Creak—
Inside the cabinet were two outdoor robes, and a small portal that looked suspicious at a glance.
The portal, placed at the bottom of the cabinet, was just big enough for one person to use.
‘It’s not a portal made for just anyone to use.’
Most important portals are designed to respond only to their master’s mana.
As he expected, the portal didn’t react even when he reached his hand toward it.
“I need Lady Dike’s mana……”
After thinking for a moment, Astaire came up with a clever idea.
He went back to the drawer and opened the compartment where the key had been. Then he took out the comb and examined it.
A strand of Dike’s hair, still tangled and left behind, was caught in the comb.
When Astaire brought it close to the portal inside the cabinet, the portal began to glow blue and activate.
But it was too risky to go through right away.
‘It’s still work hours, so I don’t know when Lady Dike might come back.’
Dike’s work hours ended around dinner time.
It would be better to return then to check what was beyond the portal.
Astaire locked the cabinet again, put the key back in its place, and left Dike’s office as if nothing had happened.
****
When Rashiel opened his eyes, he saw the view of a huge but empty room.
Inside, there was only a single marble table placed in the middle.
Rashiel approached the table where the forbidden book lay, and took out a stack of papers from his inventory.
They were notes where he had written down from memory the contents of the forbidden book in the Holy Nation.
He roughly remembered the contents, but since the forbidden book was written in an ancient language and required cross-referencing with the missing half, this method was easier.
Rashiel placed the papers next to the forbidden book and began reading them together.
The forbidden book was recorded in the form of notes by someone who had studied dimensional rifts.
「When space-time was torn, a dimensional rift appeared. Inside, it was filled with the foreign mana I once felt from the Demon God.
If I could gather that mana, wouldn’t it be possible to create a Demon God?」
The contents of the very first entry were shocking.
‘A Demon God… was created?’
According to history, before the five heroes—including Ruel—defeated the Demon God, it was said that the Demon God had already been defeated once.
By Saintess Dike.
After that, the Demon God was believed to have resurrected once it regained its strength.
But in truth, it wasn’t resurrection—it was creation. Someone had made it.
‘A madman’s insane idea led to insane actions.’
Rashiel frowned, his eyes cold as he read the next entry.
「I extracted mana from the foreign world and injected it into a human body. But the subject writhed in pain and quickly died.
What went wrong? Human bodies already have mana flowing through them. ―Though it’s a different type of mana― I must research further.」
As expected, the writer had begun human experiments.
Rashiel turned to the next entry.
「When I injected the mana of chaos into a priest’s body, the priest lasted longer than ordinary humans. But within a day, he went mad.
(omitted)
This time I tried it on a cleric. This one lasted a week.
I think I understand why priests and clerics can endure chaos mana better than others.
Chaos mana and holy power are opposites. But precisely because they are opposites, holy power can withstand chaos mana.
Still, this isn’t enough.
A Demon God that goes mad and self-destructs is meaningless.
I need a soul with holier, purer divine power than ordinary priests or clerics.」
The later entries also contained records of experiments.
Beyond creating a Demon God, the writer also conducted various studies related to dimensional rifts.
What would happen if a monster egg were placed inside a rift? How did time flow within it? Could it lead to another dimension? And so on.
These processes and results were all recorded in the journal.
And scattered among them were further entries about the Demon God.
「Recently, the youngest princess of the Eurion Kingdom awakened her divine power. It’s said to be so great that she’s called the incarnation of the first King of Eurion.
I must meet her.」
At that last sentence, Rashiel furrowed his brow. A bad feeling rose in him.
He turned the page, but for a while, it was only more research entries on dimensional rifts, no different from before.
After flipping several more pages, he finally found an entry about the princess of Eurion.
「The princess said she would give even her soul if it could stop the war her father had started.
Poor child……
If it were me, I could grant her wish.」
Rashiel’s eyes trembled violently as he read.
The writer, who had been searching for a pure divine soul to create a Demon God, had finally found such a soul. What he must have done with it was obvious.
Though Rashiel already knew the result of this research, he still turned the page, hoping it wasn’t so.
「I have succeeded in creating a Demon God. Now the war will end, and all attention will turn to the Demon God.
No one will recognize my efforts, but it doesn’t matter.
I only wish for humans to stop harming each other and live in harmony. Forever.」
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh slipped from Rashiel’s lips.
‘The Demon God was originally human.’
That a human was turned into a Demon God.
The Demon God he himself had slain had, in truth, been a human forcibly made into one by someone else.
‘For nearly a thousand years, no one doubted the Demon God’s identity. They only believed it was evil, an enemy to be opposed…’
How foolish humans were.
Because it had always been so, because it was different from them, because everyone feared it—centuries of hostility against the Demon God now seemed laughable.
Just as Rashiel was mocking that truth, his movement flipped the pages all the way to the last.
On the final page, a black magic circle was drawn.
At that moment, a possibility flashed through Rashiel’s mind.
‘If the forbidden book wasn’t destroyed but instead split into two volumes, that means it can’t be destroyed.’
Most likely, the black magic inscribed on the last page was a protective spell preventing the book from being erased.
‘The caster of the black magic wanted this book to never disappear, no matter what.’
Because within it was information that must not vanish.
‘But the truth about the Demon God could have been written down separately. Why cling to this particular book?’
There must have been a reason why it had to be this book.
As he thought that, he noticed the bottom of the page with the black magic circle was slightly torn.
Behind what he thought was attached to the cover, there were words written.
Rashiel’s eyes sharpened as he found it.
He was certain the writer of the black magic had left this book behind for the sake of those hidden words.
And his instincts told him his guess was correct.
Rashiel slowly tore off the last page that had been stuck in place.
****
Late in the afternoon, Ruel returned to the temple and sat nervously on a bench in the secluded back garden.
‘The plan went wrong. He might think I’m useless now.’
She anxiously bit her fingernail when she sensed someone approaching from behind.
“Tsk tsk… You can’t even handle something this simple properly.”
The one who appeared, clicking his tongue, was an old man dressed in cleric robes.
Unlike how she controlled her expression in front of others, Ruel showed her hardened face freely in front of him.
“You talk easily, since it wasn’t your task. But shouldn’t you have already taken care of that incompetent cleric? That’s why this whole mess happened, isn’t it?”
The “incompetent cleric” she mentioned was Baylor, who had failed to assassinate Henry.
Ruel blamed Baylor for exposing their hideout through his failure, which allowed Elsez to uncover today’s events.
At that, the old cleric’s face stiffened.
“When that girl raided the hideout, if you had read through all her moves and responded, things wouldn’t have escalated to this point.”
“Don’t you think that girl’s instincts were too sharp for that?”
“And you think saying that makes it an excuse? All it proves is that you’re admitting you’re dumber than her.”
Ruel flared up to argue back, but she found no words and bit her lip instead.
After calming her emotions for a moment, she asked,
“So, why did you come to me? Surely not just to pick a fight.”
“An order has been given.”
Ruel’s eyes froze.
She knew what those words meant.
The cleric added,
“Tonight, it will begin. Wait at the plaza.”
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