Chapter 302: The Secret Behind His Birth (3)

At the very moment Sefira was facing the greatest crisis of their life, Keter was juggling with the Malignant Gods.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Clang...

Just as he was getting into the rhythm, one of the orbs containing the Malignant Gods slipped from his grasp.

Thud!

Rather than worrying that it might shatter, Keter casually kicked it. The orb didn’t travel far, simply returning to its original position as if nothing had happened.

Keter frowned in disappointment.

“Seriously. This is so boring,” he muttered.

An hour—only an hour had passed, and already Keter felt restless.

“That’s weird. When I was locked in prison for a whole month before, I was fine.”

When he was young, he had endured a month in a foul-smelling prison, starving and suffering. So he figured a single day would be nothing, but the sense of rejection was stronger than he had expected.

After thinking, Keter snapped his fingers.

“Back then, someone shoved me in there against my will, so it was kind of fun. This time, I came in voluntarily.”

There was also a big difference between resting by choice and being forced to stay still.

“Watching other people work while you relax is entertaining, but staying still in a place like this? That’s just torture.”

In truth, Keter could escape this space at any time if he wanted to by using the same method he had used to escape the Three Thousand Worlds. However, he made a contract—in exchange for guarding this place for just one day, he’d been promised an extraordinary reward along with information about the veiled Akrah. Keter was certain Kron knew far more about her than Besil.

“She feels close to a god, at least.”

Bored, Keter’s thoughts naturally drifted into deduction: just what kind of person—no, what kind of being—was Akrah, his mother? No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t infer her goal.

“Eh. In the end, it’s probably the destruction of the world or something. Anyone who pulls weird stunts like this always ends up there.”

Even parents weren’t an exception. Keter casually concluded that Akrah, too, must be acting in pursuit of something vaguely apocalyptic.

“Damn it. Should I have thought harder about this?”

There was no sunlight here, and even clocks stopped in this space. Physically, there was no way to tell how much time had passed, but Keter always kept track in his head. At most, only ten minutes had gone by.

There were plenty of things Keter could be worrying about besides Akrah, such as Sefira, yet he felt no concern at all. That was because Daat was there. Keter trusted him, but Keter did not depend on him, and because of that, he never doubted him.

“Even if I suddenly disappear, Dork will handle things on his own.”

Their plan was to absorb Bydent and pacify the south. Then, they would use the external forces drawn in by that success to keep the royal palace in check and stabilize the situation. With the rift already driven between Rukan and Rakan, cooperation between them was impossible. In the end, all they could do was try to intimidate Sefira.

“By now, Anis and Taragon should’ve returned, too.”

Anis and Taragon, whom he had sent to the front lines, were already under the protection of the Ultima Trading Company. Keter had ordered them to extract them immediately with wyvern riders if anything happened.

“This must’ve come out of nowhere for my brothers.”

Keter had expected this outcome and prepared for it, so it didn’t bother him much, but for his siblings, it would feel sudden. They might struggle to judge the situation clearly.

“Still, it’s something that had to be done.”

The Lillian Kingdom would never stop trying to kill Sefira, more so with Queen Lillian’s disappearance.

“We would have had to respond in real time to however the master families chose to move, but thanks to Lerkin, things worked out smoothly.”

The princes would want to conserve their own forces, so Keter had assumed they would attack Sefira through the master families. However, there was never a guarantee that the nobles would blindly follow the princes’ orders; it was close to fifty-fifty.

Then came Lerkin, the king consort. His appearance and actions shattered the balance among the master families. Some of the families that originally supported Rukan and Rakan shifted to Lerkin’s side, turning the struggle into a three-way standoff.

“With the three factions busy keeping each other in check, none of them can move against Sefira first. After all, Sefira won’t attack unless she’s attacked.”

In theory, the three forces could unite to pressure and crush Sefira, but that would never happen.

“The risk of betrayal is enormous. And whether he intended it or not, Lerkin is on my side.”

Lerkin might even believe that he himself had orchestrated all of this.

“Doesn’t matter if he doesn’t.”

A plan shouldn’t collapse just because one element failed; it required at least three layers of safeguards.

“The Godfather variable is a bit annoying, but that’s being dealt with too.”

Keter had secured Alakir as Sefira’s guardian god, and additional measures could be put into motion the moment he left the Syndicate.

“Two hours down, twenty-two left.”

As Keter pondered how to kill time next...

—Do you have any worries, my child?

Keter suddenly heard the voice of one of the sealed Malignant Gods. Hearing this, Keter’s eyes lit up, as if he’d just found a brand-new toy.

* * *

Turan, the Overlayer—that was how the Malignant God who had spoken to Keter introduced itself.

“I’ve never heard of you.”

Keter lightly spun the orb containing the Malignant God between his fingers. The Malignant God let out a low chuckle.

—Do you know about the Necronomicon?

“I do.”

—The Necronomicon is composed of five books. Among them, the Book of Creation—that is my true body.

“Wow,

how amazing.

”

—You do not believe me.

“Would believing you change anything? That’s just how it is.”

—I can grant life and souls.

“Wow,

so

impressive.”

