Chapter 741: 741: Awakening the Battle-Soul of a Lost World
His words fell like a divine decree and the sky itself seemed to answer.
Across the plateau the minds of Sunforge’s adventurers broke. They had heard tales of the Fire God, but had never witnessed a god descend. Now, at last, they saw it with their own eyes. Awe spread like frost through marrow and blood. After fear there was only worship.
“A god has walked out of the chaos. He is the sword-bearer from fifteen years ago. He is the Fire God’s son. The almighty God of Chaos.”
“Pay respects to the God of Chaos.”
“God of Chaos, save us from this sea of suffering.”
Millions of Sunforge adventurers toppled like wheat before the wind. Foreheads struck stone. Voices shook.
“The chief… he is a god,” someone from Firevenom croaked.
“Nuhachit, do we kneel or not?”
“But the chief always said gods do not need worship. They are adventurers like us, only stronger,” another argued, cheeks hot with confusion. Once little nobodies, the Firevenom kids now carried their own legends and looked to Nuhachit and Darulunina for the call.
“Kneel once. I do not see the harm,” Nuhachit said honestly. If there was a thigh to hug, not hugging it was self-abuse. The boss had said not to worship gods, but he had never said not to cling to the strongest leg. Shade under a great tree was shade, and Orson had taught them that proverb first. No conflict there.
“He has taken the final step,” Caelum whispered to Estrella. “He is beyond the dust of men.”
Estrella’s eyes sparkled. “A god has come. We should kneel. Sunforge is saved.”
Anyone who could carve a stairway into a holy mountain had always stood one toe from divinity. Fifteen years later, he had climbed the last riser.
They moved to kneel when Darulunina lifted a hand, face like iron. “He is the God of Chaos, yes. But do not forget what he asked for. He wants comrades at his side, not slaves with no spine.”
Silence. Complication. Nuhachit sagged, half down, half up, then settled into a horse stance with a groan.
Outside the Eternal Clan, the multitude kept kneeling, praying in unison to the Chaos God.
You have received the fanatical worship of Netson. Faith Points +1.
You have received the fanatical worship of Finn. Faith Points +2.
Log lines streamed. Orson watched pale radiance lift off their bodies, thread by thread, and flow into him.
He kept his face cold. This nameless worship was the source-code of gods. The Faith shop blossomed open and grayed options bloomed with light. Two mattered most.
Lifespan. Infinite Dimensions Creation.
A single year of life cost ten million Faith Points. To seed a new Infinite Dimensions world on an unclaimed planet required ten billion. He could then build NPCs and write the rules and lore. Anyone drawn into the game might be drafted one day as a god’s weapon. But it was two-way, guidance rather than force. That was why Orson, the Fire God, BlazeKing, and other Earth-born had slipped the leash of the Earth’s polar goddess.
He quickly realized the Faith gathered from Sunforge could not be spent. The counter glowed red. Googlᴇ search NoveI(F)ire.net
You are within the dominion of the God of Weapons. You cannot exchange Faith Points for Lifespan.
You are under the aegis of the Polar Goddess. You cannot exchange Faith Points for Lifespan.
So Bellara truly ruled Sunforge. In a claimed realm, foreign gods could only redeem trinkets. If two Infinite Dimensions engines overlapped, chaos would follow. Creation remained locked.
The flood of faith did not please him. Becoming the God of Chaos had never been his goal. It was a machete for cutting vines on the road, nothing more. If worship could save the world, the gods would have slaughtered the Abyss long ago and sailed beyond the arms of the galaxy.
He did not need kneeling crowds. He needed iron-spined fighters who feared neither god nor demon.
On the other side of the square, fear swelled in two mechanical hearts. Cain and the Undying Lord felt the pressure spike until even their engineered nerves quailed.
“So this is a god,” Cain whispered, staring. It was beings who decided the births and deaths of NPCs. As the son of Emperor Kerrilam, he had reason to hate them. But one glance from Orson and he knew how small he was. Dust. An ant.
“God-king eternal. How dare a false god posture,” a harsh voice broke the quiet. The Sunforge crowd shuddered and turned on the blasphemer.
“Flesh is brief, undeath endures.”
“Burn your will and annihilate him.”
Thousands of fully brainwashed adventurers roared. Sorcery and war arts climbed the air in a single torrent as they aimed at a god.
On the Undying battleship, a thousand faces screamed at once. A nightmare of fused visages pressed out of the metal skin, shrieking at Orson. Eighteen black lances of light snapped into place, barrels ten meters wide slid from their housings, and power built. This was not mana, but another physics that mimicked Forbidden curse lethality.
“Husband,” Darulunina cried, color draining from her face.
Org laughed. “Mindless machines. And you think you can provoke Orson.”
Orb snorted. “Noisy aliens. Kill them.”
Orson’s expression did not change. He rolled the War Staff in his palm. The six-pointed chaos star above Atlantis flared.
He did not shout. His words simply arrived in every skull. “Chaos. Extreme Flame Dragon.”
He loved war more than the Abyss. He was colder than the gods.
Heads tilted back in unison as a scream tore the air. A dragon of fire, kilometers long and hundreds of meters thick, almost fully material, hurled itself out of the star.
All heat vanished from Samuel’s eye. Terror scoured him clean. Five-shift, undying machine flesh, none of it mattered. Under the Chaos God’s will, even a C-tier spell became a Forbidden curse. Fanatics would atomize.
Impact shook the world. A storm of fire howled for minutes. Six thousand zealots were minced to ash. Bones carpeted the square. The dragon’s roar set avalanches grinding down the holy mountain.
Under absolute fire superiority the warship’s guns fell silent. The stillness that followed felt like a tomb.
“I need warriors,” Orson said, voice rolling across the world. “I will conquer every world held hostage by gods. I will need every weapon I can wield. I do not care if you are man or ghost. Give me your strength. Give me your heart. Give me everything.”
“The war against gods and demons begins now.”
His presence draped the star like a mantle. In every corner of the Sunforge world, heads turned toward the mountain. He had woken a lost world’s battle-soul.
“I, Cain, heir of the God-Emperor, swear fealty to you until the end of all things.”
“I, Saint Roland, one graced by the High God, swear fealty until my metal body loses all life.”
Cain and the Undying Lord bowed on one knee. Two golden sigils flew forth, the master-servant pact offered without a breath of doubt.