Not Cheating, Just Mealtime

That proclamation, filled with mockery and cruelty, tore through the Wailing Banshees' last psychological defenses.

Run!

That was the only thought left in the Banshee of Hatred's mind.

She drove her divinity to its limit, her body transforming into a twisted streak of gray light as she frantically weaved through the crumbling Gothic buildings, trying to use the complex terrain to shake off the terrifying predator behind her.

Wherever she passed, the carvings left on the walls turned grotesque, and withered vines came alive, transforming into venomous thorns that tried to stop her pursuer.

Yet all of it was futile.

The golden afterimage smashed through walls and tore apart thorns with an even more unreasonable, tyrannical force.

He did not even bother to dodge. The obstacles infused with curses of hatred were absorbed by the golden tiger-striped divinity covering his body the instant they touched him, becoming fuel for his sprint.

"Damn! De Ba De... isn't this guy cheating?"

Xiao's voice rang out over the communication channel, filled with incredulous excitement.

He had only just emerged from that state of absolute rationality, his mind still somewhat muddled, when the sight before him dealt him a heavy blow.

The teammate he remembered, always a little timid and in need of everyone's protection, was now like a Fierce Beast that had escaped from ancient mythology, chasing a Mid-Rank God across the world and tearing into her.

"It's not cheating. It's 'mealtime.'"

Ji Xing's calm voice came through, correcting him.

Di Jia Ling Yu said nothing, but her actions explained everything.

She raised her hand and clenched at the space ahead of the fleeing Banshee of Hatred.

Space abruptly froze.

The Banshee of Hatred's forward momentum came to a sudden halt, as though she had slammed into an invisible, utterly impassable wall.

Her smoke-formed body was forcibly compressed flat beneath that immobilizing force.

That brief pause determined her fate.

The golden figure arrived.

"Run. Why did you stop running?"

De Ba De's voice sounded beside her ear, carrying the teasing amusement of a cat toying with a mouse.

He did not kill her immediately. Instead, he extended the sharp claw gleaming with a metallic sheen and lightly dragged it across that flattened cloud of smoke.

Rip.

A strand of pure divinity representing the very origin of hatred was hooked out by his claw tip, like a wisp of gray cotton candy.

The Banshee of Hatred let out a soundless shriek. She felt a part of herself being stripped away from the very foundation of her existence.

De Ba De brought that strand of divinity to his mouth and stuck out his tongue, giving it a lick.

He smacked his lips, an intoxicated expression like someone savoring delicious food appearing on his face.

"A little spicy, but it has a strong aftertaste. I like it."

The Banshee of Hatred went mad.

Completely, irredeemably mad.

She stopped fleeing. Her body reformed, erupting with an unprecedented aura of malice.

"I will make you hate! I will make everyone around you hate you! I will make you fall into eternal suspicion and betrayal, until you hate yourself amid endless agony!"

The most vicious curse transformed into a tangible mental assault and blasted toward De Ba De.

Yet De Ba De merely opened his mouth.

That torrent of hatred, enough to corrupt a god's mind, was like a delicious appetizer before him, swallowed in a single gulp.

His body did not so much as sway. Instead, the golden light in his eyes grew even fiercer.

"Thanks for the meal."

He grinned, exposing his stark white fangs.

"As repayment, I'll show you what real 'hatred' is."

His claw was no longer toying with her. Carrying a savage, domineering will, it plunged viciously into the banshee's chest.

This time, he did not strip away her divinity.

Instead, he poured the power he had just "digested," mixed with the Tiger God's primal ferocity, back into her!

"Aaaahhh—!"

For the first time, the Banshee of Hatred's scream became so real, so piercingly miserable.

Her body swelled and twisted violently.

She felt her divine authority being contaminated, overwritten by a higher and purer form of "beastliness."

The "hatred" she understood was a complex emotion of intelligent life, born from envy, loss, and betrayal.

But what he had poured into her was the most primal, purest hatred, the hatred of a beast.

It was the rage of territory being invaded, the fury of prey being stolen, the savage violence of survival being threatened!

This primal hatred was simple, crude, and unreasonable, yet it crazily eroded her complex Godhead, accumulated from countless emotions over billions of years, like a virus.

Boom!

The Banshee of Hatred's body exploded.

It transformed into gray motes of light that filled the sky.

But those motes did not disperse. Drawn by an invisible force, they surged madly toward De Ba De's body.

Like a black hole, he devoured every fragment of divinity, along with the laws contained within them.

Everyone on the battlefield stopped moving.

Xiao's mouth hung open in an O-shape.

Even the black frostflames surrounding Song Ling seemed to flicker chaotically in the face of such an excessively savage scene.

Jing's figure silently appeared behind Xiao, a trace of lingering fear on her face.

Only Di Jia Ling Yu watched that figure who was "feeding," as though pondering something.

A few seconds later, every mote of light had been completely absorbed.

De Ba De stood where he was, eyes closed, seemingly savoring the aftertaste.

After absorbing the divinity of hatred, the edges of the brilliant golden tiger stripes on his body had taken on a dark crimson hue, like red-hot iron.

An even more dangerous, more violent aura spread from his body.

He opened his eyes, his golden vertical pupils sweeping toward the distant Banshee of Despair, who was trembling as she joined up with the Banshee of Sorrow.

He licked his lips.

"One main course down."

"Two desserts left."

"He's coming!" The Banshee of Despair's voice trembled.

She had witnessed her sister's fate with her own eyes. The terror of being gnawed away at the level of laws, assimilated, and ultimately devoured had utterly destroyed her Battle Intent.

"Fuse!"

The Banshee of Sorrow let out a long sigh. Though her voice remained full of sorrow, it carried an unquestionable resolve.

They belonged to a symbiotic divine system, sharing a divine kingdom and connected in power.

Now, they would push that symbiosis to its limit.

The Banshee of Despair did not hesitate in the slightest. She transformed into a streak of gray smoke and voluntarily crashed into the Banshee of Sorrow.

The two entirely different forms of divinity produced no rejection upon contact. Instead, they fused together perfectly.

Gray and a deeper gray flowed like two streams into the same whirlpool.

A magnificent yet ruined Gothic cathedral rose from the ground where they merged.