Hyungkesuni is glaring at me.
I can think of a few things to say, but there’s one important question.
“Why did you stop me?”
If one person had failed, I would have thought they made a mistake along the way. But after Andrew’s Future Hope Church members discussed and complemented Yasle’s knowledge, they performed the ritual.
The chances of being wrong are significantly low.
And not long after starting the ritual, I was murdered.
This means there is a way to detect the ritual by some method. When someone attempts the ritual and fails, that person is usually the first to be killed.
That’s right.
The opponent has means to sense the ritual. They know how to stop it and have the skills to seek and kill.
Honestly, I hadn’t imagined anything about Hyungkesuni until I arrived in this world, but here I am running after it immediately upon arrival!
Now that I know the outcome, the process falls into place.
So, I asked the question with annoyance. Hyungkesuni clutched her staff tightly.
“Why? Why? Look at what you’ve done!”
She pointed around. The surroundings are filled with what used to be people. Their heads have turned into dark purple orbs. Inside, there’s neither warmth nor light.
What used to be Tisah is left with only the lower half. Where the upper body should be, there’s a gaping hole, like a flower in bloom. It’s as if a heavy object fell on a glass window, shattering it and cracking it all around.
“Is this what it looks like when a person dies?”
“Then why did you stop me before?”
I asked again. This is the first time I’ve created something like this. No, really, this phenomenon is something I’ve never experienced before, leaving me dumbfounded.
I’m not sure if it’s simply because there were a lot of descendants, all connected by blood, and that I could take them all when recovering, or if Tisah and those descendants are special.
I should investigate later.
But this is a phenomenon I’ve never seen before.
In other words, it means the reason Hyungkesuni was running to stop me wasn’t because of this.
As I waited for Hyungkesuni’s answer, she suddenly swung her staff. The staff is shaped from a human upper body’s skull and spine. Blood splattered on my face following the skull.
The blood came from Hyungkesuni’s palm.
It seems she drove her hand right into the vertebrae to bleed. That’s why she was gripping her staff so tightly just now.
[Decapitation Massacre]
With a bizarre spell, my head flew into the air.
The world spins.
But did you forget? This isn’t a physical body. I merely manipulated a polygon blob to create this. So, I grabbed my head with my arm.
Thud, thud, roll
Oops.
I missed it.
Hmm. Something feels off.
Normally, when my head is severed, shouldn’t I be looking at my body from the ground? If I were to assume the nerves connect even after decapitation through some unknown ability, I should be able to see and move my body.
But I’m just here.
Clearly, the moment I got chopped off, my gaze spun along with it, but now the viewpoint is from my head, not from the ground.
No. No. I just said it.
My body was an amorphous blob like a polygon.
Did I get chopped off?
Does it even need to be severed?
No, can it even be severed in the first place?
As I pondered, my head on the ground faded away like low-resolution fragments disappearing from an old game. Conversely, my head was still on my neck as if it had never been cut off.
So far, those blessed had their heads cut off and died. That’s the method of execution.
“Is it really Hyungkesuni who’s the culprit? Did I kill the person I blessed?”
“Didn’t you have to have warmth to regenerate?”
A question in reply to a question.
But now that I look at it, the possibility of being ejected outside seems small.
Shall I answer?
“No. Did I ever say that?”
Now that I think about it, the one who experimented with the wounds was indeed Hyungkesuni. She frowned.
That’s right. She understood without conversation. I had acted in a way to mislead her, however.
“What was it about me that scared you to prevent me from coming back?”
I asked. I’ve never done anything that might endanger someone. At least, not until the last moment.
I quietly endured.
“You are that rule. When a sentient being in this world experiences intense frustration and despair, it leads to a tremendous explosion. And that was merely an act to devour people. Right? Now there’s a rule to actively go and devour that, how do you think it wouldn’t be terrifying? Unless someone is not intelligent enough to think about that future, who wouldn’t be scared?”
I nodded, only to stop slightly, finding it a bit subtle. There’s a misunderstanding there. It needs to be resolved.
“I don’t eat people.”
