Chapter 1675: Ceremony  

Abel quickly withdrew his power of the Will from Doff. He knew that he had activated something special this time. He wasn’t sure about what the consequences would be, though, since there was just too much of a gap between him and the realm of spirits. He was like a thief, carefully trying to steal from a mountain of wealth from a sleeping deity. Yes, the job was technically done, but he still had to be careful if the god of war ever happened to return one day.

No, it wasn’t like he was going to back away from this treasure he discovered. This was the collective wealth of an entire race. Think back to the Moon Goddess. The reason she was so powerful and youthful all the time was because of the same thing. She had her own temple, her own followers, her own religious workers, and as long as the elven race continued to exist, the concept of death would remain nothing but irrelevant to her.

Anyways, now that Doff was one with its master, it had more space for growth. Abel intended to stay like this for a bit longer. Instead of going back to the dark world every night, he planned to return to a life of routine training in the next five days. In the day, he would be standing on the battle fort platform and feel the presence of the prayers that were coming over from the Nation of God. As for Doff, it would be standing beside him and feel the power of faith coming from the Battlecry Plateau.

He could feel that the power of faith had been on a rapid increase, all thanks to the new campaign that the temple staff had been working on. They were strong in sending their message about how the god of war had returned and was ready to bestow divine blessings on those who were devoted. Elder Blair used his youthful look like an effective way of demonstrating the truthfulness of their message, and for the first time in many years, the barbarians felt like their souls had a place to belong.

In just five days, the divine power lost from the totem pole was replenished once again. It was actually more than when Abel first received it. It seemed as though he did not need to worry if there was ever going to be a time when there would not be enough of it. That was something that Elder Blaid was fully capable of, and he always needed to have enough for him to cast the “enlightenment blessing” on his followers. Elder Blair decided that it was not in the best interest to cast the blessings directly. He needed first to advocate more about the greatness of the god of war. This was to ensure that there were enough followers to receive even more reward from the god of war.

On one particular day, on the meeting ground of the temple, all the barbarians that could’ve come to gather. Those with status stood in the middle, whereas those who couldn’t allocate themselves in the other parts or even the streets and buildings nearby. This was the first big gathering Battlecry City held after the end of the war. Needless to say, they did not invite anyone from other races. They actually couldn’t even if they wanted to because the Wizard Union had been deliberately blocking access for them to make contact with anyone else outside of their community. It was a way to ensure that they could only produce barbarian class holders, and it was for this that the Battlecry Plateau had been so isolated for a long time. In fact, if it weren’t for the Nation of God, Abel would’ve never had the chance to visit.

In the middle of the meeting ground, eight barbarian fanatic warriors stood in two lanes to make an empty spot for the very center. That was where Elder Blair, in his exquisite long robe laced with gemstones, held his speech and ceremonial demonstrations. For the last few days, rumors of him becoming more youthful had spread all over the city. He stood in front of everyone to confirm that.

Some old men were the same age as Elder Blair. They were the ones who cared the most, and they were the loudest ones when they reacted to Elder Blair’s new appearance.

“Silence!” Elder Blair looked around and spoke loudly. His presence became much more powerful because of the transformation that took place. His voice spread towards all corners for all to stay quiet and listen. In just a moment, everyone across quiet down and stayed still.

Elder Blair announced, “A few days ago, our totem pole, our sacred pole, was pillaged by the evil knights. Our barbarian brethrens were slaughtered in the masses. Although we have been brave enough to hold back this invasion, it is not here anymore.”

This was the first time that it was made public this was stolen. Hearing about it silenced every barbarian here, regardless of how loud any one of them was.

Elder Blair continued, “But, but! My fellow brethrens! The great god of war has revealed his divine presence in our most desperate time! Young Levi here gained his occupation potential directly from him, and by the same blessing, my physical form has been reverted to that of many, many moons ago.”

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“And thus, today, I will use whatever the great god of war has bestowed upon me to cast more enlightenment blessings on those who are of the right age and suitability.”

After saying that, a young barbarian walked towards the middle area of the meeting ground. He was a well-known figure to most for being one of the most physically capable in his generation. After several trials, he was chosen to participate in this ceremony to receive divine blessings. As someone who was clarified repeatedly to not have a talent for holding an occupation, he became the best candidate for today’s event.

Elder Blair slammed his scepter on the ground, “O great god of war! I beg you, bless me with your divine powers! Enlightenment blessing!”

