There was just one thing I realized after hearing Agnes out.
Our creator wasn’t omniscient, nor omnipotent, but—
Simply kind.
"...So."
I held my aching head and went over everything Agnes had explained so far.
"What is this supposed to be?”
"Reasons to protect life. It’s what you wanted.”
"..."
What Agnes had scribbled across the paper with the tiny beak read as follows:
1. Whether lowly or great, we are all precious beings living in the sa ti. Cherish and bless one another.
2. Do not say to others what you would not want to hear. Treat others as you wish to be treated.
3. Greed is a natural emotion for all living beings, but it must be properly controlled…
Basically, the kind of gentle advice that might get a few dozen likes in so obscure corner of the internet.
It wasn’t that I disliked the statents themselves. They were just telling you to be a good person. There was nothing wrong with that.
But claiming this was the key to saving the world was sothing I couldn’t understand at all.
"There was a ti when I, too, lived with baseless confidence like you.”
Agnes clicked their beak as if pitying , adding one more comnt to their already sufficient advice.
"Do you think I simply accepted the fact that the world would end? The reason I know all of this is because I once struggled desperately to save it.”
"You’re sure this isn’t so kind of spell disguised as sothing harmless? Like if I recite this in front of Scarlet Abyss, they start bleeding from all their orifices and die?”
"The creator was the first strong being to believe that even fragile lives deserve to exist and, at the sa ti, an entity with an almost childish mindset. The more I gathered information about them, the more I ca to the conclusion that they created the world precisely because they were like that. In other words, I am sure.”
"...Even so, this can't be everything. You said there was more.”
"There is. Similar ideas were also spread in the form of fables.”
So basically the sa thing.
Maybe the First Mage had dread of a beautiful world where Scarlet Abyss and everyone else reconciled and lived hand in hand. Not like we could ask the dead.
Either way, none of this was going to solve anything. I irritably shoved the collection of advice aside and asked again.
"Forget this nonsense. What’s sothing that’s actually useful?”
"There are a few things. Ancient monunts, places said to contain hidden weapons. I seared them all and found rocks, tablets, and old docunts with similar passages written on them.”
"That’s really it?”
"There are things that cannot be achieved physically.”
"...Physically?”
"Proving that the prophecy is wrong.”
Agnes shrugged as if it were nothing.
"Scarlet Abyss follows sothing called the prophecy. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s clearly the single guideline moving their leader.”
"Isn’t that just about returning the world to its primordial state?”
"That is the act of fulfilling the prophecy. The reason soone who already secured victory long ago still endures all of this just to move a little faster must be related to that prophecy. If we can prove it false, Scarlet Abyss might stop. It’s only a possibility though.”
"Hmm..."
It was a more reasonable approach than expected. As I nodded, my expression easing slightly, Agnes imdiately crushed the hope I harbored.
"However, only three beings know the exact contents of this so-called prophecy. The creator, the leader of Scarlet Abyss, and the shrine maiden. We rely assu it’s about unifying the world into one. Perhaps they intend to do sothing after that…”
"The shrine maiden?”
"Yes. The Empire’s princess, right?”
"...Ah, Sharmia?”
Co to think of it, Scarlet Abyss had called Sharmia the shrine maiden.
But Sharmia had never told them anything.
If anything, she was doing everything she could to stop them.
"No. Scarlet Abyss created a false shrine maiden long before that to hear the prophecy. To be precise, Scarlet Abyss ca into existence after the shrine maiden was created. Great Void, changed after hearing that prophecy, and decided to establish Scarlet Abyss.”
A false shrine maiden.
I had heard that term before.
Soone that had always stayed beneath the tower Scarlet Abyss had occupied. Soone eerily resembling Sharmia.
Heavenly Balance.
"I thought Heavenly Balance had just the sa face as Sharmia..."
"If Heavenly Balance refers to the false shrine maiden, then that’s correct.”
"What do you an by that?”
"For an imasurable span of ti, Scarlet Abyss’ false shrine maiden has always had that face. Perhaps even that appearance itself is part of the prophecy.”
Agnes let out a sigh and continued their speculation.
"The false shrine maiden likely set that face as the signal for when to act. If a shrine maid with the exact sa face appears, then there’s no need to wait any longer. The beginning can comnce.”
* * *
In the end, I didn’t release Agnes.
No matter what they said, they were a Knight murderer. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t do it again, so strict containnt was necessary. Even if they demanded I honor our agreent, I wasn’t a Knight and just a poor orphan.
