Chapter 87: The Wretched Deity

"So that's how it is." Muria breathed a sigh of relief. With his past life's moral compass and the influence of his Golden Dragon lineage, he truly couldn't accept the act of destroying a world just to become stronger.

However, according to Mech Emperor Osiris, in the endless void, many epic beings choose to become world-destroying deities, using the despair and cries of all the beings of a world to embellish their own epic journey.

"Muria, now do you understand how one becomes an epic?" Seeing Muria relax, Mech Emperor Osiris smiled and posed a question.

"I understand," Muria nodded.

"So, between the path of divinity and the path of epics, which do you choose?"

"Lord Mech Emperor, I'm only at the golden level now. Isn't it a bit early to choose?" Muria rubbed his smooth upper lip, chuckling nervously.

"With your lineage, becoming a legend is only a matter of time. I'm just asking you a few hundred years in advance."

"I choose..." Just as Muria was about to decide, Mech Emperor Osiris interrupted him with a smile that seemed to hint at something mischievous.

"Muria, let me tell you something, becoming a god is very simple for you. With the drop of primal blood that your grandfather Demos gave you, you don't need many followers to become an eternal deity."

Mech Emperor Osiris emphasized "eternal deity" with a tone that seemed to carry a hint of disdain, "But if you choose the path of the epic, then you will face dangers of arbitrary downfall and unimaginable difficulties."

Seeing Muria's confused face, not understanding the 'unimaginable difficulties' Osiris referred to, Ansol finally spoke up.

"Muria, to become an epic, you must leave Erathia and go to other minor worlds. In foreign worlds, you will be alone, without any help or protection, everything must be won by your own efforts."

"Why leave Erathia?" Muria was puzzled. "Can't I achieve epic status in this world?"

"Muria, only by saving a world can one receive the world's reward and gain freely disposable primal force. If a catastrophe that affects the entire world of Erathia really occurs, even an epic of great divine power might not be sufficient to address it."

"I see." Muria touched his nose, masking his embarrassment. He understood now; the world of Erathia was of such a high level that if a real problem occurred, even the top brass would be at a loss, much less a mere legend.

Therefore, to become a savior and gain world primal force, one must venture to lower-level worlds. Worlds of high level present problems that legends cannot solve. For him, the difficulty of becoming an epic, compared to becoming a deity, was simply not comparable.

"Muria, tell me now, between gods and epics, which do you choose?"

"Of course, epics." Hearing Mech Emperor Osiris's question, Muria showed his bright white teeth, naturally saying so.

This was definitely the answer Mech Emperor Osiris and his father Ansol wanted to hear; Muria could guarantee it, as he felt his father's oppressive gaze upon him.

"Good." Hearing Muria's answer, Mech Emperor Osiris nodded, then glanced at the void egg Muria had set aside, "Is that egg a gift from Akhmond?"

"Ah!" Muria exclaimed as he saw the egg, which had half sunk into the metallic floor in just a short time and was still slowly descending. Alarmed, he quickly pulled the massive egg from the ground.

"This is?" Muria stared blankly at the hard metallic surface where a perfectly egg-shaped semi-elliptical hole had formed. He looked questioningly at Mech Emperor Osiris, not believing that such a powerhouse would covet something from a junior like him.

"Your egg ate a piece of my floor." Mech Emperor Osiris eyed the void egg now still in Muria's arms, "It's so greedy even before it's born. Akhmond actually gave you something like this."

"This floor..." Muria watched the hole made by the void egg being eaten away, which seemed alive, slowly healing. Staring as the floor returned to normal, Muria couldn't help but stomp forcefully, only to hurt his foot, as the elaborately runed floor remained unchanged, "So hard."

"Don't bother trying, with your current strength it's impossible to damage the floor. It's just that this egg Akhmond gave you is too special. It even ate the runes I set up."

Muria's mouth twitched; the egg was indeed special, at least he had never heard of an egg that could consume metal. And Muria, closing his eyes to feel more closely, discovered...

"It's consuming my power." Muria watched the void egg closely; it was stealthily consuming the power he was leaking, in such minute amounts that he wouldn't notice without paying close attention.

"This egg has already developed its own consciousness," Mech Emperor Osiris raised his hand, and the mechanical griffin beside Muria vanished through a newly formed teleportation array, "My advice to you: feed it with your power daily. Let it fully familiarize itself with your power before it hatches."

