Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 955: The Expedition of the Great Divine Powers

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All this time, the Abyss had always been forbidden grounds for the gods. Most of the gods did not even dare to steal a peek into the Abyss. They feared that if they saw too much of it, they would be polluted by the chaotic aura of the Abyss.

But today, that aura of the Abyss was surging madly. It was like waves surging towards the Matter Plane of the Ring of the World. But there was one god standing in the front to block it, who was even turning the tables and launching a counterattack at the Abyss.

At the moment, Sui Xiong had become an extremely huge beast. Every tentacle that was spread out was big enough to envelop a relatively small world within. His body was glowing with a resplendent and brilliant light, as though he alone was able to withstand the torrents of chaotic evil coming from the Abyss.

At the moment, it was a scene of chaos inside the Pantheon temple. With more than one god screaming and crying aloud, the place was in a mess.

In the midst of this commotion, the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, stood out.

“In a fight against the demons, anyone below the level of a great Divine Power will simply be courting death. So all great Divine Powers who are willing to fight to protect the world, step forth! My brother, Auscar, has already charged all the way to the frontline. I’ll be there in a while. Who is willing to fight with us, follow me!”

With that, there was a flash of light and his figure disappeared. Without even leaving any power to sustain this clone for communicative purposes, he drew all the power he could and gathered everything into the huge, real body of a god. Then he flew off in the direction of the Abyss.

Following closely behind him, the God of War, Wenner, stepped forth as well. He laughed and said, “As the God of War, it would be a pity to miss a great battle with the demons!”

With another flash of light, his real body made a move and headed straight for the Abyss.

Following next, husband and wife, who were known as the famous great Divine Power couple, the God of Sky and Goddess Gaia, also took off. Driving a little boat formed by coalesced thunderbolts, they tore through the length of the sky and headed straight for the Abyss.

Then the other great Divine Powers took off as well. All of them were armed to the teeth and clad in armor as they rushed towards the Abyss.

In the God Kingdom of the Human Gods, the God of Protection got to his feet and said to the God of Light, “Your Majesty, this is a battle to protect the world, I can’t be absent.”

The God of Light nodded. Then he looked towards the God of Heroes, who was anxiously looking all around him like a cat on hot bricks, and calmly, he said, “You should go too. I can see that you are having a hard time trying to withhold yourself.”

The God of Heroes was overjoyed and laughed as he received his orders. Then he set off alongside the God of Protection.

After they had gone far, the God of Diplomacy, who was filled with doubts, asked, “Your Majesty, why did you ask them to go over? This is not what we planned...”

“The plan also has to change according to the actual situation,” the God of Light replied. “The Master of Order is truly a worthy master who has ruled this world for so many years. He ruined my plan just by locking the nest of the Dragon of Chaos in place. If my guess is right, after Chaos steps into the Matter Plane, the Master of Order will fully release all that aura of the Dragon of Chaos to get Chaos to move in that direction. To attract Chaos, he may even tear apart the Dragon of Chaos to produce an aura that is much more powerful than this mere blood.”

“No... it can’t be to such an extent! Haven’t they been old friends for many years? Wasn’t he the one who protected the Dragon of Chaos previously?” the God of Diplomacy asked in surprise.

“Who knows? Guessing the thoughts of others is a very boring thing to do. The human mind is the most difficult thing to fathom. The choice that the Master of Order made, though cold, is the most effective one. I have to admire him for that!” the God of Light said with a sneer. He might be speaking of “admiration,” but contempt was written all over his face. “What a pity this made him reveal his fear!”

“He would rather sacrifice the Dragon of Chaos to decipher and defeat my means. This shows that he did not have the confidence to win that battle of chaos that we have planned. In other words, the magnitude of his power—”

“—is nothing more than this!” exclaimed the God of Light. In this world, where time had been distorted, the God of Light let out a cold laugh of mockery. He wielded his warhammer and viciously smashed the Master of Order by swinging his warhammer down. “That powerful and invincible mask of yours, I’ll rid you of it today!”

Thunder surged. The space shattered and cracked. The “order” around the Wheel of Order collapsed with a loud crash. The distorted time and space instantly returned to normal. All that could be seen was the hammer that had broken through all obstacles, heavily crashing right before the Master of Order, as well as the fist that the Master of Order had raised to meet this hammer.

The next moment, a huge patch of void space completely transformed into turbulence. Everything was thrown into utter chaos.

In the midst of this chaos, the Master of Order staggered back several steps as he kept his eyes on the God of Light, who had retreated even more than he had. The God of Light had gone pale in the face, but he burst out laughing instead.

“You’re indeed much stronger than I expected, both in strength and will,” the Master of Order said calmly. “Perhaps it would be more appropriate for you to be in charge of the order of this world.”

“Then you should abdicate and step down. I think that I’m a good fit too.”

The Master of Order shook his head and said, “No way, I disagree with your rules.”

“In that case, I shall fight you till you bow to me!” the God of Light gave a cry of rage and charged forward again.

Within the Abyss, that amorphous subject had crept its way up a greater half of the Abyss. Many demons were roaring in a crazy manner, looking as though they were about to charge out any moment.

The so-called demons referred to the terrible things that took form because of extreme rage, resentment and other emotions that were attuned to the roots of “destruction.”

Before death, some were powerful gods or demigods, and some were Legendary Masters. There were even some who were mere mortals. But no matter how weak powers they had before death, so long as they had transformed into demons, they would become such terrors that even the gods would fear them.

