The Second Sin (4)
No way. He was definitely human, wasn't he?
Almost nothing was known about Super, the Sin of Pride. After meeting him, Evan had run a simple analysis.
Name: Super
Age: 13
Race: Human
Gender: Unknown
Special Trait: Eyes
Note: Something appears to be sealed. Unable to determine what.
He had run every cross-check he could think of and verified the components that made up a human body. Super was unmistakably human.
And yet he was a chimera?
Denial was useless. Evan had watched it with his own two eyes—the moment Super absorbed that black serpent. Super had even called it a brother.
“……You were a chimera?” Lapis asked, lowering her stance slightly. The air around her thrummed with the readiness to fling her threads at any second—either to pin the enemy or to take its head clean off. She had every reason. Chimeras were living weapons, artificial lifeforms that fused the power of two beings and spat in the face of divine providence. And yet she had never sensed anything off about Super.
Don’t tell me some alchemist actually succeeded at human body transmutation?
It wasn’t quite a Taboo, but it was one of the necessary conditions for one. The difficulty should have been astronomical.
“……I’m not a chimera.” Super shook his head in denial.
Lapis pointed at the spot where the black serpent had been. “Then how did you absorb that?”
“That’s…… because they and I are brothers.”
Lapis’s face twisted. “What kind of bull—what kind of nonsense is that?”
“Looks like he really is a chimera. His mind’s all over the place.”
Shiiing!
Arthur drew his silver blade and set the edge against Super’s throat. “Talk. What are you?”
The air between them turned razor-thin. One wrong move and someone would strike first.
“……Please stop for a moment.”
Evan spoke. The tension flipped on a single calm voice. Every gaze snapped toward him at once. Emotionless golden eyes regarded them all.
“……Young Master Evan Alcarte.” Arthur swallowed a quiet sound. He hadn’t expected the boy to step in himself. Was he that attached to his little experiment?
But this kid is dangerous.
Absorbing chimeras? Whether Super was one or not, both answers were a problem. Leave him alone and no one could predict what kind of catastrophe would grow out of him. Either put a collar on him here and now, or kill him. One of the two.
“Even for you, a chimera is too dangerous. I understand the desire to use him as research material, but……”
“?”
“This child is dangerous. You know that as well as I do.”
“…….”
Evan missed the window to say What are you even talking about?
He is dangerous, that’s true.
But cornering him right now was even more dangerous. Evan was a transmigrator who knew the future. He knew exactly what happened when a Sin fully awakened. His mouth went dry.
“Everyone has potential.”
Evan raked through his memories. He had lived in a modern world drowning in information, especially during the years he had practically lived buried under dopamine-farming videos. His head was stuffed with every scrap of junk dopamine and every half-remembered quote imaginable. Time to mash something together that sounded profound.
“What a person becomes in the future is for them to decide. We have no right to rewrite that choice on a whim.”
“But—”
“More importantly.” Evan fixed his gaze on Super. “Super is human.”
“……!”
It wasn’t a question. It was a declaration—an absolute confirmation of Super’s existence. Super’s brows trembled.
“……How do you know I’m human?”
“The components that form your body, your voice, your thoughts, your sense of self, your soul—all of it proves you are human. Or would you rather become something else?”
“That’s…… not it, but……”
“Whatever your station, wherever you were born—a human is a human, a beastkin is a beastkin, a monster is a monster. That doesn’t change.”
Even Evan wasn’t entirely sure what he was saying. He was just stringing words together until they sounded convincing.
“If you were born human and wish to remain human, then you are human.”
“…….”
“…….”
Super and Arthur both fell silent.
Did that actually land?
“……Evan.” Lapis’s voice dropped low—then she launched herself at him. “That was sooooo cool!”
……Holy—! You scared the hell out of me!
Why the sudden tackle? Lapis looked up at him with sparkling eyes. “I’ve never heard anything that cool before……!”
“……Is that so?”
“Yes! Super! Remember this! You’ll never hear words like that anywhere else!”
“…….” Super covered one eye with a hand, looking thoroughly lost. It was a reaction hard to reconcile with the Sin of Pride.
Looks like it worked, though. I’m alive!
“Super. I’ll give you time to sort through the confusion. Would you like to rest for a moment?”
“……No. I’m fine.” Super lowered his hand. “I’ll…… think about it slowly while we walk.”
