Those time travelers that year

The divinity of the god of victory within him had been locked onto by the flaming sword Laevatein. Just like in Norse mythology, on the battlefield of Ragnarok, Surtr defeated Frey with Laevatein, and this god of victory and abundance inevitably fell beneath Laevatein's blade.

Vereslana's fate was sealed...

"I've lost!~?" Feeling the burning and destruction within his body, Veleslana laughed with relief. "Hahahahahaha—even the invincible god of war has finally fallen. This is a replay of the myth... cough cough, the god of victory was killed by the demonic sword Laevatein... It seems that even I cannot escape this fate."

"Farewell, return to mythology—Vellslana!" As the Persian war god's body began to crumble, Charles swiftly drew the flaming sword Laevatein from the god's body.

"Yes! Farewell—may victory always be with you!" With that, Veleslana slowly closed his eyes, his entire body crumbling into countless golden fragments. Veleslana, who refused to submit, vanished, returning to the mythology of this world.

“This is a bit beyond my expectations!” Charles exclaimed. “I didn’t expect it to take so long.” He raised his hand and grasped the golden fragments flying all over the sky. These shattered divine essences and powers were drawn to him and gathered in his hand, eventually forming a golden rhombus-shaped crystal—the divine essence of the unruly Veleslana.

"Hmm!? It seems Athena has also resolved things on her end!" Looking around, outside the alternate dimension, the battlefield between Athena and Mekal had also come to an end.

This war of revenge by the winged serpent goddess ended in Athena's victory. Although Mekal possessed the power to slay dragons and serpents, her divine nature had been shattered by Veleslana's golden sword before, and she had not yet recovered. Conversely, Athena was at her peak, able to use either her current triune divine nature or transform into the goddess of war, undoubtedly giving her a greater advantage than Mekal.

Not to mention, Xia Erhai specifically gave her a chance to drastically modify it.

For example—a miniature universe or something.

510. The Sardinia Incident Ends

“Actually, Athena…” After emerging from the alternate dimension, Ciel looked at Mekal, whose heart had been pierced and whose body was beginning to crumble, and said to Athena, “I think you should go and gather the twelve Gold Saints or the five Bronze Saints now.”

"What are those things!?" The dazzling starlight around her body gathered to form a strange phenomenon like a galaxy vortex, and Athena, who was in this galaxy, looked over with a puzzled look after hearing Ciel's voice.

“No, it’s nothing!” Shaking his head, Charles reached out and drew the divine power and divinity emanating from Mekal’s shattered body. After the defeated god-king returned to mythology, a golden rhombus-shaped divine spark belonging to the disobedient Mekal appeared in Charles’s hand. However, compared to Vereslana’s divine spark, the one belonging to Mekal in his hand now had a visible crack in the center. “As expected… compared to Vereslana, Mekal has indeed not fully recovered!”

"You won by sheer luck, Athena!"

“There’s no such thing as luck on the battlefield.” Athena rolled her eyes at Charles’s teasing and replied, “Only the victor survives, and I have now achieved final victory—so this god-king can only return to his ruined mythology…”

"And now?!" With a light laugh, the swirling starry river beside Athena vanished like a phantom, and Athena, dressed in a white robe, instantly appeared beside Charles and asked, "...You see! Just as I said—most of these disobedient gods are not willing to have a proper conversation...especially these guys whose divine essence contains steel."

"Now—isn't it time to listen to my advice?"

“Alright, alright! Like you said, trying to fool someone on your own is definitely not going to work—so, even if we try to manually bring someone down, what about the target?!” Charles said, “Basically—anyone who comes down is impossible to communicate with!”

“So, even if we manually summon people, we still need to find those we can communicate with—” Athena said—“for example, those other winged serpent gods like myself!”

"Earth Mother Goddess!?" Charles was slightly taken aback and then asked, "Is this reliable? Not to be rude, but most Earth Mother Goddesses belong to the defeated side in mythology. In terms of strength, they are really no match for the gods in later mythology. Moreover, there are too many Earth Mother Goddesses with duplicate divine titles, and their strengths are also quite different."

“Oh dear! I happen to know... a powerful Earth Mother Goddess, strong enough even without the constraints of mythology!” Athena said. “I’ll take care of that. After all, they are both goddesses of the winged serpents... it will be easier for me to find their altars.”

