Ch.22574. To You, Because I Can Make a Request (2)

We always dreamed of becoming better.

Why does the world flow in the exact opposite direction of what we desire?

Lutesia desperately tried to force her body, intoxicated with helplessness, to stand up.

But her body wouldn’t obey.

Natural enemy.

How could that mere wooden thing render me so powerless?

And also.

The blood of radiance flows within her?

Then what about my father? My father…

-Yes. Lutesia, was it? He, your father, died by my hand.

Surely, since he died at the hands of someone called a hero, he must have been an evil person, a demonic being.

Then did he know that my father, whom he killed, was his own flesh and blood?

What if he didn’t know?

Or what if he did?

Either way, it’s not normal.

And I too…

…was not normal.

Starting from a minor school of the Irenis Order, we, who were said to have wandered between factions and heresies, sought a new covenant.

To challenge the divine, to pursue the realm of gods…

And ultimately, to become gods.

Because only then could we subdue this world soaked in sorrow.

Hope, love, mercy.

All are futile wishes.

Those are the most malicious poisons… designed to tame us into docile sheep.

Yes.

Although they are the enemies who made me like this, does that mean all their teachings were wrong?

No. Everything fits.

Because this world consists only of pain upon pain.

“Lute…sia.”

-??

Thud.

A girl knelt by Lutesia’s head, almost collapsing.

It was Delica.

She was Lutesia’s only friend and savior…

My… one and only sister.

“Do you… remember… what I said earlier?”

-…

Her heart nearly stopped.

“The time has come. Use… me.”

She forcibly shook her head that wouldn’t turn.

Though it might not have been very noticeable from the outside.

Delica immediately noticed.

“Why? Others are acceptable but not me? My value is equal to everyone else’s. My life, my future, whatever it may be!”

-No…

That’s not it. That’s not what I mean.

This situation is… different.

“You’re probably saying no… but it’s fine. Anyway… we just need to do things our way.”

From the beginning.

We never chose anything.

Even just seizing the approaching results was too much for us.

So we always do our best in the moment.

That’s all we had left.

“We’ve come this far, haven’t we? Hesitating now… is unforgivable for anyone.”

When did she pick it up?

Delica tightly gripped the crimson branch in her small hand.

She pointed its tip at her own throat.

Lutesia’s eyes widened in horror.

“If you leave me be… I’ll die a meaningless death. Use me… in a meaningful way.”

She screamed inside.

Screamed.

Wailed.

No. No! Don’t do it! Don’t!

Sister! Why are you doing this?!

Please, please don’t do such a foolish thing!

“If I had been just a little smarter. If I had been stronger… the burden you carry…”

Haaa.

Delica never finished her sentence.

Eventually, as if savoring the final air for a moment,

She took a long, deep breath.

And then.

She didn’t hesitate for even a moment.

Squelch!

She willingly thrust the crimson branch into her own throat.

And.

Lutesia could only watch the scene, truly powerless.

-Ah….

Ah, ah… aah, ah? Ah….

Ah…….

[Now only you remain! If even you cannot awaken! How are we supposed to live in this world!]

Get up! How long do you plan to stay down!

[Nebro! For your own sake! For all of us! You must awaken! Break the egg! Break through and emerge!]

Ah… Forerunner.

The source of my misfortune.

Perhaps I too… could have lived a peaceful life… with my mother and father.

In the end, you’re the one who interfered with that, aren’t you?

And yet until the end… you only blamed me.

What exactly did you expect from me?

I am nothing, nothing at all.

[This world… has no hope.]

Idelia.

[Everything… was in vain.]

Marez.

Perhaps our journey was all like the foam of a wave that crashes once against a rock and then disappears.

[Nothing has changed. The world was always like this.]

Judre.

[Still, we must not… stop living. We cannot… let the spirits of those who went before us… be in vain…]

Zeber.

[What’s with that miserable face, kid? Why? Do you think you’re the most unfortunate person in the world?]

Del…ica.

[We saw… possibility. So… finish it… to the end. We have… nothing else… left now, right?]

