Game of the World Tree
chapter-246

Legendary beings especially those of higher status above that rank will begin to comprehend and gradually harness the natural governing laws of the world.

And as such, the representation of mastering those laws is the ability to form one’s own domain.

Among these domains, the highest tier is the Celestial Domain of a True God, which can be manifested by utilizing the governing laws that constitute a deity’s respective divinity.

Inside the True God’s Celestial Domain, a deity can fully harness the power of their divinity to its utmost potential, and just as long as they have sufficient divine power to manifest it, a deity becomes an almost invincible existence within their domain!

“Celestial Domain!”

Gazing at the verdant cage made of vines at Black Dragon Castle, the Chief Shaman of the orcs displayed an intense and enlightened expression, as though she had just solved a very challenging piece of puzzle.

Looking at it more closely, that cage isn’t actually borrowing power from the Heretical Deity behind the elves, but its actually deliberately concealing its supreme aura of a Celestial Domain and deceiving everyone into believing it was of a lesser domain!

However, despite how much the enemy tries to hide it, she could see through that elven Godwarden’s deceit.

With her being the Chief Shaman of the Church of Winter and Hunting, even though she had not seen a True God’s domain in person, the Chief Shaman had dedicated extensive time in researching matters relating to Celestial Domains…

And according to her findings, the most distinguishing feature of a True God’s Celestial Domain was the manifestation of the natural laws and the absolute control a deity has over them.

Without a doubt, that verdant domain on the castle, capable of causing all plants to grow and easily overpowered the three legendary totem guardians, was undoubtedly a Celestial Domain empowered by the Divinity of Nature and Life.

Furthermore, the fact that this supposedly ‘legendary domain’ could easily suppress the legendary domains of the three totem guardians showed that its level was way more higher than it normally should be.

There’s no mistaking it!

It’s not a mere legendary domain but a True God’s Celestial Domain!

Conveniently, the Chief Shaman could easily validate her hypothesis since she still possessed a divine artifact that could sense the aura of a True God, which is capable of distinguishing the power between Demigods and True Gods.

Moreover, the Withering Heart would immediately react whenever it sensed an aura of a True God, and the stronger the reaction is, the closer the True God would be!

In any case, a domain that was suspected to be from a True God, coupled with the crazy reaction of the skull necklace that it has at the moment…

The answer was already quite obvious.

“It’s actually a Celestial Domain! That Godwarden is no ordinary elf, but are likely the Heretical Elven God themselves!”

“This Heretical God… really directly participle in a War of Faith and had broken the Covenant of the Gods, just as our Divine Father had predicted!” the Chief Shaman murmured to herself.

A Celestial Domain can only be manifested by the True God themselves. No Godwarden, nor even a Demigod, can use a Celestial Domain by borrowing the power of their Patron deity, as Celestial Domains are strictly tied to the Divinity of a God. Only that god themselves has the ability to control their divinity in order to manifest their domain into the physical world!

And the mere fact that Elven Godwarden had actually managed to successfully manifest a Celestial Domain makes it abundantly clear of her real identity.

She is probably…the newly ascended god of the elves!

Thinking about it, the Chief Shaman was not entirely surprised of her discovery but rather pleased with it.

After all, the other party is only a newly-ascended deity.

Being able to gather so many elves is already a miracle on its own, and their ability of being able to resurrect is most likely due to the assistance of the Goddess of Death!

In this war of faith, the orcs have the upper hand. The True God on the other side is deliberately hiding their identity under the guise of a Godwarden…

Most likely, that Elven Deity is resorting to these sorts of underhanded trickeries, as her followers lacks the capacity and manpower to fight against them.

Thus, she has no choice but to directly participate herself…

Everything… is just as their Divine Father’s judgment had predicted!

However, the fact that the other party is hiding her real identity indicates that this new god’s condition is not that good…maybe her previous battle with Demigod Volker may have also burdened her!

Also, according to their Divine Father’s oracle, the other party has not yet fully established their divine kingdom…

In this state, they probably still hasn’t mastered the use of their Celestial Domain.

Otherwise, there would be no need to conceal herself.

As for the safety of the three totem guardians trapped inside the enemy’s Celestial Domain, the Chief Shaman was not entirely worried about them.

Given that this True God is trying to keep her identity hidden, it’s highly unlikely she would kill the three totem guardians.

At most, she would probably merely ensnare them inside her domain until their summoning duration expires.

Directly participating in the War of Faith as a True God has already broken the rules of the Covenant. If she were to also kill the totem guardians, then that would truly be going overboard and simply seeking the wrath of the entire Pantheon.

Thinking of this, the chief shaman checked the status of the skull necklace:

“Not enough! Still not enough!”

Her excitement calmed down a little.

After pondering for a few seconds, the Chief Shaman called one of her subordinates and said,

“Tell the King that the Totem Guardians are currently preoccupied fighting the elven elites inside that domain, so now is the best time to launch a full-scale attack on Black Dragon Castle! Let his entire army attack, and the Elves will surely be defeated!”

“This is…the will of our Divine Father!”

“…She really said that?”

A silver-ranked shaman bowed before the Orc King after delivering the message from the Chief Shaman.

Lionheart Imsh stood silently for a couple of seconds, then gazed back at the cage made of vines on the castle wall with an uncertain expression.

