Chapter 352
So much so that when the Chaos Space truly descended, extreme chaos swept across the entire Rhea Continent.
Fortunately, the Northern Continent was protected by Augustus and the Northern Federation, and the Eastern Continent by the Arcadia Empire. The Twin Empress received intelligence from Ryan and began to make defensive arrangements in advance, minimizing the losses from the demon's descent.
Ryan temporarily disregarded the situation on the two continents. According to his plan, he would unify the Southern Continent as quickly as possible, then spread his faith outwards, eventually drawing the faith of the entire continent to him.
The process should have gone smoothly, with the help of the Hand of Darkness and the Gate of Janus, plus the strength of the Primal Church. However, after the Chaos Space was broken, the Demon Legion that appeared on the Southern Continent were far more numerous than those on the Northern Continent and Eastern Continents.
Ultimately, the struggle for faith devolved into a chaotic battle against the Chaos Demon, forcing Ryan to travel to the City of Desire and summon Aurelia.
Although the forces of desire cannot compare to the Hand of Darkness and the Gate of Janus, Aurelia's power is undeniable. She can still muster a considerable number of high-ranking combatants. It's just a pity that Aurelia only wants to manage the City of Desire and has no designs on other forces of desire.
Otherwise, with her abilities, she could have easily built a force comparable to the Hand of Darkness.
With Aurelia joining the fray, the situation gradually improved. Now that the gods are silent, they have four top- Eighth Tier Supernatural Being on their side, plus seventh-order transcendents like Magana. Unifying the Northern Continent is only a matter of time.
"Phew! The situation is still far from optimistic."
Inside the manor, Ryan leaned back in his chair, pondering his next move.
The arrival of the Chaos Space disrupted his plans. Under the current circumstances, it would be difficult to unify the faith across the entire continent, because demons are everywhere, and the cost of spreading the faith would be much higher than before.
Moreover, the Chaos Space is still merging further.
In the darkness, Ryan sensed that a pair of eyes were watching him.
That woman, she's starting to get anxious too.
"Um?"
At this moment, Ryan opened his eyes, a look of joy appearing on his face.
He waved his hand, parting the Chaos Space, and stepped inside. When he reappeared, he was in a terrifying 'hell' stained with blood.
Within sight was a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses, with countless white bones piled up and surrounding it. In the center of the bones was a basin overflowing with blood, and soaking in the blood was none other than Doklodus, the God of War Ryan had been searching for for so long!
At this moment, standing beside Ryan was Shally, the Chosen of the Gods of the Blood God for eternity.
Long before Ryan became a god, Shally had already infiltrated the Temple of War. During this time, she expanded her influence in the Southern Continent while searching for the gate to Hell according to his orders.
After so many days, Ryan had planned to personally go to the Temple of War and search it up, but he never expected that Shally would succeed.
"Well done, Shally."
Ryan said somewhat excitedly.
Boom!~
The sea of blood suddenly surged.
Beneath the crimson waves, a gigantic, indescribable thing opened its eyes.
It is called eyes, but it can only feel the sensation of being watched. In fact, Doklodus has no physical form. Its existence is the embodiment of the Will of War, and its facial features are blurred.
"Doklodus, you should know why I'm here," Ryan shouted. "Relinquish your authority. In the end, I want you to die with dignity."
"... Balshatt... Balshatt..."
A deep, resonant voice echoed through the space, as the boiling sea of blood emitted endless blood mist, thickening the air and filling it with the stench of blood.
Roar!
An invisible force roared, and the next second, the sea of blood exploded as the giant beast charged out!
This colossal beast was covered in blood-red scales, had a body as large as a mountain, and wielded a long-handled giant axe. With a surge of energy, it cleaved down with tremendous force!
Ryan frowned, not because of the giant beast's attack, but because he sensed a chilling, chaotic aura emanating from the tangible, thick blood.
He soon realized that the war had been corrupted by chaos.
Thinking of this, Ryan summoned the Sword of Order, fused it with divine power, and slashed at the behemoth.
Ryan discovered that the Sword of Order possesses the ability to balance the turmoil of power, and different forces are greatly enhanced when incorporated into it.
