Zap—Naru opened her eyes to a tingling sensation on her nape.When she ca to, she was lying on the infirmary bed, with Elizabeth, Tywin, and the teachers beside her.
"Naru, are you conscious!?"
Elizabeth asked.But Naru, without ti to gather her thoughts, moved her body.
"Mara...!"
She felt the presence of that man from afar.It was the presence that had once plunged Naru and her family into deep sorrow.
No, to be precise, Mara wasn't the problem.It was sothing he would bring that was dangerous.
"We must go!"
Naru dragged her still recovering body.Soon, Tywin approached and supported Naru's shoulder.
"Where are you going?"
"To Dad!"
"......"
Tywin didn't try to stop Naru.Their hearts were now connected, and Tywin knew just how much Naru wanted to see her dad.And it wasn't just her Dad, Judas, that Naru wanted to see.
"I need to et with Hina and Cecily! We three must join forces!"
Naru's head was swirling with mories.Focusing on the need to et her sisters and help her Dad, Tywin looked around and said to Naru,
"Open a dinsional gate."
"A dinsional gate?"
"You're a descendant of Walpurgis with such pure white mana. Opening a gate should be easy if you set your mind to it."
Tywin had beco Naru's familiar.And then she realized that Naru's talent was so great, it was an understatent to say she was rely excellent.She just wasn't aware of it yet.
"I'm just repaying the favor you did for , Naru Barjudas. I believe in returning what's owed. Don't think I beca your familiar just to look after you."
Tywin said this, placing her hand on Naru's shoulder.And she flowed her own mana into Naru's body.
"Ohhh!?"
Naru was startled.Warmth surged through her bloodline, overflowing, a first-ti experience.
"Can you feel the mana flowing in your body? Use that power to visualize the gate in your mind. To the place you want to go."
"...Gate. Gaaaaaaate...!"
Naru tensed her entire body and raised her hands high.Crack— Crackle—Sothing like lightning flickered in the air and vanished.
"Ugh, Naru, still can't do magic...."
"......"
Tywin quickly figured out what the problem was.Naru's magical power had been completely drained, from making a pact with Tywin and drawing out conversation with Epar.It wasn't a problem of technique, but a depletion of fuel, so to speak.
What to do?As she pondered, sothing astonishing happened.
Flap— Flap—White butterflies that flew in from sowhere began to stick to Naru's shoulders and body, getting absorbed.
The clever girl, Tywin, realized these were the sa butterflies that Epar had sent towards the summoner earlier.The butterflies had returned to their summoner.
'I had a faint idea this might happen...'
Tywin thought about what this could an. One or two hypotheses ca to mind.
Of course, Naru didn't care about that.
"I feel power overflowing in ! Naru feels like she can do anything right now! Naru Style, Open the Door Wide!"
Pop—A door appeared in the air at Naru's cry.It led to a dark and empty space, and Naru leaped towards it without hesitation, eting her sisters inside.
"Cecily! Hina!"
"Naru!"
"...Naru."
They were overjoyed.But the one Naru was most delighted to see was her father.Judas.Seeing the empty space below her father's right shoulder, Naru was shocked.
"Hiiik...! Dad's arm has been stolen...!"
Dad's arm was stuck in Mara's chest.Mara, that creature had stolen what belonged to Dad.
"...Last ti it was an eye!"
Before ti rewound.Mara had successfully stolen Judas's left eye and swallowed it, causing a rampage.Naru now clearly rembered how things had spiraled out of control.
Of course, this was news to Judas.
"I lost an eye, too? Oh, fuck. Really pathetic."
"But... it's okay...! Cecily, Hina...! Move in the Erinyes formation...! We've done it once, we can do it better this ti...!"
Naru told Hina and Cecily.Hina and Cecily, who had been crying profusely, looked puzzled by Naru's words.They couldn't understand what Naru was saying.Naru then explained what she rembered.
"Mara can't attack us!"
It was an astonishing revelation.While they pondered why that could be, Mara, barely holding on to sanity, chuckled.
"The reason I don't kill the children is that I thought they were not worth the effort, re vermin. But if you threaten with a sword, that's a different story."
Mara felt good at the mont.It was as if he could transcend any second now.He was confident he could transcend with the slightest touch.
'It's different from before. If I kill those kids now, I can definitely transcend.'
After embedding Judas's arm into his chest, Mara felt like a wall had been broken through.Indeed, a transcendent change was already happening within him.
'Judas, I hated you so much, but now I'm thankful. You existed here for my transcendence. And the sa goes for those children.'
Mara stomped on the ground.Mara's dominion—
Its power was imnse, piercing through ti, and soon Mara's fist was close to the head of a tyke called Naru.
"...What?"
But Mara's hand ultimately couldn't strike Naru's head.It wouldn't move, as if his body had frozen.Seeing this, Naru shouted.
"Look! It's the sa as before! Because you absorbed Dad's karma, you can't attack us, his daughters! I didn't know it well then, but now I'm sure of it! Mara, you can't beat Naru!"
Naru was clumsy with many things.But she was good at anything she did more than once.
Encouraged by Naru's cry, Hina and Cecily also stood up.They surrounded Mara in a triangle, and Mara was greatly shocked by their simple movent.
"Don't, don't co any closer to ee...! You, you little brats...!"
