Chapter 103
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Victor and Vanquished
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There was this saying back in South Korea.
"The world is screwing me over!"
Whenever you climb into a promotion match, a troll shows up on your team. Or you wait in line for hours for a limited edition item, only for it to sell out right in front of you. Or you trip backward, bust your knee, end up in the hospital, and then test positive for COVID on top of it all.
Situations where it feels like the entire world is ganging up to mess with you.
But today, no one has experienced the world screwing them over quite as intensely as I have—probably not in any of my three lifetimes.
"Gotta admit it when it's due. A god is a god."
A brilliant crescent moon gazed down from the high heavens.
Everything it illuminated lunged at me to bind me—a rare experience even across my three lives.
"The Taeeul Emperor's Array from the Forward Faction's secret realm looked just like this. What a crazy bastard that divine beast was. If you're gonna mark a treasure dungeon, at least unlock the traps and formations too..."
Try to imagine how I felt watching those two Four Heavenly Kings—who'd blithely gone treasure hunting based on my offhand comment—nearly get tentacle-played by tree vines.
Anyway, the divine beast's formation protecting that legendary Forward Faction secret realm bore a striking resemblance to the authority wielded by the crescent moon goddess.
A living forest that maximized nature's self-preservation instincts, devouring and fertilizing itself with every outsider who set foot on its soil.
It would've taken centuries just to design and lay the foundation, and another millennium of gathering immense natural energies to activate.
Yet this goddess had casually deployed an array surpassing even that Emperor's Array just to trap me, manipulating every natural element in this space with a flick of her finger. No wonder I was awestruck by her godhood.
"Sure, divine power control limited to my body and material things—like authorities or miracles—I can mimic that too."
The snake transformation earlier, or the heart poison that made Artemis flinch.
By imitating the flow and control of her divine power and blending it with my knowledge, I could adapt it fully.
In fact, since it wasn't tied to flesh but used ultra-refined divine power in my mirrored body, it was even more compatible and versatile—more stable and effective than demonic arts, even.
Back in the day, I'd botched a bone-and-muscle transformation technique, thrown out my gall bladder, and groaned in agony for three days and nights. Now? I could fully transform into a snake and replicate its venom without a hitch.
"Gods really are cheats."
But creating a sub-world entirely subservient to your will, like the friendly domains Ares and Nemesis had shown— that was beyond my current level.
Sure, there were qi arts that shaped environments favorable to you and hostile to foes. But building a whole separate realm? Impossible territory.
A miracle worthy of the title "divine authority."
"That's why, from now on, I'm gonna slowly figure out how it's done."
I'm a diligent demon who never loses his drive for self-improvement!
I clasped my hands behind my back and chuckled leisurely, like some chatty mastermind villain from an old movie. Artemis, who'd been desperately catching her breath, glared at me venomously.
"How... dare you... do this to Zeus's... d-daughter... and think you'll get away with it..."
Ha, this girl still hasn't grasped the situation.
I shook my head and snapped my fingers lightly.
-Snap!
"Guh?!"
"Lemme guess. Dizzy, right? Heart pounding like crazy, lungs about to burst, body going limp."
Cold sweat, fever, sweating, vertigo, plummeting condition.
Watching Artemis panic at this imperfect bodily state impossible for a god, I grinned wickedly.
It meant everything I'd gained, mastered, and realized worked even on these lofty celestial gods—even on this goddess wielding immense authority.
"But the poison I injected isn't anything special, surprisingly."
"W-What...? I c-can't even... s-speak...! Not even Hydra venom... how could this affect me..."
"How can a spirit-body god be poisoned?"
Of course.
Demonic arts are the perfect antithesis to orthodox divine arts.
They sublimate the material world's afflictions and seven emotions into demonic qi.
To a goddess embodying purity as divine power, it's pure poison in itself.
"The afflictions of lust everyone with a mind carries. Heart poison born from that."
The red dust of the Saha world that Buddhist sages and Daoist worthies reject and overcome.
The temptations of the material realm that the Heavenly Demon and asuras whisper to embrace and revel in.
The blessing and curse of mortals bound to flesh, desire, and the whirl of joy and sorrow.
If she'd reached godhood through endless training like that old master on Kunlun's peak or Shaolin's abbot who'd shattered the death precept, this basic heart poison wouldn't faze her.
They'd long transcended bodily afflictions as ascetics.
"But you lot? You're just born great, not self-made transcendents."
Steel tempered by flame and hammer withstands any blow, but fine porcelain shows every flaw at a glance.
I'd splashed a drop of ink on this beautiful porcelain named Artemis, and it was slowly spreading, seeping deep into her white form.
