Then they saw Angela actually sigh! This was an even more unusual sight!
“Remiel. I recently saw the country you created.”
She glanced at Quetzalcoatl and said...
"Your country's culture likes to emphasize costs—which is actually a good thing, because costs are indeed very important. Everything has a price. Your choice is to sacrifice one life to protect tens of thousands of lives, to sacrifice one sun to make it shine throughout the year. Grain, crops, and favorable weather all require sacrifices as a price."
Angela tilted her head and smiled slightly, saying, "Similarly, what price do you think we need to pay to save the world?"
These words left Hayden and Quetzalcoatl looking at each other in bewilderment, because neither of them had actually understood, and they both knew that the answer was clearly not "to offer a sacrifice to the outer gods every year," it was definitely not.
“I have something to remind you, child. Angels are extensions of Outer Gods, and their way of thinking is different from that of humans.” Perhaps for this reason, Quetzalcoatl hissed to Hayden, “Fallen angels have spent thousands of years adapting and becoming more human. Normal angels haven’t gone through this process. She would never intentionally deceive you, but it’s very likely that you’re not on the same wavelength at all. You can’t completely rely on her.”
Hayden rolled his eyes inwardly. Quetzalcoatl might have said this for his own good, but if Hayden completely believed a fallen angel, he would be the biggest fool.
Besides, Hayden now has a new idea. It's not very reliable, but it's worth a shot.
"Overall, this is actually good news. I never really knew what the Outer Gods were, and I was worried that they were completely incomprehensible monsters. But now it seems that they actually have rules. With rules, things become much easier."
Hayden raised his head and looked at Angela.
"Anyway, the Outer Gods haven't arrived yet. All I need to do is conquer the world as quickly as possible, transform it into a free kingdom where everyone is equal, without oppression or exploitation, and then have Angela come and inspect the goods. Everything will be perfect, right?"
Angela blinked, looking somewhat surprised: "This doesn't sound...like it's not easy to do."
Quetzalcoatl shook his head vehemently: "This approach will definitely not work. He will not forget the sins that have already occurred, nor will He forget the things His eyes and ears have seen. Nothing that has been done can be hidden. Humans may easily forgive history, but the gods will never forgive lightly."
“It’s better than it is now. And since it concerns the survival of all mankind, it’s worth a try.” Hayden shrugged, then looked up at the silver dome above his head. “It’s like before you hand in your exam paper; even if you feel you don’t have enough time, you should still write as much as you can until the very last moment, so that at least you won’t regret it.”
probably.
In any case, Hayden has an even greater need and motivation to defeat evil gods like the Smoke Mirror, unite all forces that can be united, defeat the capitalist rulers of hell on earth... and then quickly go and heal this world.
...Thinking of this, Hayden remembered something else.
"You said escaping Earth is Smoke Mirror's backup plan, so what is His main plan? Do you know?"
He now desperately needed a way to deal with the Smoke Mirror, but he hadn't found the secret he was looking for here. Fortunately, there was Quetzalcoatl here. Hayden still had questions for Him to ask.
Unfortunately, Quetzalcoatl shook his head: "I also think He has other plans, but I'm afraid no one knows what He is planning. I am the atmosphere of life, and He is the unpredictable wind of the night. Many times He decides on a seemingly good idea on the spur of the moment, which usually works, but sometimes fails and brings disaster. He himself may not even know his plans for tomorrow."
"However, there is one thing I can tell you with certainty: what Smoke Mirror wants most is to maintain the status quo. He also wants to protect life and the environment in South America. Because He is the current ruler here."
The Lord of the Present, the God of the Now. This concept, upon closer examination, is actually quite wondrous. Because "now" is actually just a concept. Every second is the present, and yet every second is not. What exactly is the "present" in the smoke mirror? What is this present moment?
Unfortunately, Hayden didn't have much time to ask further questions.
No sooner said than done! Just as Hayden was about to ask Quetzalcoatl a few more questions, a sudden sense of unease, a prophetic premonition, rose within him. Without a word, Hayden immediately grabbed Angela's hand and unleashed his full power in a spell! Clouds of mysterious mist instantly billowed from Hayden's mouth, enveloping both him and Angela within them.
The next instant, a vast, dark intent swept in from afar, instantly engulfing the entire secret base. Nothing in the base—not the buildings, the people, even the smallest particles—could escape the search of this divine intent!
Hayden's initial spell outside was immediately broken. Although he and Angela hadn't been discovered yet, the guerrillas outside were now definitely exposed!
"We have to go."
They are not yet ready to fight a main god, even a floor god, head-on.
