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Translator: adomman
Editor: Snorri
Artemis, who was guarding Amon in the solitary space-time, Seth, who was waiting for Amon on earth, and even Amon himself did not expect that he would be “reborn” in such a way, descending on the Plains of Duc involuntarily.
Artemis watched in dismay as Amon left before her eyes, his form transformed into a golden light in Nel, the luster of the Gods’ Tear that had been strangely refined into the form of the gods during the ordeal. There was also a silvery chill in the golden light, which was the Edge of Order that changed with Amon’s body and mind. The luster disappeared with a scattering tail of light, breaking through the space-time to earth.
In the next instant, Amon appeared in the clouds and saw an incomparably familiar but also slightly unfamiliar sight. On the left and right, two kilometers apart, were two fortresses, the two strategic strongholds built by Aesop twenty kilometers north of Salem, to prevent and counter the advances of Enlil City.
These two fortified fortresses were now covered with smoke and fire, while the walls were broken and crumbling in many places, so one could only imagine what kind of fierce battles they had experienced. In the open space between the fortresses, the Salem Legion and the Giant Legion of Enlil were facing each other in formation.
Many of the warriors of Salem Legion had tattered armor and were tired from the bitter battles, and many of them were still wounded, but after being bandaged and treated, they gritted their teeth and held on to the battle formation. And looking at the opposite Giant Legion, although they also had traces of bitter battles, the morale of those sturdy and tall giant warriors was still high, their armor still mostly in one piece, and their military formation was neat and carried a murderous aura.
Amon was also a veteran general, and when he saw the situation he knew that if the two armies fought at this moment, the Salem legion would be crushed. If that happened, it would mean complete defeat for Salem, but Amon actually appeared in such a critical time and place.
Amon saw the people on the ground, and the soldiers of the two armies also coincidentally looked up and saw God Amon on the clouds, a lofty figure with ten thousand feet of golden light and bits of silver appearing suddenly from the void. The generals of the Salem Legion, who had just been praying in silence, now let out an earth-shattering cheer in unison.
Amon’s reaction was almost instantaneous, and after appearing, he transformed into a hundred-foot figure and waved his hand toward the ground, and the golden glow fell on the soldiers of the Salem legion. It was the most powerful theurgy he had mastered, the Guardianship of Isis, or perhaps it should be called the “Guardianship of Amon” at this moment.
It was on the basis of this magic that Amon managed to pass the judgment of fate and finally become a god. Back then, when the Gods’ Tear which Amon sacrificed had been destroyed in the black lightning, it was amazingly refined into a golden liquid which integrated into God Amon’s new body. One could say that Amon’s divine form now contained the power of the Gods’ Tear.
Amon became a god, regained his powerful magic and appeared on earth. Casting this magic with all his might, it healed all the wounds suffered by the soldiers, and more importantly, inspired and motivated their courage to fight and strengthened their belief in victory.
As he disappeared in front of Artemis, he suddenly heard the prayers and calls of countless people, as if an invisible force had finally broken through some barrier and forcibly led him here. In the sound of these prayers and calls, Amon instantly understood what had happened.
Amon did not expect that so much time had passed on earth, as his feeling in that lonely space-time was that only two days had passed at most. When he appeared in the sky above the battlefield, the first thought which came to his mind after he understood what had happened was that of Horus. He asked Horus if he had appeared on the battlefield because Inanna had shown up. And Horus was not able to say anything at that time, but only said, “Not exactly because of that…you do not yet understand the matters of the gods.”
Now Amon finally understood what was going on. Horus was forcibly summoned by the people of Ejypt to appear, and the same was true of Amon at this moment.
Back then, when the war at the Khenmet defense line was in the thick of action, it was just in time for one of the three most significant sacrificial festivals of the Ejyptian Empire every year. At that time, the entire population of the Empire was watching the battle, and Pharaoh personally conducted a ceremony to offer sacrifices to Horus in the city of Cape, and almost all the people prayed and called to Horus in their hearts to show a miracle and to help the Ejyptian army to repel the powerful Uruk Legion.
Pharaoh Ramses II also decreed that all cities of the Empire should perform the same prayer and summoning during the sacrificial ceremony. The supreme mages of the Academy of Magic, who were well versed in astronomy, even made projections based on the pattern of the movement of the sun, requiring each city to offer sacrifices to the Horus at the same time, depending on the angle of the sun. An-Ra was once known as the oldest sun god, and Horus was also known as the sun god, and this was the most solemn ceremony held in the Ejyptian Empire.
Horus was the king of the Ennead, and the divine realm of Ennead was also the source of his divine power, so Horus had a more powerful source of power than other gods. This power could constantly repair his soul, which was a great benefit and help for a god. Amon now also had his own source of divine power, and during the judgment of fate, this power also played an important role. Otherwise, Amon might not have passed that test.
