Chapter 196: Azathoth

“That’s boring…”

Sitting alone in his cell, Dante opened his mouth beyond safety, causing his skin and flesh to tear in the process.

However, he didn’t seem to care, as he was just focusing on the centipede in front of him.

“I’ll be honest.” Greed said awkwardly: “I didn’t expect you to become like… this… so early…”

Dante smiled: “So you did.”

Greed gave a similar smile: “Of course I did. Actually, the plan was about making you force the parasite to fuse with you, not to cooperate with it. I didn’t expect that it would accept your offer so easily.”

“You were also supposed to die more times before killing Raga. You truly surpassed my expectations, or maybe was just a bit more unlucky than I expected.”

“I’ll kill him someday.” A soft voice echoed in Dante’s ear, filled with killing intent: “He’s dead, but I’ll kill him again. If he turns into something other than a relic, I’ll kill him for the third time!”

“I know you will, Aza.” Dante laughed: “Just wait until we leave this place. It shouldn’t take so long. With some hard work, it’ll eventually happen.”

“Work harder then!”

“Sure.”

After saying that, the cell returned to the usual silence with only the sound of Dante humming showing that someone was living there.

The only source of light was the glow of the runes and Dante’s veins. The only source of warmth was Dante’s own body, as even the chains, the collar, and the spears were as cold as ice.

And the only source of entertainment was… the voices in Dante’s head.

As an unpredictable anomaly, Dante was observed all the time, but for the guards, he was just a lunatic who would suddenly start telling nonsense to himself. After all, the parasite was unseen due to its special existence alongside the effect of the mask, and Geed was seen only by a monarch so far, so it was unlikely for a guard to see him.

“…Happy birthday.”

Suddenly, the parasite’s voice returned, saying shyly: “It’s been 4 months since Valor threw you here, which means you’re 17 now. Happy birthday.”

Dante raised an eyebrow and calculated his age using the awakening percentage of the Dragon Bloodline.

It was 16% after he got the ability to get 1% a month. At that time, he was 16 years and 5 months.

It was 19% when he arrived here, which meant that he was 16 years and 8 months.

Now, it was 22%, and he even got a new mutated part, which was his stomach.

“So, I’ll get a new boost soon.” Dante was now certain that she told the truth: “I’m 17 now, huh?”

It’d been a year since he had been in this world.

Only a year.

During that year, he had become a being that would be mentioned in the children’s stories. However, he wouldn’t be mentioned in a good way. Demons were always shown as the bad people, at least in the stories he had heard.

“Thank you, Aza.” Dante smiled softly: “It’s technically your birthday too, right? Happy birthday to you!”

It was Dante’s first time hearing anyone wishing him a happy birthday. It wasn’t the best place to hear that, but he was genuinely happy.

“Yes, it technically is. You should be grateful for having the same birthday as me!”

Dante frowned: “What? You should be grateful that I’m sharing mine with you!”

“Why would I when I’m the only one who has given the other a gift?”

“Wait, what?” Dante was puzzled: “When did you give me a gift? No, when did you give me anything at all?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The parasite said with a cheerful, arrogant voice: “Is me being with you in this disgusting place not enough of a gift? Every second I spend with you is a gift, so bow your head and thank me!”

“What about me saving you from that wheel and keeping you with me?” Dante hissed: “Isn’t that enough as a gift?”

“No, it isn’t!”

“It is.”

“Ungrateful!”

As the silence returned, Dante couldn’t help but recall his memories of his growing relationship with his parasite.

After finding himself in this place, the only thing he could do was talk with the parasite to break the wall between them, which was effective, judging by how the parasite was now talking arrogantly to him, abandoning her shy and quiet behaviour.

And he had discovered a few things about her.

First of all… she was apparently female.

Dante didn’t know how, but she told him that she was female. She had the ability to give birth, but she didn’t tell him how.

…And maybe he didn’t want to know the answer.

And after one month, she got tired of Dante calling her a parasite and decided to make herself a name.

The name she came up with was Azathoth, but Dante preferred to call her Aza. It looked more feminine.

Next, they slowly investigated the benefits of their fusion, which was hard because of the collar.

With the collar, Dante had only a few things he could use.

The silver Ether, Sin of Greed’s mask and segmented weapon, all his passive abilities, and Aza herself.

And that meant everything about Aza, from her magic to her abilities.

She didn’t have a Core of Existence, but she could cast only misfortune spells, which drained another type of energy that only she had.

She could also interfere with misfortune, taking it from others, giving it to others, and absorbing it from thin air.

Additionally, her fusion with Dante seemed to give him a kind of instinct that was connected to anything related to misfortune. For example, he finally realized what the misfortune spikes were, which was truly interesting, but that was another matter.

Plus, the fusion strengthened everything related to misfortune that Dante himself cast. He had tested Jinx on Valor and Raga, and its effect was significantly stronger than before with lower cost.

And finally, Aza got physical strength that was equal to Dante’s. Before they put him into this cell, he had tested her strength secretly, which wasn’t affected by the collar.

In other words, Aza was Dante’s key to escaping from this place. If he played his cards right, he could escape and spread chaos across the prison.

Actually, he was already acting.

No one could see this, but Dante had a mountain of misfortune currently covering him, which Aza used to eat and spread to whoever entered the area.

The guards, the prisoners, and rarely some beasts, whatever stood close to him left with tons of misfortune.

In addition to that, he used the mask to hide most of his secrets.

His stats weren’t accurate, only his Sorcerer’s Gift trait was visible, and he changed his class into “Shadow Swordmage” under the effect of his mask.

’And now, I only have to wait for an opportunity.’

Dante closed his eyes and hummed happily.

In the past, he cared so much about the lives of others, which only caused harm to himself.

But now, he intentionally spread misfortune to people who had never done anything to him.

Not all prisoners here were bad, some of them were here without committing any serious crime or even note at all.

And Dante didn’t want to harm them. But that was necessary.

Even if he targeted only the guards, the prisoners would have ultimately got affected by Dante’s misfortune.

That was because he no longer needed direct interaction. After months of brainstorming, he and Aza had created a new spell that would make sure it affected every single person in this prison.

Misfortune Spell — Misfortune Plague!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep