Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Mark of the Seven Sins: Domain of Wrath!"

Eren said while flashing a smile. The tribal tattoos over his torso became more prominent as the domain of wrath expanded around him and Har Jahar.

The monsters in the audience who were locked in their place by their siphoning array felt another wave of dread washing over them when the domain of wrath expanded.

Har Jahar was the one who was most shocked by the mana included in the domain expansion. He looked at the Orc Leader with pure disbelief on his face. His voice was shaky as he commented out loud.

"This… this is the mana that belongs to "that" place. How can you access this mana?"

Har Jahar looked at Eren as if he was seeing a ghost before reiterating his question.

"HOW CAN YOU ACCESS THIS MANA? TELL ME!"

Eren smirked before responding.

"I don't even know what "that" means here, horned man. But I'll just assume it's a world different from Echidna or Anfang. Now don't make me talk too much. My Oni language is not fully developed yet. I'll say something that might creep you out too."

Eren said and raised his hands. In the next moment, the wrath mana started to invade Har Jahar's body. The Oni King felt the changes happening inside his body and used his mana points to expel the wrath mana.

Eren frowned as he understood what had happened. He realized that Har Jahar was stronger than his vague expectations for him to use his domain of wrath on him. Even if he was locked inside a siphoning array.

In the end, Har Jahar successfully resisted being turned into a creature of wrath.

***

As the monsters on the war drums stopped their work, there was a voiceless atmosphere in the sacred hall. Therefore, the audience could fully concentrate on what was happening in front of them.

They saw that the prime worshiper of the festival had not only rebelled but also done something unimaginable to their Oni King. The rebel faction among them was equally shocked and confused.

The rebels didn't know whether to celebrate these turns of events or condemn them. Because Varhan was potentially doing what they had prepared this plan for– taking care of Har Jahar and starting a new life on the continent of Anfang away from the shadows of Echidna.

The rebels didn't want any connection with the Echidna because it had started demanding more and more sacrifices than the last time. The monsters who were born here had started to think for themselves instead of the world they weren't part of anymore.

This was the land of the faithless. Where self-interests mattered more than devotion to an entity that may or may not be able to help them in their times of need. This thought became more and more prevalent as the later generation of monsters kept on being born in the Anfang and started unlocking their clarity.

Har Jahar had ruled over the monsters of subspace with an iron fist. He didn't care what the rebels thought. For him, Echidna and its customs were everything. So they had decided to take things into their own hands and sever their connection with the Echidna for all time.

Borul was one of the leaders of the rebel faction. He was a firm believer that the continent of Anfang was a better land to prosper for those who had been born here. He had started seeing this continent as his world– his home and treated Echidna as a place he didn't belong to anymore. And he was not alone in this.

However, Har Jahar would not have approved of the monsters living in the subspace dropping their faith and adopting the values of Anfang. The rebels didn't want to hurt the faction that supported Echidna's values. All they wanted was to leave on their own terms, without being cursed.

Har Jahar needed to be dealt with for good for this to happen. And that was what the rebels were working on all this time.

Eren had observed that Borul's tribe had an advanced array of knowledge when he had first entered the tribe. He had seen Ulag preserve his meat inside a spatial array that had almost stagnant time. He had seen Sharog's assistants heal the tribe warriors using the healing array. There were various other instances in the tribe where the runic arrays that originated from Echidna had been employed creatively.

Eren soon realized that Borul was the reason behind his tribe's extensive array of usage. E had awoken very detailed memories of arrays and runes when he had received his clarity. And he had decided to use this knowledge to hatch this plan.

Borul was the assumed identity of the tribe's real leader Durbag. He was supposed to be injured at the previous Oni festival when the sacrifice required was not as demanding. His tribe had reported that Durbag had isolated himself to recover from his injuries and advance in his evolutionary stage.

Durbag then regressed and locked his evolution using the array imprint etched on his back. Only Sharog and a few other elders of the tribe knew about this.

Har Jahar knew about Durbag's array-related memories. Monsters of Durbag's original caliber were required to inform their king of the clarity they had received. So the Oni King was vigilant when it came to Durbag. However, Borul's identity as an average orc warrior was not worthy of attention from the Oni King.

Durbag AKA Borul used festival preparations as a way to plant this array over the array setups that were overtly visible. He received help from his other rebel members for doing so.

The rebel faction of the monsters in Oni Dungeon's subspace was more ready than ever to get rid of their cruel leader Har Jahar once and for all. This was after the festival was over. Because that's when he should have been most vulnerable.

But they could not imagine that the fruits of their labor were being consumed by someone like Varhan. The latter had struck at just the right time to catch both Har Jahar's side and the rebel side off guard.

A perfect opportunist.