Somewhere in the capital city of Vallon, inside a deserted house.
“Aaagh-!!”
Elia woke with a scream.
The dream in which Lola, her only friend, and everyone else condemned her had been a nightmare too cruel for her fragile heart to endure.
“…It wasn’t a dream.”
And after waking, when she realized that nightmare had actually been reality, she wrapped her arms around herself and trembled beneath a cold, crushing loneliness.
Even though her body could no longer feel ordinary heat or cold, an icy chill that seemed capable of freezing her to the bone tightened around her throat.
She had done something that could never be undone.
Her hand still remembered the sensation of piercing Ex’s heart.
The moment that realization struck her, nausea surged up from deep inside.
“Urgh, blegh…”
She turned her head and retched for a long while, spilling something onto the floor beside her.
Strangely, it wasn’t some imaginary product of her self-loathing, but something undeniably real.
Dark crimson blood.
Dead blood that had pooled and gone rotten, reeking with decay.
“This is…”
Elia’s eyes trembled.
For a moment, she couldn’t understand why something like this had come out of her own body.
Her body had become that of a 6-Star martial artist through the Goddess’s blessing. There was no reason some ordinary illness or poison should have been able to affect her so easily.
“You don’t have much longer to live. About fifteen days, I’d say.”
Instead, someone else explained the situation for her.
Elia turned toward the voice.
The moment she saw who was there, her entire body went rigid.
Someone who could not possibly be there was sitting as calmly as could be, reading a book.
“Mr. Ex?”
A man with black hair and a dark coat.
Ex, with those murky, sunken, perpetually grimy-looking eyes.
“You’re alive?! How…!”
“I’m not Ex.”
Elia hurriedly started to rise, only to freeze at those words.
Her Heaven-Blessed Intuition assured her that the man before her was not Ex.
Elia immediately raised her guard and glared at him.
“W-Who are you? Why do you look exactly like Mr. Ex…”
“Exactly the same, don’t I? Fascinating, isn’t it?”
At the words of the man who looked identical to Ex, Elia immediately searched for her sword.
She had no idea who he was, but subduing him came first.
Fortunately, there was a sword within reach.
She hurriedly grabbed it, drew it, and was about to point it at the suspicious man when she finally saw what sword she was holding.
“Are you going to stab this body with that sword again?”
The sword he was referring to was Soul Killer.
The moment she realized that, the image of herself stabbing Ex flashed through Elia’s mind, and an unbearable pressure crashed down over her entire body.
Every action became impossible.
Moving her limbs.
Drawing a single breath.
Everything was restrained.
It was the first time she had ever felt guilt like this.
“Ah, uh…”
“The first time is certainly difficult. But the second is easier. Keep doing it, and eventually you won’t feel a thing. Do you know why?”
The suspicious man closed his book and, for the first time, met Elia’s trembling gaze.
“Because humans are creatures who deceive themselves. Even when they know something is wrong, they convince themselves they’re always in the right. Everyone does it. Every last one of them, without exception. From newborn infants who’ve only just entered this world to old men with one foot in the grave. And there is only one reason why.”
With footsteps so devoid of presence that he seemed to creep rather than walk, the suspicious man approached Elia.
An indescribable terror radiated from him, but Elia couldn’t move.
Eventually, the man stopped directly in front of her, grabbed the blade of Soul Killer, and pulled it toward his own chest as he spoke.
Toward the exact same place where Elia had stabbed Ex through the heart.
“Because they cannot live otherwise.”
At that very moment, Soul Killer pierced the man’s heart.
Elia had not moved.
The man had simply pulled the sword into himself.
“You’ve killed someone again. How does it feel? Is it a little easier than the first time?”
She had done it again.
Regardless of her own intentions, she had hurt someone again.
As soon as Elia realized that, she let go of the sword.
“N-No, I didn’t mean to…”
“What are you talking about? You meant to kill from the very beginning, didn’t you? From the moment you entered the Academy’s front gate to the final moment when you arrived at the ruins, was there ever even a single instant when you didn’t?”
“I… I was deceived…”
“Yes. You were deceived. By the Goddess, by Ex, by everyone around you, and…”
The man pulled the sword from his chest and whispered softly.
“By yourself most of all.”
He tossed Soul Killer onto the floor in front of Elia.
The strength immediately left her body, and she collapsed where she stood.
She looked like a sinner lowering herself in penance.
The man gazed down at her without the slightest sympathy, idly touching the hole in his chest as he introduced himself.
