Chapter 122: Title (6)
by fnovelpia
She lifted her eyelids.
It felt like she had been dreaming for a long time.
“Laura, you’re awake!”
As she raised her upper body, the chat window in the corner of her vision started to explode with messages.
- “Host, did you not sleep?”
- “How can you sleep in a place like this? It’s dangerous!”
- “It’s fine. Even if the monsters swarm, they can’t break through the Spirit’s Rainbow Shield, right?”
She thought it was a broadcast from the distant past.
But for some reason, Aura had returned to the moment before she fell into the Abyss.
After gathering information from her viewers, Aura realized that she had been lying in the field, asleep, for five hours.
‘The memories I experienced there… or thought I experienced… were they all just a dream?’
A hundred years of suffering in the Abyss.
And at the end of that torment, my Lord… was it all just a dream?
Though her mind had been ravaged and broken over those hundred years, it somehow returned to normal.
Could it really be that everything was nothing more than a figment of her imagination?
Was it not real?
She remembered the countless conversations she’d had with the GM over decades.
She remembered his warm embrace in their final moments.
Even though she ultimately lost consciousness in his arms, she could still recall the sensation, the touch, even the scent…
“I’m sorry, everyone, but today’s broadcast is…”
As she tried to turn off the broadcast to sort out the confusing situation, a word on her status window caught her eye.
Aura’s lips lifted into a subtle smile.
Title: [Saint]
“Of course. It couldn’t have been a dream.”
Her mind returned intact, and even time had rolled back.
It all made perfect sense.
It was my Lord’s effort for me.
“Really… You could have just come to me yourself.”
Was he feeling guilty for his delayed help?
Our GM has always been so shy.
It doesn’t matter.
We’ll meet again.
Even if he hides his identity, it won’t matter.
As long as I remember that scent, there’s no way I won’t find him.
***
“Guide.”
“Ah, Master? What brings you here?”
Stepping into the system room governing Rudera, he saw the guide elegantly sipping coffee in front of dozens of monitors.
“I had something to check.”
Albus sat down in front of a monitor and brought up Rudera’s status window.
“…Strange.”
He had pulled out an elf who had fallen into a bug and treated her mental damage before sending her back.
But something was odd about that bug, so he came to the system room for a closer look.
‘It’s been less than five hours since that elf slipped into the back rooms due to a noclip phenomenon. Then why does her status window show that she spent over a hundred years wandering in that place?’
Ordinarily, one would think time flows differently over there.
But that couldn’t be right.
‘The space where I fought that [System] creature was over there. There’s no way the flow of time would be different.’
Even when two godlike beings clashed, the flow of time had never twisted.
If there had been even a slight difference in the time flow, he wouldn’t have been able to ascend to divinity by drawing real-time divinity from across the continent.
Moreover…
Albus pulled up the player Aura’s status window through the command menu.
The time flowing for her now matched reality.
So, that means…
‘The five hours since she disappeared until I found her… In that time, a blank hundred years was created within her.’
An incomprehensible anomaly had occurred, creating a hundred-year void not belonging to Rudera.
The guide, sitting beside him, sipped her coffee.
“Come to think of it, Guide. Didn’t Akuyuham send in a report about those so-called Liberators?”
“Hmm? Oh, that. It was nothing significant. No movements noted. We’ll keep monitoring, that sort of thing.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
It was a mundane conversation, but something felt off.
“Guide.”
“What?”
“Don’t you dislike coffee?”
The guide took another sip.
She didn’t like coffee.
Both the future guide and the present guide disliked it.
In fact, she preferred sweet strawberry shakes.
“Ah, my mistake.”
There was no way she would savor coffee like this.
“The aroma was just too good, so I couldn’t help myself. Whoops?”
The guide made a fist and lightly knocked it against her head with a mischievous smile.
“I never thought our Albus would be this perceptive.”
“…Who are you?”
The current guide was practically divine, a fusion of present and future guides.
