### Chapter: 430
Parthes Constellation.
This is the land where the members of such a constellation reside.
The Black Land.
Rising tall above the blackened earth is a singular castle.
This castle belongs to Parthes, the god of death among the Five Great Gods.
Far from this castle, the gods were constructing a massive city as if marking their territory.
For gods, a dwelling is just a temporary resting place.
So, it was primarily the Celestials of Parthes Constellation who actually lived there.
While managing the city built for the gods, they ironically couldn’t live in the homes the gods rarely occupied, instead residing in the surrounding city.
Among these Celestials, a strange rumor had recently been circulating.
“Hey, Reki, have you heard? Mid-tier gods have been disappearing one after the other.”
“Can mid-tier gods even go missing?”
It was indeed about the disappearance of mid-tier gods.
Mid-tier gods, unlike their low-tier counterparts, possessed a life almost equivalent to immortality.
So, it was unbelievable that they were suddenly vanishing.
“Maybe one of the high-tier gods is punishing the mid-tier ones?”
One of the Celestials raised this possibility.
“A high-tier god would bother with mid-tier gods?”
“Maybe someone irritated them.”
“But they’re affiliated with the constellation. If this happens, it’ll just end up causing conflicts with other high-tier gods.”
As their status rises, so does the pride of the gods.
Thus, there’s no way they would just let it slide if someone meddled with their constellation.
“I hear some high-tier gods are keeping a close watch on this.”
“Wouldn’t that just turn the divine realm into chaos?”
The Celestials, aware of what happens when high-tier gods get involved, were trembling at the thought.
With a high number of high-tier gods within Parthes, the Celestials often had to cross paths with them.
High-tier gods are disasters unto themselves.
With a mere gesture, they could turn heaven and earth upside-down.
What would happen if such high-tier gods clash with one another?
It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.
“If the rumor is spreading among us, the gods most likely already know about it.”
“The culprit might know as well.”
As whispers continued among the Celestials, a mid-tier god was rolling on the ground, fleeing for his life.
Originally a god who could wield flames at will, for some reason, he found himself unable to harness any flames now.
Whoosh!
Instead, flames flowed relentlessly from his pursuer.
“W-What the?!”
He exclaimed in horror.
No matter how he tried, he couldn’t summon any divine powers.
Thud!
At that moment, a figure shrouded in ash-gray flames stood in his path.
With a swift strike, the figure’s sword cleanly severed the mid-tier god’s head.
The disembodied head rolled away.
Seeing this, the man raised his hand.
A light began to drain the divine power from the mid-tier god.
In an instant, as all divine power was extracted, the mid-tier god crumbled into ash.
Kraush glanced at the collapsing mid-tier god and flexed his fingers.
“How many is that now?”
“Twentieth, sir.”
Kraush turned his head at the response from behind.
There stood Maios, diligently assisting him.
Ever since nearly being obliterated by Kraush, he had become Kraush’s subordinate.
It was thanks to Maios’s information that Kraush knew the location of the mid-tier gods scattered across the realms.
All the mid-tier gods Kraush was currently hunting had interfered with the Middle Realm.
Some gods were even remembered for their association with technology.
Killing them didn’t bother Kraush one bit.
After all, the casualties they’d caused during the Second Ragnarok in the Middle Realm were beyond counting.
What annoyed him the most was their attempt to bring about world erosion for their own greed.
“Really? So do you think I can take on a high-tier god with the strength I have now?”
Maios silently studied Kraush.
Kraush, who had devoured twenty mid-tier gods, now emanated an entirely different power than before.
They were not bound by a physical form.
The only reason they maintain a physical body is so that others can recognize them as beings.
In essence, they had already shed their physical forms and evolved into divine entities.
“To help clarify with an analogy: low-tier gods are like caterpillars, mid-tier gods are chrysalises, and high-tier gods are butterflies.
There’s a significant difference between chrysalis and butterfly.
Even if a chrysalis runs rampant, it can never keep up with a butterfly that spreads its wings, much like us.”
Fundamentally different.
That notion began to make some sense to Kraush.
“So, I need to become a star myself. Is that it?”
“The concept is similar. It’s just that I still haven’t understood all aspects of it myself.”
If Maios knew how to shed his physical form, he would’ve become a high-tier god long ago.
He remained a mid-tier god simply because he lacked this knowledge.
“It just doesn’t make sense for a butterfly and a chrysalis to fight.”
To a butterfly, the chrysalis is merely a stationary object.
It can’t cause any damage.
“So, what about the five gods called the supreme gods?”
“I don’t know much about them either. How should I put it? They’re more like phenomena than beings.
They are the oldest of the gods.”
Dealing with high-tier gods was already troublesome, so the supreme gods were a conversation one could hardly have.
Once again, Kraush grasped what kind of place the divine realm was.
“They might even be watching us right now. The divine realm belongs to them, after all.”
Maios looked up at the sky.
The sky was densely filled with massive celestial bodies and stars, all visible right before their eyes.
‘A monster nest.’
Just one mid-tier god reincarnating could wreak havoc on the Middle Realm.
Yet here, mid-tier gods were commonplace.
‘It’s absurd how I’ve ended up in such a place.’
Did they really think the Thief God would be of help?
Honestly, Kraush was feeling overwhelmed by the divine realm.
He continually understood why there was a chasm separating humans and gods.
“Huh?”
At that moment, as Maios looked up at the sky, he reacted.
Hearing his reaction, Kraush turned his head just in time to see a falling meteor.
Seeing this, an expression of unease washed over Maios’s face.
“K-Kraush! This is bad!”
“What’s going on?”
“It’s a high-tier god! One of the high-tier gods is heading this way!”
Kraush’s face hardened.
He never imagined a high-tier god would appear personally.
“Damn it, have we been discovered?”
Kraush immediately turned to flee.
But the meteor clung onto his tail relentlessly.
His body shimmered as Invisibility activated, allowing him to partially disappear.
At the same time, he activated Excel to buy some time, planning to escape as best he could.
Fwoosh!
Suddenly, flames erupted from Kraush’s body.
Startled, Kraush’s eyes widened.
‘Ignes?’
Ignes was reacting violently.
Kraush glanced back at the meteor.
‘Could it be?’
Boom!
In that moment, something landed with a crash, sending plumes of smoke rising.
As Kraush took two steps back to avoid the area, the smoke instantly vanished.
Moments later, as the smoke cleared, Kraush’s eyes widened.
With hair ablaze toward the sky and fiery red eyes, the being was enveloped in flames as they smiled slowly at Kraush.
[You’ve been using my Ignes chaotically up until now.]
A high-tier god.
Inferno.
The master of Ignes had arrived.