Chapter 119

The evil god, released from his seal without having fully regained his power, blinked his monstrous eyes and awkwardly creaked a body that no longer moved as he willed.

Having devoured a black mage, he inherited that man’s will intact, and was now moving on pure instinct—to kill Caldeon and Enria.

Leaving the black mage’s hideout, the evil god began walking toward his destination. He gave no thought to transportation and simply started trudging north.

His upper and lower body moved out of sync, his steps creaking unnaturally. He looked unstable, grotesque, and deeply unsettling.

Those who saw him for the first time frowned at his bizarre appearance or openly stared at him with displeasure.

“Is he a vagrant?”

“I don’t know… doesn’t he look strange?”

“Get lost! Crops aren’t growing as it is—do we really need something like that loitering around the village and ruining the mood?!”

“Hey, stop it. What if he’s insane?”

As the villagers muttered one comment after another, the evil god’s creaking steps suddenly came to a halt.

Then, with a neck that creaked just as badly as his body, he twisted it at an unnatural angle and looked at the gathered people.

“G-gh—his eyes!”

“Aaaah! A monster!”

“What—what is that thing…?!”

When the villagers saw eyelids that opened and closed both vertically and horizontally, they screamed in panic and fled. The evil god merely snapped a single finger, instantly ripping out their souls and swallowing them.

Despite his unstable body, the evil god was overwhelmingly powerful.

From that moment on, as he continued walking north, he plucked out and devoured the souls of every living being he saw with nothing more than a snap of his fingers.

Though half his power remained sealed, he lived up to the title of an evil god, killing and absorbing every living thing in his path with effortless finger snaps.

A single human—walking leisurely, as if out for a stroll—was killing and devouring everything in sight. Even if an entire village was wiped out, no one noticed.

The villages he passed through became barren wastelands, devoid of any living beings.

It was as though he were trying to fill the half of his power he had yet to recover by absorbing countless souls.

However, Pahomel’s body had not been prepared as a complete vessel. Moreover, the power the evil god used was different from black magic, so the souls absorbed into this body did not accumulate as the evil god’s true power.

It was the same principle as when the black mage devoured Pahomel’s soul and body yet could not fully make Pahomel’s magic his own.

Thus, no matter how many souls the evil god consumed in an instinctive attempt to replenish his lacking power, it was no different from pouring water into a bottomless jar.

Unaware of this, the evil god simply continued to slaughter and erase every living being his instincts led him to.

***

The adorable hatchling Panz, whose body shimmered with a balanced mix of gold and red, sat atop Hayden’s head with a deeply displeased expression.

“How about coming down from his head? Hayden is still growing—if you sit up there, he won’t grow tall,” Belona said, frowning at Panz.

Panz snorted and sprawled comfortably on Hayden’s head.

Seemingly unbothered, Hayden lifted his eyes slightly to look at Panz resting there and said,

“It’s otay. Baby grow. Pangz small, baby not get small.”

“It’s Panz, not Pangz. And why are you calling my name so casually?”

Panz grumbled at Hayden, who wasn’t even the human contracted to him.

Just then, Roseanne entered the sitting room with Enria and pointed at Panz, saying he looked like a baby bird perched in a nest. Panz sprang upright in outrage.

“A bird?! How does this magnificent body look anything like a mere avian?! Ignorant human!”

Ignoring Panz’s outburst, Enria sat beside Hayden and asked gently, “Hayden, I heard you skipped lunch?”

Without answering, Hayden continued stroking the head of Silri, who lay beside him in the form of a cat. When Enria, Silri, Windel, and Roseanne all turned their gaze toward him, Hayden let out a short sigh and replied flatly, “Yeah. Didn’t like it.”

“You haven’t been eating vegetables at all lately, so Chavel made a special vegetable stew just for you.”

“I didn’t like it. I hate veggies.”

Hayden cut Enria off, frowning slightly. As if on purpose, his pronunciation was more slurred than usual.

“At least it’s just food fussiness,” Roseanne said with a small smile.

She had been worried that Hayden might be sick after hearing from Chavel that he hadn’t eaten lunch, so she felt relieved knowing it was just pickiness.

Enria was relieved as well, but unlike Roseanne, she grew more concerned about Hayden’s eating habits.

