Hypnos, God of Dreams

"Aaaah! You're finally up!"

Something unprecedented had occurred.

For the first time, Ruin rose from his throne.

It was after exactly fifty-two challenges.

The Demon of Greed grew stronger with every battle. His growth was staggering—still nowhere near Ruin's level, yet enough, at last, to force the seated power to move.

"Aaaargh! It hurts! It hurts! St-stop!"

Ruin tore Greed to pieces. He left him with just enough life to cling to existence—wounds so severe that even the goddesses could not easily restore him. Years of suffering, at the very least. Greed would not reappear until after the world itself had fallen.

And yet—

"Ruin! I'm back!"

Greed returned in seven days.

How? The reason was simple. In that brief span he had attained enlightenment and undergone Molting—not once, but repeatedly, until he reached the extreme. He surpassed even the Four Calamities, Ruin's strongest knights.

Still, he could not reach Ruin.

Ruin was the most absolute of punishments. Of course nothing could match him.

But—

"Oh? Looking to fight properly now?"

"……You."

"What? You can talk?"

"What an interesting creature."

It was the first time. Across countless worlds he had ended, Ruin had never felt interest like this toward anyone.

Now he understood why the goddesses aided this one—why they loved him. A being who hungered purely for power, and nothing else. In that, he resembled Ruin himself.

Ruin had never met a true rival. Even the highest gods had never been his match. He had grown bored, weary of it all—

But the Demon of Greed grew stronger the more he fought. There was no ceiling to his ascent.

So Ruin continued to fight him.

After two hundred twenty-three battles, Ruin took up his weapon.

At five hundred sixty-nine, he unleashed his Authority.

By one thousand two hundred one, they could exchange ten blows.

At two thousand six hundred fifty, Greed transcended the demonic.

Through five thousand one hundred ten confrontations, he grasped the truths of the cosmos.

And the moment the count passed eleven thousand two hundred forty-seven—

"I—I reached him……!"

For the first time, Greed touched Ruin.

Not a grave wound. A superficial cut that would heal at once.

……But after that, everything changed.

Watching the creature evolve, Ruin's thoughts shifted. Perhaps it would be better not to end this world completely.

To sink into the Abyss was to forfeit every possibility—no conception, no reincarnation, the extinction of every cycle. The entire continent submerged, condemned to eternal torment: that was Ruin.

And of course, the Demon of Greed would never grow stronger again.

So Ruin issued a command to the one who stood behind him.

"Witness everything of Greed. Remember it."

The one who had watched it all from the beginning. The being who managed Ruin's Eye and observed every corner of the world.

"Greed alone is the clue that can create the End."

Ruin looked up at the sky—toward the Heavenly Realm, far beyond sight or reach. Even a power as absolute as Ruin was, in the end, only a tool of the Heavenly Realm. But if the End could be forged…… things might change.

Slowly, Ruin turned his head and regarded the figure behind him.

"Hypnos, Ruler of Dreams."

The forgotten god reclaimed his name.

"My name is Hypnos."

His form had grown robust. His eyes were still the color of ash, but the pus no longer seeped from them.

"Once a god, Ruler of Dreams—and a traitor who fell to Ruin and betrayed the divine……"

And a god who had loved two goddesses.

Ah.

He remembered everything. His name. His past. Why he was here.

Hypnos trembled—then looked at him.

Greed.

No. He could no longer call him that.

Hypnos dropped to one knee.

"I shall follow you, Lord of Demise."

……

……

"I will tell you everything I know—everything."

Hypnos spoke. His eyes shone like stars.

I tilted my head.

"Haven't you already told me everything?"

That the Demon of Greed was me. Honestly, it had been a shock—but as I listened, it somehow made ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sense.

Hypnos shook his head.

"There is a truth the Lord of Demise must know."

"What is it?"

"The Designer."

"The Designer?"

"Please listen. And answer my questions. When every fragment is joined, a complete picture will emerge. ……This is a story that can only be spoken here—where no one else can hear or know."

Hypnos's expression was utterly grave. As if, the moment we left the World Tree's dungeon—his domain—someone might overhear. He spoke with such extreme caution that I could only nod.

"Very well. I'll do as you say."

"First, allow me to introduce myself."

And so Hypnos began a story that was long if you called it long, short if you called it short.

Hypnos.

He was the god who ruled dreams. An observer who watched all things—for dreams spoke for the entirety of a being. The good, the bad, what one wished to become, what one refused to become, every thought and every fancy: all of it surfaced in dreams. Observe a dream, and you came to know the dreamer.

