Sovereign of the Ashes-Chapter 1008: A God’s Wrath

The once-in-ten-millennia Avatar Crisis was a cataclysmic event that reshuffled the power of Faeloria.

Though those cast down from their divine nations were mostly deities of weak and lesser power, the ripple effects of their downfall would inevitably shift the grand game of the gods at the upper echelons.

Who could say how many temples would crumble into dust—or rise anew—in the wake of such a catastrophe?

The last Avatar Crisis had been relatively minor in scale and intensity.

Only about ten deities fell during the chaos. Most were weak deities, and only one unfortunate lesser deity met the same fate.

But in Faeloria’s long history, the most devastating Avatar Crises were those where even intermediate deities were dragged from their altars.

Even after the Avatar Crisis had ended, the gods continued to battle in their divine nations and on the Battlefield of the Gods, driven by resentment and power struggles.

One such conflict had even resulted in greater deities being severely wounded and forced into a deep slumber!

To wound a greater deity—a Rank Six being in the Astral Realm’s power system—was no small feat.

That alone spoke volumes about the scale of chaos that had once engulfed Faeloria!

Knox, the God of Brute Force, was a minor deity who had only achieved godhood twenty thousand years ago.

It had never experienced an Avatar Crisis of such magnitude—it had only heard of it in stories and legends.

It was said that the incident had occurred during the Avatar Crisis a hundred thousand years ago.

Many deities believed that a hundred thousand years marked the cycle of divine reincarnation.

Now, with just two hundred years remaining until the next Avatar Crisis, whispers of it being an even greater catastrophe had begun to spread.

At first, such rumors had only circulated in the smallest of circles. freёnovelkiss.com

But as the fated day drew closer, the whispers turned into widespread speculation.

Even gods as isolated as Knox, who had only a few divine connections, had caught wind of it.

This rumor convinced many deities.

After all, it was said to have originated from none other than the Goddess of Doom, Morvanya.

Being an intermediate deity, Morvanya was weaker than the Bone Lord. However, in Faeloria, she was far more feared than him because she wielded the terrifying and bizarre laws of doom.

At the same time, Morvanya was a notorious figure within the Dark Alliance, and it was rumored that she shared a close relationship with Dark Lady.

Unlike Morvanya, who was widely despised, her sister, Tyvera, was revered across Faeloria.

She was the Goddess of Luck, an intermediate deity everyone sought favor with.

In fact, she was even more popular than Aurelia, the Goddess of Wealth, as both wielded the rare divine ability of fortune.

These two sisters were polar opposites.

While Tyvera aligned herself with the Justice League, Morvanya stood firmly with the Dark Alliance.

Why these so-called sisters had become estranged, ultimately turning into sworn opposites, remained a mystery.

The God of Brute Force, however, had no connection to either the Goddess of Doom or the Goddess of Luck.

Often mocked as an “ape” by other deities, it had chosen to align itself with the Wings of Nature. This faction, known for its openness and tolerance, did not discriminate based on origin or status.

As a result, the few friends God of Brute Force had all come from this faction.

Not knowing Morvanya personally did not mean the God of Brute Force ignored the rumors.

Despite its rugged, beast-like appearance, Knox was a cautious and shrewd deity.

The fact that it had not only survived the last Avatar Crisis but had even gained from it was proof enough.

If it could continue to grow steadily, it would not be impossible for it to rise to become a lesser deity tens of thousands of years from now.

Honestly, even without Morvanya’s prophecy, had there ever been an Avatar Crisis that was easy to survive?

Knox had its enemies—perhaps more of them than allies.

After all, the path to ascension for a new deity had always been paved with the corpses of others.

A divine nation was a deity’s greatest stronghold.

With home advantage and control over the laws of various aspects in their own divine nation, a weak deity could wield strength equivalent to a lesser deity.

For this reason, full-scale divine wars between divine nations were exceedingly rare in Faeloria’s history as the deities seldom left their own nations.

Only during the Avatar Crisis—when the irresistible power of the Tablets of Fate forcibly expelled all weak and most lesser deities from their divine nations—did the gods find themselves vulnerable.

