Chapter 421: Divine Body

The journey back to the Star King World took far less time than Caelus expected.

Their return trip was smoother than before, although the starry sky still gave them plenty of opportunities to test their growing strength. Along the way, they encountered three more Space Worms, each roughly as powerful as the one they had fought earlier.

With their increasing familiarity with Spatial Flight and their seamless teamwork, none of the battles lasted long.

Each Space Worm gave them another 50 Combat Score through extraction.

By the time they returned, Caelus had reached 375 Combat Score while Sylvia had reached 370. Both of them had crossed far beyond ordinary Origin Lord territory and were now aiming toward the realm above it.

Lesser God.

Caelus looked forward to that step more than anything else.

Becoming a Lesser God wasn’t simply another increase in Combat Score. Faith Power, Divinity, and the path toward true godhood were all connected, and Caelus had finally reached the point where he could properly explore that system.

He currently had roughly five million Faith Power remaining.

That number would have sounded absurdly large to him before, but after learning how important Faith Power was, it suddenly didn’t seem like much at all.

He also hadn’t spent much time expanding the Chaos Faction recently.

That needed to change.

Caelus intended to spread it aggressively.

He was already a Chaos Perception Dragon, and even now, he hadn’t completely tapped into the potential of his transformation. Several paths of growth were available to him, but before doing anything else, he needed to understand exactly how Faith Power, Combat Score, and Divinization interacted.

Once they returned, Caelus and Sylvia immediately headed toward the Star King Administration and found Overseer John inside the main hall.

Relief appeared on John’s face when he saw them unharmed.

"You’re back. How did everything go? You disappeared into the starry sky immediately after I warned you about the Space Worms."

"It went pretty well."

"That answer somehow makes me more worried."

Sylvia laughed softly.

Caelus decided there was no reason to mention how many Space Worms they had killed and moved directly to the reason he had come.

"John, I need to ask you something. How exactly does Faith Power work when it comes to becoming a Lesser God? I understand that it can increase someone’s power, but how does the conversion actually happen?"

"Faith Power is mainly used for Divinization."

"Divinization?" Caelus repeated.

Sylvia was equally unfamiliar with the term.

"What exactly is that?"

John explained, "Divinization is the process of transforming a mortal existence into a divine one. Your body, soul, Mana, and eventually your entire existence are gradually transformed into something capable of supporting true Divinity."

He continued before either of them could interrupt.

"A Divine Body is one of the foundations required to become a God. Gods are fundamentally different from mortals. Becoming a Lesser God isn’t simply about reaching a higher Combat Score. You’re crossing a threshold where the basic rules governing your existence begin to change."

That immediately caught Caelus’s interest.

John continued explaining.

"Mortals have limitations built directly into their bodies. They need food, rest, and depending on the race, oxygen. Their physical structures can only withstand so much force before supernatural energy has to compensate for those weaknesses."

"For example, when an Origin Lord travels at extreme speeds or destroys something on a planetary scale with what looks like a physical attack, their ordinary flesh isn’t actually responsible for all of that power. Mana, Skills, Talents, racial abilities, and other supernatural systems are reinforcing the body."

He raised a hand to emphasize his next point.

"At the peak of Origin Lord Rank, someone may possess enough destructive power to destroy a planet with what appears to be a bare-handed strike, but supernatural power is still carrying most of that force."

"The same applies to movement. Even if an Origin Lord possesses ten thousand Combat Score, a mortal body cannot simply accelerate endlessly without consequences. Beyond a certain point, especially once you begin reaching several times the speed of light, the limitations of mortal flesh become increasingly obvious."

"Abilities such as Spatial Flight can bypass those restrictions, but they still accomplish it through supernatural energy."

"A Divine Body is different."

John’s explanation became increasingly serious.

"Once your body becomes genuinely divine, the flesh itself begins transcending mortal limitations. In a Tier 2 World, a properly developed Divine Body can endure speeds exceeding a hundred times the speed of light without simply disintegrating."

"And when a Divine Being destroys a planet with their bare hand, it can genuinely be their bare hand doing it."

He finished with a simple statement.

"That is Divinity. True transcendence."

Caelus and Sylvia immediately understood why the process mattered so much.

They had already grown far beyond ordinary humans, but Divinization wasn’t simply about becoming stronger. Their very existence would become fundamentally superior.

"I definitely want that," Caelus said with a grin.

Sylvia clearly felt the same way.

"So if we have enough Faith Power, we can completely obtain Divine Bodies?"

"That’s where the difficult part begins," John replied. "Faith Power is notoriously difficult to obtain in large quantities unless you belong to a powerful faction."

He explained that beyond their current region, countless organizations operated throughout the wider starry sky. Large numbers of Level 10 Origin Lords constantly completed missions, built reputations, gathered followers, and competed over opportunities capable of granting Faith Power.

"For most people, reaching Level 10 Origin Lord is only the beginning. They can spend years, decades, or even longer gathering enough Faith Power to complete their Divinization."

John summed it up plainly.

"Getting enough Faith Power is extremely difficult."

Caelus considered that for a moment.

"What if someone has their own faction?"

"Creating a proper faction isn’t something just anyone can do. The leader needs immense potential. At minimum, they should possess God-King-level potential."

"A God-King, huh?"

Caelus smiled.

That meant the Origin Network allowing him to establish the Chaos Faction had indirectly confirmed something important.

