Ch.77How to Break Her. (1)

In an instant, the surroundings were dyed with silence.

“……”

Not dropping her face, marked with sorrow and helplessness, to the floor was the last dignity Livga could show.

Great Demon. Livga knew well the weight of those words. The absolute rulers of the demon realm who had accumulated immense power over hundreds and thousands of years. No matter how great a Grandmaster Olivia might be, there was no possibility of winning against a Great Demon who had lived for thousands of years.

In the end, the outcome was predetermined. No one was unaware of this fact.

But…

“My sister is strong!”

Livga spoke as if spitting blood.

As a servant of God, she simply couldn’t accept that fact.

“She won’t lose to a demon like you!”

Even if everyone else turned their backs, she had to believe in Olivia, at least for herself.

Olivia’s eyebrows froze slightly raised. It wasn’t an act. She was genuinely taken aback.

“I believe in my sister Olivia.”

“……”

A resolute will evident even in her tearful eyes.

Olivia gazed at this young Saintess for a long time.

Though she had become Livga’s demon as planned, her feelings were incomparably filthier than expected. To the point where she felt outright killing intent would have been better.

“Saintess.”

But she couldn’t stop.

She had to thoroughly become a demon.

The more her memory self became a demon, the more her real self would become a miserable sacrifice.

Only then could the real Livga forgive her.

Instead of opening her mouth, Olivia clenched her fist and glared at Livga. At a glance, she appeared angry at a situation not going her way, but in reality, it was to give Livga time to collect herself.

Livga shed tears drop by drop.

“Shut up…!”

Her heart felt crushed.

“You can’t defeat my sister Olivia, Asmodeus. I can tell you’ve been thoroughly beaten by her just by looking at how you’ve lost your true form and are merely parasitizing her mind!”

“One thing is clear. You know nothing.”

“I’m not finished speaking!”

Livga shouted as if spitting blood.

“You chose the wrong opponent! You don’t know how amazing my sister is! There hasn’t been a better magician than her for hundreds of years, and there never will be!”

No matter how much of a genius one might be, facing Asmodeus alone was impossible.

The strongest among the four rulers of the demon realm.

There was no way Olivia could handle the undisputed second-in-command of the demon realm.

Livga’s desperate struggle was likely because she knew this fact more painfully than anyone.

“And you… you will definitely make me regret this.”

“Will I be able to?”

Livga raised her head. She etched into her memory Olivia’s white hair fluttering in the night breeze, her eyes more beautiful than sapphires, her elegant eyelashes, and her snow-white skin. As if seeing her for the last time.

“Yes.”

Livga’s voice was cold.

“You burrowed into my sister Olivia’s mind because of me, right?”

“Why do you think that?”

“You tried to kill me when I was young. But you couldn’t. So I must have been your only weakness. Because I was the only trophy you couldn’t claim in your thousands of years of life, during which you’ve imposed your will on countless things.”

“……”

Olivia quietly listened to Livga’s words.

[‘Saintess Livga’ is using ‘Lie Detection’.]

The moment she answered, her lie would be exposed.

“For a Great Demon like you, it must have been a tremendous humiliation. Being thwarted by a mere 4-year-old child. That’s why you risked the humiliation of losing your true form to infiltrate my side.”

That’s why she couldn’t interfere.

Livga shouted as if in desperation.

“That’s why you chose Olivia, right? Because she’s the most precious person to me! My only family! You knew choosing her would shake me!”

Precious person.

Olivia suddenly wanted to look in a mirror. Because she was curious about what expression she was making.

One thing was certain: she wasn’t smiling.

Livga screamed. She screamed and wailed.

“But you chose the wrong person by far! Because you, as a demon, will never understand how much I can sacrifice for the person I love!”

“…Sacrifice?”

All Olivia could do was repeat like a parrot.

[‘Saintess Livga’ is using ‘Sacred Domain Declaration’.]

There was light.

Tzzzzzt!

Overwhelming divine power was rising from all directions.

[You are currently in the ‘Sacred Domain’!]

– Mana regeneration is greatly reduced!

– Ancient magic cannot be used!

– Mana consumption is greatly increased!

– Casting time is greatly increased!

The notification windows she had faced in the Repentance Chamber appeared before Olivia’s eyes.

But that wasn’t the end.

Snow-white chains seized Olivia’s body and grabbed her legs, forcing her to kneel.

It was a binding technique following the Sacred Domain Declaration.

She felt overwhelming physical force throughout her body. It felt like several adult men were pressing down on her shoulders simultaneously.

