In the hallway of the Imperial Palace. Trapped in a spider’s web or a maze, I was walking through the halls, but I didn’t know where it led.
Tock, tock.
Only the sound of my footsteps resounded clearly through the darkness. I could see a person at the far end of the hallway waiting for me.
Tock, tock.
He was the last of this world. The most ‘God-like’, the last believer. I approached him without hesitation.
“Quay.”
He swayed like a ghost and stared at me.
“Let’s go to the Annihilation of the Altar.”
Annihilation. Quay met my eyes.
“Let’s go to your temple.”
Temple. Quay’s eyes raised with doubt, but it was only for a moment before he responded.
“I think you already know what I’m thinking.”
I nodded. The mana at Quay’s side lumped together into a certain form. It was a ‘transmitter.’
“Let’s go.”
Quay gestured. Then, the transmitter’s mana wrapped around us. I closed my eyes for a moment as mist filled the air, then opened them again.
“We’re here.”
Quay said. I looked around Annihilation. This land where life couldn’t survive, this cursed land where dark energy rippled. A tower ascended into the skies above us.
“Is it a lighthouse?”
“Yes. I see you recognized it right away. Kreto said it is a tower.”
Quay smiled a little. I looked at the lighthouse with Understanding and Vision. I grasped all the hidden functions and intentions, meanings and wills, behind its construction at a glance.
“…It’s still lacking.”
That was my conclusion. I looked back at Quay.
“Isn’t this what you designed? It seems that you don’t have enough skill to claim to be a God.”
“…”
Quay laughed bitterly and poked my shoulder.
“Deculein. You know dolls have a lifespan.”
Quay pointed to his body.
“I am imperfect. No, I am not me. I’m just imitating myself… I’m just a doll. The real me is outside of this world.”
Then he turned to me with a pout.
“You interrupted me, so I don’t have much time left.”
If he wanted to make it perfect, he could. However, the problem was time. Right now, Quay was still a doll, trapped in a fake body with limitations, so it didn’t have to be perfect.
“Deculein. Now, do you understand why I came to you?”
Quay asked. I nodded.
“I’ll cooperate.”
“…?”
Quay’s lips trembled. He looked back at me and tilted his head.
“It’s just the initialization. Washing away original sin and regenerating purity again.”
“That is destruction.”
Quay shook his head, but he voiced no objection. We couldn’t convince each other anyway.
“However, building this lighthouse is a process we both must undertake, although our goals are different.”
Quay didn’t say anything for a moment.
“This lighthouse is unfinished.”
This lighthouse was now simply a place where you could observe the distant universe.
“I know. But it is enough to reset the continent.”
Of course, Quay was right. If a comet arrived soon, it would exert its power long enough to erase the continent.
“I do not deny the word incomplete.”
However, if Quay and I worked together, it’d go beyond simply observing the universe. It would advance into a lighthouse where anything that exists could be observed.
“There is not much difference between sufficient and insufficient in the first place.”
A faint smile appeared on Quay’s lips.
“To complete the lighthouse, you need my strength, and I also need your strength to observe God.”
I was asking for a temporary truce. Even if it was a purpose for a cause, a means to betray the emperor and the continent, did this violate Deculein’s principle?
…It didn’t.
“If God comes again, this moment and my will won’t change.”
Quay’s voice grew quiet.
“On the contrary, God wants the continent to be destroyed. The descendants of their killer are ruining this continent.”
“Quay.”
I met Quay’s eyes. Somehow, it was pitiful. It was funny too.
“God does not control the will of creation.”
“…”
“The choice was always yours.”
He listened quietly.
“It is you who interpreted God’s Revelation as killing, you who prayed for ten thousand years, and you who was eventually isolated from the world.”
A creature who served God all his life, and his existence ended up shattered.
“You who are determined to become a God now and you who declared that you will erase the continent.'”
