The inexplicable drowsiness had invaded Green's consciousness more than once, making Green feel darkness in front of his eyes and weakness in his limbs. If it weren't for his belief that kept him going, he would probably have already fallen into countless streams of light.
After a little contemplation, Green roughly guessed the reason behind it.
This phenomenon had never occurred before, but it happened after using the power of the Source. There must be an inextricable connection. After all, the power of the Source didn't belong to him. It was just something he could use.
Where did the consumed power of the Source go?
Green speculated that it should return to the origin of the world in some other form. If that was the case, there would only be a path full of thorns and inevitable death ahead of Green.
The fatigue and drowsiness that he was experiencing now were largely related to the use of the power of the Source. But if he didn't use the power of the Source, there was no possibility of resisting it with just the source energy.
"Why aren't you leaving yet? Hurry up and go!" Green quickly realized that they were still standing in place, none of them had passed through the door to leave. They were just staring at him with different expressions, making him feel anxious.
Why weren't they leaving?
Were they waiting to be killed by that group of golden muscle men?
Thinking of this, Green looked outside the shield and found that the surroundings had already been surrounded by the golden source users. Once his shield created by the power of the Source couldn't hold on any longer and shattered, one could easily guess what would happen next.
At this moment, Green's hands and feet were trembling, and there wasn't much power of the Source left in his body. Aloof and the others were still not leaving, making the situation extremely desperate.
But just then, Green suddenly felt that the pressure on his body had lessened a lot, as if someone was helping him share the burden.
Green quickly turned his head and observed his surroundings. Soon, his gaze locked onto a redhead woman – Lilith.
Lilith was holding the "Heli Stout" sword that Green had given her. Although there was golden light all around, careful observation revealed that there was a line connecting the sword body and the golden source users outside, and it seemed to be flowing into the sword!
Green immediately understood. Lilith was using Heli as a medium to absorb the energy emitted by the golden source users and convert it for her own use, and she was using this power on the shield that Green had created. This not only reduced the attacks from the source users but also enhanced the defense of the shield.
But this was still far from enough. The sheer number of golden source users was something that Lilith and her "broken sword" alone couldn't handle to turn the tide.
"Give up, Lilith! Hurry and take everyone back!" Green said.
"If it were something else, I would listen to you, but not this," Lilith's voice was surprisingly steady, calm. Without the expected hesitation or loud retort, Green's eyes showed a slight surprise, which quickly turned to impatience.
Why can't any of you understand human language? If you want to help me, do you have the ability to do so? If you don't, then just obediently leave and stop making me worry, okay?
Green's voice was angry and helpless, giving away a complex emotion. Nevertheless, each person still didn't show any intention of retreating. They used their own meager strength to maintain the energy on the shield.
—This behavior was foolish, extremely foolish.
Not to mention whether it's useful or not, even if it does work, isn't constantly defending useless? What we need now is offense, it's offense! Constantly defending will only lead to exhaustion of our strength, and then everyone dying here. But Green seems to completely misunderstand this point, feeling extremely anxious and helpless.
However, just as this thought rushed into Green's mind, he suddenly felt the pressure on his body decrease slightly once again.
The golden domed shield was now tainted with other colors, light blue and dark gray- probably magic and the demon king's energy colors- although very subtle, careful observation could indeed reveal it, and the pressure did indeed decrease.
This made a flash of inspiration in Green's mind, could it be that he could resist the golden source's attacks without using the power of the source?
Thinking of this, Green did not let go of any opportunity and fully mobilized the source energy fused with the power of the demon king inside his body. In an instant, the dark red energy infiltrated the golden shield from within, just like dye added to clear water, except it quickly spread in a matter of seconds.
At the same time, the pressure on his body decreased again, and a bit of drowsiness disappeared.
Seeing this change, Green couldn't help but show an astonished expression. He couldn't have not tried using source energy to battle with the golden source for so long. On the contrary, not long ago, Green even mixed a large amount of source energy into the power of the source for an attack, but after the experiment, the result was that whether he added source energy or not had no effect on the damage to the source power.
But now, after using the source energy in his body, coupled with the power contributed by Saro Uth and the others, it did indeed reduce the pressure on Green's body significantly. This is definitely not fake, nor an illusion.
