Chapter 421: Divine Progression (1)
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'How to earn divinity as fast as possible?' – In the 21st century, the answer to that was easy. The Internet.
At the same time, people were less trusting these days. Even if one were to reveal to the world his powers, few would buy it. Even if they do assume it's truly a supernatural thing, they won't believe he's God, thanks to the disgusting amount of fantasy fictional works, magic and all of that was more open to a concept in people's heads. If someone suddenly flew into the sky, if someone walked on water out of nowhere, people wouldn't think he was God or Jesus.
"How needlessly complicated."
Neji murmured as he landed on his feet, outside the door of his Japanese mansion. He reached out a hand to open the door when he frowned, feeling a divine presence waiting inside.
"Oh right. Some Japanese Gods wanted to meet me. Bad timing." Neji paused to think for a moment. "Oh well. They can watch."
He withdrew his hand from the door and let it open with his will. The door parted and he stepped in. Passing the front of the house where shoes were kept, Neji stopped in front of the living room. There was an interesting mixture of people there.
First were his followers; Asia, Raynare, Xenovia and Irina. The first two sat side by side on a couch, while the latter two stood behind them with their holy swords sheathed on their waist. Opposite them were two people, a woman sitting on the couch and a man behind her.
If there were a fight to break out among them without Neji, his followers wouldn't even survive a minute. They were all stronger than before now, blessed with a Dragon Sage Seal, and also having gone through a series of Neji's God blessing experimentation. Neji had been spending the little time he spent at home doing these, and naturally it resulted in these four growing a lot stronger than before.
[Raynare – Angel – High Tier 21]
[Asia Argento – Angel – Low Tier 20]
[Irina Shidou – Angel – Peak Tier 23]
[Xenovia Quarta – Angel – Peak Tier 23]
Irina and Xenovia were strong to begin with, so they were stronger than the other two – but in terms of pure Holy Power, Raynare and Asia were stronger. Raynare only had one pair of wings before, and Asia none as she was a human, but now, when unfurled, they had a total of four pairs of wings.
Azazel and Michael, the highest tier of angels, had six pairs of wings. The two girls need to grow more in not just pure magic reserves, but also learning how to fight, to match those one day. Because currently, they were no match for those Arch Angels.
Less so against the woman and man opposite them right now. All of Neji's internal monologue and observation happened in a mere split second, but the woman somehow turned to make eye contact with him. Neji checked out her subordinate for a moment before focusing on her.
[Yatagarasu – Crow God – High Tier 39]
Yatagarasu looked edgy. He was a man who had straight black hair falling over his face clad in a crow mask. He has two large pairs of black wings on his back, almost like those of Fallen Angels.
He wasn't the main issue though — he was nothing. The main issue was the woman he stood behind, his master. While Yatagarasu was a decent God, he wasn't a Satan class being. On the other hand, this woman was one and beyond.
After all, she was the Chief God of the Shinto Pantheon.
[Amaterasu – Sun God – High Tier 50]
With white hair that could have been said to be similar to Neji, if not for the gold-red hue around them, her yellow eyes were like two stars that stared into Neji's blue ones. Her thick lipstick-clad lips formed a thin smile seeing him, as she breathed out a sigh, causing her chest to heave down under her gold, red, and white themed kimono.
"Oh, you're back, master." Suddenly, from behind Neji, Sisty spoke as if she hadn't known. "Step aside for a bit, please."
Neji turned to find her carrying a tray of old Chinese tea served in cups as he let her space to enter the room. It was odd to see her in shorts and a tank top as she didn't care about etiquette and walked over to serve the tea, while everyone in the room took notice of Neji. His followers' expression eased in relief.
A few of their eyes, even Amateraru's, took a second to wander his naked chest, and then the intricate golden armor down his waist, as he stepped inside too.
"My lord, did something happen?" Asia asked right away, worried about seeing me in my battle gear.
"Nothing. Just fought a dragon and escaped some eldritch alien. That's for later, I see we have guests over." Neji turned to Amaterasu. "Good morning, surprised to see you in my humble abode. I didn't think the Chief God herself would come to meet me when I got the letter."
It was not morning, but noon. However, Amaterasu just smiled and covered her mouth with her sleeves like a Japanese royalty. "How could I let someone else do this important meeting? When it is you, after all, Yah-"
"That's an old name," Neji stopped her. "I am going by Neji nowadays, reincarnation and all. Hard to see myself as what you just called me when I don't even have my old memories."
"Ah."
"If you have to refer to him by a grander name, by the way," Sisty suddenly chirped as she sat down beside Asia. "Just call him the [Admin]. That goes well with him."
