Episode 408

The silent Verita parted her lips, her expression conflicted. "I'm not sure. I understand what you are saying, but it doesn't fully resonate with me. I was taught that martyrdom has meaning in itself."

"Who taught you that?" I asked.

"That..." Verita hesitated for a moment before replying reluctantly, "It is Setitus."

I found myself speechless as well. Under the circumstances, Setitus should have been a nation hostile to Verita. Yet paradoxically, its teachings had become her identity's very foundation. In truth, that wasn't so strange. In the wrong environment, forcibly imposed education could completely distort a person's values and way of thinking.

I didn't bother to point that out. Even Verita seemed confused after saying it aloud.

I told her, "The way to prove faith is different for each religion and each church member. There is no clear answer, but there can be wrong ones."

"Does that mean my faith was wrong?" she asked.

"Yes."

"How can you be sure?"

"The Colorless Demon King would never accept that kind of martyrdom." Deep conviction filled my voice, enough that even this dull girl could sense it.

Verita fell silent, but there was no sign that she had truly accepted my words.

I expected that much. Sincere words weren't always fully understood. In fact, many situations ended that way. Most conflicts started with small misunderstandings. Fully conveying a person's true intentions was far more difficult than most people realized.

I stared at Verita. Then I suddenly slipped my hands into the subspace at my waist. It was a magical device that I had the hardest time sneaking in. It contained items that I had believed I couldn't use under the identity of Luzard. From within it, I drew the sharpest weapon I had.

"This..." Verita's eyes shook when she recognized it.

"You know how to use a sword, right?" I asked. "It's better than fighting barehanded. Besides, the mace you used has already been destroyed."

"I can't accept this."

"No. Take it. I have no intention of changing my mind, and I won't accept your refusal." I tossed the Yin-Yang Dao toward the hesitant Verita.

Startled, she caught the sword with an awkward movement. "Brother...!"

I laughed at her reproachful tone. It was only natural. From the perspective of the Colorless believers, Senior Brother He Lou's Wind and Thunder Halberd, Yin-Yang Dao, and Breaking Wood Sword were no different from the sacred relics of a god.

"Take this and go fight first. I have something to do for a while," I said. "Think carefully about what I told you."

Without waiting for an answer, I threw myself downstairs. I left in a cool manner, but I couldn't tell what Verita would do once left alone. I feigned indifference but focused my hearing on her movements. Before long, I heard sounds that suggested she was heading up to the next floor.

It was possible that my actions weren't the right answer, but I felt like I had done everything I could. If she still gave her life to Tantata without resistance, then that would be Verita's fate.

Then I have to struggle too.

I spread my energy detection downstairs to locate someone's aura. I found him soon enough. Honestly, this was a bit unreasonable, but it was still worth trying.

***

Once Verita reached the top floor again, she found Tantata sitting at the entrance to the chimney, devouring a corpse.

Crunch, crunch...

He was large enough to hold a person with one hand. In fact, he was alternating between the corpses in both hands as he ate, as casually as someone holding a banana in both hands and eating it.

The mangled corpse was familiar. It was one of the four corpses on the top floor. Only the lower half remained, but Verita immediately recognized Nebellik.

She had wondered why he hadn't tracked her down right away. Now she understood. Apparently, that corpse had distracted him.

"U-umm...?!"

Tantata spotted Verita the moment she reappeared, and his eyes widened. A smile soon spread across his face. He mashed the two corpses together until they became a lump of flesh, then shoved it into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

"Y-you are here again...!" Then he rose to his feet in delight, Dark Qi surging from him like a rising tide.

Verita didn't respond and drew the Yin-Yang Dao.

The blade trembled faintly. Was it because she couldn't believe she was holding this divine relic? Or was it simply because she grasped it with her imperfect left arm?

I have to do my best. Face death with the determination to die.

Verita didn't understand this kind of mindset. If she couldn't grasp the mentality required to fight at full strength, how could she possibly comprehend the next level? Because of that, she couldn't tell whether she could perform at her best now.

