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Chapter 304

“It was bound to happen someday… but now that it’s here, I don’t feel so good.”

The curing of So Wuryeong’s curse.

And everything entangled with the Four Heavens Clan some five hundred years ago.

All of it was reset.

The people who had been staring blankly at us, even the clan head of the Four Heavens Clan who had been somewhat favorable toward us, even So Wuryeong who had once been saved by us—

No matter who they were, or what kind of lives they had led, they all underwent the same change.

“Ah… Aah…”

Then, unlike the others, So Wuryeong looked down at her own hands and flinched, trembling.

As if instinctively realizing her own condition, she frantically crawled toward me.

She didn’t even have the strength left to stand, yet she wanted to say something.

At last, she drew close enough that her voice could reach me and Lispa, and with trembling lips she spoke:

“D… Don’t go! There are still things I haven’t told you…”

But her voice no longer carried.

She too seemed startled, looking down at herself as she kept trying to say something, but no sound reached us.

“It has been… a pleasant time.”

Did she truly understand what was happening, what state she was in?

Or was she simply voicing what she wished to say?

Either way, Lispa’s expression looked terribly dark.

Spang!!!

With tears streaming down her face, So Wuryeong continued desperately trying to say something as her figure vanished.

It wasn’t fear of disappearing.

It was the grief of someone crushed by the fact she could not pass on what she so desperately wanted to say.

“Are you alright?”

Lispa didn’t answer.

She only turned her steps toward the hidden space.

The moment we entered the chamber opened through the last part, what we saw was the inside of a cozy house.

This place—I had seen it before.

The little cottage of paradise within the blue box where Luna had once been sealed.

It was identical to that interior.

Except for one thing.

The room was larger than before, and at its center stood an enormous crystal, two meters wide and nearly three meters tall.

And inside that crystal, curled up as if trapped in amber, was an unexpected figure.

“That is…”

Anyone without face-blindness would know.

The being sealed within that crystal—

Was the very same white goddess I had just cut down.

What I could not understand was that even standing before her now, her voice could not be heard.

“Wait…”

Lispa slowly approached and laid her hand on the crystal.

Then her eyes widened.

“That can’t be…! I definitely heard her voice, and her authority manifested as well!”

She pressed both hands against the crystal, frantically trying to confirm.

I didn’t bother asking.

This was my first time seeing such a crystal, but at least one thing was certain.

The goddess sealed inside—

Was already dead.

While Lispa kept examining the crystal in disbelief, I turned away from her and looked around the interior.

Though the chamber was larger, its form was exactly what I remembered.

The building bore countless traces of someone once having lived there.

Most likely, Adam and Eve had dwelled here.

Among all the remnants, what caught my eye was a jewelry box—still gleaming brightly while everything else had faded.

Clack.

I slowly opened it, and inside was—

“What… is this?”

Something completely unexpected.

A necklace with a small carving attached.

It was merely a little wooden figurine bound into a necklace, exuding no great power at all.

Yet the tiny carving—a four-winged angel holding a spear of shimmering light—I somehow knew who it was meant to depict.

For if each angel’s halo had a unique form, then Luna’s halo was the one most familiar to me.

Its shape remained unchanged, even if its color had faded.

“That’s not the Fate Lord,”

Lispa said wearily.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know exactly why Luna Basilin was searching for the Fate Lord, but she probably believed that this was the only remnant left of Adam. She wouldn’t know of something like this.”

“Hm…”

“This… this is a gift Adam had been preparing for her for a very long time. In some ways, to Luna Basilin, this is even more important than the Fate Lord.”

I quietly placed the necklace back into the box.

“You found it… right away?”

“Just… had a feeling.”

“A mysterious man.”

She muttered bitterly.

“Shall we… take a short rest? You must have many questions.”

Accepting her suggestion, I sat on the bed to shake off my fatigue.

Soon, Lispa leaned her back against mine, settling down.

“To begin with, the Eve we met—she’s definitely a fake.”

“A fake?”

“Most likely. An imitation created under the influence of the Outer God. I think the Outer God fabricated a false Eve and hid her here in order to construct the Tree of Sephirot with its own power.”

The Tree of Sephirot—the enormous manifestation of authority summoned by the white goddess during our battle.

Each time its name was spoken, it unleashed overwhelming divine power.

“And what exactly is the Tree of Sephirot?”

“The authority of the Creator. The vast tree of laws that upholds the world. Each sphere upon it holds immense power and meaning.”

But to call it a “tree” felt strange indeed.

