Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius noted Maleck's words as he found a few specks of important information in them. He knew that the gods did actually watch mortals, though not as often as one would think. They were usually busy doing whatever they liked and only watched the mortals when something interesting happened or if an alarm was detected.

There were different methods that gods used to rule over the mortals, but most of them chose to automate it unless there was something very important to do. Though there were exceptions to this, of course.

The smaller a god's domain, the fewer people they would have. This almost meant that the god would watch their people more often than the bigger gods. It was simply a game of numbers and they wanted to ensure that their believers did not leave them or lose faith in them.

This was one of the reasons why tribal gods showed a direct interaction with their believers that the gods of large churches. Lucius didn't know if this world was bigger or smaller than his previous world, but he knew this, that the Grantz kingdom's population was far smaller than even the territory of the Barrom clan.

While there was no official population census done for over a century in this kingdom, it was a widely accepted fact that the kingdom had over two hundred million people living in it. This was calculated using the funds that the Church of Alana got every year.

Lucius had even tried to verify it on his end and came up with the same conclusion that the population of the Grantz Kingdom should be around two hundred and three hundred million people.

It was safe to say that for a single kingdom of medical time, its population was quite a lot. Though this was just one kingdom. One had to know that the three churches actually had believers out of the Grantz kingdom as well.

If this was considered then the number of believers that the gods had under them would still be less than what was in Lucius's past world. In those three gods, Etara had a relatively smaller base.

In short, there was actually a significant chance that Etara was watching people. This was a worrying point for Lucius as it would mean that the gods would know of his secret that he was not from this world.

And on top of that, they would also know of his affiliation with hell. Hell was something that most gods were opposed to and detested any being that was linked to it. A major part was because all things related to hell could corrupt the domains of other gods.

This was a great taboo, no matter where one went, and thus it was a common point among most gods that hell was dangerous and a common enemy. 

'But if Etara is truly watching then there is a chance that she gave me Nexus as well. It is obvious that it did not belong to the original Asher as it was imprinted on my soul. The only way this could be done is by divine intervention.' Lucius thought to himself.

In the one minute, Maleck had spoken, Lucius had come up with all these ideas and inferences. If others were to see his thoughts, they would have probably been shocked by it, if not scared.

"Shall we start the ceremony?" Priest Maleck questioned.

"Of course, prise Maleck. Here are the Aether crystals." Lucius said as he handed the box with two Aether crystals to the man.

Maleck took the box and opened it to reveal the two crystals in it. He then slotted them in two of the four empty sockets on the altar. Lucius had previously seen these sockets during the last ceremony, but they were empty back then too.

But then he understood the reason for it. The rev next second after the aether crystals were slotted into the slots, they were drained of Aether and crumbled. In exchange, the book that was floating over the sphere opened up, showing that the altar was not active.

"Everything is ready and running as we want. We can start as soon as you place your hand on this, Young Lord Asher." Priest Maleck spoke.

Lucius nodded his head and approached the altar. Kiana watched on, feeling a bit nervous as her hands clasped tightly around each other.

A low humming sound was heard as Lucius placed his hand on the sphere. Lucius watched on in anticipation to see the kind of light that was going to be shown to him, but something else happened.

Lucius felt the Aether within his body being depleted at a rapid rate. But it was not being sucked by the Appraisal altar, but rather Nexus.

'Can it be…' Lucius thought to himself as he saw a string of words appearing in front of him.

Artifact Name: Appraisal Sphere of Etara

Artifact Grade: Legendary 

Description: The Appraisal sphere can scan the gift of a person and compare it with the stored information in the grand repository of Etara, displaying the name of the gift. The artifact can only tell names of gifts that have already been in existence and all new gifts need to be recorded before it can show any information.

Evolution: Possible

Seeing the information in front of him, Lucius was shocked. He had not expected the appraisal sphere to be an artifact itself. Not only that, but a legendary artifact on top of that. But this was merely the start of the situation, as he wasn't the only one shocked.

"This… it can't be…" Priest Maleck said, while stammering. 

The sphere did not let out any light, but rather it became dimmer and dimmer until a pitch black color covered it. The book that showed the name of the gift also didn't open up and stayed closed.

Kiana, who was watching it, was confused and didn't know what was happening. 

"What's the result, Priest Maleck?" Kiana asked, feeling nervous.