Chapter 842

Mephisto had absolutely no idea what to say.

For once, the Devil Lord—the silver-tongued master of manipulation—was completely speechless. He could only stare at Gabriel with his mouth hanging open.

After several long seconds, Mephisto slowly reached across the table, picked up a cocktail cherry, and flicked it at her.

"Oh, that hurt."

Gabriel rolled her eyes as the cherry bounced harmlessly off her forehead and rolled across the floor.

"You know, that felt surprisingly real."

Mephisto stared at her for a moment, then slapped both hands against the couch in frustration.

"I can’t believe it. The Devil himself has fallen victim to a nightmare. I’ve been completely unaware that I’m trapped inside some kind of elaborate dreamscape."

Yes. That’s it.

I’m dreaming.

And apparently, it’s one hell of a detailed nightmare.

Mephisto rubbed his forehead and shook his head.

"I must’ve overworked myself yesterday. My body probably couldn’t handle it. And then I must’ve gotten out of bed wrong this morning. That’s how I ended up falling prey to some nightmare."

He braced himself against the couch and slowly stood.

For good measure, he reached behind himself and smacked his lower back twice.

"Ow... I’ve definitely been pushing myself too hard lately."

He waved dismissively at Gabriel while making his way toward the door.

"I’m exhausted. I need to go home, get some sleep, and see if I can wake up properly. Make yourself comfortable."

He had barely taken another step when—

Smack.

Gabriel grabbed him by the back of his coat.

Thud.

Her knee slammed into his stomach.

Mephisto doubled over.

Before he could react, Gabriel hurled him straight back onto the couch.

"Does it hurt?" she asked. "Do you still think you’re dreaming?"

"Ugh..."

Mephisto curled up on the couch, clutching his stomach.

"That proves nothing. A sufficiently powerful nightmare can project injuries into reality. What does a little pain prove?"

Gabriel sighed and sat back down.

"Are you seriously going to pretend to be asleep?"

She shook her head.

"What’s the point?"

"Excuse me, but am I supposed to just accept this?"

Mephisto spread his hands.

"I understand that people can change after experiencing death. Sometimes their personalities can even become completely inverted. A coward becomes brave. A hero becomes timid. Fine. That happens."

He slapped his thigh.

"But that’s normal for ordinary people."

"You, on the other hand..."

He pointed accusingly at her.

"You were the Sorcerer Supreme. You spent a thousand years guarding this world and resisting the Dark Dimension’s temptations. Your willpower was strong enough to endure an entire millennium of corruption."

"And now you’re like this?"

He shook his head violently.

"This wouldn’t happen in my wildest nightmares. So what exactly did you expect me to do? Smile and accept it?"

"Why not?"

Gabriel shrugged.

"I seem to be taking it pretty well."

"That’s precisely why it’s so disturbing!"

Mephisto glared at her.

"You’re acting far too naturally!"

His shoulders slumped.

"All right. Forget it."

He rubbed his temples.

"You said earlier that you thought Project Insight succeeding might actually be a good thing."

His expression changed.

"Don’t tell me your goal is..."

"Exactly."

Gabriel swept one hand through the air.

A delighted smile appeared on her face, as though the outcome were already decided.

"My goal is to wipe out every incompetent human being in this age."

"Holy—"

Mephisto shot upright.

He immediately began pacing around the room, arms folded across his chest.

A vein throbbed in his forehead.

The sheer force of his irritation made his teeth hurt.

He snatched the ice from his drink, shoved it into his mouth, and crunched it to pieces before swallowing.

That helped.

A little.

"Look, we’re both old enough to know better."

He pointed at himself.

"I’ve got centuries on most civilizations."

Then he pointed at Gabriel.

"And you’re over a thousand years old."

He took a deep breath.

"Even so, there’s nothing wrong with indulging in a little teenage edgelord nonsense every now and then. It’s healthy."

"So if everything you said earlier was just you blowing off steam, I’ll pretend I never heard it."

He raised both hands solemnly.

"I won’t tell anyone. Your reputation is safe."

Then Mephisto crouched directly in front of Gabriel and stared into her eyes.

"So... you weren’t serious, right?"

