Chapter 485: Discover my path
"Who are you!?"
Those words reverberated through the hidden dimension with an overwhelming blend of rage, authority, and something akin to looming dread. To Vlad’s ears, however, the angry undertone that dominated the voice was not the only emotion carried in that echo. He detected confusion and uncertainty beneath the fury. Though he felt the voice brimming with menace, it also seemed that this entity was struggling with a question it could not readily answer, just like a child who was trying to understand the world around him.
Before the Depravita of Wrath could respond, the voice sounded once more, this time sharper and tinged with hateful recognition, "I recognized you! You are our enemy, the one that has defeated us again and again!"
With those words, Vlad felt the dimension itself begin to quake. It heated up like an immense stomach churning acid to digest a trapped victim. He had barely cheated death moments earlier, narrowly escaping irreversible doom, yet it seemed the grim reaper wasn’t finished with him. A sense of urgency coursed through Vlad’s mind.
He had to find a way to escape this new threat, but there was no way to fight back against the entity. Then, a flash of insight crossed his thoughts as he shouted. "What is your name!?"
The moment Vlad uttered that question, the crushing pressure flooding the dimension—a pressure that threatened to crush his soul completely—came to an abrupt halt. A small smile tugged at the corners of Vlad’s mouth. He had gambled that demanding a name would disrupt the entity’s lethal impetus, and it worked.
"I am..." the voice echoed once more, only to trail off as though unable to complete that sentence.
Vlad’s smile widened. He had a good idea of why the spirit in this obsidian obelisk could not supply a name. Although it had once been a core portion of the Leviathan Race’s collective consciousness—the primary control node for the Hive Mind—this spirit was now something else. It was no longer fused with the rest of the Hive Mind.
After undergoing the Seven Sins Ritual, it had become a Depravita. As a result, it was no longer part of a multi-minded collective. It existed as a singular, confused soul grappling with the sudden emergence of individuality. And it had not yet found an identity.
"I AM..." roared the voice a second time, this time surging with frustration, confusion, and fury. "What did you do to me!?"
Once more, it focused intently on Vlad, but its rage was mixed with an undeniable panic. It demanded answers to explain what had transformed it so drastically.