"Newcomers, welcome to the Holy Grail." Dantean looked them over, "Don't bother trying to escape. Don't bother trying to die. Don't bother trying to blow the space open. Releasing the power of your soul in here just feeds the transformation process. I know because I've tried all of it."
The five Supreme Gods stared at him. Malakar's eyes had gone wide. A Demon Lord, imprisoned in the Great Aetherium's artifact, speaking to them with the patience of someone explaining directions.
Skarion remembered facing someone with similar strength to this guy back in the Ancient Era where the Demon Lord nearly killed both him and Malakar together. He'd survived that. Then Haru had killed him anyway, and now this guy was giving him orientation advice.
"Even if I die I won't become his believer." Skarion said, viciously.
Dantean looked at him without particular interest, "You couldn't resist him while you were alive. You think dying made you stronger?"
"..."
Skarion had no answer for that. Neither did anyone else.
"Your fate is the same as mine." Dantean said, "Accept it. At least you still exist. There's a resurrection waiting on the other side of the transformation. That's more than most get."
The Evil Gods looked at each other with expressions of shared misery. Then Divine Power filled with holy and light elements surged in like a tide. It was vast, overwhelming, everywhere at once, and the screaming started.
The newcomers screamed while the old residents watched, unmoved.
…
Haru walked out of the Holy Light Temple without looking back. The outcome inside the Holy Grail was already decided. Whether Malakar and the others raged or went quiet, their souls would be transformed, their alignment stripped, their fanatical belief in Haru installed.
Then the Angel Reincarnation Pool would bring them back. Five Supreme Gods and one Demon Lord, six resurrections, and the Great Aetherium's Supreme God count would hit twelve, comparable to the twelve Demon Monarchs of the Abyss, at least in terms of numbers.
He didn't let himself get too comfortable with that thought. The Abyss had survived the Ancient Era and even managed to win the Battle of Planets against the Pantheons of Faith, which meant it was almost certainly holding cards it hadn't shown yet.
But the Endless Continent of this era was dramatically stronger than it had been during those years. The math, for once, looked favorable.
…
By four in the morning, Lysandra had everything counted. She appeared before Haru with several storage artifacts and ran through the numbers with the precision of someone who'd been doing this for a while.
Among the 1,469,000 Evil Gods killed, there were 109 High Gods. Around 100,000 Intermediate Gods. The rest were Lower True Gods.
Over 4.73 million Artifacts were recovered. There were both defensive and offensive artifacts, roughly three million of them damaged, though a portion could be repaired with the recovered materials.
There were 640,000 divine corpses. 20 million Divine Crystals. Over 300,000 Bloodline Evolution Blueprints, ranging from intermediate to top level quality. There were around 80,000 Special Blueprints and 20,000 Troops Summoning Blueprints.
Then she got to the last stat.
"There are about 1.6 million Godheads, my Lord."
Haru looked up, "That's more than the enemy count."
"Some Evil Gods were carrying extras in their storage artifacts."
He nodded. It made sense, the world of Gods was never peaceful, even when it looked peaceful, 'Wild Gods' without Divine Kingdoms were hunted constantly. Godheads were currency, trophies, power sources. Of course they'd been stockpiling.
"The 300,000 artifacts we reserved for future troop promotions are stored in the imperial treasury." Lysandra continued, "They are high quality and undamaged ones. Any troop, other than the Angels of course, who ascends to Godhood can draw from that pool."
"Good." Haru meant it. Lysandra ran operations the way the empire needed them run, thoroughly, without being told twice. Her real domain was commanding the Angel army, and nothing could replace her there, but she clearly had range.
He leaned back, "Rest tonight. Tomorrow, I'm calling the Castle Lords and Rangers to assemble their armies at the empire's frontier cities. The day after, we declare war on the Light Empire."
He took a pause, "The Angel Army and the other top-tier troops are our priority targets for growth. The common troops, we won't let them permanently die, but their growth is up to them. If they can break through the limits of their bloodline in combat, good. If not, we won't spend blueprints on them."
Lysandra had felt the crystal wall tremor earlier. She understood what the timeline meant, "As you command, my Lord."
She left.
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