My attempts to pull the orb into my realm failed. Apparently, I could only transport my believers without paying a heavy price. So I simply waited for Amon and watched as the velmoryns, still confused by how easily the battle had ended, began moving the bodies toward the small building where Vaelari conducted his experiments.
“Priestess,” Amon called out to Tekla, who unlike the others showed no sign of relief. “You wanted to meet me.”
“Uh? Ah, right. I beg forgiveness for welcoming you in this manner. Despite you being the son of our Father, the velmoryns should be solving…”
“Please don’t worry about that,” Amon interrupted, offering one of the gentlest smiles I had ever seen. In truth, his face was far too kind for the purpose I had designed him for. “I don’t mind helping you. In fact, I prayed to the Lord and asked for permission before attacking that demon, and He allowed it…”
“I’m relieved,” Tekla said, forcing a small smile. Though even Amon noticed it wasn’t genuine.
I, on the other hand, knew exactly what troubled her - she was disappointed.
Disappointed in her inability to make quick decisions and lead the velmoryns. Even I, who knew almost nothing about warfare, had noticed how indecisive she had been during that brief confrontation. And this wasn’t the first time.
First with Eralon, and now with the demons…
Still, I wasn’t angry or displeased.
Partly because I could always step in and guide her when necessary, but mostly because with so many experienced warriors in the tribe, Tekla would inevitably improve. And that, she was always eager to do.
“Lucas,” she called. “Please inform the council to gather at sunset.”
Giving a small nod in response, Lucas turned toward Eriavel. Slowly, he had become Tekla’s personal guard and messenger - a role no one had ever assigned to him.
With that matter partly settled, Tekla glanced back at Amon and gestured for him to follow as she walked toward the temple.
“Wait, I must bring this to the Lord,” Amon said as he stepped over to the orb and carefully picked it up. He first covered it with his cloak, then wrapped it tightly so his hand would not touch it directly.
Well, at least he is somewhat cautious.
“How?” Tekla asked, her eyes widening. Then she added in a solemn voice, “You… you are allowed to enter His kingdom at will?”
I noticed that she had grown gloomy again. Lately I had been paying little attention to Tekla, since I rarely needed her. And with the six months I had spent slumbering, she had gradually convinced herself that I might be angry with her.
The griffin I had given her had helped for a while, but the creature ate far too much and needed to hunt constantly to grow strong and healthy. And since my present couldn’t stay with her to serve as a reminder, she had grown anxious again, like a child afraid she had been scolded.
Amon seemed to understand that much as he shook his head in response.
“No, I need the Lord’s permission to enter His kingdom,” Amon lied without the slightest hesitation. “But why did you ask that? I wouldn’t dare to bother our Lord when I can simply sacrifice it through the altar.”
“The altar…” Tekla murmured, glancing aside to avoid Amon’s gaze.
“What?”
“Father has not been accepting our sacrifices since winter.”
Huh? I haven’t been?
Leaving them for a moment, I shifted the Window to the temple to check if the altar was broken.
There were blood stains on it. Not many, but considering how often Tekla cleaned it, the velmoryns must have attempted a sacrifice even today and failed.
I completely forgot about this…
The automated process I had created - Red Grima accepting a droplet of blood and revealing the believers’ status windows in return - had completely stopped working. Red Grima was neither sentient nor capable of making decisions when the system warned about the penalty, and since it couldn’t communicate with me either, I had remained completely unaware of the problem.
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In a way, it was fortunate.
If Red Grima had continued accepting sacrifices and paying the cost to transfer each droplet of blood into my realm, I might have woken to find my divinity completely drained.
The thought alone made me uneasy. Losing all my divinity would mean losing the ability to act entirely.
But the believers were almost as important as divinity itself. And not accepting their sacrifices… well, if it did not damage their faith in me, it certainly would not strengthen it either.
Knowing the easiest way to fix this problem was to create another avatar, I didn’t overcomplicate it.
However, I wasn’t planning to make anything as elaborate as Amon. All I needed was a creature capable of delivering my believers’ sacrifices. And those sacrifices would not always be mere droplets of blood, so the creature couldn’t be too small or too limited.
One glance at the altar was enough to make the decision. It already had a basilisk carved on its surface.
With the decision made, I prepared to shape the vessel but stopped myself before channeling my divinity. Creating Amon had cost far more than I had expected, and I suspected the reason was that I had used my own divinity to shape the vessel. That had been the only real difference compared to when I created the basilisk. Because even if Amon possessed enormous potential, was it truly greater than what a basilisk could offer?
Let’s try using the blood the velmoryns sacrificed.
A sphere of blood, barely larger than a human head, drifted toward me from across my realm. It had formed far away, so it took a moment to reach me. Along the way it even bumped into the little Avenor I had created while experimenting with new magic, but instead of bursting and spilling the blood, the sphere simply split and quickly reformed.
As it approached, I formed a clear image in my mind - a small basilisk, no longer than twice the height of an adult velmoryn and roughly as thick as their torso. At first I had intended to make it much smaller, but I realized that if the velmoryns ever sacrificed larger items than the sphere, I would be forced to create another, bigger one. I wanted to avoid that.
The sphere of blood shimmered as my divinity swirled around it. Other colors began mixing into the red as the perfect circle stretched and slowly took the shape of a basilisk.
Then I quickly cut my hand and pushed it into the forming body. This time I did not restrict its intelligence, though I ensured it would never grow larger as its sole purpose would be delivering sacrifices.
[Warning: Astral Rebirth consumed 150 Divinity Points!]
I stared at the blue window floating before me, satisfied that my guess had been proven right. Yet the pleasant emotions that should have followed were dulled by the strange exhaustion settling over me.
For the first time since becoming a god, I felt the urge to sleep. My eyes were heavy, though I had no eyelids to close, and each thought that passed through my mind felt distant and unfocused.
Guidance.
[Astral Rebirth]
Although you can freely divide and regenerate your astral body, the ability comes with a significant cost. Until your core capacity surpasses the limitations of a lower deity, you cannot recover more than half of your astral body within a year.
If this capacity is exceeded, you will collapse into forced slumber lasting one year.