Port Nyanzaru, the Grand Temple.
As Soren's strength continued to grow, the temple in Port Nyanzaru was gradually expanding toward the scale of a Great Temple. In the future, it would surely serve as the core of a pantheon.
After collecting over a thousand souls, Soren soon returned to the temple. His God's Realm was now within the Shadow Plane, and the merger was nearly complete. Unfortunately, because of the Time of Troubles, Soren could not enter it at all. But being unable to enter did not mean he had lost his connection to it. He could still send the souls of his believers inside.
Quite a few people had died this time.
Port Nyanzaru's fleet had unexpectedly encountered a godspawn, losing over a thousand men in one fell swoop. The godspawn had devoured all their souls, but they had been rescued when Soren killed it.
Since he had yet to reach greater divinity, Soren could not purify souls and send them straight to Mount Celestia as the Lord of Radiance did. What he needed to do now was use the temple to cleanse these souls, then send them into his God's Realm to be reincarnated as petitioners.
For now.
The forms of Soren's petitioners had essentially been decided.
Noncombatant petitioners looked like ordinary people, roughly resembling their younger selves when they were alive. Their exact appearance would depend on the purity of their souls. Those with exceptionally fine souls might evolve into heroic spirits or holy spirits on their own.
Combatant petitioners took the form of demon hunters.
Soren's initial experimental subject had already achieved great success in the Abyss. The first demon hunter he had created possessed formidable combat strength.
However, it also consumed more energy!
On the third layer of the Abyss, Soren's Demon Avatar now controlled