Chapter 666: Immortality and Cleaning

Are gods truly immortal?

Actually, this question had been asked of Mystra the last time Rod advanced to eighth tier.

Our goddess of magic had her skirt hem hitched up to her waist at the time, standing on tiptoe to match the height of a certain forester, and her snow-white, plump legs were still imprinted in his memory.

The several rings of divine halo behind her head swayed with the motion.

The mysterious and noble goddess's panting sounded more like that of an inexperienced girl, hasty and clumsily innocent.

She answered Rod's question in little jerks, bracing herself against a wall of magic power all the while.

Probably because her train of thought was badly disrupted back then, she said a great deal without much reaching the point.

To put it concisely.

The most important divine power among the gods is the fusion with a certain law or domain.

Take Mystra, for example. As the first-generation goddess, her divine spark allows her to merge with multiple domains such as the domain of magic and the domain of spells.

So long as magic exists and spells exist, she exists.

Even if one day she were physically destroyed, so long as there were still people on the continent using magic, she would not die completely.

And by fusing multiple domains she wove the Weave, a canopy covering the earth.

Her strength rose with the tide as the number of people linked to the Weave grew.

If Mystra did not have to devote nearly all her mind to resisting the invasion from another plane, Rod, as her father, would probably already be able to stride across this continent unchecked.

And the same goes for the moon goddess, Miss Lu Ka.

So long as the races that worship the moon still exist, she, who has mastered the domain of the moon, can also claim a share of the spoils.

Unless the divine spark is stripped away, it is impossible to kill her completely.

But that is something even the evil gods of the First Epoch could not accomplish, let alone Rod.

A trace of disdain flashed through the broken eyeball of Miss Lu Ka.

"Seal? Nu Yi Zhou? Human Rod, setting aside how skilled your spellcraft is, do you really think there is any enslavement spell capable of controlling a god? How laughable."

Rod did not bother speaking with her.

He poked at the 【Far Speech Chain】 and found the elf Lady Kali.

The sealing runes had indeed been recorded, but that did not mean he knew how to use them.

This was the moment to turn to our magical encyclopedia.

【Rod: Lady Kali, teacher, are you there?】

【Lady Kali: Speak.】

An instant reply.

The Young Lady elf had been hiding in her laboratory lately investigating the lycanthropy blood from Shepherd Village, so an instant reply meant she should be free.

Rod briefly explained the current situation.

【Lady Kali: An ancient god?! Where?!】

Her voice was startled, tinged with a few notes of excitement.

Rod knew she was definitely interested.

【Rod: This is a labyrinth controlled by the Star Spirit People's Star Association. They probably won't let you in.】

【Lady Kali: Star Spirit Person. Haeli? Hmph, the forest isn't that big. Human, don't bring another woman back.】

At that cold snort, Rod could already picture her sour face.

He glanced at the puppet and four organs on the ground.

This shouldn't count as a woman, right?

【Lady Kali: You said First Epoch runes? Open shared vision, let me take a look.】

After the 【Far Speech Chain】 finished digesting the materials from the second dragon body of the curse-wraith dragon Nao Lin, it also gained more comprehensive effects.

Shared vision, well, it's a bit different from a video call.

The former only lets you see the sharer's field of view, not their appearance.

Since this was Rod and Lady Kali's first time operating it, they directly shared both parties' fields of view with each other.

Swoosh—

After a moment of blurriness, Rod saw the familiar interior of the magic treehouse.

A table full of experimental materials, vessels for magical experiments, and rolling, boiling distillation bubbles.

Also quietly sitting in the empty spot on the desk before her were a unicorn stone carving and a great pile of magical jewelry — all gifts from Rod.

Besides that, the desk also held cotton cloth, clear water, and various cleaning and maintenance implements.

In the picture.

A pair of snow-white, perfect delicate hands was wiping a magic bracelet. Rod still remembered this was the first magical item he had given Lady Kali.

She had stubbornly insisted that elves had no need for outside objects.

【Mm.】

At that moment the owner of those hands suddenly froze, evidently realizing she too was sharing vision, and in a panic shoved the jewelry box and unicorn stone carving aside.

Then she quickly came to her senses, closed her eyes, and adjusted the 【Far Speech Chain】 to one-way shared vision reception.

【Lady Kali: Ahem. There's been a lot of dust lately, the dust settling might affect the magic effects. This is my first time cleaning it. What are you laughing at!】

Rod stopped teasing her.

After a brief soothing, they got back to the main topic.

【Lady Kali: Te De Mo Fa script. One of the few scripts recorded in First Epoch ruins, belonging to an ancient lizardfolk tribe called the Bank.】

【Rod: A script belonging to a single tribe? Does every tribe have its own different script?】

【Lady Kali: Precisely so. The ancient lizardfolk believed that scripts represented different powers and faiths, so tribes with different divine faiths naturally had their own scripts. Fortunately, the structures they used and their sealing arrays were relatively primitive, so even a good-for-nothing like you could imitate them. But—】

【Rod: But?】

【Callister: But if it's just simple imitation, I'm afraid there won't be much power to speak of. There should be a power mixed in here that's different from magic and spirituality. Let me think about how to modify it.】

【Rod: Roughly how long will it take?】

【Callister: One month.】

Rod gave a wry smile.

"That's something I can't wait for."

【Callister: Did you think modifying a ritual could be done in the blink of an eye? Looks like you don't even understand the basics of spellcraft! Come to class tomorrow!】

The elven Young Lady's voice was displeased.

The eyeball Miss Lu Ka remained smug: "Out of options, human? This is the power the ancient lizardfolk borrowed from those faith mongrels. You really think you can pull it off?"

Rod was stunned for a moment: "Faith? The lizardfolk's faith?"

He scrolled down the panel and saw a new secret art he had recently obtained from the Natural Phase Tracing state.

【Superstitious Zealotry: Excessively wary of mysterious symbols or Magical Items outside the ancient lizardfolk faith — effect reduced by 10%; for those within the faith, effect increased by 20%.】

"These Tetterlock characters should count as mysterious symbols, right?"

So saying.

Rod took the silver knife and tried carving a few onto the puppet.

Immediately, silver light flared.

【Callister: It worked? And the effect is even better?! What did you do?】

The elven Young Lady's tone of astonishment greatly pleased Rod.

The silver knife twirled a smug circle in midair.

【Just a little trick.】

【Hmph, what's there to be smug about?】

"Impossible — you're not an ancient lizardfolk, so why can you use this kind of secret art?"

The eyeball Miss Lu Ka was now thoroughly shocked. "Could you be a descendant of the ancient lizardfolk?"

"You're the damn lizardfolk descendant."

Since it worked, Rod stopped humoring the eyeball.

Under Lady Kali's guidance, he buried his head and began crafting the puppet-style cage to seal the four organs.

Less than half an hour.

Under a burst of brilliant silver light, the four organs were fused into the puppet.

The puppet's left eye also changed from a crystal polyhedron into a complete, pale eyeball.

"So, what of it?"

After the shock, Miss Lu Ka kept sneering: "You think the materials of this puppet can compare to the previous one?"

Rod let out a wicked laugh and flung a Nu Yi Zhou over.

Whether puppet or Miss Lu Ka, both were in a low-HP weakened state, and it took effect almost the next instant.

The smile on the face Miss Lu Ka controlled through the puppet froze.

Then gradually gave way to terror, and she screamed in panic.

"Wh-who the hell are you?!"

(End of chapter)