By Zephyria 
[You fall in love with ‘Athanas, I love you.’ Everything else feels unimportant.]
[You fall in love with ‘Athanas, I love you.’ Everything else feels unimportant.]
[You fall in love with ‘Athanas, I love you.’ Everything else feels unimportant.]
[You fall in love with ‘Athanas, I love you.’ Everything else feels unimportant.]
[You fall in love with ‘Athanas, I love you.’ Everything else feels unimportant.]
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ the ‘Distortion’ is provided as text.]
The first thing I saw was the system window.
‘What the fuck is this?’
I felt no pain.
However, a terrible bitterness filled my mouth.
‘No way….’
“Blegh, ugh.”
I turned my head to the side to spit out whatever was in my mouth.
I wanted to sit up and curl my body to vomit everything in my stomach, but my body felt as heavy as if a boulder had been placed on top of me.
“Hyung….”
At that moment, the weight pressing down on my chest vanished.
‘You piece of shit.’
He was lying face down on top of me?
Is this guy a complete psycho?
“Sob, Hyung, really, I….”
‘He’s really doing it all.’
He’s doing everything the Distorted One would love.
It was so absurd that I almost let out a hollow laugh.
‘I guess he realized it a beat too late?’
Fucking stupid psycho.
Shouldn’t you be more cautious in front of someone who uses Distortion?
Just grabbing someone by the hair and slamming their head against a wall out of nowhere?
Who the hell did he think it was?
‘And my eyes….’
Fuck.
I grit my teeth.
‘…I can recover from injuries as much as needed.’
Casimir had both her eyes gouged out and still lived perfectly fine.
So it’s okay.
Even if I can’t see, it’s just a temporary inconvenience.
Let’s just think of it as being hit by a debuff that blocks my vision.
I slowly lifted my eyelids.
‘Is it… okay?’
Seeing blurry light when I opened my eyes, it seemed I wasn’t completely blind.
It looked like something like cloth had been wrapped around them….
As I tried to feel around my eyes, my hand was caught in mid-air.
“D-don’t touch it. The bleeding just stopped. Okay?”
Hearing the sound of him sniffling, I actually started to get pissed off.
“Fuck, what the hell did you do right to be crying?”
“Hyung…. I’m sorry, hic, I messed up…. Really….”
“Fuck, get off me.”
I yanked the hair of the psycho who was sobbing with his face buried in my torso.
He didn’t budge, so I struck him with my fist, but there was no reaction.
‘Fucking blockhead.’
The fact that he didn’t even block me while I hit him made me even more enraged.
So you’re saying the damage doesn’t even register, huh?
“Hyung…. Don’t. You’ll get hurt if you hit me with your bare fists. Really. Okay?”
“Then what the fuck am I supposed to do? Lower your durability then.”
“…Should I give you a knife? Do you want to stab me with a knife?”
“Would the blade even go in if I stabbed you?”
You said your durability is over 700.
I doubt even a dot item would penetrate with a normal blade.
“…I can hold it with you and stab myself.”
“And where the hell would I stab?”
“Anywhere is fine. The eyes, the heart, wherever Hyung wants….”
“Fuck, you have the Body Restoration Trait.”
“Yeah.”
“Then what the fuck is the point of all this?”
“That’s why, if Hyung’s anger eases even a little….”
Fuck, my things are all completely smashed, and he thinks I’ll feel better if he gives me an infinite bubble wrap to pop until my heart is at peace.
As I tried to throw another punch, Pandemonium grabbed my hand.
“Anyway, Hyung, not with your bare hands. Right now, you wouldn’t feel anything even if your fists were crushed. Please. I’ll do anything. Okay? Should I slam my head against the wall?”
“…You’re saying I wouldn’t know even if something was smashed?”
I grimaced sharply.
“What did you feed me?”
“…I’m sorry. I messed up. I was wrong.”
“Hey. You fucking psycho. After what happened to you, you fed me something Athanasuki made? What did you think the effect would be?”
“But Hyung was in so much pain….”
“Fuck.”
I want to spread a plague that only kills low-intelligence people.
Then this guy would be the first to go.
“You piece of shit, did the War God nerf your intelligence? Is your brain not working? What if I became addicted to opium? I have a mental defense trait, but I don’t have Immunity to All Poisons. What were you thinking?”
“I….”
“You what.”
“I’ll make it up somehow.”
“How the fuck are you going to make it up?”
Are you going to kill me and then collect points to revive me?
What a load of bullshit.
