"Eternal Sun" never expected that "True Creator" would launch a sneak attack on him!
He certainly couldn't have imagined that, due to a lack of crucial information, the "god of knowledge and wisdom" before him had been switched.
However, "Eternal Sun" reacted quickly, spreading the sunlight around himself to drive away the curtain of darkness that was surrounding him.
But the next second, something amazing happened: the "God of Knowledge" actually threw the "blasphemous tablet" in his hand to the "True Creator"!
The first "blasphemous stone tablet" came to the side of the "true creator," and the upside-down giant reached out to catch it. A surge of power suddenly converged on him, and he fell from the huge cross. The cross ignored the scorching sunlight of the "eternal sun" and floated behind the "eternal sun."
No matter what power the "Eternal Sun" used to attack the cross, the cross remained unmoved and even absorbed a large amount of sunlight's power.
The "god of knowledge" suddenly removed his hood, and even his long beard was removed, revealing a fair-skinned man underneath.
His hair was short, mostly jet black, but the roots had a pale yellowish-gold hue. His eyes were pure gold, his skin was fair, his features were deep-set, and his eye sockets were sunken.
"Eternal Sun," who had followed the "Ancient Sun God" for a long time, immediately recognized him, his young face showing surprise: "Too Sunly!"
How could that be!
That was actually the "Ancient Sun God"!
The God of Knowledge looked at the Eternal Sun with indifferent eyes: "You are guilty! You have betrayed your Lord!"
As if hearing its master's command, the enormous cross instantly nailed the "Eternal Sun" to the cross and is now desperately absorbing the power from the sun.
The originally scorching sunlight dimmed.
"Eternal Sun" stared at "Ancient Sun God" for a while before smiling and saying, "Yes, I am guilty."
But I don't regret it!
There has never been only one sun in the sky!
The "God of Knowledge" said nothing. The "Book of Knowledge" floated up again, and tiny specks of brass-colored light moved quickly, outlining one mysterious symbol after another. These symbols seemed to be guided by some power, turning into javelins made of symbols, which shot towards the immobile "Eternal Sun".
"Eternal Sun" took a deep breath. It was finally coming to an end. Everything was about to end!
He believed that those he had once followed would never abandon humanity.
One javelin after another pierced the body of "Eternal Sun," each javelin striking a weak point in his body, altering key nodes and causing him to rapidly disintegrate.
In an instant, the sun in the sky disappeared!
A series of meteorites, seemingly glowing, rapidly slid towards the horizon, turning the ground golden in some of the places they fell.
It was as if the sun had fallen to the ground, and some "meteorites" were suspended in mid-air, forming tiny suns.
But soon, as all the meteorites fell, the sky turned pitch black, the kind of pitch black where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Those tiny suns, along with the golden light emanating from the ground, could only illuminate a very small area.
People seemed to remember something.
Those memories are the fear of the long darkness of our ancestors in the distant First Age!
Fortunately, the sky brightened up again in the next second, and the sun reappeared.
However, the sun seemed smaller than before, and its light was weaker.
This is because, at this moment, what hangs in the sky is the unique path of the "sun"!
The Celestial Masters' conjectures were correct. Within the uniqueness of the "Sun" pathway, there is a strong spiritual remnant of the "Primordial God." The "True Creator" and the "God of Knowledge" even confirmed that as long as one ascends to Sequence 1 of this pathway, one can be influenced by the "Primordial."
It seems that the "Eternal Sun" must spend a lot of energy fighting against the "Primordial".
This also explains why the "Ancient Sun God" was able to awaken during the Second Age using the "Sun" pathway as its foundation, precisely because this pathway was an important contingency plan for the "Primordial" resurrection.
Therefore, neither the "True Creator" nor the "God of Knowledge" is certain of the uniqueness of the "Sun" pathway, and thus neither can make it the new Sun of this world.
Thus, the "True Creator" came to the Astral Plane with the uniqueness of the "Sun" pathway, settling his divine kingdom there, replacing the "Eternal Sun," and supporting the barrier together with other deities!
