Chapter 1561: Abandoned [3]

Gluttony was a curious one.

He thought Envy just didn't have much contact with him, but after seeing Lust's memories, he realized that it wasn't just Envy.

As mentioned before, Gluttony was always just "there."

He was there when the team was created, and he was there when it was crippled. He was there through their every battle, and all the while, he never changed.

Silent, unchanging, inhuman.

That was the way even his own comrades thought of him. That was why they treated him as a mascot.

How could they not?

They'd tried many times to bring even a bit of personality out of him, but they'd been able to do nothing.

Gluttony was an impenetrable fortress.

And because of that, Lust was also slightly curious about what went on in his head.

Gluttony obviously didn't give consent for Damien to read him, but the assumed consent from those around him was enough.

Plus, as he approached, Gluttony remained calm.

'This is a guy who doesn't know how to hold back his hostility.'

Gluttony was an instinctive beast. He attacked anything he was hostile against and would never stop until it died.

'But he's never shown hostility towards me.'

When they were fighting, Gluttony only attacked to protect his comrades.

Other than that, he just stood and watched the events unfold.

Was he tortured with them?

How did he respond to it?

And...why was he like this in the first place?

To learn it all, Damien put his hand on Gluttony's forehead and sent his mana into his body.

'That existence...reveal it to me.'

WHOOSH!

All of a sudden, the scene changed.

Blackness was the first thing Damien saw.

A blackness that shouldn't have existed, yet one that was completely familiar.

'How am I...'

Damien's eyes widened.

'Why am I in the Void?'

He'd experienced it with his own body, so he knew he couldn't be mistaken.

He was inside the Void, nonexistent as if he was a part of its mass rather than a visitor.

And as he watched, the Void changed, turning into the Heavenly World itself.

A fleck of its power fell to the surface and touched a baby who was only just born. This wasn't a rare phenomenon, however, it was rare for any of those children to ever actually respond to it.

For the most part, the Void's power was simply too much even at the smallest levels, and most of it returned itself to the environment during the child's development period.

For some, a portion of it would be ingested and would later manifest itself as talent unlike anything others had seen before.

Ruyue's affinity with Yin could be explained through this phenomenon.

However, on the off chance that a child could truly inherit the potential of that fleck of Void...

Well, Damien would happen. A small connection would appear and bloom. The Void would be attracted to that connection and would continuously stick to that individual. And eventually, if they could meet its expectations, it would offer them the opportunity to become Absolute.

That wasn't what happened in the scene Damien saw.

In that scene, another unique situation took place.

A child's body reacted to the fleck of Void. However, it was not able to properly absorb it.

That child's body convoluted itself trying to adapt to the power flowing through it. It changed, morphing internally until its systems had begun to mimic the Void itself.

However, in the end, it failed.

The adaptations it made became defective, and the Void never truly clung to that child.

It was just a coincidence that created a monster.

That child was Gluttony. From birth, he'd been robbed of everything.

His mind was absent of anything, a reflection of nothingness.

While his body could absorb anything, a reflection of all things.

The two concepts of the Void that Damien once mastered had manifested themselves in their own ways, but those ways had turned Gluttony into something of a puppet.

A puppet that eventually came under the control of Malevalon Straea.

Gluttony was planted in the 4 Evils by Malevalon and acted as his substitute to monitor the group's behavior.

He developed a connection to his group for unknown reasons that even Damien couldn't see, for it was an instinctive response rather than something that came from the mind.

That was an unforeseen circumstance. It impeded his ability to watch over them properly.

Gluttony could not talk, because his body did not give him that capability. He could not think, so he could not communicate through mana.

However, he would protect himself and those who he instinctively connected with. He would do as he was told.

He couldn't physically report anything, but using Gluttony, who nobody would ever suspect, Malevalon was always able to keep his own eyes on the group through a variety of means.

It had been a while since Malevalon planned to get rid of the 4 Evils. He just didn't get the chance to do it because they were always finding a way to be useful.

Their loss against Damien was a perfect excuse to terminate them.

At least, the three of them.

Gluttony was never included in it. He was never sent to be tortured or even reprimanded for his participation in the battle.

Gluttony was always supposed to stay in Straea and do Malevalon's bidding.

However, he left with the 4 Evils, following his instinct.

'Malevalon...isn't looking for him.'

Was it that Malevalon decided Gluttony wasn't worth the effort, or did he have plans to come back for him at a later time?

Was he being stored as a trump card? If so, wasn't it good for Damien to remove all of Malevalon's influence from the puppet-

like man as soon as possible?

The answer to all of those questions was yes.

Malevalon gave up on Gluttony, but the systems in his body assured that he could always be brought back if the need for his skills arose.

He was something of a trump card, but not one Malevalon totally cared about.

Yet...

'...if there are systems in Gluttony's body that are connected to Malevalon directly...'

Didn't that mean Damien could trace those systems before destroying them to find out information about Malevalon?

'It absolutely does.'

Damien dug deeper into Gluttony's existence.

Knowing that this man was a puppet of the Void, knowing that his everything was completely a mess because of it, Damien felt some sympathy.

He truly hadn't been able to live his life at all, simply existing at the level of power he mysteriously gained at being and working for others.

Damien almost wanted to take Gluttony in and help him regain his sense of self, but he knew the man would be more comfortable with his own comrades.

When Damien reached a level where he could freely control the Void, it wouldn't be too late to find him and help him.

Nevertheless, as Damien dug and dug, he found several layers of foreign mana within Gluttony's body.

Again, it wasn't unfamiliar. This mana very obviously belonged to Malevalon Straea.

Damien removed layer by layer, taking the time to unravel them as he did so.

Only after fifteen of such layers of protections and spyware were removed did Damien find a connection that visually transmitted information.

Through that, he could find Malevalon.

Or so he thought.

But when Damien pushed his way through that connection using Existence and saw what was on the other end, it was not a live feed, but a single memory.

The last thing the line had seen, the last time it was made to relay information.

And in that short memory that was no more than a few seconds long...

'FUCK!'

Malevalon Straea walked through a Dimensional Crack.

He had abandoned the Heavenly World entirely.