Deep underground.
Orsaga was currently immersed in his usual research mindset, probing into the mysteries of divine power. Although he had no idea what those people above were discussing, as their debate grew more heated, his innate ability, [Apocalypse – Awakening], continuously issued warnings like alarm bells in his mind.
Judging by the intensity and frequency of the alerts, Orsaga easily arrived at a simple conclusion: "A large group of scheming peasants are plotting to kill me."
Though this passive ability couldn't offer precise details, it had proven incredibly useful on most occasions. Anything that involved him directly would instinctively trigger a response.
As for which group of peasants was trying to kill him, Orsaga had a pretty good idea.
Over the past few months, he'd clashed with various abyssal creatures—not because they picked a fight with him, but because he simply found them annoying and killed them outright. So by now, they were all very much dead. There was no real chance that a large alliance of hostile abyssal Demons was out there conspiring against him.
That left only one possibility: the local natives within the front line.
How exactly they planned to deal with him didn't concern Orsaga too much. After all, their options were fairly limited. Besides, being targeted was something he'd already anticipated from the very beginning. He simply didn't take it to heart.
Unlike others who had all sorts of weaknesses, Orsaga had patched up nearly all his shortcomings through a combination of skills and innate talents—leaving him virtually without any real vulnerabilities.
If someone wanted to kill him, they had only one viable option: crush him head-on with overwhelming power.
But in the current state of the world, both [Gods] and [Archdemons] were sealed off in other realms above the sky and couldn't directly interfere with matters in the material plane. Just relying on [Demigods] or [Greater Ranking Demons] wasn't nearly enough to truly kill him—unless maybe there were hundreds of them coming at once…
That Dark Elf powerhouse he encountered recently? Orsaga figured he could take on ten of that guy at once. Anything more would just be disrespectful. After all, the guy's rank was technically higher than his.
Unlike the native inhabitants who had teammates, backup, and at least a basic level of trust in each other, Orsaga—a lone demon—regarded his fellow abyssal allies more as mobile supply units than as actual comrades. He held no expectations for them.
Can't be helped.
Even including himself, most abyssal creatures were mentally unsound. They made terrible teammates. Killing each other came far more naturally than working together to kill enemies.
Still, despite all that, those so-called allies did serve one useful function: they made it harder for native powerhouses to locate him.
If someone wanted to come after him, they'd have to wait until he showed up during a demonic tide, and only then could they even begin to trouble him—and that was assuming they got lucky.
So from that perspective, Orsaga could happily play a game of hide-and-seek with them.
And hide-and-seek was something he didn't mind at all. This was a guy who could squat for a hundred years in the flower fields of the wizard World without blinking.
Projecting his avatars over ultra-long distances to mess with people? He was a veteran at that game.
——
Not long after, as he watched the divine power he'd stored up finally run dry, Orsaga had already come up with a few valuable insights.
From his observations, divine power had incredibly high quality—to the point where a single unit of divine power could match 15 units of his own magic power!
That was an enormous gap.
Keep in mind that thanks to various talents and enhancements, his magic power was already of significantly higher quality than most [Greater Rank Demons].
In his view, the composition of divine power could be broken down into a relatively straightforward formula:
Willpower of the masses + Authority from the world + Energy imbued with personal will = Divine Power
Unlike his own magic, which was entirely self-generated, divine power was a compound made from several external sources.
First, the Willpower of the Masses, represented by the power of faith, required a huge number of "cannon-fodder believers" to serve as spiritual livestock. That was something he currently lacked. And World Authority, things like divine domains or godhood, was also difficult for him to acquire at the moment.
Only the third ingredient posed no issue for him—his own willpower. That, he was thoroughly familiar with.
After some thought, Orsaga came up with a workaround to temporarily bypass the two missing ingredients. If he couldn't get the official version, he'd try making a bootleg version instead.
After all, "Willpower of the masses" boiled down to the thoughts and emotions of many lives. It was worship and faith, a reflection of goodwill and reverence from others toward oneself.
Naturally, Orsaga didn't have any of that.
He figured that no one would ever feel genuine goodwill toward him—unless he brainwashed them. That, he could do. But according to his inherited memories, creatures subjected to mind control couldn't generate true faith. Even if they did, the quality would be garbage—useless crap, basically.
That was why gods preferred to use a gentle hand with weaker mortals, guiding them slowly toward belief rather than forcing it.
Plus, the surrounding area was full of abyssal Demons. Trying to brainwash this bunch of psychos? That's an art form.
However—what he did have was no shortage of negative emotions. The air was thick with the lingering malice and pain of the dead. Maybe that could serve as a substitute…
'It's all mental energy anyway, right?' he thought, uncertain. 'Should be close enough. Worth a try.'
As for World Authority, his Deathblossoms already had the ability to corrode reality and create personal domains.
So, could the domains generated by Deathblossoms serve as a functional substitute for divine authority?
Once again, Orsaga wasn't too sure.
Original formula:
Willpower of the masses + World authority + Will-infused energy = Divine Power
New formula:
Lingering malice and pain of the dead + Authority within Deathblossom domain + Will-infused energy = ???
Stroking his chin, Orsaga decided to give it a shot.
Just in case things went sideways, he first cast several dozen emergency spells on himself—better safe than sorry.
Once everything was ready, he made his move.
Countless Deathblossoms bloomed instantly throughout the underground cavern, transforming the surrounding space into his personal domain. In this state, he could—to a very limited extent—play the role of a downgraded version of the world's consciousness.
And then, all at once, massive waves of negative emotions began flooding in from every direction under the guidance of his innate abilities. Like a tide of black mist, they surged in and wrapped around him completely.
These were the immense grudges and hatred of countless dead souls, laced with immeasurable pain and suffering…
At the very moment he was overwhelmed, Orsaga couldn't help but think:
'That's a lot… the purity is insane. I wonder how this compares to the divine power generated by a god's worshippers…'
'Could the adoration and reverence of the living truly match the hatred, pain, and injustice felt by the dead?'
"Hahaha…"
Listening to the omnipresent cries of hatred and agony, Orsaga began to laugh—his heart filled with anticipation.
Then, just like that, he fully immersed himself in it, slowly corrupting the negative emotions, fusing them into himself…
___
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