If that's the case, then there is only one answer.
"Lilith! Don't rush to absorb the source power outside, absorb the source power that maintains the shield! And you guys, put in more effort, hold off these attacks for me!"
Green first said something that made Lilith stunned, then turned around and shouted to the people around him, and then Green cut off the channel of the source power inside his body, and fully mobilized the source energy inside his body to replace the golden source power that formed the shield.
Although Lilith didn't understand what Green meant, she still followed his lead due to trust. The loss of the source power and Green's cutoff of the power supply caused everyone to feel a great pressure pressing on them, but fortunately, the source energy quickly took over, barely maintaining the almost broken shield.
Instantly, the golden shield changed to a dark red color, but the outside scene could still be vaguely seen.
Countless golden sources continued to shoot beams of light from their hands, feet, foreheads, eyes, mouths, and other body parts, bombarding the shield maintained by everyone's efforts, seemingly completely unaware of moderation.
But after the speculation was confirmed, Green also breathed a sigh of relief.
"... It seems that although source energy cannot cause harm to them, defense is still not a problem - I take back what I said, maybe I really do need your help."
Green exhaled and then turned his gaze to the people.
Just at this moment, a strong golden light seemed to surge in the periphery of everyone's field of vision. Except for Green, no one dared to look directly at it due to the fear of being blinded. Then, the scene that appeared in front of Green surprised him, making his eyes widen in astonishment.
The sudden golden light emanated from Lilith. Originally, following Green's instructions, Lilith used the "Broken Sword" Heli Stolte to sever the connection with the external source and instead began absorbing the energy within the shield. But just as Lilith, through Heli, absorbed the energy from the shield and incorporated it into her body, her body suddenly burst into a bright golden light.
In reality, this light wasn't blinding; on the contrary, it made those who looked at it feel gentle and comfortable. Green felt as if his body was immersed in a hot spring, every part of him being nourished by a warm current. Even the rest of the group couldn't help but experience this sensation.
It was a magical feeling that not only dispelled Green's drowsiness but also expelled all weariness from his body. Under the illumination of this golden light, everyone even had the illusion that the power within them became endless.
"Lilith, what's happening to you...?"
At this moment, Lilith felt as if her entire body had undergone a complete transformation. It was an indescribable sense of comfort, as if she had evolved in some way, and her body seemed to be filled with power.
The naturally controlled source power, manipulated by her gifted magic, seemed to have completely fused with her body. With this awareness, Lilith began experimenting with bypassing the Broken Sword and directly attempting to control the source power in its "masterless state," with only the intention to attack.
And then, something miraculous happened...
"...What is this?!"
The golden light beam flying towards the shield seemed to be drawn by something, dispersing into particles of light just before making actual contact, flowing directly into Lilith's palm like a stream of light.
In that instant, the abundant energy within her body was undoubtedly felt. Lilith stared at her open palm in a slight daze, completely bewildered.
Not only Lilith herself, but the people around her also sensed the changes happening to Lilith. It was an indescribable change; if one had to put it into words, everyone suddenly felt an inexplicable reverence towards Lilith, even a desire to pay the greatest of respects to her. Fortunately, the occasion didn't permit it, and the desire was forcibly suppressed.
Just then, Yuzuriha broke the perplexity in everyone's minds when she spoke.
"Lilith now carries an aura akin to that of a deity."
"...A deity?!"
A stunned expression appeared on the faces of everyone, generating different reactions. Among them, Green was the most astonished, because Yuzuriha's words precisely awakened him— the sensation emanating from Lilith's body now, wasn't that exactly like a deity!
After only a momentary consideration, Green immediately guessed the reason behind this development.
Green had let Lilith absorb the source power he had released, which was different from the golden source power. Since it had already been used and controlled by Green before and Lilith effortlessly drew the power from the shield and easily incorporated it into her body, it transformed into her own power.
The originally well-indoctrinated source power, combined with Lilith's talent for "Control," created a strange reaction, causing Lilith to evolve on a biological level and become a non-innate deity.
In other words, the current Lilith now belongs to the same tier as the gods of light.
"... The aura of the gods, have I become a god now?"
Lilith stared at her hands, her face filled with astonishment and shock.
Immediately, she turned her gaze to the golden source outside the shield, revealing a determined expression.
