Chapter 442
But even as she fought it, she knew the truth.
She had already changed.
Xerosis clutched her chest, her breath uneven as she staggered back. The golden palace, the starving villagers, the hollow-eyed boy—they all dissolved into the abyss, leaving only darkness and the unbearable weight of her own thoughts.
She had never known need, yet in mere moments, she had felt its crushing grasp. The hunger, the desperation, the gnawing fear of having nothing and the paranoia of losing everything. Even now, though the vision had faded, a part of her still craved.
Her hands trembled.
"How quickly divinity crumbles under the weight of mortal suffering," the voice of the Covetous Leviathan rumbled.
Xerosis snapped her head up, her eyes burning with defiance. The giant loomed over her once more, its sickly golden glow pulsating with an unnatural light.
"You felt it, didn’t you?" it continued, its many teeth gleaming. "That terrible need. That overwhelming desire to hoard, to take, to hold onto what was yours. And when you had everything? The fear of losing it was worse than the hunger itself."
Xerosis steadied herself, forcing her mind to clear, to suppress the lingering hunger and greed that clawed at the edges of her soul. "You are mistaken," she said, her voice firm but laced with something she did not want to admit—uncertainty. "I am not ruled by desire."
The Leviathan let out a deep, guttural chuckle, its cursed eyes narrowing. "Not yet."
Then, the world shifted once more.