Chapter 474: The Tenth God (1)

“YULAAAAAA...!!!”

The First God roared ferociously as he hurled his fist at her.

Boom!

A sharp explosion tore through the air.

The battle had devolved into utter chaos, with no one distinguishing between friend and foe. Those still fighting wielded their weapons for one purpose—survival.

“Hyaaah...!”

The goddess with serpentine lips lashed out, her whip glowing with radiant blue light as it coiled like a snake toward Yula’s blind spot.

Sssrkk!

Yula raised her arm, and the whip snapped around her wrist. The goddess yanked with all her might, but with the power of the newly acquired Dimension Spiral coursing through Yula, the weapon was little more than a child’s plaything.

“This battle is no longer your concern. Still don’t understand your place?” Yula sneered.

“Shut up! You’ve broken the rules!” the goddess hissed.

“Rules?” Yula looked at her with disdain.

“Exordiar was created to determine who sits on the throne without bloodshed! The restrictions on our powers were meant to prevent a catastrophic war. But you’re using your power to kill us now!”

Yula gave a harsh, derisive laugh, her eyes glinting with mockery and malice.

“Hah, you still dare wag that filthy tongue of yours? You all fell for that human’s lies and raised your sword against me. You dealt the first blow, and now you dare speak of

rules

?”

Her expression twisted into a scowl.

Smack!

Yula yanked her ensnared arm, pulling the goddess off her feet and dragging her straight into a ferocious punch.

“Gah...!”

The goddess crumpled to the ground, utterly rocked by the blow.

“Your taking offence with me just proves that you yourselves broke those sacred rules. Death is what you deserve and what you shall receive.”

“Urgh... Hrgh...!”

Sprawled on the ground, the serpent-lipped goddess managed to lift her head to glare at Yula.

“We, the divine council, established those rules when the Lord perished and the Divine Throne was left vacant,” she sputtered. “But it was you who exploited the loopholes in those rules! You abused the restrictions we placed on Divine Power to attack us—!”

Before the goddess could finish, Yula lunged forward, gripping her neck like a vice and hoisting her into the air.

Crack!

Yula’s claws dug into her throat, cutting through skin and bone with brutal precision. The serpent-lipped goddess could only trash and choke on her own blood.

“To fools like you, the fragments of divinity are wasted trinkets... Pearls before swine!:

Yula squeezed harder, her claws digging deeper and deeper.

SKLUTCH!

Before long, Yula’s deadly grip crushed the goddess’s neck, tearing her head clean from her shoulders. The thing flew high into the air, spraying crimson. The pool of blood below shimmered with her blue scales.

That was all that remained of the Second God.

“...”

Yula coolly wiped the blood from her face before reaching down to retrieve the shimmering Dimension Spiral from the beheaded corpse.

“Kch...!”

The towering First God stood frozen in horror, his gaze flicking between the mangled bodies of his comrades and Yula, now drenched in their blood.

“Tsk, tsk... What a pitiful sight.”

Yula licked the blood from her lips as she regarded the man.

“Only you remain now. That human—he told you to choose sides, didn’t he? But tell me, which side is

he

picking? The Godslayers... or you?”

“...What?”

“You all chose the wrong side. That’s all there is to it. That human never intended to save you. That little scheme of yours, standing back and letting him wear himself out against me? He saw through it. And now? He’s just paying you back.”

The man’s face stiffened as Yula’s mockery pierced through his resolve.

“A soul pact? Did that human scare you that badly? Enough to think he could bring down deities?”

Sensing his fear, Yula sneered even more viciously.

“Gods accepting the idea of being defeated by a human? How utterly foolish!”

Woosh!

In the blink of an eye, Yula swung her sword at the man, the blade crackling with overwhelming power.

“Karyl...!! Even you, so clever and calculated, made a fatal mistake. Did you truly think I wouldn’t break the rules and kill the gods myself?!”

Yula's cold eyes locked onto Karyl as she advanced toward him.

“Allowing me to claim the Dimension Spirals... That was your fatal mistake!”

Just as her blade was about to draw blood—

“Stop...!!”

A panicked cry tore through the battlefield. One of the four remaining gods, standing on the outskirts of the carnage, screamed out.

But their voice quickly faded, drowned out by the wary stares of the other three gods. The one who had spoken was none other than the Tenth God.

“Now... what should we do?”

Casting their eyes briefly at the Tenth God, the other three gods turned back to the battle, watching in stunned silence as two combatants—two gods—were mercilessly killed in rapid succession. Their voices trembled as they spoke.

“We’ve existed since the dawn of time... yet we’re different.”

Unlike the gods of war, these deities were born for balance. Their purpose was to maintain harmony, and they were helpless in combat.

“We cannot engage in violence. All we can do is grant blessings,” one of them lamented.

Their plight was dire—they couldn’t interfere in the battle, yet they couldn’t simply stand by and do nothing.

“If Yula wins... do you really think she’ll spare us after we’ve sided with the humans? She’ll never let us live.”

“But what else can we do now? There’s nothing left... we can only pray that they defeat her.”

“They? That human who holds our blessing is doing nothing! He’s just watching us fall, one by one!”

