For some reason, when she had anointed her first 3 Apostles on the Lunar Continent and established contracts with their followers, they had begun to perform something they called ‘worship’. Praising her for the things that she had done, and even things that she had not done with a zealous passion that seemed a little abnormal
Initially she had ignored it. Whether they gathered together to sing ‘songs’ in her honour was not her concern. But eventually, she had begun to detect an abnormal energy that had emerged from their sessions that flew all the way into her core.
It was quite shocking to her the first time. She had been of the belief that no one there was capable enough to send energy all the way to her body considering the distance, and yet that was exactly what had just happened. So maybe there was something she had missed?
It was then that she remembered her mostly-helpful companion, the System, and decided to ask it what was happening. Thankfully it had answered and she was told that the energy was something called Faith Energy, an energy that whilst in its origin state quite useless, can be converted into other forms of energy that can be useful.
She then asked the System what she should do with it, and it replied that since she wasn’t a god or a Myth, the best thing she should do was to use the energy to comprehend Holy Intent. So that’s what she did.
Later on she would find out that she could actually imbue this Holy Intent into her other forms of energy, giving it a satisfactory upgrade in quality. Something which was very beneficial to her followers.
One example of that was the 2 contract skills that her Apostles had. Originally, there was just 1 contract skill and it was called Lunar Smite. But when she comprehended Holy Intent, that Lunar Smite had transformed into something called Divine Lunar Punishment, and became something that could use her Holy Intent, becoming much. much stronger. On top of that, a 2nd contract skill had appeared and it was called Divine Lunar Enhancement.
It was a skill that allowed the Apostle to power themself up using a combination of her own Moon Laws and her Holy Intent.
Her first Apostle, Zion, had learnt the under-workings of that skill and created something similar that all of her followers could use, the Lunar Enhancement. It was a lot weaker but she was proud of his achievement. Perhaps one day he would rise to the point that he could come visit her main body. That would be nice.
Ah, speaking of Zion. He had been requesting for a long time that she anoint the other 3 leaders of The Divine Moon Syndicate as Apostles, which would make all 6 leaders Apostles. But unfortunately, she had been disappointing him. Well. He never acted disappointed and was always jovial so maybe not, but she would be disappointed if she had been requesting something every 3 or 5 years only to be ignored. Her experiences with the System proved as such.
Regardless, it’s not that she was purposefully ignoring him, it’s just that she had limited Apostle slots. In the beginning she couldn’t have more than 3 so there was nothing she could do, and when she entered the Conjuring Avatar stage, she had other ideas. She liked the other 3 leaders of the religion that provided her with so much Faith Energy but she had to prioritise gains.
The Lunar Continent had already been conquered. Pretty much everyone there praised her name and provided her with Faith Energy, so anointing more Apostles there would be wasteful. Rather than that, she could anoint more Apostles in other lands and allow them bring in more followers that provided Faith Energy.
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So towards that end, she had anointed 2 interesting Apostles. One in the Continent that was surrounded by all the others and another… in the Sea. The first one was an interesting creature called a Wasp that she had named Ziket. She had chosen that creature because of its potential, knowing that if a creature like that had qualitative upgrade it could perform amazing feats, and she was right. Sooner or later that Continent would be providing her with a lot of Faith Energy.
Hopefully, the goddess that was there wouldn’t do something to harm that but she was ready if she did.
As for her 5th Apostle, she had initially wanted to do the same thing with Ziket, choosing a creature that had an amazing breeding rate along with battle potential. As a matter of fact, she HAD done that, choosing the unique piranhas as her underwater-followers, so to speak. They had risen in strength quite quickly, but 1 encounter with one the Emperors of the Sea had decimated all of them, including the Apostle.
The Apostle had tried her best, even using both the Divine Lunar Punishment and Divine Lunar Enhancement, which had caused great damage to the Emperor of the Sea, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough. If she wanted a Sea Apostle that could one day become a Sea Emperor, she needed something BIG. Something POWERFUL.
So, she chose a mutant Sea Centipede.
It was a Sea Centipede that had used the [Evolutionary Blood Beast Technique] on a different Sea Beast to acquire powerful jaws filled with sharp fangs along with sturdier, more robust limbs that could from then on be used as weapons. She had named him Zuko.
Before that, she had tried to make one of the Sea Emperors her Apostles, but as she expected, they were too arrogant and refused her contract whenever they saw the requirement of eternal servitude.
So she went a little lower and chose an ambitious Sea King. Zuko. And he accepted.
So as customary, she bestowed him with 2 Laws of her own and reforged his mana with one of them, just like she had done with her other Apostles.
Zion had been given the Laws of Fire and Ice and had his Mana be reforged by the Laws of Ice. Zikan had been given the Laws of Earth and Gravity and had his Mana reforged by Earth. She had made careful deductions when she chose Laws for her Apostles but when it came to Zuko, she knew immediately what he deserved.
And that was the Laws of Metal and Water, with his Mana reforged by the Laws of Metal.
This created a powerful Beast covered in terrifically sharp limbs with a mouth filled with peerless fangs, who not only was extremely durable, but also EXTREMELY fast in the Sea, thanks to the Laws of water and the shape of his body.
A fast, gigantic Beast who you couldn’t hurt, but could hurt you, even with just an accidental brush. She had to say that he was the most capable Apostle she had when it came to fighting. And on top of that, if he was mentally talented, the Moon Laws were something he would inevitably comprehend on his own just like Zion and Zimoi.
Though she had to admit, his mental prospects weren’t all that great. He was decently smart and loveable enough, but when it came to mentality, Ziket the Wasp had him beat. She would probably comprehended the Moon Laws in a few years.
But it didn’t matter! Zuko had become a Sea Emperor in recent years and all those he had conquered had been forced to praise the Moon. They didn’t do it earnestly, which apparently meant that the Faith Energy they could provide was low, but she could deal with that later.
Right now, he resided in the area between Ziket’s Continent and the Continent filled with birds, and he was getting ready for the war that would decide the next Sea Kaiser! Go Zuko! Mother Moon supports you!
Ahem. Other than all of that. She herself had increased her comprehension of certain Laws and improved her affinities, and right now, she was planning on anointing her 6th Apostle.
She had been thinking of either one of those ‘Monster’ things in the Continent that was filled with them, or one the dead but still somehow alive creatures in the other Continent. But it wasn’t an easy decision, they both provided brand new prospects that she might be able to make use of.
And it was just as she was thinking of that that she noticed a golden light flying her way.
‘What is that?’