To the surprise of the other gods, the "true creator" was not in as bad a state as everyone had imagined. He was able to maintain sufficient rationality and clearly know his purpose at all times.
Although his open appearance in the starry sky will certainly increase the power of corruption and shadow in this world, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. At least six gods are needed to protect the barrier, and the absence of even one will create numerous gaps.
After the "True Creator" arrived in the Astral Plane, he attributed the uniqueness of the "Sun" pathway, which resulted in beings being slightly smaller in size.
The sun is slightly weaker.
Moreover, the processes of sunrise and sunset can only be completed under the control of the "True Creator" using the first "Profane Slab".
So from today onwards, until a new "sun" appears, the sun's trajectory in the sky will be relatively rigid, and it is even possible that the sun will be in the center of the sky in the morning.
When the sun shone on Trier again, people discovered that all the strange phenomena in the sky had disappeared. The blinding sunlight was gone, as were the tower, the tranquil fields, and so on.
Because the moment the God of Knowledge removed his hood, the Primal Witch had already fled, while the victorious God of Knowledge and the Goddess of Night returned to the Astral Plane.
They divided the spoils of this battle: the "True Creator" took the uniqueness of the "Sun" pathway, the "God of Knowledge" took two Sequence 1 traits, and the "Goddess of Night" took one Sequence 1 trait.
The skies above Trier returned to normal, but the members of the Church of the Eternal Sun felt as if they had been dealt a heavy blow from top to bottom.
Then, important members of the church received different oracles. Some oracles told them to join the church of the god of knowledge and wisdom, while others told them to join the church of the creator.
All the key members understood what had happened: the "sun" had fallen.
Most of them acted according to divine decree, preparing to contact churches of other gods.
A small number of key members couldn't accept this and chose to leave the church to become wild extraordinary beings.
At this moment, on the edge of the raging sea, near the coastline of the northern continent.
The storm raged, with lightning and thunder.
There is a huge church that stands as firm as a mountain in the storm.
Amidst the howling winds and thundering clouds, a vast, dense forest suddenly sprang up!
The trees that make up these forests don't know where they came from; they just appeared suddenly and then suddenly absorbed a lot of water from the dark clouds and grew wildly. Even the "Lord of Storms" felt that a lot of spiritual energy had disappeared, affecting his abilities.
Immediately afterwards, a voluptuous female figure emerged from the dense forest, holding a staff in one hand inlaid with a small moon and a phantom infant in the other.
The "Earth Mother" suddenly attacked the "Storm Lord" from the dark clouds. The dense forest was still growing wildly, with vines and tree canopies wrapping around the "Storm Lord".
The "Lord of the Storm," who was already at a disadvantage, seemed to realize something and suddenly let out a laugh that sounded like the surging waves and the cracking of the seabed when a tsunami was just formed.
The next second, a giant made of lightning appeared in the sky. Lightning and gale-force winds pounded the dense forest, setting the vines ablaze with white flames, while wind blades sliced through the wildly growing tree canopies.
The illusory waves ceaselessly wash over Adam's ossuary.
After a few seconds of standoff, the thunder giant suddenly stopped. Adam had used the time after the appearance of the "Earth Mother" to strengthen the spiritual remnants of the "Elf King" within the "Lord of Storms." Adam then used this opportunity to attack the "Lord of Storms'" spirit and mind.
The moment the Thunder Giant paused, a vine pierced the chest of the "Lord of Storms." From the part of the vine that protruded from his chest, leaves grew, some constantly emitting hurricane-like sounds, and others producing illusory waves.
Flowers bloomed on the vines; the flowers were white, and the buds kept flashing with silvery-white lightning.
This is a plant that grew after the vines absorbed a large amount of life force from the "Lord of Storms".
In the next instant, the Church of Bones seemed to descend from the sky, enveloping the "Lord of the Storm" within it.
