Goddess Kaleidoscope

However, Lud was not discouraged. Instead, he rallied at an astonishing speed and even devised a reckless yet uninteresting counter-attack tactic called "deterrence." This made Kumirad increasingly interested in this intriguing mortal.

End of this chapter

Like two close friends meeting for tea at three in the afternoon, Lud and Kumirard sat in Navarro’s garden, chatting and laughing with relaxed expressions.

Behind an old, crooked tree not far away, the imposter was frowning as he watched the man and the god. He wanted to come closer, but dared not approach.

As per Ludd's terms, he would relinquish half of his primordial fire only after Hume and his other companions had successfully returned to the North. This would take approximately one to two days, and the imposter believed she had the patience for that, and she was genuinely afraid that Ludd would perish with her.

The imposter was furious with Lud's tendency to self-destruct at the drop of a hat, but he was helpless against the guy.

After all, the allure of the primordial fire was too great. The imposter had become addicted to it, and her rapid progress over the past hundred years was all thanks to the little spark that Kumirad had given her. Unfortunately, that little spark had been completely consumed a few years ago.

Within Lude's body, there is an even larger and more intense flame. Grasping this is equivalent to grasping the "future"!

So now that the divine contract has been signed, unless Lud is willing to accept the penalty of exploding and dying as a breach of contract, he must hand over half of the primordial fire within him. A mere day or two is all it takes; the imposter believes he has that much patience.

However, for some reason, even though victory was already in her grasp, the imposter still felt very unhappy. Especially when she thought about how Lude was willing to pay such a high price to get back the original body that had become useless due to the curse, she felt a sense of defeat for no reason, as if she were the pathetic loser.

The imposters are also quite frustrated. Despite the Brotherhood's large size, with tens of thousands of members and over fifty thousand "followers," just like other religious organizations, it is almost inevitable that they will form factions when they have a large number of members.

The people below, whether elders, directors, or lowly underlings, were all harboring their own ulterior motives. They could barely maintain unity when things were going well, but as soon as they encountered the slightest setback, they started looking for ways to escape.

The imposters knew all about these things, but they could only pretend not to know, because the Brotherhood was an organization bound together by interests rather than beliefs. If she really punished these guys harshly, it would not only fail to serve as a warning, but might even cause the entire organization to fall apart.

So the imposter was actually quite jealous, envious that even though Hume had fallen into such a miserable state, she still had a loyal, reliable, and capable priest like Ludwig by her side, willing to wholeheartedly assist her.

"Damn it! Why don't I have subordinates like that?"

The imposter grew increasingly enraged, and a truly "wicked" idea began to form in her mind. She not only wanted to steal Hume's divine throne, but also his man!

However, when the imposter, with this idea in mind, excitedly ran over to Ludwig to ask him to use his charm technique, he found that his senior had already "beaten him to it."

The man and the god were having a pleasant conversation. The imposter tried several times to muster the courage to rush forward, but he was too afraid of Kumirad to take the plunge, so he could only hide behind the tree and stand there.

Lude had already noticed the sneaky imposter, glanced at his position, and suddenly asked Kumirad.

"Speaking of which, I have a question I'd like to ask you to answer."

What questions do you have?

"It's about the curse of the God of War. If that guy over there really gets the position of the God of Thieves, then what if this curse..."

"Generally speaking, no."

"Oh! So, there are still 'unusual' situations?"

"Hehe! Who would know? Let's talk about you instead. When will your next plan begin?"

Do I have any further plans?

The human and the god exchanged a silent glance. Lud looked perfectly bewildered, while Kumirad simply smiled, said nothing, and then turned to look at the setting sun slowly sinking into the mountains in the distance, seemingly speaking with a hidden meaning.

"Don't disappoint me too much!"

Shortly after sunset, a high-pitched dragon's roar suddenly echoed from the clouds above the manor. Immediately afterwards, the guards in the inner castle saw a black and white dragon with bird-like wings fly overhead and circle. Lud, who was enjoying a sumptuous meal in the castle's dining room, heard the sound and knew it was Connor. He called over a maid and asked her to open the dining room window.

After the maid did as she was told, they heard another long roar from the dragon outside. Then, a cat-sized, black and white creature flew in through the window and pounced straight at the largest roast chicken on the table.

The maids, who were startled, then realized that the little thing was a furry, strange creature.

Just then, a plume of black smoke rose from the ground beside Lud, quickly transforming into the shape of an imposter. She glanced at Lud, who was still feasting, and at the young dragon, who was gnawing on two turkey legs while writhing as if dancing, and her brow twitched involuntarily.

