Viers arrived exactly at the crucial moment. If he’d just extended his hands, Viers would get the prize but Viers didn't do so. In fact, Viers had no desire for such power from the beginning.

The power of the Demon King that the Blood Church coveted so greedily, Viers treated it like a radiation-leaking faulty nuclear warhead. Dangerous to everyone, the user included.

Viers already predicted what would happen if he took the Demon King’s fragment for himself.

It would become a pain in the ass.

Something from a dangerous entity far stronger than himself won't be easy to tame and control. The most common development was the fragment parasitized on him. Oh Viers would get a power boost, there was no doubt, but the power was a double-edged sword.

For example, the eye would corrupt his body and mind. If he didn't get ‘something-something plot device’ in a few weeks, he would become insane or demonized. Viers would be forced to enter a tournament for some prize, or dive into a Biome for a phantasmal item, or search ancient ruins for lost documents, or kill a high-ranking demon in Hell to eat its heart, or something along those lines to prevent the Demon King’s power from destroying him from the inside.

According to Viers’ learned opinion, MCs that met a similar dilemma would prevail in the end. Always. After hundreds of chapters -according to his web novel standard- of twists and turns, after multiple arduous and difficult chain-quests, the MC would master the toxic power and make it his own, gaining the reward the author planned for him from the inception of his creation.

But Viers didn't like it.

He didn't like his journey to be determined by something other than himself. He’d refused a spirit advisor before and insanity-inducing corruption certainly wasn't more acceptable.

This was his Path of Power and nobody dictates where he should walk.

Even If he walked himself to the abyss of oblivion in the end then it would be because of his own free will. His will and nobody else’s.

Last but not least, there was something else.

Evil Overlord List number 22: No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

Supposedly it was about a villain having too much Phlebotinum, destroying himself or his base because he tried to absorb something more than he could handle. Viers thought the toxic power of the Demon King could be included.

Besides, Viers could become stronger without relying on something as malignant as that. Back on Earth there was a saying that the world was wide, and this world was bigger than his previous one by at least four times. Viers was confident there were many paths to be the strongest other than the Demon King’s fragment route and the Horizon Aspect inside him was yet another source of his confidence.

For now, Viers had bought some time to rob this place blind.

“Come on, boy. I’ll need you to open the vault under this manor. I hope there are many good things inside,” Viers said to his moving puppet.

***

In the midst of the Silver Legion’s cheering, the eerie left eye from the severed head popped out and jammed itself into the left eye of the dead cultist that was carrying it. Within moments, the corpse started twitching furiously, as the fragment of the Demon King jacked his brain and nervous system.

“Hehehe, fine, we’ll go out the hard way. Stepping on all of your fuckin’ corpses!” Blood Vicar Tobias laughed and brandished a gigantic sword of magma able to split a mountain at Malcolm.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with. Half of the continent had to make an alliance to defeat the Demon King at the height of his power. The Demon King serves no one but himself. He’ll turn on you, fool!” The phantom of an armored angel behind his back slammed his fists together to make a heaven-rending shockwave.

If they battled outside of their separate space their people would be implicated by their earth-shaking battle. The area around them would have turned into a wasteland of rock and dust.

Tens of tentacles of meat came out from the back of the Demon King-possessed corpse. It launched to the other carcasses and the still alive legionaries. Four Level 2s were killed in an instant while the Level 3s managed to avoid a grisly fate. The tentacle brought all the corpses of any ally or enemy then added their biomass to itself, becoming a mass of bulbous, red lump of meat. There were bits of metal armor, demons’ faces, human limbs, an amalgamation of repulsiveness.

“Tch.”

“Where are you going, Inquisitor? Your opponent is me!”

“I’ll have you drawn and quartered before incinerating your remains with sacred flames, Tobias!”

The clashes between Level 5s continued in their separate space.

Meanwhile, Haghen felt something odd about the abruptly closed portal.

“Alan, you’re the fastest among the Level 3s. Use the tertiary portal and find out what happened to the primary portal,” Haghen commanded.

“Yes, Blood Exarch,” Alan nodded in compliance.

“And make sure Irkun is okay,” the fatherly side of Haghen spoke out words of worry.

After watching Alan go through one of the two remaining portals, he returned his gaze to the battlefield, filled with determination. Haghen took out a red pill with an incredible aura, pulsating. It was as if the pill was alive.

It’s time to pull all the stops, Haghen thought and swallowed the pill.

Tobias and Malcolm paused their battle because they felt a power growing at an astounding rate.

The battlefield shook and trembled, Haghen became the eye of a typhoon of mana and energy. The swirl of power kept growing, pushing all others away from his position, even the Level 4s couldn't hold their ground.

Suddenly, it stopped.

From the smoke and dust, Haghen walked out emitting the aura of a Level 5. The expression of disbelief from his once equal political rival, the incensed Ursula was a delight for Haghen.

My breakthrough is a success. How could it not, after making my own father into a pill and eating him whole?

