Sovereign of the Ashes

From the moment Sein struck, Feymous Canyon plunged into a land of death and carnage.

For far too long, the Gray-Headed Apes had lived in isolated peace, never once imagining that disaster could descend upon them so suddenly.

But then again, was it not the same for all of Faeloria?

A civilization with an elite combat legion was one tempered by countless battles, hardened by hardship and bloodshed.

Yet, Faeloria had enjoyed centuries of peace.

Perhaps its powerful deities could still wield divine might, but the lesser beings of this world were far from prepared for battle.

Compared to the hardened combat legions of a truly professional civilization, the adventurers born in Faeloria’s era of peace were laughably outmatched.

If there was any semblance of military strength in this world, it was likely confined to the divine legions of intermediate deities and above.

Within their vast divine nations, these gods commanded their most elite and devout followers.

In truth, planes that embraced faith as their foundation were not inherently weak in battle.

One should never underestimate the power of faith.

A fanatic driven by unwavering belief could be more fearless and ruthless than even the fiercest warrior.

Unfortunately, the Gray-headed Apes of Feymous Canyon obviously lacked that level of conviction.

The crisis of extinction came too swiftly.

Many of the Gray-headed Apes, who had just been playing in the streams, remained blissfully unaware—right until the moment death reached them.

A handful of Transcendent-level apes and a Legendary Gray-Headed Ape Priest attempted to resist.

But to Sein, they were no real threat.

These Rank One and Two apes did possess some degree of skill and considerable combat power.

For instance, they could increase their size severalfold, transforming into towering, gorilla-like beasts with incredible strength.

Some could even manipulate geo elemental energy to a certain extent.

The Rank Two Priest was the most competent of them all.

Wielding an ornate cane, it sent rock spikes from both sides of the canyon in a desperate attempt to fend off Sein’s assault.

Among the Rank One apes, Sein sensed no trace of divine power—perhaps this was because the God of Brute Force was a weak native deity.

Only the Rank Two Priest, and the cane in its hand, radiated a faint divine fluctuation.

The resistance of the Gray-headed Apes was laughably weak before a Rank Three grand mage who had activated his Flame Demon transformation, wielding immense magic power and a formidable constitution.

Had it not been for the complex terrain of Feymous Canyon, which allowed many apes to take cover behind jagged mountain walls, Sein’s massacre would have progressed even faster!

When several courageous Rank One apes fell in battle—including even the Rank Two Priest, who was effortlessly incinerated by a wave of Sein’s magic rod—despair swept through the Gray-headed Apes.

Above them, the red energy barrier in the sky sealed their fate, cutting off any path of escape—both out of the canyon and deeper underground.

The severely injured Rank Two Priest, its eyes brimming with blood and tears, could only watch in helpless agony as this unholy being butchered its kin without mercy.

Dragging its bloodied body toward the altar at the center of the canyon, it cried out in desperation, “Great God of Brute Force, Knox! Save your pious servant and our people!”

A towering metal totem loomed over the altar, depicting a shirtless warrior gripping an ax in one hand, frozen in a roar of defiance toward the sky.

Since apes were humanoid creatures, their God of Brute Force bore a similar resemblance to humans.

Yet, its distinctive ape-like ears and tail revealed its true origins.

The Gray-headed Apes themselves resembled Wild Gorillas—a species Sein had painful memories of.

Years ago, he had suffered a great loss in Wild Gorilla World. Alongside the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, he had nearly met his end there.

Because of that, he felt no hesitation in slaughtering these apes mercilessly.

As the priest prayed, many ordinary Gray-headed Apes collapsed onto their knees, offering desperate prayers to their god upon realizing that resistance was futile.

At this point, only the god they worshiped could save them.

In the Astral Realm, faith acted as a direct link between gods and their believers.

Believers did not always require a divine messenger or priest to serve as an intermediary—if their combined prayers were numerous enough, their voices would reach the gods themselves.

High above, Sein’s fiery wings flapped relentlessly, casting a rain of fire that devastated Feymous Canyon.

With gaze filled with mockery and anticipation, he watched the Rank Two Priest sob and plead at the main altar.

***

Unlike the Bone Lord’s divine nation, which was comparable in size to a microplane, the God of Brute Force’s divine nation was far smaller.

It spanned only a few dozen square kilometers, housing slightly over a hundred thousand of its most devout followers.

After all, the God of Brute Force was merely a weak deity, and it had been only twenty thousand years since its ascension to godhood during the last Avatar Crisis.

To have survived two Avatar Crises was proof enough that the God of Brute Force was stronger than most weak deities.

The “weakened gods” that Spider Queen referred to were, in fact, Faeloria’s weak deities.

While both weak and lesser deities were Rank Four in life level, they were distinctly classified due to their vast differences in power.

This was not unique to Faeloria—many planes across the Astral Realm followed similar divisions of power.

Some worlds even divided their cultivation systems into more than ten distinct levels.

Yet, in reality, the strongest beings of these planes were still nothing more than Rank Four creatures in the grand scope of the Astral Realm...

Knox had only changed its divine name to the “God of Brute Force” after the last Avatar Crisis.

For over ten thousand years before that, it had been known as the “God of the Gray-headed Apes”.

During the crisis, Knox had a stroke of fortune.

When it descended into the mortal world in its avatar form, it managed to severely wound another weak deity who wielded the law of strength partially, ultimately seizing the god’s divine ability and a portion of their divinity.

Unlike the power of law Knox had previously mastered, the law of strength was far more potent.

When the Avatar Crisis ended, Knox returned to its divine nation and immediately renamed itself the “God of Brute Force”, reinforcing its newly acquired divinity and ability.