CHAPTER 604

【 INVITATION 】

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Staring at the now-barren battlefield, Tonglu’s brows furrowed in utter bewilderment.

“Where is all the equipment? I could have sworn both the demons’ and the warriors’ gear were still lying here just moments ago!”

How could it all have disappeared in the blink of an eye?

“Lord Tonglu,” a nearby dwarf warrior spoke up carefully, his tone tinged with hesitation, “the demons’ equipment may have been taken by the elves. During the battle, I distinctly saw some elves picking up gear from the fallen demons.”

Tonglu gave a slow nod.

He was aware of that much. As a legendary-rank expert, his eyesight was as keen as ever, and he too had spotted plenty of elves scavenging from demon corpses.

But that alone could not explain this.

Besides, he had not seen a single elf attempt to strip the dwarves of their armor or weapons. With that in mind, he had simply dismissed the matter at the time.

Yet now, the troubling truth was that almost every piece of equipment was gone—not only from the demons, but also from the fallen dwarves.

That was truly strange.

At this moment, the High Pontiff shook his head.

“Tonglu, do not concern yourself with this matters anymore. They were likely transported away together along with the Chosen Ones.”

Tonglu was slightly taken aback.

“…Transported away with the Chosen Ones?”

The High High Pontiff nodded.

“According to the intelligence our Church has gathered, the Chosen Ones possess an ability called ‘Binding’. This allows them to place a personal mark on any item they claim, thus enabling them to take it away.”

“The timing of the equipment’s disappearance matches the departure of the Chosen Ones. I suspect that during the battle, they bound the equipment as spoils of war and took it back with them.”

The High Pontiff, dressed in gray, appeared entirely composed, as though this outcome had been expected and was of no surprise.

Tonglu’s expression, however, was far less serene.

It was in that moment that the final piece fell into place, and he understood why His Holiness had once referred to the Chosen Ones as chaotic, unpredictable, and ultimately self-serving.

The image he had long held in his heart of noble elven heroes shattered like brittle glass just like that.

His gaze then shifted to the nearby dwarves, their bodies still streaked with battle grime yet clad only in their undergarments where their armor had once been.

Tonglu’s face flushed hot with anger, then drained pale, and finally hardened into a dark scowl.

“This… is going a bit too far, is it not?”

༺⟐༻

“It is indeed rather going a bit too far.”

With a wave of her hand, Evé dismissed the divine projection before her.

Her expression was faintly amused.

As the Dwarven High Pontiff had said, the dwarves’ equipment had indeed been taken by the players, using their Binding ability.

Removing gear from corpses was not an easy task.

Demons slain by players disappeared upon death, leaving their gear on the ground to be collected and stored in a spatial ring.

Dwarves, however, were not demons.

Their bodies did not vanish, and stripping them of their gear was troublesome.

Yet, binding the gear while it was still on the corpse, then having it transported away via Eve’s return-teleport mechanism, was far simpler.

Dwarven equipment was of high quality.

Even though the players’ strength had grown immensely, such gear still caught their eye.

If they could not wear it, they could bind it, take it away, then either sent it to Eve as an offering or sell it in the underground for profit.

“It seems I must set some limits. Looting demons are one thing, but dwarves are our allies—or at least somewhat close to it. I cannot let players act recklessly toward them.”

“I summoned them into these battlefield missions to gain experience and build reputation, not to damage their own standing.”

“In future battlefield missions, I will prohibit players from binding any items. Not only that, I will also forbid them from stripping equipment from allies.”

“This time was only spared from being worse because there was little time. If they had more of it, that bunch who cannot walk away from seeing such easy loot would have stripped everything they could.”

Evé pressed her fingers against her temples, her thoughts churning as she weighed the matter.

With time, she had stepped more firmly onto the broader stage of the world, and now even the elves had become one of the focal points drawing the eyes of the continent.

As her principal fighting force, the players would inevitably interact more closely with the various races living within Seigües.

This was especially true given her plan to spread her statues which could summon the Chosen Ones across the land, letting them “slay monsters and demons” wherever possible to gather energy.

When facing enemies, there was no need for mercy. The players’ ruthless ferocity could solidify their fearsome “Scourge of the Battlefield” reputation.

Yet she could not ignore the other side of the coin.

Against friendly or neutral factions, a measure of restraint was necessary.

