Crack! Crack!

In a deep forest situated on a mountain was a humanoid statue, seated next to a boulder. It resembled a human man with impeccable proportions, perfectly sculpted to represent the peak of humanity.

The stone statue began to crack as pieces of it fell to the ground, disappearing as fragments of light that swerved into the figure within. Eventually, almost a quarter of the stone layer fell off, causing the individual to wake up.

"Hahhow long was I asleep?" It was Compass Carburettor, awake now. He closed his eyes and sensed the presence of Pnolli that had been borrowing his power for a while.

All along, Compass Carburettor wasn't entirely unconscious. He was more in a state of trance as he still received all the prayers directed at him and also gave out blessings. The prayers solidified his faith and accumulated power in him.

The received power was then funnelled out in the form of blessings. Deities were unable to store any power in their body. Their powers worked similarly to a tap.

The faith that funnelled into them at every moment was all they had at their disposal to use. Faith was a form of energy that couldn't be accumulated, one that vanished immediately after a single moment.

Hence, if it wasn't used at that moment, it became a waste, for it would simply vanish. This was why the strength of a Deity was directly connected to its believers. The moment they died, the Deity instantly lost all power and would transform into a stone statue.

Only when faith continued to stream into them would they be able to stop their bodies from turning into stone. After understanding this, Compass Carburettor intended to fully use all received faith, hence the reason for his transaction clause.

This way, the faith received from a believer was instantly consumed to become the blessing granted to them. Of course, his blessings were cheap to grant, since he was simply extracting information and experience from himself.

So, a good fraction of the faith remained behind. And this portion was funnelled into people like Pnolli that temporarily gained the power of a Spirit and explored the world.

It had to be noted that everywhere Pnolli went, he emphasised the act of record keeping. This prompted the people to pray to him and convey their experiences, as a result of which Compass Carburettor was actually aware of things happening tens of thousands of kilometres away from him.

He had a detailed idea of everything in places with people that prayed towards him.

And now, upon waking up, he focused on Pnolli, shocked to see that the other party was an old man in his late nineties now. He looked like he was only in his sixties though, very healthy for his age.

But the fact that so much time had spanned still came off as a surprise, for it was only now that the stone covering him was breaking off.

This meant that the number of his believers had reached a level large enough where at least one human was praying towards him every second. Otherwise, if there was a gap for even a single second where faith didn't stream into a Deity, they would turn into a statue.

This was why he remained a statue for so long, because though he received a lot of prayers, they weren't a consistent stream, often having long intervals of silence in between. Over the years, thanks to the efforts of people like Pnolli, the intervals reduced.

And now, there was a consistent stream, which was why the rock layer began to fall off. There were only cracks forming on it at the start, but now, large pieces vanished.

Though of course, there was still an oscillation on his chest where patches of stone vanished and reappeared. He was getting enough faith to be awake now, but it still wasn't enough to fully break free of the stone layer.

'I still need time to fully break free. But at least, I can actively think and not react passively like before.' Compass Carburettor thought, smiling as he stared at the sky, 'After almost a century, this world has finally stabilised enough. It has been constantly feeding off the energy influx from Martial, Invader, Waning Essence, my concept of Mortality, and even Arnark's energy sources.'

Arnark had definitely created some energy sources for himself similar to a concept that constantly funnelled energy into his being. That was one of his preparations to face Compass Carburettor.

But, that energy had been fuelling this world's growth all along. And with so many energy influxes, this world 'Faith Grounds' had not only stabilised in its function but has also grown to a terrifying level.

After it had become a massive world, the energy influx was being converted into the fate of the world, whereby it funnelled into every entity, whether living or non-living, thereby resisting any external influence.

Of course, Compass Carburettor had brought the targets to an unknown corner of the multiverse. So, even Zaira would find it impossible to discover this world in such a short time. Therefore, there were no external influences until now.

Moreover, 'Faith Grounds' had gained enough foundation to resist even Zaira. Of course, that only increased the time she needed to influence this world. But the longer this world remained free of external interference, the stronger its foundation would become.

Eventually, it might even attain a status similar to Slayer's Fantasy World. When that happens, even Grade 4 Systems might lose their power upon entering this world and fully assimilate into the place to become just another mortal of the world.

Whether they find the opportunity to become a Deity or not was all up to their capabilities. But, that was simply reaching a higher plane of existence using the power system, and not being beyond it like how Systems operated in all worlds.

When he arrived, the world had just been born. So, most of the memories of the people were just fabricated data. But now, as the first generation began to disappear, the upcoming generations had truly lived their lives in this world.

So, most of everything in their memories was real. Though, even Pnolli was part of the first generation.

Only after everyone from the first generation died would this world truly become hundred percent real, 'And once this happens, the various Deities present in the world as placeholders of data would be replaced by their followers who truly harbour that concept. Following that,'

He smiled, 'The gears in this world would truly begin to move. And when that starts, my enemies would begin making waves.'