68
Chapter 68
Karon finally realized his own foolishness.
To teach Black Fang that there are opponents in this world you should absolutely never mess with?
He was the one who should have realized that.
Even if this was the only way to maintain the power and prestige he had built up all this time.
He should never have messed with him.
The moment he confirmed the gap between their strengths, he should have given up everything and at least tried to save his own life.
But.......
"Ah......."
Regret always came only when a mistake could no longer be undone.
'It' greedily devoured the Divine Power swirling around Karon.
The immense power he had prepared for the decisive battle against Black Fang was being absorbed in an instant.
If 'it' absorbed all of his Divine Power, it was obvious what would come next.
That was why Karon struggled.
The entrance was still so far away.
Terrible pain radiated throughout his entire body. Because of the agony, Karon's face twisted into a complete mess.
However, Karon did not stop and pressed forward.
Nothing else mattered now.
Honor, wealth, authority.
All of those things lost their value in the face of the most important factor: survival.
He didn't care about things like power anymore.
He only wished to survive.
But... as if it wouldn't even allow him that, 'it' grabbed Karon.
His head grew dizzy.
Just being near it was eroding his mind.
Yet, even so, Karon gritted his teeth.
And... he looked at his left arm.
Because he had noticed it.
Why that thing was pulling him in.
It was power.
That thing was solely and greedily devouring his Divine Power.
So in order to survive... he had to throw everything away.
The Stigma transplanted from talented children.
The proof of receiving God's favor, and the emblem that allowed him to perform miracles.
It was something he had barely obtained by sacrificing hundreds of people due to issues arising during the transplant process.
Now was not the time to worry about such things.
The Stigma within his spiritual body was slowly fading away. Karon forcefully separated the Stigma from himself.
Desperately hoping that this would satisfy it and make it let him go.
But.......
"Still... is it not enough......."
He had given up even the most powerful force he possessed.
Even if he returned to reality, the power of the Stigma that had vanished would not return.
Despite paying such a price, 'it' still did not let Karon go.
An impulse washed over him.
The impulse to cast everything aside right now and sing a hymn of praise to 'it'.
Right now, he was barely protecting his mind with his own Divine Power, but that too would soon reach its limit.
But he could not do that. He could not die here like this.
He had to survive.
By any means necessary.
In order to do so...... he ultimately had no choice but to discard it.
He had to throw away all the power that thing desired with his own hands; fleeing was the only way he could live.
Karon gritted his teeth once more and let go of all the Divine Power he held.
The power he had built up all this time.
All the strength he had accumulated to rise to the position of Cardinal, he offered up to that monster.
The pulling force began to weaken.
But even so.......
'Why on earth.......'
'It' refused to let Karon go.
It wasn't enough.
Surely, if he just reached out a little more, he would touch the exit.
Even though the exit to escape from this Hell was right before his eyes.
He was short by just a single step.
Karon's face was stained with despair.
...Because he had realized it.
Why exactly he was short by this single step.
He had laid down all of his Divine Power.
Now, Karon was nothing more than an ordinary human.
But, if there was still something left, what could it be?
His life.
"Ah..., O ■■. I shall put an end to my life as an Unbeliever and offer everything to you."
His mouth moved of its own accord, blurting out such words.
For some reason, a feeling of happiness washed over him.
The bliss of submitting to that thing.
Before he knew it, a smile had formed on his lips.
A mad grin so wide it looked as if his mouth would tear apart.
Even though the entity wasn't paying attention to him, just being by its side was driving Karon insane.
This was the last time he would be able to think rationally.
It wouldn't be long before Karon's mind completely broke, and he chose the path of becoming one with it.
In the end... there was only one decision he could make.
He let it go.
Forty years of his lifespan.
With that, Karon's hand barely reached the door.
...His vision rapidly changed.
Karon finally managed to escape that Hellish space.
But.......
There was no face filled with the joy of survival.
