Humming to the tune of empowering, holy chants that echoed through the halls of Babel, Slaine bobbed his foot to the rhythm. Was it him, or had their voices gotten better since the last reset? Maybe he was just in a better mood with his power resonating with the very fabric of the world it had improved.

How many times had he died now…ten thousand? Barely a drop in the bucket in the number of lives he had to waste. Would it be this time or would he gamble wrong? That was the thing about greed; it could give you everything within a coin flip…or take everything you’d gained. Greed was his creed.

Picking up the goblet of angel dew beside his throne, he grinned, lifting it in a toast to the chained, holy figures. Hellfire burned underneath them, the heat causing divine sweat to collect on their wings to drip into the collection pipes; it would take something hotter than radial hellfire to evaporate such liquid.

A blade cut through space itself, destroying the [Ultima Defense] barrier and carved wooden door of living wood he’d taken from Avalon. The chants lifted his lips further into a toothy grin as the Saintess of Kalista brought a wave of relieving light and divine energy that purified the unholy chains, spikes, and myriad of items he’d used to subdue the beings of the lower heavens.

“Slaine!”

He could have slipped into anti-space to bypass the attack in a micro-second, yet he accepted Joan’s slash with a manic laugh. Dropping the holy liquid onto her tongue to deliver the divine bliss of the angel’s sweat into his system—his body split in two.

[You are dead, idiot]

[Creed of the Greedier: Activated]

[Ability Store: Actuated]

[Divine Restore Point: 1x Soul Consumed]

[16.3 billion souls remain]

[Divine Restore Point Curse: One skill transferred to killer]

[Hellfire Chains transferred to Saint Joan Aela Epinarmael]

[53,433 skills remaining]

The doors and angels returned to their previous state, and Joan vanished, returning to the save point in time. Slaine waved his hand, and [Scrying Portal] showed him Joan’s ethereal wings flicker and vanish as she cried out and tumbled across the ground before she was able to deliver the slash again. Sweat covered her body as the skill burdened her soul.

“Grmmgm! You…I will kill you,” Joan gasped, her blonde hair swapped between hellfire and holy fire; the negative energy soaked into her soul, applying yet more pressure against it.

“Joan, darling,” Slaine’s orange left eye creased with glee as he leaned forward to stare at her through the two-way mirror. He connected his palms to press his fingers against his nose and push up his clear, circular reading glasses. “You should stop.

“Can’t you see you’re only crushing your own soul? The previous Goddess House’s champions exhausted themselves on me. You are the most persistent, though. I love it! I’m a believer in the passion of desire, and wow, you hate me with a passion! I don’t even know what I took… Well, everything is mine after all.”

“What…is this game you’re playing, King of Greed?! Why won’t you fight back anymore; is this…all fun for you?! Seeing saints die under the stress of your stolen powers and divine curse? Is that the game…turn a goddess’ dying curse into your plaything?”

Lifting her trembling fingers, he watched her with an encouraging gleam in his greedy left eye as she blasted him with a ray of holy energy that cut straight through the enchanted castle, fashioned out of the finest things this universe had to offer, and vaporized his unprotected body.

[Restore Point]

[Universal Slow transferred to Saint Joan]

Slaine’s right eye swirled with fathomless darkness. He snickered, watching the 25-year-old woman grasp at her armored chest, and try to keep herself together. Golden blood started leaking out of her nose and eyes while the weakened angels pleaded for her to retreat again to let her soul rest.

“Is this as far as you go, Joan?” he mused, tossing the once again full cup of angel tears off to the side. “Few beings can remember what happened before [Restore Point], but you’re no ordinary saint, having the blood of not angels but goddesses in you, small as it may be. Kyle didn’t make it half the skills you’re burdened with, and he’s in second place as a paragon of fortitude!”

[Spatial Step] brought him beside the struggling saintess. “I had high hopes for you, but you couldn’t do it. What do you do now…because you really were my favorite candidate, you know?” he sighed, summoning a mirror beside them to swap between the random outfits that spread into infinity.

“Really, I liked this look. A clean, white shirt, dress coat, and fitted pants—it’s clean. I am just gorgeous with these glasses, too. It really frames my eyes. The colors complement my white hair with its black underlayer. Don’t you think?”

Joan forced herself up, her shaky vision rising up his scarred arms and hands, permanent damage to his soul from the attack he’d taken from a real goddess…before he’d killed her.

She stared into his manic, heterochromatic eyes that he’d stolen from the King of Greed and the Kind of Pride; having two eyes from the dreaded Cardinal Sins was supposed to be impossible, but people just didn’t want it badly enough—that was his explanation, anyway.

