Chapter 281

As I watched the lich come to a sudden stop after realizing I was not following anymore, I realized another drawback of fighting against them, one that was worse than their endless numbers.

They didn't have proper facial expressions, which sapped the enjoyment I would have felt from shocking him with my current stop. He observed me for a moment as I stood in the middle of a forest, my wood dragon long mixed back into the forest.

"I would have never thought that a god would have been a coward," he shouted, his voice enhanced magically. A childish taunt, which was made worse by the fact that everything I had seen in the memories suggested that the deceased god would have fallen for that.

I didn't even bother to answer as I raised my hand, and the forest that grew around me started spitting out acorns. Only a fraction of it targeted the lich, forcing him to escape, while most of it spread between me and the capital, a forest growing around the undead force.

The guardian trees were quick to attack them, demolishing them easily once the thick necrotic energy was destroyed by the growth of the forest, the trees sapping the mana and replacing it with nature mana. The lack of strong liches and death knights — that already retreated the moment I pushed forward, smart enough to realize the initial assault failed and not willing to risk themselves — made the destruction even easier.

Unfortunately, it also meant that the fruits of the rapid success were meager. I had managed to break thousands of crystals that were in the possession of the weaker zombies. Unfortunately, there was a reason those were left under the control of the zombies, the amount of Spark they contained was truly meager, most not even reaching the mark of one point.

{+219 Purified Spark}

{+2153 Nature Spark, God Forest}

Still, strengthening the god forest had been a nice benefit. Before I could enjoy it, however, I saw the lich I had been chasing turn back, and soon, five other liches appeared around him, teleporting.

I examined the necrotic spark I kept imprisoned, trying to if there was any increase in its weird movement. There was not, at least not yet, meaning the liches that joined didn't bring whatever trap they had planned with them.

I could play with them while they struggled.

"Let's hunt ourselves a god," one of the liches shouted as he cast a spell, and necrotic bolts started to rain. I didn't even bother looking at him, continuing to expand the secondary layer of the forest until it turned into a shield around the capital, battling with the necrotic mana. The branches of the trees cut them off.

The constant supply of mana provided by the God Forest kept the trees healthy, but I still made a point of staggering slightly as the attack got more intense,, selling the idea that their attack was successful.

The more they committed to their ineffective strategies and gave me the time to recover, the better. I was much better compared to that mad attempt to summon all the elves, but still not at my full performance.

Under the assumption that their necrotic attacks were effective, the demigod-level liches triggered a rain of necrotic energy together, determined to weaken the forest around me, while, at the same time, a horde of weaker undead wars attacking me.

As more and more lich. joined the attack, it soon turned into something that would rival the earlier siege against the capital, enough to challenge me.

A dangerous strategy, one that would have a chance to succeed if they rushed together, forcing me to retreat at a minimum ... maybe even managing to cut my path completely.

But, since they were undead, they were selfish enough to play safe, sending weaker hordes of undead, supported only by their weaker necromancers.

"Daring to challenge me just because I had just awakened from my slumber, you pathetic pieces of bone skin!" I shouted, letting my voice be enhanced with mana to turn into an attack that would destroy the weaker zombies, but this time, the necromancers among them were ready for it, countering the attack.

I let out an angry cry, triggering an attack that used almost a quarter of the mana I had converted earlier, the rain of explosive leaves and acorns destroying a significant part of the undead army. Another spell from the memories of the dead god.

I knelt the moment I cast that spell, and this time, it wasn't entirely for show. The difficulty of the spell was comparable to the earlier summoning call, but with my most recent improvements, the impact on my body and soul was significantly lesser.

And, the rewards were equally impressive.

{+7219 Purified Spark}

Time to boost my stats once more.

{-8414 Purified Spark}

{+3 Strength}

{+3 Precision}

{+3 Agility}

{+3 Speed}

{+3 Perception}

{+3 Intelligence}

{+3 Wisdom}

The reason I received such a high boost was the last-minute decision to purify both the necrotic and natural sparks at the same time. The god forest was already capable of creating more mana than I could wield safely, and there was no harm in prioritizing my Stats.

"Attack him while he's weak," the shout came, and the undead horde continued attacking, easily shrugging the loss that would have broken the resolve of a sentient army.

Though, I had noticed the necromancers and death knights made a point of staying farther back. Smart, and it would have been enough to save them ... if it wasn't for one detail.

I had been paying attention to the Necrotic Spark I had kept in the crystal, and it finally stirred violently.

The trap was finally arriving.

"You cowards," I created as I used the same attack again, but this time, aiming at them, the divine spark they represented was far too valuable to be ignored. Still, I didn't want to alert them to my most important ability, so I revealed a huge crystal floating above me, one that immediately started to glow black in various spots, as if it had many slots, each filled with a Divine Spark I had just stolen after my attack.

Naturally, I consumed all but a slice that remained to maintain the excuse.

{+13280 Purified Spark}

Another boost, this time all nine lagging stats, bringing them back to the level of Endurance.

{-9117 Purified Spark}

{+2 Strength}

{+2 Precision}

{+2 Agility}

{+2 Speed}

{+2 Perception}

{+2 Intelligence}

{+2 Wisdom}

{+2 Manipulation}

{+2 Charisma}

Another boost, one that brought me even closer to my peak. I stayed on the ground, moaning in genuine pain even as the forest handled the rush of the undead. I watched them approach, though slowly, I started to notice a change.

The undead started to show a renewed sense of strength, one that was much stronger than the others. At first, I thought it was just another effect of increasing density, but soon, I realized that was mistaken. It was their divine spark that was getting more active ... almost consciously.

It was a subtle change, one that I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for my familiarity with the Divine Spark and all that was related to it. But how, I was not sure. I could only feel that it was coming from the six leader liches that floated above the rest, content in sacrificing the rest of their army.

There were two ways of examining that. Either I could try to get close, and confront the liches without the protective presence of the forest ... or I enhance my stats even further.

I chose the second option, especially as they kindly continued to attack me, even more uncaring of the losses; at least a part of their newfound recklessness about the crystal that was floating above me, representing a great fortune that could be exchanged later on.

Unaware it was just empty bait.

After waiting a few seconds to recover as much as I could manage, I cast a spell, a basic light spell that made me glow green, faking the side effect of another spell I had picked from the memories, continuing to feign weakness. "What a big disgrace, thinking that an army of dead ants could face my greatness!" I shouted as I used the spell again, this time taking down a smaller portion of the army.

{+4214 Purified Spark}

{-5760 Purified Spark}

{+1 All Stats}

I was supposed to feel safer and safer as my powers got enhanced, but that didn't seem to be the case, not when I was able to feel the way the Divine Spark showed more and more movement with each round of absorption.

It felt similar to the earlier trick I had pulled, ordering all elves to retreat back to the capital, but rather than a one-time effect, it was a continuous one.

Luckily, after my latest round of improvement, I was able to detect what had been affecting it. It was the leading liches...

No, it was a shadow of Divine Spark that overlapped with them, slowly getting stronger while still staying hidden.

I had a feeling that I was about to face my first true Avatar.

{Strength: 25 Charisma: 25

Precision: 25 Perception: 25

Agility: 25 Manipulation: 25

Speed: 25 Intelligence: 25

Endurance: 25 Wisdom: 25}

{Purified Divine Spark: 4151}

{Pseudo-HP: 2783 Mana: 9210}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Forest - 28611}

Elven Priestess - XXXX}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]