Chapter 595: The King of the Underworld

"Now is not the time."

Li Mochen's eyes held pain, worry, and helplessness: "This is a hurdle she must cross; I cannot help her—"

"Not the time? Cannot help her?"

Delfinia looked puzzled: "What do you mean? Even standing by and watching requires a reason, my lord!"

"What do you think the situation is now, Delfinia?"

Thomson Beor, the Bane of Death, chuckled: "Do you know how many Death Gods are watching here now? I sense at least five, all old acquaintances. I bet if they weren't worried about offending the Chaotic Dragon Mother, they'd have stepped in themselves. Hades? Osiris? Ereshkigal? Yama? Hela? Mot? They're all here, watching Odin. So stalling is necessary. I suspect Lady Angela has sensed it too. That's why she's desperately buying time for her parents—she doesn't want to admit defeat weakly, nor does she want to delay Lord Willtenstein. Ah, and there's our Lady of Magic beside us, also a Death God. You're not tempted too, are you, Lady Diana?"

The Magic Goddess Hecate derived authority from her mother and also governed night, ghosts, and the underworld.

Rumors once said she was a handmaiden of the Styx goddess Persephone, but that wasn't true.

After Zeus and his two brothers killed their 'father,' they divided the sky, sea, and underworld. The King of the Underworld, Hades, essentially usurped the divine authority of the Night Goddess Nyx and Hecate.

Yet Hecate remained powerful in the underworld, highly independent. Within her own domain, she maintained autonomy and self-rule, acting as a warlord during the Greek and Roman eras.

This was because the underworld 'Tartarus' in Greek mythology was a creation of the Night Goddess Nyx, so even a powerful god like Hades couldn't completely suppress Hecate in the underworld.

Delfinia was taken aback, then fell silent.

If the situation was as Thomson Beor described, then the forces Li Mochen had gathered here might indeed be insufficient to handle the coming events.

"First, I have completely relinquished my authority as a Death God. The 'Heaven' and 'Hell' of the Middle Ages left no room for our 'Tartarus.' Second, Thomson, you guessed wrong. Lord Willtenstein's concern is not those Death Gods."

Diana was watching Angela inside the 'Fantasy Fortress' with admiring eyes: "Given Lord Willtenstein's and your strength, entering now would be fine, though the battle might be tougher. These underworld rulers are powerful, but none can manifest their true bodies. However, I think Lady Angela can defeat Odin. This is crucial for her—for an illusionist, especially a 'Lady of Dreams and Wishes' whose main ability is manifesting fantasies, confidence is vital."

At this moment, Li Mochen turned more of his attention back to himself.

The Radiant Lord had apparently given up on thwarting him, having not only withdrawn the Gate of Heaven but also slid the massive Noah's Ark back into the Astral Plane.

Thus, Li Mochen cast aside all distractions and, while maintaining sufficient vigilance, devoted himself wholeheartedly to the condensation of his divine domains.

After War and Equality, the remaining parts contributed little to his combat power—such as Youth, Beauty, Health, and Fitness—

Yet these domains could bring Li Mochen a vast amount of faith power. After conversion, sixty percent of this power could be used for other divine domains and authorities, forming an important part of Li Mochen's future path.

Like the Eastern Emperor of Longevity, the Southern Pole, who was essentially a Thunder God, his true form being the 'Universal Lord of Thunder,' commanding the Thunder Department of Heaven and Earth. Yet what people truly remembered was only the word 'Longevity.'

People's desire for 'longevity' and 'prolonging life' had always supported this emperor, making him the most powerful being in the Southern Heaven World.

These domains did not disappoint Li Mochen either; they easily reached the high rank of Divine Rank 14. Again limited by his primary domain, they could not advance further.

By this time, Li Mochen felt a faint swelling deep within his primordial spirit—a symptom that his divine essence consumption was nearing its limit.

This situation was quite dangerous. The essence of divinity is a god's soul nature and spiritual power. Its strength directly determines whether a god can maintain the consciousness of 'self,' 'id,' and 'true self' under the erosion of faith and primal force.

Yet Li Mochen pressed on, condensing the domains of 'Game' and 'Data Network.'

These were merely Li Mochen's experiments with new things and new domains in this world. He had no high expectations and didn't hope they would bring him many followers.

He hadn't even mastered these strange 'divine authorities' or established proper domains. In the process of condensing these domains, he relied entirely on the power of tens of millions of believers to force it through.

Nevertheless, he left two unique spiritual imprints at the eighth and sixth layers of the Source. 'Game' had a Divine Rank of 8, and 'Data Network' a rank of 6.

Although Li Mochen's believers had little recognition of these two domains, providing scant faith power,

Surprisingly, the primal force converging from them was considerable. That is, the concepts of 'Game' and 'Data Network' had become indispensable parts of this world, with promising future potential.

The question was, what could the 'divine authorities' derived from them do?

Li Mochen was quite uncertain about their future and not very optimistic. He planned to wait until these two domains reached 'Divine Rank 10' before reassessing.

Generally, every ten divine ranks a god gains strengthens their divine authority by one level. It could also create something from nothing, allowing Li Mochen to directly master the divine authorities of 'Game' and 'Data Network.'

If these two divine powers were beneficial to him, he would keep them; if they were of no use, he would cut them away directly.

And just as Li Mochen was consolidating the divine office of 'Data Network', he sensed that Pittsburgh had changed again.

Without hesitation, Li Mochen swept his large sleeve, directly tearing the void, and sent the 'Fate Sword' floating beside him to the side of his secondary body.

Pittsburgh was now a gathering of many gods. Without a powerful mythical artifact to hold the line, the secondary body would likely find it difficult to suppress the situation.

