12 Divine Kingdom I

True to Ahan's assumptions, the city construction went smoothly with the help of his faith energy. Since he couldn't stabilize his Divinity yet, there was a lot of excess faith power stored in his dysfunctional Divine Kingdom through the player's constant killing of monsters. Therefore, he decided to make use of it to finally establish a base in The Mortal World for his believers.

Ahan's motto in life was "Waste is only waste if you waste it." Since he had enough faith power to make a clone and stabilize his divinity, excess faith power would only be wasted in his hands. He was still shocked by the ability of this world's furnaces to continuously process iron ores and churn out steel blocks. After observing the whole process clearly he realized that he had underestimated this magical medieval world. Despite being in the medieval era, the use of magic in even the simplest and most ordinary forms could still produce jaw dropping results.

Nonetheless, his attention was drawn back to his Preservation Temple; it was built in the heart of the city! It was like the symbol of the Port City Anneliese. It was a massively tall temple complex spread over ten square miles in the heart of the city, even if someone did not want to visit or see his Temple, they would still see its main temple's top from all over Anneliese. The main temple at the center of the temple complex, where his clone would reside was 30 meters tall (98 ft).

His temple had a symmetry-driven structure, with many variations, on a square grid of padas, depicting perfect geometric shapes such as circles and squares. The underlying principle that all his temples had always been built with was the belief that all things are one and everything is connected. This was the highest comprehension of his Divine Laws of Order and Harmony and the source of all of his power.

A God's Temple is a symbolic house, seat and body of divinity. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together, using symbolism to express the ideas and beliefs of a God.

This was the main difference between a God's church and temple.

Ahan was absolutely and completely satisfied with this Grand Temple and could see the dedication of his believers!

'It is time to condense a clone to once again walk the Mortal World!' Ahan thought quietly.

***

Main Temple Hall, Preservation Temple

Nandini was devotedly praying as she knelt in front of her God's idol. Suddenly, God Maugus's voice sounded inside the hall. The space twisted, and his clone walked out. He looked at Nandini with a wide smile, and drew her into his embrace.

"How long has it been, my Saintess?"

At the peak of his power, God Maugus once had one lesser god and four peak demi-god level clones in the Mortal World. These clones along with dozens of his Preserver Church's Legendary level Knights were the foundation of his power which helped him indirectly rule The Kalwar Empire, Maurya Kingdom, Avanta Kingdom and The Kuru Union.

It was at such a period of glory that Nandini, an ordinary but poor village girl caught his attention. She had a pure soul and even when her parents tried to sell her for food during a plague to the biggest Slave Trading Organization of the continent, Ouroboros, lead by Sultan Dutta, The Slave King. She did not have even a shred of anger or hatred towards her parents! She only hoped that the food obtained by selling her, could help her parents and younger sister survive the plague. She did not think of her fate of never being able to escape the clutches of the Sultan Dutta.

Nandini, an ordinary village girl of The Kalwar Empire, even in such a situation, had a firm belief in her God.

The God of Harmony and Order, The Supreme God, Maugus.

She remained steadfast in her belief even after she was sold to Sultan Dutta, and was kept in a cage to be sold to a noble as a beautiful pet.

God Maugus was paying attention to her situation since the day she was sold! One of her prayers were as such:

'I pray to you, Supreme One.

I believe that your plans for me are for the best.

Maybe this process is hard and very painful.

But, I believe that the only reason you are silent is because you are doing something for me!

Maybe even if you are not willing to fix the situation, you hope for the situation to fix me.

But I, who kneels before God Maugus, can stand before anyone in this world with dignity!

No disaster in this world shall break me before I can get your Divine Grace.'

The content of her prayers moved the Supreme God Maugus. He immediately sent his Lesser God level clone directly to Sultan Dutta and threatened the Sultan,

"Even if one strand of Nandini's hair goes missing, I shall immediately destroy your whole organization!"

Dutta had no idea how he had provoked such a dangerous Yamaraj (death god) and immediately ordered all his subordinates to search for her and send her to the nearest Preservation Church as soon as possible to send away this Yama who had come to his door for his life!

Since then, the young and intelligent village girl, Nandini, who had caught the eye of the powerful Supreme God Maugus was recognized as his Saintess. As the only Saintess of the Preservation Church, every Bishop, Archbishop and Elder tried to win her over to their faction in the Church! She saw all her dreams come true right before her very eyes, her family was given all the luxuries they could ever ask for, and she had a potential future which was too good to be true!

Her supreme devotion to God Maugus turned into a form of bhakti-love. Without God Maugus, she felt incomplete!

The Old God Maugus never courted Nandini as he believed; love was an entirely different matter. He firmly believed that love was a selfless emotion where you pledge to love someone with a purified nature, and as a God, he was not capable of such emotion! But, now his predominant personality was of a 22nd Century Earthling, Ahan, who could not care less about such dumb restrictions.

The New God Maugus would not act as dense as he did before with his Saintess. Being so devoted to him deserved a reward and if she wanted his love than she shall have it!

'Without Nandini, Maugus is incomplete and without Maugus, Nandini cannot be complete.' Ahan was already thinking about his future love story, he imagined it being sung by all his believers in the Mortal World.

Dumbfounded, Nandini's cherry lips parted slightly, and a look of disbelief overtook her face. She couldn't believe that God Maugus embraced her. She never even thought about God Maugus reciprocating to her one-sided selfless love.

"My Lord had been slumbering for the past ten years! It is my good fortune to be able to see you once again in this lifetime." She embraced her God tightly as she told him. Her beautiful big black eyes misted over, and tenderness surged in her heart.

Ahan smiled, and peak Legend Rank Might spread from him as the center. He gazed at the one person who was the most devoted to him in this entire world, reached out with a palm, and gently patted her cheeks.

"Be at ease, it is time for me to ascend again and merge with my Godhood. We will make all our enemies pay the price in blood." He took a step forward letting go off Nandini and started walking towards the Divinity Altar in the huge square of the Temple complex.

"By your will." Nandini bowed with a mysterious glimmer in her eyes.