How to Break Her (1)
How to Break Her (1)
In an instant, silence blanketed the surroundings.
"..."
Refusing to let her face—scarred by grief and helplessness—drop to the floor was the last shred of pride Rebekah could cling to.
A Great Demon. Rebekah knew the weight of those words all too well. The absolute rulers of the Demon World, who had accumulated unfathomable power over hundreds, thousands of years. Even though Olivia was an Archmage, there was no chance of defeating a Great Demon who had lived for millennia.
In the end, the outcome was predetermined. No one was ignorant of that fact.
But...
"Big Sis is strong!"
Rebekah spat the words out as if coughing up blood.
As a servant of the Goddess, she simply could not accept that fact.
"She won't lose to scum like you!"
Even if the whole world turned against her, Rebekah alone had to believe in Olivia.
Olivia's eyebrows rose slightly and froze there. That was no act. It was genuine bewilderment.
"I believe in my big sister Olivia."
"..."
A resolute will, unmistakable even in those tear-brimming eyes.
Olivia stared at the young saintess for a long time.
She had become Rebekah's demon just as she'd planned, but the feeling was incomparably fouler than she'd expected. So much so that outright murderous hatred would have been easier to stomach.
"Saintess."
But she couldn't stop.
She had to be a thorough demon.
The more the version of her in memory turned into a demon, the more the real version of her would become a miserable scapegoat.
Only then would the real Rebekah be able to forgive her.
Instead of speaking, Olivia clenched her fist and glared at Rebekah. On the surface, it looked like fury at a situation that wasn't going her way, but in truth she was giving Rebekah time to pull herself together.
Tears streamed down Rebekah's face.
"Shut up...!"
Her heart felt physically crushed.
"You can't beat my big sister Olivia, Asmodeus. I can tell she already crushed you just by looking at the pathetic state you're in: you lost your True Body, and now you're nothing but a parasite clinging to someone's mind!"
"One thing you're right about. You don't know a single thing."
"I'm not finished!"
Rebekah's cry was like blood from her throat.
"You picked the wrong opponent! You don't know how incredible Big Sis is! For centuries, there hasn't been a mage greater than her, and there never will be!"
No matter how great a genius, facing Asmodeus alone was still too much.
The mightiest being among the Demon World's four rulers.
The undisputed second-in-command of the Demon World. There was simply no way Olivia could handle her.
Rebekah's desperation most likely came from knowing that fact more keenly than anyone else.
"And you... you're going to make me regret this. Definitely."
"Can you?"
Rebekah lifted her chin. She burned every detail into her memory—the white hair stirring in the night wind, the eyes more beautiful than sapphires, the sleek eyelashes, the flawless pale skin—as if this were the last person she would ever see.
"Yeah."
Rebekah's voice was cold.
"You burrowed into my big sister Olivia's mind because of me. Isn't that right?"
"Why do you think so?"
"You tried to kill me even when I was a child. But you couldn't. So I must have been your only blemish. Over thousands of years, you've always bent everything to your will—and I'm the one trophy you never managed to claim."
"..."
Olivia listened to Rebekah's words in silence.
['Saintess Rebekah' is using 'Lie Detection'.]
Because the moment she answered, the falsehood would be exposed.
"For a Great Demon like you, that must have been an unbearable humiliation—to be defeated by a four-year-old child. That’s why you accepted the disgrace of losing your True Body just to infiltrate my side."
And because of that, she couldn't interfere.
Rebekah shouted as if lashing out.
"So you chose my big sister Olivia. Because she's the most precious person to me! Because she's my only family! Because you knew I would falter if you chose her!"
A precious person.
Olivia suddenly wanted to look in a mirror. She wanted to know what expression she was wearing.
One thing was certain: she wasn't smiling.
Rebekah screamed. She screamed and wailed at the top of her lungs.
"But you couldn't have picked a worse person! Because a demon like you could never in all eternity understand how far I'll go to sacrifice myself for the person I love!"
"...Sacrifice?"
All Olivia could do was parrot the word.
['Saintess Rebekah' is using 'Sanctuary Declaration']
There was light.
Tssssssst!
Overwhelming Divine Power blazed to life from every direction.
[You have entered a 'Sanctuary'!]
- Mana regeneration is drastically reduced!
- Ancient magic may not be used!
- Mana consumption increases significantly!
- Casting time increases significantly!
The notification windows she'd faced in the Repentance Cave reappeared before Olivia's eyes.
But that wasn't the end.
Pure-white chains seized Olivia's body, catching her legs and forcing her to her knees.
It was a binding spell formula, following the Sanctuary Declaration.
She felt overwhelming physical force pressing down on her entire body. It was like having several grown men simultaneously press down on her shoulders.
She couldn't break free.
"What do you think you're doing..."
