A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 286: Chapter 229: Eliminate Four Pests_1

Since Duanmu Huai found out that he had been detected by the Giant Horned Rat, he made it his next target.

The reason is simple, the Giant Horned Rat belongs to the type of creature that is both weak and vicious.

Of course, for mortals, the Giant Horned Rat is still a formidable deity, but in the realm of deities, its current strength is on par with Duanmu Huai, who is also the God of Destruction… they are pretty much evenly matched.

In Star Ocean Online, the strength of deities is clearly demonstrated.

Put simply, it’s all about their numbers.

The more followers they have, and the wider their influence, the more powerful they are.

...

It’s blunt, but it’s the truth.

The Chaos Evil God is a manifestation of the collective souls and spiritual projections of all life in the Milky Way. The Giant Horned Rat is similar, it is the god revered by the rats and ratmen on this planet – simply put, the more rats and ratmen there are on this planet, the stronger the Giant Horned Rat becomes, and vice versa.

However, even though all living beings have souls, there is still a distinction in the strength of souls.

Otherwise, in this Milky Way, there wouldn’t be an entity like the Chaos Evil God, instead there would be a God of Cockroaches dominating everything.

Rats are inherently weak. If you were to quantify their faith, the faith given by about fifty rats would only equal to that of one human. The bigger problem is that the Giant Horned Rat might talk big, but essentially it is nothing more than a local Indigenous God.

That’s right, it’s simply the God of Rats in the Newbie Village. Duanmu Huai didn’t even dare to think about what would happen if it were the god of all the rats in the Milky Way galaxy. But since it’s only the god of rats on one planet… well, that was that.

The most important thing is that their godly positions countered each other.

Currently, Duanmu Huai can be considered the God of Destruction and Death. With the Rune of Death – and after transforming it into the Law of Death, Duanmu Huai essentially became the natural enemy of all living beings. This is because his version of death is not the reincarnation type, but total obliteration and disappearance.

From this point of view, Duanmu Huai is now also an enemy of the Plague God, because the kind of death he represents is the true Universal Silence, not as simple as merely turning everything into Undead Creatures like a certain Bone Magician. Universal Silence, complete obliteration and disappearance, this is Duanmu Huai’s definition of death, and the meaning of his divine duties.

Therefore, even among the Gods of Death, there are differences depending on the interpretation of death.

For instance, the God of Death worshipped by the Empire is a Shinigami, leading human souls to the Underworld and introducing them to the phenomenon of death.

However, the meaning of Duanmu Huai’s God of Death is total obliteration, leaving nothing behind.

Well, if not limited to specific circumstances, this would be the core ideology of an evil cult that desires to destroy the world.

Even though Duanmu Huai’s strength hasn’t reached those levels yet, dealing with a single Giant Horned Rat would be more than enough!

Facing Duanmu Huai descending from the sky, the Giant Horned Rat clearly felt the incoming breath of death. As an evil deity that controlled conspiracies, betrayals, and all sorts of nasty things, the Giant Horned Rat would have died hundreds of times over if it did not realize it was being tricked. Therefore, in face of Duanmu Huai’s attack, the Giant Horned Rat screamed and retreated backwards, trying to return to its divine realm – but, Duanmu Huai had been waiting for this moment!

Killing the Giant Horned Rat in this main dimensional interface would not hurt it. Only by entering the realm of the Giant Horned Rat could Duanmu Huai truly eliminate it completely!

Before Duanmu Huai attacked, the Giant Horned Rat disappeared into thin air. However, this did not deter Duanmu Huai. As long as the Giant Horned Rat appeared, it meant that there was a passage between its divine realm and this place. At this point, all Duanmu Huai needed to do was find this passage!

“Boom!!!”

Ignoring the disappeared Giant Horned Rat, Duanmu Huai smashed his war hammer onto the ground. Soon, black flames emerged from all around him. Shortly after, a seemingly normal spot on the ground began to crack, explode, and then burst open with a ‘boom’. Then, along with the howling winds and piercing screams, a storm carrying plague and toxins sprouted from the ground, wreaking havoc around it.

That’s the spot!

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai’s eyes brightened. He took a leap and jumped directly into it, and the next moment, Duanmu Huai appeared in the ruins of a city.

This place was similar to the city where he had previously met the Giant Horned Rat in his dream. The entire city, or rather the entire world, was in decay. Everywhere one looked, there were ruins and bones. This was the territory of the Giant Horned Rat in the Subspace, known as the Ruin Kingdom. The souls of all dead ratmen ended up here, becoming slaves to the Giant Horned Rat or the Lord of Disaster, and serving them.