But everything has a cause and an effect, and in some cases, gods would also be subject to mortal “coercion”. The usual prayers of the faithful contain their own desires, chaos and there is no common pattern between them, so the impact on a god is minimal, and Horus could ignore them if he chooses to. But the situation on that day was different. The people of the Empire were united in their beliefs, and this formed a powerful summoning force. It was able to “kidnap” Horus, who was far away in the kingdom of God, to appear in the sky over the Khenmet battlefield.
Right now, Amon also encountered a similar situation. All the people of Salem who stayed behind today participated in one of the greatest sacrificial ceremonies ever, praying to God Amon, calling on him to perform miracles and to repel the powerful enemy. The faith of all was as one and unmistakable, and the warriors on the front lines were praying the same prayer as they faced the mighty Giant Legion.
Amon had no other shrines, and at this moment all his believers were uttering the same prayers at the same time. Amon could have ignored it in Nel, but after the power reached a certain level, God Amon was involuntarily “kidnapped”!
Why was there such an organized action in Salem? On one hand, it was because the situation was really precarious, and on the other hand, it was also due to the guidance of a “higher power”, for Goddess Mourrin had sent down an oracle. Mourrin had no choice but to do so, because she knew that Seth and Enlil were guarding the mouth of the Nile River, and Amon would be in danger of perishing if he returned to earth. If Amon had not regained his senses in Nel, who knew how long he would take to return to earth. Mourrin was anxious and worried, so she tried this method.
Gathering the will of the faithful to “kidnap” a god was very difficult to succeed, and for some gods, it was not effective at all. For example, when Ejypt held a universal sacrificial ceremony, they inadvertently forced out Horus, but they would not have been able to do so to An-Ra. To do so, there were two prerequisites: the first is that the god must have its own source of divine power, and from the prayers of the people, absorb the power that could repair the soul. The second is that there must be enough believers, with a pure and sincere belief in the same thing, and to call upon this god at the same time. When the prayers and summoning of countless people form a force strong enough, the god can be called to appear.
This was theoretically true, but the possibility was very small. It is almost impossible for so many people in a vast divine realm to all make the same invocation at the same time with the most devout faith! Because the heart cannot be forced, even though a mortal ruler could order the people to pray to the same god at the same time, he could not force the majority of the people to have a refined faith. Maybe some people are pretending to pray to the gods when their hearts are thinking of a certain beautiful woman beside them, and this is very normal for most people.
There is also another kind of situation in the world. For example, Enlil was the king of both the Hittite and Assyrian kingdoms, but there was friction between the two kingdoms, and this meant that he certainly would not have the same desires in his divine realm at the same time calling upon him.
As for Amon’s case, it was a very special situation, and Mourrin had waited until this day to have the opportunity to use such means. There were only two shrines in the city of Salem, one was the well-known Shrine of Amon, while the other was the shrine built by the people of Duc for Allaha, and almost all of his believers were also located in Salem.
Whether it was the original inhabitants of the city or the later settlers, they all came here to build their dream home, and when the city of Salem was in a critical situation, the goddess Mourrin gave a timely hint and guidance by her oracle, so all the people were united and sincere! At the same time, the people of Duc were also praying to Allaha, and the power of that call was converging into it.
The population of the city of Salem had now reached more than 20,000, and the majority of the people believed in God Amon. If their numbers had been smaller, if their beliefs had been more mixed, or if the situation in Salem had not been so critical, or if Mourrin had not sent such an oracle, or if Amon’s soul power had been stronger, this invocation might not have succeeded. But this time, it worked!
Mourrin’s intention was to save Amon, but in fact, it might have saved Seth, who didn’t know that Amon had regained his power with Artemis’ help. If Amon had returned to earth in the normal way, he would have encountered Seth, and Amon would never have let him go.
No matter how much power Seth has recovered, and whether Amon was a match for him, a life and death battle would certainly ensue. And if Amon was in danger of perishing, Artemis could hardly ignore it. As the location happened to be at the border of the Ennead, Artemis could either help Amon escape or lead the battlefield outside the Ennead to help Amon deal with Seth directly. In either case, Seth would pay a heavy price, and there was even the possibility of perishing.
As a goddess, Mourrin also could not have predicted everything she had not seen and known, but she went about the problem in her own way, and it worked. But there was another god, Enlil, who was one of the two kings of the Anunnaki. As the leader of the victorious side of the battle of the gods, Enlil was more sophisticated than Mourrin.
At that time, Mourrin was the first to leave, and Enlil felt very surprised. Then, he thought that Mourrin might use such means to save Amon, so he only left a shadow in the clouds, and then returned to his own divine realm. In Enlil’s opinion, if Mourrin did not intervene, Seth, who had recovered seventy to eighty percent of his power, would be enough to deal with a seriously wounded Amon.
