Chapter 252: THE MASTER OF SIN. The reward

I don’t know what I would’ve done, said or thought in the state of utter magic-induced despair I was in, but it was at this moment that the hope that I cradled in my soul until now despite everything finally came to life. Even more than that, truly.

The sickening to the point of nausea smugness on the Goddess of Wizards’ face, the disgust visible through the cover of the visor of God of Paladins’ helmet, the cold detachment of Goddess of Rangers—everything changed in that moment, heralding something big.

First, Goddess of Rangers froze, confused. Her eyes darted to the ground, and it was then that God of Paladins noticed her alert. But when it gave way to the realisation and fright, it was almost too late.

The earth under God of Paladins crumbled, giving way to the mouth of a worm that snapped its circular mouth at the man’s ironclad legs. Goddess of Rangers shouted a warning, but it came a moment too late, and the worm’s teeth bit off the god’s foot, releasing a torrent of the deity’s blood. Its scent filled the air, clearing my mind from the induced delirium a little and tantalising my nose like a scent of the human wine.

Though, despite all that: the weakened grasp of the negative energy on my soul and Goddess of Wizards’ distraction towards the scene, her spell still held my body still as well as before.

The worm didn’t stop there. Before my eyes, he began to change its shape, while not stopping moving and fighting even for a single moment.

First it grew wings, all the while God of Paladins, clumsy on one leg even after he stopped the bleeding with his magic (or a special ability? I wish I knew), tried to cut him in half. Goddess of Rangers raised her bow and tried to shoot him, but then the worm morphed more, growing shorter but gaining four clawed arms that threw a volley of invisible, but quite solid blades at her.

The fact that she was so slow she couldn’t even dodge them all brought dark glee to my heart, pushing the negative energy a little farther away.

Goddess of Wizards didn’t stay still, either. “Devourer!” she shrieked, forgetting all about me. “I will see you dead this time, dead for good!”

She reached for her book, and I wanted to warn him how dangerous it was, but it was a good thing he knew already, since I still couldn’t speak a word or do anything but blink. Another volley of wind blades came at her, and though it didn’t pierce her magic shield, it made the goddess jerk and pause for a brief moment.

Devourer was now in the form I was most used to seeing him in—a four-armed, winged demon—except his body was made of lava, the heat of which I could feel on my skin from a couple of steps away. Despite that, God of Paladins was still alive and not cooked, even though he spent the last few seconds clashing almost hand-to-hand with him.

A pity. Still, Devourer only needed a few more seconds to finish him, I was sure. Too bad he had to move towards Goddess of Wizards in the short moment he got by her fright. At least Goddess of Rangers, bleeding and wounded, wasn’t much of a threat at the moment.

Compared to the other two, she looked very weak now.

I inwardly cheered for Devourer when he bit down on the shield against Goddess of Wizards, when he grew out a tail with a long stinger on end to stop her from simply escaping, and when with another bite, her shield broke completely.

What power… When I had even the slightest fear that Devourer won’t stand against three gods at once, I clearly underestimated him! Shame on me for that. Power was one of the most alluring things of all time, in many senses, for everyone. To miss it in a person, to not see the full glory of someone I chose as my master—that was just poor awareness of my surroundings. And that could easily lead to death and worse.

Unlike Wendigo, who just stuck to the strongest, hoping to get some scraps from the master’s table, I was in here because I was promised the world. The passage here, and then the right to be in it, at least—in the mortal realm.

If I didn’t believe that Devourer could conquer said world, if I wasn’t sure that I could die and still return, I wouldn’t have risked my life here. But this power, this potential—an ability to rise from rags to riches in mere months—was the most astounding.

Devourer could’ve promised me the place in Heaven at that moment, and I would’ve believed him and gladly exchanged it for my loyalty.

While I thought about all that, Devourer himself didn’t waste time. The gods that didn’t expect for him to appear from below were divided and destroyed one by one. Goddess of Wizards couldn’t do much without her shield and an opportunity to open her book. God of Paladins couldn’t fence as well on one leg. Goddess of Rangers was so weak she didn’t deserve the name of a goddess.

Too bad that even with Goddess of Wizards’ death, my body still stayed as still as it was. Surrounded by blood and three corpses of deities, I could only helplessly stare at Devourer, hoping that he had some way to remove it. Preferably one that didn’t mean my death.

Devourer approached me without hurry. His body from lava turned into the more familiar slime covered by metallic carapace, and he licked caked blood from his finger before shaking his head. “That’s a very nasty spell on you, Sin… Can’t escape it, hm?”

I honestly tried, but I didn’t know even where to start. It was a spell, not chains. There was nothing to tear at. My body was just out of my control.

Devourer—I had to remember to call him Voren since we were on the surface—curved his lips in distaste. “Yeah, nasty. I’ve been under it once, liked it as much as you did… Let’s see if there’s a spell that can break it in here since it seems like I have a few minutes.”

He went still and just stared at me for a while. I counted seconds in my head, nervously awaiting an arrival of any more gods or humans, but no noise approached us despite the abundance of it somewhere far away, where Voren’s cultists must’ve been on their way away from any templars…

The return of movement was so sudden that I lost my balance and fell face to the ground, barely managing to move my claws away from my neck before I really finished myself off.

“Thhhank you, massster,” I groaned, raising to my feet. I would’ve bowed if I was sure I won’t fall again. My muscles, stiff from the lack of movement and the unnatural pose I was locked in, cried out in pain all at once. “I’ve never been rescued before, but I’m sure that your arrival would’ve made it to the top ten of the best rescues of all time. The timing, the brutality of dealing with our enemies… The pure joy of seeing you fight.”

Despite my sincere praise, Voren grimaced. “Shut up, Sin. Leave your chatting for another time.”

I wisely did.

“Wendigo died. Considering the timing, I expect Enforcers to be dead as well. These three…” Voren picked up God of Paladins, tore off a piece of his hand and stuck it into the gaping mouth that grew on his stomach. “Only God of Paladins was in his full strength. So, long story short—you have to go back to Hell for now, Sin.”

The very idea brought a wave of dismay into my soul. After tasting the sweet air of the mortal realm, returning down below seemed like some of the worst tortures I’ve been through in my life.

Voren must’ve read it on my face, because he snorted. “Fine. They might lock on you personally or not. If you get caught, that’s your problem. I don’t think that my secrets will last long anyway at this point, so you might not work so hard keeping them. Just don’t stay around my humans. Hide in the wilderness somewhere, I don’t know.”

“Thank you, master,” I bowed my head.

“If you decided to stay, you might as well be useful and keep spreading chaos. And this will be a head-start… they will find you too quickly if you just run on foot.”

Before I could ask what did he mean, an already familiar vortex of teleportation caught me, spinning around until I fell to the ground that was not at all like the cobblestones of the city I was just in.

No, now under my feet was only dark soil with patches of grass, and all around me—only a wide plain.

I smiled. What a worthy reward for my efforts.