Although the latter also had another 'Light Demon No. 10' made for him by Anthony, and a backup sword 'Divine Order' that was one rank inferior to the 'Fate Sword' in all aspects but possessed the high-level 'Tenacity' divine power, as well as numerous mythical artifacts including the 'Sky Scepter' and 'Dragon Might'.

Yet these items were far from sufficient for Li Mochen to repel the gods gathered there without paying too great a price.

At that moment, before the eyes of Li Mochen's secondary body, the 'Fantasy Feathered Serpent' controlled by Angela had already bitten through the heart of Alduin.

Although the latter had become a lich, this organ was still very important to Alduin. It contained a large amount of Alduin's pure dragon essence, the core by which he had preserved his full living strength.

When the heart shattered, Alduin's body twisted violently, and he could not help but let out a howl filled with pain and unwillingness. He foresaw his fate and struggled desperately, but his aura was rapidly declining.

After an hour of fierce battle, Alduin had already stimulated his potential seven times in a row, leaving the power within him nearly exhausted. At this moment of death, this primordial dragon lich no longer even had the qualification to fight like a cornered beast.

Angela's sweat-covered face flushed with excitement, making her already stunningly beautiful and charming face appear even more enchanting.

She had forced herself, forced herself to believe that she could contend with Alduin, even kill this primordial dragon lich! And now, she had truly done it!

Although it was with her father's help, and although the binding force of the 'Treaty of Separation Between Gods and Men' was the main force that had heavily wounded and struck down Alduin.

But this was, after all, a powerful being with the strength of a god, wasn't it? She had truly accomplished this near-miraculous feat!

The reality before her was truly hard to believe—ten years ago, she could never have imagined such a situation.

Immersed in this great joy, Angela did not even notice that her own 'Primordial Spirit', that is, her 'Divinity' power, was rapidly sublimating and growing wildly. And the divine powers of 'Fantasy', 'Simulation', 'Deception', and 'Truth' she possessed were also undergoing some changes at that moment.

This made the 'Fantasy Blue Dragon' even more lifelike; its claws, fangs, and dragon breath became more powerful, increasing its lethality by at least thirty percent compared to before!

Also changing was the enormous 'Fantasy Feathered Serpent'. This giant serpent, three thousand meters long, had gathered more wind, and the scales on its body not only began to shine with a golden luster but also sprouted more patterns mixed with the mysteries of the origin.

It was evident that this 'Fantasy Feathered Serpent' had become more powerful, its body more solid, and it had gained stronger 'Divine Power' abilities, even additionally mastering a virtual 'Light Divine Power'.

This was something Angela had previously desperately tried to manifest and simulate but had been powerless to achieve.

Michelle, weary but gratified, stopped his attack on Alduin, looked up, and gazed at Angela from afar, his eyes like those of a father watching his grown child.

But the next moment, a pale sword light tearing through the darkness startled Angela from her joy and also made Michelle set aside his stray thoughts.

They realized that at some point, a black figure had arrived above them. It was a goddess, driving a black chariot pulled by winged horses, clad in black armor, holding a black spear and a stone round shield. Her divine power had already covered the nearly unconscious Alduin, and she was trying to use his body and death energy to evolve something in this void.

What stopped her was Li Mochen's 'Fate' sword. A clean, swift sword light, like light and shadow, directly shattered the goddess's chariot and struck the round shield of the black-armored goddess. The divine power and force contained in the sword did not shatter the shield, but it caused the goddess to bleed from her seven orifices, and her divine body, like a meteor, flew straight out of the city, raising a huge cloud of dust dozens of kilometers away.

Only then did Angela recognize the goddess's origin—it was Irkalla! Also known as Ereshkigal (cuneiform: ERES.KI.GAL, 'Lady of the Great Earth'), she was the sister of Ishtar, the 'Queen of Heaven' and king of the Babylonian gods, and the goddess of the underworld or the netherworld in Babylon, also ruling over winter.

In that brilliant Babylonian civilization, this goddess held a status second only to Ishtar.

And even now, in the present world where the Babylonian civilization had perished, the power this goddess manifested here was in no way inferior to that of Alduin before!

What made Angela even more alarmed was that the appearance of this goddess had triggered the destined calamity of 'Moros'. Yet the lightning that struck down from the sky was less than thirty percent of what Alduin had faced.

It was obvious that this deity had not signed her divine name on the 'Treaty of Separation Between Gods and Men' and was not bound by the Pantheon—that treaty was the product of the bloody war between the Aesir of Norse mythology and the Olympian gods, which nearly destroyed Roman civilization and caused massive casualties among mortals. It was the result of the game and compromise between the Lord of Radiance, who had risen to power, and these two major pantheons.

And the Babylonian gods had long before fallen into decline due to the divine war with 'Zoroastrianism (the Religion of Light)'. All the powerful gods had been killed, driven away, or even forced to leave this world by another Lord of Radiance, 'Ahura Mazda'.

'Lady Irkalla!'

Li Mochen, who had manifested his divine body nearby, stared coldly at Irkalla, who was regrouping dozens of kilometers away.

'Return what you have stolen, will you? I don't know who gave you the courage to steal my wife's spoils, but this is definitely not a good idea. Unless Lady Irkalla wants to die here!'

As he spoke the last sentence, Li Mochen had already firmly locked onto this Babylonian goddess of death with 'Dragon Might', and a glint of greed flashed in his eyes.

He had recognized that the 'stone shield' in her hand was derived from the 'Tablet of Destinies' of Babylon, an artifact on which the Babylonian gods swore oaths, possessing powerful fate power and the characteristic of being indestructible. Moreover, it was rumored that the 'Tablet of Destinies' itself also possessed immense power, even being a manifestation of the 'Origin', akin to the divine object 'Jade Die of Creation' in Eastern legends.