“Sigh~ So it was RedForce after all” sighed Alexander after listening to the explanation from the cardinal of the church of war. After a half a day of resting at the temple, the group was briefed on the actual situation.
“So, what now?” Mason asked in a calm tone as though it didn’t affect him, which was actually true only for a single person in the entire room, and that was himself.
“Nothing much. The Church of Ares will recall our forces and eradicate the RedForce” replied the person with the most power in the entire room, even more than the king of Bard, the pope of the Church of Ares.
Being the pope, Ares decided to not give him any name, and just called him pope, and Jack actually understood why he would do that. Over the countless years of being the god of war, remembering names of people is only dragging yourself down. Although it won’t affect you when some people die, when the number exponentially increases over thousands of years, certain effects would begin to appear.
Naturally, Jack himself was more or less free of this, not only because he was just reborn as an immortal god, but also because he had gone through that ‘enlightenment.’ Or at least he hoped so.
“Here” Jack send some coordinates to Ares through the ball. This was the coordinates to Cayden.
“This…”
“Since you showed me your ‘first church’ which should be your headquarters I assume, I should also show equal sincerity. This is my first church.”
“Where?” Ares asked as all he could see was a rotten kingdom.
“It is… all of it.”
“All?”
“The entire kingdom.”
“…”
“At least, it will be soon. For now, the capital of the kingdom is becoming my church, and will slowly expand into everyone in the entire kingdom.”
“Some ambition you got there.”
“Naturally, a being of my status can settle for a church as small as a single building.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Although Ares felt like Jack was hiding something from him, he still felt satisfied with the sincerity his latest ally was showing to him. They had come into contact by accident, and by showing their most meaningful church, the two gods had finally come to an official agreement.
“I’ll make Mason sign a deal with someone from your church, representing our two churches.”
“Alright.”
Ares nodded from inside his divine kingdom and closed the connection with the God of Systems.
At this point, Mason received a notification, while one of the cardinals in the room received a revelation in their own unique way.
In the middle of the conversation between the pope and king Alexander, Mason and the high-ranking cardinal stood up, which startled many of the people present.
However, the pope’s displeased expression intently changed as he heard the cardinal’s whispers.
The pope turned his gaze to the sky and muttered under his breath.
“Thank you for your guidance… but you could have contacted me directly my lord…”
After muttering for a while, he god the cardinal to get him some paper and ink, before writing down a contract of allies, right in front of the king’s astonished eyes.
Before the king could do anything, the pope had already signed it.
However, Mason refused the pen, and instead cut his own finger using the knife he always carries around, and wrote down using his own blood, [1]
“Mason” Followed by an incomprehensible symbol which looked like infinite triangles interlocked with each other in a complex maze of simplicity. While mason was written with only his blood, the symbol was written by Jack as he forced exp from Mason into his blood and onto the paper.
The symbol that appeared was his own godly mark. All gods had their own marks, which represented their authority over a domain of reality and existence. Ares’ mark was a throne made of innumerable weapons, and the pope had used Ares’ divinity somehow without using his blood.
Jack’s own divine mark was actually not exactly the same as what had appeared on the paper. His mark was actually an infinite sided triangle. A mark that existed, yet did not exist, and was something that although was given to him by ‘That Man’, it was not made by him. However due to the existence of the cage, only this much could be sent to the prime plane.
In fact, it was better this way. It was well known that the closer to non-existence one’s mark was, the greater the god’s domain’s power.
War itself was actually a greatly limiting domain, and therefore a throne of nearly infinite weapons was very much possible. However, due to the nature of humans, who had conquered most of the known prime plane, this domain had grown to unimaginable lengths. In essence, Ares had brute forces his way to the spot of Supreme God through sheer numbers instead of quality of the domain under his influence.
On the other hand, Jack’s true mark was basically bordering reality itself, making it one of the top marks between all the gods.
Therefore, having a pattern of triangles being formed was in a sense a form of protection ‘That Man’ had given him, to prevent other gods from noticing his potential and trying to destroy him early on.
[1] I seriously don’t get how all those anime character bite their own thumbs to perform jitsu’s or to transform into titans. I mean I tried it, but it hurts too much before My teeth even leave marks on the skin! Lol. Cutting using a knife makes so much more sense.