Luna leaped. No, it was more accurate to say she flew. It was an incredible leap.

"Dieeeee!!!"

Fwrrrrrr!

The mana from her burning anger was as fierce as the flames engulfing her sword. The flames headed toward Swift where her eyes were fixed.

"!"

Swift’s eyes widened. Despite his mouth being covered in blood from the arrow that hit him, he swung his sword.

Kaaang!

Luna and Swift's swords clashed. Sparks flew as he blocked Luna's attack.

Swift tightened his grip and shouted with bloody lips, "You damn bitch! Aren't you tired of this?!"

Fwoosh.

He kicked Luna’s abdomen and she staggered back.

"Oof...!"

"Just quietly become nourishment and give me all the experience points you've accumulated so far!"

Swish.

Swift swung his sword around and deflected something else.

Clang!

It was an arrow shot by Almond.

"What a nuisance."

The blue arrow disappeared like smoke, but two more followed.

Thunk!

Swift effortlessly deflected them again. His combat prowess was clearly different from before. How did he become so much stronger? Was it through runes and leveling up?

"I don't know when you learned this arrow trick, but Almond..."

Swift seemed to be talking about the curved shot.

"It's useless against me now!"

Zap!

[Flash]

He teleported to the sword he threw and appeared far away from Almond.

Swift shouted to the administrator, "Hey! Administrator! I choose option three! I choose option three!"

— ???

— Wtf.

— They were acting like they were going to fight.

— Dweeb Swift

— What a chicken.

— Tricks, lol.

Swift immediately chose option three. What would happen now?

As Almond pulled the bowstring, he couldn’t stop looking at the bird.

Its beak opened, "Option three is recharging the castle. Good—"

Whooosh!

An arrow pierced through its beak.

"!"

"!?"

Everyone became stunned. Swift, Luna, and even the bird had bewildered expressions.

Almond had attacked the bird? Such a thing couldn't happen.

The bird also seemed a bit puzzled for the first time. It suddenly turned into feathers and disappeared.

"What... what's this...?"

"It, it disappeared? Was it a fake?"

"This... is illusion magic."

The children mumbled as they looked at the spot where only feathers remained. The bird had disappeared. Whether it was an illusion or the real thing, the being that granted wishes had disappeared.

"Damn it! What is this!?"

Swift ran toward the castle in anger. He looked like a madman.

"No, no!! You can’t imagine how much I collected until now! If I just absorb Luna's piled-up memories, it would’ve been almost enough now...!"

His voice cracked and he seemed to have given up on attacking Almond and Luna.

— So that’s why he spared Luna?

— Wow...

— He knew Luna had memories and kept persisting.

— The god of persistence lol.

— Persisting with Luna inevitably leads to a grim end.

??— Damn~

"You... you…!"

Swift glared at Almond and Luna. It was a taste of true bitterness.

"Damn... you. You all always act like this. I knew you guys would cause trouble at the end?! In the end!!!"

His sagging arms fell to his waist.

"... But the administrator will be back soon."

Shrug.

Swift drew another sword and glared at Almond.

"Until then, you all better behave."

Zzzt...!

Shivers ran through Almond’s body. It was a pressure he had never felt before. His blonde hair started to burn faintly.

Fwrrrrrr!

This was Swift's real skill.

'It’s completely different from before.'

He had never really fought properly against Swift before.

Swift never had any intention of killing anyone other than the contractors. No, he couldn't kill them. They were all precious nourishment for the castle.

"Swift didn't surrender because of camaraderie, but because he needed everyone to recharge the castle."

Now, the moments when he occasionally showed camaraderie made sense.

— So true.

— Seems like it.

— Drift shit...

— Wow, I can’t believe this…

Swift surrendered more easily than expected when the ninja took their party members as hostages. He also spared Luna for a reason. Luna had accumulated an enormous amount of memories. He wanted to absorb them all at once, so he killed everyone who approached Luna while sparing her. Her accumulated experience points were too precious.

Swift’s only goal was to deliver as many experience points as possible to the castle efficiently.

"Swift! Did you really intend to... use us like this?!" the bewildered party members asked him.

Ben was also among them.

"Swift... but... you just said option three... even though you're already a contractor..."

Swift still had no intention of killing the party members. They had to be kept alive until the next administrator arrived, but they seemed to have completely changed their minds about him.

"A contractor, huh? Being a contractor is up to each person, you stupid bastards. Do you think you can live off nobility forever just by becoming a contractor?"

His dry lips curled into a sneer.

"People who say such stubborn things are usually the ones who can't afford it. Once you become a contractor with a lower tier god, your life becomes predetermined. It's even more hellish than yours. Understand?"

"That can't be an excuse, Swift."

Luna clenched her fists and stood up.

"Such self-righteous talk... in this hellish place..."

She spat blood as she spoke, but her eyes flickered with life.

"It can't be a reason for making us repeat this murderous competition for years and continue to kill and be killed."

"Huh?" Swift seemed rather bewildered and rebutted. "A murderous competition? You're talking as if it's someone else's business, Luna?"

"..."

"Why did you participate in this murderous competition then? Aren’t you here because you wanted to take over the castle even if you had to kill everyone? You even said your goal was to kill someone."

"Stop the nonsense. If I knew the abyss was this kind of place, I wouldn't have come. If I succeeded once, I would've chosen option two and left."

"You wouldn't know that, Luna. You never got the chance."

Swift sneered.

"You didn't even have the right to choose, Luna."

Swift's lips curled into a sneer again.

"You say that if it were you, you would've done this or that. Aren't you just bluffing? You're saying you're someone who would do this or that even though you had nothing to spare for anyone else? You're saying you're someone who would sacrifice for others while I sacrificed myself!"

