Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The masked Eren made frequent rounds in Agora. He could be considered as an ill-famous showman.

The butcher's appearances on Agora generated a massive amount of hype. He was mainly the target of criticism. And unsurprisingly, he was fine with it.

He didn't let compliments or criticism bother him and did what he did best: creating unrest.

Eren knew that he and his followers were getting targeted. However, the Elder Ichor faction was not completely defenseless.

Unless they slipped up in Agora or openly supported Eren, their identities in Labh Salem were protected. Eren also improved his Fiendish transformation with subsequent test projects over the years, enabling his followers to unearth more of their potential while allowing them to revert to their normal forms with no residual defect whatsoever.

Eren's recent Tools of Liberation offered his followers the opportunity to level up their Fiendish transformations using Menaka's Runes. The transformation also allowed the users to use intent-based magic more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

Eren's Hex Artifacts were also sought after by many of his staunch supporters. Thus, he had to increase the rate of production using his fiend subordinates.

After all, the Hex Artifacts created by Eren or his direct subordinate fiends didn't have traditional debuffs or limitations on the users. They were also relatively affordable, enabling regular Practitioners to buy them without hurting their investments.

Eren also issued reverse bounties on Practitioners who had tried to hurt his foundation the most. He used the limited number of fiends he had to inflict a maximum amount of damage. When it came to targeted killings, very few could mimic what Eren had accomplished over the years.

In fact, the number of test subjects Eren had caught were the very enemies that had once tried to oppose Eren. And before they knew it, they had been turned into lab rats by Eren.

***

What about the Demon Princes and gods who were opposed to the rise of the third faction?

By this point, the Immortals had realized what Eren was doing. They knew that he was taking advantage of his abominated divinity to turn his enemies into his biggest supporters.

However, they were unable to stop their respective followers from acting against Eren. After all, doing so would only hurt their divinity and follower base. It would discourage their followers from acting against Eren and his people.

Samael, the Demon Prince of Wrath, compelled all cults associated with him to prioritize hunting Eren over the preparations to welcome Hvergelmir Springs. He had declared to his followers that as long as they killed the masked man who had taken Agora by storm, they would be blessed with his affection and powers.

Aside from Beelzebub, other Demon Princes also followed Samael's lead. Asmodeus, the Demon Prince of Lust, openly joined Samael's cause, harboring his own reasons for wanting to eliminate Eren.

However, the intentions of the remaining Demon Princes remained unclear regarding Eren's fate once found. They could turn out to be Eren's allies. However, Eren didn't want to take a chance on contacting someone he didn't know.

After all, throughout the past five years, Eren had even refrained from openly approaching the Immortals who he knew supported his claim over Aleph's throne.

This was the reason that even when he possessed the means to contact Echidna and Beelzebub, he chose to remain anonymous.

Alephee had cautioned Eren on this matter, emphasizing that every action he took had the potential to create ripples in the cause-and-effect fabric. Given Eren's status as the successor to her brother's legacy, these ripples were anything but ordinary in the eyes of the Immortals.

While direct prophecies related to Eren were beyond the gods' reach due to his demi-god status, they could monitor these ripples to deduce his identity or location to some extent. Contacting Beelzebub and Echidna, known supporters of Eren, would undoubtedly cause significant ripples in the cause-and-effect fabric, making it challenging for Eren to maintain a low profile.

Despite the need for caution, Eren didn't want to play excessively safe and miss out on opportunities. He understood that certain risks had to be taken to achieve significant gains.

Recently, Eren sent one of his pseudo-avatars to establish contact with Goddess Great Mother by visiting her grand temple. The pseudo-avatar was only a few weeks away from completing the missions given to him.

Eren was looking forward to this meeting. However, he chose not to engage with the goddess directly, fearing a potential trap.

Eren believed that his pseudo-avatar's interaction would cause fewer disturbances in the cause-and-effect fabric compared to his direct involvement. At least he hoped that it would be the case since he hadn't killed the souls of the vessels he used for his pseudo-avatar creation.

This precaution wasn't a reflection of distrust toward Goddess Great Mother. Eren recognized that the goddess sought a quid pro quo relationship rather than acting out of goodwill. He trusted her because he believed that she, too, desired something from him.

Nevertheless, Eren remained wary of other Immortals who might be keeping tabs on the goddess and her followers. Aware that the goddess wouldn't directly interfere on his behalf against other Immortals or their followers, Eren opted to use his pseudo-avatar as a proxy.

During their previous conversation in Anfang, Goddess Great Mother had given Eren a palm-sized mystic stone for communication. However, after arriving in Labh Salem, Eren discovered that he needed to be inside the goddess' grand temple to use the mystic stone.

While the butcher would typically avoid contacting an Immortal, the goddess had promised assistance in acquiring a specific Elder Seed Artifact, a temptation too great for Eren to ignore. Recognizing the strategic value of Elder Seed Artifacts as trump cards, Eren sought to secure two such artifacts from Labh Salem alone if he played his cards right.

Unaware of the specific Elder Seed the goddess desired him to obtain, Eren was confident that his bloodline would allow him to wield the artifact in unparalleled ways.

Thus, the butcher decided to enter the lion's den, using his pseudo-avatar as both his proxy and bait.

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AN: Goddess Great Mother hands Eren the mystic stone in chapter 1321. She tells him about the Elder Seed Artifact in the same chapter.