The combined divine power, along with the light blade unleashed by the Sword of Order, struck the behemoth's weapon, severing it before landing on the behemoth.
Within the chaotic blood mist, a tremendous roar filled the world. The Chaos Power from the exploding sword blades made the space extremely unstable. Ryan calmly stared at the center of the blood mist, watching as it suddenly contracted rapidly, shooting out long, black tentacles.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ryan swiftly dodged, and the tentacles struck his location like lightning, eliciting a series of startled cries.
"Time and space!"
Ryan whispered a warning.
The temporal imprint on the Sword of Order lit up, and a milky white light floated around Ryan.
With the aid of the power of spacetime, he advanced instead of retreating, rushing straight towards the center of the blood mist.
The tentacles that were shot at him all missed him due to the distortion of space. Ryan rushed into the blood mist, reached out and grabbed forward, and the blood mist suddenly shrank back wildly as if the tide were receding.
"Still trying to run?"
Ryan used a time-acceleration technique to rush over.
Snap!
He grabbed a slender arm, then with a swift motion, the Sword of Order cleaved the arm in two.
A shrill scream came from within the blood mist, the sound sharp and piercing, like thorns piercing the soul.
Ryan glanced down at the arm in his hand and saw that red patches were spreading and corroding rapidly. He quickly threw it away.
Looking up, the blood mist in the distance had dissipated, Doklodus, who had appeared in the sea of blood, had vanished, replaced by a disheveled woman!
But Ryan knew that this woman was also the current God of War, only she had been corrupted by the Chaos Power and had become a pawn of the Hanged Woman.
"You're not going to pretend anymore?"
Ryan scoffed.
His refined Path of Wisdom gave him a natural and keen insight into such schemes, and he could even glimpse 'fate' to some extent.
The woman didn't speak, but she tugged at the chains a few times, unable to break free.
Each god sealed a portion of her power... Ryan had discovered this before. Not all of the true gods, but among the Outer Gods, the four great gods were corrupted by Chaos Power and were also sealed away.
Ryan wasn't sure what caused this scene, but if it weren't for the seal of the Four Great Outer Gods, this woman would have already caused the Chaos Space to shatter the shackles of reality and destroy the world.
It is precisely because of these seals that Ryan currently holds an absolute advantage.
He raised his hand and slashed at the crazed Doklodus, the orderly sword light flying through his body and splitting him in two.
"I guess this is a relief."
Of the Four Great Outer Gods, Aphrodite was in the best condition; two of the other three had died, and Doklodus had gone mad.
Ryan let out a sigh, reached out and grabbed at the blood mist, absorbing the authority that symbolized the Will of War into his body.
Two weeks later.
Port of Misi, within the original stronghold of the manor.
Ryan leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and channeled his Mental Power into the Misty Space.
The Sword of Order floated before him, its blade adorned with five intertwined lights, and the marks corresponding to the major paths also radiated a captivating glow.
Suddenly, the mark symbolizing time and space shot out and flew into the endless sea of stars. Then, the mark exploded at the highest point, transforming into a dazzling galaxy visible to the naked eye!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Earth, sun, moon, and the mark of death shot out one after another, reflecting their own light in the sea of stars.
In no time, eight striking Milky Way lit up the entire starry sky.
Ryan opened his eyes and slowly exhaled.
"Time, space, earth, sun, moon, death, desire, war, wisdom... and what remains is order and chaos."
"The power of order is somewhat peculiar; its existence maintains balance. I can map it onto the final layer, and then there's the Spirit of Chaos... Where exactly is this thing?"
After half a month, the war in the Southern Continent has entered its final stage. The Primal Church, which possesses four top-tier Supernatural Being, is unstoppable. The Primordial, the Gate of Janus, the Hand of Darkness, and the City of Desire have joined forces and no one can stop them.
If it weren't for the interference of the Chaos Demon, the entire Southern Continent would have been unified long ago.
Ryan didn't interfere with these matters; the public affairs of the Primal Church were handled by Adele and others. What he needed to do now was to find the last piece of authority as soon as possible.
