The 11th God

Battle of the Factions Arc: The Descendant of the Light God

I was suppose to be worried over something because it just keeps on bothering the insides of me. However, after looking at Diether's face, I was worried about nothing at all. His face looks so serious and matured, showing people that he is actually prepared for this.

"Our competitors would be: Edgeseekers versus Dwarvens!" Dio shouted.

I have no idea if it is just pure bad luck that this happens and we are chosen to fight already by the start of the tournament, but after seeing Diether's face, my worrying suddenly faded away. No matter what happens, Diether can do this. Even though he can't, we are always here by his side. I'll make sure that he will be okay.

The first one was the Dwarvens. Somehow I calmed down knowing we still have time to study completely what Fortress Defense is about and what is the main purpose of this mode.

The field instantly became bigger as the representative of the Dwarvens reached his position. The fortress that he is suppose to protect is just one tree. I guess when they meant Fortress, they are not suppose to mean that it is as big as a forest. Nevertheless, before Dio counted, he asked the representative of the Dwarvens, "Choose between all-in or progress difficulty."

We were not able to hear the answer of the Dwarven guy clearly, but after he answered, Dio immediately went back to his old position and started counting starting from three. After he counted, he aimlessly shot his gun in the air.

Monsters started spawning all around the fortress of the Dwarven guy. There were monsters smaller than him and others were bigger. The Dwarven guy flinched at first, sweat was visible to his face but he didn't show any sign of forfeit. Instead, he paced himself up and broadened his chest.

"This should be hella easy." we all heard him murmur.

The monsters, in a few seconds and without hesitation started walking towards the fortress of the dwarven representative. The dwarven guy is using earth affinity. His variant is quite unknown but it is somehow related to boulders and smashing everything. At this rate, he might actually be the one to destroy his own fortress.

I might not be right, but I wasn't wrong either. He made one small mistake.

It's funny how a small mistake can actually contribute a lot into its consequence. Because this explains everything:

The dwarven guy smashed the ground really hard. After a few seconds, a huge boulder arose right in front of him. Immediately forgetting the fact the his fortress is just a few studs behind him while getting way too excited, he tried gathering some force to throw the boulder in front of him. He tried gathering force and pulling the boulder backwards too much that the boulder had accidentally hit his fortress.

After realizing what had happened, he immediately dropped off the boulder, crushing the fortress more. The crowd suddenly got wild. There were a few people shocked and speechless by what had happened while some were laughing really really hard about his mistake.

That is why I find it funny too. Because in here, one simple and funny mistake can really contribute a lot into your own defeat.

The fun part just suddenly stopped when we all realized it is Diether's turn. I looked at him again.

I felt his strong aura revolving around us. He had suddenly released this much of his energy before even walking towards the battlefield. Who would have thought that he actually has the eagerness to fight hard for what he wants when earlier, he was just some random sleepy head kiddo that Elio was just pulling?

"Don't come back crying to me kiddo, okay?" Elio said.

"I'll make them cry for you instead, pumpkin head." Diether replied.

He still has this joyful aura inside him however his seriousness rise up. He slowly walked towards his position. Like earlier, the field became bigger and we were automatically adjusted farther from the middle of the field.

Diether remained in his calm position as the fortress slowly loads up in the middle. The fortress is not that big. It's more like a statue, a relic or some stone that is placed on the middle. The size is about 15 times the size of Diether but he still remains calm.

Diether may or may not be a kid, but he dwells some overpowered strength in him. After all he is a descendant of someone like me so I guess he has some power inside him. But even if he lose, we can always climb up to the top. A single round will not be enough to stop us from fulfilling our wishes and prayers.

A few moments later, Dio walked towards in front of Diether.

"Are you sure you can do this, Edgeseeker kid?" Dio asked Diether.

Diether looked at Dio with an intense release of energy. His glare at Dio must've been the reason why Dio is currently smirking with his usual sharp eyes. Dio did not ask Diether again. Instead he went back walking flawlessly back to where he was earlier.

"You can either choose between all-in or progress difficulty. Each difficulty will be your way to win this." Dio explained to Diether.

"I'm going all-in." Diether said with no hesitation.

"Alright then if that's the case, let the Fortress Defense, begin!" Dio said as he fire his gun in the air.

Suddenly, dozens and groups of random affinity type monsters spawned around Diether. They were continuously spawning with no stopping even for a second. They spawn and spawn as if there is an endless number of them. Not to mention their sizes are not all the same. Some of them are really huge and they are even bigger than the fortress given to Diether while some of them are even smaller than Diether. However, at any cost Diether isn't flinching nor underestimating them. He is just flawlessly standing still, with his eyes close.

The monsters started walking towards Diether. They were all not that great in speed, but seeing these amount of monsters in front of me is enough to make me flinch. The footsteps of the monsters all combined are heavy. The rumbling sound of the hill can be heard throughout some part of the whole Fantasia. But ignoring this fact, Diether remains calm until he started casting a spell.

"Art of the Holy Light: Showering Holy Wisdom!" Diether caster.

There was an instant flash of light in front of us until after a few seconds, a huge shockwave of light radiated through the whole top hill. Everybody seems to be somehow blinded by the light that Diether just called but explaining the current situation, Diether seems to be controlling the crowd perfectly fine.

Everybody was left in awe and some are in shock and unbelievability. Diether casted a simple spell that is already this big. This must be how powerful a descendant of a god is. Every second that I see Diether doing this just makes me curious what kind of a god Suthain is. How will I meet him and when will I ever see him? Maybe he could answer my question. Maybe he's the only one who could help me with my mission.

Going back to Diether, every monster seems to be slowly dying and vanishing with Diether's Showering Holy Wisdom spell. At the same time, the light that Diether was able to summon is giving everyone a refreshing feeling. A sweet, calming and fresh feeling that seems to rejuvenate our energy and health back.

