Azure Scepter

He paused, then continued.

"No, I was presumptuous. I don't care who you really are, heh, Trier. I just want to know if the agreement we reached before is still valid?"

The time traveler murmured to himself, "I am a man of my word. Tell me the story between Losevie and Saint Sel in detail from beginning to end."

This time, the unruly dream realm demigod didn't resort to any tricks or verbal traps; He recounted the entire incident in detail from beginning to end.

As Trier had largely guessed, Saint-Sel, using his status as her son-in-law, directly betrayed Lothaway during her deification ceremony.

Because the crowd was sealed at the time, He could not see clearly. He could only vaguely see that Saint Seir used some unknown means to directly take away Losevie's divinity. Without divinity, Losevie's deification ceremony naturally failed, and the consequences of the failure of the deification ceremony are self-evident.

—Lossevier, the legendary paladin who had roamed the prime material plane for nearly a century and struck fear into the hearts of almost all evil, died a very ignominious death at the hands of her son-in-law, who then took her place and ascended to become a deity of the Radiant pantheon.

"And so, the deserving Laurence Lorinman failed to achieve godhood. This shameless robber and kidnapper was directly killed by the backlash of the ritual, his body exploding and turning to ashes." The crowd sneered at the end of the narration, "That was truly a fitting end, a very satisfying outcome. I was so happy I almost cried."

Trier did not respond; he pondered for a moment.

"Two questions," he murmured to himself. "The first question is, if Losevie is a woman and Fusada is also a woman, how exactly did they reproduce?"

"Is that a problem? Of course, it's through magic. Although Fusada is arrogant and cunning, it must be admitted that she is indeed a top-notch magic master. She used magic to directly create a baby girl and a baby boy," the crowd said. "What is your second question?"

The time traveler narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Theoretically speaking, the theft of her divine status would directly lead to the fall of Losevie. Losevie's fall would mean that her remaining divine duties and divinity would be transferred to Saint Seir, thus Saint Seir would have gathered divinity, divine status, and divine duties, and then he could take her place and complete the ascension to godhood, right?"

“It’s obviously correct.” The crowd yawned. “Is it really that hard to understand Sel’s stupid plan?”

“The problem is that Loseweave isn’t completely dead yet. She’s now a lich, so her divinity, or even her divine authority, may not have been successfully transferred,” Trier said softly to himself. “This also means that Saint Sel is not a true god. The only reason He has frequently interfered in the mortal world for the past thousand years is that He is stuck in the middle and therefore not bound by the Azure Laws.”

The yawning stopped.

"This also shows that Losevie is no ordinary demigod lich; she most likely possesses divine authority and divinity, essentially making her a saint descended to earth. Furthermore, this indicates that the divine authority and divinity within Losevie, as well as the divine nature within Saint Sel, are all..."

“We can seize it.” The deep voices of the crowd echoed in Trier’s mind. “Trier, I must admit, you are indeed very perceptive. Given that we are now in a community of shared interests, let me explain the real situation to you—well, although you certainly know, I still have to ask one more question: do you know what divinity, divine nature, and divine office are used for?”

PS: The settings regarding divinity, divine status, and divine office are personal creations and have no reference value.

Chapter 170 Analysis

Trier nodded slightly.

As a demigod lich who had once come close to becoming a god, he was naturally very clear about the role of divinity, divine status, and divine office in becoming a god, as well as the relationship between the three.

In "Azure Scepter", if a mortal wants to become a god, he must first possess divinity and godhood. On this basis, he also needs to hold a godhood ceremony at the right time and place to obtain a divine position that no one has yet occupied. When he possesses divinity, godhood, and divine position at the same time, he can successfully become a god.

The power of the gods is extremely terrifying. In the version of Divine Descent, due to the shattering of the Azure Laws that restricted divine interference in the mortal world, all kinds of gods descended upon the Prime Material Plane in the form of saints.

They fought fiercely, and the secondary disasters caused by the battle had a wide-ranging impact, decimating the entire world and leaving less than one in ten survivors. Towards the end of the version, a single probing clash between the saints directly boiled the entire Sylvad Bay, and the aftershocks of the clash of divine power also unleashed a tsunami that could be described as a natural disaster. The terrifying waves even literally reached the sky, and this disaster directly swallowed up three large coastal cities of the elves, and hundreds of thousands of elves were instantly wiped out.

Divinity is the easiest of the three—divinity, divine nature, and divine office—to obtain, and it is also a necessary foundation for obtaining and using the latter two.

