Chapter 234 Chapter233-One of the 72 Devils of the Abyss, Mammon
The man reclining amidst the Aqua Blue Flower sea appeared to be in his early twenties.
His features were so exquisitely chiseled they seemed sculpted, flawless in every aspect.
Dressed in a black robe, his slender fingers occasionally brushed away his cascading hair, giving off an aura of dark allure.
Though a faint smile played on his lips, his eyes were icy, betraying no emotion.
"Welcome to my domain, three fortunate mortals..."
The man amidst the Aqua Blue Flowers spoke first, his voice carrying a neutral tone, rich and seemingly imbued with a unique enchantment, drawing listeners closer.
The very moment his voice resonated, both Adam and Blue Sea's eyes glazed over in a trance.
Without any conscious control, their bodies began walking towards the man within the flower sea.
Inside their minds, system alarms blared frantically.
[Warning! Unknown energy detected, invading mental realm!]
[Warning! Unknown energy detected, invading mental realm!]
[Warning! Unknown energy detected, invading mental realm!]...
Yet the piercing alarms failed to rouse the minds of Blue Sea and Adam.
Their faces vacant, they looked like marionettes being manipulated, bereft of thought or consciousness.
Observing the two approaching figures, a wickedly pleased grin spread across the face of the man within the sea of flowers.
His gaze was aloof, as if he were gazing down upon mere ants.
Then, suddenly, John let out a quiet scoff.
Although John's voice was hardly loud, to Adam and Blue Sea, it was as if it had been amplified a hundredfold, piercing their eardrums and reaching deep into their souls.
They snapped back to their senses, faces awash with horror, looking at the enigmatic man in the flower sea as if they were gazing upon a terrifying monster.
"Oh? You're quite an exceptional human, able to break my mental control," the eerie man said, his entire focus now on John, who stood with his hands behind his back.
The man appeared genuinely taken aback by what he saw.
"Your mind control isn't impregnable. Breaking free from it is only natural," John tilted his head slightly, revealing a chilling smile. "I never thought I'd run into you here, Mammon..."
The mysterious man amidst the flowers paused briefly, then abruptly sat upright, his face emotionless, "You know me?"
John smiled faintly, speaking with an air of nonchalance, "Of course, one of the 72 devils of the Abyss, the infamous Mammon, wielding the dominion over desire and delusion. Knowing you shouldn't be all that surprising, should it?"
The man amidst the flowers, Mammon, now had an icy countenance. He gazed at John with uncertainty, not responding immediately.
Suddenly, John made an odd gesture, waving his hand dismissively in front of him as if swatting away an irritating fly.
"You know, even if I've exposed your identity, there's really no need to silently ORDER a force to corrode my soul, is there?"
Witnessing his stealthy ORDER attack being effortlessly deflected, even before it could invade the mysterious human's mental realm, Mammon's eyes betrayed a momentary shock.
But that emotion quickly vanished, replaced by a profound wariness.
"You carry a familiar aura, not quite human. Could it be that, like me, this appearance is merely a disguise?" Mammon's voice was even, his gaze inquisitive.
John's smile was radiant as he slowly shook his head, "You're mistaken. I'm authentically human, quite unlike a demon like you wearing human skin. Speaking of which, I never expected to see you in this guise on the Godslayer Continent. Is it now trendy in the Abyss to play human?"
Mammon, realizing John had discerned the truth, fell silent once more.
After a long pause, he finally murmured, "Someday, I intend to visit the human world. This vessel aligns well with their aesthetic preferences."
John exclaimed with sudden realization, "That makes sense. If you were to appear in your true form, you'd probably scare a large portion of humanity to death."
Mammon's eyes turned cold and menacing, retorting darkly, "Human, you dare insult a grand devil? Do you tire of life?"
With a devil's wrath, the heavens and earth shift.
As Mammon's mood altered, the entire expanse of the Thousand Streams Cave transformed.
First, the fundamental elements of the universe began to chaotically shift.
Some elements surged in quantity, even condensing into tangible forms, while others disappeared entirely, beyond reach even in deep meditation.
Then came a play of light and shadow: moments of blinding brightness that illuminated the space as if it were day, followed by intense darkness, making it impossible to see one's own hand.
