Badge in Azure

If the differences between the Goddess of Nature and the Lord of Glory were to be made known. Theologians would not even be able to state all of them in a year. To secular people, there was only one difference which stood out the most.

The Lord of Glory’s church was constructed using donations from the believers, while the Goddess of Nature’s temple was developed using the goddess’ own resources.

The Temple of Grace up ahead was not even sufficiently huge for a temple, it was only a twenty-fourth of a normal temple. This represented the essence of the believers in Lorga City, and all the materials were mostly from other planes.

The black temple with crystal windows was not constrained at all. Rays of mild light descended into the temple, nicely engulfing the goddess’ statue. The goddess did not like humans crafting statues of her, so all of the goddess’ temples had recorded her centuries of grace in the form of murals.

These creatures from foreign planes had built a statue of the goddess based on their own thoughts. The face of this statue was covered by a layer of yarn-like fog which never dispersed.

At this point in time, Saleen already knew that these creatures from the foreign planes had never seen the face of the goddess before. Nailisi’s appearance would have aroused a lot of suspicion otherwise.

Saleen and Lex executed a mage’s bow in front of the Goddess of Myers’ statue. Saleen was not very anxious in looking for the Divine Crystal, instead, he began observing the architecture of the temple.

The material of the temple contained countless precious items, but Saleen did not want to demolish the temple. He only wanted to obtain the things which could not be found on this plane. Of course, the Divine Crystal remained the most important object. Other than a statue, this huge hall had an altar, and an emerald-green branch was place atop the altar. This tree branch was extremely thick, having a diameter of almost half a yard. As Saleen used his perception to scan it, he felt astounded.

“Could this be thundercloud wood? Such a thick and huge tree branch, but it is only a tiny bud at the end of some kind of plant.”

Eleanor noticed this almost ten yards long tree branch occupying the entire altar then felt agitated. Then, she told Saleen, “This is from the Tree of Eternity.”

The Tree of Eternity was a plant exclusive to the elf plane. It was not as renowned as the Tree of Life, but it was much more useful than the Tree of Life as equipment material.

The best bows in the elf plane were made from the Tree of Eternity. It seemed that there used to be elves in Lorga City who worshipped the Goddess of Myers.

Everyone waited in silence for Saleen and Lex to take action. Even though it was the era where humans were not fearful of the gods, the Goddess of Myers was still a presence people revered. It did not seem appropriate to be stealing the offering for the goddess in her own temple.

Saleen sighed, then told Lex, “Let’s do it. They didn’t follow me inside because they knew what we were going to do, but they cannot stop us.”

Saleen was partially correct. Ismail did not want to follow Saleen inside because he could not tolerate seeing the humans destroy the temple in front of him. He was not confident of dealing with Lex.

That being said, Lex’s actions held special significance for him. The modern day Lorga had become a cage for all the creatures here. The creatures’ souls were still around, but their physical bodies had died. They were not completely exterminated because of the goddess’ power. A half-spirit’s ability was actually widely different from that of a spirit.

By leaving Lorga, Ismail would be able to regain his powers gradually, he might even get back his life.

Even though the goddess had fallen, some nature Divine spells were still present. These Divine spells, including the Gift of Life, did not need the goddess to bestow anything to be completed.

Many creatures similar to Ismail also yearned to leave Lorga. This was the real reason why Lex and the rest of the people could arrive at the Temple of Grace.

“We must have hearts of reverence,” Lex mumbled.

Saleen walked up to the altar, storing the gigantic tree branch into the Dimension Stone. He knew that he had to be in awe, but what had to be done must be done. It was just like how humans challenged the gods in the past and carried out expeditions into the various planes. Saleen never believed that this event occurred due to the desire for power, it was more likely out of desperation.

The humans who already enjoyed extreme freedom had no need to conquer the gods. The Goddess of Myers also never shackled them, so why would they do such a thankless thing?

Lex did not vie for the Tree of Eternity’s branch with Saleen, she only followed Saleen to the altar. Under the tree branch, there was an enormous rack, and Lex loved the materials on it, so she put them away in the God’s Ring.

The mages did not move, only Lex and Saleen were taking action.

Saleen released the water flow from the calabash and segmented the materials which he thought were valuable. He did not want to touch the statue of the goddess. The temple had no pillars, and everything was laid out in the open except for the Divine Crystal.

Logically, the Divine Crystal should be on the altar, but the tree branch from the Tree of Eternity was on it. The goddess loved such natural objects. The Divine Crystal was not hidden under the branch, so Saleen could only tear the temple apart bit by bit until the Divine Crystal was found.

Saleen acted cautiously because he did not want the temple to collapse. After about four hours, Saleen had removed all the materials which could be removed from the temple, then he shared them with Lex. The Divine Crystal still had not been found.

“Eleanor, tell me, where will the Divine Crystal be?” Saleen had no choice but to ask this elf who was well versed in holy prose.

“It has the highest possibility of being inside the statue.”

“Statue?” Saleen’s perception immediately infiltrated the statue. Suddenly, he discovered that the Divine Crystal was in the head of the goddess’ statue. A portion of the Divine Crystal was exposed, which was at the goddess’ eyes.

