Chapter 148: Outside. Battlefield of the Gods (4)
Taesan sat quietly beside the statue, waiting. The followers watched him anxiously, fearing he might destroy it, but Taesan had no such intention.
After some time, everyone had gathered.
“There are so many of you.”
In front of him, hundreds of people were gathered.
“As you said, I brought them all.”
The Saint bit his lip. These hundreds were all the followers who had descended onto the battlefield.
“…Don’t regret it! Everyone, form ranks!”
At the Saint’s cry, they all responded with a short shout.
The followers quickly formed ranks and surrounded Taesan. When they finished, the Saint lifted his shattered shield.
“O God! We are gathered here! Please acknowledge our worth and manifest yourself in this world!”
With the Saint’s cry, a massive aura emanated from the statue behind Taesan.
The energy spread to the followers. They struck their shields against the ground, creating an effect akin to a barrier, targeting Taesan.
Boom!
A tremendous force pressed down on Taesan. It felt like a giant was crushing him, and Taesan smirked.
The god they believed in was the God of Self-Proof.
The followers’ accumulated worth, augmented by the god’s assistance, was being manifested into reality. Individually, they were insignificant, but gathered in the hundreds, the story changed.
They resonated with each other, creating a massive barrier and receiving the god’s aid to form a kind of seal.
The force pressing on Taesan was their combined worth.
Given its unique nature, it was impossible to break free with physical strength alone. Magic or skills were also ineffective.
[See? No matter how weak they are, they can oppress you if their god aids them. Why did you give them a chance?]
The ghost still couldn’t understand Taesan’s logic.
Taesan’s given chance was simple.
He would wait by the statue.
They were to gather the followers who believed in their god.
Then, with the power of their god, they were to crush him.
In essence, he had given them the opportunity to fight at their full strength. This was entirely unlike Taesan’s usual approach, which left the ghost bewildered.
“I told you. I’ll get the most out of this.”
Taesan looked up at the force pressing down on him.
This wasn’t just ordinary energy or the power of a god. It was the individual wills and strength of hundreds of followers.
The achievements they had accumulated were pressing down on Taesan.
“This is us! The power of the god we believe in!”
The Saint shouted, confident in their victory, as Taesan remained immobile.
“Arrogant fool! Die before our might!”
“The gods of the labyrinth reward based on achievements.”
Taesan ignored the Saint’s words and spoke to the ghost.
“So what would they reward the most, with the greatest rewards?”
The ghost hesitated, thinking for a moment before speaking.
[It would be breaking the confidence of the gods outside.]
“Exactly.”
The belief of the outside gods. The notion that there was a significant difference between them and the labyrinth gods, that the labyrinth was nothing.
Shattering that belief.
“So I thought of a method.”
Taesan raised his hand, placing it on the statue and slowly standing up. Seeing his resistance, the Saint shouted in panic.
“Everyone, draw out all your strength! Defeat this unbeliever!”
At the Saint’s command, the followers pooled even more strength. The pressure on Taesan grew stronger.
“There’s a Sun God in the labyrinth too.”
The ghost had mentioned that there was one deep within.
Hamon was also a Sun God. The Sun God born from the heavens, whom Taesan had just defeated, was also a Sun God.
The God of Self-Proof they believed in was similar to the God of Proof, Fabsa.
There were many gods of similar stature.
“So they’d probably like this the most.”
Taesan clenched his fist.
[You have activated Self-Proof.]
Taesan stood. The oppressive force noticeably diminished.
He turned his gaze to the followers of the God of Self-Proof.
They were disturbed.
“What is that?!”
“Don’t panic! Stand your ground!”
The Saint shouted urgently, but couldn’t hide the anxiety in his eyes.
‘What is this?’
The aura emanating from Taesan was unlike anything they had felt before. The Saint, a follower of the God of Self-Proof, immediately understood.
It was what he had accumulated.
The achievements Taesan had built up were materializing into an aura.
‘But this is…!’
The problem was the sheer volume.
The endless aura emanating from Taesan was beyond the Saint’s imagination.
No invincible warrior, no saint of a lofty god, no archmage could rival this.
The aura seeped into their barrier, creating cracks.
“Everyone, brace yourselves! Believe in our god!”
The Saint desperately raised his voice. The followers, regaining their composure, increased the pressure on Taesan.
“It’s useless.”
Taesan bared his teeth. He took a step forward. The barrier created by the followers’ proof began to crumble under Taesan’s aura.
“You are nothing.”
Hundreds of followers of the God of Self-Proof couldn’t even withstand the proof of a single man.
“Everything you’ve built is worthless. Utterly insignificant.”
Taesan hummed as he continued forward.
The barrier began to crack.
[…Ah. So that’s it?]
The ghost realized.
What would please the gods of the labyrinth?