"Will you tell Smoke Mirror that we were here and what we talked about?" Hayden asked casually.
Quetzalcoatl quickly shook his head: "I will not rush under the chariots of the Supreme Being to actively seek destruction."
He really knows how to choose words.
“Human child, you have chosen a difficult path. I will not stand in your way, even if I do not believe it will succeed. But before you leave, I have one more question.”
The snake hissed.
Will you hinder my Bio-Ark project?
Hayden shook his head: "If there's really no other way, at least you can live on Proxima Centauri Beta with the genes of Earth life. Why should I get in your way?"
The most important thing has never been this Earth, but the people on it. Even if the Earth is burned to ashes, as long as life here is not wiped out, there is still hope.
Quetzalcoatl stared at Hayden for several seconds before nodding: "Good luck, human child who has made a pact with an angel. If you do defeat the Smoke Mirror and are willing to release me, I will do my best to help you, provided that the Bio-Ark is launched—I swear in the name of the Sovereign."
Hayden certainly didn't mind receiving more help. He desperately needed strength and assistance to solve his immediate problems.
But he was still puzzled when he heard this: "After I defeat Smoke Mirror? Don't you want to take revenge on Smoke Mirror yourself? He betrayed you and overthrew you."
He was even more surprised by Quetzalcoatl's answer.
“I don’t hate Him. Considering that I now have the time and resources to execute the Bio-Ark Project, this betrayal may not even be a bad thing.”
Quetzalcoatl answered calmly.
"The Smoke Mirror isn't the pure evil you imagine, human child. He has his own path that's better for humanity, and He cares about this land. We just have different paths. So I won't really get involved to help you fight Him. I'll just... wish you good luck."
Uh, fine. Since you said so yourself.
Hayden said no more. Ten seconds later, he and Angela emerged from the silvery-white hemisphere. The guerrillas had already evacuated the secret base. Hayden rejoined them and escorted them home.
On the way, Am asked him curiously, "What did you find in that hemisphere?"
“I’ve learned that the trouble I’m facing now is far worse than the smokescreen,” Hayden replied.
They slipped away before Smoke Mirror arrived to check the situation.
The next day, Micket received a notification from the dueling master, the Skinner, announcing the details of the second duel. The second duel between the gods would no longer be a one-on-one duel between two warriors, but an army battle—both sides must form two armies with mass-produced soldiers, and then determine the victor through actual combat!
...Damn it, the duel is in six days, and now you're telling us you're preparing an army of mass-produced soldiers? Hayden almost laughed out of anger at this. No wonder no one dared to challenge the Supreme God to a duel for four hundred years; the Crown Defender's advantage is just too great.
"I have never tried to mass-produce an army of undead creatures, let alone do so in six days."
He quickly held an impromptu online meeting with his friends.
“If I’m focused on this whole thing, I definitely won’t have the energy to investigate how the Smoke Mirror created the clones. Alastor, can you help me with this, and also keep an eye on Todd’s guerrillas?”
"Of course. I'll send a clone over. After all, Todd was originally trained by me," Alastor replied from the other side of the screen. "However, Miktikashiva's military technology might be cracked by the smoke goggles, so you can't use it this time, and you don't have that technology yourself... You probably can't mass-produce Voldemors, right?"
"impossible."
Hayden sighed.
"No matter how capable I am, I can't create a new army of warrior gods on the fly. I can only use what's already there..."
What readily available military resources does he have at his disposal? Upon closer examination, it seems Hayden and his companions haven't really researched new technologies for military formations and warfare, beyond one-on-one combat. Should he go to the Peacock King? Or Hela? They probably would possess such things, but borrowing their power in front of the gods might be too obvious…
...and then Hayden actually came up with an idea.
"...Perhaps I can combine what we already have."
He is indeed very good at coming up with solutions on the spot.
The six days passed quickly.
The day of the second duel between the main gods has arrived.
350: Compare to? Hmph.
At noon on the day of the second duel of the main gods, the avatars and messengers of the gods were teleported from all over the world to the capital Aztland and to the circular ritual site located in the center of the capital and the island.
During the last duel, some of those who came to observe were the true forms of the gods. This time, almost no other gods with the faculties of attending came—after all, it would be a waste of time and resources for the true forms to sit and watch a duel that lasts for several hours. The true forms came last time, and the avatars came this time, so the message was conveyed.
So this time, Kallen sat in the VIP box of the huge circular ritual arena and glanced at the other boxes. Apart from herself and Hela, who had come with her, only a very few minor gods came in their true forms this time; the other gods were all in their avatars.
Of course, the company's own deity still needs to be present in person to attend the ceremony, as it's a major event for the company. So today, even a deity who hasn't appeared in a long time has returned.
