Divine Fortune

When one side possessed two God Chosen, the outcome of history seemed to have long been decided.

The Sun Empire fell in a single day!

This day was destined to be written into humanity's history books, becoming a milestone for the entire race.

The colossal power that had once stood at its zenith, ruling the rise and fall of this continent, finally crumbled beneath the iron cavalry of the eagles.

When Hu'erlun and Kubana led their army into Sun Main City, the winds suddenly churned and clouds rolled overhead. Heaven and earth lost their color as azure lightning streaked across the dim yellow sky.

The howls of beasts came from all corners of the wilderness. The raging wind wailed like ghosts and demons, creating an image of civilization's ruin and the world's collapse.

It was as though even the heavens lamented the fall of this former behemoth.

But this could not halt Hu'erlun's advance. He had always believed that the gods stood on his side!

Why should he fear a mere celestial anomaly?

He wanted to become the sole Human Emperor of this continent, to carve his name forever onto the first page of humanity's history, so that time itself would eternally commemorate his existence. Even the gods would be gratified to have a believer like him, one who could make the radiance of Might and Defense Supreme shine across the eternal heavens!

The imperial city had fallen.

Once the army was defeated, it collapsed like a mountain.

The last few wilderness beasts that had submitted to the Sun Empire finally realized the tide had turned and scattered in flight.

His troops went after the remnants of the fallen nation, while Kubana and Hu'erlun led the most elite eagle warriors straight into the enemy palace.

Before the first emperor of the Sun Empire could finish begging for mercy, Hu'erlun severed his head with a single stroke, spraying blood across the earth.

In a struggle of faith, if one did not advance, one retreated. There was no need to analyze right or wrong. One only needed to cut off the heads of everyone who thought one was wrong and offer them to their lord, Pantheon.

That was what Sage Kubana had told him, and Hu'erlun wholeheartedly agreed.

Besides, in his eyes, that was merely a puppet, unworthy of making him pause even for an instant.

The true leader of the Sun Empire was, in the end, Loserius. That leader of heretics who had spun an enormous lie and staged a grand drama between heaven and earth with nothing but Beast Taming was Hu'erlun's sole target.

That was right. Even now, Hu'erlun still believed that the gods had chosen only him!

Loserius was nothing more than the greatest fraud in human history!

Beast Taming was a gift bestowed by the gods?

Then how had Sage Kubana tamed those Supernatural Beasts?

Could the Sage also be one chosen by the gods?

What a joke!

They slaughtered their way into the deepest part of the palace. Corpses littered the path, blood flowed like rivers, and Hu'erlun's men spared no one.

There, in the deepest reaches of the imperial court, he used godlike power beyond mortal resistance to slaughter every remaining Supernatural Beast that still stubbornly resisted beneath his iron fists.

At last, Hu'erlun met the nemesis of his life.

Loserius's face was ashen, yet his eyes still held a trace of stubborn devotion.

He knelt on the ground, but not in surrender.

With both hands raised, tears streaming down his face, he watched the churning winds and changing heavens, still clinging to absolute devotion to his faith.

"Sun God, my lord, Loserius has failed your expectations!"

"You see it, don't you? Those heretics are massacring your believers!"

"The Sun Empire was originally my gift to you, yet it has been destroyed by the heretic before me!"

"If your spirit remains in heaven, save your believers! Only a god such as you can reverse this moment. Humanity should sing of your epic!"

Hu'erlun watched the scene coldly, unmoved.

He flicked his hand, scattering crimson blood across the ground in a pattern of glaring droplets.

Hu'erlun slowly stepped forward and looked down contemptuously at this familiar yet unfamiliar opponent, whom he had never faced before. "Loserius, are these your final words? Your so-called deity is so absurd and laughable. This continent—no, even the endless ocean—belongs only to Might and Defense Supreme!"

Crack!

At that moment, lightning as dazzling as the blazing sun tore through the sky.

Everyone shut their eyes beneath that radiant brilliance.

