Chapter 578-Chapter 580: Meeting Echidna  

Sol’s relationship with Nuwa was…Well, it was very complicated to explain. All in all, the two of them had spent only a few days together before Sol left for the Astral realm.

Then, when he came back, Nuwa was already on the battlefield and he could not spend time with her. When the war finally started, Sol was too busy to even have a proper relationship with his lovers, much less Nuwa.

As if this wasn’t enough, unknown to everyone else, Nuwa was possessed by Echidna who technically was the enemy of Lustburg. She might not have killed Blaze and Mars personally. But there was no denying that she was the main cause of this situation. After all, she attacked Lustburg first.

He still didn’t even know how to announce it to Lilith and the others and he knew the more he waited the more this would be dangerous. This was no different from a stupid bomb waiting to blow up. This whole set up was leading to one of the most cliche situations where, while giving their all during an important fight, someone had their deepest secret revealed and that secret fucked up everyone.

He knew that Camelia could see souls the same way Isis did. The moment Camelia sees Nuwa, she immediately understands everything. There was even the possibility of the enemy discovering it or Echidna herself appearing at the worst timing.

Sol could see this coming miles away and he knew that he needed to make a decision fast about how he would deal with Nuwa and Echidna. The good thing at least was that destroying Echidna’s soul without hurting Nuwa was not complicated in the slightest.

Either way, because of all those problems, here they were in a situation that was extremely awkward no matter how they looked at it. Well…At least, Sol was awkward.

Nuwa had no intention of considering all the possible ramifications of her current situation. She had never been one to think too much about things she could do nothing about after all.

Sol could not see the slightest feeling of fear or worry coming from the young girl in maid uniform and he found himself impressed. This was a level of carefreeness that went past all limits.

“How have you been?”

“Good.” Nuwa’s eyes looked at him curiously. She didn’t understand why he was asking her this question. Her time had been very good without the slightest bit of exaggeration.

After she defended the base from the attack she had been rewarded handsomely and even proposed a position of Lieutenant in the army with a land as noble. This was something she knew many people aspired to. She was not stupid and she could see the looks of envy mixed with the respect she received at that time.

But Nuwa had simply refused. She did not want to be a noble. Even more so a noble with an entire land to manage. It seemed like so much work to do for not much. She was fed well in the Tower, she was around people she liked and she was treated well. She had no reason to lose all this.

As Nuwa explained all this to Sol while the four of them walked toward the transportation circle. Well, only three of them were walking. Sheherazade was still ooing and cooing as she observed everything while sitting on his head.

Even Isis seemed to be quite starry-eyed as she observed the fortress. She was interested in the barrier that was covering this place as while it wasn’t powerful in her standard, it was still quite well done.

I…Well. This is quite weird.

Sol was reminded once again that both Sheherazade and Isis were undoubtedly the most stable and carefree people that were close to him and Nuwa seemed to be in the same position.

In particular her disinterest in power because of how much work it would have reminded him of well…Himself? It seemed like so long ago but the truth was that not long ago, he had not even wanted to become the King of Lustburg and now, he was on his way to try and conquer the world.

“Heh…”

“Anything funny?” Nuwa asked as she raised her head at him. After all, she was quite petite when compared to Sol.

“Nothing. I just realized I have been thinking too hard about something that in reality was quite simple.” He chuckled once again and patted Nuwa’s head. Who simply closed her eyes and enjoyed the caress while taking another chip.

Indeed. He had been thinking too much. So entangled in his threads that he had forgotten that sometimes, the simplest things had the simplest solution.

“Say, Nuwa. Do you want to sign a contract with me?”

“Sure.”

A bitter smile spread on his face. He had asked bluntly and Nuwa simply answered bluntly. Then looked at him curiously. “I thought it was already decided that we would sign a contract?”

“Heh…Indeed.”

Man, I feel so dumb.

Sol sighed and dismissed those feelings. Sure it was great that they managed to settle on this rather fast but there was another problem which was admittedly not so much a problem.

“What kind of contract should we sign?”

He spoke out loud. A lust contract was…Sol frowned and looked at Nuwa who seemed more like a squirrel than anything else with her mouth stuffed.

As funny as it seemed, a Lust contract was all but about lust. It was a contract made based on love and the vows were not dissimilar to marriage vows in his old world. For the contract to even work, both participants needed to be truly in love with each other and if their love vanished, the contract would also vanish.

Did he love Nuwa? The answer was self-evident. He barely even felt lust for her. Nuwa was definitely a beautiful woman but he had long since gone past the level where he would get excited just because a woman was beautiful.

