The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 36: Grieve But Never Regret & The Order Of Gods

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Countless rivers of golden light and dark shadows spread across the Heavenly Realm. The Goddess was unable to revive or reform herself again as Bing Xue made sure to destroy the Divine Realm through their fight.

Crack, crack…!

CRASH!

The Divine Realm of Heaven started falling from the skies. Everybody awake that day saw it through the entirety of the world of Eclipse. Millions of glass pieces started falling, covering the world with bright, transparent snow.

The Realm of Heaven shattered, and the Realm of the Underworld was destroyed. Eclipse was now freed from the Gods of Light and Darkness, who controlled their world and the people inside of it as if they were nothing but slaves and Faith-producing machines.

However, the skies weren’t empty. Above them, a single person was flying. The one that slayed the Goddess of Light was a single woman. A human. Yet her body was so different that nobody could even comprehend who she was.

“I’m done… It’s done.” She sighed in relief, ignoring the system messages that were popping up. She didn’t have the mood or the time to check that. “Eclipse’s gods have been slain. One world is freed; ninety-nine more to go.” She looked at the now slowly falling.

“Not good; if I let that fall, it might negatively affect the world. Too much divinity spread everywhere could create tremendous chaos.” She pointed with her hands. “Come to your new owner, Divinity and Faith of the Goddess.”

FLASH!

All the shards of Heaven flew back to Bing Xue, as she absorbed them with her bare hands. Her Divinity continued to develop, her body overflowing with this new power. Now she had absorbed two divinities, divine bodies, and souls from two Gods.

Despite being so strong, because these Gods possessed unique abilities she never cultivated back in Murim, she still felt like she had a lot of new powers. Her Divinity, a concept that did not exist within Murim, was now developing tremendously.

From a small golden ember, it grew into a dual-colored flame of golden light and purple and black flames. It slowly spread roots and branches across her soul as she felt her base strength rise drastically.

And above all, the precious Immemorial Primordial Venerable Essence she had to spend fighting these two Gods was now being restored one drop at a time within the confines of her Inner Realm, as more and more of these golden dew drops were being formed.

They fell over a small fountain of this essence, feeding it slowly. Although her Realm remained stagnant at the peak of Rank 21, she had already more or less regained the thirty percent of energies and power she lost through that black hole.

“To think I could regain my powers this easily, these Gods are shock-full of precious energy and essence.” She sighed.

However, despite celebrating her growth, Bing Xue… wasn’t really happy. No, her face showed a different expression, one of guilt and sorrow. She gritted her teeth, looking away into the skies.

As someone who has lived for eleven thousand years, Bing Xue had no remorse for the act of killing; she had grown accustomed to it, and she had become one with it.

Yet, despite that, always, in the back of her mind, there was a darkness that would come and embrace her with such coldness that it made even her hands tremble.

It happened every time she took the life of an intelligent, sentient being.

It usually didn’t come to her when she was sure the one she was killing was a despicable and irremediable evil.

Yet, when she had to kill someone who was not so evil, or when she had to take the lives of those with brave hearts..

It made her feel rather bad.

She didn’t feel too much when she killed those Mercenaries before, or the Bounty Hunters, or the Church Members, or even the Evil Cult Members.

But right now, it felt strangely different with these Gods.

“Why do I feel this way?” She wondered. “Is it because they were young? Did I kill some youngsters in cold blood?”

The Gods were born in a much different way than other living beings, especially the Gods of Eclipse, who were fairly young compared to the others from Towers above her.

They lacked experience in life and were only driven by their instincts to gather Divinity. She felt guilty about having taken the lives of people who might have changed for the better.

But there’s a limit to how much she was willing to forgive someone’s sins.

Especially if these Gods, as inexperienced and childish as they were, had already killed so many humans.

Thinking about the innocent people, the warm families, the children, the babies, the mothers and fathers, the grandparents and grandmothers.

She clenched her fists.

“No…”

She couldn’t act weak now or ever again. Even after eleven thousand years, was she going to doubt her own actions?

“I need to only care about my own world, Earth.”

She sighed one last time, smiling faintly.

