I am God LSLCCF

Chapter 504: The Stones Knocked Down from Godʼs Moon

Five Hundred Kilometers Above the Ground

Temperatures swung through wild extremes here, climbing and plunging across a range of several hundred degrees.

Yet an island floated amid those extremes, its surface bright with beautiful flowers and its botanical garden home to an entire forest.

Spread into a thin film of light, the witch doctorsʼ mythic domain sealed the islandʼs interior away from the world outside.

It did not divide the two into wholly separate worlds. The witch doctorsʼ mythic domain still drank in the sunʼs warmth and drew whatever it needed from outside.

The mythic domain could shut out only part of that world, never all of it, nor could it be allowed to do so.

The floating island, too, needed the outside worldʼs influence and power.

Just then, the witch doctors were hard at work reinforcing their kingdom, making a full circuit of the floating island.

”Problems everywhere. We cannot hold the temperature steady, nor the humidity, nor the air pressure. It may look beautiful, but every plant here is extraordinary. An ordinary person would die the instant they set foot on this island,” Witch Doctor Left Hand said, looking out over the garden.

Exquisite at a glance, the floating island seemed no different from the ground far below.
Yet extraordinary flowers bloomed across it, potion plants grew from its soil, and mythical beings were its only inhabitants.

For now, no ordinary person could stand upon the island as the witch doctors did.

Looking toward the botanical garden, the other witch doctors nodded one after another.

”The spiritsʼ glass-domed garden has fared reasonably well. We lost a fair number of plants and animals, but it is just barely holding together.”

”Left Hand, those artifacts of yours are very fine indeed. Above all the layer of Rainbow Light Shifting Clay over the botanical gardenʼs glass, and that Breath of the Sky. Remarkable, the both of them. Without them the garden would have been destroyed outright. Conditions here are nothing at all like they were at ten thousand meters.” The witch doctors had yet to recover from the fright. The floating islandʼs ascent to this height had thrown everything into chaos in an instant.

At first, the entire island had slowly frozen into a mass of ice as trouble erupted everywhere.

Without the witch doctorsʼ swift adjustment of the Divine Kingdomʼs domain to seal out the outside world, there was no telling what might have become of it.

Even that was not enough.

The witch doctors then hurriedly built an earth fire altar beneath the islandʼs Sky Stone, regulating its warmth like a fire stoked beneath a heated bed.

Whenever it grew too hot, they shielded the island with the mythic domain. Whenever it grew too cold, they lit the earth fire altar.

Only then did they manage to bring the situation under control, and even that was a precarious, temporary success.

Conditions inside the botanical garden were worse. Its interior enjoyed better protection, but the plants and animals within were ordinary.

Only after Witch Doctor Left Hand produced two artifacts on the spot did the botanical garden stabilize.

One was a divine artifact called Rainbow Light Shifting Clay. Bunched together, it formed a great lump like a rubber ball with plenty of spring. Spread out, it became a skin-like membrane.

Now it covered the glass dome. Without power flowing through it, it resembled transparent gum. Once infused with power, it shifted through all manner of colors with the light.

It absorbed the power of light and released it again in darkness, adjusting its colors to keep the botanical gardenʼs temperature steady.

The other artifact was called Breath of the Sky. Resembling a knot of cloud, it now drifted beneath the botanical gardenʼs vaulted roof.

It was not a divine artifact, though. It was a life artifact.

Back when the witch doctors lived beside the Supreme Divine Being in the God-Descended City, they had gathered a portion of the Sky Beast Godʼs breath, that strange cloud-mist of theirs.

No ordinary person could gather that cloud-mist, much less touch it. The witch doctors, however, had taken advantage of their position to collect a little, and the great beast had naturally paid it no mind.

Left Hand later fashioned it into an artifact and named it Breath of the Sky.

As its name suggested, Breath of the Sky meant cloud.

Yet the name held a second meaning. It was the breath of the Sky Beast God.

This life artifact kept the airʼs humidity and pressure stable here and could even mimic rainfall over a small area.

The two artifacts could barely keep the botanical garden stable as it was. Extending their effects across the entire floating island was out of the question.