The statue of the goddess was about eight yards tall while the head was less than a yard long, it had the perfect ratio. It was unknown what material the statue was made from. The Divine Crystal in the head had been accumulated naturally after a very long time. As the goddess had fallen, the Divine Crystal had lost its prestige, so Saleen could determine its size.

In the head of the statue, the irregularly shaped Divine Crystal had a diameter of more than half a yard. This Divine Crystal was not complete, it was formed by hundreds of crystals connected together. The part of the Divine Crystal at the eyes had an emerald-green hue, just like Nailisi’s eyes.

“To take or not to take?” Saleen was still hesitant. “Should I have a heart of reverence or not?”

“Master, the goddess’ own temple never had a statue.” Nailisi suddenly opened her mouth.

Saleen had a moment of epiphany. This statue had been established by the believers of the goddess from the other planes, the goddess herself had never descended on this place. Since the goddess never allowed her believers to carve statues, then Saleen was not being disrespectful by tearing this statue down.

“Nailisi, come over.” Saleen controlled the water flow, immediately encircling it around the statue’s legs. He was going to remove the statue from its base.

Lex hesitated. Saleen smiled at her, then said, “Let’s hurry up and leave this place, we will divide it when we get back.” As his mental strength had been slightly depleted and the statue had a huge surface area, Saleen asked Nailisi to collect the Divine Crystal. The aptitude of one’s mental strength would determine how many items one could store in the Dimension Stone.

“Should the statue be left with Lex?” It was not that Saleen did not trust Lex, but he had noticed the look of greed on the faces of Lex’s mages.

Mages were not guaranteed to be nobel. This piece of gigantic Divine Crystal was much more valuable than a high level magic nucleus of the same surface area. Any mage would be afraid of depleting their mental strength. Without mental strength, one could not cast any spell no matter how many magic chords they had. With mental strength, one could still force out level-1 magic even if they had consumed all their magic chords. To a mage, the value of this Divine Crystal could not even be measured in terms of gold coins.

The water flow finally managed to remove the statue about an hour later, Nailisi then swiftly stored the statue in the Dimension Stone. Those mages stared at Nailisi helplessly. Since Lex did not raise any objection, they could not say anything either. Luckily, Saleen had been cooperating happily with Lex before this. This young mage never did anything which reneged on his promises.

Ka…

Out of the blue, a tiny crack appeared in the ground. Even though the ground here was not paved with steel rocks, colored granite rocks were used. They had been fused into one with a Divine spell. Even if low level magic bombarded it haphazardly, it also would not crack.

“Let’s hurry…” Before Saleen could finish his sentence, the temple shook, causing the rocks on the ceiling to fall abruptly. Saleen swiftly blessed everyone around him with the Water Shield. Lex’s mages also cast magic, charging outside the temple.

Ismail waited patiently in the small square. When he noticed the temple crumbling, a hint of grief appeared in his eyes. Purgatory creatures should not have emotions, but when Ismail saw the Temple of Grace collapsing, a single tear flowed down involuntarily.

As the tear fell from the corner of his eye, Ismail caught it with his hand, then he took out a bottle carved from a gemstone and stored the tear in it. He might be the first purgatory creature who ever cried, this tear was one-of-a-kind in this world. Ismail could use this tear droplet to exchange for whatever he wanted from Saleen in the future.

Saleen and the rest made a beeline for the square. The temple behind had already crumbled, sending dust flying into the air. Saleen looked at the ruins regretfully. If he knew earlier that the temple would collapse after removing the statue, he would have emptied the temple first. Saleen took out a piece of material from the Dimension Stone cautiously. Seeing that it did not transform into powder like the rest of the materials in the temple, he felt much more relieved.

“Lex, we…” Before Saleen could finish speaking, the buildings surrounding the temple ruins began crumbling, the collapse spread outwards in the shape of a ring. Incessant thunderous booms filled the ears, even the sky gave off the sounds of breaking glass.

“Sir Saleen, Lorga City was destined for destruction the moment all of you arrived,” Ismail said nonchalantly on the sidelines. At this point in time, not even a hint of sadness was detected in him.

Lorga City was a maze which had been built out of space. Following the collapse of the buildings, countless spaces gave out crisp bursting sounds as they shattered, as though they were bubbles. Those creatures which could not escape from the bubbles in time were utterly obliterated.

Saleen was greatly astonished, “This Ismail is so evil. In order to leave Lorga, he doesn’t mind sacrificing so many lives.”

As though he knew what Saleen was thinking about, Ismail said, “Sir, you have freed them. Without a religion as a goal, it will be painful even if the soul is eternal.”

Gradually, Saleen straightened his thoughts. Other than relying on the Divine spell cast by the goddess, those souls, whose bodies were dead, could carry on living because of the crystals produced by their faith. Since the crystals had been taken away by Saleen, those creatures would definitely be destroyed unless they had signed a contract.

If given time, it was not impossible for the statue to have become a true god.

It was thus likely a lie when the Lord of Glory said that he could grant humans eternal life in heaven. Did the gods gift eternal life to humans, or did humans gift it to the gods?