Of course he sometimes played tricks—forcing nightmares, dredging up ugly memories—but at his core, Hypnos simply loved to watch.

Gods do not dream.

That was why the war against the evil gods had been a dull place for him. Gods do not dream. Dreaming is a privilege granted only to mortals. That was absolute truth—one of the laws Truth itself had laid down.

But at some point—

Two goddesses began to fill Hypnos's eyes.

Rhea. Fina…… The two goddesses dream.

He could not see it with certainty, yet Hypnos felt them dreaming. Not some prophetic power that peered into distant futures—pure, unadulterated dream itself.

That an immortal should dream is impossible.

Hypnos was curious. So curious he thought he might go mad. If the two goddesses truly dreamed—

Then I…… might be able to dream as well.

Because it would mean even he could dream.

That was when it began. Hypnos watched the two goddesses, and his curiosity soon twisted into something like affection. At the time, he did not understand what the feeling was.

He did, however, know whom they dreamed of.

The Demon of Greed. They dream of him.

Why would goddesses dream of a demon?

When other goddesses spoke of "cuteness," they meant it the way one spoke of a pet. They never placed a demon on the same plane as themselves.

But Rhea and Fina were different. They regarded the Demon of Greed as their equal. They looked upon him with yearning, with tender feeling.

Why?

Why do you dream of a mere demon and gaze at him with eyes like that?

I'll give him nightmares.

Hypnos forced the Demon of Greed into relentless nightmares. Finding him was easy—Greed looked up at the sky of his own accord, every single day.

If gods cannot dream, then demons cannot look up at the heavens. That, too, was law and truth.

So why did this one violate the truth the world had set?

Day after day, without fail, Greed suffered nightmares. Prolonged nightmares drive one mad. A demon that feeds on emotion should never have been able to endure.

And yet—

Greed endured.

No. He did more than endure.

"You think I'd lose to a nightmare?"

"Show up in my dreams again and I'll smash you to pieces!"

……He conquered the nightmares.

He fought them with desperate fury, won again and again, and at last attained enlightenment.

A demon…… attaining enlightenment?

It was madness. There were rare cases of mythic beings overcoming nightmares, seizing enlightenment, and ascending to sacred divinity—but this was Greed. A demon.

Enlightenment meant sincerely repenting one's own insufficiency. And a demon was supposed to acknowledge its own lack and repent?

What kind of demon in all creation did that?

……Perhaps Greed truly was different from other demons.

But Hypnos could not accept it. He could not comprehend a demon who received the favor of two goddesses. If goddesses were going to dream, they ought to look at him—not some demon.

Yet the two goddesses never looked at Hypnos.

That warped attention curdled into hatred.

I…… regret it.

When Ruin appeared, Hypnos betrayed the gods. He made himself an evil god and became Ruin's Eye.

Because of Hypnos's betrayal, Ruin found what he sought far more swiftly and achieved it—the primordial dolls the gods had hidden, the symbols of divinity, every supreme and unique thing. Ruin swelled his forces in an instant and armed his knights with godlike equipment.

And that was not all.

He sowed endless nightmares, turning humans against one another. Nightmares and delusions drove them to betray each other day after day. Those who sought to oppose Ruin were discovered in advance and fractured from within.

It was far too late.

Hypnos regretted his deeds—everything born of that twisted rage. Watching Greed fight Ruin. Watching, at last, the goddess Rhea die at Ruin's hands.

Most of the world sank into the Abyss. With Rhea's death, Ruin ended his campaign of punishment.

Afterward, when Fina, Goddess of the Sky, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lifted the remaining continent into the heavens—

What I can still do……

Hypnos made his resolve. Late and pathetic as it was, there had to be at least one thing left that he could do.

Keep the evil gods from invading that land.

A world without gods. Countless lesser deities and evil gods would set their sights on the continent in the sky, scheming for dominion by every means.

So, within the limits of his power, Hypnos sealed every evil god inside the World Tree and sought to be forgotten alongside them.

The World Tree's dungeon was a dream-world Hypnos had painted—his domain, a place meant to fade into oblivion with dreams themselves. He believed it was the only way he could atone.

He was meant to vanish, forgotten, together with the evil gods.

But then—

"Lord of Demise……"

As if by a twist of fate, one who carried Greed's soul appeared—bearing the two goddesses' greatest blessings, annihilating every evil god.

And Hypnos understood.

Goddess Fina. You, too…… you protected him, didn't you?

Goddess Rhea.

She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had stopped Ruin and safeguarded Greed's soul.

Afterward, that soul must have reincarnated.