When Raize returned to the living room, Eu was already there as usual, holding a teacup and sipping elegantly.
Sei had also reverted to her usual petite form. Her slender, long legs were wrapped in milky-white stockings, casually crossed as she lounged on the sofa, leisurely playing a handheld console.
When she saw Raize, she merely glanced at him and then ignored him, nothing at all like last night, when her shy face had been flushed red like a ripe apple.
Even though she was the one who had taken the initiative last night, thinking back on it still made Raize blush.
And now, the very Sei who had been the first to do such things last night was acting calm and detached, as if nothing had happened, doing whatever she pleased.
Such a stark contrast really made Raize feel that a woman's heart… was simply too hard to guess.
Under the strange gazes of Haruna and Asia, as well as the hungry looks from Laffey who had just come downstairs with sleepy eyes, Raize scratched the back of his head with complicated emotions and went to make breakfast.
Asia blinked her innocent eyes and carefully looked at the relaxed Sei on the sofa, feeling puzzled as to why Sei's mood had suddenly improved overnight, when she had clearly been angry last night.
Haruna, meanwhile, cast subtle and displeased glances between Eu and Sei.
What was going on? The atmosphere between Raize and the necromancer was already strange enough, and now it seemed even that soul had been dragged into it.
Something was wrong—very wrong!
Haruna stared intently at Raize's back as he focused on cooking in the kitchen. That unmasked sharp gaze made Raize feel rather helpless.
After all, although Haruna's personality was somewhat tsundere, she wasn't a bad person at heart. She had even taken on the responsibility of caring for Eu when she was ill. Raize no longer felt that initial sense of unfamiliarity toward her.
Likewise, after getting to know Haruna better, he understood that she was very perceptive.
After all, Haruna was quite smart. Even if she noticed the strange atmosphere among the people in the house, she wouldn't recklessly say anything.
[Ding. New game "Dies Irae" has finished loading. Please begin.]
At around ten-thirty in the morning, the game Raize had been looking forward to finished preloading ahead of schedule. Because of Sei's situation, Raize hadn't even finished the Hulk from before.
Now that this game was unlocked, after leaving a shadow clone to handle lunch, he eagerly dove back into his room and began today's game.
Before that, he returned the power to Eu. After all, he was about to receive new power, and if Eu's magic was still inside his body, it could easily cause problems.
Sei in the living room was already used to this. Every time Raize came out at moments like this, his strength would clearly increase.
Sei knew Raize had secrets. She looked forward to the day when Raize would open his heart to her and personally tell her everything.
After leaving Haruna's room together, Raize and Eu parted ways.
Eu once again donned her violet-like dress and armor. Feeling that the hidden dangers within her magic had been greatly reduced, Eu felt very happy inside.
If things continued like this, sooner or later she would be able to return to that unfettered state of freedom.
The two beautiful girls both glanced upstairs toward Raize's room. When they withdrew their gazes, their eyes collided and met.
Eu's expression was blank as she blinked her sapphire-blue gemstone eyes, giving no hint as to what she was thinking.
Sei looked relaxed and at ease. When her holy golden eyes met Eu's, a trace of seriousness flashed through them as she inwardly listed this necromancer as a formidable enemy.
She could no longer be as carefree as before. Having learned a lesson, Sei knew she had to keep a close eye on her cub from now on.
Raize belonged to her!
---
Raize looked at the text-based story game in front of him, a trace of satisfaction flashing in his eyes. This was not the version of Dies Irae he had modified in this world.
It was the very game from his previous life's memories—one that had never been localized, which was why its popularity back home had always been mediocre.
Now the game was quite considerate, featuring various text translations. There was no need to run translation software and struggle through raw text like in his previous life.
The duration of a single playthrough was also gradually lengthening.
Dies Irae had several routes, and a serious playthrough was definitely not short.
Ayase Kasumi, Marie, Himuro Rea, Sakurai Kei—each represented a route.
Although this was just a text-based story game, and an 18+ one at that, making it rather niche in Raize's previous life, its content was exceptionally compelling.
Its outstanding character designs and settings were also key factors behind its reputation.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Dies Irae was just a text-based story game—the scale of its worldbuilding was extremely exaggerated.
In terms of combat power, it was absurdly high. On forums in Raize's previous life where people discussed anime power levels, anyone with real knowledge would never leave Dies Irae out.
Although the early stages only involved small-scale conflicts on Earth, at most reaching city-level destruction, once one of the major bosses—the Golden Beast, Reinhard Heydrich—appeared, the entire tone of the game changed.
The power levels grew more and more outrageous, with the upper limit soaring beyond the multiverse.
In most routes, the protagonist Fujii Ren and Reinhard would ultimately become monsters whose sheer existence crushed the universe through mass alone.
When their respective divine [Laws] collided, they would pierce through the holes that formed the world itself, falling into the [Throne] that governed all phenomena.
The so-called [Throne] existed within a special extradimensional space in the Dies Irae worldview.
It was an artifact created by an advanced interstellar civilization, possessing the mighty power to govern the universe. After being modified by the Fourth Heaven's Throne holder, Mercurius, its dominion expanded to the level of the multiverse.
Ren, Reinhard, and Mercurius.
These three were all Hegemony Gods—beings who ruled the entire world, letting their divine [Laws] flow out and cover all of existence.
Ren's divine [Law] Infinite Crimson Hell, possessed a temporal attribute. Once it flowed out, time across the entire multiverse would come to a halt. As long as he did not die, time would remain frozen forever.
Aside from those he acknowledged and cared about, all other beings would be eternally suspended.
Unable to think, unable to move—fixed in place like figures in a photograph, no different from being dead.
If Ren's theme was stagnation, then Reinhard's theme was battle.
Reinhard, the Golden Beast's divine [Law] Supreme Golden Heaven of the Asura Realm, was known as a blissful pure land akin to that of demonic asuras. For those who loved battle, his world was paradise.
But for many Easterners, his world was hell—a hell of endless slaughter.
Once his Law flowed out to cover the universe, a Shura realm would be born, where the concept of death did not exist and eternal battle would continue.
Not only the living, but even the dead would crawl out of their graves to join the slaughter.
As long as he existed, the world would remain in a perpetual state of war.
The remaining one, Mercurius—the Mercurial Snake—embodied eternal recurrence.
"As long as I do not obtain a conclusion (a manner of death) that I acknowledge, I will never accept it, nor allow it to happen!"
Mercurius's divine authority allowed him to rewind the world under his control infinitely. Ren and Reinhard could never truly defeat him.
Even if Mercurius died, this "eternal recurrence" would still activate, rewinding all of time in the world.
He was like a higher-dimensional being sitting in front of a computer screen—no matter how strong you were, if it didn't suit his wishes, he would simply delete the save file and start over.