Chapter 511 - 368: Weaving Divine Authority

Chapter 511: Chapter 368: Weaving Divine Authority

Authority is not the same as Divine Authority.

This was a point Isaac only came to understand after studying Virtual Deities.

To put it simply, Divine Authority can be understood as a finished Magic Potion, while Authority is the base ingredient used to create it.

Thus, one can find many overlapping names and abilities among Divine Authorities, such as Maxu Kant’s earliest Divine Authority and Trist’s racial Divine Authority.

The reason for this power’s existence is also quite simple: it was the Deities’ attempt to bypass Primal Authority.

Primal Authority is the next level up from Authority. But unlike Authority, a complete Primal Authority can only have one holder, just like a High-level Curse.

The difference is that the uniqueness of a High-level Curse comes from Mystery, whereas Primal Authority *is* Mystery itself!

Isaac was not entirely unfamiliar with this Primal Authority. The ancient Evil God contracted to his Demon Eye controlled a portion of the Primal Authority of [Illusion and Reality]. Even though Isaac could only borrow the faintest sliver of that power, it was still a trump card for him.

This also showed that the path of Divine Authority was, in fact, a failure. Authority was still just Authority; no matter how it was combined or augmented, it could never match a true Primal Authority.

However, it wasn’t a complete failure. At the very least, Divine Authority did allow Deities to grow even stronger, helping them reach new heights.

And according to the information Isaac found in the Flesh Sect’s records after he returned, Divine Authority was not the current limit of a Deity’s power.

After discovering that the power of Divine Authority was far inferior to Primal Authority, the Deities didn’t give up. Instead, they began using Divine Authority as a stepping stone to Primal Authority!

The gap between Authority and Primal Authority was simply too vast. However, with Divine Authority as an intermediate step, the difficulty of seizing a Primal Authority would be somewhat reduced. If one were lucky enough, they might even stumble upon an undiscovered Primal Authority and gain a first-mover advantage, monopolizing it completely!

Unfortunately, no such lucky individual has ever appeared.

It was worth noting that the methods Wizards now used to grasp Primal Authority were learned from the Deities. And the Deities’ method, well, that was developed after the Wizards rose to prominence...

In the current era of coexistence between Wizards and Deities, research concerning Deities was a closely guarded secret in any organization. Access was only granted after multiple levels of review. This particular piece of information, however, required no special clearance beyond reaching Tier Four.

The reason was simple, and Isaac knew it well. ’It’s to make sure the Wizards of this new era don’t underestimate the Deities. Their strength doesn’t come solely from their innate status!’

This lesson was even more important for Mad Witches!

He had to admit, it was a useful bit of knowledge. After learning this, Isaac did indeed let go of some of his disdain for the Deities.

’Despise the enemy strategically, but take them seriously tactically!’

’Although, given the current climate of public opinion, confronting Deities wasn’t exactly encouraged...’

At his desk, Isaac stared at the papers in his hand, his brow slowly furrowing. While a single Divine Authority could be formed from multiple combinations, for a trading ritual, only one specific formula would work.

And therein lay the problem.

Creating a Divine Authority by combining Authorities wasn’t difficult for Isaac. He could even reverse-engineer the Authority formula from a given Divine Authority, though it would be more time-consuming.

But all of this was predicated on one thing: Isaac first needed to obtain a sample of Manchester’s Divine Authority...

But to get the Divine Authority, he had to create the formula first...

’What the hell...’

"Hiss..." Faced with this Zandala problem, even Isaac couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.

Fortunately, Isaac’s research on Deities was quite extensive. After a moment of concentration, his furrowed brow slowly smoothed out. He had found a solution.

Manchester had sealed off all external communication. During its millennia-long slumber, all traces of its power had gradually dissipated. They couldn’t be found in the Real World, let alone this Little World.

At least, Isaac hadn’t been able to find any in the short time he’d been looking.

But he wasn’t completely without options. There was one piece of information the Deity had been unable to seal away: its Divine Name!

That was the most difficult information to conceal, impossible to seal away completely!

Deities relied on Faith to increase their power, and spreading that Faith required a Divine Name. The Divine Name, in turn, served as a medium for the Power of Faith and was intrinsically linked to its corresponding Divine Authority.

As long as he could spread its Divine Name and use a ritual to gather the related Concepts, Isaac could obtain a sliver of its Divine Power. From there, tracing the Divine Authority would be much easier.

In fact, the only reason he needed to spread the Divine Name was because he was stuck in the Little World. Otherwise, he could have skipped that step and directly set up a ritual to gather the [Concept].

Just because almost no one in this Little World knew of Manchester didn’t mean it was unknown in the Real World.

After all, who could help that it was an Evil God?

And the greatest characteristic of an Evil God was its incredibly potent form of being Undying!

Theoretically, they were even harder to kill than Dimensional Demon Gods!

A Dimensional Demon God’s undying nature at least had a concrete anchor: its Dimension.

If that Dimension was destroyed, even the Demon God would die. It was incredibly difficult, but still possible.

But Evil Gods were different. The anchor for their undying nature was cognition!

As long as records of it existed in the world, as long as someone knew of it, it could not die!

To truly kill an Evil God, one had to completely erase it on a conceptual level, making everyone—including oneself—forget its existence!

The difficulty was immense.

Of course, immense difficulty didn’t mean it was impossible. Therefore, even an Evil God entering a deep slumber would make arrangements beforehand to ensure its Divine Name would be passed down.

Unfortunately, the Little World clearly lacked such conditions, which meant Isaac would have to spread the name himself.

Fortunately, that wasn’t difficult for him. It was a simple matter of having Philo issue a decree. After all, he was only spreading the Divine Name, not organizing prayer rituals, so the impact wouldn’t be too significant.

Philo was a Mad Witch, after all. She wasn’t one to be overly terrified of an Evil God.

「Three days later.」

Under Philo’s decree, the name of Manchester Yifalei, the God of Mystery and Wisdom, began to spread throughout the Little World. And as the name circulated, a strange, evil power began to permeate the world as well.

This was the manifestation of Manchester’s Divine Power on the conceptual level. If left unchecked, Faith in Manchester would likely have taken root in this Little World within a few years.

Unfortunately for the Deity, Isaac gave it no such chance.

Upon the completion of Isaac’s concept-gathering ritual, the strange, evil power permeating the Little World vanished completely. Philo, in turn, rescinded the decree spreading the Divine Name. Without the decree to sustain it, the evil power lost its source of regeneration.

Philo’s mood, however, did not lighten. She knew exactly what Isaac was doing...

In all of history, Isaac was the first Mad Witch to ever attempt something like this!

At least, among all the recorded Mad Witches who had survived, none had ever been this insane!