-----
FLAAAASH!
The bright energies of everyone praying to the Hivemind began to spread all around the city, no- the world!
Not only his voice reached the people but also the entire world.
The ritual was meant to summon a vessel for him but now that everything was gone, he desperately decided to go "nude" to the surface and let his soul be bathed in all this energy, this belief!
Belief.
This was the important thing required for someone to become a god.
Outside of systems that granted leveling powers or something, becoming a god was very loosen.
It didn't simply required to level up to something and that was it, not everyone enjoyed such easy things.
But due to also not being bound to a system, he could easily ignore the rules it had, and could even ascend ahead of time if he were to be included in a system to begin with!
The believers that the Hivemind had gathered all around the world began to gather and pray to him, as their prayers became divine power that rushed towards his soul!
His soul began to slowly grow bigger and bigger, like a balloon getting filled with air, but his soul was getting filled with the divine power granted by the belief of mortals!
"Haha… Hahahahaha!"
FLAAAASH!
The Hivemind felt filled with new motivation and power, after all this time, it was finally working!
Meanwhile, within the depths of the world, Veronica and Ervas looked at the corpse left by the Hivemind… in disbelief.
"Seriously, he just left his physical body?" asked Ervas.
"Well, it's gonna rot slowly, I bet…" said Veronica.
"We have to hurry to the surface! The bastard is trying to ascend in there!" said Anastacia.
"Yeah, let's go!" said Juliette.
"Let me bring you there…!" said Aurora.
Everyone gathered around the beautiful fairy, as her entire body exuded a divine aura of space and time!
FLAAASH!
…
Manationia looked into the distance as she saw flames exploding out of the castle of the duke, and after that, a lot of light and darkness that gathered together and made it as if everything stopped.
Even her titan made of spiritual power had weakened through that time but had quickly regained its power as she infused more mana into it.
The enormous humanoid bird man looked into the distance, as she was about to go meet the cult members of the castle, but suddenly, the giant pointed her master at the true threat that had emerged, a gigantic black soul overflowing with divinity.
"What is that?! When did this happened?!" she asked in shock.
"Just recently! I saw it coming! You were too concentrated recovering the giant…!" said Octo.
"W-What is that thing though?!" asked Manationia.
"Isn't it obvious?! That's the Dark Lord of the Depths' Soul! He came here to borrow his divinity from all the believers around the world! Now that his ritual failed, he just came here to get it raw, even if it comes to the expense of losing his physical body!" said Octo.
"Then… I will stop it." said Manationia.
"Wait! Don't! The others are coming soon!" said Octo.
"I cannot wait for someone to come save the day when I can act on my own and help however I can! I simply cannot… And I won't!" said Manationia.
"Seriously, you're a handful, kid…" sighed Octo.
"Go on, guardian!" said Manationia.
"On it!"
FLAAAASH!
The enormous titan bird man made of flames flapped his wondrous wings made of flames, as countless feathers of fire began to fall, in an instant, it flew high into the skies and began to quickly reach the Hivemind!
Meanwhile, he Hivemind's soul was already transcending!
The very concepts of reality itself were rushing through his very mind as he began to comprehend something more profound than merely devouring and surviving.
It was something deep, the concept of divinity! He was finally reaching it!
FLAAASH!
And in an instant, he had already done it! The divine energies refined his body completely as he gained a large quantity of power, his entire amorphous appearance changed, as he became larger and more powerfully monstrous, several crimson-red eyes surged across his entire shadow body…
Enormous tentacles surged from within as well, alongside all sorts of monstrous beasts heads and body pieces, as if he were an amalgamation of countless souls… this appearance was because the Hivemind had absorbed countless lifeforms before, and such lifeforms ended being imprinted into its very soul!
"I have become a God! A God! Finally! And with this power I will reabsorb my body, and this entire world! I can finally resume what I started! All of you, become my food now- UGH?!"
CLAAAAASSSSSSHHH!
However, before the monstrous mass of darkness could even dare to touch an innocent mortal from within the Duchy of Yggdra, a gigantic blazing fist reached up to him and then lifted him into the skies, blowing him away all the way atop the clouds!
"Uuuuaagggghhh…!"
His entire divine soul began to be set on flames, as he began to scream in agony, his soul was going through a new sort of pain he had only felt a bit before, this was soul pain!
The blazing fist sent him flying into the skies, completely covered by divine flames that started to consume his entire body with this burning pain!
"Aaghhh…! Unngh…!"
The Hivemind gritted the various teeth within his divine soul body, as he unleashed several shockwaves of darkness and destroyed the fire after a bit of struggle!
CLAAAASH!
"Hahh… Ugh… Who did this- Ah! You!" roared the Hivemind.
He quickly confronted a being that surged at his side, an enormous titan covered in blazing feathers, and holding a giant blazing spear!
However, what he recognized wasn't the titan, but the girl standing atop of him, who exuded an enormous aura of bright magical colors all around…!
This girl was… Manationia! She was the one that messed with him in her dreams, when he came to ask her to join him, but she attacked him with dream magic and made him go through soul pain!
"It's been a while…" said Manationia.
-----