Her personality and action were endearing and she was a loyal member of his house. But if he had to be honest…She looked more like a loyal pet to him. Something cute like a hamster. Taking out a treat from his dimension he gave it to Nuwa who immediately accepted it and started munching on it. She was eating in such a cute way.

Yeah, definitely a hamster.

He might be able to develop greater feelings for her in the future but definitely not in six days and he could definitely not use Medea’s time dilation for this or it would mess up all his preparation.

Then, “Nuwa, do you love me?”

“Hum…?” She swallowed and asked curiously, “What is love exactly? But I do like you. I think. You are warm and I like having my head patted. It gives me fuzzy feelings. Is it love?”

Sol gave another bitter smile and pinched her cute face, “Forget it. Don’t worry about it.”

This was all the answer he needed. At this moment, Nuwa was no different from a blank sheet. In this situation, he would feel like he was abusing an innocent child if he made a Lust contract with her. Thankfully — It wasn’t as if there was only one kind of contract and looking at Nuwa, the best contracts with her were more than evident.

Either a Sloth or a Gluttony type contract.

His eyes shone. This was…Quite interesting. Up to now, he already had individual contact with four goddesses and at this point, he was one hundred percent sure that whatever type of contract he chose, one of the goddesses would try to talk to him.

Then the final question was…Were Gula and Acedia on Luxuria’s side or on Invidia’s side?

Whether or not those goddesses were on his side was extremely important for his incoming contract. Sol knew that one of the reasons he was still alive, more than his own merits, was the protection of Luxuria and their desire to not hurt their relationship because of him.

In short — They were still underestimating him.

Some like Invidia may see him as a future threat but at the very most, in their opinion, he would be lesser or equal to Anubis. Someone powerful but who, ultimately, could not really hurt them nor affect their rules.

His stunts with Lilith may have made them warier, but this was all.

If I succeed by getting the Name I want though…Things could get ugly.

This was something his intuition was screaming at him and this was why he would make sure that his ascension as a King happened in his own dimension far from prying eyes. He would also make sure to get Aurora's help to hide things.

Thankfully, while the potential of things getting ugly could be high, the true problem would be if they realized that he had for goal to steal the Mortal Realm.

This would definitely not fly well at all and he would most likely be besieged by the goddesses if he was not careful.

He needed to advance step by step, build his own force, exchange with his own allies, and make sure that all would be well.

There was also the prophecy Lucifer had given him. By now, Sol was starting to have some inklings about what this could have meant, and for this reason, he needed even more urgent allies.

This was why —-

“Sheherazade, move away please, we need to enter my dimension and I still cannot stop the emotion manipulation effects from affecting you.”

“Oh! Sure! Don’t take too long! I will go steal some cake from Lilin!”

Sheherazade chirped and flew off in the distance, causing Sol to chuckle. This little fairy was a true little ball of pure joy and delight. She always illuminated his day when she was near.

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“Should I go too?” Isis asked and Sol waved his hand, “You are the only Duke who can enter my Dimension without worrying. Let’s go, we have been wasting too much time on this.”

“Very well.” She was interested in witnessing the discussion that would happen next. After all, in a way, the one they were about to face could have been one of her stepmothers.

This was going to be a very interesting discussion.

***

The moment they entered Sol’s dimension, while Isis was able to fend off the rules that were trying to invert her feelings, Nuwa was not so lucky but the changes that happened to her were different.

Her previous dull and somewhat absent-minded eyes were filled with intelligent and alert light. Her lazy demeanor switched to one that was full of authority and the feeling of facing a friend and someone of the same age vanished as it was replaced with the impression of standing in front of a very old being.

“My. I did not think you would try to speak to me again so soon.” Even though the voice was the same, one did not need to be a genius to see the stark difference between the usual Nuwa and the current one.

“For someone who is forced to live like a parasite in the body of her daughter, you have quite the haughty tone.” Sol grinned meanly and ignored the deadly glare she threw at him before causing three made out of ice to appear. “Do not worry. I have considerably increased the temperature and altered the surface.”

He sat on his chair and Isis did the same on the chair close to him. Observing this, a twinkle danced in Echidna’s eyes before she sat as well.

“I initially thought your plan was to erase me. But it seems like you are much more ambitious than this.” Once she was comfortable, she spoke her mind without a veil.

“What makes you think this?” He asked quietly.

“The fact that you did not kill the main cause of the death of your parents is already telling enough. Then again, I suppose this is not wrong. After all, from your point of view…They are not really your parents, right? Foreigner.” Echidna snickered as she gazed at Sol and Isis. She was also quite surprised to see that Isis was still calm.

So she knew already? Interested. Those foreigners generally hide their identity.

