Volume 4 Chapter 593: Lord of the Dead - Kelemvor
After completely destroying the few ruins that Osiris had left in the underworld, Set, having vented a little of his anger, finally chose to leave reluctantly.
He is not the god of death. Even if he is targeting Osiris now, if he stays in the underworld for too long, he will still be hostile to other gods of death.
Not to mention that he is currently in a difficult situation with both internal and external difficulties. Even if he becomes a powerful god, he will definitely not be able to ignore the numerous gods of death.
Because in theory, after death, the souls of all believers of gods will go to the underworld first and be watched over by many gods of death.
Then each god will send messengers to the underworld to lead the souls of their believers to the kingdom of God, and Seth is no exception in this regard.
This is another reason why he reacted so strongly after hearing about Osiris' resurrection and Anubis' betrayal.
On the other side, after temporarily settling Isis, Horus and Anubis, Levi contacted Penthesilea and Elegy, and then he unexpectedly learned that both of them had been taken away by Diana in advance.
Levi immediately understood. It seemed that although Diana was not very powerful as an Outer God, she still had some special senses. She should have already started preparing for her death.
As for the reason why Wange and the others didn't tell me such an important thing, it was probably because they wanted to give me an unexpected surprise.
After arranging a messenger who was best at dealing with people to take care of Horus and letting the original body begin to try out his extraordinary divine power, Levi also sent his incarnation back to the underworld.
On top of the ruins, three Grim Reapers were already waiting.
The leader was a black-haired warrior who looked very ordinary and dressed like a mortal.
But just by looking at Yager standing behind him, anyone could tell his true identity.
The Lord of the Dead in the human pantheon, the god of death, Kelemvor, also possesses the two priesthoods of death and the dead.
But the other Death Knight, whose hair was as white as ice and emanated a chilling coldness from his body, surprised Levi a little.
The god of liches and undead creatures, the Lich King - Arthas.
Rumor has it that although Kelemvor promised to protect Arthas as the main god, the two have always been at odds due to the relationship between their priesthood and faction.
But now it seems that this is not the case.
With three gods related to death gathered together at once, Levi began to speculate about Yager's invitation, but this was different from his previous speculation...
Is this really all Jergal’s purpose is?
But Levi remembered that when he was in the Kingdom of Jerge, Jerge had lamented more than once that Clemvor was not very smart.
Now Jergal has chosen to focus on Kelemvor, and holding this meeting is probably to encourage the latter to take the lead, right?
As his mind raced, Levi took the lead in greeting: "Osiris greets the three highnesses, Kelemvor, Jaeger, and Arthas."
Although the other party must know his dual identity, since it is a meeting of the gods of death, Osiris' identity is naturally the main one.
It’s a bit helpless to say, but when other gods use pseudonyms, they try their best to avoid being known by other gods to avoid any interference.
But Levi had just been deified, and many gods already knew of his dual identity...
The only thing to be thankful for is that this information is currently limited to a small range, and both of Levi’s identities are irreplaceable.
Not to mention the Lord of Mount Heaven, Osiris has the support of Horus and Anubis, and is recognized by the world consciousness. As long as he does not confront Set head-on for the time being and lies dormant in the underworld for a while, no matter how helpless Set is, when he sees that there is no chance to kill Osiris again, he must take the initiative to ease the relationship between them.
Because Osiris is the god of death, unless Set expends extra divine power to personally lead the souls of his believers away every time, they also need to make a trip to the underworld!
The three gods of death returned the greetings one after another. This was the minimum respect between gods.
With a wave of his hand, Jergal transformed the surrounding ruins into a magnificent palace, demonstrating his extraordinary control over the underworld.
Even though he had expected it, Levi still couldn't help but admire it. He was far from being able to do that now.
Likewise, Arthas on the other side also had a gleam in his eyes. If he could have the power of Jergal, he would be able to do a lot more...
Without even mentioning Levi's impersonation, Kelanwo made a few polite remarks before getting straight to the point: "Your Highness Osiris, I would like to ask what is your attitude towards the undead?"
Levi knew why Clemvor asked this, because Clemvor was originally a mortal. He received part of the legacy of the three gods of death of the previous generation and was directly deified.
Although he has improved after being the God of Death for so many years, he still retains many of the ideas from his mortal days.
That is hatred of almost all undead creatures, and he has never created any intelligent undead creatures.
In fact, Levi has some objections to this point, because except for liches and some vampires, most undead creatures do not choose to become undead creatures. In essence, they are just cannon fodder that are forced to be driven.
"I agree with what you said in your teachings. Death is a part of life and death is a new beginning. Undead creatures should not be abused."
This is natural. If the souls of the gods' believers were transformed into ghosts after death, the loss to the gods would be too great.
Moreover, vampires and zombies are unable to produce offspring through natural reproduction, and basically cannot provide any power of faith. Naturally, they are not of much value to the gods.
