The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 13: Divinity

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Above the Heavens of the Tower’s First Floor, there was a palace made of eternal brilliance and glittering gold. Despite being the weakest world in the entire tower, this world was still guarded and protected by two Gods. Polar opposites of one another. One of them embodied the eternal brilliance of light, life, and day, and the other embodied the eternal darkness of shadows, night, and death.

Both were born from the primordial mythical essence pouring from the very depths of the world’s core, combined with the faith and beliefs of billions of living beings. Ancient entities whose sole purpose was to fulfill their mortal’s wishes, but that slowly developed their own egos and selfishness.

Inside the golden palace above the skies, the figure of a beautiful and voluptuous woman, covered by a long veil of eternal golden brilliance, walked through her throne room. Her appearance and other features were impossible to discern; she looked as if she were made of pure light itself.

In front of her, there were dozens of angelic spirits prostrating themselves before his divine brilliance. However, despite how powerful and almighty she was, She had taken a deep wound. And even now, she could feel the stinging pain, something she had never felt before.

“How can she… How did she… This is not… possible.”

“No, wait… Ah!”

“The light… Why does she wield the light?”

“Heaven’s chosen? Impossible.”

“No, but…”

She kept talking constantly. A God was a being above mortals in many ways. The goddess possessed countless minds within her own; she was a colony of thoughts and emotions. Born from the faith and belief of billions, she was more than just a single individual, but the combination of all believer’s “ideal” of a goddess.

“How is it possible for someone below Level 500 to defeat a Level 500 heavenly spirit?!” She cried. “Can any of you answer this question, my useless creations?!”

Her thoughts and minds suddenly merged together as a single emotion was equally shared between all of them, and that was frustration.

“Goddess, that being is not a human.”

“She’s not even bound by the system; we’ve checked.”

“It has been reported that she… killed administrators, a feat not even we can do.”

“She what?!”

The Goddess stepped back, her hands trembling. All her minds were now overtaken by a new emotion.

Fear!

“I haven’t even harvested enough Souls from Earth to further ascend, and a monster like that has already appeared! Could this be a scheme from one of the Gods from a higher Floor?!” She screamed. “No, I cannot have my position in the tower taken away! I can’t! I must claw my way up; I must tear through anything. Increase the bounty to another hundred million credits! Add more items too; whatever those mortals want, I’ll give it to them. I need her dead! I want her dead! I’ll even lift the restrictions for higher-floor Players to come down. Anybody below Level 500 has no chance. Call Players from Floors 20 and above!”

To balance the tower, players above a certain level would receive penalties for their stats and skills when they descended from higher floors, something the Tower Gods of each Floor set to maintain peace and balance. So it wouldn’t be possible for them to easily destroy everything if they ever desired.

Of course, this didn’t work most of the time when the Tower Gods themselves waged war against one another, something that, despite humanity knowing very little about it, was fairly common, especially on the higher Floors.

Depending on the amount of Souls and Energy they can steal from each World, the Worlds of each Floor would constantly shift. The higher they are, the stronger the World is, and the lower they are, the weaker they are.

Naturally, those that lose when they are at the bottom will get expelled from the Tower. And that doesn’t necessarily mean getting their world destroyed or something, but much like Earth, they will become “open grounds” for the Tower itself to appear within them and for Gates to flood over.

Inhabitants will be forced to climb the tower and stop the gates from appearing. This is an endless loop that has happened before; almost every world in the Tower went through something similar. The Goddess knew all of this; although she didn’t feel bad or guilty about killing humans on Earth at all, she knew it was necessary to maintain her power and her world’s position.

And this woman, Bing Xue, someone unfathomably powerful, comparable to the strongest Rankers in all of the Tower, was something that needed to be eliminated right away.

“She might have killed my Level 500 Holy Spirits, but can she beat Level 1000 or 2000 foes? How about Level 3000 foes from the higher floors?” The Goddess smiled with a wicked expression on her face, made of pure light. “Once a being as strong as she dies, my world could even climb a few Floors as well; that rich essence she possesses, I need it!”

Greed, avarice, and desire for power—all of these corrupt emotions—infected the goddess's once pure heart. The existence of the tower had changed her from her humble and kindhearted origins. She was once known as a merciful and motherly goddess, but now the only thing she could think about was power and more power.