“I have a method… in mind.”
“What is it.”
Let’s hear it.
It’ll definitely be something incredibly moronic.
“…He said if I call upon the name of the War God and beg for forgiveness, he’ll accept me as a Vassal.”
“Fuck.”
What was I expecting?
From this idiot?
“Hey. Just shut your mouth and go slam your head against the wall. Until your skull cracks.”
Every word he speaks makes my blood boil.
He has a talent for pissing people off beyond anything one could imagine.
“Hyung, please listen to me. He said if I become a Vassal, he’ll grant the Blessing of Restoration to Hyung too. Okay? Hyung is badly hurt right now. All of it can be healed cleanly. Look at this.”
Suddenly, a hot liquid splashed onto my face.
“It healed instantly, right? See?”
“How the fuck would I see it, you piece of shit?”
“…Ah.”
‘Did the War God really put an intelligence debuff on him?’
“Then touch it. Here. I just tore my hand off and attached it back. There’s no scar, right? Hyung will heal just as cleanly as soon as you become a Vassal. Not a fake arm replaced by something like maggots, but your real arm will come back. Your durability will rise to three digits….”
“Fuck. He likes 1-on-1 combat, but he gives his Units troll-level regeneration? Isn’t the War God a total loser?”
He’s basically saying he’ll ignore strategy and just charge in with one unit made with cheat codes.
All while insisting he didn’t lose.
“He’s an Othergod who suits a cowardly bastard like you perfectly. Birds of a feather.”
“…Hyung.”
“But fuck, you’re the guy who used to play strategy games. Is that unit’s intelligence in the single digits? Did your intelligence drop because of that influence? Or please, just use your brain for once. You want to hand me over to the War God? You trust a guy who couldn’t even stop himself from being played by the Distorted One? Seriously?”
“…Then who should I trust?”
“Regardless, I absolutely do not trust the War God.”
“Hyung, just… you only have to say one word. That you were wrong. I’m telling you, with that one word, all your injuries will heal. Okay? Hyung is a rational person. Don’t trust the War God, trust me. You said it yourself. In this crazy world, I’m about the only one you can trust….”
“Fuck, that was before you gouged my eyes out. You’re crazy too, you piece of shit. Now you’re the most untrustworthy bastard of all.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah.”
Don’t even think about insisting you haven’t fallen into madness.
The biggest characteristic of a crazy person is thinking they are normal.
“Then… can’t Hyung fix me?”
“What?”
“A crazy person doesn’t know what’s normal. Tell me, Hyung. What’s normal, and what’s crazy. I’ll do whatever Hyung tells me to do, and I won’t do what you tell me not to. I’ll live as you say, and if you tell me to die, I’ll die. Really. I don’t care if you brainwash me with a Skill. As long as Hyung stays alive by my side, I….”
“Ugh, fuck, didn’t I tell you to think? Why the hell are you dumping it on someone else again? Think for yourself and take responsibility for your own actions. Stop outsourcing your thinking. Why the fuck should I take responsibility for your idiocy?”
“…Even if a crazy person thinks, it’ll be a crazy thought, and if they put it into action, it’ll be a crazy act. Hyung. I, I never want to make such a terrible mistake again. I’m scared. I hate it. Do you know how miserable I felt after I came to my senses? Do you know how it felt after I realized what I had done? I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t breathe….”
Fuck, what do you want me to do about it?
You did it. You.
And fuck, once you realized it was Athanasuki’s trap, you should have forced yourself to find peace of mind.
He’s talking for a damn long time about how he earned a massive amount of disappointment points from the Distorted One.
“So you’ll do whatever I say?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then go bring Callister. He can use the Blessing of Healing.”
“Callister?”
“You must have met him at the bell tower. The maggot that looks like me. My Vassal.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Fuck, what now. What did you do to him?”
“I… smashed him.”
“How much?”
“Until he couldn’t return to Hyung’s form….”
‘Fuck.’
This is truly shitty.
What a troll of a troll.
How can he ruin every single thing like this?
“Fuck, are you really doing this on purpose?”
“I’m sorry…. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Hyung. I’m sorry. I was wrong….”
“Stop crying, you idiot. The Distorted One’s grin must be splitting his face because of you.”
When I snapped at him to stop crying, the tears actually flowed more heavily.
I almost wiped the tears away but stopped and shook my hand.
“Ugh, fuck, disgusting.”
“Hyung, really, I, sob….”
‘Still, seeing as the left arm is still intact, it seems he’s still breathing.’