He left a shadow to keep an eye on the situation there, and to use it to block Amon if he tried to escape. Enlil focused on preventing Mourrin from playing other tricks and made arrangements in the dark, which again the goddess Mourrin did not know.
As the battle on the Plains of Duc reached a critical point, Enlil accurately predicted the birth of God Amon. Just after Mourrin sent down an oracle in the city of Salem, Enlil also sent down a targeted oracle in Enlil City, which was known to only a few people.
Enlil prophesied that God Amon would appear on the battlefield between the two armies, and so the Giant Legion had made preparations in the event that it really happened, which even Mourrin was not aware of, much less Amon. But Enlil, who successfully made the prophecy, also did not understand another thing. Although Amon was summoned by the people of Salem, he did seem like he was badly injured as he should be after the judgment of fate but had fully recovered his power.
Amon appeared on the battlefield and heard the prayers and calls of thousands of people in his soul, and then learned about the battles that had taken place in the city of Salem over the past two years. He took on a majestic form and cast the Guardianship of Isis, showering the sky with golden light. The morale of the legions of Salem was boosted, and they instantly entered a state of frenzied excitement, forgetting their wounds and fatigue, their hearts filled with the conviction of victory.
On the other hand, the Giant Legion was in an uproar, and several thousand warriors simultaneously emitted a buzzing sound. That was a ragged gasp from their nostrils, filled with shock and fear. Yet at this very moment, something that no one could have imagined happened!
The front and center of the Giant Legion’s army formation suddenly spread out, and even the chariot of the army leader Felix moved aside. A mage wearing white robes and holding a staff appeared, and behind him, there was a stone platform made of hard boulders, about ten feet square and more than half a person high. On the stone platform stood a woman, and she drew her bow and shot an arrow towards God Amon in the air.
The woman, who was small in stature, drew an unimaginably huge long bow and shot a huge black arrow which was filled with the carvings of magic formations. As the woman drew the bowstring, the mage in front of the stone platform waved his staff forward, and a huge amount of power magic instantly coalesced on the shot arrow.
The mage was a ninth-level supreme mage called Faust, and he was the Sage Advisor of the Assyrian Kingdom. He used his strongest magic to do only two things, one was to stimulate the magic formation engraved on the giant arrow to infuse the most powerful energy impact, and the second was to cast the detection magic to firmly lock on Amon in the sky.
The archer on the stone platform was the Assyrian Queen Naqia, and the moment she appeared, Amon recognized her. This person was the assassin who had attempted to assassinate Maria during Hapisidis. Back then, that arrow was so powerful that only Gilgamesh’s divine arrow could be compared to it, and even Amon’s own bow and arrow skills had been imitated and borrowed from her archery.
At this moment this arrow was far more amazing than back then, as she did not have to hide like back then or have to consider escaping afterward, so she could just shoot an arrow with all her strength. Faust could also calmly assist her with his magic, and Naqia’s power at this time had only grown stronger compared to a few years ago.
Amon was also shocked when he saw this arrow shot, and he realized that this woman was a rare ninth-level supreme warrior on the continent, and she also knew magic. The power of this arrow was no less than the sword strike that Enkidu had used to cut Horus back then!
……
What situation had happened in Salem that could make Goddess Mourrin guide the people to summon God Amon successfully? Just a short time ago, Amon’s disciple Hardedef was killed in battle. Hardedef’s lover, Misphi, who was another disciple of Amon and had the nickname of “Flower of Memphis” in Ejypt, died in battle to save Hardedef.
Hardedef was the chief general in charge of the Salem armies, the front commander of the Salem legion, and he had trained the armies of Salem personally for several years. One could only imagine what kind of hardships the city of Salem had to endure and what kind of fierce battles it had to endure. How did the situation in Plains of Duc develop into what it is today?
From the time Amon left the Garden of Eden without a trace until he became a god and returned to earth to appear over the battlefield, a total of three years and three months had passed, and the chaotic war between the countries around the Plains of Duc could be roughly divided into three stages –
Shortly after Amon’s departure, the Hittite kingdom sent the Anu legion to enter the Plains of Duc through the trade route in Charcoal Marsh.
The head of the Anu Legion was the imperial general Art Leskin, and the chief priest was unexpectedly Princess Celia, while the front commander was Aruka, who had recently advanced to an eighth-level supreme warrior. This legion was the absolute elite of the Hittite Kingdom, and its team of priests did not only consist of one supreme mage in Celia, as Raphael was also ordered to join the Anu legion, becoming the deputy chief priest supporting Princess Celia.
There were many occasions where it was not appropriate for the princess to charge into battle herself, and Raphael, who was young but had been in the field for a long time, was actually the general who directly commanded the mages in battle. The appointment of the main generals of the legion by King Asher of the Hittite was a clear expression of the attitude of open cooperation with the city of Salem, and several of them had a good relationship with Amon and the city of Salem.
Hardedef nooo 🙁