Chapter 247 - 199: The Fall of a Deity, Devoured with Its Divine Kingdom

"He’s here!!!"

The Elephant Insect Deity’s expression was incredibly grave.

It raised its head to look at the sky manifested by its Divine Kingdom.

Right now, the terrifying Giant Dragon seemed to be perched above the world.

Its massive pupils, as if unobscured by any Law, were staring directly down at the entire Divine Kingdom below.

And at this moment, high above the Law Network of Green Saturn on the Material Interface, the Giant Dragon was looking down upon the green starlight of the Law Network.

Lince didn’t use any special Power; he simply extended a foreclaw and swiped it through the starlight.

Hm.

It passed through with ease.

It was as if the speck of light that represented the Divine Kingdom didn’t exist at all.

Seeing this, a hint of a smile suddenly appeared in Lince’s eyes.

’As I thought. This is just an illusory node of the Divine Kingdom projected onto the Material Interface.’

’The real Divine Kingdom seems to have already entered some kind of stable Subspace.’

At this thought, the terrifying Giant Dragon abruptly moved again!

This time, Lince still held back.

But his entire body was already wreathed in roaring flames.

At the same time, ripples of Space began to spread out.

And so, under the terrified gaze of the Elephant Insect Deity,

Lince’s giant, flaming claw suddenly seemed to plunge into the Subspace created by the Mana Will.

He then viciously swiped it across the sky of the entire Divine Kingdom.

"BOOM!!!"

A massive tremor shook the entire Elephant Insect Divine Kingdom.

At the same time, as countless Prayerers and Demigods watched in terror,

they saw the milky-white dome of the Divine Kingdom burning fiercely, as if a mirror gashed with five terrifying slashes.

However, looking at the five burning rifts in the dome, the Elephant Insect Deity let out a long sigh of relief.

It even snorted coldly.

"Hmph. This Exotic Star Deity is quite arrogant."

"To think it could break through my Divine Kingdom’s gates from the outside. It has no idea that our Divine Kingdoms have long since become one with the Mana Law Net."

"Trying to fight against the Power of the entire Mana Will by itself? It’s dreaming."

At this very moment, the dome, which had been torn with five terrifying gashes, was rapidly healing.

The flames and all the scars Lince had inflicted vanished in an instant.

The other three Deities were also watching all this through the power of their interconnected Divine Kingdoms.

Seeing this, the other three Deities, who had been worried, all began to relax.

"Heh. This guy clearly knows nothing about the Divine Realm."

"This is good. All we have to do is stall it, and then we can proceed with our plan simultaneously."

The Celestial Bull Deity said.

"There’s still a chance for us. This creature is absurdly powerful, but it can’t even mobilize the Divine Power known as ’Star Force’. It probably hasn’t undergone Ascension to Divinity yet."

"To be able to push us this far without having become a god... It has a right to be proud."

"However, we can’t keep dawdling. This thing’s Power is growing too quickly. There’s no telling what other unknown methods it might have."

"Therefore, we must capture the ’Players’ as soon as possible. I think we might be able to analyze something from their souls."

"Then we can use that to research a way to prevent the enemy’s Descent into our world."

The Dragon Louse Deity said, its expression still grave.

"Exactly. So we can’t let our guard down before then."

"This thing is terrifyingly strong. To be able to damage the outer wall of a Divine Kingdom under these circumstances... If it weren’t for the blessing of the Mana Law, it might have actually broken through our Divine Kingdoms."

"It’s truly hard to imagine that such a terrifying creature exists outside our world, possessing this kind of strength before even achieving Ascension to Divinity. It seems we really did underestimate the dangers of other worlds beyond the Star Realm."

"..."

The four Insect Deities: one Celestial Beetle person, one Elephant Insect person, one Dragon Louse person, and one Gray-Striped Flatworm person.

They could all be considered carapace-bearing Insect People.

No wonder the Spider-Man Deity of the Insect Race Empire had fallen before.

Even among Deities, the closeness or distance between species was on full display.

The four Insect Deities chatted back and forth, now deluding themselves into thinking they could just wear Lince down in a battle of attrition.

They were planning to capture the souls of the mortal Players on one hand, while also intending to open a gate to Blue Star again for another surprise attack.

After all, they had already opened the Star Road once. The Mana Will already had a smooth anchor point for the Star Road, so opening it again would be much easier.

But what these fools couldn’t imagine was...

...everything that had just happened was merely another one of Lince’s tests.

’The feel of it was surprisingly solid. That saves me a lot of trouble.’

Lince looked down at the starlight.

The color of his pupils changed again, instantly becoming covered by a transparent ripple.

After this,

Lince’s vision could now clearly see the Divine Kingdom located in Subspace.

In the interstitial space where the Dark Star Realm and chaos intertwined,

a conical spire, approximately thirty thousand meters tall, was fully revealed before his eyes.

And peering through the now seemingly transparent conical spire, Lince immediately saw the entirety of the Elephant Insect Deity’s Divine Kingdom.

Although the Insect Deity’s Divine Kingdom manifested as a spire in the Material Realm,

the inside of the Divine Kingdom was a world unto itself.

The entire interior resembled a flat Floating Island, where the sky and earth were a vast expanse of milky white.

Inside, the souls of countless Insect People believers, now Prayerers, were endlessly worshipping the divine throne high in the sky that scattered Holy Light.

As for the Demigods,

the Demigods of this world were all of the Pseudo-Demigod type.

