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Chapter 053: The Power of The Union

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Everybody was in a stunned silence.

"He used to be my pet."

Siva repeats, his broad grin going even wider.

It was a challenge to their minds.

"Millions of years ago, we fought in a war dubbed as Ragnarok. Back then, the sky turned dark as the endless Demons of the Devil Gods' Armada invaded the mother planet of this universe. In that war, the Terrans were on a losing streak and in order for them to preserve their civilization, they had to sacrifice Mother Terra's Immortality and put her into the Cycle of Life, making her a mortal. The Gods' decisions were seen by a certain man and in his anger, he began to lose his sanity and kill all and every Immortal, God, and Devil God that he had in his sight. He... was the reason for the beginning of Ragnarok."

All of them stopped breathing. They held their breaths. The truth seeking man listened intently.

They may not be aware of who Vasuki is, but the records of the Church about Ragnarok was also quite trustworthy albeit a little vague at most.

Indeed, there was a detail about the Ragnarok of the past being said to have been caused by just a single man because of his wrath.

Then, before the man could even dig deeper and ask his second question, he realized something odd about Siva's reply.

To be precise, what's odd was the first part of all the things he said just now.

"Your pet?" the man's eyes went wide.

"Yeah. My pet. Vasuki. The Blood Dragon God you speak of and revere as a Supreme God was once my companion... Vasuki."

"LIES!!!"

"BLASPHEMY TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD!!!"

"The great God has no name! He is the Alpha and the Omega of all existence! He is supreme in essence and divinity! How dare you call the [God] your mere pet?! You should die a trillion times for every second you breathe the air he created!"

"Your sins cannot be forgiven! Even if you accept him as your God and Redeemer, your soul will still be eternally put in hell just for the blasphemy you have just committed!"

The two devotees had managed to recover from their 'grief ride' and yelled curses once again.

Siva, this time, turned to them, and stood up. He was still weak and a bit groggy but he managed.

Tai Long moved swiftly and brought the two men in front of him, they held their heads high and put their most arrogant faces to look at Siva.

"We may die today but our souls will be within the embrace of our almighty God!"

"To God is the eternal glory!"

The two men started laughing maniacally. Truly, they have lost their minds. But Siva didn't do any other actions after standing, only looking at them as if they were plebeians in a random street.

After a few seconds of letting the two laugh out loud, Siva addressed the truth seeker, "You now know why Ragnarok started, and you also know how it ended up here, in this current era...."

The man was taken aghast.

"Do your words mean you're a God?" he probed.

His logic being, because the Church was hailing a God then being a master of a God, he should be a God as well, right?

—and not just any god—

—–he should be a revered higher existence than a God of the highest level like their Blood Dragon God... right?

Siva laughed and the two devotees and the five other followers looked at him in silence.

"I used to be." Siva said, looking at his hand. "But now, I started all over again. I found out the truth and I lived an ordinary mortal's life until I... came back here and remembered everything again."

"You're a reincarnation of a God?!!" exclaimed a guy from behind the three stars of the moment.

Siva looked at him, realizing something, "No." he shook his head. Then, he stretched a hand to the devotee on the right, the one who laughed first and spoke the greater of the two. "I have always been a Mortal... a regular man. I came into this world as a mortal soul. I experienced and traveled that thin thread dividing life and death. In a forest in a forgotten, destroyed planet called Mitra I was tested over and over. Over and over...over... and over ...until there was nothing in that forest that could threaten me so I moved on to find a trace of any civilization. And to my very surprise, it was actually the civilization founded by the Gods that I found in Mitra.... It was the Terran Civilization! It was full of life, of prosperity, of vitality, and full of all beautiful things you can imagine in life. And all Gods are there, living, breathing with you, beside you, or one of your friends... or even lovers. The world back then wasn't as bleak and boring as the world we know now today."

The truth seeker listened intently.

He was immersed to the story that he closed his eyes, imagining what kind of civilization it was that it could create such rich history.

Then, Siva went on, he grabbed the man on his right on his head as the same scene as the one with the violet-haired girl earlier started to happen again.

After a second, the [Killing Zone] erupted and it covered every single one of them in the room.

The truth seeker snapped-open his eyes and saw the scene, heard the cries of agony, and realized that he actually have yet to ask the man's name.

If all he said was true, that he was a reincarnated God, and the fact that he was their [God's] owner as a pet —as he addressed himself to— then he shouldn't be a weaker and nameless God during that wondrous prosperous era.

In fact, in his heart, since he already received an answer, perhaps it was time to actually follow the path he originally wanted to tread.

He wanted to follow Siva but he didn't know his name and so he asked.

"May I ask for your name?" he was respectful.

With his tone alone, he already turned his back on the Blood Dragon God Church.

"Siva." through the cries of the man in his hand, the name was spoken and the truth seeker heard it and couldn't help feeling weird.

—Siva?

—As in the current globally celebrated Siva who fought a True Dragon in Alexandria and also trashed an entire battleship from The Union, Siva? That Siva...?

Seeing the confusion on the man's face, Siva bid him a smile and said, "You may also know me of a different name on their records. Back then, they called me the [Protector of the Stars]."

