This was a battle of attrition. There was Thief God Milton, a meek and not-so-resourceful deity. On the other side, there was a grandmaster alchemist with an infinite supply of mana gems and forty ancient battle forts. It seemed the fight was over from the start. Thief God Milton was sent into the starlight defensive circle, and no one, not even Abel himself, expected that a divine spirit with extreme speed and stealth would be trapped like this.

Thief God Milton didn’t expect this, of course. He was very confident until he was inside the golden castle. He didn’t think that all his skills would be countered once he was inside the golden castle. He smoothly bypassed all the circles, but as soon as he used his power of the Will, the dark spirit made it so that he had absolutely no way to hide. On top of that, with the combined analysis of the research spirit and the circle spirit, the golden castle managed to make the most sensible responses in the shortest time possible.

The five holy crystals were boosting Thief God Milton’s fighting capabilities immediately, but it was still nowhere close to breaking through the starlight defensive circle that was supported by the forty battle forts. Perhaps the starlight defensive circle was not the sturdiest defensive mechanism there was, but it was definitely the most complex one there was in terms of how difficult it was to bypass through. The self-recovery function, for instance, made it so that all kinds of attacks would have to be repeated several times to have any actual effect.

Thief God Milton tried to break out of the ancient walls for a while. After two hours of frantic attacks, he finally started to slow down. Meanwhile, many had already sent messages to ask what had just happened. The golden castle had just done an emergency evacuation of all the incoming guests, so all the organizations that were connected with Abel, one way or the other, began to show their concerns.

Wizard Clemens of the Wizard Union Intelligence Agency was the first to make an inquiry. Following that, it was the elves, the dwarves, and the lightning clan. Within two hours, Abel made replied as he could. The excuse was the same. He explained it as he was testing his brand new spell circle. He didn’t want anyone to interfere in a fight that he knew, very early, that he had won.

After the five holy crystals were all used up, Thief God Milton just lost the confidence to continue on with the fight. There was not much divine power left inside his divine body, so the most he could do was to keep his divine body intact.

Thief God Milton started saying something that Abel didn’t expect, “I surrender to you, Grandmaster Bennett!”

Having heard that, Abel was actually not sure what decision to make. He did remember seeing the god of war in sleep, but that was the work of the Wizard Union. It really had nothing to do with him. He had no experience handling a divine spirit himself. For instance, he knew that a divine spirit couldn’t be killed. He knew that for sure. If it was so easy, the Wizard Union wouldn’t have to go through so much to keep divine spirits imprisoned.

Also, for a rank 25 law-defying wizard like him, Abel wasn’t even sure if he had the capability to keep a divine spirit imprisoned in one location. If Thief God Milton was trying to break through from whatever state of captivity he was putting him in, he would have a lot to worry about. The first thing would be that he might be killed for revenge, and he did not think that the starlight defensive circle was going to work a second time.

Now, the dumbest idea Abel knew was to keep draining Thief God Milton’s energy until he was going to sleep. This was probably the safest way he knew.

Abel asked, “So what are you going to guarantee with your surrender, Thief God Milton?”

Thief God Milton wasn’t sure how to respond. They were in a stalemate. Abel had the ability to capture him but not the ability to keep him under control. Milton chose to surrender, but Abel wasn’t accepting that.

Suddenly, the starlight defensive circle started moving on its own. The Firetooth Battle Fort that was on the side started moving its way into the starlight circle. While Milton was still trying to find an appropriate answer, he felt a strong energy ripple that made him feel very threatened. As the energy cannon of the Firetooth Battle Fort started recharging, an endless streak of explosions started igniting from the inside of the circle.

The components of the energy cannon were, perhaps, the least effective attacking method of the Firetooth Cannon. As ineffective as it was, the attack should have some sort of impact on the surface of the battle fort. Still, since the attack was inside the circle, all the damage would be dispersed constantly inside the battle fort. Everything was kept under control. And it wasn’t like Milton had any space to run to avoid the hit of the energy cannon. Every time there was an attack, a golden light would start flashing on Milton’s body. This was all the divine spirit inside of him making an automatic defense.

What was happening now was technically opposite to what just happened. At the start, Thief God Milton was just beginning to unleash an attack. The starlight defensive circle was taking the hits passively at the expense of draining energy. Now, the Firetooth Battle Fort was unleashing hits that Milton had to take. A lot more divine spirit was wasted because of this. Milton was five meters tall, but the excessive energy expenditure was making him shrink. After a few more hits, his body started getting smaller and smaller. Once he was about 3 meters tall, his divine body just stopped shrinking altogether, which was actually his “minimum size.”

Thief God Milton was losing all sense of pride, “Stop attacking me! I’ll be put into sleep if you keep this going! I beg you, Grandmaster Bennett! Don’t put me to rest!”

Things were not looking good for Thief God Milton. With all the hits he was taking, even the clothes he was wearing were starting to wear off. He was just a naked deity who was exposed to all the attacks that were thrown at him. Abel’s power of Will was pushing the Firetooth Battle Fort to stop moving. He wanted to know some things about the divine spirit, so he didn’t think that he was going to slip a chance like this.

