The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　He realized he had made the same mistake as the professors: he hadn't considered the "Oil Snake's" own thoughts.

　In the current situation, there really isn't much time to think things through.

　At this point, "Oil Snake's" thoughts are no longer important. It's like a child whose life, from kindergarten to college entrance exams, is entirely arranged by their parents.

　It has no right to object.

　Because in the eyes of parents, it is seen as ignorant and lacking in self-management ability.

　"Once it becomes a god, it will realize that we were doing this for its own good." That's probably the idea.

　Aurora was actually trying her best to instill this idea in "Oil Snake".

　Whether the "Oil Serpent" itself will accept this favor is another matter. Moreover, Dark and the others do not know what it will feel like when they forge their godhood, whether there will be any pain, or whether there will be any side effects.

　All fantasies about the "process of becoming a god" are "my own speculations" based on their own understanding.

　No one knew what would happen. Therefore, not only was the "Oil Serpent" itself uneasy, but even Aurora, who was responsible for comforting it, felt uneasy. How could an uneasy person soothe the uneasy in another? But time was running out.

　There is no time.

　At 6:30, the people present were divided into three groups.

　A group consisting of Professor Sylph, Professor Jones, and Professor Mitis

　The section featuring Professor Lily, Ophelia, Professor Harvey, and Sister Carian.

　The section consisting of Dark, Ori, Chris, Trina, Angry, Eve, and Aurora.

　These three parts stand at the three corners of an equilateral triangle.

　Professor Cazell and Ergani personally oversaw the entire ceremony.

　There was not much communication, nor much hesitation.

　Once everything is ready, the entire ascension ceremony will begin!

　Almost instantly, a dense crowd appeared in the ceremony area.

　These people were dressed in clothing from a particular era, and they spoke entirely in a language that was incomprehensible to others.

　The only thing that could be understood was the piety on their faces, as if they were offering their hearts to the gods.

　Their "god" resides atop a magnificent altar. The eight pillars surrounding the altar are carved with serpent motifs, now resurrected through ritual, coiling around the pillars and flicking their tongues.

　These are all "interpretations".

　The essence of ritual is "performance".

　Professor Kazel is recreating history using unique methods.

　Those incredibly devout believers are merely projections, not even "real people" created by a "dream machine".

　The basic requirements for this ceremony are not high; there is only one crucial point.

　That is, to have the believers offer the "root divinity" extracted from fossils as a sacrifice on the altar, and then offer it to their "god"—the "oil serpent"!

　Once this step of the performance is completed, the entire ceremony is essentially finished.

　The following steps are almost entirely designed to accelerate the "oil snake's" metamorphosis process.

　From Dark's perspective, although the believers were merely projections, the entire ritual process was terrifyingly real.

　Those believers, whose origins are unknown, are flawless in every detail, from the clothing to the distinctive features of their speech.

　Without a profound understanding of history, it would be absolutely impossible to create such a ritual scene.

　Simply put, Darko can't do it at all. But he'll think about when he'll be able to, and work towards that goal.

　The entire ceremony proceeded flawlessly without any mishaps.

　About an hour later, the believers finally offered the "root divinity" extracted from the fossil as a sacrifice.

　Because Aurora had given prior notice, and with Ergani's temporary control of the situation, the "Oil Serpent" eventually accepted the "Root Divinity" after wavering for a while and attempted to absorb it.

　Thus, the biggest problem encountered in this ritual has emerged! The "absorption" in the concept of "oil snake" is simply swallowing that "root divinity" into its mouth.

　But that tiny bit of food wasn't even enough to fill a tooth gap.

　After it put it in its mouth, it felt nothing at all, and had no idea what to do next, let alone absorb it.

　This situation is extremely dire for the entire ceremony. If it cannot be resolved in time, the ceremony will be suspended.

　This ascension ritual will fail completely. "Aurora!"

　At this critical moment, Dak woke up Aurora, who was standing next to him.

　Given Aurora's current level of knowledge, it would actually be very difficult for her to understand this ritual.

　She is quite confused right now, and has no idea what role she can play.

　At this moment, Dark gave a reminder: "Let it sleep for a while!" Aurora hesitated only slightly before reaching into her card pack, taking out the item card "Snake Summoning Flute," and immediately summoning and activating it.

　During this process, she sought Professor Cazell's opinion with her eyes, and received a nod from Professor Cazell.

　Aurora immediately felt relieved and picked up the "Snake Summoning Flute" to play a lullaby.

　When that familiar flute music started playing, the "Oil Snake," who had been somewhat panicked, gradually calmed down, like an infant returning to its mother's embrace.

　After feeling at ease, a surge of sleepiness quickly overwhelms me.

　It rested its head on the coiled divine body, slowly closed its eyes, and finally fell asleep.

　In the instant it fell into slumber, the mechanism within its body, which had been operating spontaneously for thousands of years, finally awoke and greedily absorbed that wisp of "root divinity".

　That little bit of "original divinity" is certainly not enough to propel the "oil serpent" to godhood.

　But all it needed was this one opportunity.

　After absorbing that wisp of "root divinity", it knew which direction to take next.

　Then, the energy throughout the body began to evolve in that direction. Everything then got back on track.

　But as the ceremony returned to normal, everyone present became more wary of the "oil snake".

　This "oil snake's" dormancy mechanism is simply outrageous. Even the professors have never seen such a creature before.

　In past research, Professor Cazell, with the help of Ergani, also conducted a detailed examination of the "Oil Serpent".

　Ultimately, it was determined that there was no second soul within the "Oil Serpent." Its mechanism of self-regeneration after dormancy was perfectly compatible with its physical body.

　Ultimately, the only conclusion could be drawn that it was a special kind of "talent." As for whether such a "talent" actually exists in this world, it certainly appeared before their eyes!

