Although the gods had not appeared since the beginning of this Epoch, legends of them had always circulated throughout the world.
From children to elders, from the lowest ranks to the highest, from so-called "civilization" to so-called "ignorance," from humans to Demon Beasts to Otherworldly Demons, from normal society to strange hidden realms, from here to there;
The influence of the gods had never ceased. It had long since become more than dry records in church scriptures and mythological accounts; it had already permeated everything.
Indeed, their prolonged absence had not diminished their mystique in the slightest. Instead, it had inspired even more flights of imagination.
Yet imagination was ultimately insubstantial, because only when a god awoke and revealed her towering body before the world did people truly realize that even their loftiest imaginings of gods had been far too conservative and narrow.
The Wall God Rilielsa was not holy and otherworldly like the traditional image of a god. Her bleeding body, her damaged flesh and bones, and the dense aura of death surrounding her all made it clear that this god was in a very poor state;
But when her eyes opened and her gaze swept across her surroundings, the crushing force of her divine might instantly awakened, in every living being it touched, the groveling humility buried deep in their blood from when their ancestors had lived in the age of the gods.
The Pool of Sorrow was the Wall God's left hand, the palette she used when painting murals.
Now, the water in the pond was not a riot of colors, but was gradually being stained crimson.
Followers of the Wall God Church liked to use their own bodies as paint. Those who painted with their own blood and their families' blood were considered moderates within the