Chapter 852: Chapter 853: Shockwave Damon did not know what was unleashed, or the fact that a part of Ittorath had snuck in with them into the world, or maybe this was all part of the Unknown God’s overarching plan. The fact of the matter was, his plan had come to fruition. According to the report Damon received, a total of ten million people had been killed, with a few million more heavily injured. About seven million were homeless, and another sixteen million were internally displaced. This was a staggering amount of casualties. Many were dead, and Damon, who was all the way in the inner city, did not see a single corpse. Only a statistical report. All those deaths reduced to numbers on a page. He didn’t see the corpses. He didn’t hear their screams or how they begged. He was in his nice home as he received a report. When he was a boy, he hated nobles, but frankly speaking, he was acting the exact same way they did. Though Damon saw this as a means to an end. Freedom had to be fought for. From where he stood, he couldn’t even see the ashes and smoke rising in the sky because the city was far too large and this was all the way in the outer region. But two things had been gained here. One, the most obvious. The hatred of the people in the Grinding Gate had spread, and with that hatred came a cause for defiance. He had proven to them that any one of them could be the victim. And with that, hopelessness had spread. When hopelessness spread, people usually sought out hope. They created faiths. They prayed to gods. To that end, Damon’s religion was spreading. He gave them a choice. An alternative. A vision of freedom from their oppression. A way to fight back. Right now, Lazarak was gaining followers at an alarming rate throughout the city. Hatred for the chained knights and the god Seraph Null was spreading beneath the currents of all this chaos. More than that... Damon smiled, crossing his arms together. His new shadow maw was eating well. He had an abundance of corpses left after the slaughter at the Grinding Gate. Keeping corpses around was a great way to spread sickness and plagues, so the cult Damon had created offered the people help in getting rid of them. Those corpses were fed to Maw, growing the Vor’Thal into a form closer to its adult state. He took a deep breath. "If gods are flawed, faith is false, and hope creates monsters... then what remains." Damon asked himself. Then the answer was simple. It was obvious. "It was choice." It all led back to choice. If gods were flawed, it was up to man to create his own paradise. We are made by our choices, and those choices shape our world. We do not need gods to make choices for us. This was a belief held by the Unknown God. Choice was. And if we truly were the ones making the choice, then we could not blame god. "Damon, what are you waiting for, let’s go." Evangeline’s voice came from the door. She didn’t know what Damon had been doing, only that he was wasting their time. "Come on, let’s go. We found Leona, right." Damon nodded slowly and followed Evangeline outside. She wore a beautiful dress, her golden hair glittering in the sun. She was every bit the noble woman. Damon seemed a bit absent-minded, so Evangeline nudged him with her elbow. "What’s got you so down." He lifted his head. Down? He wasn’t. "Do I look down." She nodded, a gentle smile on her face. "You kind of do. I haven’t seen you this brooding since our days in the academy." Damon pinched the bridge of his nose. Those were awkward times. He sighed. "Eva... if you had to be put in a position where you could save a million people, but it led to the deaths of a hundred, what would you do?" She was quiet for a moment. She shook her head. "I don’t know. People aren’t statistics. What makes the lives of a million people more important than the hundred. It’s not a sacrifice if you kill a hundred people against their will." He bit his lip. "So what do you do then?" She shook her head. "Justice is a difficult thing to carry out, and I am just human. I don’t know. But I would want to save everyone I can." Damon narrowed his eyes. "Then will you allow death to fall dispassionately on rich and poor alike, unaffected by race or creed." She shook her head. "You’re talking about genocide." She looked down at her hand. "Justice is important to me, but justice without humanity is cruel." "If I have to give an answer, I would say I am human, and therefore I will make the humane choice." Damon clenched his fist at her answer. She had said she would make a choice. There was always a choice. It was always about choice. Damon had pondered the concept of choice so many times, hoping that if he did, he would understand the Unknown God’s ideals and philosophy. But the more he learned about choice, the more complex it seemed. Perhaps that was why the Unknown God was so difficult to understand. After all, he was the god of choice. Evangeline didn’t say anything more as they walked to where Leona had been seen, and sure enough, this place definitely belonged to Leona. There was a sign at the door. Leona’s place. Do not enter unless you want to get a beating. Damon glanced at Evangeline. She glanced back. "At least we know it’s not a trap." He knocked slowly. As soon as he did, the door opened with a harsh pull, and someone jumped into his arms. "I knew it, I knew it. I smelled you... hehehe." Leona’s excited voice echoed as she crushed him in a hug. Damon hugged her back. "Yeah, I missed you too, bestie. In fact, I suffered a lot." He glanced at Evangeline, putting on mock pain. "I was even sexually harassed by Evangeline in a public place, and the people just watched her take advantage of me." Leona slapped a hand over her mouth. "No she didn’t. She finally showed her true colors." Evangeline closed her eyes, barely holding back her anger. ’I’ll kill these two...’