Funnily enough, this turn of events had set back his plans, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.

For a few years now he had been aware of Kazolix’s existence. Ever since his Will Flame had progressed to Tier 2 and given him the ability to slightly ignore his planetary instincts, he had decided that there had to be a limit to letting things progress by themselves, and he needed to be more alert.

1 of the things he had done in regards to that was to give a few buzz words to the Eridius System that would alert him whenever someone spoke or even thought about them.

‘Abyss’ was one of those words.

He didn’t think that another reincarnator would appear, but it wasn’t like Gaia was expected either. He would be a fool to not be on the lookout.

Lo and behold not even a day later, he had found out about Kazolix’s true identity.

‘Abyss’ wasn’t even the word that alerted him, it was the more obvious ‘Past life’ that did it. And it wasn’t just Kazolix either. There were a few other reincarnators too and finding that out was like lifting up a brick and finding all kinds of bugs hiding underneath. As a World, foreign invaders were disgusting.

One could look at a single insect and marvel, but looking at a collection of them was abhorrent. He himself didn’t actually have anything against the reincarnators but the repulsed feeling was still there. No doubt a result of his planetary instincts.

He had already directly killed 1 of them, and of course, not without taking all of her memories. She had possessed devious plans for world dominance and actually had the capability to achieve it too, thus, she died. There was no conversation, no heavenly light, no altercation. Just 1 day she was living her life as a Realm 3 Unicorn and the next moment she died with no injury.

The only reason he left a body behind was because it was useful for whichever Beast found and ate it. That just so happened to be Lily the white Snake, the one with the Malevolent Enchantress bloodline that was created alongside Jörma and Drako.

For someone like Lily who specialised in Charm and Illusions to find that specific corpse of all corpses. If he had been using an Avatar at the time, his jaw would have dropped.

This kind of luck was not normal so of course he decided to check her out a bit. And since one of the best ways to find out if someone was destined for greatness was to check out the prospects of their Soulmate, that was exactly what he did.

He must admit, the result had stunned him for a good few whole seconds. Okay, more like 2.65752394108, but that was still a lot when it came to him.

He certainly did not expect her to be the Soulmate of the Blood Tree Anomaly on the South Continent. They didn’t seem anything alike. However, who knew what would happen in the future? Sometimes gigantic changes could occur in an instant.

Just look at Kazolix. 1 encounter with him and the ex-nightmare had become the greatest candidate for the Sin of Greed. Another of his experiments, naturally. Unfortunately, the same event had nearly crippled the the Octopus, which was what had setback his plans.

Although Eridel didn’t have control over the Souls of reincarnators the same way he had control of the Souls he himself had created, there were still a lot of things he could do. Affecting emotions was by far one of the easiest things.

From the time he had learnt about Kazolix and the others, they had all been implemented into various plans, and Kazolix becoming the Host of Greed was 1 of them. He wasn’t just going to let these cockroach-like reincarnators just appear in his World without a great price. They were all going to work for their stay or end up like the Unicorn.

What had happened to Kazolix was a pity, but it is what it is. The original plan was to do things much more safely and over a larger course of time but there was no way he could ignore what Kazolix had been about to do to Zuko. Such a thing would only cause big issues and no benefits.

Of course, it wasn’t his first thought to just drag out Kazolix’s Soul. Before all of that, he had been giving suggestions and insights to Kazolix’s mind which was what had made him suspicious of a possibly big backer - almost making him give up on Zuko. But in the end, it wasn’t enough. There had been a 29% chance of success and he hadn’t been lucky.

At the very least, since he had taken Kazolix’s Soul, he did not miss out on the chance to take all of his memories. And in the end he had even obtained relevant information that he found vital to his future needs.

But speaking of Zuko, that fool had really and truly almost fallen into doom after all of that fanfare.

Up till now, with all the close deaths and ridiculous luck, Zuko’s entire life had resembled that of some sort of protagonist more than anyone else on this Planet. You’d think that with the way he had been acting after narrowly surviving again, only to enter the 4th Realm and evolve, he would have swept away all of his enemies just like every other cartoon or movie main character that received an upgrade after dying.

Sadly for Zuko, this was the real world. Fate always struck out at the most despicable moment and the Centipede had almost tasted it. Fortunately for Zuko, he had been saved once again and this time by Eridel himself. Unfortunately for Zuko, the keyword there was ‘Fortune’. The Centipede was undoubtedly going to be paying a big price once again.

There are no protagonists here in Eridius, only mortals. And all must pay a price.

In any case, although there were some bumps, things were still progressing smoothly. There was just a strange case of certain things happening sooner than planned and other things being delayed.

He could now take some attention off of the Sea and focus on other matters, namely, the subjugation of the Sin of Envy. And after that he would be releasing a massive update to the Eridius System that would kickstart a lot of things.

He couldn’t wait.