"Haha... HAHAHAHA—!!!"
Within the space overflowing with abnormal magical energy, Dionysus’s loud laughter echoed throughout the surroundings.
"Ahh, this is truly an unprecedented masterpiece! As expected of a fallen spirit! The beauty that once saved the Lower World has now become a terror that threatens the entire world itself! Your very existence... can only be described as madness!"
As though cheering, or perhaps offering a blessing, Dionysus loudly praised the spirit that had been born right before his eyes.
Meanwhile, Riezel gave no response and merely stared coldly at the spirit before him, his thoughts unreadable.
As for the spirit herself, Alaya slowly turned her gaze toward Dionysus after hearing his laughter, and then...
*Pu-chi!*
A vine-like tentacle suddenly burst out from the ground like a sharp spear, piercing straight through Dionysus’s chest.
"..."
In that instant, the air itself seemed to freeze solid.
"What?"
Riezel was stunned.
"...Eh?"
Dionysus’s laughter abruptly stopped, as though he could not comprehend what had just happened, a blank and confused sound escaping from his mouth.
However, the intense pain shooting through his chest quickly dragged the god of wine back to reality.
"Uh—AAAAAAAHHHHH—!"
At last, a scream tore out from Dionysus’s mouth, yet that scream only summoned even more tentacles.
*Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!*
One after another, the tentacles shot out from the ground, slicing through the air as they pierced straight through Dionysus’s entire body, even lifting him up and suspending him midair.
"W-Why?!"
Dionysus could only wail in agony, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face.
Clearly, he could not understand why he had been the very first to be attacked.
In response, Alaya slowly spoke while wearing a delighted smile, as though she had finally fulfilled a long-cherished wish.
"I’ve wanted to do this for a long time~"
Her tone sounded as though she were finally carrying out some wild fantasy she had imagined countless times before, completely devoid of even the slightest trace of guilt. Under such circumstances, the Corrupted Spirit named Alaya slowly extended a hand toward Dionysus.
"S-Stop! Stop it, please—AAAAAAHHHH—!"
Dionysus screamed desperately.
"Heehee..."
As though she had heard absolutely nothing, Alaya merely continued laughing happily before slowly clenching her hand.
*Pshhhk—!*
In an instant, the tentacles piercing through Dionysus violently surged, tearing apart the culprit behind everything into countless fragments.
*Whoosh!*
What followed was countless points of light overflowing from the scattered flesh, gathering together into a pillar of light that shot straight into the sky.
*BOOM!*
And so, the pillar of light that signified a god’s return to Heaven appeared once again in Orario tonight.
It rose from the 11th Floor of the Man-Made Dungeon Knossos, just like when Thanatos had been sent back before, shattering through layer after layer of the Man-Made Dungeon’s ceilings as it surged upward, breaking through the surface of Daedalus Street before finally piercing into the cloudless night sky and illuminating the heavens themselves.
Knossos immediately began shaking and trembling violently, before a raging torrent surged before Riezel’s eyes, sweeping everything away in its path.
"Wall of Stone!"
Riezel instantly activated his magic, causing a wall of stone to rise from the ground before him, barely blocking the incoming torrent for an unknown amount of time.
Only when everything finally calmed down did the once vast space transform into a scene of complete devastation, filled everywhere with shattered debris and collapsed rubble.
"..."
Looking at the aftermath before him, Riezel fell silent.
He made no comment at all, merely turning his gaze toward the spirit standing motionlessly nearby, his eyes flickering faintly.
"How beautiful."
Alaya was still smiling, as though admiring a masterpiece of art. It was unclear whether she was speaking to herself or asking for the opinion of the only witness present as she spoke in a pleasant, cheerful voice.
"Even a god whose heart has rotted and stinks—once they unleash the miracle known as ’Arcanum,’ they can still create a scene of beauty like this, something the Lower World could never possibly have."
Only then did Alaya slowly turn her head to look at Riezel.
"Don’t you think that’s ironic?"
Faced with the seemingly harmless question, Riezel remained silent for a brief moment before finally responding.
"You hate the gods?"
With an expressionless face, Riezel calmly asked in return.
"Of course not..."
Alaya gently shook her head while smiling.
"We spirits are known as the children of the gods, you know? We’re the beings closest to them in this world."
"While the gods usually call all life in the Lower World their children—since they created everything—if you look at it from a more fundamental standpoint, spirits like me are the ones who truly count as the gods’ children."
"And how could a child possibly hate their own parents? Right?"
Alaya spoke with innocent sincerity, yet it was precisely this same girl who had just torn apart her own parent with a smile still on her face.