There were murmurs all around the whole top hill:

"This is refreshing!"

"What kind of power is this?"

"I have never seen something like this before. Just how powerful is that kid?"

All the murmurs can be heard everywhere. Some leads to shock while some leads to amazement. After a few seconds, there are minimum amount of monsters remaining and visible. However there were still few monsters left. The remaining monsters were all bigger than Diether's size and while there are still bigger monsters that remain, there seems to be more monsters spawning.

This time, the monsters didn't start spawning with size that is smaller than Diether, all of them were already bigger than Diether. However, still in his calm and unflinching pace, Diether seems to be standing in just one place while slowly looking everywhere around his fortress.

But suddenly, a warning popped up on top the middle where Diether's fortress is standing. The warning was flashing red lights around the top hill, changing the ambience to something fearsome. It is dark enough to sign that something really not good will happen.

And my intuition was right.

After a few seconds of flashing red lights, the warning sign vanished. Then without more than a minute, a new sign appeared to where the warning sign was before.

I remember Elio explaining to us that something like this might actually happen. Elio did mention that there will be certain events that will also try and destroy the fortress, but I never imagined that it will actually happen right during Diether's turn.

But Diether did not flinch or falter. He stayed at his position and took a deep breath.

Right after his first spell dissipated, Diether immediately placed his staff in front of him and his left hand on top of him, facing upwards. We are all aware of what is to come and what he is about to do. I guess at this point this is one of the possible option that Diether have in order to win this, but is this really the only option that he has?

I refuse to believe that this is actually the limit of his power. Knowing that his power is bestowed upon by a god, then

"Oh God of Light which reigns against the darkness, I call upon thee to bestow your servant your powers with no discreet. Entirely, with all my holy intentions, I ask for power, strength and resolve in exchange for my never-ending faith as your servant. Trust upon me your gift, let me use it to reign against my foes and protect what I was tasked to protect. I open the gate of life, connections between the gods, Mark of Life!" Diether chanted.

Everyone was shocked by Diether's prowess. It might be their first time seeing a descendant of a god, but what's more is that he instantly used the power bestowed upon him by the God of Light. The Mark of Life on his forehead started glowing again. Then there was a change in Diether. His power, his stance, his image, there's an obvious change in him.

The staff he used to wield has now turned into a sword. Diether started floating and his hair suddenly became longer. Diether is also now wearing a pure white glowing cape with furs on top of it. Every clothes of Diether has also turned into white. The pupils in his eyes also had turned white. Every second that he is still, his position keeps on going up every second.

In less than a minute, he immediately rushed towards the top part of his fortress. He swayed his sword from above, faced the sword downwards. His current position looks like he is about to stab his fortress. I don't understand what Diether is planning to do. He know it himself that he can damage his own fortress and that if he damage it then it would make him lose this round too just like that dwarven guy

But he didn't hesitate. He shoved his white glowing sword that used to be his staff toward the fortress. We were expecting the fortress to be destroyed but instead, the fortress just dissipated and vanished. With what he did, everyone will be expecting that Diether had lost. So was I.

But I heard a faint laugh beside me.

It was Elio's faint laugh. I looked at him and saw him smirking while looking at Diether. I was bound to know what happened but Elio was just there laughing, seems like he exactly knows what happened.

"Did I miss something, Elio?" I asked him.

Elio continued laughing while looking at me. Every second that he laughs, it gets louder and louder until people are actually starting to look at us specifically Elio. It seems like he had understood what just happened and I am just here waiting for his reply.

"Everybody thought that Diether destroyed or ended his own fortress right?" Elio said with a faint laugh.

I nodded at him.

"That's just what it looks like." he continued.

"The thing is, people might have looked at Diether, but they never really looked closely."

It was quite a riddle what might Elio told me. But if he is talking literally, then probably I might have missed something. I looked back at Diether again, how he's flying mid-air while his fortress is currently not visible to the eyes.

The meteorite started falling towards where Diether's fortress used to stand. It only took a few minutes until it crashed on top of the hill and made a very very loud rumbling sound.

We all suddenly heard a whistle. I looked immediately to where the whistle came from and saw that it was from Dio. The crowd's focus is on him.

"Will you tell us where your fortress is?" Dio asked.

Diether is still levitating up and down above to where his fortress used to stand. He is currently facing Dio, probably preparing to answer Dio or maybe he doesn't have any plan at all to answer Dio's question until he raised his right hand above.

We all looked to where his palm was facing - up above him - and saw his fortress slowly becoming visible. That's when I finally understood what he had did while still deducing to how he did it.

"That was not just any normal sword." Elio said.

I looked at him with curiosity, waiting for him to explain what exactly had happened.

"Every light affinity user is aware of what that is. Not to mention, look around you." he continued.

I did what he had told me to do. I looked around, checking what might he possibly want me to see and then I saw fairies, pixies and some other monsters flying around the hill.

Elio gave a smirk.

"That is the god of light's divine sword, Gabriel." he said.

"Gabriel is the most famous weapon and known to all light affinity creatures in the whole Ylgaea. Gabriel is the reason why Suthain was able to destroy more than thousands of demons during the ancient times just like what the myths had said." he continued.

"Gabriel is capable of dissipating anything that touched it that is not light-affinity type whether it may be a creature or an object. However in Diether's case, since he manipulates holy light itself, the affinity of Suthain, he was able to dissipate it and recover it back to its true form above him, protecting it from getting wrecked by the meteorite."

The fortress did recover its true form back above Diether. It is the same fortress he protected with no altered part of it.

Then it became known to every faction in Hergrinct that participated in the Battle of the Factions, that a descendant of a god exists, and the Diether is one of them.