SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

11:28.

The Nightstripe Huntlord’s corpse still lay in front of the silver-black iron vein. But the first thing everyone in the canyon was staring at wasn’t the corpse. It was Seraphine Valcrest.

She stood in the middle of the battlefield with Dame Maelin beside her. Two long lightning scars cut through the canyon beneath their feet, while twelve patches of gray ash marked the places where the Wraithbound Thralls had dispersed. Tobias Reed had barely finished saying, "Impressive," when the dozens of Lords behind him settled on the same conclusion. Seraphine had killed the Boss.

"It wasn’t me."

Tobias blinked.

"What?"

"The Nightstripe Huntlord." Seraphine glanced at the corpse. "I didn’t kill it."

The canyon went quiet for two seconds. Then someone laughed. Not mockingly.

He simply didn’t believe her.

"Lady Valcrest, there’s no need to hide it."

"You and Dame Maelin were the only ones here when we arrived."

"The gray-ridge camp had the same lightning traces."

"If you killed a Level 11 Epic Hero before the rest of us got here and took the direct drops, what’s there to be ashamed of?"

Seraphine didn’t explain a third time. She looked at Maelin instead. The War Seer had already crouched beside Nightstripe’s corpse. The hem of her silver-gray robe brushed loose gravel as she studied the battlefield without touching the body.

Two deepest lightning scars. Twelve points where the Thralls had vanished. A crater smashed into the cliff on the right.

A shallow line of human footprints near the exit of the narrow passage. A few seconds later, she stood.

"Two main combatants."

"Both high-mobility lightning units."

"One took Nightstripe’s Heart-Rend head-on and was injured."

"The other’s armor was torn at the waist."

"The finishing strike entered through an existing wound below the ribs."

Elara’s eyes sharpened. That wasn’t a random guess. There really was a penetrating wound beneath Nightstripe’s ribs, and only two clear lightning movement lines dominated the battlefield.

Maelin continued.

"They left less than twenty minutes ago."

"It wasn’t us."

No one answered immediately. If anything, the disbelief only grew. A War Seer who could reconstruct an entire battle that quickly was already frightening enough.

And Seraphine had been the biggest favorite for the Hero Power Ranking from the beginning. Someone finally couldn’t help asking,

"Dame Maelin... what quality are you, exactly?"

Seraphine turned her head.

"She has no obligation to answer that."

"Then let me ask something else."

A Lord in a dark-red cloak stepped forward. A tall Hero carrying a heavy shield followed behind him. The Hero’s public profile clearly showed Rare quality.

"My Hero is Rare."

"The Hero Power Ranking settles in half an hour."

"Just one exchange."

"If Dame Maelin isn’t interested, forget I asked."

The crowd quieted at once. Seraphine didn’t accept on Maelin’s behalf. She looked at her.

"Your choice."

Maelin’s voice stayed calm.

"Fine."

The Rare Hero planted his heavy shield in front of him. He wasn’t careless. He didn’t even charge.

Maelin drew no weapon. She only raised one hand. Silver light flashed at her fingertips.

[Battle Calculation]

The shield-bearing Hero had just lowered his center of gravity when Maelin spoke.

"Left foot."

Three hair-thin silver lines lit across the ground.

[Arcane Command]

The first wrapped around the rim of the shield. The second locked onto his shield arm. The third didn’t attack his body at all. It struck the ground just outside the left foot he was about to use for leverage.

BANG!

The shield twisted inward. His left foot slid half a step. The strongest point of his stance vanished instantly.

The Rare Hero’s expression changed. He tried to wrench the shield back into position. Too late. Maelin stepped forward and tapped one finger against the center of the shield.

THUD.

No explosion. No huge shockwave. Yet the Rare Hero slid backward seven or eight meters with the shield still in his hands.

One knee crashed to the ground. All three silver lines tightened at once. He still had his shield.

He simply couldn’t move. From beginning to end, the exchange lasted less than three seconds. Maelin lowered her hand.

The silver lines vanished.

"Enough?"

The Lord in the dark-red cloak was silent for two seconds. Then he bowed his head without complaint.

"Enough."

The canyon exploded with noise.

"A Rare Hero couldn’t even last one exchange?"

"She didn’t even use a real attack skill, did she?"

"Battle Calculation plus Arcane Command was enough to pin him down?"

"If she isn’t Epic, I’ll eat that shield!"

"The Hero Power wager! How long until it locks?"

That finally woke everyone up. The public wager on the Regional Exchange had been sitting there since the ranking first opened.

[Hero Power Ranking — First Place Wager]

The rules had always been clear. Betting locked twenty minutes before settlement. It was now 11:35.

Five minutes remained. The same Lords who had been crowding around Nightstripe’s corpse opened their panels almost at once.

"Seraphine! Put it on Seraphine!"

"I’ve got six thousand Aether left. All of it!"

"Wait, the return is dropping!"

