#191

‘…What does that smile mean?’

I almost pressed him for an answer, but I stopped myself.

If I heard something like, ‘Because you’re probably the third one,’ my mood wouldn’t just end up being shitty; it would be catastrophic.

“Whatever. Just tell me how to get out of here.”

“Actually, you can already leave.”

“…What?”

“Look at the scroll.”

Following his words, I looked down at the scroll and saw a sentence I had no memory of writing.

[I shall no longer think about ________. I shall no longer be curious. I shall no longer recall. I shall no longer understand….]

‘…Does the effect become stronger if you use tautology?’

I looked up to ask, but the House Lizard was already gone.

A system window blocked my vision.

[SYSTEM): Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ ‘ ’ is removed.]

Suddenly, I realized that the sound of burning firewood was no longer audible.

[SYSTEM: Performing Integrity Check….]

[SYSTEM: Performing Integrity Check….]

[SYSTEM: Performing Integrity Check….]

…Things that had opened, closed.

Things I could clearly perceive vanished beyond the invisible domain.

I was trapped once again in a prison of bone and flesh.

Whatever could not be contained and overflowed was gnawed away by ‘Oblivion.’

[SYSTEM: Integrity Check passed.]

[SYSTEM: Ending ‘isolation’ for the subject.]

[SYSTEM: Installing the ‘God-tier? God-damn!’ plugin for user convenience.]

‘…Plugin?’

The moment I questioned it, notification windows began popping up like crazy.

[Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupdon’tleavemewakeupplease]

[IwaswrongIwaswrongIwaswrongIwaswrongIwaswrong]

[WhatdoIhavetodoTellmeanswermepleaseyesyousaidyouneededanarmIhavetogetitback]

[LordFabio pleaseforgivemeandalwaysstaybymysidewillkillmyselfifyouleave]

[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ ‘Prayers’ are provided as text.]

‘Holy shit, what is this?’

No matter how many I closed, they wouldn’t end.

I felt like I had clicked a wrong link and been kidnapped to a site riddled with malware.

‘It’s much better than that noise that felt like my head was splitting, but….’

Isn’t there some kind of ‘Silent Notifications’ feature?

[TIP: You can view missed ‘Prayers’ in the timeline.]

[TIP: You can mute the ‘Prayers’ of specific believers. The believer will not be notified that they have been muted! Why not try this if you have an overzealous devotee?]

‘Then I’ll mute them immediately.’

Thinking that, I opened my eyes and saw Callister’s face.

“…Callister?”

“Fabio!”

I tried to push myself up, but my entire body felt as heavy as lead.

Specifically, my right eye felt a dull, tingling numbness.

It seemed the nerves had regenerated quite a bit.

‘The opium effect is wearing off.’

“Fabio, this is the ninth time.”

“…Right.”

I filled my lungs with air and exhaled.

My head was a bit dizzy, but other than that, I was fine.

‘I thought that bastard Pandemonium would be blubbering.’

“Where’s Marcello?”

“He went downstairs.”

…Downstairs?

Where am I right now?

I was on the landing of the stairs in the Main Hall’s basement.

“How much time has passed since I lost consciousness?”

“About three hours….”

“Pandemonium!”

[SYSTEM: Pandemonium is online.]

[TIP: The ‘System User’ trait will disappear if the contract is not successful even after the Tutorial ends!]

[TIP: Chat can only be used between ‘System Users.’]

‘…The System bastard ignored this until now and then gives me a tip! This is actually annoying.’

“Pandemonium. Where are you? I’m awake.”

>> …Brother?

[ThankyouGodforreturningbrothertome….]

[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ ‘Prayers’ are provided as text.]

‘…Your god is me, though?’

Who the hell is he praying to?

The points were coming to me, but the format of the prayer was a bit irritating.

I’ll have to grab him later and teach him how to pray properly….

“Come up. I’ll be waiting.”

>> …If I go up and you’re unconscious, I’m seriously going to kill myself, so don’t joke around.

What the hell.

Why is his condition so bad?

‘What is this guy’s mental strength right now?’

The moment I wondered, the system window immediately displayed Pandemonium’s status window.

[‘Pandemonium (Believer of Fabio)’ : Acting Family Head of the Teres Family, Scoundrel, Head Collector, Dismantler]

[Health: 1750(-1165)] [Mental Strength: N/A] [Intelligence: N/A] [Strength: 962] [Durability: 775] [Charm: 450(-1750)] [Faith: N/A]

Status: [Injured(-942)] [Fatigued(Health-223)] [Infamous(Charm-670)] [Blasphemy(Charm-1080)]

Unique Traits: [Bloodline of Teres] [First Strike Victory] [Did I Get Him?!] [Pet Summon] [Nope, Can’t Hear You] …View More

Blessing: [Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme (Fabio)]

Status Condition: [Heavenly Punishment (Loclem)] [Heavenly Punishment (Loclem)] [Heavenly Punishment (Loclem)] [Heavenly Punishment (Loclem)] [Heavenly Punishment (Loclem)] …View More

Equipped Sacred Relic: [Fabio’s Left Arm (Palbio)] [Inventory]

“…….”

It was a status window that left me speechless.

I couldn’t tell what his mental strength was, but that wasn’t the important part right now.

‘…Heavenly Punishment?’

What on earth did he do to get hit by Heavenly Punishment this many—no.

Palbio?

‘Did he take that from the Saintess?’

There was no way he could be alive after taking that many Heavenly Punishments, so it seemed the tutorial emergency life-saving device was continuously deferring Loclem’s turn.

For a moment, my mind went blank.

‘This crazy bastard….’

I clicked ‘View More’ and counted the Heavenly Punishments; there were eight in total.

No, one more just increased, making it nine.

I could feel Loclem’s powerful will to kill Pandemonium by any means necessary.