She knew she was in worse condition than usual. It wasn't only because she had lost her main weapon, one of her arms, and now faced a demon king. More importantly, she had lost her composure, the most vital element in any fight. For the first time in a long while, the turmoil within her resurfaced.

Emotions are troublesome by-products, unnecessary for a sincere believer. Verita couldn't figure out why she was so shaken at such a moment. Still, she swung her sword at the approaching figure while letting out a nasty laugh.

For the first time, surprise flashed across Tantata's face as he dodged the attack. Despite his massive frame, he moved quickly. It was almost as if he had defied the laws of physics.

Verita was unaware that this was the first time Tantata had evaded an attack since descending in Rahild. His small eyes narrowed even further as he stood a short distance away.

"Y-you are holding... something dangerous..." Tantata's green face turned red, and anger seeped into his voice. "T-that... I recommend... you don't use it...! I-if you keep using that... I won't be able to think... of this as a game anymore..."

Verita struggled. Would stepping outside the bounds of his so-called game make the situation even more unfavorable? Was it better to keep fighting like this since he was so wary of this weapon?

Ultimately, her concern was meaningless. Even if it was the former, Verita had no intention of abandoning the Yin-Yang Dao.

"Booooo!" Now Tantata's face turned a deep red. Hot steam poured from his mouth as he spread both arms wide toward the sky. "D-don't regret it...!"

In the next moment, Verita lost track of his movements. A crushing impact slammed into her, followed by an ear-splitting roar. Only after she crashed into a wall and coughed up blood did she realize that Tantata had struck her with a purely physical attack.

It wasn't even his full strength.

Before she could process what had happened, the second blow landed. As Verita's consciousness started to fade, she realized that Tantata had chosen a ridiculous method of attack: a body slam. Yet there was nothing ridiculous about the damage it inflicted. Each successive impact sent pain tearing through her bones and ripping across her entire body. Even Verita couldn't ignore the mounting force as the damage accumulated viciously within her.

"B-bringing something like that... weapon...! Into the game...! I told you... To let go!"

Only after hearing that did Verita realize she still hadn't let go of the Yin-Yang Dao. The bones in her wrist had already shattered, and even holding it sent sharp pain through her arm. Nevertheless, her grip never weakened. Pain was something she had long since learned to endure.

Verita recalled something from long ago. The memory of having her eyes pulled out while she was still alive and crude metal jammed into the sockets would stay with her until the moment of death. The regeneration, the toughness, and slowed aging that she gained afterward were never blessings to Verita. Rather, they were curses.

How lovable did she, an indestructible test subject, look to those vile unbelievers? She even had the aptitude of an archangel.

Countless days of experimentation passed. Verita screamed, raged, and begged. Just as madness was about to consume her, she grew accustomed to the pain. She no longer remembered how much time passed before she stopped screaming altogether. Even so, she continued living that miserable, horrific life without taking her own life.

To Verita, life was a curse and death a blessing. It was only natural for Verita to revere the being who one day descended upon the world and caused the death of millions.

"Did you come from a high heaven or the dark depths to grant me peace?The only thing I desire is rest. Its other name is death.But my lord, you left without reaching out to me. How is this ignorant servant meant to understand your will?Am I still unworthy of a resting place?

Her blurred consciousness now felt exactly as it had then.

What had her savior said to her when she was on the verge of death?

"Have you never had a good moment in your life?"

"Yes."

"Even now?"

"Forgive my boldness, but I believe so."

"Do you think there will be nothing good in your life from this point forward?"

"Definitely. Life itself is nothing but a curse to me."

"If you wish for death, then why did you beg to be saved?"

At that moment, Verita opened her eyes and forced her arms to move. Her wrist had likely been completely dislocated, because no strength was left in it. She violently wrenched her shoulder, forcing her sword upward.

Tantata gasped. Had he assumed that she had already been dead? Or had he simply not expected that this insect, beaten to the ground, would still fight back?

