CHAPTER 99: IF YOU CAN’T HAVE IT, DESTROY IT

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Wayne threw punch after punch at the evil god, sending red crystals flying. The host body that the evil god possessed rapidly disintegrated under Death’s corrosion. Soon, the evil god’s consciousness would wither away as if faced with Death directly.

Wayne remained unnaturally calm. He wasn’t drawing on the Death Knight’s power. Instead, the large eye at the center of the Book of Greed met the gaze of the smaller Death eye, turning his mana a dark, chilling grey. In Death, he found tranquility for both his body and mind. His calm mind allowed him to be perfectly rational, and his calm body made him immune to blood magic.

The latter was especially crucial.

It wasn’t that the evil god was too weak. The fact that they had knocked out a Silver-rank mage with one glance proved their prowess. And this was only a partial manifestation of their consciousness through a dying, frail body, far from their full power.

No, the evil god had merely met the wrong person at the wrong time and location.

Wayne was completely unaffected by blood magic. With Death’s power transforming him into a living undead, he could hardly be called human anymore. And there were no side effects; he could switch states at will.

Silvia would be overjoyed, and Planck would be shocked. In any church, he would be a chosen one, beloved by the gods.

Back to the matter at hand. The evil god was being thoroughly dominated. With their host body corroded by Death, they could only barely maintain their existence with the blood crystals. They had thought that their chances were fifty-fifty: the evil god couldn’t manipulate Wayne’s body, but Wayne couldn’t harm their consciousness, either, so naturally, they would be at a stalemate. Given that their life essences were in different leagues, a mortal might be able to drive a god back to the void, but never truly kill a god.

To the evil god’s surprise, Wayne wielded more than simple Death magic, but commanded Death’s Law, enough to erase the evil god’s consciousness.

Impossible! The brat didn’t even have a Golden Triangle and was nowhere near the Legendary rank. Why could he wield divine power? Was he the Goddess of Death’s bastard child?

There existed exceptional mages who could ignore the rules, break the rules, and even redefine the rules. The evil god’s frustration peaked. What rotten luck for them to encounter such a freak right after stepping into the mortal realm.

The blood crystals shattered and reformed repeatedly, desperately evading Death’s relentless assault. For their grand plan, the evil god had to swallow their pride.

“Young mage, before you stands a god who can fulfill your every desire—wealth, power, infinite knowledge...”

When one had enough strength, even gods would sit down for a civilized conversation.

Wayne remained quiet in his calm state. When the evil god’s scattered thoughts proved difficult to capture, he closed his eyes and ceased his pursuit.

The evil god was overjoyed. They knew it. Humans had limitless desires, and everyone had a weakness that prevented them from resisting a demon’s temptation.

But then they saw eight tentacles emerge from Wayne’s back. The grey tentacles of Death destroyed everything at the slightest touch, and even the evil god’s thoughts couldn’t resist them.

Fuck! Do you not want anything?!

The tentacles wove through the sacred magic circle, piercing and dividing the evil god, erasing parts of its consciousness with every touch. The evil god was enraged. The thoughts they had sent to the mortal realm weren’t much, and at this rate, years of planning and the multiple deals they had made with the Bart family would all be wiped away by Death.

The dragon blood, especially, was something they had paid dearly to find and devoted much effort to reconstitute. They refused to let anyone else benefit from their hard work. If they couldn’t have it, they would destroy it! No one would stop their descent into the world!

The blood crystals reformed, swelling into a red sphere five meters in diameter. The moment the eight tentacles encircled it, it exploded with a great rumble. Hundreds of crystal serpents scattered in all directions, gnawing at Kael’s barrier of holy light. Though most were pulverized by the tentacles of Death, some managed to break through.

Wayne wasn’t surprised. Grey mist swirled in his eyes as he raised one arm to create a grey barrier of Death, blocking all exits to ensure he could erase all of the evil god’s consciousness.

The evil god’s maniacal laughter echoed within the barrier. A terrifying presence of fury and destruction rose behind him. When he turned around in surprise, he saw the magic circles for extracting dragon blood shaking.

Incredible heat melted the ground into a molten state with erupting flames like a volcanic explosion, forcing Wayne to retreat as his clothes suddenly burst into flames. He beat out the fire and stepped forward to grab Kael’s wrist. Watching the terrifying figure slowly manifesting in the flames, he frowned and backed away.

It was a blazing evil dragon consisting of pure dragon blood and revived through the manipulation of blood magic. From its scales, its claws, to its roar and draconic aura, everything was vivid and lifelike.