“I’ve avenged you, even if a little bit." She looked down, thinking about everyone that was killed when the Apocalypse began. “And I won’t stop until all of those who took you away pay with their lives.”

The Heavenly Martial Empress was not going to falter. Her path was already set. The only thing she had to do was keep moving forward.

Like she had always done.

…

As Bing Xue decided to return to the village of the Silver Moon Tribe, which had already become like her second home, the people across the entirety of Eclipse were completely shaken.

Every single statue that somehow survived, depicting the gods, quickly broke apart, shattering into pieces. The scream of the goddess of light was the last call. It was a signal and the beginning of a new era for the people of this world.

There are many tribes of people across the first floor, from beast people to elves, dwarves, humans, dark elves, and more. All of them felt it in the deepest part of their souls.

No, the deepest part of their existence itself.

The two divinities of their ancestors’ endless faith created the divinities that governed a godless world; they are now gone. Some felt sorrow, and others felt joy. Some were completely neutral toward this. A few seemed to laugh, and many cried.

They didn’t know who killed them, and they might never learn either. And even if they knew, to face someone capable of killing gods was pure lunacy.

There was nothing they could do other than accept it and slowly move on with their lives.

Strangely enough, this godless world.

It felt almost the same as before.

Except for one thing.

“Hmm… The breeze is nice today. And is it my idea, or is it easier to breathe?” Peperina said to herself, looking through the window of the Adventurer’s Guild. “Did the Gods truly die? Or was that something else?”

Many people also didn’t believe the act itself. Although stronger people seemed sure, the common folk were not so sure of what they heard or felt.

Yet, every single person, those who were aware and those who didn’t believe it, could share a similar sentiment.

The strong gaze of the gods and the powerful pressure they exerted over everyone were something everyone had learned to live with.

It was gone.

And for the first time in a while, the inhabitants of the first floor.

Felt free.

As if invisible shackles they never realized were weighing them down were finally lifted.

“Bing Xue… I wonder what you’re up to at this hour.” The rabbit girl wondered as she checked her phone. “I-I should be more assertive too, r-right? Maybe I’ll send her a selfie while I’m having lunch. S-She did say I was cute, right? So maybe she won’t mind…”

As the adorable rabbit girl checked her phone and was then promptly reprimanded by her coworkers to go back to work, the world of Eclipse slowly moved on.

People couldn’t simply sit down and think about what happened. Their lives still went on, and the world didn’t end either.

And so, the first floor of the Tower to be completely Godless was born.

…

The Gods of the Tower wouldn’t take lightly what happened. Only hours after the death of the Gods of the World of Eclipse, the first floor of the Tower, many Godly Presences from Floors 49 and below gathered within Floor 50’s Divine Realm.

They weren’t the Gods' bodies themselves, as Gods were stuck to their worlds themselves. But it was their strongest Avatars, often referred to as Divine Avatars. Something that most God Avatars had no idea of was the true plan of their existence.

The last stages of their development included their minds, egos, and memories being completely overwritten by those of the Gods. This process was referred to by the Gods as “Full Assimilation” and made it possible for their Avatars to become extensions of their Divine Souls, with no minds of their own.

It could even be said that accepting to become an Avatar of a God was the same thing as letting them parasitize your Soul, and slowly eat away any sense of self in exchange for great power. Many people thought that only their emotions would be gone.

But memories and their entire sense of self were also devoured and replaced completely with the minds of the Gods. Of course, their souls remained intact, and that was one of the things the Gods used to convince Players, making them believe that as long as their souls remained intact, everything would be okay.

Over sixty figures gathered together within the Divine Realm of Floor 50, all of them being Divine Avatars of their respective Gods on each Floor below 50. The Tower worked differently; the Gods kept becoming more numerous with each Floor.

The highest Floors were so strong to begin with because they possessed large pantheons of Gods controlling them. Therefore, a division was created. The first fifty Floors were all controlled by the Fourth Order. From floor 51 to Floor 70, it was the Third Order. From Floor 71 to Floor 85, it was the Second Order, and from Floor 86 to Floor 100, it was the First Order.

