Ever wondered how it feels to kill a God?

Don't worry, we'll get to that soon.

"Hey Cellia! Don't let envy eat your tongue." the new godling exclaimed, after rubbing his head. That sword kinda hurt. A little.

"Here we go, again..." the Fire Saint muttered and vanished from the room at speed.

'I actually prepared a nice dimension cubicle for you, just next to my own. Only to see you failed your ascension, somehow.' the winter goddess whispered through her messenger.

'Hmm, let me see...' Pef answered while testing the new divine powers.

Space enfolded in his mind, his coresense extending 40 kilometers, in all directions. As in, all.

A ghostly Cellia was holding the handle of the ice sword, her being made of tiny unreadable letters. Or perhaps runes described the components better. They were glowing with divine energy.

'Huh, you can see me, after all. That's new.' Cellia remarking upon making eye contact.

'How far can you see?'

'About 200 kilometers, in clear weather.' the goddess replied with a confused blink.

'Grrr' he growled in annoyance. 'I only have 40 kilometers view range. But it should suffice. Let's go hunting!' Pef demanded, accelerating towards low orbit. Took him a single second.

The gas-like goddess kept pace with ease. She had no mass to accelerate, after all.

'Looking for something?' she asked a bit amused.

'Yes. Seen Locust around?' the new godling sent, in a mild tone. Much too mild and restrained.

'Bind the icerune. Then follow me.' she replied, flicking a tiny sword toward him.

As soon as the new tattoo appeared, Pef could sense the intent of the winter goddess through it, almost like having her voice in his ear.

They took off at speed, Pef struggling to keep up with the immaterial goddess. In a minute they reached a completely normal area, with a few islands underneath. But deep underwater Pef could sense a dozen divine messengers, and all of them belonging to Locust.

He clenched his fist, willing the water to constrict and freeze the beasts into ice cube prisons.

A second later, he saw him. A ghost-like man, dressed in bloody leathers and holding a hatchet in his right hand.

Instantly, Pef's knife sprang out of the glove and began glowing with sword ki. As the godling turned and his eyes began to widen, it was already too late. A beam of swordforce splashed over his divine body, destroying his clothes and weapon, as well as most of his skin.

Locust screamed something and turned to flee.

'What are you doing, Soldier? Use your pistol to shoot. Wait... You need to stab him!' the glove advised him in a giggle.

Pef gritted his teeth and speed after his fleeing quarry. He didn't have a pistol!

Cellia sped ahead, and managed to head off the godling, slashing her own light-made sword left and right.

Locust yelled something and tried to flee outwards, away from the planet.

'Here it comes. The leash...' the glove whispered in an amused tone.

And soon, its words became true, as Locust slowed down, almost like being caught in honey.

Pef caught up fired a blast of soulspike from eyes. The godling scream again, but nothing else happened. 

He slashed the Legion knife through Locust's chest, while willing 'sever' to the knife. The impact felt strange, like trying to cut through an unbreakable pillow. The blade remained stuck inside the godling's chest, and then it was over.

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Locust exploded into millions of divine confetti, floating aimlessly. Finally, the bastard was dead.

'Huh, this hunt was kinda easy...' Pef remarked with a frown. A surge of energy flew into his meridians, but it didn't do much. Something more was needed. Like making use of the scattered strands of divine insights left behind by the dead godling.

'Well...you could have killed him as a Saint just as easy, if you had a tracker to lead you to his lair.' the glove explained smugly. Well, maybe. Catching a fleeing Tier 1 did take skill or speed. 

"Well done Pef! Want to hunt another?" Cellia asked him, while grabbing scattered bits and munching from them like it was a turkey dinner. Almost the same as dismantling a divine messenger...

"Yeah. Sure." Pef replied while trying to copy her actions. A sweep with his glove collected a thousand divine fragments, and he began ingesting them as well.

Bits and pieces of divine insights and memories filtered into his dantian, each bite worth years of slow meditation.

"Hah, I'm stronger than Artus already. I have to say, you always serve the beast meals, my friend." Cellia commented with a mouthful of divine intestines dripping from her chin.

"Yeah, I did do that. If only I killed him before he killed my son, Paragon. And my wife Kira. And Di. And thousands of my Guardians." Pef replied while chewing on his own portion.

