Chapter 193: Silver Dignity

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

Iron Bloodline, Bronze Body, Silver Dignity, and Golden Will were the separate ranks the humans had created for each power level, and each rank contained endless amounts of hard work, blood, and tears.

The Silver and Gold species didn’t have any need to classify ranks in such a manner as they were innately born above the so-called Silver and Gold. In their eyes, possessing such low-ranked power classifications was no different from giving their children power classifications, something which was deemed entirely unnecessary.

Yet, for humans, each rank represented a foundational change in the warrior’s power level.

Iron Bloodline and Bronze Body—these names were already self-explanatory. Human mages at these levels could create mana circuits within their bodies, while warriors could utilize their bodies’ potential. “Bronze Body” was synonymous with “perfect body.”

Of course, this didn’t mean their bodies were actually perfect—it meant that after reaching this level, ordinary humans would no longer be able to drag any more power out of their bodies.

On the contrary, the definition of Silver Dignity was worth wondering about.

After all, it was entirely distinct from the other ranks; the description of “dignity” for a power level was incomprehensible.

“Incomprehensible? After reaching this level, humans can finally have some dignity in front of other species; only this level can help humans be comparable to them.”

“If you only look at the power level, then Bronze and Silver have very little different from each other, but some things can actually be felt when you’re at a certain level. The difference between Bronze and Silver is the difference between the highest level that an ordinary person can achieve and the beginning of an extraordinary person’s path. While the difference doesn’t seem big, they’re actually as far apart as the sky and the ground.”

While this was all rather a vague description, but for the truly strong in Silver, this was as natural as breathing or eating.

Think about asking a person how to breathe or how to use more strength and if there were any techniques to it. Perhaps everyone knew how to breathe, but nobody could say how they knew it or why.

“After reaching the Silver rank, you won’t have to worry about incomprehensible deaths.”

For the strong of the Silver rank, life force and mental spirit were both actual foundational strengths, and they could generate the Qi of a martial artist or the magic ring of a mage to create formless barriers.

They had different effects, but all of them could block outside impacts. The strong of the Silver rank had bodies that were their own domain and could resist against outside forces.

“At the very least, if you can know how you die, then it’s enough to be at a cannon fodder’s level. You can die with some pride.”

“On a true, major battlefield, without being at the Silver rank, it’s not even enough to be cannon fodder. Under major spells cast by Legends, ultimate sword techniques, or a Divine Domain, people would be just like an inanimate rock or a tree with zero power to resist. Just one thought or one look from these high-ranked existences could kill you—and there would be a zero chance of survival. How could I even win?”

In the generation where many species chaotically fought with each other, a young Silver-ranked genius of his tribe had said that helplessly and sardonically about himself.

“And if the enemy is a God, even if it’s only a Low God who just ascended…”

I shouted loudly as I turned my will into a formless barrier to keep out the purple-gray Divine Domain of Withering.

“…If you aren’t even at the Silver rank, with Divine Domains most likely soon to be everywhere, you probably wouldn’t even see your enemy before you die without realizing what’s going on.”

And when I knew that I was about to face God-ranked opponents of Karwenz’s level in the future, I unhesitatingly used all my saved Fate Points, so that at the very least I wouldn’t die without knowing what happened against opponents who possessed their own Divine Domains.

And now, Karwenz had left, but Felix doubtlessly possessed his own, true Divine Domain as well.

From the moment of Felix’s descent, a formless yet still-present Domain already enveloped half the city, and if anyone used any prophecy or detection-related abilities, then they would notice gray-purple smoke present everywhere.

And it wasn’t the doing of Felix’s conscious efforts; it was the side effect of his Obligation as the Poison God, but just this “side effect” was more than enough to kill off the weak.

“Cough—cough!”

The injured behind us were coughing unstoppably, and this was followed by vast amounts of people spitting up blood. The fact that their blood was blackened was evidence of their worsening injuries.

“Mom, I feel so terrible! I can’t breathe.”

In a shelter, a yellow-faced girl with lips turning pale-green was requesting her mother for help, but she wasn’t the only one.

Most of the commoners taking refuge from the war were coughing in the shelters, and the sick were becoming sicker while the healthy suddenly fell ill. The infectious diseases were spreading as they pleased; the Poison God’s Divine Domain of Withering was herding them towards death.

This was also one of the reasons why True Gods were forbidden to descend. True Gods that embodied a concept were always frightening; if they walked about on the mortal plane, they would naturally distort their surroundings.

For example, if the Tempest God descended, then waves as high as the sky would cause destruction in all directions; if the Sun God descended, a terrifying heat would transform the mortal plane into hell—even the descent of the Law God would probably create a strange Divine Domain where any crime would be immediately punished.

Felix was a half-spider, half-elf Poison God, and his new divine job included “the ending of nature (withering poison),” so within his Divine Domain, all living creatures would become distorted, and the chances of acquiring a disease would be vastly increased. Even the healthiest person would become deathly ill if they stayed within Felix’s divine domain for too long.

It wasn’t that all the Gods wanted to cause wanton destruction; it was simply unavoidable for them.

So, no matter if it were the Order Gods or the Chaos Gods, they would try, as much as possible, to avoid descending either in a vessel or with their true bodies. But since Lorci had already descended in her true body, the rules had long since been broken, so it didn’t matter if Felix, who was under her command, broke the rules again.

“…If we don’t defeat him quickly, all of us will die.”

Perhaps this newly-born rule-breaking Poison God would eventually be punished by the other Gods, but if we weren’t able to take care of this God-ranked enemy right before us, we wouldn’t live to see that anyways.

The only part worth celebrating was the fact that the gigantic spider God before us was not very skilled at controlling his Divine Domain; it only spread out naturally from him, weakening the effects to the point where the warriors facing Felix wouldn’t instantly perish just from his Divine Domain.

“Everyone that’s below the Silver rank, retreat together with the citizens, and get as far away as possible from his Divine Domain! It doesn’t matter what your overall rank is, your body has to be at least of the Silver rank.”

Yet even the strong ones of the Silver rank were nothing more than cannon fodder that could last a few seconds. Just being stared at for a few seconds by this gigantic spider would cause many to spit blood and die, but what surprised even me was that my condition was surprisingly good. It seemed that Felix’s Divine Domain had no effect on me, which was something not even a Legend rank could claim to be able to pull off.

The domain of my physical body seemed to have completely cut me off from the Divine Domain’s influence. It didn’t seem to be some simple coincidence; rather, it was the special ability of my bloodline.

Host’s willpower is over 20; Host is at the Silver rank. Now that you are under the suppression of a Divine Domain, I would like to congratulate the host. You have awakened your racial talent: Chaos Barrier.

Chaos Barrier: Protect your mind from being suppressed by divine or mental realms. Reduce the effects of anything that attempts to reduce your willpower or vision.

Although the explanation was rather vague and straightforward, it was doubtlessly one of the most practical abilities suitable for my current situation. At the very least, with its assistance, I was able to calmly assess the circumstances, make adjustments, and take command.

What? Go fight in melee combat? With the current me, unless I used some forbidden techniques, I doubt I would cause any damage to Felix. I would prefer to not be suicidal.

“Borealis! Cover us with cannon fire!”

In this long, snow-filled, and back-and-forth battle, the Borealis was pretty much useless during the night when it had no way of seeing anything. However, it still had plenty of remaining ammunition and energy, and as I gave the command, Envy, who was rearing for battle, instantly turned on all the cannons.

*Boom!* *Boom!*

Numerous explosions popped up like fireworks all over Felix’s body, as the mage towers didn’t rest with their continuous thunderbolts and fireballs. When combined with the sound of explosions, it was truly a grand scene.

Unfortunately, in front of the astonishing defense of a True God who had descended into a vessel, these mortal technologies and spells couldn’t even break through its defenses.

However…

“This is enough for a smokescreen—Amelia!”

“Hah!”

With a shout, the green-haired witch flew up into the air like a meteor, and when she suddenly changed direction downwards, she was coming down at a far greater and more frightening speed than an actual meteor.

For the gigantic Felix, that was only an ignorable human the size of a grain of rice, but Amelia’s sudden, tremendous punch made him cry out in pain as he shook all over.

Judging from the dark-green poisonous liquid spurting out from his wound, this punch had pierced through his heart.

Amelia had used her strength to demonstrate that experience trumped power. Even if her ability was naturally countered by Felix, she was a veteran SemiGod; she still had her way of battling.

When the elite warriors of the allied armies rushed over to the spider’s side, they all stopped suddenly.

“There are sticky substances on the ground! Be careful; there are also invisible webs!”

That was, unfortunately, their final words. Felix, who had just received such a heavy impact, angrily activated his Divine Domain at full force, causing a gray-black poisonous mist to spread everywhere. The closest warriors to him were the first to fall victim to it with strange rashes appearing all over their bodies. And just like that, they fell over while still staring in angry disbelief.

Seeing the way those warriors had died so pitifully, the warriors behind them began hesitating. Since it had come to this, none of them were afraid of sacrifice, but the sacrifice had to have meaning.

What was most fortunate, however, was that the interference of a God was sure to bring another God’s intervention to balance things out. When Felix descended into Adrian, some existences could finally have an excuse to interfere; our reinforcements eventually arrived.

A familiar, brilliant silver light descended. Wumianzhe’s will had always been watching this battlefield, and when the enemy’s True Gods ignored the rules and did as they pleased, it was time for him to interfere as well.

When that light dissipated, an entire military squad appeared before us. Those various flags were rather nostalgic, and the familiar faces caused several shouts of surprise.