“I’ll send my Avatars for now; they should be useful for something, right- Ugh?!”

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However, as she was thinking about that, she vomited golden-colored blood from her innards. She fell to her knees in agony as she realized she was incapable of retrieving the Divine Blessings she had conjured on one of her Avatars, the Pope of Nexus City!

“W-What’s happening?! My power! Why can’t I get it back?! It feels like… It was eaten?!”

Her eyes widened as she looked down, her pretty face below her veil of light quickly distorting into an ugly, demonic face full of fury and rage!

“THAT DAMN WOMAN!”

.

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Ding!

[You have slain [Pope of The Church of Light: Madeus: Lv300+], [Priests of the Church of Light: Lv150+], and [Paladins of the Church of Light: LV180+]!]

[You have slain [Holy Angelic Divine Spirit: Lv500 (SSS Rank)]!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[…]

[Your Level has increased from Level 50 to Level 403/999!]

[All your Stats have increased. You earned Bonus Stat Points and Skill Points.]

[Several Skills have Leveled Up!]

[You earned +200.000 Credits for slaying a Level 500 Monster cataloged as “Boss-type”]

[You have mercilessly killed almost a hundred church members and their pope, you acquired the [Enemy Of The Church Of The Brilliant Mother Of Light] Title!]

[You have become an official enemy of the Church of a Tower God; any ally will seek to hunt you down. There’s also a big bounty for your head, be careful!]

[The Skill: [God Predator (SSS): Lv1] Skill effects have been activated. You have devoured the Divinity Fragments of the Avatar of the {The Brilliant Mother Of Light}!]

[All your Stats have increased by +2.000!]

[You have unlocked the [Divinity] Stat! You gained +1.000 Divinity.]

[Divinity]: [A Stat that signifies your connection to the Divine. Your existence is slowly becoming more than physical, but conceptual. Once it grows high enough, you may be able to choose an Elemental Divinity to develop through Faith, Belief, and Comprehension of the Element.]

[You acquired the Magic Skill: [Divine Brilliant Light Magic: Lv1]!]

[The Tower God {The Brilliant Mother Of Light} is groaning in agony that you’ve eaten a piece of her Divinity!]

[She furiously asks you to give it back! It belongs to her and was only given temporarily to her Avatar!]

[The Skill: [God Predator (SSS): Lv1] Skill effects have been activated. You have devoured the Divine Power of the {The Brilliant Mother Of Light} contained within her Holy Divine Spirit!]

[You gained +500 Divinity.]

[The acquired Magic Skill: [Divine Light Spirit Summon: Lv1]!]

[The Skill: [God Predator (SSS): Lv1] has Leveled up to Level 2!]

Once I fully consumed what I had eaten, my strength rose rapidly. The cries of a “Goddess” didn’t really mean anything to me. But that whole battle was quite amusing, if not way too easy. I half-expected followers of a Goddess to be at least within the level of an Immortal, but they were still pitiful mortals.

The Pope, despite being “level 300” died in an instant after I infused his body with Immortal Essence. At least a strong Mortal Cultivator of Murim would have resisted it for a few more minutes or could have even sent it back to me if they were smart enough.

But that man, despite boasting such power, died in an instant. How disappointing. That giant Spirit was quite interesting, but ultimately died without much effort as well. Although its abilities were much flashier, I liked that it was gigantic.

The city was now safe, and using my Veil Skill, I camouflaged all of us and quickly lost the chasers that were watching over us as we moved back to the Inn we had paid for before coming to the church to get a Class Change.

And like this, while below the strong stares of my mother and my sister, I had to slowly explain to them why I suddenly became the First Floor’s church enemy.

“So that’s what happened… I can’t believe you possess so much power that you can easily mess with the system in such a way, Katherine! I… Well, since this world has gone to sh*t, I’ve also fought. And although Ruby didn’t know until now, I’ve also killed people too, so I suppose this wasn’t as surprising to me.” Mother admitted.

“What? You’ve killed people before, Mom?!” Ruby panicked a bit. “No, wait, I just killed like two priests and a Paladin myself. They gave some nice EXP though.”

