Danmachi World.
Tian’el directly brought Sanjouno Haruhime into the royal palace of Rakia.
It had been exactly one hour since Ares departed for the Vast Expanse.
Because of the earlier rain of blood from the heavens, the army guarding the royal city had been swept aside, and their chief god had vanished without a trace.
As a result, the entirety of Rakia had been forced into chaos.
Thus Tian’el directly took control of Haruhime’s body, stormed into the palace, and ordered Rakia’s monarch and generals to dispatch troops across the land to calm the populace and restore order.
Naturally, there were some troublemakers unwilling to obey, eager to stir up unrest.
But before Haruhime’s small fists, they were beaten flat and forced to kneel.
Not to mention— “Ares is still in my hands.
You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your chief god, would you?” The moment those words were spoken, Rakia’s ruler and ministers—who were also members of Ares’ familia—could only glare furiously while swallowing their humiliation and carrying out the orders.
After all, ordinary people did not understand what the earlier rain of blood truly signified—that was something only gods could comprehend: a divine funeral held by the origin itself in sorrow.
The world had taken the initiative to mourn, and thus all beneath the heavens grieved together, commemorating the fall of a god.
Then Sanjouno Haruhime and Rakia’s court suddenly saw a flash of golden light.
Ares appeared before them, his crimson armor tattered, his lion-like golden hair caked with mud, looking thoroughly disheveled.
Manipulating the little fox’s body, Tian’el casually raised a hand.
A bead resembling black obsidian simultaneously dropped into her palm.
Glancing at the bewildered war god, the Celestial Emperor gave a matter-of-fact command.
“Since you’re back, go handle matters.
Restore order to the Kingdom of Rakia first.” “O-Oh!
Understood!
Understood!
I’ll go right now—right now!” Staring at the delicate fox-eared girl before him, Ares was briefly puzzled, then immediately realized that the origin of Heaven from that other world was possessing her and issuing instructions.
Like a rabbit spotting a hawk, the golden-haired giant wasted no time.
He grabbed members of his familia and hurried out of the palace.
Only after he could no longer sense that heart-stopping aura did he pat his chest in lingering fear and turn to the King of Rakia—also the captain responsible for the daily management of his familia—and ask: “From the moment every soldier in the camp was struck down, how long was I missing?” “Since your disappearance, strange phenomena of blood rain have appeared throughout Rakia.
It has been roughly an hour until now,” the king replied, looking at his chief god in battered armor with deep concern.
“Lord Ares, are you unharmed?” Only an hour has passed?
But I stayed in that world for at least a full day and night.
So even the flow of time between different worlds can be adjusted by that being?
How terrifying.
Fortunately, I’ve already secured a ticket to the new era—and I was the first to board.
At that thought, Ares’ face filled with delight.
“I’m fine!
I’ve never felt lighter.
I’m in better condition than ever before.” Returning from the Vast Expanse to the Danmachi world, his divine soul reconnected with Heaven’s origin.
In some intangible way, it even seemed to carry a trace of foreign aura.
The war god felt so comfortable during the process that he nearly narrowed his eyes and let out a soft moan.
Before his follower could press further, Ares waved a hand to cut him off.
“We’ll discuss the details later when there’s time.
For now, follow the Lord’s instructions and stabilize Rakia.” This was not difficult.
In a nation ruled by gods, as long as the chief god could still show himself, any chaos could be easily resolved through faith and divine authority.
Thus Ares merely stood in the largest square of the royal city and shouted a few times at the gathered citizens.
The remaining matters could be left to his familia members.
As for himself…
of course he went to find those subordinate gods who were uncertain and shaken by rumors of his death, seeking ways to persuade them to change allegiance.
According to the Lord’s promise, all of that would count as merit, to be exchanged for various rewards in the future.
…
After leaving the palace, Tian’el and the little fox returned to the military camp.
They were met with the complex expressions of over ten thousand soldiers—just an hour ago, Haruhime in her god-descended state had single-handedly swept through this entire army in less than five minutes.
Several generals gripped their spears so tightly their hands trembled slightly.
In their eyes were both awe at the fox girl’s strength and unwilling resentment at seeing their elite force crushed so effortlessly.
“Haruhime,” Tian’el’s divine sense suddenly spoke, his voice not loud yet clearly audible to every soldier present.
“In a world of the strong, do you believe an army formed by the weak banding together holds any necessary meaning?” As the words fell, the entire army held its breath.
Haruhime froze.
The tips of her ears twitched as she stole glances around her.
