Chapter 596

Chapter 596: Your Notorious Name is Known from the Ether to the Primordial!

"Uh…"

"Ahhhhh—!"

If any Outer Gods from the Void passed by, they would surely witness a shocking and brutal scene!

The creature Trilobite saw as a Serpent Tooth Dragon writhed in agony on the ground—the very being mortals and gods knew as the deposed "Magic-less" Elioerg, once among the Chaos Council’s first fourteen seats.

Earth-shattering screams echoed across the border between the Chaos Swamp and the Primal Wilderness.

Neither Outer Gods from the Void nor Pan-Spirit Deities of the four-legged species dared approach.

They only watched from afar.

Of course, more than these two types of deities lurked in the shadows.

"By the skies!"

"What’s happening?!"

"Did Barbatos do this!? This is too brutal!"

Crouching among dwarfed Fantasy Trees of Subspace, several deities bearing "Law-Breaking Fangs" observed the spectacle.

They were Attendants of the First Demon God.

Though merely powerful secondary demon gods—ranking as back-row or weaker core councilors in the Chaos Council—they possessed one unique advantage: Barbatos’s trust!

But now, these attendants could no longer live up to "trust."

Ever since their first battle against the Star-Eater Plutonium Dragons led to an agreement, the Attendants learned that bringing good news to the ever-gloomy Barbatos earned rewards, while bearers of bad news suffered wounds from the First Demon God’s unconsciously emitted "wrathful magic."

They also realized a truth: Barbatos wasn’t omnipotent.

Often, he couldn’t distinguish truth from lies!

Despite enacting the "Emergency State Bill" and later the "Emergency State Bill for Wartime"—measures reclaiming authority and power—even the First Demon God lacked the capacity to oversee everything personally.

Intelligence gathering spanned nearly the entire universe and beyond; no single deity, however mighty, could manage it alone.

Many Attendants pictured Barbatos as a giant shrouded in thick fog.

Though his power shook heaven and earth, he could only swing blindly at faint shadows in the mist.

This cemented the Attendants’ resolve to maintain their deception.

If deception was necessary, they would commit fully.

Those naive enough to speak truth…

would be silenced!

Yet these two particular Attendants currently had no need to conceal facts or falsify achievements.

Barbatos tasked them not with combat, but with observation and testimony—to witness the fate of the arrogant one who dared challenge the First Demon God: Elioerg.

"Did Barbatos truly cause this?"

"Is he… making an example of him!?"

A trembling attendant was terrified.

He thought that if Barbatos was torturing Elioerg to show him, he might find out they had been deceiving him all along.

But his companion disagreed.

"Are you stupid!"

"Couldn’t you see the one torturing Elioerg was the Giant God!"

The trembling attendant glanced at the Colossal Divine Body standing over Elioerg and shook his head.

"No… that couldn’t be right!"

"The Giant God… I remember last time I saw him, his Divine Body wasn’t like this!"

"Slap!"

As soon as he finished, his companion slapped him.

"Fool!"

"The Giant God’s Divine Body often changed!"

"This was the transformative power of the great Giant God!"

"Way better than anything Barbatos could do!"

"I’d never seen Barbatos make a decent Divine Body!"

"Plus, when you looked at the Giant God, you couldn’t just stare at his Divine Body changes! He changed a lot!"

"You know, among many demon gods, the Giant God had another name—‘The Ever-Changing God Emperor’!"

"But on the ‘Ever-Changing God Emperor,’ you could always spot the sign of ‘eternity’—his eyes!"

"Ah!"

"Those eyes, made of countless shining gems, were so beautiful and perfect!"

Amid his companion’s admiring tone, the other attendant finally nodded.

"That was true…"

"But it was too bad he was so brutal."

"It was worse that we were his enemies."

"If we got caught, I didn’t want to end up like Elioerg."

Many Chaos Demon Gods, especially the weaker ones, knew about the Giant God’s strength and smarts, but they didn’t join him like the Giant God Association.

Pride as a "chaos deity" played a small part.

Especially for these Secondary Gods serving other gods.

Was getting a meal from the Giant God any different than from the First Demon God?

The main reason was the Giant God was so infamous, feared by all… yet no one dared fight him!

Since his official "debut," the Giant God had grown stronger by crushing Chaos Demon Gods’ bodies; his giant jaws, like a deep pit, swallowed countless Chaos Demon Gods, leaving behind piles of pale bones.

