"Reporting to Lord Kainas, it is we, your humble servants."
No one other than the Forest God could use this communication technique. Therefore, despite the unfamiliar tone, the elders felt no suspicion and immediately prostrated themselves on the ground.
After all, the Forest God Kainas had always been temperamental; a bad mood or an odd tone of voice was normal.
"It was because the Flower Crown Lord was concerned for your safety that we dared to disturb you. Since our lord is safe and sound, we pray that you will not blame her too harshly for her transgression!"
Upon hearing that the Forest God might be in trouble, these elders had been the most anxious to rush over.
But after confirming that he was fine, they immediately shifted the blame, using Synk as a scapegoat just as they had planned.
"Reporting to my Lord God, it was indeed I who raised the concern, but I had sufficient reason." Believing it to be a false alarm and not yet understanding the source of that strange familiarity, Synk immediately began to defend herself.
Hearing them, the voice on the other side of the screen fell silent for a few seconds before speaking.
"The rest of you may leave. Flower Crown Lord, you will stay."
"Yes, my Lord!" the elders complied, casting gloating glances at Synk. They shouldn't have trusted this woman. As expected, the youth were unreliable and rash.
Lord Kainas in trouble? Lord Kainas is a god! How could he possibly be in trouble!
They had made a trip for nothing. With that thought, they promptly left the temple, leaving Synk Nirvalen alone.
Just then, a voice of inquiry came from the light and shadow.
"You mentioned sufficient reason. What was it?"
"A dangerous enemy appeared near the Elven capital. I was worried they might bring harm to Lord Kainas!" Synk explained immediately.
As clever as she was, she would naturally not mention that she had divulged information.
Even though she had been forced to do so at the time, given Kainas's petty nature, he wouldn't care. If she told the truth, she would be dead.
"Oh? A dangerous enemy?" The voice on the other side fluctuated slightly, seemingly interested in her words.
Seeing this reaction, Synk was taken aback, finding it incredible. He didn't get angry right away? Has this useless god had a change of heart? Has he finally learned what tolerance is?
Before she could feel too surprised, she immediately answered truthfully. "Just now, I encountered two Flügel and a being who seemed to be an Old Deus—"
Before she could finish, a very familiar girlish voice came from the other side of the light.
"Flügel? Are you talking about me?"
Synk was struck by lightning. All the doubts she had ignored before erupted in an instant. Her body stiffened for a few seconds before she slowly raised her head.
The blurry light and shadow gradually solidified, revealing the face of the Flügel she had met earlier. Jibril greeted Synk with a cheerful smile.
"What a coincidence, weed!"
Then, the view of the light and shadow widened, and the figures of Su Mo and Azriel appeared.
"Lord Su Mo?" Synk froze on the spot, finally realizing who she had been talking to.
Ignoring the dazed and shocked expression on Azriel's face, Synk swallowed hard, took a dozen seconds to steel herself, and then finally spoke with a trembling voice.
"May I ask, Lord Su Mo, why did my communication with the Forest God end up connecting to you?"
She already had an ominous premonition, but she didn't dare to believe it. After all, it had only been a dozen minutes since they had left. How could such a huge change have occurred in such a short time?
However, reality often defies one's wishes.
"Because I am the Forest God now." Su Mo answered in a very concise manner. "Although it wasn't quite god-slaying, Kainas does not exist in this world anymore. His divine essence is mine."
As he spoke, he slightly raised his hand, and a verdant divine light immediately appeared in his palm. It was the unique Authority of the Forest God Kainas, the concept of which was "Nature."
Thud.
Her worst fears confirmed, Synk collapsed to the ground, her face filled with disbelief.
"To have slain the Forest God Kainas in such a short time, without us even noticing a commotion… Are you truly not the War God himself?"
She had never thought that the death of an Old Deus could be so casual, so simple. In the blink of an eye, her own Master God was gone. This made her deeply question the other's identity.
Besides the War God Artosh, who else could do this?