　From then on, the entire ceremony proceeded without incident. Two hours, three hours, four hours…

　From 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and then to 11:30 a.m., the "performance" of the ceremony continued uninterrupted.

　Professor Kazel continuously rehearsed the ritual itself to ensure the uninterrupted "interpretation".

　Meanwhile, the "oil serpent" sleeping on the altar is undergoing a rapid transformation!

　It is unknown when, but a trace of divinity has begun to emerge within the "Oil Serpent".

　Dark, whose perception of divinity was exceptionally keen, noticed it almost immediately and informed those around him.

　Soon after, everyone learned that a trace of divinity had emerged within the "Oil Serpent."

　Clearly, that was the first step towards success. It was also a reminder to raise their guard. But the current situation is perhaps a little too good for them.

　The "oil snake" undergoes metamorphosis in its slumber, completely unaware of any pain or other side effects that may occur during this process.

　It doesn't dream at all; once it falls asleep, it knows nothing, not even the passage of time.

　And then, without even realizing it, he became a god!

　Time passed quickly, past noon. Then it went from noon to 1 p.m., and then to 2 p.m.

　Professor Kazel maintained a steady pace throughout, calmly and methodically controlling the development of the ceremony.

　Among the three groups, some were already feeling anxious, but they could still control themselves. The divine aura emanating from the "Oil Serpent" was growing stronger and stronger. At this point, no one was worried that the forging of the "Oil Serpent's" divine essence would fail. The only uncertainty was the timeframe for its completion.

　Until some point after three o'clock.

　The divine aura within the "Oil Serpent" suddenly became dozens of times stronger than before.

　The overwhelming aura shot straight up to the dome.

　Professor Mitia immediately took action, and with the help of the barrier, completely suppressed the incredibly dense divine aura.

　Not a single detail was leaked.

　Immediately afterwards, everyone raised their vigilance to the highest level to prepare for the possibility of things getting out of control.

　However, their vigilance had no effect—which was certainly the situation they had been hoping for!

　The final transformation of the "Oil Serpent" unfolded completely during its slumber. Its originally enormous body suddenly swelled to more than twice its original size.

　Although the entire outer skin did not resemble a moon, it was a permanent armor. Then, the enormous body of the "oil snake" froze in place.

　But through observation, Dak knew that it wasn't because the "oil snake" had stopped moving.

　Instead, it shed its swollen outer skin! The "oil snake" completed the entire molting process while it was in slumber.

　After molting, its body becomes larger than before, but still smaller than its skin, which has more than doubled in size.

　It huddled within its shed snakeskin, and "authority" gradually grew within its newly formed flesh.

　The so-called "divine authority" is actually the control over the rules of the world. Any creature that wants to attain godhood must comprehend at least one "rule".

　This "rule" can be integrated with any part of the soul, consciousness, or even the body.

　As a giant reptile, the "Oil Serpent" is a divine being forged from the "root divinity" of the "Abyss Serpent." Most of the rules it comprehends are based on the "Abyss Serpent" and are fused with its body to form a "divine body."

　The current shedding process confirms this speculation. But mastering the "rules" should not be so easy.

　"call……"

　Professor Kazel finally stopped pushing the ritual forward.

　The "oil snake" did not go out of control – after all, it had been dormant the whole time, and even if it had essentially become "unrecognizable", it would not have shown it immediately at this time.

　The forging of its divine status was also completely completed after the "rules" merged with its body.

　Although the ceremony took longer than expected, it did not actually encounter any insurmountable obstacles.

　The entire ceremony went surprisingly smoothly.

　However, while everyone was overjoyed, they all vaguely sensed that the reason why the ascension ceremony went so smoothly was probably not because they had prepared so thoroughly, but because the key point was probably the "oil snake".

　Without a doubt, it is an extremely special individual!

　…·

　"Anyway, it was a success, wasn't it?" Professor Jones displayed relative magnanimity at this moment.

　As she finished speaking, a rare smile appeared on Professor Sylph's face.

　"Indeed, it was a success!"

　“Yes, so we should be happy and celebrate!” Professor Lily shouted as she took flight.

　A sigh of relief followed. Yes!

　It worked!

　They successfully facilitated the birth of a god! But why does it all feel so unreal?

　Is it because the ceremony was too easy to succeed?

　Or perhaps it was because the "Oil Serpent" remained asleep throughout, thus failing to display any imposing aura except for that one burst of divine power.

　Or perhaps they were expecting some extraordinary celestial phenomenon. In any case, no extraordinary celestial phenomenon occurred.

　The aura of becoming a god can perhaps be felt after awakening the "Oil Serpent".

　After that, everyone gathered together again.

　Professor Steven Harvey spoke up, asking, "I see that the 'Oil Serpent's' authority is fused into the flesh, but I can't discern what specific rules it governs. What about you?"

　He said "you," but he was actually staring at Professor Cazell the entire time. Professor Cazell, however, calmly shrugged and said, "Before awakening it and questioning it, I couldn't know what rules it had mastered. But among the rules integrated into the physical body, the most common ones would be things like 'regeneration,' 'immortality,' and 'material transformation.' Considering it follows the path of the 'Abyss Serpent,' perhaps it has mastered some rule related to that. Of course, I hope it's the latter."

　Although "Abyssal Serpent" and "Contaminant" may not belong to the same lineage, since they both originate from the "Abyss," they share some commonalities.

　Professor Cazell naturally hoped that the "Oil Snake" could gain control over matters related to the "pollutants".

　But as they discussed this, Ergani, who had been standing still, suddenly spoke up at a certain moment: "It wields the power of material transformation." After a brief silence, Professor Kazel asked, "How did you figure that out?"

　Ergani said calmly, "Because just now, I grasped the power to control snakes."