‘Fuck, what do I do about this.’

I think we’re screwed.

With four-digit health, he might be able to withstand one Heavenly Punishment somehow, but nine….

‘Even the ‘Die Heretic!’ boss would melt in one hit.’

“Brother!”

Pandemonium came running up the stairs, skipping three steps at a time.

He only had a third of his health left, yet he was surprisingly energetic.

“I knew you’d wake up if I brought this!”

‘…It has nothing to do with that.’

Pandemonium handed me Palbio, who was covered in ink.

“What about you, Brother? Are you hurt anywhere? Why are you frowning? Does something hurt?”

“…What about your hand?”

“Huh? Oh, this. Some ink just got on it. It felt like a paint bomb went off down there.”

‘I can see the bone, what the….’

Just holding a Sacred Relic ‘blessed’ by the Saintess for a moment was incredibly hot.

But what if you touched the Saintess herself while she had her Halo deployed?

‘…When under Heavenly Punishment, the effect of traits is reduced by more than half.’

I clicked the detailed view of the restoration… no, the ‘Did I Get Him?!’ trait.

[Did I Get Him?!]

: A spell of resurrection. Allows one to survive injuries that would look fatal to anyone.

* Returns the subject to their state before being injured.

* Even if the head is severed, the subject will not die if it is reattached within 10 seconds.

* If the damaged part has been annihilated or the connection is severed, it ‘regenerates.’

* Due to the stacks of the current status condition ‘Heavenly Punishment,’ efficiency has decreased by 98%.

‘Fuck.’

Restoration efficiency of 2%?

At this rate, the moment the emergency life-saving device was deactivated, this guy would inevitably melt under a bolt of lightning and be reduced to a handful of ash.

“…Have you checked your status window?”

“No?”

“You’re fucked, so check it quickly.”

Pandemonium rolled his eyes and let out a small exclamation.

“Oh. I just noticed the trait names have all changed. They were all four-character idioms before.”

“Not that. The status condition part.”

“Heavenly Punishment, Heavenly Punishment, Heavenly Punishment…. Wow. It seems Order is very angry.”

“Is this the time to be laughing?”

“Well, it’s fine! What’s the worst that could happen? Death? The important thing is that you woke up, Brother. Even if I die, I’ll just end up by your side anyway….”

“Don’t you know that if you receive Heavenly Punishment, you fall into the Hell of Order?”

“Huh?”

“You’ll end up next to Loclem, not me. If things stay like this.”

Pandemonium suddenly went quiet.

“…Brother. If I fall into hell, you’ll come rescue me, right?”

“No.”

“Can’t you just say you’ll rescue me, even if it’s a lie? I could at least have hope. I could keep chewing on those words in hell….”

“If you fall into hell, I’ll probably be there too, so how the hell am I supposed to rescue you?”

“Brotheeer….”

Pandemonium’s eyes welled up, and he suddenly hugged me tightly.

“You’re coming to hell with me?”

“Fuck, do you think Order would leave me alone? Use your brain for once.”

“…Right now, I’m running a happy circuit thinking that you’ll do something for me.”

I let out a long sigh.

“First, ask Callister to fix your hand. With your current recovery rate, it’ll still look like that even after a week.”

“What? Me? That? I don’t want to! I don’t want to do it!”

“Callister. Please do it. He must be in a lot of pain….”

“He doesn’t look like he’s in pain.”

“No, he is. It hurts like hell. It hurts like crazy. It hurts so much he’s losing it. He feels like he’s going to die from the pain right now.”

“…Regardless, I don’t want to. Just let him be in pain.”

“Wow, a believer who ignores the command of his god? This is absolute trash. Lord, shall we proceed with excommunication immediately?”

“…Pandemonium.”

I should be soothing the kid, not teasing him more.

He’s the one who’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t get treated….

“Seeing as you’re kicking away the Blessing of Healing with your own feet, you must really not be in pain. Fine then. I was a fool for caring.”

At that, Pandemonium made a tearful face, buried his face in my shoulder, and began to whine.

“Brotheeer…. I really thought I was going to die from the pain earlier. Fuck, was that made to be overcome? It’s totally overkill. That huge Halo was slowly shimmering and fuck, it was so scary I thought I’d die. Telekinesis melted away without a trace from 10 meters away, and every time I took a step, my skin burned, and somewhere there was a smell of roasting meat….”

“Stop! Don’t describe it so specifically, I’m losing my appetite.”

I decided to try and coax Callister.

I couldn’t leave a high-performance unit who handles tanking, dealing, and healing all alone in an injured state.

“Callister. Is there any way? Even if I ask you?”

“…I don’t want to mix with that thing.”

“Then what if you use an adult of ledea that isn’t you?”

There is the research director’s laboratory in the Main Hall.

There are probably plenty of ‘contaminated adults of ledea’ there.

Callister hesitated, then reluctantly nodded.

“I understand. I can do at least that much. Though I really don’t like that the first thing Fabio asked of me was something like this….”

“Then I’ll change the first request to something else.”

“What is it?”

“…If I become strong enough to create apostles, Callister, will you be my Prime Apostle?”

Callister’s eyes widened.

“Really, really, really?”

“Of course. Would a god lie about the first request he makes to his first believer?”

“Fabio!”

Callister hugged my leg with all his might.

“Fabio, Fabio, Fabio!”

“Yeah.”

“My god, my master, my Fabio…!”

“Yes, yes, my Callister.”

I stroked Callister’s head.

‘Anyway, it’s not like anyone else is going to take him.’

I said I’d do it when I have the ability to make him an apostle, so if I lose my divinity before then and can’t do it, it’s not my fault.

“Now, let’s go to the lab.”

Since I’ve obtained Palbio, there’s something I want to try.