Ch.314104. Utterly Unreachable.

# “A Wretched Karmic Connection”

“Have you ever thought that this is just a wretched karmic connection?”

Even the branches of the upside-down tree were enormous, like a massive architectural structure or sculpture.

Sitting there casually with her legs crossed, Lutetia surveyed her surroundings with her bright red eyes.

“Perhaps you don’t have the luxury to think about that.”

She had long since recalled memories from when she herself was the World Tree.

Back then, the naive Kariel had freed her from her connection to the World Tree.

By offering all of his potential as payment.

The removal of language barriers and the slight lightening of her body—even that small harmony was a miracle of sorts.

“Was there really a need for that?”

Is this fate? Destiny?

Or something else…

She still hadn’t fully grasped why they ended up in this situation.

Kariel had only explained part of it, as if he had some idea.

Divine punishment.

If the punishment for sins committed by humans against other humans is called human punishment,

Then divine punishment might be bearing a penalty thousands, tens of thousands, or perhaps infinitely greater.

Kariel had described it this way:

From an adult beating a child, to cruelly flaying and slicing flesh, pouring hot oil, or boiling a person alive in a cauldron.

When considering the worst punishment humans could endure—dismembering limbs, breaking bones, cutting, torturing, and ultimately taking life in the most extreme way.

…Divine punishment is inflicted with a deity as the standard for such treatment.

And yet.

There are beings who must bear such sins with human bodies and spirits.

…It’s like a human striking an ant with a club.

That’s the situation they were in, he said.

‘It was long, so very long.’

The years bound to the World Tree extended far beyond what could be considered endurance—a long, long extension of time.

For mortals, it was like eternity.

Once every thousand years, though even that wasn’t certain.

Perhaps when an angel’s wing might descend and brush against a rock.

The time it would take for that rock to wear down, erode, weather, and completely disappear.

…That was the duration of punishment allowed to them.

“How cruel.”

Who, for what reason, would do such a thing?

…To know that, she would need to grasp her own deeper, buried essence better than she did now.

And that was…

An impossible realm for her alone.

Even this was ultimately nothing more than sharing half the sin between them.

“Living itself… is terror.”

The miracle and opportunity of living brings bottomless despair, pain, frustration, and the worst possible endings to all who cannot grasp it, isn’t that right?

Yet humans and sentient beings don’t understand this.

Why we are born, why we must pursue things even while suffering, pursue and pursue again.

…Behind us, there is no more path, no stepping stone, no staircase, nothing.

Only an endless cliff.

Those who don’t move forward will eventually fall and wander the abyss forever.

There will be greater pain there…

Even this world we live in would be another hell when viewed from the heavens.

Yet here, at least, we’re given the chance to rise and fall.

…Though once cast down below, there’s no breakthrough or answer except to endure.

Only in the middle realm can one grasp such an opportunity.

……That’s what Kariel had said.

Therefore, everything we endure… is the only way to lessen the sins we’ve accumulated.

We are paying for our sins by suffering, and by dedicating ourselves to everyone but ourselves.

“I don’t understand any of it.”

You don’t either, right?

The world trembles.

This deeply felt sensation is part of the desperate desire to be freed from pain.

It’s more like an emotional and instinctual struggle than a rational one.

“Faithfully following and fulfilling one’s role.”

Following the natural order and providence.

Diligently carrying out the given task.

That too is one path.

And.

“…Even if one opposes and goes against that will, if it leads to reaching the path.”

That too will become a path.

…But this requires more courage and spirit, conviction and determination than overthrowing a king.

When it fails, it will return as an even greater sin to bear.

How truly selfish.

It feels as if even breathing and living puts one in debt to the world, to the heavens.

What a wicked tax collector.

Or perhaps a loan shark?

Ah, maybe lords and kings are the same in that regard?

“Hah…”

It’s displeasing.

For what purpose must we seek and desire in the first place?

Everything in this world is just…

“What do you know?”

As if about to shake the world to its core and shatter it,

The entire world began to sway.

The sight was truly ridiculous.

The world was wobbling precariously, like a building about to collapse.

If only it would truly collapse like this…

…That would be fine in its own way.

—-

“What trick is this?”

The War God interrogates with a fierce aura.

“……”

Is this something to ask about?

A woodcutter cutting trees, a hunter hunting beasts—they don’t ask for their subjects’ intentions or opinions.

Livestock, their eggs, milk, fur, their offspring.

And finally killing them too, butchering and consuming them—even if they were to ask for opinions and respect their lives and will, it wouldn’t go beyond the line of treating them as livestock.

This too is a natural structure, a phenomenon.

…Even if it happens between humans, what would be the problem?

“But do they not have hearts? Do they not have souls?”