The "Lord of Storms" had already won the battle of spirit and mind, but was weakened by the influence of the "Mother Earth Goddess". Before the huge cross of the church, a man with pure gold eyes, fair skin, deep features and sunken eye sockets appeared.
He muttered to himself, "Too sunny—"
Adam used the second "blasphemous tablet" to "imagine" the "ancient sun god," allowing himself to reach half the level of the Old Day within seconds.
However, all of this power comes from the "Desecrated Tablets," so only half of the Old Ones' abilities can be used.
In the next few seconds, the ossuary was bathed in sunlight, shimmered with bronze hues, and its doors and windows turned black. The "Earth Mother" in the distance seemed to hear a series of whispers.
When the man with golden eyes before the cross transformed back into Adam with his long beard, the doors of the Bone Church reopened, and a ball of light radiating lightning emerged. It was caught by the "Earth Mother," her spoils of war—a Sequence 1 trait of the "Tyrant" pathway.
The next second, all the waves of the ocean disappeared, all the raging winds vanished, and the entire ocean became extremely calm, or rather, eerily calm.
A few seconds later, waves and wind reappeared on the sea.
This is not because a new "tyrant" has emerged, but because all the rules of the sea have returned from the "tyrant's" unique path to the natural world.
Only when someone re-accepts the uniqueness of the "tyrant" path will the authority of the sea return to its uniqueness.
After that, Adam's Church of Bones rose rapidly, flew high into the sky, and entered the astral plane.
He took over the position of "Lord of Storms" and worked hard to maintain the Earth's barrier.
In the astral plane, Odis's battle with the "God of Steam and Machines" continues.
The clear light and hazy glow illuminated a starry sky, and this battle, which spanned from the real world to the astral plane, attracted the attention of many Outer Gods.
Because of the barrier, they can only watch and cannot help either side.
Of course, we will not help either side; we would rather these two gods suffer heavy losses.
The "God of Steam" is now hiding in his own divine kingdom, a virtual world composed of dynamic images.
He had previously used his divine kingdom to trap Odis.
Therefore, Odis was not unfamiliar with this place. Once he entered a certain scene, he would truly enter an era of human civilization.
In such a situation, it is easy to be influenced by the "God of Steam" in one's way of thinking.
But things are different now. Odis is also a true god and will not be easily influenced.
However, Odis was unable to completely break through the divine realm of the "God of Steam" and find the god who had already hidden himself. At this moment, Odis was in a scene belonging to the Steam Age. He looked at the busy workers and the carriages coming and going.
The rumbling machines realized that the battle had reached a stalemate.
However, Odis soon found a way to break the deadlock; the lamp in his hand lit up, emitting a clear and bright light.
Then, starting from his feet, the surroundings gradually changed. The horse-drawn carriages on the street turned into floating cars, and many green plants appeared on both sides of the monotonous road, making the whole road full of life.
In the billowing smoke of the factory, the enormous steam engines were transformed into spiritually driven machines, and the factory, which used to burn large amounts of coal, was now heated by spiritual energy, while the exhaust gases were also treated.
The workers, who were originally busy, are not so busy anymore, and the fatigue on their faces has disappeared.
Child laborers in factories have completely disappeared, and the streets are now filled with students carrying schoolbags, walking home together amidst laughter and joy.
Just moments ago, it seemed like an industrial age dominated by gray tones, but it quickly transitioned into a clean, tidy, and futuristic spiritual age.
Odis, carrying a lantern, smiled and said, "I've upgraded the industries here for you, and the upgraded industries can generate more additional profits, which will allow us to invest more funds in public works." He continued, "I won't go into the specifics of the operations, but I'll ask you one question: How do you feel, as an 'Enlightener,' as..."
"Perfectionist," are you doing your job well?
After a few seconds of silence, Odiston answered himself, "I can tell you definitively that you are very incompetent!"
"The steam age has little to do with you; you merely borrowed Russell's achievements in 'steam' and 'machinery' as your own anchor."
