Chapter 533 (1): Flip the Table if You Can’t Win

The next day at noon, Wayne staggered out of the young lday's mansion with unsteady steps, clearly having overtaxed himself last night.

He had indeed overtaxed himself, but he was rejuvenated.

After getting his entertainment from Auston, Wayne, with normalized blood pressure, had gone to the young lady’s mansion to play cards with the trio of magical girls. Earlier that night, they had actually played cards.

Feeling guilty about his sudden marriage in the Divine Realm of Darkness, he admitted his crime voluntarily. However, Veronica and Kristen just laughed. Even Vera, who was the brightest among them, didn’t believe him. She warned him not to make up stories about a goddess. If the goddess heard, the consequences would be dire.

Annoyed, he said, “Veronica, I’ve been hiding this from you. I’m actually the God of Nature, your faith since your youth.”

Bam!

He got punched in the face.

“Kristen, I had a bet with the Goddess of Moonlight in the Divine Realm and put Her on Her knees. Your faith has become my subordinate god. Should I summon Her to pour you tea?”

Smack!

He got kissed on the face.

“Vera, just like you, the Goddess of Sun fell for me at first sight. Should I accept Her or not?”

“How dare She! Doesn’t the goddess care about Her image? How could She steal Her own knight’s boyfriend? Tsk, I came first!”

Thud!

She got hit on the head by a hand chop.

Veronica had hit her. She disagreed with the order in which they claimed Wayne.

Indeed, Vera was the one who set her eyes on Wayne’s agency and the one to break the lock, but the first person who walked in and saw Wayne was Veronica.

Wayne shook his head when they started roughhousing. Tossing his poker cards, he hoisted Kristen over his shoulder and marched into the bathroom. What happened next was simple: the boat followed the water and weathered the storm, dipping in and out with great effort...

Learning from his experience, he hadn’t let Kristen steal his harem this time.

***

Heaven of Crystal, the ninth level of Heaven.

Wayne wandered into the garden and saw two angels playing harps from afar. They were the two unlucky souls he had saved in the Papal State. Because of their beauty and blind faith, Pontiff Reza had made them into eye candy meant to be given away when necessary for the benefit of the Papal State.

At the time, Wayne had been impersonating ?ār Hesione, so the two were given to him. If he didn’t take them, others would. He decided to keep them and pretend that he had slept with them after seeing their gullible looks.

Later, the two pretty ladies were sent to Heaven by Mikhael to counter Hesione’s influence on the Anointed One. As long as they held leverage against the Anointed One, Hesione wouldn’t be able to hold his leverage. Then Mikhael would’ve achieved his goal.

It was typical vermin behavior.

Instead of rejecting the offer, Wayne had kept the two women in the Heaven of Crystal, having them tend the garden. They were also told to learn music and dance in their free time so that the Anointed One could relax by watching their performance when he was tired.

While they were blindly faithful, they were beautiful, especially after they consumed the Fruit of Life and Fruit of Knowledge. The angelic wings and halos, combined with their own pure faith, made their radiant innocence a captivating sight to behold.

Wayne lingered and watched them for a while without disturbing them, then he made it to the main hall, where the divine throne was. At the door, he saw Milia sitting in the front of the hall. The energetic girl didn’t look happy. She was drawing circles on the ground.

He quietly approached her and saw the target of her curses.

Milia drew in an abstract style. With two circles, she portrayed two female angels. Wayne hadn’t recognized them immediately, but then he noticed the two additional circles on one of the angels and realized that it was Lust incarnate... Purity incarnate, he meant.

If that was Hestia, the other had to be Hesione.

“What are you doing, Milia?”

“I’m...” Milia cut herself off, realizing that it was Wayne’s voice. She hurriedly wiped away her masterpiece and rose to her feet. Because she felt guilty and stood up in a hurry, she ended up knocking into Wayne’s chin.

Only Hesione had the privilege of physically clashing with the Anointed One like that.

The thought barely registered in Milia’s brain, though. She crouched down while holding her head, bursting into tears from the pain.

Stroking his chin, Wayne said, “So? Why are you crouching here?”

“I came to brief the Anointed One about the reorganization of my legion...” Milia stood back up and huffed. “But Viceroy Hesione wouldn’t let me in. She said that I would corrupt Heaven’s culture with my ulterior motives.”

I didn’t realize you wanted a promotion so much!

Wayne shook his head. He silently cheered her on for her behavior, but said with a serious face, “Just brief Hesione from now on rather than seek me out. As you can see, I’m a busy man. I’m either protecting the peace of the world or fighting the end of the world. I have no time.”

Milia watched him go in resignation. Earning promotions was hard. If she had known that Heaven’s politics would undergo such a dramatic shift, she would’ve reincarnated with Hesione back then rather than doing thankless work in Heaven.

She had been diligent for nothing.

