Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

The God of Balance felt his body burning, a feeling he was familiar with, but this time, it was the dim Sacred Flame that engulfed him.

The God of Balance shook his head forcefully again. Finally regaining his senses, his gaze swept towards Ange, the surrounding believers and guardians, the Resting Wind in the sky, lastly resting on the Black Sacred Flame on his own body.

“What… what have you done to me?” As the God of Balance spoke, he swung his arm sideways, pulling it back behind him.

A hand reached out, grabbing his wrist, pinning him firmly in place.

“?” The God of Balance blinked, with heavy suspicion almost jumping from his eyes, someone grabbed his Divine Arm? Who was it?

He looked closely in confusion: A skeleton? Is this some kind of joke?

The Divine Arm struggled forcefully, failing to break free. The other hand reflexively gathered into a fist, ready to strike, but before he could unleash it, a steel fist the size of a head sprung towards him, grasping his entire forearm with force.

He turned his head and saw a Steel Giant.

“Who are you? Where is this place?” The God of Balance asked, lost and bewildered,

He was now a bit dazed. Hadn’t he been hit by the Light of Petrification? Why was he here, and where was here?

Looking at the circular basin, the towering Teleportation Tower, the Steel Giants, all of this seemed a bit like the Undead Empire’s transit station.

The Black Sacred Flame spread in circles over his body. In his perplexity and confusion, the God of Balance continued to struggle instinctively, stomping his foot with force, and a ring of light spread out from the impact point.

The circle of light hit Ange, hit Petersburg, hit…

Bang! A large foot stomped on his toes, breaking the light ring in one fell swoop. At the same time, a giant fist landed on his eye socket, forcing him to recoil involuntarily, his eye socket quickly welled up with a black eye.

The Hand of Locke, a pair of hands that could even tear the Divine Body, what is a black eye to you?

Being smacked until he was dazed, probably in his whole life, the God of Balance hadn’t ever experienced a person grabbing his hand and smashing his face. This made him so angry that he screamed out: “What are you doing to me?”

Blazing Sacred Flame emitted from his body, his eyes radiating a dazzling Holy Light as a light silhouette slowly emerged from his body – the true body.

The appearance of a fresh human was just an external image he adopted to meet the imagination of his followers, the real God of Balance was not like this.

Clank, a magic-carved giant hand slapped the light silhouette, causing massive energy shockwaves. The light silhouette was smacked back, almost shrinking back into its original body.

A guardian, very similar to Petersburg, with a round body but a pair of springy long legs, bounced his body above the God of Balance and swung his fist down.

“Dammit, you who dared to offend the True God, you will bear my wrath!” A voice filled with rage roared from the God of Balance’s throat.

The long-legged guardian slapped down again.

“The wrath of God shall burn your body!”

A flame sprouted on the guardian’s steel shell.

“Smack!” The guardian ignored the flame and once again slapped the light silhouette.

“Send you into the abyss of hell, and suffer…”

No response, another slap ‘smack’.

“From the eternal despair and wailing…”

‘Smack’, another slap came down. The God of Balance grew a bit dispirited with each sentence he got out, and with each word, the guardian’s hand slapped down on him, driving his true form back relentlessly.

Twelve guardian gods erected their defenses at the world transfer stations, each possessing their unique abilities. However, they shared one common attribute: they could thwart most insubstantial attacks, such as sacred words, deflections, burns or shocks.

In order to demolish them, it was best to go head-on, engaging them with raw, physical attacks, rather than resorting to showy skills.

However, destroying them wasn’t a walk in the park. Each was clad in an armor of steel-infused magic runes that alone made it difficult to breach their defenses, let alone bring them down.

Ange’s Petersburg held the god’s hands. A guardian god with long legs barraged him, ten other guardian gods watching closely to join in. But none of that was the most lethal part.

The most fatal attack came from Shamara. She placed her hands on the back of the God of Balance, her black sacred flame pouring in endlessly, tainting the God of Balance. Gradually, the radiance of the God of Balance became less pure. Amidst the white light, streaks of black flame were discernible.

The terror of the Power of Fall did not lie in its strength, but in its contamination. The light mixed with the Power of Fall became impure. Was impure light still holy light?

The God of Balance could feel his power rapidly diminishing. By the time he realized the danger, it was already too late.

“I… I can’t feel the holy light?” The God of Balance incredulously murmured as his true form retreated back into his body.

He couldn’t break free from the grips of Ange and Petersburg when he had revealed his true form, let alone now. He was helplessly restrained, just like being dragged at the entrance of a market by a minotaur madam for some form of demonstration, unable to break free no matter the struggle.

“What … what have you done to me…” The same question, emanating from the mouth of the God of Balance, took upon a completely different tone, one filled with restlessness.

“Nothing. I’ve just made you like me.” Shamara responded gently, though her voice carried a tremor her own self failed to pick up on. She had tainted a Master God.

It wouldn’t have been possible for her to taint him so easily, but the God of Balance had just reawakened, his divine power kept to the minimum due to the restraint from Ange and others, and the ‘tainting’ ability just happened to counter his divine power. It was too much to call a mere coincidence.

“The … the Power of Fall? You have tainted me? You are of the same ilk as that rebel Luna?” It was only then that the God of Balance understood the power behind the black sacred flames, his words trembling.

A rebel Luna? A Fallen Angel? Who could she be referring to?

“You mean her?” Ange motioned towards a petrified angel statue not too far away, bearing an unknown weapon. It lay in complete isolation, in the corner.

This angel, was she also a fallen angel like Shamara?

Seeing no way out, the God of Balance gave up struggling.

Shamara, filled with excitement, could now claim the fruits of her victory. She continued to drain the holy power of the God of Balance, before pouring in the Power of Fall, until the point that she couldn’t hold any more.

“Tie it up, tie it up. Is there any way to tie it up?”

“Gods of Light, ah, a rope won’t work, right?”

“Can the Holy Shroud work?”

“Are you dumb? The Holy Shroud might just be defined by him.”

“Let us handle this.” Petersburg said, pointing to one of the guardian gods. Its round body had an opening, a hole. If they opened the lid, put the person inside but left the face exposed…”

“The Undead Coffin, it was created by the king to restrain the Gods of Light,” Petersburg explained.

The title of the ‘King’ had not been mentioned in a while; it referred to the one supreme existence in the Undead Empire — the Undead King.

The God of Balance was shoved into the coffin. Negris couldn’t wait to interrogate him, rubbing his hands together: “Perfect, I can properly interrogate him now about everything that happened.”

They were all curious about the disappearance of their king and the gods. Now that they had seized a God of Light, they could finally get their answers.

But, before Negris could get his answers, the sound of cracking echoed throughout the area. Turning their heads, they saw the statue of the petrified angel gradually crumbling, as if something was about to break free from within.

Negris immediately recognized the anomaly . “Not good! The God of Balance has lost his holy light. The Equal Cross isn’t working anymore —The Six-winged Archangel is waking up!”