Ch.18059. The More Impossible Something Seems, The More Certain It Is To Happen.(2)

“That’s wrong, Kariel. You see, I’m borrowing your ears. What you hear? I hear it too. Don’t complain about this much. After all, this is all to help you, isn’t it?”

“……”

Strangely enough.

Our great Demon King of Wisdom is expressing his irritation quite clearly.

“That sneaky little con artist.”

Odin immediately responds in kind.

“I’m also the god of thieves and wanderers, you know? Being shameless is just the basics. But did you know this? To get clearer prophecies and examples, I’ve played the role of a woman! Acted as a priestess! And when things got dull, I deliberately got myself raped and gang-raped while divining! I’m the very embodiment of madness, you dim-witted woman. How dare you compare your madness to mine? If you want to play in the same waters as me, you should first wet your throat with water mixed with excrement for a hundred days before challenging me! Keukeukeu! Such a greenhorn trying to best me.”

“…As expected of your reputation. You damned old man.”

Caw! Caw!

Why does the crow’s cry sound like both laughter and mockery?

“W-who are you talking to? Borrowing Kariel’s ears, you say? Come to think of it, the war god too. Kariel? Is there something around you?”

“…Would you believe me if I said I have a spirit attached to me?”

It’s not a lie.

Our Golden Demon King was, after all, originally a spirit king.

“Oh, decide quickly! Do you think I waste my power on such things?! Everyone keeps going on about me being the god of magic and sorcery! Those are just things I picked up while pursuing truth, but everyone seems to misunderstand that they’re my specialties! Absolutely not!”

“Wait a moment. So this proposal is for me, right?”

While I remained silent, Heba began to respond.

“Who else would it be for? Kariel? Or some deranged ghost clinging to him?”

“What do you want? What can I do for you?”

“I don’t need much, just give me one of your eyes. Any one will do. I’ll put it in my empty eye socket.”

He casually, frivolously throws out such an outrageous proposal.

Heba seems confused by both the casual attitude and the weight of what he’s actually asking, falling silent for a moment.

“Are you serious about that?”

“You’re already doomed anyway, aren’t you? I’m doing you a favor because we once inhabited the same world. Despite how I appear, I took good care of my people, you know? That’s no lie.”

The Demon King immediately mocked him.

“Only because you needed them as arrow fodder. And to dump tasks you didn’t want to do.”

“Still better than putting them on leashes and whipping them, right? If I hadn’t treated them well, would they have willingly supported me? Tyr and Thor didn’t rule the world like that, did they?”

“Come on! So what will you do?”

“If I give you my eye… what will you give me in return?”

“I’ll give you many things.”

“Yes. First, let me tell you what might interest you most.”

“I’ll tell you a way to liberate your kind.”

“Is that possible?”

“Send them on a long journey. When the world becomes more peaceful afterward, they can be reborn. That means you’ll have to set aside your current body for a while. It’s unsalvageable anyway, right? So put down your burden or leave it somewhere temporarily. And, depending on your ability, you can recall your memories anytime. Well, due to the law of oblivion, you won’t be able to recall everything immediately, but it’s different from those shameless demands to completely forget and wash away everything, like certain swindlers suggest. It’s not a world I govern, nor one you’ll rule, so why worry?”

His long, uninterrupted speech gave me a headache.

“…And then what?”

“Don’t you want to grab those troublemakers over there by the collar and beat them up? Is that possible? It’s impossible now, but I’ll let you pretend. Just a semblance, that is.”

“What is that? Does it have any meaning?”

“Hey! Even pretending to beat up gods is something, isn’t it? Most people can’t even raise their heads and just get trampled, right? This is me being generous.”

“But your request still means we die—the reality of setting aside our current bodies and letting go of our memories remains unchanged. Looking at it that way… isn’t this proposal only beneficial to you?”

“Do you have memories of when I was the main deity? No, right? You’ve already lost those, so why cling to the present? Is there any reason to be attached? Of course there is. That’s why you can’t let go of your lingering feelings. I understand that well. So let me tell you… I’ll solve that. The very thing you’ve been worrying about!”

“What… worry? And what do you mean by ‘that’? What are you talking about?”

“Your wish will be granted. I guarantee it. It will definitely come true.”

It was like the whisper of the serpent of original sin as described in the Irenis faith…

A seductive, ominous-sounding statement, request, and proposal.

Eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.

Then you can have everything.

You will become more perfect.

You will become stronger than you are now.

So, eat it now!

That tempting fruit!

The former main deity of a destroyed divine realm, using a crow’s body, makes his demands.