Even most Irenis followers brazenly claim that beasts have no souls, and if they resemble anything, they resemble those of demons.

And as time passes, they will treat other races that way, and later even people of the same race.

No. The church would try to prevent this in some sense.

But those who believe in their teachings will eventually turn to their own interests and convenience as their beliefs and values.

Everyone is like that.

…They want to live as they please.

“It didn’t have to be me specifically.”

But none of you…

…Not one of you showed the will to do it.

“O foolish youth who wanders in fantasy and delusion. Just as humans have their proper place and role, so do they and those things live accordingly. Rather, denying that is denying the principles of the world. Aren’t you also enforcing your own views? If you had no power, even that would have turned to foam.”

The Emperor of Light was looking on with contempt and disdain, as if facing something wretched, yet with a cold and quiet gaze.

“Truly, you cannot tell right from wrong.”

The ragged man sighed, as if somehow disgusted.

“Freeing that thing is a different matter from freeing your world’s World Tree. Do you intend to destroy the demon realm?”

“……”

“It’s only because this is the demon realm that life can be pursued. The moment this place is incorporated into hell, all living beings residing here will become its constituents, trapped in bottomless pain and despair. Do you intend to throw everyone else into the abyss under the pretext of saving someone? You will become the most wicked demon king to the demon realm’s inhabitants. No, not even a king… you will become a destroyer. The standard-bearer of ruin. The… practitioner of the end. Hmm, how about it? Doesn’t that sound somewhat reasonable?”

“……”

Intimidation.

Disillusionment.

And compromise.

Why are they here, confronting me from a different world than mine?

“……”

Now I understand.

I didn’t know before… but now I do.

“There are battles one absolutely must not lose.”

“What?”

“…?”

“Hmm?”

…Even if she hadn’t told me specifically.

Or even if it wasn’t something drilled into me to the point of exhaustion.

From the beginning, this issue was simple.

“A battle between myself, my own self, and my destiny.”

That’s why Elhermina reversed her fate.

And as a result, she saved me.

Originally, I should have…

The Giant clan and Verethragna.

And then Ahriman who intruded.

Followed by Lutetia who intruded again.

In the midst of the psychological warfare and continuous battles with them, I should have simply faded away.

Even with Odin’s assistance, it wasn’t something that could be simply overcome.

…Yet what arrived at my side, transcending even time and space until then was.

Purely Elhermina’s will.

Perhaps the love she speaks of was a blind feeling based on the grace she received from me.

But in the end, she didn’t let that emotion, that gratitude, go to waste.

Cherishing even the smallest things, desperately, frantically trying to embrace them.

Perhaps she is far more noble than someone like me.

She is different from me.

Unlike the golden one who led me to suicide and made me experience countless deaths under the pretext of comforting and educating me.

She already understood all of that.

Nevertheless.

Unlike those before my eyes.

Unlike those who stand at the center of the world, becoming its pillars, and eventually controlling such a world by embodying overwhelming power, wisdom, brilliance, and sagacity.

…She casually let go of the glory, the light, and the eternal honor that would come from it. She threw it all away.

If I were her, would I have been able to do that?

I cannot answer.

The correct answer to facts that cannot be answered is silence.

Because I couldn’t dare claim to know, to have noticed, to have predicted what I couldn’t know.

All that remains in me is consistent shame.

The only thing that rises is extreme regret.

“……”

Therefore.

Those before me are surely the pinnacle and origin, the foundation of the future I would have certainly reached.

‘He certainly speaks well.’

Samael.

Satan.

And… Tamiel.

That being with many other names.

This is ultimately a trial, a barrier, a trap… a pit prepared by that being.

In a way, that existence is the only one who has rebelled against the master of the world and survived to have its name acknowledged.

When you think about it, that being is perhaps the most beloved by God.

Where would your development be without trials?

For instance, evil and sin are the greatest barriers and gates of trial to prevent entry through the door of goodness.

Crossing barriers, climbing stairs again and again.

Will you wait until the closed door opens?

Or will you somehow break down that door and enter?

Will you find the key, hammer at the door, throw your body to break it, or desperately call for someone inside to open it?

The methods would be diverse.

That’s how they would all reveal their essence.

“I have no enemies.”

There may be various ways to eliminate enemies.

…But what I’ve chosen is extremely simple.

“……”

Didn’t she, my master, once say?

That the greatest enemy is ultimately oneself.

I still remember it clearly.

[Then the response becomes simple, doesn’t it?]

Make them confront their greatest enemy.

…That’s why I was defeated.

Your father defeated his greatest enemy… that’s the only reason he beheaded me.

In other words, I couldn’t do that.

Perhaps anyone would be the same.

Also, perhaps no one could do it forever.

