The Magic Empire for 20,000 years

Chapter 255 The Three Essential Elements of Ascension to Godhood

In Elian's mind, numerous images flashed through his mind of practicing magic, meditating with his eyes closed, honing his magical power, and constantly enhancing his soul strength. It was as if he had just undergone decades of training.

Whether in his past life or this one, Elian was not a super genius who leveled up very quickly.

However, he was the one who went the furthest.

While other geniuses have reached their limits and ceilings, he continues to move forward and reach even greater heights.

"First of all, with the passage of time, I have essentially undergone 30 years of meditation and magical practice..."

Elian raised his right hand and began weaving runes in the air, each movement seemingly imbued with immense power.

His soul energy surged dramatically, leaping from a mage who had just reached the intermediate legendary level to the peak of intermediate legendary, just one step away from advanced legendary.

Considering its magical reserves far exceed those of other mages, its actual combat power is even higher.

"From this day forward, time will be on my side. All spells, spell-like spells, psionic powers, and supernatural abilities in the realm of time, such as [Slowness], [Eternal Stillness], the Time Dragon's [Aging Breath], and the psionic [Time Jump], will be ineffective against me unless I willingly accept it."

"My control over time magic has also improved significantly. When casting time magic spells such as [Higher Acceleration] and [Eternal Stasis], my casting speed can be increased by more than 30%, and the spells are more powerful and harder to be saved from..."

"In addition, he also mastered a supernatural ability."

The invisible power of time gathered in Elian's hands, but did not fully erupt.

"【Time Reversal】. Once a day, I can reverse time by up to 6 seconds over a large area."

"All beings below the level of true god will be reversed and will be unable to perceive the fact that time has reversed. Only I myself can retain the memories before time reversed."

"Even a true god with weak divine power has a considerable probability of being affected. It depends on their state and the type of their divine office."

Elian clenched his fist, feeling the increase in his strength.

He was confident that if he were to encounter an opponent of the "Sun Prince Battle Avatar" level again, he would have a good chance of winning head-on and killing this god's avatar, thanks to his mid-level legendary peak magic power, as well as his Sun Armor, the Bone Dragon, and the supernatural ability [Time Reversal]!

Instead of needing the support of all of Eldoron's high-end combat forces and having to resort to suicidal tactics as before.

Immediately afterwards, Elian extended his index finger, and a strand of gold and silver thread wrapped around the tip:

"Finally, a trace of the essence of [time] still remains in my body."

"Just like the remnants of the original form of Prince Sunrise."

"Divine essence is a wonderful thing; if there's enough of it, it can even be used to ascend to a divine throne!"

The sacred origin is the source of divine power.

Theoretically, after a trace of divine essence remained in Elian, Rabelas permanently lost a portion of his power.

But for a god of moderate power, this is a negligible amount.

According to Elion's research from his previous life, for a mortal to ascend to the throne of a god, three conditions must be met—

Faith, great undertaking, sacred origin.

In theory, if any one element reaches its extreme, there is an extremely small probability of ascending to the throne of godhood.

In later generations, these three paths to godhood were known as—

[Deification through Faith]

【Great Achievements and Godhood】

[Slaying Gods and Becoming Gods]

However, each path, taken alone, has significant drawbacks.

First, there is the deification of people through faith.

There is an extremely small chance that a mortal, who is fervently worshipped by millions, will be deemed by the universe to be qualified to attain a divine position and be granted a trace of divine origin.

Then, the power of faith will automatically shape and refine this trace of sacred origin, turning this mortal into a god.

The principles behind the emergence of various "believers in gods" are similar.

The only difference is that the faith of a large number of mortals shaped the sacred origin that originally existed in the universe, gave it an appearance and a name, and personified the sacred origin, turning it into a god with its own will.

—The faith of mortals has no power in itself, but it can refine and shape the sacred source!
This is the simplest path to godhood, but its flaws are also the most obvious.

Once faith is lost, the mortal who ascended to godhood will immediately lose his divine power, and the god born out of thin air will disappear.

The path Elian took in his previous life was one of great achievements and divine recognition.

