ALL NOVEL 72 – Consequences
Since Lucy didn't have to do anything in the battle against Zack, she still had the 1 million Divine Power Points available to deal with the demons that were chasing the mortals below us.
Even if I had 2.2 million, for Lucy to deal with these humans who only had powers at the level of mages or low-ranking warriors wasn't difficult at all, so I just focused on recording what was happening to post on the internet.
To avoid spending an extreme amount of Divine Power, I decided to record in just 15 FPS and with a resolution as low as 360p, which compared to the 4k resolution videos that people in my previous world were used to seeing, might seem awful, but for people in this world it was more than enough.
I only recorded 10 minutes of this, which was the time it took Lucy to deal with these demons, but those few minutes of recording were enough to drain 300k Divine Power Points from me, a cost of 500 Divine Power Points per second of recording.
Not to mention the cost of letting mortals watch it on their internet...
Being able to play such a video on the internet would mean that I would lose Divine Power to let them watch it with the lack of video technology I had now.
So I had to think of another way to circulate this video on the internet.
My idea was to show this video to the leaders of the four kingdoms that I controlled, or rather five kingdoms, now that I had also taken over Aetheris, and to make it available to them by releasing access to this video only to the leaders of the kingdom's cities.
So only a few hundred people could play this video, show it to the population, use it as an incentive for people to use the internet and pray that they would feed their iMonsters, and instead of me having a cost on it, I would receive a Divine Power profit because of this video.
Even if one or two hundred people played the video dozens of times a day to show to groups of mortals, the cost would be nowhere near as great as letting each of the almost 2 million believers I had play that video just once each.
Sure, while recording, I avoided recording Lucy's body, so that they wouldn't know what the goddess looked like and their worship would be focused on something more ethereal and distant, a perfect image in their imagination, rather than the concrete appearance we had.
After dealing with the demons, the people who survived in the town were devastated.
A village of just a few hundred people had been reduced to a group of no more than 70 people now.
Not only would the survivors have problems dealing with all the land and crops that were left behind by the dead, but their mentality was so shattered that they might not be able to cope with anything that was left behind...
When Lucy flew back to me, I could tell from her expression that she had also realized this fact.
Even though she was a goddess, raised as a goddess in the divine world, someone who should see mortals only as cattle to produce Divine Power for her, Lucy was still a little crestfallen to see the sadness in the people below.
As she had decided to use her Divine Power when she arrived in the mortal world to move rivers and help the population of Novera, it was clear that she was more sensitive to the feelings and well-being of mortals than most of the other gods.
“Is there anything we could do to help them?” Lucy asked worriedly, not caring that she had to spend at least 100k Divine Power Points to deal with the demons.
Looking at the mortals, I thought of something.
“I can't do anything to make their pain go away, the only thing I can do is use my divinity to help ease that pain...” I said as I floated down to the level where mortals were mourning the dead and helping the wounded.
As I was using my divine consciousness, they couldn't see me, let alone notice my control over my Divine Power making things appear out of nowhere.
The first thing that appeared was a very long wooden table, above which I began to use Divine Power to create various dishes of food, drinks, sweets, snacks, and other types of food that could distract these people from the loss of their friends and relatives.
I know that trying to distract yourself and ignore the pain may not be the best way to deal with problems, but apart from this way of helping, I couldn't think of anything else.
When I brought things out, some people noticed and looked around the tables with fear and suspicion, but when the smell of food spread through the place, it only took a few seconds for some people to lose their fear and try a cake.
With the first person tasting and liking the flavor of the cake, more and more people approached with curiosity and started eating it.
Gradually, the happiness of tasting delicious food that they had never eaten before overcame the sadness of the people.
They were still sad about the loss of their friends and family, but the help of a magician summoning waves to attack the demons and protect them, then this lot of delicious food appearing made them at least forget about it for a little while.
I even made a sound out of nowhere, with my voice sounding powerful and majestic, as well as slightly altered so that it didn't sound so much like Athenos' voice, just in case.
