Chapter 71 Rewind Magic (3) May it grant your soul…
Soldiers armed with weapons surrounded Xia Ying. Xia Ying slowly retreated, observing the situation while trying to understand the current circumstances as quickly as possible.
It is known that this is a point in the past, when Tartarus called himself "Priest of the Gods" and was angered by being called "Lord of the Demons"... In other words, the last god was still alive at this time, and Tartarus had not yet become Lord of the Demons.
Finally, one of the soldiers adopted an attack stance, and Xia Ying temporarily stopped thinking and raised her weapon.
Just as the battle was about to break out, the sky suddenly changed color, and dark clouds rolled and gathered, casting an ominous shadow over the earth.
Tartarus glanced at the sky, his expression grave, and said, "The war of the gods is about to begin! Get to the underground shelter quickly!"
The soldiers' expressions changed drastically. They immediately abandoned their attack on Xia Ying and turned to run towards the giant statue.
Xia Ying was confused by the sudden neglect and was caught in a dilemma. Just as she was about to make a quick getaway and think things through, Tartarus flapped his wings and flew towards her.
Xia Ying was caught off guard when her arm was grabbed. Strange magical fluctuations from the other party enveloped her, and her body began to shrink... quickly becoming only half the size of a palm.
Tartarus took her in his hand and flew with her toward the idol.
Caught off guard, Xia Ying struggled fiercely, "Let me go!"
Tartarus glanced at her, readily releasing his grip. The gust of wind immediately blew Xia Ying away, and before she could be flung into the sandstorm, she grabbed onto one of Tartarus's feathers, swung herself into the collar of his robe, and clung tightly to the folds of the fabric.
Xia Ying's arrogance subsided slightly, but she still said confidently, "Never mind, let's release it later."
Tartarus scoffed, but mercifully allowed her to hide it in his chest: "Who are you? A scout sent by the enemy god?"
"Absolutely not!" Xia Ying said firmly, "I just accidentally fell here!"
They had arrived in front of the statue when Xia Ying noticed an entrance at the foot of the statue. The soldiers quickly and skillfully crawled into the ground through the entrance one after another.
Tartarus was the last to enter. He waved his staff and sealed the entrance with magic. Before the skylight was closed, sandstorms raged across the ground. Through the sandstorm, Xia Ying turned her head and vaguely saw two hurricanes descending from the distant sky.
Tartarus stood quietly inside the entrance for a while before turning around and continuing deeper into the underground shelter.
Xia Ying climbed out of his collar, sat comfortably on his shoulder, and looked up to ask, "What's going on outside?"
"The god we serve is at war with the enemy."
Oh! The legendary war of the gods!
She continued, "Where has the war progressed to now? How many enemies does the deity you serve still have?"
"You don't even know this?" Tartarus replied. "The war is almost over. After defeating the last enemy, He will become the sole god."
Xia Ying murmured unconsciously, "So that's how it is..."
"What do you mean by 'as expected'?" Tartarus suddenly stopped, pulled Xia Ying off his shoulder, and stared at her coldly. "You also have the ability to foresee the future? Who exactly are you?"
"Could you be a god too? Only gods can use precognitive magic." Tartarus tightened his grip slightly, but then gently loosened it before Xia Ying felt uncomfortable. "But as a god, you are far too weak."
He was lost in thought for a moment: "Perhaps it was precisely because you were exceptionally weak that you were not noticed by the other gods and thus escaped the divine war..."
At this moment, Tartarus seemed to have sorted out his thoughts and turned to Xia Ying to ask, "Since you can foresee the future, then tell me, what is the outcome of the War of the Gods?"
Xia Ying immediately said, "Just as you thought, your god has won the final victory."
Tartarus then asked her, "Is that all?"
Xia Ying sensed the underlying meaning in his words, but she remained cautious and did not reply casually.
“Then let me ask you another question,” he said. “In the future you see, do gods still exist?”
"..."
Tartarus added, "If you tell the truth, I won't kill you. But if you continue to play dumb..."
“There will be no gods in the future world,” Xia Ying said truthfully. “The last god has also died.”
Tartarus finally smiled and continued walking forward: "So, we succeeded."
"So you're really planning to kill a god?" Now that the other party had revealed her secret, Xia Ying asked out of curiosity, "But why? Aren't you His priest?"
“Initially, it was indeed we who chose Him,” Tartarus said. “Among the many brutal gods, He is powerful and wise, giving me and my people hope for survival.”
"Ah, so the creatures of the abyss chose to serve the gods in order to survive..."
The holy priestess with pure white wings frowned and said, "What are abyssal creatures? Why do you always speak so offensively?"
"Huh?" Xia Ying was also taken aback. "Then what race are you?"
“Now only two races remain in the realm of the gods: gods and their inhabitants,” Tartarus said unhappily. “The gods are indeed powerful, but the inhabitants are not corrupt.”
Xia Ying repeated, "The God Realm...?"
She immediately shut her mouth and began to gradually understand the situation.
At this point, the Demon Realm was not the Demon Realm, but the Divine Realm. Abyssal creatures did not exist; they were perhaps concepts that arose later. Xia Ying guessed that this change was related to the death of the last deity.
“I’m sorry, I apologize,” Xia Ying said sincerely. “I want to hear more of your story… You chose to serve this current deity, and then what?”
Tartarus reluctantly forgave her, and barely managed to say, "Then came an extremely long war."
How long?
"The war between the gods has lasted for more than fifty million days and nights."
“As the number of gods decreased, the wars became increasingly terrifying,” he said. “The surviving gods gradually lost their reason and compassion over the years. Their desire for victory outweighed everything else, and many of their people died in the conflicts… and it eventually evolved into the situation we see today, where in the war of the gods, every living thing on earth is affected.”
"So there's nothing on the surface, and you have no choice but to live in underground shelters," Xia Ying said thoughtfully, then asked, "But isn't the war about to end?"
Tartarus stopped in front of a stone wall.
"The war may be coming to an end, but the strife is not. Our god has been completely immersed in the joy of conquest, and He has set His sights on more distant places."
Xia Ying asked in confusion, "But He is about to become the sole ruler of the divine realm, so where would He find any other enemies?"
Tartarus did not answer, but Xia Ying thought of a possibility on her own.
Beyond the realm of gods, there is indeed a place that can be conquered...
"His appetite is growing, and now perhaps only the authority of the creator god can satisfy Him."
Tartarus did not give a direct answer, but his words confirmed Xia Ying's guess.
He struck the ground with his long staff, and the stone walls opened to the sides. Xia Ying heard the sound of flowing water, and the settlement of the gods was revealed before her eyes.
The six-winged priest stepped into the settlement, and Xia Ying, who was sitting on his shoulder, couldn't help but tug at his hair: "Is it okay that you brought me here too?"
"..." Tartarus seemed to only realize the problem now. He was suspiciously silent for a moment, then said indifferently, "This is to better monitor you."
Xia Ying: This is just being stubborn, absolutely stubborn.
At this moment, she realized that the other party seemed to have given her extra preferential treatment since they met. This familiar feeling made her open the [Abyss Dangerous Creatures Encyclopedia].
Perhaps because Xia Ying is in the past, all the entries already included in the encyclopedia are displayed as unselectable gray, except for the entry for "Lord of Demons".
Xia Ying opened Tartarus's page and found that the synchronization rate, which had previously been displayed as a question mark, finally had a number.
And it's as high as 35%.
"I see, I see!"
Xia Ying sighed, trying her best not to be too obviously happy, but her smugness was still hard to hide in her suddenly relaxed demeanor.
She nestled comfortably against Tartarus's neck, reaching out to poke his cheek: "And then?"
“…Don’t do that.” Tartarus tilted his head slightly, looking a little uncomfortable, which made Xia Ying chuckle. “There’s no more then. The gods of today can no longer give us hope, so we made our decision.”
He walked toward the underground river, and the people of the gods, seeing his arrival, gathered around him, kneeling and bowing their heads.
Tartarus washed his hands in the clear water, then went to each of the gods and gently stroked their hair.
He gathered magic essence at his fingertips, cast a spell to soothe the souls of his companions, and whispered, "May God bless you."
The blessed people calmed down and left one by one until only Xia Ying and Tartarus remained.
Tartarus gently took Xia Ying in his hand, placed her by the river, and broke free from her binding magic.
Xia Ying returned to her original form and watched the people leave: "Where are they going?"
“They are going to prepare to kill the god,” the pure white priest answered calmly. “We will act after He has defeated His final enemy.”
"Since you've already decided to kill Him, why bother blessing Him in the name of God?"
“Because the gods did indeed protect our past, and we kill them in order to secure our future,” he said. “Many of the gods’ people are troubled by this, even though they are not shaken… This blessing can bring them greater peace of mind and temporarily relieve them of the torment of betrayal.”
Xia Ying asked, "What about yourself? Don't you also bless yourself?"
Tartarus shook his head slightly: "Only gods can bless priests. And I am no longer qualified to ask the god I serve for a blessing..."
Xia Ying suddenly said, "Priest, come closer."
Tartarus instinctively took a step toward her, then immediately stopped, looking at her hesitantly.
Xia Ying mimicked what he had just done, dipped her hand into the water, then stood on tiptoe and touched Tartarus's forehead with her finger.
Magical light gathered at her fingertips and then disappeared into Tartarus's forehead.
After doing all that, Xia Ying muttered as she withdrew her hand: "Is that how it is? It should be about right."
She turned her gaze to Tartarus, who was staring at her in astonishment.
"Although it is just an insignificant and weak deity..."
She smiled at him.
"However, in this way you will also receive God's blessing."
"Tartarus, may it bring peace to your soul."
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