Gabriel smiled faintly.

"Not serious..."

Mephisto immediately relaxed.

A huge weight seemed to leave his shoulders.

Then Gabriel finished:

"Why would I say it if I wasn’t serious? Do you really think I’ve suddenly developed an embarrassing teenage phase?"

"Are you kidding me?!"

Mephisto jumped to his feet and spun around.

The fire in his chest somehow burned even hotter.

"What is wrong with you?!"

"What exactly is so wonderful about Project Insight? Do you even understand what that plan was actually designed to do?"

"It was created to eliminate anyone who represented a threat to absolute control!"

"But anyone capable of posing a threat—no matter how small that threat might be—is necessarily someone with a certain amount of ability!"

"Which means they’re valuable!"

He threw his hands into the air.

"Project Insight would ultimately eliminate every capable, useful person on Earth and leave behind the people who sit around doing nothing, obeying orders, and waiting for someone else to tell them what to do!"

"That is the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish!"

"History is full of people who rebelled. Whether they won or lost, the fact that they could organize people in the first place meant they had some kind of ability!"

"Forget the famous conquerors and revolutionaries. Even some idiot who managed to convince an entire village to follow him had something going for him!"

Mephisto finished his tirade nearly out of breath.

Gabriel wasn’t surprised.

"You’re absolutely right."

Mephisto froze.

Gabriel continued calmly.

"But you shouldn’t assume I hadn’t considered that."

"In truth, there’s only one part of Project Insight that interests me."

"The method."

She raised one hand.

"To identify every incompetent person on Earth in an instant, eliminate them with perfect precision, and grant them a painless death."

Her expression softened with almost serene satisfaction.

"Is there really a more beautiful method?"

Mephisto clutched his chest.

He sat down heavily on the couch.

"I admit this world has problems. Humanity has certainly become decadent in some ways."

"But you’re talking about eliminating people simply because they’re incompetent."

"Why go that far?"

"Why not try something gradual?"

"Stop looking for some instant solution and work with me. Guide humanity slowly. I think there’s still hope for them."

Gabriel suddenly turned toward him.

"You think they’re still worth saving?"

"And you’re willing to save them?"

"Of course."

Mephisto nodded.

"Everything takes time. You can’t rush everything. You eat a meal one bite at a time. You walk a road one step at a time."

He pointed at her.

"You can’t keep trying to solve everything in one move."

"You’re willing to save them..."

Gabriel’s eyes widened.

Her voice rose.

"That is the greatest problem with this world."

She looked directly at him.

"I admit that this world appears beautiful. It can make people happy."

"But it is also beyond saving."

Her voice became strangely calm, almost clinical.

"Countless people praise the beauty of life. Yet most of them live simply because they’re alive. They exist like primitive organisms capable only of responding to stimuli."

"And if that were all, perhaps it wouldn’t matter."

"This is a prosperous world. It has enough resources to sustain people living such empty lives."

"But they can’t even manage that."

"They live without purpose. They can’t find meaning in their existence. They mechanically repeat the same routine every day."

"They’ve become walking corpses without souls, and worse, they’re dragging this entire world toward destruction."

"If only a small number of people were like that, it could be tolerated. Everyone carries some bacteria. A little contamination isn’t enough to matter."

"But there are so many of these fallen people, and their behavior has become so pervasive that they’ve somehow forced you—a Devil Lord—to stand here defending them like some kind of saint."

Gabriel’s expression hardened.

"The contradiction is revolting."

"If they’re already walking corpses, and if they’re so eager to descend into Hell, then why not grant them what they want?"

"Clear them all away."

"Send them down."

"And leave this beautiful world to the people who are actually worthy of it."

Mephisto nearly spat in her face.

He barely managed to stop himself.

Send them all to Hell?

Has she even considered whether Hell has enough room?

Does she expect me to personally haul bricks around and build more prison cells?

"That’s not necessarily their fault," Mephisto said patiently.

"They’re trapped by circumstances. Nobody chooses to live this way. Aren’t most of them simply being crushed by the world around them?"

"It’s not that they don’t want to contribute."

"They simply haven’t been given an opportunity to demonstrate their worth."