The generals lowered their heads, jaws clenched, veins throbbing at their temples.
Soldiers in the rear ranks gripped their spears until their knuckles turned white, yet none dared utter a sound.
Facts spoke louder than words.
Even when publicly humiliated at their own gates, these defeated generals had no confidence to refute him.
Defeated single-handedly by an obviously underage fox girl—was there any room for excuse?
A loss was a loss.
Even if the fox girl before them was clearly abnormal, seemingly blessed by a god, it did not change their army’s defeat—as though any of them had not received divine grace themselves.
“Lord Tian’el…” Haruhime murmured in distress, her tail trembling slightly with nervousness.
She was still so young.
How could she possibly have enough experience to contemplate such a complicated question?
Fortunately, the supreme Lord had not truly expected an answer from the girl.
He merely walked silently across the training grounds, as though inspecting his subjects, carefully examining the ranks of ten thousand soldiers standing in formation.
Spears stood like a forest.
Shields formed a wall.
Heavy armor inlaid with magic stones reflected cold light beneath the sun.
Objectively speaking, Rakia’s royal army was already quite formidable— Selected from nearly one hundred thousand individuals who had received divine grace, these soldiers were the elites among Level 1, with higher-ranking adventurers of Level 2 and Level 3 serving as their commanders.
Equipped with fine gear forged by skilled smiths, in a feudal era without transcendent power, this army of ten thousand alone would have been sufficient to trample nations and conquer the world, a mobile fortress of war.
Yet reality had repeatedly proven that before true power, such factors were indeed meaningless.
In the original storyline, in order to capture Welf Crozzo, who could forge magic swords, Ares decisively launched the sixth war against Orario.
The result…
his army of thirty thousand elites was easily defeated under the assault of a first-class adventurer, and nearly ten thousand soldiers were taken prisoner.
The so-called advantage of numbers, under this world’s blessing system, was nothing more than a paper tide—pierced at a single touch.
At Level 1, it was not yet obvious.
But even so, a ten-man squad that had received divine blessing could still confront and defeat a hundred soldiers, even a force of a thousand.
Under such laws, once one rose to Level 6, their strength would be equivalent to the ancient monsters that once invaded the surface and wrought havoc everywhere.
Aside from adventurers of the same rank or stronger, sending an army composed of ordinary adventurers to subjugate them was little different from delivering themselves as food— Under normal circumstances, within the Danmachi worldview, no amount of technique or strategy could overturn the overwhelming disparity between levels.
“It’s just like how even one hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and generals, deployed together, still couldn’t take down a single monkey with a hairy face and thunder-god beak…” Once the Celestial Court was established in the future, Tian’el would naturally need to build celestial armies as well.
The problem was that throughout countless myths, there had never been a shortage of beings who wished to storm the Heavenly Palace, shouting, “The Heavenly Emperor’s throne rotates—next year it’s my turn!” In Greek mythology, from Uranus to Cronus to Zeus, the throne of the king of gods changed hands at least three times.
In ancient Egyptian myth, the sun god Ra not only merged repeatedly with other divine aspects, but each night personally journeyed into the dark realm to battle the great serpent Apophis.
As for Indra in Indian mythology, there was no need to elaborate—arduous cultivation followed by challenging the Heavenly Emperor after receiving blessings had practically become a standard procedure.
From these myths, it was clear that ascending to the position of Celestial Emperor did not mean one could sit securely upon it.
Of course, Tian’el was not worried that he himself would be overthrown in the future.
But to say that over the course of endless ages there would never appear a powerful rebel attempting to defy Heaven—that was certainly impossible— When faced with such a situation, was he supposed to personally take action every single time, or shout, “Quick, go to the Western Heaven and invite the Tathagata Buddha”?
He had no desire to be mocked like the Jade Emperor, forever teased with, “You were beaten by a monkey.” In short, as the future instrument of violence of the Celestial Court, the fully formed celestial soldiers and generals absolutely had to be capable of defeating the monkey!
Otherwise, what meaning would the so-called celestial army even have?
Surely he would not expend vast resources merely to raise a group of useless ornaments for decoration.
“…The Vast Expanse needs a celestial army system capable of gathering collective might.” Thus the objective was established.
But transforming it into reality was not something that could be accomplished overnight.
Within the Danmachi worldview, an army of thirty thousand Level 1 soldiers, supported by a small number of Level 2 and Level 3 commanders, would be effortlessly defeated by a single Level 6 adventurer.
And that was merely the struggle between mortal armies and powerful individuals.
