, this was his Idol, and it contained his Might, even if it didn’t look like him.

But it was probably best that the statues didn’t look like him. He didn’t want massive figurines of himself to be spread through Orhain. On the other hand, Electra would love to be preyed upon and revered, just like the gods of the Pantheon.

Although he was hesitant at first, seeing the Idols in their full glory stirred something within him—something beyond his bond with Electra.

“They’re perfect,” David responded. “How many Power and Blood Fragments did you infuse into the statues, and are those fortified bones from… Platinum-ranked monsters I’m seeing?”

At the mention of the bones, he turned to Electra, who was hovering beside him in her smallest form, and grimaced. The bones were definitely her doing.

Did you hunt them yourself, or did you take the bones of the undead I’ve been hunting when I wasn’t looking?

The answer didn’t actually matter, so he turned back to the Ancient Sculptor.

“We used up our reserves, and a bit more. Your Champion has been very… adamant about this and pushed the hunters a lot in the last few weeks, Your Excellency.” The middle-aged man bowed faintly, his Believer bond flaring up as he added, “But I succeeded. The combined work of the Artificers, Alchemists, Blacksmiths, and myself made it happen. This is our greatest masterpiece, and I believe the statues will serve you well. Your Champion has already imprinted a faint trace of your power, if I’m not mistaken. I can feel your might within one of the statues.”

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The Sculptor hesitated for a moment and added, “It is almost like you are always with us, Your Excellency. As if the statues could protect us when you are not there. Just like your Champion and Echos did when you searched for more survivors in the land of the dead.” S̩

David smiled at the man, hiding his surprise when the Believer’s bond grew even stronger. Was the existence of the Idols already enough to reassure the townspeople and strengthen their bonds? If that was the case…

That’s probably not the case. If not for Electra and the Echos protecting Orhain, my presence within the Idols wouldn’t have improved the bonds. I highly doubt the Pantheon gains strength from the mere existence of the Panthea either. People have to pray to the gods, toward the Idols, and truly believe in the Pantheon to form a connection. To form a bond.

As useful as the existence of Idols could be, if everyone were to ignore them, they wouldn’t generate any power. Specifically, they would neither strengthen existing bonds nor form new bonds from newcomers—be they other humanoids, survivors, or new life welcomed into the town.

The Pantheon didn’t have much of an option with the Panthea. They tried their utmost to minimize the amount of influence they used on the Earthen Union when the System Sanctuaries came to be. However, that also resulted in the creation of Idols that were hardly useful in an emergency. They could protect the Panthea temporarily in exchange for the Might infused into them.

The Idols weren’t strong enough to protect entire Sanctuaries, even though every Panthea had several dozen Idols to rely on, and none of them had the means to counterattack or defend themselves with violence. The Panthea’s Idols were unmoving statues filled with a minuscule amount of Might—just enough to turn them into Idols. All to minimize their expenses. To retain as much Might and influence as possible.

That made sense in their situation, and David was certain they had already greatly profited from their initial investment. Nonetheless, given how many System Sanctuaries had been destroyed and how many non-Pantheon Sanctuaries had been established even before he had been pulled into the Naughtrealm, David doubted their Idols were still performing as well as they used to.

He was fairly certain most bonds formed through the Idols were weaker, given the lack of benefits they granted. They couldn’t even protect their Sanctuaries properly.

David wanted to be different. A larger quantity of bonds was probably better. It was probably something he should seek, but what was the use of 100,000 or more bonds if they were frail and could break at any moment? In the first place, stronger bonds granted more access to the Weave, reinforcing the trickle of power drastically. A single Believer bond was more valuable than 1,000 Favorable bonds.

Transforming Orhain into a fortress—maybe even his headquarters to build an army of people who trusted him, a kingdom of people with bonds at the threshold of Believers, maybe even higher—would be perfect. That, as the Sacred Beast had realized weeks before him, was why he needed Idols. High-quality Idols that not only required a strong foundation, Energy Pathways, and infusions of refined Aether and pure Blood over the course of several weeks, but also the Might David had accumulated over months, and last but not least, artificial souls.

