Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

1714 An Abominated Divinity

"Ha! Exchanging Origin Force Points for Menaka's Runes is out of the question. It seems like this goddess wants to swindle me."

Eren smirked as he thought to himself. He knew how rare and precious Origin Force was, thanks to Argo AKA Beelzebub.

It was because of Origin Force that the creation of two of his Elder Seed artifacts had become a reality. Things would have been completely different for Eren if he didn't have the Origin Force at the time of the Lazarus Project.

If Eren was like any other demi-god who hadn't dealt with Origin Force, he would have considered treating Origin Force Points as a second form of currency in Menaka's Market– a substitute for Menaka's Runes. But his experiences in Anfang had taught him the importance of the Origin Force.

No matter how neutral goddess Menaka was or seemed, she was nothing but a businesswoman in Eren's eyes. She would indeed give him a fair share of Menaka's Runes in exchange for Origin Force Points. However, the definition of what was fair would be set by her and not him.

It had taken the Demon Prince of Gluttony more than a decade to accumulate the emotions related to Sin of Gluttony from all over Anfang. Only then could he manage to wrestle away a bit of Origin Force from Anfang World Will's clutches. Even then, Beelzebub had to send his consciousness into Argo to pull it off.

However, that was Anfang, the land of the faithless where the Mesh didn't exist. Here, in Labh Salem, Eren didn't need to wrestle against Labh Salem's World Will to claim Origin Force for himself. The Mesh could act as his dealer, allowing him to progress further as a demi-god without having to constantly fight against Labh Salem's World Will.

Eren didn't even have to wait for a decade like what Argo did in Anfang. Thanks to the Origin Force Absorption, he could keep on accumulating every shred of Origin Force he received through his divinity. He could then make use of the Origin Force in anyway he wanted.

"Hm. Should I use my Origin Force Points to progress further in my Ranking Status? This feature sounds tempting. But I don't know how effective it'll be."

Eren tugged at his right earlobe and scratched right under his ear in contemplation. He could guess that he would be able to progress by leaps and bounds then his peers if he were to use Origin Force Points to increase his Ranking Status.

However, he felt that the more saturated his mana core was, the more expensive the upgrade each time would be in terms of Origin Force Points. It meant that he needed to use his Origin Force Points smartly and not waste them just because he could.

"The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that Origin Force is a currency the immortals use to trade with each other. Otherwise, there was no need for Goddess Menaka to focus so much on staying neutral all the time.

And no wonder she was ready to strike a deal with me. She knew what kind of divinity I had gained and what kind of benefits it would unlock for me. In her eyes, I'm one of her elite clients who potentially have a ton of money he inherited from his "guardian".

The emotions related to seven sins are some of the most primal emotions one can have. I bet such emotions would give me a higher amount of Origin Force Points than most demi-gods or even gods for that matter."

Only now did Eren realize why Aleph's divine throne was sought-after by others. And why he was deemed as a threat by his enemies. His divinity was simply too overpowered. It could allow him to lord over other gods and Demon Princes if he played his cards right.

And this was when he only wielded one aspect of his divinity. His other aspect of divinity was related to the elements themselves. He was sure that the elemental aspect of his divinity would also provide him with the same kind of edge as his demonic aspect if not more.

"Aleph– he was a threat to the gods after he managed to split Hell into seven separate Immortal Planes. By doing that, he obtained another aspect of his divinity, which was related to the seven sins, and associated himself with one of the most fundamental emotions any living being could experience in their lifetimes.

Aleph's elemental divinity was already imposing, to begin with. It was something that no god could contend against. By adding a demonic aspect to it, he just stepped over the divinities of all the other gods and demons who existed at the time.

No wonder he had to appoint a new set of Demon Princes after establishing himself as the rightful ruler of the entire infernal realm. All the existing Immortal Demons of that time who sat in the celestial hall must have died after Aleph's conquest.

Aleph tried to balance things out by turning Echidna into a Goddess. He shared a part of his divinity with her that was related to the demonic aspect. But by that time, the balance was already broken.

Aleph became an anomaly among the gods when he conquered Hell– someone who was neither a god nor a demon but a fusion of both– simply an abomination.

He attracted too much attention to himself when he did that. And the others got fearful of him. So these bunch of fearful ones plotted against him and managed to kill him– kill a god that was powerful beyond their imagination.

Goddess Echidna must have separated herself from Aleph's pantheon after his death. She went on to form her own pantheon in order to oppose the Demon Princes who stood against Aleph at that time.

Both aspects of Aleph's divinity were passed down to me through a series of coincidences. And when these two aspects came together through me, Aleph's Echo was created. Or more like, I was able to meet and talk with him when that happened.

I guess they see me as a threat because of this as well. To them, I'm an anomaly that needs to be dealt with as soon as they can. Because if left unattended, I'll become as much of a threat to their divinity as Aleph once was."

Eren was able to figure out many things from a simple description through his logic-based deductions. The description just resonated with the memories he had obtained from Aleph's Echo.

Only now did he understand why Aleph was a bit hesitant to hand his divine throne to him. In a way, he had just painted a target on Eren's back.