Chapter 558: [A Godless World] (26)
"It was you... Does that mean you favor me as well? You came to see me first, didn’t you?"
Greed’s voice rang out, laced with obsessive infatuation. Yet the look in his eyes told Silvanus that he saw him as nothing more than a delicious slice of cake destined to be devoured.
Silvanus answered honestly, "I did come to you first. Simply because you’re the weakest."
The smile on Greed’s face faltered for a moment. The next instant, he vanished completely, dissolving into a swirl of black mist that merged seamlessly with the God Realm itself.
Silvanus narrowed his eyes. "So you’re the master of that black mist that intercepted Ember and me."
Laughter echoed through the air from every direction, but no reply came.
"This place... this place is wonderful!"
"I can feel it—I can feel that my destiny belongs here! I’m getting stronger... stronger without end!"
Greed cried out in exhilaration. His voice grew more and more distant, yet at the same time seemed to fill every corner of the realm.
Silvanus couldn’t help but be alarmed. "You’re devouring the God Realm? You’re trying to take my domain away from me?!"
His voice rose sharply, tinged with anger, though his expression barely changed.
He looked at the punctuation mark floating before him and spoke through his mind.
[Why don’t we have a little chat about this? Now there’s Greed—does that mean Envy is going to show up tomorrow? You never mentioned any of this in the beginning. Was this a fraudulent recruitment offer or something?]
The blank space blinked repeatedly before finally writing out its reply.
[That is your destiny on the path to godhood: to gather all seven fragments.]
[Besides, this is part of the mission to seal the dungeon, isn’t it? They’ll all be drawn to you. As long as you’re clever enough, they might even be willing to die for your sake.]
Silvanus: [...Do you think I’m holding the script of an all-charmer protagonist?]
The thing on the other side didn’t dare say another word.
Meanwhile, Greed had absorbed so much energy that he could no longer produce any coherent sounds. The black mist had turned into something like a swamp, bubbling incessantly with wet, sticky gurgles.
Silvanus raised a single finger, and the black mist was instantly suppressed, compressed into a plump little sphere that floated over to him.
"N-No way! How can you control my body?!"
Greed still seemed unable to understand what had happened, struggling desperately to break free from his spherical form.
Silvanus couldn’t help but remark, "It looks so clever, yet it’s this stupid. Should I start being wary of anything that looks dumb from now on?"
[Says the one who loves creating characters that look harmlessly foolish but are actually dangerous.]
Silvanus: "...I wish you’d spend your energy researching dungeons instead of talking back to me."
[If they deliberately hide themselves, it’s difficult for me to determine whether they’re one of your fragments. So you’ll have to judge by whether they treat you differently, whether they’re drawn to you or constantly trying to get close to you... and, of course, whether they want to eat you.]
"How incredibly helpful. So what am I supposed to do with this thing now?"
[Just hand it over to me.]
The moment those words were spoken, Greed vanished from Silvanus’s palm.
Silvanus didn’t particularly care where Greed had been taken. Lowering his head, he looked at the pitch-black ground beneath his feet.
The surface immediately rippled like water, spreading in uneven waves until, at last, it revealed the interior of the dungeon in its current state.
Rewind several minutes, to the very moment Adrian’s soul was torn away.
The scent of the living quickly attracted the creatures lurking inside the rooms of Lotus Park. Before long, they surged toward Ember’s location like a flood.
They hadn’t even reached their prey before they began tearing each other apart. After all, there were only two skins to claim, while there were far too many of them.
The comment section instantly grew anxious.
[Adrian’s already dead anyway. Hurry up and find the exit, Ember!]
[There are way too many monsters! How is he supposed to reach the sixth floor like this?]
Naturally, there was no shortage of mocking comments mixed in as well. After all, Ember was now the only artist still alive inside the dungeon, so fans of Ember and fans of the other artists were all crowded into the same livestream.
At last, Ember moved.
He tore off part of his shirt, hoisted Adrian onto his back, and tied him securely in place.
[Wait... he’s taking a corpse with him? Seriously?]
[LMAO, the person above is way too optimistic. At this rate, who knows if Ember can even make it out alive.]
[But without Adrian, he’d obviously be much faster.]
[Waaah... I refuse to believe this is how they’ll be separated.]
[Ember is making me even sadder.]
Only Adrian’s fans—or more precisely, the fans watching "The Most Loyal Missionary of Erebus"—were frantically spamming the chat.
[Adrian isn’t dead! Please, please!]
[This has to be another trial of faith. Those Priests are always insane like this!]
[Exactly! There’s no way he’d just die so suddenly!]
[Honestly, this just shows how biased Erebus is. If it were Silvanus lying there instead, Erebus would’ve descended in a panic already, hahaha. But now Erebus can’t even be bothered to show up. Makes you wonder if he even plans on recruiting another believer.]
[You guys are seriously still shipping them at a time like this? Isn’t that a bit much?]
Their comments were soon drowned beneath countless others. Aside from them, no one believed Adrian was truly still alive.
Including Ember.
He looked at the horde of monsters crawling toward him. Opening his hand, five miniature bombs materialized in his palm. Without hesitation, he hurled them straight ahead.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The violent explosions sent shockwaves ripping through the building. The railings cracked apart, and Lotus Park trembled as though it might collapse at any moment.
Ember charged headlong into the sea of flames.
His expression remained utterly devoid of emotion.
For a fleeting instant, he seemed to become exactly what everyone outside had always imagined him to be.