David was far from being able to acquire or create artificial souls. He had no idea how to even begin. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary. He had his own version of an artificial soul: [Bloodlife Echo], upgraded to Advanced grade.

[Bloodlife Echo] – [Advanced – (800/2000)]

Eight hundred pure Blood droplets were more than enough for Electra. In fact, after their fusion weeks ago, Electra had regained greater access to the Sacred Beast Core within Deryadus’ Arm.

As long as she stayed near David, she could now replenish pure Blood by applying a method similar to the one David had used. She had utilized the Might granted by David to replicate a Source, intertwining it firmly with her Beast Core. That bound her even closer to David—but he didn’t mind. If anything, the closer they were, the easier it was for him to access the replicated Source whenever his own was on the verge of breaking.

Unfortunately, that happened more often than David wanted to admit. In fact, it occurred so frequently that he couldn’t remember the last time he had a pristine Source.

Accessing the Weave was dangerous—yet it was also addictive. It was the worst combination, and David couldn’t see things improving until he finally grasped Rend’s Law. Especially with his newer bonds growing stronger each day, granting him deeper access to the Weave’s secrets.

David glanced at the Divine Seed’s information and grimaced:

[Divine Seed]

Rank – Starless (78.35%)

Affliction – Unique (Twin Paths)

Champions – 1 (Electra)

Idols – 1x (Orhain – Weak Connection)

Sworn – 0

Bonds – 6211 (25 Neutral)

Path of Favor – 4224 (895x Favorable, 1736x Trusting, 1487x Loyal/Follower, 104x Believer, 2x Devotee)

Path of Conflict – 1962 (492x Negative, 289x Critic, 609x Dissenter, 572x Opponent)

Everything seemed on track for him to reach 1-Star—or would have been, if not for the Idols. He had hoped that infusing [Bloodlife Echo] with 300 Blood droplets would be enough to offset most of the Might required to create fully empowered Idols—ones that would protect Orhain’s townspeople and use brute force if the town was ever threatened. Unfortunately, the System’s classification of “Weak Connection” sounded anything but promising. He knew how much Might Electra had flushed into one of the statues when the Ancient Sculptor created it.

It was a decent portion—just enough to create a weak Idol. However, it wasn’t sufficient for the plan David had devised after recalling how many Sanctuaries had fallen victim to the Pantheon’s lack of investment. He did not want to be as stingy as the gods of the Pantheon had been.

He dismissed the Ancient Sculptor, reached for the Divine Seed located in his Corrupted Divine Heart, and accessed both Vitae Nihilum and [Bloodlife Echo] simultaneously. Even though Vitae was something barely acknowledged by the System, it empowered the Divine Seed. Perhaps it was only his particular Divine Seed that benefited from Vitae due to his unique circumstances—but that mattered little.

David intended to use Vitae in the creation of the Idols, and so that was what he did.

He extracted traces of Might from the Divine Seed and condensed them into tiny threads. He formed four threads of Might, guiding them through the Corrupted Divine Heart, and willed Vitae to move closer—to infuse Vitae Nihilum into the threads. The threads of Might thrashed and wiggled beneath his supreme control. They expanded, their solid form transforming into liquid. The threads became rivers of swirling darkness, filled with twinkling fragments of Might.

David unleashed [Bloodlife Echo] and accessed the pure Blood that permeated every inch of his body. His Source, Beast Core, and storages were bursting with pure Blood. So were his Energy Pathways—and every cell in his boiling body. He had been preparing enough Blood to proceed without issue, and now he did exactly that.

He wove 1200 units of pure Blood into the stream of Might, along with 200 measurements of Vitae Nihilum.

This had to work. If it didn’t, he would be royally fucked.

Failure was not an option. He wasn’t about to sacrifice 200 units of Vitae and the vast majority of the Might he had accumulated over the last few months just to fail.

That was unacceptable.