The witch doctors were the first to raise a kingdom into the Star Realm, but much of the work remained a matter of feeling their way forward.

Breaking new ground brought the advantage of being first, along with trials and troubles of every kind.

”Could we use the plants within the botanical garden to create a livable environment out here? Or simply build the entire Divine Kingdom on the gardenʼs model?” Witch Doctor Right Hand suggested.

”And just how much extraordinary material would that require? We have far too many other plans waiting after this.” After considering the idea, Witch Doctor Skull shook their head. Common extraordinary materials meant little to mythical beings with endless lives, for time alone would let them gather any amount. Just now, however, the witch doctors had no end of uses for those materials and had to conserve them.

”No ordinary people are coming up here anyway. Why make such a fuss? If the botanical garden holds together, that is enough.” Witch Doctor Torso looked thoroughly unbothered.

Every head turned toward Witch Doctor Torso. This was the very same careless fool who had slipped the Blast Wand in there before.

A flicker of guilt crossed Witch Doctor Torsoʼs face and vanished. Then they spoke again with perfect conviction.

”But it all worked out in the end, did it not?”

”Lady Shelly was delighted, was she not?”

The more Witch Doctor Torso spoke, the more carried away they became, until they felt they had rendered some great service.

”If not for my flash of inspiration and uncommon brilliance, none of you would have known how to finish the task!”

Presented that way, the claim left the other witch doctors with no ready argument.

The witch doctors made a complete circuit of the floating island, inspecting it from top to bottom and eliminating every hidden danger they found.

Once the basic problems were solved and their Divine Kingdom secured, the witch doctors could finally breathe easy.

They gathered together at the boundary of the silver garden.

Beneath their feet, the deep blue planet glowed faintly within a pale halo, cloud layers splashed across its surface like ink flung from a brush.

”We should complete a full circuit of the world soon, should we not?” The planet below appeared to turn slowly, but in truth, they were the ones circling the world. Before long, they would complete a full orbit.

”We are still losing altitude, though.” Several issues had already become apparent, though they had foreseen every one of them.

”The Sky Stone can arrest the descent.” Witch Doctor Skull took out a notebook and made a note.

Bit by bit, the witch doctors gathered what they had learned and committed it to writing.

The Sky Stone.

A Floating Stone joined with a Gravity Stone formed this Sky Stone, the very thing used to establish the Star Realm Divine Kingdom.

Just then, Witch Doctor Right Foot sighed.

”But from here, we cannot reach the Dream Realm or the mortal world.”

The other witch doctors chimed in.

”With every connection severed, it feels as though we have broken away from the whole world. It is rather lonely, is it not?”

”Then what are we supposed to do?” Witch Doctor Torso asked.

”We need a great many living beings here that can dream,” Witch Doctor Left Hand said.

”Once their dreams have steeped this place for a time, the Dream Realmʼs power will extend to us and take root.”

Life high above the heavens felt wonderful, but total isolation from both the mortal world and the Dream Realm would never do.

One look passed among the witch doctors, and they reached a decision at once.

”It is time to put the witch doctor profession back on our agenda.”

They had resolved to establish a wholly new extraordinary profession.

They would call it witch doctor.

Right there at the islandʼs edge, the witch doctors sat close together to discuss the matter.

Witch Doctor Skull opened with the first question.

”What foundation should the witch doctor profession rest upon?”

Witch Doctor Left Foot proposed the most conventional approach.

”Should we teach the snake people, the winged people and the lizard people what we know, then grant them power?”

Beside them, Witch Doctor Right Hand offered another thought.

”Or should we seek out the demon spirits instead?”

To Witch Doctor Torso, every suggestion sounded far too ordinary. Not one had anything that would make people sit up and take notice.

”Every other extraordinary profession has some striking feature, and every one ultimately offers a path to transformation and transcendence.”

”Alchemists and the Cup of Desire, witch spirits and the ghost race, beast knights and magical beasts. Monsters can become demon spirits, and even evil sorcerers can become the abyss race.”

”And there was another one. What was it? I remember...”

After thinking for a while, Witch Doctor Torso finally recalled the name.

”Right, the ghouls. They can transform too.”