Not every great achievement can be deified; it must be a groundbreaking and creative change.

For example, in a world where music is extremely backward, a top bard who composes and performs music, creates various music genres such as symphony and rock, and becomes a musical master surpassing Beethoven and Mozart, and completely connects his image with the concept of "music," has a small chance of obtaining the divine office of "music" and becoming a deity with minor divine power.

This path has fewer side effects, but it is extremely difficult and troublesome. In his previous life, Elion spent thousands of years spreading magical knowledge and promoting hundreds of spells named after himself in multiple different worlds before he gained a brief glimpse of the will of the universe and was granted a trace of the origin of the divine office of [magic], thus becoming a true god.

This is far too long.

It wasn't until later, when El-Erian reflected on it, that he realized:

For a mere mortal to try to gain the favor of the universe's will by establishing great achievements is far too time-consuming and entirely a gamble.

If he has already become a god, the probability of him being watched by the will of the universe is much higher.

Using Earth as an analogy, Elian in his previous life and other mortals who wanted to become gods by building great achievements were like newcomers in the entertainment industry with no background.

They can only gain the attention of the cosmic will and be granted a divine position by desperately "performing".

However, if one has become a god, even the weakest one with only a trace of divine power, then it is entirely different.

With divine power already in hand, it would be much easier to initiate any groundbreaking reform.

Moreover, as a divine being, it is already under the watchful eye of the cosmic will and is therefore more likely to attract attention.

At this point, establishing various great achievements and promoting social development will make it easier to obtain more divine positions and enhance the level of divine power.

As for the last path, it is to directly absorb the divine essence after killing the god.

The most likely outcome is that they will be consumed by the spark of divinity, their souls scattered, or even directly possessed by this deity.

According to Elian's research, the most perfect and correct way to ascend to godhood is, of course,...

Take all three paths at once!

Kill a god and obtain a large amount of divine essence.

Use the power of faith to refine and shape it, aid in its absorption, and ascend to the throne of divinity.

After becoming a god, he would create more things that do not exist in the current era, promote social changes, and seek more divine positions.

This time, Elion did indeed gain a sliver of the essence of [Time].

However, the quantity was very small, even less than what remained in the previous incarnation of the Sun Prince, far from meeting the needs of ascending to godhood.

"Keep it for now, it'll definitely come in handy later."

Elian waved his hand, and the golden and silver light threads disappeared.

Divine essence is a valuable resource; it can be used to forge divine artifacts or as a sacrifice.

Gathering his thoughts, Elion roughly outlined the objectives of the upcoming Abyss Expedition plan:
"There are four objectives for this development of the Abyss."

"1. Expand the territory and bring the rich abyssal resources under the control of Eldoron."

2. Track Marchekid.

"3. Defeat the weakened Koschich and become the Lord of the Abyss. Based on this, hold a ceremony to begin the slow erosion of the Abyss's will."

"4. Find the Mind Flayer ship that fell into the bottomless abyss."

……

Before the abyss rift.

The blood-red cracks stretched from the sky to the ground, like scars on the world.

"Is everyone almost ready?"

"Tomorrow, we will officially set off, stepping into the dimensional rift and exploring the abyss."

As he spoke, El-Erian looked ahead at the expeditionary force, which was fully prepared for battle.

50 each of steel, rock, clay, and flesh golems.

The Eldoron Demon Force, composed of over 150 bizarre high-ranking demon prisoners, is personally led by Balor Ratu, the Balor Flame Demon.

2000 zombie and skeleton soldiers equipped with cold iron weapons.

Two hundred bipedal dragons and ten large airships served as vehicles and combat forces.

More than 500 carefully selected human mages, warlocks, and warriors, all well-versed in demonology, were willing to serve as the vanguard for this glorious mission. All members were at least at the intermediate level, and included 10 ninth-ring archmages.

Legendary Evocation Mage Gut and Legendary Transmutation Mage Helen.

And, the High Priest Erian himself.

This is the Abyss Expeditionary Force of Eldoron!

(End of this chapter)