Ian was montarily taken aback.
The darkness that had enveloped his vision brightened.
From the flickering light of a torch, he saw a pristine golden bathtub placed atop an altar. People were lining up the stairs on either side. They stood at the edge of the bathtub, shedding tears, and slashed their throats with the daggers in their hands before plunging into the tub. A splashing sound followed.
Those who couldn’t muster the courage were attacked by those behind them, who slit their throats and threw them into the tub.
The golden bathtub endlessly accepted their blood and bodies.
A whisper urging haste, and the distant sounds of commotion brushed his ears. It was a language he had never heard before, yet he could understand it naturally.
Ah, I see. This is the mory of true blood.
Ian finally let out a dry laugh, though it was only an internal laugh. There was nothing he could do at this mont.
All he could do was stay attached to the consciousness of an unknown existence, passively accepting knowledge he wasn’t particularly curious about.
Ian realized that these people were the royal family of a kingdom that had once existed in the eastern part of the continent and that they were about to be killed by the Imperial army.
The reason was that they were heretics worshiping demons. From Ian’s perspective, it was sothing they deserved. It was only natural for a God who demanded sacrifices of blood to be treated as a demon.
Of course, they didn’t think that way.
"As long as the blood of the royal family flows within you, the dynasty is not extinct, and as long as you hold the essence of Divine Blood, our Lord will not abandon us. Survive, princess. My daughter. Rebuild your lineage and restore the kingdom. This is your mission."
The middle-aged man, who spoke with a solemn expression, died as he spilled his blood into the tub one last ti.
The girl Ian was observing stood up for the final ti. She looked back with tear-filled eyes. The commotion behind the firmly closed door was getting closer.
Eventually, she climbed the stairs and stood by the tub. Unlike the others, she jumped into the blood- and corpse-filled tub.
A sticky warmth enveloped her entire body. The next mont, Ian saw the terrified faces of the Imperial soldiers pass before his eyes. Cold death and senseless killing followed after. Only the sticky warmth of the blood they shed remained, tinting his vision red.
From that mont on, scenes flashed before his eyes, as if in fast-forward. Each was a fleeting mont, yet the emotions and thoughts of those monts pierced his mind vividly.
The longing for survival and loneliness, the joy of creating a first family, the excitent felt during the war, and the hatred toward other demons and the conflict of betraying them.
Vain dreams and desires only bred hollow joy and unquenchable thirst. The longing for the past never faded no matter how much ti passed. And the hatred toward those who only used them never diminished, growing ever larger. In the end, they wished for everything to collapse.
The princess of the fallen kingdom had beco a demon.
All those monts led to the present. There was no longer any regret in destroying the nation they had painstakingly built. She simply pretended to care.
Killing her kin with her own hands no longer brought any sadness. The certain approach to death was, of course, terrifying, but it also stirred a futile longing.
Maybe, just maybe, this ti, with him...
In the next mont, the vision was filled with a man, battered and bruised, raising a greatsword with a blank expression.
"How do you feel, seeing yourself through another’s eyes?" A girl’s voice continued beside him.
Ian instinctively turned his head and then realized, belatedly, that he could move his head.
A girl was sitting there. She had blond hair, and red eyes, and was wearing unfamiliar clothing.
Ian responded calmly. "This is not my true self."
The girl, the Empress, smiled. "Do you an you have many other appearances that I don’t know of? I didn’t know you enjoyed philosophical talk. That’s unexpected."
"I don’t enjoy it. I an this truly isn’t my real self."
"...?" The Empress tilted her head in confusion.
Ian added, "I ca from another world."
"Another... world?"
The Empress’s eyes widened as if she had heard sothing entirely unexpected.
But Ian’s words weren’t finished yet. “This world was created by soone for amusent. I was dragged here while enjoying that, without any intention of my own.”
“Do you an this world was created for the sake of amusent?”
“Yes. At least, to my knowledge.”
“Then the creator of this world must be a terribly cruel person, making everyone suffer and laughing at it.” Instead of probing further, the Empress rely nodded as if she understood, murmuring to herself.
Ian did not deny it. He often had similar thoughts.
The vision he had just seen, which he wasn’t particularly curious about, also depicted the process of soone’s soul being completely corrupted and destroyed.
The young Empress, lost in thought and nodding to herself, finally spoke as if she had co to an understanding.
“That’s why the true blood couldn’t taint your soul. The fact that you hold both divinity and chaos in you. Even mastering various magics—all of this was possible because your soul wasn’t created by the rules of this world.”
