Goddess Kaleidoscope

With Ladi's great assistance, Lud quickly established a "personality model" of the primordial water god Melchiada.

This goddess, who once reigned supreme among the gods, was like an empress of the divine realm at her peak, looking down upon all living beings from a high and mighty position. Mortals were nothing but ants in her eyes, and other gods were servants at her beck and call.

Historically, the world at that time was in a special period of frequent floods. The raging floods forced the ancients to have a strong sense of awe for the water god and to hold various sacrificial activities, which made Melchiorda's divine power even stronger.

However, Melchiorda, who received such offerings, did not use this power to protect mortals. Instead, she abused her divine power to punish those mortals who opposed her and did not believe in her, thereby forcing them to make even larger sacrifices to her.

As a result, some humans chose to submit. Faced with the devastation of the flood, they not only dared not rebuke Melchiorda for his inaction, but also, under the guidance of religious figures who considered themselves highly awakened, "reflected" on whether they had acted disrespectfully towards the gods, thereby provoking the gods' wrath.

Other mortals chose to continue their rebellion, which led to the birth of new gods such as the Holy Lord Carius and the God of War, Phagore.

This was probably one of the earliest triggers for the outbreak of the God War. After the conflict intensified and nearly a thousand years passed, the brutal God War finally broke out, ignited by the secret god-making incident of the Skaven Empire.

It is worth mentioning that although Melchiorda was defeated, the victors did not defeat this primordial water goddess by strength, but by Kumirad's scheme, which led her to clash head-on with the rat-man god who was in a state of madness, playing a game of "the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits".

In short, Melchiorda blasted through the bottom shell with one blow, kicking the Ratman God into the Land of Fire. Then, the other gods took the opportunity to ambush the Water God, who had just unleashed her ultimate attack and was still recovering, sealing her in the Sea of ​​Death.

Following this line of thought, Lu De had some ideas for the script.

Although the gods' victory was somewhat dishonorable—ambushing an ancient god thousands of years old was devoid of divine virtue—Rud must also admit that the current third-generation gods, even though their style of action still involves fooling mortals, represent a tremendous leap forward, comparable to the transition from slave society to feudal society, compared to the second generation who treated mortals like pigs and dogs.

Ironically, centuries later, some people still stubbornly and secretly worship these ancient gods, calling the contemporary gods "usurpers" and attempting to bring back the former rulers.

Fortunately, although these rats in the sewers cannot be completely eradicated, they are not a significant threat and are not a difficult problem to deal with.

After spending several days brainstorming the script, the ongoing effects of the Music God Festival brought a massive amount of faith to the Pantheon. In ten days, Deli leveled up three times, soaring from the second rank to the fifth rank, going directly from the bottom of the pack to the top three. Other companions also improved to varying degrees. Aina, Shanis, and Sura all reached the fifth rank, and the rest of the goddesses broke through to the fourth rank, becoming mid-level gods.

Such fruitful results made Ludès happy, but he also vaguely noticed the subtle change in the atmosphere. He felt that everyone's gaze towards him had become sharper without him even realizing it.

"These guys...could they be plotting to overthrow their superiors?"

After completing the first draft of the script, Lud summoned Kumirad, the goddess of wisdom, to review it and see if there were any revisions needed. Kumirad glanced at it and immediately took out a pen to make some changes. Lud took it back and looked at it, and was immediately puzzled.

"Isn't this going too far?"

“No, although I’m not as close to her as Rady is, I still know Melchiada. These are things she herself is capable of doing. If you want the dream to feel real and don’t want Melchiada to notice, you have to add all of these.”

"Alright then, but will the Holy Lord of Light and the God of War agree?"

"Leave the task of persuading them to me; it won't be a problem."

Having received Kumirad's approval, Rudd invited the three gods to discuss important matters the following day. Upon learning that action was finally about to begin, the God of War was extremely excited.

The first step of the plan is to enter the sealed land of the Death Sands, find Melchiorda, and take him into custody.

It sounds like it's not difficult, but the problem is that Melchiorda is only trapped in the Sea of ​​Death and can't get out; his divine power hasn't been sealed. So if you actually meet him after you go in, you're guaranteed to have a fight.

Fortunately, the Primordial Cult that worshipped Melchiorda had been wiped out, and the Water God, without any successor supplies, had to rely on his last reserves. Otherwise, even if they had surrounded and attacked, they might not have been able to win this battle.

Rudd had known for a long time that there were three continents in this world, but most of the living beings were concentrated on the continent where he currently lived. The other two continents were completely destroyed and partially destroyed during the War of the Gods. The partially destroyed continent still had some habitable coastal areas, while the completely destroyed continent was the Sea of ​​Death that sealed Melchiorda.

Before the outbreak of the God War, the Death Sands was a rich land, and the entire continent belonged to the most powerful ratman empire at the time.

The ratmen consider "greed" a virtue. Their struggle against the old gods is not to overthrow their tyrannical rule, but to take their place and attempt to rule the entire world, making the ratmen a god race that is above all things.

