Free Web NovelChapter 383 (1): It’s a Shame that You Aren’t a Capitalist
Ines was so furious that her chest hurt. She glared at the two men who had found a kindred spirit in each other as they fought. She would put Wayne aside for now, leaving him to be dealt with later. Solsknar, on the other hand, was dead for getting on the Goddess of Darkness’s bad side.
If he dared to talk behind Her back before he even became Her subordinate god, once he became one...
Wait, have those two bastards been talking behind my back, too?
Ines narrowed her eyes. She had to test her two current subordinate gods. If she caught them doing it, hmph, she would lock them up for another lesson.
Ines’s silence pleased Solsknar. He swung his hand and said, “Rules only restrict regular people. Someone who follows rules like you will never see the truth about the goddess.”
“So you know the goddess well?” Wayne’s eyes lit up, huffing out air from his nose. “Tell me. What kind of shrew is the goddess in your eyes?”
Solsknar didn’t respond. Having a thought was one thing; it wouldn’t be that easy to make him voice the thought.
“Yes, I did falsify the goddess’s oracle and claim the goddess’s power in the human world, but it’s under the goddess’s implicit permission,” he said assertively. “Without her permission, I wouldn’t have been able to do all that. I’ve merely exploited the loopholes within a reasonable degree. I haven’t broken a rule, so I haven’t sinned.”
What a shame that you aren’t a capitalist! Wayne commented in his head. Another snake that sets fire to warehouses for a living.
“As for you...” Solsknar turned to Wayne. “You’re a real one. I know why you exist. Both of us are subordinate god candidates whom the goddess has cultivated. On this path, only one of us can reach the peak...”
“I’m walking ahead of you, so you have no chance!” His tone turned cold. With a flip of his wrist, Twilight Despair was suddenly in his grip. “This is the power of a chosen knight. Neither of us is the true chosen knight, but my authority is above yours.”
“So you killed... no, devoured Vichy,” said Wayne.
“She’s merely taken her future into her own hands!” Solsknar scoffed, crossing blades with Wayne with the greatsword of black light.
Darkness boiled and extended as the two men collided again and again, their lightning-fast movements leaving countless afterimages in the air.
Wayne hadn’t used any other divine artifacts. Instead, he wielded his two Dragontooth Swords with the Philosopher’s Stone in his mouth, all the while swinging the eight black tentacles on his back. Like a strange multi-armed god, he held a weapon of pure darkness with each of his tentacles, including a spear, a sword, an axe, a shield, and two longbows.
The two tore into each other. Through the power of the Philosopher’s Stone, Wayne enhanced his power infinitely and tapped into the space that the church’s headquarters inhabited, turning his vitality field into a false vitality domain as Ludwig had done.
Solsknar, on the other hand, was a true demigod, and a demigod powerful enough to vie for the role of a subordinate god at that. Because he hadn’t been able to descend fully, though, he couldn’t unleash his complete vitality domain. He could only push Kane’s vitality field to the level of a vitality domain by influencing Kane.
Solsknar’s thoughts descended further, and his power increased nonstop.
Wayne became more patient as the battle progressed. With the Philosopher’s Stone, he limited the shockwaves of their fight to the Great Sage Basilica, in case a member of the Church of Darkness caught a stray hit when passing by. He had such goodwill for the Church of Darkness that he instinctively tried to protect them.
It was definitely not because that by protecting them, he could earn brownie points from Anastasia, and then his white moonlight would reluctantly agree to a few more positions.
It really wasn’t. He had already unlocked the full gallery, even some of the trio scenes.
In contrast to Wayne’s composure, Solsknar became increasingly anxious as the fight progressed. Every time he descended with more thoughts to increase his power, Wayne could always match him. That gave him a bad feeling.
The formidable enemy had come prepared. If he stubbornly refused to adjust, he would surely lose the upper hand.
Boom!!
A tremendous, booming energy crashed down upon the basilica, razing it to the ground. Only the statues of the subordinate gods and the murals of the Goddess of Darkness remained. The stray shockwaves hit tall walls of darkness that had suddenly emerged. The Philosopher’s Stone had concealed the battlefield, preventing the church members from taking notice.
In the air, the wild energy intersected chaotically, generating black currents at the point of collisions. Solsknar looked at Wayne warily with Twilight Despair in his hand.
“Oh, are you stopping?” Wayne raised an eyebrow with eight tentacles of darkness swinging behind his back. “Just push a little further. I’m almost at my limit. You’ll win if you just bring a little more of your thoughts down...”
“If you descend with your main body, congratulations, you’re going to win!”
“It seems that you’re confident in your trump card...” Solsknar murmured, his eyes rippling with red light. “I am, too...”
His thoughts suddenly retreated through the spatial tunnel, returning to the Divine Realm of Darkness in large volumes. Wayne was going to frown because of the development when he noticed that another spatial tunnel had opened up behind Solsknar, leading to a boundless darkness where a few figures stood. They each differed in height and form.
“This is my Divine Domain. Unlike a lone wolf like you, I’m not fighting solo!”
Solsknar tossed Twilight Despair into the sky. A figure hidden in the darkness emerged from the spatial tunnel, their form getting distorted when passing through the spatial rampart. As a result, only their thoughts managed to descend to the now ruined Great Sage Basilica.
The figure held Twilight Despair tightly. An armor of black light formed, creating an energy shell for them—for her.