“Yes, it happens whenever thieves or bandits appear inside dungeons. They’re Rogue hunters, often called. Criminals take advantage of dungeons being sealed from the outside world to kill and loot the hunters that go inside. I’ve gone through this twice. Both times, I was forced to kill them to survive with my team. Some even died. I remember a good friend I had who got killed before I could do anything…”

“I suppose in that regard, this world, everything, is still quite the same as Murim, huh?” I wondered, feeling slightly melancholic. “Well, at the very least, I have you here. I did tell you what I intended to do. And although I am all for having a relaxing life, with the Tower, the Gates, and the Gods here, that’s impossible.”

“I know… But did you have to make such a big fuss?!” Ruby complained.

“I’m… sorry. I apologize. I’ll try to do this while you two aren’t around next time.” I smiled. “Now, it is not like I intend to destroy everything; by falling for the Gods, I might learn some important information about the true purpose of the tower and the real plan the Gods have. I wonder if any of you have ever wondered what their motives are?”

“I… I never thought about it, but sure, there should be something they want, right?” My mother wondered.

“I guess? I thought they just wanted to see us suffer.” Ruby said.

“It’s not that,” I said. “Or well, maybe that’s some partial entertainment. But I have seen, through their intentions, fragments of their memories. Earth is nothing but a playground for them, a place full of Souls and Life Forces, all of us humans, even the animals and the plants. The planet’s core. They want it all.”

“W-What? Really?” My sister asked.

“But I thought the Gods were helping humanity survive somehow?” My mother asked.

“It might look like that at surface level.” I sighed. “But that’s far from the truth. Earth is a big cake, and everyone wants a slice of it. The Gates appeared all the time, and there was an urge for humanity to climb the tower so they would stop appearing. From the very beginning, they never intended to spare humanity. It is a slow death, but humanity and our world will eventually perish. I can already calculate that, if things continue as they are, in the next ten years, there’ll be a cataclysm that will wipe out the rest of humanity and life on Earth. Whoever survives will only escape to the tower’s worlds, and the entire world will be devoured, torn to pieces, and disappear in the endless cosmos.”

“T-That’s… no… So everything, all the World Class Hunters, they’ve been working so hard to climb the tower, even then…!” My mother muttered.

“It is all useless. Humanity has taken too long to climb the tower. To even qualify to be saved, you all should have reached Floor 50 by the second year at the very minimum. None did so.” I sighed. “Now, you can see what has happened.”

“So we are just a meal to the Gods, is that what you’re saying? Everything—the peace we thought we achieved, the hunter association, all of it— It will be meaningless in just ten more  years." Ruby asked with a trembling voice.

“Yes.” I nodded. “But I am here now. And I won’t let Humanity or Earth suffer such a fate. This is MY world, and I won’t let any God or Tower take it away from me. I don’t want to involve you in this anymore, though. There’ll be times I have to go alone. I hope you understand.”

“I-It’s fine…” My mother nodded, smiling faintly. “I never thought my dear Katherine would come back after disappearing for eleven years and suddenly become our world’s very last hope. But let me tell you that all the suffering you went through, all the bloodshed, all the battles you told me about—it was all for this moment. As your mother, I can tell, my daughter. Everything had a purpose.”

“I know.” I smiled back at my mother. “The power I amassed through eleven thousand years of endless battles, bloodshed, suffering, agony… I will use it to end this, all of it.”

“Big sis…” Ruby muttered. “Are you going away again?”

“Not for now, don’t worry.” I giggled. “I plan to complete the missions with you and move forward together. But as I said, there’ll be times I’ll go on my own. Alright? I need to just get you two strong enough, so I don’t have to worry about you all the time.”

“I’m sorry if I am a burden; you don’t really need to…” My mother said.

“No, it’s fine. You’re not my burden; you’re my strength.” I laughed. “Don’t ever dare say such a thing, my dear mother. Anyways! Shall we have a feast and wait until things cool down around the city? I can tell there are a lot of guards looking for me now.”

“Y-Yeah, should we go to your Inner Realm thing?” My sister asked.

“Let’s go.” My mom nodded.

“Alright~”

Like that, we entered my Inner Realm and had a bountiful dinner before going to sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a very busy day.

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