Faced with Synk's reaction, the previously dazed Azriel suddenly began nodding her head vigorously, as if she had found her kin.
"Yes! That's what I thought too, meow! To kill an Old Deus so quickly is a bit too much, right?! Jii-chan insisted I had never seen the world, and Lord Su Mo acted like slaying a god was completely normal."
"Waaaah! Although I can't compare to Lord Su Mo, I'm still a Flügel who has slain gods before! Even so, Lord Su Mo's speed is too ridiculous! I didn't see anything! The Forest God Kainas didn't even have time to defend himself before he was slain."
As she spoke, a hint of recognition appeared in her eyes as she looked at Synk.
"I didn't expect you to have some common sense, for a weed. Although I mind your race, it's great that you can maintain a normal person's thinking like me at a time like this. I don't have to doubt if there's something wrong with my worldview, meow!"
By the end, she was completely relieved. It seemed she wasn't a real idiot after all.
"…" Hearing Azriel's complaints, Synk's mouth twitched violently.
She wanted to say something but held back. What normal person's thinking? You're not normal either, okay? I thought you were just a regular Flügel, but you're a powerhouse who has slain gods. And you have the nerve to call yourself ordinary?
After grumbling internally, she looked at Su Mo again and had to admit that Azriel had a point.
Leading a Flügel squad to slay a god and slaying a god alone were two completely different things.
And slaying a god after a fierce battle versus slaying one without a ripple in an extremely short amount of time were also not the same.
The former represented a victory between equals; the latter represented a crushing defeat by an unknown upper limit.
As an Old Deus, the Forest God Kainas's strength was not weak in the current world of No Game No Life.
He could even be said to be a high-ranking Old Deus vying for the top three in combat power.
For such a being to be instantly killed, she couldn't think of any other possibility besides the first-ranked War God Artosh, whose strength was in a league of its own.
But looking at the attitudes of the two Flügel before her, it seemed he wasn't the War God either.
What's going on? Are there two monsters of the War God's level in this world? Is this not a sign that the end of the world is coming?
Su Mo expertly ignored Azriel's complaints, and he felt there was no need to repeat his explanation for Synk's doubts.
However, feeling the newly mastered Forest God's divine essence within him, Su Mo felt it was necessary to say a word of fairness.
"The Forest God's strength was not weak. If he had been prepared, he could have lasted at least a few more seconds."
The concept of Kainas's divine essence was "Nature," but what he was most skilled at was multi-casting.
Synk, the Elven genius, could at most cast eight techniques simultaneously, but Kainas could cast one hundred and sixty-eight.
It was worth mentioning that the Elves' multi-casting was not just using different techniques at the same time, but having the effects of the different techniques amplify each other, thus exerting the greatest power with the least amount of Elementals.
In practice, just as the power of fused Authorities in the Godslayer world could grow exponentially, the effects of multi-casting could easily stack the simplest techniques to a power comparable to a Holy Sanctuary-level spell, or even close to the level of a god's Authority.
With the Forest God's divine essence, if he had unleashed all one hundred and sixty-eight techniques at once, the resulting power would have clearly surpassed the Authority of a normal Old Deus, even briefly reaching a power comparable to the End Dragon Hartyleim of old.
Even for the current Su Mo, the Forest God's divine essence had given him a lot of inspiration.
Whether it was allowing him to grasp the divine essence structure of this world's Old Deus or giving him better Authority fusion techniques, it was a decent gain.
So, he felt the Forest God deserved an objective evaluation.
However…
"Last a few more seconds? Wow, is this a new way to insult someone? As expected of Master, I've taken notes!" Jibril exclaimed excitedly, then actually took out a small notebook and began to record her master's sayings.
"…" Synk also fell silent, clearly thinking it was a taunt as well.
"It's not an insult." Su Mo shook his head again. "But it is a fact that his power was insufficient."
The gods of the No Game No Life world were powerful, but the complexity and strangeness of their Divinities were far inferior to those of the Godslayer world.