“Even in the darkest hours, when all seems lost and fear takes over, remember that you are not alone. Your loved ones will never be forgotten, and now, together, we will build a stronger future.
The internet is a flame that connects us, bringing knowledge, consolation and power. Use it to honor the departed and to ensure that darkness will never have dominion over you again. With each click, with each new learning, you will be reinforcing their legacy and creating new hopes for tomorrow.
Using prayer [...] you will be able to learn how to defend yourself, as well as many other skills for your daily life. Know that the God of the Internet will be watching over you and protecting you from now on.”
When mortals heard this voice coming out of nowhere, they were shocked and horrified, but the more they heard what the God of the Internet had to say to them, people began to cry and kneel as they repeated the prayer they had heard only once during my explanation, a prayer full of difficult words, with meanings they didn't understand, but which they gratefully memorized every word.
Before long I had another 70 new believers, which for my current number of believers may mean almost nothing, but after looking at each of those sad and happy faces, I was happy to see the number of believers rise by 70 on my status screen.
Flying back to Lucy, I saw the huge smile on her face.
“Thank you Adrian.” She said in a relieved voice.
“No need to thank them, they're my believers too.” I replied calmly.
“I know, but you didn't have to deal with them in such a kind way, and yet you did.” She said smiling. She said smiling. “The Divine Power you spent to summon that meal, plus the audio message, came at such a cost that they would need months of praying to you to recoup that cost.”
What she said was true, but I didn't regret it.
I might not be the best person in the world, the good Samaritan, the pure-hearted Clark that everyone would like to hope for, since I was vindictive and didn't care so much about dealing in extreme ways against people who deserved it, but I wasn't a monster who liked to see the suffering of those I could help either.
Considering that in a few minutes I'd gain the Divine Power I'd spent helping these people, it wouldn't hurt to help them, especially seeing how happy Lucy was about it.
With her being part of my pantheon, it was important to keep our relations good, and there was nothing better than improving that by doing something that I also think is good.
Opening up the internet, I was all set to make a group on [Carrier Pigeon] with the leaders of all four countries I had already conquered, before going to Aetheris and convincing the leaders of that country to adopt the God of the Internet as the country's god to add them to that group as well, but something caught my eye.
[What were those things falling from the sky?!]
[I don't know, but something like that fell near my town, could it be the work of some God?]
[Where is your town, post above?]
[I live in the Duchy of Vallenfort, in Eldoria].
[I'm from Eldoria too! This thing fell in a village near the village I live in, I'm gathering a group of men to go and check it out].
[Good luck!]
[Good luck! X2]
[Good luck! X3]
[Good luck! X4]
[DON'T COME! I LIVE IN THE VILLAGE WHERE THIS THING FELL! THIS IS DEMONIC WORK! PEOPLE ARE GOING CRAZY AND KILLING EACH OTHER, WE'RE FLEEING TO YOUR VILLAGE, PLEASE PREPARE THE WARRIORS!]
[OMG, what's happening?!]
[Didn't you have an iMonster to protect you?!]
[...]
[GLORY TO GOD! FOR SOME REASON THE MONSTERS GOT SCARED OF SOMETHING AND RAN AWAY, WE'RE SAFE...]
[Come to our village, we'll help!]
[...]
After that, conversations ranged among the mortals about what was happening, trying to understand what they had seen, whether it was true, worried about the people, but there were some more astute mortals, who picked up on something that I also noticed.
There was nothing that could make the demons run away in fear, apart from something more powerful than them.
I believe that even iMonsters at Lv 20 wouldn't make demons afraid, maybe they'd beat them in battle, but the difference in strength wouldn't be so great as to make them afraid.
And something more powerful that could make them afraid, the only thing I could think of was a God.
More specifically, the God of Fear!
With that in mind, I changed my priority from controlling Aetheris to dealing with it later and flew back at high speed with Lucy while explaining to her what had happened.
I hope the God of Fear didn't do anything stupid that he'll regret in the future while I wasn't home...
///NunuNote///
Read 25+ Advanced Chapters on my Patreon!