There were two aspects of these demons that made them such terrors. The first was that they were things that existed on the basis of “destruction.” They were already the embodiment of destruction, so there was no way they could be further destroyed. Thus, they could only be sealed. The second was that they could corrode anything that came in contact with them, guiding and steering everything in the world towards destruction. Even the gods would be greatly corroded upon prolonged contact with them. Then these gods would also be destroyed.

These points deterred everyone from provoking these demons, who were existences that could not be killed. It was best to simply not establish any contact with them at all. Would there be any other enemy that could bring as much trouble as them?

Fortunately, almost all the demons were deeply asleep in the deepest region of the Abyss. And they hardly ever woke up. Otherwise, they would have long turned the world upside down.

“This world, I’m afraid, is going to be faced with imminent catastrophe soon!” the God of Sky suddenly said as he galloped towards the Abyss. “Chaos has awakened, and the demons are coming to attack. No matter what, it just feels like the world is about to come to an end.”

“The world is going to be destroyed because of them?” Goddess Gaia asked.

“You’re asking me? I can’t answer you!” said the God of Sky with a gentle sigh. Then he said, “I’m only sure of one thing: If we lose this time, the world is really going to be destroyed.”

“Then we absolutely can’t lose.”

“Easier said than done!”

The Master God of the Natural God System, the God of Sky, might be an ancient-looking elderly with great majesty to outsiders, but before his wife, he was completely void of his sense of dignity.

This couple met each other since the ancient times. They were married even before they were both sealed as gods. For countless years, they helped each other in difficult times, relied on each other as they lived and walked hand-in-hand to the present day. They were the most ideal couple that was the envy of the other gods.

When they combined forces, they could unleash a combat power that was far more forceful than two great Divine Powers put together. Before he became a greater Divine Power, even the God of Light was unwilling to provoke them.

All this time, they had felt that, so long as they did not carelessly court death, by virtue of their combined forces as husband and wife, they could safely pull through any form of danger. But today, they no longer had that confidence.

“How many demons have been born since ancient times? Do you have any recollections?” on the other side, the God of Heroes, who was also galloping, asked the God of Protection. “I remember that you have counted.”

“That’s right. A total of 24.”

“Twenty-four, that’s quite a handful.”

“There are more than 24 great Divine Powers in the world today.”

“But the others may not necessarily work as hard as we do!”

“I will do my best,” said the God of Protection, whose voice came from beneath his visor, thus explaining the metallic echo. “It’s either victory or death. Today is the day where I put the Way of Protection to practice.”

“Don’t make things sound so unlucky. I don’t think the situation is that bad.”

“I’m just making clear my attitude about it.”

“This attitude of yours is simply too pessimistic!”

“Weren’t you just as pessimistic as I was just now?”

“I was pessimistic about the possibility of not being able to win this battle. But the thought of dying in the battle over there has never crossed my mind,” the God of Heroes, who was so handsome that he easily passed as an idol, spoke. “If I can’t win the fight, I just have to retreat. This world is full of people in need of the help of heroes. I have to keep myself intact so that I can help more people.”

He paused for a moment, then advised, “You should do likewise. There are many things that need to be guarded and are worth guarding. You should not think of dying so casually!”

“I’m different from you. For me, this is something major. I absolutely can’t retreat from it,” said the God of Protection. He was silent for a moment, then he said, “Of course, if it’s not impossible, I will choose to abdicate voluntarily and let the Holy Spirits take over. This is also how I will avoid putting myself in danger.”

The God of Heroes was silent for a long time. Then he sighed deeply and advised no further.

Between the gods, there was no need to argue most of the time. Everyone merely acted according to their own ideas. Even if one god was able to silence another god by means of verbal argument, there was nothing the former could do nothing to change the mind of the latter.

In the end, he could only mutter in a low voice, “I hope the other great Divine Powers will put in more effort, and not simply turn up without doing anything...”

“I will purposely save some strength,” said the “Holy Hammer,” a great Divine Power of the Dwarf God System, to the Master God of the pygmies. “We ought to get the human gods to take the lead and be right at the frontline in this battle.”

“That’s right! They were the ones who stirred up all this trouble!” the Master God of the pygmies nodded and said, “They were the ones who started the war previously, and they were also the ones who caused trouble after the war. The great enchantment of the Main Plane has thus been destroyed, and we don’t even know how much more trouble awaits us! Because of this, the God of Light even went to challenge the Master of Order—all these years, His Majesty, the Master of Order, has managed this world so well, what else is there for the God of Light to harbor such dissatisfaction for! And when he could not win against the Master of Order, he even summoned Chaos... I’ve never seen such a brazen man!”

The Master God of the pygmies clearly held a deep resentment for the God of Light and could not help growling.

The Holy Hammer, whom the dwarf gods respectfully addressed him as the “Grand Elder,” stroked his long beard as he laughed bitterly and sighed inwardly.

His view was similar to that of the Master God of the pygmies. And it was believed that more than half of the gods also had the same thoughts. But they could complain all they want, it would make no difference to the matter. The God of Light had become a greater Divine Power, and the foundation of long-lasting prosperity and strength of the humans had been laid. Dwarves or pygmies, they could only bow their heads in modesty as they pinned their hopes in the future.

And... in the future... would there really be hope?

Cybele, who created the Dwarf Race, came to mind. He recalled the piece of information that Goddess Gaia had secretly sent to him.

Perhaps, there was still hope...

The premise was to win the battle at hand.

If the world was destroyed, then there would not be any “future,” let alone “hope!”

At this moment, great Divine Powers from all places were heading to the battlefield of the Abyss. Though they all had their different standpoints, all of them unanimously shared a common thought.

They had to win this battle. They had to defeat the demons and Chaos. It was for themselves, for their followers and people, and for this world. They had to win the “future!”