"Has the Golden Lion's Den reached level nine?"
"Yes, it happened last night." She took a sip of wine, "I can recruit four thousand Golden Lions per day from here. Once today's recruitment finishes, I'll have an army of ten thousand lions."
"Bring them when we move against the Light Empire. I don't need them taking cities. I need them to feed you exp."
She smiled, "Understood."
"We'll have a few more Supreme Gods before the Divine War begins. That is, if fate favors me… Hahaha! What a weird thing that is. Of course 'fate' favors me."
After all, Svetlana, the Goddess of Fate, was his future wife.
Aria gave him a puzzled look, but he didn't explain.
…
The Imperial Plaza held seven Angel Reincarnation Pools now. Nova had built the seventh before trying to ascend further, and it had gone straight to the ninth level, as everything she built did since becoming a peak High Goddess. Seven thousand adult Angels per day. The number that had seemed ambitious six months ago was now just another Tuesday.
Both Nova and Celestia were mid-ascension now. Nova had Dantean's Godhead to work with and Celestia had Miltonic's. If both broke through as he hoped, the empire's strength would improve exponentially, not to mention that even the God Level Angel Reincarnation Pool would be unlocked at that point.
He thought about what came after that. Celestia, as a peak Supreme Goddess, would be able to revisit the God Monarch Tier Law she'd carried since the Illusory Angel Realm, becoming a Pseudo God Queen from there.
In the knowledge, the only being that could match a Pseudo God Queen Celestia was the Demon Emperor himself. The Titan Lord and the Dragon Lord, both ancient Supreme Gods, were reputedly late-stage Supreme Gods in the Ancient Era.
Even after a hundred thousand years, they should've at most reached the peak. So they shouldn't be in the conversation and nor should be Elunara, who was currently trying to ascend, unaware that Celestia was in the same race. The Demon Emperor remained the fixed point at the end of the road in the Divine War. Everything the Great Aetherium was building was aimed at that collision.
As for peeking into the future of the Divine War, he had considered asking Caelith to try, but the factors involved in that terrifying war would be way beyond the current Angel of Fate. The backlash would be too severe as this was a question the River of Fate couldn't answer cheaply.
…
As Haru entered the Holy Light Temple, he found that it was loud. From the Holy Grail in the center came more than a hundred thousand voices in various states of outrage. The composition was roughly what he'd expected: the vast majority were the souls of Intermediate God Tier Demons, a few dozen High God Tier ones and a single Supreme God Tier, Dantean, whose presence was audible above the rest.
They could all feel the baptism working on them, dissolving their demonic essence layer by layer, and they objected with the energy of beings who had nothing else left to do.
He sent his Divine Senses into the Grail and pressed down, causing the roars to stop.
"You can't escape." He said, "You can't resist. The purification will complete regardless. I'll give you a new life when it does."
He took a pause, "Whether you're willing is not a factor I've included in my calculations."
A fresh wave of roaring answered this. He withdrew his Divine Sense and left the temple. Behind him, the moment he crossed the threshold, the roaring cut off. Abruptly, completely, as if a switch had been flipped. Even Dantean went silent. Whatever defiance they had managed in his presence, they couldn't sustain it in his absence. The more than 100,000 Demonic Souls settled into the quiet of the inevitable.
…
He took the souls that completed their transformation from the Grail—roughly a thousand, their former allegiances dissolved, the holy baptism finished. Among them, some notable ones were:
Kaelix, God of Destruction
Zarek, God of Slaughter
Gavin, Lion-kin God
Maddox, God of Death
The strongest among them was Maddox, who was a peak High God, formerly the brother to Micteya, the Supreme Goddess of Death.
He carried them to the nearest Angel Reincarnation Pool.
[Do you want to spend 1.983 Billion Power Stones to help these souls reincarnate?]
His Power Stone reserves were currently over 68 billion. Less than two billion was a rounding error for him.
"Yes." The pool blazed. Light poured out, and a thousand orbs drifted up, broke open, and revealed creatures that no longer carried the aura of whatever they'd been before.
All of them radiated holy energy now, and all of them looked at Haru with the particular intensity of beings whose faith had been restructured at the foundational level.
Due to racial restrictions, none of them reached the Holy Spirit level of belief that Angels naturally held, but 'fanatic' was their ceiling and it was the next tier. Moreover, a Fanatic God generated more faith power than tens of thousands of mortal believers combined. It was sufficient for him.
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