Lin En was just about to join in.
"Wait! What exactly are you trying to do?!"
The Valkyrie gritted her teeth, finally unable to hold back her demand.
Lin En stared with dead-fish eyes, waving the branding iron in front of her until her heart trembled. He said:
"Didn't I tell you ten years ago? Just tell me about this place, and I'll let you go. But you refuse to cooperate, so of course I have no other choice!"
The Valkyrie stared fixedly at him.
"I'd like to ask you something too. What exactly are you? Why haven't I been able to kill you in ten years?!"
Lin En adjusted his eyeball.
"I already told you that too. I don't know why I can still live after you slice me into little pieces. But you won't listen, so what am I supposed to do?"
The Valkyrie said coldly:
"Are you an evil god of the Warp? Or the discarded husk of some Great Demon? Or something else entirely?!"
Lin En froze.
He looked at the Divine Artifact in his hand.
Wait, that's not right.
Aren't I supposed to be interrogating you? Why are you yammering away with your own questions?! If I knew, would I be asking you?!
Without another word, Lin En plugged her mouth again.
"Mmph-!!"
The Valkyrie struggled furiously, all but desperate to tear him apart.
Caught off guard, she had let him get away with it again.
[Ding! Shinsen Saya's anger toward you +10] [Ding! Shinsen Saya's anger toward you +10]
Pop-
Lin En pulled it out again and said sternly:
"Behave! Answer my questions first! I swear by the sun, as soon as you tell me about this place, I'll let you go immediately. You should know perfectly well I'm not some evil god. Do you think an evil god would let you kill him for ten years?! Besides, I'm articulate and have perfectly sound values. If you hadn't judged me by my appearance, would I have gone through all this misery scheming against you?!"
The Valkyrie panted, glaring furiously at him.
Lin En continued coaxing her, then sneered:
"Besides, I've been watching you for a long time. It seems you don't just need to return to that sun periodically to replenish your strength. You seem to have some special responsibility inside it too. Am I right?"
The look in the Valkyrie's eyes changed slightly. She hid it well, but Lin En still caught it.
There was no doubt.
She had to return regularly, or something bad was bound to happen.
Lin En said with a cheerful smile:
"So just think of this as a deal. You've seen it yourself, haven't you? I have no power anywhere outside this place. What harm could telling me do?"
"Besides, you've been killing me for ten whole years. Surely you've killed your way into at least a little affection! Just tell me, and afterward we'll go our separate ways and leave each other alone. How about it?"
As he spoke, Lin En raised a certain warlock's Divine Artifact in his hand.
"As for this..."
Clack-
Lin En tossed it straight behind him.
Closing his eyes, he said:
"I may look a little like an aberrant Titan, but I'm an upright, honorable fellow. This thing was only meant to scare you. I won't use it on you!"
The Valkyrie narrowed her eyes, as though trying to judge whether he was telling the truth.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely, positively sure!"
"Swear it."
Lin En closed his eyes. "Fine! I swear on my mother's name. If a single word I say is a lie, then I have no (beep-)(beep-)."
"..."
After a brief, deathly silence.
The Valkyrie finally looked at him hesitantly and spoke.
"Fine! But I expect you to keep your promise and release me as soon as I've told you. And I swear to you that, whatever you are, as long as you stay away from now on, I will never trouble you again."
Lin En nodded rapidly. "Don't worry! My word is absolutely binding!"
A few minutes later.
Through the Valkyrie's account, Lin En finally came to understand the world he was in.
In their terms, this place was the [Warp], an anomalous realm filled with endless chaos and terror, and the opposite of reality. Once, a vast host of Outer Gods from the Warp had launched an assault on their real world that lasted over a thousand years. They had even broken into it at one point, tearing an enormous rift between reality and the Warp across the sky.
The Valkyrie said between breaths:
"I didn't experience that war, but judging by all the evidence, all the Outer Gods should have been annihilated. However, we paid an extremely heavy price as well."
Hesitant and astonished, Lin En asked:
"So you really are a god?"
The Valkyrie remained cold.
"I'm not a god, but I am the only ascendant in the past thousand years. If it weren't for sealing that great rift, I wouldn't have stayed here all this time, neither alive nor dead."
Lin En immediately thought of that sun, though she had cut him down every time he approached it.
