Ch. 64 - The Original Sin, Gluttony

It was already late at night when Paladin leisurely walked out of the basement. In his hand, there was a bright red philosopher's stone the size of a ping pong ball. It showed how much he had gained tonight. He simply used alchemy to seal up the entrance to the basement while Aberleigh was on the floor, looking at Paladin with a happy expression and barking hard.

“Ohhhh, wahhh."

Paladin squinted his eyes. With a frown, he stepped forward and took out a handkerchief from his sleeve to wipe the blood around Aberleigh’s mouth. After that, he inquired, "Have you eaten all of it?"

"Ohhhh!" Aberleigh nodded happily. Looking at his bulging stomach, it was clear that he had devoured almost the whole thing clean.

At that, Paladin felt relieved. He threw the handkerchief to the side and commanded, "You guard the church. If anyone breaks in without knocking, kill them! Avoid being seen, do you hear me?"

"Ohhh." Aberleigh immediately barked. With his huge body, he jumped up and stuck on the ceiling at once. He was almost integrated with the darkness that he’d be impossible to detect without close examination. Paladin nodded with satisfaction. He tightened his grip on the Philosopher's Stone, walked up to the attic, and locked the door to his room. Next, he waited for dawn to fall.

When he felt bored, Paladin read a variety of alchemical books. He also read other books such as biographies and national history. He hadn’t slept for many days. At the beginning, two or three hours of sleep was sufficient, but then his sleep hour was gradually reduced. And ten days ago, he didn’t sleep a wink. It wasn’t that he couldn’t sleep, but he simply didn’t want to sleep. Paladin, who didn’t feel sleepy at all, suspected this problem arose because of the fusion with the light magic elements. But at the moment, it didn’t appear to be a bad thing. At least, he had plenty of time to do what he wanted to do.

Thus, Paladin killed time by reading books. When the first rays of sunlight pierced the dark clouds and broke through the curtains, brightening Paladin's eyes that were in a trance, he knew that it was time. Without any other thoughts, Paladin prepared a magnifying glass, drew the fusion refinement formation, and simply waited for the sunlight to gradually grow larger and larger before starting the fusion. In his mind, he calculated that he had swallowed the lifespan of ten extra people before, and two of them were consumed to overdraft aging. Now, there should be eight people’s worth of lifespan in his body. But of course he didn’t count his own, since his own lifespan had long been consumed.

In this case, five human portions of light magic element shouldn’t trigger the aging phenomenon. His body should be capable for three portions more after the fusion was completed. In other words, Paladin could probably live to about 280 to 300 years old! When he thought he could live for hundreds of years more, Paladin couldn’t help but snicker. At the time, enough sunlight was gathered by the magnifying glass, thus a thick beam of light was projected on the table, starting the fusion.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha!"

The long-lost and familiar sharp pain instantly spread throughout his body. However, Paladin no longer collapsed, it was not as painful as before. Whenever he was in severe pain, the thought of more and more powerful power being continuously integrated into his own body, the incomparable joy and happiness he felt diluted all the pain. Leaving only extreme joy. So, right now, Paladin didn't know whether it was because of the pain or the happy feeling he felt, but looking at the gradual expansion of the golden crystal on his right arm, he let out a burst of happy laughter.

"Yes, yes! Endless power! Endless power!"

Paladin was ecstatic to see that the three hundred light elements surrounding him were trembling violently. One divided into two, two divided into four. When the Philosopher's Stone fully fused with him, the number of light magic elements in the surrounding area doubled. There were now over 600 light elements, his strength had doubled. Paladin didn’t have the chance to fully express his joy before the world turned black in his eyes. He stopped laughing, and his knee fell onto the ground. Once again, he fell into a brief coma. . . . . . .

"Feed me."

Familiar yet unfamiliar words rang in his ears. Paladin hazily opened his eyes. The pure white space, the huge inverted tree drawn beneath his feet, and the black baby with the same shape as before was in front of him. Without getting tired, it kept on saying feed me, feed me. Because of his past experiences, Paladin instantly understood that he was once again inside that strange and eerie dream.

"Feed me. Feed me."

This black baby squatting in front of him was still calling him.

"You always said to feed you. What do you want me to feed you?" Paladin asked, a strange expression plastered on his face.

Who would have guessed that as soon as Paladin asked that question, the circle marked by the word 'Material Kingdom' beneath his feet would begin to glow? Because the circle was the closest to the tree’s canopy, the entire canopy of leaves shone.

Paladin froze, he had never been in this situation before. Suddenly, the black baby was in front of his eyes. It smiled very excitedly and climbed up, grabbing Paladin's thumb and tugging it outward. Paladin’s balance became unstable, and it forced him to take a step outside of the circle. When he realized what had happened, his face showed surprise. He remembered clearly that when he tried to leave the circle before, invisible barriers blocked his path, preventing him from doing so. But now, he could leave easily!

"Come here, follow me." The black baby let out a cheerful cry and pulled Paladin towards the circle with gluttony written on it. When he was about to step into the circle, Paladin suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of fear. There appeared to be a road of no return before him. Once he stepped inside, he could never turn back!

"No, let go! I'm not going over there!"Paladin made a desperate attempt to shake the baby's hand and flee from the circle in front of him. However, the baby was surprisingly strong. As an adult, Paladin couldn’t even sway its tiny hand that was as small as an apple.

"Let go of me! I'm not going over there!"

Seeing the black baby’s insistence of him going inside there, Paladin got increasingly uneasy. Alas, he simply couldn’t do anything against the baby’s extremely disproportionate strength. He was yanked forcefully into the circle.

Thud. Paladin's whole body fell inside the circle. Terrified, he immediately jumped up and attempted to escape from the ‘Gluttony’ circle. But then, an invisible barrier of despair appeared on the sides of the circle, bouncing Paladin back inside the circle again.

"What do you want?! What the hell is going on here?! Answer me!" Paladin looked at the black baby and roared out. But instead, he saw the baby's mouth open, revealing a terrifying mouth full of fangs. Crack, crack! The baby, whose height was only up to his waist, opened its mouth so wide it could eat a watermelon in one bite.

Just as Paladin was getting a bad feeling, the baby suddenly flew quickly upwards. Strong arms immediately grabbed Paladin's left hand. It then laughed and exclaimed, "Feed me!"

Its massive mouth ripped Paladin's left hand apart with force.

"AHHHH!"

Paladin immediately felt the intense pain that burrowed into his mind. This was as painful as fusing with the light magic elements, if not worse!

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