“Your companions have arrived. I have fulfilled my promise and let that good-for-nothing and the others leave. Now it’s time for you to do your part.”

"Sure, just wait until I finish eating. By the way, would you like some too? This table is so big, the two of us can't finish it all."

"..."

Seeing that Rude and the young dragon Kanna were still eating and drinking without a care in the world, the imposter reluctantly sat down opposite Rude, but did not touch the food on the table, claiming that gods had no interest in mortal food.

As soon as she finished speaking, Kumirard pushed open the door and came in. Lud once again invited her to dine with him. Kumirard sat down generously and ate with him. She even commented on the dishes, saying that the cooking was okay, but not as good as the chefs in Pine Town.

Looking at Lud and Kumirad, the imposter said nothing, but he vaguely felt something rising within him.

Fortunately, the three of them—one human, one god, and one dragon—didn't say they'd eat until the end of time. After Kanna devoured most of the dishes into her body, which looked smaller than a turkey, Lud wiped his mouth, stood up, and gave a summary review of the dishes on the table.

"generally."

"Have you finished eating? Can you keep your promise now?"

"Anytime is fine, but how about we move to a slightly more formal place first? You don't want to exchange the torch here, do you?"

"follow me!"

Led by the imposter, the group returned to the underground altar. Rudd, holding Kanna, gently stroked the baby dragon's exquisitely soft fur while looking around. A large circle of Navarro family guards stood around the altar, their imposing presence alone indicating their high level of skill.

"That's quite a show of force."

"You said it yourself, you wanted it to be more formal. Alright, stop wasting time and hand over your treasure."

Seeing that the imposter's patience was wearing thin, Ludwig smiled, first placing Kanna on his head, then making a gesture of reaching out to his heart. When he opened his palm, a golden flame shone brightly in it.

Upon seeing this, the imposter instinctively became excited and tried to reach out to grab it, but then withdrew his hand halfway through.

The primordial fire is something that gods cannot touch. When Kumirad gave the imposter that spark, she impulsively poked at it, only to find that she couldn't touch it at all. Moreover, the harder she tried to push it, the weaker she felt—it was a very subtle sensation.

Fortunately, the imposter had a special container for holding the primordial fire, a hand-shaped holder that could support it. The imposter took out the container and gestured for Lud to place his half of the flame onto it.

In front of everyone present, Lude grabbed the flame with his bare hands and made a pulling motion. The primordial fire instantly changed from a small ball into a long strip, looking as soft as dough.

However, just when the imposter thought Lud was going to tear the flame apart, he saw Lud flick the elongated flame up, looking just like a noodle shop vendor from Haidilao, which completely stunned the imposter.

"What are you doing?"

"Pull the tinder! It's too strong, it can't be broken."

"..."

Seeing that Lude was getting more and more into it, and the flames were getting longer and longer, the imposter gradually realized that this mortal was playing a trick on him. His last bit of patience was finally exhausted, and he said through gritted teeth.

"Have you had enough fun? Don't forget you signed a divine contract. Do you want to explode and die?"

"Heh! You don't actually think that thing will work on me, since I'm completely immune to divine magic, do you?"

"you……"

As soon as Lude finished speaking, before the imposter could react, he suddenly swung the very long primal fire like a rope towards Kumirad, who was only a step away from him, and caught him completely.

Seeing this, Kumirad couldn't help but chuckle.

"So this was your plan?"

Using the properties of the primordial fire, Lud successfully suppressed Kumirad, who posed the greatest threat to his side, rendering him temporarily powerless.

This was a tactic Lud had devised before going to the meeting alone, but he knew that he only had one chance. So he first pretended to negotiate and make a compromise, exchanging himself for Hume. Then he deliberately got himself into the enemy camp, making himself look like a piece of meat lying on the chopping block, so as to numb his opponent as much as possible and seize the opportunity to suppress Kumirard.

Once he succeeds, the rest will be simple.

"Kanna, send the signal!"

"Awoo!"

Upon hearing Lud's command, Kanna, who was perched on his head, leaped up and instantly transformed into a dragon. With a sweeping strike of her large tail, she first forced back all the enemies that tried to rush up, and then unleashed a dragon breath towards the cave ceiling.

As the messenger of the God of Medicine, Kanna's dragon breath was imbued with divine power. The azure pillar of light, at first glance, looked like an atomic breath, piercing through the ceiling of the cave with a single shot, creating a hole several meters in diameter. After exhaling, Kanna immediately transformed back into her young dragon form, collapsing onto Lude's head as if utterly exhausted, sprawling out limply.

Lud immediately conjured several layers of divine magical barriers, enveloping himself, Kanna, and Kumirard within them. After doing this, he looked up and, through the large hole Kanna had created, could see several golden specks of light, like shooting stars, falling from the sky and heading straight towards them.

Seeing the situation deteriorate rapidly, the imposter was dumbfounded.

"you……"

In the blink of an eye, six heroic spirits, led by Alvitt, fell directly from the large hole in the cave ceiling. Immediately afterwards, violent explosions and shouts of killing came from outside, seemingly from multiple points, and the entire manor was thrown into chaos.

According to the battle plan that Lud had formulated beforehand, once he gave the signal that he had succeeded, the entire army that had been lying in ambush on the perimeter could launch an attack and concentrate all its forces to rush forward.

With three giant dragons, five gods, and thirteen heroic spirits, this level of combat power would not only be able to take down the Navarro family's manor, but it would also be easy to raze the entire Yanmu City to the ground.

Realizing he had been completely fooled, the imposter immediately pulled out the divine contract that Lude had signed earlier from his pocket and glared fiercely at Lude, who was hiding in the divine magic barrier not far away.

"Lude! Don't force me! Release Senior Kumirad immediately, or don't blame me for being impolite! The Divine Contract is a contract that directly binds to the soul. Even if you have the Primal Flame protecting you, you are still not immune to it."

"Then why don't you show me how it goes and see if I explode and die? You don't really think I'll obediently sign my name on it, do you? No way? No way?"

"you……"

Seeing Lu De's confident expression, the imposter couldn't help but feel uneasy. Logically speaking, she had personally witnessed the divine contract taking effect when it was signed yesterday. While tricks like signing a false name might work for deceiving mortals or engaging in commercial fraud, a divine contract directly binds the contractor's soul and can even exert a binding force on the gods. It's not something that can be fooled by simply writing a false name.

At this moment, Kumirad, who was bound by the "Rope of Origin," seemed to have thought of something and turned to ask Lud.

"You made a double for yourself?"

Lud glanced at Kumirad, said nothing, but that was tantamount to acknowledging the other's guess.

Even before going to the appointment, Lud had already considered signing a divine contract, both to lull his opponent into a false sense of security and to give himself an extra layer of protection, making the other party hesitant. Meanwhile, he secretly used another method to circumvent the constraints of the divine contract.

The specific method is not complicated, but it is quite sinister. Lud needs to create another version of himself, and not a magical clone, but a real one with flesh and blood and a soul.

So Lud devised a very sinister method: he would carve away at his own flesh with a knife, healing himself with divine magic with each piece he cut off, while simultaneously maintaining the "life" of the flesh. In this way, he would forcibly accumulate his own mass, then peel away a wisp of his soul and embed it into this living ball of flesh. Finally, through another divine contract, he forcibly "acknowledged" this ball of flesh, with blood, flesh, and a trace of soul, as "Lud," while he himself temporarily lost his name, becoming an alternate form of Lud's existence.

Although the cost of creating such an avatar was considerable, it was precisely because of this that Lud felt no psychological pressure at all about violating the covenant.

End of this chapter

In the center of the altar, Kumirad was bound by ropes formed from primordial fire by Rud. Theoretically, this move would render even the high-ranking gods of the three starter families helpless. However, this was contingent on them being as careless as Kumirad, allowing Rud an opportunity to get close.

The difference in combat power between the two sides was almost entirely due to her, so in Lud's view, as long as Kumirad was subdued, the remaining imposters and her Black Hand Brotherhood would be no threat.

The imposter was completely dumbfounded. She never expected that Lude would be so brave, daring to scheme like this even after signing the divine contract, and unexpectedly controlling Kumirad.

However, just as she took a step forward to help, a figure descended from the sky and blocked her and Lud—it was Shanis in full battle armor.

In addition to the Rainbow Armor she had captured, Shanis now also possessed a "divine weapon" tailor-made for her by the three sisters—a long black whip that could move as flexibly as a living creature.

Shanis, who had blocked the imposter, lashed out with her whip in mid-air, looking down at the "fake thief" with an air of queenly arrogance.

"Want to have a one-on-one fight?"

"Tch! You think I'm afraid of you? Let's fight one-on-one, alright!"