### Chapter: 429
— !
The ringing in his ears was unbearable.
His body crashed down to the ground.
Here was Maios, the mid-tier god who had reigned above in the sky, now ungracefully rolling on the floor.
His once pristine blue robe was now a disastrous mess, and the fan he grasped crumbled into ashes.
“Cough, cough!”
He could hardly catch his breath.
For gods, breathing through their nose and mouth wasn’t how they functioned.
They absorbed the divine energy spread throughout the entire realm with their whole being.
So, feeling like he was suffocating made absolutely no sense.
The only reason he experienced this choking sensation now was due to the heat radiating from Kraush, which had even heated the natural divine energy around him.
“Grr…”
Maios swallowed hard and lifted his head.
He displayed an embarrassed expression as he recalled the events from just moments ago.
During the confrontation with Kraush, the wind he commanded suddenly stopped dead.
It was supposed to keep raging and spiraling endlessly.
So why had it vanished so abruptly?
He had experienced such a phenomenon once before in his life.
The day he felt a complete stillness from the winds he usually manipulated effortlessly.
Never before had Maios felt such helplessness.
He vividly recalled that day when his winds fell silent.
It was when he had risen to mid-tier god, only to be brought low by the sheer arrogance of high-tier gods.
High-tier gods.
There’s an unbridgeable gap between them and mid-tier gods.
Before them, Maios realized a sense of powerlessness he had never felt in his life.
No matter how hard he trained, reaching that realm was completely out of his grasp.
And now, he was experiencing a similar sensation as when he faced high-tier gods.
‘What on earth…’
Confusion painted Maios’s face.
Boom—
At that moment, he heard footsteps approaching.
Startled, he quickly looked up.
And there stood Kraush, his ash-gray hair dancing in the wind.
The aura emanating from Kraush was undeniably powerful.
But still, it hardly compared to that of a high-tier god.
There was no way Kraush could be on the same level.
So then, why was he losing composure as if facing a high-tier god?
“Feeling flustered?”
Kraush’s question made Maios flinch slightly.
“That’s mutual. I didn’t expect this at all.”
Kraush remarked, rubbing his chin.
Now that he thought about it, it was clear why the Thief God believed he could run rampant in the divine realm.
[ You, who already possess the skills of high-tier gods, have your abilities suppressed by me, a low-tier god. ]
Just as the lore of Crimson Garden indicated, Maios found himself unable to use his skills in front of Kraush.
‘I acquired the wind god’s powers, after all.’
The wind god was a high-tier deity.
So, with Kraush wielding the skills of a high-tier god, any wind controlled by Maios was rendered meaningless.
Kraush hadn’t expected this at all either.
He definitely hadn’t anticipated this turn of events.
‘Well, skills are somewhat of a borrowed authority.’
Natural enemies—
Kraush’s earlier words rang true.
Kraush had stolen the skills from all the gods present in the Middle Realm.
Given that mid-tier gods could plant skills in the realm, it was safe to say that Kraush could counter the majority of godly powers.
‘Of course, it would be different when facing high-tier gods.’
This was merely a tactic effective against mid-tier gods.
Fighting high-tier gods would require pure strength to take them down.
However, at the moment the power of mid-tier gods was canceled out.
The worth of that was far greater than he could imagine.
“Hey.”
Kraush aimed his sword at Maios’s head.
Maios’s body twitched nervously.
With the inability to wield divine power, he could do nothing.
As a result, he trembled with humiliation.
This was an insult he could never tolerate as a mid-tier god.
Yet, upon locking eyes with Kraush, he instinctively averted his gaze.
The powerlessness he felt before high-tier gods now manifested with Kraush too, instilling fear deep within him.
“You know who opened the Lower World Gate, don’t you?”
“…What do you mean by the Lower World Gate?”
“Really?”
Kraush reacted nonchalantly to Maios’s denial, lifting his head.
“Does this guy honestly not understand what I’m saying?”
“N-Never heard of it!”
At that moment, a familiar voice reached Maios’s ears.
His expression hardened as he turned to look.
There stood Gius, peering out from inside the banquet hall.
As soon as Gius locked eyes with Maios, he jumped in shock.
He quickly tried to avert his gaze.
“Gius, you brat!”
Maios’s fury erupted, but Kraush slammed his sword down in front of Maios.
Startled, he fell silent.
Gius didn’t possess much information.
However, he definitely wouldn’t be clueless about everything.
Gius was a low-tier god blacksmith who demonstrated aspirations for ascension.
Seeing potential in him, Maios had taken him under his wing and brought him into Partes.
Low-tier gods with aspirations for ascension usually sought connections among other gods, so Maios had no idea how much Gius knew.
“Hmm, I guess it can’t be helped if you won’t talk.”
Kraush extended his hand toward Maios with a disappointed expression.
