Chapter 144 | The Return

Chapter 144: 144 | The Return

Aurora flew closer to Andrew, her tiny form drifting through the air until she hovered directly in front of his face. Her silver-white eyes sparkled with something—excitement, perhaps, or the satisfaction of someone about to deliver news that would change everything.

"Master," she said, her voice warm and eager. "You’ve already absorbed the soul of a god."

Andrew stared at her.

"The god who owned this domain," Aurora continued. "You consumed his soul. You took his power, his knowledge, his essence—all of it. That means his divinity is inside you right now. It’s already there. You’ve been carrying it this whole time without realizing it."

Andrew’s eyes widened slightly.

"You can push that divinity into the Nine Ancient Lamps," Aurora said. "The god’s divinity—the one you absorbed—can be equipped into one of the nine lamps. That means out of the nine ancient lamps, you finally have one divinity. One out of nine. And using that, it should be enough to activate one of the abilities of the Nine Ancient God Lamps."

Andrew looked down at his right arm. At the brand burned into his flesh. The first lamp. The one that had been lit since the moment the branding ended.

He had a divinity. The dead god’s divinity. It had been inside him this entire time—merged with his soul, digesting slowly, integrated into his spiritual core without him even knowing what it truly was.

He focused.

He reached inward, searching for the foreign energy that had settled into his soul after he consumed the god. It was there—a dense, heavy presence nestled deep within his spiritual core, distinct from his own divine power. Older. Colder. Carrying the weight of eight thousand years of existence.

He pulled at it.

The energy resisted at first. It was stubborn—anchored to his soul like a barnacle clinging to a ship’s hull. But Andrew was stronger now. His will was iron. His soul, though cracked, held firm. He gripped the foreign divinity with his spiritual consciousness and ’pulled’.

The divinity moved.

It slid free from his spiritual core with a soundless rush of energy, flowing through his body like a river breaking through a dam. It traveled down his arm, through his veins, through his muscles, through the very flesh that the first lamp had branded—and poured into the mark on his forearm.

The lamp tattoo blazed with light.

White-hot. Blinding. The brand that had been dark and angry against his skin suddenly flared to life, burning so brightly that Andrew had to shield his eyes with his other hand. The light pulsed—once, twice, three times—each pulse carrying a wave of heat and power that rippled through his entire body.

Then the system responded.

[ Ding! ]

[ First Divinity Successfully Equipped. ]

[ Divinity Slots: 1/9 ]

[ Ancient Nine Lamps Authority Unlocked. ]

Andrew held his breath.

More text appeared.

[ Divine Authority: Soul Sovereign ]

[ Authority Rank: Divine ]

[ Effects: ]

[ • Soul Vision — Perceive souls, curses, item spirits, hidden spirits, and divine entities. ]

[ • Soul Resistance — Greatly increases resistance against mental attacks, soul attacks, possession, hypnosis, and curses. ]

[ • Soul Pressure — Your soul suppresses weaker souls, reducing their fighting spirit. ]

[ • Soul Devour — Souls defeated by you can be refined to permanently strengthen your own soul. ]

[ Authority Skill (Locked): Divine Soul Extraction ]

[ Requirement: Higher Divine Rank. ]

Andrew read through the entire display. Then he read it again. Then a third time, slower, making sure he understood every word, every effect, every implication.

Soul Vision. The ability to perceive souls—not just the souls of the living, but curses, item spirits, hidden spirits, and divine entities. Things that existed beyond the physical realm. Things that normal people could never see. He would be able to look at the world and see what lay beneath its surface.

Soul Resistance. Greatly increased resistance against mental attacks, soul attacks, possession, hypnosis, and curses. The very things that had nearly destroyed him during the Nine Lamps Inheritance. The very things that the dead god had tried to do to him. He would be protected. Not invulnerable, but far, far harder to break.

Soul Pressure. His soul would suppress weaker souls. Simply by existing—simply by being present—he would reduce the fighting spirit of anyone weaker than him. They would feel his presence and falter. Hesitate. Lose their edge. A passive ability that required no activation, no energy, no effort.

