Exchange [2]

With his glowing eyes, one as dark as the night itself and the other brighter than the sun itself, black and scarlet, Theos stepped forward.

"I want to be the most powerful to rule all, I want to be the ruler of all... I want to be the epitome of excellence."

"And for that, I want to trade with you."

Theos' statement was another tense moment in the room.

But Theos did not take a step back: silence was nothing to him, it was impossible to disturb his determination.

'If I fail here, I'll never get out alive,' he thought to himself with a certain fear in the depths of his being, but more than determined to prove his worth against the entity of hidden infinite mysteries he could never discover.

A blood-red eye glowed in the darkness. No, it was not Theos' eye, but one that pierced the darkness.

The eye stared at Theos, its size ten times that of Theos' body.

"Ugh," another mouthful of blood spewed out of Theos' mouth after he stared at the big eye staring at him.

"Huh? Who am I?" he wondered in confusion. His gaze, full of determination, vanished and was replaced by one of fear of the unknown, the terror of not knowing who he was.

His memories were erased as if they were part of his imagination; every image, every difficult situation he had faced... everything was forgotten as if it were nothing.

His confused face turned into one with a childish expression, staring at the Scarlet Eye with curiosity.

After all, it was the first thing he saw after losing all his memories.

"Ugh," he spat out another mouthful of blood from his lips, his legs weakening, but his willpower demanded that he not kneel.

But out of the innocence of his ignorance, he didn't know where he was. He could only stand there; he could not even remember how to speak; he even forgot how to stand. All he could remember was that he had to make an exchange, a deal, with the creature that now stood before him.

He did not kneel directly, it was only by sheer force of will, as if something inside him forced him not to kneel, no matter what.

"You are someone interesting, only two people have not knelt before me, but you have more merit... after all, the first person is more powerful than many gods!" the voice shouted, now sounding even more indescribable.

Instinctively, Theos covered his ears with his hands, no longer wanting to listen to the voice that sounded extremely deep and sharp at the same time, like a blunt knife trying to cut through steel and rock.

"You have what you need, we will make the exchange," the voice said. Immediately, Theo's left eye glowed subtly, a gleam undetectable to even the most sensitive eye.

For a second, Theos' face showed an unprecedented cold expression.

His eyes, originally filled with great determination, now seemed cold enough to kill. In a second, he returned to his puzzled expression.

"Well? I wish to exchange my system for your energy, the negative mana," pausing a few times to clear his mind, Theos voiced what he wanted to achieve with the deal.

But in his heart, a cold smile carefully peeked out.

'That bastard wants to erase all my memories.'

Was he going to forgive this being for being all-powerful, NO!

'If he taught me anything in my previous life, it's that it's all worth it... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' Theos thought with satisfaction.

'I was planning to make a fair exchange...' .... And if he still hasn't done anything to me or noticed that I've regained my memories, and even if he has several abilities I was unaware of, such as reading my mind, he now confirms to me that this is not the case, at least for the time being'.

Theos would be able to make the most of this realization as he imagined his revenge.

He made him forget everything and almost brought him to his knees!

Who wouldn't want revenge?

What's worse, he made him retrieve his memories and then forget them, as if it was just an amusing game for this monster! A mere mockery!

Thinking about it, anger and rage were building up at an alarming rate.

Luckily for Theos, revenge is not something to be expected, no... all revenge is paid on the spot.

"A favor from a god for my negative energy..." the voice repeated Theos' words.

"I won't ask how you know about my Negative Energy, we have a deal."

The corners of Theos' lips lifted unconsciously as he heard the confirmation of the exchange.

Taking a few steps forward, Theos found himself face to face with the large eye, which was now a few feet away.

"The Heroine Snatching System or whatever ordered you to be expelled from my body," Theos exclaimed.

[Are you sure, host?] A panel appeared in front of Theos, displaying the confirmation text.

"Yes" confirming the command, a fist-sized transparent orb shot out from the center of Theos' chest.

The orb passed smoothly through Theos' body and flew high into the dark space.

"Okay, now it's your turn," he said, addressing the large eye in front of him.

Any object that remained in that space of infinite darkness automatically belonged to the entity in front of him. Only that entity would decide whether it would leave that space or not.

So he did not worry about the system being left wandering or even feel a sense of loss or reluctance, knowing that what he would have next would be a thousand times better than the system.

"As we agreed, I grant you the ability to manipulate, create, and control negative energy in its purest state," the voice said. Immediately, the large eye began to glow a deep blood red.

Like a sun that illuminates the darkest place, but is swallowed up by the darkness itself.

The darkness itself began to behave abnormally, as if it were the liquid itself, and then turned into smoke and then into small particles of darkness.

These small particles were attracted to Theo's body.

Unlike the rest of his surroundings, he did not even move but blinked in confusion at everything that was happening around him. However, there was a cold smile in his heart.

The reason for Theos' calm and serenity in this situation was that he knew that nothing could happen to him.

"All curses cannot break a deal by their mere pride, let alone this creature, it would not even be capable of cheating," Theos concluded in his mind as he recalled the information about the curses in the original novel.

Soon the particles of darkness entered Theos' body, then his soul, and corrupted it.

His right eye began to turn into a kind of black hole, while his left eye looked like a sun, even brighter than the Great Eye.

~