“The Tree of Sephirot isn’t something an Outer God can simply control. Perhaps that creature hoped to wield it by fabricating a false Eve.”

Though, considering how easily it had been cut down, it didn’t seem very convincing.

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“Hm. So it’s like that?”

“From the start, only rightful beings can handle the Tree of Sephirot. There’s no way a leftover remnant of a goddess crafted by an Outer God could properly control it.”

In other words—

If it had been the true Tree of Sephirot, wielded by a genuine existence, things would never have ended so easily.

It wasn’t impossible—after all, those Outer Gods were always trying to interfere with this land.

“So then, what was that voice we heard?”

“A remnant of the power Eve left behind before she died. She must have hoped that someone would stop that false being created by the Outer God. Foolish woman. Even in death, what kind of duty did she think she still had….”

Perhaps the goddess called Eve had carried an immense guilt that everything had been twisted because of her.

Letting out a short sigh, she leaned her back against mine and closed her eyes, looking exhausted.

Seeing her like that, I rose to my feet.

“Ugh… you really know how to ruin the mood.”

“Well, I’m someone about to get married. Please understand.”

“Hmmm…”

She half-opened her drowsy eyes, looking at me.

Her attitude somehow felt different since we came here.

I deliberately ignored it and moved toward the crystal.

From what she had figured out, I had gained some clarity, but there were still many doubts left.

“I’ve been thinking. No matter how strong an Outer God is, it wouldn’t be able to create a goddess just like that. Which means, it’s highly likely that it’s projecting the existence of Eve already here.”

“So what’s your conclusion?”

“If we grab this crystal with Eve inside and bolt, the Outer God’s grand plan goes boom~”

Ignoring her chatter from across the room, I slowly placed my hand on the crystal.

There was almost no trace left of the goddess who had already passed.

“I want to ask you something.”

Turning my head, I saw her sprawled on the bed, her face drooping over the bedside as she looked at me.

“What is it?”

“You… just where did you get that kind of power?”

“……”

“I don’t get it. Even the strength you usually show already far surpasses the standards I know of. But what you displayed here—there’s no way that’s just genius talent. That’s not something anyone could ever reach.”

That was true.

If a Grandmaster attained their realm through extreme training and enlightenment, then the [Ultimate] was practically the embodiment of karma itself.

No genius could ever reach it—nor should they.

“You… you’re not really human, are you?”

“I am, technically. Just… with some circumstances.”

“And what circumstances are those?”

I hesitated, then asked,

“Do you know something called the Labyrinthos?”

“Labyrinthos? Hm… let’s see… No, I’ve never heard of it.”

That confirmed it.

Even an Archangel knew nothing about that bizarre place.

So then, what was that space, who had created it, and why did it have such a grotesque appearance?

I still hadn’t asked the Librarian why I hadn’t yet received the Hall’s memories.

Next time, I’d make sure to wring it out of him.

“Well, it’s not like you’ve piled up the karma of Celestial Killing, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

She slowly got up from the bed.

“Sorry to say this, but it’ll be impossible to ask Eve anything. And we can’t just carry the whole crystal around, so let me shrink it.”

She suddenly stood and approached me.

Placing her hand on the crystal, she began reciting a mysterious incantation.

Strange characters floated up around the crystal, orbiting it, and before long the crystal steadily shrank until it fit neatly in the palm of my hand. Updates are released by NoveI~Fire.net

“Will you be keeping it yourself?”

“For now, that’s the plan. There are things I want to confirm.”

“All right then.”

With a small laugh, she stretched and headed out of the building.

“Now that we’ve grabbed what we came for, let’s get going.”

“Couldn’t we… stay a little longer before we leave?”

“Why?”

“Just… once we leave here, it’ll be back to the world of the Four Heavens Clan… and right now, I don’t want to see it.”

When she pulled a gloomy face, I slowly reached out my hand.

“Ah…”

And plucked a speck of dust from her hair.

Her eyes widened slightly.

“A little delay won’t hurt.”

“Ha… really, you shouldn’t be doing this…”

She gave a helpless laugh and lowered her head.

“You’re the one who started it.”

“What did I do?”

“Tell me—has anyone in your life ever told you they liked you?”

“Other than Luna, not really.”

“Well then, that makes two now.”

“What?”

She walked off with small steps, then glanced back at me.

A faint smile, her eyes curved playfully.

“For me… this is the first time I’ve ever felt it firsthand. I think I like you.”

The world before my eyes went dark.

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