Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: It's Still Four Years Too Early (8)
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The touch was gentle, yet it carried an irresistible pressure. Though they were slender fingers, she could envision a future where her neck would be severed in an instant if she lifted her head right here.
The horrific sensation made the cold sweat already drenching her body flow even more stickily.
"N-no..."
"Is that important? What you really need to worry about is the path of choice right in front of you."
Who on earth was this person who refused to allow any rebuttal, slowly releasing her neck only to embrace her from behind? She wasn't confident in her senses, but the fact that she hadn't noticed their approach until they were right behind her—and now they were hugging her and resting their chin on her shoulder—filled her with nothing but dread.
White hair draped down, tickling her cheek from behind.
And then, in a voice so sweet it threatened to make her lose consciousness, Karin felt her strength drain away.
Already clinging to the arms embracing her from behind, the whisper in her ear pierced straight into her mind.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 『Karin. Karin Udette. If there's something you desire, tell me. The path before your eyes has the power to turn the dreams you weave into reality.』
"M-my... dream."
『Unlike a goddess who selects and loves only certain humans. I am fair to everyone. If you desire power, I grant power. If you desire love, I grant love. Anything you truly wish for is possible.』
"Ugh..."
Her consciousness was muddled. There was surely something important she needed to remember, but with her brain feeling like it was melting away, nothing came to mind.
This is temptation.
「But it's true. Without this bracelet, I'm just dead weight anyway.」
Still, everyone's been considerate of me.
「They're just keeping me out of the way so I don't cause trouble.」
If I make a decision on my own here...
「What do I even gain by making the 'right' choice on the surface?」
No matter what, this would be betrayal.
「Betrayal? Whose side am I on, and who am I betraying?」
"「Powerless as you are, you'll only fall behind and get discarded.」"
In her hazy vision, all she could see was a glowing black line, with everything around it vanished.
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Easy. Too easy.
With her left arm cradling the unconscious Karin, Svetlana kept her right index finger pressed to Karin's temple and smiled.
Manipulating a novice without a mage's dignity or a goddess's blessing was no challenge at all.
The inferiority complex toward those around her with strong bodies and minds. The helplessness of being unable to do anything and having to rely on others for her own life and her friends'. The ambition to grow stronger. And the subtle budding affection and lust.
If you knew the basics, what difficulty was there in making contact at the decisive moment and guiding her to act as desired?
She withdrew her finger from Karin's temple as easily as pulling it from water, laid her down right there, and surveyed the surroundings with a subtle expression.
"It's connected to the Demon God's space, alright, but unless someone directly tracked her here, it's a headache that no one else can come."
The space's scale was utterly arbitrary; from Svetlana's observation, the temple had been enormously distant, but by the time Karin collapsed, it was incredibly close—and now it had pulled away again to the barely visible horizon.
She tried shifting position, but no matter how much she moved, it was like treadmill walking, so she finally huffed through her nose and sat down.
No helping it. Might as well watch what happens to this pint-sized fool blessed by the Demon God.
The glowing white part had evaporated cleanly, and in its place, an increased volume of black liquid returned to the bracelet. Glancing at it now, half of the bracelet—which had turned completely black—had migrated along Karin's skin, and the faded portion had turned white again.
The black energy crawling along her skin vanished into her clothes for a moment, but when Svetlana lifted the fabric, it had settled on Karin's thigh in the shape of a black heart tattoo.
Oh ho. So with each choice, a divine energy imprints on her body, leading to the next choice.
What happens if she keeps choosing until the end? And if she consistently picks the Demon God's path, what power might this novice—who's nothing but a commoner outside of space magic—gain?
Just observing quietly wasn't bad, but nudging her into action would surely be more entertaining.
"Ehee, hee hee."
She plunged the finger that had been buried in Karin's temple into her own. Unlike inserting it into someone else, blood and brain matter splattered, and blood trickled from Svetlana's nose.
Ahh, this swirling sensation in the brain. It never gets old.
After twirling her finger inside for a moment and pulling it out, a small pink lump of flesh—formed within—clung to the fingertip.
"Then this is my gift. I'll make the world look different for you."
With the lump on her fingertip, she plunged it back into Karin's temple.
Like dipping her finger into water again, she deposited the lump in her mind, then cleanly withdrew her finger and sucked on it.
Mm. Feels good.
Her face was already flushing as if she were starting to dream sweetly, and she began exhaling excited breaths. Svetlana considered teasing her body a bit more, but decided there was no need; the barriers of reason would crumble slowly enough, so she'd wait patiently.
After all, the best delicacies are savored from preparation onward.
Still, she didn't want to wait too long, so she extended her slightly longer-than-human tongue, letting a drop of saliva fall onto Karin's body, where it quickly melted in.
The human body has limits, after all. Strengthening it a little to ensure it never tires and its desires never cease would ripen the fruit in no time.
Svetlana delighted in imagining how the runaway train—designed not to her exact specifications from the start, but one that could never stop on its own—would crash and shatter.
"More importantly, what is this space?"
With her toy now complete, the demon clan's number one hobbyist—and the Church of the Demon God's chief strategist—returned to her deliberations as the meeting chair.
Our pint-sized one's telltale sign, as her hair and now even brain turned pinkish, was her abnormal aptitude for space magic. Her general magic ability was only at human standard, yet she could teleport multiple people and maintain a portal for dozens of minutes.
And the blatantly suspicious 'space' itself, where the powers of the goddess and Demon God intertwined: the labyrinth.
When the two met, this peculiar phenomenon occurred, and they even found an accessory imbued with both powers, guiding them—through absorbing power—to confront the divine idols.
This was information and phenomena unknown even to the Church of the Demon God, which had led the Demon God's revival and studied books and records across generations—far too divergent from established theories.
"If it were just using space magic, I could do it too."
But if it wasn't about skill in space magic, but rather talent—or something that summoned talent...
And if it induced the mixing and clashing of those two powers...
Wouldn't it be like trying to create a new world, separated from the existing space, just like this labyrinth?
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"...We at least recovered the bodies."
"It's even more regrettable since I knew their faces."
"At this level, they're above average, right? They just got swept up in a disaster."
With a deep sigh, he aligned the adventurers' bodies into a somewhat presentable form. What rotten luck. But they couldn't shut down labyrinth access over it either.
Confirming that Big Sister Mina had cleanly washed away the contamination—the reddish-black byproduct on the labyrinth walls—from the corpses using the World Tree's purifying power, he collected their labyrinth entry passes, which served as identification.
He was worried about Karin, but unfortunately, he had no great talent for magic to begin with, and it seemed Big Sis didn't have aptitude for specialized fields like space magic either, leaving waiting as their only option.
Among the people he knew... no one suitable came to mind. Should he track down the one who'd sent Yumin here last time, just in case?
Being indebted to that jerk Yumin grated, but with lives on the line, no choice.
As Big Sister Mina began something akin to an exorcism, recalling something, the corpses were enveloped in green light and slowly dissolved into the air. Considering the World Tree's role in the world's cycle and as a bridge between the goddess and the world, it was akin to attaining enlightenment.
He prayed for their souls alongside her, and once the firefly-like lights vanished into the air, he leaned against the wall—still stained with a bit of blood—when a gray portal-like rift opened, and Karin tumbled out.
Had she returned unconscious?
"...No weird vibes. Though I might not be sensing something."
"I'm not sure either."
Her face was flushed, perhaps with fever, sweat pouring off her, so he gave up on waking her and hoisted her onto his back.
Even in her unconscious state, she seemed aware of being carried; she wriggled against his back, properly wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her chin on his shoulder.
Her excessive closeness and constant squirming were distracting, but he'd ask about it once she woke up.