Chapter 61: Tier Five, Tier Five, The Lost Kingdom

"What’s happening!!!"

"The Deities are angry!!!"

"What do you mean, the Deities are angry! It’s an earth tremor—a surge of Magic Power in the earth’s veins! Get to open ground, lie flat, and be careful."

As the Magic Crystal Ore deep beneath the center of the swamp began to upgrade in quality, vast quantities of new ore started growing explosively underground.

The new Magic Crystal Ore spread downward and outward, violently compressing the surrounding rock strata.

And so, a powerful tremor erupted within the Swamp Territory.

In the towns of the Swamp Territory, the people were in a complete panic. Some threw themselves to the ground, while others scrambled for open spaces and quickly crouched down.

Clearly, the people of this world had their own understanding of the concept of an earthquake.

Earth tremors—or a sudden, violent surge of Magic Power deep underground—were often the true cause of earthquakes in this world.

However, this was a phenomenon only understood by the knowledgeable Nobility, merchants, and scholars.

Ordinary Commoners and slaves only saw it as a sign of the Deities’ wrath—after all, the Church had preached this for a very long time.

And so, as the tremor continued, countless Commoners and slaves panicked and immediately dropped to their knees, crying out for the Deities’ forgiveness. Even some small-time vendors and Mercenaries did the same.

Such was the reality of this world, in this era.

Fortunately, the tremor wasn’t particularly intense and likely caused little damage to the people and buildings of the Swamp Territory.

The low-intensity tremor lasted for just over a minute.

After the tremor passed, a panicked clamor erupted among the townsfolk of the Swamp Territory, creating quite a "lively" scene.

Meanwhile, in the center of the swamp, the scene that York, Paul, and the other Knights witnessed was far more shocking and unbelievable.

The concentration of Magic Power around the swamp was now several times higher than in the outside world.

At the same time, where the swamp had once been, it had now completely vanished.

As York and the others watched, at the very moment the tremor began, a wave of impossibly pure Magic Power radiated out from the Giant Dragon at the swamp’s center. The entire swamp was inundated, and everything on the ground began to crystallize at a visible rate.

The crystallized ground shone like brilliant crystal.

Although only a third of the swamp’s central area was exposed, everyone, including York, instantly understood what these crystals were.

"Magic Crystals!!! It’s Magic Crystal Ore!"

"And it’s incredibly pure!"

Paul’s eyes widened, his heart filled with an unprecedented sense of terror.

’The divine representative we came to see is a Giant Dragon?’

’Even before our audience has begun, the deity has already revealed its Mighty Power to the Swamp Territory—to us mere mortals!’

’Its Divine Power unleashed an unimaginable tide of Magic Power, using that terrifying surge to transform an ordinary swamp into a deposit of exceptionally pure Magic Crystal Ore!’

’Is this the Mighty Power of the Deities?!’

For Paul and the others, who had never seen one of the Deities and could scarcely imagine their greatness, this scene alone was enough to fill them with terror.

But then, atop the incredibly pure Magic Crystal Ore, he witnessed the great divine representative—the Giant Dragon—begin to undergo a Tier promotion.

The Giant Dragon’s body began to swell.

Its tail, its head, its wings—every part of it grew rapidly, enveloped in a tide of Magic Power.

Its body stretched to thirteen meters.

Fourteen meters.

Fifteen meters.

...

At a visible rate, amidst the storm of Magic Power and the aftershocks of the tremor, the Giant Dragon’s entire appearance transformed.

"Small" horns, which it hadn’t had before, sprouted from its head.

Its wings grew broader and sleeker.

Its legs and claws grew stronger and sharper, and its tail became thicker and longer, taking on a metallic sheen.

To York’s fervent delight and the utter shock of Paul and the other Knights, the Giant Dragon’s body length surpassed the twenty-meter mark.

Finally, the Giant Dragon’s growth stopped, its body now measuring just over twenty-one meters long.

Just standing there with its head held high, the Giant Dragon was nearly as tall as a four-story building.

Compared to such a Giant Dragon, the human form seemed utterly minuscule.

The Giant Dragon’s promotion was a success. At that moment, his gaze fell once more upon York and the others.

The next instant, before their stunned eyes, the Giant Dragon suddenly shot into the sky!

Without any warning, the Giant Dragon soared above the heads of York and his men. At the same time, an ethereal voice suddenly echoed around them.

"Interesting. Uninvited mortals. Did you think you could escape my notice?"

"Since you are here, why be in such a hurry to leave?"

The voice was calm and peaceful, yet everyone felt a powerful sense of danger.

And then...

...there was no "then."

