After seeing Douglas succeed at restoring his cultivation core, Lingxi and Goliath followed suit. Before getting locked up in the frost palace, Lingxi had funnily enough, been the leader of her own cult before getting crushed by the dark empire, while Goliath had been a high paladin of the Great God of Mercy before suddenly being stripped of his god grace mid-battle and being captured by his enemies half a decade ago. Meaning, they both had some experience with wielding divine energy prior to this. Hence, they too, also succeeded in regaining their cultivation cores, in short succession. Lingxi was a green core darkness cultivator, while Goliath was a blue stage earth cultivator. Though, they possessed more than enough divine energy to skip straight to indigo stage within them, the two refrained as they both knew not to push their luck like that.
When using divine magic, it is important to have a clear image of what one wishes to use it for, as leaving even the slightest room for misinterpretation could lead to an entirely different result than what one was going for. Like for example, let's say you have lost an arm and used divine magic to wish for a new one. Without giving a clear and exact idea of what you want, it could be the new arm you get is that of an animals, or maybe you do get a human arm, but it's the size of a child's and growing out of your butt like a tail rather than being attached to your shoulders. It's very much like using a monkey's paw, in the sense where if you are not careful with what you wish for, you might get something entirely different from what you wanted.
That is why they refrained from trying to skip all the way up to indigo stage, as they have never experienced it for themselves, leaving them with some room of doubt as to what the result of such a wish might result in.
"To think! Even this was possible with a god's grace, and I never knew!" Goliath muttered.
"Regret not the ignorance you once bared but be grateful to the one who brought your enlightenment!" Lingxi spoke.
Though, they had both used divine energy in the past, neither of the two were fully aware, and still is not so even now, of the full capabilities of the powers they wielded. Their views on what can and cannot be done with divine energy had been limited by the scriptures and traditions established by their past faiths which had applied their own logic and constraints on its usage. Though, the gods they prayed to had grounds for doing so, it had put many unnecessary limitations on the power they granted to their followers. Hence, why no one up until now had discovered it was possible to restore one's crippled cultivation with divine energy, as all who had tried it in the past had been too limited in their thinking, or lacking in either imagination or energy to succeed.
"Th-that is! Impossible! NO, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN SECRETLY HIDING YOUR CULTIVATION BEING INTACT! THERE IS NO WAY THA-!"
"Hey, Judi! You of anyone should know, that you need to be this crippled to ride into this popsicle castle!" Nox said.
When someone gets sent to the frost palace, their cultivation is usually crippled as part of a security measure, to make it easier for the prison guards to restrain, contain, or kill you should it become necessary. The only exceptions to this are the occasional solitary confinement prisoners who found a way to make doing so, problematic, like with Tian Hao.
"G-Give it back!"
"What?"
"GIVE ME BACK THE THING YOU TOOK FROM ME!"
"Boop, boop, nope!" Nox said as he poked the black bearded traitor Wang on the nose as he held a dagger to her throat.
"GIVE ME BACK MY CULTIVATION, OR I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Go ahead! Do it!" Nox said, as she grabbed his dagger and pushed it closer to her throat.
Wang, feeling disturbed at her reaction, resisted Nox's urging for him to kill her on impulse, as he tried to keep her from forcing his dagger into her throat.
"What are you doing? LET GO! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?!"
"What? You too much of a chicken? Did your balls shatter when I kicked them last, or did you lose them here?"
"YOU-! I'LL-! FINE, JUST DIE!"
"STOP!"
As Wang finally had enough of Nox's words, he finally decided to stab her in the throat, while the nascent souls who watched screamed for him to stop, while being a bit confused. Not just at Nox's strange urging for Wang to stab her, but also why neither their divine energy, qi pressure, or telekinesis was able to reach him for some reason when they tried to stop his actions from afar.
*BOOM*
Just before the blade was about to pierce the skin, something came crashing through the walls of the room, heading directly towards the two, before bouncing off the invisible barrier Nox had placed around this table, allowing the dagger to fully be inserted into her throat without interruption, finishing the second divine ritual Nox had planned for tonight.
"The last supper, has been completed!"
As the ritual was set in motion, the whole building began to shake as cracks of glowing red emerged in the ground, while a monstrous roar echoed through the chaos plane. However, once the shaking stopped, nothing else had seemingly occurred.
"Ugh! *Cough*! I am *Huff* the warden of the frost palace! YOU WILL DO AS I COMMAND!" Warden Lei shouted as he limped through the hole in the wall.
"Ugh! Fucking asshole! Shit! Ugh!" Hexel grunted in pain.
The thing that had gone flying through the wall, nearly interrupting Nox's stabbing had been the arch-demon Hexel, who the warden had sent flying into the palace. The immortal and demon were both severely injured from the battle. Lei's winter coat had been torn to shreds, his face had partially crumbled into dust, and two of his four arms were missing.
Meanwhile, both of Hexel's hoofs were broken, while one of his wings were bent at a funny angle, and he had definitely broken a few ribs seeing as there was a fist shaped depression on the right side of his chest. Additionally, his whole body was sparking with electricity from the residual lightning bolts he had been struck by during their battle.
As Lei stumbled into the room, his qi pressure once again pressed everyone down to the ground. However, the battle had expended much of his qi, hence the pressure had lightened to a point where some of the nascent souls were able to remain on their feet if only barely. However, unlike the prison guards who were barely able to stand, there were some of the prisoners who were completely undeterred by the pressure.
*SWOOSH*
*Shatter*
*BOOM*
The three biggest contributors to Nox's divine energy chain, Douglas, Lingxi, and Goliath, had noticed the crack in the barrier where Hexel had bounced off and proceeded to smash it down before attempting to kill Wang. However, Nox, covered in her own blood from the dagger in her throat, had simply thrown one of the 12 gemstones into the air and a powerful barrier was created on the spot, capable of warding off their attacks. The trio were now glaring daggers at Wang, wishing to condemn him while showing concern for their goddess's wellbeing.
"You are injured! Please, do not waste your energy to grant mercy upon this scum!" Goliath asked
"The sin of treachery, only forgiven by those purest of hearts, but he who does not repent is not worthy of thine mercy!" Lingxi spoke.
"He has betrayed your trust and spilled your holy blood! That is an unforgivable sin! He is unworthy of your mercy!" Douglas spat out.
However, Nox, unconcerned with their words, simply pulled out the blade lodged in her throat and used the divine energy from the covenant to heal her injuries. They watched as the blood running down her neck reversed, flowing back into the stab wound, until every drop spilled was returned to her body, and before the wound finally closed itself up. She then stood up and grabbed the mystical gem out of the air, dissipating the barrier.
"There is no point in killing a doomed man! Just let him be!" Nox spoke to the three as she walked past them.
She proceeded to walk towards the heavenly immortal and arch-demon, without so much as a word, while she began swallowing the 12 gemstones whole. The three zodiac bearers soon followed suit to guard her as her escort.
*SCREETCH*
*CRACKLE*
*BOOM*
Hexel fired a breath attack from his mouth, spewing out a river of ghosts towards the warden. Meanwhile, the warden, was evading the ghosts trying to grab on to him before losing their momentum and sinking through the floor as he closed the distance to deliver a lightning infused strike to his chest, blowing him straight through the wall and all the way to the other side of the frost palace.
"I think that's enough, don't you?" Nox said as she approached, blue glint in her eye.