GodWithWings
patreon
Ch 34 - When Fire and Faith Intertwine
🕑 Added 2025-06-05 14:24:27 +0000 UTC[Warning: Orrvyn has slain a soul belonging to another god.]
[Warning: You’ve gained 10 Divinity Points.]
I might be in serious trouble now.
Even if this brought consequences, there was little I could have done differently. The spiders had attacked my tribe. Standing by while they were slaughtered would’ve been no different from dying myself.
I kept one eye on the tribe - on Tekla. She couldn’t draw on my divine power without me allowing it, so I couldn’t afford to ignore her completely. But the greater concern was the god I had just crossed.
That... actually bothered me.
I remembered the trace of unfamiliar divinity I’d sensed in the dungeon Avenor had entered. I remembered the scream that followed when I claimed my vessel. But more than any of that, I was concerned by the three gods I’d seen buried in the Goddess’s fragmented memory. If even one of them was still around, or worse, aware of me, then I was already on borrowed time.
My gaze darted aimlessly as my brain raced through various scenarios, until I decided that overthinking would do me no good.
There’s no use worrying over something I can’t fix or even understand yet.
My survival and any real chance of growing stronger were tied to this tiny tribe that had nearly been wiped out. But now, at least, I had a new way of increasing my divine power - ten divinity points from a single kill.
A single massive spider.
Wait... did I gain those points because the spider dropped a Soul Essence, and the Crimson Guardian sacrificed it to me automatically? Is that how sacrifice works? Or is it because the creature belonged to another god, and killing it directly fed my divinity points?
If it was the second, then divine warfare made a lot more sense. It wasn’t just about territory, ideology, or spreading the faith - it was efficient. Harvesting power through conflict, a war from which even a loser god would benefit. If so, this attack had been more than just a lucky survival, it had been a very valuable lesson.
I turned my attention to the Crimson Oak, now fully anchored in my divine realm. Unlike Tekla’s star, it didn’t float or sway. It stood planted firm in one place, unmoving and beautiful. My very first divine decoration.
At first, I assumed that stillness was just the nature of the red oak tree, its own effect anchoring it in place. But the longer I looked, the more it shifted something in my perspective. Until now, I’d always viewed my divine realm as an abstract space - formless, motionless, without substance. A background for thought and awareness, nothing more.
But maybe I’d been wrong.
There were still too many things I didn’t understand - even about my own condition. If I was nothing but a drifting consciousness, a floating awareness given shape through will alone, then why had the Goddess and the other gods taken form in her memory? Why did not I have a shape and appearance?
The simplest explanation I could come up with, one that didn’t seem too far from the truth, was that I simply lacked something. Rank, maybe. Or Authority. Both words kept circling back, and yet I still knew almost nothing about what they meant, or what I might become once I raised my Rank or finally gained Authority.
“Lord… thank you for saving us.”
The voice reached me, cutting through my thoughts and pulling me back to the present. Tekla had finished healing those who could still be saved and was now performing a ritual of gratitude in my name.
The Velmoryns were gathered in front of the Crimson Guardian, their bodies still marked by dust and blood. The sentinel stood in front of them, not silent and inert like before, but shifting subtly, its massive form swaying with a rhythm no ordinary tree could mimic. It was awake, fully and unmistakably. The tribe had a true guardian now, one capable of standing alone against dozens of spider mutants, and strong enough to bring down a creature even Mirion, a Gold-rank, had failed to wound.
Most of the tribe bore expressions of quiet relief. They had survived something that should have wiped them out. But not all faces were joyful. Some stood solemn, shoulders drawn inward, eyes unfocused from grief. And others were absent entirely.
Vivien was one of them.
I found her sitting alone, cradling Roy’s body as his head rested in her lap. Her hands trembled as they held him, and she rocked slowly, unable to stay motionless. Her tears didn’t stop. They fell in silence, sliding down her cheeks and pooling on his face.
“My love... why would you sacrifice your soul?” she whispered in a low, shaky voice, caressing Roy’s hair with her fingers. “We shall never be reunited now. How could you do this... to yourself? To me?”
She leaned down, kissed his already darkened and colorless lips, and stayed like that, arms wrapped around him, holding what remained of the man she loved.
Among all the Velmoryns, she grieved the hardest.
The others were more composed. Some were even cold. After Aria’s explanation of how magic altered the mind, it made sense. Most of them practiced dark magic, and with that came a certain disconnection. Vivien, by contrast, wielded plant magic, likely making her more emotional. Or perhaps it was just who she was.
Either way, they all needed time.
The tribe had earned this moment - the right to grieve, to sit in silence beside the dead. I would begin rebuilding the tribe tomorrow. But not today.
For now, they needed to mourn.
Let’s check the other tribes. Perhaps the spider mutants attacked them too.
Even if I had decided to give my tribe the time they needed to mourn, that didn’t mean I was going to sit around and watch them do it. I’d rather use the time to gather information, see if the attack had spread elsewhere.
At first, I considered heading toward the Blue Tribe. I disliked them the most and wouldn’t have minded finding them in trouble. But another settlement stood along the way, so I zoomed the Window there first.
I’d never bothered to learn their name, and the way tribes were assigned names made no sense to me. The Blue Tribe, for instance, had nothing even remotely blue about them. So I gave this one a name of my own: Green Tribe.