When the last two words were spoken, the ancient totem was activated from afar to conduct a stream of divine energy right into his body. An “enlightenment blessing” rune appeared in front of him after he slammed the scepter. Over the five days, Elder Blair had been conducting research many times, and he discovered that it was only possible to activate the enlightenment blessing during the daytime. He also calculated the amount required for each blessing. The amount collected every five days would be enough for one young barbarian. Of course, it would probably take less time as more followers came to devote their worship.

After guiding the divine power into the rune, a golden light was emitted out of the rune and engulfed the entire meeting ground. A light beam dropped from the sky, surrounding the young barbarian. A divine presence was then transmitted out from the light beam. It was strange to Elder Blair because he didn’t think that the god of war would respond to another regular blessing. All the better, nevertheless. It’s much better to make this one more appealing since this was meant for public demonstration.

Well, obviously, it was Abel who decided to make this happen. He was watching from his battlefront when Elder Blair was about to cast, and when the blessing was bestowed, he made sure to make it a little more special by transforming some divine power into suppressive pressure. It was a brilliant move because as he commanded Doff to do this, a huge amount of worship power was returning to him in a span of just a few seconds.

Abel spoke to himself, “So that’s why those divine workers want to act superstitious all the time.”

And it was a minor thing he conducted, but again, it had been many years since the barbarian race had experienced any true divine presence. All it took for them to pray by the masses was the slightest presence, and even if the totem pole was only responding every few days, they would sing and chat to seek the solemn deity that they had been telling stories about for generations.

That was exactly what they were doing now. In the middle of the meeting ground, songs of praise were sung from Elder Blair’s mouth. The fanatic warriors then joined them, which brought more and more barbarians to join. Eventually, every barbarian joined to sing. Elder Blair could feel strongly that the city was returning to its golden era. The return of the god of war was what made the barbarian feel like they were truly at home. Abel could feel this from his connection to these barbarians. A decent number was growing exponentially, and about ten of the paths were getting closer to the size of Elder Blair.

Abel thought to himself, “Did those followers take it to the next stage?”

He had no way to verify that. He didn’t know who to ask, either. There was a lot to know regarding spirits from what he could look up from the Wizard Union system. He could turn to Sainte Loraine, but he didn’t want to risk raising suspicion from the Moon Goddess. Still, one thing was clear, and the followers’ faith had gotten more and more solidified.

The god of war clearly knew what he was doing in this regard. It was not pointless for him to leave the totem pole inside the Battlecry City Temple this whole time. He secured a minimum number of followers so that the worship continued for years and years. As for Abel, he sowed the seeds into trees and harvested their fruits. There were ten in total, and each one of those ten devoted followers could provide for thousand times more the amount of worship power than when he first forged the ancient totem.

Obviously, Abel couldn’t just respond to this influx of worship. He needed to strike the iron while it was still hot. Now that most of the divine forces were absorbed into the ancient totem, he needed to use some more for Elder Blair to cast the enlightenment blessings more consistently. For the other spirits, they required a large amount of divine power to sustain themselves. That was precisely what Doff was doing, but since it wasn’t, technically, a divine spirit, a lot of required power didn’t affect it that much.

It made Abel think about what he was doing to do with the excess energy that was there. After he opened the worship pathways of the ten followers, he couldn’t reverse their age as he had done to Elder Blair. Instead, he decided to use up ten of his golden quality “healing potions” on them. They were ones that he brewed himself, and they were supposed to have the same effect as even that of the dark golden healing potion. A dark golden healing potion could repair even the most minute injuries inside a body. The effect was ten or more times more effective than the light recovery potion. Abel actually made an early decision to keep these out of the market.

As for now, since he wanted to demonstrate the ability of the spirits, these potions could serve as the perfect tools for that. It was his first time sending physical objects through the worship pathway, but when he made this decision, his senses told him that it was possible. After wrapping his divine power over the potion, he made it so that everything was going inside the pathway towards the barbarians that were praying.

Meanwhile, the barbarians sang their songs of praise at the meeting ground. They could see that streaks of golden light were rising from amongst them. When Elder Blair raised his head, he could see that ten of his fellow barbarians were wrapped in golden light. He could see that a streak of dark golden light was coming across. Unbeknownst to them, the lights were pretty much just for visual effects. Abel could send the potion directly to the inside of the followers’ bodies, but he decided to go an extra mile by using his divine power to generate lights. It worked out fine, and it made the meeting ground more sacred than it should be.