Chapter 986

The Dawn Goddess clearly had never been tricked by a demon contract—this brief alliance was a classic demon contract.

Joint development—how exactly is that defined? I develop into a stellar republic, you develop into a desert oasis with tribal slavery—is that joint development? Systems aren’t good or bad, only suitable or not; perhaps tribal slavery suits you better?

Shared faith—the Lord of Radiance shares faith with the Dawn Goddess, meaning you can share my Radiance power, and I can share your Dawn power; exchanging Radiance power for Dawn’s essence, even silver coins would call Anthony a swindler.

This clause was Anthony’s true goal—Ang’s divine mandate was already fulfilled.

As for mutual aid and joint defense—how far should we help? How exactly should we defend? If I stand beside you and protect you, is that joint defense?

The most shameless part is the signature: the Lord of Radiance signed the pact—what does that have to do with me, the Pope of Light? If absolutely necessary, kill Shah to satisfy you, then my lord can resurrect him later—Shah is the true Lord of Radiance.

Although the pact has wide interpretive leeway, Anthony doesn’t intend to break it outright—if he can take the Dawn Goddess out and make her work hard, that’s still a good thing; the Dawn Goddess oversees marriage, and Lisa’s Harvest Goddess oversees fertility—a perfect pair.

Thinking of this, Anthony began his performance, veins bulging on his face, “You lied to me? You were already imprisoned here? You have no ability to fulfill the pact? How despicable—you why deceive me? Despicable!”

The Dawn Goddess’s face twitched slightly; she twisted her fingers and said, “You were the one who insisted on signing the pact. My priest only said you came to visit me—never mentioned any pact.”

“You…” Anthony’s face flushed with fury, glaring at the Dawn Goddess.

The Dawn Goddess, caught out, weakly averted her gaze, slowly hunched her neck, and quietly tried to step back—clearly, she rarely deceived others and felt heavy guilt.

Seeing the timing was right, Anthony feigned outrage: “What else are you hiding from me? Speak! Why are you trapped here? If you can’t be honest with your ally, the pact cannot be fulfilled.”

The Dawn Goddess exhaled in relief and hurried to say, “This mobile cage was built specifically to imprison me—they couldn’t destroy me, so they constructed a spatially shifting prison to contain me.”

“They? Who are ‘they’? They couldn’t destroy you?” Anthony scrutinized the Dawn Goddess up and down.

Compared to normal deities, the Dawn Goddess’s form was absurdly small, lacking any sense of oppression; normal deities often appeared as massive figures to instill fear, since physical scale is the most direct and powerful form of intimidation.

Of course, that applies to ordinary deities—once you reach the Ancient God tier, size equals power, because a smaller form can’t hold enough energy.

As for the Origin tier, there are too few examples to draw any patterns.

The Dawn Goddess’s form was tiny—her upper body was roughly human-sized, and only her overly wide lower skirt made her appear larger; yet to Anthony, she didn’t seem the type requiring a specially built prison.

“I don’t know who they are—they wanted to kill me but couldn’t, so they imprisoned me here. This space is sliced into countless fragments, constantly shifting; when I move in one direction, I enter the next space, but as it shifts, I lose all sense of direction. Unless I can traverse all spaces in a short time, I’ll never escape.”

Anthony understood—it was like playing chess on a constantly shifting board: you aim to capture the king, but the square moves, placing you directly on a mana-cannon’s path. Only Negrilis could play this kind of chess.

Without calculating the spatial movement trajectory, escaping would be nearly impossible—unless you had Feti’s speed, zipping across in a few blinks.

“Can’t you teleport out?” Anthony asked.

The Dawn Goddess shook her head: “There are no teleportation arrays here.”

Anthony pulled out teleportation slates, spent time piecing them together into a small array, activated it—but found no connection to any other array.

It wasn’t that it couldn’t connect—it kept interrupting. Just as he detected a teleportation array and tried to link, all points flickered and refreshed.

This was even more dangerous than failing to connect—even if he linked successfully, Anthony wouldn’t dare teleport; if a flicker occurred mid-teleport, his body would be sliced into pieces.

If teleportation arrays failed like this, teleportation scrolls would too. Anthony pulled out a scroll, tore it open, wrapped it around a piece of clothing, and tossed it forward.

The scroll flashed with white light and teleported the clothing away.

Anthony called through his soul: “My lord, did you receive the teleport?”

Ang nodded, dragging Negrilis into the soul link; Negrilis replied: “Received it—but it spat out sideways from the array. The clothing is shredded into seventeen or eighteen strips, radiating outward—clearly torn apart by spatial stress.”

Since teleportation was impossible, they had to find the exit directly. Anthony asked through the soul link: “Which way should I go?”

Negrilis replied: “Simple. Match the rhythm of spatial shifts—each time the space moves, you move one step. Current sequence: up, down, up, down, left, left.”

Following Negrilis’s instructions, Anthony and the Dawn Goddess sprinted through the pitch-black void.

This wasn’t easy—each spatial segment was large; flying from one end to the other took time, and they had to complete the movement before the next shift, or the sequence would change and require recalculation.

They reached the edge of the first space. Anthony passed through effortlessly into the second “square,” yet the Dawn Goddess couldn’t.

The Dawn Goddess first slipped into the gap, stretching like resin between two panes of glass, then emerged from the other side.

Anthony reached out, probing the boundary—felt nothing. Clearly, this boundary affected only the Dawn Goddess.

No time to ponder—both pressed forward. Following Negrilis’s sequence, as they entered the seventh square, a platform suddenly appeared in the next square—a lone door stood alone upon it.

Anthony and the Dawn Goddess simultaneously perked up, accelerating toward the platform.

They crossed the gap, stepping into the square containing the platform—before Anthony could even steady himself, a shadow solidified on the platform, fixing its gaze on Anthony, eyes blazing red, while a thunderous voice echoed through the entire space: “Sin God, retreat!”