— Proper debater, damn.

— Wtf lol.

— He's got a point.

— Swift, what a gaslighter.

— Swift for Congress!

"Furthermore, what harm have I caused you guys?"

"What?"

"Was it really that difficult to just repeat everything without knowing? You guys didn’t even know up until this point!”

— Haha, what ridiculous logic.

— This guy must have repeated this dozens of times.

— This is crazy.

— Gosh, haha.

— What a support level in political skills, haha.

"What? Is this endless repetition difficult? Outside of this place, workers are repeating the same hellish tasks without even remembering anything! Are you saying you're experiencing more hell than them?!"

Luna's body trembled from the consecutive waves of Swift's provocative remarks.

"What... Are you saying that now…?"

"So I propose this. I'll continue to stay with you guys. If you follow my journey as a contractor, I will fill this place with sanctity and eventually choose the first option to take all of you out of here and enjoy prosperity together. However, if you defy me here... I will kill you on the spot."

Swift made a bewildering proposal. The children just looked at each other in confusion. Although it sounded tempting, it was honestly too risky.

Luna immediately retorted, "Your proposal means nothing here. The moment you proceed with option three, we’ll forget everything. What's the point of that?"

"You have to trust me. Luna, don't you know me best? I've always chosen the same party members."

Luna hesitated for a moment. His words were somewhat true. He did choose the same party members, but Luna still felt uncertain.

"Nonsense. You're just making up stories because you don't want to die."

Swift chuckled at Luna's paradox.

"Making up stories because I don't want to die? Me? Against you guys?

Hahaha!

"

He laughed loudly as if he couldn't stand it.

"Even though I'm just a minor deity, do you think you can kill a contractor near the sanctuary?"

That was true. Even in Raina’s story mode, it was only possible to kill a contractor when the sanctuary was turned off. It was impossible to even try before then. Even if the contractor died, they would revive. It was impossible to inflict damage in the first place. If they didn't have a weapon permitted by the sanctuary, they couldn't inflict any damage at all.

"A weapon permitted by the sanctuary?"

Almond looked at what was in his hands again.

[Bow of Liberation]

Weapons that came out of rune boxes were also called permitted weapons.

‘So that’s why I could kill more easily than I thought.’

Come to think of it, the ninja easily died with this. When permission was given from the sanctuary, anyone could kill a contractor, administrator, or anything else. Although it was inefficient, it wasn't impossible.

"Swift."

Kiririk.

Almond pulled his bowstring and muttered, "The contractors I've seen aren't as talkative as you. They only talk when they're at an advantage."

"!?"

Bang!

Almond immediately shot an arrow, but missed. Swift had teleported away to avoid it.

"Wait!"

Instead of counterattacking, Swift tried to start a conversation again.

"Hey! You! Almond! Haven't you ever thought it was strange?"

"?"

— What the heck, haha.

— He was so confident a few seconds ago, haha.

— Hard Counter: Almond, haha.

— Wait a moment! Don’t kill me!

Almond wanted to shoot an arrow right away, but...

‘Maybe there's more to the story.’

He thought he could listen to what Swift had to say. Some of Swift’s words did make sense. Although Swift was ultimately the villain, many of his words were true.

"A pitiful man who believes in records as if they were his memory. I know quite a bit about you. I might know more about you than you do."

Luna's expression darkened at his words. Swift smiled victoriously and looked back at Luna. Then, he spoke to Almond again.

"Those things on your body. Did you really write them?"

"!"

Almond instantly felt stiff.

'He knows about this?'

He didn't think Swift knew about it.

'So this was it.'

The discomfort Almond had been feeling since earlier. His reluctance to act according to what was written on his body. That was its true nature. As long as the identity of who recorded this data remained unclear, he couldn't move forward.

"Here's the thing. There's a guy who's very good at deciphering such texts and records. He happens to be one of us, a former archaeologist. He guides our team."

"!"

"Have you ever thought it was too convenient? For Luna, I mean. Every task you do ultimately serves her... Have you ever thought about it?"

— Whoa.

— What the hell?

— Wow.

— Really???

— Unbelievable.

Without realizing it, Almond turned toward Luna.

'Is that really...?'

When their eyes met, Luna lowered her head with a troubled expression.

"No, it’s not true. It's not me. Really. I can’t do such things?!"

Was she not capable enough? That could be true. This technology was clearly a record technology passed down through generations in the owner's family. Not just anyone could do it.

'But Luna has something like this too.'

“Gulp.”

The rune characters engraved on Luna's body flashed through Almond's mind. Those rune characters were superior to what was on Almond. They were more permanent, more fundamental...

"Your expression is quite telling, isn't it?"

Swift sneered.

Almond closed his eyes tightly.

"Wait a moment. Still..."

Regardless of Luna's identity and who recorded this data... One thing didn’t change.

"You chose option three."

Bang!

Almond shot an arrow as soon as he spoke.

"First, you die."

This was the signal and all the children rushed toward Swift.

"Yeah, you trash!"

"Die!"

Boom!

After deflecting the arrows, Swift’s mana surged and his gaze changed.

"Okay. Screw this. This will all be over once I go back to the beginning."

Rumble!

Swift was showing a completely different demeanor from what he had shown so far, truly like that of a contractor.

Oooooooh...!

The light of the sanctuary shone brightly. It was probably because of that.

"Just die all of you!"

Sizzle!

[Flash]

Swift disappeared in his new form.

***

[Beginner Tip: Not much is known about the birds that manage the sanctuary. According to their claims, they are angels sent from heaven.]