Stripped of their divine fortresses, the gods descended upon the Prime Materia Plane in mortal forms known as avatars.

With their powers drastically weakened, the fall of old gods and the rise of new ones became a frequent occurrence.

For the past twenty thousand years, Knox had ruled its divine nation well. The one hundred thousand believers who resided within it were its most devout followers.

With the combined might of its divine nation and domain, Knox could swiftly assemble a legion of thousands of Transcendent-level warriors.

Even within its nation, there were two Epic-level warriors under its command.

Yet, Knox’s resources were still too low.

More powerful deities had already begun cultivating their own “exarchs”—elite combat units created from the purest souls of their believers.

Empowered directly by a deity’s divine power, these exarchs could wield power rivaling that of a demigod in the Astral Realm.

During the Avatar Crisis, when deities were forced to descend upon the Prime Materia Plane as avatars, their strength at that time was only slightly greater than that of a typical exarch.

For a deity to have exarchs accompanying them, their survival on Faeloria became far more secure.

Unfortunately, the God of Brute Force had no exarchs under its command.

Firstly, it lacked the resources and the quality of believers necessary to create them.

Secondly, even if it had access to such resources, it would sooner invest them in itself than waste them on cultivating exarchs.

Most gods who possessed exarchs were lesser deities or above.

This was one of the key reasons why these deities suffered far fewer casualties during the Avatar Crisis.

In fact, the victims of god-slaying legends on the Prime Materia Plane were weak deities, not their stronger counterparts.

As Knox quietly prepared for the looming Avatar Crisis within its divine nation, it was suddenly interrupted by the desperate prayers of its followers.

At the same time, the threads of faith binding it to its believers were rapidly dwindling!

This was a clear sign that its believers were being slaughtered en masse.

"Who dares to provoke the God of Brute Force?!" Knox’s roar thundered through every corner of its divine nation.

All its subjects immediately prostrated themselves, trembling beneath the sheer weight of its divine might.

In Faeloria, unless two deities had become irreconcilable enemies, conflicts between them rarely escalated into the mass slaughter of believers.

Even intermediate and greater deities deliberately restrained themselves, minimizing widespread bloodshed.

After all, mortal populations were considered a shared resource in Faeloria—too much destruction could destabilize the balance and invite unintended consequences.

Unlike the demons of Purgatory, Faeloria’s native deities had no desire to treat their believers as mere fodder for ritualistic slaughter or training tools.

Knox’s massive face loomed over its divine nations, its gaze sweeping over its lands.

The moment it sensed the Gray-headed Apes of Feymous Canyon being slaughtered, its divine power surged as it turned its eyes toward the canyon.

Unfortunately, what greeted its vision was only a pale red elemental barrier, blocking its divine perception.

It was clear that the purpose of this mysterious layer was to isolate the canyon, concealing the massacre within.

If not for the blood-curdling prayers of its followers reaching its ears, Knox would not have sensed a thing.

A cold unease settled in its heart.

As a god, Knox could peer into the mortal world through the power of faith.

The eye sockets of the sacred sculpture erected at the heart of Feymous Canyon suddenly flared with white light—and a vision unfolded before the God of Brute Force.

The canyon was drenched in blood, and above it, an Epic creature flapped its enormous demon wings.

Within its divine nation, Knox exclaimed in shock, “A demon lord?!”

In the three-level Purgatory of the far west, Epic-level demons were honored with the title “lords”.

Knox had clashed with demons in its early years and had learned just how dangerous they could be.

It was not just the presence of the Rank Three demon lord that unnerved it.

Hovering above the bloody canyon, a massive funnel loomed ominously, gathering blood essence.

Knox’s expression changed.

Deep within its eyes, something else flickered.

Greed.

That funnel was undoubtedly a “divine artifact”.

Even from this distance, Knox could feel the raw potency radiating from the blood essence it collected. Its value rivaled that of an Epic-level dragon’s core.

For the God of Brute Force, who had embarked on a path of passive evolution, it was extremely attractive!