"Like this?" Muria held the void egg, and between his hands, thick golden thunder surged. Then, the thunder that jumped onto the black giant egg was completely devoured by it, without leaving any residue.

"About right." Mech Emperor nodded, then looked at Muria with a playful smile, "Muria, I just made a weapon and was about to test its power. Are you interested in seeing?"

"Observing the power of a weapon made by an epic?" Muria was momentarily stunned, then vigorously nodded, "I'm interested. Are we going now?"

"Of course."

"Lord Mech Emperor!" The usually reticent legendary Titan Ansol couldn't help but speak out. He knew what Mech Emperor Osiris used for testing weapons.

"Ansol, don't worry." Mech Emperor waved his hand, "Demos gave a drop of primal blood to Muria; he now has the qualification to watch. There won't be any problems."

After this, a vast wave of energy rose from the ground. Muria's vision blurred, and he could no longer see anything as the sensation of temporal and spatial change overwhelmed him...

When Muria's vision cleared, he was stunned by what appeared before him. Numerous chains inscribed with runes and brimming with thunder extended from all around in this vast space, intertwining to form a spherical cage several kilometers in diameter, seemingly binding something within.

Muria looked out into the far distance and saw walls also inscribed with complex runes, indicating that this immense space was likely still within the Sky Mech City.

"Osiris!" As Muria surveyed his surroundings, a voice filled with endless hatred and seemingly emanating from the soul echoed in his ears.

"What's that sound?" Muria clutched his chest, looking at the huge chained sphere before him, feeling a slight nausea just from hearing this sound emanating from within.

"That is the voice of a deity," Ansol, floating beside Muria, explained calmly. "It's normal for you to feel this way. Prepare yourself, you'll feel even worse when you see the deity's true form

."

"A deity's voice? There's a deity here?" Muria looked incredulously at his father.

"Yes! Lord Mech Emperor has captured a deity. This place is its prison."

"Captured a deity!" Muria was astonished. Having just been educated about epics, Muria could guess that the deity imprisoned here was not a malevolent deity from Erathia but an epic destroyer who roamed the void.

But how powerful must one be to capture a being capable of destroying worlds and keep it imprisoned? Muria speculated about Mech Emperor's strength but quickly realized this was not the time for such thoughts.

"Weren't we supposed to test the weapon's power?"

"Heh, kid, what better than a deity to test the power of my weapon?" Mech Emperor Osiris, hearing Muria's comment, raised the nearly 300-meter-long weapon in his hand, the vibrations from which made space itself tremble, and chuckled.

Hearing Mech Emperor's words, Muria twitched his mouth; he now understood that this place was not only a prison for the deity but also a testing ground for Osiris's weapons.

"Clang!" The sound of chains moving filled the air as the chains wrapped around the vast prison sphere began to unwind. One by one, chains that seemed to be forged from pure golden thunder fell away, gradually revealing the true form of the imprisoned deity.

"Ugh!" Muria saw the unfolding chains on the sphere, with slimy, tentacle-like appendages waving and extending. These tentacles were chaotic and disordered, adorned with constantly rotating eyes and mouths filled with sharp teeth dripping saliva. Just seeing this sight made Muria feel extremely nauseous.

It wasn't just the bizarre appearance of these tentacles, but the chaotic, corrupting evil power emanating from them that infiltrated Muria's body, attempting to assimilate and transform him, causing a strong conflict with his own power and resulting in his nausea.

"Hisss! Roar! Osiris!"

As the deity fully revealed its true form and roared, Muria, driven by an irrepressible curiosity, looked towards the deity's true body and then was struck profoundly.

This was a being of unimaginable chaos and distortion, without a definite form, just a mass composed of tentacles, eyes, and mouths with sharp teeth... When Muria looked directly at it, a tremendously twisted chaotic power invaded his body.

Under the assault of this deity's power, trying to warp Muria's form, the drop of Dragon King's primal blood within him was fully activated. Golden dragon flames burned around him, and scales like dragon armor appeared across his body.

A golden dragon shadow with eight horns on its head, as if wearing a crown, appeared behind Muria. It roared, shaking the void, and with that roar, golden dragon flames burned away all the foreign evil power within Muria's body.

Originally, the author hadn't planned to write about this deity. However, in October, there was frequent mention of Cthulhu in the author's group. Not really understanding what Cthulhu was, the author curiously watched a short video introducing Cthulhu and was quite disturbed by it, feeling a bit oppressed afterwards.

Thus, this chapter was conceived. If it's distressing to the author, then it might as well serve as a target in his book.