Eternal Thief

“Begone, filth!”

Without hesitation, she struck, and a torrent of abyssal Qi slammed into the altar!

However, right at that moment, the Abyssal Qi, imbued with the might of an Abyssal Half-King, instead of shattering the altar, the stone absorbed it!

The Dread Duchess’s eyes narrowed as she muttered, “It’s a parasitic altar. I guess it’s just like the cult to build a leech disguised as stone!”

She knew there were many types of rituals in the Abyss of Wandering Souls, and the most troublesome ones were those that were built for sacrifice, not to mention powerful, so she must shift her approach.

A second wave of Abyssal Qi wrapped around the idol, this time probing, dissecting, scraping through layers of hidden inscriptions. Runes flickered into sight; they were twisted, broken symbols that writhed like worms when exposed.

The instant her Qi touched the horned statue’s core, the world around her suddenly vanished as if darkness had devoured everything!

The next moment, a single eye opened in the void. It was the same grotesque, lidless orb as the idol. It stared directly at her, full of static hunger so ancient it felt older than death.

A whisper flooded her skull, “Starve… starve… starve…”

Voices layered together, thousands, maybe millions, all crying out for release or consumption, but she couldn’t tell which.

The Dread Duchess was astounded, and if not for her powerful mental fortitude, her mind would’ve shattered. That strange vision wasn’t trying to corrupt her either, or she would’ve suffered terrible consequences.

At this moment, the void shifted and formed an image of a figure kneeling before the altar, trembling violently, and behind him, hundreds of bodies lay in heaps.

The moment the Dread Duchess saw that familiar environment, her heart turned cold because it was precisely this hidden underground prison. That kneeling figure was none other than the fake Khazar!

At that moment, a procession of prisoners seemed to be walking towards the altar from another secret passage, and their expressions were empty as if they were some mindless corpses. The moment they appeared at the altar, their bodies were twisted, emptied, shriveled like rotten fruit.

The fake Khazar’s fanatic voice screamed at that moment, “O’ Devourer of Dead! I offer them! Please give me strength! Give me escape! Give me a way out!”

The eye stared at him, and then a tendril of black hunger shot forward and pierced his chest. His entire being twisted, reshaped, warped until he wasn’t Khazar anymore, but a puppet stuffed with starving malice.

The next moment, all the prisoners were reduced to dust in seconds, and the altar glowed crimson in the memory, pulsing each time it consumed a sacrifice, like a heart beating on stolen lives, and then the vision snapped.

The Duchess staggered back a single step, teeth grinding, her voice was a whisper, but it could have killed mountains.

“Those people he fed to this thing were all from the mines…”

Her aura detonated, and the entire cavern shook, bones flying like shrapnel as her killing intent tore through the chamber. Her shadow rose behind her, stretching into a monstrous silhouette with blazing eyes.

“Cult of Undying Star…” Her eyes narrowed with burning clarity, “It isn’t over between us!”

She raised her right hand again, this time summoning a mercury-like dark flame that burned without light and gave off the aura of pure annihilation.

“Obsidian Annihilation Flame!”

But the moment the flames touched the idol, the Idol reacted, and a metallic screech erupted. However, it wasn’t from the altar, but from somewhere far away.

The idol’s horn glowed faintly, and the entire chamber dimmed as if something was sucking light from the world.

The Duchess instinctively backed away, her instincts screaming danger, and thereafter…chains surfaced!

Invisible chains, spectral and ancient, materialized for a heartbeat around the idol—chains etched with runes that made even the Duchess flinch.

They wrapped around the statue like a noose, tightening until cracks split the stone.

She recognized the feeling, “A Sin Law… no, it’s similar but far more profound… Who…?”

The idol convulsed, making a terrible grinding sound, and then it finally shattered.

However, Dread Duchess knew that the Idol wasn’t shattered by her attack, but by something else claiming dominion over it.

—

Miles away on the surface, after talking with Eva, Ace, who was pretending to be resting in the sealed cocoon, jolted upright.

The Profane Chains Inheritance within him suddenly reacted subtly, and the next moment, a regal aura erupted from the Sin’s Dominion!

Ace was startled when the legacy technique suddenly activated on its own, and the incomplete Sin Seal hidden within his inner world suddenly pulsed. A ripple of power surged through his soul, like chains snapping taut across dimensions.

He felt something recognize him…something bows…something dies!

’What… the hell is that?’ Ace was shocked before clutching his chest.

A faint phantom image flashed in his mind…it was the idol with a horn

and the single eye before breaking under invisible chains.

However, what made Ace flabbergasted even more was that the incomplete Sin Seal suddenly started to grow at a terrifying rate!

—

At that moment, the Duchess stared at the pile of broken stone where the idol had stood. She was uncertain about what had happened, but despite her vast knowledge, she couldn’t reach a conclusion.

Everything that had happened here today was too strange, making her wary to the extreme. But there were some clues that made it easier for her to speculate what the Cult might be doing here, especially after that strange vision she saw.

“The Cult of Undying Star was harvesting living sacrifices from the mines, and since the mines were filled with corrupted Abyssal Beasts, no one would suspect them as long as they remained discreet.

“However, the Sin aura that I felt and that ancient remnant that Nomad unsealed…the Cult’s objective might be related to that ancient remnant as well…”

The Dread Duchess’s eyes sharpen with killing intent, “I need to make a quick trip to the Black Hermit Mines to confirm everything. I can’t delay going to the Evernight Sanctuary anymore!”