There was only a wretched, aged old man who looked nothing like his former self, shedding tears all alone.
*****
Sitting on the bed with my chin resting on my hand, I was seriously pondering a certain issue.
'If you possess someone, which side does your sexual preference follow?'
...I know it's a foolish worry too.
It's an even more useless debate than arguing whether the sword or the spear is stronger.
Yet, even so, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Considering the situation I was in, it was only natural.
I can guarantee this,
if you had a dream about devouring a middle-aged man in his thirties, anyone would inevitably worry about this.
Moreover, if the specific scenario of the dream was some bizarre content where the guy was blubbering alone while singing a hymn, and then turned into an old man at the end, it would be even more so.
SM.
BL.
Cannibalism.
Old man.
It's a hybrid.
The deepest abyss.
Actually, the cannibalism part was a bit ambiguous since it mostly consisted of sucking up some kind of liquid? from the old man.
That actually made it even more horrifying.
If it had just been a normal guy, I would have accepted it and moved on, thinking this body's tastes were just a bit like that.
But thinking the liquid coming out of an old man was so delicious that I kept licking it up—what kind of bizarre fetish is that?
Coming from an era where the idea that all preferences should be respected was widespread, I consider myself to have a fairly open mind.
But no matter what, there has to be a line drawn somewhere.
If this was the sexual preference of the body I possessed,
and if my mind gradually assimilated with this body, eventually being tainted by such bizarre, perverted tastes.......
'I'm really going to go crazy.'
It was terrifying just imagining it.
This was why I had woken up from that dream with a strange sense of pleasure and was currently drowning in anguish.
A harsh reality check hit me as I wondered how to verify my purity, and the fact that I was agonizing over such a bizarre thing.
Caught in that vicious cycle, I was letting out a deep sigh at that very moment.
"......?"
Suddenly, a familiar sound rang out.
Before I knew it, a message window had popped up before my eyes.
[The first phase of transformation begins as the conditions have been met.]
[Due to the massive amount of Divine Power absorbed, the transformation process will take some time.]
[Acquired the Stigma of the God of Light (Apostle-grade).]
[Its rank is too high; downgrading the rank.]
[...The rank has not been downgraded.]
[Identifying the reason.......]
[A certain modification has been applied to the acquired Stigma, optimizing it for transplantation.]
[Along with the physical changes, the transplantation of the Stigma will also occur.]
[Advice to the user.]
[I am not your enemy.]
[Please follow the predetermined fate. It is impossible to save everyone.]
As always, it flashed dozens of messages in less than 0.01 seconds before vanishing with a bizarre noise.
Leaving me with absolutely no information to work with.
'Well, I didn't expect anything in the first place.'
I wasn't even surprised anymore.
This wasn't the first or second time something like this had happened.
It would've been stranger if the Status Window had actually been normal.
'I guess sleep is out of the question for today.'
The bizarre fetish issue from earlier had already been erased from my mind.
But now, there was a new problem I had to think about.
Why did this pop up at this exact timing? Was it related to that dream? There was just so much I needed to figure out.
It seemed today wasn't going to be a day where I could sleep comfortably. The world was interfering with my slumber.
I eventually got out of bed completely and turned on the light.
Where should I even begin investigating this?
I didn't have a clue no matter how much I thought about it, but I couldn't just ignore something happening to me.
After some agonizing, I opened the Status Window again.
For now, it was the only thing I could immediately investigate.
'It's still the same.'
I thought it might have restored itself to some degree since time had passed, but the Status Window was still broken.
I had a gut feeling it would recover at some crucial moment.
But right now, it was just a waste of space.
I eventually tried to dismiss the Status Window from my vision.......
And then I found it.
Something clearly out of place.
Among the heavily shattered text, there was one intact thing mixed in.
I carefully touched it.
And at that very moment... a Trait Window that was both familiar and unfamiliar popped up.
[Rank of ■■]
[The qualification to stand above anyone else in the world.]
...Wait, was the description originally like this?