"Five more gods?"
In the Astral Plane, seeing Su Mo return again, Pandora was completely dumbfounded. She had seen ruthless people, but never someone this ruthless.
By her count, Su Mo had been in this world for less than two days, yet the number of gods he had killed was just one shy of double digits.
In terms of the number of gods slain, even looking throughout history, he was among the top tier, and this was just the result of a little over a day.
If they were to compare the number of Authorities, there was no need for comparison.
Marquis Voban had accumulated for several hundred years and only had eight Authorities. Before slaying these five Heretic Gods, Su Mo's Authority count had already exceeded ten.
If these five gods were included, given his ability to completely acquire all of a Heretic God's Authorities, Su Mo's Authority count would reach over twenty.
In several thousand years, there had never been an existence that could surpass him.
"Mm," Su Mo nodded calmly. "This number should be enough for preliminary research. Let's begin the ritual!"
"Research? Divinities again?" Pandora was taken aback for a moment, then handed the divine instrument, the Usurpation Cycle, to Su Mo.
To seize the Authorities of a god, this Steel-attribute divine instrument was the key. Recalling how Su Mo had studied himself by "stabbing" himself, she couldn't help but worry. "You're not going to hurt yourself again this time, are you? Mommy will be sad if she sees that!"
"Don't worry, I won't."
After taking the divine instrument, Su Mo shook his head and activated the spell.
The Steel divine instrument immediately displayed a strong plundering attribute, completely absorbing the gods' power and transferring all their Divinities to Su Mo.
The Forge of Olympus of the Fire God, the Sword of Light of the War God, the Protection of Steel of the Dragon-Slaying Hero, the "Thou Art a Dragon" of the Saint, the Divine Insanity of the Wine God...
Authorities that Doni had seen and hadn't seen surged into Su Mo's body one after another.
Su Mo had long anticipated the effects of these Authorities, so he wasn't in a hurry to experience them now.
Compared to the Authorities, he was more concerned with the rules by which Divinities embedded themselves into his power.
Thus, through the perspective of his spiritual vision, he began to observe the changes in himself.
---||---
As mentioned before, the human energy field could be divided into seven layers: the etheric body, emotional body, mental body, astral body, etheric template body, celestial body, and causal body.
Among these, the first three layers were considered energy bodies associated with the physical, or material, body.
The latter three layers were the template bodies for the first three, sometimes considered the soul.
The astral body in the middle, also known as the stellar body, was the bridge connecting energy and soul.
Together with the material body, this constituted the complete structure of a human being.
The structure of a Heretic God was different from that of a human. As energy life forms, they did not possess a material body. What looked like a body was actually an etheric body constructed from divine power.
If divine power was something that could interfere with all things in the world and determine the direction of material movement, then a Divinity was the template that determined how divine power operated.
In other words, the structure of a Divinity itself corresponded to the etheric template body in humans.
This point had long been verified.
Under Su Mo's gaze, as the ritual proceeded, the power of the Divinities flowed upstream from the etheric body, finally settling on his etheric template body.
His other existing Divinities were also docked in this position, like software downloaded onto a phone, for Su Mo to use at will.
This was within Su Mo's expectations.
When he was studying the Great Holy Grail in the Nasuverse, he had already determined that whether it was a god's Divinity or a Servant's Saint Graph, they were both a type of etheric template body, regulating the flow of energy within a living being.
Now, the fluctuations of his own energy field stopped at the etheric template body.
This meant that the internal composition of a Divinity was not related to the most mysterious celestial and causal bodies that came after.
"In other words, to study Divinities, the focus is on the first four layers... no, it should be the fourth layer, the astral body!"
The first three layers could all be controlled or influenced by a human's own actions. Only the astral body could not.
As the bridge connecting the body and soul, it could not be directly interfered with by the human themselves.
Considering that interference is mutual... If the etheric template body used the astral body to interfere with the etheric body, then it must also be possible to interfere with the etheric template body through the astral body. The key to the formation of a Divinity might lie here!
Su Mo had previously observed that the core of a Divinity possessed a certain mysterious material structure that could serve as a template for constructing the Divinity. The mysterious function of this structure was precisely to be the bridge between myth and matter.
The similarity between the two structures was so strong that Su Mo couldn't help but speculate that this mysterious structure was related to the so-called astral body.
Perhaps, there existed a certain fundamental particle in the world—let's temporarily name it the Stardust Particle. It was this particle that connected myth and Divinity.
After confirming his hypothesis, and waiting for all the Authorities to finish transferring, Su Mo immediately began his research. The simplest way to study a Divinity was to create one from scratch.
"My dear child, what are you doing?" Pandora asked, puzzled, seeing Su Mo take out the Forge of Olympus.
"Forging a divine weapon," Su Mo said without any concealment. "Vulcan's Authority is sufficient to forge a divine instrument. If I can fully master this technique, I will be able to master the forging of Divinities, and perhaps even reach the level of creating gods."
Bestowing godhood upon an ordinary being had always been the prerogative of the head of a pantheon, representing the ultimate mastery of the essence of gods.
Although a divine weapon's presence was less than that of a god itself, it was still enough to influence the distribution of divine offices and change the ruling structure of the gods.
The ugly Vulcan had relied on this technique to climb his way to the position of one of the twelve Olympian gods. In Europe, people often regarded Vulcan as a god symbolizing power.