“I am Berith. Yes, the very demon you were so desperate to kill. The same demon Ex impersonated in order to deceive you.”
“W-Why? I-Is Mr. Ex dead? Why does a demon look exactly like Mr. Ex…? Unless…”
“I told you, that isn’t what matters.”
Black smoke poured from the wound beneath Berith’s hand, and the hole sealed shut.
It looked as though he had never been injured in the first place.
Then an ominous light gleamed within his eyes.
“Because Ex has deceived you yet again.”
“…What?”
Berith’s lie stabbed into Elia without mercy.
For a moment, Elia couldn’t even understand what he meant.
As though savoring her confusion, Berith continued spinning his lies.
“Ex isn’t dead. He only pretended to die. Even I was appalled by what an extraordinary liar he is. He deceives goddesses, demons, everyone around him. He is, quite literally, a monster of lies.”
“D-Don’t lie! No matter how incredible he is, there’s no way he could do something like that all by himself! I know I’m stupid, but I’m not stupid enough to believe…!”
“Who said he deceived you all by himself?”
Berith lowered himself until his eyes were level with Elia’s.
“The Goddess deceived you. Demons deceived you. Ex intended to deceive you from the very beginning, and everyone around you deceived you too. Even that human you call your friend, Lola.”
“M-Ms. Lola would never do that! Why would she have any reason to deceive me…?!”
“Because it’s entertaining.”
Berith snorted and sneered at the girl who did nothing but fall for deception after deception.
In that sneer, Elia saw the faces of all the others who had mocked her.
“It’s always entertaining to watch a genius greater than yourself fall from grace. Unfortunately for you, you’re a genius as a martial artist, but your head is hopelessly dull. An absolute idiot. Everyone has been waiting for you to fall, delighting in your ruin, hoping to watch you shatter into pieces.”
Elia remembered the students at the Academy who had mocked her or cursed at her whenever they saw her.
She wasn’t so stupid that she couldn’t recognize envy and jealousy for what they were.
“If that weren’t true, then why would the Goddess bestow her grace upon you only to steal away your lifespan?”
“She… stole my lifespan…?”
“Once a disposable life has served its purpose, there’s only one ending left for it.”
Berith raised the book he had been reading.
In an instant, black flames consumed it.
The book burned away and scattered into ash.
“Disposal.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“When the Goddess granted you her power, she deliberately made you this way. Open the Goddess’s ability and check your Talents.”
At his words, Elia opened her Talent screen.
There, hidden at the very bottom, was a Talent she had never seen before.
『Talents
Final Radiance(S) : Drastically reduces lifespan, maximizes growth potential [Disguise Removed]』
Elia understood what the existence of that Talent meant.
Even someone as foolish as she was couldn’t possibly fail to understand.
“That’s a lie…”
The moment she examined her own body, she knew for certain.
“It’s a lie…”
Her body had been slowly collapsing all this time, little by little, without her ever realizing it.
The glorious future Elysia had promised her had never existed in the first place.
Her fate had always been to be used while she was useful and discarded like garbage when she no longer was.
Considering that Gremory had tried to steal her body, Berith’s words didn’t even sound entirely wrong.
Even her past had become twisted.
Before she knew it, her entire life had become riddled with lies.
“Why…”
“It’s still too early to despair. Even now, you remain connected to the Goddess. If the Goddess desires it, you may be forced to do something against your will again. Yes. Perhaps you’ll even kill Lola with your own hands…”
“No!! I can’t let that happen!!”
「Then I shall offer you a choice.」
At that moment, Berith’s eyes changed.
One became an empty black.
The other, a hollow white.
The ‘Demonic Eyes of Truth and Falsehood’, capable of interfering with and manipulating truth and lies.
Those eyes were now fixed upon Elia.
「This is a contract. I shall sever your connection to the Goddess completely. In exchange, choose what you will offer as payment.」
Both eyes burned fiercely, dark and deep enough to radiate an unmistakable sense of corruption and evil.
「Will you offer the truth, or will you offer a lie?」
Elia instinctively understood that this contract was the reason Gremory had become unable to speak ‘lies’.
Whichever one she offered as payment, she would surely become incapable of it forever.
“I…”
If she offered the truth, she would never be able to speak the truth again, and if she offered lies, she would never be able to tell a lie again.
“There’s something I absolutely have to find out.”
There was no doubt about it.
This was a contract with a demon, something she should never accept.
“And there’s something I absolutely have to do.”
But Elia accepted the contract anyway.
***
Once the contract was complete, Elia took Soul Killer and left.
