Chapter 615: Stupidity

In Chicago, inside a church abandoned after a recent fierce battle, countless bats gathered, hanging upside down from chandeliers or perching on windowsills. The broken pews were also covered with densely packed, upside-down black shadows. More bats kept converging from the surroundings; unable to enter the already crowded church, they had to hang from nearby tree branches, street lamps, or the eaves of surrounding streets.

At this moment, their master, who could also be called the 'Progenitor,' Cain, stood at the church's pulpit, gazing at the broken holy emblem of Light ahead. His face was calm and unruffled, but his eyes held an indescribable hatred.

His wife, Lilith, floated at the top of the church, arms crossed over her chest, gazing into the distant, darkened sky.

"I've told you many times, you should actually be more grateful to Him. Without the myths He fabricated, you wouldn't exist, would you?"

"Shut up!"

Cain gave a cold snort, and his vast divine thought swept across the church in an instant, causing all the bloodkind there, including several hundred 'princes,' to let out muffled groans.

"Don't take your anger out on our descendants, Cain. We'll still need their strength later."

Lilith let out another soft laugh, using her divine thought to soothe the turbulent soul-consciousness of the many black bats. At the same time, she materialized behind Cain, her slender fingers caressing his face: "You hate your origin, and you're troubled by the pain you're suffering now. But once today is over, everything will change, won't it? We will welcome a new birth, and the future will be infinitely bright. You will become the most powerful deity in this world, or the king of demons, and I will be your queen—"

Lilith's words were interrupted by a 'creak' from the door, making her look back with displeasure. She saw a bloodkind in field uniform pushing the door open.

"Vitt? Is there a situation?"

It was Vitt Gangrel, one of the elders of the Gangrel clan.

The seven clans of the 'Camarilla' bloodkind had four elders in America, and the two clans of the Sabbat and the four neutral clans also had four elders each, but this was limited to America.

The foundation of the bloodkind was ultimately in the Old World and the Middle East. With the awakening of Lilith and Cain, more elders were returning from slumber, and Vitt Gangrel was one of them.

As the 'Druid' among the bloodkind, he was the best at stealth and reconnaissance among all their descendants.

"The Lord of Fate should have detected the anomaly, Your Majesty!"

Vitt Gangrel knelt on one knee, bowing deeply: "All His churches in this city have gone on alert and refuse entry to our bloodkind. The armed forces of the Machine Church have also begun mobilization. I personally suspect other cities are in a similar situation. The 'Blood Feast' we planned in several major cities may be difficult to succeed."

"Quite alert! I sense that our blood coffins left in the Land of Fate have also been shattered by that lord. It seems He has discovered it, or perhaps knew long ago."

Lilith sighed, a sneer and emotion in her eyes: "As agreed, we should begin now, my husband! From here, entering that newborn underworld, we can tear apart that goddess of dreams and the underworld, seize her authority and throne!"

At that moment, the many bloodkind in the church simultaneously twisted their faces in pain, some even coughing up blood on the spot.

Even the mighty Lilith and Cain were not spared; the latter fell to his knees in intense agony.

—It was the backlash of the 'Servitude Contract' they had made with the Lord of Fate! Although a certain goddess, with her authority named 'Freedom,' had allowed them to escape most of the contract's restrictions, they still had to bear the price of breaking it.

But as these bloodkind swallowed blood-red crystals one by one, their auras gradually returned to their peak, without the slightest trace of weakness.

Cain also struggled to rise, gasping for breath, his blood-red eyes densely veined as if filled with countless tiny worms. Then he swung his arm forcefully, tearing open the void before him, and instantly a breath of death seeped from the darkness of that void, covering the place.

"You're right, there's no turning back for us."

Cain's voice was cold and deep, filled with fierce ambition and longing: "Enter through here, my descendants, destroy everything you encounter, for your ancestors, and for your future!"

At that moment, all the blood kin stirred with excitement, flapping their fleshy wings and charging into the darkness without hesitation. Their numbers were in the tens of thousands, dense and blotting out the sky and earth!

…

"So they chose this time after all!"

Inside Twilight Dragon City, Angela, seated on the throne, let out a faint sigh.

She had learned of the blood kin's rebellion the moment it began. Yet Angela showed no surprise or panic, even though the vampire army was advancing at an astonishing speed through her underworld, its spearhead aimed straight at Twilight Dragon City.

In her eyes, there was more a sense of reflection.

"What a foolish creature. If it had stayed under your command, it might have been the most likely to escape its predicament."