Soul Devour. The souls of those he defeated could be refined. Absorbed. Turned into permanent strengthening for his own soul. Every enemy he killed, every soul he conquered, would make him stronger. Permanently. Irreversibly.

And then there was the locked skill. Divine Soul Extraction. Unavailable to him now—requiring a higher Divine Rank—but promising even greater power in the future.

Andrew was stunned.

This was just one ability. One out of nine. The first lamp, equipped with one divinity, had granted him a Divine Authority that would have been considered overpowered on its own. And there were eight more lamps. Eight more divinities to find. Eight more authorities to unlock.

If he could find all nine—if he could fuse with all nine divinities and light every lamp—his strength would increase to a level that defied comprehension. It was rumored, Aurora had said, that fusing with all nine would give him the ability to rival a god. To stand on equal footing with beings who had existed for millennia. To become stronger than the gods themselves.

Andrew stood in the empty diamond palace, the system display glowing before his eyes, the weight of the ancient Nine Lamps burning against his flesh, and slowly—very slowly—a smile spread across his face.

"Maybe it’s actually worth it," he said quietly.

The curse. The 200% EXP increase. The permanent branding. The danger of carrying an item forged from the souls of nine gods. All of it—the pain, the fear, the screaming, the near-death experience, the soul-cracking agony of the Nine Lamps Inheritance.

Maybe it was actually worth the hassle.

He checked the abilities one more time, memorizing every detail. Then he closed the system interface and glanced around the massive palace one final time.

There was nothing else here for him. The god domain was his. The sword was his. The Nine Ancient Lamps were his. Aurora was his. Every treasure in this kilometer-wide palace of diamond and gold belonged to him now.

It was time to leave.

Andrew gripped the black sword and willed the god domain to compress. The reaction was immediate. The palace shuddered. The walls trembled. The diamond floor beneath his feet vibrated with a deep, resonant hum that he could feel in his bones. Then—rapidly, violently—the entire mansion began to shrink.

The walls contracted. The ceiling descended. The pillars folded inward like the legs of a dying insect. The sculptures, the gold, the gems, the hundred-meter throne—all of it compressed, condensed, collapsed inward like a world being folded into a piece of paper. The process took seconds, and when it was over, Andrew found himself standing not in a palace but in the stone tower where he had first found the mysterious door.

The god domain—palace, throne, treasures, and all—had withdrawn into the black sword.

Andrew stood in the empty stone tower, the black sword in his hand, and looked around. The walls were bare. The floor was cold stone. The ceiling was low and dark. Everything that had made this place extraordinary was now contained within the blade gripped in his fingers.

He examined the sword. It was sharp—dangerously sharp—but not as sharp as his God Slayer Saber. The edge was keen enough to cut through steel, but compared to the reality-severing precision of God Slayer, it fell short. Still, it was a powerful weapon. A divine weapon. The vessel of an entire god’s domain.

And he couldn’t put it in his inventory.

The system still couldn’t read it. The question marks persisted. Which meant the sword existed outside the system’s framework and couldn’t be stored, summoned, or manipulated through system functions. He would have to carry it physically. Everywhere. At all times.

Andrew sighed.

He looked around the stone tower one more time, searching for any sign of life. Any presence. Any trace of the people who had followed the blacksmith’s son inside.

Nothing.

The tower was empty. Completely, absolutely empty. No bodies. No blood. No evidence of struggle. Just cold stone and silence.

The people who had entered the stone tower—the ones who had followed the blacksmith’s son inside—had been eaten by the bosses. The monsters that Andrew had fought on his way through. The creatures that guarded the path to the god domain. Those people had walked in, encountered those bosses, and been consumed. Every last one of them.

Andrew didn’t know how this would affect his mission. There were supposed to be survivors—people to rescue, people to bring back. But there was no one left to rescue.

He shrugged.

He had come for what he wanted. He had found it. The ancient Nine Lamps. The path to becoming a god. The one item in all of Elven’s Domain that could elevate a mortal to the level of a deity. And he had found it at level 10, before even taking his class advancement quest.

It was still a long way to the level of becoming a god. A very long way. But the path was there now. Clear. Defined. Lit by the single flame burning in the first of nine lamps.

Andrew turned and walked out of the stone tower.