Spellcasting Gods

Through the beast-like vertical pupils, the moon elf felt every cell in her body tremble. It took a full minute for her to force herself to calm down before cautiously probing, "So, what do you think we should do next? Return to Luskan, or..."

Before she could finish speaking, the previously stable magic network around her suddenly began to twist, spewing out large amounts of flames, strong acids, positive energy, negative energy, and lightning without warning, as if it had completely lost control.

Immediately afterward, all the mages felt a sudden twitch in their hearts, as if they had lost something of the most important thing in their lives!

"The...the goddess of magic has fallen!!!!!" Valindra knelt on the ground with a thud, her face filled with pain and despair.

Not only her, but the other dragon-man mages around her had similar reactions.

In fact, at this moment, every arcane spellcaster in the entire continent of Faerûn knew about this historical event that was enough to have a terrifying impact on the entire world.

The out-of-control magic network, like a flood and an avalanche, brought unimaginable disasters to the creatures living on this land.

Many innocent ordinary people were torn apart by the burst of magical energy before they even realized what was happening, while others were corrupted into half-elemental, half-undead life forms, wandering aimlessly around.

In addition, many mages and warlocks could not accept losing their proud power, went mad, and ultimately chose to commit suicide.

The goddess of magic was so important that once she died, no one could restrain the rampant primal magical energy.

However, in Zhang Cheng's eyes, this also represented an opportunity—an opportunity to use magical power without worrying about being monitored.

He glanced at his men's agonizing state, then roared, his jaws wide open: "Calm down! Look at your pathetic state! Does the death of the Goddess of Magic mean the disappearance of magic? No! Magic will never disappear! It is simply presented to you in its most primal and direct form. Feel it! Accept it! Conquer it! Command it! You are mages! You are the masters of magic!"

"But...but Master, we can't access the rampant magical energy at all." The moon elf raised her head, her beautiful face streaked with tears.

"No! How do you know it can't be done if you haven't tried?" With that, Zhang Cheng raised a claw and began frantically gathering the uncontrolled energy around him.

In just a few seconds, a sphere of mixed shapes and high-speed rotation appeared out of thin air.

It is so perfect and balanced that even the mutually exclusive extreme energies of positive and negative energy do not clash.

"Look! This is magic! The most primal energy, unmodified by any rules! All you have to do is temporarily forget the convenience brought by the magic network, familiarize yourself with it from scratch, and modify the spell models at the same time. Believe me, although this will waste some time, the gains will be far greater than when you had the magic network, because you will no longer be restricted by the goddess of magic, you can reach deeper levels, and even create powerful spells that even the gods fear."

As the last word fell, Zhang Cheng suddenly threw the magic ball in his hand.

next second...

boom!!!!!!!!

The out-of-control energy suddenly erupted with an unprecedented impact!

Then they kept tearing and squeezing each other, which resulted in the collapse of space!

A black hole the size of a fingernail!

Although it existed for less than a second, it absorbed all matter within a radius of hundreds of meters.

After the black hole disappeared, it left behind only a large circular crater with a diameter of more than 20 meters and a depth of more than 10 meters.

Without a doubt, in terms of power, this is an absolute legendary spell, similar in effect to another legendary spell called "Annihilation Black Hole".

Unfortunately, the black hole Zhang Cheng created was contingent on the Magic Network going out of control. Once the Goddess of Magic regained control of the Magic Network, he would no longer be able to draw energy from it without limit.

"Yes! There are no restrictions! We can now use magical energy at will! We're no longer limited to constantly delving deeper into the magic network! Hahahaha!"

As if inspired, Valindra struggled to his feet, burst into wild laughter, and his eyes shone as brightly as the stars in the sky.

"That's right! Great master!"

"I can feel it! The power of primal magic is all around me! I can still barely control it!"

"Power! This is true power!"

……

In an instant, the other dragon-man mages also became incredibly fanatical. One of them, in his impatience, even began to actively contact the frenzied primal energy, attempting to tame a small portion of it.

No one knows what the collapse of the Magic Network means for the entire continent of Faerûn!