“I never thought about it that way… but maybe you’re right.”
“Really... It’s astonishing. Then what about this world? Do you know what will happen to it in the future?”
“Sowhat.” Though he answered casually, Ian felt strangely relieved. These were words he had never spoken to anyone before.
He never imagined he would share such thoughts with a demon he had killed, and that too within the demon’s fading mories.
“I shouldn’t have fought you. If I had just given you that poor child and befriended you, I might have heard more of these fascinating stories. Without being pressed for ti like now.”
“Even if you had given Thesa, I would have co to kill you all. You would have died by my hand, and you wouldn’t have heard these stories. To begin with, you were...”
Ian paused, staring into the Empress’s red eyes, then continued.
“You were destined to die at Thesa’s hands, not mine.”
“Destiny... Yes. Events that cannot be avoided no matter what can only be called destiny. Just as I am destined never to restore the kingdom… In a way, it’s a relief.”
The Empress smiled faintly.
“It ans the choice I’m about to make was also predetermined from the beginning.”
“What choice?” Ian asked, frowning.
Instead of answering, the Empress raised her hand to point at the sky. Ian turned to look in the direction she indicated. The sky above the mansion unfolded before him.
But everything was in black and white. The swirling dark clouds. The night sky. Even the massive crescent moon.
“I will leave an indelible rift in this world, just like the Black Wall.”
The Empress’s voice was no longer that of a child. Her appearance had also changed to resemble the figure that had erged from the golden bathtub.
She t Ian’s gaze quietly and finally smiled.
“I thought you would try to stop . But you’re not.”
“Would you stop if I did?”
“Of course not. It’s too late for to turn back now. Actually, half of it was impulsive. I wanted revenge on those who exploited us and ignored us when we needed help. And in this world too.”
“Have you ever considered that this is what those who used you wanted?”
“Of course. It was a bit frustrating to realize that.”
The Empress’s smile deepened.
“Thanks to you, I’m okay now. In fact, I’m rather enjoying it. Knowing that those who claim to be all righteous—the disgusting gods and priests—are nothing but puppets like .”
Ian nodded calmly. It was sothing that would happen soon enough anyway. It was just that the inevitable mont had been brought forward a little.
“So, did you pull here to leave a will?”
“I actually wanted to persuade you one more ti.”
The Empress shook her head and continued.
"To carry on my will. Perhaps you could achieve the dream I never could. If you refused, I was even thinking of threatening you. This world is already so broken that even a slight increase in the cracks would be fatal. But it seems..."
The Empress’s lips curled up.
It was a strange smile, appearing both relieved and as if she had given up on everything.
"You already knew all of this and rejected it anyway. So now, it’s all aningless. I just want to have a conversation. I always wanted to talk with you a bit longer."
"If that’s your wish, it seems it’s already been fulfilled."
"A bit longer. There’s not much ti left anyway."
"Fine. Do you have more to say?"
"You will forever be rembered as the one who annihilated us, Ian. Other demons will recognize you, and those who exploited us will take notice of you too."
Ian nodded calmly. "Don’t worry. I’ll send them all to join you."
"That would be nice. Especially those who used us."
It seems demons also beco honest right before they die.
With a faint smile, Ian asked. "Tell about them. The Round Table Parliant, where can I find them?"
"Unfortunately... I don’t know. In fact, I don’t think I know more than you do. I only learned their exact nas through you. Look over there, Ian. It’s about to start."
The Empress extended her hand toward the sky. Ian followed her gesture and looked at the sky again.
A low voice continued beside him. "I called him a priest. He’s a fanatic of Lu Solar, wielding very strong divinity. So, he wouldn’t be an ordinary priest. And."
Her voice trailed off. Ian turned to look beside him again.
The Empress was nowhere to be seen.
There was a sound of sothing breaking. Ian looked back at the black-and-white sky.
There was a loud crash, followed by the sound of sothing breaking. Ian looked back up at the monochro sky.
A massive crack was spreading across the middle of the crescent moon, like a fissure in space. From within, sothing long and finger-like began to slowly erge. In the next mont, the crescent moon lted away, covering the erging fingers.
"...!" Ian blinked.
The sky had already returned to its original color. The red crescent moon dispersed like spreading paint, dissolving into the night sky.
Rumble, rumble—
Thunder flashed through the gathering storm clouds. A quest completion window appeared in front of his eyes. It was then that Ian realized he had returned to reality.
