City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Godkiller

Just before the hourglass shattered, Richard’s heart shook as he quietly reached into his chest pocket to grip a crystal slate. This was the last of his destiny crystals, something that had accompanied him through countless dangerous situations. There were many times he had wished to use it, but every time he had fought the urge and was lucky enough to avert disaster himself. So long as this was around, he would have a sliver of hope to deal with any issue he came up against.

However, now he was fighting a deity in her own divine kingdom. It was impossible to press down the anxiety, but he knew that Runai could at best injure him severely. Even with a hundred years of his life drained, he could just make a few offerings and recover quickly; this was a gamble he could afford to take.

As the sands of time were burnt up, he loosened his grip on the destiny crystal. Three faces appeared around him as the last of his protection was being burned away, all the power of his truename and laws being injected into them for one powerful gambit. Three unparalleled bursts of magic rushed out at once and struck Runai, knocking her back.

The laws of life and destruction were the first to reach, their combined prowess almost shattering Runai’s body instantly. Just as she stabilised herself, however, the central attack ruptured her barrier and drove cracks all over her armour! The Goddess of Time was taken aback; even legendary beings were meant to have no way of even leaving a nick on this armour, but Richard had cracked it. The laws of life and destruction were terrifying in their own right, but this attack also held traces of the primal chaos!

This was a terrifying force that even gods had to fear, the same energy that drove the storms that ravaged the void. Even greater deities had to be careful when facing the power of primal chaos; this was the source of all unrest in the myriad planes, and it could destroy anything.

A mere mortal had control of timeforce and primal chaos? Even if both were mere approximations, this was unfathomable!

When Runai looked back up from her armour, she found that Richard had vanished. A searing pain immediately assaulted her abdomen, pulling her gaze back down to reveal that Richard had blinked beside her and opened up a huge wound in her divine body. His green sword had cut through her with ease, but before she could even register that shock she saw him trying to stuff a few eggs into her wound!

Even gods knew fear. Runai pulsed almost all of her divine force in an instant, activating a surging flame that exploded with her at the centre. Richard was knocked a dozen metres away, most of the eggs in his hands were dropped and reduced to ashes, while the two that did start absorbing energy were overwhelmed instantly and just exploded with two golden crystals dropping to the ground.

Runai was instantly left in a difficult position; not only was her armour severely damaged, but the sceptre in her hands had also halved in size. She had basically destroyed a good chunk of her power to escape the danger, but that panicked action had hurt her greatly.

Just as she was about to yell out in rage, a sudden sense of cold gripped at her heart. This was her law warning her of grave danger, but Richard was still in her sight and the three goddesses hadn’t broken through her hasty barrier just yet. The fear was only amplified as he raised his silver sword high into the sky, the blade bursting forth with a bright glow.

‘Does he want to fight me in close combat? What a joke…’ she thought to herself in a daze. A dozen metres to a god could be as far as the horizon or no distance at all, especially when she could manipulate the flow of time, but with his laws broken he did not have the same opportunity.

However, she still brandished her damaged sceptre to form a golden screen that covered her body; the first time since she had lit her godspark that a mortal had forced her into a defensive stance. Richard already had the Judge straight above his head, activating all the soul force within as he chopped down towards her, “It’s done.”

The soul force was like a lightning storm crashing down on Runai’s divine body all at once, breaking right through her and continuing a hundred metres further. Hundreds of thousands of divine warriors and thousands of valiant souls were burnt all at once, making for an earth-shattering blow that shattered the divine body into a million fragments.

A mournful cry rang out as Runai’s body disintegrated, the fragmented pieces flying back towards the distant shrine. Richard moved forward to give chase, blinking a few times, but he suddenly stopped and sent a tiny trace of energy forward to reveal a layer of gold that signified the goddess’s control. He immediately flashed back with a sneer, prompting a disgruntled yell as a huge phantom from the shrine wasted a full-power attack.

He flew back to the area where Runai’s divine body had exploded, looking at the hundreds of motes of divine force that hadn’t yet managed to escape. At the centre of it all were three golden crystals the size of a fist, a sight that caused him to hold his breath.

This was godsblood, a powerful material second only to a deity’s godspark. However, unlike the spark which was only really useful to those who wanted to become deities, the blood was useful to anyone. These crystals were filled with law energy, and a single drop could spawn a magic soul that formed the basis for a higher-end grade 5 rune.

He had already considered such a thing before. A rune with Runai’s laws would be able to create a slowing domain around the user, drastically crippling everything within. Since this slowing came from a change to the passage of time itself, normal spells could not combat it. In fact, only beings that could make themselves immune to timeforce would be able to escape. Such a rune would be powerful enough to warrant four to five top-tier offerings at worst.

The godsblood could also replace any non-critical material on Midren; two drops would be enough for him to be able to finish his construction right now. He could also think of a dozen other uses purely in terms of runes, and that was only in his field. Godsblood was powerful but varied in use, with every legendary mage having some use or the other for it. It was one of the best materials in all existence, compared to some other powerful items that had a very limited set of properties.

A faint smile spread across Richard’s lips as he stored the blood in a case. He already knew just how he would use these things, and with her essence gone Runai would die in a few months at most. He glanced at the distant shrine before returning to the passage; this war was now over, and he had come out of it with a god’s death on his hands.

With the blood and divine force crystals he had already collected, there wasn’t much left over that was truly of importance to him. Of course, what he left behind happened to be what the three goddesses would want most; Runai’s divine domain and her godspark. Even the servitors had already fallen once Runai was destroyed, their divine force having taken enough of a hit for the feeding worms to start nibbling away at them.

…

As he returned to the divine kingdom of the Forest Goddess, Richard saw the trio standing on the other end of the passage with armour donned and weapons in hand. It was evident that they were prepared to join the war. With Runai’s current condition, they would no longer need to maintain the situation and could just head straight into her shrine and finish her off, capturing her godspark.

And yet, their actions were full of puzzling hesitation that caused him to frown, “Not going in? She’s almost dead, what are you waiting for?”

“Those...worms, there are too many of them,” the Goddess of the Hunt said with some trepidation.

“Oh, those things are just getting me some more divine force. Tell you what, I’ll have them all withdraw tomorrow, and I’ll have someone take the crystals and eggs away.”

“That’s a relief!” the Forest Goddess sighed subconsciously, pulling Richard’s attention to her. She immediately shivered like she had just been doused with ice water, her entire body going rigid.

Richard ignored her and put the worm eggs and divine crystals in a magic-sealing chest he had already prepared, carrying the chest that was twice his size and proceeding to leave the divine kingdom.

……

“How was the harvest, Master?” the broodmother’s voice rang out the moment Richard was in Dragon Valley.

“It was… fruitful,” he chuckled.

“So you’re a godkiller now?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

“Your aura. I sensed it through your soul. Anyone who’s killed a truegod has a certain air to them that I can sense.”

“It’s just a puny deity from a secondary plane, no big deal.”

“What are you saying? It is a big deal! If gods were so easy to kill, they would all be dead right now. Master, I feel like we must meet.”

“But why? I have to get back to Norland.”

“The messengers are prepared, I won’t take much of your time.”

He couldn’t refute this point. With the speed of the messengers, he would be able to get to the Land of Turmoil in half a day. The moment he sent an affirmative, a loud whistle rang through the sky as three messengers descended like lightning and landed beside him. She didn’t seem to be ready to wait at all.

Richard summoned a few knights and had them split his one chest into two smaller ones, placing them on two of the messengers before he got onto the third. All three took to the air the moment he stepped on, quickly vanishing into the horizon.