Global Gods : Skill-Resonance Awakened

Chapter 378: Jade Gaze for Gods

While the Inner World of Veridia underwent its chaotic metamorphosis, a symphony of shifting borders and political intrigue orchestrated by the All-Seeing King, the great Void outside was experiencing a transformation of a much grander, more terrifying scale.

The influence of Sunny was no longer a localized phenomenon. It was a conceptual infection spreading through the fabric of the bubble with every passing minute.

Every multiverse Sunny bypassed in his travels was not merely noted; it was marked.

For every multiverse he discovered, he deployed a team of his ten most capable Gods, tasked with a singular, absolute mandate: Spread your faith and turn the multiverse into the territory of the pantheon.

These ten-god vanguards worked with the cold, relentless efficiency of a hive mind. They descended upon universes, carving out territories for their Emperor while simultaneously weaving their own legends into the local myths.

It was a symbiotic growth; as the Emperor's territory expanded, the Gods themselves grew bloated with the power of quadrillions of new believers.

The initial 160 multiverses had already metastasized into tens of thousands.

Sunny did the mental math as he flickered through the vacuum, and the numbers were staggering. Nearly a hundred thousand of his Gods were already deployed across the void, acting as the anchors for his growing sovereignty.

"At this rate, I could deploy every single God under my command and the multiverses still wouldn't end," Sunny mused, his voice lost in the howling silence of the void. He paused, his form shimmering with violet starlight.

"I need to increase the speed. If they take too long to conquer a single multiverse, they will be bound to that territory for eternity, stagnant and slow. They need to move like a wildfire, not a creeping vine."

The problem was logistical. Conquering a multiverse wasn't just about killing the local opposition; it was about shifting their beliefs and accepting Sunny as their God.

Even for a God, that process took time. Sunny considered the options. He could accelerate time for the entire multiverse, allowing his Gods to perform centuries of missionary and military work in the span of a few days.

However, time manipulation on a multiverses-scale was a heavy burden, even for him. To achieve it, he needed to meet one of two rigid conditions.

First: the multiverse had to already be his territory, which was a paradox, as the goal of the conquest was to make it his territory.

Second: he could force the acceleration through absolute focus.

But Sunny refused to be tethered to one spot, staring at a single cluster of stars for days on end while the rest of the bubble waited. It was too linear, too boring for a being who functioned in parallel.

"The Timepiece artifact is too small-scale," Sunny sighed, the sound vibrating the local space. "It can accelerate a planet, a solar system, perhaps even a galaxy... but a multiverse? It would shatter under the strain."

He drifted for a moment, his mind scouring the vast database of laws and abilities.

Then, a memory from the Inner World flashed across his consciousness. He saw the emerald eyes of the captive empress and the golden gaze of Anohara.

"The Jade Gaze," he whispered. "How did I overlook such an elegant solution?"

Sunny was thinking of the Jade Gaze of Bewitchment, the SSS-grade talent held by Esmira and recently assimilated by Anohara.

Through his Nihilium Omniscience, Sunny peered into the soul of Anohara.

He saw the fusion was complete, which meant the blueprint of the talent was now stored within the archives of Demigod Mire.

"If the Gods possess this talent, taking control of a multiverse becomes a matter of years rather than centuries," Sunny realized, a wide, predatory smile forming on his face.

The plan was simple but devastating. Sunny didn't need to manually intervene. He sent a mental command to Thea. Within seconds, the Jade Gaze of Bewitchment was listed in the Divine Store for the Gods to purchase.

Given the wealth of faith they were currently harvesting from their new territories, every God in the vanguard would easily be able to afford the Jade Gaze of Bewitchment.

With this talent, the Gods wouldn't just be preaching; they would be infecting.

Every believer they converted would carry a fragment of that bewitching aura, passing the Truth of Sunny's godhood to others through mere conversation. Word of mouth would become a mental pandemic.

