In a certain mysterious palace.
A group of people in black robes sat in a circle, their eyes closed as they chanted nonstop. At their center floated a scepter, black as ink.
Below them, another group of black-robed people knelt in orderly rows, praying devoutly for something.
Bruce opened his eyes and noticed something strange about his surroundings.
He had left the basement of Wayne Manor and arrived in an unknown palace. Gray mist shrouded his body, and he sat on the highest seat in the palace, overlooking everyone inside like a king.
The palace was not large, but it was long. He sat on a bench at its highest point, with a long flight of steps beneath his feet. Below those steps, six black-robed people chanted in a circle. Another flight of steps led down from them to the center of the palace, where another group of black-robed people knelt.
Looking at the black drapes, skulls, dried corpses, and blood-red lamps hanging from the two rows of stone pillars, Bruce distinctly sensed a terrifying, eerie atmosphere. He seemed to have entered a cult's sacrificial site.
There are sixty-three cultists here, and I'm all alone. I don't even know whether any of them are Extraordinaries. There's no way I can beat them.
"What is going on?"
The syllables the black-robed people chanted sounded much like the voices he had heard in his ears earlier. They were prayers as well.
Bruce was baffled. He could not have appeared here for no reason. He looked at the floating scepter, and a longing rose within him. He wanted to hold it.
The very next moment, the scepter really did fly toward him, and Bruce caught it instinctively.
A cool, pleasant sensation flowed into his body, washing through him like the waters of a hot spring. At the same time, the madness and impulsiveness within him poured into the scepter, and he immediately became much calmer.
"What a treasure. Just when I needed it."
Bruce was genuinely delighted. With the scepter in his hand, the discomfort in both his mind and body vanished, replaced by an unprecedented sense of ease.
This scepter had to be a rather good mystical item.
The scepter's sudden departure startled the black-robed people immersed in their chanting. They looked toward the top of the palace and noticed Bruce sitting in the seat of honor. After a moment of stunned silence, their gazes turned intensely fervent.
Bruce noticed their burning gazes as well. He immediately straightened in his seat, not daring to make any rash moves.
"Great Dark Lord, primordial Dark God, you have finally heard the most earnest call of your faithful people! Thank you for descending upon us. Your believers beseech you for salvation!"
One black-robed person practically crawled on his knees to the foot of the steps, crying out loudly before bowing his head hard against the floor.
Then cries of "Dark Lord" and "Dark God" rose one after another. The palace descended into a frenzy, everyone prostrating themselves over and over.
All these years, they had prayed ceaselessly for the Dark Lord, the Dark God, to descend. Now, this mighty god had finally come to see his people!
Bruce sat motionless on the bench. He seemed calm, but inwardly, he was already panicking. He could roughly guess that, when he touched the Dark Bible, that red light had transported him here. These cultists had mistaken his sudden arrival for the descent of their god. The Dark Lord, the Dark God-the titles alone told him this was an evil god.
The arrangement of this place certainly fit.
Should I interrupt their cries?
For now, it looks like I can only pretend to be this Dark Lord.
How do I make myself seem more like a god?
What should I say?
Bruce thought for a moment and recalled that he seemed to have developed a talent called Divine Might.
It would be perfect here, allowing him to intimidate them a little. Remembering his talent, Bruce opened his character status panel to check whether anything unusual had happened.
Looking at his character status panel, Bruce fell silent.
Something unusual had indeed happened.
Name: Eris Identity: Dark Lord Spirituality: 10000/1190000 (cannot be developed) Talent: Black Sky Veil Talent: Fear ... Talent: Divine Might Talent: Darkness Transformation Talent: Shadow Summoning ...
Holy crap. Bruce was dumbfounded.
He had an entirely different character status panel now, and the sheer number of talents he possessed was staggering. Unable to believe it, Bruce glanced over the panel and swiped upward with a finger formed from his thoughts. He could not even scroll to the end.
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands... The threshold for developing Spirituality has actually risen to one million one hundred and ninety thousand."
With such a high requirement for developing Spirituality, he could only imagine how many talents this Dark Lord Eris already possessed.
Bruce was shocked beyond words.
He felt as though he were playing a game and had accidentally logged into someone else's account.
If his own account was a beginner's, then the Dark Lord Eris's was already god-tier, belonging to one of the best players on the server.
Have I taken the Dark Lord's place because of some effect of the Dark Bible?
A rough conjecture formed in Bruce's mind. Alongside his fear, he actually felt a little excitement.
He also noticed that his movements were restricted. The gray mist coiling around him stabilized his body, but also confined him to this bench. He had not arrived here physically, only in consciousness, and the body he possessed was illusory as well.
His surroundings severely suppressed his power.
Bruce sensed that he could wield the divine power of Eris, the Dark Lord.
He carefully examined the talents he possessed as the Dark Lord while the black-robed people below continued their fervent cries.
It seemed he had to give them some sort of response.
Bruce raised the scepter and lightly tapped it against the floor, simultaneously activating the Dark Lord's talent, Divine Might.
It was the only talent he was familiar with, one he possessed himself.
An immense presence, as vast as an ocean of mist or a river of stars, instantly filled the entire palace.
A brief, deathly silence fell over the palace. Then even more fervent cries erupted, growing increasingly intense.
"What a headache..."
What troubled Bruce was not that he did not know how to interrupt these revelers. Rather, the moment he used Eris's power, an inexplicable sense of warning rose within him...
I mustn't use a god's talents carelessly...
They will attract the attention of other gods...
I must limit their impact...
It's extremely dangerous...
Bruce calmed down, holding his breath and concentrating as he pondered.
As a powerful evil god, Eris, the Dark Lord, was entangled in even more dangerous mysteries of this world, inevitably involving all kinds of gods. Bruce had to handle this identity properly, proceeding with the utmost caution, as though treading on thin ice.
The black-robed people who had led the chanting stood up. One of them raised a hand, and the black-robed people below instantly stopped shouting. These six were probably all leaders. Their commands worked even better than a god's intimidation.
"Great Dark Lord, primordial Dark God, your believers beseech you to save Zambesi from the misery into which it has fallen. We are willing to be your vanguard!" The black-robed man stepped forward and tore off his robe as he spoke, revealing his bare body.
The other black-robed people followed suit, including quite a few women.
Bruce felt an urge to close his eyes. He really could not bear to look.
Are all these men and women fanatics? So passionate, so crazed?
Zambesi? Where is that?
Bruce had no idea where Zambesi was. As far as he knew, none of the countries on the Southern Continent was called Zambesi. He had never heard of it. Could it be some obscure tribe?
As he wondered, Bruce felt the Spirituality within him stir and spread into his surroundings before flowing back to him, conveying certain information to his mind-information about this place.
Although the Dark Lord was not an omniscient, omnipotent god, he could still understand the time and terrain, sensing when and where he was.
"Zambesi, the Western Continent."