"Let me... become Forest God?"
Think opened her mouth wide, suspecting her ears had broken.
Forget whether Old Deus-level power could be inherited—even if it could, so casually handing over divine-level power to herself was too contrary to reason, right?
"Ryuga-sama, did I hear wrong, nyaa? Did you just say you want to make this weed into a god?"
Forget Think not understanding—even Azril, who had godslaying achievements, couldn't understand at all.
Old Deus were this world's top-tier power, always innate. How could they be granted later?
The only one who, after initial surprise, could quickly regain composure was Jibril, who had spent time at Ryuga's side.
"With master's power, even creating gods is just casual work, let alone granting divine status to others."
In this regard, Jibril had the authority to speak.
Previously, she had been using blessings—that is, using her own power to exercise divine authority, thus raising her strength to match lower-tier Old Deus.
If she used the most critical divine core power of mythological spells, her power would exceed her current level, completely reaching upper-tier Old Deus class.
So she understood that granting divine authority was the simplest thing for Ryuga.
"Although I don't know why master would favor you, if it's master's command, you can only accept."
Jibril looked at Think with eyes full of determination.
"Master has already decided—you'll be Forest God. Don't tell me you want to refuse!"
"...I don't seem to have the qualifications to refuse either."
Think complained sarcastically, then added.
"Besides, no one could refuse such conditions, right?"
The chance to become a god—if this news were given to other factions, they'd definitely fight over it.
Although the condition was to submit to the other party, such conditions were nothing compared to divine-level power.
Even those Elf elders might not refuse such a good opportunity.
Regardless of whether to avenge the previous Forest God, for the Elf race to continue, they needed a divine-level existence for support.
"It's best if you can accept. With your talent, only obtaining Forest God's divine authority can maximize its potential."
Seeing Think's attitude, Ryuga nodded.
With her mortal body, Think could eventually create spells comparable to authority level. If she possessed divine power, her talent would only manifest stronger, even far exceeding the previous Kainath.
For Ryuga, even divine domain-level geniuses could only qualify to assist him when matched with appropriate environments.
"My talent?"
Think was slightly stunned, only now realizing why the other party had kept her.
Although she'd had the title of Flower Crown since childhood, this was the first time someone had valued her importance above divine beings, even thinking her talent sufficient to match divine authority.
For beings in this world, this was tremendous praise.
"With your magnanimity, if you hadn't appeared in this manner, I would prefer to betray my race to offer my loyalty to you."
She sincerely sighed.
In such times, meeting such a generous superior was simply the greatest fortune.
"The result remains unchanged."
Ryuga shook his head.
Whether willing or not, given Think's personality, she had no reason to refuse him.
"You're right."
Think had to admit this point, then asked curiously.
"So, having me succeed as Forest God—do you have some special idea? Like unifying Elf power to conquer the world?"
After having to accept Ryuga's request, she began thinking about Ryuga's purpose.
Actually, there wasn't much to think about.
During the Great War, Old Deus acting had probably only one purpose—the war's prize, the Star Grail.
However, given Ryuga's displayed strength, could Forest God's power and Elf power really help him?
Think expressed doubt.
"No, I only need you to do one thing."
Ryuga shook his head.
"What thing?"
Think asked curiously.
Jibril and Azril also cast curious glances.
"Research divine essence."
Ryuga didn't keep them in suspense.
"Old Deus divine essence actually coordinates in the void. According to my previous deductions, Old Deus can not only draw power from the Spirit Corridor but also capture power called virtual internal energy in the void."
"Your task is simple—stimulate different frequencies of divine essence to successfully observe traces of virtual internal energy and record it for me."
As long as you could observe, you could interfere; if you could interfere, you could control.
For Ryuga, what came after was simple—the initial first step of observation was purely manual labor.
There's a saying in science: your life's work might just save a genius one afternoon teatime.
For Ryuga, Think's value lay precisely here.
Just as graduate students in university labs were mainly used for repeated experiments to capture one possible result, this kind of tedious, repetitive work was necessary but had no technical content, usually assigned to research drones.
Now Think occupied this ecological niche.
If she could successfully observe virtual internal energy's existence, naturally good—saving Ryuga's energy.
Even if she couldn't, Ryuga could improve upon her existing methods, saving some time.
"Virtual internal energy?"
Hearing Ryuga's request, Think was very surprised.
She hadn't expected his goal wasn't some boring world conquest, but some unheard-of power.
"Power outside the Spirit Corridor system... interesting. I understand your meaning!"
As a spell genius, she immediately ignited with motivation.
"Very good!"
Ryuga nodded.
The next instant, the three figures disappeared from the light, directly crossing space to arrive inside the shrine.
