The Era of Gods - Chapter 409:

Chapter 409: Chapter 409: Awarding Honors

The meager defense of just over two thousand soldiers couldn’t possibly hold the four major breaches, not to mention the attacking side consisted almost entirely of knights. In the words of some, it was akin to advanced soldiers fighting raw recruits, which was ludicrous.

Lin Xiao observed the entire battle from the rear, spending most of the time focused on the changes within the grand cathedral inside the city; the battlefield itself only warranted occasional attention.

With an absolute overwhelming of power, there wasn’t much to see on the battlefield, and he didn’t even resort to using any powerful Divine Arts to assist; only the accompanying Holy Knights occasionally used minor healing-oriented Divine Arts.

The fighting at the four breaches lasted at its shortest just over half an hour, and at most, two hours. The city’s defensive forces collapsed entirely, with only the Holy Church’s knightly defenders holding on a bit longer.

Following that, the street-by-street fighting within the city simply dragged on longer. In fact, by the time the troops led by the Holy Knight Manda attacked the City Lord’s Mansion, Count Dyson’s subordinates, along with his family, had already fled.

Yes, it was Count Dyson’s family, for Count Dyson himself had perished earlier in the battle.

More accurately, Count Dyson met his end earlier during the bombing of the city gate tower when a stray huge boulder hit his forehead, obliterating half his head, and he died instantly — an outcome that was quite unexpected to Lin Xiao.

Dier Province had five great knights, but this did not include Count Dyson, who was just an ordinary knight, merely holding an earldom.

With the death of Count Dyson, the morale of the defending army plummeted, which led to the subsequent almost effortlessly quick advance.

Following Afonso’s orders, the troops immediately seized control of other corners of the city, leaving only a detachment at the entrance of the grand cathedral, awaiting the entire city’s resistance to be wiped out. Once the main forces grouped at the grand cathedral, Lin Xiao finally arrived at the front of the Holy Grand Cathedral under the protection of a dozen Holy Knights.

Gazing up at the magnificent grand cathedral with its thick metal doors and the throng of ordinary believers guarding the entrance, Lin Xiao gestured with a wave of his hand, ordering the attack.

These were all Devout Believers and Fanatic Believers of the Holy Church. Conversion would be exceedingly difficult due to their entrenched beliefs, and mere words could not persuade them to leave; thus, they had to be killed. He wouldn’t exhibit indecision or undue mercy.

The ordinary believers surely couldn’t withstand the soldiers, the least ranked of whom were knights. A massacre ensued, clearing the path into the grand cathedral.

Wielding his great sword, Afonso stepped forward, muttering incantations, and in one breath, he cast several supportive Divine Arts on himself, enveloping himself in a radiant light that transformed him into a figure of brilliance as he fiercely struck down with his sword.

In the presence of many believers, Divine Office Staff, and civilians of the Holy Church, whose hearts trembled at the sight, there came a thunderous boom as Afonso’s sword cleaved through the thick doors of Dier Cathedral, revealing the vast main hall behind them.

The main hall was filled with numerous devout believers, wealthy merchants, and aristocrats from the city, along with Holy Church staff — all showing expressions of fear as they watched the knights storming in.

Lin Xiao, flanked by Church knights clad in fine armor, stepped into the grand cathedral. Upon entering, he immediately sensed something, his gaze falling upon the quietly luminous statue at the far end of the cathedral, his eyes revealing a hint of excitement.

“Such a rich Power of Faith!

Accumulated over a millennium, this store of Power of Faith is likely to amount to tens of thousands of points of Divine Power.

The Holy Church had held an absolute position of faith dominance in this plane, with dozens of variously sized kingdoms and empires across the plane, each kingdom having at least a dozen provinces, and some up to several dozen, cumulatively amassing upwards of ten million points of Divine Power — what a staggering figure!

With such an abundance of Divine Power, it would be possible for the Holy God to emerge and reach the imposed limits instantly as the spiritual energy revitalization happened and Plane Will eased restrictions, forcing Divine Enthronement wouldn’t even be difficult.

Lin Xiao wondered what had caused the awakening of Plane Will, speculating if it could be due to his presence, through the introduction of a vast influx of Superhuman Power from another world via the Creation Magic Cube, perhaps stimulating the Plane Will?

Normally, it seemed far too coincidental that Plane Will would begin awakening shortly after their arrival — that was simply too far-fetched.

Regardless of the reason, what had happened was a tremendous opportunity, one he had to seize.

Having captured the Dael City Cathedral, all the infinite Power of Faith accumulated within was now Lin Xiao’s.

After ousting all the Divine Office Staff, he used the Creation Magic Cube to take the statue of the Holy God, stripping away the Power of Faith it contained and replacing it with another statue, supplanting the Holy God’s visage.

Then, he announced that the Dael City Cathedral would be renamed to the Life Grand Cathedral and sent off the Holy Knights and Church knights to spread word house to house, declaring the end of the Holy Church and the rise of the Gods of Life and Wisdom.

As for confronting the main force of the Holy Church returning from Huck Territory, that was now Afonso’s concern.

With Count Dyson fallen and the defeat conceded, Afonso had now become the de facto ruler of Dier Province, day after day receiving visits from throngs of Aristocrats and wealthy merchants.

Aristocrats pledging allegiance, merchants offering donations; he accepted them all, keeping exceedingly busy.