Panya Pazuzu is now openly sitting in Karen's box! Having been absent from the scene since the "Flaming New Yatu" incident, she's finally able to flap her golden eagle wings and swing her lion tail adorned with golden pom-poms, looking incredibly happy!
Unfortunately, her joy didn't last long, and she soon became a little depressed again: "It's rare to have a role again, but today I'm just here to watch the duel. It's not like I'm fighting myself. How boring."
Pania is nominally a god under Micket's command, so she is naturally a part of the Smoke Mirror Company, and it is only natural that her main body came here today. But this is only the superficial reason for her main body's presence today.
“We’re here today to back things up,” Karen said dryly. “If Smoke Mirror really wants to do something, at least we’ll have two reliable experts on site to handle it… although I have some doubts about the standard of ‘reliable’.”
That's right, two!
Because after the "Flame on New Yatu" incident, and after everyone helped her rebuild her divine body, Pania was already a great god!
At the time, as the city of New Jersey and its ten million citizens were about to be destroyed by the aftershocks of the battle between the two gods, Adam and Mithras, Pania acted without hesitation, displaying extraordinary courage, even arguably madness, rushing to block the aftershocks, resulting in her being mauled in a live broadcast worldwide. But this sacrifice was not in vain, because at her core she was a god of the Smoke Mirror Company. When Micket designed her, the fundamental divine law of the Aztec system was at its core—everything has a price, and all precious things originate from sacrifice and dedication; sacrifice can bring power, and incredibly powerful power at that!
Panya made an immense sacrifice with tremendous courage. Her selfless act of protecting people was witnessed live by a global audience. The result of this second sacrifice and transcending death was that Panya, after reconstructing her divine body, became a supreme deity!
Pania is the goddess of magical girls, the guardian deity of Neo-Yatu, and now has fans all over the world who praise her as a loving goddess who protects mortals and is forever a young girl.
This growing faith allowed Pania's power and wealth to increase continuously after her rebirth. Among Hayden's companions, only the great goddess Karen could now be compared to Pania.
...Comparable? Hmph, perhaps my strength, Pania's, has already surpassed Kallen's!
So Pania has been wanting to find an opportunity to beat up some evil god. But instead of doing something special, he's just here to keep things quiet and prevent any mishaps. What kind of opportunity is this to show off?
Pania is unhappy!
“If something really happens, you can show off your skills,” Hela said calmly and leisurely, sitting in a private room with her daughter.
Unexpectedly, Panya suddenly became a little timid: "This is the capital of the Aztecs. If something really happens here, who knows how many ordinary people will die... Let's forget about it..."
Hearing this, Hela couldn't help but shake her head, then turned to her daughter and privately asked: "How did this clueless girl become such a 'master'? Are 'masters' so worthless in your little group?"
[Having an empty head, no ambition, a simple mind, and a fondness for material pleasures... doesn't mean she's unworthy of being a master.]
Karen answered calmly in the telepathic message.
She has the courage to rush out and protect others without hesitation, and the innocence to sympathize with people's suffering and help them—she's just a good child, so why isn't she good enough to be a god? If all the gods in the world were like that, I wouldn't be so tired now.
However, Kallen wouldn't say these things to Panya. After all, she still had many things she didn't like about Panya, Alastor, and Abigail. Uniting these gods and raising their favor was Hayden's job; Kallen didn't care.
Hela, having made a fool of herself with her prickly daughter, turned back to look at the sky. It was already noon, and the duel was about to begin. The golden sun had risen high in the sky, shining brightly on the ground of the circular ceremonial arena.
...However, this is not the venue for today's duel between the main gods.
Because today's duel between the main gods involves a battle between two armies. No matter how large this ceremonial arena is, it would still be too small to be used as a real battlefield for two armies to fight.
So six days ago, Smoke Mirror suggested, "It's too boring to have two battles in the same place. Let's have a second battle between armies. We don't need a large army. Each side will send five hundred men, fully armed, and let them face off in the wilderness!"
Before Mikert could even complain, the master of ceremonies, the great god Peeler, was already furious: "No! This is against custom and tradition! For thousands of years, the duels of our Aztlan chief gods have always been conducted in a sacred ritual arena, witnessed by the great sun! Even the king of gods cannot disregard tradition and law!"
However, Smoke Mirror immediately patted his chest and said confidently, "The law stipulates that the challenger and the champion of the duel must be in the ceremony venue, the witness must be in the ceremony venue, and the great sun must shine in the ceremony venue. It does not say that the substitute fighter or the substitute army must also be in the ceremony venue!"
