Episode-941
Chapter : 1881
Beelzebub was furious. His hunger was a primal force that refused to be denied. His massive body vibrated, fighting against the grey stagnation. The iron staples on his stomach groaned as his maw tried to open.
"You... interfere!" Beelzebub roared, the sound slowly speeding up as he broke through the time dilation. "I am... hungry!"
He took a step. The heavy air shattered around his leg like glass. He opened his mouth and vomited a stream of concentrated acid. The acid sizzled through the grey field, eating away the concept of stillness.
Beside him, Mammon moved. The Prince of Greed was not angry; he was calculating. His golden mask reflected the struggling form of his sister.
"Sister," Mammon hissed, his golden chains rattling violently. "You are weak. You are broken. You think you can stop the inevitable? You cannot hold us both. That human is mine. His soul is shiny. I want to put it in my vault."
Mammon raised his hands. Dozens of golden coins materialized in the air. He flicked them forward. They didn't fly like bullets; they moved with the weight of greed. Each coin exploded on contact with the Sloth Field, creating cracks in the grey air.
Crack. Crack. Shatter.
Monalisa winced. A line of grey stone shot out up her cheek, freezing half of her face in a petrified expression of pain. She was burning her own life force to fuel the barrier.
"Engineer..." Monalisa groaned, not opening her eyes. "You should probably do something clever now. I am going to nap. Wake me up when you win."
The barrier failed.
It sounded like a window breaking in a storm. The grey stillness evaporated. The deafening buzz of the fly swarm returned instantly, louder than before. The flies, freed from stasis, surged forward with renewed fury.
Beelzebub lunged, his claws reaching for Lloyd’s head. Mammon’s golden chains shot out like vipers, aiming to bind Ben.
Ben didn't cower. He shoved Lloyd aside, stepping into the path of the chains with his lance raised, his face twisted in a snarl of pure defiance. "Back off! If anyone kills him, it's going to be me!"
Lloyd braced himself, expecting to be crushed. The Nova Cannon had cooled down; he couldn't trigger the explosion in time. Monalisa was incapacitated. They were out of cards.
Beelzebub’s hand was inches away. Lloyd could smell the rotting meat on the demon's breath.
Then, the second miracle happened.
It didn't come with a bang. It came with a smell.
Suddenly, the smell of rot, sulfur, and ozone vanished. It was replaced by a crisp, clean scent. It smelled of salt. It smelled of deep, cold water and crashing waves.
The humidity in the room spiked, but it wasn't the gross, sticky heat of Gluttony. It was a cool, damp mist that clung to the skin.
A vertical rift tore open in the air right next to Lloyd. It wasn't jagged and violent like Beelzebub’s entry. It was smooth, silent, and elegant. It looked like a dark blue curtain being pulled back by an invisible hand.
From the rift, a woman stepped out.
She was tall and veiled in layers of fabric that shifted color like the ocean tides—deep blue, foam white, and sea green. You couldn't see her face, only the outline of her form. Her presence was heavy, but not with gravity. It was heavy with emotion.
It was pure, distilled Envy.
She was Leviathan, the Prince of Envy.
She didn't look at Lloyd. She didn't look at Ben. She turned her veiled head toward Beelzebub and Mammon. She didn't say a word. She didn't need to. Her aura screamed her intent.
She looked at Beelzebub’s meal, and she hated that he had it. She looked at Mammon’s prize, and she despised that he wanted it.
She didn't want Lloyd for herself. She simply couldn't bear the thought of her brothers getting what they wanted.
Leviathan raised both hands, palms facing outward.
"Authority of Envy: The Denial of Desire."
A massive wave crashed into the room.
It wasn't physical water. It was "Conceptual Water." It was the force of the ocean that washes away sandcastles. It washed away reality.
The wave crashed into the fly swarm. The insects didn't drown; they were simply erased. One moment they were there, and the next, they were gone, washed away into nothingness.
The wave hit Beelzebub. The giant mountain of gluttony was knocked off his feet. He tumbled backward, roaring in confusion as the water filled his mouth and pushed him away.
Chapter : 1882
The wave hit Mammon. His golden coins scattered, sinking into the invisible depths. The Prince of Greed was swept aside like driftwood.