She had gone to confirm what she needed to know and do what she needed to do.
Aside from the unexpected choice Elia had made for the price of the contract, everything had gone exactly as Berith intended.
‘The arrangements are complete.’
Everything would now depend on the final decision Elia made.
Watching to see where that decision ultimately led would be another small pleasure in itself.
‘Gremory should have reached the Theocracy by now.’
Berith had willingly allowed Gremory to leave.
Gremory was useless to him in the Empire anyway.
She would no doubt return to the Theocracy and report everything she knew about him, but there was absolutely nothing they could do to prepare for what was coming.
By the time it happened, they would already be far too late.
‘It’s about time I got moving.’
Berith’s destination was Elyon Academy.
‘Are human cities still as dull as ever?’
The atmosphere throughout the city was far more hostile than he had imagined.
Rumors had already spread that a demon had appeared.
The guards kept their eyes peeled as they watched passing citizens and anyone whose appearance seemed suspicious, occasionally launching surprise inspections of questionable homes and shops.
And yet not a single gaze turned toward Berith.
As though there had been nothing there from the very beginning, Berith moved without drawing anyone’s attention.
Unless someone had reached the level of a transcendent being, no one could see through Berith’s ability to conceal his very existence.
‘Everything is ready now.’
Berith separated the two rings he had kept pressed together all this time.
One was the Soul Trap Ring Ex had obtained during the Demon Mansion Scenario.
The other was the Soul Trap Ring Berith had received from Andras.
‘Andras giving me the wrong item actually worked in my favor.’
What Berith had been doing was using the Soul Trap Rings’ function to transfer divine power from one ring to the other.
The ring on his left index finger, which had previously been empty, was now overflowing with divine power.
As that enormous quantity of divine power filled the ring, something contained within slowly began to recover.
Ex’s soul.
The soul that had nearly been shattered by Soul Killer.
‘He’ll wake up soon enough. The damage wasn’t that severe.’
Berith slipped the ring that had been completely drained of divine power onto his right hand, then pulled a second Soul Killer from inside his coat.
For the next step, Berith summoned the system.
『You are an unregistered user.
It is recommended that ownership be transferred to the original user.』
Lightning crackled across the system as it rejected Berith’s attempt to manipulate it.
Unfortunately, that resistance was meaningless.
『Administrator privileges have been approved.
Current System Level: 0, [Administrator].』
Control of the system immediately passed to Berith.
In the process, more than half of his demonic power was consumed all at once.
Combined with the power he had already spent interfering with Gremory’s and Elia’s systems, he had nothing left.
It might take a considerable amount of time for his power to recover again.
But that didn’t matter.
‘I can use the fragmented Authority now.’
Berith activated one of the system’s functions.
The function he intended to use was Setting Edit.
However, it was fundamentally different from the function Ex had been using until now.
‘So it can alter the very rules of the world itself. If the demons ever learned about this, they’d worship Ex as a true god.’
Berith gave a cold, twisted smile.
He knew why the demons were trying to resurrect their evil god.
Considering Ex’s true identity, it wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to call him a fallen god.
‘That might be entertaining too, but…’
That would make things too easy.
Berith knew all too well that when life became easy, it quickly became boring, so he immediately discarded the idea.
What he wanted to see was not Ex solving everything with ease.
He wanted to see a being close to a god thrown into every conceivable absurdity and injustice, struggling desperately to survive, clawing and thrashing against fate, sinking into despair until his heart finally broke.
That was what Berith truly wanted to witness.
‘Because that’s entertaining.’
Berith arrived at the front gate of Elyon Academy.
“Even when everyone in the world has become your enemy.”
Here, where countless incidents and destinies were bound tightly together,
“If the end of the world begins, will you still be able to survive?”
He used a fragment of Authority that Ex himself knew nothing about.
Once again, he snapped his fingers.
***
Someone approached this place where something had become twisted.
“Haaah, it’s you again.”
It was Professor Lung, the sage-like old man standing with his hands clasped behind his back.
Lung looked down at the person collapsed on the ground and repeatedly clicked his tongue in pity.
“Child, your fate torments you without end.”
The person lying there was none other than Ex.
His hair had turned white.
There were no longer two rings on Ex’s hands.
The ring that should have been on his right hand was gone.
Soul Killer, which he had been holding, had disappeared as well.
Lung hoisted Ex onto his back and headed toward the Academy.
All he could do was click his tongue and lament.
“A storm is coming. You must endure it.”
There was always silence before the storm.
–TL Notes–
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