The ground behind York, Paul, and their men erupted with a deafening BOOM.

York, Paul, and the others spun around, only to see a cage of steel erupting from the earth behind them.

The steel cage was formed from the Rock Steel Giant’s earth spikes.

Unlike the earth spikes he could summon as a Swamp Giant Lizard, these were now completely made of steel and far more malleable.

And just as the steel cage formed, two figures suddenly appeared in everyone’s line of sight.

They were two people completely shrouded in gray robes.

At that moment, the two of them seemed to be pinned to the ground by an invisible pressure, forced into a prostrate position.

Their Magic Robes naturally lost their invisibility Ability.

As one of them raised his head to look at the Giant Dragon in the sky, a look of shocked anger crossed York’s face, for he instantly recognized the man.

"Resident Priest Oleg?"

’The other one? Hmm, how unexpected. There’s even a Knight from the Lionheart Knight Order.’

York spotted the Duke’s Mansion insignia revealed on the other man’s chest, and his expression showed sudden understanding.

Oleg paid York no mind.

Instead, his bitter gaze was fixed on the Giant Dragon in the sky.

"It is truly hard to imagine."

"That a small place like the Demon Beast Wilderness, a newly pioneered territory, would be graced by the presence of one as mighty as you."

"Unknown deity, great Your Majesty, I, the mortal Oleg, a humble follower of the God of Knowledge and Truth, had no intention of spying on or offending you. I beg you to quell your anger."

Oleg was utterly stunned.

He had always harbored suspicions about the Swamp Territory.

He had even been secretly monitoring York’s every move.

But for more than a year, he had come up empty-handed.

York was extremely shrewd.

He had colluded with the Rock Steel Giant to have so-called "roaming Demon Beast packs" stage attacks on the reclaimed lands at the edge of the Swamp Territory.

This gave York a legitimate reason to lead large expeditions out time and time again.

The advantages of this strategy were manifold.

First, it signaled to the outside world that the Swamp Territory was under constant attack by Demon Beasts, dispelling any notion of collusion with a High Tier Magical Beast.

Second, it would cause any potential spies to come up empty-handed after repeated observation, hopefully convincing them to abandon their surveillance.

And third, it provided cover for York’s true objective: seeking an audience with the deity at a moment’s notice.

It was killing three birds with one stone.

’What I didn’t expect was that this Resident Priest Oleg would be so damned persistent!’

’And I even had people watching the Church before I left! I received a report that the resident priest was inside the whole time!’

’This just goes to show... Oleg is no ordinary man. He’s not simple at all.’

But as shocked and angry as York was, Oleg’s mind was in a true state of cataclysmic turmoil.

’I thought I had finally found the source of the anomaly in the Swamp Territory.’

’But the reality was something I never could have imagined. After all, it’s been far, far too long since any of the Deities made a Descent into the mortal world.’

’Regardless of which race they belonged to.’

’But what did I just witness? Without warning, a terrifying tide of Magic Power swept across the land, altering the very landscape and birthing a massive, high-purity Magic Crystal Ore deposit in the process.’

’Is that something a mortal, or even a High Tier Magical Beast, could accomplish?’

’What a joke! It’s absolutely impossible!’

’Not even a Saint Tier being could do that.’

’A deity? Has one of the Deities truly descended to the mortal realm?’

’How is that possible?!!!’

’It’s absolutely impossible!!!’

And yet, watching "Lince," who took the form of a Giant Dragon and had just performed a Miracle, he had no choice but to accept the reality before his eyes.

Oleg was profoundly shaken by it all. His first instinct was to retreat in secret.

But how could he possibly hope to escape unscathed after spying on a "deity"?

And so, faced with the current predicament, Oleg’s first thought was to beg for mercy and try to stay alive. He absolutely had to get this terrifying news out.

Even though the chances of that were minuscule now that he was exposed, he had to make one last attempt.

He had to stop this deity from drawing more Power from its Divine Kingdom for its Descent into the mortal world. Otherwise, the world would surely be thrown into chaos and reshuffled once more.

This was especially true given the high probability that this was a Demon Beast deity.

However, just as Oleg looked up at the Giant Dragon to plead for his life...

...in Lince’s eyes, he saw something strange: what looked like a faint, ethereal thread extending from the top of Oleg’s head, connecting to the unknown sky, or perhaps, to Space itself.

And at that very moment, familiar text suddenly appeared in Lince’s vision.

[A Pious Believer, A Lost Kingdom!]

[This is the silent elegy of a deity, the final echo of its end. Congratulations, Player, you have triggered a hidden cutscene.]

[Beginning Playback!]