“So, you one hundred percent just awakened your evil inclination,” Thera said as they flew off, leaving the ruins of Eneth’s church along with the broken and bleeding priests as they went. “I honestly thought I was going to get a level of sacrilege just watching that.”

“Ugh, you’re right but that’s all I got,” Ben groaned now that they were far enough away. “I really thought that would do the job of getting me my sacrilege awakening. Man, the fact it didn’t sucks so much, what’s even the point of having evil inclination if it’s not going to boost that when I want it?”

The fact that didn’t do the job was honestly crushing. As cathartic as all of that had been for him on top of letting him test out his combat potential a bit more, he was running out of things he could potentially get away with to awaken it without ending up in prison.

I could always murder Felth and Olensia’s oracle. He sighed while a part of himself commented on the fact that he was seriously considering both as options. They’ve both tried to murder me before, it would be fine. I mean, it would probably cause Myriad some issues but I’m pretty sure I could get him out of it if I try. Hmm, should I go back and finish the job?

…No, not today. Murdering someone for power kind of feels like a slippery slope I shouldn’t be so eager to throw myself down. If I still haven’t come up with a solution when I’m down to only five or six months left until the wave then I’ll give in and do it as a treat to myself. Or maybe I should wait until I awaken deep connection. Eh, I’ll see whatever comes first and then decide.

“You look like you’re thinking something evil, you know that, right?”

“I know no such thing,” Ben told her. “And I’m just… Considering my options.”

“When you put it that way you also make it sound evil too.”

“Maybe. Would you still love me if I killed someone?”

“Well, you killed Ather not too long ago and I still do, so yes?”

“Hey, I trapped Ather in hell, whether or not he died in there is his business.”

“Okay, still probably yes but at the same time don’t go off murdering people willy-nilly please.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, we’ll just see what the next few months hold in store I guess.”

“Fine, now are you going to tell me whatever this is about?”

She could see there was something bothering him, both driving him and making him more desperate to grow and while the invasion was a perfectly good explanation for that, she didn’t know if that was all, with Ben only giving her a part of an answer.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“It’s just everything I saw while stuck on the demon world,” He shrugged. “It just made me realize that if I want to make a difference I’ve gotta be stronger and getting to the third tier is a pretty quick path to that.”

It wasn’t the whole answer, he still didn’t know how to tell her his complicated feelings about the war they were living through, but it was enough for the moment as they went back to Stonewall to both do what they could with the time they had.

----------------------------------------

“Well, that was a mess,” Myriad complained first thing that night. “That was basically an interfaith incident you just caused.”

“I am willing to defend my case before every god in this world including Eneth himself. I proposed a duel and they accepted, with the only thing driving me to that point being my attempted murder a few months back combined with earlier acts of mistreatment by the church of Eneth, it’s not my fault Felth and the others lacked imagination about what I might try to store in the statue.”

“You never believed it would be able to hold it.”

“No, but I would have been over the moon if that had somehow managed to work. Plus, as it stands I’ve discovered a way to actually use foreign matter production as an attack. Not a good attack since it means making and destroying a mini-gate but an attack nonetheless.”

“Whatever, since we have our longstanding issues with that church and Felth agreed to the duel on top of this being your first reaction to Ather trying to kill you, we have been rather firmly told to make sure you end things with that. You’ve gotten your revenge, be happy with that.”

“You got it, I am in no way planning on murdering Felth in the next few months if I can’t awaken sacrilege by then, you have nothing to worry about.”

“...I have nothing but worries. Just go read or actualize or something not completely psychotic while I work tonight, would you?”

“You got it buddy, I’m planning on waking up after an hour or two anyway. Since I’ve got all of this stamina, might as well put it to use to get more work done since I’ve got plenty still to do. Magic books to make, mana bracelets to make, experiments to run and souls to materialize on top of it, I’m pretty swamped.”

“Mmh, I’m sure. And on the note of your materializing, has it had any effect yet?”

“I’ve already gotten my first job level, I’d say that shows I’m on the right track.”

“There’s no conceivable way that you’ve managed enough in the last day to get one entire level, you had to have already been right on the edge of it by the time the rest of the gods quit giving you experience.”

“Ugh, yeah I know but let me believe. The real test is going to be however long this next level takes. I really do need to go all in on my soul production since my mind can’t get any stronger at this point. It would help if I can awaken my soul inclination too but I have no clue how I’m going to do that. I can destroy and be a little evil on demand but as for souling, well, if all of the souls I’ve already created won’t do the job then who knows what will?”

“I want to say you’ll get there or you won’t but given your track record I’m comfortable assuming you will, now if you don’t mind?”

“Yeah yeah, do your boring work, I’ll read for a bit.”

There were still plenty of texts left to go through on the system’s design and construction to keep him occupied and he never knew what might be the driving force that would end with some strike of inspiration so finishing all of that really was as much of a priority as anything else, creating one more task for him on his long pile of work.

Well, who knows, maybe I’ll find something handy in all of this. He told himself positively while the hours passed before it was time to get up and back to work.