The chaotic forces of the witches did not participate in this melee, but they alone could not escape Ryan's pursuit. Ryan performed a divination and saw from the result that another force was interfering.
Clearly, there's nothing else besides the sealed woman.
The fact that the other party is related to witchcraft means that the bottle that seals the power of chaos may be in the hands of witchcraft.
"His power has almost reached the limit of the divine level. To advance further, he needs the final fusion of powers."
Ryan pondered for a moment, then lowered his Mental Power and withdrew from the Misty Space.
Back at the manor, just as Ryan picked up his teacup, a figure descended, transforming into Sylvia.
"Ryan, we've found the witch's whereabouts."
"Oh?"
Ryan's eyes lit up. "Where?"
"Western Continent."
Chapter 222 The Path to Fusion with the Gods: The Awakening of Balshatt!
As the main battlefield of the War of the Gods, the Western Continent is shrouded in mist for many years. In the more than a thousand years of the New Era, countless adventurers and Bounty Hunter have set foot on that land, but none of them have been able to bring out the secrets from within unscathed.
However, with the influence of the Chaos Space's Power, the mysterious power surrounding the Western Continent gradually disappeared. Ryan remembered that last month, news came from Vainay that the Augustus Empire had proposed sending an expedition into the Western Continent to acquire territory and resources.
After all, unknown places, besides danger, also offer gold coins. The empire's initial attempt to enter the Southern Continent was to expand its colonies, but it was repelled by a coalition of religious forces.
Ryan hadn't expected that the Chaos forces would collectively flee to the Western Continent; no wonder there hadn't been much news from the other three continental regions.
But then again, although the influence of the Western Continent has weakened, no one can predict what will happen next. Is such a large-scale migration a gamble with fate?
Ryan felt it was impossible, so it was most likely that he was influenced, like the Will of War, where the Chaos Path after death was corrupted by that mysterious woman, resulting in the utterance of false divine pronouncements.
How did you find them?
"I asked Ryan."
"The leader of the Witches, Sheldus, was once my teacher," Sylvia said calmly. "He was the Archbishop of the Gate of Janus, but later betrayed the church. I only recently learned that he had actually joined the Witches and risen to his current position."
Ryan's expression was strange. "Why would you betray me for no reason?"
"Sheldus is an ambitious man. He glimpsed the secrets of the gods earlier than I did, and thus embarked on the path of trying to become a god."
"Ha?"
Ryan thought to himself that the kind of teacher you have really does determine the kind of student you produce.
With the gods silent and authority lost, anyone with ambition will indeed take this path.
But the most urgent thing is to find that guy.
"Do you have anything belonging to Sheldus?" Ryan asked. "Used or anything related to him, anything."
Sylvia frowned slightly, hesitated for a moment, and then took out a staff from her storage bag.
"This was a gift from him when I became Saintess."
The staff is entirely white with golden magic patterns engraved on it. It looks beautiful, but it's not high-level, only Fourth Tier relic.
"This thing is useless to you now, isn't it? Why are you still keeping it?"
"Sheldus was my teacher, and I never felt that his departure was a betrayal. Our beliefs are not shackles that imprison freedom; everyone has the right to pursue the path they want to take."
Ryan shrugged and let Sylvia hand him the scepter.
Then he produced the Scepter of the Bizarre.
"You want to... do divination?" Observing Ryan's actions, Sylvia guessed a few things and said, "Although Sheldus' strength is not as good as mine, he is still Eighth Tier Supernatural Being. Divination may not be effective for him and may even alert him."
Divination is a common means of glimpsing fate, but it is generally only mastered by Supernatural Being Path of Wisdom. However, this ability is not omnipotent, and there is a price to pay for glimpsing fate. As far as Sylvia knows, the more skilled Supernatural Being is in divination, the more cautious they are about it.
In addition, if the person being divined is human, and the other party is powerful enough, it is easy for them to notice anything unusual.
"Don't worry, I'm not a half-baked expert."
Ryan activated the Scepter of the Bizarre, its dim light enveloping the garden. He then focused his Mental Power on the staff that Sylvia had taken out, before entering a semi-dormant state.
Soon, Ryan arrived in the starry sky represented by the Path of Wisdom.