Chapter 176: The Offer

Akuma turned his head slightly.

A figure stood near the entrance to the terrace, its appearance obscured by the darkness. He could not immediately determine who or what it was, but he could sense that its presence was unlike anything he had encountered during his ordinary days.

For several seconds, he simply stared at the stranger.

"Who are you?"

"Someone who understands your predicament."

Akuma looked away, his interest already fading. "If you’re here to offer me some meaningless advice about finding happiness, you can leave."

"I wouldn’t insult you with something so trivial."

The response made him pause.

The stranger stepped forward, although its features remained difficult to distinguish. "You believe something is missing from your life, don’t you? You have power, status, and companions who welcome you into their gatherings, yet none of those things can satisfy you."

Akuma’s expression changed slightly. "How do you know that?"

"Because I understand what it means to be trapped by circumstances beyond your control. I understand what it means to desire something more, only to discover that the world has placed limits on what you can achieve."

The stranger allowed those words to settle before continuing.

"Tell me, Akuma. Do you believe that becoming a god has made you free?"

Akuma did not answer immediately.

He had never considered the question in those terms. He could exercise his authority, travel through the world, and interact with the other pantheons without the restrictions that had once defined his existence, but he had never stopped to ask whether those freedoms were truly his own.

"What are you getting at?"

"Power."

The word was spoken without hesitation.

"The stronger you become, the fewer restrictions you must endure. The more power you possess, the more choices become available to you, and the less you must depend on others to determine your future."

Akuma frowned. "I’m already a god."

"And yet you remain dissatisfied."

The answer struck closer to home than he wanted to admit.

The stranger continued, its voice calm and measured. "You have obtained a position that should have brought you satisfaction, but you still feel incomplete. Perhaps the problem isn’t that you have failed to achieve enough, but that you stopped pursuing strength before you reached the point where nothing could restrict you."

Akuma lowered his gaze.

He wanted to dismiss the words as manipulation, to tell the stranger that he had no interest in chasing an endless pursuit of power. Yet the more he considered the possibility, the more difficult it became to ignore the questions that had haunted him for so long.

What if he had stopped too early?

What if the strength he had obtained was merely another cage, one that appeared different from the others only because he had grown accustomed to living inside it?

"I don’t understand what you want from me," he finally said.

"An agreement."

The stranger extended its hand, but before Akuma could respond, another voice emerged from the darkness.

"You will betray Liam"

Akuma froze.

For the first time since the conversation began, his expression lost its usual composure.

"Liam?"

"The Entity," the voice clarified. "The one who has shaped your current existence, the one whose actions have influenced the world in ways you may never fully understand."

Akuma’s eyes narrowed. "What does he have to do with any of this?"

"Everything."

The darkness around the stranger seemed to deepen, and a distorted mechanical sound echoed across the terrace. Something moved behind it, producing a faint metallic scraping that reminded Akuma of machinery struggling to operate after years of neglect.

"You believe your suffering was simply an unfortunate consequence of your circumstances," the voice continued. "You believe the endless forsaken world was merely something you had to endure before you could become what you are today."

Akuma remained silent, his attention fixed on the darkness.

"But have you ever considered who placed you there?"

The question settled over the terrace like a weight.

Akuma’s memories stirred, bringing with them fragments of his time in that endless world. The loneliness, the absence of anything familiar, and the countless moments when he had wondered whether anyone even knew that he existed.

His fingers curled against the railing.

"You’re saying..."

"The one who sent you into that endless forsaken world was none other than Liam."

For a moment, Akuma could not move.

He wanted to reject the accusation immediately. Liam had given him opportunities, and the existence he possessed now was inseparable from the changes that had shaped their world. Yet the stranger’s words had found their way into a place within him that had remained untouched for a very long time.

A place filled with unanswered questions.

"You’re lying," Akuma said, although his voice lacked the certainty he intended.

"Am I?"

The stranger tilted its head.

"Think carefully. You desired strength, and you were forced to endure an experience that stripped away nearly everything else. You emerged from it as a god, but even now, you remain unable to understand why you feel so empty."

Akuma’s breathing became slower.

"What if there was a reason for your suffering?" the voice asked. "What if someone else had decided that your life would unfold this way, leaving you to believe that everything you endured was simply the price you had to pay?"

The terrace fell silent.

Akuma stared at the stranger, trying to separate the truth from the manipulation. He had no proof that Liam had deliberately condemned him to that existence, and he knew that the stranger could be exploiting his dissatisfaction to achieve some hidden purpose.

Yet the accusation had already planted a seed.

Before he could speak again, a mechanical arm emerged from the darkness.

Its surface was covered in blackened metal, with distorted joints and thin cables running beneath its plating. Several sections appeared damaged, while faint lights flickered between the gaps, illuminating a structure that seemed both familiar and profoundly wrong.

Akuma stared at it.

Something about the arm reminded him of a memory he could not quite grasp, as though he had once encountered a similar presence somewhere beyond the limits of his understanding.

However, whatever resemblance existed had been twisted into something unfamiliar, leaving him with the unsettling impression that he was looking at a corrupted reflection of something he once knew.

The arm extended toward him.

"During the upcoming war, Liam will begin moving against others," the stranger said. "He will expand his influence, gather strength, and attempt to bring more of the world under his control."

Akuma did not move.

"Your role is simple. Betray him when the opportunity arrives, sabotage his plans, and prevent him from achieving everything he desires."

The metallic fingers opened slowly.

"Once he begins conquering others, you will become the greatest pawn in the game if you continue to follow him blindly. But if you turn against him at the right moment, you can become something far greater."

Akuma looked at the outstretched arm.

"What do I gain from this?"

"Freedom."

The answer came immediately.

"You will no longer have to accept whatever fate someone else has prepared for you. You will no longer need to wonder whether your suffering served someone else’s purpose, and you will no longer have to remain content with the scraps of power you have been given."

The stranger leaned closer.

"Help me restrict the Entity, and when the time comes, you will become the ruler of everything."

Akuma remained motionless, staring at the arm as the distant sounds of laughter drifted from the gathering hall behind him. His companions were still enjoying their dinner, completely unaware that a conversation capable of changing the course of their future was taking place only a short distance away.

He could still turn around.

He could return to the table, sit beside Trias, listen to Odir argue with Rize, and pretend that the emptiness inside him would eventually disappear. He could continue living the life he had built, accepting his position among the pantheons and hoping that one day he would finally understand what had been missing.

But then the stranger’s accusation returned to his mind.

The one who sent you into that endless forsaken world was none other than Liam.

Akuma slowly raised his hand.

He did not know whether the stranger was telling the truth, nor could he be certain that the promise of freedom was anything more than another deception. Yet for the first time in a long while, someone had offered him an answer to the questions he had been unable to resolve on his own.

And perhaps that was enough to make him listen.

His fingers moved closer to the mechanical hand, stopping just short of touching its cold metal surface.

Then, with an expression that remained impossible to read, Akuma reached forward.

"I agree to your terms."

The mechanical arm shifted as a series of metallic sounds echoed through the darkness, its distorted joints twisting into place.

"You have just destroyed the chains that bound you."