No one knew that just minutes before the magic network collapsed, the cruel god Gagus was killed by a group of mortal spellcasters, and its heart was now inside a black dragon.

Moreover, this dragon was so insane, filled with an endless desire for destruction, that it attempted to slaughter the gods who had fallen to the mortal realm.

Just like I said before: "The hunt begins!"

It's just unknown who the hunter is and who the prey is this time.

Taking advantage of his subordinates' frenzied state, Zhang Cheng reverted to human form, took out a list from his pocket, casually crossed out the first name, and muttered to himself with a smirk, "Gagos is dead! Next should be the singing god Milir..."

Chapter 0497 Divinity and Clergy

Madness is a powerful mental state, and also a terrible, addictive disease.

In the short span of a month and a half since his first successful hunt down of a god, Zhang Cheng has attacked eight relatively weak gods, killing seven of them and seriously wounding one who escaped.

At first, Manson and Sazastan maintained a close working relationship with him, but later they gradually discovered that the black dragon's madness far exceeded their expectations, and they decisively chose to part ways.

After all, they had already obtained what they wanted, and now they planned to devote themselves to studying the corpses left behind by the gods after their deaths, rather than risking being besieged by the gods and launching attacks time and time again.

But for Zhang Cheng, who was already somewhat out of control, destruction and killing were like an addiction, constantly tormenting every nerve.

At the same time, after each successful god-slaying, he would transplant the blood or organs in the opponent's body that contained the most divinity and divine power into his own body.

As divine powers of different factions and attributes began to merge and converge within his body, he began to realize what divinity was and what divine office was.

The latter, as the name suggests, refers to the duties that deities must fulfill.

For example, the fallen goddess of magic, Mystra, had the primary responsibility of maintaining the stability of the magic network, promoting the prosperity and spread of magical technology, and enabling more people to enjoy the convenience brought by magic.

Take, for example, the god of death, Melkor, whose duty is to judge and protect the souls of the dead, and then send them to where they belong.

In short, each god has their own scope of authority, much like bureaucrats in a political system, each responsible for their own domain. In doing so, they also gain absolute dominion over that domain, as well as corresponding special divine powers.

If there were no divine office, then even if a being possessed divinity and divine power, he could not be called a god, much less be recognized by the gods and the supreme god.

This means that it is impossible to become a god by killing a deity.

Otherwise, the corpses of so many dead gods during those turbulent years would have been looted by mortals who wanted to become gods.

Cyric didn't need to go to great lengths to seize the Tablets of Fate and give them to the supreme god Aio in exchange for all the divine authority and power of the three gods of death.

As for divinity, it is a key, a key that unlocks the path to transcendence and immortality.

Zhang Cheng didn't know how to describe this kind of thing. Sometimes it was like a kind of understanding of the world and the universe, and other times it was like a realization about life.

Through the vast knowledge accumulated over a long lifespan, or through direct bestowal from the divine, certain intelligent beings and children of God will create an energy that conforms to their own characteristics from nothing.

And this special energy is divinity!

It is not arcane, not shadow, not fel energy, not positive energy, not negative energy, and certainly not any known form of energy.

Most importantly, divinity can be plundered by killing gods, children of gods, and divine beings who possess divinity!

Once divinity accumulates to a certain degree, it will generate divine power of corresponding attributes.

Normally, mastering these two points means you're basically a candidate god with one foot in the pantheon. Even compared to a full-fledged god, you're only missing a divine office, and theoretically you already possess most of the characteristics of a god.

There is no doubt that Zhang Cheng is currently in this state.

Because he had plundered a large amount of divinity, his originally lava-like eyes had turned into a dazzling gold, constantly radiating endless majesty. Even Valindra dared not easily look up and stare directly at him; once their eyes met, they would be immediately stunned and unable to move for at least half a minute.

……

Jingle bells!

Forty kilometers away in an underground mine, thousands of grey dwarf craftsmen are inlaying metal plates, each incorporating the properties of various magical metals such as Valyrian steel, mithril, adamantite, cold iron, enchanted thorium, arcane, and source metal ingots, onto the heavy, thick scales of a black dragon.