"Who cares? Better low profit than losing!"

"That was a Rare Hero she just pinned down!"

Aether poured into the pool. Seraphine had already held the largest share. Now the number beside her name began climbing wildly.

Elara didn’t bet. Her eyes stayed on Nightstripe’s corpse. Two main fighters.

Lightning. One had taken Heart-Rend head-on. The other had damaged armor at the waist.

Then there was Cassian’s "I’ll try" from that morning. An absurd answer was beginning to form in her mind. She didn’t have proof.

But if she was right... The more these people piled onto Seraphine, the more interesting the next half hour was going to become. Elara closed the wager window, walked toward the edge of the canyon, and opened a private channel.

On the other side of the gray ridge, Cassian was already retracing the route back. Sigrid led. Eira followed half a step behind him.

The right side of her breastplate was still caved in, but her breathing had stabilized. Nightstripe’s claw had hit hard. Not hard enough to stop an Epic Level 5 Stormlance Valkyrie from walking.

Cassian didn’t rush her. On the way here, they had needed to scout, stop, and choose routes. On the way back, they already knew the shortest path.

That was when the Regional Channel suddenly sped up.

[Tobias Reed: Confirmed at the scene. Dame Maelin suppressed a Rare Hero head-on in under three seconds.]

[Lucan Deyne: I said from the start Seraphine was the safest pick.]

[Anonymous Lord: "Safest"? This is free Aether.]

[Anonymous Lord: Four minutes until the wager locks!]

Cassian didn’t slow down. He simply opened the Regional Exchange as he walked. The public wager looked nothing like it had that morning.

[Hero Power Ranking — First Place Wager]

[Time Until Lock: 00:03:41]

[Current Pool: 517,600 Aether Crystal]

Seraphine was at the top.

[Seraphine Valcrest: 392,400]

The number kept moving. 395,100. 401,700.

408,300. Nearly twenty thousand more in a matter of seconds. Sigrid looked back from the front.

"They still think Seraphine killed the Boss?"

"Yes."

"Didn’t she deny it?"

Cassian watched the pool.

"That stopped mattering the moment Maelin pinned down a Rare Hero."

Sigrid understood.

"So they’re betting on her."

"Yes."

Cassian scrolled down. Rowan. Elara.

Lucan. Several Lords whose names he had only seen in passing. And finally—

Himself.

[Cassian Vale: 100]

His step slowed by half a beat. One hundred. Someone had actually bet on him since the Hero Power wager opened.

And only one hundred. Cassian stared at the number for two seconds.

"Someone has a good eye."

Sigrid looked at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Two minutes and seventeen seconds remained. Cassian selected his own name.

[Place Wager: Cassian Vale]

[Final payout determined by locked pool.]

He entered a number.

[10,000 Aether Crystal]

Confirm.

[Wager Placed]

[Aether Crystal -10,000]

[Aether Crystal: 425,303]

The stake under Cassian’s name jumped from 100 to 10,100. Sigrid saw it.

"You’re betting on yourself?"

"Yes."

"Didn’t you say you don’t know where Veyra will actually rank?"

Cassian looked at the still-rising number under Seraphine.

"I still don’t."

"And you’re betting anyway?"

"Because they’ve pushed too much money to the other side."

Cassian had real money on the line. There was no point pretending he didn’t care about the numbers. If Veyra won, the Epic Chest was his.

So were the winnings. If she didn’t, losing ten thousand Aether wouldn’t cripple him. And Maelin’s exact performance would reach him soon enough.

The final ten seconds arrived. The Regional Exchange began refreshing so fast it almost flickered. Seraphine’s total broke half a million.

[10]

[9]

[8]

...

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Hero Power Ranking First-Place Wager Locked]

The final numbers froze.

[Total Pool: 640,000 Aether Crystal]

[Seraphine Valcrest: 500,000]

[If Seraphine Valcrest Places First — Estimated Net Return: +28.0%]

Below that—

[Cassian Vale: 10,100]

Cassian gave the numbers one last look and closed the panel.

"Not bad."

Sigrid was getting used to hearing that phrase.

"What did you find this time?"

"Their money."

Sigrid was silent for a moment. Then she nodded.

"That one I understood."

Cassian was about to keep moving when a private message opened.

[Elara Vayne]

The first message contained only his name.

[Cassian.]

[Dame Maelin just suppressed a Rare Hero in three seconds.]

The next message arrived immediately after.

[If you’re serious about taking first in Hero Power—]

[Don’t treat her like an ordinary Epic.]

Elara’s message remained open in front of Cassian. He read it twice and kept moving. One warning wasn’t enough to make him stop on the road.

It was enough to make him ask the right question.

[Cassian: How did she do it?]

Elara replied quickly. There was no recording. The exchange had ended before she thought to start one.

But her description was clear enough. Rare Hero with a heavy shield. Maelin never drew a weapon.

