Chapter 839: Chapter 851: About the True God

“Under the Grim Reaper, please don’t belittle yourself…” Lancelot respectfully bowed, “…But is that enough? By obtaining mortals’ ‘faith,’ one can ascend to godhood just like that?”

“I understand your doubt, so let me ask you a question, the Kingdom, or the King?”

“The Kingdom,” Lancelot answered with certainty, “A King is nothing without a Kingdom, but a Kingdom without a King… can always produce a new King.”

“Exactly so, and deities are quite the same,” Cranvo nodded, standing up from his seat, “A god without followers is nothing, but as long as there are followers… changing a god isn’t impossible, take me for instance.”

“This…” Lancelot frowned tightly, “But a god is a god, not just because of mortal worship, there are also those supernatural powers, and the various authorities related to the divine office…”

“There are many sources of supernatural power. In the eyes of ordinary people, what’s the difference between a legendary spellcaster and a true god?” Cranvo shook his head gently, “You did touch upon the point regarding divine office, the creation of it is indeed the hardest part. It’s within the realm of the Supreme Deity, and I know almost nothing about it, only some uncertain conjectures. Do you want to hear them?”

“We…” Lancelot exchanged a glance with the little Yisha sitting next to him, “Is it appropriate for us to hear this?”

“It’s indeed inappropriate for general folks to hear,” Cranvo’s face showed a mysterious smile, “but you’re different, Sir Lancelot, you know what I mean.”

“Alright…” Lancelot nodded, “I’ll lend my ear.”

“As I mentioned before, the creation of divine office is the hardest part. When time had yet to begin flowing and the multiverse was still chaotic, what kind of great existence created the concepts of light and darkness, heat and cold, past and present, order and chaos?” Cranvo bent his forefinger, tapping lightly on the tabletop, “The Supreme Deity Ao is such an existence. He created these concepts and also created the first deities, granting them the duties to maintain these ‘concepts,’ which are the original divine offices.”

“It is easy to imagine that it is vastly different to ‘create’ a divine office than to ‘maintain’ its operation. The various authorities held by a god, like Midnight maintaining the Magic Net, Ogma recording knowledge, my judgment of the dead, even Shrek spreading chaos are all tied to their respective divine offices. Therefore, changing the god associated with a divine office is like changing the ruler of a Kingdom. Putting aside the implications of an empty throne, even if the original King is still alive, if one day he wakes up to find all his ministers, army, and even maids believe the true King is someone else, and he is just a pretender, what do you think would happen?”

“He would no longer be the King,” Lancelot replied uneasily, “But didn’t you say that each god’s divine office is handed down by the Supreme Deity?”

“It can also be voluntarily relinquished by the original god, though that is extremely rare… you must have heard the story of the three gods of death?” Cranvo shook his head lightly, “During the Time of Troubles, Ao altered the rules of the multiverse, current divine power and thrones now depend on the worship of followers. If a god fails to satisfy their followers, thinking they haven’t fulfilled their duties well, their divine power would be severely weakened. If another person or god seizes the opportunity to preach their own doctrine and successfully persuade most of the disappointed followers to worship them, then the divine power and throne would shift, potentially birthing a new god.”

“I see…” Lancelot took a deep breath, “Within these dreadful domains of the Fallen Shadow Netherworld, external gods cannot respond to the prayers of the internal followers. Does this create a natural condition for Peyton Derrick, the master of the Demon’s Domain, to usurp the divine office?”

“Under normal circumstances, it’s impossible, as the master of the Demon’s Domain is a prisoner himself, and the dreadful domains are his prison, the price for his power exchange with some evil entity,” Cranvo shook his head gently, “This topic was skimmed over earlier, but I have enough evidence to believe that the entity Peyton Derrick made a deal with was indeed my predecessor’s predecessor, Milko, who is neutral evil. The lich gained power but became a slave of the Grim Reaper… About a hundred years ago, an unforeseen event presented an opportunity to end all this…”

“The Time of Troubles,” Lancelot immediately understood what the other was referring to, “Milko fell.”

“Yes, Milko’s divine office was first taken over by Shrek, then ten years later by me, and this Demon’s Domain was forgotten… at least I knew nothing about it.” The current Lord of the Dead shrugged, “It seems Shrek always had it on his mind. From the intelligence we know, those hag mothers are the hands of the Prince of Lies. They once entered this temple and successfully enslaved the lich again but did not take away the divine power of the Lord of the Dead left here for some unknown reason… until recently when you released it.”

“Uh…” Lancelot awkwardly touched his nose, “We were misled…”

“Of course, I’m not blaming you. Precisely because of your actions, everything here has a chance to be concluded,” Cranvo stood up from his seat, “After all, be it retrieving Barrend Frostforge’s soul or lifting the curse on this land, these are all ultimately my responsibilities, but most of the work was done by you. Justice is my most important promise to the world, so I won’t forget your contribution, Sir Lancelot.”

“You don’t need to say that, under the Grim Reaper,” Lancelot answered seriously, “Everything I’ve done is what I believed to be right and necessary.”

“You possess a truly noble soul, and I’m very aware of that,” Cranvo nodded, “It is precisely because of that I trust you to accomplish these crucial tasks. You must stop Peyton Derrick’s plan to ascend to godhood, otherwise, once he succeeds, converting all residents of this half-plane into his believers, he can focus his power to break the curse on this land, returning this half-plane to the material plane. By then, having enough believers, Peyton Derrick would instantly become a new subordinate Grim Reaper, holding some of the same authorities as I do, and I believe someone like him doesn’t deserve or should become a god managing death and the dead.”