chapter_0180

“Yeah. I kind of figured as much.”

Aria wore a half-dead smile, a look I had never seen before. It seemed she had given up on hiding her true intentions.

“How did you figure it out? I thought I had prepared well enough.”

“Well, if you wanted to hide it, you shouldn’t have acted suspiciously. And you should have polished your speech too.”

“Suspicious behavior…… for example?”

“The way you talked about the four people you brought here. It didn’t sound like someone who truly felt sorry for what they had done. It felt like you were just replacing broken parts, even with Leona. I can understand your attitude towards her, but it’s strange to treat the other three the same way.”

If she truly felt sorry and regretted bringing them here, she wouldn’t have spoken about them the way she did. It sounded more like she was talking about replacing broken parts.

“Do you remember the midterm sparring exam? When you went to fight Leona, you smiled strangely. The smile you just showed me was the same as that one. Now that I think about it, I can see it. You had those small, fragmented behaviors that I didn’t pay much attention to because they seemed insignificant, but if you had such a past, it’s worth suspecting.”

“Hmm…… there wasn’t any concrete evidence, was there? It’s a shame. I should have just pretended to be fooled and grabbed it.”

Aria’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if she had figured out that my bluff with the Holy Lance was just that, a bluff.

“I couldn’t help it. After living alone for over a thousand years in a world where time had stopped, I developed a personality where I can’t help but seek out anything interesting or exciting. I tried my best to control it, but sometimes the impulse is too strong to resist.”

I had heard that expression before, about not being able to resist something interesting. I wondered where I had heard it. Soon, something came to mind.

“……The Demon God’s avatar?”

“Yes. That’s what I said when we first met. You still remember that, don’t you? Be happy.”

“So, it was because of you that the Demon God’s corpse and the avatar that appeared before me looked a little different?”

“Yes. I was originally planning to quietly watch from the sidelines until the time was right, but as I said before, after living alone for over a thousand years, my patience has worn thin. I couldn’t resist when I saw you alone.”

Aria smiled brightly.

“Now that I’ve been caught, I have no choice but to change my plan. Mr. Mira, I’ll send the other four people I brought here back to the original world, so please help me.”

“Why should I help you after you tried to deceive me just now?”

“Not everything I said was a lie. At least the part about my past is true. It’s true that this world’s time stops without readers, and it’s true that with your power, you can prevent such a phenomenon. The only lie was my attitude towards the people I brought here.”

“You’re shameless.”

“It’s an opportunity that comes only once in thousands of years. I’ll use whatever means necessary, shameless or not, to succeed.”

Aria unfolded her arms. Her upper body, which had been slightly hunched forward, slowly returned to its original angle.

“Well, Mr. Mira? What do you say? Will you save me, even if I’m this shameless?”

“……What makes you so confident? I’ve never been able to fix a world with my power alone.”

“Ah, that’s not the case, is it? You see, what I lack is not the method but the output. I know the method, but I don’t have enough power. But if I receive the power you possess, it’s a different story. Along with the fragment of the world, I also absorbed the remnants of the memories left in that world, and I saw all the great deeds you accomplished. Like single-handedly defeating the monsters in the dark fantasy world.”

She was referring to the memory I had seen when I was under the Elder Lich’s magic, when I had asked her if she knew anything about it. I decided to test her by bringing it up.

“If it’s a matter of power, it might not work even with me. My power is half……”

“……Sealed?”

“……I guess that was the case.”

“Hah, you have a really good expression on your face right now, Mr. Mira. Were you suspecting that I knew when you asked the question? Well, since you seem to know so much, there’s no need to explain. Yes, it was me.”

Aria smiled cheekily, as if she no longer cared about hiding her true intentions. She nonchalantly brushed off my cold gaze.

“It’s a good thing, so please don’t make such a scary face. I sealed away your trauma along with your power, didn’t you? You should be grateful to me.”

“Why should I be grateful when you did it without my consent?”

“Think about it. You’ve changed a lot since you were possessed here. If it weren’t for me, you would have rotted away alone in the original world. Just like I was left alone in the past. You wouldn’t have overcome your past trauma for the rest of your life.”

I couldn’t refute that. After being possessed, I had taken a semester off from college and locked myself in my room for the entire semester, but since coming here, the phantom pain I felt when holding the Holy Lance had lessened to the point where it was almost unnoticeable.

“We’re not just fated to be. You save me, and I save you. That’s our fate. Is there anything wrong with what I said?”

“If you had brought me here with pure intentions, then yes.”

But since her intention in bringing me here was for her own benefit rather than my treatment, I didn’t feel any gratitude towards her. It was the other four who had helped me overcome my trauma, not Aria.

There was nothing more to say. Now that her attempt to use me had been exposed, continuing the conversation would be a waste of time. I sheathed Eternity.

“Is that so? Too bad.”

Aria, however, showed no intention of fighting, despite my reaction. She opened her mouth after a moment.

“Can I ask you one thing? Has your curiosity been satisfied?”