Olivia's mouth shut. The moment she looked at Rebekah's face, her breath caught in her throat.
That was the face of someone prepared to be hated.
No—not simply hated.
It was the face of someone who had resolved to humbly accept words drenched in every possible form of loathing.
"No one but me can enter this place now. Not even the servants will come. I made it clear I'd personally oversee everything."
"...Have you forgotten that the owner of this body is the Empire's Archmage? The Emperor won't sit idly by."
"No, that won't happen. He won't even know where you've disappeared to."
Rebekah smiled a sad smile.
"I just have to keep my mouth shut. Then no one will know you're locked up in here."
"...You're saying you'd lie?"
"If I have to!"
Nine sacred doctrines that the Order of Light followed as if their lives depended on them—commonly known as the Nine Commandments.
One of them was 'Thou shalt not bear false testimony.'
Rebekah's words were effectively a declaration that she would flout the Nine Commandments outright.
"...You've truly lost your mind. Saintess."
"I told you. A demon like you could never understand."
To break a commandment was to abandon duty and responsibility.
That meant the loss of Divine Power.
If Rebekah—not just anyone, but the Saintess herself—broke a commandment, she would lose a truly staggering amount of Divine Power.
It would be a disgrace so enormous it could strip her of her position as Saintess.
"Do you think the owner of this body will forgive you when she wakes up, just because you've done this?"
"No."
It was a voice so cold it sent a chill through the chest.
"I've already accepted everything."
Even colder than during her Confession.
"It doesn't matter if I'm not forgiven. As long as my big sister Olivia is safe, I can shoulder a disgrace like this and far worse. No matter how strong a demon you are, inside a Sanctuary you can't harm my big sister."
She'd underestimated Rebekah.
"As long as Big Sis is all right, that's all I need."
More precisely, she'd underestimated the will of a child who simply didn't want to lose the last family she had left.
'...So that was why?'
An old memory surfaced.
To see the Genocide Ending, Olivia had steeled her heart with deadly resolve.
But even so, there had been a moment when even she had wavered.
- Please... please stop here, Big Sis. You can still go back...
Rebekah had lain collapsed before her eyes.
She must have seen with her own two eyes hundreds of thousands fall, yet as Olivia looked at her—wearing not a single piece of armor—she'd thought:
Even Melina had at least defended herself, so why wasn't Rebekah offering even the slightest resistance?
Why, when she knew she would die, did she not try to evade it?
Why.
[Use healing magic?]
She had been shaken.
For the first time, she had wanted to stop.
"..."
Olivia fell silent.
She hung her head. She forced down a sigh that tried to surge up from somewhere deep inside her, then spoke.
"Saintess."
No answer came.
But she would be listening.
Since the sound of another presence hadn't yet faded.
'How much time do I have left?'
[Remaining Time: 4:21]
Enough.
'I didn't want to use this method.'
It was a measure she'd held in reserve, because while the effect was certain, the risk upon returning to the 'present' was far too great.
But if the alternative was being detained like this, then so be it.
"You speak as if you know the owner of this body well, but you don't."
"..."
"What you know is a mere speck."
Nearby, Divine Power surged. Inside it lay a fury refined to absolute purity. It was as if the power itself was demanding: How dare a demon spout such drivel.
"Answer me. Do you know how many years the owner of this body has lived?"
Rebekah sneered.
Just as she was about to answer, Olivia let out a mocking laugh.
"Twenty-five years? Impossible. This creature has lived far longer than that."
What was a lie?
"Startled because it's not a lie?"
A lie was something that contradicted fact—a falsehood.
To state something that was not true as if it were true was to lie.
"A hundred years? A thousand? Five thousand? I'd wager she's lived even longer than that."
In that case, was what I was saying a lie?
"You know nothing. Saintess. Do you know what happens when a human life repeats itself endlessly?"
If no one remembered, did it become something that had never happened at all?
"You go mad. No matter how noble your will, in the end, you go mad. Will fades away, and you become a doll with nothing but a purpose left behind. Do you understand what that means?"
"...Stop."
"Of course you don't. There's no way you could. Even if you died and were reborn, you could never comprehend these words. Just as a mortal can never comprehend eternity."
"Stop!"
Rebekah screamed.
"Stop, just stop..."
But she couldn't stop.
Her heart was likely being shredded to ribbons by these daggers, but still she couldn't stop.
Because at some point, the act had ceased to be an act.
"What was that? As long as your big sister is all right, that's all you need? I truly wish that big sister of yours could see this scene. The little sister she protected and nearly died for again and again—if she could see that little sister threatening her like this..."
Drip.
Something fell before her eyes.
A droplet.
"...how do you think she'd feel?"
Rain fell on Rebekah's face.
[Time limit has expired.]