Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Agora – a platform of mass communication that had been opened for all the users of Menaka's Blessing.

In recent days, a recorded message had become quite popular on Agora.

It showed how an S-Ranked Practitioner named Syl Ouroboros sentenced capital punishments to a few followers of the Elder Ichor faction. Like always, he recorded it before posting it on Agora.

Eren was currently watching the message with a dark expressions on his face. He had observed how Syl had ridiculed and killed some of his followers and then started badmouthing him.

"You are a turtle, True Inheritor of the Elder Ichor bloodline," Syl Orobous said in the recording.

"That's right. A turtle who doesn't dare to step out of his shell. If you were really as radical as you made out to be, you would have faced me by now.

This is already my 5th public execution of your followers. If you don't act, I'll keep on harming your followers. But rest assured, I don't have plans to harm your reputation. Do you know why? I can't harm something that doesn't exist. Hahaha," Syl Oroboous kept spitting verbal venom through his long speech after he had concluded the public execution.

Eren could see the text responses left by viewers of the recorded message under the window it was displayed on. The more he read those text responses, the gloomier his expressions became.

[ Matop: I don't even blame the true Inheritor of the Elder Ichor or whatever anymore. I blame his followers for trusting this guy. ]

[ Aodattack: makes me wonder what the Elder Inheritor did to House Ouroboros. I guess there's some hidden story behind Syl Ouroboros' actions. ]

[ Infiinamint: I have an S-Ranked Nined-colored Jasmine for sale. I don't need Menaka's Runes and would only exchange it with other S-Ranked resources from the list I will attach below. Send me a private message through the Mesh if interested. ]

[ Kinky_: Hit me up if you want to have a good time. I prefer witches with mature bodies. ]

[ Lordofthethreedots: … ]

Agora, the mass communication platform hosted by Mesh, had become quite sophisticated after its inception and frequent new improvements.

At this point, the users of Menaka's Blessings could create a pseudo-personality for themselves and give it a different name from their original name to protect their identities.

After all, some lower-ranked Practitioners had been targeted by higher-ranked entities after making indiscreet remarks in Agora. Goddess Menaka had to introduce countermeasures to ensure that the users of Agora did not face harm due to their comments within the mass communication platform.

Dead customers were bad for her business.

A new thriving culture emerged on Agora after users' identities were secured. They started using Agora more freely, engaging in various forms of activities.

Some users had initiated "resource exchange clubs" on Agora, where they could use a barter system to obtain the things they wanted from a large pool of people and their possessions.

Some had established communication channels catering to a particular Path of the Practitioners.

On the other hand, some users were present on Agora just to vent their frustration or have some fun. They would often comment on random things under content posted by reputed personalities. Or they would use sarcasm and wit as effective tools to convey their point of view to a large number of viewers.

For example, a mysterious person who had chosen the handle name "Lordofthethreedots" would frequently respond with "..." under the most popular forms of content circulating on Agora.

Of course, Lordofthethreedots' responses had nothing to do with the original content, yet they would receive a massive number of applause, responses, and likes for doing something so random and trivial.

***

Eren didn't care about the evolution of Agora, which he had proposed to Goddess Menaka to create.

He also didn't want to target the small fry who dared to criticize him under Syl Ouroboros' posts.

He knew that he needed to get rid of the root of the problem instead of wasting his time on others. After all, people were bound to talk no matter how many of them he targeted personally, through his subordinates, or using his pseudo-

avatars.

"Reen dear, did we ever offend this asshat named Syl Ouroboros? Why does he want to meet me so much?"

Eren asked as he closed the Spectral Screen in front of him. He then looked at Reen, who was busy devouring the spiritual consciousness bound to a flagpole-shaped Hex Artifact.

Reen could power herself up after devouring premium-grade artifacts and the artifact spirits bound to them. As far as Eren knew, she was the only Elder Seed Spirit Artifact that could do such a thing.

Eren obviously knew of Reen's needs, and he had dedicated one of his pseudo-avatars to a singular task – collecting Hex Artifacts with artifact spirits found all across Labh Salem.

This pseudo-avatar had been providing Reen with a consistent supply of Hex Artifacts for her consumption over the last couple of years. Of course, Eren didn't ask his pseudo-avatar how he obtained the Hex Artifacts, and the other side didn't think it was necessary to tell.

"Syl Ouroboros? I don't think so," Reen shook her head and opened her eyes. She then got up from her cross-legged position and dropped the golden flagpole, which turned into dust and evaporated into nothingness, indicating that Reen had successfully devoured the essence of the artifact.

At this point, including this flagpole-shaped golden artifact, Reen had devoured more than 50 Hex Artifacts with spiritual consciousness in them. One could only describe her as a unique form of monster.

Eren hadn't made much use of Reen's ever-increasing powers for the most part after their reunion. He didn't have a reason to. He could handle most problems when he was about to leave Anfang.

He had put himself under a veil after landing in Labh Salem, slowly cultivating strength through various means. He had consciously avoided all the pitfalls arranged in his path by his enemies by just vanishing from sight.

Apart from the pseudo-avatars who were risking their lives to get the job done, Eren himself was never in a life-or-death situation for the most part. He played it safe like nobody's business.

However, Eren's vigilance and prudence didn't stop him from strengthening Reen or himself. He kept on feeding her more Hex Artifacts as soon as he got his hands on them.

The butcher always believed that the more one sweats in the peace the less they bleed in the war. As such, he never stopped sharpening his or Reen's claws.