Graemory couldn’t help but feel more confused after hearing Clyde’s answer. She stared at him in silence, a deep frown etched into her face, while Clyde remained still, giving her ti to process his words.
The silence stretched, heavy with tension, until finally, she spoke again.
"From when have you been a part of all this?"
Clyde let out a quiet breath, almost a sigh. "It’s a long story," he said. "But the truth is I’ve been part of this since the very beginning."
Graemory’s eyes narrowed. "What do you an?"
Clyde turned slightly, as if the weight of the answer pulled his gaze elsewhere.
"The Ancient One been influencing my System from the start. I didn’t realize it until recently. But the signs were always there."
He looked back at her, his voice low but steady.
"I t one of the World Masters not long ago. She told sothing strange. She said that the design they used to create the System didn’t originate from them, just like we suspected, and I know more. It ca from sowhere else. Sothing older. Sothing they couldn’t identify."
His next words ca slower, heavier.
"I figured it out. The source of the System is the Ancient God who had been in slumber for who knows how long."
Graemory stared at him, her lips parting slightly as the realization sank in.
The System wasn’t just a tool for the lower beings anymore. She now can be certain that it was a creation of sothing ancient and powerful enough to rewrite the rules of existence.
And Clyde had been its vessel all along.
Graemory continued to stare at Clyde for a long ti. Thoughts raced through her mind, but for now, the most pressing concern was the corruption spreading through the domains of the higher beings.
"Are you the one spreading all this corruption?" she asked.
"Yes... and no," Clyde replied. "I’ve spread enough, but the Ancient God is spreading it through multiple ans. One of them is . Another is the fragnts you all took from its resting place. And the third... well, there’s another agent doing his part."
Graemory let out a long sigh and sat down on the nearest chair, still keeping her eyes on Clyde.
"Another agent... so there’s soone else besides you," she said.
"Yes," Clyde nodded. "And you’ll be surprised when you find out who he really is."
"Who is he?" Graemory asked sharply. She had already missed too much—she wasn’t about to miss anything else.
Clyde gave her a aningful smile, then said, "It’s Michael."
The mont that na left his mouth, Graemory’s eyes widened in shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
"M-Michael... you an—"
"Yes. The one and only," Clyde confird. "To be honest, I was pretty shocked too."
"The Archangel Michael?!"
Clyde nodded again.
Graemory’s disbelief only deepened. Her face went pale as she stared blankly at the wall of Clyde’s room, her thoughts spinning in every direction.
Archangel Michael... a being so powerful, so influential, respected by his fellow Archangels, by the Celestials, even by Demon Kings—he was one of the agents responsible for corrupting the worlds?
"But... why..." Graemory murmured.
"Huh. I honestly don’t know what his reason for doing it is," Clyde said, looking away. He had never really thought about that part.
But eventually, he decided it didn’t matter. As long as Michael played his role, the reasons behind it weren’t important. The damage was being done, the pieces were moving, and that was enough.
Graemory slowly began to recover from her shock. She blinked a few tis, then straightened in her seat, her voice steadier now when she speak.
"Then... why isn’t my domain as affected as bad as the others? And what’s going on in Asmodeus’s domain? I saw his soldiers. They looked completely normal like nothing ever happened to them."
Clyde gave her a glance, his expression unreadable.
"I think I wanted to spare you," he said calmly. "You’ve been helping , whether it was out of genuine concern or just for your own benefit I don’t care. The fact remains, you helped. So I held back."
Graemory didn’t say anything. Her eyes narrowed, trying to read deeper into his words.
"And Asmodeus," Clyde continued, "he’s already under the Ancient God’s influence. But not through force. He accepted it willingly. So his soldiers and him is not corrupted like the others."
"What?"
"He wanted more power," Clyde said with a shrug. "So I gave it to him after I defeated him."
"You... defeated Asmodeus?" Graemory’s eyes widened again.
Clyde nodded casually.
She stared at him in silence, trying to asure whether he was serious. But the weight in his tone and the calmness of his posture told her everything she needed to know.
Still stunned, she shook her head slowly. After everything she’d seen from Clyde recently, maybe it wasn’t sothing to be shocked about anymore.
"Well, I guess I should thank you," Graemory finally said, exhaling a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. "You just saved ."
She leaned back in the chair, her fingers lightly tracing the curve of the armrest. Her voice carried a hint of bitterness but also quiet resignation.
"So everything I did... searching for answers, digging through forbidden records, watching from the shadows, it was all pointless. You’ve already found the answer on your own."
"No," Clyde replied, shaking his head slightly. "You can still use what you’ve found. You can tell the others. Let them believe you’re just as blind as they are. That way, they won’t suspect you."
Graemory looked at him, surprised. He t her gaze evenly.
"I didn’t know I’d get the answers myself," Clyde continued. "Everything’s been unpredictable lately. I never imagined the Ancient God would reach out to in the middle of the night... and just show everything."
Graemory fell silent again, letting his words settle. The implications ran too deep to process all at once.
Then she asked quietly, "So... what are you going to do now?"
Clyde leaned back slightly, resting his arms on the windowsill behind him. His eyes stared out through the dim light, as if seeing sothing far beyond the walls of his room.
"I’ve always wanted to destroy them," he said simply. "The higher beings. Celestials. Archangels. Demon Kings. All of them."
He turned his head slightly, his voice growing colder.
"They’ve played with our lives for too long. Treated mortals like pawns in their endless gas. So now... I want them to taste their own dicine."
A ghost of a smile crossed his lips.
"And so far, it’s been going pretty well."
Graemory’s expression darkened. "Be careful," she warned. "I’ve heard that they’ve started forming alliances."
She stood up, her tone grim. "That has never happened before between beings like them."
Clyde’s smile faded, but his eyes glead.
"Good," he said. "Let them gather. It’ll make it easier to burn them all at once."
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