There were two women in the temple—three, to be precise. Hestia was in charge of kicking the unwanted visitors out, while Hesione and Mona were currently one merged being.

All this time, Wayne had been trying to return Heaven to Hesione and make her an actual Anointed One, inheriting all of Elohim’s legacy. To that end, he had spared no effort on Hesione and Mona.

By assimilating and digesting the Seven Sacred Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins, Hesione had been making big strides in power every day.

Now that she had become strong enough to be She Who Is Like God, Wayne could finally rest easy.

Since Elohim was the mastermind, it was hard to say what the prophecy of the Anointed One actually meant. If Elohim was going to utilize the Anointed One on the day of the Final Judgment for His goal, wouldn’t Wayne have doomed Hesione by pushing her to sit on the divine throne?

However, raw power was good, and the greater the danger, the more necessary raw power was.

He felt conflicted.

“Great Anointed One.” Hestia bowed, dressed in all white with a halo above her head. Her four Cherub wings weren’t on display. Looking at her sacred, dignified face alone, even Wayne would acknowledge her as Purity, but not when he took in her body, too. Lust incarnate earned her name for a reason.

Hestia stood before him with an impassive expression, as if daring him to take her down if he wanted to see Hesione.

Wayne was speechless. He was the Anointed One—at least for now—yet Hestia was loyal to Hesione instead... Of course, he wasn’t opposed to that.

With a smile, he pointed at Hesione, who sat on the ground cross-legged with her eyes closed. “Repeat after me: cler-gy-wo-man—”

Hestia immediately faltered, unable to maintain her dignified face. She staggered back like she had been broken.

“Kekekeke—”

Wayne walked past her and stood behind Hesione, then picked her up to sit on the divine throne with her.

“Great Anointed One, Viceroy Hesione is sorting through the knowledge she’s acquired,” Hestia said softly. “Wouldn’t it be inappropriate to disturb her?”

“Why? Are you telling me what I shouldn’t do?”

“This subordinate wouldn’t dare.”

“Is there anything you wouldn’t dare do?” Wayne patted Hesione on the backside. “I remember that you’re quite bold. There have been many times that Hesione almost burst into tears because of your insults.”

Hestia faltered once more, her frustration a pleasant sight to him. While Hestia wasn’t his primary source of entertainment, far less important than Auston was, having fruit after the entree was still nice.

He thought back to the loyal Hestia always chasing after him, feeling nostalgic. That version of her would most likely never come back. Still, the current version was good.

He leaned down and pecked Hesione on the face. “My viceroy and I have important business to discuss. Watch the door and don’t let anyone in.”

Hestia stood rooted to the spot, her face flushed.

“I’m the Anointed One at the end of the day. You make it seem like I’m a demon from Hell.”

Though Wayne understood what she was offering, he turned her down politely and triggered the divine throne with Hesione in his arms, vanishing into the tenth level.

The Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge stood tall. This was the workshop where Elohim had developed the angelic evolution, gaining the ability to mass-produce demigod-level angelic weapons.

In the golden sky, the complete text of the Seven Sacred Virtues hovered quietly, emitting a radiant holy intent that wasn’t blinding to the eyes. After some consideration, Wayne performed plastic surgery on the statue of Elohim with his arms spread, transforming it into himself.

The new Sacred Tome had been drafted, so they should all move on. The artifacts of the bygone era should be replaced.

“Apologies, there’s no arc for you in the new era. It won’t be so easy to reawaken mythology...”

Wayne extracted part of the Seven Sacred Virtues and sent it into Hesione/Mona’s body along with a small amount of Seven Deadly Sins. Since she wouldn’t wake up soon, he put a pale bracelet on each of her wrists. One was for Hesione, and the other for Mona.

After that, he vanished from Heaven and appeared in Hell.

He went straight to the council hall for the demon lords. He dragged a hand along the tattered table. The inside had been corrupted by paleness already. Even though the place served a hidden purpose that had been Elohim’s doing, it no longer worked as He had intended.

Wayne had corrupted all of Hell, but that wasn’t enough. To create his own divine system that was powerful enough to counter the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he needed a great demon god to be born in Hell.

Heaven had Hesione. Hell...

“Mikhael, come to me!”

He sent a message with his eyes closed. Almost immediately after, Mikhael appeared in a flash of light.

“Great Anointed One.” He bowed with admiration blazing in his eyes. He had now combined his admiration for the Heavenly Father and the fanatical faith an Astral life had for his faith, devoting himself fully to Wayne.

“Mikhael, I visited Hesione in Heaven earlier... Damn it, what’s that look for?!” Wayne was speechless. “I told you that I wasn’t Elohim. I’m not Hesione’s father.”

Mikhael nodded solemnly. It didn’t matter whether Wayne was Hesione’s father as long as he was Mikhael’s father. Hesione... Just like the other angels, she would be an orphan from now on.

Who did she think she was to deserve having the same father as Mikhael?!