“As you prefer.” Evan respected the choice.
Yeah. At that age, an identity crisis is pretty normal. Maybe puberty just hit early. For everything he’s been through, he’s still pretty well-behaved.
Super chose quiet silence. Arthur was the one who spoke next.
“……Was this part of your plan as well?”
“……What do you mean by that?” Evan looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Of course, neither his eyes nor his expression betrayed a thing.
Arthur continued with complete seriousness. “There’s no need to hide it from me. You already knew what that child truly was, didn’t you?”
How the hell would I know that?
Alchemists weren’t omnipotent. He was just an ordinary transmigrator stuck in the body of Evan, the tragic second-act final boss. How was he supposed to know something that didn’t even show up under analysis? The other party was a Sin. Innate talent, destiny—none of it was on a comparable level. But Arthur had clearly misunderstood everything. He began walking ahead at a measured pace.
“……So you did know. A dull man like me can’t even begin to guess how far ahead you see.”
“…….”
“Still, if that is what you wish, I will gladly play along. What should we do next?”
“……Let’s descend carefully.”
Evan had no idea what kind of misunderstanding was forming now. He needed to figure out the exact problem first. For the moment, just get down and think later.
“Lapis, Super. Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
“…….”
Arthur took the lead. Evan followed. And Super watched Evan’s back with a complicated, unreadable gaze.
The ancient dungeon lived up to its name. It was deep.
Isn’t this a little too deep?
The thought kept circling. Couldn’t they rest for a second? Yujin’s stamina had already hit rock bottom, while the other three still looked fresh. Being born with a weak body was a crime all by itself.
The one mercy was that the path down wasn’t particularly dangerous.
—Kyaaaaaaah!
Ah! You startled me!
His heart jumped, but Arthur appeared and cut the thing down with a single shhk—thunk. Anything that wasn’t a shadow took him less than a second. Arthur nudged the unstable chimera corpse with the tip of his sword and asked Super, “Is this one a brother too?”
“……Yes.”
“You have quite a few siblings. Multiple parents, by any chance?”
“?!”
They had already hunted more than ten chimeras. The number alone felt absurd.
“I have no parents.”
Arthur’s completely innocent question left the atmosphere a little awkward, but they moved on.
“……Hold. There’s something ahead.”
How many more hours had they walked? The end of the dungeon was finally coming into view. Evan sent a small golem carrying a transmuted torch to light the way.
Fwoosh—
The path ended. A wall blocked their way. The golem slowly swept the torch across the surface. The wall was packed solid with countless images.
“……A mural.”
A diary carved into stone—a wall painting that recorded something. Looking at the images that filled every inch of the surface, a subtle pressure settled over them.
So this is the main event.
Lightning crashed down from a sky choked with storm clouds. Below, a monster screamed. It looked half dragon, half beast. But something was wrong.
Ugh, what is that?
The monster’s back was splitting open, and something was clawing its way out. Please don’t tell me a thing like that lives down here. He really, really didn’t want that.
Evan scowled inwardly.
“This is…… a depiction of mythology, I suppose. But it’s strange.” Arthur’s brow furrowed. “For a picture meant to represent a god, it’s far too grotesque. Looks more like a demon than a deity.”
The thing bursting free. It resembled a human, yet it was not human. Two horns on its head, wings on its back. Closer to a demon than anything else. It was even drawing something in from the corpse-like shapes scattered around the monster.
Yeah, there’s a reason they call it an evil god.
The god the heretics worshipped was the Blood God—an evil deity that accepted human blood as sacrifice. The more blood, the higher the quality of the blood, the greater the power it granted. From the Empire’s perspective, branding them heretics was the only possible choice. Accepting human sacrifices as offerings was disqualifying from the start.
“My limited insight is of no use here. Young Master Evan. Can you tell what this is meant to signify?”
“……It is certainly strange.”
Had there been a mural like this? He dug through his memories and came up empty. How was anyone supposed to memorize every single picture? Even a genius couldn’t do that. He searched for anything similar and found nothing. Something did come to mind, though.
Lightning falling from the sky. A life tearing free from a back. Separate, they looked bizarre. Together as one image—
“The process of something being born.” Super spoke. “……That is a mural of a god being conceived and brought into the world.”
Yes. That was the answer.
“……A god being conceived and born? What are you saying? That a god is a living creature?”
“Whether it’s true or not, there are people who believe it is.”
