The dawn of a new day approached on the horizon.
Reen was busy disposing of the mangled bodies Eren had left behind after he was done with the entirety of Helenbora's coven.
Reen didn't have to do much. She just incinerated the chopped-up corpses while humming an abstract tune. It was as if she was doing a daily chore that didn't need much thinking.
Eren and Reen weren't in Anfang anymore. So they didn't need to take special precautions while disposing of the bodies of their enemies. Thus, Eren let Reen handle this task all by herself while he focused on something much more important.
"These Wrath Flames… they are different from what I had in Anfang."
Eren commented to himself as he played with a spectral red flame floating over his open right palm. He was seen sitting over a destroyed pillar left behind in the middle of the abandoned city square.
'This is the last one I have. The last gift left behind by those witches. I better hurry up and absorb it,' he thought to himself. He took a deep breath before closing his eyes once again. Channeling his Rootless Ranking Technique, he willed the Wrath Flame to disappear into his palm.
The Wrath Flames had already helped Eren a lot during his time in Anfang. They were highly effective in claiming someone's memories and experiences.
Almost all of the mana-harnessing entities of Labh Salem didn't polish on their Elemental Attainments much because they were used to deploying Skills. The Helenbora coven was no different from this general rule. As such, Eren's Elemental Attainments didn't see much of an improvement.
However, Eren felt as if his connection with his own divine throne was strengthening as he absorbed the essence of the demonic beings. He also felt that his Authority over the Sin Series' powers was increasing at a rapid rate as he digested his recently harvested gains.
Even after turning into a demi-god, Eren was still a newbie when it came to handling divinity. He had no prior knowledge about how to nurture his divinity, how to raise it to the next level, and how it could help him grow.
Although he had claimed Aleph's divine throne for himself, Eren could not even maintain a stable connection he had with it through his soul. Thus, something that could increase his chances of increasing his affinity with the divine throne was highly sought-after by him.
Eren knew that as long as he could wield his divinity with basic proficiency, dealing with obstacles he may eventually come across in Labh Salem would not pose much threat to him. He felt that nurturing his divinity was more important than focusing on increasing his Ranking Status.
However, herein lies Eren's dilemma of being a demigod. As someone with an immortal soul and mortal flesh, his current vessel could not allow him to wield his divinity the way he wanted.
As such, he needed to increase his Ranking Status, which would strengthen his mortal flesh. This practice, in turn, would allow him to wield his divinity with greater proficiency and potency.
Eren already knew that his efficiency in handling his divinity was directly proportional to the Ranking Status he had. This relation between the two aspects was the reason behind why he had stepped into the Grandmaster Rank in the first place.
So when he found out that the Wrath Flames left behind by the witches helped Eren in both of these aspects, he was overjoyed.
Eren felt that his Ranking Status had increased, relatively speaking, by a huge margin after claiming the experiences of all the witches of the Helenbora coven. This was impressive because it hadn't been long since he had broken into the A-Rank. A few years of no progress was a norm for his current Rank.
As a Grandmaster Ranker, his progress in his recent Rank was bound to be slower than ever. At least that's what he had thought before coming to Labh Salem. But it seemed that there was indeed a shortcut available in this world that he could make use of to quickly climb up the Ranking ladder.
As he digested the gains in the Wrath Flame, Eren lived the life of a witch named Clauria. She had given him a bit of trouble with her Skills. So she was the last person to die at Eren's hands. He had finished off the other witches before focusing all his attention on her.
The butcher also kept the Wrath Flame birthed by Helenbora's death at last for his consumption. For the wrath flames generated by other witches, he prioritized speed over efficiency while digesting the wrath flames.
However, Clauria acted as the head of the coven. As such, the butcher felt that he needed to digest Clauria's Wrath Flame with a bit of care. He could learn much about Labh Salem and the coven's entire situation by paying close attention to her memories and experiences.
It took him a while to digest Clauria's gains. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with Reen's cheerful face. "How much did you gain this time?" she asked with a smile on her face.
"A lot," Eren responded quickly.
"It seems I'm not only claiming the witches' gains but also absorbing the runic fragments of the Faustian contract they had on their souls. Apparently, the annulment and absorption of these Faustian Contracts are really good for my divinity as well as my Ranking Status.
Killing these witches was totally worth it. It's as if I'm gaining the right to sit on my divine throne bit by bit as I absorb these Faustian rune fragments."
"Hehe. This is indeed good news, Erni," Reen said with a voice coated in suppressed excitement. "It seems we made the right choice."
"That's right," Eren nodded at Reen before speaking in a tone full of anticipation. "I'm really glad that we came to Labh Salem as soon as we got a chance to do so. I could have never found out about this thing had we stayed in Anfang," he said while getting up.
"Let's go. Time to leave this place," Eren said to Reen. "I know where we should go now," he said before starting to walk in a particular direction. Reen followed behind him for a few steps before disappearing into thin air.
