Chapter 144: The Origin of the Holy Spear

The origins of the God-Slaying Spear trace back to a mighty human warrior.

During the era of the Ancient Kingdom of Elno, the gods fought a chaotic war for faith, casting countless massacres upon the mortal realm.

At that time, a human adventurer who had mastered ancient alchemy within the ruins stepped forward. Utilizing divine core fragments dropped during the divine clashes and mysterious meteoric iron found in the ancient ruins, he forged the God-Slaying Spear.

Initially, the power of the God-Slaying Spear was far from what it is today. Although as a divine core weapon it could injure the spiritual bodies of deities, it was utterly incapable of slaying them and absorbing their divine core fragments.

Even so, that human warrior still relied on the God-Slaying Spear to drive away a number of weak deities and gathered a following of believers.

As the sacred fire of faith was ignited, the dragon slayer ultimately became the evil dragon, and that human warrior embarked on the path to divinity, becoming one of the deities embroiled in the chaotic war.

However, when he used the God-Slaying Spear to truly slay his first deity in the truest sense and absorbed its divine core relatively intact, his mental state began to warp.

This phenomenon grew increasingly severe as the number of absorbed divine core fragments increased. Eventually, he no longer needed faith or believers; the God-Slaying Spear possessed a vast capacity to store divine power, and once the divine power was depleted, he simply needed to plunder more without any need for the power of faith.

The power of the God-Slaying Spear grew steadily, while his own will gradually plunged into chaos, transforming him into an evil god who killed any god or demon in his path!

Fortunately, he had no interest in humans; killing humans could not provide him with divine power.

The result of this was that nearly all the deities within the borders of the Kingdom of Elno were brutally slaughtered by him, granting humanity salvation instead, once again worshiping him as a god of faith.

This pure faith brought a glimmer of dawn to his madness, and the human warrior regained a brief moment of sanity.

At that time, he learned more intelligence concerning the pantheon. He knew that if he continued down this path, not only would he inevitably draw the siege of various powerful deities, but the God-Slaying Spear had also reached its upper limit of power and could no longer improve, rendering him unable to match them.

To prevent the endless crisis brought by another descent into madness, and for the sake of his original ideals, he chose suicide.

He integrated his pieced-together, chaotic divine core into the God-Slaying Spear and cast a special seal upon the holy spear, ensuring that only humans possessing his bloodline could wield this weapon.

After his death, those deities had also thought of plundering the weapon, but at that time, the will of that human warrior had not yet dissipated, and those gods who acquired the God-Slaying Spear were instead swallowed by him once more.

Later, with the establishment of the Pantheon, the gods returned to their positions and could only walk the mortal realm in the identities of saints, and a mere saint was naturally no match for the God-Slaying Spear.

Regrettably, as the years passed, lacking the replenishment of divine power, the might of the God-Slaying Spear gradually faded, and the will of the human warrior vanished as well. By now, it could only be considered an ordinary divine core weapon, only slightly more powerful than when it was first forged.

That human warrior was the ancestor of the Elno royal family, and this weapon became the imperial heirloom of the dynasty, usable only by his blood descendants. The king bestowed this weapon upon the eldest prince; while it might have been intended to slay the Earth-Devouring Beast, in some respects, it was indeed an acknowledgment of his status as the heir.

If the eldest prince had been slightly more rational, or had not received the news regarding the divine core fragments, he perhaps would not have been so eager, and might truly have managed to gather quite a few supporters.

However, he was naturally a tyrannical person. Although the holy spear was called a holy spear, it was actually an extremely evil demonic spear. The eldest prince's fragile mental will had long been imperceptibly influenced through his prolonged contact with Longinus.

This was one of the important reasons why the eldest prince's behavior and conduct upon arriving at Blackstone City were so utterly deplorable.

The eldest prince's inner yearning for the divine core fragments was likewise the yearning of the holy spear. This sensation was something the eldest prince Mula could clearly feel, which was why he was so anxious to find the divine core fragments, and why he was so certain that Chu Yun had never absorbed any divine core fragments.

"If this eldest prince fails to find the divine core fragments, it is unlikely he will return to the royal capital. Moreover, the second prince certainly knows much more; the five-day deadline given to him was actually meant to lower his guard, and by now, many people are likely lying in ambush throughout Blackstone City."

"This is a wonderful opportunity to shift the blame!" Chu Yun felt a surge of joy in his heart.

He held no favorable impression whatsoever of this eldest prince, and knowing the effects of the God-Slaying Spear, he had elevated him to a top-tier threat.

Had it not been for his special abilities preventing the other party from detecting him, given the eldest prince's attitude, he probably would have already dispatched Leontius in secret to assassinate him and plunder his divine core fragments.

While he was lost in thought, Anna had somehow seated herself beside him, looking together at the newspaper in Chu Yun's hands.

"Did the eldest prince come looking for you... because of the divine core fragments?" Anna had been present earlier and heard the conversation between the two.

"Heh, his behavior certainly didn't look like he was trying to recruit people. If today's newspaper combined with the news from the trial grounds spreads out, I'm afraid all the adventurers and nobles in Blackstone City know about the conspiracy of last night's banquet by now."

"What a despicable fellow. Is the second prince really more suited to be king after all?" Anna said indignantly.

Originally, this matter had nothing to do with her, but now that it involved Chu Yun, she grew quite concerned.

"That's hard to say. Today's newspaper specially reported on the holy spear, and the timing chosen is exceptionally clever. It might very well have been arranged by the second prince. Still, a clever person versed in strategy is perhaps better suited to be king," Chu Yun said with a smile.

Speaking of the second prince, Anna couldn't help gossiping: "By the way, Chu Yun, I heard that back then the second prince was quite fond of Lysa and even proposed marriage to Viscount Carl. If Lysa had agreed back then, she would be the queen by now."

If it had been the former Chu Yun, he might truly have thought so, but now, knowing the true identities of Lysa and Viscount Carl, he did not share that view.

Lysa and Carl were both vampires. Very few people knew this secret, and almost all who did had been silenced.

The royal family could never take a vampire bride, and Carl was even less willing to let this secret become known.

Carl and Lysa were clearly playing good cop and bad cop; everything was just an act. That way, the king and the second prince could not easily fault Viscount Carl or blame a young girl.

However, the situation was different now. If the second prince truly became king and still harbored feelings for Lysa by then, she would have no choice left.

If her identity were made public, Carl, being a vampire, could never become a noble of the kingdom; if it were not made public, marrying the second prince would only cause even greater trouble.

"Given Lysa's personality, if things really develop to that point, would she simply turn the second prince into a vampire as well? A happy family reunion?" Chu Yun had already envisioned that scene in his mind.

"It's rather strange, though. Why on earth did the second prince fall for Lysa?" Chu Yun asked, somewhat puzzled.

Anna happened to know a thing or two: "It is rumored that the second prince is an illegitimate son of His Majesty the King, and in his childhood, the second prince received a kindness from Carl, who was not yet a viscount at the time. That is also one of the reasons why Viscount Carl has developed so rapidly in recent years."