Goddess Kaleidoscope

Thanks to the influence of the previous culinary competition, Marigis successfully gained fame in Pine Town and subsequently garnered a considerable number of believers. Her gradually recovering power no longer required her to enter a dormant state for energy conservation and emission reduction, but being accustomed to frugality, she did not choose to possess anyone. Instead, she stood behind Fran in a spirit-like state, resembling a Stand user.

The purpose of everyone gathering together is singular: to try to help Aina, who has already reached the peak of the third tier, to advance further and become the first god in the "Pantheon" camp to break through to the middle tier.

According to Kumirard, lower-level gods below the third rank are merely empty shells, and the real qualitative change and the gap between them and mortals begins from the fourth rank, also known as "middle-rank gods".

However, compared to the natural progression of the first two stages, breaking through to the third stage requires meeting some additional conditions, and there is no single way to achieve this breakthrough.

Aina broke through to the first stage in Oyster Harbor. Subsequently, Lude created a miracle in the area by "faking death and resurrection," causing hundreds of thousands of people to be in a frenzy of faith. The resulting wave of faith was enhanced by the primordial fire and was almost completely absorbed by Aina. This level of power was not comparable to the thousands of people in Pine Town.

So, just a few days after Aina broke through to the second stage, she absorbed nearly two-thirds of the amount needed for the next breakthrough. Then, in the second month after returning to Pine Town, she broke through to the third stage in a daze.

Under Rudd's careful nurturing, Aina has accumulated the wealth that other gods might take hundreds of years to achieve in just three short years since her birth. Now, Rudd needs to help her go even further; they need at least one mid-level god to be in charge to have a real chance against the Black Hand Brotherhood.

End of this chapter

Generally speaking, for a lower-ranking deity to advance to a middle-ranking one, the first requirement is that their total divine power reach a certain level; this is the basic condition. However, this single hurdle has already stumped a considerable number of deities.

This is not only because these gods lack the blessing of the primordial fire, but also directly related to the small size of their respective churches. After all, not all gods have the world-class renown of the three founding families, making their names known to all intelligent beings.

Many lower-ranking deities have names that circulate only in a few regions, and their baptized followers may number only a few hundred or a thousand, with a general following of no more than ten thousand. These small, local sects are weak, and if their priests lack the necessary business acumen, they can even fall into financial ruin.

These weak gods, confined to a small corner of the world, struggle to even maintain their existence, accumulating pitifully little divine power. The third tier is roughly their limit; breaking through to the middle tier is something they dare not even dream of.

Fortunately, Aina has Lude's support, and the sect is thriving, so she doesn't have to worry about divine power.

Once you have enough divine power, the next thing to do is to meet the "special conditions" necessary for a breakthrough.

Previously, Lud had spoken with Kumirard and learned that there are many special conditions required to break through the mid-level position. Theoretically, as long as you choose the method that best suits you, you can achieve one of them.

The two more common conditions are: first, to obtain a new divine position and increase the scope of one's divine authority; second, to subjugate subordinates, making other gods submit to one's power and become vassal gods under one's command, which feels like stepping on other gods to climb to the top!

Besides the two methods mentioned above, there are other methods, most of which are less respectable "heretical" or "evil" ways. Gods who break through to the intermediate level through these methods are generally labeled as "evil gods" or "wicked gods."

These evil practices primarily involve various types of sacrifice. The now-extinct Skaven Empire once used this method to accelerate the growth of the monster they created, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of lives. Besides large numbers of mortals, sacrifices could even include deities!

Hume, who is currently "on a business trip" in Yanmu City, broke through to the middle position in this way. It was not Hume who did it on her own initiative, but her "biological mother" Kumirard helped her.

Kumirad did not hide what she had done. She frankly told Rud that Hume's breakthrough occurred in the early stages of the war of the gods before the "Great Chaos" had fully erupted. At that time, the atmosphere among the gods was already very tense. The great gods were still observing, but some lesser gods had already started fighting.

So Kumirard took advantage of this chaotic period to lure the two minor gods into a fight to the death, and then used them as "material" for Hume's breakthrough.

To be honest, the nature of this matter was actually quite egregious, but Kumirad didn't feel she had done anything wrong, because those two unfortunate minor gods were already mortal enemies long before she set her sights on them. Even without her interference, they would have inevitably fought to the death anyway, so it was better to let her "make use of them."

Lud naturally wouldn't choose such crooked paths, so after careful research, he added the second divine position of "Fertility" to Aina, and gained the approval of the masses in his own territory, all in just over a year.

It's simpler than I imagined.jpg

Therefore, as the divine power within Aina's body approaches saturation, the newly gathered faith becomes unabsorbable. Theoretically, Aina currently possesses the relevant conditions to break through to the level of a mid-level god, but she encounters some minor problems at the final "last step".

