By Zephyria 
Part 14.
Recognizing the sound of his teeth chattering was faster than recognizing the cold. Only after noticing that his teeth were chattering because of his trembling jaw did I realize that an icy coldness had permeated my entire body.
“Noah, are you alright?”
Carlisle took off the cloak he was wearing and wrapped it around me, then frantically rubbed my shoulders and arms. Nevertheless, the trembling of my body did not stop easily.
“Oh, God, thank you…. Your body was so cold, I thought you would never wake up, I was….”
His frightened voice habitually mentioned the name of the main enemy we were trying to defeat. I gnashed my teeth while still not fully conscious and trembling. God? It was ridiculous. That such a thing was God. It would be better to worship a stone rolling on the street.
My head ached as if it would explode. The sharp fragments of memory that the Spirit had shoved into me through the lake were so vivid and overwhelming that my head was a mess.
The Spirit must have been completely annihilated by now. I felt it instinctively. Like Carlisle, the Spirit was an existence that could escape God’s influence. For that reason alone, God must have kept my dead body in a morgue every time he turned back time. Because being free from influence and being able to resist and defeat God were clearly different matters. But even God wouldn’t have known. The fact that the Spirit, which he used as a convenient refrigerator or morgue, had been secretly stealing memories from my body that God had entrusted to it. The fact that I was able to safely recall all the events I had experienced directly, from my own perspective, rather than being distorted by God’s intervention.
The memory of stabbing a knife into the middle of my chest myself was still vivid. I groped my chest with my wet palms for no reason. Carlisle, thinking that I was feeling pain in my lungs, became even more pale, removed my hand, and stroked the area above my chest, where I no longer felt pain, with his own hand.
“This won’t do, let’s go back quickly. It’s better to go back, warm up your body, and get some proper rest….”
The hand patting my chest was already trembling more terribly than I was. This person… how could he be so unchanged? I felt like tears would burst out as soon as I said anything, so I just nodded while being hugged.
It was the limit. I closed my eyes as I felt Carlisle lift me up in his arms. I needed time to sort out my thoughts.
“Noah Hamilton!”
“You, daring… how dare you…!”
That night. As soon as I succeeded in piercing Carlisle’s fangs into my body, safely avoiding God’s eyes, the angry God appeared before my eyes, rushing towards death in his true form, not caring that the world was distorted. I could feel so well, even in the face of death, how carefully his avatars, who had come to see me so many times, had hidden their power.
He muttered angrily, asking if I knew what I had done. He seemed unable to tolerate me, who had caused this mess by not enduring the short period of time, when he only had to endure one lifetime. I think I giggled inappropriately as I listened to those words. What I couldn’t endure was not the seventy-odd years of human life unfolding right before my eyes… but the eternity that would unfold after that, which I had to spend alone with him.
Anyway, he must have been reading all my thoughts at that time. He just didn’t think it was necessary to pay attention. I was a foolish and weak human being, and he was the most perfect absolute being in this world.
“You said you loved me.”
So I just asked that. While fully experiencing with my whole body that God was delaying the already confirmed death by only a few minutes with all his might.
“Yes. I love you. Only you, and no one else.”
So that’s why it turned out like this, the sarcastic voice still had obvious anger.
“If those words are true….”
Until then, I still had a slight sense of guilt towards him. I was well aware that I had completely thrown the perfect eternity he had emphasized, God’s will, into the trash.
“Please, let me go now, please… set me free. I don’t want to be in pain anymore. I want to be comfortable now.”
“Ha, haha…. Hahahaha. How amusing. Are you saying you haven’t been comfortable until now?”
“…You know.”
When he took a big step, lightning struck from the sky, which was already half collapsed. The ground was shaking unusually, as if there was an earthquake somewhere.
“How much more of your childish whining do I have to endure? Alright. You want to be free? You’ve been in pain, so you want to be comfortable now?”
“……”
“I gave you everything. Affectionate parents and loving siblings, a wealthy but not powerful enough family. Even all the wealth and glory that a human can enjoy. I was even worried that if Adrian Pearson’s power, who would be your spouse while you lived as a human, became too strong, you might experience something uncomfortable, so I personally twisted the fate of that guy who should have been born from the womb of the Empress. Not only that, but I even awakened Beatrice Gracio as a Dominant Omega so that you could push her out of the position whenever you didn’t want the Empress’s position.”
It was something I had never imagined. I had been told that things were different after I was born, but I had heard about how terrible things had happened between the childless Empress and the humble Adrian. But it was all because of me. Beatrice, who was like my only friend, had been treated as a mere spare by God because of someone like me…
“Ugh… I didn’t need that… I never wanted to receive it…!”
The words didn’t even continue properly. The burning pain in my chest and the sobs mixed with guilt for my two precious people were bursting out sporadically.
“How arrogant, my beloved Noah. How can you assert that you didn’t need it without even experiencing a life not densely surrounded by my love and my Blessing?”
God sneered. He asked how many wretched humans there were in countless worlds who lived miserable lives where families sold each other for money, hated each other to the point of killing each other out of jealousy for love, or even bit their own flesh out of desperate hunger.
“It seems I raised you too preciously. So you try to run away like this, saying that the loneliness of having to endure only a few years as a human is painful.”
Rumble, bang!
The pale face reflected in the lightning striking the earth was particularly alien. He walked towards me and hugged my dying body affectionately.
“Alright, fine. Since you chose death using the weapon of the Primordial God, I no longer have a way to hold you back.”
“……”
“Let’s make a Sacred bet with me, Noah.”
“A Sacred bet…?”
“It’s simple. We each wager what we desire, and offer a price of equal weight for that wish. Whether you give up or I give up, the wish of the winner will be granted.”
My eyes kept closing. If I fell asleep like that, I felt like I could sleep deeply without even dreaming. No matter how much of an equal weight of sacrifice I offered, there was no way I could win a bet with God. Isn’t it all over when I die anyway? I refused the bet he offered and tried to sink into eternal sleep as it was.
“Ah, over there. Your mother has collapsed.”
At that moment. God whispered as if singing. With a voice that even sounded gleeful.
“Your two brothers whom you love, and your respected father… Graham’s bloodline sleeping inside the mansion. That insolent Sorcerer who dared to try to snatch you away from my embrace. …Or, how about the Emperor who loved you so dearly?”
“What are you talking about…”
“How naive. Did you really think I would back down if only you died?”
“……!”
“I won’t forgive you for escaping so easily. If you escape forever, know that the lives of all the humans you love and who loved you will end as soon as you escape.”
“Ugh…!”
“So, will you accept?”
It was a sentence phrased as a question, but in reality, it was an order. I, who already thought I had committed an unforgivable sin to everyone, couldn’t possibly take even their remaining lives.
I nodded, and God smiled brightly.
That’s how our Sacred bet began. That damned bet that would last for longer and more cruel years than I could imagine.