Prologue 1

'It appears like this is the end,' Adair thought to herself as another volley of rocks shot out from the invader's catapults. When the volley hit, the last remaining bastion for her people, the wall that had protected her capital city for centuries started to collapse. 

Unfortunately this outcome was just the natural conclusion of everything that had happened beforehand. In fact, the downfall of the Adairian Empire that the Goddess Adair had set up had already begun more than 100 years ago, when the Xavier Empire had declared a surprise war on them and had killed off all of the traveling trader caravans.

This one action had been enough to make all five Adairian cities suffer from food shortages in the coming years. Alas, the food shortage soon became the least of the Adairians' worries. For one of those trader caravans had been carrying 400 gold coins to the Vladimirian Empire as compensation for them teaching the Adairians Ironworking and Advanced Shipbuilding.

When the Vladimirians learned that the Adairian Empire no longer had the financial means to pay them for the technology they had purchased, the Vladimirians had not hesitated to issue their ultimatum. 

The Adairians could either hand over the city Chucuito as compensation, or the Vladimirian Empire would join forces with the Xavier Empire and also declare war against the Adairian Empire.

The government of the Adairian Empire had naturally seen this for what it truly was, extortion on the highest level. The Vladimirian Empire had asked them not just for any random city, but for the most significant trade city on the whole continent of Eirand. And if the Adairians lost it, then their empire was doomed even if they could manage to win the war against the Xavier Empire.

The Adairian people, unsure about how to proceed, had prayed to their Goddess Adair, asking for her divine guidance. Adair had instructed her people to give over the city because she believed that there might still be a good chance that her empire could beat the Xaviers on their own, but only if the Vladimirians would not interfere. If it became a two vs. one, they would have no chance whatsoever.

Initially, the Adairians had contemplated leaving the city in perfect condition as an act of good faith towards the Vladimirians in the hopes they might help them in the war against the Xaviers. 

However, ultimately they had decided against it due to the fact that the Vladimirians had already threatened them with war. 

They had therefore destroyed every valuable asset in Chucuito that could not be brought with them. They had done this as a last act of petty revenge so that the Vladimirian Empire would get as little as they could, while still technically upholding their end of the deal.

Nevertheless, the Vladimirians had already expected them to act in such a manner, and although the city's value had diminished through the Aldairians actions, it could not change the city's strategic and economic importance on the continent. The Vladimirians had estimated that it would only take 50-100 years until it would reach its past glory, so they had not been too concerned.

Due to the dramatic increase of population in the remaining four cities and the loss of their most prominent trade city, the Adairians' economy immediately started to collapse.

There had already been a food shortage in the five cities, yet now with four cities, but with a greater population, the food shortage had continued to increase rapidly. Housing prices had risen even faster until a third of the population in the cities had been forced to go out on the streets, to beg for food and shelter.

At first, their government had done nothing because it simply lacked the financial situation to do anything about it. Unfortunately, the problem had continued to get worse and worse in the following years.

Around ten years after the trade with Vladimirian Empire, the Adairian Empire had lost the city Saisa to the Xavier Empire. Luckily for the Adairians, it had been their newest city, and it had the least significance on their already burdened economy. Still, a third of Saisa's population had been killed defending the city, and the remaining citizens had been taken in as slaves.

The Xaviers had immediately employed propaganda tactics against the Adairian people in the remaining cities assuring them that if they continued to fight against the Xavier Empire that there was only the same fate awaiting them.

The Xaviers promised that as long as they were presented with the heads of their leaders and stopped praying to Goddess Adair, nothing would happen to them and that they would be welcomed in as new citizens of the Xavier Empire. As such they would receive help in dealing with their food shortage and benefit from better living conditions.

This had led to a major rift between the Adairian citizens. One group of people had been ready to join the Xaviers believing that they were currently fighting for a pointless lost cause. In their eyes, the Adairian government had done little to nothing so far and any trust that they used to have in their government had been used up.

The other side argued that it would dishonor their ancestors and that they might suffer divine retribution should they betray their Goddess who had supported their people for thousands of years.

Still, in the short term no side had taken any decisive actions against the other side because they still had a decent amount of patriotism towards their country, but the idea of rebellion had been planted into the heads of the first group to avoid becoming slaves like the survivors of the city Saisa.

At that point, the Adairian government had been forced to acknowledge that their lackluster solutions had led to the people's loss of trust, so they had begun implementing amenities for the citizens in the remaining three cities, such as free meals for their citizens and makeshift longhouses.

This had improved morale quite a bit over the next 20 years until the Xavier Empire had come knocking on their door again with four legions of troops called Immortal Warriors. 