For Aina, the first two breakthroughs went very smoothly, so smoothly that she didn't even feel anything and just naturally slept it off! Lude thought there was no hurdle, and Kumirard didn't say anything either, but now it seems that's not the case.

Interestingly, according to Kumirard, most naturally formed gods, even the fastest-growing ones, took nearly a hundred years to reach Aina's current level of divine power.

With Lude's help, Aina's growth rate was like having a game modifier (like Wind Spirit Moon Shadow) enabled, thanks to her advanced management and the blessing of the Primal Flame. In just three years, she accumulated enough divine power to break through and even obtained the crucial second godhood.

Fortunately, most of the old gods had been detached from the mortal world for many years and were indifferent to everything that happened in the lower realm. They were not as omniscient and omnipotent as they boasted. Otherwise, they would never have allowed the "terrifying" Aina to continue to grow.

"Sigh! If only Kumirad were here, but when we needed her, she was nowhere to be found!"

Among the goddesses who remain in their hometown, the most senior is the goddess of the hearth, Marigis. However, even at her peak, she was only a lower-level god of the third rank and had no experience in breaking through to the fourth rank.

As for Hume, who was connected remotely, she didn't recall ever encountering a situation like Aina's when she was breaking through, where she could only rub against the door and not get in, so she was equally helpless.

In the end, it was the senior Marigis who was slightly more reliable. Although she did not offer any feasible solutions, she pointed out a problem that many people present had overlooked: Aina was not mature enough on a mental level, which may be the main reason why she could not break through.

"In my opinion, Aina's problems are largely caused by you. You've raised her too well and protected her too much. She enjoys your pampering without a care in the world. It would be strange if she could grow mentally or emotionally!"

"No... how am I spoiling you?"

"Do you really think that cleaning and doing chores every day that barely break a sweat is how you temper your will?"

"Ouch, I..."

Rudd was momentarily speechless after being confronted by Marigis. He suddenly realized that it seemed to be his own problem. While the knowledge from Earth gave him an advantage, some of his preconceived notions were also misleading his judgment.

Lude had to admit that in raising Aina, he always hoped that she could become a kind-hearted and righteous "good girl" and a new-era goddess who would contribute to society.

In Ludd's eyes, those traditional gods, representing the corrupt old forces, were hypocritical, arrogant, stingy, and mean. They viewed mortals as ants, only thinking about how to squeeze more faith from their followers, instead of using the divine power given to them by mortals to benefit the world.

However, if you ask yourself honestly, if Aina didn't have Lude by her side, could she really defeat those hungry wolves with just her naive and innocent nature?

End of this chapter

Looking at Aina, whose face was as innocent and carefree as a little girl's, Lude thought carefully. Perhaps, as Marigis said, there were indeed significant problems with how he raised Aina. The child had at most experienced poverty for a while with him, but she had never suffered any real hardship.

So-called spiritual growth has nothing to do with kindness or gentleness in one's character; it only depends on the strength of one's will. If one can truly be utterly despicable and completely evil, isn't that also a kind of "strength"?

Currently, Aina is too "soft" in every aspect!

Following this line of thought, everyone began to brainstorm ideas.

Under everyone's gaze, Aina sat obediently on the sofa, holding Kanna, who was just as carefree as her, in her arms, happily sharing delicious cream cookies, while Ludwig was holding a not-so-serious discussion with a serious expression.

The goddesses present gave him a bunch of rather irresponsible experimental solutions, as if they were using Aina as a guinea pig.

The three sisters' plan was first rejected by Ludwig, who reprimanded them for their "dwarf-like thinking" of trying to solve everything with a hammer.

Next to be eliminated was Shanis, a lewd goddess who was full of smut and attempted to confuse growth with "adulthood." She wanted to use some of her private notebooks to make Aina lose her purity on a spiritual level, so she was ruthlessly suppressed by Lu, who ordered Hydra to immediately search her room for contraband.

In the end, it was Marigis, the centuries-old elder, who was the most reliable. She felt that it would be appropriate to give Aina some trials, to let her break away from Lud's protection and complete them on her own, in order to temper her will.

"Then, what kind of trials should we give them?"

"That depends on you. When it comes to things that require thinking, I don't think anyone here is better at it than you."

"..."

Lude did know some methods for training willpower, but the problem was that none of these methods were quick to take effect, and they might not be suitable for Aina. They could even have negative effects, which would be a loss.

At this moment, Lacey, the undead who had been silently listening without daring to utter a sound, suddenly raised her hand to indicate that she wanted to speak.

"Um... Master, I'd like to ask, do gods dream?"

"dream?"

"If I could dream like mortals, then perhaps I could help Princess Aina with her trials."

As a newly recruited undead, Lacey already knew the true identities of Sister Aina and the others. While shocked, she also felt even greater awe for Rudd, the man who could "control spirits." However, after spending some time with him, Lacey discovered that Rudd was a much easier "master" to get along with than the necromancer Dick. Working under him felt more like being an employee than a slave.