When they opened them again, the night sky had returned to its eternal blackness. Yet the towering figure, both real and illusory, struck everyone like a thunderbolt.

Hu'erlun staggered back three steps, his eyes wide and his face filled with disbelief.

A deity formed from blazing flames and light looked down upon these tiny insects and said indifferently, "Loserius, you have failed my expectations."

Yet when Loserius saw that being he had yearned for in his soul, the one he silently prayed to even in sleep, he wept with joy.

He did not blame or question the god in the slightest. Raising both hands, bathed in the god's gaze, he repented and pleaded, "Incarnation of flames and light, Sun God, Dabolo, you have finally descended upon the mortal world once more!

"Loserius has betrayed your trust, but I beg you—take my life alone in exchange for the salvation of the believers I offered to you!"

Tang Chuan's majestic voice came forth. "Very well. But failure represents the dereliction of a God Chosen's duty. Loserius, to fail a god leaves only one path: death. Yet in consideration of how you also strove to spread my radiance to one corner of this land, I may grant you four words to validate the insignificant contribution made by one as lowly as you."

Upon hearing this, Loserius showed not the slightest fear of approaching death. Instead, his face was filled with fanaticism and supreme devotion. "Please bestow your Oracle, O God!"

Tang Chuan slowly said, "Died in Glory."

Bang!

Loserius slammed his head into the ground, blood streaming from his shattered brow, yet his words were filled with indescribable fervor. "Thank you for your gift, O God! Loserius will forever praise your true name without regret!"

Tang Chuan did not answer again. Instead, he cast an indifferent glance at Hu'erlun and Kubana, forcing them to retreat again and again, unable to remain composed as though blades pressed against their backs.

Boom!

Flames swept across the heavens. The imperial court shone like daylight, and the overwhelming heat seemed capable of incinerating all things.

Yet this majestic divine power did not descend upon the mortal world.

When everyone opened their eyes and looked again, the god had already vanished from the universe along with the sea of fire.

Only after a long while did Hu'erlun clutch his chest and gasp hurriedly. Cold sweat soaked his back as the instinct called "fear" in his genes surged through his mind, impossible to dispel.

On this day, he once again witnessed how insignificant human power was before the gods.

On this day, he should have exposed Loserius's lie, but instead, the lie had become reality.

On this day, the terror of being watched by a god once again planted seeds of reverence in everyone's hearts.

Gods were sacred and inviolable.

Gods could only be worshipped and believed in, never slandered!

At that moment, Hu'erlun looked helplessly toward Kubana at his side, whose expression had similarly frozen. He opened his mouth but said nothing, merely pointing at Loserius, who remained kneeling on the ground.

The meaning was clear: What should they do with him? Kill him or not?

Kubana did not answer directly. As though speaking to himself, he sighed, "Only by remaining loyal to a god and not failing his great expectations can one finally behold such a majestic form..."

Those words were obscure.

They did not appear to answer Hu'erlun at all, merely expressing Kubana's shocked emotions.

Yet Hu'erlun, who had worked alongside the Sage for years and developed an understanding with him, still grasped the hidden meaning.

If one was to be loyal, one had to remain loyal to the end!

Do not stop moving forward just because another deity had appeared!

Had the Sun God not already accepted Loserius's death? What was there left for him to hesitate over?

If he wanted to prove his loyalty to their lord Pantheon, then he could not be so timid!

Hu'erlun closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and walked before Loserius.

With one punch, he shattered his heart meridians. Yet contrary to his usual ferocious style, he left Loserius's corpse intact.

Meanwhile, Kubana looked up at the sky, as though passing some emotion to the Sun God through the starlit heavens beyond the descending night.

You saw that, didn't you? I wasn't the one who killed him!

It had nothing to do with me!

Later history recorded: Loserius, one of the three first-generation God Chosen and the original pioneer of the Sun Church, died for his nation at the end of the seventeenth year of the Sun Calendar. He was buried in the river of history alongside the radiant Sun Empire. The god bestowed the words: Died in Glory.

Blessed with Divine Fortune, his name was set right in the history books, and he died without regret.