“Yes, Your Liege! The Chief Shaman said it’s the will of our Divine Father!” the Shaman messenger said, as he etched a bow symbol onto his chest with an expression of reverence.

King Imsh remained silent, but after a moment, gritted his teeth in frustration, and with a stern yet resigned expression, raised his sword high.

“Send the order! All of the troops…will launch a full-scale attack on the castle! Anyone who disobeys my order shall be killed!”

With a resounding horn, the order to launch a full scale attack was given.

Suddenly, an army of 30,000 orcs surged up like a flood and began to relentlessly attack the Black Dragon Castle without fear of casualties!

They entirely gave up defending themselves and began to desperately try to find any way to climb up the wall, as started fighting against the players with heightened ferocity.

And after the orcs fought tooth and nail like there’s no tomorrow, they soon gained the upper hand due to their numerical advantage.

Above the castle walls, the players defending the fortress were left in shock as they witnessed the frenzied assault of the Orcs.

“Shiet! Are these orcs crazy? Why did they suddenly go suicidal all of a sudden?”

“Who cares! The three main enemy bosses is trapped on that vine cage! It’s the perfect time to annihilate the Orcs!”

“You’re right! Let’s go all out!”

The players’ morale surged and brandished their weapons, as they fought against the orcs with the same amount of intensity.

Meanwhile, the Black Dragon let out a long roar, jumping around inside the castle and releasing a dragon’s breath wherever players appeared to be in trouble.

He still lacked the courage to take flight and sweep the enemy forces with the dragon’s breath, even though Zero and the three Totem Guardians are trapped together, and there is no one to suppress the Behemoths other than him.

In this very moment, the entire battlefield descended into chaos, awash in a sea of blood and violence, locked in an unyielding standoff.

Upon the wall, orcs and players perished with each passing moment, yet in the blink of an eye, fresh new orcs and resurrected players continually to surged up the ramparts, resolute in their relentless combat.

Inside the vine cage.

Evé carried two unconscious Totem Guardians while looking at the operations of the game system.

“The number of player deaths seemed to be increasing… it looks like the orcs have launched a much stronger assault.”

“Nevertheless… the amount of life force the War Sacrifice absorbs remains minimal… Huh, it seems that the orcs are preparing to use that artifact.”

“Heh, in that case, they should have already realized my real identity. Good, I didn’t reveal my divine power and the true nature of my Celestial Domain in vain.”

“In that case, I’ll lend them a hand and and speed up the process of gathering the sacrifice they needed to power up that artifact.”

With this in mind, Evé had a thought and connected to the game’s task system…

Without the presence of Godwarden Zero, the players eventually started displaying signs of exhaustion and being overwhelmed after facing a neverending fierce assault from thirty thousand Orcs, even with their fearless spirit and their pain sensitivity turned off.

As time goes by, more and more orcs managed to climb the castle walls, turning it into the new primary battleground for the conflict between the two opposing sides.

Meanwhile, at the forefront of the castle gates, a horde of orcs had gathered, forming a menacing assembly around the Behemoths. They unleashed deafening howls as they relentlessly battered the castle gates, trying fervently to pry them open.

They’ve been doing this for quite a while already and despite having protective spells, the castle gates were already on the verge of collapsing.

Despite the astronomical number of casualties they had sustained to attain it, the overall situation was finally slowly tilting in favor of the orcs…

However, the players defending the castle walls remained high-spirited.

They didn’t seem to be worried about the impending capture of Black Dragon Castle, and instead, they continued to fight with excitement as the orcs relentlessly stormed the walls.

Nonetheless, the orcs also noticed that as time went by, the elves’ resistance seemed to be getting more stronger.

Not only that, even though players could resurrect, they were resurrecting far too many times…

Countless Elves seemed to have fallen under the blades of the orcs, yet the number of Elves defending the castle seemed to remain unchanged!

This feeling of no progress made many orcs frustrated to the point of wanting to vomit blood.

Of course, this was also due to the large number of players…

In reality, with over six thousand people, even if each person only resurrected once, during a prolonged battle, the number of players dying per minute was still very limited.

Under this situation, as time goes by, the overall sentiment of the orcs is that these elves can never be killed…

Even Lionheart Imsh’s expression became more and more frustrated.

“Are they all the same? Are they all capable of being endlessly resurrected!?”

“No! Their strength seems to be increasing as well!”

Suddenly, he finally discovered something was wrong.

Although the balance of the war was finally shifting in favor of the orcs, this discovery suddenly gave him an uneasy feeling.

The siege had been going on for a long time already.

Alas, the Totem Guardians were still stuck inside that domain made of vines.

Moreover, the day was gradually approaching dusk at this point.

As the western sun gradually dipped below the horizon, despite the orcs suffering substantial losses, they were ultimately seizing control of the battlefield. Nevertheless, as King Imsh observed the Elves, whose spirits remained unwavering and whose power continued to improve drastically, an unsettling feeling crept over him.

And just at that moment, the entire land suddenly began to shake.

What was that sound?

King Imsh’s expression became serious.

Standing atop Gor, he looked towards the source of the sound and suddenly saw billows of dust rising from both the north and south directions.

Vaguely, he could see countless magical beasts heading toward the battlefield.

However, what made King Imsh’s pupils slightly contract was that all these magical beasts were being ridden by fully armored Elves!

At long last, the player’s raid support force had finally arrived!

— 246 —

【 TRUTHS AND FALLACIES 】

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