"Eeeeek!"
"Whoa there, it's pointless."
In a last desperate flail, Artemis drew her dagger and lunged at my heart, but the attack lacked her earlier sharpness or killing intent—utterly futile.
-Clang!
I easily snatched her wrist and bound it, sending the dagger tumbling from her lovely hand.
Spinning her like a midnight waltz, I seized both her hands, binding the goddess's beautiful body to mine.
Her arms wrapped around my body, mine clamping hers tight—it looked like the crescent moon goddess cradled in my embrace.
Artemis was tall, but compared to my post-shedding growth, she was much smaller—like a doll flopping into my arms.
'At this size, I could carry Ner around like this easy. Atalanta, maybe not.'
Atalanta always clinging stickily, Ner sneaking into bed on quiet nights to sleep against my chest.
Looking at it this way, was today the first time I'd gone full Greek-style romance(?), after living so purely un-Greek until now?
Greek-style romance... the phrase oozed a shady, dramatic vibe.
"Y-You scum...!"
"Quit struggling pointlessly."
Artemis writhed to escape, but her heart-poisoned body was limp and yielded to me.
I pulled her arms taut, pressing her head to my chest. She still ground her teeth.
But her eyes were already melting into mush.
"N-Not just poison...!"
"Wish you'd realize this is all on you?"
The snake transformation, the heart poison ravaging her body.
All adaptations of her own authorities and curses.
"Hah... haaah!? W-What did I...!"
"Ha... seriously."
The first thing that hit me was her shrill voice laced with sticky resentment toward me and an inexplicable heat.
No trace of her earlier momentum or cruel glee—just a thick fragrance like peppermint and sandalwood squeezed together, intoxicating even at a whiff.
Her bare chest pressed hot against me, her sweat-slick body writhing, stroking my abdomen and chest like deliberate temptation.
And above all, when my eyes met the goddess's blazing gaze looking up at me, trailed down her perky, perfect nose to her deeply flushed pink lips.
My patience snapped in an instant.
-Smack!
"Mmph!?"
A man, a male—sometimes action precedes thought.
I devoured those lips that had whispered curses like venom.
My bird pecks with Ner evoked the cool affection of Pasos's blue shores. Kisses with Atalanta were passionate lovers' caresses.
But this forced kiss on Artemis was savage violence, like ripping out a prey's throat.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
Caught off guard, hands pinned, Artemis thrashed to break the kiss. But even that annoyed me—I gripped both her wrists in one hand, her pale throat in the other, slamming her against a tree to seal all resistance.
"Guhk! D-Dirty...!"
Her eyes bulged in disbelief as she glared, but I surprised even myself with how oppressively I growled back at her.
"Stay still."
"Hic... mmph!?"
Too brief before compared to the surging impulse, I resumed devouring her.
This was my right.
I was the victor of this war.
She was the vanquished.
I deserved to savor the spoils of my toil, and this goddess—who'd waged an unjust war and lost—had to submit meekly.
"Hmph... haah!?"
'Yeah, that's it.'
Inhaling her breath, I pried open those pink lips, savoring her soft tongue as I slowly tasted her numbed mouth.
-Slurp!
"Hnnngh?!"
My tongue caressed her smooth, masterfully sculpted teeth like fine china, and her plump, sweet peach of a tongue.
She twitched in revulsion at the sensation, only to reel drunkenly from my breathed air—stoking a twisted sadism in me.
'How about this?'
My hand slid slowly from behind her neck down her spine.
"Hyaaah?!"
She jerked like electrocuted, head thrown back. I savored her confused eyes with delight.
Fierce female experts who'd charged me, assassins hiding daggers behind sweet smiles.
Watching them caught, quivering, melting under my hands—one of my secret thrills.
And today, this beautiful spoil in my grasp would be a masterpiece among them. Conviction firm, I deeply consumed the goddess's breath.
"Hnnneee...."
-Smack! Slurrp!
The goddess must be utterly confused.
Afflictions of lust alien to the purity goddess.
The crescent moon knew nothing of her untrodden sanctum conquered.
Purity was ignorant of how scorching, thrilling a man's touch on her skin could be.
Artemis knew no woman's pleasure in a man's arms.
Human afflictions burned too hot, too fierce in her pristine, immaculate body.
The impurity now lodged within turned sweet poison, clouding her mind. All her senses enveloped by me, she was crumbling.
Her face flushed like deep drunkenness, strength fading, melting—unwittingly leaning into me for support.
'And now it begins.'
I smiled deeply at the goddess struggling to focus through hazy eyes.