It was inevitable—she was a mother, after all.

No matter that he was part god; he was still a human child she had carried and given birth to. Picky eating would have a serious impact on his growth.

Of course, since he inherited Caldeon’s genes, he would never be short—but still.

“Hayden, you need to eat everything properly. That’s how you stay healthy and grow tall—”

“Hmph. Just give me my body back already.”

Panz cut Enria off. The tiny golden wings and tail on his back fluttered irritably.

For a moment, Enria almost smiled, finding him oddly cute—but quickly pressed her lips together. If she laughed at Panz, who was already furious about his small, adorable appearance, he would surely explode.

“But this suits you.”

Hayden looked up with his dark eyes at Panz, who was fuming above him.

“Where do you think you’re going?! My original—!”

“The original was ugly like this.”

Hayden clenched a fist and held it to his forehead as if mimicking horns. At that, Panz’s expression stiffened.

After devouring spirit souls, he had once transformed into a demonic form with enormous bat wings—and he had no desire to return to that shape.

Rolling his only red eyes within his golden body, Panz protested, “T-that form aside, wasn’t there my original form? The brave, magnificent, and beautiful red—!”

“Nope. Doesn’t suit you. This does.”

Hayden’s insistence that the current form suited him best made Panz practically foam at the mouth.

Watching from a short distance, Graum asked Lonn what Panz’s original personality had been like.

“His personality? Nothing particularly abrasive. Before he was tricked by the black mage, he was a bit arrogant—but that’s just a fire spirit trait, isn’t it?”

When Lonn asked if Blizzan wasn’t the very definition of arrogance, Graum nodded.

“Still, I didn’t know he was so narcissistic that he’d praise his original form that much.”

Lonn muttered this while watching Panz shout at Hayden to restore him to his original body. Graum slowly nodded again.

“That aside, Hayden’s mental strength is remarkable.”

At Lonn’s quiet admiration, Graum’s lips curved upward.

“Indeed. Hayden’s mental strength surpasses that of humans. No—more than just that.”

Seeing Lonn look at him with curiosity, Graum met his gaze and continued.

“You’ll see soon enough. He’ll end up handling Panz as if he were his own.”

“Ah.”

Lonn nodded, as if he’d thought the same.

And it wasn’t just a matter of ‘soon.’

When Hayden resurrected Panz using the power of Absolution, he reshaped Panz’s appearance and abilities entirely to his own taste.

The fact that Panz—once a fire spirit—now possessed strange attributes no spirit should have was proof enough.

It seemed Hayden intended to use Panz as his personal spirit, customizing everything from appearance to elemental nature.

They hadn’t even known Absolution could do such a thing, which made it all the more astonishing. And considering that a human child of Hayden’s age should still be an immature being in desperate need of parental care, the fact that he conceived such an idea—and acted on it—was nothing short of remarkable.

Both Graum and Lonn watched Hayden, convinced that he was clearly different from ordinary humans.

And they weren’t the only ones who thought so.

In another room, Blizzan, Undy, and Eva—who were speaking with Caldeon, Rahar, and Tearen—shared the same thought.

“I’ve seen countless humans chosen by oracles, but never one with abilities like his. Hayden is undoubtedly extraordinary, even among humans,” Eva said.

Caldeon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“The revelation itself was special.”

At Tearen’s words, Rahar nodded.

“The power of Absolution was completely unexpected. But even so, I don’t want Hayden to keep using it. Using his own life force to save others—it’s far too cruel for a child with that power.”

Though Hayden’s lifespan far exceeded that of humans, Caldeon swallowed those thoughts rather than voice them.

Hayden’s secret had to remain hidden. It was better not to show even a hint of it.

Just think about it.

If the world learned that a fragment of a god had been born into a human body and was using power for the sake of humanity, chaos would surely follow.

Some would worship Hayden as a prophet. Others would desperately try to claim his power for themselves.

And still others would brand him a heretic, condemning him as something inhuman.

Caldeon himself—born with black mana—had faced countless types of people, even if not to that extreme. In the end, he learned that being “special” was not always a blessing.

Caldeon vowed to protect Hayden.

Of course, Hayden would carve his own path better than anyone else ever could—but still.