This Is What They Call a Virtuous Cycle
I killed Berd with my own hands.
He was already half-dead by Rasty's doing, but I severed his breath for certain. In this world, the Sealing Sword of Berd no longer exists.
"Ugh…"
"...?"
Only the amnesiac Sword God and Merni remained. Because Berd had become one with the Sword God, he carried fragments of Berd's memories. He'd witnessed everything—how I came to be in this state, how Rasty flooded the continent with her Blood Sea—but since those memories were erased, there should be no trouble. What he'll remember is likely only up to the moment he pressed a sword into Merni's hands.
...Probably, anyway.
Honestly, if this were the old days, I would have pulverized his arms and legs so he could never pick up a sword again. But that was, quite literally, the old days.
To the Sword God, DeoEn is a game. The Sealing Sword is just a weapon, a mere item. So I can't entirely blame him for not understanding why this was such a big deal—though frankly, at his level, he should have at least sensed it vaguely.
'If I do this, I am seriously fucked.'
Even now, Leo, and rankers inside the top 100 like Yena, Vlack, and Devil—all of them skilled enough to feel the danger. I find it hard to believe that the Sword God, who held the #1 ranking for three straight years, couldn't sense what top-100 players could.
The reason? His shocking defeat at my hands, and the demon energy that had been steadily corroding him. Even the Sealing Sword leaked demonic power. Makgeukgong had unsealed a portion of the blade for him, but when Makgeukgong lost his power, the restraint may have come undone as well. If, in the process, the Sword God was corroded far beyond what the system's protections could handle…
...Who knows.
Honestly, there are too many variables. Divinity and demonic energy have always been unknown substances, capable of producing results beyond anything imaginable. And demonic energy was never my specialty.
"So I'll stop at this much."
The experience penalty from 'death,' the destruction of his signature weapon, the Sealing Sword of Berd, and the purification of the demonic energy festering in his body. Let's call it even at that.
Having decided the Sword God's punishment, I turned to the next one in line—a platinum-blonde woman staring at me, dumbfounded.
"......."
"Merni Elphosis. You look like you have a great deal to say."
Shreeeek—!
A door made of blood split open in the empty air. This mental world now belonged to Rasty. Having combed through the merged memories of everyone fused with Berd, I knew that beyond this door lay the dungeon—soon to collapse. The moment it did, Merni and Asuka would return to the DeoEn of the 'present.'
"Let's continue this outside."
"...Who are you? Who the hell are you?"
Grrrip…
Her hand clenched around her battered bow grip hard enough to snap it.
"Who could you possibly be, to wield this kind of power…"
She forced a hollow laugh and looked around.
From birth, she had run her entire life to be acknowledged by the World Tree. Unable to accept that her younger sister had stolen her place, she became one with the dungeon and endured—for hundreds of years, and then endured again. She had devised countless schemes, and in the end, even borrowed the hand of yet another demon.
And yet.
That 'magnificent' World Tree had fallen to corruption at the hands of some strange demon-kin. The demon who claimed the World Tree for herself was neutralized by a single beckoning gesture from a pretty girl. And there I stood, with that very girl at my side.
"Less impressive than you expected, isn't it?"
"......"
"That's how it is. Power, I mean."
Even the most awe-inspiring rank and strength inevitably lose their luster in the face of a greater rank, a greater strength. When fifteen-year-old Lily first stepped out into the world, everything had seemed magnificent. I looked at the senior saints who came before me and sank into self-loathing. A mere lesser angel—one who hadn't even become a Fortress—had looked like a 'god' capable of unmaking the world.
Time passed, and they became just another kind of existence. But I never reached the summit either. Even at my prime, walls I couldn't cross stretched endlessly before me.
Sometimes I wonder. If the war had never ended—if, instead of decades, I had spent centuries roaming battlefields and growing stronger—
Could I have surpassed the Eight Thrones?
'...Could I have surpassed him?'
I wonder.
"You… you…"
Merni couldn't finish the sentence and bowed her head. From where she stood, the World Tree was her one and only god. And the being even that god could not reach—was me.
I placed my hand on her head.
