Edikth was the most mysterious god in the Subterranean Sea. He had neither followers nor religion, and records of His existence in human society were pitifully scarce.

When Charles first learned that he was Edikth's Chosen One, he had mobilized Hope Island's intelligence department to search for any information about Edikth.

He wanted to know why—why was it that among all the people on Earth, Edikth had chosen him as His Chosen One? Why was he sent to this hellhole?

While staring at the entity before him, he finally understood why—it was inevitable, as it was a part of a cycle.

Only upon his arrival in the Subterranean Sea would Edikth come into existence. He had created Himself by becoming a god. In other words, the entity before Charles had the ability to traverse time.

Just then, Charles recalled the moment when he had knelt before statues of Divinities to plead for Lily's life. Back then, he had asked them to save Lily from the brink of death.

In the end, those statues exploded one after another. Charles assumed that it was all because he was the Chosen One of a god, but now, he realized that the statues had exploded, as they were afraid—afraid of what Charles would become upon becoming a god.

He wasn't Edikth's Chosen One; he was Edikth Himself!

The revelation was so shocking that even the Charleses who had lost a huge chunk of their humanity were utterly astonished. However, they needed to set aside their surprise now, as they were inside Edikth.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

They had to escape soon, or they would be devoured by the god version of themselves!

The distorted emotions within the yellow iris made it awfully clear—the entity before them wouldn't spare them just because they were all Charles.

Just then, the flesh walls rapidly closed in on them.

"Switch to another perspective! Hurry!" As they left the final perspective, Edikth's figure transformed into a green star that phased through their figures.

The scenery around them peeled rapidly as they changed perspectives. Three seconds later, they returned to their original position in the lightless Subterranean Sea.

As soon as they returned, a white light engulfed them, and they were whisked away somewhere else. Edikth was now occupying their previous location. Had they been a second slower, Edikth would have burst open from within them.

Charles stood frozen as he finally got his first clear look at Edikth's true form.

Edikth was a massive spindle-shaped mass of flesh, and Charles struggled to find the words to describe Him. His body didn't seem to be entirely solid, and He appeared to be shrouded by a watercolor filter.

Yellow eyes of various sizes covered the entirety of the trembling mass of flesh. Between these eyes, distorted mouths dripping with black viscous fluid jostled and roared incessantly.

At the center of all this was a massive, bright yellow eyeball—Charles remembered this eye. When he had first arrived in the Subterranean Sea, the eyeball before him had emerged from beneath the water and gazed at him.

Charles transmitted a message to Edikth. "

For the time being, I'm not going to say anything about the fact that you sent me down here from the surface world. Anyway, I believe there's no reason for you to attack us.

"In the first place, what do you stand to gain from attacking us?"

Edikth showed no reaction to Charles' attempt at communication.

Perhaps his consciousness had transcended the limits of humanity, making it impossible to communicate with Him through human language, or perhaps He no longer had any need for an ego.

He was a god, after all, and only inferior beings needed ego.

Realizing that his attempt at communication wasn't effective, Charles steeled himself and remarked, "It doesn't matter what that thing is… we must proceed with our plan."

Whether the entity before them was Edikth or something else, they had already made up their minds. They had already decided to dissect a god, so they would dissect a god, even if the god was themselves!

The watercolor filter shrouding Edikth was inundated by rapidly proliferating tentacles. The tentacles writhed as they moved deeper into the entity.

The next moment, Edikth retaliated, and the minds of the Charleses were flooded with profound, tempting knowledge.

The attack was quite effective, as some of the Charleses started losing control of themselves. Fortunately, the other Charleses tore out large chunks of their brains in time, preventing a catastrophe.

Swoosh!

There was a flash of white light, and Edikth was sliced in half, interrupting His retaliation.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the Charleses began dissolving, transforming into liquid that seemed to be merging with the deep sea.

Time travel, foresight, matter manipulation, mental contamination, and more. As more and more special abilities that only gods could wield manifested, the sea region was plunged into utter chaos.

The fabric of reality was wholly incapable of withstanding the catastrophic exchange of blows, and spatial rifts of varying sizes appeared all over the place, displacing tons of seawater to somewhere else.

Even time itself had become unstable. The present of the past, the past of the future, and the future of the present had converged at one point, plunging the spacetime continuum into chaos.

If a human being were here, they would see eldritch monstrosities with interconnected bodies moving in sync. In the proverbial blink of an eye, both sides had shattered each other's bodies dozens of times.

Any other creature would have died many times over, but they were gods and entities on the cusp of becoming gods. The level of damage that they had sustained could only be considered part of their warm-up.

It was exceedingly difficult for them to kill each other, and in fact, even the Charleses found it challenging to kill themselves.

"Devour Him!" The Charleses came up with another solution. "Try to sever the connections between Edikth's flesh and devour him."

The Charleses swarmed forward, and a myriad of mouths sprouted all over their flesh as they attempted to devour Edikth. However, it seemed that Edikth had the same idea as them. Edikth's yellow eyeballs split open and began devouring the newly formed grotesque mouths.

Just then, the Charleses stumbled upon a big problem.

The Charleses and Edikth possessed roughly equal strength, but Edikth was just one entity, while the Charleses was a collective of Charles. In no time, two Charleses were torn off of the collective mass of flesh and dragged over by Edikth.

Charles assumed that Edikth would devour them, but he was wrong.

Instead, Edikth shoved his own flesh into the two Charleses.

Realizing that something was amiss, Charles distanced himself.

Then, he watched as those two Charleses burst open from within and gave birth to two new Edikths.

Earlier, they were evenly matched, but now, the Charleses were at a clear disadvantage. The fight was now three against one.

Sensing the tumultuous emotions of his allies, Charles hurriedly transmitted,

"Calm down, we haven't lost yet."

A tube made out of flesh sprouted out of Charles. The tube was connected to his own plane. The next moment, a white ball appeared, resting against the tube.

"Help me defeat Edikth!"

As soon as Charles' words fell, the white ball turned red, and a slender hand wrapped in black bandages gently picked it up.

005 held the Feaster in her arms while staring at the three Edikths in the distance.

Then, her words pervaded everything in all directions.

"

Haha, this is interesting.

"