The three continued walking until night finally fell completely.
They decided to stop at a thoroughly unreliable building that was falling apart and had been almost completely consud by nature. Thick roots pierced through cracked walls, while enormous fungi grew between the damp concrete.
The place looked as though it might collapse at any mont.
As soon as they entered, Samael quickly headed into another room.
Because of his Flaw, there was no way to hide the transformation.
But at the very least...
He didn't want Bel to witness it happening.
When he returned, he overheard part of their conversation before even entering the main room.
"How did you know I wanted a purpose?" Bel asked.
There was genuine curiosity in his voice.
After all, he had never once said that he wanted a reason to keep living.
"I didn't know... I just felt that you wanted one," Liu answered honestly.
She had improved considerably over the last few days when it ca to talking to people.
She was still socially awkward.
Very awkward.
But her voice no longer sounded as cold as before.
Even if Liu herself hadn't realized it...
Taking care of Samael for that entire week had subtly changed the way she spoke.
"Felt? What do you an? What exactly did you feel?" Bel asked, now clearly interested.
Honestly...
To Samael, who was standing behind the wall listening while refusing to admit he was doing exactly that, it seed like Bel beca more animated whenever he wasn't around.
It wasn't a dramatic change.
His tone remained low.
Monotonous.
Almost dead.
But even so...
Bel asked more questions.
Spoke more.
And after their conversation about "purpose," Samael began noticing sothing uncomfortable.
Whenever the three of them talked...
Bel's eyes were almost always focused on Liu.
Never on him.
Of course...
Soone secretly listening behind a wall had no moral ground to judge anyone else.
"I can't wander too far off right now..."
Samael tried to justify himself while feeling his conscience grow heavier.
After a few seconds, he finally entered the room.
The instant Bel looked at him, the emptiness in his eyes visibly changed for the first ti.
Surprise.
After all, nobody expected a person to disappear into the next room for a few minutes...
And return as another gender.
Samael sighed internally.
"This is my Flaw."
The answer was simple.
Direct.
He was already beginning to accept that he would have to explain it many tis in the future.
Even so, he had no intention of providing details.
And even if soone asked...
He would probably continue refusing to answer.
It was still too early to sleep.
And there was absolutely nothing to do in that place.
So boredom quickly settled over the room.
Despite that, Samael could tell he was improving.
The fever was still there.
The pain too.
But tomorrow...
Maybe he would be able to help a little.
Or at least that was what he wanted to believe.
After they finished eating, Samael sat beside a broken window, staring at the distant horizon.
Then he began quietly humming.
Almost in a whisper.
An old song from Haru.
"Does everyone sing like that?" Bel suddenly asked.
He watched the beautiful young woman with golden-and-white hair humming while gazing at the night horizon.
Without even opening her eyes, Liu answered:
"No."
She was listening to Samael sing off-key.
Even though he sang badly.
Very badly.
But honestly...
She didn't have anything better to do.
So she simply enjoyed what she had.
Samael's off-key song filling the silence of that dead ruin.
While listening to the music, a sudden question appeared in Bel's mind.
"Hey... can you sing?" he asked Liu.
For so reason, he tried to imagine what it would be like to hear Liu sing.
And honestly...
He was absolutely certain she would be better than Samael.
Which wasn't exactly difficult.
"No," Liu replied imdiately.
Samael continued humming softly while staring toward the horizon.
Toward the direction where he could feel Elizabeth through their bond.
Then he noticed the two of them looking at him.
And imdiately stopped singing.
His face ward slightly.
After all...
It was the first ti he had ever sung for an audience.
Even if it happened accidentally.
After that, he sat down in the corner of the room again.
But sleep refused to co.
Bel and Liu eventually fell asleep first.
Probably because they had spent the entire day fighting.
As for Samael...
After spending so much ti being carried around and not pushing his body to its limits, he was still relatively awake.
So he quietly stood up and walked into the next room.
And that was when he saw it.
The mont he looked through the shattered window, Samael froze completely.
A colossal mountain rose on the distant horizon.
Gigantic.
Majestic.
Illuminated by the silver light of the moon.
It looked like a wall separating the world itself.
But it wasn't the mountain that captured his attention.
It was...
The things living upon it.
Across the entire mountain, colossal creatures crawled slowly.
Worms.
At first glance they seed small.
But only because of the absurd distance.
Each one easily exceeded two hundred ters in length.
And there weren't just a few of them.
There were dozens.
Perhaps hundreds.
Moving slowly across the mountain like parasites feeding upon a divine corpse.
But then...
Samael noticed sothing worse.
Much worse.
Above the mountain.
Resting upon it like an existence that completely transcended all logic...
Was a gigantic mass of bones.
An impossible structure.
A colossal heap of skeletons stretching for kiloters.
Compared to that thing...
Everything else seed insignificant.
Small.
aningless.
Even the colossal worms looked diocre beside it.
Samael's heartbeat slowed.
His instincts scread.
Every part of his body told him the sa thing.
Don't look.
Don't stare.
Don't acknowledge its existence.
But he couldn't look away.
"A Cursed Creature..." Samael murmured softly.
His voice seed tiny before that sight.
Because it was the first ti he had seen a deity.
Even if it was only a lesser deity.
Even if it was corrupted.
It was still...
A deity.
As Samael stared at that majestic creature, a warm liquid slowly began running down his face.
He blinked in confusion.
Then raised a hand to his cheek without taking his eyes off the creature above the mountains.
When he looked at his hand...
He saw red.
Blood.
Blood was silently flowing from his eyes.
The price of gazing upon a deity.
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