Their homes were built high in the trees, tucked behind layers of dense, evergreen foliage. Narrow rope bridges connected the structures, some barely thicker than a hand’s width. The main buildings sat on enormous central trunks, tall enough to vanish into the canopy. Not only the adults, but even the children climbed without hesitation, scurrying across the branches and bridges with such ease that even monkeys might have paused in envy. A fall from those heights would mean certain death, and yet they moved with the kind of boldness that came from long familiarity.
But the scene I arrived to was anything but peaceful.
Dozens of spider mutants circled below the trees, their bodies crawling across the forest floor as they slowly attempted to climb upward. A few had already latched onto the trunks, their limbs pressed tight against the bark as they searched for leverage.
Unlike my own tribe, the Green Tribe hadn’t been hit early. Considering that only a handful of spiders lay dead on the ground, the invasion here had begun only recently. And even those spiders likely hadn’t been killed directly. Most appeared to have fallen from the trees and shattered on impact.
Even now, one of the spiders had reached dangerously close to the settlement. Its legs effortlessly gripped the trunk, climbing up. But the Velmoryns above didn’t panic.
They moved with calm, measured steps - coordinated, efficient. Their defenses didn’t look improvised. I got the impression that they were following a predetermined plan.
Several Velmoryns were already loosing arrows, but to no effect. The shots bounced harmlessly off the spider’s thick chitin, deflected without leaving so much as a mark. Others had started bringing flasks filled with some kind of orange liquid, passing them quickly along the platforms.
Nearby, a group of mages had finished forming their diagrams. The shapes stabilized in near-perfect unison, glowing faintly above their heads. The moment the spell released, a crimson shimmer bloomed around the spider’s head - just a faint outline at first.
Then its legs gave out.
The creature lost its grip and fell, crashing against the forest floor with a violent crack that shook the branches. Its shell shattered on impact, jagged fragments scattering in every direction, intestines flung across the dirt.
The others didn’t react. Then a second group approached the trunk, claws outstretched, planning to start climbing up.
“Now!” The Velmoryn, wearing shining silver armor, ordered, without raising his voice.
The flasks filled with orange liquid dropped in waves.
Glass shattered on contact, and the moment the liquid escaped the glass, it caught fire. Orange flames surged to life with a deep whoosh, swallowing huge monsters. The screams were instant, high and pained, proving the fire’s effectiveness.
And the Velmoryns weren’t even finished.
“Now the barrier,” their leader gave a new order, a confident smile appearing on his face.
Roughly forty mages stood across the platform, channeling together. Their diagrams pulsed as one, and I immediately recognized the runes - it was the crimson barrier spell, just like Lily’s. But unlike her defensive application, this was something else entirely.
The barrier didn’t form to shield. It expanded outward beneath the spiders already caught in the blaze, then began to curve upward, trapping them inside.
Within seconds, the barrier had sealed shut.
The fire continued to roar inside, curling against the curved surface, amplified by the containment. The spiders inside writhed and slammed into the wall, their shrieks dulled, unable to escape or even be fully heard through the magical seal.
This is so smart…
They weren’t just using the barrier to kill - it kept the fire locked in place, incinerating the monsters while sparing the trees supporting their homes. The tactic was precise, efficient, and brutally effective.
But they haven’t faced the real threat yet.
My tribe had also held its ground through the first wave. It was the second that nearly broke us. And now, with most of the spiders here already incinerated or crushed, I waited for the tremor, expecting it.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
The earth shook.
The forest floor gave way, collapsing inward as a massive tunnel revealed itself, nearly identical to the one that had split open near my own settlement. But this time, the giant green spider didn’t emerge first. It waited.
Instead, the swarm poured out ahead of it.
There were far more than I had seen near my tribe - easily double, maybe more. They moved without hesitation, slamming into the crimson barrier that separated them from the trees above, testing it, clawing at it, throwing themselves into the flames without care for what was waiting.
How did their numbers grow this quickly?
Unless… they never had to. If the seal the Goddess had left behind only imprisoned them, but did nothing to slow their multiplication, then this was inevitable. They had been breeding underground all this time.
That explanation fit far too well. Because what I was seeing wasn’t a skirmish.
This was a horde.
At least two hundred spider mutants were attacking the barrier- ripping, tearing, pressing in waves, trying to overwhelm it by sheer volume. Until the barrier finally collapsed as the mages were unable to sustain it any longer.
And yet... the Velmoryns standing above didn’t move. Their platform trembled beneath them, but not one flinched.
The one in silver armor turned slightly toward the robed Velmoryn beside him.
“Karla. It’s time,” he said quietly.
His voice wasn’t commanding. It was almost subdued - less an order, more a request.
The mage, whose name was Karla, apparently, stepped forward. Her robe shifted as she leaned, staring down at the tunnel where the giant spider had begun to crawl free. She lifted her left hand, drawing her right toward it, and then I saw it.
A Veilspace ring. Just like what Avenor was wearing.
I didn’t have time to analyze the implications. She reached into the ring and drew out a staff - tall, slender, beautifully carved. A cyan stone sat at the top, already beginning to glow faintly.
She placed it gently against the wooden floor and began to chant.
The air thickened with magic.
The glow from the staff intensified, a soft pulse that built steadily with every word. Her voice didn’t rise, but the energy did. And as it did, I felt something I knew too well.
It wasn’t the staff. I had never seen it before. It wasn’t the mage either - her features were hidden, her posture unfamiliar.
It was the aura.
The power radiating from both her and the staff.
This… the Goddess’s divine energy.
