In a valley.
Kroya was pouring a steady stream of his orange magic into the earth.
After he purified the magic drawn from the Mammon Flower Vines, it remained demonic magic, but no longer possessed the extreme chaos and corrosiveness of demonic magic.
Upon reaching the ground, it saturated the dry soil, turning it into crystalline earth wreathed in a pale orange glow.
The transformation was extremely slow.
He had not chosen the shortcut offered by the Magic Field Method. Instead, he intended to thoroughly transform the land-turning everything in this area, from the air and water to the soil, into an environment suitable for the creations of a Gluttony Demon.
It was an entirely new experiment.
As he poured in magic, Kroya kept an eye on the Glassy Ice-Soul Lotus in his hand.
He had already infused it with desire born of greed and was using his own magic to catalyze it, hoping it would develop "consciousness."
The desire to live existed in every living being.
Sometimes, the more ruthlessly it was suppressed, the harder it became to suppress once it emerged. And here, Kroya's magic was helping it along.
That was the magic of the Sun, the light upon which all life depended. Calling it the source of life would not have been an exaggeration.
"You must develop your own consciousness."
"You must have desires of your own."
"You must... truly come alive."
As he murmured, musical notes surrounded the Glassy Ice-Soul Lotus. Inside its seedpod shone an orange light symbolizing greed.
His actions had clearly caused enormous trouble for the power already within it. The chanting grew louder and louder.
Yet it always sounded fierce on the surface and weak underneath.
If that power truly intended to suppress this greedy desire to live, it should have drawn