"Not their fault."

Gabriel smiled faintly.

"It’s the world’s fault."

She tilted her head.

"How extraordinary."

"The Devil Lord is actually considering things from someone else’s perspective."

There had always been questions about how Hell actually determined whether someone deserved damnation.

After all, one person’s hero was another person’s criminal. Some people ended up in Hell for reasons that seemed completely incomprehensible from an outside perspective.

But perhaps that wasn’t strange at all.

Everyone believed they were justified.

Everyone had reasons for what they did.

At least, they had reasons good enough to convince themselves.

But Hell didn’t care about any of that.

A person’s perspective meant nothing there.

Their motives meant nothing.

Hell and its demons had always judged the world from their own perspective.

And yet Mephisto was now being forced to put himself in someone else’s position.

Even if, ultimately, he was still doing it for his own interests.

"But we can only change what can actually be changed," Gabriel said quietly.

"The strong consuming the weak is not going to disappear. This world doesn’t have infinite resources to support people who contribute nothing."

"History has already demonstrated what happens when the number of incapable people reaches the limit a civilization can sustain."

"War."

"Brutal wars erupt, consuming the surplus population and leaving the world’s resources to those who are capable of making use of them."

"Then why interfere?"

Mephisto finally understood where she was going.

"If that’s simply a natural cycle, like death and renewal, why bother?"

"Let war do the work as it always has."

"Because of the losses."

Gabriel folded her hands in front of her face.

"Unnecessary losses."

"If humanity could act according to pure reason, I wouldn’t need to interfere."

"But humans aren’t creatures governed entirely by rationality."

"War inevitably creates hatred."

"Hatred blinds reason."

"And once those emotions spread through an entire population, people forget why the war started in the first place."

"What began as a conflict with a purpose becomes indiscriminate slaughter."

Gabriel looked toward Mephisto.

"War will arrive exactly as I intend."

"But it will not end the way I intend."

"And humanity no longer fights with swords and spears."

She paused.

"I imagine that even someone as wise as you can’t guarantee what will happen if this world experiences another global war."

"Will humanity emerge with a new order?"

"Or will there be nothing left?"

Mephisto rolled his eyes.

What’s so uncertain about that?

Hell had actually taken bets on it once.

The odds of humanity going extinct after a Third World War had been roughly one in ten.

The odds of humanity surviving had been one in a million.

"Even if humanity survives," Gabriel continued, slowly rising from the couch, "the hatred created during the war will survive with it."

"Even if the advanced weapons disappear, humans will still find knives, clubs, and guns."

"They’ll continue fighting."

"And they’ll continue wasting themselves."

"Valuable people and worthless people alike."

"They’ll all be consumed by meaningless violence."

Mephisto stared at her.

Then something clicked.

"I understand."

His eyes widened.

"This isn’t about your hatred of useless people."

He stood.

"You’re not angry because this world contains so many people you consider worthless."

"You pity them."

Gabriel remained silent.

"We’d never met before, but I know what kind of person you were."

"I know the kind of life you lived."

"Some of my demons used to say that you were humanity’s hero."

"Or humanity’s weapon."

Mephisto shook his head.

"But I think they were wrong."

"You were a sacrifice."

"A sacrifice placed upon the altar of a beautiful world."

"Your entire life revolved around this world."

"Humanity was everything to you."

"That was your purpose."

"And even now, after everything that’s happened, you still love this world."

"You still love humanity."

"That’s why you can’t stand seeing so many people wasting that world."

"That’s why you refuse to let them destroy something you spent your entire existence protecting."

Gabriel slowly smiled.

"Yes."

"I love this world."

"I love humanity."

She spread her arms.

For a moment, the gesture made her resemble an angel spreading its wings.

"But I will not love this world the way I once did."

"I will no longer spoil it."

"I will show it a harsher kind of love."

Her eyes gleamed.

"I will bring calamity upon this world."

"I will wipe away the incompetent and the fallen."

"There will be no need for a devastating war."

"Humanity will have no need to hate itself."

"Because I will bear all of that hatred myself."

"I will carry every sin of this world."

And Gabriel smiled.

"I alone will bear its burden."