If not, the reputation of the elves which were already becoming tarnished as it is, could be further damaged beyond repair.

Thus, Eve intended to use the players’ heroic actions to boost the elves reputation across the world.

After all, reputation, though intangible, was quite important.

Power might reign supreme, but she had no intention of making enemies of the entire world—at least not by alienating potential allies.

“It will be like the restrictions I set for the usage of holy statues beforehand. I will use the power of faith to impose limitations. I will not forbid players from killing other races altogether, but during battlefield missions, I will strictly limit their actions toward our allies.”

With a wave of her hand, she settled the players’ rewards for the recent battlefield mission, then began calculating the gains from this “campaign.”

In truth, the profit they’ve gained was not that great.

After deducting the costs of summoning and the temporary bestowal of her divine favor, the life energy gained from slaying demons when converted into divine power amounted to less than one hundred points.

However, this had merely been a trial run. At the very least, it proved that Evé could indeed increase her divine power through this method.

And it was not yet over.

The demons had merely retreated and the dwarves would certainly continue to advance into the Sealed Lands until their final confrontation with the Evil God Barolte.

Evil Gods were the true sources of abundant divine power.

Given the number of Evil Gods that had been sealed over the millennia all across Seigües, if Evé were to eliminate them one by one, the divine power gained should be enough to allow her to reach the rank of Greater Divine.

With this in mind, Evé turned to Feynir and smiled.

“Feynir, I will leave the follow-up matters to you. In the near future, there will be a second and even a third battlefield mission like these.”

“As you command, Your Grace!”

Feynir replied with visible excitement.

Soon after, the vast quantity of equipment offered by players began to arrive into Eve’s Divine Kingdom. Pieces from both demons and dwarves appeared one after another, all spoils that the players had recently acquired.

For the players, presenting a large offering of loot after a major battle had become routine.

Upon seeing this, the Fairy King took flight and called upon the other elemental fairies to begin collecting these equipment.

Their process was swift and practiced, honed by long repetition: collection, careful modification, and meticulous shelving, all carried out in a single seamless sequence.

It was efficiency at its finest, almost like a mortal factory assembly line. In the end, the equipment emerged as standardized sets with identical appearances—gear the players had long since nicknamed “uniforms.”

By now, this routine had become a daily duty for Feynir and her fellow elemental fairies.

Only when particularly rare or powerful items, such as legendary artifacts, appeared would Evé personally intervene.

Although the number of players continued to grow, her believers increased, and her influence expanded, having passed her initial startup phase, Evé now enjoyed a relatively leisurely life.

Having such capable assistants to manage her affairs truly made things far more relaxed and pleasant for her.

It was then that Eve suddenly sensed a presence and turned her gaze toward the Chosen City.

Someone was approaching the incarnation she had left there.

“Alice?”

She pondered for a moment, then shifted her consciousness away from her Divine Kingdom.

Her vision changed, and she returned to her incarnation, once more becoming the Godwarden, Zero.

Opening her eyes, she moved her body slightly.

She was seated in an elegant study—her “office” within the central temple of the Chosen City, where she resided in her identity as Zero.

Whenever she returned to her Divine Kingdom, she typically left her incarnation here.

Few knew of this arrangement.

Only a select few elven believers, such as the Saintess of Life, Alice Galewind, were aware that to seek the elusive Godwarden Zero, one needed to come here.

Naturally, aside from Feynir, no one knew that Zero was in fact Evé herself.

Whenever someone came to visit, the soul imprint she had left behind would alert her, allowing her to decide whether to manifest her incarnation and grant an audience to the visitor.

Even Alice seldom came without an important reason, as Eve—while in the guise of Zero—had instructed everyone not to disturb her unless the matter was important.

After Evé had seated herself, a light yet steady knock sounded at the ornate wooden door of the study. At the same time, a sweet and gentle voice called from outside.

“Lord Zero, are you there?”

“Come in,” Eve replied.

With a snap of her fingers, she released the divine seal upon the door.

Alice, dressed in the gown of a Holy Maiden, entered.

Upon seeing Evé, she smiled warmly, offered a polite bow, and said, “Good afternoon, Lady Zero. May the Goddess be with you.”

Evé inclined her head in return.

“Good afternoon, Alice. May the Goddess be with you as well.”

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Alice went straight to the matter at hand, speaking respectfully.