“Yeah. Thanks to you, I now know you’re beyond redemption.”

A bright smile appeared on her face.

“I’m glad. It was worth the wait.”

As soon as she mentioned waiting, I instinctively sprang forward. Whatever her words meant, it certainly wasn’t in my favor.

“Kuk?!”

Before I could reach Aria, the strength drained from my legs. My left knee bent and scraped against the floor. The tip of Eternity, which had been aimed at Aria, fell back to the ground.

I sheathed Eternity to support my collapsing body. It felt like something was being drained from me in real-time. I couldn’t even twitch a finger. Aria was smiling at me.

“What did you do?”

“What did I do? I waited. Since you wouldn’t give me your power, I had to forcibly take it. I didn’t just ramble on for no reason. No matter how I tried to convince you, I knew I would need a lot of preparation to take your power by force. Well, it would have been better if you had been convinced and given me your power willingly, but I was sincere in what I said.”

“You crazyㅡ”

As I tried to force myself up, I stumbled and fell to my knees again. I couldn’t do anything. Even breathing required an effort. Aria looked at me with a pitying expression.

“Now that you’re here, it was only a matter of time before your power was drained. Why don’t you stop wasting your energy? You can’t get out anyway. Just stay here and continue to be my battery. After a thousand years or so, your thoughts might change. My thoughts won’t change, though. We’re fated to save each other. That’s what I think.”

Aria sat down with her knees tucked under her, right in front of me. She pulled up her uniform sleeve to her palm and gently wiped the sweat from my forehead.

“Let me tell you something good. Why did I seal away your power and memories?”

“……”

“I originally intended to absorb your power as soon as you arrived here. But no matter how I looked at it, it seemed impossible to take it all. So, I sealed away half of it with your memories, and ate the other half…… but I never expected you to be so powerful. I thought taking half would be enough, but I almost couldn’t hold it.”

The fact that she had intended to absorb my power as soon as I arrived here meant that her claim about waiting to ask for my help to save the world was also a lie.

I wasn’t surprised anymore.

“I barely managed to spit it out and give it back to you. If I hadn’t, I would have died with my body bursting.”

“……I wish you had died then. It would have been better.”

“Huh. Well, let me tell you something. It’s not a big deal. I’ve been nibbling away at it little by little, and now I can finally withstand it. Since it’s meaningless now anyway, I might as well tell you. I sealed it away with your memories because I didn’t want you to notice, but now that it’s useless, why not? Think of it as a gift for giving me something good.”

“Pfft.”

I took a breath after that short utterance. Aria patted my cheek a couple of times and stood up. I asked a question to Aria as she was getting up.

“If I gave you my power…… were you planning to give it back to me?”

Aria, who was staring at me, grinned.

“You already know the answer, don’t you?”

“……”

“Then I’ll see you in a thousand years, Mr. Mira. By the time I come back here, everything will be over, though.”

Aria turned away, as if I wasn’t even worth considering. This was my chance while she was so careless. I took a deep breath and focused my power on my left hand.

Even now, I felt a sense of depletion throughout my body, as if I were pouring water into a cup with a hole in the bottom. I gritted my teeth and summoned divine power.

Aria, who was humming a tune as she created a dimensional gate, didn’t even glance back at me. She probably thought my attempt was futile since she didn’t feel any divine power gathering behind her, even though she had absorbed my power.

It was time for her to pay the price for her arrogance.

I released the power I had been gathering all at once. I aimed the Holy Lance, which had formed in my left hand, at Aria’s heart and threw it with all my might.

The area behind her lit up as if the sun had risen, and she finally noticed something strange. Aria turned around in shock and tried to dodge the lance, but it was too late.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”

A piercing scream tore through the air. The Holy Lance pierced through Aria’s left shoulder, creating a hole the size of the lance’s diameter. Blood flowed down her limp left arm.

‘Damn.’

It wasn’t a satisfying outcome.

If my body had been in better condition, I would have burned the entire area behind her, and even if I hadn’t, I should have been able to pierce her heart at that angle and speed. I didn’t expect her to react at such a distance.

The backlash from forcing myself to use power hit me. I fell to the floor, dropping Eternity. My whole body felt like a wrung-out rag. I barely managed to lift my head.

Aria was holding her left shoulder, where a hole had been punctured, and green light was emanating from her hand, healing the wound. I should have killed her with one blow.

Our eyes met. Aria, drenched in sweat, smiled faintly.

“Not bad, Mr. Mira…… I’m truly impressed that you could resist even in that state……”

“……”

I couldn’t answer. Simply breathing required as much effort as running a marathon.

“I’ll give you one chance to test me, just like you said before. But there won’t be a second chance. Keep that in mind.”

Aria, who had regained her composure, disappeared beyond the dimensional gate, leaving me alone. I buried my face in the floor. Even lifting my head from this position was a struggle.

As I took a moment to catch my breath, I tried to raise my upper body again, gritting my teeth.

“This side…… I, da…… in…… gan……”

A voice I had never heard before came from somewhere.