CHAPTER 684

【 GOD’S ANGER 】

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Within the divine kingdom of the World Tree, inside the supreme temple of life.

Evé sat upon her divine throne, gazing calmly at the sand table manifested from divine power before her, her fingers lightly tapping against the armrest in a steady rhythm.

The sand table depicted the current state of the Maple Leaf Territory and the southern reaches of the Borderlands, encompassing Augsburg City as well as every battlefield in which the players were conducting their sieges against other cities within the territory.

The players themselves were not shown in detail. Instead, each was represented by a point of light. It was from this elevated perspective that she was able to maintain absolute oversight of the overall situation of the entire conflict.

It was highly likely that the players would encounter a descending evil god during this war. However, the precise location and timing of such an event remained uncertain.

That evil god might emerge from Otto’s main army, or it may descend from deep within the Maple Leaf Territory itself. It was also possible that, just like what happened in the former imperial punitive expedition, it would only intervene at the very moment when the players and the Red Maple Kingdom army entered their decisive confrontation.

Evé could not determine the exact details in advance.

Nevertheless, by observing the overall situation through the sand table, which could monitor developments in real time, she ensured that she would be ready to intervene at any given moment.

Under such circumstances, this was undoubtedly the most prudent and reliable course of action.

Of course, most of Eve’s attention was currently focused on the player army besieging Zelouan, because this battle contained the largest number of participating players.

So if that evil god decided to descend there and she failed to respond in time, the losses she could incur from such an oversight would be astronomical, potentially resulting in a severe blow to both the players’ morale and the overall course of the war.

Aside from Zelouan, the second most important location was Augsburg City.

After all, it was the city facing the full siege of Otto’s main army.

In theory, the pressure on the players defending Augsburg City was the greatest, and if Otto were unable to take the city after such a prolonged assault, there was a strong possibility that he would summon the evil god backing him to intervene directly in the battle.

In Eve’s view, however, that would only occur after Otto realized that capturing the city was truly hopeless.

For this reason, after the siege of Augsburg City had begun, Evé did not immediately focus her attention on it. Instead, she continued to observe the battles unfolding in other locations across the Maple Leaf Territory.

Yet just as Evé was watching with quiet satisfaction as the player armies advanced triumphantly on multiple fronts, she suddenly heard a faint and ethereal sound of prayer drifting through her divine kingdom.

“…A prayer?”

Evé raised an eyebrow slightly.

As her divine power had grown, she had long since delegated the tasks of receiving prayers and providing responses to the increasingly more efficient system network. Therefore, under normal circumstances, prayers from her believers were automatically processed by the system, requiring no direct involvement from her.

For example, the system could grant certain divine spells or bestow specific blessings without her direct intervention.

However, this time, the prayer had been sent directly into Evé’s mind.

The prayer itself was rough and unpolished, with many halting and awkward passages. Its content was disorganized, and faintly, there even seemed to be misspelled words and distinctly nonstandard pronunciation woven into it.

There was no doubt that the one praying had received very limited education and was very likely not a seasoned believer of hers.

That fact alone was enough to warrant her attention.

According to the way she had designed the system, there were only two kinds of prayers that could reach her directly.

One originated from her saints or from those who had gained her divine favor.

The other was when a large number of believers prayed for the same matter at the same moment.

The former usually indicated that a saint or a favored one had encountered trouble or was seeking divine guidance, in which case it was necessary for her to provide a certain response. R𝘢𐌽𝐨𝖇Еʂ

The latter meant either that a large-scale celebration was taking place, or that her believers had encountered some type of difficulties so severe that they were compelled to pray to her.

Whether by displaying a miracle during a celebration or by resolving the believers’ troubles at the right moment, both could greatly enhance the believers’ sense of recognition and strengthen their faith.

Clearly, this situation belonged to the latter.

With that thought, Evé immediately connected to the belief system and followed the direction where the prayer originated from.

“Augsburg City?”