Maios squirmed, trying to escape, but when Kraush glared, he fell quiet immediately.
Kraush brought Maios in front of Gius.
It was then that Maios noticed a Celestial standing next to Gius, staring fiercely.
As he regarded the Celestial with a puzzled look, Kraush raised his hand toward Gius.
“Wait! I already told everything! Everything!”
Gius stammered, panic flooding his voice at Kraush’s intentions.
Maios looked at Gius with confusion.
Sure, Gius feared Kraush, but was it going that far for a god to express fear?
However, he quickly changed his mind when he saw the light gathering in Kraush’s palm.
“Ugh, Aaaaaah!”
With Gius’s scream, all of the divine energy within him was sucked into Kraush’s grip.
Maios’s eyes widened, and his face turned pale as he observed this scene.
Moments later, Gius disintegrated into ash.
Maios could only watch in a stupor.
He realized Gius had vanished for good.
Kraush shook his hand and turned back to Maios, the ashes of Gius dancing in the air.
His ashen gaze glimmered ominously.
It was as if he was signaling that Maios could be next.
“W-Wait.”
Maios hastily urged, calling out to Kraush.
He finally got that Kraush had dragged him here with a purpose.
He was aware that Kraush possessed the power to annihilate gods.
And if he didn’t say anything, he, too, would meet the same fate as Gius.
Kraush’s eyes indicated he was dead serious.
He genuinely intended to wipe him out at any moment.
“You seem to be willing to talk now?”
Kraush queried, causing Maios to flinch.
Kraush was an inferior being.
Many in the Middle Realm were beneath the feet of escaped Celestials.
Yet here he was, being threatened by this lowly creature.
This was a blow to his pride.
But seeing the light in Kraush’s clutches, he hesitated.
He knew that cropping up any more rebellion would only lead to him losing his divine energy and perishing.
“…The Lower World Gate was set up by Demaris, a high-tier god affiliated with Partes.”
High-tier gods.
Upon mentioning this even higher being, Kraush stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Could he really stand a chance against a high-tier god in his current condition?
‘Perhaps not.’
Maios, despite being low-tier, had made it easy to overpower him because of Kraush’s unique anomalies.
In a normal situation, they would have had to risk their lives and engage in a fierce battle.
But now, he had not a single doubt he would win against Maios.
Yet, it was ultimately a different story against high-tier gods.
The Thief God had yet to show himself as well.
Despite their efforts, Arthur remained missing.
‘I need to figure out how to open the Lower World Gate and where I’d end up if things went wrong.’
It ultimately led to needing to take down high-tier gods.
‘I need to grow stronger.’
Kraush clenched his hand tightly.
Fortunately for Kraush, he knew precisely how to quickly get stronger.
It was simply by taking down mid-tier gods and absorbing their divine energy.
However, rampantly eliminating mid-tier gods would draw too much attention.
More importantly, Kraush wasn’t thoughtless.
‘Among the mid-tier gods, some are friendly toward the Middle Realm.’
Kraush perceived divine beings as his enemies only if they aimed to disturb the Middle Realm.
If they held no hostile intentions, there was no need to draw blades against them.
‘No sense in needlessly increasing my enemies.’
Given that they were affiliated gods, bothering their allies would only bring about retaliation like today.
He didn’t want to make any rash choices.
‘Then all I need to do is hunt down the ones trying to invade.’
Those fools were out there, and he just needed to find and deal with them.
Right now, Kraush knew precisely who was most knowledgeable about what those invaders were planning.
Kraush’s gaze landed on Maios.
Maios flinched under his scrutinizing stare.
Partes was indeed proactive in trying to invade the Middle Realm.
‘The gods have already begun discussing invading the Middle Realm with one another.’
Other affiliations likely knew if some were considering an invasion.
Thus, he would target and hunt them all down.
Having made his decision, Kraush spoke.
“You, what’s your name?”
“…Maios.”
“If you want to keep your life, follow me for a while and help out. If you do, I’ll guarantee your life.”
Maios regarded Kraush with suspicious eyes.
It was understandable since he had just wiped Gius off the map.
“Will the previous words hold any weight?”
Kraush’s eyes sharpened.
Did he mean to enter into a pact among gods?
“Yeah, I’ll bind myself to your star.”
As Kraush affirmed with a pledge, he felt something seep into his star.
‘There really is some form of pact.’
If he breached it, would some form of trouble arise?
He wasn’t entirely sure, but this gave Maios no reason to doubt anymore.
“Then, just one more thing to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Who was the Partes where you guys attacked the Celestial village out in the yellow plains?”
Upon asking, Maios wore a confused look.
“Didn’t I just tell you earlier?”
The eyes of the Celestial, Lizis, widened significantly.
“A high-tier god….”
She staggered and sat down.
It seemed she had inadvertently become entangled in an act of vengeance against a high-tier god.
