Chapter 10: Trial Complete

[The Calamity has returned. The Calamity of the Divine Realm has returned!]

A tremendous voice echoed through the dark cave, shaking it to its foundations.
At the center of the commotion among the voices was the pure-white goddess.

[What?! She shouldn’t have any power left to break the seal?!]
[That power… She used that power! The power that calls forth the end of the world!]
[Ah… In the end, the end has come to yet another world.]

Lilac ignored their murmurs and looked at Cain.
He stammered in a voice that sounded as though he could lose his breath at any moment.

“Ho… how… to… un…seal…”
“Don’t speak… It’s all right. Everything is all right now…”
“N… no…”

The blackened skin was carried away by the wind and scattered.
Seeing Cain’s body, which had been turned into hideous charcoal, Lilac ground her teeth with a sorrowful expression.

“Why… Why did you do this…”

She was experiencing a pain she had never felt before in her life.

‘It hurts… It hurts so much…’

It was a pain that felt as though her heart were being torn apart.
Her body had not been injured, so why did her chest ache this badly?

It was not the pain of a blade lodged in her body, nor was she dying from an illness.
She could feel that the very basis of the pain itself was different.

The more Cain’s body crumbled, the more the mysterious pain tearing at her heart intensified.

Overwhelmed by a pressure that felt as though it would crush her, Lilac silently closed her eyes.

‘I shouldn’t have said it… If I had known this would happen.’

The words she had casually let slip with a light heart had returned to her as such a horrific ending.

A simplistic thought that perhaps he was afraid of not being able to return home.

‘For such a simple thought to cause something like this…’

Strength gathered in Lilac’s hands.

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry… You ended up like this because of me…”

A hand turned to charcoal wrapped around Lilac’s head.
Feeling the heat against the back of her head, Lilac slowly raised her head.

Cain gave her a faint smile.

“…..”
“Yeah, I wasn’t hurt. So don’t worry.”

He smiled gently.

The gods whispered as they watched them.

[What? Is that really the Calamity?]
[How pathetic. The monster known as the Calamity of the Divine Realm is like that…]

Whoosh…

Cain’s eyes fell into the deep darkness.
The gods were calling Lilac the Calamity.
Staring at them, Cain quietly released his killing intent.

“…..”
[…..]
[…I understand.]

After hearing one of the gods answer, he withdrew his killing intent once more and looked at Lilac.

[I apologize for calling you the Calamity, Lilac.]
“…What? What’s your scheme all of a sudden?”

Lilac turned her head and glared at Lilith.
Lilith crossed her arms and hugged herself.

“That man told me. He told me… not to call you by the name Calamity.”
“What…? What does that…”

Tap…

Powder fell from Lilac’s head.
The blackened hand crumbled with a brittle crack.

“Ah… Ah! No… No!”

Lilac placed her hand against Cain’s heart.

“W… wait! I’ll heal you right away… I can save you…!”

Rustle.

Mana shimmered from her hand.
Pure-white particles rose and enveloped Cain’s body.

However—

“Why…? Why isn’t the healing working…? Why on earth…”

Cain’s body only continued to crumble.
Lilith slowly closed her eyes.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Then she said,

“That man… his body is already dead.”

“He’s truly an incredible man… To maintain his consciousness even after death…”

Lilac raised her head and gently caressed Cain’s cheek.

“What nonsense are you talking about…? No. No… Look… I’m alive, aren’t I? I’m still smiling like thi—”

Crack!

A fissure appeared across Cain’s gently smiling face.
As if proving that there was truly very little time left, Cain’s breathing gradually grew fainter.

“That man… can’t be saved. Not unless you use ‘that power’ again.”
“…..”

Tears fell from Lilac’s eyes.
Blood flowed from her tightly bitten lips.

“Then I only need to use it one more time!”
“You’re lying… You won’t use it. No…”

Lilith’s closed eyelids slowly lifted.

“Or is it that you can’t use it?”
“Ugh…!”

Lilac’s head dropped at her words.
Seeing her back as she drooped helplessly, Lilith let out a short sigh.

“Haa…”

Lilith slowly raised her hand.

“Will you let her go… back to her original world?”

The moment Lilith opened her mouth, all the gods began to stir.

[What?! What are you talking about, Lilith!]
[You want to release her? Why are you deciding that by yourself?]
[Are you insane?! Have you lost your mind?!]

Their panic could be felt simply from the sound of their voices.
Lilith covered her ears and frowned.

“You know it too… At this point, Lilac is no longer a threat to us.”
[Even so, releasing her is an entirely different matter. You have no authority to make that decision.]
“…..”