"Suit yourself!" Charles waved his hand, then glanced in a certain direction before disappearing from the spot.

Athena smiled and looked in the direction Charles had been looking, then her face turned cold as she said in a low voice, "Witch... I don't care how much you saw or heard, but you'd better forget it all—this is Athena's advice to you, understand?!"

"Mortals should just look up to the gods and not think about unrealistic things..." After saying this, Athena's figure disappeared into the darkness.

At that very moment, on the other side of Sardinia, inside a historic 17th or 18th-century building, a woman in a long purple dress suddenly opened her closed eyes. Then, covering her mouth, she coughed loudly.

Coughing a few times, the Sardinian witch Luculazia Zola gave a pale, bitter smile. She had only gone to check on things after the battle, never expecting to overhear two beings she absolutely couldn't afford to offend conversing. Although she hadn't heard anything, she had still suffered an undeserved calamity.

This is why the one who didn't care about her at all, even though she was a witch who had lived for a very long time, was clearly just a witch, someone who could be easily crushed. On the contrary, the winged serpent goddess warned her and punished her.

The two were simply not on the same level. The winged serpent goddess's warning and minor punishment were already a severe blow to this witch. It was only because she held back; otherwise, following the connection from before, the goddess could have easily used the power of death to obliterate her.

"Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness." Though she didn't know if the goddesses could hear her, the Sardinian witch, despite her severely injured body from the backlash, bowed and knelt towards the ruins of Saint Buster. "I have overstepped my bounds..."

A sudden, cold snort from a woman echoed in Luculazia Zola's mind, sending a chill down her spine. She lowered her head even further. After a long while, realizing she was completely unharmed, the witch Luculazia Zola cautiously raised her head, forcing a bitter smile as she struggled to find a healing potion.

——————————Divider Line——————————

Ciel ignored Athena's petty nature and how she dealt with the witch who had been spying on them after the battle. In truth, the witch stationed on the island was someone Ciel could easily crush with a flick of his wrist.

As for whether her spying will bring her bad luck, that's none of his business.

If the influence is mitigated, the Sardinian witch will at most experience a sharp decline in sleep quality and have nightmares recently.

Conversely, compared to the Sardinian witch who nearly died from her reckless actions, Charles was more concerned with the two divine attributes he had acquired: one belonging to the war god Vereslana, and the other to Mekal.

Vereslana's divine status is simply that of the one in Persian mythology. Vereslana's name is actually a Greek name; his original name should be Bahram.

After Indian mythology was incorporated into the Buddhist tradition, Indra, whose divine status was similar to that of Veraslana, became a protector of Buddhism.

In fact, compared to Bahram's divine status, Indra's divine rank would be higher, but Indra probably cannot descend to earth. After all, Indra's full name is Kadevana Indra, and his Sanskrit name is Sakra-devanam-Indra—which is Indra himself.

“So Vereslana’s divine status is really much weaker!” Charles looked at the golden rhombus-shaped divine status belonging to Vereslana in his hand. “Even though they both come from the Aryans, in terms of influence, the Persian worldview of good and evil is not as famous as that of the Buddhist thief bald man.”

However, even if Veleslana descended with the divine status of Bahram, he would still be considered a high-ranking being among most of the disobedient gods. Especially that golden sword that cleaved through divine status—like the gleaming Chains of Heaven, it was a powerful weapon against gods. The difference was that the Chains of Heaven were effective as long as the target possessed divinity, while the golden sword that cleaved through divine status required knowledge of the target.

However, in terms of effectiveness, the Golden Sword is more directly lethal than the Chains of Heaven, as it can prevent Mekal from healing the cracks in his divine status.

511. Harvest

Of course, being more lethal doesn't necessarily mean being the strongest. In fact, before Ciel and Athena intervened, Mekal and Veleslana's first battle, although ending in mutual destruction, actually saw Veleslana slightly weaker. While the golden sword that severed a god's divine power inflicted Mekal with wounds that were difficult to heal, ultimately leading to Mekal's defeat against Athena, Mekal fell short by a single move.

However, in the very beginning of the battle, Veleslana's body and divine status were shattered by Mekal, his ten avatars fell apart, and he was almost reduced to mortal status by the God of Disobedience.

