Greed: All For What? - Chapter 1769: Caution And More Caution.

Even with 25 more men, they stayed still and didn’t move. They are sure that they can overpower the 5 guards and the Oracle quickly, but their Oracle insisted that they wait. So they waited.

This continued for 20 minutes until there was the howl of a wolf outside the tribe. The howl rang out clearly through the night and woke everyone up. The warriors of the tribe reacted quickly. They got their weapons and rushed towards the gate.

The Oracle was also awakened. As a young orc, it is not his duty to defend the tribe. He should stay out of the way. But he is the Oracle, so he should at least be aware of what’s going on. The young Oracle wanted to go to the gate, but his guards advised him to stay away from danger.

It was good advice in that it prevented the first group from ambushing them on their way to the gate. But it also made the distance between them and the bulk of the warriors of the tribe increase by every passing moment.

So the first group waited until most of the warriors had gone to the gate to defend it. Then they pounced on the Oracle and his guards.

It was a massacre. They were outnumbered 6 to 1. The fight was quick, but they still drew attention.

The guards screamed, “Help, intruders.”

This would have been very bad had they attacked when the warriors of the tribe were around. They would have been surrounded quickly and would suffer. But the warriors were at the gate defending the tribe.

The first group finished their mission and whistled loudly into the night. Their whistle certainly drew the attention of the warriors, if they hadn’t heard the previous call for help. They looked back in horror and anger. Then they rushed back to assist.

They were on their way back when they were ambushed by the second group. Their situation became worse when the first group joined in the fight. The fourth group threw in the burning incidiaries into the tribe, broke down the gate, and rushed in with the wolves. They attacked the warriors from behind to complete the encirclement.

The warriors were doomed. They were caught off guard and surrounded. They thought they were defending from wolves from the safety of their walls, so they had only taken their bows, and they didn’t wear any armor because they were in a rush. Their enemies, on the other hand, were well prepared. The result was set in stone. They surrendered quickly after their strongest, the chief, was killed.

Warshaw waited outside of the tribe with the fifth group until Axec came to inform her of their victory. Only then did she enter the tribe.

She first informed 9 crowns of their progress and waited for direction. If Legion-3 was not on standby, she would have had to wait for a long time. Fortunately, he had all the time in the world to dedicate to the mission, so his instruction came very quickly.

She said to the captives, “You have done wrong. You have gone astray. You have worshipped false gods. For that, you must be punished. 99 of your most sinful will use your blood to atone for your sins in hopes that the 9 Crowns will save your souls. The rest of you will denounce the false god that led you astray and accept the embrace of the 9 crowns.”

The 99 that were selected were the family members of the staunchest believers. Warshaw found them through the unpleasant glow of faith she saw on them. That glow marked them as believers in other gods.

They were not up to 99, so she added the family of the dead Oracle to make up the number. Then she personally slit their throats on the new altar that was erected for the 9 Crowns.

Everyone from the expanded Bull Horn tribe cheered as each sacrifice disappeared into golden motes of light. They also sacrificed all the gold coins they could find. Then they danced until morning came to celebrate their victory.

—-Up In Divine Realm.

One of the god seeds in the temple roared in frustration. Legion-3 didn’t think it was the god seed whose Oracle they just killed, as many god seeds have roared recently. But he can imagine that the god seed will also be frustrated for losing their Oracle.

The repercussions of the death of the Oracle are dire right now. With their Oracles dead, the connection of the god seeds to the mortal realm has been cut off. They will need to create an altar very quickly so that they can interfere directly in the mortal realm again. But how can they do so when they have stopped receiving prayers and sacrifices?

Without prayers, god seeds won’t be able to replenish their divine energy, and without divine energy, a god seed is on their way to death. Plus, there is no way to get the souls they need to build the altar without an Oracle to connect them to the mortal realm. So, without an Oracle, god seeds are all but doomed.

Legion-3 chuckled, thinking about the reaction of the god seed whose Oracle they just killed. Then he looked at the 100 souls in his inventory with satisfaction. This was the main prize, but the divine energy they received from the sacrifice wasn’t so bad either.

Legion finally accumulated everything they needed to build their altar. They have their divinity, divine crystals, mortal souls, and mortal gold. All it took them was three days of dedicated work by all the clones.

Legion-3 remained in the temple while the other clone began their journey back to Gemmis. It was after they had reached the gates of Gemmis that he moved away from the divine investiture to go to their destination.

The clones went to the auction house first to buy the core of the altar. They can buy a lot of other things in the auction house, but they need to be godlings for them.