After sealing the cage in the deepest part of my workshop, I returned and shook Dercia’s shoulder. She was still staring blankly at the desk, completely motionless.
"Master, snap out of it.”
"…H-hm. Jern.”
She’d always been a bit off, but right now she looked like she genuinely had a screw loose.
I waved my fingers in front of her vacant eyes, but they didn’t track at all. Realizing how serious this was, I took a harsher approach.
"Get a grip. There’s no guarantee what that idiot said is true.”
"Huh?"
"If they’re a spy for Scarlet Abyss, they might’ve prepared that story just to keep you frozen in place. We don’t even know for sure whether Great Void has actually reached the Heavenly Realm yet. I get that it’s terrifying, but giving up just from hearing it without confirming anything feels a bit much, don’t you think?”
"...That’s…true.”
Letting out a sigh, she stood up sluggishly, then sat back down properly, looking a little more composed.
"It seems their words struck directly at sothing I’ve always feared, so I montarily faltered. That was quite unbecoming of . My apologies.”
"Sothing you feared? Were you afraid soone else would reach the Heavenly Realm first?”
"More precisely—I feared that I would never be able to reach it.”
Dercia clasped her hands tightly as she confessed.
"Based on everything I’ve learned walking the path of magic, there have been many monts where, had I truly reached this level, the heavens should have opened a path at least once. I don’t an leaving it to luck. I an that the Heavenly Realm is sothing that must permit one’s entry, as if granting access to a space…”
"Why’s that?”
"It never opened, not even once, and so consistently that I couldn’t dismiss it as re coincidence. It’s as if soone was deliberately refusing permission. Until now, I thought it was that I simply lacked sufficient training or experience, since there were no wizards at my level I could have used as reference…”
Her bloodshot eyes drifted toward the door, and she bit her lip again.
"At one point, I even wondered if everything had already ended.”
"...Is it really possible for soone who reached the Heavenly Realm first to pull up the ladder behind them?”
"It is. That is precisely why I placed such importance on walking the path of magic. If I cannot reach the Heavenly Realm, then all elves are fated to perish. Not that their extinction weighs heavily on , but in the end, I too would fall.”
"..."
"For those of us who live for nearly eternity, having the path forward cut off is, yes. It is quite frightening.”
It was the first ti I had ever heard such weakness in Dercia’s voice.
Not knowing what to say, I stayed silent until she shook her head and stood up.
"In the end, these are nothing but venting my weakness. I apologize for showing you such a side of . What did Agnes say?”
"Ah, right. They said we should listen to the shrine maiden’s prophecy.”
That wasn’t exactly what they said, but the direction was clear.
First, we needed to understand what this ‘prophecy’ even was.
Only then could we try to change it or prove it wrong.
"The prophecy? You an the one the Princess gives out?”
"More precisely, the false shrine maiden, the gloomy ‘princess’ living in Scarlet Abyss’ basent.”
I explained everything I knew about the false shrine maiden and her situation again.
Dercia, who had heard all of this before, quickly recalled it and nodded.
"That shrine maiden could very well be the starting point of all this. But can we even find her?”
True.
Scarlet Abyss was deeply hidden.
And now, they had even abandoned the base I knew. Which ant we had to find their next headquarters, then locate Heavenly Balance, and sohow get the prophecy out of her, which was obviously absurdly difficult.
Even from what little I had seen her before, she didn’t seem like she’d just spill the prophecy if we caught her.
"That’s what I’m struggling with too. What should we do?”
"Hmm..."
As we put our heads together, trying to think of sothing, Dercia suddenly spoke up.
"...What do you think Scarlet Abyss is doing right now?”
“They’ve been quiet lately but are probably acting to fulfill that prophecy, right?”
"I an how they are acting to fulfill it.”
"Well? Moving their mbers around, I guess…”
I trailed off mid-sentence. Only then did I realize what she was getting at, and my eyes widened.
Scarlet Abyss’ mbers all shared a communication system.
"The Gospel!”
"That may not be the prophecy itself. But it likely contains instructions derived from it, used to direct their mbers. If we follow that we might be able to reach the source.”
Dercia said that, then rubbed her chin with a troubled expression.
"The problem is, we’d need to find a Scarlet Abyss mber who has the Gospel. And so far, there’s no report of any combatant carrying it.”
"Ah, that’s fine."
I smiled reassuringly.
Because there was one useless person who had a copy of the Gospel even within the Empire.
A wicked fellow just waiting to betray them the mont things went south.
J
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