As soon as he spoke his former title, the man in a confused look began to stagger back and fell on his behind.

"Y-Y-You....."

Siva looked at the man and grinned even wider.

"You know me?"

"I-I-I do... Y-Your Ex... Your Excellency..." the man lowered his head and prostrated at Siva. The reset of the Acolytes were aghast.

Who is Siva?

Isn't he just a famed fugitive in Terroa right now?

"You are that Immortal...." The man spoke but his words were spoken with palpable fear on his voice, "there were no exact records of you in the church's archives, but my family has... and in it, the name of the one who started Ragnarok himself was spoken to as a dreaded name. You... are one of the only three Gods of the Trinity!"

Although the records weren't complete, there are still things properly written on them. One of such things was the few descriptions of Ragnarok.

On the records, it spoke of Ragnarok as an era of fear caused by a single man's wrath.

That man had a title... [Protector of the Stars]...

But it was a title that changed after the dawn of the Ragnarok Era.

He became known as The Destroyer!

Although nobody in the contemporary times knew that he has a companion snake, what more of that companion's name, there are records of him—of the person who started the age of Ragnarok and threatened the existence of all Immortals, Gods, and Devil Gods.

For a specific family to have a record of it despite it being only available for really old families spoke of this truth seeker's background.

Siva liked him more and more.

"Heh... do you honestly believe I am that person in your records?"

Although Siva's words cannot be taken directly, it was still a fact that he knows things that only a very select few should be aware of.

Whether what he's saying is the truth or not isn't too important. The important thing is, Siva had already answered his first question and is already enough reason for the man to follow Siva as per their agreement at the start.

The truth seeker smiled sagely, "It doesn't matter whether what you said earlier is the truth or not, what I said earlier is also what I really believed in. You've answered a mystery I seek... I shall be a follower of you from now on."

Siva looked at the man and laughed, "What's your name?"

"My Patriarch gave me the name, Metheus. After an ancient word that meant knowledge. I seek the path of knowledge and truth. I followed the Priest of the Church who invited me not because he'd made me believe that their God is supreme, but because he promised me that he will show me the records in their library."

Siva finally realized, this guy is nuts. But he liked his kind of crazy nuts... this was a person who'll believe on his own path no matter what happens.

Earning the man's loyalty and devotion would be a hard task but he didn't have to care for it. Siva had no plans of being revered as a God. What he needed were strong followers he can use against his enemies and this man was strong aside from being smart and decisive.

He liked this kind of arrangement.

"Well then, Metheus, you're in."

Siva let go of his hand and the man, dead, fell on his face right beside him.

After that, he looked at the other man on his left.

He stretched a hand and at that moment, the man prostrated and bowed his head to the ground and yelled with reverence at him.

"My God! Please forgive me! Please forgive me! I will follow you! I will be your pawn. I will be your slave! Please just don't kill me!"

Everyone in the room was stunned.

Wasn't just now he was tattling on and on about his own faith being so high?

In the end, the fear of pain and slow death shook his belief and his true colors resurfaced.

Siva didn't care if he only had Metheus as the only successful convert within this group. He's in dire need of pawns to follow a few orders and it didn't matter whether they are loyal or not, or if he had to kill everyone else here as he conducts his experiments, he had ways to control them all without any issues.

But still, the more the merrier.

He could only laugh it off.

"Alright then, from now on, you're called Thad."

"Thad accepts... Thad humbly accepts..." As the newly named Thad spoke, he crawled on Siva's left foot and acted as if to kiss it.

Siva kicked him on the face and he stumbled but the man, with a bleeding nose, only smiled and even treated the pain as a blessing.

He was a scumbag to the marrow of his bones.

Siva faced the rest of the Acolytes, "Now, where are we... oh yes, the questio—"

He didn't even finish talking when all of them, at the same time, hit their foreheads on the floor of the room, speaking in reverence and unison:

"""We greet our Lord, Siva."""

Siva was stumped... for words...... and for a very good reason as well.

The fuck is this situation?!!

In the end, of the nine followers, two had died as the other seven followed him out of fear from the pain and suffering they would get if they denied.

He gathered data in his experiments, and he also looted Tier-7 materials that could cast a Tier-7 Shield Barrier Spell.

For the seven 'coverts', Siva made them swear a Heavenly Oath that they will be loyal to him —or at the slightest thought of betrayal they will die by lightning punishment.

One of them had an ulterior motive and ignorant of the Heavenly Oath and so as soon as he made the oath with a half-assed heart, a white lightning bolt came from the sky, piercing through the roof and through the fabric of space, obliterating him where he stood. This was proof enough that the Heavenly Oath is real and it scared them all.

In the end, three died and six became 'loyal' to Siva and became his own personal suicide squad.

After that, Siva asked the important question and the answer he received surprised him a lot more.

"An Amulet?" Siva was surprised. "What kind of amulet were you searching for in this city?"

Metheus said, "It was the longest standing task in the church and for millennia, it was believed by all succeeding Pontiffs that it was an artifact that can solidify our religion to the masses."

"But it wasn't something of a priority but still is a fairly important artifact nonetheless. Is that it?"

When Siva pointed this out, Metheus nodded in a resigned manner. "That explains why although it was an important item to the church, only Elder Kyle was sent to this mission."

"Who has more seniority and standing against that Kyle and Hossain? Hossain is a Cardinal but if I based in on strength, then Kyle is stronger in many levels compared to Hossain."

Metheus and the others were surprised when the name mentioned by Siva but he didn't explain how and why he knew and just waited for a reply.

Metheus cocked his head, "If we're talking about general level of strength, then yes, Kyle is really stronger than the Cardinal but Cardinal Hossain is after all a Cardinal and so Elder Kyle whereas the latter was nothing more than a Priest in the entire organizational structure of the church. To us, the deeper your insight into the Blood Prison Magic, the higher your standing will be and the more of a threat you are to the enemies."

When Metheus spoke at this point, he paused before inhaling and continued, "In fact, I am one of the new Bishops of the Church and should be higher in the rankings compared to Elder Kyle—"

Siva understood the gist, "—but because of the fiery and defiant personality of Kyle, aside from those personally stronger than him in power, he refuses to listen to other people's commands and so in turn appointed himself the leader of this entire operation."

Metheus resignedly breathed out while nodding.

As it turns out, this was actually Metheus' mission but because Kyle was personally the strongest of them, it became apparent that he deemed himself as the leader of the bunch since his personality is naturally prone to such actions.

While there was a silence between them all, there came the slight look of apprehension pointed at Siva's face... or to his mask from the six.

Siva asked, "If the Church learns that Hossain or at least Kyle is dead, what would happen then?"

Metheus blinked, "The Cardinal is dead?"

"It's just 'what if'." Siva hinted.

Metheus narrowed his eyes, "Your Excellency, if I may be blunt, if, in the off chance, that Cardinal Hossain is indeed dead, then expect that where he died will be razed to the ground by at least the Pontifex since Cardinal Hossain and the Pontifex were fairly close within the Church. Add to that that Pope Ajora is also fond of Kyle's personality, there will be daggers directly pointed at you."

Metheus was smart and he understood the 'what if' that Siva talked about. Since he already swore his allegiance to him, he would not dare to hide any information that won't benefit Siva or himself.

Siva squinted behind his mask and leaned back at his chair while his mind was already 'talking' with Mohindra through Cortana about this cataclysmic development of the state of affairs.

He knew, after this day, that a big problem at the level of Baal's invasion in Jeremiah is directly at his doorsteps. This time, however, there wouldn't be the help of the entire planet...

......there would only be him and his enemies.

Without his arsenal of artillery shells, the BMA's many parts —or an improved BMA itself, or more BM-Puppets, and most especially the Blue Falcon Armor which has proved its defense by receiving a direct attack from a Chaos God-level existence like Kyle, Siva knew he cannot even stand a chance to stand in front of any of those two also Chaos God-level existences leading the Blood Dragon God Church.

In fact, Siva even assumed that perhaps they're already unlike Electra who's still a developing pup in terms of general level of strength.

Those two, according to the reports he got from Mohindra's archives, are already adult Elemental Dragons when they entered the Church's folds; they should have already entered the realm of an Elder God in terms of their personal strengths.

They...already had full control over their Dragon Bloodlines and Elemental Alignments.

Their domain should be enough to kill him at the mere contact without the protection of the Blue Falcon Armor... a [Rune Equipment].

They... were coming and he had to be prepared.

At the thought of it, Siva recalled something and he looked at Bishop Metheus with a different set of eyes.

"Do you know who your spies are in the Walled City of Dakar?"

Metheus was first surprised and then understood where the question came from.

As a Bishop, a grade lower than a Cardinal, he was aware of specific information regarding some possible threats to their entire organization. Even Priestess Sandra knew Siva's connection into a certain boy that appeared in Dakar recently so it's not impossible that he wouldn't know of it as well.

"Yes."

After his reply, there was a talk about 'some Intel' about 'some things' regarding the church and the more Siva listened to him, the more he felt both angry and relieved.

Especially in terms of information regarding the Walled City of Dakar... of The Union which stand as the leader of this mysterious powerful nation.

Relieved that his shortage of certain resources will be answered... angry at the fact that the huge name "The Union" he thought was underneath the thumb of the Church was actually a lot bigger than the world of Terroa knows of it... so much in fact that The Church never dared to attack any major city that was under their control.

What more, not one Church Spy had actually ever came as close as the front doors of this Organization.

It signified just how tight their security was.

The reason?

It's because every member of The Union, most especially the population of Dakar, are immortals.

To Siva, this was an even bigger shock.

—you mean to say that all of Dakar was made up of Players and a minimum numbers of NPCs?

——I had to adjust my plans...

Siva pondered over this agonizing discovery but he didn't miss to send similar Intel reports to his allies to make sure that none of them messes up.

He slumped deeper on his chair, his advisers are al silent. Looking at him now, with his tattered attire and that intimidating aura, he was more like a mafia boss in a dilemma than anything else.

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