#177

“Fabio, you can’t.”

Callister snatched the flower away and tossed it onto the floor.

“You’ll get sick if you eat strange things! Fabio, you’re still a young god, so you have to be careful.”

“…Huh?”

“If you’re not careful, you might end up mixing!”

‘Mixing?’

I stood there dazed for a moment, but as I realized what thought had just crossed my mind, a cold sweat began to pour down.

‘I actually thought about eating that?’

Am I fucking insane?

And not just anything, but a Distorted One’s Relic?

‘I’ve lost my mind.’

The moment one considers persuasion and distortion to be the same, truth becomes meaningless.

If I had swallowed that flower, I would have become nothing more than a Sophist.

‘If I could twist people’s perceptions at will with a Silver Tongue….’

My way of thinking would gradually grow closer to that of the Distorted One.

And eventually, I would be devoured whole.

It would be nothing less than a prepared feast.

“…Thanks. You saved my life.”

“It’s nothing. I am your Callister, after all. Fabio, if you weren’t here, there would be no meaning to my existence.”

Callister continued speaking, rubbing his head vigorously against my hand.

“So hurry up and throw that thing away! I’ll fix your eyes for you. You shouldn’t be near things like that. They’re filthy.”

“…Things like that? You done talking? And what exactly is filthy about me?”

“The smell of blood is overwhelming! To think you’d try to dump the blood-price on Fabio, who has never killed a single person! Trash! Pleasure killer! Lunatic! Demon!”

“Hah. Should I add some bugs to the pile of corpses I’ve built?”

“…Don’t fight with a child.”

“Hyung, you know he’s really not a child, right?”

“So what. Then you shouldn’t have smashed it.”

“Hyuuung. Haven’t you been way too biased since a while ago? I’m starting to feel a bit hurt. Do you know that the first murder happened because of favoritism?”

So what, are you saying you’ll kill Callister?

‘…This piece of shit doesn’t even know what he did wrong.’

Fuck, Callister only worried about me even while his entire body was being crushed.

Pandemonium, you almost killed me, so if I treat you the same, isn’t that the definition of bias?

I let out a short sigh and changed the subject.

“Right. You attended the Council, didn’t you? Tell me everything you know. What on earth happened?”

“Huh? I didn’t attend that.”

“What?”

“All the apostles would be gathered there; why would I go? It’s not like I want to die.”

“Then who from the Teres family went?”

“The Head of the family was there. This body’s mother.”

‘…Then why the hell did you come to the Capital Church?’

“Do you know why the players tried to hold the Council?”

“Ah, that. I know that. It was, what do you call it… they held it to plant a kind of ‘unavoidable logic bomb.’”

“A logic bomb?”

“You know, Oblivion. That broken, overpowered god that wasn’t in the game. You know him?”

“…I know him very well.”

“The House Lizard was the first to discover ‘Oblivion’ and questioned its very existence. If it’s a Subordinate of Order, there should be priests or scriptures, so why is there nothing? In the first place, is Oblivion a concept that can coexist with Order? The existence of Oblivion itself makes one lose faith in Order. What if someone creates a doctrine and then erases it from everyone’s memory? Wouldn’t that mean they could condemn everyone who unknowingly broke it by force of circumstance?”

“And?”

“The more the existence of Oblivion becomes widely known, the more restrictions there will be on its use. There were roughly three bills the players wanted to pass at the Council. First, if Oblivion is used, it must be notified. Second, it must be recorded who Oblivion was used on and for what reason. Third, nobles must be given the authority to view those records. If that request is denied, the reason must be explained.”

‘…There’s no way Order would agree to that.’

Even if there was a unanimous vote at the Council, it ends there if the apostles refuse at the final stage.

The House Lizard couldn’t have been unaware of that.

“How does that become a logic bomb?”

“Because the House Lizard put a Vertical Drip inside those clauses.”

“…A Vertical Drip?”

“The Name of Oblivion.”

Pandemonium scratched his head and continued.

“You see, the matters decided at the Council are summarized in writing and delivered even to those who didn’t attend. Even if it’s rejected, the bill itself that was proposed at the Council gets written there. That means all the bishops of the Dark Realm would ‘see’ the Name of Oblivion.”