Lilith could understand the gods’ opposition.
No matter how weakened Lilac was, even to the point of extinction, she was still the goddess who had waged war against every god in the Divine Realm alone.

‘They want to root her out completely, right up to the very end.’

One after another, the gods raised their voices in opposition to Lilith’s words.

Just as every god was opposing her and they were all about to make their decision—

“Then…”

Lilith raised a finger.

“You all come down here yourselves, just like I did…”
[What…?]

A crimson light shimmered faintly in Lilith’s eyes.
She tilted her head and gently raised the corners of her lips.

“What… Are you unable to do it because you’re afraid of the Arbiter? But what a shame…”

Whoosh!

“If you don’t come down… I’ll just send her away.”
[…You.]

A pink mist spread from Lilith’s fingertips.
The mist slowly moved toward where Lilac was, before soon enveloping their bodies.

“What is this?! What are you trying to do now?!”
“Don’t be alarmed… I’m only sending you back to your original world.”

Lilac widened her eyes and glared at Lilith.

“You expect me to believe that?”
“…..”

Swoosh.

Whoom!

At a small motion of Lilith’s hand, the pink mist soared through the air.
She smiled gently at Lilac.

“You can trust me this time… I won’t lie in front of that man.”

The shimmering mist gradually grew denser.
Their floating bodies slowly became transparent as their bodies were transferred to another dimension.

Lilith whispered softly into Lilac’s ear.

“But I’m curious…”

Vroooom…

“Just how much shorter the world’s lifespan became because of the power you used.”
“Shut up. Next time, I will definitely come to claim the heads of you bastards…”

Whoosh!

A thick pink mist covered their vision.
As their sight flickered, their bodies were returned to the temple of Roflerum.

At the center of the cave where they had disappeared, Lilith stood there with her eyes closed.

“Yes… I’m counting on you.”

Then she murmured,

“Our pretty youngest sister…”

Whiiiiish…

The red moon rose high in the sky.
A blood-red glow illuminated the earth.

The ceiling of Roflerum, buried deep underground, had been blown away, and the red moonlight of the Demon Realm poured down over their heads.

Lilac carefully grasped Cain’s shoulders.

“Wake up! Cain! Please, wake up!”
“…..”

Only half of his body, which had been turned to charcoal, remained.

His dangling neck was precariously close to falling off, and the stronger the wind blew, the faster the erosion of his body accelerated.

Lilac buried her face against Cain’s chest.

“You idiot… What happened to you?”
“…..”

Cain wanted to answer her immediately, but his body could no longer move even slightly.

Ash fell from his stiffened neck.
Looking at the ash, Cain finally realized that the time had come.

‘…It’s over.’

How many times had he lost consciousness in that brief span of time?

‘Ten times? No, twenty?’

He didn’t know.
But he knew one thing.

‘The next time I lose consciousness will truly be the end.’

Cain looked at Lilac and forced a faint smile.

‘She looks fine. That’s a relief.’

Even at the moment of death, Cain was worried only about her.
Before his eyes, the faces of the countless comrades he had abandoned over the years flickered indistinctly.

‘…What’s this? Why are those guys suddenly coming to mind?’

Had they come to greet him now that he was about to die?
Or were they going to drag him to hell because they wanted to ask why he had abandoned them?

Heh…

‘Wait just a little, you guys. It’ll be soon.’

The pure-white goddess nestled in his arms.
The blackened charcoal that was Cain’s body had stained her pristine whiteness.

‘What is that? Don’t tell me that’s soot from my body?’

Wow, that’s bad…

Thinking that, Cain slowly moved his eyes.

‘…I really want to see Father.’

Why?
Even when he had been on the verge of death countless times, he did not think he had ever felt this way before.

‘Is it because I got to see his face again after so long, even if it was fake?’

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

‘Ah… I want to lie down on the bed in my room.’

A trivial thought he would never have entertained under normal circumstances.

‘I want to go home…’

Each of those trivial thoughts fluttered through Cain’s mind like dandelion seeds caught in the wind.

‘I want to eat until I’m full.’
‘I want to have a cup of coffee.’
‘I want to see the stars in the night sky.’
‘I want to go for a walk.’
‘I wonder how that book I was reading back then ended?’

‘Why? Why am I missing those times like crazy, when normally I would have simply ignored things like this?’

Hiss…

A sound like boiling water came from Cain’s blackened eyes.
A single tear rolled down his cheek and fell onto Lilac’s head.

Tap!

‘Ah… I see.’