As Taesan said, crushing the pride of the outside gods.
So Taesan was proving it. That what they had built was nothing. That the proof of hundreds could be trampled by what he alone had built in the labyrinth.
And he was also sending a message to the God of Self-Proof. That their domain was nothing. That the god of proof in the labyrinth was of a much higher caliber.
Step by step, Taesan advanced.
“Gah!”
“Ugh!”
The force suppressing Taesan was their worth itself.
As it was mercilessly trampled and crushed, it took a toll on their spirits.
Some couldn’t endure it and collapsed, spitting blood.
“No! This can’t be!”
The Saint cried out vehemently.
“This is impossible!”
Everyone who came here had been acknowledged by the God of Self-Proof for their worth. They were all elites, revered in their original worlds.
And yet, they were being overwhelmed by a single man? Their collective worth was less than that of one man?
“That’s impossible!”
His entire life, everything he had built in faith, was being denied.
“Isn’t proving yourself always like this? Didn’t you come this far in the same way?”
To prove oneself often meant trampling on others. The Saint likely went through a similar process. Trampling on peers, overshadowing others, and becoming the saint of their god.
“Even if not, it doesn’t matter. You must have prepared for this when you came here, right?”
This was the battlefield of the gods.
The victory condition was the annihilation of the followers of other gods.
Step by step, Taesan advanced. With each step, dozens of followers collapsed, vomiting blood.
“So accept it.”
Taesan tapped the Saint’s forehead.
The Saint collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Taesan looked around.
No one remained conscious. All were convulsing on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
“It’s over.”
Taesan swung his fist. The statue of the God of Self-Proof shattered in front of its followers.
[You have destroyed the statue of the God of Self-Proof. The God of Self-Proof has been expelled from the battlefield of the gods.]
[The gods of the labyrinth are pleased.]
[The God of Proof is immensely pleased. He is utterly satisfied with your actions.]
A system window appeared, showing that the God of Proof was pleased. This hadn’t appeared when Taesan dealt with the followers of the other three gods.
‘As expected.’
This was the correct approach. The one that would please the gods the most and yield the best rewards.
“A-ah…”
The Saint looked at the shattered statue with a devastated expression.
A massive power began to be drawn out through the rift in the sky.
“Aaah!”
The Saint screamed. Something translucent was being pulled from his body.
It wasn’t just the Saint. The same happened to the fallen followers.
“Souls?”
[Looks like it.]
The translucent forms were drawn into the rift in the sky, following the God of Self-Proof.
“Their souls belong to the gods.”
In retrospect, it was obvious.
A follower who came to the battlefield of the gods must have pledged their soul to their god.
What would happen to those souls? Would the defeated god vent his anger on them? Or would he show magnanimity befitting a transcendent being?
Taesan didn’t care.
“Let’s wrap this up quickly.”
Taesan immediately moved to meet the followers of the next god.
There was a mansion similar to that of the God of Self-Proof. Taesan flicked his fingers, shattering the gate.
“An intruder!”
“Everyone, gather!”
Taesan thrashed them. Knocking down the obstructing enemies, he stood in front of the statue.
“Show me what you’ve built. The worth of what you believe in.”
And he waited again until they had prepared everything.
“You’ll regret this!”
“I heard that before.”
This god was the God of Mysteries, who had crawled up from the bottom. Taesan had seen them use something magical while thrashing the followers.
As Taesan blocked the barrage of attacks, his face was cold.
“It’s just magic? I thought it was something amazing, given the name.”
He fended off flames and ice. He burst through wind and stomped down on shaking ground.
There was no flashy or intricate technique. It was a simple movement. That he could block everything with such simplicity meant he was on a different level from them.
But the saint of the god seemed to think Taesan was struggling to block and burst into laughter.
“Behold! This is the magic bestowed upon us by our god!”
Clatter!
A rain of ice fell.
It was quite a sight, so Taesan watched quietly.
An arrow of magic flew through it.
Taesan casually swung his sword to deflect it.
“Haha! You can do nothing, heretic!”
The saint was in high spirits.
He had received an oracle from his god and knew that the followers of the God of Self-Proof had been annihilated by the man in front of him.
Satisfied, the god would grant them even greater power.
While the saint imagined this happy future, Taesan clenched his fist.
“You’re low-level.”
Because it was directly bestowed by a god, the quality of the magic itself was at an elementary level.
But the wielders were so weak they couldn’t even draw out a fraction of its potential.
“Not much to gain here.”
Taesan made a decision. Time to clear this up.
He stomped his foot.
[You have activated Earthquake.]
Earthquake. A magic of little value in the labyrinth.
But it was different here.
The ground shook. Those confident of victory screamed and fell.
Rumble!
The ground creaked. Their building made ominous noises, dropping decorations.