Looking at the kneeling Think, Ryuga extended his hand and placed it on her head.
A golden regular polyhedron passed from his palm into Think's body. Nature's divine essence manifested, Forest God's original divine core exerted proliferating effects, directly creating a copied Forest God divine core.
Finally, power from the "Sword's Original Code" directly transformed Think into Ryuga's subordinate god.
Thus, the second Forest God Think Nirvalen was born.
A few seconds later, Think slowly opened her eyes. Feeling the power within her body, her eyes were dazed with disbelief.
She had become a god just like that?
The 168-fold spells came as naturally as instinct, and Forest God's divine essence drew almost infinite power from the Spirit Corridor.
Feeling this divine might capable of easily destroying continents and moons, Think suddenly felt somewhat absurd.
"Clearly possessing such powerful strength, yet spending all these years hiding and doing nothing... what was that useless god thinking?"
She completely couldn't understand.
If she had possessed this power earlier, she could have completely elevated spell development to let all Elves match the Flügel.
For Kainath, this should have been no difficult task.
Facing Think's question, Azril looked at her like she was an idiot.
"Of course it was fear of my Lord God Artosh-sama!"
No matter how strong Forest God was, he couldn't compare to Artosh, that beyond-logic-level Old Deus.
"That's right!"
Looking at Ryuga, Think finally calmed down.
She couldn't get too carried away. Even Old Deus-level power wasn't much in this world.
Ryuga could casually grant her this power, so he could naturally casually take it back.
Feeling the master-servant contract between herself and Ryuga, she no longer had any thoughts of resistance.
"Besides virtual internal energy research, does Ryuga-sama have any other orders?"
Despite becoming a god, Think still very sensibly remained kneeling, asking about Ryuga's plans.
"Uwaa, this is bad, Ryuga-sama!"
At this moment, Azril suddenly jumped up in alarm, looking like her tail was on fire.
"Stupid Ril, don't act like a monkey in front of master!"
Jibril reprimanded her dissatisfiedly.
"No, no! Don't secretly call your sister stupid—even I get hurt hearing that, nyaa... No, now's not the time for this! This is serious, nyaa! The Flügel squad sisters are in trouble, nyaa!"
Azril looked at Ryuga with a panicked expression.
She herself hadn't realized that after acknowledging Ryuga's strength, when encountering problems, her first thought was no longer her own lord but Ryuga.
"Trouble? What trouble could they encounter?"
Jibril's expression became even more puzzled.
"Ryuga-sama told them to organize their own defense if attacked. With their strength, aside from Old Deus, who could give them trouble?"
Over a thousand Flügel—this was a lineup that even Old Deus would fear.
Probably only those upper-tier Old Deus, like Forest God Kainath's level, would be fearless against them!
Think had the same thought. However—
"It is Old Deus, nyaa! They found many targets Ryuga-sama wanted in the Dwarf territory and were discovered by Forge God Ocain. They're now in a standoff, nyaa!"
Azril immediately clarified the situation, then looked at Ryuga with teary eyes.
"Ryuga-sama, please act quickly, nyaa! Although those ground mice aren't worth mentioning, their god is no weaker than Kainath, nyaa! If this drags on, I'm worried our sisters will suffer heavy losses!"
In the past when she led teams, even facing just lower-tier Old Deus required casualties for victory.
Now, although Flügel forces had strengthened, their Old Deus enemies had also grown much stronger. If both sides fought, even with possible victory, the Flügel would lose at least half their number.
Hearing this, Jibril also became nervous. No one knew Old Deus strength better than her.
"Master, please let me go support them! I will defeat the enemy and march toward victory's song!"
Using divine core descent spells, she was confident in fighting upper-tier Old Deus and even slaying them.
"Master, can I also apply to participate in this war?"
After understanding what happened, Think also enthusiastically raised her hand, wanting to join.
The hatred between Elves and Dwarves was long-standing. If there was a chance to slay Forge God Ocain, she wouldn't want to miss it.
Moreover, even in the worst case, they could devastatingly strike the Dwarf race.
With such an activity, she'd willingly pay to participate, let alone show loyalty to her master.
Seeing the three girls' expressions, Ryuga almost instantly understood their thoughts.
Thinking about the grudges between Dwarves and Elves, he pondered for two seconds and nodded.
"I've already understood the Flügel situation through temporary contracts. Although it's not what I wanted, it's worth a trip."
"Since you all want to go, we'll depart now!"
As his words fell, after a subtle spatial fluctuation, all four figures in the shrine disappeared.
The outside Elf nation remained prosperous, completely unaware their god had already fallen.
To be continued…