OLD Chapter 208 (UPDATE AS OF 11/23/23 - These original chapters 195-210 will be pushed out to another future part of the book or recycled. New chapters starting at 195 are being posted after the original 210, and these original chapters will soon be removed. For now, skip ahead to the NEW Chapter 195 past old 210) (Patreon)

Chapter 208

Riven's Sin Body in the Cathedral of Gluttony

The cathedral library was a vast underground cavern and after passing through the initial entrance. You could certainly tell it was not built for any normal human. Just as the steps leading into Gluttony’s cathedral hadn’t been either.

Thousands of feet high and many times that across, the amount of books numbered in the millions.  Demons large and small, all containing shards of gluttony in one form or another, meditated in different resting spots throughout the library or contemplated books while reading and hovering in the air.  When a book was selected, it’d change its size depending on the reader - but they all started out at the size a little bit larger than Riven was.

The markings in large part were readable, but many runes and sigils he found along the spines implied meaning more than actual words even despite that understanding he gained from the shards of sin in his soul.

“Sacrifice of Neith, Obtaining the Virtues of the Black Sabath, Artificial Souls and Constructs, Contractual Obligations of Demonic Servants and their Masters…” Riven’s purple eyes trailed over the large titles imprinted on their spines or on the seals of their scrolls as he walked through the ancient halls, avoiding coming into contact with any of the demons here as they overall ignored his presence.

He followed the masked cathedral attendant through a series of twists and turns, coming up a flight of stairs to another level and bypassing a spot where live sacrifices were being performed with mortal men.  Riven internally cringed and had to look away as the knife fell onto screaming victims bound to stone altars, but he wasn’t about to put his life on the line to help some people he didn’t know.  Not here, in the midst of all these powerhouses where he was nothing but a worm in comparison to so many.

“Ah, here it is.  A History of the Temple of Time.”  The masked attendant said, holding out a hand and willing a book to come out of its holding slot along the gigantic bookshelf.  The book reformed in the air and downsized, condensing and slapping into the man’s outstretched hand before he turned and handed it to Riven.  “For you.”

Riven had already been given the book on the demon lord class as well as speciality acquisitions that were comparable in nature, but these books were both rather thick.  It’d take a while for him to go over the texts, and just looking at the words while flipping through them made him realize that fact was even moreso as the texts had been shrunken down to almost miniscule proportions when concerning the page size.

“This may take a while.” Clone Riven said with a frown, but he looked up and gave the cathedral attendant an appreciate nod.  “If I have questions, can I come find you again?”

The attendant bowed.  “Of course, new lamb of the hungering family.  I will be outside on the temple steps where you found me.  Be sure to read it all before asking any questions though, as I and my colleagues do not like repeating monotonous answers to questions you could otherwise learn for yourself.  I am sure you understand.”

Riven smiled from underneath his helmet, then nodded.  “Definitely.  Thank you for the help, I wasn’t expecting this kind of reception concerning a sin-oriented cult.  It’s certainly a pleasant surprise.”

“We value those who have value, those who do not are not granted such treatment.” The man replied with a simple shrug.  “You have shards of the great maw, there is nothing else to it.  The sin has accepted you and has shown us your worth, as it has shown us all.  May you ever hunger for knowledge, for in knowledge is a path to power.  Find me after you’re done reading, and we will discuss in detail the things you wish to know before you ring the first of three bells.”

Guiding RIven to a table nestled in a corner of the library, the attendant bowed one more time and then took his leave - with Riven remaining alone alongside the two books he’d managed to scrounge up.  Flipping through the hundreds of pages of each text, he rubbed his temple with his thumbs and mentally prepared himself for the worst.

He’d always hated studying.  Yet here he was, in the deepest parts of the multiverse doing just that.

Who’d have ever thought.

***

Riven's Main Body in the Temple of Time

Shadows in the dark.

Riven’s hand blurred, curling into the proper motion and a blood lance ripped out of his arm to impale another enemy in a splatter of gore.

The five-meter long centipede screeched as its thick armor tore apart, and the clicking sounds of more enemies incoming echoed through the deep chambers of the temple they’d now entered.

