They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 342 Pretending to sleep
Hephaestus: "All of this is thanks to the Faceless One's assistance. Indeed, with our Lord by our side, everything becomes much easier."

"Hehehe, praising the faceless one."

【impossible……】

Hydra's consciousness was not completely corrupted. She shifted her focus to the trench area to check the seal and found that it was indeed just a little bit away from being broken.

It was so close!
If the seal at the trench can be completely broken, Hydra's goal can be barely achieved even without killing Dagon.

【Hephaestus...no matter what you are, I am, after all, the one closest to the abyss here】

You are nothing but a bunch of dark reptiles.

Before absolute power, any conspiracy or trickery will crumble into nothingness, utterly vulnerable.

Hydra's voice became hysterical as she instantly broke free from Hephaestus's control and expelled all the pollution from herself.

This was the first time that Lia had ever seen someone break free from control on their own. In this respect, Hydra truly deserved her title of the Thousand-Faced Moon.

In return, she reclaimed all the silt from Dagon's location, clearly indicating that she had abandoned the attack on Dagon and was now focusing all her efforts on devouring the seals on the rock strata on both sides of the trench.

After the pollutants in Hephaestus were removed, a beetle suddenly burst out of the mud, fell to the ground, and rolled many times before stopping.

The insect waved its ten ugly limbs with glowing tentacles, its three mouths constantly wriggling as if trying to make a sound, and its eyeballs, without eyelids, slowly turning, seemingly unaware of what was happening at first.

Finally, the eyes fixed on Ria, and whether it was Ria's imagination or not, the creature's eyes revealed an inexplicable fanaticism.

Ria poked it aside with her cane: "This is your true form?"

[How could that be? This is just a backup clone I brought from my "hometown." By the way, this creature can also easily control the brains of other life forms, making all our actions much more convenient.]

They are truly a group of adorable creatures, aren't they?

The giant beetle seemed to want to say something, but the sounds it made were only unpleasant chirping. In the end, it chose to speak directly to Ria in his mind.

[If it weren't for the backup clone, I probably would have died just now. Thank goodness!]

Ria increasingly felt that the Hephaestus group's methods were versatile and ubiquitous.

But now is not the time to care about these things. Seeing that even Hephaestus and Ria's methods have failed, Emigana's heart is filled with despair.

It covered its head, seemingly unable to bear watching what would happen next.

"We cannot defeat Hydra, let alone defy the Abyss; it is about to awaken—"

Yes, yes! Children, let's welcome the new world together!!!

Destruction is rebirth.

The Hydra's human form excitedly stretched its arms upwards, its entire body tense and trembling incessantly.

A few seconds later, everyone experienced a momentary ringing in their ears; the sound came unexpectedly and was extremely shocking.

All the curse seals had turned to dust, and the magma at the bottom was churning even more violently, as if a giant fire dragon was reviving.

Hydra was nearly insane; she wished she could give everything she had—her people and the civilization she had painstakingly developed—to the abyss right now.

For fanatics, this is the most valuable thing in their lives.

Their own lives, souls, relatives, friends, and offspring are all unimportant; what matters is witnessing the arrival of a great being. Although witnessing a deity can easily lead to madness or death, that is what those believers want.

With just one glance, just one look, these lives are willing to pay any price.

Ria thought this was foolish, and he did not encourage his followers to do such things, though he would not stop certain groups from seeking death.

The seal has now completely loosened, and Hydra's smile is growing wider as the intelligent beings shout, preparing to welcome the arrival of the Lord of the Gale and the Abyss.

one second.

Two seconds... three seconds passed. Hydra's figure faded further and further; this was the price she paid for absorbing the cursed seal.

She will die soon.

As if awaiting death, Hydra closed her eyes.

And so, more time flew by.

She suddenly opened her eyes, as if she had discovered something unusual, but everyone was laughing.

No one knew what those people were laughing at; they seemed to be mocking her hard work all along.

But Ria could answer her: "That's not the case, ma'am. People are just glad that the guess was right."

What's your guess?

"that is……"

Ria used her cane to support herself as she stood up; below her neck was nothing but white bone, as if it might shatter at any moment.

"You can never wake someone who is pretending to be asleep, let alone a god."

Pretending to be asleep!?

Hydra's eyes widened suddenly, and due to the force of the movement, his pupils nearly burst, leaking tissue fluid.

【What did you say……】

Pretending to be asleep!?

"Yes, madam, I thought you should understand this kind of thing, but you were too stubborn, and we couldn't be sure if the Abyss would respond to you. Now it seems it won't."

"For some reason, He is in a state of suspended animation and does not want to wake up. Your actions are like a noisy clock constantly ringing in His ears. Since He is in a state of suspended animation and cannot get rid of you, He can only let things take their course."

"The will of God is truly unfathomable, and of course, your will is no less so..."

To surrender everything to an abyss that will never respond, and to expect Him to descend, is no different from hoping to develop feelings for a stone—perhaps even easier.

[You...knew all along? But no, that's not right. He shouldn't have ignored me. It was the rising sun, it was [redacted], wasn't it! He prevented my Lord's coming!]

I curse Him! He will lose all his followers! He—

Before Hydra's voice had even faded, her skin suddenly cracked in the seawater, and lava flowed through those cracks.

The beetles attached to Hephaestus cast gloating glances at her.

From then on, only the Hydra could hear what it said.

[You really have the nerve to say the true name of the rising sun here, hoping it will watch over us and drag us down with it?]

How could you...?

I twisted your words, creating errors so that He would only focus on yourself.

So now you can face death. I believe the Crimson Mother, who represents death, will surely treat you well in the other world.

【…】

[Why don’t you speak? 】

Hephaestus, I'm trying to figure out who you are...

Why was Dagon so wary of you from the moment you arrived? Does it harbor many secrets that even I don't know?

(End of this chapter)