Divinity?!

Godhead?! The room was deathly silent.

The only sounds were the wind outside the window and the occasional chirping of insects.

Had he misheard?

Leon did not dare let his guard down.

He first checked the Warning Magic Array, then carefully inspected every blind spot in his field of vision, yet found nothing.

Just as he began to suspect he was being overly paranoid, that fleeting white shadow flashed past in the mirror at the corner of the wall once more.

Leon frowned and snapped his Magic Wand toward the direction reflected in the mirror, but the space there was still completely empty.

Even so, he bluffed at the empty air.

"I saw you. Come out."

"I-I-I can't come out."

A shy voice came from behind him. Leon whirled around, only to find that the voice came from the mirror. A blurry figure had appeared within the mirror that had been empty only moments ago.

"A ghost?"

No—

This thing was somewhat different from a ghost.

Having dealt with undead creatures often, Leon could tell that it was not any kind of undead. It was more like a pure spirit entity.

Hearing itself called a ghost, the shadow wavering in the mirror said indignantly, "I'm not a ghost..."

Leon immediately pressed, "Then what are you?"

"I... I want to know that too..."

The voice was full of confusion, as though it could not make sense of its current situation either.

Leon frowned slightly.

He was not sure whether it was pretending.

"What do you mean?"

The figure in the mirror fell silent.

After a long while, it spoke uncertainly.

"I... I might be your godhead."

"...?"

A godhead?

Leon froze for a moment.

He did not remember having such a thing.

"Wait..." His thoughts thrown into disarray by this shocking clue, Leon lowered the Magic Wand he had been pointing into the air and pressed a finger to his brow. "I'm a little confused. What exactly is a godhead? Right, and what is your relationship with Lin Te?"

He had indeed harvested a batch of faith recently, but it should have been far from enough to condense a godhead.

If becoming a god were that easy, demon gods would be everywhere! His intuition told him.

This was probably a trick by that "God of Machines."

"Lin Te?" The wavering voice was filled with confusion. "That name sounds so familiar... Can you tell me who he is?"

Leon stared at it in the mirror and chose his words carefully.

"The last emperor of the Isaac Dynasty in the Ryan Kingdom. A man who may once have become a god. That's all I know... Do you remember now?"

The white shadow pondered for a long time, then nodded before shaking its head again.

"It's very vague... I seem to remember that he made me and placed me somewhere."

Then, it suddenly remembered something else and spoke in delight.

"Right! I think I remember now. It might be because of that Demon Lord Territory Core!"

Leon paused.

"The Demon Lord Territory Core?"

"That's right!"

The drifting white mist nodded its abstract head and analyzed excitedly.

"You established a soul connection with the Demon Lord Territory Core, and since I'm your godhead, I got connected to that statue too! Then, then, there was a consciousness inside that core. It wanted to swallow me, but it was too weak, so I swallowed it instead!"

"..."

That was the Demon Lord Territory Core's consciousness? Leon did remember that the Demon Lord Territory Theory class at Demon Lord Academy had mentioned that a Demon Lord Territory Core was not entirely an inanimate object. It contained a consciousness woven together through magical technology.

That thing was both the Demon Lord's assistant and a mark left behind in the Mortal World by the demon god.

Through it, the Faith Power stored within the Demon Lord Territory core could be converted into demonic creatures, or used to alter the terrain and expand the dungeon's area.

The professor of Introduction to Demon Lord Territories had especially stressed that when establishing a soul connection with the Demon Lord Territory core, one must never try to resist. One had to devoutly surrender one's body and mind entirely to the Demon God.

Leon had not resisted.

Besides, just a few hours ago, he had still been a stubborn Bronze. Even if he wanted to fight back, he probably could not have.

Yet he had never expected that the dungeon assistant the Demon God had assigned him would actually be swallowed whole by this thing before his eyes?! "Seriously...?" Leon came back to his senses, somewhat panicked.

"Of course it's true!" The shifting white mist sounded rather pleased with itself as it said smugly, "I am your divine essence. I couldn't possibly lie to you."

Leon stared blankly.

"No—if you ate that thing, what am I supposed to do?!"

"It won't have any effect! If anything, the Demon Lord Territory's functions are now completely in your hands!"

The white figure looked at Leon and continued cheerfully.

"Not only that, but that Demon Lord Territory has truly become your own domain! It's no longer the territory of some Demon God! You also won't need to worry about the Demon God discovering what's going on with those players!"

This thing even knew about the players.

Maybe everything it said was true.

At this moment, Leon was still unable to grasp the weight of those words. His head even began to ache as he wondered how he was supposed to explain things if Hell discovered what had happened here.

Just a few hours ago, he had been planning to write a letter reporting those traitors underground. Who would have thought that while the pot called the kettle black, he himself had become a traitor too?