Levi was very interested in Dracula's deification at the beginning, because that might mean that Dracula had a way to solve this problem. Perhaps this is also the reason why many gods basically took a laissez-faire attitude towards Dracula's deification.
Because if Dracula can really make vampires and even other undead creatures generate the power of faith, then is it possible that other gods can also benefit from it?
But after such a long time, many evil gods felt that they had been deceived, because this vampire demigod had nothing special to rely on.
As a racial god, he does have a certain degree of control over ordinary vampires, but he still cannot make vampires have the power of faith.
His followers are mainly the Hagui, that is, mortals who try to transform into vampires to gain longevity and power.
The second group is a group of mortals who have undergone special transformations and taken certain special potions.
They may exhibit the characteristics of vampires in some aspects, and possess some of the vampires' melee abilities and magical talents, etc., but in essence they are still human beings.
So this vampire god seems to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, at least that's the case for now.
This is not as good as the original Lich God - Velsharoon. At least Velsharoon's followers include some liches in addition to necromancers.
Therefore, many evil gods have gradually changed their attitudes towards Dracula recently, which has also made some of Lucia's actions much smoother.
In terms of intelligence capabilities alone, she, who inherited the power of the Lamia family, is not only unrivaled among vampires, but also among other races, and there are basically few who can compare with her.
Lucia began to search for Dracula's followers and the vampires of the Eclipse Alliance with all her might, and has achieved quite a few results so far.
After the abyss rifts opened by several deified demon lords were closed one after another, and Levi had dealt with the matters of the Vampire Queen and the Blood Tsarina, it would be time for Lilith to free up her hands and try to deal with Dracula.
The deification did increase Dracula's power a lot, but it also gave him a new weakness. As long as all his followers were killed and he had no power of faith to replenish himself, his death was only a matter of time!
Hearing this, Yager remained silent. This was inconsistent with his teachings. He once believed that death was the eternal destination. Ordinary people might live for dozens or hundreds of years, but they would die for thousands or tens of thousands of years.
Of course, this was what he thought in the past. Now he no longer worries about these things. He has not even managed his own church for thousands of years. In the true sense, he relies entirely on the spontaneous worship of mortals.
Arthas remained silent. This was inconsistent with his thoughts. If he had enough strength, he would certainly want to command many powerful undead creatures to attack cities and seize territories, and completely transform a certain area of the main world into a paradise for the undead.
Spreading death and fear, and making mortals fearful, is also a powerful way to gain faith, just like the furious gods.
It is true that faith cannot be forced, but in order to avoid inciting the wrath of God, mortals who are like livestock will find reasons for themselves and believe in the evil gods that harm them.
Although I am not that extreme, it is also feasible to take similar measures or use some evil undead, such as the vampires under Dracula.
Unfortunately, he had temporarily become Clemvor's servant god and was under the other party's surveillance to a great extent, so these ideas could not be realized.
Moreover, his own strength was far from enough to allow him to easily withstand the backlash from mortals and gods like the furious gods.
Kelemvor nodded slightly, but he also knew that usually in such situations, there would be a twist later.
As expected, Levi continued, "At the same time, I also think that the existence of undead creatures is necessary. They can make mortals more respectful of death and facilitate the gods to establish their faith."
Clemvor remained silent. When he first became the God of Death, he tried to wipe out all the undead creatures in the main world, but as Levi said, the gods also need the existence of undead creatures.
In other words, not only the undead creatures, but also various beastmen, demons, devils, and even natural and man-made disasters, etc., all existences that can threaten the lives of mortals can become tools of the gods.
The gods have never been slaves or nannies of mortals. They provide strength and protection, more for the purpose of gaining the power of faith.
Just like herders raise cattle and sheep, they never really like the cattle and sheep, they just need the milk, fur and meat they produce.
Arthas' frosty face thawed slightly. He originally thought that this man, who was also the lord of Mount Heaven, would especially hate the undead.
But now it seems that his wisdom makes him not have a particularly strong prejudice against the undead because of their camps, good and evil, etc. This is also good news for him, because the two really have a lot in common.
"Of course, the power of death cannot be abused at will, especially by those evil liches, necromancers and vampires."
"At the same time, I also think that they may have done a lot of wrong things in the past, but at least they should be given a chance to redeem themselves."
Having said that, Levi nodded slightly towards Arthas, indicating that he had no particular ill will towards him.
Arthas, who inherited part of Velsharoon's clergy and power, treated his believers very differently from his predecessor.
Although those necromancers still control the undead creatures, their range of action and targets are greatly limited.
They mainly use the corpses of sinners, and some even work part-time as corpse drivers, controlling the undead creatures to reunite with their relatives in order to make a profit.