Sister.

[This world must… must…]

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I’m not quite sure, but someone was holding this body tightly.

“It’s okay.”

??

“Everything is okay now.”

…?

“Daddy… is too late, but… still, it’s… over now.”

What?

What is over?

“From now on… your path will be… extremely difficult. Even so… please don’t give up on life. Please don’t resent.”

??

Who are you?

“The day you were born, your mother and I… felt like we had the whole world.”

Mother? Father?

“Even if everything in this world disappears. As long as you’re safe… no matter what anyone says, we…”

Ah…

“You’ve come… a long way.”

It was truly a long… journey.

“Lute…sia. We… truly… lo…ve…”

…

……

………..

??

Fa…ther?

Father?

====

The anomaly arrived suddenly.

The world abruptly turned crimson.

It spread not just through the erosion zone and the outside,

But expanded throughout the entire surroundings.

“??”

The black-armored swordsman who had been moving perfectly fine and charging at me.

That was another version of myself.

And the remnants derived from it, perhaps affected by this, suddenly collapsed.

Thud!

As the black armor rolled on the ground, I turned my gaze.

Every sense in my body had already been foretelling that the situation was far from ordinary.

-Has it truly ascended beyond the Archontes (ἄρχοντες) to become a Demiurgos?

The golden girl who had appeared beside me was looking at the scene with extremely serious eyes, different from before.

Over there, that crimson girl was now floating majestically in the air, with ten pairs of red wings spread wide and a crimson crown on her head.

“I didn’t have time to ask, but what is a Demiurgos?”

-A false god. A created being. A manufactured deity. There are various ways to express it.

“…So what’s going to happen now?”

-I’m curious about that too. Since something that only existed in theory has emerged.

In theory?

<…>

Suddenly.

I felt as if it was focusing its attention on me.

‘Perhaps the reason I couldn’t properly predict the future was…’

Because of that?

What’s certain is.

The being before me… far exceeded the specifications of a created being.

There was no sense of pressure crushing my skin and body, no unreasonable force.

But that made it even more terrifying.

This was almost like…

<Abra>

It suddenly began to chant something.

<ABRASADABRA>

It wasn’t a sound produced by vocalization.

That voice? Sound-text?

As soon as it was chanted.

The erosion field immediately covered the entire world.

A truly miraculous display of power.

-I see. It really has… become a false god.

“So what am I supposed to do about it?”

The golden girl told me as if it were nothing special.

-Right now, that child is a burden that another you from a different world has passed on to you.

Then she snorted slightly.

-If left alone, it will do whatever it wants. Because it’s not a true god, it has the privilege of inhabiting the world of created beings. It doesn’t violate the laws. It doesn’t contradict providence. That’s the kind of being it is.

“……”

Truly.

This is truly… an absurd situation.

It was already terrible when it was a Demon Lord, but now what? A divine being?

“Shouldn’t we call your father at this point?”

-He can’t come here. Because he’s a victor, he never appears on a battlefield where he might lose. Even if he wanted to, fate would somehow interfere. Just like how he couldn’t find you despite searching so hard.

“……”

-And you should know from what you’ve seen, right? Even if they want to, their world doesn’t. You’ve already become a native of this world.

“You didn’t speak so frankly before.”

-It’s fine now. You’ve reached that level. There’s no harm in telling you the truth now.

So I’ve attained the qualification to digest the truth.

How pathetic.

“Let’s say that’s true. So, what do we do about that?”

I pointed at Lutesia with my eyes.

Though there’s no movement yet.

When it starts to act, who knows what will happen.

At that moment, I saw the small child who had been writhing beneath Lutesia struggling to rise.

“……”

Delica.

When she committed that extreme act, I missed her movement.

Rather than being bound by the black armor, I was focused on the lingering thoughts it was showing me.

Even this might be inevitable in some sense.

But I know she had suffered a fatal wound… yet now she seems completely healed.

And Mines…

‘Has she reached her limit too?’

Moreover, with Lutesia’s awakening and its aftermath, the battle situation itself had frozen.