Quay smiled. However, it wasn’t a warm smile. It was like a cold flame mixed with hostility, anger, and chaos.
“In the end, the choice was yours. So, now you are proving the Revelation of God.”
“…What revelation are you talking about?”
To Quay’s cold tone, I answered.
“God chose his death for your freedom. God’s death was, after all, a suicide.”
Even Quay, who lived only for God, had his own will when God died and disappeared. That was the proof.
“Your indulgence did not kill God, but God killed Himself for your freedom.”
Whoosh-!
Suddenly, red energy rose from Quay’s body. Again, a death variable.
“God isn’t like that. Someone who would die by his hand, like humans-“
“No. He is a God because he can choose even death. By dying, God has given us the purest and most fundamental thing to existence… death.”
“…Then.”
Quay clenched his teeth. The death variable wrapped around my neck.
“Why didn’t I die?”
There was anger in his voice. He, who had maintained his composure thus far, finally showed his honest feelings.
“It was ten thousand years. Didn’t God know that a being like me would be born?”
Quay asked. I looked into his eyes and answered.
“He didn’t know.”
“…You’re wrong. You don’t know God.”
“Then, he knew.”
“Is that a joke?”
Quay’s mouth shut tight, and I shook my head.
“A joke? How can humans understand the will of God? But one thing is certain.”
I turned my gaze back to the lighthouse.
“That’s probably why I came here.”
“…”
Quay didn’t respond. Was he at a loss for words at my absurd ego? However, this wasn’t a silly joke or a prank. I spoke seriously.
“If God didn’t know you existed, he prepared me in a hurry, or he arranged it in advance because he knew. Either interpretation is possible. Because faith does not belong to God, but the believer.”
“You’re cheeky. Even if your soul is special, it’s not God’s will.”
“It’s you who is cheeky, Quay. I’m not only at a special level.”
Looking up at the lighthouse in Annihilation, thinking of the person who would be watching me from somewhere high in the sky, I reached a natural realization.
“I am unique in this world.”
“…”
“As great as the God you served.”
For a moment, Quay’s face went blank. However, it was neither a lie nor a bluff. Kim Woojin, who dwelled in Deculein. The ‘me’ who came down from outside this world to this place wasn’t very different from the person who created this world.
I said.
“I guess I only realized now the reason I came here.”
“…”
“It was thanks to you, Quay.”
Quay didn’t speak for a long time. However, the death variable soon subsided, and the look of disbelief in his eyes soon turned to joy.
“You mean I was the reason you came here?”
I didn’t have to answer. I held out my hand.
“I’ll cooperate.”
“…Hmm.”
“You should cooperate too.”
The moment I said this, it hurt like I was being stabbed. But whether it was in my heart or my soul, I didn’t know. Perhaps, whatever the purpose, this process wasn’t so different from betraying Sophien.
Quay also pointed that out.
“The emperor you serve must be sorry.”
“…It’s a life that doesn’t have much left anyway. Also, this will be according to Deculein.”
On the continent, the Altar’s informants were multiplying by the day due to the elixir. The reason I didn’t bother to oppress those who succumbed to the temptation of power was that it was the ending Quay hoped for. The humans would kill each other and lead to their destruction.
“According to Deculein… even though your whole family might be destroyed?”
Quay asked.
“You, the emperor’s bodyguard, a traitor who has fallen, becoming a collaborator of the Altar.”
I cooperated with the Altar. I contributed to the completion of the lighthouse. No, I designed, remodeled, and completed the lighthouse myself.
“A first-class war criminal blinded by power who tries to destroy the continent. You could become a Black Beast worse than your master, Rohakan.”
The fact that I joined Quay would be revealed whether the Altar won or lost. I would stain my name and family with filth.
“No, I will be. Certainly.”
I nodded.
“I don’t care.”
It didn’t matter. Deculein was not a vassal, nor a loyalist, nor an apostate in the first place. He was not a small man who only valued his safety and prosperity, nor an idiot who would destroy the continent for the sake of her Majesty the Emperor, nor a paranoid man obsessed with principles, nor a weak man who is blinded by love.