News had quickly spread that these warriors had been blessed by their God Xavier with better combat strength and were even able to heal their wounds with every enemy they took down. 

The Adairians had also come to learn that these Immortal Warriors were not just good at melee combat but also with ranged attacks. The Adairian government estimated that the 24,000 troops of Immortal Warriors should be strong enough to destroy their three remaining cities.

The Adairian government had once again prayed to their Goddess Adair for some divine intervention to rescue her believers. Unfortunately, for once she had denied their request. Adair had already blessed their ancestors roughly 3,000 years ago and she had yet to recover enough power to create a troop as powerful as the Immortal Warriors

Instead, the Goddess had suggested that they perform a ritual that would allow her to come down in person and help her people fight against the invaders.That ritual would take two weeks to complete, meaning the government would have to buy that much time to finish summoning Adair.

To achieve that, they had promptly sent out two high-profile emissaries in an attempt to make peace with the Xavier Empire. Adair's Head Priest and the Governor of the capital city had been slightly worried that they could be killed by the enemy empire, yet Goddess Adair, as the one who had suggested this course of action, had assured them that they would be safe. 

She had informed her followers that during the 'first global meeting' between the Gods certain laws had been created and agreed upon. The sanctity of emissaries was one of those laws and breaking it would result in a tax so heavy no one in their right mind would be willing to pay it.

The two men had spent three days doing their utmost to come to an agreement or at least buy as much time as they possibly could. Nobody had blamed them upon their return and when they had announced that the negotiations had failed. 

However, the surprising thing was that the Xaviers had changed up their demands. According to Xavier's Head Priest the only way that the Adairian people would be allowed to survive now, was if Adair sacrificed herself for her people and killed herself. 

Adair had felt like something had been off about such a demand, but she was one of the rare Gods who respected her people's individuality too much to read their thoughts, so she let it be. 

Since the ritual had still been going on and the enemy was practically at their doorstep the Adairian government had offered the general populace incentives to grab any weapon they could find, to stand up to the invaders to buy more time for the ritual to finish.

This action had led to a standstill between the two armies lasting an entire week. It had only been possible because the Xavier Empire had hoped that the Adairians would realize their folly. Alas, their leniency had proven counterproductive and the Adirians had been fighting them more and more zealously as the days passed. 

The God Xavier had begun worrying that something might be up. On his behest his elite troops had initiated their attack to conquer the remaining cities once and for all. While the Adairian cities had the advantage of people almost four to one, they had not been trained soldiers. With the Immortal Warriors taking action, it had turned into a slaughterfest.

In just three days, 40,000 Adairians had been killed outside the cities of Machu and Wanuku. 

The mass killing of citizens had prompted those cities' governors to surrender their cities to the Xaviers so that the remaining people alongside themselves might escape death and hopefully a future as slaves.

Although unfortunate, this act had allowed the capital to continue performing their ritual and they just needed to last one more day before Adair would come down to help them. Unfortunately,  the Xavier Empire had not let up on the offensive. As soon as the governors had surrendered Machu and Wanuku, the Xaviers had moved the majority of their troops to attack the capital. 

Unlike the other cities, the capital city had reinforced walls and had stationed their trained elite troops on top of those walls, so the Xaviers were unable to charge up like they had been able to with past cities.

Instead of a battle, they had been forced to siege the city with catapults which required time. With just six hours left before Adair got summoned, the catapults had started shooting.

It had quickly become apparent that the Xaviers lacked experience using catapults. Their shots had been aimed at random spots on the walls, failing to break through the walls. While they had been aiming at the walls, the archers on top of the walls had taken the opportunity to take down a few of the catapult's operators, which bought them even more time.

Unfortunately the walls were unable to move and it had just been a matter of time until the Xaviers had found a proper way to effectively hit their immobile targets, creating holes in the walls. Ironically, Goddess Adair had been summoned just in time to see that happen. 

The Adairian Empire that she had built from scratch was getting destroyed right before her eyes. 

Watching all of her hard work crumbling before her infuriated her to no end. She had put thousands of years into this empire that was now on the brink of collapse, and in her anger, her eyes turned from green to gold matching her hair as she summoned her divine battle-axe to at least try and save her dying empire.

She gathered the royal troops protecting her temple and heroically charged towards the enemy. As she did so, she shot golden light out of her hands, which blessed her troops with divine attributes, so that arrows would no longer be able to hurt them and their weapons became so sharp that it felt as if they could cut through space itself. 

…

…

...

Xavier was shocked to see Adair arrive on the battlefield. When the Governor and Adair's Head Priest had revealed Adair's intent on being summoned to the battlefield to protect her capital, he had not believed them.

