Chapter 125: The First Sum— …Disgusting. Every Last One of You.

The silhouette with countless eyes, now resting its head in one hand in a thoughtful pose, finally nodded.

"On top of that, the world is in an uproar. Even on the northern continent, where I am, everyone is talking about the dungeon of Greed."

The northern continent, huh?

Freya filed that information away and set it aside, before letting her gaze travel over the Overlords around her. She now had a fairly clear idea of which sin went with which mark.

To begin with, the four white arms were definitely Wrath, which she found rather funny, given that she had unlocked some TetraGorillas herself a while back. For the others, it had been fairly simple: all she’d had to do was work by deduction, thinking back over everything that had happened since the meeting began.

The crown was without a doubt Pride. The gaping maw, well... it was obvious that it was Gluttony. The heart-tipped tail, reminiscent of a succubus, could only be Lust. The chains, given its tone of voice and the very nature of its mark, most likely belonged to Sloth. And by elimination, the silhouette with countless eyes had to be Envy.

That was how she had matched each silhouette to its sin, and no doubt everyone else around the table had done the same over the course of the conversation.

"Khikhikhikhi... Looks like it really is the best time to make our move, after all," said Lust.

Pride could see that everyone now understood what acting at this moment would involve, and why it had to be done, to the point of grasping even what had gone unsaid, at least for most of them.

"Good. Since everyone here finally seems to have understood what I understood long before you, there is no need to waste any more of my time. Let us vote. By show of hands."

Everyone around the table nodded, without remarking on its way of speaking. They all now understood why it acted this way, and knew there was nothing to be done about it anyway. Except, perhaps...

CRACK—

Wrath’s four white arms had gripped the edge of the table and were squeezing it far harder than necessary. The black surface was splitting under its fingers, and it was clear that it wouldn’t have taken much for the table to break in two.

Once again, no one paid it any attention.

"Those in favor of a large-scale action against the world, raise your hand."

And at those words, Pride raised its right hand.

At the sight, each of them seemed to deliberate in their own corner, except for Wrath. Its follower was speaking to it again inside a sound barrier, and Wrath simply nodded along to everything it said.

Freya, for her part, was weighing the proposal. A large-scale action against the world would surely ease the pressure the natives were putting on her dungeon by a great deal, and move her, if only a little, away from the constant threat of death she lived under.

And yet she was torn, for one very simple reason: it was going to take away what belonged to her.

Her gaze hardened, her heart began to beat faster, and she too, much like Wrath, began to feel a dull anger rising within her.

These bastards want to take what’s mine.

They wanted to take her adventurers, her heroes, everyone who came pouring into her dungeon, all of her customers, all the mana they would give her when they died, and every coin they brought in through the system she had set up.

EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING!

Everything she had built, they wanted to take from her. And everything she would build in the future, her dungeon, her servants, Laïa, Naïa, Mei, Kaguya, and... Aria.

Her fingers closed around the edge of the table, which snapped clean under her grip before rebuilding itself behind her, while a feeling of disgust and loathing rose within her.

Who are they to want to take what belongs to me?

Don’t they belong to me too, living as they do in a world that belongs to me?

Why would mere, vulgar things that belong to me want to take what’s already mine?

Where’s the sense in any of this? Has madness eaten away at them that much? Do they live for nothing but greed, to think this way?

At that last question, she remembered the oath she had made. She saw again everything she had built until now, everything that was hers, and without even realizing it, she was now standing on the table, under the gaze of every silhouette.

"Why... why did I forget that?"

She wasn’t speaking to the others, but to herself.

"Why..."

"Why did I forget that no matter what utopia I build... no matter what I do... no matter how many times I start over... greed will always come and destroy everything..."

"Why..."

"Why."

"Why."

"Why..."

"TELL ME WHY?!"

She wasn’t looking at anyone. She was simply addressing everyone, herself, the entire world, completely swallowed by her sin.

"Why... even if I push myself, even if I make the effort to create a world without greed, do you come coveting it because of that very greed?"

"WHY?!"

"You think you can come into MY world and take what belongs to ME? MY resources? MY people? MY mana?"

Perhaps the others were speaking around her. Perhaps they were moving. But she no longer saw anything, no longer heard anything.

All that remained within her was a heartbeat so loud it seemed about to burst her eardrums, an irresistible disgust, and a murderous intent so violent she couldn’t help letting it out.

The air in the room grew heavier and began to tremble little by little around her, and at first imperceptibly, something began to change in her silhouette, around the eyes.

"...What did I do to deserve this...?"

"No."

Around her, Wrath had already exploded, and so had Pride, which couldn’t stand anyone else placing themselves above everyone like that. They were all trying to reach Freya, while she saw and heard nothing, simply lost in her monologue, surrounded and consumed by the darkness of her sin.

"Is it my fault, maybe? Maybe I’ve been too lenient? Maybe what’s logical to me isn’t logical to other beings?"

The change in her silhouette was becoming more and more visible.

"Or maybe every being in this world is simply corrupted by this sin."

At last, she turned her eyes to what was happening around her.

Lust was laughing. Sloth was still slumped over the table. But all the others were furious, trying to silence her by shouting things she couldn’t hear and trying to reach her, while Kaguya simply pushed them back, again and again, every single time.