"Leviathan!" Mammon screamed, his voice bubbling as if he were underwater. "You jealous witch! Why?!"
Then, the wave hit Lloyd, Ben, and the sleeping Monalisa.
Lloyd braced himself, expecting to be crushed. But the water was gentle. It wrapped around him like a cool, protective blanket. He felt weightless. The sounds of the battle became muffled, distant echoes.
He felt the sensation of being pulled backward, fast.
Leviathan swept them into the rift. The darkness swallowed them whole.
They were traveling through the deep ley-lines of the world. It looked like a tunnel made of rushing water and bioluminescent lights. They were moving beneath the crust of the Abyss, moving faster than any ship or dragon, far beyond the reach of Beelzebub’s hunger.
Lloyd floated in the current, watching the lights flash by. He saw Ben floating beside him, thrashing angrily against the current, his mouth moving in a silent curse as he realized he was being "saved" again. He saw Monalisa, her stone arm hanging limp, drifting in the stream like a sleeping princess.
Lloyd looked at the veiled figure of Leviathan guiding them through the dark waters.
"Why?" Lloyd asked, his voice echoing strangely in the tunnel. "Why help us? We are nothing to you."
Monalisa, drifting beside him, opened one eye. She looked exhausted, but her smile was sharp, amused, and knowing.
"Because she Envies, little lion," Monalisa whispered, her voice barely audible. "She Envies Beelzebub's meal. She Envies Mammon's new toy. She cannot bear for them to have satisfaction. If Beelzebub eats you, he wins. If Mammon captures you, he wins. Leviathan hates it when others win."
Monalisa closed her eye again, a faint smile on her stone-cracked lips.
"She didn't save you because she likes you, Lloyd. She saved you to spite them. She took the toy away so nobody else could play with it. It seems you are quite the popular collectible today."
Lloyd stared at the rushing water. "That is... incredibly petty."
"It is her nature," Monalisa murmured, drifting back into sleep. "Welcome to the politics of Hell. Don't worry, darling, I'll protect you from her too. You're mine."
The current accelerated. The water grew brighter. They were being deposited somewhere safe, somewhere neutral. Lloyd realized with a sinking feeling that he wasn't just a mechanic or a soldier anymore.
He had walked into a room with four Demon Kings, and he had survived. He was now a player in their game, a pawn that everyone wanted to capture, eat, or hide.
As the light swallowed them, Lloyd held tight to his Nova Cannon. The battle for Gator City was over, but the war for his soul had just begun.
The watery ride through the ley-lines came to an abrupt end. The rushing bioluminescent lights faded, and the cool current of Leviathan’s mana deposited them gently onto solid, dry ground.
Lloyd found himself back in the neutral zone—a quiet, misty landscape that existed between the hostile territories of the Princes. The air here was thin and grey, smelling of nothing but cold stone and fog. It was a stark contrast to the humid rot of Gator City.
Beside him, Ben hit the ground hard, rolling to his feet instantly with his lance raised. The golden glow that had empowered him was gone, leaving his prosthetic limbs looking dull, scorched, and grey, but his pride was intact. He glared at the empty mist, furious. "I didn't need a bath," Ben growled, spitting water. "I had Mammon right where I wanted him."
Nearby, Monalisa lay on her shadow cushion. Her arm and part of her face were now completely turned to stone. She had fallen into a deep, defensive sleep to preserve what little life force she had left.
Lloyd stood up slowly, the joints of his Aegis suit groaning. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small cloth bundle. Inside was the black seed of the Spirit Fruit—the "Life-Eater" seed he had harvested from the city’s energy grid.
He looked at the sleeping Prince of Sloth. He realized that the landscape of his war had changed fundamentally. He wasn't just an engineer or a soldier anymore; he had officially entered the "Great Game" of the Devil Princes. He was a man with the cure to a god’s sickness, and his only allies were the embodiments of Envy and Sloth.
"Well," Lloyd said to the misty air, a sarcastic smirk touching his lips. "At least my allies have personality. I suppose I should be grateful I didn't get stuck with Lust. That would have been awkward."
He pocketed the seed securely. He checked his System Coins—the cost of the "Void Wood" and the suit repairs would be high, but the harvest had been worth it. He turned to Ben, who was still fuming. The traitor was dead, but the real work of surviving the Abyss was just beginning.