Truth or Falsehood

Somewhere in the capital of Valon, in a house where no one lived.

"Aaagh—!!"

Elia woke with a scream. The dream in which her only friend Lola — and everyone else besides — had condemned her was a nightmare too crushing for her fragile heart to bear.

"...It wasn't a dream."

The moment she woke, the realization that it had not been a nightmare at all, but reality, sent her wrapping her arms around herself, trembling in a cold and hollow solitude. Even though her body could no longer feel heat or cold, a chill that seemed ready to freeze her through to the bone closed around her throat.

She had done something that could never be undone. The sensation of driving a blade through X's heart still lingered in her hands. The instant that fact settled over her, nausea surged up from somewhere deep inside.

"Ugh — hurgh..."

She turned her head and retched something out beside her for a long, ugly while. Strangely, it was not some manifestation of self-loathing. It was unmistakably real — dark crimson blood. Dead blood, at that: blood that had pooled and gone rancid, reeking of rot.

"This is..."

Elia's pupils trembled. For a moment she could not understand how something like that had come out of her own body. A body that had reached the 6-Star realm through the Goddess's blessing should not have fallen so easily to disease or poison.

"Your lifespan is nearly spent. About two weeks, I'd say."

Instead, someone explained the situation for her. Elia turned toward the voice — and her body locked solid at the sight of who was sitting there. A being who should not have been able to exist was reading a book as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"X...?"

A man with black hair and a dark coat. It was X, with those dimly sunken, dirty-looking eyes.

"You were alive?! How...?!"

"I am not X."

Elia had been about to scramble to her feet, but she froze at those words. Her Heavenly Intuition confirmed with absolute certainty that the man before her was not X. She drew her guard up and glared at him.

"Wh-who are you? Why do you look exactly like X...?"

"We do look identical, don't we? Curious, isn't it?"

At the words of the man who looked exactly like X, Elia immediately searched for a sword. Whoever he was, subduing him came first. Fortunately, a blade was within reach. She drew it in a rush and was about to level it at the suspicious figure when she saw the sword itself.

"Going to stab this body with that sword again, are you?"

The blade the man spoke of was the Soul Killer. In that instant, the image of herself driving it through X flooded back, and an unbearable pressure crashed down upon her entire body. Every action was stripped from her — the movement of her limbs, even the drawing of a single breath. It was the first time she had ever felt guilt like this.

"Uh — ah..."

"The first time is always hard. But the second is easy. Keep at it long enough, and it stops meaning anything. Do you know why?"

The suspicious man closed his book and, for the first time, met Elia's trembling eyes.

"Humans are creatures who deceive themselves. They know full well that what they do is wrong, yet they always believe they are in the right. Every last one of them. Each and every one, without exception — from a newborn infant to an old man on the verge of death. And there is only one reason for it."

The man walked toward Elia with footsteps that had no presence at all, as if he were crawling across the floor. An indescribable terror rolled off him, but she could not move. At last he stood before her, closed his hand around the Soul Killer's blade, and drew it toward his own chest as he spoke. It was the same place Elia had driven the sword into X's heart.

At the same moment, the Soul Killer pierced the man's heart. Elia remained still. She had merely been holding the sword; he had pulled it in himself.

"You've gone and killed someone again. How does it feel? A little better than the first time?"

She had done it again. Regardless of her own will, she had harmed someone. The moment that fact registered, Elia let go of the sword.

"N-no — I didn't mean to..."

"What are you talking about? You intended to kill from the very start, didn't you? From the moment you walked through the Academy's front gate to the very end, when you arrived at the ruins — was there even a single instant when you didn't?"

"I-I was deceived..."

"Yes. You were deceived. By the Goddess. By X. By everyone around you. And..."

The man drew the sword from his chest and whispered, low.

"By yourself, as well."

He tossed the Soul Killer down in front of Elia. Her strength left her, and she sank to the floor where she stood — the posture of a sinner lowering herself in atonement. Looking down at her without a shred of interest, the man stroked the hole in his wound as he introduced himself.

"I am Berith. I am that demon you so desperately wanted to kill. I am also the demon X impersonated in order to deceive you."

"Wh-why? I-is X dead? Why does a demon look exactly like X... Don't tell me..."

"That doesn't matter."

The wound Berith stroked filled itself in, trailing black smoke. From the start, it was as if no wound had ever been there. Then he revealed eyes that gleamed with an eerie light.

"Because X has deceived you once again."

"...What?"

Berith's lie stabbed through Elia with complete indifference. For a moment she could not even understand what he was saying. As if savoring that incomprehension, Berith continued his falsehoods.

"X is not dead. He merely pretended to die. He's a liar so tremendous even I was taken aback. A monster of falsehood who deceives the Goddess, deceives demons, deceives everyone around him."

"P-please don't lie! There's no way he could have done something like that alone! Just because I'm an idiot doesn't mean I wouldn't know that...!"

"Who said he deceived you alone?"

Berith lowered himself until his eyes were level with hers.

"The Goddess deceived you, and the demons deceived you. X intended to deceive you from the very beginning, and everyone around you deceived you as well. That human you call a friend — Lola — included."

"L-Lola would never do that! Why would she deceive me...?!"

"Because it's fun."

Berith snorted a laugh at the girl who did nothing but get deceived. To Elia, that laugh looked like everyone else's — like the whole world laughing in her face.

"Watching a genius greater than yourself fall from grace is always entertaining. Coincidentally, you're a genius as a martial artist, but a dull-witted moron when it comes to brains. Everyone was hoping you'd fail, taking pleasure in your downfall, waiting for you to shatter to pieces."

Elia remembered the students at the Academy who had sneered at her or cursed her under their breath. She was not so stupid that she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't known it for what it was — envy, and jealousy.

"If that weren't the case, why would the Goddess grant you her blessing and then steal away your lifespan?"

"Steal... my lifespan...?"

"Once a disposable life has served its purpose, there's only one remaining conclusion."

Berith held up the book he had been reading. In an instant it burned with black fire and scattered as ash.

"...What does that mean?"

"When the Goddess granted you power, she deliberately made it so. Open the Goddess's ability and check your talents."

At those words, Elia opened her talent screen. Hidden on the last line was a talent she had never seen before.

Elia understood what that talent's existence meant. Even a fool could not have failed to grasp it.

"That's a lie..."

She examined her own body, and grasped it with perfect, terrible clarity.

"It's a lie..."

Her body was collapsing, little by little, without her even knowing. The glorious future Elysia had promised had never existed from the start. To be used while she was convenient, then thrown away like trash — that was her fate. Thinking of how Gremory had tried to steal her body, it wasn't even untrue.

Even her past was wrong. Her life had, before she knew it, become riddled through with falsehood.

"Why..."

"It's too early to despair. You're still connected to the Goddess even now. If the Goddess wishes it, you may yet be made to do things you don't want. Yes — you might even kill Lola with your own hands..."

"I won't let that happen!!"

In that instant, Berith's pupils changed. One was a hollow black. The other was a vacant white. The ocular authority that interfered with and manipulated truth and lies — the Evil Eye of Truth and Falsehood. That Evil Eye was now directed at Elia.

Both eyes burned so fiercely that a deep, dark sense of negation and wickedness poured off them. Elia intuitively understood that this contract was the reason Gremory had become unable to speak falsehood. If she offered one of these as the price, she would surely be forever unable to do that thing.

"I..."

Offer truth, and she would be unable to speak the truth. Offer falsehood, and she would be unable to tell a lie.

"There's something I must know."

This was undoubtedly a demonic contract she should never, ever make.

"And something I must do."

But Elia made the contract anyway.

When the contract ended, Elia received the Soul Killer and left. She had gone to confirm what she must confirm, and to do what she must do. Aside from the price she offered being an unexpected result, everything had gone according to Berith's design.

The arrangements are complete.

Depending on Elia's final resolve, every path from here would diverge. Watching how that result unfolded was, in its own right, a minor amusement.

Gremory should have arrived in the Holy Kingdom by now.

Berith had let Gremory go without a fight. She was a useless existence in the Empire anyway. Even if she returned to the Holy Kingdom and reported this and that about him, she would never be able to prepare for anything. By then, it would already be far too late.

Time to move.

Berith headed for Elion Academy.

Human cities are still such boring places.

The atmosphere of the city was more vicious than he had imagined. Rumors that a demon had appeared were circulating through the streets. Guards kept their eyes peeled, scrutinizing passersby and anyone of suspicious appearance, or conducting surprise inspections of houses and shops that raised their suspicions. But not a single gaze turned toward Berith. As if nothing had been there from the start, he drew no one's attention at all. Berith's ability to conceal his very existence could not be detected by anyone who was not at the Transcendent level.

The preparations are done.

Berith removed the two rings he had been wearing all this time. One was the Soul Trap Ring X had obtained during the demon mansion scenario. The other was the Soul Trap Ring he had received from Andras.

Andras giving me the wrong item turned out to be a stroke of luck.

The work he was performing now was transferring divine power using the Soul Trap Ring's function. The ring on his left index finger, which had been empty, was filling to the brim with holy power. As a massive amount of divine energy poured into the ring, something contained within slowly recovered. It was X's soul, which had nearly been shattered under the Soul Killer's influence.

He'll wake soon. The damage wasn't that severe.

Berith slipped the ring, now emptied of divine power, onto ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his right hand, and drew a second Soul Killer from his coat. For the next task, he brought up the system.

The system sparked with lightning and rejected Berith's operation. Unfortunately, it was a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meaningless resistance.

Operational authority passed to Berith at once. In the process, more than half of his demonic power was consumed in a single surge. Adding the power he had already spent interfering with Gremory's and Elia's systems, he had nothing left. It might take a considerable amount of time to recover. But it didn't matter.

I can use the fragmented authority now.

Berith used the system's function. What he intended to use now was the Setting Editor. But it was different from the function X had used until now.

It can change the very rules of the world, huh. If the demons knew this, they'd worship X as a true god.

Berith, who knew why they were trying to resurrect the Evil God, wore a thin, sardonic smirk. Considering X's true identity, calling him a fallen god would not have been an exaggeration.

Watching that would be interesting too...

But that was the easy path. Knowing well that when living comes easy, boredom follows quickly, Berith discarded the idea at once. What he wanted to see was not the sight of everything being neatly, effortlessly resolved. A being close to a god, struggling and thrashing, falling into despair and having his spirit broken as he tried somehow to survive amid every kind of unreasonableness — that was what Berith truly wanted to see.

Because that's fun.

Berith arrived at the Academy's front gate.

"Even in a situation where everyone in the world has become your enemy."

In this place where every incident and every destiny was tightly, inescapably interwoven —

He used the fragmented authority that X did not know of.

Once more, he snapped his fingers.

Someone approached this twisted place.

"Hah. It's you again."

It was Professor Lung — an old man like an immortal sage, his hands clasped behind his back. Lung looked down at the person collapsed on the ground, clicking his tongue in pity again and again.

"Child. Your fate never ceases to torment you."

It was none other than X, whose hair had turned white. The rings on X's hands were not two. The ring that should have been on his right hand was gone. The Soul Killer he had been holding was nowhere to be seen.

Lung hoisted X onto his back and headed for the Academy. He could only click his tongue and lament.

"A storm is coming. You will have to endure it."

Before a storm, it was always quiet.