Once the Vast Expanse matured in the future, within the realms of gods and demons, the gap between each minor stage would only widen to even more absurd extremes.
So how could a group of weak celestial soldiers and generals unite their strength and unleash power sufficient to transcend realms and slay a great divine ability wielder?
After contemplating for a few seconds, Tian’el glanced at the obsidian-like bead in his hand—that was the Bashe that had nearly swallowed Ares, which he had casually sent into this world.
In the next instant, the Celestial Emperor controlled Sanjouno Haruhime’s body and stepped forward, directly crossing through the void to an uninhabited region more than a dozen miles north.
“Go.” After confirming that no innocent intelligent beings would be affected, Tian’el tossed the “bead” in his hand into the sky.
Black light shot upward, expanding with the wind until it blotted out the heavens.
Rumble— A serpent body three thousand feet long plummeted from the sky, smashing heavily into the northern wilderness of Rakia.
The ground split into spiderweb-like cracks.
As dust surged thousands of feet high like a tidal wave sweeping in all directions, a stream of golden light flowed from Tian’el’s divine sense.
The Bashe’s body immediately underwent transformations too dazzling for the eye to follow— Serpent blood gushed forth, turning into crimson spiritual springs that flowed into dried riverbeds.
Scales shattered apart, forming crisscrossing ravines and valleys.
The serpent’s tongue fell to the ground and took root, growing into vines that blotted out the sky.
Its bones rose upward, evolving into continuous mountain ridges…
In no more than ten breaths, a mountain range several miles long, shaped like a colossal serpent, rose from the earth.
Within its cliffs glowed a deep crimson.
Spiritual mist coiled through the air, and an unending stream of essence formed tangible waterfalls cascading without cease.
Without a doubt, this was a miracle.
The people of Rakia in the distance, along with the subordinate gods who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion—including Ares—were left utterly speechless in shock.
Gulp— Within Rakia’s royal city, someone swallowed audibly.
Immediately afterward, the entire city fell to its knees.
A sea of dark figures prostrated themselves, shouting and venting emotions they themselves could not fully comprehend.
“Ares?” A female subordinate god spoke, her expression filled with suspicion.
“You fought this colossal beast for eight hundred rounds, and in the end lost by half a move due to exhaustion of divine power?” Heh.
Who were you trying to fool?
You—who could not even secure victory in legend—managed to contend against such a monster after losing the support of your Heaven?
“It is indeed a colossal beast on the same level as us gods.
Aside from Zeus, Uranus, and a few of the greater deities, I cannot imagine how an ordinary god could deal with something of this caliber.” Another subordinate god spoke, a solemn expression gradually giving way to burning excitement.
As gods, they possessed the ability to perceive the myriad phenomena of existence.
Thus, even though they had never confronted such a beast of equal standing to the gods, they could easily confirm the Bashe’s essence— Unlike the gods, whose core lay in divine soul and will, this colossal beast’s greatest strength undoubtedly lay in its physical endowment.
In a one-on-one frontal clash, an ordinary god would find it nearly impossible to shake that flesh capable of tearing apart the earth.
In any case, none of the gods present believed Ares possessed such strength.
“A completely unfamiliar otherworld with no connection whatsoever to our Heaven?” A subordinate god with what seemed like flames burning in his eyes licked his lips and impatiently ran toward the mountain range formed from the Bashe.
“I want to see exactly what that Celestial Emperor from another domain intends to do.” “Let’s go, let’s go—together!
A colossal beast on the same level as the gods was actually suppressed and turned into an artificial mountain range.
Being able to witness such entertainment—worth dying for!” Thus several subordinate gods abandoned Ares and formed a group to head toward the newly formed mountain range in search of excitement.
“You bastards!
If you dare embarrass me before the Lord, just wait to be sent back to Heaven!” Ares stomped his foot in irritation, yet there was little he could do about these willful fellows— Though called subordinate gods, ordinary deities were roughly on the same level without hierarchical differences.
These individuals had merely ended up under his command after losing war games and having their familias absorbed by the Kingdom of Rakia.
Unwilling to return to Heaven early, they lingered at his side, helping manage lower-ranking familia members.
Beyond that, as chief god, he had no real means of restraining these free-spirited troublemakers.
For instance, when Deimos grew bored of playing in the lower world, he simply released the magic sword smith Ares valued, then casually returned to Heaven without a care.
Once I establish merit, receive the Lord’s rewards, become a greater god—stronger even than the great gods—I’ll make sure to ruthlessly humiliate every bastard who ever looked down on me!