Chapter 163: Zoran

“Greed.”

“Greed.”

“Greed.”

“You fucking centipede, answer me!”

Dante called Greed over and over, but he received no response.

He wanted to know more about the Abyss, as most information about it wasn’t available.

The only knowledge he had about the Abyss was: First, the Abyss was where most of the abyssal races lived.

Second, it was located under the surface, but the exact depth wasn’t known.

Third, the only entrances to the Abyss were the gates that would appear randomly. No one knew what really caused the appearance of these gates, including the beings coming from the Abyss, and everyone had to report to the nearest Mercenary Guild branch upon finding one.

Beyond that, Dante knew only a few other things that might be wrong to make the Abyss look like hell, similar to how the Dragon Isles were portrayed.

Now, Greed seemed to have a lot of information about the Abyss, but he refused to share it!

“Why did you tell me all this if you were going to gatekeep the rest?!”

Who were those invaders?

What caused all the gates to appear randomly?

How were the Abyss and the surface separated? Couldn’t they just dig upward?

“I hate you…”

Dante sighed helplessly and retrieved a cigarette from his ring. That was the 9th one up to now.

As he smoked it, he suddenly noticed something.

Right behind a tree, there was a floating black dot in space.

“Huh?”

Dante frowned and stepped closer, examining the dot thoughtfully.

He noticed two things.

First, he couldn’t see through it. It was like a solid object, though its appearance was like a hole in the fabric of space itself.

Second, it was leaking cold air continuously, causing Dante to feel like the hole led to the Northern Region where Fafnir was at that moment.

“Is it a spatial gate?”

Dante grabbed a small rock off the ground and threw it toward the small hole.

“…!”

Surprisingly, the rock entered the hole and disappeared completely. It didn’t affect the hole, nor did it pass through it.

It was definitely a spatial gate!

What place did that gate lead to exactly…?

“Wait.”

Dante’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at his tattoo in confusion.

“Does it lead to the Abyss?”

A shiver ran down Dante’s spine immediately.

The timing couldn’t be a coincidence. Greed had just told Dante about the Abyss and hinted that he’d end up entering it soon.

This… this meant that Greed knew about this gate!

“You bastard, what does that mean?!”

How did he predict that?

“No, it doesn’t matter anymore.” Dante shook his head: “This thing is beyond my comprehension. He knew about this, just like everything else. I only have to focus on telling the people about this.”

What was the point of thinking about questions like “how” at this point? Nothing that centipede did was logical to Dante!

From his connections to Earth, to how he predicted every single point of Dante’s life—nothing made any sense, and none had to.

What Dante had to do now was simply break Greed’s predictions and not fall into the Abyss!

“Hey, are you there?!” Dante suddenly looked at the sky and shouted: “If you are still watching me, you better show yourself now!”

Dante tapped the ground repeatedly and crossed his arms as he waited, but he didn’t see the person he expected.

“Maybe he’s in the Northern Region watching Fafn—”

CRACK!

Before Dante could continue his sentence, he heard a strange sound beneath him.

And before he could look down…

BAM–BZZZ!

The ground beneath him shattered, and a chain of lightning wrapped around Dante’s body.

In an instant, a sudden force was applied to the chain, causing it to swing away and crash Dante into a tree!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Dante passed through several trees, until he finally enhanced his body and cut the chain.

“Ouch.”

Dante rubbed his head in annoyance and stood up, seeing several Rank 2 beings coming out of the ground.

The owner of the lightning chain stepped forward, clad in a cloak of crackling, golden lightning and wielding a heavy gauntlet.

He looked like a giant at first glance, but when Dante focused on his height, he noticed that it was only a bit less than 9 metres tall!

’A titan!’

That was the race of King Valor! An abyssal race with a bloodline!!

“Heh, we really underestimated your detecting skills.” The titan chuckled, running a hand through his electrified hair: “We made sure not to use any light or cause any sound, yet you found us. You are truly a worthy opponent of my glorious self! Hahaha!”

“…”

Dante stared at the titan with a puzzled expression.