In the 'Bible,' the scripture of the Church of Light, 'Cain' was the first child of 'Adam' and 'Eve,' created by the Lord of Radiance. He envied his brother and committed the evil act of fratricide.

But in true history, humans were not the creations of the Lord of Radiance; that was merely a story fabricated by the Lord of Radiance through His 'Holy Son.'

However, 'Cain,' as the embodiment of evil and the kin-slayer in the 'Bible,' was loathed by all followers of the Lord of Radiance. Thus, 'Cain' was born—originally without a body, a product of the collective consciousness of many believers of the Lord of Radiance. It was Lilith, suspected to have originated from the 'Blood Sea' of ancient Huaxia, who gave him a body, and from this, the vampire race was born.

Because 'Cain' in the 'Bible' was a mortal, he took human form and could not become a god or possess normal divinity; and because 'Cain' was ultimately 'punished' by the Lord of Radiance, and the Lord's followers wished him to suffer, he lived in extreme agony every moment.

The learned Angela understood the origin and current state of 'Cain.' In her view, both Li Mochen's 'Destiny' and her own 'Dream' had the power to relieve the progenitor of the blood kin from his suffering.

But all of this was destroyed by 'Cain' himself.

"But now he sees another possibility: if he can become one of the masters of this underworld and establish a foundation for his existence, he can also escape the pain."

Li Mochen's avatar, seated on another throne beside Angela, also wore a leisurely expression.

"Don't forget, this one is the embodiment of 'evil,' which includes greed and ambition. And his wife Lilith, a sorceress who governs night, temptation, and desire, would be even less likely to miss the bait thrown by that goddess."

Thus, their betrayal had long been within his expectations.

Angela raised an eyebrow: "Then which side will strike next? To be able to tie down your avatar, A Mo, I guess at least a chief god?"

She knew that without other forces supporting the blood kin, these creatures between life and death would not even be qualified to stand before her husband.

—It must be an existence capable of suppressing Li Mochen's divine authority over life and death!

Li Mochen smiled: "You can take a guess, An Qi."

Angela saw the calm composure in her husband's eyes, and her heart was completely at ease, while she fell into deep thought.

"It can't be Hades. The Goddess of Freedom's goal is merely to weaken your power, not to let the Olympian pantheon seize this crucial authority. So it can't be Nyx or the Magic Goddess either; she wouldn't let her mother and sisters become powerful enough to surpass herself. But correspondingly, the one wielding this underworld authority cannot be too weak, or else insufficient to deal with her enemies. Onassis is also impossible. Although Horus usurped all his authority and eventually drove him, the nominal father, out of the Bright World, there is still an unbreakable bond between them. So, it's 'Mot,' right? Has his true body fully returned?"

Mot is the son of the Canaanite king of gods El and the queen Asherah, not only the god of death and the underworld, but also the god of chaos, drought, and crop failure.

And 'Canaan' is what the Greeks called 'Phoenicia,' a pantheon that was defeated and destroyed by the Greek gods.

As a survivor of the Canaanite pantheon who resisted Olympus into the Roman era, Mot's power is unquestionable. His image as the 'Death God,' draped in black robes and wielding a scythe, has been passed down to the present day, revered by the world. His 'Scythe of Crop Failure' can not only reap souls but is also a symbol of drought and famine.

In the current world, Mot is also sufficiently 'isolated,' isolated enough to be used by the Goddess of Freedom.

"You guessed right, it's Mot. But not only—"

Li Mochen was speaking with admiration in his eyes when a huge black scythe suddenly cleaved open the sky of this underworld. The blade's edge, after breaking through the myriad seals of the underworld, still had residual momentum and crashed down toward the Twilight Dragon City.

Li Mochen glanced upward with cold eyes, meeting the gaze of the Death God through several layers of void.

But what ultimately blocked the scythe was not Li Mochen. It was the Twilight Dragon City—a massive bone dragon soaring into the sky! Its nine-hundred-meter-long dragon body charged directly at the giant scythe shadow, shattering it into pieces.

That was the Dragon Lich Ancestor 'Alduin.' Though not his true body, Angela had not only fully manifested his form with her power of dreams but also used her authority as the ruler of the underworld to strengthen it to the extreme—far beyond Alduin's level as an Eternal Dragon.

"So my opponent today is him!"

A strange light flickered in Angela's eyes: "A Mo, this time just help me with your Divine Authority of Equality, okay? If I can't handle it, then you step in. I think I can prove myself now."

At this moment, her emotions were filled with both relief, confidence, and anticipation, as well as a fighting spirit.

She knew that the reason those gods coveted this underworld was because of her perceived weakness. The only way to cut off their ambitions was to declare and intimidate with her strength.

She could not always rely on her husband's power to control the underworld; she must also stand on her own as soon as possible and become A Mo's capable right hand, so that he could prevail in the endless conflicts to come.

And now, Angela was confident that she had mastered power worthy of being called 'strong.' There was no better target to establish her authority than the 'Death God' before her.

Mot was strong, but not so strong that she could not handle him. This ancient god, who had wandered in the outer realms for thousands of years and returned, now possessed the divine rank of a Greater God. But his faith in the Bright World was not yet enough to raise his divine rank above fifteen.

Angela knew she could not defeat him, but even if she could delay him for three to five hours, it would greatly relieve Li Mochen's pressure.

"That's what I hope for, An Qi!"

Li Mochen nodded slightly. He had long since shifted his gaze from Mot and fixed his eyes on the vampires surging in the distance: "And I must give these former subordinates of mine a lesson they will never forget—no, better they not remember. Let everyone understand the value of loyalty."

A large part of his current subordinates were bound by contracts that defined the master-servant relationship.

But if everyone followed these vampires' example and used the Goddess of Freedom's power to break their oaths, then a quarter of the Rising Sun Group's strength would collapse.

Li Mochen could certainly use sufficient benefits to bind and win them over.

But at the same time, he had to show a powerful deterrent, making his subordinates understand the cost of betrayal.

Just as the murderous intent in Li Mochen's eyes was solidifying, he noticed a black female figure coalescing before him.

Li Mochen's brows raised slightly, recognizing it as the incarnation of Nyx, the Night Goddess. A strange look flashed in his eyes, but then he calmed down.

"Surprised? Eris is also surprised. She sent me to take a look."

The powerful goddess was now watching with interest as Angela, eyes closed in meditation, manipulated Alduin's body in a fierce battle with the Death God Mot.

"It seems her growth has exceeded Eris's expectations. You know, my daughter is very suspicious. But now she allows me to descend here to prevent accidents."

Li Mochen chuckled softly, and a thick layer of source energy armor had already formed around his body: "Then I think this accident may not go according to her will."

This time, Nyx looked at him with surprise: "You still want to fight me?"

"Why not?"

Li Mochen's eyes were cold: "I know that even a single divine incarnation of yours, Your Highness, is enough to kill a Greater God. But do you think your strength surpasses Odin's?"

The next moment, a flying spear behind him turned into a streak of light, suddenly piercing through the void and penetrating Nyx's body, even the divine core of this incarnation!

"Please tell your daughter, Your Highness Nyx! My expedition to Australia is out of my personal will to maintain order in this world, not her command or coercion. Nor does it mean she can do whatever she wants to me without bearing the consequences."

This scene in the American underworld left the two goddesses in a divine realm called 'Freedom and Strife' utterly astonished.

It also made several gods who had begun to enter the material realm raise their eyebrows in surprise, including Odin, the All-Father of the Aesir, whose single eye showed a hint of unexpectedness.

That Lord of Destiny had actually used the 'Lance of Longinus' in the American underworld!

...

Meanwhile, in the Coral Sea, Garcia Ferron withdrew his divine incarnation from the battleship 'Circum-Pacific' and returned his consciousness to the 'War Gate' magic tower.

He was not responsible for commanding the fleet; he had projected his divine incarnation there only for supervision.

"Lord Paracelsus has spotted the Dragon Head warships, twenty-two in total. The estimated total force is higher than Olympus's. It seems it's not just Olympus targeting us this time."

The speaker was a young female mage named Ingram Ferron, standing behind the 'God of Strategy' Garcia Ferron, looking ahead with great interest and anticipation.

"You have rejected them, right?"

Garcia Ferron glanced sideways at the younger generation behind him and then chuckled: "Yes, I have rejected them. But Ingram, your tone sounds like you're looking forward to it?"

This should be his great-granddaughter. Garcia Ferron became a god two hundred years after the Civil War. During his long mortal life, he had worked hard to build his family. But Garcia Ferron had no noble bloodline or notable family background; he reached the pinnacle of mortals solely through his talent in military force and strategy. So his Ferron family, even by the day of his apotheosis, had not produced a single powerhouse capable of dominating a clan or standing alone. The entire clan had only three legends, and lacking commercial talent, the Ferron family had only accumulated 1.5 billion gold shields by modern times. Garcia Ferron himself had to rely on the Matiola family's power to help manage his church.

And the junior before him was the most outstanding scion of the Feren family in the past century. A genius who had become a second-level legendary mage in just a hundred and twenty years.