Thus, they were also gathered within the Divine Kingdom, standing on either side of the Elephant Insect Deity.

There weren’t many Demigod Insect People—at least, in this Elephant Insect Divine Kingdom, there were only about thirty of them.

For an existence with Weak Divine Power, ’supporting’ over thirty Pseudo-Demigod vessels was likely its limit.

As for the tens of millions of Insect People Prayerers,

they were nothing more than consumables.

Deities require the faith of living beings, using the idealistic, directed Spiritual Power that believers emanate to refine into Divine Power Crystals for their own use.

But that only applies to living believers.

Only living beings can provide the Spiritual Power that naturally dissipates each day.

The key reason is that living beings can eat and absorb Magic Power, allowing them to naturally replenish their daily-consumed Spiritual Power.

But what about the souls of the dead? They cannot absorb any Energy from the natural world.

Therefore, their so-called worship produces no Spiritual Power whatsoever.

So, in the end, these souls are just stored up by the Deities as a reserve of ’food’ for emergencies.

When the need truly arises, a little refinement of these pure souls yields a large amount of usable Divine Power Crystals.

The believers think that by ascending to the Divine Kingdom, they have escaped the troubles and suffering of the mortal world and can even serve their deity at all times, which they see as a supreme honor.

However, the reality is incredibly cruel.

Of course, if a Deity had a bit of a ’heart’, it could actually allow the Prayerers, as spiritual bodies, to absorb the only Energy they can—Spiritual Power or even Divine Power Crystals.

In that case, such believers could be considered true servants of the Deity and would possess a level of Power corresponding to that.

This is also the origin of ’Saints’ in a Divine Kingdom.

But unfortunately, whether in this world or in Oakland World, almost all Deities view the souls of their devout believers as a final strategic resource.

In a way, the devout souls do attain a form of eternal life.

After all, Deities generally won’t touch them unless it’s the most critical moment.

As for their fate of being ’eaten’, even if these Prayerers knew, they would probably still willingly sacrifice themselves for their Deity.

After all, they are devout believers.

If they were qualified to ascend to the Divine Kingdom, their entire body and soul must have been molded into the shape of their Deity.

Being eaten is a consensual act, so it’s not a big deal.

One could only say that the Cosmos Lince found himself in was just this cruel.

Now, after a cursory scan of the entire Divine Kingdom, Lince moved again.

This time, Lince held nothing back.

"ROOOAR~~~"

Following a great roar that originated from a Spiritual level,

Lince mobilized all the Elemental Power in his body, and his entire form suddenly began to expand.

In just an instant, under the uncomprehending but nervous gazes of the four Insect People, Lince’s Giant Dragon body suddenly ballooned to five thousand kilometers.

A body length comparable to, or even exceeding, that of the Moon, combined with the Giant Dragon’s already massive Body Type, struck terror into the hearts of the four Insect Deities.

And the Elephant Insect Deity, which was directly facing Lince’s threat, suddenly felt its own Spirit give a sharp warning.

"Something’s wrong!!!"

the Elephant Insect Deity shrieked.

But in the very next instant,

the threads connecting its Divine Kingdom to the Mana Will’s Law Network all dimmed in a flash!

And at that moment, the Elephant Insect person’s Divine Kingdom became like a toddler abandoned by its mother, left to float alone in Subspace.

It gave the Elephant Insect person no time to react.

Just as its Divine Kingdom lost the support of the Mana Will,

in the Material Realm, Lince, the terrifying Flame Giant Dragon, suddenly stretched out both claws.

And so, under the terrified gazes of the countless Prayerers and Demigods, the Giant Dragon’s claws seemed to rip open the gauze-like curtain of the real dimension.

With that, the spire-like Half-Plane Divine Kingdom was instantly exposed to the Giant Dragon’s gaze.

And right at that moment,

the terrifying Giant Dragon didn’t even give the Elephant Insect Deity time to react.

It opened its massive, flaming maw and swallowed!

For a terrifying Giant Dragon whose body, after Elementalization, reached a length of five thousand kilometers,

the Elephant Insect person’s thirty-thousand-meter Half-Plane Divine Kingdom was nothing.

It was like a mere dessert.

Enveloped by the giant mouth of fire,

the next moment, the entire Divine Kingdom was surrounded by flames as hot as the scorching sun.

The roaring flames Roasted the entire Divine Kingdom.

At the same time, as the Giant Dragon’s sharp teeth clamped down,

"CRACK~"

"BOOM!!!"

the outer wall of the Divine Kingdom shattered on impact.

Then, heavenly fire instantly poured into the entire Divine Kingdom.

"No!!!"

"How can this be!!!"

The Elephant Insect Deity roared in despair!!!

As it shot toward the sky, Space seemed to be shackled in the next instant.

At the same time, the entire Divine Kingdom completely shattered.

As for this Elephant Insect Deity, it only felt its vision go black, and everything plunged into darkness.

"Devoured!!! It was devoured!!!"

"It ate Jelinek! Including his Divine Kingdom!!!"

"This is impossible!!!! What in the world happened?! Why did the Mana Will’s Law Network suddenly lose connection?!!!"

"..."

The other three Insect Deities, their faces pale, were as restless as ants on a hot pan.

Lince, however, was quite satisfied with the results of the battle.

’Who said you have to destroy a Divine Kingdom from the inside out?’

’Swallowing it in one gulp yields the greatest rewards~ This is how you’re supposed to use the game’s permissions.’