Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

1715 How to Nurture a Multifaceted Divinity?

Eren felt that Aleph made one horrible mistake in the past.

This mistake was way bigger than the mistake he made by trusting the Slumbering Goddess. It was the fact that he didn't accept his abominated divinity himself. He didn't embrace it. Not really.

Aleph did what he did and conquered Hell to bring a semblance of peace all across the boundless cosmos. And since he conquered it, it was inevitable that it would belong to him.

However, his act broke the fine balance that had been established between the demons and gods since time immemorial. It meant that his success had a completely opposite effect from the one he had set out to achieve. It was as if he was being criticized for being an overachiever.

The fights between demons and gods broke their usual thresholds and claimed more lives than ever before during this tumultuous period. Even though Aleph tried to establish the balance back by appointing new Demon Princes, things didn't change much for a very long time.

The race for supremacy became even more prominent among the gods and demons who had a huge following of their own. And this very race birthed a new form of chaos all across the boundless cosmos.

Aleph's actions would indeed help the boundless cosmos eventually in the future, which it did by the time Eren inherited his mantle. But the fact remained that they were the reason behind countless tragedies happening all across the boundless cosmos.

The fact that he was the reason behind this new reality didn't allow Aleph to accept his divinity for what it was. And by doing this, he set himself up for his eventual downfall.

The Slumbering Goddess had indeed betrayed Aleph and plotted against him. But the real reason why Aleph was erased from existence was because of his own actions– his own mindset. His own inability to accept the new reality he had created for himself.

"So this was why he was so keen on finding the inheritor with the right mindset. He didn't want his inheritor to make the same mistakes that he did," Eren thought to himself as he kept on thinking about many things at once.

"Keke. I don't see anything wrong with an abominated divinity. I accept anything and everything that allows me to survive and thrive."

Eren realized that his divinity was special. And he didn't shy away from embracing it to its fullest. He couldn't care less if he was hated by both factions for it.

"I'll have to reestablish my connection with the divine throne and make it more stable. I don't know or understand how to grow the elemental aspects of my divinity. But this aspect of my divinity– the inherently demonic one– is easy to understand.

The seven sins are a part of my faith. The emotions related to them would allow me to grow. As such I accept them for all that they have to offer, the good and the bad, to me or anyone that cultivates them within their hearts.

A divinity that is related to the Seven Sins has to be one of the most fundamental forms of divinities to exist all across the boundless cosmos. As such, I have an infinite potential to grow as a Ranker and to grow as a god."

Eren mumbled to himself as he started to realize what his divinity actually was as a demi-god. He believed that only by accepting his own divinity could he tell others to do the same and establish his faith around it.

"How do I grow my faith though? It feels like I could just become a leech by funneling a share of the Origin Force Points from the well-established setup. The same setup that is run by the Demon Princes.

I either do that or break the existing setup and establish a new one. But things aren't the same in my time as they were in Aleph's time. The Demon Princes have been in this game for longer than I. There are a lot of ways things could go wrong for me if I decided to change them abruptly.

I don't want to become a leech to the existing system either because it wouldn't allow me to grow, forever forcing me to stay as a leech. If I start using the followers the seven Demon Princes have under their command, I'll only end up becoming a second-hand choice. Someone their followers would choose to call in the absence of the one they are devoted to.

Hmm. So I shouldn't discard the current setup or be the beneficiary of the grunt work the seven Demon Princes are doing.

Then how should I grow my faith? How should I nurture my divinity?"

Eren asked himself. He immediately thought of offering the Seven Sins Marks to a wide populace that had not been initiated into any faith. They could serve him as batteries to generate Origin Force Points.

The butcher had the Seven-headed serpent statue that he had acquired from Eliza's Purgatory. With a few tweaks, he could use the statue as a way to grow his faith and establish himself as a deity in Labh Salem.

After all, offering the Marks of the Seven Sins was one of the most effective ways for the Demon Princes to grow their respective influences among the masses of any world. If it worked for them, Eren was sure that it would work for him as well.

'No. not so fast. I have to see how to wield this form of divinity first. I need to know the pros and cons it has to offer. It's limitations and the ways with which I can break past those limitations.

Only then can I hope to spread it effectively– spread it wide not just in Labh Salem but in other worlds as well.'

Eren made up his mind as he got up from his position. He decided to cancel his ritual and retracted the undigested Faustian Rune Fragment within him. He would offer it to Reen to devour them later on.

"Reen, you are stupid."

Eren spoke to Reen all of a sudden who was busy moon gazing outside the window. At first, she didn't realize Eren was talking to her. But when she did, she looked at Eren with expressions of anger on her face.

"That… that came out of nowhere. What is wrong, Erni?"

Of course, Eren was trying to invoke emotions of anger in Reen's heart to see the effects of the new function he had unlocked for himself. He knew that it was a synthetic way of evoking emotions in people.

However, he was not interested in the methods but the results themselves at this point.