“If you eat warmth, a person dies.”
“No. When I eat warmth, they transform. Don’t you remember? After I had absorbed warmth, the person beside me killed the offering.”
So when Yasle gave me offerings, it was done separately in a room with warriors. Because once warmth is lost, a monster is created.
“If that’s not death, then what is it? And furthermore, all the humans you’ve blessed. They all became monsters, one and all! And even that brat went mad with power and started moving for revenge!”
That brat is probably Yasle.
“Hyungkesuni, I gave blessings, but didn’t particularly twist hearts. Let me ask you this: If I had twisted a person, could Tisah have come out of it?”
The most bizarre person. And, viewed at any point, someone purely good. Not just someone good, but someone who can be decisive when it comes to being firm.
“You made this happen on purpose, didn’t you!”
Ah. Indeed.
I can see how it might appear that way.
I shook my head.
“No, I did nothing. In the first place, I couldn’t do a thing to someone strong-willed like Tisah, Wide, or Isla. You’ll remember, Hyungkesuni. When I tested that title of ‘Outsider’ you gave me, a strong-willed person didn’t even flinch.”
Hyungkesuni glares at me with a very sharp expression.
“Experiment? So you deliberately consumed Yasle’s memory? And then you planted the method to summon you like that!”
Hyungkesuni, shouting this, is trying to swing her staff again. The strange magic all originates from that staff.
So I reached out and grabbed it. No, let me correct that. Several bodies that turned into dark purple orbs moved to grab Hyungkesuni’s staff. It moves? Just like my hands and feet. If they move, that’s good for me.
Ah, looks like she’s trying to run away.
Catch her!
Countless palms hold down Hyungkesuni to the ground.
“Gah!”
Hyungkesuni, pinned to the ground by many dark purple orbs, groans. And a sinister bluish glow begins to move.
It’s annoying.
I think I might be able to grab that bluish glow.
“Cough!”
Hyungkesuni convulses as if I’ve squeezed her throat. Of course, my hand is really in her chest, but it’s not penetrating her body.
This body is quite strange. I realize it’s odd. Well, as long as it doesn’t hurt, that’s good. Because I have things to do for Hyungkesuni yet.
I engulf the bluish glow into the dark purple. There was a slight sensation at my fingertips before it vanished.
And when I pulled my hand out, there were no wounds on Hyungkesuni’s chest.
As my hand completely withdrew, Hyungkesuni starts gagging and coughing.
I set her down properly. Although I say that, she’s bound to a chair like a doll. But in a broad sense, one could say she’s seated.
“Don’t try to run away. I’m irritated by you, Hyungkesuni.”
Half of that irritation is directed at the god, but let’s have you be the punching bag. We’ve gone through this half a year together, haven’t we?
“Is this your true nature?”
Hyungkesuni asks as she calms her heavy breathing.
“I’m not sure what you should call my true nature. I’ve told you all about me, haven’t I? I’ve always wondered, why are you so scared of me? At least until the Future Hope Church fell apart, I didn’t act dangerously.”
And then Hyungkesuni laughs. It’s not a laugh of fear, but a laugh of sarcasm.
“I told you earlier. You assumed a monster that eats people would actively go about eating people. Besides, you think a monster that craves something called warmth would generously share a power called blessing? An offering? There’s no way that a single human and that immense blessing could be evenly matched! Something else was clearly at play. So I thought I had to uncover the truth before it really got dangerous.”
With a palm resting on one cheek, Hyungkesuni glares at me with a slightly murmured tone.
“But that brat totally ignored my words, claiming revenge against Ansellus Kingdom.”
Normally, Hyungkesuni’s words would be worth listening to. No. Ah. I see. This person clearly made a mistake in what they said.
“Did you perhaps phrase it like this? Let’s stop the blessings for now. Something like that… Yes. That’s right.”
Before I even finished, she glares at me as if ready to kill. Of course, I remember what I said to Yasle!
I hurriedly spoke up to cover Hyungkesuni’s words, which were about to boil over.