Then they were pulverized by the "Grim Reaper" they had created!

Because the Death Sands was an ancient battlefield where the gods clashed, the God of Death unleashed his full power, directly destroying the entire continent and turning it into a forbidden zone for life. As a result, the gods placed a joint seal on this land, which is why Melchiorda is trapped inside and cannot escape.

However, this also created an awkward problem: the area of ​​the Death Sands was simply too vast, a continent spanning tens of millions of square kilometers, an endless expanse of gray-brown desert. If Melchiorda, trapped here, really wanted to hide, there were plenty of places to go.

Therefore, to find Melchiorda, we must lure her out.

“I don’t think this is a problem. That girl hates us to the core. When we go in, we’ll start mocking her. I don’t believe she won’t come out.”

"Don't think of Melchiorda as simple-minded as you. We do need to find a way to lure her out, but mocking her won't work."

The gods present described Melchiorda as "an extremely cunning and wicked woman"! The gods were able to successfully trick her back then because Kumirad meticulously planned and finally seized a fleeting opportunity.

Kumirad also believed that three hundred years was but a fleeting moment for a theoretically immortal god, and that the other party must have never given up on escaping the seal, which was a point that could be used.

Because Melchiorda was extremely powerful in his prime, even after losing the cult's followers and being imprisoned for three hundred years, his strength was still not to be underestimated. Therefore, the three gods would personally take action to subdue Melchiorda, and Rudd would need to wait until they had control of the situation before making his move.

Seeing that the plan was finalized, the impatient Feigolai was about to set off for the Death Sands, but Kumirad quickly advised him to calm down. They had only finalized the action plan; there was still a lot of preliminary work to be done.

First, the three gods need to prepare for their true forms to descend. The higher gods are rejected by the world itself, so they use projections to hold meetings in Pine Town. If they were to actually come out, a lot of preparations would be needed, and the time they could spend moving around would be very limited.

Secondly, the dream script needs to be rehearsed. In addition to subduing Melchiorda, the three gods also need to enter the dream together, play themselves in the dream, and help deceive Melchiorda.

At this moment, Kumirad took out three scripts and handed them to the three great masters present. After everyone had looked through them for a while, apart from Ekaterina, who remained calm, Kariulius and Figorai had somewhat subtle expressions.

"You...you're not joking, are you?"

“Don’t look at me, she wrote both of your parts.”

Seeing the God of War glaring at him, Lud didn't hesitate to shift the blame on the spot. However, what he said was indeed the truth; the "scenes" involving Karius and Figor were indeed created by Kumirard.

Figoley frowned as he looked at the script in his hand, then glanced at the ever-smiling Kumirad, a mask of pain gradually appearing on his face.

"How about... I have one of my men impersonate me? Didn't this kid just say that you can freely change your appearance in dreams?"

"But the problem is that other actors playing the God of War are definitely not as good as you in real life. The main reason for having you two take the stage is to prevent Melchiorda from finding out. You two, just consider it a sacrifice to save the world!"

A week later, Lud and his companions, having completed their preparations, set off from Pine Town, ready to cross the ocean to the forbidden Death Sands.

Besides Ludger himself, his entourage included the ghost Eliven, whose ability to enter dreams was key to this operation, as well as Hume, Aina, Shanis, Deli, Sura, and Kanna—five goddesses, one at the peak of the fourth tier and four at the fifth tier. This was the Pantheon's highest combat strength at this stage.

Thanks to Aina's rank increase, Kanna, as a divine messenger, now has a rather exaggerated transformed form, with a body length of over seventy meters and a new pair of wings, further enhancing her flight speed.

Nidhogg was so shocked by his daughter's current appearance that his jaw almost dropped.

"This guy is not even eight years old yet!"

At Kanna's current flying speed, crossing tens of thousands of kilometers takes only three hours. The seemingly boundless ocean can be reached smoothly in the time it takes to take a nap. With the passage privileges granted by the three gods, Kanna passed through a dense sea fog that never dissipates, and the Sea of ​​Death finally appeared before everyone.

This was the first time Lude had ever seen the legendary forbidden land where life was said to have stopped. Looking out from the air, the entire continent was an endless expanse of gray, with not a single trace of life in sight.

Kanna landed near the coastline, and Rudd immediately began setting up four summoning circles on the spot using the things they had brought, one for each of the three gods and Kumirad.

In order to deal with Melchiorda, the three gods must appear in their true forms. Therefore, Rudd was sent ahead to carry out the summoning directly in the Sea of ​​Death.

The biggest advantage of summoning here is that you can use the power of the forbidden land itself to counteract the repulsive force of the superior god on the main body. If you were to summon outside, it wouldn't be so easy.

Unsure of Melchiorda's location or whether she would notice the arrival of outsiders, Lud dared not delay, spending over an hour setting up before quickly initiating the summons.

Accompanied by several beams of bright light, the magic array successfully set up a passage between the main plane and the divine realm of the gods, and four great gods walked out of the gate one after another.