When possible, they will mainly use the corpses of evil races such as beastmen, and try not to touch elves, dwarves, etc.
All in all, Arthas seemed to want to take advantage of the time under Kelemvor's protection to try to avoid making enemies and begin to change the outside world's perception of him.
If he can keep it up, perhaps his camp will change as well.
Even Levi was a little surprised when he first heard it.
The last being who had taken similar actions was probably the Frost Maiden of the Wrathful Gods - Auril. Her clergy - the Ice Priestesses - were mostly active in the kingdom of ice and snow - Kislev.
If it is winter, their range of activities may expand many times, but although they are clearly neutral evil, they rarely rely on robbery to make a fortune.
Because just by working as postmen, deliverymen and other jobs, they can live a very comfortable life, and there is no need to take risks in fighting.
Many gods and people said that if her camp could be separated from the furious pantheon and Talos, it might be possible that it would be improved.
Arthas took similar actions, although it may also be because his current strength is very weak and he is heavily dependent on Kelemvor's protection, so he must actively comply with the other party's rules of conduct in order to survive better.
But for Levi, Arthas's methods are indeed worth learning from.
And Levi was not just speaking for Arthas, he was also laying the groundwork for his next actions.
For example, he dragged vampires such as the Vampire Queen and the Blood Tsar into the underworld to serve him.
Clemvor pondered for a moment, intending to consider it, but in fact he had already agreed with Levi's statement as a whole. The next step was to perfect some details.
For example, in terms of attitude towards demons and devils.
As a lawful neutral god of death, some of his actions may be strongly questioned by the other party and may even lead to hostility.
If the other party was still the Lord of Mount Heaven, I would never agree to such a meeting.
But the other party has come as Osiris, and the meeting was facilitated by His Highness Yager, whom he regards as his teacher, so he came here.
He felt it necessary to explain to the other party that he was also full of pain after making those decisions. Even until now, he still often felt guilty, but he was also doing it for the greater good.
Levi hadn't finished yet: "Considering that the humans in the main world are the most numerous, their wills are the weakest and they cannot resist the temptation of evil, so I think we need to be extra careful when it comes to humans."
"Well, our Egyptian pantheon and the Tomb Kings are somewhat special. I will need some time to process them."
Hearing this, Kelemvor finally revealed a satisfied smile. He was essentially a human god of death, and of course he considered the interests of the dead humans.
If an evil race such as greenskins or beastmen were transformed into undead, he would certainly be unhappy, but in fact he would not be too troubled and would just destroy them when he saw them.
As for other races such as elves and dwarves, that is not something he should worry about.
The Egyptian pantheon is self-contained and has never played with other gods. The Tomb Kings are also a legacy issue that has existed for thousands of years and has never been resolved in the past. Osiris has repeatedly rejected his well-intentioned help.
Now that Levi is so sincere, he certainly can't go any further.
So Kelanwo immediately chuckled and nodded: "I think His Majesty Osiris and I have a lot in common. Perhaps we can have more comprehensive cooperation in the future, for example, against those demons who come to the underworld to plunder souls."
Levi certainly understood why Cranvor emphasized this so much, because normally, the plane barrier of the main world is the strongest, but the barrier leading to the underworld from the Abyss is relatively weak.
In the past, almost all the gods of death suffered from the same trouble, including Osiris and Kelemvor.
Kelemvor's revenge is usually very swift and direct. He would send his avatar directly to the Abyss. He would slaughter the demons on whichever layer had stolen souls, and if possible, he would even kill the other demon lord.
Ordinary demons have no brains, but the demon lord knows to fear the power of this powerful god.
So after so many years, some demon lords will take the initiative to gather their subordinates and try not to go to the underworld of Clemvor to snatch souls.
From this perspective, there is almost no difference between Kelemvor and the three major celestial races in their attitude towards demons.
However, there is a huge difference in how to treat the devil.
When dealing with demons, the three major celestial clans are always uncompromising and focus on eradicating all evil.
But Kelemvor, as Jergal had hinted before, seemed to be cooperating with the devil. According to the agreement, when the demons plundered the souls of the City of the Dead, the devils needed to stop them.
Because not all demon lords are afraid of Kelemvor, and not all demon lords can restrain their greed.
Moreover, some demon lords will fall, and some successors will not believe in evil and want to test the power of Clemvor.
What's more, there are too many layers in the Abyss, and there will always be new layers and new demon lords born.
For these reasons, Clemvor cannot intimidate all demons all the time, and he needs to cooperate with the devil .
In return, Kelemvor will allow the devils to tempt the souls of his city of the dead to a certain extent.
Perhaps most mortals will choose one or more gods to believe in, but if their piety is not enough and their strength is not particularly outstanding, the gods will not take care of the souls of ordinary mortals for no reason, so most of these souls will fall into the hands of many gods of death.