After Garcia Feren defected to the Wiltonshire family, this one also switched allegiances accordingly, now serving as a second-level magic consultant for the Rising Sun Group and a member of the Ninth Storm Company.

"I'm also a bit uneasy, after all, it's the day that decides everyone's fate."

Ingram Feren took a deep breath: "But I'm still more expectant. I guess they'll be greatly surprised. The power of the Lord of Fate in the mortal world is far beyond their reach! That's our greatest advantage now. So when this war breaks out, it will be a collision beyond the imagination of the world."

"But you're still not optimistic?" Garcia Feren saw through the true emotions of this descendant of his.

"Those are ancient divine races that have accumulated power for thousands of years, immensely powerful."

Ingram Feren's crystal-blue eyes showed a hint of speculation: "But limited to this war, I still think His Highness has a fairly good chance of winning, with a probability of over sixty percent. I guess our power in the mortal world is equivalent to at least 1.5 angelic legions, right? Although I'm just a mere second-level magic consultant, I can roughly estimate our strength. Just the Storm Companies of the 'Rising Sun-Light Demon' alliance now number at least seventy, plus the forces of two churches. I think even the Church of Light's forces stationed in the mortal world are no more than that. And as for mages, thanks to Lord Paracelsus and Lord Einstein, we have the most legendary mages among all factions."

"So even if Ares and Tyr, or even Odin, dare to descend in their true forms, there is hope of repelling them. It's just a matter of using lives to fight and fill—isn't that the purpose of Olympus's 'Chosen Warriors' and the Norse 'Valhalla'? But during this process, how many will we lose?"

"Indeed."

Garcia Feren couldn't help but nod slightly. He thought this descendant of his should have joined the military instead; as a mage, her talent was somewhat wasted.

"But even if we win this war, His Highness will face two difficulties. One is the strategic stalemate before His Highness leaves the Prime Material Plane. Within these nine years, His Highness, being watched by all sides, will be the target of all divine kings' full-force attacks. The other is after leaving the Prime Material Plane, losing the protection of the 'Treaty of Separation between Humans and Gods,' if His Highness does not choose a side to ally with, He will likely be devoured by several pantheons. Especially the latter, which is the most dangerous stage. It depends on His Highness's current choice."

Ingram Feren sighed: "You should actually advise His Highness; sometimes one must let go."

Even knowing the future was unfavorable, Ingram Feren had no thought of betrayal. She knew the Feren family was inextricably tied to the Wiltonshire family; rash rebellion would only plunge the Feren family into the abyss.

"You think I'm reluctant to part with the Strategy divine domain?"

Garcia Feren gave a wry laugh, his tone somewhat bitter.

His current 'Strategy' and 'Tactics' divine domains not only conflicted with the Norse Valkyrie Tyr but also encroached upon the authority of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Once his liege chose to compromise, he, as a subordinate god, would inevitably have to give up these two divine domains.

"Ingram, you are very clever, but many things are not as you imagine. For instance, using lives to repel Odin—our Lord of Fate would never make such a decision. You have studied His teachings, haven't you? Secondly, of course I am unwilling to easily give up these two powerful divine domains, but if His Highness needs it, I will not hesitate. However—"

Garcia Feren's voice suddenly halted. He looked up at the sky, and then his eyes reflected a bright radiance.

"Here it comes!"

At that moment, the cloud warships and dragon-headed warships, now only a few hundred nautical miles away, opened fire simultaneously. Hundreds of 'Magic Energy Annihilation Cannons' and 'High-Energy Plasma Cannons' fired at once, crossing hundreds of miles of sky, bombarding the 'Rising Sun-Light Demon' First Combined Fleet and armed cargo ships on the sea.

The First Combined Fleet was also ready. A full twelve magic towers appeared above the sea, either directly resisting the bombardment or twisting and deflecting the spells with magic. The Magic Energy Annihilation Cannons equipped on these towers also fired at the same time, launching relentless counterattacks against the ships. The main guns of the two battleships in the combined fleet let out deafening roars. Eighteen 'Soul Annihilators' fired simultaneously, unleashing neutron shells the size of three men at the cloud warships at a staggering speed of over Mach 80.

At the same time, the vertical launch systems on all ships opened to their maximum extent, and nearly a hundred missiles soared into the sky, leaving trails of flames and smoke in the air.

Meanwhile, Garcia Feren also saw in the clouds that a large number of warriors from both the cloud warships and dragon-headed warships were leaping down from the sky. Thousands upon thousands, they walked directly on the sea surface, charging toward the First Combined Fleet as if on level ground amidst the towering waves.