While retreating, he stared at the evil dragon and saw a golden mass of dragon blood in its translucent chest cavity. The blood was depleting rapidly, meaning that the dragon couldn’t maintain its form for long. However...

The evil god’s consciousness had seized the chance to escape!

Roooar!

The dragon dropped to all fours with its wings folded, roaring as it charged at him and melted the surrounding rocky walls. Expressionless, he carried Kael with one hand while leading the dragon on a merry chase in the maze-like caverns, gradually luring it toward the abyssal chasm at the end of the waterway.

“Has the evil god been destroyed?” Kael asked, regaining consciousness with a dizzy head as he knocked into a wall.

“No,” Wayne replied tersely, continuing his mad dash.

“Then why are you still here?” Kael said hurriedly. “Don’t tell me you haven’t figured out what’s happening. Head to the Bart Estate at once. The evil god’s after Olga. I’ve set up countermeasures that should slow them down.”

But soon, he found out why Wayne was running around the waterways instead of chasing after the evil god.

Roooar!

The dragon caught up with them while breathing fire. The incredible heat of the wall of flames turned everything red-hot. When it was closest to them, the fire singed Kael’s hair.

“Quick, drop me!” Kael screamed in terror. “It’s after you, not me!”

Wayne knocked him unconscious with a hand chop. This was the worst teammate he’d ever had—too much useless chatter.

Right ahead of him was the abyssal chasm. The massive dragon was closing in on him from behind. He stopped and dispelled the grey mist in his eyes. His chest split open in a vertical line, and a tentacle emerged to put a ring of Darkness on his finger.

He raised that finger at the dragon. Perhaps by coincidence, the ring ended up on his middle finger.

ROOOAR!

***

The evil dragon’s roar echoed through every corner of the underground waterways. Even the two blondes who had gotten lost heard it vaguely.

“Vera, did you hear something?”

“Yeah, your stomach’s rumbling.”

“Shut up. It’s not.”

With a different pattern at the entrance and a different blood used to unlock the entrance, Veronica and Vera ended up falling into another section of the waterways. Not only hadn’t they found the marks Wayne left, but they had also tragically lost their way.

As they walked, Vera grew hungry and casually shifted the blame to Veronica.

They made it to the end of the waterway, where shallow water spread into a shoal before them. Using spores to extend her vision, Veronica saw a figure kneeling on one knee. They wore tattered armor with a hand on their chest as they kneeled, a knightly sword planted in the ground before them.

Vera raised her hand to cast sunlight. The knight’s body had long since decayed, their bones turned to dust, leaving only the armor maintaining their final pose. The once-gleaming armor was now dull and covered in rust, its edges worn and even broken in many parts.

While the knight had died, their consciousness lived on. Their pursuit of honor and faith remained deeply imprinted upon the armor and sword. Sensing the sunlight they hadn’t basked in for a long time, the knight’s armor slowly rose, drawing the sword and pointing it at Veronica.

Veronica recoiled in alarm. She had dragon blood, but she wasn’t an actual dragon. The brainless knight had picked the wrong target.

Vera paused before conjuring even more intense sunlight to envelope herself and Veronica. The knight sheathed their sword, and with a wisp of consciousness flickering to life, they strode past them.

They sensed the evil dragon’s presence.

***

Chasm.

The evil dragon pursued Wayne into the trap woven with Darkness, plummeting off the cliff. Underground seawater surged and doused the flames around the dragon, quickly exhausting the dragon blood in the dragon’s heart. After it was fully exhausted, the evil dragon lost its energy core and collapsed, dissipating fully.

Wayne had drowned the dragon without much effort.

He let out a sigh of relief after dealing with the moving catastrophe. Thank goodness the dragon forged from dragon blood didn’t have a brain and hadn’t been created above ground, or the consequences would have been unthinkable.

He could feel how terrifyingly hot those flames were, almost matching an atomic bomb. His expression grew grave. The evil god’s willingness to waste the dragon blood just to complete their descent meant that their plan was far more than simply possessing Olga. What could inhabiting a weak maid do? The evil god’s consciousness wouldn’t be able to fully descend, and they would only end up in an asylum.

“Dragon Heart Island will become a ruin.”

He took a deep breath and reached into the air to pull... Nothing came.

“What’s going on? Where’s my disguise?”

His pupils contracted. He had lost contact with Shadow Nightmare and couldn’t transform into the Death Knight on Dragon Heart Island.

“Am I too far away?”

“No, I can still sense it. It shouldn’t be a distance problem...”

