I decided to disguise myself as the God of Nature.
Was disguising myself as a true divine being disrespectful, certainly. However, I wondered if the fact that I had just killed the said divine being made it more respectful … or less.
Either way, it was just an idle question while I finished creating my outfit, using the fragments of memories I had experienced. I let my body slowly be covered with some kind of grown robe, and a living branch throbbing with Nature Spark appeared in my hand, and a hood covered my face.
Just like the way his memories showed him to act.
My first target was the elves. Or, more accurately, the civil war that was going on. The robed ones were already struggling to defend the tree, and I didn’t want someone to breach the defenses and kill Seldanna while I was busy with dealing the undead.
When I went out, I didn’t attack immediately. Instead, I cast a concealment spell as I flew down — the battle was mostly on the ground level — to understand the exact nature of the battle. I could see that the armored ones were gaining a lot of ground, with chants shouting the name of Prince Arun.
Which made the defending side the supporters of High Priest Ivasaar.
The battle was interesting, as both sides desperately used crystals to capture the Divine Spark of the fallen, allowing them to store more and more. They were desperate to generate some currency for their trade with the Eternals.
The army of the Prince was already close to victory, but the defensive wards of the priests were too strong, preventing a direct confrontation. And, to their credit, I was impressed with the wards, they looked weak, but had a deceptive strength. The High Priest had been clearly preparing for his ploy for decades — and my guess, only to be forced to pull the trigger early due to a sudden undead invasion.
No wonder he desperately tried to use Seldanna as a host.
A part of the reason for the battle was clear, but I wanted an even better picture. And luckily, there was an easy way to achieve that little trick, one that would put me in a good position.
I carefully manipulated the defensive wards, weakening them. Not all across their defensive line, but creating a path between Prince Arun and Priest Ivasaar, pushing them together.
“Push forward!” ordered the Prince as he rushed forward, thinking he was the one that brought down the defenses, and High Priest pushed forward at the same to block his path.
As I watched them approach, I started to stretch my mana tendrils outside, hooking into the Cystals that held the Divine Spark of the elves that had been slain during the battle.
None of the crystals I managed to find at the edges held a lot of Divine Spark. A few points here, a dozen there … but the combination was rather impressive. Half a day of battle cost a lot of elves their lives, and even a portion was able to help my God Forest recover most of its losses.
{+755 Nature Spark, God Forest}
A welcome change, as moved around the Tree of Life, and placed sixteen seeds in a rough circle, preparations for a defensive bulwark, one that I was yet to trigger … because while I was dealing with those two aspects, the prince and the high priest was finally face to face.
I just watched even as they started to fight, even though the High Priest was at an immediate disadvantage. I didn’t feel any guilt doing so, as neither the High Priest nor his men were my allies. They were just enemies that were conveniently blocking the path toward what I cared about.
“It’s not too late, my prince,” the High Priest shouted even as he summoned a horde of roots and targeted the prince, who used his sword to chop them off easily. “You can still change your mind and go back on the right path.”
The prince laughed in derision. “Nonsense, old man. You want us to return to a distant path, where we were the servants of a tyrant monster. Why would we, when I hold the keys of fate in my hands! I will not be a slave.”
“No, you’ll be a weapon in the hands of our enemies, and take down the very thing that allowed us to survive. Do you think we could have survived the Great Disaster without his sacrifice? Yet, when it’s time to pay back, you’re choosing to betray him.”
“Old tales, you can’t be serious to believe them! I’ll burn that damn tree if I have to. It’s the only thing that holds us back from our full potential.”
The priest laughed derisively. “Don’t you mean you’ll sell it to those damned foreigners, like I don’t know what your men were up to! Die!”
Their heated discussion gave me everything I needed to make a decision. I could go out and kill them both, but that was hard. I could see them fighting passionately, and neither of them was any weaker than me in terms of pure combat capability.
And each had an army.
Luckily, neither paid much attention below ground. I didn’t blame them, as the roots of the Tree of Life were not a joke, ready to destroy any attacker — unfortunately, I had a rather good relationship with its new owner, so I was spared of that fact.
I started moving through the underground, and I positioned myself underneath the two. A few more careful changes of the defensive wards, gave the prince another chance to rush forward, and soon, the high priest ended up skewered.
The other priests immediately started to pull back the moment that happened, their courage faltering without their leader. I ignored that, making my move … in the form of a root that wrapped around the high priest.
{+1518 Nature Spark, God Forest}
He had an impressive amount of Divine Spark in possession, explaining his impressive magical combat. I didn’t even realize keeping that much Divine Spark in chosen form was possible, but somehow, he achieved it.
I needed to copy that method.
The prince kept his sword buried in the priest’s heart after taking off his head, confident in his victory. “Your leader is dead. Surrender—“ he shouted, which was cut short when the deceased high priest suddenly exploded with nature mana, his remains to turn into a mindless treant.
And, just like that, the prince was skewered with its roots, which drained him completely.
{+618 Nature Spark, God Forest}
Both sides pulled back, trying to understand the sudden shift as their leaders had fallen simultaneously. Some of the higher-ranking officers were trying to make a point, but the double defeat was too sudden for them to react.
I didn’t react, which gave me time for the panic to spread. It wasn’t my intention, as I was busy integrating the sudden infusion of Divine Spark into my forest, but it was certainly welcome.
When the integration was complete, the forest was stronger than ever, and its mana generation capacity was significantly enhanced. And, before the two factions could decide what to do, the trees I had planted started growing with a shocking speed.
“You dare to hurt my loyal servant, traitor!” I shouted as I burst out of the ground, radiating an intense amount of nature mana, while sixteen trees started growing with a shockingly glorious speed.
It wasn’t just my appearance that shocked them, but the trees, each looking like smaller versions of the Tree of Life. Of course, the similarity was just cosmetics — changing the color of their bark and leaves was much easier than copying a divine tree that a god used as a weapon, yet still impressive enough to convince a bunch of elves.
“Impossible, that’s an illusion,” shouted some of the higher-ranking commanders of the prince while the others were just shocked, showing that their true objective wasn’t completely spread or understood.
“It’s true, we’re saved,” gasped the priests, elated with the sudden reversal even if it happened after the death of their leader. Though, the respectful way they had looked toward the treant I summoned was any indicator, some actually believed his sacrifice made it possible — my apparent anger confirming it.
I might have accidentally created a new myth of sacrifice, the heroic and loyal priest sacrificing himself to awaken his god. I thought about correcting them, but looking at the state of the priests, I decided against it after a shrug.
I had too much work to focus on something that was working. I still needed to subjugate the prince’s army, deal with the undead attack, and check where that teleportation gate was leading.
… so that I could start working on the real problems…
{Strength: 16 Charisma: 22
Precision: 16 Perception: 16
Agility: 16 Manipulation: 22
Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16
Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 16}
{Purified Divine Spark: 842}
{Pseudo-HP: 8000 Mana: 15000}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 3043}
Elven Priestess - XXXX}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]
