While Gratian’s two thousand soldiers were busy fighting against the civilians of River Stone city, Lacius brought Yasu and five hundred fully equipped retainers to quickly march into Gratian’s location.
Even though there are still dozens of blessed surrounding Gratian’s location. But, the five hundred armed retainers Lacius brought successfully blocked them and allowed Lacius, Yasu, and Hars to advance toward the king.
While Yasu charged forward and tried to engage Gratian in a melee, Lacius waved his hand and caused the small patch of earth surrounding the king to tremble in an attempt to stop him, but it went for naught. With a simple stomp of his foot, Gratian easily pierced through the trembling earth and placed his leg deep within to stabilize himself.
With his leg deep in the earth, the king unsheathed his sword and single handedly parried the slash that had been delivered by Yasu. He then clenched his other fist in an attempt to counter attack.
Seeing that, Hars who hasn’t made a move since the beginning quickly activated his ability and created a ball of water which he shot toward Gratian’s head. Although it failed to deal any damage, the water successfully blocked Gratian’s sight for a moment and made the punch he threw merely grazed through Yasu slightly.
Even so, that punch still caused Yasu to be knocked back by three meters and further aggravate his injuries.
Wiping the water that drenched his face, Gratian glared at Hars before switching his sight to Lacius and dashed toward his direction.
Lacius, who saw the king’s mad dash, activated his ability and created a small but deep hole right below Gratian’s feet. It caused Gratian to lose his balance and stumbled as he ran toward Lacius.
He then repeated the same trick several times before Yasu regained his mobility and blocked Gratian’s advance. Seeing the two of them engaged in an intense battle, Lacius and Hars made the decision to join the melee.
Although unlike Gratian and Yasu who are blessed with Divine Might, the blessed power they awakened is quite unsuitable for close combat. Nevertheless, the bronze sword in their hand should be enough to cause some trouble to the king.
By the time Lacius arrived near the location of Yasu and Gratian’s battle, the two of them had already exchanged blows several times. The bronze sword on their hand has long since shattered to pieces and become unusable. They currently exchanged blows against each other by using their fists.
Seeing the situation, Lacius and Hars slashed their sword toward the king. They also secretly activated their ability and caused the earth below Gratian to protrude upwards and summoned a ball of water respectively.
Gratian who saw it quickly knocked back Yasu in exchange of sustaining a heavy injury. He then stomped hard on the ground while clenching both of his fists and threw a punch targeting the flat side of Hars and Lacius’s sword.
Upon contact with the king’s punch, Hars’s sword was sent flying into the distance while Lacius’s sword got split into two. Even so, he continued to slash downward and caused a deep slash wound to appear on the king’s arm.
The battle continued for ten whole minutes before Gratian finally showed some exhaustion and an opening.
Using the broken sword in his hand, Lacius thrusted his sword through the king’s chest. It passed right through the king’s body and caused him to bleed profusely.
When he saw Gratian whose heart has been pierced and can barely survive for a short time, Lacius asked. “Do you have any last words?”
Gratian, who seems to be half conscious from the blood loss, spoke in a hushed tone. “I have done my best, I’ve created the kingdom of humans just like what I saw when I met the god. I am the destined king, the noblest human chosen by the god himself. Even if I die I shall return to the god’s kingdom and my name will live on with humanity itself!”
When he heard Gratian’s words, Lacius’s nerve bulged as he said to Hars who stood next to him. “Destroy every trace of Gratian and forbid the other from spreading his story. Also kill all of his family and acquittance. From now on, I am the First King of humans, King Lacius! The Human Kingdom shall be called the Sacred Kingdom henceforth!”
After he said so, Lacius glanced at Yasu. Seeing the middle aged man gently nod his head, Lacius switched his sight to Gratian while grinning at him. “If being remembered is what you wish for, then I’ll forcefully remove your mark from the world. Take this as revenge for my family and friends you’ve killed!”
Gratian’s eyes suddenly focused when he heard Lacius’s word. With a wide open eye, he shouted. “The god won’t forgive you!”
Lacius replied with a smirk, “I am not afraid of an illusory existence made up by an insane guy.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
When he heard it, Gratian looked at Lacius weirdly before he laughed as his head turned pale from the loss of blood. “Ha.. hahaha.. hahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Slowly, Gratian’s laughter turned softer as he finally died.
After the war ended, Lacius checked the surviving River Stone citizens.
Although the war has been cut short due to Gratian’ death, almost a thousand River Stone citizens have died while most of those who survived have received injuries of varying degrees.
Soon, the survivors begin to collect the corpses and dig a massive hole to bury their dead.
Silently standing in front of the massive opening while watching the human corpse thrown inside, Lacius clenched his fist until it bled. Behind him, Hars supported Yasu as they silently observed him.