Generally speaking, trying to find the deity ruling over such a place is almost impossible, but Duanmu Huai wasn’t concerned, because he didn’t need to find it. All he has to do is unleash the Black Flame and burn this godforsaken place, then he won’t believe that the old rat won’t scurry out of its hole!

Yes, this was Duanmu Huai’s plan against the Giant Horned Rat. In terms of plots, traps, and tricks, Duanmu Huai was not a match for the Giant Horned Rat. But if he could force his opponent into a head-on confrontation, that would be another story. To achieve this, he needed to create an environment where he and the Giant Horned Rat could clash directly.

The Giant Horned Rat was cunning and had many places to hide, so Duanmu Huai was unable to find it.

But… if a monk could run away, could his temple escape too? @@novelbin@@

What if I burn your temple? Where will you go to worship now?

In Star Ocean Online, players have always debated what is more important: a god or a divine realm, it’s akin to the question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? It is uncertain whether gods came first and then created their divine realms or if divine realms came first and then created their deities. However, players have generally found through experimentation that if a god is killed, it might be reborn in its divine realm. But if the divine realm is destroyed, the god basically has no chance of survival.

From this, players have deduced that in this world, the first thing a soul and spirit project to create is the divine realm, and then as the realm’s density increases, it gives birth to a self-aware deity.

It’s like a subspace projected by a soul. As the density increases, a Chaos Evil God appears.

That is to say, a divine realm is a receiver through which a god absorbs the power of faith. Once the receiver is destroyed, then no matter how varied the outside world is, it has nothing to do with you!

Upon understanding this, it became simple for Duanmu Huai to lure out the Giant Horned Rat.

He just had to… burn its divine realm!

“Die!”

Duanmu Huai roared and raised his War Hammer, smashing it hard towards the ground. Under his hammer, the surrounding ground burst forth, then black flames ignited instantly, rapidly devoured everything in the vicinity. Whether it was parched trees or broken building ruins, shattered bricks or even piles of white bones and corpses littered in the ruins, all became flammable like gasoline, quickly overwhelmed by black smoke before turning to ashes.

“Burn it all!!”

Feeling the limitless power surging within him, Duanmu Huai revealed a chilling smile. The power of the God of Destruction comes from destruction, which means the more he destroys, the stronger he becomes.

Uh… Why does this sound like a typical final BOSS scenario?

Well, as long as it works.

Soon, under Duanmu Huai’s manipulation, the black flames intensified. Everything around was shrouded in black flames. More importantly, this world wasn’t your average world, it was the divine realm of the Giant Horned Rat. So what Duanmu Huai was burning, consuming and destroying now, was the divine power of the Giant Horned Rat itself!

For the Giant Horned Rat, it was akin to someone lighting a fire on its own body to roast meat, a painful sensation!

“Squeak ——-!! Bad guys! Hostile invaders! Destroy him!!”

As expected, at this moment, countless Ratmen appeared from all directions. The leading Lord of Disaster, enraged, raised his hand and pointed at Duanmu Huai, shouting loudly. Under their command, hordes of Ratmen charged towards Duanmu Huai. However, besides supporting the spread of the black flames like fuel to the fire, these Ratmen had no meaningful impact. It was utterly impossible for them to break the Law of Death as their power was nowhere near sufficient to resist the power of the Hunting God.

This was the terrifying power of the God of Destruction. Unless faced with a more powerful force, anything would only feed the black flames, making them stronger and unstoppable.

Uh… This was also the reason why Duanmu Huai sought out the Giant Horned Rat. After all, with his current strength, he couldn’t challenge the Chaos Evil God, but dealing with a Giant Horned Rat… should not pose a problem.

Countless Ratmen fell one after another. Their sacrifice was commendable but meaningless. The black flames spread slowly but indomitably, engulfing everything in their path and turning them into ashes. This was the Predetermined Death from the Rune of Death, an inevitable destiny against which nothing could resist.

A complete obliteration.

“Roar————–!!!”

Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed. Duanmu Huai looked up, only to see a giant Ratman with large curved horns poking its head out from the clouds. It glared at Duanmu Huai angrily, letting out a scream filled with rage. Then, the Giant Horned Rat stretched out a hand towards Duanmu Huai, attempting to grab him!

Just as I thought, you couldn’t resist!

Upon seeing this, Duanmu Huai’s eyes flashed with a sharp light. He then raised his War Hammer. As Duanmu Huai moved, the surrounding black flames, like attracted smoke, spun around, coalescing around the War Hammer. Then, Duanmu Huai aimed at the hand of the Giant Horned Rat and swung his War Hammer down with full force!