I Reborn as a God Within a Statue, And You Ask Me to Enslave All Gods?-Chapter 122 --A Schizophrenic

"What is that? Such a blazing light!"

"The cathedral—it’s near the cathedral!"

As Owen ignited a blazing flame that reduced the cathedral to ashes, the villagers near the surrounding mountain range all looked on in shock and horror.

As locals, they had grown up knowing never to approach the area around the cathedral. Once someone went there, they never returned.

That place was home to an Aberration, a forbidden zone for all nearby villages.

Even when awakeners from Black Iron had come here in the past, they only dared to observe from afar, never daring to venture deeper, let alone recklessly attack and eradicate the Aberration.

Yet now, a mysterious being had destroyed the cathedral!

They could even hear the anguished screams of the Aberration!

"What on earth happened there? Such terrifying power... If I had been touched by that flame, I’d have been reduced to ashes too."

At that moment, an elderly silver-haired man who had been training deep within a nearby cave abruptly narrowed his eyes in the direction of the cathedral.

He was already advanced in age and had chosen to seclude himself here in solitude in hopes of extending his life through arduous cultivation. After three long years, he had finally succeeded in advancing.

Originally, he thought that upon his breakthrough, he would reign supreme over this region.

But to his shock, an even more terrifying existence had emerged within Black Iron!

The cathedral, along with the Aberration inside, had been annihilated—easily and effortlessly!

It was simply appalling.

Even from afar, the blazing fire exuded a terrifying aura that sent chills down his spine.

Immediately, he summoned a magical mirror before him.

"Mirror, mirror, what just happened at the cathedral?"

As the silver-haired elder spoke, mist swirled around his mana core, and the mirror revealed a vivid scene of the cathedral being engulfed in flames—as though the cathedral was right before his eyes.

It was a terrifying scene, the likes of which he had never seen in his lifetime.

But as the flame’s wave of power surged, the magical mirror’s glow quickly dimmed, and the scene vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

The elder’s heart pounded with dread.

Could someone like him—a tier-4 peak awakener—really bear witness to such an overwhelming sight?

"I had thought that advancing my cultivation here while keeping an eye on the cathedral would be a light task... I never imagined things would turn out this way!"

"But perhaps it’s for the best. The Aberration left behind by that grinning demon has now perished. I’ve fulfilled my surveillance duty—I should hurry and report this back."

After a moment of thought, he concluded that this was no longer a place he could afford to linger in.

Whether it was the mysterious being who had effortlessly obliterated the Aberration, or that savage, powerful smiling demon—he was no match for either.

Now that the Aberration was dead, this place would undoubtedly become a hotbed of turmoil.

With that decision, the silver-haired man swiftly began drawing ancient runes in the air with his own blood.

As the runes appeared, a peculiar energy began to ripple outward.

Once he finished drawing, the blood-inked runes dissolved into streaks of crimson light and vanished.

He then turned to look at a stone-carved door embedded into the rock wall, pressed the magical mirror against it, and the solid stone shimmered like a pool of water. With a single step, he passed through the mirror and departed.

"Fortunately, I have a Sacred Vestige like this magic mirror to assist me—otherwise, who knows how much time it would take to return."

"But even if I return, there’s little I can do with my current level and strength."

"The leader told us to endure and wait for humanity’s rise... but when will that day come?"

"In this lifetime, will I truly witness the day when humans rise up and are no longer treated as food for spellbeasts?"

The silver-haired man let out a sigh filled with quiet sorrow.

...

Inside the statue.

Owen stared at the mist-shrouded Lv1 Order fragment floating before him, and with a focused thought, he began channeling divine points into it.

As the divine points, imbued with sacred power, surged into the fragment, it radiated a golden glow that scattered the surrounding mist. It shone brilliantly, like molten gold.

Then, Owen sensed a pure, divine pressure emanating from it—like a 1-Star Ancient God standing before him.

"Not bad. Even though it was fused into such a state, I still managed to purify 100 Lv1 Order Fragments."

This generous harvest had somewhat exceeded Owen’s expectations.

Indeed, the best way to amass wealth was to go after spellbeasts and Aberrations.

Next, Owen placed the Lv1 Order Fragments into the system’s pawnshop—he was curious to see how many divine points he could exchange them for.

"A single Lv1 Order Fragment can be exchanged for 70 divine points? That means all of these are worth at least 7,000 divine points!"

"I wonder if there are other Aberrations near Black Iron that have reached tier-6?"

Owen muttered curiously to himself.

Those Aberrations were all outside his current territory, and unless Thomas ventured deep into their domains, he couldn’t determine their tiers.

What made Aberrations so dangerous was their unpredictability—their aura was ever-shifting and cloaked by Order. Without getting close enough to probe, their true strength remained hidden.

That’s why Thomas would need to go deeper into Aberration zones for Owen to make accurate assessments.

Shifting his attention, Owen looked toward the rune floating before him—shrouded in heavy resentment.

This rune radiated such deep-seated hatred that Owen, upon focusing on it, felt as though he were submerged in an ocean of wails—thousands of voices crying out in agony and fury.

The auditory pressure alone nearly gave him tinnitus.

Though his mind was affected, Owen still sensed a distinct magical fluctuation.

"Doppelgänger Spell!"

The cathedral’s most renowned skill!

The nun from before had used this very spell to create numerous clones.

It was an extraordinarily unique technique.

But based on Owen’s probing, learning this spell wouldn’t be easy.

At the very least, one had to suffer from schizophrenia, or possess an anomalous soul.

While an illusory body could be shaped with mana, the intricacies of the soul couldn’t be recreated so easily.

Unfortunately, all of Owen’s devotees were deeply devout and mentally stable—none had abnormal or fractured souls.

Though powerful, this Doppelgänger Spell was completely inaccessible to his current followers.

"Maybe I should try putting it up for sale..."