Many deities still remembered how the Giant God would cut open captured demon gods; while they were alive, he started the "cruel dismemberment" and cutting apart, making his old enemies die slowly in endless pain and shame!

So terrifying!

This brutality had made the Giant God’s "evil name" known throughout the Endless Ether to the Primal Wilderness—none remained unaware!

No ordinary deity dared to pledge allegiance to such an "evil god."

Naturally, high-tier deities like core councilors had alternative channels for information; they’d long since made their choice. Yet given the nature of Chaos Demon Gods, those powerful beings wouldn’t share Giant God’s details with weaker ones they disdained.

What if it hindered the "Great Plan"?

Thus, the reputation of the Giant God’s extreme brutality spread among mid and lower-tier deities.

Even deities who marveled at the Giant God’s power and wisdom couldn’t deny…

"Yes, He is simply too brutal!"

"He slays any chaos deity on sight."

"Elioerg doesn’t even qualify as a chaos deity anymore—expelled by Barbatos—yet still suffers this torment."

"Alas…"

"If killing is the intent, why not do it outright? Why this spectacle…"

"Truly…"

"Huh!?"

Just as they lamented the Giant God’s cruelty and mourned Elioerg’s fate, something occurred that utterly shocked the two Attendants.

"Huff…"

The "deposed" Elioerg ceased struggling.

But He hadn’t perished.

The "shell" of His divine body abruptly turned gray—lifeless and cement-like in texture.

Then…

"Crack—!"

Like a shattering eggshell, fissures spiderwebbed across the surface of Elioerg’s Divine Body!

—-

"Huff…"

"Exhausting!"

"This might be the most grueling modification I’ve ever performed!"

Trilobite gasped for breath.

In reality, sweat would’ve drenched His forehead by now.

The weariness wasn’t just physical; He felt like a surgeon finishing a ten-hour marathon operation.

Even with the System’s aid and His vast paleontological knowledge, utter depletion washed over Him—as if His "brain" might boil dry.

"All I can say…"

"Archosaurs that abandoned their foundational form have truly drifted too far."

Perhaps someone might ask, what is the "foundational form" of mammals?

Most would picture "a bunch of rats."

Well, this answer…

Is right, yet not entirely.

"Rodents" don’t truly qualify as the foundational form. They’d strayed too far down the path of specialized teeth, even losing their fangs. As a result, predatory rodents stayed small, only preying on insects or creatures far tinier than themselves.

Those that grew larger all turned into gentle plant-eaters.

A more precise answer would be "a bunch of shrews."

Though shrews resemble "rats" in appearance, they kept mammals’ full set of teeth without extreme specialization.

Still, while "a bunch of shrews" is quite accurate, it feels less ancient and less "foundational" compared to lizard-like creatures.

The true "foundational form" of archosaurs is actually "a bunch of lizards."

Dragon-type creatures—with or without dorsal fins, big-headed or small-headed—embody the most fundamental essence of archosaurs, or mammals. Yet over billions of years of evolution, archosaurs lost this foundational form.

In contrast, lizard-like creatures preserved theirs, aiding their future radiation and expansion into ecological niches. Meanwhile, the now-rare archosaurs might lag behind in this aspect.

"Not only is their radiation potential weaker…"

"It nearly drained me dry!"

Before, Trilobite had tweaked his body bit by bit. Though he’d achieved "cross-class development," that was early on, when his body structure was simpler.

But now…

"Just crafting a fully upright posture exhausted all my effort!"

"Who knew so few bones could twist into so many shapes!"

"In the end, I abandoned modifications and let some bones regrow entirely…"

"Never mind the fur! The glands! Tooth differentiation! Heart chamber splits! Warm-bloodedness! Shrinking those lumbar ribs!"

"Transforming archosaurs from lizard-type to ‘dog-type’ was no easier than ‘cross-class development’."

"And I did it without hibernating!"

"Still… the overhaul was massive…"

Watching the "dog-brained" little beast crawl out slowly—fangs jutting from its jaws, strands of slime clinging to its form—Trilobite nodded, relieved.

Its size hadn’t changed much, but it had been utterly reborn!

Not just metaphorically, but physically!

Beneath the creature lay a complete shed skin and discarded bones, forcibly expelled from its body.

"After all that toil, it wasn’t wasted."

"You’re now Triassic’s very own saber-toothed dog!"