"Thank you for your kindness, but I feel I won't be able to wait for the next energy tide. I'm going to die."
Lucas steeled his heart, disrupting the divine power within his body, feigning an appearance of severe injury and inability to control his internal energy.
"How could this be?"
"So, you were about to die, and that's why you woke us up to say goodbye."
Hearing Lucas's words, the five Gods couldn't help but scan his internal condition. They found that Lucas's life aura was already fragmented and precarious, like a flickering candle in the wind, and their emotions became low. For a moment, they were all immersed in sorrow, falling silent.
This made Lucas even more surprised.
These Gods couldn't even distinguish an extra person, which showed they weren't very familiar with each other. They also had no memory of him whatsoever.
Why would they be so sad about his impending death?
"How about you absorb some of my Origin Energy first?"
A moment later, a female voice broke the silence.
It was the Female God who had given Lucas the 'good person card.'
"No!"
Before Lucas could react, the other four Gods loudly reprimanded and stopped this action.
"Although this might make him fall and become a demon, it's better than dying."
The Female God countered her companions, her gaze sweeping over them, and she said forlornly, "We cannot lose any more of our people."
The four Gods had nothing to say and could only tacitly approve of the Female God's actions.
Only the tallest and most robust God, who had been sitting in the middle during their slumber, looked at Lucas and cautioned him, "Origin Power is both honey and poison. Guard your mind, and do not let it influence you."
Lucas was silent for a moment, then said with a slight heaviness, "Okay, I will."
From the scattered words of these five Gods, he understood.
These five should belong to the same race, a race where all members are Gods. Furthermore, this race should have declined, with few remaining members, or even no new births. Otherwise, that Female God would not have said, 'We cannot lose any more of our people.'
"Come."
The Female God extended her hand, gesturing to Lucas.
What does this mean? A ritual before absorbing energy? A hand kiss?
He was tempted to imitate a medieval knight, but after glancing at the Female God, he abandoned the idea.
This God, in her race, was a beautiful and great Goddess. But he only saw 'large' and couldn't appreciate this kind of beauty.
This was a cultural and aesthetic difference brought about by countless years of evolution.
Just as Lucas hesitated, unsure of what to do next, a voice rang out.
"It's here! It's here! The energy tide is here!"
The other Female God pointed in a direction, exclaiming in surprise.
Had Ragnarok ended in a certain Universe?
While it was a bit of a coincidence, statistically, it was normal.
Lucas had marked hundreds of thousands of Universes where Ragnarok might occur in recent years. That averaged to over a hundred times a day.
Following the direction she pointed, Lucas saw a massive surge of energy flowing along the branches of the World Tree.
This energy was not what he had marked.
"Quick! Let's act together."
As her words sounded, several of them opened their mouths in unison, sucking the energy flowing within the World Tree branches. The massive energy flow split into five small streams, entering their mouths.
They actually used their mouths. How unrefined
After complaining, Lucas also mimicked them, sucking the energy.
While sucking the energy, he observed carefully and found that the rate of energy loss from the World Tree branches was greater than the rate at which they were sucking.
Besides the six of them, something else was absorbing this energy.
And this something...
It seemed to be the World Tree itself?
Vaguely, Lucas noticed that where the energy flowed, the World Tree branches grew slightly thicker.
A moment later, the massive energy flowed past, the energy stream disappeared, and they stopped sucking.
"Will us actively absorbing this time break the rules?"
"Never mind, to save..."
"Lucas."
"To save Lucas, we need to be flexible. Lucas, we didn't absorb this part of the energy. You try absorbing it and see if it can stop your injury from worsening." The tall and robust God said in a deep voice.
Energy gathered in his eyes, mouth, and nose, glowing with a faint white light.
Energy has no good or bad, clean or dirty distinction.
Lucas always treated it equally.
"No need."
He secretly transformed the divine power within his body into various forms of mixed energy, then reached out his hand, and a mass of mixed energy appeared.
