Guild Wars

The core members immediately got to work. They split the cardinal directions around the Divine Church into 8, the northwest, the north, the northeast, the east, the southeast, the south, the southwest and the west.

Similar to how they did when clearing the main plane, they split into groups forming squadrons that covered each direction.

The Golden Savages, made up of Misery, Shadowheart, AP_Berzerker, Elle, and Nightwalker formed one group and decided to handle the northern direction on their own.

The Upper Echelon, made up of the Five Generals plus the Three Pinnacles, formed another group and took on the southern direction.

The Blessed Bestowals, made up of Money Lover, Cold Summer, Akainu, Sanji, Noble Writer, Brother Is Best and Shani took over the northwestern direction.

The OG Boys, made up of Rambunctious Buttlover, Fitter Cleric, Happy Saint, Jada and Jade, Silent Walker, Dreary Traveler, and Slim Fatty took over the northeastern side.

The Overpowereds, made up of Essence Stalker, Intellectual Monkey, Ghostpro, Hades, Krona, Pedro Sousa, Hunter101Bomber, and Tunder Power took on the east side.

The True Core, made up of Sublime Notion, Deployed Soldier, Gentle Flower, Noble Soul, Happy Scholar, Joker, Warm Spring, and The Showman handled the southeast.

The Family, made up of Loving Father, Loving Mother, Loving Aunt, Endless Life, Endless Fortitude, Endless Joy, Shogun, Megami, Heavenly Wind, Heavenly Ice, and Heavenly Plum to the Western direction.

The Progenitors, made up of Anubesetesh, Akawhiteninja, Omega Raider, and Ecuij Bug, formed a small elite group that handled the southwestern end.

From the moment the quests were issued, the core members took the remaining time to rest and familiarize themselves with their laws before beginning to work on the first day of the new week, which was Sunday!

.........….

The Golden Savages, an old and established CULT group of HOOLIGANS, had arrived at the northern end of the territory which met with the grey rot that was slowly encroaching over to their side.

As this was their first time actually being up close and personal with the thing, they couldn't help but curiously inspect it. However, the closer they got to it, the more solemn their expressions became because they sensed a strong hint of threat from it.

And this was factoring their great power from their class, Control, and their bloodlines.

Misery, usually lax and unbothered, showed intense seriousness and reliability as he immediately equipped his new bloodline exclusive set that formed when he finally broke through to level 10 in both Knight and Mage inheritances.

"If this thing ever somehow reaches the real world, the earth will not last a week," Nightwalker remarked with amusement, but his actions were no less intensive.

"Guess it's up to us to stop it then," Elle stated as she clapped her hands together and manifested chaos origin.

"Bah! Everyday, save, save, save! Why can't we destroy sometimes?!" AP Berzerker complained loudly, but still manifested his dual divine greataxes.

"Because, Brother AP, that's our crib," Shadowheart stated as he slammed the butt of his staff down, his majestic fur cape billowing in the wind over his black and gold gentleman's suit.

"Let's strike. I want to see how much this wretched thing can jump in front of us." Misery spoke coldly, his eyes gleaming as he held the blood-red Gae Bolg in one hand and then entered a throwing stance.

｢Name: Misery – True God

Level: The Law of Reaving Sorcery (Basic)

Divine Energy: 100%/100%.｣

｢Law of Reaving Sorcery - Divine Law

Grade: EX+

Effect: This Law focuses on two concepts, the ability to use the spear and the ability to use the magical doctrine of sorcery. Both are combined seamlessly using one as a base, in this, sorcery forming the core while spearmanship forms the body. It is versatile, with offensive, defensive, and supportive effects.

Sources: Shadowy Hound (Divine Class) + Witch's Descendant (Passive Skill).｣

Misery channeled his law power into the spear, causing its light to intensify due to the effects of his law. Even though it was at the basic rank, its power was at the peak of all basic rank laws due to its high grade.

Misery first directly used Divine Energy, channeling about 2% of his max into the spear before throwing it out. While this was not necessarily wise considering players had the advantage of Divine Points, he was more curious to see the world through the eyes of typical True Gods.

He could not properly gauge the difficulty of the grey rot without some form of benchmark, and the average performance of True Gods according to what Draco shared using his experience in the Supreme Pantheon was a perfect start.

The bloodline manifested Gae Bolg tore through the grey fog before them, creating a cylindrically shaped tunnel the size of an industrial manufacturing company's waste pipe, big enough for a person to walk through.

It went on into the distance. Reaching about a kilometer before losing momentum. The spear began to slowly fall and Misery's face changed greatly as he reached a hand, struggling to call it back from the tendrils of grey mist that were beginning to wrap around the lance.

Eventually, Misery's body exploded with a much more transcendent power than what his law currently possessed, causing the spear to resonate and gain new strength as it broke free and shot back into Misery's grip.

The man grimaced as he glanced at the formerly pristine blood-red spear that now had various blemishes and grooves on its body, as if someone had been hacking away at it with an axe for days on end.