"This will suffice for now," Sunny said, satisfied. "Let the faith spread itself while I seek the boundaries."

Days bled into months, and months into years in the time of the deep void.

Sunny continued his relentless trek through the bubble, planting the seeds of his Pantheon in every multiverse of the vacuum.

Then, finally, a resonance reached him, a signal of completion.

In the very first multiverse Sunny had marked, the one led by the God Zir, the campaign had reached its endgame.

On the outskirts of the final, glowing orb of a multiverse, the ten Gods of the vanguard gathered. They looked weary but radiant, their eyes glowing with the memories of millions of universes.

"Finally," one goddess sighed, leaning on a spear made of condensed lightning. "This is the last one. The final universe in this multiverse."

"I'm curious," another God said, his eyes glowing with the competitive fire. "What was the final tally? I managed to secure the faith of roughly a seventy five million universes."

"Heh... amateur," a third God boasted, crossing his arms. "I have ninty million universes singing my hymns."

"I conquered 453 million," a calm, calculated voice broke through the bickering.

The Gods turned to see Strategist. He was holding a holographic scroll that displayed a complex web of integrated star-systems.

"Four hundred million?" The first goddess whistled. "According to Thea's readout, this multiverse contained roughly two billion universes. If the nine of us conquered 1.1 billion combined... then who has the rest?"

All eyes shifted toward the figure standing at the very front of the group, staring into the heart of the final universe. It was Zir.

"Yeah," Zir whispered, not turning around. A savage, satisfied grin was audible in his tone. "The remaining 900 million universes belong to me. But let's not waste time tallying the past. Look at that last one. It's ownerless. Let's see who can plant their flag first."

The Gods didn't wait. With a collective roar of divine intent, they descended.

Within hours, aided by trillions of their own demigods and the viral potency of the Jade Gaze, the final universe was brought into the fold. The multiverse was unified.

Back in the interstitial void, Sunny was performing a Void Step when his system panel flared with a brilliant, melodious chime.

[Master, The Multiverse of Power has been fully conquered. You can now Capture it at any time.]

Sunny grinned. "It took years for the first one, but the floodgates are open now. Let's bring the Multiverse of Power home."

He snapped his fingers, and a massive portal of violet light manifested. Stepping through, he found himself back at the first multiverse he had discovered after leaving his home multiverse.

He reached out, his hands growing to the size of nebulae. Using the Size Manipulation talent he had mastered from Nova, he compressed the multiverse into a dense molecule.

With a deep breath, he pulled the particle into his chest, integrating it into the Elsewhere of his inner world.

Immediately, Sunny's body began to shiver. A familiar, cold sensation crawled up his spine. The dark, Nihilium particles around his neck, the physical manifestation of his growth began to rise like a tide.

They moved toward his Adam's apple, threatening to swallow his throat, but they stopped abruptly midway.

"Just this much?" Sunny whispered, feeling the slight increase in his strength.

He wasn't disappointed; he was calculating. If one multiverse moved the needle that much, then the tens of thousands currently being harvested by the other Gods would soon push him into a new tier of existence. The dark mark on his neck was a countdown to his evolution.

"Good job, Zir," Sunny said to the silent void.

He snapped his fingers, vanishing from the multiverse and returning to his original path. He was moving faster now, his Void Step leaving deeper scars in the vacuum. But as he moved, a thought nagged at him.

"I've searched thousands of sectors," he whispered. "I've found millions of multiverses... but where are the Old Gods? Where are the beings who ruled this bubble before I woke up? They are reincarnated... so where are they hiding?"

Just as he spoke the words, the void around him seemed to thicken. The temperature dropped to an absolute zero that even his body felt. A sense of ancient, mindless hunger began to radiate from the darkness ahead.

Sunny stopped. His Divine Eyes narrowed, peering into a place where the stars looked... bitten.

"Well," Sunny grinned, as he void stepped towards the darkness. "I suppose I found the answer."