What truly makes Veleslana stronger than Mekal is his far greater regenerative ability. While Mekal was suffering from the injuries of his shattered godhood, Veleslana only needed to reassemble his ten avatars to fully restore his power.

But the golden sword was both its strength and its weakness.

Veleslana certainly possesses an ace up his sleeve against the gods, but his other avatars, in combat, do not have the decisive advantage over the gods that the golden sword that cleaves through divine power possesses.

Therefore, even though Vereslana temporarily sealed away Ciel's flaming sword Laevatein during the battle, after the golden sword was shattered by the Meteor Spear, the unsealed flaming sword Laevatein was beyond the control of Vereslana's other powers.

Of course, this is not Vereslana's fault—Western gods are not like the arms (magical artifacts) wholesalers in Eastern mythology.

That said, Veleslana's overall divine nature can be divided into ten powers. Of these ten powers—[Wind], [Youth], [White Horse], [Ram], [Phoenix], [Bull], [Camel], [Goat], [Pig], and [Warrior]—only a few can actually be used in combat; the rest are more of a supportive ability.

These ten authorities, when separated, can yield the divine nature and divinity of ten domains: Storm, Shelter, Sun, Healing, Travel, Strength, Defense, Thunder, Beast, and War.

In comparison, the gods of Faerûn are practically penniless! Think of those unfortunate, miserable creatures, fighting tooth and nail, scheming and plotting for divine office and faith in a single domain; the gods of Earth's mythology practically acquire divinity effortlessly. And repetition doesn't matter; there's rarely any conflict of divine office or divine wars here.

Vereslana's overall divine essence was ultimately and completely severed by Sharl. Aside from the divine essence of the [Warrior], representing the realm of war—which Sharl kept and treasured—he intended to be generous with the other nine realms, planning to bestow gifts upon the legendary mages after the support program began—gifts from a benevolent evil god.

Unless they know about Nyarlathotep's existence, they would not be very suspicious.

……

Compared to the relatively complete divine essence of Veleslana, the divine essence left behind by Mekal was flawed. After all, the wound caused by the golden sword that severed her divine essence had not fully healed even when Mekal was sent back to mythology by Athena. This resulted in a noticeable crack in the center of Mekal's divine essence.

This made Charles hesitate, as he intended to divide the body. Simply severing it would indeed allow for the extraction of the divine essence and divinity of the relevant domains. However, because of the existing damage, Charles wasn't confident he could completely sever it this time.

In other words, once Ciel begins to split, this divine essence may be annihilated. Even if Ciel manages to save it in time, he will definitely lose most of his divine power.

“In my opinion, Sharl, you may not need to separate Mekal’s divine essence.” At this moment, Athena, who was standing to the side, suggested, “Perhaps it would be better to keep this broken divine essence.”

"What do you mean!?"

“According to the information you provided, in that other world, everything has the qualification to ascend the ladder to the sky and enter the throne of the gods—” Athena analyzed, “but, unlike the ‘trial’ of the Steel Heroes, the road to this ladder is far more thorny and equally more despairing.”

"The 'trials' of steel heroes test the heroes' will and their strength; it is all their destiny. Only the destined heroes can reach the final step."

"Let your story, let your name, be transformed into an epic, into a poem, and be sung by people throughout history. Then, after a long period of time, the hero will be transformed into a god of steel."

"However, that world is not like that. On the road to the immortal kingdom, there is no such thing as destiny. It is much easier and faster. You only need to gather your own destiny and follow your own path and practice your own example. In the end, you will be recognized by the sea of ​​the Force and accepted by a certain Force. Then you will naturally be favored by the world and be enthroned."

"This is much easier than the 'trial of steel' and the worship of nature gods. Those who can cross this threshold are undoubtedly outstanding individuals with a complete integration of mind, will, knowledge, and strength."

“Even compared to those steel heroes, they are in no way inferior.” Athena sighed as she said this, “But they all fell. It’s not that they were unable to continue. In fact, those who have reached this point have already crossed the most difficult hurdle. What should have been their trophy at the finish line is waiting for them.”

“All those who have fallen are because—there were those who had already reached the finish line and lifted the trophy, and they didn’t want anyone to challenge their status and prestige.” As she spoke, Athena looked at Charles with her bright purple eyes and continued, “…In my wisdom, those who haven’t fallen are just lying in wait, hoping for a miracle that is almost hopeless. So—let’s just grant them a miracle.”

