Chapter 45: Skull

Miss Vilyric was no longer the frightened fledgling who knew nothing when she first arrived. After years of continuous travel, she had encountered and learned about many gods. While she couldn’t claim that she could defeat anyone without a doubt, at least she was capable of self-preservation.

However, if a divine battle truly erupted and the aftermath wasn’t controlled, the devastation from this Great Evil God could lead to a terrifying world-class catastrophe. The entire Endless Sea might be affected as a result. If possible, Miss Vilyric hoped to avoid such a situation.

The Primordial Land was not the Ancient Spirit Realm, and she could not rely on ultimate magic to save the world every time a world-class disaster struck; she had no obligation to do so and it would only attract endless trouble.

Thus, how to handle this matter specifically would have to be decided after gaining a deeper understanding of the situation and considering the future developments concerning Hong Yan and the others.

The Great Evil God’s tentacles, though nominally called tentacles, were absurdly wide—one cross-section alone was as broad as an entire plaza, dwarfing the petite stature of the Priestess. Standing on top of just one, it was indeed astonishing how extraordinary the world was.

If Oktaviel had, as Xi Fu Lin described, at least tens of thousands of such appendages, then this creature would indeed be the epitome of vastness that Miss Vilyric had ever witnessed.

Its body alone was as gigantic as a land-sized kingdom’s map, no wonder it could easily annihilate an entire miniature garden. The god-level power truly felt like an unbridgeable gap to ordinary beings.

While examining the tentacle beneath her feet, Miss Vilyric did not forget her true purpose. Spiritual Points transformed into divine thoughts, extending like an omnipresent probe. Before long, she successfully pinpointed the source of the resonating whale sounds coming from above.

Right beneath this massive tentacle.

Shifting slightly, the Priestess got as close as possible to the source of the resonance, the golden light radiating from her becoming even brighter.

Here, the pollution was clearly denser than at other locations; it was likely one of the true sources of the strange powers permeating the entire Ghost Sea.

Could it be that the Great Evil God was using its own body to suppress those strange powers? What on earth was happening…?

Upon thinking this, Miss Vilyric no longer hesitated. She raised her hand to conjure a golden light spear, driving it deep into the heavy, resilient tentacle below her, and sliced fiercely!

“Puff!!!”

Although the surface defense of the Great Evil God’s tentacle was formidable—perhaps comparable to the strength of level seven or even close to eight magic—under the direct action of the Priestess, such passive defense could not withstand her.

The insides of the sliced tentacle immediately gushed out large amounts of indeterminate substance, which was not blood but rather a dark, vapor-like material.

As this substance leaked out and mixed with the surrounding seawater, it gradually stained the water an ink-like murky color, and the intensity of pollution skyrocketed at a visible pace, charging towards the Priestess like a released malevolent spirit!

“Buzz ~”

As the corrosion intensified, the golden light surrounding the Black-haired Girl expanded rapidly, reflecting brilliant light radiating over a kilometer wide, purifying the black seawater in an instant!

“Hmm?”

Miss Vilyric felt slightly surprised.

Why was this usually aloof and icy God of Light working so hard today? She initially thought she would encounter some trouble…

It was puzzling, but it was nice to have this unpredictable entity stepping up. It definitely made things easier.

In that moment, she plunged the light spear several meters deep into the tentacle, even popping open a strange eyeball growing on it, yet despite that, there was no sign of the Great Evil God’s retaliation; the tentacle itself didn’t react at all.

“Just as I suspected…”

While continually digging into the deflating section of the tentacle, Miss Vilyric nodded thoughtfully.

Looking at the internal structure of the tentacle, it seemed not to be genuinely akin to marine life like an octopus. To the Great Evil God, it might be closer to an extension or weapon than a body; it likely felt no pain at all.

Though she still didn’t fully grasp what the leaking, quickly purified dark substance was, it was highly probable it was related to the pollution, indicating that a portion of that power was indeed connected to the Great Evil God Oktaviel…

Nonetheless, let’s first find the source of the resonance.

After digging at least ten meters deep into the relatively flat surface of the tentacle until Miss Vilyric found herself in a sort of cavernous hollow, she finally came into contact with the true Sea Floor Land.

She spotted the object she had been searching for.

It was a piece of pale white broken bone, about half a meter in diameter, flat and curved inward like an inverted pot, with a faint bluish glow glistening on its surface, mostly buried in the sand.

Miss Vilyric had thought that the emergence of this source would surely intensify the surrounding pollution again, but in fact, it did not. Compared to other superficial pollution, the power within this bone was of a higher tier, yet more restrained.

This was a true item related to the divine.

Carefully using her staff, the Priestess extracted it bit by bit, placing it on the ground and sweeping away the surface grime to curiously observe it for a moment.

“Hmm…”

Though it was quite large, it still resembled the bone of a humanoid creature, closely resembling a skull, though only the upper third remained. The fracture’s circular depressions were undeniably the eye sockets.

The breakage beneath the eye looked more like it had been corroded away rather than cut or hacked, appearing somewhat pitted.

Could this… be the remains of the God of Truth?

Impossible, right?

Logically, when a god dies, a body should not remain because a god’s essence is their divine spark, which represents one of the laws that constitute the world and cannot be destroyed by any force. Death merely reduces them to a pure spiritual consciousness, similar to what Xi Fu Lin experienced when sealed, slowly regaining divine power, finding a vessel, or even reconstituting their godly form.

Even in a worse scenario where the divine spark’s spirit is shattered, it simply returns to the pure state of Spirit, awaiting the natural birth of a new consciousness that matches the divine spark.

   

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