As for the Holy Knight troop led by the Knight Commander Bartos, whether with him or Afonso, neither paid any heed. The storming of Dael City had proven the formidable military force of the Church knights, and the battling prowess of this Holy Knight troop being but slightly higher than that of Dael City’s was not enough to be considered a challenge to them.

Entrusting all affairs of Dael City entirely to Afonso and other subordinates, Lin Xiao secluded himself in the underground sanctuary’s great hall, his will linked to the Creation Magic Cube. The space before him slightly distorted, and soon numerous translucent crystals emitting various energies appeared in his hand.

Grasping four energy crystals of utter purity, he placed them under his nose and took a deep breath. Wisps of fog representing the energy of the four elements, in four different colors, flew out and spiraled into his nostrils.

Along with these four elemental crystals, he also ingested strands of the Power of Faith that had been purified by the Creation Magic Cube.

Gradually merging the four elemental crystals with the purified Power of Faith, Lin Xiao’s consciousness sank into his soul, where he saw the phantom of The Golden Ancient Tree. The four-colored elemental energy mixed with the purified Power of Faith transformed into a chaotic aura that infused into The Golden Ancient Tree, making its leaves tremble lightly.

As a steady stream of energy poured in, a light at the very bottom of The Golden Ancient Tree’s phantom began to brighten.

Yes, at this moment, Lin Xiao was igniting the first Talent in his Totem Talent Tree—Energy Conversion.

Although he had collected the Power of Faith, in this world, he couldn’t follow the path of Divine Enthronement through faith; he had to take the Totem path instead.

Normally, to ignite a Totem one needs Deity Indwelling Power, which he lacked at present, but the Power of Faith could be used as a substitute.

The essence of Deity Indwelling Power is a pure special force that is a mixture of the Soul Power and spiritual power of strange and demonic beings, purified, while the Power of Faith is also the spiritual power of all beings. There is a similarity between the two.

Ordinarily, due to their different natures, the two cannot be interchanged, but the Power of Faith is unique. This collective force of pure spiritual thoughts of believers can be substituted for Deity Indwelling Power once it’s fully purified.

That’s why Totem Lords gather the Power of Faith—it’s because they can absorb it and gradually become stronger.

Totem Lords are essentially no different from Divine Territory Players.

Normally, only Official Totem Masters can attempt to absorb the Power of Faith, and the conversion rate is extremely low—perhaps less than a tenth, meaning ninety percent of the Power of Faith would be wasted.

Right now, Lin Xiao isn’t even an Official Totem Master. In theory, he shouldn’t even be able to sense the Power of Faith, let alone absorb it.

But he has the Creation Magic Cube to contain, purify, and absorb the Power of Faith.

After purification by the Creation Magic Cube and absorption, he could completely absorb this purified Power of Faith. Although there was still a significant loss and not all could be absorbed, his absorption rate was much higher than that of other apprentices who couldn’t even sense the Power of Faith, and it was even higher than that of normal Totem Masters.

He silently estimated his effective absorption rate to be about one-third, which was quite a high efficiency, possibly even higher than that of many Totem Lords.

As the four energy crystals and a large amount of purified Power of Faith were absorbed, the first Talent node of his Golden Ancient Tree Totem Talent Tree, ‘Energy Conversion’, was ignited.

The instant the Talent was ignited, Lin Xiao felt his perception change drastically. Previously unable to sense any energy around him, the moment he ignited the Talent Tree, it was as though his consciousness swept through like a wave of light, and the world around him came to life in an instant as he sensed the presence and flow of energy in the world.

It felt like hitting play on a paused movie, and suddenly, the whole world started moving.

In that instant, Lin Xiao could feel the presence of energy, and with a touch of his will upon them, he had the premonition that he could control these energies.

With a thought, he extended his right hand and rubbed his thumb against his index finger gently. A burst of firelight flared up between the thumb and index finger.

As the firelight ignited, Lin Xiao’s eyes brightened. Just now, he had kindled flame without the aid of any tools, relying solely on his own abilities.

“Transcendent has really revived!”

If the Plane Will had not awakened and the Elements had not raised the Tide, even igniting this Talent would not allow for the manipulation of solidified elements to light this small flame. The fact that he could now light this small bundle of flames with his own power was sufficient to prove that the Spiritual Energy had indeed revived and the limits of the plane were gradually loosening.

“Time to step up the pace and seize the initiative!”

If he could sense the revival of Spiritual Energy, so could other Descenders. Perhaps one of them might suddenly try and discover this anomaly as well.

After igniting the first Talent, Energy Conversion, the Golden Ancient Tree Totem could freely convert any energy in the world and constantly draw from the Void to strengthen itself. The pace of this strengthening would increase with his growing power.

Having just ignited this Talent, the energy he absorbed every moment was minuscule, barely a drop in the bucket.

But as his power grows, the rate of energy absorption will increase. Theoretically, at a certain level, it could drain an entire plane of its energy in a short period.

Of course, that is a matter for the distant future. Setting that aside for now, Lin Xiao began to inspect the second Talent of his Golden Ancient Tree Totem, named ‘Seed of Life’.

This Talent is simple: once The Golden Ancient Tree Totem activates this Talent, it can produce seeds, or rather fruits, brimming with a potent Life Force.

Since these contain a powerful Life Force, they naturally possess extraordinary healing effects.