All Histories (3)
The life-flash began to unwind.
Natasha collapsed to the ground, and the few who saw her fall drew the attention of countless gazes.
The clamor of war rippled, then faded.
"That woman... got taken down?"
The demonfolk hated humans, but no one could casually underrate Natasha's strength.
"Rian!"
Tess, returning after finishing her mission, froze when she saw Rian's condition.
"Hah! Hah!"
Rian breathed heavily, but both his arms were gone—missing from the shoulders down as if they had never been there.
Only the 〈Idea〉, hovering in the air by divine transcendence, conveyed his will.
Natasha lifted her head.
"You're Rian, right?"
A skeletal reaper had its hand inside her abdomen, treating the wound, but all it could do was staunch the bleeding.
A kind of surgical skill—yet, like the Law of Incarnation, the technique could only mend a broken doll.
"Watch your tongue. You could die." Rian had no lofty war philosophy.
To raise any banner would be absurd—his sword had slain too many humans already.
"It's fine. Even if I die."
Rian nodded and asked, "Any last words?"
"I lost."
She wanted to say it.
"Your sword wrecked my whole rhythm. Whatever it is now, from here on it'll be your technique and your school. I'd like to call it Bujeongbak (Irregular Beat), but the owner gets to name it."
"Names don't matter to me."
"Really?"
Natasha relaxed and slumped.
"You were impressive, you know."
She had said everything she needed to, but Rian still had something left.
"You said you could abandon evil."
"That doesn't wipe away your sins. But if you regret it, atone now. Denying demonkind here, where humanity judges you, will be the only recompense for the people you've killed."
The demonfolk's faces twisted.
"Torture and kill me. I've done a lot of bad things."
Natasha was composed.
"But I have no regrets. What is regret? If that were possible, I wouldn't be here."
For someone whose talent always sought the optimum in every moment, looking back was unthinkable.
"When I said I could abandon evil, I meant I didn't care either way—humanity's side or demonkind's. Still, my answer—"
O...
Natasha lifted her head.
"I already befriended Habitz first. Sorry."
For someone without a purpose, that was reason enough.
"Kill her! Kill the human!"
A demon who realized it would be advantageous to claim Natasha rushed in violently.
"All units, charge!"
The allied forces who thought the same crashed forward, and the area around Rian and Natasha filled with troops.
"Raaaaa!"
It was bedlam.
"Satan..."
When they saw Habitz's severed neck on the ground, the Sioks all wore the same expression.
"Lord Satan!"
They differed in age and appearance, but in that instant it was as if twelve identical faces stared out.
"No! No!"
Pride at 1 o'clock clutched his head and wailed.
"Time cannot be turned back! Why—why will you not repent?"
Because he hadn't recognized it.
"I will have my revenge!" As a Siok lunged, a huge shadow formed and the twelve began to sink.
"Arghhhh! Remember this, humans! We shall return! We will have vengeance...!"
The screams vanished beneath the earth.
"Hah."
Only long after did Armin release his stop magic and slump down.
"We did it."
Kuan, bleeding from one eye, was visible.
He had been pierced clean through—revival was impossible, and even if it were an option, he would refuse it.
"Kuan, your resolve..."
"Do you understand now?"
Kuan cut him off coldly.
"Why I don't go to meet her."
Kuan's hidden code used the emotions that arise when he drives himself into a terrible state as its raw material.
The more the body was destroyed—i.e., the closer to the abnormal—the more extreme the asymmetry would tilt.
When this war ends... what state will Kuan be in? And could Shiina accept that?
"God, do not forgive me." Eden, whose heart had been overtaken by Satan, wept and prayed with bitter repentance.
Sein tried to think positively.
"At least we won."
But when he looked at Habitz's fallen head, a terror-tinged doubt seized him.
'What is that?'
Habitz's face was lifeless.
Yet in one of the dead eyes, a small black thing writhed.
'A fly.'
Seeing it beat the eyeball with its two legs as if trapped in the retina sent chills over Sein's skin.
"It's not over yet!"
Honestly, he couldn't be sure.
If Habitz were alive, it would be natural for the heart's waves to be heard through the God's frequency.
"Kyaaaaa!"
Habitz's eye shattered like glass, and from the hollow socket a mottled, vomit-like tentacle burst forth.
"Get back!"
A circular maw at the tip of the tentacle unfurled like an umbrella and surged toward Meirei.
'As if I'd let that happen!' Everyone activated their respective organs, but for some reason there was no effect.
'What the—?'
Twelve shadows formed around Meirei, and the Sioks reappeared.
"Hahahaha! Fooled again! You've been fooled again!"
As the twelve rotating shadows spread, every Law inside the circle was nullified.
Meirei couldn't even make a sound; her body was sucked inward through the tentacle's main mouth.
Sein's Iron Wheel Eye couldn't trigger any incident.
'Predetermined future.'
Was it merely coincidence that Sein's group had gathered and Habitz had left the battlefield?
"Heh heh."
Pulling a ten‑meter tentacle from his eye, Habitz's face gradually regained color.
"Finally, I ate."
The swollen tentacle, bulging like an anaconda, disassembled Meirei in an instant.
"No."
This wasn't sorrow for a comrade's death.
This was the worst possible situation—one in which ordinary human feelings had no place.
"Raaaaa!"
A fan of violet, Satanic energy spread from Habitz's crown.
