海·特维尔: (Hǎi.Tèwéiěr) could be translated as: Hai-Teweru, Haitville, Tethyr(Adaptation)
Chapter 93: Meeting the Master of All Mages
“What’s going on?” Leona was bewildered. “Flora, is he using Divine Arts in his sleep? Didn’t he get some of your power through that necromantic link?”
“That shouldn’t be possible…” Flora said, her brow furrowed in disbelief. Even she, the most talented Divine Arts user on the continent, had never encountered such a situation. “Divine Arts can’t be used in dreams. Prayers in dreams are ineffective in the real world. A Divine Arts user must be conscious, preferably in a state of heightened mental clarity, and chant the prayer in Holy Script to activate Divine Arts. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Could it be a curse? Does he have any enemies? Should you cast a wake-up spell on him?” Leona, clueless about Divine Arts, was worried about Abyss’s safety.
Her concern wasn’t unfounded. Abyss was a maverick, following only the necromancer’s creed and his aversion to chaos, disregarding everything else. He might have inadvertently disrupted someone’s grand scheme during one of his exploits.
It was impossible for someone like Abyss to have no enemies, but he probably didn’t even realize he had any. After all, in his eyes, everyone on the continent was weak.
“We shouldn’t wake him abruptly… He might be doing something important,” Flora said after a moment of thought. “I’ll try to use Divine Arts to sense his mental state… I hope he’s alright.”
Leona nodded, watching Flora prepare to cast the spell.
Flora chanted a prayer softly, and a faint golden ribbon of light connected her forehead to Abyss’s. But the connection lasted only a moment before vanishing.
“How is he? How is he?” Leona asked anxiously.
“This…” Flora’s expression remained tense. “My Divine Arts… failed… There’s some force interfering with my connection to the Nine Gods. It’s as if the link has been severed…”
“What?!”
…
“Belator.”
“…Belator.”
A gentle voice called Abyss’s name repeatedly, reaching him through a haze.
The voice came from all directions, prompting Abyss to slowly open his eyes and observe his surroundings.
He was in a vast courtyard, lush with grass, trees, and blooming flowers. The sky was milky white, with occasional streaks of golden light descending from above, vanishing before reaching the ground.
Seeing this, Abyss smiled.
He had been here before, after learning Divine Arts from the soul of a Divine Arts user—this was the Divine Realm, the abode of the Nine Gods of the Haitville Continent.
“Belator.”
The voice called his name again, this time from behind him.
Abyss turned to see a woman standing there.
She wore a simple, hooded robe, a silver staff in her left hand, its tip adorned with a crystal ball emitting a bright white light. She stood silently, her face partially hidden beneath the wide brim of her hood, her expression unreadable.
“Greetings, Goddess of Magic,” Abyss said, bowing before she could introduce herself, his manners impeccable.
“You know me?” she asked, her voice calm, devoid of emotion. Her lips didn’t move when she spoke, and her body didn’t rise and fall with breath, making her seem like a statue.
“Of course I know you,” Abyss said with a smile. “You are the revered deity of all mages on the Haitville Continent. We necromancers, although we also worship the God of Death and Slaughter, hold you in the highest regard.”
The Goddess of Magic showed no reaction to his flattery, her expression unchanged. After a moment of silence, she said, “Do you know why I summoned you to the Divine Realm?”
“I wouldn’t presume to know, my lady,” Abyss shrugged. “I just subdued an Outer God from another world and fed him a piece of my soul. I’m currently recovering my damaged soul through sleep.”
He was, of course, joking. The moment he found himself in the Divine Realm, he knew why he had been summoned.
Although the Nine Gods didn’t hold the same lofty status in his mind as they did for the uninformed masses, Abyss never underestimated their power or their awareness. They might have ignored his previous exploits, but his recent battle with Dallan couldn’t have gone unnoticed.
It was a large-scale battle, a clash between two peak ninth-tier mages, a rare occurrence even in decades.
Abyss had been prepared to negotiate with the gods, to convince them to allow him to eliminate their creator. But to his surprise, after defeating Dallan, he hadn’t sensed any interference. He had even had time to chat with Princess Helen and subdue another Outer God in Leona’s dream realm.
He had a hunch. Based on his previous observations in the Divine Realm, the Nine Gods mostly remained passive, their divine duties automatically responding to the prayers of their followers, bestowing their blessings.
Divine Arts users’ prayers were also handled automatically, but Abyss hadn’t witnessed the gods reacting to Flora’s prayers, even though those spells were powerful and large-scale.
“…You did well,” the Goddess of Magic said suddenly.
Abyss rubbed his ears.
“What did you say? I just subdued a god from another world and claimed his power for myself. Aren’t you going to confiscate it?”
“You did well. All nine of us support your actions and have no intention of taking away the Outer God’s power you obtained.”
The Goddess of Magic’s expression remained serene. “Outer Gods are invasive forces that threaten this world. We won’t directly assist you, but we won’t interfere with your attempts to acquire their power or eliminate them, if you have the ability.”
Abyss was intrigued.
The Nine Gods were so lenient? What about his plan to steal the Creator God’s power? What was their stance on that?
“We are also aware of the followers you resurrected. We hope you won’t order them to do anything that harms this world. We will not interfere with you.”
Could the Goddess of Magic read minds?
“I cannot read minds, at least not directly. But your soul is currently in the Divine Realm, and souls cannot conceal their thoughts.”
Did gods really not need to use the restroom?
“…We do not have the same metabolic processes as mortals, nor do we require sustenance from food.”
Abyss chuckled. It seemed he could freely ask any question that crossed his mind.
***
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