Did it? Neji looked at her. She met his gaze and explained in his head. [The gamer system is free like that. You are the player now, but later you can be the Admin too. The creators of the system aren't Admins, they are just there. What I am about to tell you is normally very highly classified information that the System Ais like me aren't supposed to tell, but we two are past that stage: if your God title or name was "Admin", it might as well help the System register yourself as the Admin sooner than what it would have.]
That sounded good, though he had no idea what Admin perms would allow him to do and if he'd ever get it since it didn't seem like a quick process. Anyhow, he supposed that name suited him so it was all good.
"I am curious about this," Amaterasu looked at me, her brown knitted and her eyes filled with interest. "How did you return, anyway? Since you said you don't have your memories, could it be that all the Faith from Christianity condensed to form you? That seems likely, but then you're a dragon too. What an odd situation."
Neji chuckled dryly and smiled. "Enough about me. What do you want here? You couldn't have just come to greet me, could you?"
"That is actually exactly the case." She said, "Why else will I come here? To pick on you? That would be unwise given how strong you are even though you haven't even regained, I am guessing, half of your Divinity."
"I see." Neji crossed his arms. "That makes things easier. You see, I am a bit busy right now. Got a lot to do. If you'd kindly leave, I can begin with them."
For a moment he wondered if he should kill her for Exp, but he decided against it. He didn't have to kill everyone for Exp, he could have some as allies too. Since she was in Japan right now and he was Japanese by birth, he could give her special treatment and let her live. Outside the Shinto Gods, though, he was free to go hunt them down.
"Hmm," Amaterasu narrowed her eyes as she hid her mouth behind her sleeves. Her servant, Yatagarasu, was offended; he was frowning under his crow mask. She herself didn't seem to take it to heart and nodded. "That is understandable. I just came here to make sure you were who I thought you were, and though that isn't exactly the case, it doesn't matter since you're the successor. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with, I'll try."
"Thanks, but no thanks," Neji replied as he watched her stand up. "Instead, I'll let you know that I truly appreciate this visit. If not for this, I might have waged war on your Pantheon soon. Today, actually. Good call."
"..."
Both Yatagarasu and Amaterasu frowned at that, and even Neji's followers looked surprised.
"May I ask why?" Amaterasu asked.
"It's not anything personal. I just have to kill some Gods to power up. But you don't have to worry, I'm not lying when I say you are safe from that threat now unless you do something to change my mind." Neji said and walked over, standing nearly a foot over her average Japanese woman's height. "We can talk about it right now if you don't like what I'm saying."
"You! How dare-" Yatagarasu yelled, but hundreds of miniature golden portals were suddenly surrounding them, with tips of weapons pointing outwards at him. "..."
The Gate of Babylon threatened to tear him apart if he spoke another word as Neji loomed over Amaterasu. Her eyes narrowed as a divine presence shot out of her, causing the angels behind Neji to fumble — only for a moment though, as Neji let out his own divine presence out, not at all matching her in output, but somehow the depth was much more than hers.
"I thought we were having a friendly chat just now, Goddess," Neji said, his right hand gently reaching out to push her sleeve away and grabbing her chin. She flinched with a blink, as he made her look up. "I like you, call it a bias since you have hair like mine. Let's not ruin the impression."
"..." Amaterasu stared up at him with dry eyes and then smiled. "In my culture, it's very disrespectful to push away one's sleeve when they're covering their face with it. I'm sure even in your culture it's disrespectful to grab a woman by her chin like this."
"Or a sign of adoration," Neji explained. "You have a lovely face. The peak of Japanese beauty, is it?"
She smiled more. "Since you don't have your old memories, I'll let you know I didn't have such interactions with your old self. I treated him more like an elder, as despite being the Chief God of Shinto, I am not the oldest God."
"I am just saying I wouldn't want to kill a woman who has the face of a dove," Neji said. "Leave. Don't antagonize me after this, either. Unless you are ready to face the consequences of being my enemy."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said, as Neji let go of her face. "Thank you. May we meet again in the future. Yatagarasu, come here."
The Crow God regarded the order right away and stood beside Amaterasu, who gave Neji one last look before dispersing into particles of brilliant light.
Neji let go of his pressure and closed his Gates after she left. As he did that, his eyes glinted with a notification.
Progress Bar: | 17.66%
He killed a Satan and did all those other things in the Devil Realm, and now interacting with a Chief God, he was now 6% ahead of what he was before.
"Good." Neji nodded. "I also thought of a plan on how to use the internet."
It was time to livestream a conversion and public execution scene featuring thousands of important Devils. Even if he didn't get much growth from the stream, he would get enough from dealing with the devils inside his Gate of Babylon.
Neji didn't have much time, but he was already a lot stronger than a few hours ago.
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