"But this isn't your achievement after all. At most, it can only help you digest the potion. But even if the potion is digested, your condition is still not very good, right?"
All the characters and objects in the scene paused simultaneously.
Odis curled the corners of his lips; he knew he had guessed correctly.
This is actually because the "God of Steam" has not found his own "Tao"!
He has followers as his anchor, which basically helps him maintain his state.
Without a personal anchor, it's easy to fall into confusion and bewilderment.
To put it more bluntly, the "God of Steam" did not understand the meaning of his own existence!
Odis continued, "You don't know how to enlighten human civilization because you are not human yourself. It is difficult for you to predict the development trend of human civilization and human society. You don't know when you should intervene in human civilization, or even how to intervene in the development process of human civilization."
"So you can only be the 'God of Craftsmen' because a 'craftsman' only needs to have skills and doesn't need to consider overly complex issues."
"Even now, you are not a qualified 'Enlightener'," just like in the thousands of years before the Fourth Age. You have followed me through so much, and you were an 'Enlightener' in the Third Age, but your 'Enlightener' potion has never been fully digested.
"And now, you are not a qualified 'perfect one' either." Just from the fact that you call yourself the 'God of Steam and Machinery,' you have completely misunderstood the meaning of "perfect one."
The scene where Odis was standing trembled noticeably, as if a violent earthquake had occurred.
He continued unhurriedly, "Humans don't need a god like you—ha, you might say that the needs of humans, who are as fragile as ants, are irrelevant."
"It may not matter to intelligent beings on other planets, but it's different for intelligent beings on Earth!"
"The ancestors of the intelligent beings here were directly conceived by the 'Fallen Mother Goddess,' and each intelligent being is influenced by the 'First Creator,' so every life form here is unique."
"Do you understand? The reason why the role-playing method works so well on Earth is precisely because of the special nature of humans, which can provide sufficient feedback to the extraordinary person who is playing the role!"
Do you truly understand what God is? Do you truly understand the relationship between God and humanity?
The scene where Odis was located collapsed completely, and not only that scene, but the entire divine kingdom of the "God of Steam" was collapsing.
Amidst those fragments of scenes, Odis strolled forward as if in a leisurely garden, and all the "fragments" parted to make way for him.
In front of him, against the backdrop of a dark starry sky, stood a man who looked to be in his thirties and somewhat resembled Ellebella.
That was none other than Yorgos Stiano!
The current "God of Steam and Machinery"!
In Odis's memory, Yugos was male, perhaps because the "Perfect One" was biased towards the feminine magic potion, making it somewhat difficult to distinguish his gender.
He seemed to possess both masculine strength and feminine grace.
"You monster!" Yuggs screamed, his voice trembling with anguish. "Why are you alive again? Why can you always find the root of the problem?"
Odis smiled gently: "You are not suited to be a god."
He took a deep breath and said, "The end of the world is coming. If we're all just at the level of true gods, we won't be able to do much." Yugos smiled bitterly, "So, am I the one who needs to be sacrificed?"
"Yes," Odis said, "because I can do it better than you."
"Why?"
Odis's expression gradually turned serious: "The fact that you asked that question means you've already lost."
Yugos laughed loudly and said, "You didn't make the rules."
Odis pointed to the faces lying on the barrier and asked, "Did you decide this?"
"All I can tell you is that you haven't even figured out what the rules are!"
Yuges was clearly taken aback.
Odis took a deep breath and raised the lamp in his hand: "Come on, let's solve this with a fight."
Yuges glanced at Odis, and suddenly, the two attacked simultaneously. The clear light and the hazy radiance merged together again, and they clashed.
In the clear, bright light, a huge human figure suddenly appeared, as if the figure was drawing something on the ground.
The patterns he drew were very ethereal, octagonal, and used horizontal and vertical lines to represent different symbols.
Mystery reappears: Fuxi draws the Eight Trigrams!
The "reproduced" Fuxi drew the last stroke, and the simple Bagua immediately began to rotate, as if the entire starry sky and the entire universe were rotating along with it.