“I didn’t know you were there…” Dante admitted awkwardly: “I was talking to myself, I guess. You’re so stupid for exposing yourself.”

“…”

“You’re lying.”

Dante looked at his arm: “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear me arguing with my right arm? Heh, you made my job easier.”

“…”

The titan froze, looking at the giants behind him awkwardly.

“Ahem… I tried to stop you…” a giant scratched her neck with both embarrassment and disappointment.

In fact, Dante wasn’t really talking to himself. He was trying to get the attention of the dark entity!

It was the same dark entity who had been watching Dante the entire time in the Northern Region. He had hoped that he’d be fast enough to travel between regions and help Dante in dealing with whatever Greed was planning.

But instead, he caught the people who were hiding!

’Is this the feeling of being lucky?’

Dante smiled under the mask and stood up: “Anyway, why are you protecting this hole? Were you planning to team up with the Abyss’s creatures? Wait, are you the ones who are opening the gate?”

The titan sighed and opened his mouth: “Lightning Strike.”

Rumble!

As if the heavens were listening to his call, a strike of lightning hit Dante at an unavoidable speed!

His body was paralyzed for a few moments, and that was all the titan needed to close the distance!

“Punch!”

BOOM!

His gigantic hand smashed into Dante’s right side, throwing him crashing into a rock.

Dante coughed violently, but once he blinked, he saw the titan above him with his leg up to his head.

“Smash!”

BOOM!

The ground shattered under the force of the titan’s kick, arcs of lightning traveling through the thin cracks. However, Dante was nowhere to be seen.

BOOM!

At this moment, a flaming cannonball exploded into the titan’s back, but he only laughed in response.

“Hahaha! Are you using that pathetic Shadow Aspect against me?”

The lightning cloak suddenly expanded, producing enough light to erase all the shadows around it.

He turned his head and glared at Dante—who was standing above a tree—with a crazy smile, unfazed by Dante’s previous attack.

“Show me all you’ve got, little guy. This beautiful cloak isn’t for show!”

Dante sighed inwardly and decided not to use the Shadow Aspect like before. It was weak against the aspects that could produce light, and lightning was one of them.

In fact, lightning was the one he hated the most.

“Fucking lightning!”

Dante could still feel his body struggling to move because of the paralyzing effect, not to mention the burns in his body, which were healing slowly.

It reminded him with his days on Earth, when lightning used to strike him often.

Suddenly, his tattoo crawled across his arm like a living centipede and manifested into a sword.

The titan raised an eyebrow as he examined the sword, but before he could finish examining it, the sword suddenly dismantled into multiple segments connected by a sharp chain.

At this moment, a strange energy that looked similar to mana covered every single segment to the sharp tip.

“Ohoho, is this a chained sword?” The titan looked excited as he clashed his gauntlets against each other: “Show me your best!”

Swish!

Dante jumped to the sky with a burst of black flames and immediately processed to spin in the air, launching the chain of blades toward the titan.

Crack!

The titan’s fist exploded with an insane speed, striking the chain and throwing it away.

“Is this everything—”

At this moment, the urge to sit on a random spot and cry.

“Wait, what the…”

All of a sudden, a random group of segments changed their path midway and launched themselves toward the titan!

Slash!

The titan barely had enough time to dodge a lethal hit due to the strange thought. The blades cut through his ear and severed it off before he rapidly moved away from the sword’s range.

Dante landed lightly on the ground and laughed: “How was it? Are you satisfied, big guy?”

The titan grinned: “That was your dirty black magic, huh? Fine. My name is Zoran! Remember it as the man who will crush you!”

At his words, his body suddenly shrank to the size of a tall human, around 2 meters tall, then he cracked his neck.

“Now, introduce yourself before I crush your skull!”

The segments connected to each other and returned into a normal longsword. Suddenly, it started glowing like an overcharged reactor.

“I’m Nobody, nice to meet you too.” Dante said the first random name that came to mind and swung his sword with all the force he could gather.

Sin of Greed — Abyssal Slash!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep