The world was changing and our heroes just barely escaped from the 49th floor's battlefield. Tired and Malnurished they were now preparing to face the 50th floor's boss.
The thing however that they were awaiting for magically changed into an brilliant army of various races, accompanied by shiny angels.
At that moment they knew that their journey was over, little did they know however that their journey had only begun.
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Christopher just gained a new bunch, this one however was different, the girls in it were not believers of Ecclesis, they were women of multiple religions, beliefs and races.
Ecclesis was shocked when he found out that of the one hundred only 57 returned, he begun to investigate and came to a grim realization.
The Allied countries whom were supposed to send their own beautiful women, instead sent prisoners or war, people whom were not believers of Ecclesis.
Ecclesis however would still be given a reward, Christopher that day made him fully Immortal, in other words he was half back to his godly self, it was as if he was slowly returning to his almighty form.
A pity that he was not a godly Healer anymore, but it was a step back to glory, now he could even be able to pose a challenge to the Demon god, well not really at most he could act as a meat shield, but it was true Immortality.
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The six heroes were leisurely escorted with honors to the 99th floor, the process was fast and non dared to interfere with it.
They called them the saviors from beyond, when Chris asked what this was all about, they told them that the Oracles foresaw that they would help Ecclesis to reclaim his past glory, but after that begun a fake fairytail created by Ecclesis himself.
The tale was all about how the vile treacherous demons lured Ecclesis for a final confrontation, which Ecclesis won, but he became very weak, thus he need the sucrifice of virtuous virgins to reclaim his glory.
As the Saviors however the six of them would save Ecclesis and reclaim the surface world from the vile cultists, whose role in the treacherous plans of the demons was made something huge.
Of course the six of them didn't believe the story, but they wouldn't say it out loud.
They and their loved ones were brought to a beautiful temple right next to a brilliant dazzling dungeon pillar.
There they were offered rest and told that the Avatar of Ecclesis wanted to meet with them, to discuss about the matters at hand, but if they wanted they could have a due earned rest.
Of course the six jumped to the chance and went to see the so called Avatar, after all each and every one of them had their own wishes and desires.
They had long heard about the new blessings, one of which even giving immortality, which meant that old age was no longer a thing to care about on Ecclesis.
Before however they could bombard the so called Avatar with their desires, he begun to speak, before they even entered the room.
"Enter, I know that you want to talk to me about many things, but let me first explain the situation of the world to you all"
Ecclesis said and begun to explain once all six took their seats.
"The world of Axis originaly had no Gods, there was not upward pillar and the people summoned heroes in order to survive in the lower part of the pillar"
Ecclesis said making the six of them shocked, since these few phrases revealed to them a disturbing truth that Ecclesis used to be like them, a hero from earth.
"The heroes whom found ways to live longer begun to accumulate, the original inhabitants of the world only cared to survive, but the heroes wanted to return back home, resurrection didn't exist and thus death was not an option"
Ecclesis continued sending them to a dark past they had no idea about.
"I was a legendary hero, one of many, by sheer luck however I had found a rare skill called resurrection, it was a ritual that allowed to bring a person from the dead, but his level would revert back to 1, losing all his level gained stat points in the process"
Ecclesis said, making them listen even more carefuly.
"you can understand how high a prestige I had back them, my fame even earned me a place in the Demon god subjugation group, it was sheer luck back then that willed it that only I survived to step onto the Altar of Deification"
Ecclesis said, making some shocked and others jealous.
"The moment I stepped onto the altar the upward pillar appeared and I became a God, I then with my cheat power of telepathy begun summon the heroes and people up the pillar, I revived all the Dead heroes with my new godly skills and begun to send them all back to earth"
Till then they had been hearing him without complains, but hearing this last phrase made them doubt him, after all the person he described sounded nothing like the Ecclesis they knew about from Ecclesia's doctorine, whom portraited him as a self-righteous dickhead.
"Don't look at me like that, it was too long ago, only later did I discover the huge downsides of being a god, the most important being that I myself could no longer leave Axis, another being that I could not descend the tower, thus I was stuck with godly power and nothing to do with them, I begun to speak to the people bellow giving them hints and tips on survival teaching them how to use my blessings, but when they built a country under my name I was so happy I gave them the resurrection ritual I used to know, with my blessing of course"
Ecclesis words seemed to somewhat get closer to reality, but they still weren't 100% trusty of him.
"After I gifted them the ability to revive the people begun to worship me as a god and a religion was born and I begun playing it God to both the people of Axis and earth's summoned heroes, I gave them a choice, to either defeat the demon God or return to earth, the people on Axis begun to think that their summonings were failing, thus they used it less and less, if they knew that the summoning ritual had 100% success each time they did it, they might have cursed me day and night, but since there were no other people from earth I was rather bored and the situation on Axis was getting somewhat out of hand, thus I told them that I would bless the next summoning, this time I gave them two choices either descend or ascend the tower, but help the people of Axis first"
Ecclesis said and some of the heroes already understood where this was going.