Something was… very wrong about this place.  It wasn’t just that his mana didn’t respond the way it did back on Panu, he could feel the density of the ambient mana in the air pressing down on him - suppressing him.  But it was also the fact that his malignant prophecy was acting up milliseconds at a time.

He never got a full blown prophecy, at least not yet, but flickers of the future radiated through his mind at intervals that were sometimes true - and sometimes false.  Everything about it felt wrong, off, tainted somehow - like some outer influence was trying to press down and secure the power of his prophecy for itself by slowly prying it out of his mind.

Fimrindle flashed ahead, his scythe cutting through space in a blur before disappearing into the next hall with Athela on his heels in equal measure - her long blades along the back of her body ripping through more centipedes as she went.  The two demons were both incredibly fast.

“Not today!”  Riven’s body blurred left and he kicked another of the creatures straight in the neck, snapping its head back and splattering its guts along the wall before blurring orbs or shredding black-red storm razors roared to life around him.  They exploded forward into an oncoming swarm on his left, and he stepped through a dark portal to avoid a spray of acid a moment later.

He needed to get out.  The enemies here were not only stronger than normal for E-grade, far stronger than most of the creatures back on his home planet, but they were never ending.  For every one he killed, five more came, and his two minions were the only reason he’d kept them at bay for as long as he had.

His red eyes flicked left and he dashed ahead again - portaling through another riftwalk.  He interchanged his sprints, empowered by blessing of the crow, with continued portals every time the cooldown came up as the screeches and metallic clicking sounds of their thousands of insectoid legs continued to pursue him.

*BOOM*

*CRACK*

His head was nearly spilt open and he felt his skull fracture when huge muscular demon with purple skin and dark armor bodily slammed him into a wall, crushing him up against the dark green stone as he wheezed.

He grunted in surprise, but with a scream his aura exploded outwards - crashing against the huge demon and plastering it against the opposite wall in a spray of red ice shrapnel.

Riven fell to the ground, panting, his mana simply dispersing as he let the aura go and got to his knees.  He couldn’t hold his power here for long, not in the Abyss, and for a mage like him it was a serious handicap.

His vampiric body began to regenerate, his ribcage snapping back into place and his skull mending itself while he glared at the purple demon now frozen solid in a hill of solid crimson crystal.  A silent scream was etched into the monster’s face, and Riven could see one of the fingers twitch before the light left its eyes and he felt an influx of XP.

“Fucking hell this place sucks.”  Riven wiped blood of his lips with the sleeve of his robe and looked down at the shattered remnants of his wooden staff.  He grimaced, but it was a trash weapon anyways.  He needed to find a new one eventually and the loss wasn’t anything big, other than the minor amounts of mana regeneration it gave.

“SCCCCCHRRRREEEEEEE!!!!”

The screech of a centipede caused him to whirl right as Athela’s claws ripped into it with the sound of tearing chitin, and she blurred left while backflipping and sending out a storm of red needles into the incoming horde.  “KEEP MOVING!”

Internally cursing and getting up, Riven’s body crackled with power as he began to channel one of his tier 3 spells.  His hands blurred, he uttered the words in a silent prayer, and a huge orb of swirling crimson bloomed ahead of him as a shockwave radiated out from his position.  The dark hallway filled with swarming bodies erupted in red light, and the screams of his enemies intertwined with the sound of tearing bodies.

He didn’t wait to see whether or not it killed them all, he knew it hadn’t.

Riftwalking yet again and dashing left with red and black wisps of his blessing flaring about his body, he came to an abrupt surprise when he found himself toppling off the edge of the hallway into an almost bottomless pit.  “SON OF A BITCH-”

His sentence cut off right when he sprouted a wretched snare and yanked, catapulting his body into the nearby wall with an audible thud that knocked the air out of his lungs.  Looking around and then to the other side of the chasm where the hallway continued dozens of yards off, he let a slow chuckle escape his lips as he shook his head in exasperation.  “This is some real bullshit.”