‘That crazy House Lizard….’

Oblivion does not know what he is doing.

That is why, once an ‘intrusion’ is finished, he must erase his own name.

Because if a door remains after he leaves, he cannot distinguish whether it is a place he ‘has been’ or a place he ‘must go.’

‘But imagine if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of doors suddenly appeared.’

He could effectively grab Oblivion by the ankles.

At the very least, it was a level where he would have to give up his current method of operation.

‘Or waste points to erase all those hundreds of thousands of doors.’

Either way, it’s a massive loss from Order’s perspective.

“…He’s fucking sharp.”

“Am I?”

“Not you. I mean the House Lizard.”

He used the loopholes in the rules established by Order to put Order in a checkmate.

Even though the rules were overwhelmingly advantageous to Order by any standard….

“So? How did the apostles react to that?”

“I told you, I wasn’t there!”

“…….”

“Ah, there is something the House Lizard speculated. In that situation, the way to lose the fewest points would be to issue a Revelation and change the rules of the Council itself, but he said Loclem wouldn’t be able to do that. He said Order cannot intervene directly during the Tutorial period.”

I furrowed my brow.

“…Then what was that gaze?”

“Gaze?”

“You didn’t feel it?”

That pressure that made the air feel clumped together and felt like my lungs were shrinking.

Just thinking about it made my brain feel like it was melting into mush….

“…Forget it if you don’t know. Anyway, it turns out that speculation wasn’t true.”

“Why?”

“Because if intervention were truly impossible, he wouldn’t have been able to make the Bell ringer descend upon Athanas.”

“Hmm. Or maybe since the System isn’t normal right now, he’s moving through the gaps.”

“The System isn’t normal?”

The chat window and reserved messages seemed to be working without a problem.

Of course, even though I became a god, the occupation field in my Status Window still says ‘Chanter.’

“I ran into one of the apostles earlier, and the Tutorial emergency whatever didn’t turn on. Normally, a notification pops up just by an apostle coming close.”

“…How did you survive that?”

“He just let me go, saying the Lord told him not to do anything right now.”

‘What?’

“He didn’t do anything, even though I wasn’t contaminated?”

The apostles?

Why?

‘Why did Loclem give such an order?’

To do nothing.

While the mother goose is swallowing people whole?

‘It’s not like he prioritized removing the contamination either.’

Why?

Why?

‘…If he had spare Units, why did he capture Athanas?’

I can’t understand it.

No, I don’t want to.

“Hyung?”

“Athanas….”

Is it okay to leave him in the hands of Order?

‘…Even in Die Heretic!, that Order bastard was absolute trash.’

After I worked my ass off to save a world that was already ruined, the Order bastard stripped me of my apostle status and sent me to hell, saying I had too much blood on my hands.

It was truly a fucking shitty ending.

Of course, Order had his reasons for doing so.

In a state where Faith had already been largely lost, if the sins of an apostle were not judged, Order’s Divinity would be completely compromised, and he would follow the path of losing his qualification as a god.

‘And every soul belonging to Order would have scattered like dust.’

Everything that Athanas and Adelaide had tried so hard to save would vanish meaninglessly.

Athanas himself had requested to be condemned first.

Throughout the game, there were hints that he would fall into hell.

‘But still, fuck.’

When Order was intact, he wouldn’t be able to set a single foot in the Dark Realm, but the curse that he would descend upon the land again to kill heathens once Order collapsed—wasn’t that too much?

He could have just given him peace.

It’s not like he was freezing a person and thawing them out only when needed.

When I was playing the game, I managed to convince myself that they made this kind of ending just to create a sequel, but….

‘I can’t let this happen.’

Recalling Athanas’s ending, sleeping while listening to the lullaby Adelaide sang to him in the abyss of hell, I felt a wave of PTSD coming on.

‘Athanas….’

“What about the Heretic Butcher?”

“…Don’t call Athanas that.”

“Huh? Hyung, are you crying? Did you remember losing Athanas to Order?”

“Shut up.”

“Alright. I get it, so calm down. Lord Fabio. Please don’t cry. I was wrong. I pray like this. Pamen.”

“…….”