"Thus I decided to keep it that way, I would send the summoned people down and those whom wanted to return to earth would have to grind some levels to return home, of course as it turned out there were simply too many selfish people whom left leaving their fellow heroes behind, there were even those that obstructed people from leaving like your fellow Alexi"
Ecclesis said, while not revealing whom he had blocked from leaving.
"Of course I'm not without blame, since I could have done some things to help and guide you, but you have to understand that I've lived for millenias, in the first few centuries I was more than willing to help people whom wanted to return, but later I became a little selfish, I wanted there to be more people like me, more gods in Ecclesis, I even almost succeeded, well in practice I succeeded, but I shoved someone the wrong way and was turned back into a human,killed and revived to live as a level 1 human"
Ecclesis said, making them all shocked, whom on Axis could turn a god back into a human.
"Now since I explained most of my situation, lets talk about your options, you have a once in a lifetime oportunity to return to earth, well you can also ask for your dead friends to be sent back as well, if anyone of your knew them of course, you see the resurrection ritual has a small flaw, if no one remembers you or only knew you by name, then no one can resurrect you"
Ecclesis said, sending goosebumbs down their spine.
"The second option is help me with my holy war, Ecclesia will be expanding downwards, engulfing the whole world, of course you might think that talking to a classmate will solve all your problems, thus I have invited a former friend of yours"
Ecclesis said and Michael came inside, he looked young, just as he looked when he was just summoned.
"That idiot thinks that Axis is some sort of fictional world, created by his imagination, that he's allpowerful while in the world of Axis, he calls people like us the Players and the natives of Axis NPCs, seeing himself as the Protagonist"
Michael said, making the others look at him with some surprise in their eyes, he was after all younger than themselves, whom were all middleaged and nearing 50 years old now.
"Those of you whom want to leave just go ask him to leave, he will probably sent you back with a smile on his face, but don't ask him for favours, he's a vile character that won't do stuff like favours without some sort of return"
Michael said, making them shocked once more, of course they themselves weren't saints, but they would still feel some kinship with their classmates, he however thought of them as fictional characters created from his own imagination, he had no kinship with them, it was as if asking him to send them to earth was simply making them disappear from his fictional world.
Of the six mostly Theodor wanted to go back to earth, but now he was reluctant to do so, he now more than most wanted to become a God and stay on Axis.
"Now I want to hear your opinion, there is no time to think about it as the holy war will begin in two days time, even the people whom blocked your path before will be all swept away in this huge tide that will go all the way to the Demon god's entrance"
Ecclesis said, making their blood boil, after all he was someone whom had lived for millenia, he knew how to steer people up.
"By the way Ecclesis isn't your real name right?"
Chris asked suddenly foiling his momentum.
"Well I don't remember my real name, but back then when death was pernament people were too afraid of dying thus all heroes were turned into slaves and sent to battle monsters, as some of you might know slaves are named by their masters and mine was Ecclesis"
His story made them understand just how fortunate they were that they weren't summoned in the old darker ages.
"Why do we need a holy war?"
The one asking was Theo, he might not have been the smartest of minds, but even he could tell that such a grand war was too wastefull.
"Well you see I have made a deal with him, I have to present to him with women and if they are to his liking, he keeps them and rewards me back with my previous powers, right now I have been bestowed with the full Immortality of a god..."
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Before however Ecclesis could end his words he was interrupted by Chris.
"Why not using your own Women then?"
Chris asked, understanding full well what would essue.
"But we did, for years I tried to offer him our most beautiful and virtuous women, but out of all of them only 31 were chosen and the number of offerings was 108 thousands, the last time however some war prisoners were candidly sent without my knowledge and 43 were chosen out of a hundred, now make the math and tell me what I have to do"
Ecclesis said, making them shut up and think.
"Why not buy some slaves?"
Theo asked, making the others look at him somewhat strangely, after all everyone there knew that Ecclesia didn't allow slavery, it was one of their many taboos.
"Simple, all you have to do is ask him what sort of women he likes"
Chris said, making Ecclesis shocked, looking at him as if he was looking at an idiot.
"Do you think I'm some sort of drinking buddy of his, he fucking shooed me from godhood, you think he will talk with me about women"
Ecclesis said disatisfied even somewhat annoyed.
"Don't bother, he's a complete pervert, he interviews all one hundred women in each offering and if he sees one that causes his heart to tick faster then he makes her into a figurine for his collection"
Michael said making them all shocked, well they do understand what he means.
"Wouldn't that be easily solved if they simply dressed them all in dirty outfits or something, simply empty a borthel, why offer virgins?"
