"Another god would have to appear here in person and stop the process themselves if they want to change his destiny."
Har Jahar said casually as he kicked Ror in the chest. However, that kick was enough for an Orc Overlord to fly in the air and crash hard on one of the pillars of the sacred hall.
The runes over the pillar lit up and absorbed the impact, making Ror fall to the ground after the vector force acting on him diminished. This attack was initiated without any mana. Although the Orc Leader could not identify the Orc King's elemental affinity, he was confident that the Oni had made enough progress in his understanding of the element.
Ror had a visible depression on his chest because of Har Jahar's casual punishment. As a result, he started coughing blood. A mana pulse was released from his body, activating rapid regeneration on its own.
However, Ror didn't care about his safety at this time. He was very angry that his son was forced to fight at the festival. Kaalmaahen was promised treatment like Kilaaba because of all the work Ror had done for his king.
Kaamaahen worked hard to prepare to leave the subspace and eventually form a tribe of his own. Or take over an established ogre tribe in the Badlands.
But maybe Kaalmaahen's talents worked against him. Har Jahar saw that Ror's son was promising and could be used as a worshiper to generate more faith energy.
Ror and Kaalmaahen couldn't really say no to Har Jahar. Still, both of them could have never thought that someone like an Orc Leader would become the biggest harnesser of the faith's energy and defeat him.
Ror coughed more blood as his injured organs started to heal themselves. He started laughing loudly during that coughing session and spread his blood everywhere.
"Hahahahahaha!
My king, if there's indeed another god that can help me save my son's life, I shall become his devout follower. I'll sacrifice every drop of blood within my body to please him. And if that is not enough, I shall give him my life and my soul."
Ror laughed and laughed some more. However, his laugh didn't contain even a shred of happiness. Har Jahar watched him with narrowed eyes as the Ogre Overlord wiped the blood off his mouth and spoke further.
"My king, If this miracle happens, I shall stop being the child of Echidna.
If this miracle happens, I shall cease to be loyal to you. To anyone else in the world.
No matter what, whether it is god, devil, mortal, anyone, or anything, my loyalty shall lie with them if they can save my son.
This, I pledge to the two worlds I have been part of."
Saying this, Ror used his blood to create an X mark on his head. This was the curse promise he made to himself, a custom that belonged to the world of Echidna.
Ror's existence as an Ogre Overlord wasn't to be scoffed at. He had also progressed enough in the way of his element to feel the will of the world hidden in the very fabric of the world.
Har Jahar didn't know that Ror would be so upset with his son's death. Ror was the original denizen of Echidna. His clarity was gifted to him from his very birth. So it would have been natural that he would have such an emotional attachment to his progeny.
However, for existences like Ror and Har Jahar, attachments to progeny should have diminished over time. For example, even if Har Jahar gave Kirin all that he could, he didn't think he shared a bond with her. A long life corrodes emotional attachments to anything and everything until only bitterness remains.
Therefore, Har Jahar was shocked that Ror would be so affected by Kaalmaahen's eventual death that he would involve the world's will in his promise. An attempt to attract the gods' attention in this matter.
Sadly for Ror, the gods that were looking after Echidna couldn't pay attention to what happened in Anfang unless their vestige is summoned via a sacrifice. Plus, no god in Anfang could listen to his pleas here. A land that was called the land of the faithless for a reason.
Still, an entity of Ror's caliber involving the world's will in his promise wasn't something that could be taken lightly. So when he finished painting a cross over his chest with his blood, something unexplainable happened.
A giant spectral arm sprouted from the ground and created a surreal atmosphere in the subspace. It looked like all the colors of the surroundings had vanished and everyone was a part of a monochrome oil painting.
Nobody could move their bodies when the giant arm appeared. They couldn't even blink their eyes and turn away from this entity. What was more bizarre was the fact that nobody felt any mana pulse coming from the spectral hand. The existence of this hand seemed more profound than mana itself. Or at least, in this case, at this point, it had made the existence of mana less significant than it usually was.
The spectators could only process these vague feelings in their psyche as they watched this arm lift Ror, who was equally frozen in time and space, up.
The hand had many fingers that couldn't be counted using normal perception. These fingers wrapped around Ror's tiny body and held him up in the air. Even Har Jahar couldn't do anything as he saw Ror's body getting inscribed with various runes that weren't seen by anyone physically present at the scene.
Ror's body was unharmed during the entire process. The arm placed him where he was and disappeared into thin air just as it had come. The colors of the world and surroundings returned. And everybody could move their bodies normally once again.
Except for a certain Orc Leader, everybody else had understood what Ror had done at this point. His oath had made Anfang's world his witness. Now that the world has become involved, Ror's existence will cease to exist if and when he breaks his oath.
As a result of Ror summoning Anfang's essence into this subspace, Har Jahar wanted to kill him. His general had become too blinded by his paternal love.
"You imbecile ogre, I'll punish you in due time. I'll conclude the Oni festival first.
Varhan, sacrifice Kaalaahen and end this charade."