Seeing Leon sink into distress, the white figure realized that its actions might have caused him trouble. It said in a small, aggrieved voice.

"But... Lord Demon Lord, if I hadn't done something then, I would have been swallowed by it. If the Demon God discovered another God's mark on you, wouldn't that be troublesome for you too?"

"What kind of logic is that... You ate His son, so He won't notice?" Leon did not know whether that analogy was accurate, but that was how he understood it.

"That's not necessarily something He would notice," the white figure analyzed seriously. "Even a God can't know the circumstances of every single one of His children. Besides, when I digested that mark, the Demon Lord Territory core had not fully unfolded yet. The chances of Him seeing it were extremely, extremely small... especially since this isn't His territory. It's almost impossible for Him to notice."

"Let's just hope that's the case," Leon sighed. Then, a possibility suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, I think I know who you are! Could you be... the Stone Tablet in my Sea of Consciousness?"

"That's right! We've met before! I just couldn't talk back then, hehe..." Hearing that Leon had finally remembered it, the shifting white figure happily bobbed around in the air.

"Then... were the players' quests issued by you too?"

"Indeed!"

Leon's head hurt.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

The white figure said awkwardly.

"Because I originally couldn't speak. I never expected that after eating the little guy living in the Demon Lord Territory core, I would inherit its functions. Not only could I leave your Sea of Consciousness, I could even communicate with you like this... I was shocked too, and I hesitated over whether I should come out at all."

"After all, my original function was merely to help you complete things you couldn't do technically. Like managing the forum, or issuing quests to players when you ordered them to do things..."

Leon scratched the back of his head and tucked the Magic Wand back into his clothes.

"..."

What a strange feeling.

It was like someone else lived inside his body.

Though this thing did not seem to count as a person.

At most, it was just a stone—or the so-called "divine essence" it claimed to be.

Come to think of it, what exactly was going on with the Calamity System? Did Lin Te want to help him become a god?

But why? Then he suddenly remembered the pop-up message that had appeared when the system loaded—

Make this foolish world feel pain!

Revenge? He did not think it was that simple.

After pondering for a long time, Leon looked at the indescribable mist in the mirror and slowly spoke.

"What should I call you?"

"I don't know either... Why don't you give me a name?"

The voice was full of anticipation.

"Then... how about You You?" Leon thought seriously for a moment before asking tentatively, never expecting such an unexpectedly strong reaction.

"I told you, I'm not a ghost!"

"Then You You."

"...What's the difference?!"

After rejecting two names in a row, Leon had not expected this thing to be so hard to please.

"Tsk. If you don't like them, think of one yourself. This is the best I can do."

"Then, then I'll take the second one."

"..."

Looks like this guy responded better to force than kindness.

Leon steadied himself and continued with another question that concerned him.

"What's your range of movement?"

You You pondered for a moment.

"Hmm... I can basically go anywhere within the area covered by the Demon Lord Territory. Other than that, I can go around you too—I can get about as far as the doorway. Oh, right! I can also share what I see with you! Like this!"

As she spoke, the white mist in the mirror gradually shifted, forming a blurry mirror within the mirror.

That "mirror within a mirror" looked like a screen submerged in water. Through it, Leon saw the players inside the mine.

Those energetic Skeleton Soldiers had already hunted down more than twenty Slave Rats that had escaped from the maze, throwing the entire mine into chaos.

Leon even saw one player crouching beside a Slave Rat's corpse, gesturing over it with a small knife as though testing just how realistic the game could get.

Not far away, Chris had just woken up before fainting again. The +1 Faith Point she contributed was promptly absorbed by the Demon Lord Territory core, while simultaneously appearing on his system interface.

So that was it.

Leon should have realized it back in the mine—the Faith Points absorbed by the Demon Lord Territory core had actually been synced to his system.

The two should have had nothing to do with each other.

"Interesting..."

Staring at that mirror, Leon grew more and more alert. The drowsiness that had nearly overwhelmed him earlier had now vanished completely.

Was this the fun of hiding in the shadows and watching the show? If this guy could cover the entire Demon Lord Territory, wouldn't he be able to sense adventurers the moment they entered?

He could even hide behind the adventurers and watch them! Leon suddenly realized that You You's ability seemed even more incredible than he had imagined.

Looks like I'll need to carry a mirror with me from now on!

Then he remembered something else and immediately asked.

"Oh, right, You You. Can you see the Official Website?"

"The Official Website? Of course I can... Wow! The forum is so lively!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the mist in the mirror changed shape again, and the Official Website for "Calamity Online" appeared within it.

Leon leaned closer to the mirror for a better look.

Everything before his eyes was exactly as You You had said—

The entire forum had exploded!