For someone to possess her…
Could such a thing even be possible?
“A bit disappointing, isn’t it? You noticed that the owner of this body has changed, but you don’t recognize your own mother?”
“What are you talking about?”
This place was inside Rudera.
It seemed like an attempt to confuse me, but in this space, where I am the GM, I hold absolute power.
“You stole my guide’s body, and now you’re trying to deceive me?”
Therefore, there was no need to risk a conversation to extract information.
[System Down – Target: Guide]
[Freeze]
Vroom.
The commands activated according to my will.
“Oh my.”
The guide, who had been rising gracefully from her seat, froze completely in place.
Even if the opponent was a god capable of taking over the guide’s body, as long as they were within the guide, they were under my control.
By my command, the control over the body was stripped away.
“Whoever you are, I’ll rip out your entire identity and extract it from the guide.”
I slowly approached the guide.
Under the GM’s absolute authority, the mysterious entity that had entered the guide could not move an inch.
Vroom.
Placing my hand over the guide’s head, I delved into her mind, just as I had done when viewing her past and future memories.
And then…
And then…
My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥
My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥ My son♥
!!!
“Hah… Hah…”
Somehow, I found myself outside, having been flung out.
Panting heavily, I tried to calm my breathing.
What… what had I just seen in there?
I thought there was nothing left to surprise me after battling [System] and others, but the sight I had just witnessed was on a whole different level.
“Our son. Were you that eager to see your mother’s precious place?”
Through the guide’s lips, another voice spoke.
“With your current skills, you can’t properly reach this mother’s secret place.”
“…Who are you?”
A swirling maelstrom of madness that defied understanding.
From within that whirlwind, I could make out only one thing.
A love for her son.
That love, twisted and contorted through eternity, had blackened into an abyss.
“Hmph. It seems this version of my son is still somewhat lacking♥. Well, I suppose there’s no helping it.”
The guide, who had been speaking clearly moments ago, suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed.
The strange presence that had called me “son” had departed from within her.
[Mother will come back for you, son. Wait a little while, and I’ll adjust your stature to be just right for you.]
Leaving only a faint lingering thought with her voice embedded,
“Oh, my dear son, aren’t you just so gallant?”
The remnant thought of the demon god grimaced, flying away as if in agony.
***
‘I had barely managed to escape.’
‘Even with the immense divine power I had gained after defeating the foreign god in the Void, I had nearly been undone by a single command of Albus’s authority.’
Within Rudera, Albus had ascended to the position of an omnipotent, absolute deity, perfected through battles with foreign gods.
No one could hope to defeat Albus within that realm.
Had Albus not faltered at the sight of the demon god’s insane inner thoughts, if his authority had not wavered, she might have been trapped and captured.
‘Although being restrained by my son and subjected to binding play could be enjoyable, now wasn’t the time.’
“I must reclaim my son first.”
Not this current version, but his former incarnation.
I had to reclaim the very first son born from the demon goddess Men Hera.
Though Albus had ascended to godhood within Rudera, holding the powers of GM faith and Rudera’s authority, he was not yet a complete god.
His presence was insufficient as a deity who couldn’t sustain divinity beyond Rudera.
Only by achieving a complete stature, one that could maintain godhood even outside, could the son of his former life be resurrected.
Thus, I subtly manipulated Empress Lea, managed an organization, exiled elves to the underworld, and orchestrated various schemes to increase believers and elevate faith in the GM.
All so that one day, Albus could awaken with even stronger faith.
One day, so that his original, past consciousness could resurface, consume Albus’s current consciousness, and restore itself.
“It seems I need to quicken the pace.”
It had been inevitable that Albus would discover my true nature.
I welcomed my son’s obsession, but this timing was somewhat inconvenient.
Delaying the return of his original consciousness could not be allowed.
This would be good for Albus.
After all, it involved increasing believers and spreading divine power.
“So, please wait just a little longer.”
My beloved son♥
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