Fwooooosh…
Brilliant white divinity washed over Merni, purifying every last mote of demonic energy that remained in her. As the violet stain drained from her eyes and they regained their full, natural green, tears welled up in them.
I smiled down at her with kindly compassion, as if I understood everything.
"I forgive you your sins."
"Ah… ah…"
Merni collapsed face-down to the floor, weeping.
Hmm.
"...What are you doing, Unni?"
"They want this, apparently. From my saint days."
Commit a sin, then receive forgiveness. Ordinarily, forgiveness comes from the victim, but people like this think differently. They want God to forgive them. Their sin, after all, was committed because God did not watch over them—so the forgiveness must come from God as well. But God stands far too distant, so they settle for receiving it from an agent.
Back in my saint days, whenever I traveled far on pilgrimage, sinners would always come crawling to beg.
I raised Merni to her feet.
"Stand up."
"Ah… Lord God…"
"Hold still now."
"...Pardon?"
THWACK!
A blunt hammer smashed into Merni's skull. She went flying—sailing clean through the door Rasty had opened for her.
Whoosh. I retrieved the hammer and rested one hand against my left eyelid, like a slugger admiring his home run.
Nice hit.
"Forgiveness should come from the wronged party, after all."
"...Unni, were you like this back then too?"
"Yep. That's why His Holiness the Pope chewed me out so often."
The priests of the Holy Radiant See were horrified, and the saints called me a crazy bitch. This was a year before I quit being a saint. So many people wouldn't stop whining that I did it anyway, and they were absolutely beside themselves. As a side benefit, the moment word went out that Saint Lily was making a pilgrimage, crime rates in the region would plummet.
"This is what they call a virtuous cycle."
"......"
■
After parting ways with Rasty, I too returned through the door into the dungeon.
The first thing I saw was the black roots crumbling to pieces, and atop them, a crowd of players.
"Starlight Baptism!"
"Ice Tornado!"
"Hey! I had that one pinned!"
"Baekseol! Move!"
"Hmm, don't wanna~ If you're upset, go fetch Lily and file a complaint!"
"Well, aren't you lucky today."
Shhhhhck! A fan of playing cards whizzed past my eyes—dozens of them slicing through the air before embedding themselves in the roots and detonating.
Beyond that, I could see an Ice Storm raging in the distance, starlight bombardment, sword techniques flashing.
Multiple players have entered the dungeon.
Current players: 8
A World Boss had appeared, so it seemed a whole crowd of rankers had come pouring in. They'd arrived too late to earn much in rewards, but as with the Sgaredo raid, even a modest showing here would beat clearing three or four special dungeons.
"Looks like everyone's been here the whole time?"
I'd assumed the stream had cut out and everyone left, but with the viewer count in the hundreds of thousands, apparently they'd all just been waiting for me. Then again, unlike the times my mind alone slipped off into the mental world, this time my body had moved too—there wouldn't have been anything to see anyway.
"The demon used teleportation magic, so I went to that space and caught it there."
There was no way I could say I'd strolled into the mental world, flattened him at full power, and had Rasty clean up the mess—so I gave a plausible-sounding explanation instead. The battle had been fierce, I said, an exchange of dozens of blows that took a full day and five hours (when in truth the fight had lasted less than five minutes), and in the process, the Sword God's sword had been destroyed.
"What a shame. That must have been a precious sword of yours, Sword God."
I put on my most regretful expression.
Such a shame, really.
"It's a shame, but I couldn't exactly lose, could I?"
It was a fair and legitimate duel. Yes. Absolutely.
And so that was that. All that remained was to wrap things up cleanly.
Berd had been dealt with; with only the leftover stragglers remaining, the end was in sight. I'd meant to finish them off myself, but since the rankers had already come all this way, I decided to leave the cleanup to them.
I settled into a comfortable spot and watched the rankers at work.
The most eye-catching of them all was, of course, Leo. Wrapped in a swirl of green wind, she vanished and reappeared like the breeze itself, personally crushing the black roots one by one. I'd left Yul and Mul to her—thank goodness she'd brought them along.
And then—
"It feels like it's been forever."
A woman came sprinting toward me from across the field.
"LIIIIILYYYY~~!!!"
It was Yena.