The overwhelming presence of the true blood had vanished without a trace. The shards of chaos lay almost empty and silent. Only the ashes he lay upon served as a reminder that what he had just experienced was not a re daydream.
Rumbling began to spread from all directions shortly afterward. Not just the audience chamber but all the underground spaces were collapsing.
The collapse seed strangely close. He realized that the audience chamber’s expanse was now less than half of what it had been. The depth was the sa.
"So, the barrier has collapsed...."
The space that had stretched and warped had returned to its original form.
Muttering, Ian tried to lift his upper body but wobbled. Severe dizziness and headache. And a pain so intense it made his vision blur and swept through his entire body.
Ian realized then that his physical condition was worse than he had thought. His consciousness tried to slip away again.
But it wasn’t the ti to faint yet. Ian leaned against the Legion Commander’s Greatsword, embedded in the ashes like a tombstone, to lift his upper body.
He then pulled a cigarette box out of his pocket dinsion and managed to put one in his mouth.
A small spark flew from his trembling grip. Ian realized he had almost no magic power left. If he closed his eyes now, he would suffer from severe magic exhaustion when he woke up.
Fwoosh—
A small fla flickered. Ian lit the end of his cigarette, leaning his head against the blade of the greatsword as he inhaled the smoke.
The scent of the herbs filled his lungs and then spread outside with his exhale. His vision, which had seed on the verge of extinguishing, brightened a little. As he exhaled the smoke, Ian finally reached a conclusion to the thought that had crossed his mind earlier.
Not all the situations he experienced here were in the ga.
At least, it wouldn’t have been this difficult. It must have been a butterfly effect, created by adding several new situations that weren’t in the ga.
"Sigh..."
Ian exhaled another puff of smoke and stood up with a determined look. His ankle, buried in the ashes, creaked, and dizziness washed over him. Although the bleeding in his left thigh had stopped, he still had no strength. Yet he stood up anyway.
"Phew..."
Stretching out his right arm, Ian gripped the hilt of the greatsword. Pulling it from the ground was difficult now. He barely managed to tilt the blade and put it into his pocket dinsion. Then, he turned and searched the ashes for the Broken Sword of Judgnt.
The scabbard lay far off. Limping, he barely managed to retrieve the scabbard and return it to his pocket dinsion as well. Finally, he took another drag on his cigarette and looked around.
The Labyrinth Mansion had completely collapsed, leaving no trace. The debris had ford a few slopes that seed to lead to the surface.
It’s not a path I could take in my current condition...
As he exhaled the cigarette smoke and prepared to take a step, he heard a familiar voice.
"Ian...!"
Silhouettes he recognized appeared beyond the slope. It was his comrades.
"My lord! You’re safe! Thank goodness! But what on earth happened...?"
As Phillip shouted, v urgently pulled up her visor. She looked at Ian with anxious eyes, hesitating as she tried to help Phillip descend the slope. Phillip had his left arm fixed with a splint and bandages.
v, supporting Phillip, hesitantly stepped onto the slope.
She looks like she’s about to fall at any mont.
Ian thought, watching the two run ahead.
Charlotte ran effortlessly over the debris. And overtaking her was Thesaya, draped in a snow leopard hide cloak. Her eyes, once red, were no longer crimson.
Now a much deeper green, her hair had transitioned from silver to almost pure white. The physical changes seed to stop there. There were no longer any signs of the writhing roots beneath her skin.
"...." Ian quietly watched Thesaya approaching with her arms swinging. He furrowed his brows and reached out to the side. The sealed box erged from the pocket dinsion and barely touched the ground, making him furrow his brows even more.
Despite being close enough, Thesaya’s pace didn’t slow down at all. Instead, she spread her arms even wider.
Ian exhaled smoke as he spoke. "As you can see, I’m injured."
"I know! It looks really bad!" Thesaya shouted and threw herself at him.
In his current state, Ian couldn’t dodge or withstand the charge. Ian fell backward. Thesaya, who cushioned his head to prevent it from hitting the ground, scread thanks as she held him.
I told you, I’m injured...
Even as pain washed over his body, Ian muttered. "Put on so clothes. Don’t just wear a cloak."
"As expected, you’re the only one who cares about my clothes, Ian. Alright." Thesaya stood up without complaint.
From behind her, Ian’s voice continued.
"Thesa."
"Yes?"
"Your quest is complete."
"...!" Thesaya’s eyes widened as she looked back at Ian. She blinked for a mont, then shouted thanks once more and hugged him tightly.
Ian gave no response. He had already lost consciousness.
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