Wayne looked at her face in surprise. “Vichy, the previous Darkness Knight... You’re not dead?”
“Do you understand now? I’ve been following the rules formulated by the goddess. Only with Her permission could I get what I want... including Her knight.” Solsknar looked at Wayne with mockery in his eyes. “The woman beside you knows nothing about the goddess. If she did, she wouldn’t have transformed into Vichy.”
You’re the one who knows nothing! Wayne quietly put on a look of humility, prompting Solsknar to say more.
“It seems that you’ve been deceived by that woman. Just as well. I’ve learned what the goddess thinks about me. It’s not so easy to become Her subordinate god. I must defeat multiple rivals, forging a path to the mantle with blood and cementing my status.”
As Solsknar spoke, the spatial tunnel behind him started closing, and Kane’s form slowly faded. He had left for another space in the Chosen Land, the Divine Domain of Storm and Thunder.
“Follow me if you dare. I’ll show you what kind of rival the goddess has picked for you, and what Solsknar the Devourer is made of!”
Solsknar tipped his head up and laughed as he stepped through the tunnel. Instead of shutting the doorway immediately, he kept it open long enough to let Wayne catch up.
Darkness Knight Vichy hadn’t tried to stop Wayne. She raised Twilight Despair and allowed Wayne passage as a proper knight would.
“Fine, I’ll see how big your appetite is, Devourer.” Wayne glanced at Ines. She looked pitiful and fragile, like she was afraid of violence.
“Knight Vichy, that woman has claimed your body and even used it to mess around with men, giving away much of herself. I suggest that you take your body back as soon as you can and teach her a lesson.” Wayne huffed, setting Ines up before rushing through the portal. It closed slowly after his departure.
Ines batted her eyes at Vichy, adding a hint of phony allure to Vichy’s icy appearance.
Vichy tightened her grip around Twilight Despair, her eyes flashing coldly. Her thoughts locked onto Ines. Without even swinging the sword, she brought black light down like a large screen of darkness, bisecting everything it passed through. The terrible impact would’ve cut through the dome of the church’s headquarters, but failed to do so for some reason.
Vichy thought that it was Wayne’s doing, that he had been controlling the headquarters with the Philosopher’s Stone even after his departure.
Ines, who had made a discreet move, feigned ignorance and sidestepped the attack. Looking down at the gash on the ground below, she patted her chest and said, “How dangerous. I almost got cut in half.”
Vichy’s eyes twitched. She was a woman of few words and had a limited vocabulary for curse words. She raised her sword at Ines and said simply, “Return my body, and I’ll allow your thoughts to leave.”
“You once gave up your body willingly. Why are you taking it back?” Ines glanced down at her feet and continued mockingly, “It’s a well-built body, but not curvy enough. It’s the body’s fault that I can’t puff out my chest proudly.”
Objectively speaking, the body wasn’t as unattractive as Ines’s words would suggest. The waist was slim, and the legs long and well-shaped. The smooth lines seemed carefully sculpted to perfect proportion.
Vichy shook her head. “You aim to please others because you lack a solid self. You don’t deserve my body.”
“Haven’t you realized that I was mocking you for having a small bosom?” Ines suggested.
Vichy’s eyes twitched again. Even saying one sentence to someone she didn’t go along with was one sentence too many. She decided not to waste her breath. In a flash, she reached Ines’s back, grabbing at her right shoulder.
It missed.
Ines stepped to the side. Alerted, Vichy attempted to grab her again.
One of them kept giving chase, and the other kept dodging. Vichy missed every time, never reaching her body.
She hid her concern and re-evaluated this formidable, infuriating opponent. Raising her blade vertically before her chest, she said with harsh red light glinting in her eyes, “Darkness Knight Vichy.”
“Goddess of Darkness, Ines,” Ines said solemnly.
Vichy fell silent, but judging by her twitching eyes, she was at the end of her patience.
Whoosh!
Vichy’s form wobbled before she disappeared into the darkness. Countless rays of black light surged in different directions, swinging toward Ines. The silent, cold light cut open the air, creating layers of encirclements and dragging Ines out of the world.
The former Darkness Knight was incredibly powerful, far more powerful than Auston, who enjoyed being on the receiving end of his wife’s violence with the excuse of understanding pain.
Amid the intersecting blade auras, incredible energy created a cage by slashing through space. With a wave of her hand, Vichy trapped Ines in an intangible, irresistible force field, immobilizing her with the heavy pressure.
“I have Twilight Despair. You aren’t my match,” Vichy said faintly. “Return my body, and I’ll honor my promise to let your thoughts go.”
“Is that really the smart thing to do?”
Vichy was shocked that Ines could still speak.
“You’ve been following a knight’s code of conduct even when facing an unknown, formidable foe. Have you considered how powerful I must be to dare call myself the Goddess of Darkness?”
Ines took a step forward, shattering the hexahedron that caged her like the force field was nothing. She said with a smile, “You’ll let my thoughts leave, but I don’t plan to do the same. I need more leverage. You showed up at just the right time.”
“Who exactly are you?”
Vichy was beyond shocked. The black light around her converged into the shape of a greatsword and became a physical thing, swinging downward at Ines. Wherever the darkness passed, the world turned into a black canvas with no color, leaving only darkness.
Ines stepped forward. As soon as the black sword aura made contact with her, it disintegrated and assimilated into her, failing to even cut a single strand of hair.