—I can solve every problem you are worried about.

“Then I’ll give you a question. Try answering it.”

—Heh. You dare test me?

“To create the Necronomicon, you need five books. Two of them are the Dark Tome and the Creation Tome. What are the other three?”

—Simple. It’s the Chaotic Tome, Death Tome, and Prophecy Tome.

Keter hadn’t expected Turan, the self-proclaimed Creation Tome, to answer so easily, but he showed no sign of it and continued speaking. Of course, this was Turan’s scheme to earn Keter’s trust by appearing cooperative.

“Once all five books are gathered and the Necronomicon is completed... what happens?”

—One becomes a creator. You can erase everything and recreate it anew. Or, without erasing anything, you can change only what you wish. For example, do you dislike that humans cannot breathe underwater? Then you can give them gills. Do you want them to fly? You can give them wings.

“For every human on the continent?”

—Every single one simultaneously.

“It sounds like I could kill everyone at once if I wanted to.”

—Killing is far easier than making alterations. If you desire it, even eternal annihilation is possible.

“Even Transcendentals or Absolutes? Everyone?”

—Heh. No mortal can resist the Necronomicon.

From Turan’s words alone, completing the Necronomicon would bring about something far greater than the destruction of the world itself. Yet Keter couldn’t imagine such a thing actually happening.

“You’re sealed by Kron, you don’t even know where the Chaotic Tome, Death Tome, and Prophecy Tome are, and I don't think people would let some lunatic monopolize all five books.”

It was the same for the Five Element Relics. Even obtaining just one would grant power close to that of a Transcendental, so how could a single person possibly gather all five? Every Transcendental and Absolutes in this world would surely intervene to stop it. They would never allow one individual to monopolize such overwhelming authority.

Unless someone appeared who could defeat multiple Absolutes alone... Or unless there was an alliance of Absolutes... Wait.

That thought suddenly occurred to Keter. He knew the Syndicate had multiple Transcendentals, but he hadn’t expected there to be more than one Absolute—Ulter and Kron. They may not be the only ones either. And if the Syndicate, a gathering of such overwhelming figures, had set its sights on collecting one of the Five Element Relics...

Then accepting and helping Ailos, who’s gathering the Dark Tome, actually makes sense.

A murder once occurred in a small village, and the culprit was a young man known for being kind. People insisted that the kind young man could never do such a thing, but he was indeed the murderer. Like this, even if the Syndicate had done nothing but good until now—even if it had never committed evil—it might simply have been waiting for the right moment.

After all, it’s up to the person with the knife to use it to cut people or meat. Maybe they are looking for the knife to hide it, not use it.

This was something that could only be known by meeting the Syndicate’s leader in person.

“Well, even if that is their goal, it doesn’t concern me,” Keter muttered.

If the end of the world were truly approaching, there was no way no one would notice. Someone would know, and someone would try to stop it. Keter had no interest in the fate of the world.

“If it’s destined to end, then it should end.”

Just as humans hunted animals, there were monsters that hunted humans. There were monsters that hunted those monsters, and monsters that hunted those monsters in turn. Eventually, something always goes extinct. Like this, extinction was simply the law of nature. Things disappeared because they were no longer needed—that was how Keter understood life.

“Even if that something is Sefira and me.”

He would resist with everything he had, but if he lost in the end, he would simply accept death, just as he had in his previous life.

“So, what should I ask next?”

Turan answered anything without hesitation. Just as Keter was pondering his next question...

—Hehehe, you foolish Yaksha! I revealed the secrets of this world to steal your soul!

The Malignant God’s orb trembled violently. A pale, whitish mist engulfed Keter’s entire body. The Creation Tome, or Turan, possessed the Authority to dominate the body and soul of any human it came into contact with.

Questions that were difficult to answer consumed causality. Turan had burned its own causality to extend both the duration of contact with Keter and the rate of synchronization between them.

Of course, Keter had been on guard from the beginning and responded at once. In fact, Kron had anticipated this very danger and had lent Keter his Authority for that reason. However, there was no need to use it.

—Huh? Th-this soul? W-wait!

Crack.

A hairline crack appeared in the Malignant God’s orb—the very orb that had never so much as been scratched, no matter what Keter had done to it.

Kwaaah!!!!

An overwhelming surge of energy erupted from the orb, beyond even Keter’s control. It was a flood of power that not even Kron’s Authority could suppress.

Crack... Crack!!!

The orb sealing Turan split apart and shattered. Thinking the seal was about to break entirely, Keter unleashed everything he had—Ein, Heavenly Strength, Mandala, the Terra Ring, even borrowing Kron’s authority—to stop the destruction, but...

—T... This is unfair... Ahh!!

Turan failed to finish his words. He let out a scream, then...

Boom!

A colossal explosion erupted, bright enough to illuminate the infinite abyss itself for an instant. The orb sealing Turan had shattered completely.

I’m screwed.

No matter how recklessly Keter was, releasing a sealed Malignant God was a catastrophic incident that could not be taken lightly. However, Turan was nowhere to be found. Instead, a single book lay sprawled alone on the ground.