As Amaterasu headed toward her private room, Death herself erged from her shadow. "Care to explain how Eris could kill your avatar? Even if you two were equal, I doubt your immortality and binding shackles to the universe were torn."
Amaterasu smiled. "You're worried since you didn't get to reap the soul of my avatar. Eris did that job, and as Death, you can't have soone else touch your authority."
Death remained silent for a long while before speaking again. "There was sothing wrong with that death; it wasn't supposed to happen. That Avatar's soul didn't pass on. If it had entered hell, heaven, or even the underworld, I would've known."
"Death, do you know why murder is a sin when all lives are set in stone? Why do we punish killers when everyone only dies at their ti." Amaterasu looked back at her. "You know the answer, and that is why Eris can be that powerful."
Death glared at her with burning black eyes. "Murder violates the rightful passage of death, but no one, not even the gods, can break my chains." She walked around Amaterasu, then touched her shoulder, slowly running her fingers down to her chest. "If even I can't snatch your heart, then how could she?"
"The Styx, the river between life and death." Amaterasu looked back at Death with a smile. "That river is black, viscous, and horrid. While Eris's blood runs golden, her endless hoards of death-seeking butterflies are hunting the river like pirates, snatching souls."
Far away in the mortal world, outside the great capital of Orion, and in a secluded cave, a man was dragged away on his face, pulled deeper and deeper into the darkness by cultists. As he scread, a cultist smacked him in the face with a hamr, and then the bloodied body was thrown on a massive altar of stone.
When the man woke up, he was stripped naked, chained by the legs and arms, and above him, a massive statue of Eris hung, engulfed with red mist, cobwebs, and illuminated by torch flas.
"Where… where I am!?" He cried, but when he turned his head, he found himself surrounded by cultists, more than a hundred of them, all dressed in black robes, and surrounded by endless cages filled with corpses.
At the front, one of the cultists, a thin man with horns and a face as withered as old jerky, approached, lifted his arms up, and started praying.
"Eris! Eris… Los, shadow of death, bring forth the rights, burn the sun, eat the flas, and tear the darkness apart. Blood, screaming, poor lives, nothing more than numbers on a chart." But that didn't sound like a prayer at all, more like a chant.
"Hey! What are you saying!" The man cried and tried to free himself, but the chains weren't going to give away to the strength of a re mortal.
"A precious soul, an avid murderer with tens of innocent lives on his damned soul, snatched away, sacrificed for thee!" The cultist priest's body started shaking, and his eyes bled. His nails tore and fell off, and as his chants turned into moans of agony, the eyes of Eris's statue started burning bright red.
The priest fell onto his knees and kept chanting, causing all the other cultists to start chanting with him, and the entire hall started shaking as black blood poured out of the statue's eyes. As the murderer saw the black blood pouring out, he knew that he wasn't stuck in so crazy wizard experint, but in a real sacrifice to so evil god.
As the black blood pooled beneath the statue's feet, from it, an ugly, disfigured imp crawled out, giggling and twitching in a way that even made the murderer puke on himself. "The hell is that thing?!"
As the imp crawled toward him, the cultist's chants grew stronger, and the imp smiled, crawling on top of the murderer's torso, sinking its feet claws deep into his chest.
"Hohoho!" The imp giggled. "Pin loves your sll, quite faithful, quite dedicated, quite rancid." She glared down at his face. "Fifty-three murders, assault, torture, theft, and you even kicked a pregnant woman to death just a few days ago."
"You evil fiend! Get away from !" He scread, and Pin shook her head. "No, no, no, Pin can't do that. You see, our goddess loves people like you. Your deeds are the spitting image of murder, empowering her, and giving her all the glory she wants."
"Then why am I here, tied down!" He growled, "Yeah! I know, Eris, I saw that face. She is one of the queens, right? That damned Emperor, what kind of monster did he bring upon us?"
Pin blinked, "Well, if this were a normal church, Pin is certain that you would've been hailed as a devote paladin or priest." She then giggled. "But this is a church of murder."
She spawned a jagged, dull knife in her hand, looked down at the murderer, and smiled. "I like those who scream a lot, don't disappoint ." Slowly and painfully, she tore the murderer's chest open and bit his still beating heart.
The quickest way for a god to gain a boost in power is to sacrifice their most faithful. The greater the sacrifice, the more power they would get. But most gods can't do that, since they would be losing a faithful, useful pawn.
Eris was the goddess of murder, and people like this rotten bastard are her most faithful. So, sacrificing them, gave her power. What's more while in a normal sacrifice, the faithful must be the ones to willingly offer themselves, in Eris's case, she could just ignore that and murder the murderers for more power.
If the sacrifice is a murderer already sentenced to death, then there was no problem in her making them into unwilling sacrifices for more power, and making them worth her while. So while a normal god would lose a pawn and gain moderate power, Eris can only benefit.
Power from the sacrifice.
Power from the sacrifice being unwilling, AKA, murdering them.
Ridding the world of them, so peace can continue.
As the murderer died, his soul floated through the universe, and soon, he found himself standing at the edge of the Styx River, mindlessly walking into the thick black water. He was already dead and had no place in the world of the living. When he crosses this river, he would be in the land of the dead, Death would judge him, and he would et his rightful end.
Hell, heaven, or the pit of the dead to wait until he is thrown back into the cycle of death and rebirth. He walked forward, and soon, the thick black water reached his knees, waist, and finally his neck, but he still walked forward, aiming to cross the river.
The Styx River job was simple, and it was to wash all filth from the dead. If a mortal had been infected with sothing abominable, walking through the river like this would cleanse their soul and wash away the corruption.
But, as the murderer reached the middle of the river, the loud flap of wings made him stop walking. He looked up and saw it. A titanic purple butterfly ca flying down and snatched him away. As he scread, a swarm of butterflies sward him like mosquitoes and sucked him dry.
As the soul vanished into the butterflies, Eris could feel her power growing stronger, her dominion over murder sharpening, and the Iron Will of her authority burning hotter. The Styx River had beco her hunting ground, and what was more impressive was that the universe allowed it.
Eris opened her eyes back inside her heaven, surrounded by a radiant castle of burning plasma and obsidian. She looked at herself, naked in a small tub of black blood, looked aside, and the only one beside her was Zia.
"My Lady." She handed her a towel, and Eris walked out of the tub, dried herself, and then summoned a robe of blood and plasma. Behind her, Zia approached the tub, filled both of her hands, and drank the black blood. Just from that, she could feel her power growing at a terrifying speed.
As Eris's closest companion, she drank her fill, and only after she couldn't drink anymore, did she bring a large tray of golden chalices.
"How much did you leave today?" Eris asked, and Zia looked back at her. "Looks around sixty chalices, I shall distribute them among the strongest of our vampires and angels."
"The black blood of the Styx, I can't believe it isn't as potent as Arad's blood." As Eris sighed, Zia looked at her. "From what we found, it is the still flowing blood of the primal overgod. It must've weakened after so many eons."
By the way, the Styx is an actual place within the Abyss. If you're so powerful wizard, demigod, or whatever and was able to survive and travel down the abyss, you can visit it alive.
So, technically, a level 1000 human with a divine blessing could make it down there. Think soone like Lydia, if she stayed human until level 1000.
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