One had to admit that the contrast was deeply unsettling.
Even so, Alaya continued speaking affectionately.
"I am very clear about my own feelings. Whether in the past or even now, I have sincerely respected, adored, and admired the omnipotent gods."
"They are our guides, our creators, and our faith."
"Although I can no longer hear the voices of the gods the way I once could, since he needs me, I am still very willing to help him."
"He wants to destroy Orario, wants to destroy adventurers, wants the surface to descend into chaos, to be filled everywhere with the screams of people. So, I came."
"Only..."
Alaya extended a slender finger and lightly tapped her cheek as she tilted her head slightly with a smile.
"Since he likes screams so much, wouldn’t it be a little too monotonous if only the screams of mortals filled the Lower World?"
The moment those words left Alaya’s mouth, the chilling sensation filling the air seemed to take on physical form, spreading throughout the entire space. And with nothing more than such a simple, crude, and unreasonable idea as her justification, she had casually torn apart the god she had long cooperated with and admired.
Slaying gods was a grave taboo within the Lower World, yet this fallen spirit clearly did not care about such trivial matters in the slightest, acting entirely without hesitation—that alone was enough to prove that she was no longer the kind of spirit people often imagined.
Spirits were sacred races, embodiments of mystery and beauty.
But what about the girl standing before him now?
She was indeed mysterious.
She was indeed beautiful.
But she could by no means be called sacred.
Even if her appearance was captivatingly beautiful, she was undoubtedly filthy and thoroughly fallen.
"Are you afraid?"
Alaya suddenly asked.
"What do you think?"
Riezel responded with the same calm, expressionless face.
Anyone who saw him at that moment would instinctively feel that Dionysus’s death meant absolutely nothing to this boy.
"How nice..."
Alaya licked her lips, and although she still looked innocent, at this moment she appeared incomparably alluring, looking almost intoxicated.
"You’re different from the others in the Lower World. You don’t hold any reverence for the gods—in fact, you treat them as something... foreign and distant?"
"You know, that’s an enormous act of disrespect. A taboo."
"But... looking at you like this, why do I feel so drawn to you...?"
"Ah, I see, I see."
"Because the feeling of breaking a taboo is truly wonderful, isn’t it?"
Now, the way Alaya looked at Riezel grew increasingly heated.
It was the gaze of someone who had set their sights on prey.
It was the gaze of someone admiring something they deeply liked.
"My instincts tell me that if I devour you, something very wonderful will definitely happen," Alaya said with a delighted smile. "So, would you like to become one with me?"
At last, a terrifying malice surged out from the seemingly innocent spirit like an overflowing swamp.
*BOOM!*
In the next moment, the ground shook violently as countless tentacles burst out from beneath it, instantly entering a frenzied state and spreading across the sky as they lunged toward Riezel.
"Greater Teleportation!"
A translucent glimmer flashed through Riezel’s eyes.
As the teleportation magic activated, his figure vanished instantly and reappeared in midair.
*Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!*
However, the tentacles adjusted their trajectory the moment they lost their target. Instead of striking the ground where Riezel had been a second earlier, they changed direction at the very last possible instant before impact, shooting upward like massive serpents that had suddenly come to life.
*BOOM!*
Lightning bolts erupted across Riezel’s body, and then, with a crack of thunder, he darted away, evading the countless incoming tentacles.
However, those tentacles displayed a level of flexibility the previous multicolored monsters and Demi Spirits had never possessed. As if equipped with automatic tracking, they shifted direction once more, relentlessly pursuing him.
In an instant, countless tentacles danced wildly through the air, chasing after the streak of lightning. Thick and long, they resembled the massive limbs of a giant octopus surrounding a tiny fish. Any single strike would have been enough to smash an ordinary person apart.
In the next instant, the translucent glow within Riezel’s eyes intensified as he pushed the Transparent World’s perceptive power to its absolute limit, reading the movements of every tentacle while darting back and forth like lightning, narrowly avoiding each incoming attack.
But...
"Arise, flames—"
On the ground, the spirit surrounded by countless tentacles began chanting with a giggle.
*BOOM!*
Just as Riezel noticed that and prepared to respond to her magic, it activated without the slightest warning.
Crimson hellfire erupted violently, bursting from the ground like a volcanic eruption.
Caught completely off guard, he failed to react in time and was directly engulfed by the surging flames.
Consequently, the lightning was swallowed by the erupting inferno, disappearing entirely into that world of blazing crimson, leaving not even the slightest trace behind.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]