As the erosion zone spread widely, all the elves who had been leading the battle advantageously were suddenly weakened.

Thanks to the queen and Alesia who managed to gather people and create new barriers through trees and ground, and build magical defenses with holy arts… they seemed to have avoided the worst.

But even that won’t last long.

But worst of all.

“Well, well. The air has improved considerably. I quite like it.”

In the distance… that figure began to appear.

A being that scattered pitch-black darkness from its entire body.

Once called the God of War, another version of myself.

Now Ares and Mars.

…Also known as Baldr, the only general of the insane Demon Lord.

That bastard has just dragged his heavy body over there.

At this point, a reflexive laugh escaped me.

“…The world ends in an instant, doesn’t it?”

The woman beside me immediately agreed.

-Yes, this far surpasses everything you’ve experienced so far. Indeed, it appears to be the worst crisis of your life.

Even the golden girl let out a sigh.

-So bring out everything you’ve got. There are no right answers anymore.

“……”

I’ve been doing that all along.

“I suppose so. Though it’s an irresistible force… I’ve incurred a debt to him as well.”

Turning my head, I glanced at the motionless remnants of the black armor.

Finally, I call out that name into the void.

“Zora. No, Huginn. Would you mind sending a message to your master?”

No sooner had I finished speaking.

[You’re looking for me in this disaster?! Such audacity! It’s already a miracle that I’m holding out here!]

She complains loudly enough for me to hear.

Normally I would have accommodated her.

But this time, instead of quietly accepting, I responded by flipping a golden coin.

Ting!

As the golden coin spun in the air,

A raven swooped in and caught it with uncanny precision.

“What then? Should we all just perish together?”

After I said that,

Following a moment of silence, Zora finally acquiesced.

[Sigh. What a miserable state of affairs.]

She has no choice either.

…So that’s settled.

“Athena.”

[Call me Asena.]

She responds immediately.

Has communication become instantaneous now that the realm has changed from the human world to a semi-divine realm?

“Asena. Will you help us too?”

[After you rejected me so coldly back then?]

“Is now the same as when you were Ahriman?”

[I remember everything, you know? You rejected my confession too. If you had become my Ba’al, you wouldn’t need to struggle like this now.]

Despite her words, the very fact that I could use her divine power and divine objects was only possible because she had already permitted it.

[But will that be enough?]

“I’m not in a position to demand more. Besides, perhaps.”

I had received something like a request from the unfortunate Kariel of another world, asking me to take care of Lutesia.

I might have overlooked it.

“Asena. I’ve figured out why you had to be lodged in my head since I was young.”

[My goodness… that’s welcome news amid the misfortune. You’ve finally found the courage to face me and lift the mask of truth?]

“I don’t know about that.”

Truly, this situation is neither here nor there.

Irritation wells up intensely.

There are still mountains of questions and uncertainties.

“It would be best if we could call our Lord… but I’m hated by both Him and His world.”

The master of the current world.

That being could surely eliminate this crisis.

But that being… except when sending His only son Irenis, has never directly intervened with created beings after his death.

Though saints and holy power are said to be proof of this… even that is classified as white magic in magical academia, claiming it’s not God’s exclusive grace but just a part of it.

But perhaps because of this, the mystery and fear of that being becomes even more solid.

Absolute mystery and wonder are the most powerful influences that make Him exist as Himself.

And why He reflexively hates me, us.

“Hevatein.”

Why this had to stick to my hand.

Was this also fate?

I reached out and retrieved the half of Hevatein lying to one side, all too easily.

“……”

And then.

I combined the two.

Anyway, Levatein is now an unnecessary tool for Lutesia.

A being that can achieve more than that just by existing.

For instance, a living false god.

For created beings, such an existence is not the gap between an ant and a human.

But the gap between an ant and a dragon.

At minimum, that comparison would be appropriate.

-…Hmm.

And.

Kariel, who was actively assessing the situation and responding.

Watching him from the side, the former Demon Lord, the golden girl, was also calmly steeling her resolve with an unreadable gaze.