”Should we not have something special of our own as well?”

Torsoʼs explanation was muddled, but the witch doctors shared one heart. Every one of them understood what Torso was trying to say.

A thoughtful look crossed Witch Doctor Skullʼs face before they spoke.

”You mean choosing an extraordinary profession is, in a sense, choosing an entirely new form.”

”Or rather, every extraordinary profession ultimately becomes a wholly new extraordinary race. If we are to create a new profession, we should define it as a race in its own right.”

”Then we need not concern ourselves with whether we teach it to the winged people, the snake people or the lizard people.”

”Instead, we would shape it according to our needs and the power of our own mythical law?”

Witch Doctor Skull looked around at the others and, for once, sided with Witch Doctor Torso.

”I believe Torso is right.”

The witch doctors were strange beings. They had begun as chimeras, remade according to a design that borrowed from both bone demons and god-created men.

Later, the god-created men completed their mission, and the witch doctors crossed an Era at the Creatorʼs side to become mythical artifacts.

Thus, they were neither bone demons nor god-created men.

Even the witch doctors themselves did not know what they truly were.

At this point, Witch Doctor Left Hand offered an idea of her own.

”When the Creator made me, He gave me the power to bestow extraordinary power on dead objects. I can grant them extraordinary traits and remake them into structures resembling extraordinary organs.”

”For a time, this ability can fashion an organ that keeps someone alive when one of their own is missing.”

”But looked at another way, could this ability also serve as the foundation of an extraordinary profession?”

”Could we begin there?”

Witch Doctor Skull nodded and carried Witch Doctor Left Handʼs idea a step further.

”Left Leg can absorb emotion, as I recall. Right Leg, memory.”

”Right Hand, meanwhile, can reshape living forms through Spirituality.”

”If Left Handʼs power grants extraordinary power to a dead object and remakes it into a living embryo, Left Leg and Right Leg can give it emotions and memories, then Right Hand can shape it into an entirely new form.”

A strange notion suddenly occurred to Witch Doctor Skull.

”If so, would that not mean we have no need to choose a race from which to cultivate witch doctors?”

”We could grant power directly to dead objects and even remake them into a special kind of intelligent being?”

The witch doctors exchanged looks. All at once, the idea seemed outrageous.

True, this power could not create a species, yet granting life and wisdom to a dead thing was, in a sense, no lesser feat.

Then again, the witch doctors were artifacts fashioned by the Creatorʼs own hand. Seen in that light, possessing such power no longer seemed so strange.

They had always mistaken their powers for ordinary healing divine techniques. Only now had they discovered their true purpose.

Witch Doctor Left Hand turned the thought over.

”Then our powers, combined, were meant to grant life to dead things all along?”

Witch Doctor Right Hand looked shaken.

”I always thought our powers and characteristics were painfully ordinary. All this time, had we simply failed to discover their true purpose?”

【Divine Artifact: Witch Doctor Puppet (Mythical)】

【Sequence Number 6】

【Headless Witch Doctor: The headless Witch Doctor controls the authority and operation of the mythological kingdom and possesses the authority to open the gates of the Dream Realm.】

【Bodiless Witch Doctor: The Witch Doctor without a torso is the carrier and body of the mythological kingdom. It is also the main body of the Mythical Artifact Witch Doctor Puppet. All Witch Doctors cannot leave the range of the bodiless Witch Doctor, nor can they leave the kingdom and domain it creates.】

【One-Handed Witch Doctor (Right): The Witch Doctor without a left hand can adjust life forms through spirituality. It possesses the ability to treat any disease and injury. Even supernatural powers and mythical-level injuries can be treated, depending on the situation.】

【One-Handed Witch Doctor (Left): The Witch Doctor without a right hand can bestow supernatural power upon dead objects, allowing them to gain supernatural characteristics or even temporarily obtain Apostle-level characteristics. It can manufacture these dead objects into organs and place them inside living beings to maintain life functions.】

【One-Legged Witch Doctor (Right): The Witch Doctor without a left leg can absorb mortalsʼ emotions, storing them as its own power and incorporating them into the Witch Doctorsʼ kingdom.】

【One-Legged Witch Doctor (Left): The Witch Doctor without a right leg can absorb mortalsʼ memories, storing them as its own power and incorporating them into the Witch Doctorsʼ kingdom.】

Each witch doctorʼs missing part had once been a god-created man.