Callister isn’t an idiot; he probably pretended to be dead and escaped when he had the chance.
Immediately after, Athanas, possessed by the Bell ringer, came down, so there was no chance for a perfect finishing blow. He must be alive.
‘However, if I send Pandemonium alone, he’ll absolutely never follow.’
“Forget it. I’ll have to go to the bell tower myself.”
“…In that body? No. Hyung. You really can’t feel it because of the painkillers, but you’re seriously badly injured right now. You could actually die.”
“So what. Fuck. It’s because of you. Didn’t you say you’d listen to everything I say?”
“Hyung, you really only have to say one word. Okay? Please….”
“Bullshit. I’d rather commit suicide right now and get a new body from the Mother God than trust the War God.”
“Are you… saying that seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m serious. At this point, I feel like I’d be more satisfied if I sided with the Mother God and killed both the War God and the Distorted One.”
“Hyung….”
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ ‘bloodlust’ cannot be felt.]
‘Fuck.’
Crazy bastard.
“You’re joking, right? Tell me it’s a joke. No, don’t even say that as a joke. Okay? Please…. I feel like I’m going crazy. I, I, I how much….”
“You piece of shit, you said you’d do as I say.”
“Hyung. I really begged and begged the War God. Just so I could say ‘I was wrong, O War God’ without any soul in it, and that would be enough. Do you know what conditions the War God originally set? He said that once Hyung becomes a Vassal, he would torture and insult him so that he would regret every single insult to death, making him crawl on the floor so he wouldn’t dare lift his head, and only then would he forgive him.”
“…And after hearing that, you still thought about making me a Vassal of the War God?”
“It’s better than dying….”
‘No, dying is a hundred times better.’
Telekinesis bound my entire body.
“Hyung, open your mouth.”
Thin metal clashed against my teeth.
The smell of blood stung my nose.
This son of a bitch Pandemonium was filling a cup with his own blood and trying to force-feed it to me.
I tried to resist, but he gripped my jaw open and poured the blood in, so I had to swallow at least some of it to avoid suffocating.
“Ugh, cough, blegh.”
‘Fuck, this is really nauseating.’
“Hyung, now you just have to say one word.”
“…No. I’ll never do it.”
“Please….”
Yeah, I wouldn’t say that word even if I died.
‘Seeing as he couldn’t make me a Vassal while I was unconscious, it seems this procedure is absolutely necessary, huh?’
“Wow, look at my health dropping. I think I’m going to die soon.”
I chuckled.
It was so shitty that I actually laughed.
“It was a moronic thing, but it helps at times like this. Since it doesn’t hurt, I’m not scared. I guess I wasn’t afraid of dying, but of the pain. Goodbye now, you son of a bitch.”
“No. Hyung. No. No. Please, don’t go. You can’t die.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t matter what you say. You stay here with the corpses and keep copying points for the Distorted One.”
“Hyung, please, this is no time to joke….”
“I’m not joking. I’m serious.”
‘Fuck, this actually seems dangerous.’
I intentionally coughed a few times.
Blood that wasn’t mine trickled down.
“Why, why, why, why is this happening? Hyung. I was wrong about everything. Please just don’t die. Okay? I’ll do anything.”
“Fuck, this guy is pissing me off until the very end. When did I say I was dying? I said let’s go to the bell tower. You said you’d listen to everything I say, but you’re not listening to a single thing. You idiot. I told you not to listen to the War God….”
“I, I won’t. I won’t do it anymore. I, what should I do? No, let’s go to the bell tower right now. I was wrong. Really. I’ll do exactly as Hyung says. I’ll do whatever you tell me to. Just hold on a little longer.”
“No, it’s already too late for that.”
I might not have known before, but now I could feel that death was truly close.
There was no pain, but it was freezing.
It seemed to be because too much blood had left my body.
“Pandemonium.”
I pulled off the cloth covering my eyes.
Seeing his sobbing face, I thought I should have just kept my eyes closed.
‘Idiot.’
“You asked who you should trust instead of the War God, right?”
“Hyung….”
“Trust me.”
A god can borrow the Divine Power of their subordinates.
If so, they should be able to borrow the power of a Vassal as well.
“Trust me, Pandemonium. Serve me as your god. Not the War God.”
I shoved a blood-soaked bandage into Pandemonium’s mouth.
“If this isn’t enough, lick the floor clean. And swear that you trust Lord Fabio and will trust no other god. Eat my blood and flesh, and become my Vassal.”