The Primordial True Ancestor, Nihilus Karmashia 3

“Nihilus Karmashia. That’s my name. Call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“What a grandiose name for a horsefly. Shamelessly combining the names of ancient emperors.”

“It’s just that the most famous proper nouns I heard as soon as I was born were things like that.”

Nihilus Karmashia, judging by her appearance alone, was a small and beautiful girl.

Everything about the girl, from head to toe, was pure white.

Except for her eyes, which were as red as rubies, or perhaps as red as blood, the girl’s hair, eyebrows, and even her skin were so white that it seemed excessive.

Was this what the legendary fairies looked like?

However, the chair she was sitting on was made of the corpses of maggots, the Dunhill Family’s underlings, and the flesh of True Ancestors. And seeing her kicking her toes with a carefree expression, if we were to speak from a human perspective, she was likely not just insane, but a complete psycho bitch.

Alice stared intently at Nihilus.

Nihilus also looked down at Alice calmly.

But the first emotion Alice felt towards Nihilus was bewilderment.

Nihilus Karmashia.

Primordial True Ancestor and calamity.

The root of all True Ancestors, who are viral lifeforms.

That was all she knew from the information she had, but for some reason, the moment Alice saw Nihilus, she felt a sense of familiarity.

No, it wasn’t just familiarity.

Affection.

A sense of familiarity and naturalness, as if meeting an old friend.

It was Fira who had encountered Nihilus in the lower layer.

And that was just a clone.

Alice had been fighting Luichella Dunhill at the time, so this was her first time encountering Nihilus.

She thought she would feel hostility as soon as she saw her.

Even if they talked, she thought she would just listen to what this damn horsefly bitch had to say, but she never imagined she would feel even a shred of affection or emotion towards her.

Eventually, Alice, unable to bear it any longer, spoke to Nihilus.

“…Hey, have we perhaps met somewhere before?”

“We have. My lovely dear. Was it the Nine Dragons residential zone barrier facility simulation training center?”

Ah, that crazy… so you were the horsefly I met for the first time?

“…No, not that. Before that.”

“Oh dear, don’t you remember?”

Nihilus tilted her head and closed her eyes.

Should I attack now? She’s completely unguarded.

Ah, no. Even if she looks like that, she’s a Primordial Calamity.

She’s the strongest one I’ve faced so far, there’s no way a surprise attack would work.

Honestly, my skin is tingling right now.

Alice, who had regained the Demon King’s body and even possessed the power of Gluttony, was sweating bullets inside.

Honestly, the Horsefly Bitch was scary because they came in swarms and became a wave, but I beat one without consuming anything.

But Nihilus was on a different level from that.

There’s a reason she’s called the Primordial Calamity.

“Hehehe, but I’m in a really good mood today. I feel even better meeting you. I’ll tell you everything you’re curious about.”

Nihilus got off the chair made of flesh and bones and stood barefoot on the ground.

“The former Demon King pierced holes throughout the world to protect the life of this planet.”

Suddenly, the Demon King?

Alice was embarrassed once again as the story of her past life came up.

The past me, please take responsibility for what you’ve done!

Ah, but I heard I was stabbed by Oriana?

Then I can’t help it….

“Magical engineering, magic, is an impermissible law that volatilizes the planet’s life force, and to alleviate the planet’s burden, it opens passages and holes in all dimensions to link the planet’s life force between dimensions, or something like that… Well, I don’t really understand this, but to put it simply, I’m a visitor who was drawn here from that hole.”

“…Visitor?”

“No, even the expression ‘visitor’ is a bit misleading. Back then, I was just a mass of energy without any ego.”

Wandering through stars and the void, consuming energy from other worlds to inflate its size.

It had no ego and no reason.

“That was me.”

“Why did the Demon King… no, why did I call you?”

“Ah, you call us True Ancestors or Primordial Calamities, but the Demon King intended to use us as a driving force to replenish the lost life and circulate it so that it wouldn’t volatilize by attaching us to this planet.”

Oriana’s face hardened at those words.

She didn’t just seem shocked to learn a fact she didn’t know, but rather something more profound.

“Ah, you. I think I know who you are.”

In the midst of all that, Nihilus, as if recognizing Oriana, smiled brightly and said.

“Your appearance is very different, but your blood smells the same… Ah, right. You’re the one who stabbed the Demon King to death… and the child who came out of the Ark and made the first pact.”

This time, Oriana’s face twisted properly.