Lude understood Lacey's meaning. If gods could dream, then she could use the undead's special ability to create dreams specifically for Aina as trials to help her temper her willpower. The same dream might not have much effect after one or two times, but if it occurred for many consecutive days, it could have an impact.

When Lacey was still a vengeful spirit, she was forced by Dick to invade other people's dreams, just like in the movie "Inception". She could steal memories and use dreams to exert the influence she wanted on the dreamer.

Lacey was a very intelligent and insightful female ghost. She discovered that human dreams have layers. Shallow dreams are more fragmented, mainly consisting of flashbacks, from which limited information can be gleaned, and they are also very short-lived, making it difficult to reconstruct them. Deep dreams, on the other hand, reach the depths of the soul, offering more room for the spirits that can influence dreams to maneuver.

It's worth mentioning that when Lacey infiltrated the old lady's dream to cause trouble, although she couldn't disobey the necromancer's orders, she actually held back and never invaded deeper levels of the dream to cause any more problems.

In addition, the old lady had another guardian spirit in her dream who was constantly fighting against her, which allowed her to hold out for so long.

It must be said that Lacey's suggestion was a revelation for Lud. Compared to trials in reality, the advantages of dreams were obvious: they were safe, controllable, and time-saving. However, the problem that followed was that gods, in a sense, were the nemesis of the undead.

Although everyone in the temple lives under one roof, Elaine and Lacey each have their own areas of activity. Even when they are in the same room with other goddesses, they try to maintain a "safe distance" for fear of being "burned" by the divine power within each other if they get too close.

Fortunately, Marigsis came up with a practical "good idea": to combine the power of the five goddesses present except for Aina to temporarily seal the divine power within Aina, so that Lacey could safely touch Aina.

Meanwhile, Aina, having finished her cookies, paid no attention to Lude and the others plotting beside her. In her eyes, her master was the kindest person in the world to her and would never harm her. As long as he was there, she didn't need to worry about anything else, so she sat cross-legged, concentrating on petting the dragon.

Lude suddenly appeared in front of her and spoke in a particularly earnest tone.

"Aina, do you trust your master?"

“Trust!” Aina answered innocently.

"Master would never harm you, right?"

"Mmm." Aina nodded obediently.

"Alright then, give me Kanna first."

"Oh."

Taking the baby dragon from Aina's hands, Lude took a few steps back. Only then did Aina realize that her senior sister Shanis, the three sisters, and Marigius (in her possessed form) had quietly crept up behind the sofa and were standing there. Although everyone had very kind smiles on their faces, Aina still had a vague sense of foreboding.

Looking at the familiar positions of the goddesses in front of him, Lude silently gave Shanis a thumbs up.

"...(Let's get started!)"

Despite being the most powerful of the six goddesses present, Aina, who was already at the peak of the third tier, was no match for five of them. Therefore, when Shanis used her divine power to conjure spiritual tentacles to entangle her, the outcome was already predetermined.

Hey! What are you guys doing?!

"Junior sister, don't misunderstand, we're doing this all for you!"

"I don't believe you for a second!!!"

And so, Aina, who had been subdued by Shanis's "breast-burying kill," was sealed by five of her colleagues. When she struggled to pull her face out of Shanis's chest, she was shocked to find that all her divine power had disappeared, as if she had been transported back to the night three years ago when she first met Lud.

End of this chapter

Early in the morning, Olivia, who was used to sleeping in, was forced awake by a strong feeling of hunger. For a growing teenage girl, fancy but impractical snacks were unlikely to fill her stomach.

When Olivia opened her eyes, the unfamiliar ceiling made her pause for a moment before she remembered that she had been away from home for many days. Her own mother had cruelly abandoned her in a godforsaken place a hundred thousand miles away from the capital to be a nun, and she didn't even have a maid to take care of her daily life.

In an instant, a sense of loneliness welled up in Olivia's heart, and she even felt a little scared, wondering if she had been abandoned by her mother. A few tears involuntarily slid down her cheeks because of the heartache.

However, just as Olivia was feeling down, a furry creature with strange dark circles under its eyes appeared at her bedside, holding a small, familiar-looking snack in its paws, staring at her while crunching away at it.

The two stared at each other silently for a moment. Olivia recognized it as the "strange thing" that had transformed into a giant monster last night, and the snacks it was stealing were undoubtedly her "storage."

"you you……"

"Awoo!"

Realizing she'd been caught, Kanna, who had been stealing the snacks, turned and ran, crashing through the door and escaping. Olivia, meanwhile, leaped out of bed and stumbled to the wardrobe. Her silver-plated box of snacks had been opened, leaving only crumbs inside.

Looking in the direction the "little thief" had fled, Olivia gritted her teeth and growled in a low voice.