BXBX NOVEL Chapter 614 The Unholy War
Mary rushed to check on Marina, "Are you alright?" she asked, seeing her resting motionless underwater.
"I can understand now, what Cain meant before," Marina said, opening her eyes. "They are mortals, just like us. Their power is but a borrowed one from their believers."
"What do you mean?" Mary glared down at her.
"Those who we call gods are but mortals. Their power is the accumulation of the energy they receive from their believers." Marina swam to the surface with her tentacles like an octopus.
"The more believers a god has, the more powerful he will get." She lifted her staff, "And if an adequate number of people venerated a single mortal, a god is born from their belief."
"What are you saying?" Mary approached, "Are you saying my father isn\'t a god?"
"Yes, he isn\'t one. God is dead, or more precisely, absent." Marina looked down at the water. The priestess of Eilistraee glared at her with a raging eye.
"When a god grant spells to his believers, he takes taxes from them in the form of mana and a part of the spell effect," Marina explained it like this.
If someone had <HP: 40/50> and a Cleric healed him by 20 points, that would get him to <HP: 60/50>, and the god claims the extra HP.
When a paladin smites an undead in his god\'s name using 30MP while only 20MP is needed, the god claims the extra amount.
When a soul gets sacrificed, the god claims all of its power.
When a cleric utters his god\'s name before sleeping, the god claims all the excess MP and SP regenerated by sleep.
When a cleric learns a spell that his god didn\'t grant him, the god can use the system to learn from the said priest.
When a god dies in battle, his life is exchanged for one of his clerics, allowing him to revive.
When suddenly, all the believers of a god stop praying, that god\'s power will disappear. And if divinity was all he had, the god withers after a couple of years.
CLANG! Marina knocked with her staff on the ground, "I can sense it. Lolth keeps Cain chained by sapping his Mana and weakening his body with her venom. We have two ways to save him."
Mary stared at her, "And what are those?"
Marina smiled, "The first is Eilistraee\'s plan, kill as many as we can from Lolth\'s believers by bombarding her capital with explosives. That will weaken her, then one of two things can happen. Either Cain breaks on his own when she\'s weak, or she will send her avatar at us. We then use it to travel to the demon web and save Cain."
"And yours is the second plan." Mary glared at her.
"Grant Cain as much power as possible by giving him a lot of believers. By doing this, we can overwhelm the goddess\'s Mana-sapping and venom, allowing Cain to awaken." Marina made a sinister smile similar to Cain\'s, "But we\'re using both simultaneously. I like to see Lolth\'s face when Cain awakens in her web."
...
After getting the information from the spiders Chad captured, Eilistraee retrieved the explosives and split them among everyone. Outside each city that Lolth ruled, one of Cain\'s party members stood with the explosives.
Chad stood on the jagged rocks, looking down on the city with three barrels of explosive powder strapped to his waist. His eyes focused on the big church in the middle.
"This is the church of the goddess who kidnapped my son. No, this is a cult, one that we must eradicate." A full-on war is starting. Eilistraee (Divine-rank 7), Tiamat (Divine-rank 10), and Cain (Divine-rank N/A) against Lolth (Divine-rank 17)
Chad sighed. He honestly doesn\'t want to do it. Why can\'t Lolth return his son and be done with it? "But to think that she was released now. Bad luck for them."
In another city, "Let me go! No, let me go!" A drow woman screamed in fear as she got dragged into Lolth\'s church. "No, leave her alone!" A man rushed in through the crowds.
The priestesses guards caught him immediately, "What should we do with him?" they asked.
"Sacrifice him with the woman. Lolth is testing us." The priestess replied immediately.
BAM! Something heavy landed behind the crowds. "Sacrifice? The gods are disgusting." A woman\'s voice boomed.
Everyone looked back and shooked, "Father was right; all gods must die. What is that bitch name again? Lolth, was it? Sorry, I can\'t remember her name."
Behind the crowd, a single girl with flowing rainbow hair stood, glaring at them. The priestess immediately recognized her. "The dragon king\'s daughter, Lola." VAM! Before the priestess could finish, Lola snatched her head.
"Those who venerate Lolth; stay to die. Those who don\'t, or are thinking of changing, get into your homes." That is the rule Eilistraee rule. Don\'t kill the innocent and those who seek redemption.
All the drows in the city started running away as Lola transformed into her draconic form. Lolth\'s paladin stood to protect the church, "You accursed dragon."
"Yes, I\'m accursed, and so are you spiders!" Lola roared, and all those believers of Lolth got forced into a spider shape by her.
Bwahaha! She laughed, charging right through the church, turning it into rubble.
In another city, the drow priestess looked up at the cavern ceiling. Fear immediately engulfed her heart, "Lolth, please help us." she prayed.
POP! Praying for help is a sign of weakness in Lolth\'s book. She is more likely to smite you if you ask for help.
Especially now that Lolth is in dire need of power, she can\'t spare any. The poor priestess got smitten immediately.
In the ceiling, Kayden stood in his demon form. [Demon blade: Ashura\'s reaper] CLING! His body disappeared.
"What?" A priest gasped, looking behind. All the other believers in the church feel to the ground, headless.
Kayden stood in front of Lolth\'s statue, [DESTROY HER] Ashura, the demon god of destruction, whispered in his ears. [YOU ARE MY AVATAR, OBEY]
Kayden\'s three heads wiggled; lifting his six swords, he sighed. "You don\'t like other gods." BANG! He blasted Lolth\'s statue to smithereens.
[THEY KILLED MY FAMILY: MY BLOOD SHALL NEVER REST TILL THEY PERISH] Ashura replied, his voice shifting in tune. "What was that? For a moment, you sounded like."
[Cough! cough! Keeping a deep voice is painful, Kayden-chan] A little girl\'s voice boomed in Kayden\'s head.
"Who are you?" He growled.
[Father died recently at the hands of Talos, I took over his portfolio.] She replied.
"Ashura is dead?" Kayden gasped. What was going up there between the gods?
...
Inside the demon web pit, Lolth was getting enraged.
"Impossible! Those bastards attacking my church like this?" She glared back at the mass of flesh behind her.
She quickly compressed her webs to create a mirror, "Show me the Yochlol. Did they kill the foul priestess?" The mirror immediately took over the vision of a spider to spy on Marina.
Lolth got an image. She can see Marina inside the water pond. A Yochlol slowly and silently approached her, "That\'s it, kill her and end this mess."
As the Yochlol lifted his hand to fire a spell at Marina, his body disappeared into the shadows.
"Who was that?" Lolth growled. Even her divine eyes missed it.
Then the image blackened for a brief moment.
"Look who we have here?" When the image returned, a single dark elf kid glared directly into the spider\'s eyes. "The spider bitch herself, watching." He smiled.
"Who is he?" She didn\'t recognize his face.
"Sorry, but; someone paid me a hefty sum to make sure you lose this war. A keyword, Amaterasu." Hearing his words, the fact he got paid to do it, he was the real deal.
"Mauzzkyl Jaezred!" She gasped.