She looked at what already belonged to her, and which wanted to steal what belonged to her as well.

And the change in her silhouette took its full form.

Two yellow eyes.

In the corner of her vision, without her paying the slightest attention to it, letters appeared.

[ You, Calamity of Greed, Dungeon Overlord, Anomaly of the System, have awakened your sin and your spirit in the face of the greed of the other Overlords themselves. ]

[ They covet what is yours. You covet what is theirs. Greed calls to Greed. ]

[ Already the enemy of the world, you now become the enemy of the Overlords. Of them all, you are the most hated, the most feared, and the one who stirs the greatest greed in this world. ]

[ Congratulations! Your title Calamity of Greed evolves into Empress of Greed. ]

[ Congratulations! You become the first Demon Empress of this world! ]

[ You obtain... ]

[ You obtain... ]

[ ... ]

...

Her gaze, now a golden yellow, settled on the silhouettes before her, the Overlords, the followers behind them, and Kaguya.

And she couldn’t help letting out a single word.

"...Disgusting."

Her vision blurred under the grip of her madness. She no longer saw the Overlords’ marks, only black silhouettes, all identical, and every one of them wore ten white rings, one on each finger, just like hers.

At the sight, a wave of dizziness seized her, and she had to press a hand to her stomach to keep from throwing up in disgust, before slowly walking forward along the table, one step after another.

Around her, the assault hadn’t let up. Four Overlords and three followers kept charging back in from every side at once, and every time, Kaguya was there.

She caught Wrath’s fists, slammed Gluttony’s maw down against the table, and sent the followers crashing into one another. Envy and Pride tried to seize the slightest opening, but Kaguya was always back between them and Freya before they could take two steps.

Then everything re-formed, and it all began again.

And in the middle of it all, Freya kept walking, looking neither at Kaguya nor at the silhouettes flying around her. All she saw were the white rings on every hand reaching out toward her, and with each step, her hand clenched a little tighter against her stomach.

"...Disgusting."

It was no more than a distorted murmur now, slipping out of her with every step.

"...Disgusting."

She kept walking along the table, step after step, until she reached its end.

There stood the chair Pride had occupied since the start of the meeting, alone, facing all the others. Freya let herself sink into it, slowly, and settled in without the slightest hesitation.

Then she turned her head.

A distorted silhouette was screaming as it ran toward her, arm outstretched, its ring-covered fingers pointed straight at her face. Freya could barely hear anything, only fragments, warped, torn from the din.

"—MY THRONE—"

Her hand clenched even tighter against her stomach, and the other rose to her mouth to hold back the disgust rising in her throat.

Why does someone want to take my throne now...?

Then every sound died away.

The screams, the blows, the cracks of the table shattering and re-forming around her, all of it vanished at once. All that remained was her heart.

Thump.

The fingers drew closer.

Thump.

Freya watched them come, one by one, each one circled in white.

Thump.

They were close now, so close she could have counted the glints on each ring.

Thump.

So close they were about to graze her cheek—

A silhouette appeared between them, and the sound came rushing back.

Kaguya.

Her hand had closed around Pride’s throat. She lifted the silhouette into the air, arm outstretched, and it thrashed, suspended above the floor, its fingers still reaching for Freya, mere breaths from her face.

Freya’s yellow gaze slid slowly toward Kaguya’s hand.

Toward her fingers.

Toward her rings.

Kaguya, as if she had felt that gaze, turned her head toward her without loosening her grip.

"Big Sister...?"

Her mechanical voice gave nothing away, but in that single word there was a hesitation Freya had never heard from her.

"...I want to leave."

It was only a murmur.

Around them, everyone threw themselves at her at the same instant. Wrath from the left, Gluttony from the right, Envy over the table, the followers from every side at once. Kaguya didn’t let go of Pride. With her one free hand, she pushed some back, sent others flying, spun on the spot to drive them all away, again and again, without ever leaving her place before the throne.

But Freya saw only the hands.

All those hands reaching for her, and on every one of them, rings.

Ring. Greed. Ring. Greed. Ring. Greed.

The disgust rose higher still.

I WANT TO LEAVE!

[ Do you wish to leave the Summit of Dungeon Overlords? ]

But she didn’t see the notification. Her gaze remained fixed on the silhouettes coveting everything that belonged to her, her throne, her place, and on their rings, and on their greed.

The disgust rose again, and again, and again.

"I want to leave... leave... leave... leave... leave... leave..."

[ Yes ]

She hadn’t touched anything. The answer had appeared on its own.

At that same instant, the room began to scroll away around her. The stars, the table, the silhouettes, the planet beneath their feet, everything broke down into letters and numbers racing past by the thousands, entire lines of symbols no one could read.

And all at once, she vanished.

So did Kaguya.

Pride dropped heavily to the floor, right where the dragon girl’s hand had been holding it an instant before, and the letters and numbers faded away, returning the room to the way it had been. Every silhouette had frozen in place, stunned, arms still reaching for an empty throne.

In a corner of the table, Sloth had fallen asleep.

And a little farther off, Lust was laughing fit to die, its heart-tipped tail whipping the air in amusement.

"Khikhikhi... Always a pleasure to watch Maid in action."