Even if you win once, what about the next time?

Even if you overcome the next, what about the time after that? And after that?

[Therefore, it is an eternal war.]

So, Kariel. You said you wanted to become stronger than anyone?

Then it’s simple.

Not for a single moment.

…You will create a version of yourself that never loses to yourself.

Then.

…There will be no enemy for you anywhere in this world.

“……”

And.

This is the answer I’ve reached.

Gazing at them, capturing in my eyes the sight of them just about to respond.

I whispered softly.

“Aureus”

Aurum.

Mikate.

Kanus.

Tenebra.

And.

This is the final horizon I have reached.

Aureus Aurum.

The moment I uttered that name.

As a radiance mixed with pitch black and gold spread like wildfire across the wretched land.

The world was rewritten once more.

“Playing tricks again!”

The War God, having experienced this before, seems to think I’m pulling them into my unique domain.

“This is…”

The Golden Emperor, with a chilling gaze, pointed his divine sword at me.

“This power is…”

The ragged man, seeming to have guessed something, abruptly stood up.

“Such a heinous act!”

It happened in an instant.

The wretched scene of the demon realm where we had been cast was gone.

At this moment, this world was newly formed and cast into another wilderness.

Consistently, in my heart, in my mind remained…

The scenery from my childhood.

I stand in the wilderness.

Having barely escaped from the pit.

The world was always like this.

No path was visible.

No signpost to aim for, no fork in the road, not even the slightest indication was visible.

At that time, what became my signpost was…

“……”

A single sword.

The very sword that made me kill myself.

Waaaaaah!

Tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of soldiers and cavalry charged in.

From the sky, hundreds and thousands of arrows, fire arrows, and long-range poisoned shots rained down.

Giant monsters rampaged and charged.

Strange birds and bizarre creatures plunged down from the sky.

Lightning poured down, wind and rain devoured the senses, oil naturally flowed and soaked the ground.

And flames spread over it.

Huge rocks, logs, and fiery lightning struck, poured, and rushed in.

Javelins, stones, and magic of all colors.

Whirlpools swirled, and a bright star gradually approached, eventually covering the entire sky and crashing into the ground.

The ground shook, split, and shattered, creating a dizzying spectacle.

Unable to contain even that, it filled the dark abyss with red flames and erupted.

All kinds of terrible smoke, streams of fire, and fiery water burst forth and gushed out, filling the world—half smoke, half fire rain.

As they mixed together, it became impossible to distinguish between them.

But even that was momentary.

A massive wave, a tsunami from who knows where, covered even the sky and plunged onto the ground.

Just like that, the world was submerged in water.

…

It was a nostalgic yet absurd experience no matter how I thought about it.

That’s why it was deeply, deeply engraved.

My master, the Golden Demon King, had told me this:

A person’s head, their brain…

Only responds to pain and discomfort.

Therefore, if you want to engrave something deeply.

Engrave it.

Whether it’s a knife, an awl… or a nail.

There’s no choice but to engrave, poke, and drive it in.

You’re not even a dullard.

You’re just someone without talent.

So, this is the only way.

Just shut up and accept it quickly.

[That’s why I promise you one thing clearly.]

Even if you abandon yourself.

[I will never abandon you.]

Because.

[We.]

Made such a contract.

[That is the dignity of a Demon King.]

Even if it’s a worthless name.

[How could I deny that?]

“……”

It’s a forgotten memory.

Memories that the Demon King had implanted but then closed off, making me forget them out of concern that I would lose my mind.

…Just as I had done to Lutetia, she had done the same to me.

Really, what is this all about?

Whether it’s a resemblance, or barely managing to follow at least one thing I learned well.

“What is this?! How can you create such a crazy domain?!”

“Not three thousand worlds but thirty thousand worlds manifested. Golden Beast…! You truly are its successor, you beast!”

“…No. That’s not what this is.”

The ragged man seemed to have realized something.

“You really…”

Flames crossing the world instantly vaporize the water.

Hevataein.

…Next comes a cold like no other in the world.

Utpala.

And.

Until deep red thorns and vines densely cover the entire world.

Countless other extreme phenomena cover, swirl around, and cross the area.

All the hell I’ve experienced, endured, and withstood.

“Dialogue begins with understanding the other person.”

I understood you.

By honing the abilities given to me, with only the shell of the World Tree remaining.

But none of you would have abilities like mine.

So I see no alternative.

Now I hope.

That you will understand me.

“Even if existence erodes and weathers away, I will wait until the end.”

That’s all I can do.

To avoid cursing and assaulting others.

Only patience remains.

Don’t worry.

Patience is my greatest… aptitude that I’ve developed.

An aptitude that can never be reached through talent alone.

That kind of aptitude.