Unlike the projections used to walk among mortals, the three gods' true forms, though seemingly identical, possessed a completely different aura. Even though they tried their best to conceal it, the pressure of the higher gods was as strong as if it were a tangible substance.

But what surprised Lud the most, yet also seemed to make sense, was Kumirad. Her true form was different in appearance from the projections she had often seen before; she was much more mature in figure and appearance, and her aura was slightly weaker than that of the three gods, but not by much.

"Kumilad! You really did have some hidden strength."

"Hehe, have I ever hidden anything? I just didn't say it outright."

With the four gods gathered, Feigolai immediately recognized that Kumirad's true form was not a mid-level god of the fifth tier, but rather a high-level god who had already crossed that threshold. Although he was still only at the seventh tier, one tier lower than the three great gods, there was no longer a qualitative difference between them.

"Didn't you claim to be unaffiliated with any sect in the human world? How did you manage to rise to the seventh level?"

"It's true that I don't belong to any sect, but that doesn't mean no one believes in me. Seventy percent of the divine artifacts currently circulating in the human world are my creations, and more than half of them are already household names with their own legends. Think about it carefully: why do I always rush to give divine equipment to the people chosen by your three major religions when they are selecting saints? You don't really think I'm doing this out of charity, do you?"

"You son of a bitch..."

Perhaps because she had revealed her true form and knew she could no longer hide it, Kumirad simply revealed the secret of how she had secretly grown stronger over the years. She casually gifted one or two divine artifacts to others' elaborate religious events, seemingly as a favor, but in reality, she was profiting immensely from their faith.

Only then did Fei Gelai realize that he had been fleeced for at least a thousand years, and he even foolishly thanked the person afterward.

However, this is clearly not the time to dwell on such matters. Kumirad is not acting in his true form just to upset Feigolai. He has to take Melchiada seriously in order to deal with her.

At this moment, Feigolai noticed that the Earth Mother was not present and asked with some confusion.

"You've already shown yourself, why don't you call that idiot?"

"You know she's mentally challenged. If I really call her over, what if she turns against me and goes to help Melchiorda?"

"Uh...that's true. So what do we do now? The Death Sand Sea is so vast, how are we going to find that guy?"

“It’s simple, I have something here that will force her to show herself.”

As Kumirad spoke, she pulled a small, light blue bottle from the ditch with a mature and sophisticated air, and tossed it to Lud beside her.

Lude reached out and took the small bottle, which was still slightly warm to the touch. It contained some kind of liquid, and even without shaking it, he could feel the liquid sloshing around and hear a sound like ocean waves.

Incidentally, standing on the shore of the Death Sand Sea, the sea behind Lud was as calm as a lake, so he could be sure that the faint sound of waves was coming from the bottle.

What is this?

"It is Melchiorda's holy water, and it is also her lifeblood."

"Ugh! That's disgusting."

Upon hearing Kumirad's description, Lud instinctively imagined some terrible things, while the three gods all showed surprised expressions, with Feigolei saying in disbelief.

"Why do you have this? I understand now! No wonder I felt something was off about Melchiorda when we besieged her. It turns out you stole her trump card."

"Let me correct you, it's not stealing, it's cheating."

"That's even worse than stealing!"

Seeing that Lud was unaware, Kumirard explained that the seemingly inconspicuous blue bottle contained the Water of Life, one of the twenty-one "Primordial Items." The so-called Primordial Items, as the name suggests, are the earliest substances that appeared when the world was born, and they are existences that are more ancient than gods and living beings.

For Melchiorda, the goddess of water, the water of life was an unimaginable tonic, and her strength back then was directly related to it.

That's why the three gods present couldn't figure out how Kumirad had managed to trick Melchiada into giving them this treasure.

Having learned the value of the small bottle in his hand, Lude couldn't help but ask Kumirad curiously how to use it to lure Melchiada over.

Kumirad said calmly.

"It's simple, just put this thing on the ground."

Upon hearing Kumirard tell him to throw away such a precious and rare item, Lud hesitated instinctively.

On the other hand, the God of War, Feigolai, seemed eager to try. His expression was just like that of a cat that had seen a water glass placed on the edge of a table, and a feeling of wanting to destroy it at will arose spontaneously.

"let me!"

"It doesn't matter who it is, but before you make a move, kid, you'd better take them to a safe place. They can't get involved in the battle between high-ranking gods. And although you have the primordial fire that makes you immune to divine power, you can't be immune to the various indirect damages caused by divine power. You'd better be careful."

At Kumirard's suggestion, Lud and his group, riding on Kanna, temporarily retreated to the edge of the sealing field, near the wall-like mist surrounding the coastline. No matter how fierce the battle was on the Great Gods' side, if they sensed danger, they could simply retreat and be safe.

The distance was only a few dozen kilometers in a straight line, and there was no obstruction in between, so it did not affect Lu De and others from observing the battle with their "all-seeing eyes".