“Lady Zero, the Harvest Festival is nearly upon us. This year’s celebration will be grander than ever. Will you be attending?”

The Harvest Festival…

Eve’s gaze grew distant.

The world of Seigües was home to many different festivals.

For example, on the first day of every year, there was the Festival of Joy to celebrate the new year; in spring, when all things revived, there was the Spring Welcoming Festival.

Even the Day of the Mana Tide was a special holiday among some mana-attuned races. The vampires called it the Festival of Renewal, while the werewolves referred to it as the Day of Awakening.

Each race also had its own cultural celebrations. Among humans, for instance, there were national foundation days and the divine birth festival commemorating the ascension of the Eternal Lord.

Of course, the elves were no exception.

For those who worshipped the World Tree, the guardian of life and nature, the Harvest Festival held each autumn was their grandest holiday.

As its name implied, the Harvest Festival was a celebration of the year’s bounty, held on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month each year. According to legend, during the Twilight Era, after the World Tree created the first elves, the Elvenkind endured a harsh environment back then. So when they finally enjoyed their first harvest, they celebrated together, and that date became the origin of the harvest festival.

Over time, the Harvest Festival became a cherished elven tradition and one of the most important celebrations for the entire race.

In truth, the elves were not the only ones to celebrate it.

Due to the influence of elven civilization, most sentient races that had once been guided or taught by the elves also adopted the festival as their own means of celebrating the yearly harvest.

This tradition had lasted for thousands of years.

Currently, Evé had already been in Seigües for over four years. In theory, the elves should have celebrated the Harvest Festival four times during that period.

However, in the first year after her arrival, the Elven Flame Clan had not yet returned, and the Elven Forest was populated almost entirely by players.

As a result, the celebration was missed entirely.

The next two years were spent either at war or preparing for it, leaving no one with the time or energy for such festivities.

At most, the native elves celebrated privately and in a modest, unorganized fashion.

But this year was different.

After Evé gained control of the Ouros demirealm, many half-elven humans had purified their bloodlines and become true elves. As time passed, Eve’s influence grew, and more and more elves returned to the Elven Forest.

The number of elven believers had already surpassed ten thousand which was far greater than in previous years.

As for the half-elves, their numbers were even larger.

With the population growing and life becoming more stable, the elves once again turned their attention to this traditional holiday. This year’s festival was not only a celebration of the harvest, but also of the elves’ renewed prosperity.

After all, who, four years ago, could have imagined that a race on the brink of extinction would see such a resurgence?

With this thought, Evé smiled slightly and nodded.

“I will attend.”

It was a meaningful occasion, one that could strengthen their faction’s unity, and it would also be a perfect opportunity to display her divine power and reinforce everyone’s faith.

So why not take part in it?

Alice’s eyes brightened, and she smiled warmly.

“That is wonderful! Then—”

“—But I will not involve myself in the tedious preparations,” Eve interjected, anticipating what Alice was about to say. “I will simply attend on the day itself.”

She knew Alice well. Judging from the girl’s expression, Alice had likely been about to suggest that Evé preside over the event or deliver a speech.

However she had no interest in such tasks and no inclination to take them on.

A festival was meant to be enjoyed.

The organizers rarely had as much fun as the participants and her displaying some of her divine power at the event would be more than enough.

“Very well,” Alice said with a slightly regretful sigh.

After a short pause, she continued, “That is the first matter. In addition, I have two more to consult you about.”

“What are they?” Evé asked.

Alice straightened her posture, her expression turning serious.

“Lady Zero, our number of believers is steadily increasing. The Church of Life is growing larger, and as we continue our resurgence, envoys from various other Churches have begun to contact us. Yet, the Church of Life still lacks a true leader, and your stance on the matter has still remained unclear up to now…”

Eve’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“…And you mean to say?”

Alice hesitated, then said, “Lady Zero, do you intend to become the High Priest of the Church of Life?”

The High Priest.

This was the title for the religious leader in elven history, equivalent to the Pope in human lands or the High Pontiff among the dwarves.

At present, the identity of Godwarden Zero held a subtle position. While she did not officially bear the title of High Priestess, she effectively carried out some of its functions.

Evé did not answer immediately, instead asking, “And the third matter?”

Alice paused, then said, “The third is this… Our people are increasing in number and strength. Some elders and devout believers have approached me repeatedly, asking when we will rebuild our kingdom.”

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