The hot drop of water that had dampened the crown of her head.
Watching it evaporate in an instant, Cain realized.

‘I… still want to live.’

He was struggling because he was afraid of death.

‘You crazy bastard. Aren’t you even sorry to the people you killed? You’re really f*cking shameless.’

Longing clung to his soul.
Desperation kept his breath alive.

His life, which should have ended long ago, was pathetically prolonged by clinging to a thread called regret.

‘Haha… I’m disgusting right up to the very end. I’m worse than a monster.’

Cain felt profound disgust toward his own struggle.
Yet at the same time, even that disgust became nothing more than a momentary attachment.

In the end, he naturally admitted it.

‘…I want to live.’

Faced with the genuine fear of death, Cain realized his own arrogance.

He had thought that he had overcome countless moments when he nearly died.
That was why they had become his everyday life, and as he repeatedly survived those situations, he had gradually grown accustomed to death.

But in the end, those had only been situations in which he almost experienced death.

‘I’m scared.’

In the face of true death, all the resolve he had held until now collapsed in an instant.

He couldn’t smile.
He didn’t want to die miserably.
If there was someone who could save him, he wanted them to save him.

The death he was experiencing was darker and colder than anything else, rendering all the feelings he had carried until now meaningless.

Crack!

‘Ah…!’

As his burning neck broke apart, his gaze suddenly fell downward.

His head was nestled in Lilac’s arms.
He narrowed his eyes, wanting to see Lilac’s face one last time.

“No… No!”
‘…..’

The moment he saw her face, the anxiety Cain had been feeling melted away like snow.

‘Still, that’s a relief…’

The eyes that had been filled with nothing but anxiety now held the peace of relief.

‘At least this time… I think I can go without regrets.’

Crack!

The eyes that had been looking at her shattered in an instant.
Thinking that this was truly the end, Cain gently closed his eyes.

…..

Rustle… rustle…

Pure-white fragments rose from Lilac’s body.
Holding Cain’s dead head in her arms, Lilac endlessly murmured something.

“■□■■□– ■■□□□! ■□□…”

The pure-white fragments continued filling the space around them.
The fragments drew something out of Cain’s body.

Whoosh.

An illusion resembling a black, flickering flame appeared.
The illusion floated in the air for a moment before gradually being sucked into Lilac’s body.

Continuing to accept the illusion into her body, Lilac hugged Cain’s body with all her strength.

“Do you think I will let you die… I absolutely cannot allow that.”

Whoosh!

“Cain… From now on, we will be together forever. I will give you everything I have. So please…”

[I beg you, do not resent me.]

“We found him! We found Cain!”
“Is that true?!”

After cutting down the last monster approaching the search party, Surd hurriedly ran toward the soldier who had shouted.

“Where did you find him? Tell me the location.”
“It’s where the pillar of light rose just now. They said they found Cain at the center of it.”
“What…? In that light?”

Surd widened his eyes as he recalled the pillar of light he had seen moments ago.

Whooooooosh!

A gigantic bolt of light that seemed capable of erasing everything.
With a thunderous roar like a storm erupting, a massive light descended upon the land of the Demon Realm in an instant.

It was a mysterious sight, like a miracle performed by a god.
Surd and the other soldiers clearly remembered the grandeur of that light.

“Yes… Cain…”

Surd’s trembling hand came to rest on the soldier’s shoulder.

“Was Cain safe? He’s safe, right? Was he injured anywhere?”
“Th… the thing is…”

The soldier could not answer and merely shifted his eyes.

“Why… Don’t tell me he was injured somewhere? Then call the medics—”
“Lord Surd.”

He turned around and looked toward where the pillar of light had risen.

“See for yourself.”
“…..”

Following the soldier’s guidance, he moved toward the place where Cain had supposedly been found.
Looking at the deeply sunken earth resembling a volcanic crater, Surd glanced around.

“Where is he? Where is Cain? What unit has he joined?”
“Use this.”

The soldier handed him a telescope.

“…..”

Surd silently raised the telescope and looked toward the center of the crater.
As the blurry, wavering focus gradually became clear, he finally found his son.

“Ah… Aah…!”

A neck that had been burned black and fallen away.
A body that had been completely shattered.

The clothes he had been wearing were torn to rags and fluttered in the wind, while the identification tag that symbolized him gleamed brightly.

Cain was dead, holding a pure-white woman in his arms, his body reduced to a horrifying state.

Clatter, clatter…

The telescope fell to the ground and rolled down the slope.
The moment it came to rest before Cain’s corpse, Surd lost consciousness.

Thud!

“Lord Surd!!!”