She couldn’t escape.

“What are you doing…”

Olivia closed her mouth. Because when she faced Livga, her breath caught.

It was the face of someone prepared to be hated.

No, it was beyond mere hatred.

It was the face of someone who had resolved to humbly accept all manner of hateful words.

“No one but me can enter this place. The servants won’t come either. I threatened that I would manage it myself.”

“…Have you forgotten that this body’s owner is the Empire’s Grandmaster? The Emperor won’t stand idle.”

“No, that won’t happen. Because the Emperor won’t even know where you’ve disappeared to.”

Livga smiled sadly.

“I just need to keep quiet. Then no one will know you’re trapped here.”

“…You’ll lie?”

“If necessary!”

The nine precepts that the Church of Light follows like life itself, commonly known as the 9 Commandments.

One of them was ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.’

Livga’s words were tantamount to declaring she would openly violate the 9 Commandments.

“…You’ve truly gone mad, Saintess.”

“I told you. A demon like you wouldn’t understand.”

Violating the commandments was equivalent to abandoning one’s duties and responsibilities.

That meant the loss of divine power.

If Livga, the Saintess herself, violated the commandments, she would lose a tremendous amount of divine power.

Perhaps enough to be stripped of her position as Saintess, an enormous dishonor.

“Do you think the owner of this body will forgive you when she wakes up if you do this?”

“No.”

Her voice was cold enough to chill the heart.

“I’ve prepared for that.”

Even colder than during confession, she felt.

“I don’t care if I’m not forgiven. I can bear any dishonor as long as my sister Olivia is okay. No matter how strong a demon you are, you can’t harm our sister in the sacred domain.”

She had underestimated Livga.

“I just need my sister to be okay.”

More precisely, she had underestimated the will of a child who didn’t want to lose her last remaining family.

‘…So that was it?’

A past memory surfaced.

Olivia had steeled her heart to see the total annihilation ending.

But even she, who had been so determined, had wavered once.

– Please… please stop here, sister. You can still turn back…

Livga lay collapsed before her eyes.

Despite having witnessed tens of thousands perish with her own eyes, looking at her without even a piece of armor, Olivia wondered.

Why, when even Melina had defended herself, did Livga not resist at all?

Why didn’t she avoid death when she knew it was coming?

Why.

[Would you like to use healing magic?]

She had wavered.

For the first time then, she had thought about stopping.

“……”

Olivia remained silent.

She lowered her head. Barely suppressing a sigh that threatened to escape from deep within, she spoke.

“Saintess.”

There was no answer.

But she must be listening.

Because her presence hadn’t disappeared yet.

‘How much time do I have left?’

[Time remaining: 4 minutes 21 seconds]

It was enough.

‘I didn’t want to use this method.’

A measure she hadn’t used because, although its effect was certain, the risk when returning to the ‘present’ was too great.

But rather than being detained like this, that option was better.

“You speak as if you know this body’s owner well, but you don’t.”

“……”

“What you know is just a speck of dust.”

Divine power surged nearby. It contained infinitely refined anger. As if saying, how dare a demon speak such words.

“Answer me. Do you know how many years this body’s owner has lived?”

Livga sneered.

Just as she was about to answer, Olivia let out a laugh.

“25 years? Impossible. This woman has lived far longer than that.”

What is a lie?

“Are you surprised because it’s not a lie?”

A lie refers to something that deviates from the truth, that is, falsehood.

Speaking something untrue as if it were true is a lie.

“A hundred years? A thousand years? Five thousand years? I guarantee, she’s lived even longer than that.”

Then, is what I’m saying now a lie?

“You know nothing, Saintess. Do you know what happens when a human life is endlessly repeated?”

If no one remembers, does it become as if it never happened?

“You go mad. No matter how noble your will is, you eventually go mad. Your will disappears, and you become a puppet with only purpose remaining. Do you know what that means?”

“…Stop.”

“You don’t know. You couldn’t know. Even if you died and were reborn, you wouldn’t understand what this means. Just as a mortal cannot understand eternity.”

“Stop!”

Livga shouted.

“Stop, stop…”

But she couldn’t stop.

It must feel like her heart was being torn to shreds by a dagger, but still, she couldn’t stop.

Because at some point, the act was no longer an act.

“What? You say you just need your sister to be okay? I wish that sister could see this sight. How would she feel seeing the sister she protected by dying over and over again, coercing her like this…”

Drip.

Something fell before her eyes.

A droplet.

“…How would she feel?”

On Livga’s face, rain fell.

[Time limit has expired.]