Now, that part had become both the vast shadow of Godʼs Form that Sky Messenger Lomier had once seen and the vortex turning within each of their limbs.

Raising their head, Witch Doctor Skull looked at the other witch doctors and spoke.

”In that case, shall we try it?”

The Floating Island, the City of the Divine Kingdom

The witch doctors formed a ring around a stone platform. At its center lay a single object, a very beautiful two-handled clay vase.

They intended to grant life to this dead thing and make it the foundation of their new extraordinary profession.

Witch Doctor Skull took charge of the ritual.

Drawing on the Divine Kingdomʼs power, they reached through the mythic domain and linked every witch doctor together.

Whenever one of them acted, the combined strength of them all would flow into that witch doctor.

”Left Hand!”

At Witch Doctor Skullʼs look, Witch Doctor Left Hand immediately stepped forward.

She summoned a mythical light and cast it over the two-handled clay vase.

A current of power immediately poured into the vase, drawing extraordinary power along with it.

Once the work was carefully completed, Witch Doctor Left Hand immediately withdrew.

Witch Doctor Skull issued the next command.

”Left Leg, come forward!”

Another witch doctor stepped forward, focused on their own emotions, transformed them into power and poured it into the vase.

”Right Leg, forward.”

Witch Doctor Right Leg drew out some of their memories, transformed them into colored light and poured them in.

The vase still looked unchanged, though it had already become an artifact.

Witch Doctor Right Hand stepped forward last.

Working at the level of Spirituality, Witch Doctor Right Hand began transforming the two-handled clay vase to grant it an entirely new form.

At last, they bound together the powers the first three witch doctors had given the vase and transformed it into a living being.

The two-handled clay vase began changing violently, the patterns across its surface twisting into a face.

Mmmph! Mmmph! Mmmph!

The face strained outward from within as it made a sound.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Before long, the two-handled clay vase began rocking without pause, shaking violently.

Unable to resist, the witch doctors edged closer and studied every change in the two-handled clay vase.

”Is it about to transform?”

”Did it work?”

The witch doctors watched the two-handled clay vase expectantly.

Before long, however, all motion within the vase ceased.

The face disappeared, the movement disappeared, and the vase reverted entirely to a dead thing.

They had succeeded in turning it into an entirely new artifact.

The witch doctors stared at one another.

”How did this happen?”

”Did something go wrong?” They picked up the two-handled clay vase and examined it closely.

”Which step failed?” They immediately began analyzing the failure.

”Try again.” No analysis could produce an answer faster than another attempt.

Their reasoning appeared sound, and the theory seemed to hold together.

But what followed was failure after failure. They turned out artifact after artifact, but never produced the living being they sought, one transformed from a dead object they had made with their own hands.

”No. No.”

”It does not work at all.”

The witch doctors wanted to grant power to a dead thing and transform it into something resembling a life with wisdom.

Yet every attempt yielded nothing more than an artifact utterly devoid of consciousness.

Attempt after attempt eventually revealed the problem.

”It is the defilement in the divine blood. The divine blood itself washes the newborn consciousness away outright.”

”There is no way around it, no matter what we try.” Finding the problem had brought them no closer to a solution. One after another, the witch doctors sighed.

”Only the Four-Part Secret Technique of Godʼs Grace can resist the corrosion of that defiled divine blood, allow an artifact to hold a consciousness, and keep that consciousness from descending into madness.” Witch Doctor Skull was frowning as well.

”But the Four-Part Secret Technique of Godʼs Grace begins at apostle rank. Where could we possibly find that many apostles?” Witch Doctor Torso spread their hands and shrugged.

A race made up entirely of apostle rank was beyond even the witch doctorsʼ reach.

With every face drawn in worry and everyone fearing they had chosen the wrong path entirely, Witch Doctor Left Hand offered an idea.

Witch Doctor Left Hand glanced at the extraordinary artifact they had just made, then turned to the others.