***
While the humans are busy handling their burial. Cedric ruminates about the war and his expression slowly turns into one full of confusion.
He first thought he would feel extremely guilty. No matter what, the war that killed thousands of people can be said to be his fault. To be specific to that brain cramp he got which led to his decision to show some illusory kingdom to Gratian and the elf through [Divine Intervention:Dream]
Yet, his heart is still extremely tranquil. He suspects this might be some sort of side effect from the whole merging with godhood thingy the System mentioned.
When the war actually ended, there is even a small bit of exasperation upon seeing how the humans start a war because he feels there are simply too many stupid points in this war.
First is the cause of the war. Whether it is Gratian’s obsession with grand palace, the city lord’s decision to arm themself upon Gratian’s refusal, or regarding just how gullible the city lord’s group are to join Gratian’s banquet. Every single one of them makes him doubt the average intelligence of his world’s inhabitants. Even with the help of the godhood’s calculation ability, he can’t understand the thought process of everyone involved which causes things to explode beyond control to such a degree.
The System seems to read his thoughts once more as it said.
[Don’t just throw the fault to the godhood merging process. System has analyzed the reason for your lack of remorse are mainly due to your mentality. Currently, you still have the mentality of playing a game or watching a drama when you observe the war. You never consider them as a real ‘people’.]
[As for your last question, the System can only say that’s the beauty of free will. It can result in many surprises.]
Cedric nodded at that analysis. Now he thinks about it, he indeed has the mentality of watching a movie while observing that war.
When he continued to read and saw the philosophical answer, he just rolled his eyes. “Stop speaking in riddles, the word you spoke doesn’t answer my last question at all.”
Watching the System’s silence, Cedric silently tapped his armchair several times before he asked, “Do you know the reason why Gratian is much more powerful than Yasu? I am pretty sure both of them awakened the same ability almost at the same time.”
The System answered his question seriously.
[It is because of the difference in potentials. Although they obtained the power from mana at the same time. But due to Gratian’s potential level that’s much higher, it caused him to reach a higher level than Yasu within the same time frame.]
After reading the message, Cedric catches into a familiar term the System used.“What do you mean by potential level?”
He opened his status screen as he remembered there is also a mention potential on it.
[Name: Cedric Hills
Level: Pseudo Lesser Divinity (Actual level: 0)
Law: None.
World: Crystal Cube World
World Level: 1
World’s Average Potential: None
GP: 13915
Annual GP income: 0.5]
While he opened the status screen, the System replied to his question.
[You may think of potential as the amount of talent a creature has on the supernatural path. Living creatures will receive some boost in their progress until they reach their specified potential level.]
After reading the message, Cedric still feels quite confused.
Perhaps seeing his confusion, the System sent another message.
[As someone at the level of lesser divinity, although a fake one. You can also activate a skill called Divine Sight that could be used in every world. At its basic form, Divine Sight allows the user to see a chosen target’s life level and potential level.]
Cedric nodded, “That’s convenient. Then, how do I activate this Divine Sight ability?”
[Simply control your mental power to enter your eyes. Then, focus on any creature as your target.]
Cedric followed the system’s guide and tried several times to guide some of his mental power into his eyes.
Closing both of his eyes, his sight entered the Crystal Cube world and observed Lacius who stood still in front of burning corpses.
Different from previous times, Cedric could now see a faint white light inside Lacius. It is extremely small in size to the point it can be easily overlooked.
He moved his sight to other creatures and also saw a faint light inside them. Almost all of the lights he saw are smaller than the one inside Lacius.
He guessed those light is related to potential and life level that the System said before. But, he is confused as to what they exactly mean. Does bigger light mean higher level or higher potential, or is it both?
Before he could open his eyes to ask, the System suddenly chimed in.
[The light’s size means their life level, meanwhile the light’s color shows their potentials. There are four levels of colors for potentials; which are white, silver, gold, and rainbow. White being the lowest and rainbow being the highest.]
[At your world’s current level, most of the inhabitants should have pure white colored potential or mostly white with a miniscule amount of silver. The more silver light there is, the higher their potential is.]
Cedric heard it and began observing the light from living creatures for a long time.
After comparing several lights between each other, he finally gave up and decided to ask the System for help. “Can you just show me their levels? I have no reference as to how a high or a low potential and life level looks like, which makes recognizing them extremely difficult. Furthermore, silver lights are frickin similar to a white one, it is just too difficult to differentiate them!”
[System received a request for assistance. Request accepted.]
[Do you wish to spend 10 GP to activate Divine Sight assistance mode permanently?]
“I need to spend 20 years of my income for this ability? this is daylight robbery!” Even though Cedric complained, he still chose to purchase the assistance mode.