“So you know about reincarnation.” Sol mused to which Echidna shrugged, “Why do you think I was so interested in attacking Lustburg repeatedly? Each of the rulers of Lustburg were precious research material. It was imperative for me to get some of their blood and genetic information.”

In her long life, Echidna had obviously observed many reincarnated individual and their very existence was fascinating,

“A foreign Soul in a new body. The concept itself of reincarnation is nothing extraordinary even if extremely complicated but it’s something marvelous in essence. All Foreigners show tremendous talents that cannot simply be explained by their being Blessed or not. Their very existence should be impossible but the sturdiness of their soul gave me many ideas.” The more she spoke, the more hurried her breathing became, “I have studied this principle for years and was able to create my own version of reincarnation by skipping the process of the cycle of reincarnation and entering a new body, thus keeping my memories intact. Had it not been for that damned thieving dwarf! Ugh!”

Echidna felt like pulling her hair when she thought how the results of thousands of years of research and careful planning were foiled because of some lowly dwarf that was not even at the Duke level. This was a level of humiliation of the like she could never accept.

“Pfft!...Sorry, sorry.”

Isis fought to contain her laughter and waved her hand in apology. She had met Theresa a few times and she had indeed noticed that the diminutive woman was quite the maverick.

“I guess Theresa is once again the MVP without even trying.” Sol smiled nonchalantly. At this point, he wondered if he should name Theresa as the mascot of Lustburg. She was the one who captured the vampire that escaped. She was the one who created his Divine weapon and the one who created his nascent mech army. She was dealing backstage to help him conquer the dwarves and she also foiled Echidna's plan.

All this without being a Duke.

This was a level of impressiveness that made even the legendary luck of Blessed seem quite mundane if he had to say.

“Well. To come back to our discussion. I indeed do not feel much rage for you. It would be hypocritical of me to act differently. I am indeed also keeping you alive because I need your help. But — Make no mistake. Your importance is certainly not even nearly equal to the happiness of those I care for. Once I reveal your existence, I will leave your fate in their hands.”

Sol showed his two hands, “On one hand, If they decide to keep you alive. You will live. On the other hand, should they decide you need to die, I will immediately destroy you without the slightest hesitation.”

His smile grew as he looked down at her, “So tell me, Queen Echidna, Mother of Thousands monsters, what does it feel like to know your very existence is at the mercy of the mortals you always despised and disregarded ?”

Echidna had to admit. It felt quite shitty. ***

Echidna was the first primordial monster in the Mortal Realm. In terms of seniority, she was not inferior to any of the Second Generation divine beasts. In terms of Power, she was only inferior to the likes of Tiamat and Lucifer or Michael when she was at her peak.

Echidna was not born weak. She was born nearly perfect and indeed because of this, the way she saw the world was very different from how mere mortals might have seen it.

This current situation of weakness was something she never encountered. This feeling of helplessness was not something she was used to and the fact that her life would be outside of her own control would have never even been considered by her.

Even so, there was one thing he was wrong about,

“Let’s make things clear first, “ Echidna released a calm sigh and looked straight at Sol, “I have never looked down on mortals. Much less despised them.”

Only the aura of a Duke came out of her but at this moment even Sol had to put a little more of his guard. The pressure coming out of her was not a matter of pure power but more the simple power of her Truth. The aura of someone who was born strong and who terrorized the entire era with her lonesome — One of the first three Demigods of the Mortal Realm.

She could accept Sol insulting her. The strong had the right to control the weak after all. She could accept Sol making sure she could hurt no one and she could even accept Sol using her for his own goal.

But! She would never accept anyone insulting her aspirations,

“I have long since understood that direct creation of the Goddesses could never cross the threshold. It is nearly impossible for Me or even the other divine beasts to become God. Only mortals can! Only by studying the mystery of their bodies can one reach this fabled level and I believe I have reached a higher level of understanding than anyone else in this world. No one and I mean absolutely no one! Understand mortals more than me.”

Her speech finished, Echidna stood up and advanced toward Sol, “You. You wish to become a God, right? There is no other reason for you to keep me alive.” Echidna grinned, “I see it in your eyes. A great thirst for power. You may hide it behind a mask of indifference but you cannot fool me. You who have crawled from a normal human to what you are know more than anyone just how important power is and you wish for more. Far more.”

Sol frowned at Echidna who was so close to him their face could nearly touch. He did not like seeing this expression of pure madness on Nuwa’s cute face. This was not something that suited the cute girl and absent-minded girl that she was.

At the same time, he could not ignore Echidna’s words. Placing a finger on her forehead, he pushed her away and spoke quietly, “You are right. I want to become a god and though you failed. I believe you have precious information.”