“Dragonslayer Bastlar! That’s a Legend-rank hero’s spirit!”

“Isn’t that General Lololer? She died just two days ago on the battlefield, and General Bastlar is dead as well! How are they alive?”

“Idiot, they’re heroic spirits now; didn’t the True God make a declaration earlier? Any warrior that died for the sake of defending this land would be able to become a true heroic spirit.”

This cruel war had caused countless brave Northland warriors to die on this piece of land, but it also allowed the newly born Guardian God of the Northlands to open up his own Hall of Valhalla for heroic spirits. And, right now, under Bastlar’s leadership, this newly born heroic spirit squad re-entered the mortal plane.

Each thrown spear transformed into a bolt of lightning as the sword-wielding heroic spirits began slicing the spiderweb. They now had the advantage, and Felix was forced to retreat, but a fierce look gleamed from his eight eyes as he once again sent more power into his death-inducing Divine Domain.

This time, however, the effect was minimal. The heroic spirit squad before him actually ignored the threat of his Divine Domain and even took the opportunity to unleash a fresh round of attacks on him.

Just a little thinking helped me understand the reason for Felix’s pitifulness.

Heroic spirits were of the undead to begin with, and they were only souls, without physical bodies like living creatures. Of course they wouldn’t become distorted from Felix’s life-altering Divine Domain, and it was obviously impossible for them to become poisoned. This was the natural counter to Felix’s powers.

Perhaps the most attention-grabbing person on the battlefield was Dragonslayer Bastlar. Innumerable sharp weapons appeared in midair as precious mystical weapons rained down upon Felix like a storm, with ancient elven magical rune scrolls spreading across the entire area. From the very start, Bastlar was going all-out.

During the dragon-slaying battle, he had temporarily reached the boundary of a True God’s level through the help of the power boost provided by the Great Judgement. Now that he understood this power, which was as unstoppable at the ocean, and with the Elf God’s Divine Obligation and Divine Authority right before him, he would, of course, give it his all. The master he had sworn loyalty to had obviously indicated that Bastlar could proceed in increasing his rank.

Huge spears kept piercing into Felix’s body, the cannon fire kept raining down from the Borealis without a break, and the witch’s ambushes were deadly with every punch. The Poison God found that he was actually forced to the brink as the injuries on his body kept increasing.

But even so, just the heroic spirit squad’s combat power by itself was insufficient to deal with a God.

“Spider’s Gray Forest!”

For Felix, the opponents before him were a bit difficult to deal with, so he was forced to use his power—the power that he had just barely learned how to use. The Concepts of Nature, Elves, Corrosion, and Withering all melded together as the Spider Prince Felix transformed nightmares into reality.

In his Divine Domain, countless strange plants suddenly sprouted; those plants were twisted and ugly, and these stinky trees were growing at a tremendous pace before soon transforming into a bizarre, thick forest. In the darkness of this forest, there were many massive magical beasts with eight legs and multiple eyes, and these nightmares then came to life and entered the battlefield.

Everything before us was now a scene of utter chaos. It didn’t seem to be a many-against-one battle at all; it had now transformed into something resembling a battle between two armies.

But this wasn’t the only chaotic battle at the Red Maple defense line. At a place not far from here, two real armies were testing each other’s mettle.

On one side, it was the beastmen of the plains that had come through Emordilorcan’s tunnels. At the very beginning, the Earth Elemental God had come to an agreement with Amon Bloodaxe to not complete the tunnels, as they didn’t want the beastmen of the plains to take away their combat achievements.

But when the battle reached a stalemate, Amon and Emordilorcan finally resolved themselves to summon new reinforcements.

As for the forces fighting against them, apart from the diverse species of Underground “demons,” there were even more elves.

But Felix’s delight was destined to go unanswered, as those elves weren’t his reinforcements.

Apart from the quiet Underground allied armies, there were also thirty thousand elves of a new species. Their gray-black skin was very similar to the skin of the dark elves, and they had also accepted Lorci The Fallen Goddess’ power at one time. Now, however, these elves had a slightly lighter skin tone, and under the leadership of a banshee princess, they had broken free from Lorci’s control and stood against the dark elves.

The Underground armies combined with the grayblood elves were on guard against the beastmen from the plains that had arrived after traveling a great distance. Both armies remained vigilant against each other, but neither army seemed to have the resolve to bring it to direct combat.

And in the military camp, as Suana gazed at the gigantic spider in the distance, which was the size of a small mountain, she had an expression filled with worry. After all, she knew that that was her father—the person she used to trust the most, the person she used to respect as a perfect king.

“Humans, who are innately such a weak species, are fighting to protect their home, but our elf tribe is still suffering from disasters. Our entire army and tribe have turned into fallen elves, and even our king has transformed into a monster. Perhaps nothing can save us now that it’s come to this. Father, is this what you wanted? Is this your so-called pride as royalty?”