God of Strife Takes Its Place!

Although they were all quite eager to become divine retainers, unfortunately, the Virtual Divine Spark Isaac gave Mephisto belonged to a righteous god, not an evil one. It could not create retainers without limit.

In other words, they had to meet certain conditions or complete certain trials before He could grant them power.

Its numbers naturally could not compare to the evil gods' freely created retainers, but its quality was far higher. Whether in combat strength, vitality, or even potential, they far surpassed evil god retainers.

Moreover, they retained their own wills for relatively longer. Unlike evil god retainers, the lucky ones might last seven or eight years, while the unlucky ones could be completely corrupted in three to five years—or even less than a year.

Of course, advantages naturally came with drawbacks. First, the requirements were rather high. Of the hundred or so people under Mephisto, only nine ultimately met the standards. The rest did not qualify, and three of those nine were children under ten, incapable of fighting.

At the very least, it was not yet time to send them onto the battlefield.

Second, except under special circumstances, most righteous god retainers needed to slowly increase their power, much like ordinary supernatural beings. They would not gain immense power in an instant.

Thus, aside from Mephisto and the three children, the rest were merely first-tier divine clerics.

They might have been weak, but they were strong enough for traveling. Although there were many underground palaces nearby, most were dormant, and there were not many monsters in the surrounding area. The occasional few were no match for Mephisto.

After all, even though He had not fully familiarized Himself with His own power and Divine Authority, He could casually crush third-tier monsters through sheer stats alone. Fighting above one's level was not that easy.

Even Isaac, when he was third-tier, could only say that if he caught them off guard, he could escape alive from a fourth-tier powerhouse. Fight them?

Not a chance.

Yet even with such an enormous advantage, Mephisto did not act rashly. Instead, He led the six retainers capable of fighting to properly adapt to their power. Only after a full three days did He lead His people toward the area Isaac had designated.

Meanwhile, after leaving Mephisto, Isaac quickly found a holder for the God of Strife. There was no helping it—whether in combat strength or potential, the God of Strife and the Blade of Blazing Sun were not even on the same level. There was no need to choose so carefully; anyone suitable would do.

It was a Virtual Divine Spark with some of Eternity's traits anyway. Changing hosts came at no cost whatsoever. If one was unsuitable, he could simply be replaced.

Thus, after leaving Mephisto, Isaac gave it to a wilderness human group of roughly two hundred people. They were somewhat more numerous than Mephisto's group, but seemingly less united. In a group of only two hundred, there were actually four leaders...

Isaac said nothing about it. After giving the God of Strife to the most compatible of the four, he continued searching for other humans. Although he no longer had any Virtual Divine Sparks on hand, just over three hundred people were clearly not enough to support his plans.

As for the God of Strife...

Isaac was not worried. Compared with ordinary people, the God of Strife possessed almost absolute suppressive power!

Unless the God of Strife and His subordinates were complete idiots, stabilizing the situation would not be a problem.

And that was indeed what happened. After Isaac left, Ecks, the God of Strife, swiftly subdued the others and became the undisputed leader of the two hundred-plus people. He then developed thirty retainers from among them!

Yes, thirty-six!

That was far more than Mephisto's nine, and only two of them were children. There were a full thirty-four combatants!

The reason for such a large difference was, on one hand, that there were more people. On the other, the God of Strife was weaker than the Blade of Blazing Sun, so the requirements for becoming retainers were much lower. Besides, His luck was not bad either.

Of course, with the numbers going up, the quality naturally went down.

Compared to Mephisto's retainers, who could wield both flames and swords and excel in both magic and martial combat, the retainers of the God of Strife were far inferior. Their changes were basically limited to physical enhancement and a single god-granted combat technique. Most importantly, unlike Mephisto's retainers, they did not come with weapons!

However, their greater numbers were an unparalleled advantage for them at the moment. It meant the God of Strife had more room to maneuver.

Although He had obtained such immense power, the God of Strife knew very well who had granted it to Him. Therefore, after basically familiarizing Himself with His power and developing His retainers, He decisively split His forces into two. He and the ten relatively weakest retainers led the remaining ordinary people toward the location Isaac had designated.

The other retainers headed for human gathering places in other regions of the wilderness, seeking out more humans for Isaac!

The God of Strife understood clearly that whether He wished to serve Isaac better or survive more successfully in this world, population was the foundation of everything!

At least, that was the case after gaining supernatural power. Only with more people could they develop more retainers and protect humanity better!

Yes, protect humanity!

Although He had only become the God of Strife a few days ago, such saintly, selfless thoughts had already emerged in His heart.

It was quite unbelievable. Just a few days earlier, the God of Strife had merely been an ordinary man whose mind was mostly occupied with fighting for power and profit. The speed of this transformation was astonishing!

And this was a firewall Isaac had deliberately built into the Virtual Divine Spark. Under its influence, no matter who became its holder, their actions and thoughts would be affected by the divinity within the Virtual Divine Spark. Unconsciously, they would take that divinity as the standard for their actions.

Of course, Isaac could achieve this only because it was one of the dilemmas gods faced to begin with. Isaac had merely magnified that issue slightly.

Even if he did nothing, sooner or later they would be controlled by the divinity within the Virtual Divine Spark. Being a god was not so easy.

But that had little to do with Isaac. In any case, the primary control over the Virtual Divine Spark was in his hands. Once his research into it went deeper, he would be able to give one to each of his familiars and subordinates.

Of course, that step was still far away. For now...

They could only be used by Dimensional Apostles, because when the holder of a Virtual Divine Spark was replaced, the former holder would be completely devoured by it!

This devouring ability was extremely powerful. By Isaac's rough estimate, even a Dimensional Apostle's immortality would not withstand it!

After all, the immortality of Dimensional Apostles came from dimensional worlds. Although the Virtual Divine Spark was slightly weaker in scale, its rank was no lower than that of dimensional worlds—perhaps even somewhat higher!