”If we cannot resolve the conflict with the divine blood, could we not change our approach?”

”We use neither our divine blood nor any extraordinary material to make it. We use only our mythical power to bring it into being.”

”Through the Dream Realm, we can spread the power of our mythical law throughout the mortal world.”

Witch Doctor Left Handʼs eyes brightened as she thought the idea through aloud.

”Imagine this.”

”Someone treasures a certain object above all else. For years, they pour their feelings and emotions into it, until the object carries countless memories of that person.”

”That lingering attachment, the love they cannot bear to relinquish, is a power in its own right.”

”Through the Dream Realm, our power can sense that change and steep the object in our mythical law.”

”When that person dies, their Life Dream returns to the Dream Starry Sea.”

”The treasured object they poured everything into will absorb the pieces of them that scatter, and a new consciousness will ultimately be born within it.”

”When that consciousness is finally born, would it not be an entirely new living being possessed of wisdom?”

A look passed among the witch doctors.

”It does seem possible.”

Delight and surprise flashed across Witch Doctor Skullʼs face, only for concern to cloud it again.

”But we cannot reach the Dream Realm as matters stand, and our Divine Kingdom is fixed to the floating island.”

”As mythical artifacts, we cannot leave the Divine Kingdomʼs domain. Surely we cannot have Torso withdraw the Divine Kingdom now, sink the floating island and carry it down into the mortal world?”

Torso formed the very core of the Divine Kingdomʼs domain, and no witch doctor could leave their side. Folding the Divine Kingdom into the floating island had made it stronger and more stable, but it also meant they could no longer leave it.

They had walked straight into a paradox.

To connect with the Dream Realm, they first had to establish the witch doctor profession. Only then would the Dream Realmʼs influence extend this far and allow its gate to open.

Yet establishing witch doctors required a connection to the Dream Realm in the first place.

High Above the Heavens

Up here, day could no longer be distinguished from night, nor morning from afternoon.

An hourglass on the floating island still kept time by the hours of Ruhe Beast Island, and its markings currently read afternoon.

At that moment, the Mother of Life swaggered into the City of the Divine Kingdom.

The witch doctors rushed out to greet her.

Shelly was still dressed as a dark priest, with a pointed hat on her head and tall boots and white stockings on her feet.

Small in stature, she had thick, soft hair.

The effect was utterly adorable.

Yet as the witch doctors knelt before her, not one dared associate the word adorable with the being standing in front of them.

Shelly waved the wand in her hand.

”Look at my wand!”

With no idea what Shelly meant, the witch doctors could only shower her with praise, one after another.

”Your wand suits your clothes perfectly, Lady Shelly.”

”It is very impressive.”

”It is most interesting.”

Shelly held up a single finger and wagged it.

Her head swayed with her finger, her expression making it clear that none of them had grasped the point.

”No, no, no!”

”Donʼt you think itʼs a little weak?”

The witch doctors began trembling from head to toe, sweat pouring off them like rain.

Had the Mother of Life finally discovered the truth of how they had fobbed off the task?

Heads bowed, the witch doctors all slid the smallest of sidelong glances toward Witch Doctor Torso.

Shelly did know they had fobbed off the job. She simply cared nothing for what the witch doctors thought or whether they had done so.

Her own satisfaction and happiness were all that mattered to her.

As it happened, she liked the wand very much.

Shelly raised her wand and declared loudly.

”I want to make it more powerful!”

Naturally, adding power cost money.

In truth, it required a huge quantity of extraordinary materials.

Gripping her wand, she pointed it at the figures before her.

”Pay up the fare you owe me.”

Shelly had completely forgotten her demand that the witch doctors pay Rayʼs fare for him.

The moment she thought of adding power to her wand, however, the entire matter returned to her.

The witch doctors traded glances.

Sure enough, the inevitable had finally arrived.

The witch doctors had nothing they were unwilling to surrender. Everything they had came from the Supreme God. The Supreme God had made them, the Supreme God had given them their Divine Kingdom, and everything they had came from the Supreme God.

If handing over everything they owned could make Shelly happy for even a moment, they considered it worthwhile.