“Enjoying yourself?” Athela asked, lowering herself on threads of her own while upside down and giving him a large, toothy grin.  “You’d make a good spider.  NOW HURRY IT UP TWIRP, WE HAVE THOUSANDS MORE COMING!”

He rolled his eyes.  “The story of my life.  Hey, do you like bowling?”

“Bowling?  What’s that?”

“It’s that game you were talking to Allie about the other day, where they threw the-”

“OH I LOVE BOWLING!”  Athela clapped excitedly, still hanging onto her threads with her other arachnid limbs.  “I only got to try it once though.  Why?”

He gave her an amused smile.  “I was thinking we could go sometime.  They set up a bowling alley in Brightsville and-”

“Yes, yes but now is not the time!  We have to survive first!”

She poked him in the side, getting him to scowl at her.  But he nodded in acceptance and sighed before he tried to riftwalk across the chasm, only to groan as it was on cooldown.  Instead, he shot another wretched snare out across the long expanse and felt it attach.  Giving it a tug and making sure it was secure just when another of the centipedes came rushing over the edge to clamber down the wall, some of its chitin pieces missing and bloodied, he let go and swung across.

Pulling himself up a minute later and huffing to himself about the absurdity of his life, he grasped Athela’s hand - who’d already gotten across without much issue.  Fimrindle was there too, as still as ever, and his dead eyes glared across the chasm to where the swarm of armored insects continued to screech and topple over the edge.

“Who’d have though there’d be a nest of insects inside this place.”  Riven shook his head and turned around, only to come face to face with none other than an angelic paladin in fully plated armor.

The angel was slightly taller than he was, with a long glowing spear and wings of a similar light.  His armored was chipped in nuermous places and he looked like he'd seen battle recently.  Golden eyes narrowed and the warrior immediately changed his form into a fighting stance while spinning his weapon to lower it on Riven’s position.  “Child of the blood god, your presence is not welcome here.”

Riven stared the angel down, glanced at his two demonic minions who were now staring back at the angel wordlessly.  He waited a bit longer, but the angel didn’t move to attack - and there appeared to be no reinforcements nearby as the hall was a dead end.  The creature’s hands even shook slightly, and Riven’s heart sank when he realized that this warrior was downright scared.

“You don’t have to fight us.” Riven said calmly raising his hands and taking a step forward.  “I don’t give a shit about your eternal war, or whatever it is you’re doing here.  I just want to be on my way.  Ok?”

“Keep your wicked words in your head, Gluttonous one.  I can sense the original sin in your soul, and I see you for what you are - a trickster!”  The angel spat, wings flaring out to either side as his aura increased and golden flames engulfed his body.

Athela hissed with claws extending and Fimrindle’s lantern began to glo an ominous green, but Riven held up a hand to stop them from moving.

“Do not attack unless he attacks first or I say otherwise.” Riven commanded, getting a wary look from Athela and not a hint of what Fimrindle was thinking.  He turned back to the shaking angel, who was gripping his glowing spear tightly and taking a step back.

The angel stumbled, and Riven noticed he was bleeding silver blood onto the green stone floor in small splotches.  The man was injured.

“What’s your name?” Riven asked, glancing over the man’s shoulder to where a large stone door was located and sealed shut.  There was no other way in or out of this passage, making it obvious that the angel had been seeking refuge here in an attempt to hide and recover.

The man with golden eyes spat.  “You don’t need to know it, scum.  Leave, now, and I will spare your life.”

“Master, let me gut him and feast on his entrails!” Athela squealed with her teeth sharpening and blades flashing around her in a ready position.  Her long black tongue licked out, spiraling forward threateningly and lashing at the ground.

Riven bonked her on the head.  “I said stop it.”

“But Riven he’s an angel!”  Athela protested, dropping the aggressive act to outwardly pout.  “Pleeaseeeee let me KILL him!!!”

“I said knock it off.”

“BUT-”

She cut off her sentence when he raised an eyebrow her way, and she wilted in front of him.  “Alright fine.  You're no fun!  Lucky you're cute.”