Battle Calculation predicted the shift in his stance before he moved. Arcane Command broke his balance before he could follow through. Three seconds.

Pinned. No serious injury. No second exchange.

Cassian finished reading. That told him far more than, "Maelin is strong." She hadn’t overwhelmed the Rare Hero with one enormous attack.

She had dismantled his next move before he could complete it. War Seer. Battle Calculation.

Arcane Command. For an ordinary Hero, that kind of opponent was a problem. The more conventional a Hero’s fighting pattern, the easier it was for her to read the next move.

Another message appeared.

[Elara: At this point, I’m almost certain she didn’t kill Nightstripe either.]

The corner of Cassian’s mouth moved.

[Cassian: She already said she didn’t.]

[Elara: I know.]

[Elara: The problem is everyone else refuses to believe her.]

Two seconds passed.

[Elara: So I’ll ask a different question.]

[Elara: Did one of your people kill Nightstripe?]

Cassian didn’t dodge the question.

[Cassian: Eira.]

The other end of the channel went silent for a full five seconds.

[Elara: ...]

[Elara: The second Stormlance you took this morning?]

[Cassian: Yes.]

Another pause.

[Elara: Then the direct Boss drops are yours, exactly as agreed.]

[Elara: We’ll talk about the mine after the ranking.]

[Elara: One more thing.]

[Elara: I’m starting to regret not betting on you.]

Cassian glanced at the wager that had already locked.

[Cassian: Too late.]

[Elara: Thank you for the reminder.]

The channel closed. Cassian looked ahead at the gray ridge again. Sigrid glanced over.

"She knows?"

"She knows Eira killed it."

Eira had been moving quietly beside them. Only hearing her own name made her look up.

"Does she object?"

"No."

"The Boss drops stay with us."

Eira nodded once and asked nothing else. Cassian, however, had not forgotten the first half of Elara’s message. Maelin.

Epic War Seer. A Rare Hero suppressed in three seconds. If this were only about one Epic Chest, he might not have bothered making another investment into Veyra now.

But the Hero Power Ranking settled only once. Veyra’s current manifestation was Level 3. Cassian had always known that what she could presently show was only a fraction of what was locked away.

That was why he had only raised her manifestation when there was a reason. The first time had been after the First Blood Trial, when he needed to convert the new resources into immediate combat power. The second had been before the Rank II Dark Monster Tide.

Now he had a third reason. Not Seraphine herself. Uncertainty.

He had just put ten thousand Aether on his own name. Cassian didn’t like leaving things to chance when he could improve the odds himself. He checked the time.

11:41.

Nineteen minutes until noon.

"Pick up the pace."

Sigrid understood immediately.

"For the Hero Power Ranking?"

"First, we get back to the Domain."

Her eyes shifted toward the dent in Eira’s breastplate. Eira spoke before anyone could ask.

"I can keep up."

Cassian didn’t simply accept that.

"The injury?"

"It hurts."

"Does it slow you down?"

"No."

Direct as ever. Only then did Cassian nod.

"Don’t keep Storm Body active the whole way."

"Use it only on the broken slopes."

"Understood."

They had needed to stop and scout on the way out. They didn’t need to do that now. They knew which stone ridge could be crossed directly.

Which slope was faster. Which side of the Ash Goblin camp gave them the cleanest line through. Sigrid accelerated first.

Eira followed. Cassian began using Predator Step on the return trip for the first time. Not continuously.

Only across cliffs, rubble trenches, and the places where another short burst would let him regain speed quickly. More than ten minutes later, the Ash Goblin camp they had destroyed that morning appeared ahead. They didn’t stop.

Collapsed barricades blurred past on both sides. As Eira passed the watchtower she had broken earlier, she gave it one brief look. Sigrid remembered what she had asked that morning.

"Still leaving the bodies and the camp?"

Cassian passed a charred wooden frame.

"After the ranking."

He already had enough unfinished things waiting for him today. The Epic Hero Sigil. Elara’s mine.

Eighty-eight pieces of Dark equipment still unsold. One unused Repeater Ballista Tower blueprint. And the 640,000-Aether wager that had just locked.

There was no reason to open every box at the same time.

11:55.

Forgotten Shrine finally appeared ahead. The moment Cassian crossed the Domain boundary, the familiar feedback from Boundary Sense spread through his awareness. Twelve Blackfang.

Twelve Rare Level 6 Gloomhoof. Ten Stormlance Valkyries on guard. The Repeater Ballista Tower.

Everything was normal. Veyra had already risen outside the Oath Hall.

"You made good time."

Cassian’s breathing was heavier than usual.

"We knew the route this time."

Veyra looked past him. Her gray-gold eyes settled on the caved-in right side of Eira’s breastplate, then the broken plates at Sigrid’s waist. Her gaze narrowed slightly.

"So it wasn’t an easy fight."

"Nine minutes, forty-seven seconds," Cassian said.

"They won."