I’m not sure which one Heba desired most desperately.

Should I peek into her thoughts and memories even now?

Even Heba herself seemed quite confused about this.

It was.

The dream and wish she had been harboring, still in an incomplete form, vaguely carried even by herself.

Through this question, she seemed to have become more clearly aware of it.

But.

Time was not on our side.

Pushed by the situation, Heba finally seemed to make a decision.

“Just promise me one thing for certain.”

Should I try to stop this?

Or perhaps… escaping from here would be the right answer.

When even watching is part of the choice.

Is this choice the right one?

…Honestly, I’m not sure.

My physical condition is at its worst, making it difficult to predict the future or glimpse and anticipate the branches it might take.

Even thinking straight is a struggle.

I try my best, but… I can’t see it. Can’t reach it. Can’t comprehend it.

Keeping my consciousness and keeping my eyes open is the best I can do right now.

“I cannot forgive any of those over there.”

Heba, she says.

That arrogant war god over there.

And that strange woman who suddenly barged in.

So please.

“Give me the power to bring them to their knees.”

“Oh. That’s a very difficult condition. You have no idea how dangerous each of them is. But… that’s fine too. This will be both my greatest revenge and my greatest mercy toward you all. Whether I intervene or not, you are destined to be persecuted for eternity as payment for destroying our divine realm. If you don’t like that… you’ll have to live with your heads bowed forever. Accepting that fate, or resisting it and facing greater hardship—it’s all up to you. It’s not something I can forgive out of pity.”

“……”

“This is why opposing gods is problematic. We are eternal and permanent, and according to the law of cause and effect, we can never forget grudges or causes. Even without our intervention, all principles and providence will lead situations that way. The world determined our positions—yours and ours—from birth. You are beings close to gods. So you will have chances to bounce back.”

So if you don’t like that.

“Aspire to become our equals. Achieve it. Only that will guarantee you the freedom of a crow’s talon. This is quite valuable knowledge, but I’ll gladly tell you this time. And Kariel. The same applies to you, so I hope you’ve taken note?”

“……”

“……”

“Good. Now, read and sign. I’ll give you plenty of time, so don’t rush.”

A document made of light unfolded before Heba’s eyes.

Absolute Compliance Contract.

The former main deity was presenting an unbearable contract to the descendant or reincarnation of those who once destroyed his world.

That it somehow resembled the relationship between me and the Demon King… was that just my imagination?

Heba calmly examined the contents.

That time was both long and short.

“What should I write?”

“Your name.”

Heba.

She inscribed her name there.

Legarn.

Unlike how I called her Heba, that seems to be her real name.

Then why did she introduce herself to me as Heba?

…My mind isn’t working properly.

I feel like I should know, but right now I can’t recall.

The pain continues to trouble me.

And the woman who engraved the curse of pain on me is now directly confronting the war god.

…Far from being pushed back, she was single-handedly driving back all the war god’s avatar bodies.

“That’s a being for whom victory and defeat are meaningless. That being is the most unreasonable opponent for a victor. Keukeukeu!”

Odin, as if reading my thoughts, points it out precisely.

Come to think of it, wasn’t he also a being who governed wisdom?

…Is that why he doesn’t get along with the former Demon King?

“Good. Now prepare. Take a deep breath!”

The crow fluttered and perched on her shoulder.

Then.

It thrust its sharp beak into her left eye.

“—!!!!”

Despite having her eye gouged out while fully conscious.

Heba, she doesn’t let out even a single scream despite her whole body trembling.

She too is familiar with pain.

That familiarity has ripened so deeply.

That she can endure even such absurd, terrible pain.

But that doesn’t mean the pain is less.

Pain is without exception.

It’s just a matter of whether one has the mental strength and will to accept it.

Some fear it precisely because they’re familiar with it.

Pain is the most powerful terror and fear for the living.

…Given that,

Does the current Demon King being the most troublesome opponent for a victor mean something similar?

Because she’s the supreme Demon King who has overcome even pain.

For a being who aims to destroy and annihilate everything regardless of victory or defeat, what meaning does victory or defeat have in the first place?

Now I understand.

The natural enemy and most difficult, troublesome opponent for a victor is…

…someone who breaks the stage where victory and defeat occur, or someone who doesn’t need to care about winning or losing in the first place.

That must be the kind of beings they are.

The reason I didn’t completely lose to her, albeit clumsily, might be for similar reasons.

“Done. Legarn. Now you too will see especially well what you want to see, just as I have seen.”

The crow flutters its wings and sets itself down on the ground again.

