Eternal Thief

Chapter 1521: Trial of Sin! (9)

At that moment, even as Ace’s body overflowed with power, an invisible void seemed to have opened in his soul, gnawing at his sanity.

Almost instantly, his knees hit the ground. His mind screamed for more, more laws, more Qi, more everything, until he was about to shatter.

Yet, amidst that spiral of corruption, his eyes suddenly flickered. The five colored stars within his inner world pulsed in unison. Sloth’s calm, Pride’s will, Wrath’s ferocity, Envy’s adaptability, and Lust’s vitality—all resonated, forming a stabilizing cage of paradox.

The Law of Sin, though incomplete, trembled as it resonated against Greed’s corruption.

At that moment, Ace slowly stood, his breath steadying, his tone composed.

”Greed devours because it fears emptiness. But I’ve lived through emptiness. I’ve stolen from nothingness itself. You can’t consume me...I’m already hollow by choice.”

His aura flared again, but this time, it wasn’t the mindless surge of power. It was precise, refined, devouring itself in balance.

Instantly, comprehension bloomed within him like a dark star igniting. The Law of Greed revealed its three unique mystic abilities.

The first mystic ability, called the Devouring Mirage, allows anything within sight to be temporarily ’consumed’ into one’s inner world, with its essence, energy, and concept converted into adaptable power, depending on the user’s own power and realm.

The second mystic ability was Evermore Hoard, which was like a hidden treasury formed within the soul, capable of storing evermore forms of power or law comprehension without dilution for a specific period of time.

Lastly, the third mystic ability, Abyssal Reversal, transforms greed’s endless hunger into an infinite feedback loop. Each act of taking feeds creation, each loss fuels power. The cycle of ’consume and renew,’ which represents the perfect equilibrium of excess—albeit it too has its limits—depends on Ace’s prowess.

As the last ability manifested, the ashen world quaked violently. The embodiment of Greed bellowed in defiance, its countless chains snapping as it lunged toward him.

Ace didn’t move. His eyes gleamed coldly, and he whispered, ”Abyssal Reversal!”

The devouring force around him turned inward, and the massive Greed-being’s energy folded back upon itself. Its endless hunger became its destruction.

It screamed, its countless mouths devouring one another until all that remained was a collapsing singularity of law essence.

The implosion was silent and then gone...

When the world reformed, Ace once again stood before the seven pillars. The sixth, Greed’s, was darkened entirely, with its glyph now etched upon him like a claw of shadow and silver.

He exhaled slowly, eyes opening with calm precision. Within his inner world, six stars now revolved in perfect harmony, forming a hexagram.

The Law of Sin’s presence had deepened to something almost divine as each emotion now refined into a truth of existence.

”Greed consumes, but I create from nothing,” He murmured softly. ”To take is to transform. To want is to evolve.”

His gaze then shifted toward the final pillar. A colossal structure of golden radiance with a glyph like an ever-hungry maw that pulsed with immense, conflicting forces—creation and ruin, life and extinction.

A faint smile curved his lips as he muttered with familiarity to this sin, ”The seventh sin... the root of all others...Gluttony!”

The instant Ace’s gaze fell upon the golden pillar, the obsidian plain quaked as if the world itself shuddered in anticipation.

Unlike the others, this pillar did not shine; instead, it pulsed. Each beat radiated waves of distorted light that devoured everything they touched, leaving only emptiness behind.

A low hum filled the void, then a voice, vast, ancient, and weary, echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once...

”Gluttony is not hunger for food... but hunger for existence itself. It is the craving that devours joy, hope, and self until nothing remains. It consumes because it fears silence. It exists... because it cannot bear to end!”

Ace’s breath steadied. His six-colored stars within his soul dimmed slightly, trembling at the resonance of that voice. Even the Laws he had mastered seemed wary of this one.

Without warning, the golden pillar erupted. A torrent of molten brilliance surged forth, wrapping around him like a tidal wave of light and shadow intertwined.

Then the world shifted, and he found himself standing upon an endless sea of gold and black, stretching beyond sight. Above him hung a fractured sun, its light flickering as though being eaten from within.

Around him floated countless fragments —broken worlds, shattered heavens, pieces of memories —all being drawn toward a single vortex at the horizon, from which a presence emerged.

A being rose from the golden tide, neither beast nor man, but a shifting void of mouths and eyes, its every surface consuming and regenerating endlessly.

At that moment, it spoke in a voice that rattled his soul, ”You are the thief who steals everything, yet even you cannot escape me. I am the first hunger. The endless craving that birthed all sin. Tell me, Ace...what is left when you’ve taken everything?”

Ace wasn’t surprised by those strange beings knowing about him anymore, as he reckoned that it was all because of the specialty of these trials. They seemed to tap into his inner thoughts somehow, and since the system didn’t interfere, he mused that they weren’t harmful to him.

After he had undergone six sin trials, he knew these trials were really beneficial for him, as it was like fighting his inner demons and making peace with himself.

Just like right now, as he looked into the creature’s eyes, he saw himself.

It was not a reflection of greed or pride or wrath, but the void behind them all. He saw the countless things he had stolen—treasures, lives, memoirs, hearts, and beneath it all, a single, gnawing thought that had haunted him forever...

’No matter how much I take... I am never full...!’

The realization hit like thunder. His body trembled as an invisible weight pressed down on him.

The sea of gold rose like a tide, and the vortex’s pull grew stronger. Every cell in his body screamed to absorb, devour, consume...to fill that endless hollow.

He fell to his knees, his mind fracturing under the sensation of infinite hunger. The more he resisted, the more it burned inside him.

”You take because you fear to be nothing,” Whispered the voice of Gluttony, ”You exist because you cannot stop consuming...”

For the first time, Ace truly felt fear, not of death, but of vanishing into that abyss of wanting. His soul quaked as memories surfaced, of being powerless, of losing everything, of clawing for scraps of strength to keep existing.

Ace clenched his teeth as he muttered in a hoarse voice, ”I know hunger! I might’ve been born from it, but...I am not its slave!”