"The energy tide is useless to me now. I cannot convert its energy into Origin Energy."
"Why?"
The robust God was incredulous, looking lost and disheartened.
"How can it be impossible to convert?"
"Let me do it instead."
The Female God said in a deep voice, drawing a sharp blade and preparing to chop off her left hand.
"Wait a moment." Lucas reacted and stopped her.
He finally understood.
These Gods truly were ancient. Not only did they absorb World Tree energy by mouth-sucking, it turned out that absorbing the Origin Energy of their own kind also involved literally eating a part of the trunk with their mouths.
"I've thought it over. Perhaps this is my fate. My life is already a flickering candle in the wind, I cannot sacrifice you anymore." Lucas said emotionally,
"My kin, my companions. To see you all one last time at the end of my life, I have no regrets. I just hope you don't resent me for disturbing your slumber."
"Lucas, don't give up, there must be a way."
Lucas looked at her, met her gaze for a few seconds, then looked at the others. His gaze lingered on each of them for a few seconds.
"My only regret is losing my memory, forgetting too many things. Can you tell me your names?"
"Neith, my name is Neith."
The Female God who had given Lucas the 'good person card' spoke first, and then the others also announced their names.
Lucas secretly noted them down, planning to check them later.
"Neith, can you tell me about the past? About the rise and fall of our race. I don't want to die without knowing anything."
"Okay, but I don't know much either." Neith said softly.
A story about their race slowly unfolded from her lips.
Countless years ago, they were born on a strange, magnificent planet. They were naturally powerful, born as Gods, controlling various natural forces.
They lived carefree on that primitive planet for a very long time, until a tribesman named Set discovered that devouring other tribesmen could enhance his own power.
'Set? Set, the Snake God. Are these Gods the Elder Gods of Earth?'
A flash of insight struck Lucas.
He remained calm, continuing to listen to Neith's narration.
A terrifying war known as the God-Eater War broke out, and the Gods began to attack each other.
Some Gods who were unwilling to devour their own kind banded together to resist the attacks.
They split into two factions.
In the beginning, the conservative Gods still held the advantage. But as time went on, the situation gradually shifted towards the devouring faction.
After devouring their own kind, although they fell and became demons, dominated by power, they also grew increasingly powerful. The most outstanding among them even gained power far exceeding that of other Gods.
Thus, the race that had once spread across the planet and begun to venture into the stars rapidly declined.
"Until later, Gaea met the Creator, and combined with him to give birth to Atum. Under Atum's leadership, the conservative faction reversed the situation."
"And when Atum destroyed those Gods who had fallen into demonhood, he absorbed their life energy and also fell into demonhood."
"A demon even more powerful and evil than them—Demogorge the God-Eater, was born."
"Under the threat of the God-Eater, almost all the Gods fled the Universe. The God-Eater War thus ended."
Lucas asked, "What happened then? After the God-Eater War ended, how did we get here?"
"This was the Creator's arrangement. To prevent any more Gods from falling and taking the path of devouring their own kind for evolution, he had us disperse, each residing in a dimension. Without his permission, we were not allowed to leave without authorization."
"Is this imprisonment?" Lucas asked.
"No, this is a blessing." Neith denied Lucas's statement.
"If it weren't for the Creator's protection, we would have been killed by Atum long ago. We accepted the Creator's protection, so we must accept his conditions."
"Moreover, to cleanse the demonic nature from us, he allowed us to absorb World Tree energy. Lucas, we should be grateful to the Creator." Neith's tone was devout, like a loyal believer addressing a God.
However, her words made Lucas's heart turn cold.
Cleanse demonic nature? Who needs to cleanse demonic nature?
Originally, seeing their naive appearance and their caring attitude towards their own kind, Lucas had thought these five were the conservative faction.
He didn't expect them to be the devouring faction.
And as members of the devouring faction, they had actually been brainwashed into a 'friendly faction' even more conservative than the conservatives.
Could the energy of Ragnarok also have been tampered with?