Ha…
Hot..
Ha… ha
It was hot…
My chest felt like it was being burnt from inside.
I couldn't breathe properly and my vision was slowly growing dim. I didn't know when but at some point I couldn't see my surroundings.
Only the fucker!
That bastard…
The thought of snapping his neck came to mind at least ten times within the span of a few seconds and it took every ounce of reasoning I had to stop myself from lunging at the bastard.
Fighting was prohibited within this event and that was the potato faced bastard's saving grace.
I had never killed a human before but I instinctively knew that I would enjoy taking his life.
'So his goal was to take my ability… no in the first place, how did he even find out the conditions for getting Zeus' lightning.'
It didn't make sense.
No matter how I thought about it, there was no explanation.
I made sure the condition was not leaked, since I was the only one in the game with that ability.
In Echoes there were some gods who chose more than one player to sponsor but a few gods like Zeus only gave their abilities to one player.
"Hah…" a sigh escaped my lips but it quickly escalated into broken laughter.
"Kek… kekeke, hahahaha"
It didn't matter how he got the information.
I didn't care enough to know.
Only one thing was certain.
The bastard needed to die.
My gaze met his mocking smirk, then I ran my finger across my neck in a threatening gesture.
I didn't speak, I didn't need to.
The meaning was quite clear.
'You're dead.'
He was so dead.
For someone like me who had no motivation to live previously, I would've normally let it go but now? I didn't know why but I didn't want to.
This burn… the searing heat within my chest, it felt like it wouldn't leave if I didn't deal with the fucker.
The bastard flinched and within the short second he did, I could see the fear behind his smug expression.
And when he decided he couldn't take it anymore he scowled.
"W-What, you're just a mere player like the rest without your sponsor, you don't scare me Alistar."
Poor bastard, if only he knew.
I never intended to scare him in the first place, I wanted to kill him.
My lips parted slightly, I tried to smile but my rage was getting to the point when my face no longer obeyed me.
"I don't scare you?"
I took a step towards him.
"You think my lightning abilities were what earned me my title?"
Another step.
"Fine then, I'll show you exactly why I was called a mad hound, and exactly what an unhinged one is capable of."
I continued walking until I was just a few steps away from him.
"Run as you may, it doesn't matter how long it takes, I'll find you and I'll kill you." I muttered. "And this time… unlike the game, there is no checkpoint."
Having nothing more to say to the bastard, I walked away.
As my steps echoed through the corridor, several system notifications flooded my vision.
[Ding! The constellation, rampaging dragon is interested in you.]
[Ding! The constellation, end bringer wants you to become his incarnation.]
[Ding! The constellation, Lord of flames wants you to become his incarnation.]
[Ding! The constellation, martial beast says they'll kill you if you don't become their constellation.]
'Did that midget just threaten me?'
[Ding! The constellation goddess of love yells at martial beast.]
[Ding! The constellation, prisoner of the Golden headband is interested in you.]
Oh… Sun wukong, now that wasn't a bad choice.
If I could get him to become my sponsor then I had no doubt that I would reclaim my spot amongst the top rankers.
'I guess I'll go for wukong.'
[The constellation— BZztTttzz.]
'Uh… what?'
[Ding! System error…]
"Oi what do you mean by that? What do you mean by system—"
[Foreign entity detected]
"Ah…"
My mouth parted involuntarily as I laid eyes on the status screen.
Within Echoes, racism wasn't exactly rampant but it didn't mean that it wasn't there
The system saw all humans and residents of the tower as equals and for that reason they generally referred to us as players or in general, pawns.
But among everything there's still one unchanging title the system gave to a specific group of people.
It referred to tainted constellations as foreign entities.
And one of those defiled, corrupted gods had just openly shown interest in me.
[Ding! Danger… a dark constellation has approached the player.]
[Initializing defense…zpttt.]
'A glitch?'
[Ding! System defense has been breached.]
[Ding! The dark constellation, Nameless god requests an audience with the player.]
"What?" I blurted out in shock.
From what I remembered, these guys weren't supposed to even appear till halfway towards the clearing of the tower of Baphomet.
And not only did one show up much earlier than it was supposed to, it was significantly calmer than I expected.
Tainted gods rarely asked, no… it was quite the opposite.
One minute you could be standing in a beach with a magnificent scenery and the next second you would find yourself in the sanctuary of the defiled god.
And it went without saying that if one could transport you to their dimensions without your consent, who was to say that they couldn't forcefully convert your body to become their vessel.
Unlike constellations, they didn't have incarnations and because they didn't have incarnations they injected their vessels with all their abilities and authorities.
The fact that it politely requested an audience meant that whatever tainted god who approached me was desperate and not in a situation to act directly.
Well at least not fully.
I mean it was able to interfere with the system.
[Do you accept the invitation?]
"Hah…"
I knew I shouldn't be doing this.
I was playing a dangerous game, regardless of what state it was in, a tainted god was still a defiled.
And they were not called corrupted without reason.
Still…
If I could get a nameless god to sponsor me without a condition to ruin me at the end, then I would have the power I need to tear down the tower and anyone in my path.
So I made my decision.
"I'll accept the invitation."