“Hmm. You’re one of the last saints in your goddess’ house. I’ve already gone through three, and I doubt the next one will be anywhere near your purity. What to do…”

She laughed, defiance in her face as she used her holy blade—a sword she’d gained from killing him nine thousand restores ago. “You are one of the Cursed Ones…a mortal that killed a god. You will never know peace!”

He rubbed the back of his neck with a sad smirk as she swung her blade and severed his neck from his body. Only, something different happened this time. It shouldn’t have. But it did.

[Restore Point]

[Divine Soul transferred to Saint Joan]

Joan froze as her inner being transformed, her soul expanding since it was compatible with her, unlike Slaine’s mortal roots. A butterfly knife materialized in his palm; koba, his first-ever possession he’d gained from his first kill. Activating every last one of his tens of thousands of skills, he threw the knife as all-time stopped—not normal time…all-time.

[Pride: Activated]

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His blade penetrated space and time, bypassing anti-space and entering nihility to strike its target…only to be stopped inches before a glorious, unknowable beauty—Kalista, High Goddess of the House of Kalista. A blinding light peeled back the veil, revealing the divine figure as she put a hand on her hip and glanced between him and the evolving saintess.

[Pride: Failed]

“Hahaha!” He doubled over, clutching his sides.

“You…do not know when to stop causing trouble, Slaine,” she growled, somehow sounding even more lovely than her typical voice. He’d heard her, but this was his first time meeting the powerful figure that had taken over this universe’s care.

“This is just the way I am; this is actually me, as we struggle in this reality full of lust and greed!”

Kalista spread two perfect fingers to close around the floating butterfly knife, aimed between her eyes, and casually flicked it back to him. He activated [Greed] to snatch it out of the air; the rare Special Grade Skill that bypassed all reality rules…for a price, worked—the user better want it more than his opponent, or disaster struck.

The woman held her hands at her front and scowled at him. “You’re not stupid enough to try and kill another goddess, nor believe you can after taking that Divine Soul from my best friend. You’ve been plotting this meeting for some time… What do you want?”

Slaine summoned two thrones beside the floating, timeless saintess to his right. A table came next, as he slammed the blade into it. Leaning against its framework, he pressed his palms together and stared at the goddess with his covetous eyes.

“What do I want? I want…everything. And I’m willing to give everything for that… How about a Divine Pact, Kalista? You know the one thing I want that I cannot get myself. I’ve tried! Ho-ho-ho-ho. I’ve…tried.”

He saw the caution in the brilliant goddess’ gaze as she studied him and took the seat he’d offered. “…What you’re asking me to do is give up my life. The High House Goddesses would never allow it, and even if they did…a High Goddess would need to be sacrificed to accomplish it.”

“Not my problem,” Slaine grunted, waving off her excuse with thirst in his swirling black and orange eyes. “When you want something bad enough…everything bends to your will. Nothing is impossible if you covet something more than the universe…or all the universes and the high heavens themselves. I said I would be willing to give up…everything.”

He pressed his glasses up, seeing the fathomless power the High Goddess held that he couldn’t hope to match. However, they were under strict…very strict laws. Laws he became aware of once obtaining the Divine Soul.

“You know there is something the High House Goddesses want. I’m a dagger in their lungs…slow, painful, but there are blades close to their chests.”

Kalista’s vision narrowed. “You…want to make a Divine Pact and destroy the Heart of Evil? If you do that, it will rob you of all your powers…but you’re willing to give up everything, binding your own twisted, demonic-infused soul to get her back?”

Teeth gleaming as he peeled back his lips, Slaine laughed at the absurdity of her statement. “I’ve been the poster child for angel dust piled higher than the heavens, made the lower heavens my toilet bowl, and dined with kings of Hell before wiping my ass with their tears. My greed gets me everything; the means to fulfill any dream. You know what happens to anything that gets in between me and what I want.”

“…The Creed of the Greedier. Humanity really can dive below the depths of the Lower Hells and overshadow the High Heavens with their ambition. You carry the Eye of Pride and the Eye of Greed. You…a King of Greed, want to be sent to the Root of Evil, a planet where the Cardinal Evils lie, and be our champion?”

She shook her head, her eight wings shivering. “You don’t know what you’re trying to do, Slaine. The greatest champions the goddesses have to offer rarely ever make it ten minutes in the good areas they allow on the planet to torment and control the incarnation cycle. You are a very big fish inside of a sea…but where you want to go is an ocean.”

Slaine’s vision narrowed with glee. “Aww. Are you worried about me…or do you think I have some ulterior motive? A Divine Pact cannot be unwritten, and I will be destroyed to the very soul if I attempt to break it. Kalista, you know I’m a man of honor amongst the cold-blooded anacondas that circle your nightmares. Greed, the brand you can trust!” he said with a perfect smile.

