Chapter 1039 — The Power of Symbols and Rituals?
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The impact of that god-slaying feat the humans had accomplished at the Battle of Winterhold... might well run deeper than anyone had imagined.
Gao Yang gazed with a profound look at the fragment of the God of War resting on the platform not far away. This sample of divine remains gleamed with an iron-grey luster under the laboratory lights; it looked like nothing more than a piece of broken, twisted metal, and yet a kind of aura—one that had never dissipated, one that seemed almost alive—clung to it still.
This thing that looked like a "shard of armor" was, in essence, the "bodily structure" of the God of War himself.
The gods were beings utterly distinct from the material creatures known to human understanding. Depending on which currents of thought had prevailed during the process of their formation, they took on all manner of forms—Amorn, God of Nature, was a holy giant stag of flesh and blood; the Goddess of Magic was a lady's phantasm formed of arcane energy and mist; the God of War was a suit of armor fused from steel and unknown substances; and according to Virodai's account, the God of Holy Light took the form of an enormous crystal with an amorphous, reflective surface that altered its optical properties at any moment. These bizarre and varied images reflected the depictions the first mortals had made when they imagined these gods, and such "depictions" became the very source of the gods' power, wholly merged with their "mythic image." Even after their deaths, this power would linger in their remains for a long time—for thousands upon thousands of years, even.
The sample of Amorn's flesh and blood once sealed away in the Defiance Fortress had undergone three thousand years of slow decay, and when it was finally unearthed it still carried a lethal tendency toward mental contamination.
And yet these fragments from the God of War... were now completely "harmless." Even unprotected contact by a tester caused no injury whatsoever.
Deep in thought, Gao Xi said slowly, "Apart from the changes observed here, is there any other progress?"
"Yes," Virodai nodded. "Another research group has confirmed that after the God of War's fall, the existing divine arts of the God of War have changed. Prayers no longer receive any response, but the corresponding divine-art runes left behind can still function, and ordinary people can now manipulate and study them freely. Some of the 'forbidden acts' that once caused divine arts to spiral out of control or even backfire are no longer dangerous. We have also received word from the Augury Tribal Kingdom that similar things have happened among several scattered sects of the God of War there. This proves the change is worldwide, exactly as we first predicted."
"Yes... the divine arts unsealed, divine punishment no longer taking effect, prayers no longer answered... all of this we anticipated from the start. But that the gods' remains would cease to contaminate mortals is a phenomenon we never imagined," Gao Xi said slowly. "So is this what it truly means to break free of the gods' shackles..."
At this point he could not help thinking of the other two gods who had likewise "fallen," and as though speaking to himself he said, "Amorn, God of Nature, and Milmina, Goddess of Magic, have also 'fallen'—at least their divine seats have indeed vanished. Yet certain 'relics' they left behind still carry powerful mental contamination. What do you think is the reason behind that?"
"Perhaps the reason lies in the 'symbolic process,'" Virodai said, clearly having already considered this question before Gao Yang arrived; she stated her view at once. "The God of War was killed by mortal hands, whereas the Goddess of Magic and the God of Nature departed of their own accord—and throughout that departure, the latter two's believers kept their faith unbroken. That is likely the crux of the matter."