Tantata hurriedly tried to twist his body, but he couldn't completely dodge it this time.

Bam!

"Aaaaack!"

The moment the blade pierced the demon king's shoulder, a monstrous howl erupted. It sounded like the screams of hundreds of demonic beasts fused into one, powerful enough to shake the entire tower.

Dust rained from the ceiling under the roar's force. However, Verita couldn't hear it. Her eardrums had already burst.

"Ah." Verita looked at the sword she had subconsciously raised and recalled the day Setitus was destroyed. The memory had sunk into the depths of her consciousness.

On the day Setitus fell, Verita was buried under the rubble of a collapsed building. She was left there for a long time with her limbs crushed. Night and day passed endlessly as sensation gradually faded from her body. Bugs burrowed under her skin. Though she remained conscious, she was treated as a corpse.

In that hell where an ordinary person would have died dozens of times over, what was it that she had said?

"Save me..."

"I—"

"Please save me..."

"I—"

Why did she want to live? Because it was dazzling. A single ray of sunlight piercing through the wreckage had been so bright and warm that it made her forget the agony of her crushed body.

"Do you think there will be nothing good in your life from this point forward?"

That was the happiest memory of Verita's life.

"Ahh—" Verita let out a gasp and half burst into tears. Only a single trail of tears ran down her cheek, because Uriel's Eye couldn't cry.

At that moment, Verita understood the power of death. Paradoxically, to gain the strength to die, one first had to possess the will to live.

Blood gushed out as Tantata stood up. Rage twisted his face, and he looked at Verita as if he was going to tear her apart. "Y-you... from the beginning... I didn't like you...! I-I won't eat you... I will completely destroy you...!"

Ah, there was such a possibility.

The demon king could just kill her instead of eating her. If, during her first encounter with the demon king, she had simply closed her eyes and accepted death, it would have been the worthless kind of death Luan had spoken of.

Right now... Verita exhaled. Her whole body couldn't move easily. At the very least, she needed enough time for her crushed bones to regenerate. Ten seconds. No, even five seconds are fine.

However, her opponent had no intention of giving her even one second. Tantata gritted his teeth, took a stance, and immediately pushed off his stomach, preparing to launch himself at Verita.

Suddenly, he stopped moving.

At that moment, a cheerful voice completely at odds with the situation rang out. "Nice."

For an instant, Verita had the illusion that the dark punishment building had brightened.

She recalled that day when that ray of sunlight at sunrise penetrated through the broken building.

"Uhh?"

The confused Tantata tried to rush forward but couldn't do so because Luan's hand was holding his long hair.

"Tantata..." The boy had shed his lizardman form and sneered as he addressed the demon king with insolent mockery. "You introduced me to a wide variety of games. But I'm not the type to just stand here and take hits."

"Y-yes...?"

Luan wrapped the long hair around his wrist and gripped it tightly. "This time, I will teach you something. Have you heard of a game called Airplane?"

He took a deep breath and suddenly shouted what sounded like nonsense. "Up into the blue sky I will soar—! The dream I had when I was young—! On the plane—!"

Listening to it again, it sounded less like nonsense and more like a song. His voice was strange, rough as though it had scraped against his throat. Yet his expression resembled that of a bard delivering the performance of a lifetime. Veins bulged across his forehead, and as if echoing the strain, his upper arms swelled like balloons. In the next instant, pure white flames engulfed his entire body.

Verita witnessed the rare sight of the demon king's body rising into the sky.

A breathless gasp escaped Tantata's mouth as he soared upward. Then his massive frame plummeted and crashed into the tower wall.

Baaaaaaaang!

The wall once believed to be indestructible crumbled like a sandcastle the instant Tantata struck it. The impact rippled through the entire tower, sending cracks racing across the ceiling.

However, the demon king's collision did more than shatter the wall. The entire punishment building shook violently as the tower let out a deafening groan that signaled its full-scale collapse.

In the midst of this, Luan grinned. "If there is no exit, we can make one."

It was with Tantata himself.