One could still see traces of grey mist on the spear's body, looking like clumps of leeches as they continued to try and erode the spear's power. Misery had to channel a significant amount of Divine Energy into the weapon in order to purge this dark influence, which lowered his amount by another 10%.

This short experiment made him glimpse the suffering and helplessness of common True Gods. Ranged attacks were useless because whatever you sent in was not going to come out and even if it did, it was not worth the cost to restore it unless it was something special like this spear.

Not to mention that even if he did clear some fog, that area was rapidly being refilled because it hadn't been cleared, only penetrated. When cleared, the grey rot advanced over a new area as slowly as a snail moving, but when penetrated or dispersed, it would return about as fast as a slow breeze.

Misery would have completely wasted his time if it wasn't for the fact that he received a battle report from the system as well as a reward consisting of Divine Essence, Aether Coins, and some random low-level drops.

For NPC True Gods, this was hell but for player True Gods, this was lucrative!

This was why Draco wanted the players to organically handle the grey rot rather than do it himself, because he realistically did not want to interfere with the AI's plan too much and because…

Well, the AI was an expert game designer and had considered many things when planning the game content, but Draco was a blockhead. He could understand why the AI set up content the way it did but he couldn't do it himself, so if he cleared the grey rot, how was he supposed to allow True God players to grow?

While Misery took the first strike, the others watched calmly in order to size things up. Seeing the effects, they too felt slightly suffocated thinking about having to do this shit every day for who knows how long, but their faces became better when Misery shared the battle report screen.

While the drops were not enough to make them drool, it was steady and profitable, so there was not much to complain about. Separating a bit, they each began clearing the area before them using their various laws.

For AP Berzerker, it was with his two divine axes that glowed with a resplendent white light that formed humongous crescent slashes that he chose to battle with. Each swing made the earth tremor and the air quake due to the sheer strength he possessed which surpassed normal limits.

｢Name: AP Berzerker – True God

Level: The Law of Supreme Strength (Basic)

Divine Energy: 100%/100%.｣

｢Law of Supreme Strength - Divine Law

Grade: EX

Effect: This Law focuses on enhancing the bodily strength of its user, allowing them to achieve levels of physical power that transcend mere physicality, even being able to strike beyond what is seen or known. This law is purely offensive, and its offensive power is intense.

Sources: God of War (Divine Class) + Divine Strength (Passive Skill).｣

The grey rot could practically be heard screaming in pain every time this brute made an attack, because the area his attacks covered was too large and the damage he dealt was too great, even using a basic law with Divine Energy.

As a defense mechanic, the grey rot naturally retaliated by spawning the forms of random True God monsters or NPCs it had swallowed up in the past, with bodies made out of grey mist and two eye sockets filled with a red glow, to defend itself.

This here was the second major issue that True God NPCs had problems dealing with the grey rot. The good news was that at the edges of the grey rot, the manifestations created to defend itself were only given basic laws since they were the weakest concentration of its form.

The bad news was that this practically made it a basic law vs basic law fight, where one party had virtually infinite energy as long as the grey rot was around while the other had limited Divine Energy.

This was precisely why Draco was treated so well when he first appeared in the Divine City of the Supreme Pantheon. He outwardly seemed to have his law of Malevolent Darkness at the Intermediate stage, which was enough to suppress a basic law True God, meaning he could handle these grey rot defenders.

That was how the Divine City operated anyway. They similarly split their people into battlefields and had them form squads of five, one Intermediate and above True God with four basic law True Gods.

The basic law fellows would clear the mist using their skills and energy, and when the grey rot manifested a defender, the intermediate law fellow would take it down fast, then rinse and repeat. It was not entirely hopeless for them, just very wasteful, unrewarding, and tiring.

This was the in-game logic/lore reason as to why despite the situation, the Church of Light didn't open the passage for those like Richmond to ascend, become True Gods, and help the fight.

The situation was sustainable and it was only a matter of time before they resolved the issue, and True Gods had near infinite lifespans as long as there was enough Divine Energy, so… yeah.

However, this also suggested that for the AI's plan for the Church of Light to open the gates for players, some change was going to happen in the future that would force the supreme pantheon to become desperate enough to not only let Richmond and co up, but even unreliable cretins like the players.

Just what would that event be?

As AP fought the manifestation with disgusting ease, he noticed that it was actually not very clever. Even he,m who was new to the world of True Gods and using his law to fight, was far more adept and skillful than it.

It was like a living swordsman fighting an undead skeleton swordsman. The skill, flexibility, and strength shown by the living swordsman were leagues above the clumsy skeleton swordsman who swung his blade with all his strength, leaving openings everywhere.

However, despite dealing several earth-numbing blows, the manifestation always seemed to recover from the brink and was even learning slightly as time went on causing AP Berzerker's face to change.

Obviously, if all manifestations were so clumsy, then basic law True Gods would not be so shoddily treated. However, this cockroach-like regeneration bordered on the level of Shuangtian herself, significantly above what AP could manage and he was the avatar of Xingtian, the God of Unkillable Cockroaches!