“Rilstia, yes. That was your name. It’s not the blood of a descendant, nor the blood of a clone. You are her.”

“….”

“The one who made a pact with me and brought the Abyss and the lower layer to me and my children. That was you.”

Nihilus smiled innocently.

Her smile was so bright that for a moment, she seemed like a truly ordinary human, not a True Ancestor or a calamity.

“Ah, I must thank you. Thanks to you, my retinue, who had ruined their social skills, have been doing well, eating humans from the Abyss all this time. Well, not anymore…”

At those words, Alice looked at Oriana.

Is that true, did you bring so many people from the lower layer and the Abyss to the True Ancestors?

Alice, of course, knew that countless people lived in the lower layer and the Abyss, and that they lived lives that were less human than those in the middle class.

The reason Alice became the Grand Governor of the lower layer?

Because she didn’t like that situation.

People should live at least a minimal, human-like life, but from the beginning, they were deprived of that, living a miserable and wretched life, and being eaten by monsters from the Abyss, including the True Ancestors, was a daily occurrence.

So Alice built countless Artificial Suns in the lower layer to drive out the darkness, and dismantled and reassembled all the chaotic and disorderly roads and buildings.

She completely remodeled the layer itself into a place where people could live, and spread the red ideology so that humans could unite and gain the strength to live for today and tomorrow.

The red ideology was, in fact, half a joke and a jest at first.

However, even if things like Übermensch and labor spirit seemed like radical ideologies, they didn’t threaten the Ark or humanity as a whole, and rather had a placebo-like effect, giving people hope for today and tomorrow.

After all, it was a mental elixir for people who lived for a better tomorrow than yesterday. That’s why Alice spread the red ideology wherever she went.

Oriana’s face wavered for a moment at that gaze.

“…Alice, that’s… haa, it’s true.”

To save humanity, she made a pact with a calamity. She essentially designated a certain number of humans in the lower layer and the Abyss as offerings to feed the True Ancestors.

If Alice hadn’t gone down as the Grand Governor of the lower layer, that place would probably have become a permanent slaughterhouse of the Abyss.

“Oh, my… Alice, my lovely dear, you didn’t know about this? I’m sorry. I said something unnecessary.”

Nihilus, feigning innocence, said without showing the slightest hint of apology.

Now, the fact that she made a pact or contract with a calamity is shameful, but in the early days of the Ark’s construction, the extinction of humanity was imminent.

All sorts of calamities were rampant, and the holes in the dimensions were overflowing, making it a world on the verge of destruction. It was only natural that Rilstia and Nihilus Karmashia, who were the only ones who could communicate and had reason, made a pact.

The fact that the people Oriana and Rilstia brought to the True Ancestors were not people from the upper class, but rather those who illegally invaded and lived in the lower layer, is, in a way, oppression of the weak, and it is true that pampering the strong and wealthy upper class is not good on the surface.

‘We had to select those who could die to save more people.’

However, Oriana did not bother to tell Alice this.

Even if she did, it would only add one more to her numerous crimes, and the fact that she was the one who brought so many lives to the horseflies and calamities would not change.

Above all, Alice would have tried to save everyone no matter what, and she was actually the one who had done it.

From Alice’s point of view, Oriana might seem foolish and indecisive.

Alice looked at Oriana for a moment, then smiled and said.

“Well, I understand. It’s a cruel act, but I know it can’t be helped. People can make mistakes.”

In fact, she shouldn’t have made a mistake.

The person in a position where she shouldn’t have made a mistake made a mistake, so the lower layer and the Abyss returned to the embrace of the calamity.

However, it is also true that there were unavoidable circumstances.

“And it’s also something you couldn’t help. I don’t think you did it on purpose just to make things easier for yourself and get rid of the troublesome lower class.”

The result isn’t good, but it’s not the worst… it’s something that can’t be helped.

It was unfortunate and sad that innocent and countless lives were reduced to food for horseflies and monsters, but at the same time, it was already in the past.

“Oriana, you need to pull yourself together.”

The important thing is not to forget the past.

“What’s more important is what we should do in the future.”

“…I’m sorry. I showed a disgraceful side.”

Only then did Oriana regain her wavering mind and stare straight at Nihilus.

“Conducting the first and last interrogation. Nihilus Karmashia, what is the reason for invading the Dunhill Family?”

“The story might be a bit long, but I’ll tell you as simply as possible.”

Nihilus looked at the flesh trampled under her feet.

It wasn’t the flesh of maggots. It was the flesh of a True Ancestor, Nihilus’s kin.

“You already know that one of the Dunhill Family’s large factions is colluding with the True Ancestors to gain their power… So, I should tell you about us.”

With those words, Nihilus tore off one of her fingers.

Alice and Oriana were surprised by the sudden action, but the torn-off finger began to decompose, reconstruct, and reorganize on its own, and soon took the form of a fetus and began to grow.

“Ta-da, this completes my retinue.”

In less than 10 seconds, it took on a human form, its limbs lengthened, and its features formed. Nihilus, with a look of disbelief, stomped on it.

-Squish!

Crushed under Nihilus’s bare feet, it was absorbed back into Nihilus, becoming part of her again.

“10 seconds and it’s done. It’s possible with hair, not just fingers.”

With those words, Nihilus sighed.

“Originally, I was an energy without ego. I was just called by the Demon King and given the duty to become part of the star and this earth to circulate life, and that duty was supposed to be my mission, my joy, and the purpose of my life… Originally, that is.”

“Originally?”

“I am a True Ancestor. As you might have guessed, my nature is the plunder of life and energy. That was a fundamental nature I had since I was a mass of energy.”

Originally, I shouldn’t have been called a True Ancestor, a blood demon, or a vampire.

“But a certain human king gave me a new duty. To take and plunder the lives and energy of others.”

“What? Why… Who?!”

“That’s not important, I don’t even remember… Well, that human probably wanted to take the Demon King’s power and authority through me. That’s why the human who gave me will was eaten by me as soon as he gave me will.”

It’s a funny thing.

“But that will was instilled in me, and the Demon King who was supposed to control me died. In the end, my duty became plunder, which had nothing to do with the star’s circulation or replenishment, and plunder became my joy and purpose in life.”

Plunder.

The fundamental and heinous nature of the True Ancestors, who are viral lifeforms.

However, if you think about it the other way around, it could be the most optimal existence for controlling energy, managing circulation, especially handling something as tricky and vast as the life of a star.

“Human’s intense desires instilled will and ego in me. However, that will, based on you humans, was so vicious and wicked that I ate, killed, and played with you a lot. Then I started to develop an ego and intelligence. It’s funny, but that’s when I started to feel emotions.”

But for something without emotions, emotions were like a curse.

“But after a long time, I became full. As I learned little by little about human lives and society… I started to get tired and lonely of a life of just eating and plundering.”

Nihilus looked at the retinue being absorbed through her feet.

“So I created a retinue. With my skin, flesh, fingers, eyes, hair. Since we are viral lifeforms anyway, even a tiny piece of cell was enough, but somehow, I felt more affection for my children if I gave them my flesh directly.”

However, the affectionate gaze soon turned into subtle anger and hatred.

“Humans also say that anger or hatred towards their children sometimes arises in the process of raising and nurturing them. No matter how lovely a child is, if they cry and whine all day long, anyone would get angry.”

“…Normal people still don’t hate their children.”

“Yeah, I know. They get angry but endure it and raise their children with love.”

Nihilus’s expression as she said that seemed somehow lonely.

“But I wasn’t human.”

Nihilus turned her gaze to the chair she had just been sitting on.

It was a chair made not only of the Dunhill Family’s maggots, but also of the blood and flesh of True Ancestors.

At first, I thought a certain True Ancestor had voluntarily offered their blood and flesh, but looking at Nihilus’s face, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

“For hundreds of years, my children have been terribly and terribly selfish and pure. Purely, they were evil.”

They had power from birth, and they had Nihilus, the greatest mother, from birth.

All True Ancestors were arrogant, all True Ancestors were presumptuous, all True Ancestors had no desire to improve, and everything, including understanding and empathy for others, was faint.

“After a hundred years, I gave up on the idea that they would get better over time. From then on, that place was gradually filled not with affection for my children, but with hatred and anger.”

They massacre people for fun, and even though they don’t need to eat humans to live sufficiently, they hold parties with blood and flesh, and they deliberately let humans who are running away escape just barely and repeat the chase for fun.

They were sadistic, cruel, and more vicious because they were pure.

“A while ago, my children said that they couldn’t stand it anymore and wanted to go up. They said that the light was too dazzling and they wanted to turn humanity into blood bags.”

Alice flinched for a moment.

Ehh, is it because of the Artificial Sun I installed…?

“So I decided.”

But whether Alice did or not, Nihilus continued to speak.

With a slightly calm yet bitter expression.

“To cut off these cruel fingers of mine. No, to eat them again and return them to my part.”