The words were spoken by Lindong, as the round meatball lunged at Ethan. She stepped sideways with a cold face, blocking between the two, ready to act at any moment. The mere followers of Evil God Bajatos didn’t concern her.
She had intended just to watch the commotion, but hadn’t expected the meatball to dare to roll toward Ethan.
Is that the place you should be rolling to?
Lindong never liked the followers of Evil God Bajatos. Most of them turned into monstrous beings who were neither human nor ghost upon advancing. According to the followers, the Heavenly Father possessed an avant-garde taste in art, and it was their honor to satisfy the Father’s aesthetics. Take the shopkeeper meatball, for instance — he no longer looked human at all. His body was swollen like a balloon, with limbs so short they almost retracted into his body. Upon seeing Ethan, he rolled out from behind the counter like a ball.
Moreover, she couldn’t tolerate the eternal stench of Bajatos’ followers, resembling the smell of decaying corpses.
She had to sleep on Ethan’s chest each night; if she accidentally got brushed by this meatball, would she still get any sleep?
"You? Who are you? Why are you interrupting my conversation with the Chosen One?"
"I’m his servant demon, much closer than you are."
Even Ethan was shocked.
"Hmph, just a mere servant demon, the Heavenly Father has far more important great work entrusted to the Chosen One to accomplish!"
"What do you mean by the Chosen One?"
Ethan asked patiently, all the while keeping an eye on the meatball, ensuring a distance of at least five steps. Even from afar, he could smell the stench emanating from the meatball; he definitely didn’t want to become a smelly container himself.
"Follow me, quickly, follow me!"
The meatball was already impatient, his movement completely devolved due to bodily changes, rolling towards the shelves like a ball.
Ethan thought this was likely related to Bajatos’ gaze. He re-read the description in the skill proficiency section carefully, and suddenly shuddered.
"Your actions impressed Him; He desires to meet you."
Ethan had initially thought Bajatos was enraged by being dazzled and wanted to start a street fight, but judging by the meatball’s reaction, their Heavenly Father was not angry at all and instead developed... bizarre feelings.
He suddenly got goosebumps.
Logically, the radiant and Bajatos’s evil power were like fire and water, and ought to be arch-enemies, but the meatball’s words, along with Ethan’s poor impression of Bajatos, suddenly made him understand the meaning of the Chosen One and the gaze.
Evil God Bajatos is an enthusiast of evil corruption.
He seemed eager to see the sacred golden radiance tainted by the Evil God’s powers, turning crimson red.
The meatball stopped under the shelf, looked up at a thick black magic book on top, his devolved limbs unable to reach so high. He began trying to pull out cushions for climbing.
Ethan immediately shouted, "Hold on, I can take it myself!"
The meatball was very pleased with Ethan’s impatient response. In his view, the Chosen One had witnessed the Heavenly Father’s great power and was eager to become the Father’s most cherished child.
Arriving under the shelf, Ethan didn’t forget to warn him, "Stay right there, don’t suddenly come close to me... you keep an eye on him!"
Lindong was already poised to act without further urging; if the meatball made any rash moves, she would use domain magic to target him. She was immensely relieved that her elevated magic’s characteristic was "Stillness," allowing her to eliminate threats before things became irreparable — joking aside, this concerned whether she could have a good sleep tonight!
The meatball rolled half a meter backward voluntarily, yet with a loving smile on his face, "Rest assured, the title of Chosen One belongs solely to you, no one can take it, not even me."
Ethan didn’t respond to him; in fact, he had no interest in the title of Chosen One, what he feared was the foul smell of the meatball.
Upon touching the black magic book, the front page glowed with crimson brilliance, and Ethan once again heard indistinguishable murmurs.
The meatball, upon seeing this, immediately prostrated himself reverently on the ground.
Then, something bizarre occurred; Ethan hadn’t even opened the book, but its contents poured straight into his mind.
The book’s author was a king from the Second Epoch and the previous Chosen One of Bajatos, known as the Red King. The book mostly recorded his experiences before becoming the Red King—before that, he too had been unable to understand the Heavenly Father’s mercy, foolishly opposing and obstructing the Father’s spreading of love throughout the world.
His ignorant actions greatly pained the Father, who mercifully sent down four Giant Divine Soldiers to help him create a flawless divine nation.
The sky was perpetually crimson, allowing his people to transcend the concept of death, becoming eternal beings.
Of course, this was the beautified version.
The actual situation was that four Blood and Flesh Giants suddenly descended upon the Red King’s country, mercilessly crushing his proud forces and transforming the dead warriors into twisted monsters. Then it was his subjects, all his loved ones, transformed by Bajatos’s influence into hideous mindless monsters.
Ethan suspected the Red King’s will completely broke during this process, and he began deceiving himself, embellishing everything he saw, making himself the Father’s most devout offspring. Thus, his failure would be hidden, and the curse upon his people turned into a blessing.
The magic book narrated the Father’s trials. After the arrival of the Giant Divine Soldiers, the Chosen One must undergo three more trials to ensure they are transformed, prepared for the Father’s baptism. After the fourth trial, they would confront the Father’s earthly agent, a skeletal figure wielding a scythe and cloaked, with eye sockets burning with crimson flames.
The Father bestowed upon it the great power to control death.
Ethan associated this figure with the Death God, as the book’s description of the agent’s appearance highly resembled what he knew of the Death God.
The Red King mentioned that it was the agent who sliced open the nexus between reality and the divine nation with its scythe, allowing the Giant Divine Soldiers to descend into the human world.
This book came at the right time, helping Ethan pinpoint the suspect.
It was a cloaked skeleton — easily recognizable; if it walked among a crowd, one could spot it at a glance.
However, the description of the four trials didn’t offer Ethan much insight.
In the magic book’s story, the Red King’s country was annihilated by four Giant Divine Soldiers, which he referred to as projections of the Father’s great power, insurmountable by human efforts.
He believed the first trial’s purpose was for the Father to teach the Chosen Ones humility, realizing the weakness of their own power; they were students, the Giant Divine Soldiers were the Father’s rod, immersed in pain, they learn humility.
Only the humble can comprehend the Father’s mercy.
Ethan momentarily couldn’t recall how many Giant Divine Soldiers he had encountered earlier.
The Father’s rod... had been blown apart, now only an arm remained for in-depth study.
According to the Chosen trials’ rules, he got through the first trial by exploiting a bug.