"So you mean to say that those gods were also once the results of the mages’ research?
And then because they went too far, they ended up losing control, and instead of suppressing it, the mages of that time were directly obliterated, bringing an end to the entire era of mages?"
The next day, the witches who rushed in did not clash with the mages as expected.
The mages seemed very rational, knowing they couldn’t win, and they also understood that this group of mysterious witches also played with magic!
They were opposed to the Church Court!
This point alone was enough to gain the most basic trust.
This allowed the witches to engage with the mages without any harm.
As for what developed after the contact, it was beyond the mages’ control.
After swiftly seizing control of the entire region with absolute advantage, the "assimilation" began, and now, before Yun Dao, was the strongest one she had specifically kept.
Though it’s hard to believe, it’s the truth.
When I first learned about this, I felt the same as you, but this is the only fact I could deduce from the various records I gathered.
The descriptions of those "gods’" powers also matched my own research, even if some details might not align, but this is essentially the truth."
"Alright, I understand. You go ahead and focus on the transformation; we can discuss this further later."
Feeling the information returned by the other witches outside, Yun Dao concluded this conversation, born out of curiosity, with a wave of her hand, attached spores to the mage in front of her, and began the transformation into a witch.
Seeing the mage in front of her enter a slumber, she turned and left, reviewing the intelligence she had just gathered.
"I never expected it to be the classic enemy-originated scenario...
The power of the gods, even the gods themselves, were actually born from former mages!"
Initially, Yun Dao also had doubts, after all, how many similar spells could there be in the world?
Even if those divine arts seemed to have traces of spells, they were indeed powers entirely different, confirmed after multiple attempts.
Yet according to the intelligence provided by the mage just now, these so-called "gods" were actually attempts by the mages to break through an insurmountable bottleneck.
The mages at the time were stuck for thousands of years, continually trying to take a step forward, but to no avail.
After countless attempts, they finally found a possible breakthrough, obtaining a kind of power similar to spiritual power but higher than it from many test subjects, which they named "Force of Thought."
Relying on this hard-to-extract power, they successfully unleashed stronger spells, which they regarded as the hope for a breakthrough.
Even the strongest among them did not hesitate to collaborate for faster progress.
But as mages, they also cherished their lives and did not recklessly absorb this power into their bodies.
After all, the original intention of becoming stronger was to live longer, and if one were to risk their life for strength, it would defeat the purpose.
Yet because of this decision, the mages of that time couldn’t predict the final outcome.
They built an elemental pool for that power as they would for ordinary elemental power, preserving it carefully.
This was supposed to be a very safe method, even everything was done to the highest standard, but it was precisely this best elemental pool that led to an accident.
There was a reason they called this energy "Force of Thought."
Extracting it from low-level humans or even their test subjects, it also contained the thoughts of these beings.
And the biggest commonality among them was hatred for mages.
This accumulated hatred, under optimal "cultivation conditions," formed a simple consciousness.
Furthermore, as the mages continuously intensified their experiments, and more humans became test subjects and died, integrating into this hatred and amplifying it.
Eventually, it exploded after reaching a critical point.
This entity, nurtured by the mages with all their might and even surpassing their special experimental subjects, caught the mages unprepared and baffled.
And this outburst of emotions-filled power further influenced humans around who might become test subjects at any time.
They spontaneously contributed more "Force of Thought."
In this positive feedback loop, that individual grew increasingly powerful, annihilating the strongest group of magicians at the time in one burst.
However, it was ultimately just an energy conglomerate and lacked true intelligence.
After the outburst, it fell silent again, capable only of simply responding to the prayers of its worshipers, bestowing a portion of its power.
The humans who contributed power at that time established the Church Court on the spot, worshiping it as a god and using its power to hunt mages in reverse for their immobile god.
It wasn’t until they reached the area beyond the reach of their god’s power that these mages survived and eventually endured until today.
The place where that god was located is now the sacred ground the Church Court has retreated to!
"Ha, this is not ’Force of Thought,’ but the power of faith!
Considering faith as a hope to break through the Seventh Rank, it’s fortunate they didn’t directly absorb it, otherwise without the shared thoughts of a witch, the chaotic mentality would have immediately created a lunatic.