New Love and Old Love

In the Mage Tower's laboratory, Isaac, clad in a Black Wizard Robe, stood at the center of an evil, twisted Magic Array. He extended his pale hands, his left wrapped in the deep crimson Divine Strength of Dimension Demon God Purgatory, while sickly green flames from Evil God Asaphis burned in his right.

Above his head, Demonic Claw Hamon spread its sinister five claws. Floating in its palm was a blood-red eyeball, its pupil constantly twisting and darting about—the Divine Strength of Evil God Lord of a Thousand Eyes.

These three evil god powers were the materials Isaac intended to use to construct a Virtual Godhead. At present, his miracle was not particularly powerful, and the Virtual Godhead he could create was only Tier 4.

Of course, if he were willing to throw Divine Strength into it regardless of cost, he might even be able to create a Tier 5—or perhaps a Tier 6—true god!

But that was far too risky. If it became too powerful, he feared his miracle would be unable to control it. It would be better to study such beings further before attempting to create one.

For now, Tier 4 was enough. It was only for practice, anyway.

Still, even for practice, it did not mean that just any god's Divine Strength would do. For example, Isaac would not use the Divine Strength of righteous gods—not because he feared offending them.

Miracle: Deification was quite similar to his legend, God Thief. Both allowed mortals to obtain the mighty power of gods.

But unlike God Thief, which, as its name suggested, essentially stole divine power and would inevitably provoke the gods' resistance, Miracle: Deification rearranged and recreated Divine Strength to form entirely new divine power!

Thus, the Divine Strength it used was fundamentally no different from a knight's Battle Aura or a wizard's magic power. It was a renewable resource, and because the amount taken was so minute, the gods themselves might not even notice they had lost a trace of Divine Strength.

That was why Miracle: Deification was such an absurdly powerful spell. Of course, if it were not so absurdly powerful, it would not be called a miracle.

Back to the point: although using these gods' power would not draw their hostility, Isaac still did not intend to use the Divine Strength of righteous gods—at least not yet. The rank of the Virtual Godheads he could weave was limited, and there would undoubtedly be many battles waiting for him in the Boundless Spire. If their rank was insufficient, he could only make up for it with combat power.

Under normal circumstances, most righteous gods could not defeat Outer Gods of the same rank in a one-on-one fight!

Although those who became gods were generally not useless, there were still differences even among geniuses. The environment was simply too harsh; those without ability would have long since been crippled by wizards or their peers. This was especially true now, with the wizarding path advancing so rapidly.

After all, those great creations had not appeared out of nowhere...

"Hiss... Hoo..."

Standing in the center of the Magic Array and struggling to restrain the three divine powers, Isaac took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. The anticipation in his eyes swiftly calmed, and with a thought, specks of miraculous radiance emerged.

Miracle: Deification activated!

Guided by the miracle spell, the three divine powers began to tremble and break apart, then converged toward a central point.

A glint flashed through Isaac's eyes. Authority Analysis activated, while a tiny black fissure opened behind his head. An invisible, incorporeal strip extended from it and connected to Isaac's brain.

Having previously analyzed a god, Isaac's preparations for related experiments were now exceptionally thorough.

Very quickly, under the miracle's guidance, the three streams of Divine Strength were perfectly rearranged and reconstructed into a new divine power—an eyeball with a slightly illusory green pupil.

The eyeball's gaze was very calm, or rather, vacant. That was because it was currently only an ownerless stream of Divine Strength. Once Isaac bestowed it upon another lifeform, it would start looking around wildly like the previous eyeball had.

Of course, it might not necessarily look around wildly then. What it did would depend on the personality of whoever possessed it.

The eyeball floated silently in midair, pale red flames circling its surface and lending it a touch of horror.

At this point, the Virtual Godhead was...

Of course not complete. How could three tiny, pathetically weak streams of Divine Strength possibly create a Tier 4 God Seed?

Even a miracle could not violate the law of conservation of energy.

Of course, the reason a miracle was a miracle was because it was inherently so unbelievable!

So next, Isaac merely needed to replenish this somewhat illusory eyeball with enough energy, and it would become a genuine Virtual Godhead!

The Virtual Godhead had no particular requirements for energy. Even ordinary magic power would suffice. In theory, if he threw it into a Dimension World, it would rapidly absorb enough magic power on its own and become a real Virtual Godhead, even without Isaac managing it.

But Isaac did not do that. For one thing, while any energy could be used, some energies were naturally superior to others. For a Virtual Godhead, Divine Strength was naturally the most suitable. Different energies would not affect the Godhead's strength or the type of power it wielded, but they would affect how long the Virtual Godhead could persist.

A Virtual Godhead filled with Divine Strength could theoretically last forever!

Aside from being unable to increase its own power, it was no different from a true Godhead.

For another, although Miracle: Deification had no limit on the number of times it could be used, there was a limit on how many Virtual Godheads he could control. He could control at most three Virtual Godheads of the same rank at once. Any beyond that, Isaac would lose control over.

So while using dimensions for charging was convenient, it was unnecessary. It was not as though he could mass-produce troops with them, and manually charging them would provide more data, which would greatly benefit future research.

Thus, Isaac first carefully glanced around. After confirming that Little Mouse was nowhere in sight, he waved a hand, and a large pile of scattered Divinity Fragments appeared in the air. They instantly melted away, turning into pure Divine Strength that all flowed into the illusory Virtual Godhead.

These were snacks Isaac had prepared for Little Mouse. As Little Mouse's strength increased, its need for Divinity Fragments had gradually decreased. It was not that they had become useless, but that each fragment provided far too little "experience." Little Mouse's appetite was limited, so quite a few had naturally accumulated.

Even so, Divinity Fragments remained Little Mouse's favorite food. That was why Isaac had looked around before acting—he was afraid Little Mouse would be unhappy if it saw this.

Fortunately, he had already confirmed that Little Mouse would not come over now. Thus, Little Mouse did not appear even after every Divinity Fragment had merged into the Virtual Godhead.

Little Mouse: "Achoo!"

"Eek?" Little Mouse sniffed, its brows knitting slightly. It curled its tail in front of itself, adjusted the tiny glasses resting on its long, narrow nose, and turned its attention back to the scroll before it. It contained some of its experience in using divine spells and Divine Authority.

Although the Virtual Godhead's power level was higher than its own, it might not be better than Little Mouse at using that power. So this was still very necessary. It had to finish it before the Boundless Spire opened; it did not have much time left.