“I truly gave blessings, Hyungkesuni. I don’t even know why I became strong, why I gained abilities. I just did as Yasle wished.”
“So you deceived us by pretending to know nothing.”
Yes. I pretended to know nothing. I deceived them. Because if I showed my true intentions and acted as I wished, I would probably lose my head!
“I don’t remember lying at all.”
“That’s probably because you refrained from lying.”
Hehe, that’s right.
“You waited that long to obtain Yasle’s memory. Then you taught the person blessed by you the method to summon you. What do you intend to do with this world?”
Now, Hyungkesuni asks me in a voice steeped in despair. I feel like Hyungkesuni is gradually sinking down. Resignation and despair. That means both are chipping at her heart.
I’m speaking as if I’m going to destroy the world, but I have no such thoughts.
Not at all.
“I don’t know what the world is. I just want warmth, Hyungkesuni.”
That’s really all there is to it.
Going to various worlds, pulling out more harvesting periods, creating a representative of blessings—all of it is simply because I want warmth.
Suddenly, I looked up at the ceiling.
And with a thump, deep within my heart, a gray-colored man spoke.
“I want to punch the face of the god who made me like this.”
It’s speech coming out from a being that was once a man. But as for whether there’s an impulse there, well, not really. It’s not that urgent for this side.
Just like wondering whether to drink barley tea or dandelion tea. I’ll go with barley tea today. That sort of impulse.
At my words, Hyungkesuni’s head popped up, her eyes wide in surprise as she looked at me.
“What?”
“Didn’t you know? I used to be a human a long time ago as well. Without knowing why, I had to shiver in the cold until I realized I was the sea down in that nothingness beneath the ocean.”
Long ago, when there was no distinction between the sky and the sea. Suddenly, a small light appeared above, and that light slowly expanded. Then the light expanded to form a starry night sky.
As others appeared, I recognized myself.
I was the vast sea lying at the bottom. At first, I thought it might be a sea planet, but it turned out to be just a flat plane.
An endless plane.
And below, based on some boundary surface. It was full below that boundary.
At first, I could reach out for the light that approached the surface, and now I’ve come this far.
“Hyungkesuni, you shouldn’t blame humans. I kept my end of the contract. I gave myself, and when I die, I get recovered. I didn’t expect to grasp descendants, but I never meant to reach out to them either.”
As I said this, I pointed to the sky.
“I made the first contract, but you stopped it. That’s a breach of contract. If you break the contract, you should face punishment.”
In truth, this has been an unexpected situation from the beginning, and somehow it ended up like this. Honestly, I didn’t think I could catch Hyungkesuni so easily. Uh, I wonder if this is a possible death beam, but the dark purple energy shows no reaction to such thoughts.
Since appearing in this world, all my actions have been reactive, and my motivation has been irritation. So, this is an opportunity.
“I’m not a cruel rule. Instead of exploding the people who come to me, I will give blessings. Of course, only when that person consents.”
I omit the part where if they don’t consent, no contract can be made.
Hyungkesuni glares at me, telling me not to lie with her eyes.
“If you’re giving people blessings that lead to death, how many offerings do you plan to consume, you monster?”
Hehe. That’s a good question, Hyungkesuni.
“Offerings? That’s something Yasle gave because they liked it, right?”
Then, with a blank expression, Hyungkesuni thought about it for a moment and looked at me with an understanding expression. What in the world did she comprehend?
“Why on earth are you trying to persuade me?”
Ah.
Oh no.
I’ve been found out.
But it’s a question I asked. Rules are rules. Even if one has made them, they mustn’t lie.
“About the summoning method. I hope you can write it down in a book.”
In the first place, the magic for summoning evil beings was something Hyungkesuni taught Yasle. As for the reverse summoning method, it’s not magic, but a relic of Yeongyang Church Nation, so I can’t use it.
“Get lost!”
Hyungkesuni glares at me with a look that suggests she would rather end her own life than listen to me.
It seems persuading her is going to be tough. And now the bigger problem is what to do with this situation.
So far, the family is staying outside, witnessing Tisah’s last moments. There’s a lot to weave through.