“Solmen. Ramen. Tantanmen.”

“…Fuck.”

“Oh. Look at how quickly the prayer is answered. I knew he was worth selling your soul for. The boss is delicious and the food is kind. 4 stars. I took 1 star away because they didn’t give me a freebie.”

‘I’m so fucking pissed.’

He’s like a damn brat….

“Ah. He laughed. I’ll change it to 5 stars. The service is amazing.”

“…I didn’t laugh.”

“I saw it! My dynamic vision can clearly confirm even a single frame! Your lips definitely curled up.”

“It was a hollow laugh because it was so absurd.”

“A bad law is still a law, and if hypocrisy is goodness, then a hollow laugh is still a laugh.”

I let out a long sigh.

Anyway, thanks to him, I managed to pull myself out of the sunken emotions.

‘Taking Athanas as a Vassal is probably impossible at this point.’

Do I really want to go to all-out war with Loclem?

More than anything, it’s not like I’m going to remain a god forever.

Once I recover my eyes, I’m going to throw away things like Divinity….

‘…But if I stop being a god, what happens to Pandemonium?’

Does he become the property of the War God again?

Or….

‘Game Over is not an option.’

“Hyung, what are you thinking about now?”

“…Pandemonium. Can you open the shop right now? Or the Quest window? No, what is the War God Assistant doing right now?”

“That thing? It’s cursing like crazy. It’s throwing a fit, saying just wait until The ‘Stars’ open.”

‘Fuck.’

The only thing I brought with me is ‘Pandemonium.’

Other ‘Arrangements’ belonging to the War God are not mine.

‘…Can someone become a Contractor even if they aren’t a player?’

What if the War God manipulates the remaining Arrangements to try and kill Pandemonium after The ‘Stars’ open?

“How many servants does the War God have?”

“Ah. Right. There was something like that.”

“…Answer me.”

“Hmm. Everyone belonging to our family?”

“Fuck, how many is that?”

“Not a few dozen. Should I kill them all?”

I clutched my head.

This idiot….

‘…I have to do something about the War God Assistant.’

Because I have Pandemonium’s soul in my hand, I can feel the ‘heterogeneous thing’ hiding inside.

Should I say it’s like a parasite inside a needlefish’s gills?

‘Should I tear it out?’

The Assistant is a scrap not connected to the Othergod’s Main Body.

The Assistant, whose role is to carry out decisions the Othergod ‘would likely have made’ while The ‘Stars’ are closed, has a very low Affinity.

It’s at a level that even I could defeat.

‘It’s a parasite that fights by manipulating the player, so it’s natural that it’s powerless now that the connection with the player is severed.’

But I’m not confident in fighting something that doesn’t have a form yet.

In that case….

‘Let’s put it in a vessel.’

It didn’t need to be anything grand.

A roughly cut paper doll would be enough.

‘Especially since all the paper here is sheepskin.’

It’s more than enough as a vessel for that parasite.

I took out a book and cut out a page.

The page filled up with screams of [It hurts!], but soon turned into black ink and dripped onto the floor.

[Fabio, you’re too much! It hurts!]

The remaining pages of the book complained, but the cut-out paper was a pale white as the ink drained out.

It felt strange, as if I had sliced the flesh of a living creature.

‘…I don’t have scissors.’

Then I can just make a shape through origami.

What would suit that War God bastard?

I considered folding a small Velociraptor, but then I thought even that was too generous for the War God.

‘I’ll just fold a crane with legs.’

“What are you doing all of a sudden? Origami?”

“Pandemonium. Come here.”

“Huh?”

“Stay still. Don’t move.”

“Wait, what are you trying to do?”

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the invisible sensation.

‘…Why is this guy’s breathing getting ragged?’

“Hyung? Uh, where are you touching! Stop it! It feels weird! Stop it! Kyaaa!”

‘Stop bullshit.’

I spat the ‘War God scrap,’ drenched in the smell of blood, into the paper crane.

‘So fucking disgusting….’

The paper crane was stained the color of rusted iron and began to tremble violently.

The ‘Assistant’ of the great War God had descended into a mere paper crane.

[Y-youuuuu! To give me such humiliation…!]