“History will remember this day as the day when the Silver Legion’s invincibility was broken!” Haghen shot to the air, barging in the sealed space and started double-teaming Malcolm together with the Blood Vicar.

“AHAHAHA!” Tobias laughed maniacally. The wind was completely on his sails. The destruction of his hated enemy was at hand.

“WREEEEEEE!!” The corpse inhabited by the Demon King’s left eye let out a shrieking no human mouth could produce. It had become a tower of flesh, of bodies mashed together. The original corpse had absorbed the remains of the corpses in the field, including the flesh of demons. Just by possessing a mediocre Pathseeker it managed to raise its power no less than the other Level 5s. A small fragment of the Demon King already had so much strength, and it had yet to completely recover from two millennia of sealing.

Three Level 5s were now on the Blood Church’s side while Holy Inquisitor Malcolm was the only one for the Estellian Church. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Silver Legion was in a precarious position. None understood this better than the Inquisitor.

He thought Cardinal Judith had overestimated the importance of events in Marakkus when she sent him to oversee matters. She had pulled him from his hunt of a mind-jumping criminal Level 4 with a body count of triple digits. Never in his right mind he would guess it wasn't enough.

Goddess preserves us, Malcolm quietly prayed.

***

The manor Viers was in, was one of the properties of the Marakkus family scattered throughout the city. It was supposed to be a summer house or somesuch, Viers didn't really understand the mentality of the overly rich. The important thing was, there was a vault under this manor that contained some of the Marakkus family's treasures.

Some, because Irkun knew the existence of other vaults. The vault that daddy dear gave the key to Irkun was just a minor vault that didn't contain heaven-shaking artifacts but the protection was pretty solid. Haghen meant to give Irkun a nuclear shelter in case things got out of hand but it had fallen into the hands of an outsider.

Mine now, Viers thought as he watched Irkun unlocked the door to the vault. The protective enchantments deactivated and the heavy metal door slowly creaked open. The wait made Viers giddy.

“Yes!!”

The vista that welcomed him made Viers clutch his fists and yelled a victory cry.

There were rows of precious medicine bottles and potions neatly placed and magical items grandly on display without a speck of dust on them. It was a beautiful sight.

The problem is how to carry them out of here.

Thankfully, Irkun memories presented a solution.

Viers and Irkun walked to the artifacts area. As soon as Viers saw the object, he broke into a slight run and raised the item gently with both hands.

It was a small ornate jeweled box about 20 centimeters in length.

“Thousand Treasures Casket… My storage item, at last,” Viers said with deep emotion.

“Congratulations, Lord Viers,” Farley said.

“Wow, you really want this thing bad, huh?” Paina didn't think Viers would be so moved.

“...Well, not as good as the one I used to have,” Clarissa gave a frank assessment.

Four seconds of wallowing in his achievement were all the time Viers gave to himself. He realized he was not in the clear yet and mastered his emotions. Viers promptly bound the box to himself with a drop of blood. The unbound storage item accepted his claim without issue. Viers opened the box and saw white fog inside it.

Viers grabbed a fistful of mana crystal from nearby and placed it above the opened box. The crystals sank into the fog smoothly. Viers shook the box and didn't hear any clatter from the inside. Viers grabbed a shield with a bull carving on it next and tried to put it in. The shield was much bigger than the 20 centimeters magical box but it could store the shield just fine. The shield’s shape became warped as it went in, not unlike an object becoming elongated when sucked by a black hole.

Space hocus-pocus indeed.

Viers put his hand inside the white fog and pulled the shield again just fine. Viers had a big fat grin on his face, thankfully no one could see it.

Viers became a one-man horde of all-consuming locusts and cleaned the place out. Every valuable was pried out and stolen.

The first priority was the rare artifacts. After taking the Thousand Treasures Casket, he took the Mask of Unrecognizable Face, a flamethrower the size of a bazooka, a barrier shelter stone, a yellow wood bow, a picture scroll with the drawing of octopuses, a pair of scrying bowls, and many more.

There was also a big stock of consumable items. Bomb beads, paper talismans, potions, medicines, and ingredients Viers didn't know about.

The vault did not contain much hard cash, only a pile of mana crystals and a dozen gold bars. Viers still took them to the last crystal. He imagined finding 500,000 dollars lying on the street would feel like this.

On the downside, there were no affinity ingredients, treasure herbs, or cultivation resources. Not a single book about Arte, valuable scrolls, or profound codex. Viers thought they must be in separate treasuries. Wise, not putting all the eggs in a single basket. Clearly the vault he just robbed was mainly used for storing magical items.

However, the lack of such things didn't lessen his joy.

There must be a heist in every GTA game and this is one!

Taking a lesson from someone named Meng Hao, Viers even took the magical lamps, item casings, and the marble tiles before leaving the vault utterly barren.

***

Alan the Prince of Thieves moved as fast as he could after his exit from the other gate. The manor Irkun resided was right in front of him. The lack of any living presence inside was a sign of disaster.