"A religion…?" Ninia muttered Zach's words.
"Yes. Don't you want your god to be famous and worshiped?" Zach asked with a slight smile on his face.
"I do but…"
"I am not asking you to preach the players. Only preach the NPCs," Zach asserted with the same look on his face.
"I understand, my lord. I will try my best to gain you as many followers as I can," Ninia said obediently.
"If you manage to bring me 100 followers, I will name my religion. If you manage to get me 500 followers, I will give make it an official religion. If you bring me 1000 followers, I will create a shrine, temple, church, or sect. If you bring me 5000 followers, I will make you the prophet; you can have whatever you want."
"…"
After a brief silence, Zach continued, "If you bring me 10,000 followers, I will turn all the NPCs into players. After that, they all will be able to fight back without anyone needing to protect them. You will also be able to ascend like a normal player."
Of course, Zach himself wasn't sure if he could do that. But since his soul powers would be increasing tremendously after getting 10,000 followers, he might eventually be able to do the impossible.
Neither Zach nor Aria had knowledge on how soul powers worked in Gods' Impact. But Aria provided him information about how they worked in the real world. And since Gods' Impact was based on the real world's laws and logic, there was a high chance that they would work the same.
Ninia grabbed Zach's hand in her hand and kissed it. Then, she rubbed it on her forehead and said, "I can't wait to be your use. Please, rest assured. Your words are my orders. I shall get you followers, for you who is the greatest and the best among all. For you, who shall reign supreme today, tomorrow, and the never-ending eternity."
Zach could feel emotions from Ninia's words, as though she had said everything with her utmost and unyielding loyalty.
That was the sign of how much Ninia trusted Zach and how far she could go for him.
Aria squinted her as she looked at Ninia and wondered, 'She knows about the rule of the first follower—prophet, right? They are considered as father and child. But I don't think Zach knows that.'
'Well, it depends on Zach how he gives her the prophecy. Either way, it's something I look forward to.'
Aria chuckled and thought, 'If Zach truly wants to start a religion and aim to become the high god, then I will support him with all my might. And once everything is over, I will rule the heavens with him.'
After dealing with Ninia, Zach walked around the garden with Aria.
"It's going to take time to gather all the dead demons. They are too much, and I doubt this garden can fill them all," Aria stated.
Zach kicked the demon's head in front of him and sent it flying in the air which went to the other side of the garden and hit the player walking by.
"Most of these demons are rank 1 demons. You can compare them with level 10 goblins," Zach scoffed. "And I still haven't seen a rank 2 demon in a proper condition. I think…. Aurora used the blessings with skill."
Aria pointed her gaze and the dead demons at some distance from them and said, "They are the rank 3 demons, am I right?"
Zach nodded and said, "Yes. And the rest are rank 4 and rank 5."
"Still…" Aria let out a weary sigh and muttered, "This demon invasion was really random…"
"I don't think so…" Zach stopped walking and turned to Aria with a knowing look on his face. "The soul eater on the 75th floor was the sign that the gods don't plan to let the players leave in place. They are furious that the players have learned to adapt and evolve, even in this situation."
"In other words, they are salty." Zach furrowed his brows and uttered, "You can say that the gods are cheating and misusing their authorities like they always have for thousands of years."
"You are not wrong, but I don't think all gods agree on that," Aria said in a calm voice. "As I have already told you before, most decisions are made through voting."
Zach raised his brows with a curious look on his face and asked, "What do you mean by 'most'? I thought all the decisions were made through voting…"
Aria smiled wryly at Zach and said, "But what if there was no voting and the decision was made without other gods knowing about it?"
"That's like mods siding with the cheater in a debate…."
"Since we are talking about gods. May I ask why you suddenly want so many followers?" Aria asked. "You even gave an incentive to the nun. And she seems to have taken a fancy to you. I have never seen such a devoted follower before. It's easy to get the second follower, but the first one is the most loyal."
Zach turned to Aria and asked, "You know that I couldn't use my soul powers before, right?"
Aria nodded in response without saying anything.
"And I awakened my soul powers a few weeks ago. Because of that, my blessings were also activated, and uncle Tis removed the seal from them. Now, I can use the blessings I am worthy for."
Zach smiled at Aria and said, "Of course, first is your blessing. Then the Sea's blessing. But those blessings weren't embedded in me since my birth, they were given to me."
"Yes."
"I acquired the sigil of the Phoenix, which means I can now freely use her powers." Zach touched the demonic sigil on the side of his neck and said, "The same with my demonic powers."
"However, as you should know, using the blessings sucks life force, and in Gods' Impact, life force is similar to soul power. The more my soul powers are, the more and longer, I would be able to use my blessings. Hence, if I have a huge amount of followers, my soul powers would obviously be high all the time," Zach asserted with a shoulder shrug.
"I remember you getting angry and angsty talking about borrowed power. But now you seem to have accepted them," Aria remarked with a judging look on her face.
"Yeah. I don't care how I get stronger, I just want to get stronger; strong enough to crush the gods with my bare hands."
***
Total players in the game- 1,484,965
0 new players logged in.
41 players died.
===
Author's note- A new goal to aim for.. The way has changed, yet the destination remains the same.