The concept of divinity is a paradox, but this paradox is a description of the phenomenon. Currently, the academic community does not have a precise definition of what divinity actually is.

The witches of Gedran believed that those who possessed divinity were the so-called qualified ones. The world revealed a different side to those who possessed divinity than it appeared. In short, those who possessed divinity had the ability of rational intuition and could understand the echoes of all things.

Theologians of the Radiant Church believe that divinity is a reflection of the essence of radiance in the immortal essence of every being, a reflection like the sun on a mirror, thus radiance does not diminish its own perfection.

The necromancers of the Great Swamp believed that those possessing divinity were those who could perceive the three veils—the inherent limitations imposed upon all living beings from birth by their innate sensory and cognitive organs, confining all their knowledge within these limitations. For example, neither humans nor elves could perceive or imagine anything beyond time and space, and these innate limitations were referred to by the necromancers as the "veils." Possessing divinity meant being able to penetrate these inherent limitations and directly perceive the object of knowledge.

In conclusion, although various researchers do not have a precise definition of divinity, they all mention the ability to see through the essence of things. Therefore, in Trier's view, divinity refers to the existence of things that transcend their own essence, because only by transcending one's own essence can one see through the essence of other things.

Of course, from the perspective of the game, divinity has no mystery at all - as long as a player advances to any legendary class or reaches a skill level of 240 or higher, then they can be said to possess divinity.

Once one possesses divinity, one can ignite the spark of divinity through immense faith during the conferment ceremony, thus completely transitioning to another form of life.

The concept of divine office is relatively easy to understand. In short, each deity possesses the ability to rule, drive, and control a specific domain, and their divine power is closely tied to their divine office. For example, the Sunset Sage of the elves, having partially grasped the "lifespan" of elves, can grant any elf a longer lifespan without using any magic.

In addition, once a deity possesses a divine office sufficient to wield divine power, then the deity itself, to some extent, completely transcends the constraints of time and space.

They can even briefly manipulate time, bringing it to a standstill—this is not the so-called "time stop" achieved by mages through self-acceleration, but a true time stop with no limit to its range, during which deities can attack and harm enemies without restraint.

Among divinity, divine office, and divine status, the most unique is divine status. Unlike the other two, the total number of divine statuses in all planes is fixed and does not change over time.

Once one possesses a divine status, one becomes immune to the unconditional killing of mortals by gods, as well as the "true stopping of time." Therefore, it can be said that possessing a divine status is a threshold; only by possessing a divine status can one contend with gods. Thus, those who possess a divine status are also known as demigods.

In addition, divinity is essentially similar to an automatic prayer information processor. Generally speaking, demigods and gods need divinity to cast divine spells on priests and worshippers.

Suddenly, Trier frowned; he realized an extremely absurd problem.

Losevie's divinity was stolen by Saint Seir, but because she was transformed into a lich, her divine authority and divinity still remained within her. This means that the one who actually receives and processes the prayers of Saint Seir's followers is not Saint Seir, but Losevie.

In other words, Lothaway is manually processing tens of thousands of prayers every single moment.

“A distributed denial-of-service attack is one,” Trier thought to himself. “Lossevier can’t even refuse to receive prayer messages.”

Trier knew very well that such a flood of information was enough to destroy the mind of any being.

When he was still a demigod lich, he tried to deal with related problems by using a pseudo-godhood created by magic, instead of relying on a godhood. However, his experiment had only been going on for a few minutes when the magical pseudo-godhood, which embodied his research efforts, overloaded and exploded.

Because he was only a demigod at the time, he didn't have many believers, and it seemed that Lorse was facing prayers from all within the entire Radiant pantheon concerning "travel" and "protection of women and children"...

Trier narrowed his eyes slightly; he knew that the truth behind the blood plague crisis was very close to him.

First, a basic premise is that no matter how strong Losevie's will is, she cannot process so much information directly without going through a godhood. Therefore, a necessary inference is that at least one demigod with a godhood is helping Losevie barely process this massive amount of information. And based on the information available, this demigod is most likely the water fairy Fusada.

“This is true love,” Trier thought. “A miracle of magic!”

Upon realizing this, the time traveler couldn't help but look up at the corpse in the ice coffin.

Now that he had more information, Trier looked at Lothaway and the water sprite Fusada's eldest daughter again, and a new thought came to his mind—the creature lying in the coffin was a being created purely by magic, this... was truly amazing!

Even with Trier's expertise in necromancy, he couldn't figure out how the water sprite operated for a while.

"But in that sense, Edith can also be considered a descendant of magical creatures."