“There’s writing below.”
Faint lines traced beneath the images. Countless lines and circles, like an ant nest. Phrases written on every single one.
We have failed.
We cannot create a vessel to bring down a god.
We lack the power to create life.
It is unstable.
There are no longer any alchemists on the continent capable of human body transmutation.
We change direction.
If we take existing life and make it stronger, it may yet become a vessel for a god.
We modified a unique specimen with red fur.
Success.
Altering existing life is not difficult.
Therefore we change direction.
Failure.
We have failed again!
The chimeras have escaped the laboratory. Capture them somehow!
……
……
The word “ant nest” truly fit. Countless lines descending lower and lower. At the very end—the absolute final space where there was no room left to draw anything more—a single phrase remained.
We succeeded.
At creating life.
It is a modification of what already existed, yet it has reached the realm of creation itself!
At last, with our own hands, we have birthed a vessel.
Not a chimera—a true human!
He will accept our god, and he will be born under a destiny just as vast!
……This.
Not a chimera, but a true human. A successful experimental subject. Even the phrase “vast destiny.” Evan’s instincts screamed the answer.
This is about Super, isn’t it?
Every piece of evidence pointed to Super as the protagonist of this story.
I never imagined he had a past like this.
Super had been an experimental subject all along. It made sense. Being born with that kind of power for no reason at all would have been stranger. A backstory like this was only natural.
Does Lapis have something like this too?
True name: Ira. The Sin of Wrath. In pure physical ability, Ira far outstripped Super. There had to be at least one more hidden secret buried somewhere.
“……Success. So they created a human?”
“They failed at creating a human from nothing.” Super’s voice was quiet and level. “Instead, they began freely modifying and rewriting fetuses. Countless mothers died, and countless failures—chimeras—appeared.”
Eyes of emotionless light stared at the mural.
“My poor brothers…… were nothing more than the countless prototypes made to create me.”
“Super.”
Super clenched his fists. “I’m destroying this place today.”
“I still do not trust you. But on that point, I have no choice but to agree.” Arthur drew up his aura. “This place must be destroyed.”
“I am grateful to you, Evan Alcarte.” Super looked at him. “I was confused earlier, but…… you intended all of this, didn’t you?”
“?”
“Drawing in Arthur, the heretics’ demon, bringing me here, and leading us into this dungeon…… I don’t know what you stand to gain, but I hope you obtain whatever it is you want.”
“???”
I didn’t do anything?
Evan’s face went blank of its own accord. Denying it now would only make the atmosphere even more serious. Well. He could explain later. Evan fled from reality. It was the wise choice.
“Everyone, stand back.”
Arthur gripped his sword in both hands and brought it down with crushing force.
Full Moon Style — Form One: Downward Strike
KRAAAAAAAAAASH!
Silver aura erupted like an explosion and obliterated the mural wall. Beyond it lay another cavern. Not a single torch burned, yet a single red light pouring from an egg at the center painted the entire chamber crimson.
Welcome, Super.
It has been a long time. I never imagined you would set foot here with companions who are not of my blood.
A voice rose from the egg.
“……You.” Super looked openly shaken. Whose voice was that?
“Bishop Blake.” The answer came from Arthur. “You’re still alive?”
Bishop Blake? Ah. Now he remembered. The real leader who had commanded the heretics. A man whose power far exceeded his title of bishop—the master of the green mountain stronghold. Bishop Blake, said to have been defeated by Arthur, had survived as nothing more than a heart and had been waiting for them. Waiting for them to arrive. Why?
“You’re still alive?”
I was fortunate.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The egg pulsed like a beating heart. Only now, as their vision adjusted, could they see it clearly. Not an egg. A heart.
Forgive me for greeting you in such a wretched state. I have little time left.
“That makes two of us.” Silver light wrapped Arthur’s entire body. “I let you slip away last time. This time I’ll kill you completely.”
I’m afraid that will not be possible.
Bishop Blake remained perfectly calm even while looking at Arthur. What was he plotting? Arthur’s brow tightened—
Master of the scheme who led them all this way. I offer you my reverence. Therefore, Super—
The instant Bishop Blake spoke the next words, the air turned ice-cold.
“…….”
“…….”
And then—
“……?”
“……??”
Nothing happened.
Bishop Blake fell silent. After a moment, a blank, bewildered sound escaped him.
……Huh?