It wasn't really eating guts, but it still felt like it. But he had to get stronger, and this way was faster. If he had to, he would eat Locust's real guts and brain. Even if they were in outer space and it was freezing out here. Revenge always tasted better cold.

The winter goddess eyed him with a wary look for second, but stayed silent. In the end, the world of cultivation was a dog-eat-dog world. And only the strong survived. And she planned to live forever.

A few days later, the last remains of Locust were digested and Pef glanced towards his friend.

"Next! And we'll start with Arachne." he demanded in a cold voice. And so they did. The puny godlings stood no chance in a fight, all they could do was run and hide. And that wasn't enough.

It took half a year to hunt most of the godlings, and they both grew in strength and expertise.

Now, only Harvester was left on the menu.

Cellia glowed vibrantly in his coresense, her own Dao now becoming as strong as his. Except he was real and she was not.

"Pef, once we kill him... I should be ready. It's too soon, but... I'll get my body back. What do we do then?" she asked in hesitant tone.

He glanced at her with a frown. Sure, she was friendly, and helpful. But she wasn't in the Legion.

'Glove? Any advice?' he asked his adviser.

'She's of no use to us, Soldier. We can't take Cellia with us. A civilian? Not possible. The Legion doesn't do camp followers. Perhaps hire her as a swordmaster for our planetary troops?' the orange glove mused in a thoughtful voice.

Pef nodded, considering two steps ahead. It was true. Sure, Cellia was a friend, but she wasn't a comrade.

"You can teach. And watch over the planet. Immortality is boring without a job." he answered raising an eyebrow.

Cellia stared over the distant horizon, deep in thought. "I see. You're leaving..." she said in a soft whisper.

Pef nodded. "Not right away, but yes. But enough of future things. Let's go and harvest this Harvester of Souls."

 It took them a week to corner the wretched lich and sever his soul, as this guy was old and crafty. 

However, faced with a Legion knife his soul defenses were found lacking. One strike, and the godling's soul shattered. 

Over the next week, they both Ascended again, driven by the gains of combat and dao insight. 

This tiny blue world lost in the void now had two Tier 2 Divinities, one of them a bit stronger.

Pef looked over his new stats and smiled.

Veritas Legion Adjutant-User data file

Name: Pef Xi

Alias: Monarch, Emperor, Saint, God.

Rank: Local universe CIC, Legion: Soldier

OS: Standard Veritas Legion Indoctrination method: compatibility 1.0011

Race: Physical God, Tier 2 (improved +31%)

Body stats:

-Strength : 5877.

-Agility : 6760.

-Endurance : 5435. (Physical God. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Intelligence : 255. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Wisdom : 151. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Charisma : 479.

-Ki : 927000.

Cultivation stats:

-Spiritual affinity: Water 15%, Sword 10%, Void 3%, Fire 6%, Wind 2%, Thunder 4%, Metal 4% and Earth 2%, Life 1%, Entropy 1%. (Yin, Yang, Order and Chaos under 1%)

-Core size: Large. (3.774 cms radius)

-Core inner volume: Huge. (Ocean giant. Livable)

-Ki purity: 14%. (~2% trans dimensional injection)

-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)

-Soul defense: 1570. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)

-Soul attack: 1285. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)

-Sword Ki abilities: 10%. (One with the Sword: stage 2. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

-Water Dao abilities: 15%. (Greater Water Domain, ~30000 kms radius)

-Fire Dao abilities: 6%. (Large Fire Domain, ~1200 kms radius)

-Void abilities: 3%. (Blink radius: 1 km, Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

Divine stats:

- Ki sense: Greater (~130000 kms radius)

- coresense: Medium. (~195 kms radius)

-  telekinetic field: Minor. (Divine strings manipulation: 40%, Gravity generation: 9%, Quasi strings: 1%)

- add-ons: Icesword rune.

- sword intent: Minor. (Swordforce: stage 1, 31%)

- transmutation/alteration: Greater. (water: stage 8, fog and ice: stage 6, plasma: stage 3, condensation: stage 1)

- divination: Negligible/???. (trans dimensional injection/soul aberration)

-  heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart: stage 2. 90% complete)

- karmic luck: Minor. (Minor reincarnation)

- logopedic dao ability: Minor. (Soul digestion stage 1, 40%, Soul restoration 1%)

- Extra abilities: water clone: stage 6, fire clone: stage 3, dojutsu: stage 3, mindforce: Minor.