To Odis's surprise, Yugos did not dodge or resist his attack at all.
Instead, he let himself spin with the Bagua.
Yorgos suddenly chuckled: "You're right, I might really not be suited to be a god."
The Eight Trigrams seem to contain a vast amount of knowledge, leading to new understandings of the entire universe and nature.
This knowledge also includes explanations and definitions of deities, sufficient to analyze the "God of Steam and Machinery," which leads to the gradual collapse of Yggs, whose figure then disintegrates.
Odis took a deep breath; he hadn't expected Yugos to give up the fight.
However, he suddenly remembered what Elbera had once told him: When Yugoss felt he had no chance of winning, he would give up faster than you think.
In this light, it seems that Ellebella understands her brother better.
In response, Odis intends to keep his promise to Elbera and will not actively disrupt the arrangements for Yugos' resurrection.
At this moment, the Fuxi and Bagua that Odis had reappeared disappeared, and only a few bright spots remained in the star realm.
That's a characteristic of Yugos's body.
Odis collected these points of light into the "wilderness of knowledge," and then streams of data appeared around him, forming a simple room.
This room arrived beneath the barrier and connected with the magic array set up by the "Sage" during the Fourth Age. It began to continuously channel spiritual energy into the barrier to maintain its protection of the Earth.
In the starry sky, the outer gods saw that the war of gods had ended and three true gods had fallen, but three more gods had tacitly taken their places.
They all turned their gaze away and waited for the barrier to break.
Odis sat cross-legged in the illusory room made of data and, using the uniqueness of the "Perfect One," issued a divine oracle to the Church of the God of Steam and Machines, ordering them to immediately surrender to Remnburg and accept the reorganization by the two angels, Bernadette and Elbera.
The extraordinary members of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery sensed the fall of their god and were thrown into chaos.
But soon, the Pope stepped in to take charge, and the situation quickly improved, as most people were not so opposed to the annexation of Remberg.
Of course, many extraordinary individuals couldn't accept this and took advantage of the chaos to escape.
The two angels sent by Odis took over the entire church. They were able to immediately issue a reorganization plan without using the personnel information provided by the Steam Church, and their grasp of the personnel was extremely accurate.
This left everyone in the Steam Church in disbelief. They were then amazed by how powerful Remburg's intelligence department was, as if the Steam Church had no secrets from Remburg.
What they didn't know was that the demigod in charge of personnel in the church had long been under the surveillance of President Odis of Remenberg.
Odis did not establish a church, but instead reorganized the Steam Church into seven research institutes, which, together with the original Remburg Research Institute, made a total of eight research institutes.
The existing churches will be converted into laboratories, and all missionary activities will be stopped.
All the bishops and priests who had not taken the potion were also recruited. They were generally well-educated and, after training, could return to their hometowns to become teachers in public schools.
Among those who were incorporated was Bernadette's brother, Bonova Gustave.
Odis, after examining the situation through Bernadette's perspective, discovered that Bonova was loyal to the uniqueness of the "Perfect One" path.
It is not any deity.
The situation is indeed a bit special. Although it was promoted to Sequence 2 using extraordinary traits, it has a deep connection with the uniqueness of the "Perfect One" pathway. This connection is somewhat like the relationship between the Old Ones and the Gifted Ones.
Odis investigated and discovered that this was a special ability of the "Perfect Person" pathway, similar to "overwriting" Bonova's thoughts and memories.
The former "God of Steam" used his authority to cover Bonova's humanity with certain consciousness and ideas, turning him into the person he is now, seemingly possessing only divinity and devoid of humanity.
In fact, the human aspect is covered by some restrictions and rules imposed by the "God of Steam".
Odis is currently unable to recover from this, because Bonova voluntarily gave up her self, and no "backup" of her humanity was given beforehand.
However, theoretically it is possible to restore it. That is, to use the ability of "reproduction" to regain Bonova's humanity and then "cover" the things that were covered up by the "God of Steam".