“It is a mistake to let this one go.” Fimrindle stated from his motionless position nearby, scythe in hand.  “As Athela said, he is an angel.  He will stab you in the back the moment you turn it just because of what we are.  Take his head off, and you won’t have to worry about his betrayal of your good faith.”

Riven shook his head.  “Look at him, he’s on death’s doorstep.  I’m not going-”

His words cut off as the angel lunged, but Riven had been keeping an eye on the man just in case.  He flared his fingers - spreading them apart before pointing his open palm in the angel’s direction with a lightning fast grasping motion.

[Voodoo Doll (Blood)(Tier 2): Scan your target to map out their vessels and infuse your mana into their bloodstream.  You then gain the ability to replicate their bloodstream regardless of whether or not they have extensive wounds - enabling you to keep them alive as long as their brain remains intact.   You may also use this ability on hostiles to form painful blood clots.  Heart attacks caused by this ability do critical strike damage.  Dependent on both Intelligence(90%) and Willpower (10%) stats.  Medium cooldown.  This is a channeling ability and will not work if interrupted by using other spells.]

[You have landed a critical hit.  Max Damage x4.]

“Fucking HELL MAN!”  Riven muttered under his breath while the angel gasped and fell to the ground mid-lunge - the spear falling from the warrior's grasp with a clatter to the ground.  “Why’d you have to go and do that!”

The angelic paladin clutched at his chest, writhing in the ground and golden eyes wide.  He shuddered, coughed, and then his head slowly sank to the ground as the light in his wings dimmed to nothing.

Riven held a hand up to his face, rubbed his chin and then slammed a fist into the nearby wall.  “What the FUCK!”

Athela and Fimrindle remained silent beside him, staring wordlessly at the angel Riven had tried to save, the angel that Riven had been forced to kill.  His nostrils flared and he paced back and forth a bit before taking in a deep breath, flexing his fingers, and letting the air out of his lungs while closing his eyes.

“If you hadn’t done it, one of us would have.” Athela said quietly.  “He chose to attack, nothing else you could have done.”

Riven kept his eyes closed, but nodded, then bent down and deposited the man’s body into his spatial sack for loot harvesting later on.  Then, turning to the stone door, he walked forward to examine the now familiar rune etched into its surface.

The symbol of three devouring dragons, each eating the next in a circular pattern, was imprinted on the doorway.  Cuts, scrapes, and chips were noted along the ancient exterior, and it appeared that many attempts to get through this door had been made unsuccessfully over the ages.

“Why place a door here if…” Riven didn’t get to finish that sentence when his fingers touched the cold dark stone of the door ahead of him, and the symbol of the dragons lit up a vibrant gold.

He took a step back, sharing a look with Athela and his iron scarecrow before watching in silence alongside them as the runes spun faster, and faster, and faster, until sparks began to light up along the front and a grating sound echoed through the chasm.

[1 of 3 keys recognized.  You may proceed.]

The door began sliding open, ever so slowly, with the grating sound becoming louder and louder until it eventually came to a dead stop at a 90 degree angle - showing a vast room full of different odds and ends that spanned for miles in all directions.  Piles of treasure many hundreds of feet high littered the ground, scrolls and glass vials lined shelves all along the walls, ancient stone golems lay dormant in lines out to the left and right, and a single larger golem in the very center sat on a throne wearing a crown.

“What is this?  A treasury room?”  Riven said in awe, staring at the mountains of wealth

Riven was abruptly sucked in by a current of air, as were his minions, and the door slammed shut behind them with a thud.

Whirling and red eyes going wide, his heart sank when a familiar message appeared in front of him - accompanied by a thrumming sound, and the grating of stone joints as the golems began to move.

WARNING

WARNING

WARNING

RAID MINIBOSS FIGHT: TEMPLE OF TIME TREASURE GUARDIAN, HAS BEEN INITIATED.

THE TEMPLE OF TIME’S TREASURY HAS SEALED OFF YOUR POINT OF EXIT UNTIL THE BATTLE IS COMPLETE.

BEGINNING BATTLE IN 

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