Some need to be judged and then sent to reincarnation, some need to atone their sins in the underworld, and so on.
As a powerful divine being, Kelemvor undoubtedly possesses the largest number of souls in the City of the Dead in the underworld, and attracts the most attention from demons and devils, so much so that even he himself cannot take care of them all.
Perhaps in Clemvor's view, cooperation with the devil is a necessary sacrifice, and Levi can roughly understand it, but he will never imitate him.
And it was obvious that Jergal did not agree with Kelemvor's approach, so Jergal took the initiative to tell him this information, but Kelemvor probably thought he was completely unaware.
Although he had many thoughts in his mind, Levi nodded in agreement on the surface: "Yes, I have always advocated fighting against demons to the end, especially now that many demon lords have ascended to gods, they will definitely take more drastic actions. I also hope to cooperate with His Highness Kelanwo."
In fact, Levi already had a general idea, which was to gradually replace ordinary guards with Death Guards.
But because he has not yet obtained the relevant priesthood, let alone a strong enough advantage, if he speaks out now, it will only make things difficult for others.
Kelanwo also smiled and nodded: "I am also looking forward to working with His Majesty Osiris. At least we still have some time now."
Although many demon lords have been successfully deified, it currently appears that compared to other gods, demon lords have serious innate deficiencies.
First of all, most of them only have the domains of chaos and evil, and their priesthoods are mostly very single, usually gnolls, ghouls, shadow demons, succubi, etc., which are highly targeted racial priesthoods.
Secondly, as for the believers, it is simply a joke to expect the demons, whose heads are full of madness and confusion, to honestly believe in them and provide them with the power of faith.
Without sufficient power of faith, it is naturally impossible to transform divine power, or even to establish a kingdom of God, etc., nor is it possible to comprehend or use extraordinary divine power.
Without these, how much advantage do they have as gods?
So in the past period of time, after several brief encounters, Clemvor has been able to roughly determine that those demon lords who have been deified are basically still using the same old fighting methods.
At most, with the reinforcement of divinity and priesthood, their various attributes and resistance to physical and magical attacks have been greatly improved.
It can be expected that if nothing major happens, they will continue to maintain this state for quite a long time. The starting stage of a new god is always the most difficult.
Of course, Levi could understand what Cranvor meant, because in the past few days, many demon lords who were closer to the 600th floor had sent large armies to try to follow the passage to the small fire elemental plane and then break through to the main world.
Among them was a girl named Mother of Black Earth - Kelly, who was deified at the same time as the Succubus Queen - Mecanthus and others. After Baphomet's death, she still held on to hope, and as a result, her real body was easily defeated by Sobek's incarnation.
If it weren't for the fact that she was an extremely special earth-attributed demon with the ability to use the black soil of the abyss to create something similar to the lich's life box, she might have become the second demon god to fall rapidly.
After reaching such a consensus, the atmosphere gradually became much more harmonious. After a slight hesitation, Cranworth finally chose to tell Levi about his cooperation with the devil.
Levi naturally looked extremely shocked and shook his head repeatedly, indicating that he would never make any form of compromise with the devil.
This made Clemvor feel very embarrassed and helpless, but at the same time somewhat relieved, because although his camp was lawful neutral, he was actually somewhat kind. Now that Levi showed such an attitude, perhaps he could really be a good god of death.
However, Clemvor still explained the details a little, not to gain Levi's understanding, but just to show the truth of the facts.
It turns out that Clemvor was still very cautious in his cooperation with the devil. He did not allow the devils to roam freely in his city of the dead, but only in a specific area of it.
All the souls there were specially selected by Cranworth, including those who had done evil in their lives, killed too many people, were corrupt officials, decadent nobles, and those who had made deals with the devil, etc., a series of evil souls.
At the same time, Kelemvor also stipulated that the devil could only use temptation and transactions, and could not force or deceive those souls.
With these rules in place, any soul willing to go to the Nine Hells must be a bad person, and Cranvor can minimize the losses .
Levi nodded, and his original opinion of Cranworth was somewhat dispelled.
But even so, there should still be some innocent victims, as Kelemvor has not signed such a contract with all the devils in the nine layers of Baator.
And even if a contract is signed, the devils can still use various loopholes and the art of language to deceive those souls. This is what they are best at.
But Clemvor did his best.
So Levi immediately said: "I will not choose this method, but I respect His Highness Kelanwo's choice."
Upon hearing this, Kelemvor couldn't help but relax a little. In his opinion, this was enough.
In fact, as a man of great divine power, there was no need for him to explain everything he had done to Levi, the newly ascended god. However, he believed that Levi was the god of death who was most likely to understand him and reach cooperation with him.
Moreover, His Highness Yager also believed that Levi had great potential, and that Levi might also be a helper in the next operation, so he came here specially and spent all this time talking.
Now it seems that the effort was not in vain.