Each of these Four Orders was composed of the Gods of every Floor. Even though they were “allied” in such Orders, it didn’t mean they were friends. No, they kept competing and dethroning one another constantly. However, these Orders were first founded by the Pantheon of Floor 100 to maintain communication between the Gods when greater threats that they could not handle alone appeared.

“It has been thousands of years since our last meeting.” The figure of a tall, gray-skinned elven woman spoke, with shiny silvery-white hair, wearing silver robes and white heels, and with completely white eyes. “What has happened? I’m afraid I am too high in the Tower to have heard any sort of gossip recently, hohoho!” She laughed with a mocking smile, looking down at the rest of the Divine Avatars.

“Empress of the Silver Moon.” Suddenly, a much taller figure than her spoke. A Devil man with enormous, bulky muscles, wearing black armor, with two pointy horns, red skin, and hair made of blazing flames. “This is not the time to laugh like this. There is a serious issue at hand. I am fairly sure you were also notified.”

“King of Scarlet Sun, yes, I am well aware. Geez, do you have to be so serious all the time?” The woman sighed, crossing her legs, and then sipped some wine.

“I can’t believe what happened! Sniff, sniff… Those two were still young Gods! Who could have done something so horrible as to slay them?! Was it any of you?!” A man amongst the many Avatars cried, with golden skin covered in bronze-colored draconic scales, three bronze-made horns atop his head, and a bulky and large, muscle-packed body with a long tail and red-colored eyes. Despite looking so manly and strong, he was crying like a little girl. “ANSWER ME!” He summoned a giant bronze axe, pointing it at the other gods, who quickly gasped.

“Lord of Bronze, calm down. This is not the time to fight one another." However, the tallest, strongest figure amongst everyone finally spoke. The Avatar of the God of Floor 50.

His appearance was nothing but overwhelming. Resembling the fusion between frost and flames. It was a giant man made of two opposing elements. Half of him was an eternally frozen ice, and the other half was an endlessly blazing fire, all given the shape of a person.

His frozen and blazing eyes looked down at everyone in silence. Despite such an intimidating appearance, this was nothing but an Avatar of the actual God.

“We must quickly discuss an incredibly important and alarming issue.” He spoke with a stern voice. “A Player from that small world named Earth has appeared, and in the two weeks she has been here, she wreaked havoc on the first floor, destroyed the two major religious organizations, and then… proceeded to kill both of the Gods there.”

“What?! From Earth?!”

“But isn’t that measly world already on the brink of destruction?”

“A mortal capable of killing Gods, and one from such a tiny little world as Earth?!”

"Isn't that world where most of us have been easily grinding Souls and Faith? What is this? A joke?"

“This makes no sense! Is this true?”

The Gods of the Floors over 30 had no idea what had happened; they were too far away to have heard the gods' screams as they died. However, everyone on Floor 29 and below nodded with faces full of fear and concern.

“I-It’s true… I could feel it with my very Divine Senses. The Brilliant Mother Of Light and the Lord of Deep Darkness… Both… Both died!” Cried a woman that looked to be made completely out of wood, with long hair made of green leaves and flowers covering her body, resembling a dress. “They died, and so agonizingly! I had never heard Gods scream in such pain before. It was so horrifying. Whatever that thing is, it is not human! I don’t know how it came from Earth, but this… I fear it might be some sort of plot from the Gods of the Second Order! They’ve always plotted to overtake even our worlds!”

“What? The Gods of the Second Order wouldn’t do that!” The Empress of the Silver Moon spoke. “Why would they care about lower worlds such as ours?!”

“No, she has a point…” The King of the Scarlet Sun nodded. “Hmm… We’ll need to investigate this further. Bing Xue was her name, was it?”

“Yes.” The giant, made of frost and flames, nodded. “And I had already decided to employ some spies to tell us what’s truly happening. We will be notified shortly. Depending on the information we gain, we will take a decision.”

The gods sitting around the gigantic table nodded one after another. “Depending on what we learn, we’ll need to take drastic measures.” He said. “We simply cannot allow a mere mortal to slay us as if we were flies. If she wants war against the gods, then we shall bring her war.”

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