Read Novel Full Chapter 326: Fate’s Wielder
Chapter 326: Fate’s Wielder
Fillial stood atop a mount of memories, gazing up toward the weight of truth while grappling with the crime of existence.
To ease the burden, she’d sent her past self to bear the weight of what would be.
Her future self had come back to set right what was, taking on the burden of facing Sloth. The real Sloth. The one whose power she inherited.
As for the Sloth of the present…
She was the one who carried their identity.
The one who held the most important memories.
Memories of her family — her world. Those she wished to protect. All whom she loved.
None of whom existed here on Pandora.
To protect herself and her identity from being lost in the maze of minds, she lived separate from her scheming twins of self. Those aspects of her had been carried away, leaving her in a childlike state. A state her body had morphed to fit the soul.
Her goal in life was much simpler than manipulating the world toward proper desecration and destruction…
She merely had to contain the Corruption.
Day in and day out, the lone girl with pointy ears and long blue hair marched barefoot through the frozen tundra, wearing only a thin, dainty white dress, while systematically destroying all Seeds that dared spawn.
While some proved to be difficult foes, each fallen foe swelled her power — joining her soulless Legion.
A lonely Legion where Fillial was both commander and subject. She couldn’t summon Champions of her own, nor Warriors, Archers, Mages, or even Workers. All surrounding her were husks of former foes she puppeted. Meaning she could only ever be close to herself.
At least physically.
Mentally, her soul’s mind was spread across the globe, witnessing history. A history she didn’t care to witness, as those cares had been adopted by her future. Since she didn’t care, these memories were weightless and had little effect on her mind, protecting her identity.
Yet she witnessed them nonetheless.
She was a commander of the Beakon army, trying not to shiver while facing Pride, standing next to Wrath.
She was a mindless Worker of Greed, a little green human-like being going around transporting gold from the mine inside the dungeon.
She was also a soldier in Akkruon’s third battalion’s seventh division named Carlo.
Random souls that had been lost and that she’d taken on a whim in a vain effort to feel connection.
Though if she ever did start to care — wanting to protect those around her thralls for one reason or another — she’d simply abandon the puppet, claim it a treacherous demon trying to invade and corrupt her mind, then sing herself a little song she’d made.
Skipping through the tundra, Filial hummed:
♫Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hm!♫
Her voice was shrill, high-pitched, and damning.
♫Pray the demons go away♫
♫Go away. Go away♫
Each word she uttered caused the hostless souls of the dead that perpetually orbited her to rage.
The world responded.
The wind picked up, clashing into one another, forming a small ice tornado.
Something the little girl paid no mind to as she skipped on through the tundra toward another Seed.
♫Pray the demons go away♫
♫If they don’t, that’s okay♫
Once at the Seed, she stopped.
A few beasts began pouring out, their gazes instantly snapping to the singing girl.
As her head swayed side to side, a large gash formed down the middle of her body.
Her ribcage jutted out and pushed on her skin, bending until it broke, ripping apart like an undone seam.
♫Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hmm!♫
♫Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm!♫
From the crevice, no blood spilled. Instead, an iridescent shimmering portal formed. From this small portal, a tide of beasts rushed forth and clashed with the Corrupted beasts.
♫Pray the demons go away.♫
♫Go away. Go away.♫
Each one that died, she took control of their body and sent them to attack their fellow Corrupted.
When the last one died, she screamed jubilantly:
“Come back home!”
To which the hollows did just that, mindlessly shuffling and climbing inside the rift.
“Ah…”
Alone once again, having destroyed the Seed’s source of Origin, Fillial smiled.
“Why was I singing again?”
What had she been trying to forget?
What demon was she facing?
“I forget! Hehehe!”
The winds quieted down.
Carrying on, Fillial skipped through the tundra, continuing her quest. All while humming a melody.
♫Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hm!♫
***
Time passed infinitely slowly.
Trapped behind the veil of nothing that had long been cut off from the world, she lived vicariously through all she had marked.
She slept a thousand times in one night and woke up a thousand as well. She heard millions of truths and even more lies.
But she was never bored. Nor had she ever needed to be scared for herself…
Diligence’s eyes widened as she looked at the new tenet who’d suddenly appeared beside her.
“H-how?!”
“Oh? You didn’t foresee this? How curious…”
“Shouldn’t you be on Terra?! How did you get past the nothing!”
Anyone cut off from LUCA would instantly be Corrupted, regardless of divinity’s claim on them.
“How? I didn’t do anything.”
“Wait…”
Diligence’s eyes widened.
‘That’s why!’
It was all in her mind. Therefore, she hadn’t foreseen it.
However…
‘I didn’t relay this scene to myself after?!’
Why?
Even if she couldn’t witness it, she could at least warn herself it happened. So why would she leave out something so dastardly as coming into contact with the Real Sloth, Sloth of the Present?
At her confusion, the dastardly primordial oracle smiled.
“I came here to make an offer. Or, more so… I’d like to tell you a little something.”
Diligence, barely able to influence the world around her, listened.
She listened to every word the scary woman had to say.
Every threat. Every promise. Every lie. Every truth.
When the Real Sloth finished, there was one conclusion left standing.
‘I’m sorry.’
Diligence was a fool to ever defy fate.
‘I’m sorry, me…’
What was it the Master of Lust had said?
“A fool is someone who knows the truth and acts the part of rejecting it…”
‘I am the biggest fool of all.’
Eventually, Diligence broke out of the mind hex.
Yet she didn’t warn herself as she’d simply been told what she already knew.
Therefore, she changed nothing. Operating just like she would have if Sloth hadn’t visited her.
She showed not even a hint of unease.
She had made a choice.