His voice was calm and he ignored the worried look Isis was giving him. Lately, he had been more and more aware of his own weakness in the grand scheme of things. He could terrorize weak Dukes in the Mortal realm but this brought no joy to him.

Sol already had plans to snatch the mortal world and protect all those he cared about there but there was one thing he did not want to and this was to become a prisoner in a prison of his own making.

Taking the mortal world would make him mortal enemies with the goddesses without a doubt and while this pun was totally intended, the situation at hand was in no way funny nor amusing. Even Anubis, for all his power, did not dare to steal the entire Afterlife realm and in a way, the Mortal realm was vastly more important for the goddesses.

“I do not think I can become a god on my own.”

Sol was hundreds of percent sure that he could become a powerful demigod. Even a false god in fact. As long as his plans did not fail and he obtained the Name he was gunning for, he might truly become the strongest demigod to have ever existed. This was his pride and his confidence. But it was necessary to remember that even his alternate self, despite obtaining divinity and being strong enough to erase all timelines, still did not become a true god.

Becoming a god was clearly not just a question of power. It needed something more. Something he might never find if he fumbled alone. But why did he have to fumble alone?

Even his alternate self only managed to find the secret of absolute time rewind by getting the help of Anubis and Ambrosia as well as Skuld and her sisters. What if he managed to get Echidna's help as well?

“I want your help. Not just yours. Ambrosia, Anubis, and many others. I do not think I can walk this road on my own.” He hides nothing. He knew trying would be useless and nothing but an insult to Echidna.

“Heh and what do I get from helping you? You said it yourself, right? You will kill me if those lovers of you decide for my death. Why should I help you sincerely when I know I can die at any moment?”

“Oh. You will help me. Of that, I have no doubt.” Sol smirked which Irked Echidna somewhat. “What makes you so sure?”

This time, it was Sol's turn to stand up and advance toward Echidna. As she was in Nuwa’s body, she was quite petite so he could easily look down on her, “Earlier, you acted as if you could understand me and perhaps you understood some part of me indeed. But you see, I can do the same for you.”

He held her gaze with his and enunciated slowly, “You will help me. Because you are Echidna. Your madness knows no limits and your desire to create a True God is as deep as the abyss. You care not for death or life. Your greatest reward will be my ascension to godhood. To realize this dream of yours, even selling your soul is not impossible. Am I wrong?”

The two of them looked at each other. Their gazes filled with their own brand of madness but in the end, the first one to wield was Echidna. A large smile formed on her face and soon she exploded in laughter.

It was a beautiful laugh. One filled with amusement and joy as if she relished this feeling of being understood and when she finished laughing, she nodded, “You are right. Creating a god is my life purpose and for it, I would sacrifice my life gladly.”

“Then do we have a deal?”

He brought his hand forward and, after looking at it for a short while, she quietly looked up at Sol before nodding and shook his hand in response, “We do.”

No sooner were those words pronounced than thousands of strings appeared all around them before covering their hands.

This was not just a light agreement. But a full vow. One that was extremely unfair to Echidna but one she accepted nonetheless.

How cunning.

Echidna had a great understanding of the soul even if it was to a lesser extent than Anubis and she could feel a new binding coiling around it. One that was even more powerful than the self-destruction node that had been added recently.

But she did not care.

“Since you have Anubis' child with you then you should have a certain understanding of what kind of things we did.”

“The G.O.D project.”

“Indeed. This was a project made with our own masteries fused all together. Soul, Magic, and Body. We may have failed but I have managed to create something more. Something different and I would have used this something had I the full control of this body.”

“What did you create?”

Echidna tapped her head, “Anubis once gave me an idea while speaking to me about the principles of cultivation in the fictions of his world and I realized one thing. The current way of reaching the level of demigod is through the evolution of the soul. Firstly finding one Truth. Then sublimating the soul by obtaining a name and only then do you try to ascend by evolving the body and the soul together. But — What if it was wrong? What if…One should also cultivate the body properly. Once I reached this thought. I began wondering about many things as well. Was it possible to ascend through the body alone? Could an individual reach a level so high they could stand toe to toe with even a God? Without being naturally born with such a body like a dragon?”

Sol was listening to her, his breath slowly accelerating as he was beginning to understand what she was implying.

She tapped her chest this time, “I found a way to strengthen the body through Devouring. But what I wanted was different. Just having a strong body was not enough. After all, mortals are the key and chances are none of them can use the power of Devouring. So I needed to create a new way and finally, after centuries of studying I reached an answer.”

Her smile became so large it seemed as if it would split, “Yes it was possible!”

“You created a way for body cultivation.” This was something Sol would have never imagined and he once again realized how much of a treasure trove this crazy woman was.

“Indeed and I call it — Seven Chakra Opening.”