This wasn't entirely unreasonable. The master of ceremonies, Skinner, paused for a moment, flipping through the thousands of years of Aztland's legal code, but still couldn't refute Smoke Mirror's words. Since the law couldn't restrain Him, then the God-King could certainly operate in the way He pleased.
The second duel turned out like this. The proxy army for the duel arrayed itself on the wasteland outside Aztland, while the spectators from all over the world, along with Micket and Smoke Mirror, couldn't be there in person and could only watch the live broadcast from the ceremony grounds. It was truly ridiculous.
On the other hand, Hayden wasn't stupid. As soon as he heard about it, he immediately felt that the Smoke Mirror was behind it all. Otherwise, why would he have staged this farce? Even if the ceremony venue was too small, couldn't they have used spatial magic to temporarily enlarge it? Five hundred people on each side wasn't that many!
They specifically want to fight in the wasteland. Are they planning something shady?
That's why Hayden isn't sitting in the ceremony area. That's why he invited Karen and Hela's true forms to sit in the same box as Panya. Hayden himself is currently hiding outside the wasteland battlefield with Angela. He needs to be on the safe side of both sides.
Despite her seemingly calm demeanor as she sipped tea in her VIP box, Karen was actually quite nervous. While she was now among the stronger deities, Karen honestly admitted that her combat power still paled in comparison to her father, the Peacock King. Everyone considered the Peacock King the strongest deity, while Smoke Mirror was a floor-level deity, the weakest of the standard one-unit deities. If Smoke Mirror were to cause trouble, was Karen confident she could defeat him?
...Hmph, but since there's still a gap in strength, our fighting spirit must surpass that of the enemy. How can we turn the impossible into reality if we don't motivate ourselves?
Kallen is ready. If this opportunity truly arises today, let her challenge the Smoke Mirror, let all the gods of the world witness her growing power, and let the world know that she is about to make new demands on the world!
Suddenly, a huge window appeared in the air above the circular ceremonial ground, overlooking the wasteland where the two armies were about to clash. The battle was about to begin, so the live broadcast started.
"Since the challenger Miktikashiva's proxy fighter appeared first in the last duel, this time we will first show the defending champion Smoke Mirror's troops."
The master of ceremonies, known as the Skinner, also provided commentary during the ceremony.
"The chairman's troops have now reached their designated positions!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the camera on the window zoomed in on the ground, allowing the audience to see the scene, and they all began to whisper among themselves at the sight before them. The sight surprised the gods somewhat, but only somewhat.
What they saw were five hundred clones of Mickett, each dressed in neat black military uniforms.
A full five hundred clones of Mickett!
Fortunately, everyone had seen the Smoke Mirror clone Micket act as a proxy fighter last week, so they weren't completely dumbfounded. Even so, most viewers were still quite surprised by this sight, mainly because of the cost—creating a minor god is something almost every major god can do; it's just a matter of money, time, and resources. However, to mass-produce five hundred minor god-level soldiers in six days, even clones, is truly an extraordinary feat.
Perhaps only Mithra's [Reincarnation] technique could accomplish such a thing? When did the Smoke Mirror become so powerful?
No wonder the real Mickett was sitting alone in her box, looking extremely grim.
In reality, there was nothing she could participate in this duel. Although Micket had many technologies and methods to mass-produce an undead army, she dared not use any of them this time, fearing that the Smoke Mirror would break through and counter her. This second duel today was entirely left to Hayden to prepare; she couldn't even interfere. This in itself was already quite bad.
And now, she hadn't expected that the Smoke Mirror could actually clone her in large numbers. What did this mean? Did it mean that the Smoke Mirror had truly gained complete control over all the secrets of her life? This thought alone filled Micket, a vampire, with deep dread. Her face looked paler than usual.
Gods eat people, great gods eat lesser gods, the strong prey on the weak... But Mickett never imagined that in the eyes of the Smoke Mirror, he might be just like a mortal, something that could be eaten or played with at will.
At this moment, she had no choice but to watch what tricks Hayden could come up with to defeat Smoke Mirror! A profound sense of powerlessness! How terrifying!
Meanwhile, at the duel site, five hundred clone Mickets were already working together in perfect unison, setting up an array.
The battles of the Protoss army are not simply a matter of charging into battle with divine weapons. Their warfare is governed by formations. These formations, or military formations, are the war magic of the Protoss army. By assembling dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of Protoss soldiers into a formation, and using the power of the entire formation to condense a vast amount of will and strength into one, they can transform it into an unparalleled and immense force. Moreover, it is so easily controlled that it can be used to mow down equal soldiers without any formation.