If Su Mo could master the method of forging Divinities, then the Conceptual Armaments he had previously mastered could be fully upgraded to Divine Armaments.
If he could figure out the structure and laws of the Stardust Particles from this, then Su Mo would be able to completely master the essence of Divinities, and perhaps even achieve the mass production of gods.
"Oh, do you need Mommy's help?" Pandora nodded, half-understanding, then asked.
"Not for now, but... shouldn't you change how you address me?" Su Mo shook his head, then casually reminded her.
"Address?" Miss Pandora tilted her head, her eyes looking a little confused. "You don't like me calling you that? Then how about I change it to 'darling'?"
Hearing the girl's deliberately ambiguous tone, Su Mo shook his head again.
"I was talking about how you address yourself. You should change it." Seeing that she didn't get it, he reminded her, "The Roman Vulcan and the Greek Hephaestus are the same Divinity. And in the myths, Hephaestus was the god who created the witch Pandora."
"According to this relationship, with the Divinity I now hold, you should call me 'Father'."
Su Mo had originally said this just to retort Pandora's usual self-address, with no ulterior motive.
He hadn't expected that after hearing this, the goddess before him would call out without any hesitation, in a rather childish voice, "Daddy~"
With a mischievous smile on her face, the twin-tailed goddess's eyes danced, showing no sign of embarrassment. "How about it? Does little Su Mo like Mommy's new name?"
As expected of a witch from Greek mythology. When she shed her inhibitions, she had no moral baggage whatsoever.
---||---
At the port on Sardinia.
After waiting for about two or three hours, Erica finally sensed a familiar spatial fluctuation. She immediately perked up and looked at Su Mo, who had returned from the Astral Plane.
"Erica, I have a mission for you," Su Mo said as soon as he returned to the present world.
"What mission?"
"Declare war on all Godslayers."
Su Mo's tone was incredibly calm, but his words left everyone stunned. What did he say?
"Does Master want to capture the other Godslayers and use them to summon Heretic Gods?" Recalling what had happened before, Erica was stunned for a moment before immediately understanding Su Mo's thoughts.
Since the current god summoning ritual required beings with karma with Heretic Gods as catalysts, Godslayers were undoubtedly the best ritual materials.
An ordinary divine instrument could at most summon two or three associated gods, but every single Godslayer was full of ill-fated karma with Heretic Gods.
Using them to summon Heretic Gods was like using the most delicious bait to fish; you'd get a bite every time.
"Correct."
"Uh, Lord Su Mo, please allow me to advise you. I know you are incredibly powerful, and even ten ordinary Heretic Gods might not be your match. But declaring war on all Godslayers at once, isn't that a bit too much?" Erica chose her words carefully, her tone slightly nervous.
"Based on existing intelligence, the other Godslayers have a combined total of over thirty Authorities. Compared to summoning over thirty Heretic Gods at once, wouldn't it be safer to take them one by one?"
Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. Five Heretic Gods working together was enough to burn a continent to the ground.
If over thirty Heretic Gods appeared at once, that lineup would truly be world-destroying.
Even knowing Su Mo could definitely handle it, the idea was too insane. A slight misstep, and the aftershocks of the battle would be enough to destroy a country.
Hearing Erica's advice, Su Mo shook his head.
"You're overthinking it. Setting aside that the current earth ley lines can't withstand the descent of so many Heretic Gods, even if they could, that situation would never happen."
Even the ley lines of the Mediterranean and Sardinia combined couldn't handle more than five gods. Even if other places were stronger, they wouldn't be that much stronger.
"Forgive my foolishness, but please enlighten me, Master." Erica could understand the first sentence, but not the second. Why would it never happen?
"Have you ever seen Godslayers move in a group?" Su Mo asked back.
"...I understand!"
She had been worried for nothing. With Su Mo's hint, Erica's expression immediately became one of realization.
Oh, right! Besides Lord Su Mo, Godslayers were basically a bunch of idiots who did whatever they wanted.
Even if they heard a provocation, they would never flock together and attack all at once. Therefore, there was no need to worry.
Seeing that Erica was no longer worried, Su Mo leisurely added, "Besides, even if an extreme situation occurred and dozens of Heretic Gods descended, it wouldn't be that big of a deal."
Even without the insights he had just gained from forging a Divinity, Su Mo was not afraid of the power of a group of gods.
Because—
"The power of Mythical Thaumaturgy grows with the power of the Divinities one holds. There are not many Heretic Gods left who can withstand the Sword of Victory now."
As mentioned before, the foundation for constructing Mythical Thaumaturgy was a Divinity. The initial version of the Sword of Victory spell only included the Divinities of Verethragna and Melqart.
That was why, when facing Dionysus and Vulcan, they had a chance to escape the judgment.
But now, with the Divinities of seven Heretic Gods superimposed and reconstructed, the judgment conditions of the Sword of Victory spell had become several times more stringent.
With the current effect of the spell, not a single one of the previous five Heretic Gods would have escaped. It was a spell with extremely high growth potential.
"Yes!" Erica was completely relieved. If Su Mo said there weren't many, then there really weren't many.
Even if over thirty Heretic Gods manifested at once, there probably wouldn't be more than two who could withstand Lord Su Mo's first move.