Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Vepar allowed Eren to process her words for a bit before continuing.

"My liege, even though there are not many temples dedicated to her, goddess Mortessa does have a few followers. But they are not in Labh Salem at this point.

However, that can change when the Hvergelmir Springs appear in Labh Salem.

Mortessa's followers seek to spread disease and corruption, believing that through decay, new life can be born. As such, they are an extremely violent bunch who get easily recognized no matter which world they visit."

Eren simply nodded as an acknowledgment, prompting Vepar to continue further.

"As for why Mortessa is referred to as the Slumbering Goddess– it is said that to concoct a divine curse, she had to put her own divinity on the line. Although, by the end of her gamble, she did manage to cause the Godfall of God Aleph, becoming Elder Goddess herself in the process, she also suffered from its backlash.

It is said that her own divinity sometimes acts against her because of this backlash, causing her to go through long bouts of lifelessness as a result. This lifelessness is seen as her slumbering by others. And…"

Vepar hesitated to speak further. She couldn't decide if she should provide unconfirmed news to Eren. However, Eren's smile put her at ease before she continued.

"It is said that she is in the process of curing herself of the anomaly in her divinity. She has developed a unique divine technique that allows her to correct the anomalies in her divinity through her reincarnations.

They say that when she reincarnates for enough times and lives many lives through the use of her reincarnations, she would one day be able to cure herself of her anomaly completely," Vepar said in an unhurried tone.

"I see," Eren replied, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

Through God Aleph's memories, Eren remembered how the goddess had also put a divine curse on all of his potential successors. It was most likely that the peculiar condition of her divine anomaly had worsened even further because of that act.

Unlike Vepar, Eren had personal experience with dealing with one of Mortessa's reincarnations. As such, he could easily discern that the rumors about her circulating among the well-established Immortals were true for the most part.

Eren remembered the interaction he had with Goddess Mortessa when she sent her consciousness into Sienna Slughorn's body. He remembered how lifeless the surroundings had gotten when she cast out her domain.

Even while she was being suppressed by Anfang's World Will and subjected to the rules of the mortal plane to a greater extent, her divine powers were nothing to scoff at.

"That harlot has many of her mini-versions alive and active in many worlds, it seems," Eren thought to himself as he was reminded of Sienna Slughorn.

It seemed that she had more than one reason to reincarnate as Sienna in Anfang. He could only guess how many of her reincarnations she had used or how many were currently active across the boundless cosmos.

"I wonder how that goddess reacted when she reclaimed her residual consciousness and assimilated with Sienna Slughorn's memories," Eren chuckled to himself as he thought.

"Although House Slughorn had formatted some of her memories related to the Experience Pack Auction incident I caused, I'm sure a goddess of her status would have many ways to retrieve those formatted memories.

I have sullied her reincarnation beyond repair. She might not be able to assimilate with that part of her form completely after knowing what I had done to it. As long as she ends her slumbering form completely and processes those memories, she is bound to do everything in her power to eliminate me," Eren mused and smiled.

Eren didn't care that the Sienna he had tortured turned out to be such a big nuisance to him in the form of Goddess Mortessa. He didn't regret the incident he had caused back then either. After all, it was she who had messed with him in his first timeline.

Eren was no saint. However, he wasn't a mindless demon who took pleasure in torturing people or putting them through bouts of misery just for fun. Although his actions were driven mainly by the emotions of revenge, they had many layers attached to them.

Most importantly, he felt good and liberated after enacting his revenge on Sienna. This feeling of satisfaction alone was enough for Eren not to regret his actions.

"If I have been given a second chance, no, technically speaking, a third chance to restart everything from scratch, I'd do those things to Sienna once again without any regrets.

In fact, I would have considered locking the goddess' consciousness and torturing her for my pleasure if I had known back then that she was such a big shot. I'm sure I would have learned a lot from capturing a goddess' fragmented consciousness."

Eren thought and sighed. It was as if he regretted not being given opportunities to put Sienna through even greater forms of misery than what he had done in the past.

It wasn't as if Eren hadn't done something similar to what he wanted to do with the goddess' consciousness before.

He had tempered the soul fragment of the Demon Prince of Wrath by trapping it inside an Elder Seed Artifact he had crafted with his own hands, using Anfang's World Will and his soul's ascendance to Immortal status as catalysts.

As long as it ensured the same outcome or results, Eren wouldn't hesitate to subject Labh Salem to a similar form of calamity. Though he had no intention of replicating the same feats he had achieved in Anfang, he was willing to go to any lengths to harm his enemies at their weakest.

"Vepar, how long do you think it will take for that goddess to refine her divinity and fully awaken from her slumber?" Eren asked, his mind buzzing with numerous thoughts simultaneously.

Vepar paused for a moment before responding cautiously.