No amount of possessions or treasure could compare with a single chance to distinguish themselves before a Supreme Divine Being.

Before long, a great heap of offerings lay before Shelly, artifacts and extraordinary materials of every kind.

The witch doctors truly seemed flat broke, judging by how much of what they produced was junk.

To make up the numbers, they had added plenty of low-rank artifacts and common materials, many of them failed products of their experiments. Altogether, the pile filled an entire temple to bursting.

At the very least, the pile looked impressive. It was only meant as filler to add power to the wand anyway.

The witch doctors stood rigidly in the temple, every face wearing the bleak look of utter destitution.

”Now we truly have nothing left.”

The impoverished witch doctors shouted to one another through their minds.

”The next time we meet that fellow, we shall make him pay us back.”

The witch doctors knew perfectly well who Ray was, and more importantly, who his teacher Elena was.

”Ray, was that his name?!”

”A descendant of the people of the Abyss, of Ense and Boonʼs bloodline, and a student of Elena as well.”

”They are demon spirits now. They build alchemy towers for the alchemists and turn out magic tools by the crate. Their coffers run deep.”

”We must make him and Elena understand just how much trouble we shouldered on his account.”

”That brat does not know how high the sky is or how deep the earth. He will climb aboard any ride at all, even go squeezing through the Star Realm Gate.”

”We must teach him that recklessness and impulse carry a price.”

Naturally, the witch doctors dared not say any of this to the Mother of Life. Before her, they had only ever been meek and yielding.

Everyone else was another matter. In their day, Anhofus had kept his head down before the six of them, they had not feared the Little Person in the Bottle in the slightest, and even Stuen had had to call them teachers.

Shelly surveyed the entire pile, then looked back at her wand.

She looked thoroughly dissatisfied.

”What a pile of junk!”

”Melt it all together and it still wonʼt make my wand much stronger!”

The witch doctors trembled. Even all of this was not enough?

The witch doctors had already brought out everything they could. What remained was either untouchable or had been gathered from the Forbidden Zone of Death, products born beneath the Ruhe Great Godʼs power. Such things were worth even less where Shelly was concerned.

Offering those things would practically amount to returning the Mother of Lifeʼs own gifts to her.

Besides, she wanted to strengthen a divine artifact, and none of those things would serve.

Witch Doctor Torso would have to shoulder the trouble they had stirred up.

With every other witch doctor watching, Witch Doctor Torso stepped forward, trembling, and spoke.

”Lady Shelly, how much stronger do you want it?”

Shelly considered the question, then gestured with her wand.

Pow!

”Just enough to hit down there.”

The witch doctors stared blankly at one another.

Witch Doctor Torso asked again, ”Lady Shelly, what exactly do you mean by ʼdown thereʼ?”

Shelly gestured with the wand, rapping it against the floor tiles.

Surely that did not need asking.

”The earth below the island, obviously!”

One glance below turned the witch doctors white as chalk.

”But the mortal world is five hundred kilometers below us.”

Shelly nodded.

”Thatʼs right. Just one little pow.”

”Thatʼs all. It just has to reach that far.”

The same image sprang into every witch doctorʼs mind.

High above the heavens, a certain figure waved the wand in her hand.

A shaft of light then fell from the sky five hundred kilometers above and, with a single pow, wiped a nation from the earth.

Faces crumpling, the witch doctors waved their hands frantically.

”Lady Shelly, even if you smelted every last one of us into your wand, it still would not be enough.”

Shelly looked at them.

”Youʼre really that weak?”

The witch doctors nodded in perfect unison. We really are that weak.

Shellyʼs expression made it plain that she found them all quite useless.

Obediently, the witch doctors assumed their most ashamed expressions.

Just then, the Mother of Life remembered something, and her eyes lit up.

”Oh, right! I knocked some stones off Godʼs Moon a long time ago.”

”I think Iʼve still got plenty left.”

Back then, Shelly had climbed onto Godʼs Moon many times and knocked pieces of Godʼs Grace Stone loose.

Shelly had fashioned the snake people and the winged people from different stones knocked loose from Godʼs Grace Stone.

No one else could climb onto Godʼs Moon as she did, much less dare knock stones loose from it.