Lazy Salvation

Cornelia stared vacantly as the same creatures that had threatened to drive her to madness and consume her at the same time suddenly left her alone and started running back with identical rage-filled faces.

“Dear Eternal… what am I witnessing…?”

She tried to move and follow the wave because she could see that at its end, Ashen was running for his life.

“No… you are not supposed to die here…”

She refused to let the one who had granted her lifelong wish rot in this hell.

But alas, her body refused to cooperate. She was already lucky to be alive.

“Cornelia.”

She felt a breeze, followed by someone lifting her by the arm. It was Lola. She slipped one of Cornelia's arms over her shoulder and spoke tensely.

“We have to move.”

“Move…?” Cornelia looked at her with an expressionless face. “I can’t chase them in my current condition. Will you heal me? Or will you chase after them on your own?”

But then she frowned.

“Though you aren't in any condition to chase anyone with those mana reserves.”

Lola stared at her for a tense second before clarifying.

“We are retreating.”

“...”

Cornelia tilted her head.

“Ha?”

“We are running away, Cornelia! Get your shit together, damn it!” Lola finally lost it and started screaming at her.

But Cornelia seemed to have barely comprehended the words being said.

“Run? Run where? Can’t you see Ashen over there? He would surely die if we leave him.”

“Ashen was the one who chose this. He entrusted me with getting everyone back safely. That includes you.” Lola barely held onto her patience as she explained. She felt that every moment wasted here was another second Ashen was buying with his life.

To her, every second was incomparably precious, evident in how agitated she became as Cornelia continued wasting time.

“Lola. I have already said it. If you want to run, you are free to. I will stay here and rest. Then I'll chase after them.”

“This crazy—!” Lola was positively fuming now. “I’m sorry, but this is the only way.”

“Don’t you dare—!”

Bam—!

While she had almost no mana left, Lola's current opponent had none at all. Knocking her out was a simple affair as long as her guard was down.

Hoisting Cornelia onto her back in a piggyback carry, she rushed toward the retreating army, clearing the stragglers along the way.

“RETREAT!”

“RETREAT!”

She did not bother with the chain of command or proper procedures. Lola simply amplified her voice and screamed at the top of her lungs.

Everyone knew her voice by this point, so they obeyed instantly.

After doing so, Lola scanned the battlefield for specific people. More precisely, Ashen's lovers and sister.

She had to keep them absolutely safe, not only to honor Ashen's sacrifice, but because she was positively, completely sure that he would survive!

And if he returned to find one of his own people missing... she felt like the Narkals and their Outer Gods would probably become the least of their worries.

"Haah... what a fearsome son I have." She sighed in admiration, completely at odds with the current situation, before continuing her search.

Thankfully, aside from injuries that she was easily able to mend with her slowly regenerating mana, all of them had survived.

"Alright, charge back! We are retracing our path!"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Haaaa!"

The army's count had once been around eighty million, but even with more than half their numbers missing, the men still sought survival and ran toward it with unshakable resolve.

With their retreat, the human army could be considered to have succeeded in preserving all of its Sin Lords, despite their first brush with the so-called Outer Gods.

Well... almost.

***

In another region, still within the infested lands but thousands of kilometers away, a similarly sized human army could be seen running away at full speed.

Behind them, the primary motivator and reason for their flight could be seen.

Millions of starving Narkals, all ensnared by Gluttony to follow like dogs on a leash.

And that number was increasing exponentially, along with the monsters' hunger and their desperation for the tender flesh of humans.

Aside from Gluttony, there was another similarly ranked man beside him, but anyone discerning enough would realize that this man, Lord Kokan of the Greed Pathway, was nothing more than a substitute.

The real one was tucked away inside a personal dimension, following closely behind the army on his own. As for what he was doing inside such a dimension? He was watching with relish the events unfolding deep within the Narkal territories, the ones involving Ashen Hart and his entourage.

Even amid the carnage, his attention never left Ashen as his installed spell followed his every movement.

And when he reached the moment he activated his Innate Skill, his ecstasy reached its peak.

"Now is the time... hehe... you are mine~"

The tells were obvious. The man had just killed an Outer God as easily as snapping the neck of a chicken.

So, with absolute confidence, he activated one of his most guarded secrets.