'Why would Adair ever stoop down so low to make herself into a mortal just for one silly fight?' Xavier had thought to himself at the time. 'We've all received the warning before the test! No one in their right mind would risk losing their place in the Galactic Empire forever just for a stupid test… No, these wretched beings must be trying to save their own hides by selling me useless information!'. 

In the history of the Galactic Empire only one person had successfully been summoned to the mortal plane during the civilization test. Xavier was unable to believe that Adair would think so highly of herself that she would try a ritual that only one man had ever managed to pull off.

The only way for Adair to appear in the mortal plane would be if she became a mortal which would be the worst thing that Xavier could think of. Not only would it be stupid and suicidal, it also meant that her spot as a Goddess would become vacant and any other God could easily take over if they wished to. 

To Xavier, and to the rest of the so-called Gods, this whole empire-building and fighting on the mortal plane was merely one massive test which would grant them an improved position in the Galactic Empire should they win. So what if he lost his Empire? In the worst case scenario he would receive some backlash from his family for failing, but at least he would return to the Galactic Empire.

However, the most important reason why Xavier had doubted that the Goddess might take such drastic actions, had been because Divine Essence would be dramatically harder to get once one became mortal, and once her stockpile of Divine Essence would run out, she would fall until she was no different from a normal human.

The Adairian people would no longer have a Goddess to bless them and their empire would be destined to crumble in the future anyway. In other words, even if Adair won this battle her actions would practically disqualify her from winning. 

Xavier's shock about her sudden arrival quickly turned to joy as he analyzed the situation. 'Based on her summoned weapon's glow, added with the fact that she is boosting her troops, her power should not last more than 12 hours if she continues to go all out. Unless I intervene, it's quite likely that the majority of my troops will die here. While the loss of the Immortal Warriors will be regretful, it is worth the price if it mens kicking another contender out of the race.' 

'Tsk, I will likely have to bribe that greedy Vladimir again, so his people won't attack me while I'm weak. Luckily, by my estimations, it should be worth it as long as I'm able to double my power by converting the Adairian people into my belief. Just need the Head Priest and the Governor to complete their side of the deal.'

To keep up the bait, Xavier ordered his troops retreat for now. He stroked his beard with a grin on his face as he murmured, "You might be able to win this battle, but you're merely delaying my victory." 

…

…

…

At the same time, Adair and her troops reached the Immortal Warriors and started killing them in one hit. Within minutes thousands of Immortal Warriors perished, whereas not one Adairian fell in the confrontation. Adair was starting to think that it was worth becoming a mortal as long as at least the one city that had started spreading her religion would remain. She would continue to stay a mortal but maybe one day she could get her divine status again. 

That is when she saw a volley of rocks project out of the catapult and start to head towards her divine temple.

'Silly fools,' she thought. 'Do you think I would be naive enough to leave my one weakness unprotected?' And as the volley neared her divine temple, a golden glow surrounded the temple, and the rocks shattered upon impact. Then there was a second volley, and this time, Adair ignored it and kept on killing the enemy troops. 

All of a sudden, she heard a pop, and Adair realized that her divine ax had disappeared as did the divine energy that had been buffing her allies, yet worst of all, the shield protecting her temple had been deactivated. 

'There is no way Xavier is so much more powerful than me that he can negate my Divine Power. So what happened?' The mortal Goddess wondered.

The volley of rocks closer and closer to the temple and time seemed to slow down for Adair.

'Not even if that bastard Vladimir would help him, would they be able to shut me out like this. Is this one of the side effects of becoming mortal? Or… could it really be that everyone in my own capital city has stopped believing in me?'

'How could everyone stop believing in me all at once? Especially now that I have come down to rescue them?! I… I must have been betrayed. By who, though?' 

That's when she realized that she no longer felt her body and that her vision was rapidly spinning. Once Adair's head hit the ground, she looked up to see the Head Priest of her church standing over her body with a bloodied ax next to where her head would have been. 

The priest then laughed and quietly said to Adair, "It appears that Xavier's plan was successful. He is clearly smarter than you, 'Goddess' Adair. He should be the true leader of our people!"

Adair then heard from the capital city over the tests announcement system. "Goddess Adair has been defeated by God Xavier! 

Xavier's message to the world is: 

I, God Xavier, promise the Adairian people are just the first of many to fall under my great Xavierian Empire! This is a warning to everyone else. Make way and allow me to become the Emperor of this world!!!" 

Adair then felt sadness, sadness for her people, sadness that this is where it would all end, but mostly sorrow that the beings she had guided for millenia, whom she treated with utmost respect would betray her trust like this...

And then Adair's vision went black.