“Damn it... If only we could fight. How is it that we, as gods, lack the strength to act?!”

The gods of balance, their voices heavy with frustration, lamented their inability to alter the course of the battle.

“We never sought the Divine Throne, and we never cared about being the last ones to unleash our Calamities.”

“But Yula was different from us. She coveted the throne. Even knowing that Exordiar and the Calamities would ravage her world, she still pursued her ambition, feeding her own realm to the chaos.”

“And yet, the one to thwart her plan... is not a god, but a human...”

“That’s why her wrath is so terrifying. We have to decide now. For my part, I’d rather beg for Yula’s mercy than trust that human!” one of the gods declared in a shaky voice.

But deep down, all four knew the truth: the cold and merciless Yula would never spare them.

“I... I can’t...”

The Tenth God hesitated, unable to make a decision. The other three, their gazes filled with disdain, scoffed at the hesitation.

“Forget it.”

“Yes. It was foolish of us to even ask you.”

“You’re different from us. You could never exist by yourself, Tenth. Ever since you lent your power to the First God, your fate was sealed.”

“What are you talking about...?”

The Tenth God’s expression froze, their face a mask of disbelief. They tried to speak, but one of the others interrupted with an icy voice.

“Don’t bother with any excuses. We’ve known for a long time about your connection to the First God.”

“...What?”

“You’re not even worthy of being called a god. A true deity must reign supreme, unparalleled and independent of all. But you? You can’t survive without leeching off someone else.”

“Pff... God of Rebirth? Please. We know what you really are.”

“Enough! I’m no less a god than either of you!”

“You? A god?”

The gazes of the three other gods directed at the Tenth were colder than the harshest winter winds.

“Then how do you explain that belly of yours? Did you really think hiding it beneath your robes would fool anyone?”

“Uh... This is...”

The Tenth God instinctively clutched their abdomen with both arms, stepping back defensively.

“We endured the humiliation of granting power to humans for the sake of a genuine future. But you? You only did it to save your own hide,” one of them accused.

They suddenly turned against the Tenth God with venomous hostility.

“Pathetic excuses. Power isn’t something you beg for. Borrowed strength, like taking the fragments of the Lord, isn’t true strength.”

“Wha...?”

“...?!”

The three gods froze mid-rebuke, their accusatory words cut short by Miliana herself.

“I see you're blaming each other now. How fitting. Turning on yourselves like scavengers, instead of facing the consequences of your failure,” she sneered.

The Tenth God caught her attention immediately. Their face, just visible beneath the hood, was young and delicate—hardly evocative of divine might. But it was their eyes that stood out most—large and sorrowful, betraying something hidden.

“That must be the Tenth,” Miliana remarked, recalling what she had heard from Toska.

There was something else peculiar about the Tenth God—the way they cradled their protruding abdomen, barely concealed by the robe. To Miliana, the god looked like a woman carrying a child.

“But that's not important right now.”

She dismissed the thought with a mocking smirk.

“How long has humanity been deceived by the gleaming façades of so-called gods? Now that your dark truths are laid bare, do you really think your appearances can sway us anymore?”

At her words, eight figures stepped forward to stand at her side.

The gods froze, their arrogance eroding as they sensed the overwhelming hostility radiating from these humans. For the first time, the gods felt something they were never supposed to feel: fear.

“Wh-What do you think you're doing...?!” one of them broke the silence.

“Judging from your expression, I think you already know,” Miliana shot back. “We, at least, take responsibility for our future. We do not leave it to others or blame anyone else.”

She raised her sword. The blade shimmered with fierce energy, reflecting her resolve.

“Y-Your master swore to spare us... to protect us! Are you now defying his orders?” one of the gods cried in desperation.

“Yes,” Miliana said curtly.

“...What?”

Her indifference stunned the gods into silence.

“Our master is out there, fighting, while you worthless lot are here. Why should we bother to protect your insignificant lives?”

“Wh-What are you saying?”

Her voice cracked with emotion as her eyes glistened, tears threatening flow down her cheeks—but quickly evaporated in the searing heat of her rising anger.

“Even if there were hundreds of you, his life would outweigh yours.”

Her gaze shifted toward Karyl, standing far across the battlefield.

“Gods can die, but not you."

Crack! Crunch!

Red scales erupted across Miliana’s body, her eyes alight with a feral glow.

“Karyl, if your godslaying ends with standing over the corpses of gods, looking down on us all... then ours will end with killing every last one of these bastards so we can stand beside you as equals.”

Shing—!

As she finished speaking, the warriors surrounding her unsheathed their weapons, their resolve unshakable.

Aidan, Suan Hazer, Kay Rothschild, Serica Lauren, Serga, Anchar, Hawat Tashun—one by one, the Godslayers revealed themselves, their weapons gleaming with deadly intent.

Clang—!

Countless magical arrays manifested in the air around them.

“Best of luck.”

The final member of the Ten, Israphil, stepped forward, completing the circle of warriors.

“With your lives, we will drag him back to this world.”

Miliana’s voice boomed across the battlefield, laden with unyielding determination.