Eren paused.
His eyes moved over the crowd, sharp and steady.
It was as if he could see their thoughts, feel their fear and confusion.
"Don't get wrong," he said, voice steady. "I have nothing against gods asking their followers to die for a cause. But that cause should be aningful. It should matter."
He lifted his hand, waving his smoke lazily in the air.
"People shouldn't die in sacrificial rituals. That's just an awful use of living resources. It's like throwing a good Stellar Sativa Stick in a campfire to inhale its smoke all at once. It doesn't make sense."
Another voice rose from the crowd. "So you won't ask us to die for you?"
Eren laughed softly.
"Who told you that?" he asked with a chuckle. "Of course I will. I ask all my subordinates to put their lives on the line all the ti. I do the sa myself."
His expression turned serious.
"Why should I protect my followers from the realities of life? You think following a demigod or an Immortal makes you untouchable? Safe?"
The butcher looked at the crowd with his narrowed gaze as he continued.
"What I'm saying is simple," Eren said, voice dropping a little, but firm.
"I might ask you to die for —but if and when that happens, it will be on a battlefield. It'll be where you can fight back. Where you can survive. Where you have a fighting chance to earn sothing from it."
He looked over the mortals, the low-level mana practitioners, the shaken faces and tired eyes.
"The Elder Ichor Pantheon will never conduct sacrificial rituals," he said clearly.
"If I ever truly need soone dead for sothing important… I'll do it myself. With my own two hands. No rituals. No lies. No fake promises about cleansing sins or a chance to enter the Divine Kingdom.
I have already killed billions in my howorld. But that was not because I wanted to clean the sins of my followers. I did it because of ."
He flicked the ash off the tip of his Stellar Sativa Stick and added one last thing:
"If you want to follow , you'll follow with your eyes open. Not closed in prayer."
A low murmur passed through the crowd gathered at the base of the altar. People whispered among themselves, unsure if they should speak up or just listen quietly.
But then, from the middle of the crowd, a young man in a tattered robe took a hesitant step forward.
He looked no older than his early twenties and seed like a low-level mana practitioner, probably an E-Ranker. His hands were shaking slightly, but he still managed to raise his voice just enough to be heard.
"Um… L-Lord Eren," he called out, nervously. "Now that… now that Sea God Raashim is dead… do we… do we stop collecting… uh…. protection money from the ships?" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "From rchant ships and cargo vessels crossing the sea, I an."
The crowd went quiet again, all eyes turning to Eren.
Eren raised an eyebrow. Then, he smiled. He knew exactly what the boy ant.
Most of God Raashim's followers weren't just peaceful believers. They were pirates, sea raiders, or self-proclaid protectors of the Labh Salem waters.
They ran a vast network across the coasts—part piracy, part business. They would stop rchant ships, either demanding paynt in exchange for safe passage or offering security services against sea beasts and rogue sea monsters.
Sotis, God Raashim's followers accepted transportations services directly. After all, teleportation magic was not a cost-effective solution for many of the mana-rich resources. And selling things on the naka's sh wasn't a viable option either for resources ant for low-level mana practitioners.
In such cases, God Raashim's followers provided affordable naval solutions. They struck deals with all the continents without worrying about their demonic or divine inclinations.
Labh Salem was a massive world and it had all kinds of resources ant for a varying range of people. Things that were commonplace in the continents with the divine temples as majority were treated as rarity in the demonic continents and vice versa.
Therefore, God Raashim's followers dabbled in all kinds of ssy deals. They acted as the bridge between the demonic and divine forces without both of them having to make direct contact with each other.
Eren had also made use of God Raashim's transportation services in the past. He had taken help from them in order to collect his test subjects from various places.
Altair Args, who had been acting as a jailer for powerful prisoners in Labh Salem, had also made use of God Raashim's services to send so of his prisoners Eren's way.
In short, it was a thriving, if chaotic, system. And in chaos, God Raashim's followers thrived.
Thanks to their connection with Sea God Raashim, these followers had access to a specialized Skill Tree—granted to them through naka's sh. It allowed them to amplify their strength in sea-based fights, dominate sea creatures, and move across the waters with incredible ease.
Raashim's Skill Tree was the backbone of their power and livelihood. Without it, many of them would feel crippled, unable to perform the sa tasks they used to.
And now that Raashim was dead, these people were unsure. Would Eren try to wipe the slate clean? Start fresh? Would he strip them of their ways?
Eren didn't answer right away. He took a long, quiet puff from his Stellar Sativa Stick, his eyes half-lidded as he gazed at the nervous practitioner.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"Let get this straight," he said, voice calm and steady. "You're asking if you should stop collecting protection money… because you're worried I might be against it?"
God Raashim was a chaotic god. As such, it was sowhat expected of him to act as a patron deity for shady sea gangs and pirates.
However, soone from another pantheon taking over God Raashim's place wasn't a confident-inducing process among his followers.
Especially soone like Eren whose background and personality was not known to the masses.
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