Chapter 459: We are Ineffable, We are the Originats (4)
In just monts, all 18 Champions were either dead or on the brink of it.
Yet, four of them stood out as exceptions.
Fear erged in the Fourth High Dinsion, right in the heart of the rchant’s Domain.
The domain was a lavish, fla-lit palace adrift in a pocket of warped space, its walls of ember-toned marble casting shifting orange light over every surface.
The rchant lounged at a long obsidian table, her bronze skin glowing warmly as flas flickered and danced along her fingertips.
Beside her lounged The Thief, his gray hair ssy, a stolen coin still spinning between his fingers even as four of his five lives had already been stripped away.
These two had been around for quite so ti, ever since The Thief’s last death.
One thing he discovered that really infuriated him was that after each death, he didn’t simply respawn.
Instead, he was reborn, marked with a sigil that remained hidden until his fourth death—at which point it brought him straight here.
At first, his plan was to kill The rchant, but that idea was tossed aside almost imdiately. He quickly realized he was nothing more than a slave to the rchant, bound to his will.
In the end, all he could do was chalk it up to the ga.
The mont Fear materialized, he was frantic — his many-eyed humanoid form flickering erratically, with shadows leaking from cracks in his skin as he stumbled forward.
"It’s him— Ash Originat!" Fear rasped, voice cracking with raw terror.
"They are the Ineffable Pantheon! And they’re not playing the ga— they’re breaking it!"
He continued ranting as he stumbled forward as his voice continued breaking.
The rchant’s flaming hair flickered as she raised a brow, her tone dry.
"Calm yourself, Fear." She said, "You’re acting like a mortal who just saw his own grave."
The Thief caught the spinning coin and leaned back, smirking despite the exhaustion in his eyes.
"You’re late buddy... I’ve already bumped into two of them." He revealed, but it wasn’t just the na of the faction he knew.
"They are Vaeloria, The Goddess of Swords... and Nia, The Goddess of Devouring Love."
As he said this, he waved his and a projection orb materialized.
Like ntioned before each of these beings didn’t just have titles for show, but they all embodied their bubbling influence and existence.
Being the eighth champion, The Thief, well he was adept at stealing things. Usually, it was power or artifacts.
However, in his fights with them... he barely had any ti to do anything besides... die. Though each ti he died, he was able to steal fragnts of information about them.
And this orb displayed that very fragnted, distorted data — stolen glimpses of Vaeloria’s sword prowess and Nia’s Devouring nature.
It was sothing The rchant and him had already reviewed and still...
The information had been inscribed in the Language of Gods, rendering it utterly indecipherable to them.
The rchant leaned back, her gaze shifting away from Fear.
"I can decipher this," she stated calmly, "but I will need ti."
Fear’s eyes burned with intensity as he slamd his hands on the table.
"Decipher?! There is no deciphering!" he shouted. "Ash Originat has already pronounced our doom—we might as well await death’s arrival."
Before The rchant or The Thief could respond to his uncharacteristic outburst, the Domain trembled violently.
BOOOOM!
RUMBLEEE!!!!
The ember-toned walls split as floating flas danced erratically. As a deep, unsettling rumble rolled through the palace, as though reality itself strained under so invisible weight.
Beyond its walls, adrift in the void outside the High Dinsion, Lucy, Morgana, and Rune materialized without warning.
The rchant’s expression hardened as she peered through the walls.
"Well," she said to the Thief, "it seems they’ve finally arrived..."
With a flick of her wrist, a wave of conceptual fire washed over Fear, snuffing out his consciousness in an instant.
She’d had enough of his constant muttering.
Yet even then, his lips kept moving like a broken record, repeating the sa fragnted words again and again.
"In... ineffable... Ash Originat... countdown... death..."
The rchant frowned, clearly annoyed.
"Useless!"
SNAP!
With a casual snap of her fingers, she annihilated him entirely — his many-eyed form disintegrating into ash that drifted across the floor.
Turning to the Thief, her voice was sharp, authoritative, and unyielding.
"Hold the three of them off," she commanded, rising to her feet as she added, "Buy
ti. I’ll find a way to save us both."
The Thief flipped his coin one final ti, catching it with a strained smile.
Even though he moved, even though her words were heard loud and clear, he knew with grim certainty that this woman would save no one but herself.
Yet the compulsion of her sigil left him no choice but to obey.
"No promises... but I’ll try to steal a few seconds," he replied before vanishing in a ripple of shadow, reappearing between the three Ineffable won, daggers drawn and ready.
The mont he appeared; he didn’t truly attack. No, his plan was not to fight these monstrous won, but to do exactly what he said.
In less than a mont, he flicked his daggers in a rapid, intricate pattern — not to cut flesh, but to steal ti itself.
SHING! SHING!
Instantly, tiny rifts blood around Lucy, Morgana, and Rune, attempting to pull them backward by a fraction of a mont, resetting their positions right before they had materialized.
For the briefest instant, it worked.
As the three won flickered, their forms blurring as ti tried to rewind.
But Morgana simply smiled, her bronze skin glowing as she spoke a single word of the Language of Gods.
"The Idea of theft... is null."
In that mont.... the aspect of theft died instantly.
The Thief’s daggers... and he himself lost power mid-motion and before the eyes of the three won he began fading as if he was paper on fire.
Morgana’s voice was soft, almost pitying.
"You know, stealing from us? That’s just rude."
Lucy tilted her head, seven-colored eyes swirling with amusent.
"Aw, should we give him a participation trophy before we erase him?"
Rune raised her hand, runes already forming at her fingertips.
"You two... are truly too much together." She said as turned her attention back to thief.
With a thought a rune appeared over his head, but in that sa instant, his body erupted with a white blinding light.
HUMMMMMMM!!!!!!
And not just him, but the entire palace itself began to glow brightly.
-----
The rchant, much like the Thief suspected, had never planned to save him.
Truth be told, she didn’t even enjoy being a champion.
It was simply sothing she did... for her mother. And now, as she gazed at her system’s interface, she muttered quietly.
"It’s ti for
to go ho..."
Using the remaining life of The Thief, his stolen influence, and the entire Fourth Dinsion and Organism as collateral, she bought herself a one-ti teleportation.
A single, iridescent sigil flared in front of her.
[Ergency Evacuation – True Reality Destination.]
Seeing this, the rchant didn’t hesitate.
She stepped into the sigil as it activated with a silent flash.
In the span of a heartbeat, she was gone — ripped out of her domain and deposited sowhere deep within True Reality, far beyond the reach of the three Ineffable won.
----
"Uh, did we just let her get away?" Lucy asked, tilting her head.
They stood in the empty void between beings. At this, Rune scoffed.
"No, we didn’t do anything," she said as she began to fade. "YOU two did... and I’m not going to be part of the punishnt."
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