Chapter 275

“Your little tantrum is over, my sons and daughters, drop your weapons!” I shouted as I started radiating even more mana. Charisma came useful to make that order effective, but not as effective as the sixteen trees still growing despite the presence of the Tree of Life, similar in appearance, already taller than half a mile.

Growth magic was convenient.

“It’s just a trick, we can still —“ one of the commanders started, only for a root to burst out of the ground to skewer him. He tried to defend himself, and was successful in cutting the root. He was even successful in cutting the next three. “Come on, fight, we can—“ he tried to encourage the others, but the next chain of attack, two dozen roots, was enough to take him down.

{+128 Nature Spark, God Forest}

All it took was a second, before the others could even react, and his incompetent display proved to be enough to break the courage of the rest. Which was good, because if all of them tried to retreat, I could have taken down only a fraction of them. Focusing only on one target made it much easier.

Not to mention, I didn’t want to kill them, not when they were useful against the undead.

“Bow down to your god!” I shouted like a megalomaniac, enhancing my voice with Arcane magic — even adding several illusions around me to make me more intimidating. Amusingly, it worked much better than I expected, and they started to fall to their knees.

“Good, now, you five, lead them to the defense of the capital,” I said, and five roots burst out of the ground once more. They panicked for a second, but the sudden flood of strength was enough to change their attitude.

“Thank you, my god,” they shouted as their Divine Spark melded into a Divine Sea, turning them into demigods. Then, since I had the connection, I broke the crystals they had in their possession, and pushed that amount into them as well, so each of them had about five hundred Divine Spark.

I didn’t exactly want them empowered, but I could always take that power back. As long as I kept an eye on them, it should be alright.

Their sudden empowerment worked better than I expected. I was trying to create some capable commanders that could hold the undead back, but I had forgotten most of them were ready to betray their kind for power — the existence of a god that could grant power made things much simpler.

“Now, go forth and fight for your land!” I ordered, and all elves knelt.

A fake god wielding punishment and distributing rewards was very effective, especially to a group that was already dealing with an existential crisis. I decided to push my luck a bit more.

“Before leaving, drop those crystals and acorns on the ground. They are cursed, and anyone that uses them, I’ll punish them with damnation. That made them freeze, and I had no doubt that, if it wasn’t for my earlier display of empowering the five priests — who were still showing off their newfound power — they would have protested a lot.Finnd new chapters at novelhall.com

Instead, most of them dropped their crystals on the ground, and roots appeared, devouring them. Some had Necrotic Spark, but most were filled with Nature Spark. Enough that it would take me a while to actually absorb...

{+13592 Nature Spark, God Forest}

[+2128 Purified Spark}

I planned to repurpose some of the Nature Spark, but not immediately, not when I could use all the nature mana they generated to grow more and more guardian trees — a necessity against the constant undead attack.

Still, being rich was a convenient feeling.

And, speaking of being rich, I could still sense some Divine Spark imprisoned in Crystals. “You have three breaths to drop them, or...” I shouted.

Some believed me, dropping their crystals. The others didn’t, and ended up skewered in roots, injured and bereft of their spark — just a flicker left to prevent them from absorbing a new one.

Giving me another convenient burst of Divine Spark.

And, there was no reason to build something that magnificent, that strong, just to move people in the same plane. It might have been a move of luxury, but while the Eternals could be wasteful, it was not to this degree.

No, I just needed to stretch my mana inside the gateway to feel the immensity of the distance it was traveling. The other end was not somewhere that was in this plane. For a moment, I wondered if the other end led back to my home.

If that were the case, I would have found myself in an important dilemma.

But,, after examining the ephemeral tunnel, I felt that it was not as strong to resist the chaos of the Primordial Aether. Tracing, I felt the other half of the artifact right at the planar border, cutting through the swirling mana shield, uncaring of the long-term damage it was leaving.

Then, before I could decipher more, I felt the artifact on my side growing chaotic, far too sudden and intense to be accidental. I could feel the different types of mana mixing together, about to explode.

I infused it with Tantric immediately to calm that mana down, which also ruined the device without any hope of working again — but not only it prevented the explosion, but also it saved the device for further study.

However, as much as I wanted to ignore everything else and study the structure, I wasn’t able to do so. Not when I could already feel the destabilizing tunnel being flooded with Necrotic mana. It was a good way to prevent me from following them.

Unfortunately, it was very effective.

{Strength: 16 Charisma: 22

Precision: 16 Perception: 16

Agility: 16 Manipulation: 22

Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16

Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 16}

{Purified Divine Spark: 3272}

{Pseudo-HP: 8000 Mana: 15000}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Forest - 18183}

Elven Priestess - XXXX}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]