Upon hearing this, Ciel paused, giving Athena a strange look: "You mean?!"

“Only when they witness a miracle will these people whose path has been blocked truly set aside their selfishness and the compromises they learned in the face of oppression. They will then pick up the determination to break through the obstacles!” Athena chuckled. “Just as heroes are helped by benevolent gods and receive miracles when they encounter difficulties—those who are blocked on the road to the immortal kingdom need a real miracle to awaken their long-dormant fighting spirit and determination.”

"I see!" Charles snapped out of his daze, clapping his hands as he looked at Athena's confident demeanor. "—You mean, using Mekal's divine essence as bait, right! Even if this divine essence has flaws, it's the most complete. Compared to the fragments I've separated, this one not only avoids the process of fusing divine essences with one's own understanding, but only needs the recognition of that world. Of course—this is tantamount to Mekal's alternative resurrection. Athena, aren't you afraid of being sought revenge?!"

“Of course!” Athena laughed. “In mythology, I am the goddess of war—how could the goddess of war be afraid of war?”

512. Matera

The incident of the disobedient god descending upon Sardinia was ultimately resolved hastily. For the Greenwich Sages Council, which had been gathering intelligence on this matter, many were quite interested in what exactly happened on Sardinia. Of course, that was all they were interested in! The person involved had vanished without a trace. Although the Greenwich Sages Council could be considered the United Nations of the magic world—in reality, this organization was practically no different from the United Nations—they could only watch helplessly.

Just as they were helpless against Marquis Woban and King of Martial Arts, one of whom had destroyed a city with his usurped power, and the other who acted recklessly and disregarded everything else.

In a world where supernatural powers exist, power ultimately prevails over everything.

Or, to be more precise, both the seasoned witch residing on Sardinia and the High Knight Liliana of the Bronze Black Cross would know the specifics to some extent. Unfortunately, when the Council of Sages of Greenwich sent people to inquire, both remained silent, conveying only that they didn't know and had no right to remember the matter.

A gag order has been issued...

Although they were very annoyed, the members of the Greenwich Wise Men Council couldn't really do anything about it. So, in the end, they just let it go.

Where is Ciel, the central figure in this series of events, at this very moment?! After eliminating two people in Sardinia who were unwilling to 'cooperate' and forcing them to 'cooperate', Ciel returned to Italy with Athena.

Then they traveled to a place that Ciel had not anticipated—Matterla.

Matera is located in the Basilicata region of southern Italy and is the capital of the province of Matera. It's a very remote and impoverished area with poor transportation, resulting in slow economic development. If it's famous for anything, it's that it has been the filming location for numerous movies, making it a unique tourist attraction in Italy.

The history here dates back to the Neogene period, when permanent villages emerged in Matera due to changes in climate. Later, it was colonized by the Greeks and Romans, and subsequently conquered by the Byzantines, Lombards, Normans, Arabs, Slavs, and Aragonese.

It was complete chaos.

“So… are you sure this kind of place can summon the arrival of a disobedient god?!” Walking through the Matera complex, which is mainly composed of multi-story buildings, Charles asked Athena beside him, “Isn’t this just an ordinary movie shooting location?”

"That's not necessarily true!"

They were still dressed in their Greek robes, but apparently, due to some inexplicable influence, neither the local residents nor the tourists with their digital cameras noticed the presence of Sharl and Athena. Therefore, Athena, dressed in what appeared to be cosplay or movie costumes, didn't cause much of a stir.

“The descent of a disobedient god requires the existence of a ‘medium’—and the medium can be many things, such as an altar with a priestess, a divine artifact, a specific area… or even just a similar thought, or even something that is merely a tangential connection.” Athena replied, “…and one reason I chose this place is indeed because it is more convenient—it is a suitable place that those mortals unintentionally created.”

"magician?"

"No!" Athena replied with a meaningful smile, "Just ordinary humans!"

"That really is a miracle!?"

“Because Pandora opened the box of calamity, releasing disaster, but she didn’t let hope leave that box!” Athena sighed. “...So hope and miracles are things that naturally belong to humankind.”

No, gods can also perform miracles. For example, a certain bald demigod used hope to go on a killing spree, slaughtering your counterparts from other dimensions along with him.

Ciel thought to himself.

Are you thinking about things that are bad for me?

No! You're mistaken!

……