Theo said, making them all shocked, what he said made lots of sense, but when they looked at Ecclesis, he looked as if he was going to have a heart attack.
"Didn't you hear the story told by the guards, it's supposed to be me whom is taking the offerings, Ecclesis, do you think that Ecclesis would force his believers to wear dirty slutty outfits before he is presented with them and of course I would never receive prostitudes as offerings, that's common knowledge that I hate prostitution"
Ecclesis said, but some long forgotten memories were suddenly as if revealed from the fog of time, old painful memories.
"But you want to offer all the women from your holy war to him, right?"
Chris said, making it appear as if he was a hypocrite.
"They are fucking natives, they aren't worth shit as a god I could spawn them like monsters spawn on the lower part of the pillar, originaly they didn't even give birth, they simply spawned at a regular timeline"
Ecclesis said, making everyone shocked.
"Then our children?"
Chris asked somewhat shocked.
"Well I put a trigger in place, that forces people to have intercourse for a baby made of their fused genetic materials to appear, in other words no different than giving birth, only difference, no labors for women"
Ecclesis said, but what he said mostly described cloning in sci-fi movies, like tube children.
"Come on it's still better than not knowing what motherhood is, although some races didn't get the meaning at all"
Ecclesis said somewhat dejected.
"Lets vote!"
Theodor said with a happy expression, he seemed to be happy with the ongoing holy war.
"What about our homes? and Our people!"
Chris asked enraged, after all he still wanted Ecclesia to help the surface level, not just to save himself.
"I will give you two words"
Ecclesis said, but gave no two words to him but the middle finger, he was already sick and tired of Chris, in the first place he was probably the most selfish one of all of them.
Originaly his plan was for Ecclesia to help the surface world return to how it originaly was, he didn't think whether Ecclesia would gain anything from this.
It's like asking the tiger to go down the mountain to fight another tiger to protect a pack of sheep and then leave wounded and bleeding.
It was wishful thinking that ended lossing them the whole convoy, first to the rogues, then to the canibals and the ones whom were left were enslaved by someone stronger than himself.
"It's simple, We have some divine oracles, they can detect how many faithful exist in a floor as well as detect whom are not faithful to me"
Ecclesis said, making everyone look at him strangely.
"Let me finish, the people whom are faithful to me are those innocent and pure, once you too become gods you will probably want a religion of your own, thus we will make something up and divide the pillar we are 8 and ther are 14 pillars, well there are already 2 gods and him, which still leaves 11 pillars"
Ecclesis said, they begun to think about it, but then Ecclesis spoke again.
"In the worst case you can just spawn some believers"
Ecclesis said, making them look at him surprised, well not that it was a bad idea, but wouldn't it be a bother to teach them common sense if they were just spawned in full adult bodies without any common knowledge.
The die was cast and the majority decided.
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The surface level was never more orderly than now.
Four Dragons were seated face to face, they had divided the whole continent into four.
The monsters from the lower floors were no longer and threat and other than the starving one that sheldomly appeared they were completely safe.
This time's gathering was for another reason, they were debating whether they should attack the higher floors with the monsters and enslave them, the main target of their talk were the elves and Ogres whom had long fled, leaving the surface world to its own fate.
Of course there were also opinions that they should reoccupy the lower floors, but they ended with a single statement, half-monsters could not give birth, meaning that they would need to breed humans and other races and then select the talented and worthy to fill in the numbers.
All talks however stopped at one problem Ecclesia, what if Ecclesia branded them as monsters, what if Ecclesia decided to return, Ecclesia this, Ecclesia that.
In truth there were still some Ecclesian followers whom hadn't taken the potion, but they were precious breeding material.
The four dragons once more couldn't come to a decision, after all Ecclesia was a colossus that existed for millenias, if they could be defeated by a simple loss in power then whom would even fear them, there are tons of ways to seal powers, the problem was in their numbers, they were simply like ants, easy to kill but hard to exterminate.
The main however problem was that they were part of four different cults, the dwarf dragon was from an overly pacifistic cult, the gnome dragon from an overly agressive cult, the old woman dragon was from the worst demonic cult and Agamemnon from a rather neutral cult.
Meaning that they balanced out, there were many talks about adding a 5th dragon, but then came the problem of redistributing the territories, which was something that took them years to determine.
There was a huge war about to go out when Agamemnon and the Old lady begun to fight over Nivava's ownership, or as it was called now the Gelloid Country.
Another when the Gnome and Dwarf fought over Munnero or as it was now called the Vampire country.
Last problem of the meeting was Aquatica, where nothing had changed, they were after all deep underwater and more than able to defend themselves even if the Archfiend somehow decided to invade them.
Aquatica was simply too large, by itself it was enough to cover around half the other countries put together.