Blue Sea and Adam felt as though the very fabric of space had turned upside-down.
In their perception, their heads now faced the ground and their feet, the sky.
This was the ORDER of delusion, affecting one's mind directly, making them believe they were in a profoundly disordered space, reversing black and white, and blurring up and down.
Yet John stood unaltered, his gaze clear and undisturbed by the changing surroundings.
"Give me a break. What is there about you worth my insult? Since when did the Devil become so vain about his appearance?"
All the while, John kept a watchful eye on Adam and Blue Sea, who swayed and reeled beside him.
Assured they were unaffected by Mammon's ORDER, he refrained from intervening.
For now, he'd let them wander lost within their minds...
Hearing John's words only intensified Mammon's anger.
However, he was astonished to find that no matter how he twisted the ORDER of the space around them, the human before him remained wholly unaffected.
"Human... for now, I'll assume you're one, even though I can't believe your kind could produce someone as formidable as you. Tell me your name. Resisting my ORDER grants you respect from the Abyss."
John flashed a grin, revealing pearly white teeth. "Galewind. You can simply call me by my name..."
Mammon pondered deeply, ransacking his memory, but no deity named Galewind came to mind.
Could he be a newly ascended deity?
But that was impossible.
Every birth of a new deity would tug at the world's consciousness, and all deities, whether of the lawful righteous or chaotic evil alignments, would sense the shift.
Moreover, humans were inherently frail and dull-witted, hardly having the potential to ascend to godhood...
While Mammon was lost in thought, John remained silent, discreetly unleashing the Eye of Artemis to gauge Mammon's attributes.
A mysterious gleam surfaced in John's profound eyes.
[Eye of Artemis (Divine Talent): You have been favored by the Goddess of Night, granting you the Eye of Artemis. With this gift, you can peer into darkness and the abyss, unveiling all their truths, and no illusion can deceive you. You can discern the truth of any matter and possess many mystical powers. With this talent, you can gaze directly upon deities.]
Although this divine talent produced only the faintest energy fluctuation, it instantly drew Mammon's attention.
His head snapped up, his expression dark and foreboding.
"That... that's the divine power of the Goddess of Night. You possess the divine power of Nyx, that wretched woman?"
John shrugged nonchalantly, "Making a fuss over nothing..."
After activating the Eye of Artemis, Mammon's attribute information finally emerged.
[Mammon (God-level Boss): One of the 72 devils of the Abyss, ranked thirty-third, ruler of desire and master of delusion, embodying the original sin of greed. Within the demonic ranks of the abyss, he leads the Legion of Desires and boasts the impressive feat of having once tempted a god into the depths of the abyss. He can provoke the most primal desires, exceedingly malevolent...]
[Level: 1348]
[Race: Demon]
[Attributes: ...]
John raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised.
He hadn't anticipated that Mammon before him would be over two hundred levels higher than the Fallen Angel Leviathan whom he'd previously slain.
It just went to show that even among gods, there were hierarchies of strength.
Leviathan, by the standards of the deity structure in the Godslayer world, might not even be noteworthy.
With just a cursory scan of Mammon's attributes, John immediately caught his... its attention.
"Human, retract your pitiful probing. Do you presume to gaze upon my essence?"
A fleeting grayish glow enveloped Mammon. The next moment, all the attribute information in John's Eye of Artemis changed to:
[Mammon (God-level Boss): ?????]
Now, John was even more taken aback.
This was the first time he had ever encountered a situation where his Eye of Artemis was rendered ineffective.
Its description stated that it could directly view deities...
When he had previously scanned the Fallen Angel Leviathan, although it had detected John's probing, it lacked the ability to shield against the Eye of Artemis' effect.
It had to be said that Mammon, true to his reputation as a deity specializing in mental intrusions, was a force to be reckoned with.
John finally understood why his earlier divine power couldn't penetrate the luminous entrance to get a glimpse of the situation inside the Thousand Streams Cave.
Most likely, it was due to Mammon's interference...
John's eyes dropped slightly, and he chuckled, "I'm not sure why you're here, but judging by your current state, you don't seem to be in the best of health, do you?"
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