He couldn't help but glance at Edith.

—Although Trier's conversation with the others was extensive, their actual conversation time was extremely short because both of them thought at a speed far exceeding that of ordinary people. Even including the time for Trier's complex reasoning, less than three seconds had passed. Therefore, the others were still in a state of shock when they heard Trier read the inscription on the ice coffin.

Trier knew that the inscription he was reciting contained a great deal of information, and the more he knew about matters related to the gods, the more truth he could understand behind it, and the more truth he understood, the more shocked he would be.

At this moment, Futia looked completely bewildered, still clutching half a piece of bread in her hand; Noy looked solemn; and Edith, in her shock, bumped right into a stone statue.

"Boom!"

The statue of "Frostfire" Boyce had its head smashed to pieces by the princess.

PS: There will be another update later, just like yesterday's.

Chapter 171 A Sharp Commentary on the Succubus

"Thump—thump—"

At two o'clock in the morning, the clock on the Great Lighthouse Theater rang precisely on time.

Her brain was buzzing, and the memories of decadent and frenzied carnal revelry dragged the succubus Orianna's thoughts downward like an abyss. She felt as if she were suffering from a hangover, and the brilliant light of the Great Lighthouse Theater pierced her mind like sharp blades from her eye sockets. Her brain was in pieces, and she could not concentrate on thinking at all.

"Where the hell am I?" she muttered to herself, clutching her head.

She felt a faint, phantom pain in her right ear, and the soul-tearing caused by being killed by the magic counter had left her numb all over. For a moment, she even felt completely paralyzed.

Even as a high-ranking succubus, it took her quite a while to recover. Only after her heart began to beat strongly again did her sluggish blood circulation pick up again. After a long few more seconds, her mind gradually cleared, the hazy thoughts that had been swirling around her forehead slowly dissipated, and everything around her gradually became clear.

Although the succubus Orianna has traveled between the Abyss and the Material Plane countless times, she must admit that each dimensional journey is an unbearable experience, akin to being burned at the stake.

She pushed away the desiccated corpse that was clinging to her chest like a leech, wiped the dried grime from the corner of her mouth, and then snapped her fingers lightly. The victim she had drained was completely reduced to ashes.

The next moment, Orianna reached out and grabbed the round doorknob, turned it slightly, then pushed open the carriage door and jumped out.

"Clap."

Round-toed black leather shoes stepped onto the puddles covered in filthy grease, and her pale blue long skirt floated down like a cloud. Slender, white fingers picked up a pair of mirrorless silver glasses from a black leather bag at her waist, and then Orianna gently placed the glasses on her high nose.

“Perfect.” She chuckled softly.

Thanks to her high-level succubus physique, she has fully recovered her vitality.

Looked up.

The Rennes River flows quietly under the cover of night, carrying the bodies of civilians and soldiers affected by the battle a few hours earlier. In the distance, the ruins of the outer city are burning, but the nearby Great Lighthouse Theater remains brightly lit and resplendent.

Just then, a warm, gentle whisper suddenly rang in her ear: "The offering to restore your strength is ready. You know where it is—Orianna, don't disappoint me this time."

Orianna felt a tingling, electric-like sensation deep within her brain; Lady Bloodthorn's words were always so pleasing to the eye and mind.

"We need to capture my dearest daughter and find a way to get more information about Trier. At the very least, we need to know what this paladin is really like."

The name "Trill" sent a twitch through the succubus's frontal lobe—the monster's counterspell was simply too terrifying. She couldn't comprehend or imagine how one could simultaneously unleash three perfectly timed, location-specific counterspells at the very moment time stopped.

That was no longer magic; it was a miracle. A shadow crossed the succubus's mind.

"Don't give me that nonsense about why you don't just use the Blasphemy Mark to see for yourself. The dream demigod beside the paladin has already blocked all prying eyes. Orianna, find a believer and have him observe up close."

Orianna nodded slightly. Although a little fear filled her heart, she thought for a moment and came up with a vague idea.

The only possible way to get in touch with the mysterious and dangerous paladins is through Nordman, the chief spymaster of the Southern Duchy.

“Yes, my most sacred master,” she replied softly.

Orianna glanced at the glass mirror on the carriage door.

The reflection in the mirror was not a succubus, but an elegant and dignified red-haired lady. The figure in the mirror had skin as white as the moonlight, and lips as red as juicy berries in June.

Dorothy, the most famous and popular theatrical actress in the entire Kingdom of Orco, is another identity of the succubus Orianna. As a high-ranking succubus, she has lived for far too long; acting and deception have long been second nature to her.