However, this can only be achieved after Odis has also grasped the uniqueness of the "Perfect One's" path.
When the people sent by Remburg were conducting the final personnel and sealed artifact counts of the Steam Church, they discovered that when the "God of Steam" fell, two demigods had defected with a level 0 sealed artifact.
That "0" level sealed artifact is equivalent to Sequence 2 "Knowledge Mentor" of the "Generalist" pathway.
Not long after, a new deity appeared on the Northern Continent, known as the "God of Craftsmen." Everyone knew that this was the original "God of Steam," but Lenburg did not actively attack this deity or this organization.
Astral Plane.
After Odis finished incorporating the Steam Church, he focused on building his own divine kingdom.
After thinking for a moment, he first created a field composed of a large amount of data. Deep within the field, there was a towering, angular building.
Its shape is somewhat like a human base built on another planet, only much taller.
Because it is composed of data streams, the building looks very sci-fi and futuristic.
After constructing the main hall, Odis invited the former pope of the Steam Church and Bonova to serve in his divine kingdom.
Other gods have angels or demigods serving them, but Odis found this practice meaningless and a waste of his high-level, extraordinary power. For Odis, having invisible servants to run errands for him was sufficient.
At this point, Odis still summoned the two angels to his divine realm, mainly to facilitate Bernadette and Elebella's control over the original steam church. Only after everyone had adapted to life in the research institute would Odis allow the two angels to return to the real world.
Responsible for specific tasks.
While the steam church was being remodeled, Remenberg's steel torrent also entered Trier.
By this time, Trier had completely lost the will to resist and was soon completely occupied.
To Odis's surprise, Calvin Payne, the president of the Republic of Intis, led the remaining forces of the Intis army to retreat to northern Intis and declared that he would fight to the end.
After a brief rest in Trier, Medici continued his offensive northward and quickly occupied almost the entire territory of Intis.
But Calvin formed a resistance army and continued to wage guerrilla warfare against the Remnburg army.
Although this would take up some of Remburg's forces, it was unlikely that the resistance would surge, because the Remburg army had not harmed any ordinary civilians in Intis, so most people did not have much resistance towards the Remburg army at present.
In the future, as Rembrandt's pro-people policies become more widespread, resistance will gradually diminish.
In this way, the resistance will increasingly lose its basis for existence.
Intis was destroyed by fire, so who will be the next country to be destroyed?
The other three kingdoms sadly discovered that even when they united, they were no match for Remberg.
Thus negotiations began, and ultimately, Rune ceded the Takwell Plain, the Fusak Empire ceded a large territory including the Antals Mountains and to the east, and the Kingdom of Feneport ceded all its territory in the Central Plateau, as well as the coastal territory of Dixi Bay.
From then on, Remenberg had exclusive control of Dixi Bay.
Another condition proposed by Lenburg, which was difficult for the other three countries to accept but had to, was that only the royal family of the Fussac Empire was allowed to have one angel, while the ruling classes of the other two countries were not permitted to have angels.
This was unacceptable to the three extraordinary families that had been established for thousands of years. The reason they had no choice but to accept it was that the Lenburg official who presided over the extraordinary negotiations told the royal families of the other three countries that if they did not accept it, the Lenburg army would destroy their countries, and the "Lord of Mysteries," who was now a true god, would hunt down the angels of the other three countries.
This was the reason the other three kingdoms had to accept it, because at least in this way, the royal families of Rune and Fenneport could survive.
The reason the Fussac Empire can still retain an angel—in fact, they only have one angel now—is entirely due to the preferential treatment given by Odis out of consideration for Medici. After two months of negotiations, Lunburg became a country occupying two-thirds of the northern continent, while the other three countries became vassals.
They should be thankful that there aren't enough "extraordinary puppets" available, otherwise they wouldn't even qualify to be vassals.
Furthermore, the changes in the church and the true gods left ordinary people in the Northern Continent feeling completely lost.