"I don’t believe it."
"T-The mystic stage! It’s real! We can really achieve this power!"
Bromir was stunned. He knew it was real, too, since he was around Drakoth often, feeling how strong he was. They even fought together, not too long ago, against the demons that invaded the Astir Kingdom, so he knew it was the real deal.
’No, they feel more powerful than Drakoth! How is that even possible?!’ Bromir couldn’t understand it, but he knew that the three girls in front of them were walking proof that the Mystic Stage is not unreachable.
"So, what do you all say? Will you join us? Or do we have to force you to submit?" Lidia knew the answer already.
While she did give them things that would make them want to join them, she knew where their loyalties were. Everything was a part of a greater plan, Zion’s greater plan.
He knew the dwarves would be intrigued by his gifts, causing a rift between the people. Some would go over to his side while others would stay loyal to Ivaldi. This would cause a civil war, which would make taking over the kingdom much easier, as it would seem like he stepped in to stop the senseless slaughter.
Lidia knew this and was waiting for the right opportunity to plant the final seeds.
"We’ll join you!" A dwarf shouted without any hesitation.
When looking over to see who it was, to everyone’s utter shock, Ergir ran toward Lidia’s feet and bowed down to her on his knees.
"W-We just need to worship and praise Lady Luminera, right? Well, consider me her follower now! I will forever praise and worship her!"
"W-What?!" Lidia didn’t even know what to say.
"Ergir! How could you?!"
"Shut the fuck up! Lord Ivaldi has been our god for thousands of years, yet someone who isn’t even a dwarf managed to make alcohol better than anything we produced and has better craftsmanship than us? It’s embarrassing! I don’t care! I’m following them!"
"You know what, yeah! I’m with him!"
Even King Bromir was on board, but didn’t want to voice his opinion yet.
"Pwahahahaha! This is actually insane! I never expected this outcome. You’re the first Divine Apostle I didn’t have to kill. I didn’t expect you to fold so easily."
Everyone looked up to see where the voice came from.
Floating in the air was Zion, who was listening in on the conversation since the beginning.
Lidia jumped up with excitement. "Baby!" She flew into his arms and nuzzled her head on his chest.
"Hey there, my beautiful fiancé. How have you been?"
"Why didn’t you call?! Tessa said she lost her connection to you!"
"Ahh, yeah, the nano bots got fried after I became a demigod. Speaking of them." Zion pulled out a spare neural link he had and placed it on his neck. He allowed it to enter his body and merge with him. Nanobots then flooded his body.
[It’s good to be back in your head.]
"It’s good to have you back in there. You know, saying that out loud sounds weird."
The dwarves froze when Zion casually mentioned that he became a demigod.
’We were going to go to war against a demigod if we declined?’
’Fuckk! We almost were wiped out!’
’Thank Luminera, I switched sides the moment I did.’
"So, Ergir, you’ll follow Luminera?" Zion asked, flying close to him.
"Y-Yes, I will!" ’Fuck, I feel a huge weight pressing against my body! Is it because I’m a divine apostle that I can feel his divine energy? It’s intense!’
"Sweet. I’ll be taking this then." Zion did something no one expected him to do.
He stabbed his hand into the dwarf’s heart, killing him instantly. Then, he absorbed his apostle essence, just as he did the others, and he took the unactivated ancient relic Ergir was wearing, and bonded it with himself.
After that, Zion waved his hand, and Ergir came back to life.
"AHHHHHHH!! Wha.....What the hell happened?! I...I thought I had just died!"
Zion smiled. "You did. I killed you. I took your Apostle status away and the ancient relic, the armor of protection, that you had. Don’t worry, it was only for those reasons. You’ll be okay now."
Ergir couldn’t do anything but smile wryly. The person who did this to him was a demigod, and he couldn’t do anything about it. He would have been furious otherwise.
"Since everyone here loves Luminera so much," He blessed everyone there, allowing Luminera’s power to seep into their bodies. "Let’s get to transforming this place into one that will worship her!"
He clapped his hands, and all of Heaven’s Bane went to work. To make things easier for everyone, he told his people to hand out a variety of Alcohol to the citizens so they could understand why their King decided to convert.
He also handed out his blueprints and mana method to everyone to lure them in even more.
With all of this, he was sure the dwarves would accept him without a second thought. After all, if their leaders, especially their divine apostle can jump ship after being thrown bait, he knew the citizens would eat all that shit up.
"Wait, so Zion. You became a demigod?" Lidia asked, walking with him to the other girls.
"Yup. Luminera and Erebosa brutally beat the shit out of me, broke my mind, pumped me with divine and infernal energy, forced my body to explode, then had the audacity to say that it was all in the name of making me a demigod. Fucking bitches."
He was struck by golden and silver lightning.
"Aghhhh! You bastards!"
"So, what now?" Lacey asked.
Zion sighed. He never expected to get this far so soon. He saw his journey take place over the span of decades, yet it had only been a year since he started his quest.
"We get the dragons under us. But this won’t be an easy task. The dragons are a lot stronger than I previously thought. In fact, their divine apostle is a demigod, just like me."
Then, he remembered something that made his eyes widen in horror. "Mom!"
He took over before anyone could even react.