Perhaps she was far more successful as an actress than as a mage, the succubus thought.

Pulling up her corset, the succubus strode onto the Raine Black River Bridge in front of the Great Lighthouse Theater. Beneath the cold steel structure lay murky blood and severed limbs. The familiar smell of blood and sulfur in the air instantly lifted Orianna's spirits.

After walking a few steps, a fat man wearing a black silk hood came running over in a hurry—it was the troupe's fat manager.

"Lady Dorothy! Tonight's performance has been postponed!" The fat administrator took an anxious puff of his pipe. "There's been a huge mess in the Upper City. A demon worshipper tried to assassinate the Princess, and rumors say she suffered a concussion in the attack—the whole city is under martial law now. Those yellow-robed guards are like madmen, arresting people everywhere. By the Light, little Camilla was almost captured, if it weren't for Lord Nordman..."

"Are there any spectators left?" Dorothy, or rather the succubus Orianna, interrupted with a smile, revealing four pearly white teeth.

"Are you insane?!" the administrator exclaimed in shock. "The entire city is under martial law! And if demons infiltrate the performance, those abominable, vile, and blasphemous creatures will kill us all!"

"Are there any spectators left?" the succubus asked again, this time with a slightly harsher tone.

The administrator clutched his black silk hood and chuckled awkwardly, "Yes, of course there is. There's only one, and I think you know who it is."

"Sir Nordman, of course," the succubus thought.

“Then let’s go prepare the props and costumes.” Orianna pushed up her glasses. “Don’t keep the audience waiting.”

"Can..."

"There are no 'buts.' If you continue to question us, the troupe will have to get a new manager," the succubus threatened softly, then strode past the manager.

—As the high priestess of the Bloodthorn Lady's cult, Orianna is also the patron of the entire troupe in a real sense.

Crossing the Rennes-Black River Bridge, you'll find the Grand Lighthouse Theatre. A poster for "The Drunken Moon" hangs on the theatre's entrance, with the words "Act IV" in gold foil three-dimensional lettering below the red-haired woman in the picture. As Orianna walks past the poster, the worried princess in the poster seems to move in sync with her.

As she walked through the backstage corridor, every staff member who passed by Orianna would stop and greet her respectfully, but the succubus was too lazy to respond and even felt disgusted.

She loathed this pretentious order from the bottom of her heart. All this flattery was hypocritical, and behind such behavior lay a desire for false power. These ignorant mortals would never understand that false power only exists in imagination, while true power is pure violence.

Stepping into the empty dressing room, the succubus breathed a slight sigh of relief; at least she didn't have to face those idiots anymore.

She sat in front of the mirror, held the edge of the paintbrush, and gently added some dark shadows to the sides of her nose.

She then took out a genuine mithril crown, long white gloves sewn with spider silk, and leather boots made of crumpled land dragon from her dimensional bag. After that, she took out a sharpened broadsword of cold iron from her dimensional bag.

As she ran her fingers along the Radiant Cult emblem on the hilt of the sword, the succubus couldn't help but recall the feeling of the weapon's previous owner.

The sword's previous owner was a Crusader knight from the Demon Rift region over a hundred years ago. His flexibility was impressive; his fingers and tongue were as nimble as those of the most skilled wanderers. His sweet talk was also delightful. However, the handsome half-elf's soul and body were far too weak—although he had tried his best to restrain himself, the handsome half-elf still died in his bed in less than six months.

The succubus shook her head. Living a long life is good in every way, but the downside is that she is often troubled by memories of the past.

She took a deep breath, refocused her attention, and looked down at the red-haired beauty wearing a mithril crown in the mirror.

“From now on, I am a princess who pursues my own love,” she whispered.

Orianna paused for a moment, then closed her eyes, trying to recall the demeanor of the real princess she had seen a few hours earlier.

She straightened her back slightly, put on a stern face, and pretended to be dignified.

“No, that’s too serious,” she muttered to herself. “The key is not in the authority, but in the feigned authority. What I’m looking for is that contradictory and conflicted feeling of being uneasy and fearful inside, yet having to force yourself to be dignified.”

Orianna tightened her shoulders, furrowed her brows slightly, pursed her lips, and then added a faint, hazy worry to her eyes.

At this point, it has become an art.

“Perfect.” She gave a shy yet satisfied smile, then recalled Edith’s slashing motion and suddenly flicked her wrist in a slashing motion—

"boom!"

The mirror shattered into countless fragments, each sharp edge reflecting the mirror's own unrestrained and arrogant smile.