Chapter 257: Before the Battle Begins, Offer the Roman Gods as Sacrifice
The supreme god of the Roman Pantheon—over the past several thousand years, aside from members of the Roman Pantheon, very few other gods had ever laid eyes on him, likely not even enough to count on one hand.
Now, this supreme god had finally made his appearance.
On the chief god's seat prepared for the Roman Pantheon, a figure materialized from a somewhat illusory state into a solid form.
It was a young-looking man with brown skin and crimson eyes.
He wore golden battle armor that was particularly eye-catching, not because it was overly dazzling, but because it was stained with numerous patches of fresh red liquid, which drew attention.
He gave off the impression of having just emerged from a slaughter.
Pupils contracting, the nearby chief gods then noticed that it wasn't that this god's seat was different from theirs.
This supreme god was seated on his own divine throne—a throne that appeared to be a divine artifact in itself. He had torn through space, bringing the throne with him, and crushed the original seat beneath it.
Behind this god, a spatial rift remained, and before it could heal through the natural self-repair of space, one could glimpse the scene on the other side through the opening.
It was the stronghold of the Roman Pantheon!
The sight within that stronghold shocked countless gods and humans, sending chills down their spines and making them gasp.
The central temple was pierced by an abnormally large tree, but that wasn't the main point. The key was that the branches of the tree impaled numerous bleeding bodies—the corpses of gods!
As a result, nearly half of the branches of this anomalous tree, suspended high in the air and laden with corpses, were stained red with blood.
It was as if it were a tree that devoured gods!
"What... what in the world is going on?"
"Have all the gods of the Roman Pantheon been killed?"
"Did this guy do it?"
"He seems to be Quirinus, the new chief god of Rome."
"No, if he's Rome's chief god, why would he kill his own people?"
"Don't you get it? Heimdall said the one who is both human and god is him! Since he's siding with humanity, it's not strange for him to kill gods, right?"
"After all, this is betrayal. The gods of his pantheon couldn't accept it, so they fought, and he ended up killing them!"
The divine spectators speculated thus, descending into chaos.
This turn of events was far too unexpected—a god actually fighting on behalf of humans.
"This is against the rules."
"This is the final battle between humans and gods. What kind of showdown is it if it's god against god?"
"I see, humanity has no more contestants!!!"
As stated, Brunhilde could no longer find that special kind of human representative, so she allowed a god who had descended to become human to serve as the representative.
This meant Brunhilde had exhausted all her options.
"Ah, that's right, it doesn't violate the rules of Ragnarök"
Heimdall immediately disclosed this information.
Come to think of it, the rules of Ragnarök never explicitly forbade gods from fighting on humanity's side.
"This... this can't be"
"Truly ascending from human to chief god?"
"A god born from faith, completely belonging to humanity?"
"Mars planned this? To steal the other side's divine position?"
"Ha, so now he's paved the way for someone else?"
After witnessing the revealed truth, the gods became even more confused, their expressions complex and conflicted.
As for humanity—
"That's a god belonging to us humans?"
"A god born from our faith?"
"Do we humans truly have our own god?"
Humanity grew intensely excited.
Unlike other gods, this was a deity with deep connections to humanity, a true community of shared destiny with humans.
Such a god was truly worthy of their faith!
"Quirinus, what are you doing?"
A chief god inquired about the situation, gesturing toward the numerous corpses hanging from the large tree behind him.
When posing this question, his attitude treated the other as a chief god of a pantheon, for that was indeed what he was.
Normally, if it were just killing gods within his own pantheon, he wouldn't inquire further—perhaps some gods didn't acknowledge his authority, so he used bloodshed to demonstrate his divine might.
After all, not the entire pantheon had been slaughtered; many seemed to have survived.
These survivors stood orderly on the other side of the rift space behind his divine throne, displaying expressions of apparent reverence and submission.
Thus, this chief god's questioning was meant to seek explanation about some of the hanging corpses—specifically, the giants among them. What was that about?
However, from the truth reflected in Akasha, this chief god had some suspicions based on certain clues.
"Just cleaning house. For more details, I believe Mars should be able to provide us with further explanation"
The Roman chief god responded with such calmness.
Thus, the gazes of all the chief gods fell upon Mars, God of War, making him break out in cold sweat.
"This... this can't be, you shouldn't be conscious, your awareness should have been erased by me"
He muttered these words in disbelief.
"Mars, explain quickly!"
"Why are there Primordial Gods here!"
"You're a traitor, aren't you!"
The chief gods' killing intent enveloped the area, causing other gods near the God of War to hurriedly steer their controlled dragons away, avoiding being caught in the chief gods' sudden wrath.
"Dammit, it shouldn't be like this"
Ignoring the chief gods' questioning.
"Damn it, damn it, everything of yours is mine, give it back!"
Mars, God of War, had completely broken down.
Thus, having lost all reason, he directly drew his divine weapon and charged toward the chief gods' seats.
"I am the supreme deity of the Roman Pantheon, and I shall strip you of everything you possess!"
In that instant, Mars, the God of War, unleashed power surpassing that of many chief deities, causing the expressions of numerous chief gods to shift abruptly.
By the time they realized what had happened—
Thud—!
That was the sound of knees slamming heavily onto the ground. Mars, who should have been driving his blade through the new chief god of Rome, was inexplicably kneeling before him instead.
What was going on?
It was that throne! Quirinus's throne was problematic!
After the throne glowed, the God of War Mars seemed to have all his divine power stripped away in an instant, forced to kneel without any resistance.