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The day had come the armies ready, and the first thing they did was sweep Ecclesia itself, from the 99th to the 80th floor was all Ecclesian land, they begun to look for heretics, criminals and other scum of society, women were sent to Ecclesia and men killed without pardon, there was something about men being the spore of evil and women being able to help Ecclesis to regain his power.
Of course only the young and pretty were spared, the problem however was Theodor and a problem that appeared right away, he had a dispute with the oracle on whether an elven couple were heretics or not, it was revealed that after half an hour of torture they turned out to be heretics, not the cult sort, but ones whom worshiped both Ecclesis and the powers of nature.
Of course the Oracles disapproved of such methods, saying that Ecclesis disapproved them as well, but Theodor said that if Ecclesis heard them sheltering heretics he would be even more angry.
In the end the poor elven woman was even unlucky enough to be one of the people chosen by Christopher and although it was a pity that only 23 out of the 100 heretics were chosen the rest didn't live to tell what they experienced as they were killed by Ecclesis and Theodor.
This time Ecclesis asked for a reward for Theodor, he wanted him to become immortal as well, but what he was given was rather disappointing, he simply gave him a lesser Immortality blessing that would last for a year at most.
When he asked why not full Immortality, then Christopher told him that he had been late on the delivery for some time now and it was true that due to the holy war, the escorting of the heroes and other stuff he had forgotten to send new offerings, the last time he even let war prisoners be brought as offerings due to carelessness, he was simply getting tired of the whole micromanagment thingy.
With the 99th floor finished and still many offerings remaining for the next days, they begun to descend.
Elves,Orks, mixbloods were the main targets of Theodor's cleansing and while most of them initialy weren't heretics after passing through his hands were revealed the worst sort of scum, that spit on Ecclesis' name.
Even an Oracle was sent as a heretic to the 99th floor and was in the end taken as an offering.
For some reason the number of offerings accepted only fell to 19 the next day, with the Oracle included.
There were strange criteria that Ecclesis hadn't thought about, like for example how fed up one can get from seeing women all day, how tired Christopher was because of the fun he had last night and other matters.
Of course there were still those whom would make your eyes pop out of their sockets when you saw them, but in general they were few and non was willing to send them as offerings.
Gaining Theo a fused Skill, something that even Ecclesis didn't know was possible, opening something that could be a revolution, they imagined how a godly fused ability would look like.
On the 97th floor a whole kingdom was found to harbor heretical beliefs. All men were killed and the women sent to the higher floor as offerings, non knew if they trully were heretics, but Theo whom was in charge said that the Queen and her 7 daughters were worth it.
Ecclesis wanted to reprimant him, but once he saw that 97 were accepted earning Theo an Immortality off the butt, he begun to search better for those accursed heretics.
At first the soldiers of the holy crusade were full of fighting spirit, but as time passed by they begun to feel that something wasn't quite right, although the Saviors were doing a cleansing at home before the crusade begun, their targets for cleansing were mostly those with handsome wives and daughters, one of the saviors would even torture people into becoming heretics and it even seemed to be random people, they couldn't find any similarity in his victims.
The cleansing continued, but there were no further big hauls, mostly because they weren't worth it, only some minor households with pretty wives and daughters, whom were charged with prostitution, the average looking women were rather happy with their demise.
There even begun a trent where any beautiful woman would be called a witch and a prostitude, seducing men with her evil charms.
Ecclesis didn't sit back and simply arrested all the goods delivered and sent them up for a good reward.
In the end Christopher gave him back the ability to control and summon angels, or celestials as the description called them.
The population of Ecclesia was however so clustered and tight that people begun to quickly become happy with the cleansing. they even sent some beggars as offerings when they didn't have anyone else to offer saying that they were people whom weren't blessed by Ecclesis.
But most of them came back down with a piece of gold in hand and only a few were held up the pillar, while there were hundreds of beggars sent only 12 didn't return, they were the once Christopher took a liking to.
When Ecclesis asked to be rewarded for them, he was told that the gold the beggars were given was his reward.
Making him unwillingly step back, it was true that this wasn't exactly what they had agreed upon, sending beggars for him to decide from.
By the time they reached the 90th floor a full year had passed, but Ecclesia had become a changed country, since the people were fewer now there were more works, there was some space to breath and the most important those average girls at last found husbands although not long after some of them were still sent as offerings because of jealousy, but most weren't selected, thus were returned back to their homes.
For the handsome witches the Ecclesian church was less strict, if they were still virgins they were sent to become oracles, if not they were sent back to their husbands, unless of course they protested violently which meant that they were heretics.
Christopher wasn't sure why but he was feeling helpless as the number of figurines was simply too great, he even saw some that were intentionaly dressed in slutty outfits, not that he disliked the idea, but it was the women inside the outfits he had chosen, not the outfits themselves.
On the 90th floor, they easily overpowered the bosses, the reason being that by that time all of them were Immortal at least to some degree.