So, Su Mo hadn't even had to try too hard.
He had just applied a debuff with his Authorities of curses, causality, and fate, and then instantly killed him with the Blade of Salvation's ability to exploit the nature attribute.
In the end, Kainas didn't even have time to react.
Until his death, he couldn't understand what kind of god would have such complex Authorities. And why was he so hated? It felt like at least dozens of different Divinities were ganging up on him.
And for Su Mo, who had already deduced and mastered God's Strike, besides Artosh, the other Old Deus were indeed weaklings he could kill in one hit. Giving Kainas this evaluation was already an overstatement.
Although Synk didn't understand what Su Mo was thinking, she could understand the huge gap in their basic combat power.
So, after a moment of silence, she took the initiative to ask, "Since the Forest God Kainas has been killed, Lord Su Mo, what else do you plan to do to the Elves?"
Although she had always complained about the Forest God's foolishness, only after losing him did she realize that the Elves had completely lost the protection of a god.
Let alone the current Su Mo, even if he didn't make a move against them, the leaderless Elves could not possibly withstand the power of their old enemies, the Goblins.
In the end, only destruction awaited them.
Faced with Synk's question, Jibril at the side wore an eager expression.
"How about we capture all the Elves and make them slaves?"
Hearing this, Azriel was somewhat surprised.
"Meow? I thought with your personality, Jii-chan, you would wipe out all these weeds. I didn't expect you to suggest capturing them as slaves… eh? Could it be that Jii-chan has that kind of interest, meow?!"
"I do not!" Jibril shot a cold glance at Azriel. "Idiot Riel-senpai, a reminder: the soul stones on the Elves' foreheads are rare minerals."
The soul stones on the Elves' foreheads were the key to their high-precision control of Elementals and their ability to perform multi-casting.
"Oh, right!" Hearing this, Azriel had a sudden realization, her eyes shining as she looked at Synk. "With so many Elves, the soul stones could surely be piled into a small mountain. If we capture them as slaves, we can have a continuous supply of soul stones!"
Hearing this, Synk felt a chill.
In the eyes of the higher races, the Elves were probably just a bunch of walking ore deposits!
Since both Flügel had suggested this, there was no need to guess their master's thoughts. It seemed the Elves were going to be exterminated today.
Just as she was completely despairing, Su Mo's voice sounded.
"No."
Synk froze, hardly daring to believe her ears.
"Yes, Master!" Jibril would naturally never object to Su Mo's decision. "But why? Does Master have another plan?" she asked curiously.
Azriel and Synk were also very curious about this. With such a good opportunity, why not take it?
To this, Su Mo's answer was simple.
"The value of life is greater than that of objects. The value of the Elves is also greater than their soul stones. To abandon the value of the Elves as living beings for the sake of mere soul stones is always a poor choice."
Simply put, Elven lives matter. The people who use the soul stones are more important than the soul stones themselves.
Actually, for Su Mo, neither was important, but the knowledge of the technique system accumulated by the Elves over tens of thousands of years was very important.
Hearing this, Synk's mouth opened slightly, somewhat shocked.
These were words the Forest God Kainas would never have said. In all these years, Kainas's style had been extremely cowardly, escaping many dangers by sacrificing Elves. To think that the one who could truly see the value of the Elves was the one who had killed their god. How ironic.
Just as she was starting to relax, Su Mo's tone changed.
"However, it's not easy to bring out the value of the Elves. I don't have the patience to lead them as their god. If I just leave them be, the Elves will surely be annihilated."
The moment he said it, Synk's heart leaped into her throat, fearing he would change his mind and still decide to exterminate them.
But what happened next was something she never expected.
Su Mo's next words not only completely stunned her, but even Jibril and Azriel were utterly shocked.
This is what he said.
"So, would you be willing to accept the position of Forest God? The condition is that you will serve me in the future."
"Huh?"
Except for Su Mo, the minds of the others immediately went blank.