“I already know my identity.”
I didn’t belong to anything. I was a…
“Villain.”
A villain. The named villain Deculein. Quay’s eyes trembled slightly.
“I am still a villain.”
And just as a hero excluded evil with his good, the villain redeemed the good with his evil.
“It is only right that the villain disappears with their evil.”
The future Quay wanted —a tragedy in which humans shed blood and killed each other — would not occur as long as this great culmination of evil existed.
* * *
Meanwhile, Julie played cards. Her opponents were Leo, Lia, and Carlos of the Red Garnet Adventure Team. The game was poker.
“But why can’t we go outside, Lia?”
Leo asked.
“There’s a thing called a transmitter. Call.”
Lia answered while putting a chip on the table.
“Transmitter?”
“Yes. It’s a demonic being that delivers humans, but it seems that the Altar has released it into the Imperial Palace as a check.”
Altar. Julie’s ears ached at their name.
“Then, if we get caught by them, we can be teleported to Annihilation, right?”
“Yes. But we can also be moved to other places that are not normal instead.”
“Raise.”
At that moment, the child named Carlos doubled. Julie turned to look at him with surprise, while Leo and Lia glanced at her.
“What will Knight Yuri do?”
Lia asked. Julie gently bit her lip. Her hand was a pair of sevens, but the stake was only 10,000 Elnes. Of course, these were the chips given away free of charge by the Imperial Palace to promote friendship, but she was too poor to keep going.
“…I’m dead.”
Julie set her hand down. Lia grinned.
“Hey. No. You’re a coward.”
“…Yes. That’s right.”
She didn’t fall for the attack. She could win the next round anyway.
“Then let’s show our hands. I have a pair of sixes.”
Lia’s hand was weaker than expected. Julie laughed inwardly, but the other hands showed next weren’t even a pair.
“…I won.”
Julie watched Lia take the stake with envy and shuffled the cards with a pout.
“By the way, do you all know about the rumors spreading around the Imperial University these days?”
She asked carefully. Lia reacted first.
“Rumors?”
“Yes.”
Lia met Julie’s eyes. Julie kept her gaze for a moment and wondered, is this person righteous?
“About the elixir?”
Lia asked, and Julie flinched. Had the rumors already spread far and wide?
“Yes.”
“Well… common people don’t know, but adventurers like us know about it. Even among adventurers, it’s famous.”
“Oh. Do adventurers drink this elixir?”
“Some. But less than knights or wizards. We became adventurers in the first place because we didn’t want to be tied to anything. But…”
Lia’s brow furrowed.
“What about you?”
“I do not borrow power from such things.”
“That’s a relief.”
Lia grinned, but the way she smiled was strange for some reason. Julie frowned.
She had seen that expression somewhere. It was familiar. If it was familiar for her… in other words, it must’ve been familiar ten years ago…
“Oh?”
A certain scene popped into Julie’s mind. To be precise, it was from a long time ago when she saw Deculein in their Academy days secretly meeting someone and smiling. There was a woman with him.
“What?”
Lia tilted her head, and Julie asked with wide eyes.
“By any chance. Do you know Yuli?”
It was at that moment-
Craaash—!
The light on the ceiling broke, and the window was smashed.
“Who is it?”
Julie drew her sword. Lia, Leo, and Carlos wrapped mana around their bodies. Darkness fell over the room.
A demonic being appeared with an eerie chill.
“…Shh. It’s a transmitter. There is no threat to our lives, for now, so don’t be too nervous.”
Lia took Julie’s hand. Julie was startled, but Lia spoke like an expert.
“Everyone hold hands. That way, we won’t end up somewhere alone.”
Julie nodded, holding her sword in one hand and Lia’s hand in the other. This small adventurer was oddly trustworthy.
Comments