{Innate Skill Activated: The Collector}

The moment his innate ability triggered, he felt all of his mana rush toward it, only to be swallowed completely.

It did not take more than a couple of minutes for his mana reserves to run dry.

“You are so greedy… hahahaha… then I’ll just keep feeding you…”

Even someone of his caliber being drained this quickly was enough to make him unable to imagine the true might of what he was about to acquire.

“Gather!”

{Path Skill Activated: Vault Of Greed}

Dozens of crystals emerged from within the darkness of his dimension. Each one was infused with his own mana, and each contained enough energy to restore him to his peak condition.

Yet as he funneled the mana back into his circuits, it was devoured all the same.

One after another, the crystals dimmed before shattering.

His eyes reddened, and his greedy soul wailed at the loss of his fortune. But he never stopped. Not even as more than a hundred of these crystals were consumed.

Eventually...

The system chimed with the voice he wished to hear more than anything.

[Your Collector has reproduced another Innate Skill.]

[You have gained an Innate Skill: Twin Souls.]

“Y-yes…! Hahaha…! Hehehehe…! Finally mine!”

Kokan laughed until tears formed in his eyes before finally calming down.

“Oh, my precious… you are the greatest gift bestowed upon me by the Eternal…”

He gazed half-lidded at his Innate Skill, admiring its description for the thousandth time rather than even sparing a glance at his newly acquired skill.

==============================

The Collector

Your greed knows no bounds.

As long as your desire for something is great enough, you only need to witness it once to transcribe it into your soul.

You may only collect Innate Skills.

Collection:

Mana Authority.

Origin: Rowan Vance

War God.

Origin: Shun Morikawa

Archmage.

Origin: Astrid Ardor

Threefold Existence.

Origin: Lucy Momenta

Forgotten Existence.

Origin: Axel Arte

Nine Tail Fox.

Origin: Alice Sinclair

Twin Souls.

Origin: Ashen Hart.

==============================

“Now… let’s see what secrets this Twin Soul is hiding.”

Kokan could already feel a connection forming with his soul, and just as he was about to tap into it, he was beaten to it.

“No need to see anything. I am already here.”

Whoever was on the other side acted first.

“Huh?”

He tilted his head, but he wasn’t afraid. This was within his soulscape. Whoever it was, they had no chance here.

That was why he didn’t panic despite the innate skill’s name alluding to the presence of another.

His only thought was:

I’m going to get an overpowered slave.

But he soon realized that he had miscalculated. Immensely.

“Did no one teach you not to eat whatever you see?”

The voice turned ominous, but Kokan was no longer paying attention.

Because he could feel the other soul preparing to detonate itself.

“No! Stop it! You will die as well—”

“Pitiful worm. I’m already dead.”

Tssstt—tsss...

The awaited explosion never came.

Instead, the soul dissipated peacefully.

...

What was unleashed from that dissipation, however, was anything but peaceful.

Greed felt countless concepts claw their way out from the soul’s shell, worming their way through the connection, and beginning to consume him.

“No… this is… Sloth…”

He desperately retaliated, gathering his own concepts to shield himself.

But everything he did was futile.

The concepts passed through everything with insulting ease, as if his lifelong attainments meant nothing to them.

Eventually, they reached his soul and embraced it.

“Ah…”

“Ah...”

He suddenly felt drowsy.

The drowsiness was soon followed by an overwhelming sadness.

He understood.

This sadness did not belong to him. It came from the concepts themselves, mourning their master.

They embraced him in their grief, and through that embrace, he could feel everything they were.

Respite.

Rest.

Slumber.

...Peace.

Only a tiny portion of the conceptual influx reached his soul.

But Kokan...

He had already reached the embrace of death.

.

.

{Activated Innate Skill: Threefold Existence}

“Huuuuuuuh—ah!”

“Haa…”

“Haaa…”

“Haa.”

[One life remains.]

[Twin Souls has been lost.]

“...”

Kokan hurriedly reinforced the crumbling dimension before trying his best to gather himself from the horrifying experience.

“What in the world...”

He couldn’t begin to understand how something like that could exist.

“Ashen Hart… I have lost two lives because of my greed for you…”

A bitter smile emerged on his face.

“I want to kill you so badly for this…”

He paused.

“But I feel like I might lose the third if I dare to do so.”

Finally, after a monumental struggle, the Greed Lord...

Let go of his greed.