First of all, what he needed to do was to do something about the divine invisibility cloak. It must be the reason that Thief God Milton was able to track him and find him.

Abel spoke, “Thief God Milton, I need you to surrender ownership to your invisibility cloak. You should know what I’m talking about!”

Thief God Milton was screaming, “Yes! I know! No problem!”

It wouldn’t matter what happened to Milton’s divine items if he was unconscious. The chances of waking up again were, well, very slim. Thief God Milton made it a snappy choice to cut ties with his invisibility cloak. It was not good that he was losing some power of the Will, but he was willing to make the sacrifice.

Abel was just starting to understand the special reaction that was taking place inside the invisibility cloak. It was with him for a while now, but this was the first time that he felt something so different about it. Yes, his power of the Will could now make contact with the ownership circle without facing any resistance. Within the ownership circle, there seems to be a lack of energy as Thief God Milton just surrendered any right to own it. Milton’s power of the Will was flowing out of the circle, and actually, Abel was not planning on wasting any of this energy. After claiming ownership over the ownership circle, he started wrapping Milton’s power of the Will with his own. As the power of the Will just lost the ability to resist, it just became a part of him.

Abel’s reach with his power of the Will just went from 1600 meters to 1650 meters. With a satisfied look on his face, Abel withdrew his power of the Will. Now that the invisibility cloak had a new leader, he didn’t think that he should keep the mystic headband attached to the cloak. As he separated the two, he decided that the mystic headband should stay inside the divine portal bag. As for the invisibility cloak, now that it was truly his divine item, he decided to merge it with his own body.

Abel smiled, “We can have very smooth conversations, Thief God Milton. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Thief God Milton was starting to have hopes, “Does that mean you can let me go, Grandmaster Bennett?”

Abel lost his smile very quickly, “Are you assuming that I’ll spare you just because you gave me an item that was already mine?”

Thief God Milton had to ask again, “What else are you after, then?”

Abel replied, “It’s simple, Thief God Milton. I’m curious about the kind of heritage the divine spirits pass to each other. Can you make a copy for me?”

Thief God Milton paused for a bit, “That’s already banned by the Wizard Union. What use would you have for it?”

The divine spirit heritage was Thief God Milton’s, so he could give only what he got. Naturally, Milton didn’t want Grandmaster Bennett to know too much about divine spirits because that would put him at a great disadvantage. He was already a prisoner now. If Grandmaster Bennett began looking into this kind of stuff, he might just develop a way to keep divine spirits. Yet, if he wasn’t giving the stuff away, Abel might just attack him until he was put into a permanent sleep.

Abel continued his coercion, “I don’t have a complete set, Thief God Milton, but you should know about my connection with the Goddess Temple. I’ll be verifying whatever knowledge you pass to me, so be very careful if you’re thinking about lying to me.”

As a matter of fact, after receiving the divine spirit heritage, Abel knew for certain that he was going to find the elves of the Moon Goddess Temple for verification. He was not going to test whatever he was taught without some sort of guarantee. One wrong step and he knew he was going to be in a very bad place.

Thief God Milton was kind of happy to hear this, actually, “Of course, Grandmaster Bennett. No lying from me. Just reach your power of the Will. The dark mist made it so that I couldn’t extend mine.”

A simple tactic. Thief God Milton was pretending that he was making contact with his power of the Will to pass on the divine spirit heritage, but he just wanted to seize control over Abel. Abel wasn’t stupid, of course.

Abel smiled, “All good, Thief God Milton. My spirit will be connected to yours. You just pass on what you know to my spirit.”

As soon as Abel finished his sentence, the ancient steel surrounding Thief God Milton touched his head and stuck out a long steel rod that touched Thief God Milton’s forehead. Thief God Milton could only pass on all he knew without trying any tricks. He didn’t want to give in so easily, obviously. The divine spirits heritage had a very difficult time being passed around in this time. On the one hand, there was the Wizard Union and their oppressive acts. On the other hand, There were a lot of rivalries going on between divine spirits, so if Abel really verified with the Goddess Temple, Thief God Milton would still be in a lot of trouble.

Abel, on the other end, didn’t care what Thief God Milton was worried about. He just wanted knowledge, so under the help of the world stone fragment, he allowed the knowledge to be passed over completely. He didn’t know if what he was receiving was correct or not, so he began checking immediately.

Abel saw some records about the holy crystals. From what he was reading, there was a lot of use of these precious materials. One important use was that it was a currency used between the divine spirits. The holy crystal was like a hard currency for divine spirits to trade with each other for. There were a lot of uses, but the sources were always very limited.

Another use for the holy crystal was that it could help to build up divine bodies. A lot of faith power would have to be harvested over the years, and the quality and quantity of devotions received from the followers were very relevant. The process would always be long and arduous if it was just done with the follower. If done with the help of just ten holy crystals, a divine body would be built very quickly.