Even in the dim light, it is clear that these armor plates are inlaid with intricate runes and gems, and each time an armor plate is successfully embedded, it emits a dazzling light.

Once the light fades, this piece of armor will blend seamlessly with the surrounding pieces, making the spots and gaps completely invisible.

"Great master! Your armor will be completely finished in ten hours at most! At that time, the whole world will tremble under your wings!" Shuoying stepped forward and carefully flattered him.

Although he was once an invincible black dragon, he now dares not show the slightest dissatisfaction towards his majestic kin.

The reason is simple: with the help of divine power, Zhang Cheng has now expanded to a length of 130 meters, and his limbs, when seated, are more than 20 meters tall. There is no other dragon in the entire continent of Faerûn that is larger than him. His size alone is enough to crush most ancient dragons.

In fact, his body has reached a point where there is no room for further growth; simply put, it has reached its final form. Otherwise, he wouldn't have followed Deathwing's example and covered himself with an indestructible alloy magic armor.

To ensure the integrity of the armor plates, their various protective capabilities, and to avoid hindering the casting of spells, he nearly exhausted his inventory and even personally went to the Underdark to plunder two underground gnome towns, finally managing to gather rare adamantite and gems.

Once completed, even when facing the immense divine power of a saint, he dared to guarantee that the opponent would suffer a terrible fate.

Gazing at his left forepaw, completely covered in exquisitely ornate armor, Zhang Cheng curled his lip and replied, "Tremble? No! I want more than just trembling! I want destruction! Watch, this is just the beginning. After I complete my entire plan, the gods will face their twilight..."

"You seem to be hostile to the gods?" The silver dragon Madeise, who was in a state of half-life and half-death, frowned subconsciously.

"Hahahaha! No! I just want to see what a world without gods is like." Zhang Cheng grinned and let out a wild, unrestrained laugh.

I don’t know if it’s the effect of divinity, but lately he’s been going crazy more and more and calmer, as if he’s completely out of control.

It's important to understand that the madness he's experiencing now is different from the irrational madness of before. He is very clear about what he is doing and understands the consequences, but he just can't help wanting to try it out and savor the intense thrill of breaking free from all constraints.

It seemed that divinity had unleashed all the latent desires in his mind, and all the whispers of the Old Gods and the painful despair from the Tears of Neltharion vanished without a trace, replaced by a passion that had been suppressed for a long time.

Zhang Cheng never imagined that he would become like this one day, and he couldn't even imagine whether he could return to his former self after his soul left this body...

Chapter 0498 Iolem

A terrifying legend has long circulated among a very small number of people in the Northlands: the "demigod" Iolum, who once created the glorious era of the Netheril civilization, has not died.

On the contrary, he foresaw the impending disaster and voluntarily abandoned his floating city to come to a mind flayer city called Elainto, where he taught these brain-eating monsters arcane magic and created the first mind flayer liches on the continent of Faerûn.

However, he was not satisfied with this. He then created the world's first undead mainframe and completely merged with it through a magical ritual, becoming the famous "Sage Elainto".

Even after so many years, people still keep bringing up his story.

It is said that some people voluntarily offer fragments of their minds or a newly invented legendary magic in order to obtain ancient secrets and knowledge from Iolum.

No one knows how intelligent he has become over the long years, nor does anyone know how many kinds of magic and psychic abilities he has mastered.

In short, almost everyone who knows about this believes that Iolum has become the most powerful spellcaster on the continent, even more powerful than the gods.

But today, a strange visitor broke the tranquility of Elaineto.

The ancient liches and mind flayers that served Iolum did not even pose the slightest obstacle as the enemy broke into the brain pool located in the very core area.

Without a doubt, the intruder was none other than Zhang Cheng, who had just completed the inlaying of his magic armor.

Taking advantage of the dragon's innate strength, he flew directly over the empty city, lifted the roof, and arrived at a place that resembled a human's exposed brain.

However, the brain in front of me was magnified countless times, as if several cars were lined up side by side, which was really a bit creepy.

Before he could even finish observing his surroundings, a deep, elegant voice suddenly echoed in his mind: "Welcome, soul from another world. You know, I've been looking forward to this meeting for months."