Chapter 771: Summoning The Sin of Gluttony (2)
As the massive magic circle pulsed with dark energy, the Lich began to chant in a deep, resonant voice, its tone carrying the weight of ancient knowledge and forbidden power. The words were in a language long forgotten by most, a tongue of eldritch origins that echoed through the blood-soaked Citadel of War like a dirge from another world. Each syllable rolled off the Lich’s spectral tongue with a chilling precision, the very sound of it causing the air to tremble and the ground to shudder in response.
The magic circle responded to the chant, its crimson glow intensifying, casting eerie, pulsating light across the battlefield. The symbols within the circle seemed to shift and writhe as if alive, reacting to the ancient incantation with a fervent energy. Tendrils of dark magic rose from the circle, swirling around the Lich, coiling around its spectral form like serpents of shadow and blood.
With each verse of the chant, the air grew heavier, thick with the oppressive power of the dark arts. The ground beneath the Lich began to fracture and crack, blackened fissures spreading outward from the circle, as though reality itself was straining under the weight of the summoning. The temperature dropped, and a suffocating sense of dread filled the air, as if the very essence of the Citadel was recoiling in fear of what was about to be unleashed.
As the chant reached its climax, the Lich raised its clawed hands high above its head, and with a final, thunderous command, it called forth the portal. The center of the magic circle erupted in a blinding flash of crimson light, and a massive portal began to tear open in the fabric of reality. The portal was a swirling vortex of darkness and blood-red energy, its edges crackling with arcs of black lightning. It spiraled outward, expanding slowly as if struggling to contain the monstrous force on the other side.
Within the depths of the portal, a grotesque form began to emerge, shrouded in shadows and writhing with unnatural life. The Sin of Gluttony was revealed—a nightmarish mass of rotting flesh, pulsating and squirming as if it was a living, breathing wound in the fabric of reality. The flesh was a sickening, decayed hue, mottled with patches of necrotic tissue and oozing sores. The surface of this grotesque entity was slick with a foul, viscous fluid that dripped onto the ground below, sizzling as it made contact with the blood-soaked earth.
Hundreds of thousands of eyes dotted the creature’s form, each one a different size and shape, but all equally unsettling. These eyes rolled and shifted constantly, never resting, as if each was searching for something to consume, something to devour. They bulged grotesquely from the decayed flesh, their scleras a sickly yellow, and their pupils dilated into gaping black voids. Some eyes were bloodshot and weeping, others were clouded over with cataracts, yet all of them moved with an unnerving awareness, as though the creature was hyper-aware of everything around it.
The Sin of Gluttony was bound by pitch-black chains that seemed to absorb all light around them, chains that were almost abyssal in their darkness. These chains were thick and heavy, forged from some unholy metal that defied all natural laws. They wrapped around the creature’s massive form, digging deep into its rotting flesh, holding it in place with an unbreakable grip. The chains rattled and groaned under the strain of the creature’s constant, violent thrashing as if it was desperate to break free and unleash its insatiable hunger upon the world.
The Lich’s chant grew softer, yet more intense, as it directed its will toward controlling the portal and the monstrosity emerging from it. The air was filled with the sound of the chains rattling and the grotesque squelching of the creature’s decaying flesh as it writhed against its bonds. The very ground beneath the portal seemed to sink under the immense weight of the Sin of Gluttony as if the Citadel itself was struggling to contain such a vast and malevolent presence.
As the portal fully opened, the Sin of Gluttony was nearly free, its grotesque form towering over the battlefield. The Lich, now in full command, continued to chant, its voice carrying through the Citadel, binding the creature to its will. The scene was one of pure, unrelenting horror, a testament to the Lich’s power and the dark forces that ruled this twisted world of blood and battle.
As the Sin of Gluttony fully emerged from the portal, its grotesque form towering over the Citadel of War, an overwhelming wave of dark energy rippled outward from its being. This energy was a force of primal hunger, a ravenous need that seeped into the very essence of every living creature in the surrounding area. The air grew thick with the scent of decay and rot, and a palpable sense of desperation began to take hold.
In an instant, the world descended into madness.
The Sin of Gluttony’s influence took hold of the minds of every living being within the Citadel, twisting their thoughts and desires into a single, all-consuming urge: to devour. The eyes of the rotting inhabitants glazed over, their pupils dilating until their eyes were nearly black, hollow pits of insatiable hunger. Their bodies convulsed as the need to consume overtook them, overriding all reason and self-control.
The chaos began with a blood-curdling scream as the first of the infected creatures lunged at its nearest companion, sinking its teeth into flesh with a feral, animalistic fury. The sound of tearing flesh and crunching bone filled the air as the rabid being gnawed through sinew and muscle, heedless of the blood pouring from its own mouth. Soon, others followed, turning on each other with a horrifying speed. Friends, neighbors, even family members became nothing more than prey in the eyes of those consumed by the Sin of Gluttony’s curse.
Everywhere within the Citadel, the once-cohesive society of rotting beings erupted into a frenzied orgy of violence and gluttony. Bodies piled upon bodies as the infected tore into each other with savage abandon, their rotten hands clawing, teeth gnashing, and stomachs churning with the desperate need to fill the void inside them. Blood and bile mixed with the dirt, creating a vile slurry that coated the ground, further adding to the sense of overwhelming filth and decay.
Even those too decayed to move properly were not spared. They dragged themselves across the ground, chewing on the soil, gnawing on the stones of the Citadel’s foundation, or tearing into the very walls of their homes, trying to satiate the gnawing hunger that burned within them. The sounds of crunching rock and splintering wood joined the cacophony of destruction, as teeth and claws scraped against any surface that could be bitten or torn apart.
The animals within the Citadel, too, were driven to madness. Birds descended from the sky to peck at anything they could find, tearing at the flesh of those already fallen. The few remaining livestock, bloated and rotting, turned on each other with a savage desperation, ripping through each other’s decaying flesh with an unnatural strength, driven by a hunger that could never be satisfied.
The ground itself seemed to writhe under the onslaught as if recoiling from the madness that had taken hold. Buildings, weakened by the endless assault of those trying to eat them, began to crumble, adding to the chaos as debris rained down upon the rabid hordes below. The Citadel of War, once a place of order and power, had become a nightmarish vision of unchecked gluttony and destruction.
In the midst of this chaos, the Sin of Gluttony stood as a monument to the madness it had unleashed. Its hundreds of thousands of eyes bulged grotesquely, watching with a sick satisfaction as the world around it consumed itself. The black, abyssal chains that bound it rattled ominously, as if barely able to contain the monster’s desire to feed on the very souls of the beings it had driven to madness.
The Lich, standing near the portal, observed the mayhem with cold detachment, its newly acquired memories from Voracity giving it a full understanding of the destruction it had wrought. The Citadel was now a domain of pure, unbridled chaos, where the very essence of gluttony ruled supreme, and where all that lived would ultimately devour itself in a futile attempt to fill an endless void.
The scene was one of absolute horror, a brutal display of the power of the Sin of Gluttony, as the once-dominant Citadel of War was reduced to a writhing mass of bodies, all consumed by a hunger that would never be quenched.
As the Sin of Gluttony continued to radiate its corrupting influence, the grotesque mass of rotting flesh began to stir. It could feel the resonance of the surrounding beings, their minds, and bodies consumed by the very essence of its sin. The chaotic frenzy of the Citadel, with its inhabitants devouring anything and everything in a desperate bid to satisfy their insatiable hunger, fed directly into the Sin of Gluttony’s own being. This resonance, this echo of its own nature in the actions of those around it, began to awaken the dormant terror within.
