Linde's crystalline body slowly picked up the largest fragment of the god-slaying weapon.
This fragment, shaped like a broken sword tip, has incredibly sharp edges. Even after countless ages, it still exudes a chilling aura and an absolute malice towards divinity.
The power of [Deconstructing the Halo] is focused on this with unprecedented intensity.
The data stream in the purple eyes was no longer a rushing river, but transformed into a nearly solidified, extremely condensed vortex of stars, pouring all computing power into the ultimate analysis of this fragment.
The fragments seemed to come alive in his "hands," and the deepest information within them, buried by the impact of time and divine power, was forcibly extracted, stripped away, and reconstructed.
The scene began to flow rapidly before his eyes, traversing countless ages—
What he first "saw" was that familiar chaotic battlefield, the birthplace of the God-Slaying Prototype: the final blow between the Lord of Light Veins and the Lord of Shadow Abyss, the Prototype shattered, fragments flying everywhere...
Time flies, and a large fragment of the proto-embryo floats in the void. It carries the divine blood and the last fragment of the will of two supreme beings. Its properties slowly evolve in silence, becoming increasingly dangerous and ominous.
Then, a "hand" pierced through dimensions and precisely grasped the fragment floating in the spacetime rift.
It was not a hand in the physical sense, but an energy aggregate composed of countless pure yet cold and ruthless magical runes and chains of rules, radiating a magical divine majesty as vast as the starry sea that Lind could never mistake!
The goddess of magic! Tiolantis!
Then, the scene changed.
In a strange dimension beyond description, composed of pure concepts and laws, the will of the God of Magic, like an invisible hand, manipulates the most primal forces in the universe.
Stars were forged and dimensions were folded.
The fragment of the god-slaying embryo was thrown into it, undergoing unimaginable forging.
The God of Magic did not add any other materials, because there was no other substance in the universe that could surpass the "qualities" of this original embryo itself.
What He did was to "shape" it, to completely "activate" and "sharpen" the god-slaying characteristics it contained within, which originated from the dual divine blood of Light and Shadow Abyss!
Countless divine runes, so complex that Linde could not fully comprehend, were imprinted into every microscopic particle of the fragment, transforming it from a "material" with the potential to kill gods into a true weapon specifically designed to "slay gods"!
Its form was finally fixed—a long, dark spear with naturally broken patterns on its blade, yet containing supreme sharpness and the law of death!
The point of the spear seemed to make even the laws of nature retreat in fear.
The scene changed again.
The spear was forged and silently floated in the dimension of the god of magic, waiting.
Waiting for the right opportunity.
Finally, at a certain moment, the will of the God of Magic fluctuated, carrying a cold resolve and... apprehension?
He seemed to have captured a once-in-a-lifetime moment—perhaps the Holy Spirit Lucius was briefly weakened by a violent fluctuation in the light network, or perhaps some other unknown opportunity.
The god-slaying spear moved.
It shot out silently, not penetrating physical space, but directly crossing the endless dimensions and sea of rules, following the trajectory set by the god of magic, as unstoppable as fate itself, and accurately shooting towards the holy god Lucius, who was maintaining the operation of the light vein in his own divine kingdom (perhaps overlapping with the light vein core of the prime material world)!
The next scene was the same one Linde had witnessed before: a divine body radiating holy light was pierced by a dark spear, its glass-like bones shattered, and golden divine blood splattered like stars, as endless sorrow and deathly silence began to permeate the air...
But this time, he saw more details: the instant the spear struck the core of the Holy Spirit, the divine runes imprinted on the spear by the God of Magic suddenly lit up, not to enhance its destructive power, but to…
"Sizzle—!"
A sharp, mournful cry, as if the laws were being torn apart, rang out in Lind's perception!
He saw that the moment the God-Slaying Spear succeeded, the runes imprinted on it by the God of Magic flashed wildly, forcibly extracting most of the original divinity and core law fragments that had dissipated when the Holy God fell. Then, like tentacles, they suddenly retracted, attempting to transport all of this along some invisible connection to the dimension where the God of Magic resided!
The god of magic forged and hurled this spear not merely to kill gods!
His primary purpose was—plunder!
He plundered the divinity, divine office, and control over the light veins of the Holy God Lucius! He wanted to devour the power of his own kind to make himself more complete and powerful!
However, just as the immense divine power and fragments of law that had been plundered were about to be completely extracted, a sudden change occurred!
At the core of the fallen Holy God, at the wound pierced by the God-Slaying Spear, the remaining power of the Light Vein and the power of the Shadow Abyss (from the God-Slaying Embryo) clashed and exploded in their final and most violent way!
This explosion was not an energy shock, but more like a kind of "formatting" at the level of rules!
It instantly disrupted the plundering runes of the God of Magic, interrupting most of the energy transmission channels!
Only a small portion of the Holy God's original power was successfully seized, while the vast majority, along with the God-Slaying Spear itself, was shattered by this violent explosion of rules and forcibly imprisoned and left in the place where the Holy God fell, which is now the "Place of Holy Fall" where Linde is!
The plunder by the god of magic... mostly failed.
He only received a small portion of the Holy Power, which may have been enough for Him to have some understanding of "light," but it was far from achieving the ultimate goal of devouring those of the same origin and completing Himself.
The truth is now fully revealed!
"So that's how it is... What a god of magic!"
The crystalline body emitted a cold whisper from Lind's true form, echoing in the desolate land of fallen gods.
"You are the god-slayer, you are the plunderer, and you are also the loser."
All the clues were finally pieced together into a complete chain.
The God of Magic, a deity whose power originated from the same source as the Holy God but who took a different path, is the culprit behind the Holy God's fall, the decline of the light veins, and the Holy Church's millennium-long crisis!
He forged the God-Slaying Spear, launched an attack, and attempted to devour the power of the same origin, but failed due to the final counterattack of the Holy Spirit, and only took away part of the results.
The Holy Spirit Church's faith over the past thousand years, Pope Innocent III's struggles and slumber... all of these are merely the aftereffects and ripples of this war of plunder and counter-plunder between the gods.
Linde slowly straightened up, his crystalline body's hands tightly gripping the cold fragment of the god-slaying weapon.
The data stream in the purple eyes gradually subsided, replaced by an extremely cold, abyss-like calm.
He learned the truth.
A dark truth about the ultimate fate of the source of their faith that even the Holy Church itself, and even the Pope, may not be aware of.
And this truth, and everything in this land of fallen gods, now belongs to him.
"The God of Magic..."
Linde's true form slowly opened his eyes at the entrance to the Holy Secret Treasury, a cold smile curving his lips.
"The plunder you failed to complete, the mess you left behind..."
"Now, I've taken over everything."
His gaze returned to the deep cavern, to the solidified sea of light and the remains of the gods.
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