Then it gulps down the plucked eyeball, swallowing it into its beak and throat.

Gulp!

Red blood flows vividly, drips, and clings to the crow’s black feathers and beak.

Despite the blood entering even its eyes, staining them red, the crow’s small eyes seemed to form something close to a smile, as if filled with satisfaction.

“Time is short. So observe faithfully. Observe and… determine your own future.”

The crow flaps its wings and directs its body toward the sky.

“The contract will be perfectly fulfilled. I wish you good luck. I wish you fortune as well.”

Caw! Caw-! Caaaw—!!

The crow cries out merrily.

As the crow flying through the air disappears like it’s being extinguished.

The slowed time finally regains its pace.

The time of relief passes, and the time of perplexity arrives.

“What are you?! Your intervention here must surely be our master’s will! Is that not so?!”

Even while fighting, the war god addressed her.

But the current Demon King was only responding to the hostility.

Finally, when all his most aggressive and reckless avatar bodies were neutralized.

Despite the sheep’s cry echoing again, the avatars couldn’t return to the front line.

No. They try to steady themselves as if to return, but soon collapse again.

‘Pain.’

It was evident that the avatar bodies were suffering unbearable pain, just as I had.

Otherwise, how could that mysterious recovery ability, which could raise even the dead, be so powerless?

Knowing its ability wasn’t working, the sheep makes a pitiful cry, unlike before.

“Ugh!”

And pain, being both momentary and continuous.

Despite somehow enduring even when her eye was plucked out, Heba had noticeably weakened, perhaps from consuming her strength and mental energy to endure it.

The former Demon King, who had been hovering near me watching Heba’s condition, clicked his tongue briefly.

“The old man once plucked out one of his eyes to gain knowledge. However, the body and components of an immortal being… aren’t something to be given away so simply. The old man must have considered that when he plucked out his eye. Besides, the divine body he imitated, while not destructible, wasn’t an undying body. Let’s say… he was a being of longevity and immortality.”

“That means….”

“Well, it’s not important now. Just saying.”

For instance, Heba, an immortal giant with eyes that can see the future.

Having awakened to part of her essence and nature, she must be an immortal being.

And when such a being makes a contract to permanently give away her eye… what value does that contract hold?

“The old man backstabbing isn’t anything new. Still, that’s an absolute compliance contract, so he’ll keep his promise. It’s not a naive contract that can be bypassed with mere words.”

“……”

That much.

Even to Odin, her ability of foresight and prophecy was remarkable enough for him to accept a certain level of effort and cost.

That’s probably why he presented such an outrageous contract.

In fact, he could have probably taken advantage in other ways.

“Then you would have intervened. The old man knows it, and we know it too. If your side demanded the fulfillment of the absolute compliance contract, wouldn’t it be the old man who would lose face?”

“……”

“That old man gained the position of main deity primarily through his intellect and leadership, though he’s not without power. It’s actually easier to deal with those who intimidate through force. There aren’t many beings who became main deities just because of their big heads. They’re clearly different from those who govern wisdom because they encompass everything.”

…The being Odin compared himself to.

Is he referring to the overseer of this place?

The master of light and wisdom.

And.

The reason the current Demon King could arrive here was probably due to its intervention.

Verethragna seems to have that conviction.

But with the avatar bodies defeated, and only the warrior with the golden greatsword and the boy remaining.

Except for the sheep positioned far away, they’ve all been neutralized.

“Kihihihi… How pathetic!”

Suddenly, my shoulder was grabbed.

“My goal from beginning to end was only you! Everything else was just entertainment!”

Kariel.

“Did you enjoy the entertainment? Was it fun?”

“……”

I was wondering when he’d appear, but this is troublesome in its own way.

With only darkness present, only a human silhouette barely represents his existence.

Yet, from the pitch-black face, I can vaguely feel a gaze.

Desire and obsession.

The sticky feeling of persistent craving makes me feel like my whole body is getting wet.

A chill cuts through my skin first.

Followed by an eerie voice that seems to slice through the darkness.

Instinctively, I embraced Heba and threw myself into the shadows.

“Hihihi!”

Ahriman follows along.

Even… the current Demon King who was just emerging.

‘…This is maddening.’

Like an unknown resonance from the abyss trying to collar me, it constricts my entire body.

Though it was just a brief 1-2 seconds, my whole body is drenched in sweat as if I’d suffered for dozens of minutes.

Still, thanks to that, I got a breather.

“Aaaah!!”

She’s coming after me.

Scattering crimson lightning and flames.

The Demon King of the new era lunges toward me.