=== Adrian's POV ===
Looking at the result of the attack, I was very satisfied.
Even though the amount of Divine Power I had spent on this attack had left me in a very weak position... I was able to recover it quickly.
=========================
| Character Status
=========================
| Name: Adrian Innovashine
| Titles: God of Creativity, God of the Internet
| Level: Rank 8 Embryonic Deity
| Number of believers: 460,474
| Average usage per user: 4 hours
|------------------------
| Divine Power: 1,969,071 / 1,280,000 -> 341,561 / 1,280,000 (-1,627,510)
=========================
I had lost over 1.6 million Divine Power points in just a few hours.
This included both the cost of creating the Great Dragon and the cost of protecting Jaina's spirit from the attacks of the God of Fear.
The cost of defending Jaina's mind alone was more than 600,000 Divine Power points, and that's considering that I was a few ranks above the God of Fear, and the natural defense of her mind also greatly reduced the Divine Power cost I had to use to defend her.
If she were an ordinary mortal, I would have had to spend a much higher amount!
But this high cost was really worth it!
The King of Eldoria's castle was destroyed, with everyone inside dying from the Dragon and Jaina's attacks, and the Church of the God of Fear was destroyed, completely demoralizing him to the people of Eldoria.
At this point, it would be nearly impossible for the God of Fear to reclaim Eldoria.
Especially after the attack on Jaina's mind had forced him to expend so much divine power.
The only way he could rebuild himself would be if he received prayers from believers who still thought they should pray to him once a week, or if he managed to control someone very powerful and influential in the kingdom to force people to keep praying for him.
But now that his greatest supporter, the King of Eldoria, was no longer alive to command anything in Eldoria, what would happen from now on was that the greatest nobles, mainly dukes, would start competing for the crown and to find out who would be the new ruler of Eldoria.
Of course, this would only happen if I or Arcantor let it happen, since we caused such destruction for the former king of Eldoria, what's to stop us from doing the same to the next king they decide on?
So the best thing to do now was to show the people that they were under Arcantor's control.
And I had a great way to do that.
Even if the cost of Divine Power was high, what was a fart to someone who was already drunk?
I'd already spent so much Divine Power on this attack that spending a few thousand more Divine Powers to get the best result wouldn't be anything.
So I quickly sent a message to Jaina's [Carrier Pigeon] while preparing for what I was about to do.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
=== God of Fear POV ===
It was getting hard to breathe... tears fell from my eyes as I saw all my work of the past few days fall apart.
The mortals who I thought worshipped me were desperate with fear as they fled from the dragon flying over the city, not even thinking to pray to me to protect them...
The city, which I had only seen as a way to get free divine power, now caused a pain in my chest... a pain I couldn't explain.
Why? Why did I have to attack Arcantor?!
Why didn't I listen to the mortals' suggestion that I shouldn't?!
Did I really fall because of my own arrogance?!
Honestly... at that point, I just wanted to return my consciousness to my real body in the divine world and cry in my cabin.
My test was over, there was no way I could take control of Eldoria again.
Even if I could help some duke regain control, how could I invade Arcantor?!
I thought I was just attacking a defenseless target of some weak mortals and a random god, but in reality, I was running headlong into a solid wall, ready to knock me out...
As I looked at Eldoria for the last time, I was ready to leave the mortal world until I saw something appear in the city's sky.
In the sky, the face of the woman riding on the dragon's back appeared in a beautiful, delicate painting!
The size of this painting wasn't small, it was so large that I'm sure even mortals in the farthest reaches of the capital would be able to see it.
But the most surprising thing was not the image, but her voice coming out of the painting!
"Good afternoon, citizens of Eldoria, I am Jaina Proudstone, the third Archmage of Arcantor and the woman who rode the great black dragon that flew over and attacked the capital, destroying the King's castle and the Church of the God of Fear. A calm, cold, and powerful voice emerged from the image, startling me.
How is she doing this? Or rather, with this divine power coming from this image and voice, this is Adrian's work! How is he doing this?!
She continued. "As you can imagine, the king is dead. From now on, the royal family of Eldoria no longer exists, and that's only because your king decided to send an army to Arcantor to attack the innocent citizens of my kingdom."
"Now there is no royal family, and just like Arcantor, Eldoria will be the land of the God of the Internet, a kind and merciful God who uses his divine power to protect all believers who pray to him, from the richest believers, like nobles and mages, to the poorest believers, like citizens of small villages who just want to learn how to plant efficiently..."
At this point, the woman began to describe all the characteristics and qualities of the God of the Internet, describing everything he did for the people of Arcantor, even telling them about various things like the Internet and how he used his divine power to help ordinary people learn to read so that they could be freer and enjoy the Internet even more!
As she explained every detail about the God of the Internet and how good this God was for the people with all the innovations he had made, I became more and more sure that this God of the Internet was Adrian, the God of Creativity.
I just couldn't understand why he had changed his name...
When I heard about Internet applications and how people could get free information for an hour in exchange for just a prayer, my heart froze.
Doing some quick calculations, I finally realized why I had lost so badly in the Divine Power competition with Adrian...
Even if he used ten times as much Divine Power as I did to defend this mortal's mind, with the amount of Divine Power he gained in a day, which was probably more than double or even triple what I gained in a week, it was impossible for him to have less Divine Power than me...
Damn it...
How could he think of such a thing?!
When I thought about how everyone underestimated Adrian, including me, thinking that he was just a poor kid who ironically didn't have the creativity to make such a powerful deity shine... I could only laugh.
Laugh at our naivety and at how Adrian managed to hide so well in school.
Haha...
Hahahahaha...
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAA...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Thinking about the arrogant face of that son of a bitch Zack Gale getting slapped in the face if he had to face Adrian made the laughter even more enjoyable.
Even though I didn't get along very well with Adrian, I never humiliated or mistreated him like Zack did all the time, so even if Adrian became too powerful, I wouldn't have to worry about my future because of his revenge.
But the same couldn't be said for Zack, who bullied Adrian all the time.
When I thought about all the times Adrian just sat back and took it and never fought back... when I thought about how satisfying that would be, I gave up on the idea of returning to the Divine World and giving up on the trial.
I guess it's not such a bad idea to stay in the mortal world and get some Divine Power Points from some unsuspecting believers while I just watch what happens in the future, right?
Even if I failed the test, there's no rush for me to become an ordinary soldier anyway.
So I just relaxed and listened to this mortal from Arcantor talking about the God of the Internet and explaining his prayer so that people could pray and believe in him.
Something that should have made me angry, but now just made me curious.
Curious about how it would end.
---
Little did I know at the time that my decision to continue watching Adrian's development in the mortal world would be the best decision I would make for the rest of my life.
What I thought was a great misfortune for me and my future career had actually become the great reason for my rapid future growth and for the good life and pride I would bring to my family the next time I saw them...