Yet on the other side of that sun, there seemed to be a different landscape.
In other words.
Was she guarding the rift that led to the real world?
"Then what's the situation in this so-called real world of yours?! Or rather, what kind of world is it?"
Lin En began to itch with anticipation.
The Valkyrie raised her chin indifferently, looking down at him.
"I ascended a thousand years ago. The real world has long ceased to have anything to do with me. And I advise you not to get any ideas about it. Whoever you are, as long as you're an evil creature of the Warp, I will never let you set foot there."
Lin En immediately smiled and picked up the red-hot branding iron again.
"See, now you're refusing to cooperate. I haven't even said what I'd do, and you're already being this stubborn. Don't you want to get out? How am I supposed to keep my promise like this?!"
[Ding! Shinsen Saya's anger toward you +10!]
"Talk!"
Lin En kept his eyes closed.
"As soon as you're finished, I'll let you out!"
The Valkyrie gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. After weighing her options, she finally said:
"It is the veil of reality, and the former land of the gods. Its name..."
"Seven Nights."
Through her reluctant explanation, Lin En finally gained a general understanding of that world.
According to her, before she ascended, that world had still been in a state of [Eternal Night], with countless people living in darkness. After the horrors of the Outer Gods' invasion, civilization had long since fallen into a dark age of barbarism. Only when she charged into the great rift and became a blazing sun had that world finally welcomed the light.
"That's fucking (beep-) awesome."
Lin En sounded astonished.
"So that fireball really is a goddamn sun?! You're that incredible?! You've been carrying the sun and lighting up that place for a thousand years?!"
The Valkyrie's expression was icy, her eyes betraying no emotion.
"That is none of your concern. I've told you everything you need to know. Now keep your promise and let me out immediately!"
Lin En thought for a moment and muttered to himself.
"So I really have imprisoned a fucking goddess... Am I that badass...?"
The Valkyrie snapped angrily:
"Hey! Did you hear me?! Let me out!"
Lin En came back to his senses, turned toward her, and immediately said with a (*￣︶￣) expression:
"Okay, okay! I get it! Good! Very cooperative! I never expected you to be so obedient! Since you've told me everything I needed to know, of course I'll..."
Whoosh-
"!!!"
Lin En plugged her mouth again.
"Mmph-mmph-!!"
The Valkyrie's face changed in shock as she glared furiously at him.
Clearly, she hadn't expected him to pull this again.
"Just kidding. I finally managed to catch you. How could I possibly let you go just because I said I would?!"
Lin En's eyeball swayed.
"You hacked me apart for ten whole years! Do you know how I spent those ten years? Besides, you already called me an evil creature. Don't you know you can't trust anything an evil creature says? I think you've been here so long that something's gone wrong with your brain!"
Then he moved closer again, waving his tentacles across her face.
Swish-swish-
With twisted delight.
"Besides, Miss Saya! You're my long-term meal ticket! If I let you go, what am I supposed to eat from now on?! As for that oath I just swore..."
His mother had died long ago, and he didn't have a big (beep-)(beep-), either.
"Hahahahaha!"
Lin En laughed aloud.
[Ding! Your happiness +1] [Ding! Shinsen Saya's rage toward you +30!]
"Now it's time to take a look at your world! But don't worry. I'll definitely be back soon. As for right now..."
Lin En glanced sideways.
He had thought of an excellent form of entertainment.
In an instant.
Under his control, the black mist throughout the room suddenly sprouted countless twisted tentacles, rustling like a grotesque jungle. It was a horrifying sight that would have qualified as utterly depraved even in a hentai comic.
There was no helping it. The black mist here was practically an extension of his own body, and he could reshape it however he pleased.
At that moment, Shinsen Saya's expression changed completely.
"Please make sure you hold out, Your Highness the Valkyrie! If I come back tomorrow and find you've turned into something strange, don't blame me for not warning you!"
With a (´・︶・`) expression, Lin En instantly left the little dark room where she was trapped.
"Don't worry. You hacked me apart for ten years, so of course I'll take my time playing with you for ten years too~"
As Lin En's laughter rang out.
Behind him.
The violent clashing of chains soon mingled with the Valkyrie's hysterical, furious screams.
"You bastard!! I'll kill you!! I'll tear you into a million pieces!! Mmph! Mmmph!!"
Before you continue