“Let me take you from the house of pain…losing saint after saint, and not to their deaths but corrupted to be pawns of the Heart of Evil. I may have taken the wrong way, but I did it my way…. Allow me to take you to the House of Slaine. Bring the Creed of the Greedier to your side, Kalista… Give me what I want, and I will give you what you want.”

Kalista sank in her seat, rubbing her temple before looking at him as if he were the Heart of Evil himself. “Your roots run so deep into greed that even with a Divine Pact, I do not think you’d be able to accomplish it, despite your boundless pride with those eyes of yours that tell you otherwise.

“However…in the end, you are mortal and not a demon or devil. And I would…love to see the end of you after all the heartache you’ve caused my precious flock.”

“Mhm! I know, I am a horrible, terrible person,” Slaine laughed. “I am the worst. You could deny me this chance, and I could stain your house red with the blood of your followers…or we can become friends!” His glasses slid down his nose as he looked past his black and white bangs to study the deity. “I’m worse than any Demon Lord. I’m the monster you fear…the one you cannot overcome. So…where will this curtain fall?”

Kalista was silent for a long time, staring deep inside his corrupted soul. “You…are the devil in disguise… I see the sins that are burning in your eyes…your skin stained red…the billions you’ve consumed, pure and evil, for your greed. Truly, you are the embodiment of greed… I will accept your submission, with conditions.”

Slaine pushed his glasses up with a laugh before snatching his butterfly knife to spin it around his fingers. “Here we go; it’s the return of the assassin!”

“The brand you can trust…” Kalista mumbled, eyeing him like the viper he was.

“Well, tell me, is there some society or people you know that don’t operate on greed? Haha. Certainly not even the noble and pure High Goddesses or angels… What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy; it’s only the other fella who’s greedy, right?! Hahaha! I’m just the God of Greed. Simple and pure.”

“…I can’t bring this to the High Goddess Council… So I will do it myself. I don’t know why you want her brought back…I want to think there is good in you, but all I see is lust and greed. Your goal is not to destroy the Heart of Evil…but to escort Joan to it and make sure Joan is capable and able to slay it…whatever it is. Why does it feel like you planned this?”

Slaine’s gaze darted to the awakening saintess, unlocking more of her goddess attributes. “Creed of the Greedier,” he repeated. “Well, won’t this be interesting? I get to keep two items when incarnating into the Root of Evil. I want to keep these glasses and my knife.”

Kalista held her hand to her breast, extracting a contract of pure, holy radiance that was brighter than the sun, and pushed it toward him. “The glasses she gave you and your first possession. You said you’d give up everything.

“Did I?” he asked. “I didn’t ask for them to be on me. Throw them in the world for all I care. It will make it more fun! Hehehe.”

“ That’s…possible. You’ll need to find someone with the normal [Restore Point] as one of your staple skills since you can’t gain skills normally with those eyes. I’ll send you to the closest spot that I can. Welcome to the side of the light…God of Greed.”

Slaine took it without hesitation and cupped it to his chest, letting it weave into the center of his twisted soul to become a part of him, writing his fate.

“Better wake my princess! I think we’ll get along,” he chirped, showing off his best innocent grin. “We’re going to have a great time. If I don’t bring anything, then she can select her two items. Loopholes are fun! Strip me bare, My Goddess…take my powers and souls; leave me naked in a new world of boundless evil to take…everything!”

* — * — *

Lucifer lifted the defeated Lower Goddess in the air as she quaked with the energy sliding down her frame, his corrupting force weaving into her. “Pride is the worst of the sins, Helaina, yet you believed you could accomplish what the High Deities could not… How long do you think you can last in the Heart of Evil? Hmm. Can’t speak already… How weak…”

“My Lord…”

“Mmm…Mammon?” His dark, feathered wings shifted to observe one of his generals as he entered the hall, and when he lifted his head upon prompt, all thoughts of Helaina were dashed from his mind. “What happened…”

He flicked his wrist, sending the goddess slamming into the wall, cracking it, and making her whimper before falling to the floor. With a twitch of his wing, Lucifer was in front of the potent devil, lifting his face to stare into his cloudy orbs.

“My Lord… I’ve lost my sight.”

“…Impossible. A King of Greed has incarnated into our world…with a stronger drive for greed than you? Search the planet. Find this young king before he becomes a problem…and right when the next Celestial Cycle beings for the goddess’ turn, after the gods failed…and this prideful wretch tried to cut in line.”

He paused, lifting his hand to his own eyes as he felt a tug within his own soul… It wasn’t just Greed, but a King of Pride had also entered their planet. Were the High Goddesses trying something new—something sneaky; it wasn’t in their nature—or was this an invasion from an outside force? Whoever it was somehow rivaled him. A grin spread across his lips.

“The game has changed. Stir up the ranks, Mammon. A war is coming.”