"More."
He wanted to eat more.
The voice of desire was so vivid it felt like a whisper at his ear because...
'The hidden code of Jealousy at 8 o'clock.' It was clear proof that the God's frequency had been stolen from Meirei and taken by Habitz.
"Gah! Gah!"
With Habitz's hiccups, viscera poured from his throat.
They formed in the air and coalesced into a grotesque human body.
"...Satan?"
"No. I'm Habitz."
Habitz tapped his head with the monster's index finger—face and body utterly mismatched.
"Of course, only the brain."
That every part other than the face was composed of other people's flesh and organs might be a curse...
"Hoo."
Habitz didn't care.
"So that's how it is. Fascinating."
When Armin thought he heard that, Sein and the others went pale.
"Were you listening through an object?"
When Habitz stuck out his tongue, Meirei's bloodstained 〈Nemesis〉 appeared.
"Spit!"
The moment the ring was spat out and the mind-wave severed, Sein grimaced.
'Damn it. Of all abilities... the one that mustn't be stolen has fallen into the hands of the one who mustn't have it.'
Habitz looked back at Lilia.
"Aha? Were you thinking that? How unexpected. No, should I say cute?"
Lilia's face crumpled into a sob.
"Please."
Only now did she finally understand what had happened to the world.
"Don't."
If begging could reverse the situation, they'd try anything.
Sein said, "Habitz, come at us. You must want to kill us. We're the only enemies who can kill you." If the face is Habitz and the body is Satan, then this time there truly is only one life.
"Heh heh. Hehehehehe."
Drunk on the power of the God's frequency, Habitz paid Sein no heed.
"I don't care what you blather. I hear everything—the voices in your hearts."
'This will drive me mad!'
Habitz twirled his mustache in habit.
"And killing? That's old. You've all used this ability too, so you should understand."
He had been eavesdropping on Meirei's mind.
"No, your plan will never succeed. Better to kill all humans! Torture and torment them! Isn't that what you wanted?"
Arguably, that might have been preferable.
"The taste of humans."
Habitz said, "Why people torment, torture, and kill one another—there's nothing tastier than humans. The problem is it's highly addictive; the threshold keeps climbing."
Sharp claws scraped his temple.
"So I wondered. Is there any part of humans more delicious than life itself? There was one—the heart."
That was why he needed the God's frequency.
"Now it's time to cook that. So rich, and for a very long, long time you can chew and enjoy..."
Habitz's single eye trembled with ecstasy, and the tentacle on the other side stood on end.
"The taste of humans."
No one answered.
"...He's gone."
By the time Habitz released his banishing, not even his footprints remained.
Armin asked, "Where did he go? Tormia, maybe—"
"No."
Sein shook his head.
"Not Tormia. If it were, Miro would be on the way or already there. When a clash of good and evil occurs, the Terraforce judgment triggers. If that happens—"
Kuan finished the sentence.
"The God's frequency disappears."
It had been Meirei's warning before the assassination operation.
"Right. From now on he'll enjoy pain more than murder. If so, he won't go where Miro is. Even if we didn't factor that in, the Law makes it so."
Lilia raised a hand.
"Wait. Then wouldn't it be better to return to the battlefield? Habitz cares about the Gustav Fourth Squadron. Leaving them behind would be—"
Sein nodded.
"True. It seems less plausible otherwise. But I'm leaning toward the major premise playing out. In other words, today's incident caused a significant change in Habitz's mindset."
Kuan rubbed his chin.
"Immersed enough to abandon comrades? Well, if his playground could be the whole world, that's not surprising."
"Exactly. Now that he reads human hearts, him being the same as before would be strange. Until now he was a Satan dwelling in a human body; now he's a little closer to being a full Satan."
Armin pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is bad. If Habitz abandons his comrades, the demonfolk won't let the Gustav Fourth sit idle. Their diminished influence means the demonfolk's strategy will go through."
Eden gritted his teeth and stood.
"Ninth Legion Commander Paimon."
The demonic realm spreads like a contagion.
"Yes. Now is not the time to chase Habitz. We must subdue Paimon as quickly as possible. If she opens the demonic realm..."
Even the gods would weep blood.
"Mm, right, right."
Habitz walked the wasteland that stretched to the horizon and tore the tentacle from his eye.
Satan's flesh seeped into the black hollow and reformed into an eyeball with a red pupil.
As he thought over what he could do with the God's frequency, Habitz nodded repeatedly.
"Aha, I can use it like this, too."
The taste of humans.
He was finally free to savor the human heart—the part he'd decided was the most delicious—at will.
"But this isn't enough. Hmm."
If Paimon's demonic realm spread over the world, the flood of human taste would be unimaginable...
"That would just be mass consumption. I want the supreme flavor. Something more dramatic and thrilling..."
Perfectly agonizing incidents.
"Heh heh heh. Yes, that's it." To cook the heart perfectly, besides the God's frequency he needed one more thing.
An incident.
"It was worth keeping him alive. I didn't want to kill him."
Even if he didn't know the direction and even if it might take days to cross the wasteland...
"Lord Satan!"
Independent of Balkan's orders, demons tracking Habitz took to the sky.
"Heh heh, let's go."
Habitz raised his hand to the sky.
"Uolin."
Clutched in the talons of that monstrous bird as it flew upward, his gaze fixed on Kashan.