She paused for a moment, surprise flickering across her features.

Her brows lifted faintly as she waved her hand, manifesting the current situation at Augsburg City. But the brief curiosity on her face quickly gave way to solemnity, and that solemnity soon ignited into fury.

“Fiends!”

Her outburst immediately sent ripples throughout the Garden of Eden as a small number of Einherjars, several hundred elemental faeries, and more than a hundred oak guardians all fell to their knees in panic, after sensing the raw intensity of her anger.

Noticing the impact of her emotions upon her divine kingdom, Evé quickly forced herself to calm down. Yet as she continued to observe the situation on Augsburg City, her expression darkened further.

Evé herself firmly believed that she had not been a good person, merely an ordinary mortal in her previous life.

And despite even after becoming a true god or even after being revered by some believers as some messiah-like figure, she understood clearly that her true priorities had always been her own survival and development above all else.

Perhaps, when her interests were not directly threatened, she might perform acts of kindness. But compared to the traditionally upright gods of this alternate universe, or even to her fallen predecessor, Evé judged herself morally inferior.

Even so, she still had lines she would not dare cross.

There were things that, even if she had the power to do them, she would still never choose to do so.

Gazing at the manifested scene before her, Eve’s brows knit tightly.

It showed groups of villagers being forced by fully armed soldiers to assault Augsburg City.

Most of these villagers were not even extraordinary beings.

In fact, if the players had not deliberately allowed them onto the city walls, they would never have managed to climb up at all.

Clearly, attacking the city was not their true objective and the real purpose for such a suicidal attack likely were something else.

Shifting her focus to the sky above the battlefield, Evé observed countless souls that, after death, had not returned to the Netherworld or to the divine kingdom of their respective patron deities. Instead, they hovered unnaturally in the air, gathering in ever greater numbers, to the point that they began affecting the weather above Augsburg City, thereby casting a gloomy pall over the entire battlefield.

Observing them as these wandering souls gradually accumulate more and more, a thought entered her mind.

“…Sacrifices?”

Her gaze shifted again as Evé looked toward the distant rear of the battlefield. There, she saw the army of the Red Maple Kingdom, specifically the command camp stationed on the hills behind them, where Red Maple King Otto himself stood atop a hill, gazing into the distance.

Her eyes quickly focused on a certain badge in Otto’s hand that was flickering with eerie light.

“Heh. These wretches fiends who have been corrupted by the abyss, do they really never learn to change their tactics?”

A trace of mockery flickered across Evé’s features, her lips curling ever so slightly.

“Since you are so eager to take the stage, then by all means… here you go. I’ll give you a chance.”

With a deliberate motion, she gently raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

In an instant, vast streams of life force surged across the void, flowing directly into the temple of Augsburg City and into the sacred statue enshrined within it.

Then, a golden pillar of light erupted from the statue, before shooting straight into the sky.

༺⟐༻

“What is happening?”

Watching the sudden changes in the direction of Augsburg City and sensing the abrupt surge of energy, King Otto frowned slightly, his gaze sharpening. The shift was too sudden, too intense, to be a mere fluctuation on the battlefield.

For some reason, a sense of unease suddenly rose in his heart.

Instinctively, Otto lowered his gaze and looked once more at the badge in his hand. When he saw that the symbol representing life force had completely lit up, his eyes widened and his expression turned to astonishment.

“Full? It’s full?”

“The life force needed… is full all of a sudden?!”

Otto first felt a reflexive surge of joy, yet it vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, drowned out by an even stronger sense of impending danger that made his breathing grow heavy.

Before he could react or take countermeasures, a flash of red light suddenly appeared before his eyes, as if some foreign entity had entered his body.

For a brief instant, he seemed to glimpse the shadow of a skull necklace.

The next moment, Otto heard a voice that was ethereal yet tinged with cold indifference.

“Summon your master.”

He froze for two seconds, then respectfully bowed.

“I shall obey your will.”

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