His potential already satisfied that requirement.

Then another thought occurred to him.

"What about you? How do you get Faith Power?"

"I don’t."

Caelus hadn’t expected that answer.

John explained, "I’m not currently part of any official faction, so my access to Faith Power is extremely limited. Unless that changes, I’ll probably remain stuck at Origin Lord Rank indefinitely."

Then he added half-jokingly, "Unless you happen to create a faction powerful enough for me to join, Lord Caelus."

"Perfect."

Caelus continued as though the matter had already been decided.

"Overseer John, you and everyone in the Star King Administration are joining my Chaos Faction."

"The Chaos Faction?"

"Yeah."

"You probably don’t know this, but I’m a Chaos Perception Dragon."

Caelus saw no reason to hide this particular detail anymore.

John stared at him.

For a moment, Caelus assumed he simply didn’t understand the significance of the race.

Then John’s expression changed.

Of course he knew what a Chaos Dragon was.

More importantly, he knew what a Chaos Perception Dragon represented.

His disbelief slowly turned into realization.

"A Chaos Perception Dragon..."

John repeated the words as though confirming them for himself.

Everything made sense now.

The terrifying growth rate.

The absurd abilities.

The Chaos Faction.

John looked at him with growing disbelief.

"Y-You’re the Ender of Origin?"

Before Caelus could answer, John fainted.

He simply collapsed onto the floor with a thud.

Sylvia stared at him with a speechless look on her face.

For several seconds, neither she nor Caelus said anything.

Finally, she commented, "That’s actually the first time I’ve seen someone faint from shock."

"There’s always a first time."

They eventually woke John up.

Even after regaining consciousness, it took him a while to fully process what he had discovered. Everything he previously considered abnormal about Caelus suddenly had a horrifyingly simple explanation.

"To think you’re actually the Ender of Origin..."

"The one and only."

"That explains how you became this strong so quickly."

Caelus found his reaction amusing, but there was one thing he needed to make clear.

"Don’t tell anyone. I’ll reveal that I’m the Ender of Origin myself when the time is right."

John immediately agreed.

"I wouldn’t dare reveal something like that without your permission."

"Good."

With that settled, Caelus returned to the matter that had started this entire revelation.

"Now, about the Chaos Faction. Join."

John accepted without hesitation.

Caelus immediately gave him recruiter authority.

Once that was done, a much larger possibility occurred to him.

He didn’t need to personally recruit everyone.

As long as trusted faction members possessed recruitment authority, the Chaos Faction could expand independently. John could recruit the Star King Administration, those members could eventually help with further expansion, and the same system could be implemented inside Genesis Kingdom.

However, allowing thousands or eventually millions of people to recruit freely created an obvious problem.

Caelus needed a safeguard.

He opened the Faction Benefit Creation Kit.

His current Contribution Point balance had reached 20,450.

That surprised him slightly.

Apparently, the Chaos Faction members had been working extremely hard while he had been running around doing everything except properly managing his own faction.

Caelus immediately began designing a new recruitment benefit.

The purpose was simple.

Anyone attempting to join the Chaos Faction would first undergo an automatic alignment evaluation.

Caelus didn’t particularly care whether someone was chaotic, selfish, strange, violent, or morally questionable. He wasn’t trying to create a faction filled entirely with saints.

Chaotic Neutral and above was perfectly acceptable.

What he didn’t want were people who would inevitably betray the faction, murder allies, sabotage operations, or create internal chaos for absolutely no reason.

He wanted chaos.

Not stupidity.

With an automatic screening system in place, obvious threats could be rejected without Caelus needing to personally inspect every new recruit.

He entered the conditions.

[Benefit Proposal Detected.]

[If a player is recruited into the Chaos Faction, their alignment will first be evaluated.]

[Chaotic Neutral or higher alignments may be accepted.]

[Individuals classified as Evil or below the permitted threshold will automatically fail recruitment.]

[Authorization Approved.]

[This Benefit can be executed.]

[Calculating Total Cost...]

[-100 Platform Fee]

[-50 Benefit Creation Usage Charge]

[-10 Authorization Fee]

[-1,500 Benefit Implementation Fee]

[50% Discount Account Applied.]

[Final Total After Discount: 830 Contribution Points.]

Caelus stared at the final price. To this day, things of the Benefit Creation still didn’t make sense.

"Like what the hell is a Platform Fee?"

Sylvia had apparently become accustomed to these complaints by now.

"Still angry about the fees?"

"They literally charged me for using the thing I’m already using."

Despite complaining, Caelus accepted the cost.

The safeguard was installed immediately.

Now there was nothing stopping him from distributing recruitment authority among trusted members.

John started with the Star King Administration.

Within an hour, the entire organization had joined the Chaos Faction.

Then something unexpected happened.

Caelus’s Faith Power began exploding upward.

Five million.

Ten million.

Twenty million.

Thirty million.

The number continued climbing so quickly that Caelus simply watched it in disbelief.

Eventually, the increase stopped.

[Faith Power: 50,203,394.]

"Jesus."

Even Sylvia looked surprised.

The Star King Administration didn’t contain an absurd number of people, but Faith Power clearly wasn’t determined solely by population.

The strength, potential, influence, and overall quality of each believer mattered as well.

A powerful Origin Lord could generate vastly more Faith Power than an ordinary person.