He closed his eyes, his consciousness leaping to Shadow Nightmare. As its master, he issued a command, and his vision crossed mountains and seas to another world across the ocean, seeing the Death Knight seated upon the bone throne. Or it should be the Death Footsoldier, who had lost their horse and head.

They had confiscated Shadow Nightmare. A wisp of thoughts met Wayne’s gaze, and the cold, despairing aura of death struck him in full force.

Holy crap, the original owner has come knocking!

He hurriedly severed his connection with Shadow Nightmare. Julia was wrong. Her previous owner hadn’t gone missing. They had been there all along. Their beloved steed had been practicing under Wayne’s crotch for so long, making him skilled at the art of mounting and riding. Would the original owner be okay with it?

“Of all times...”

Wayne cursed his luck. The original Death Knight just had to confiscate Shadow Nightmare when an evil god was trying to descend. What was he supposed to do now? Chase after the evil god and apologize?

“Just my luck!”

Six tentacles emerged from his writhing back, helping him climb along the sloped waterway. When he met stone walls blocking his way, he simply corroded the walls away with Death’s energy.

When he arrived at the shipyard’s reservoir, he tossed Kael aside. The six tentacles on his back squirmed, transforming into six pale, fleshy wings.

Spores attached themselves to the wings, growing into green leaves. It didn’t matter how terrifying they looked. Just put on some makeup and use a filter, and he instantly looked more like the good guy.

He flapped his wings and took flight. His speed wasn’t particularly fast, but being able to go in a straight line would take him to his destination faster than running or even driving. Flying in such an appearance would inevitably draw attention from the public, and more than a few would have their worldviews shattered, but he couldn’t afford to worry about that now. Having their worldview shattered was better than dying. Survival came first.

On the ground, Kael was blown to a corner by the wind, the back of his head hitting a wall with a clang. The poor guy had hit his head for who knew how many times today.

He dizzily looked up to see six wings flapping away in the distance. Mumbling something about an angel, he closed his eyes and passed out again.

***

Maid’s Room, Bart Estate.

The white ceiling peeled away to reveal glaring red. An inverted pentagram magic circle manifested, projecting the blood pattern from hell. A ray of red light emerged from the pattern, wrapped around strands of gold. The evil god’s red eyes darted around, not finding Olga anywhere in the room.

“Kekeke—”

The evil god sensed the maid’s location and lunged, their strange cries stirring up foul red wind, only to crash into a barrier of holy light. They unleashed another litany of curses, enraged.

Again and again, this happened. Why was the path to success so torturous?

Kael had relocated Olga and given her a cross necklace, claiming that wearing it would calm her mind and help with her sleepwalking. Since he was from Londan, Olga decided to trust him this once. However, the trick wasn’t able to delay the evil god for long. If only Kael had been ruthless enough to push Olga off a cliff and kill her, then the evil god would have been out of luck today.

Olga heard noises, but thinking it was a mosquito, she swatted at the air and dismissed it.

Suddenly, an intense drowsiness overwhelmed her. She scoffed at the cross for not doing its job before yawning and falling asleep.

After a brief stalemate, the evil god proved superior, successfully breaking through the barrier to enter the maid, using her body to complete their descent. Olga had the holy spirit constitution that the churches covet. The rare constitution allowed her to bear more consciousness. Though the individuals differed in strength, such people were the top choice for summoning rituals, more reliable than even Gold-rank mages.

Every advantage came with a price, and the holy spirit constitution was no exception. Those with the constitution were easily possessed by evil gods and malevolent spirits, and even ordinary souls would be drawn to them, causing constant nightmares.

Above the Bart Estate, shadows gathered with scarlet lightning slithering amid the ghastly clouds. The evil god’s consciousness continued its descent, its power in the mortal realm growing rapidly. Olga slowly floated up, her eyes crimson and her mouth stretching into a terrifying grin as she spread her arms, letting out laughter that wasn’t her own.

The evil god descended!

They captured several golden threads from the air, injecting the last bit of dragon blood they had taken into the body. The blood of the evil dragon transformed the flesh, while their powerful consciousness ensured that the body wouldn’t collapse.

The maid’s slender form shot up to two meters tall, covered in fine scales. Her hands and feet became dragon claws, and a long tail and a pair of wings extended from her back. At her forehead, the dragon blood grew a pair of horns that curled backward under the corruption of the evil god’s thoughts.

“Yes, this is it! This is what I want!”

The evil god clenched their claws, feeling the surging power within the new body. They had lost too much of the dragon blood, compromising their original plan. With this little power, they couldn’t achieve their grand design.

Thinking of this, they turned toward the Crescent Bay, where an unclaimed faith awaited harvesting.

The Sea God!