He was shocked.Now, Mara felt that he could even defeat the formidable Judas.With Judas having lost an arm, it was clear that he was no match for himself.
Yet, Mara couldn't bring himself to even flick these little tykes.
He couldn't even raise his hand to hit the tykes, let alone harbor a shred of malice.Moreover, he began to find these children incredibly cute.
'Why...!?'
Of course, Mara knew the reason.It must be because of Judas's arm being lodged in his chest.By absorbing the arm, Mara was assimilating with his karma, and thus he couldn't dare harm these children, thinking of them as his daughters.
Mara couldn't understand this fact.
Judas was supposed to be the worst kind of man.Could such a man love his own flesh and blood this much?
Since Mara was abandoned by his mother at birth, he neither could nor wanted to understand this affection.
"Look! Mara can't harm us! Let's all hit him hard!"
Naru approached the troubled Mara.Naru punched him, and encouraged by her actions, Hina and Cecily ford a triangle around Mara, bravely striking him with their hands and feet.
Thump— Thud— Thump— Thump—After hitting for a while, Cecily felt like her head was splitting open.
“Th-This feeling in my hand, I think I'm starting to rember!”
“...Hina too... addictive taste... spicy flavor...”
It was the mont I recalled that the triangular formation that attacked to defeat Sifnoi at Jack the Ripper's stronghold was in fact intended to trap and beat Mara.
Slink—At that mont, Tywin ca through the open portal.Tywin frowned upon seeing a man being beaten up, surrounded by children.
“...What's happening?”
A hulking figure nearly 2 ters tall was being beaten up by re first graders.
“Give back my Dad's arm! You thief! And return the stolen Molumolu...! Also, Naru’s lost science howork...!”
“Nobles must clear their debts of gratitude and revenge... This is for when I was kidnapped earlier...! And this is... just because I feel like hitting you...!”
“...Hehe... indeed... hitting people is... more enjoyable than... studying...”
The sight of Naru, Cecily, and Hina beating the man was truly like a scene from hell.
To Tywin, they seed to enjoy the thrill of revenge, anger, and one-sided violence.
They were like wardens of hell, or even the infamous three goddesses of vengeance, beating Mara, who was suffering miserably among them.
“Gaaah! I, IIII, I can’t believe I'm being beaten by these re wretches...!!!”
Mara’s body was impervious.The girls' hits were no more painful than being swatted by a cat's paw.But Mara felt tortured and miserable.It was humiliating.He was being beaten by children yet finding them endearing.
That ‘affection’ was making the evil karma within Mara leak out like a jar with a hole at the bottom.Loving children was an act completely incompatible with a vessel of evil.
‘My body is weakening! Damn! Daaamn!!!!!’
Mara felt his power ebbing away.This dreadful fact plunged him into agony.
“Guaaah...!!!!”
A scream as if his guts were being torn out.Tywin knew well that a man like Mara could never be broken by physical pain, and perhaps not even death could break his will.
However, his character was shattering now.Seeing this, Tywin couldn't help but burst into laughter.
“I don't know what it is, but in the end, your and Mom's plan has failed.”
It was a very good thing.However, young Tywin did not know that the talk of ‘failure’ would drive Mara insane.The word 'failure' made it feel like the veins in Mara's head would burst.
“I am not a failure!!!!!”
A thunderous roar of a lion.Because of that, the encirclent by Naru, Cecily, and Hina loosened slightly.
Seizing the mont, Mara ran towards Tywin.He had not been able to hit Naru, Cecily, and Hina because Judas cherished his daughters terribly.But Tywin, that girl, was different.A homunculus used and discarded even by her own mother.
A perfect embodint of 'failure.'Mara, abandoned at birth, knew all too well that such an existence could never be loved by anyone.
Swoosh—Just then, Judas made a move.Was he trying to protect the girl from Mara, who was about to kill Tywin, and prevent Mara from transcending?
"But it's already too late! I have surpassed you!!!!"
Mara's fist finally aid for Tywin's head.However, there was no scene of Tywin's brain matter scattered on the floor.
Mara couldn't strike Tywin.Just like he couldn't with other girls like Naru, Hina, and Cecily.
By this point, Mara's rage was replaced by curiosity along with a sense of calm.So he withdrew his fist and asked.
"Why? Judas, this child is nothing more than a false life. She's rely a puppet, intended to be used and discarded by the very mother who created her. Why then...?"
Mara could tell that Judas cared for Tywin just as much as the other girls. That's why he was curious.How could he think of others as family?In an era where it's common to abandon even one's own kin.
Judas simply replied.
"Because she has high princess potential."
“......”
Mara, though having driven Judas’s arm into himself, couldn't understand that response. But he couldn't help feeling a sense of regret too.What if a man like this had picked him up in his childhood?If this man had been his father, wouldn't he have lived a comfortable life-?
That's when Judas chuckled.
“I’m gonna beat the shit out of my son. He can’t grow up like without enough beatings. So, even if you were my son, it would've been hell anyway.”
Mara realized that Judas had read his thoughts.A realm where even his thoughts could be stolen.This was no longer about losing an arm or anything of the sort.
“...I’ve lost.”
Mara pulled the man's arm out of his chest.And he slumped down.His once iron-like body had now withered into an old man's, and his once confident face was full of wrinkles.His hair had turned not just white but sparsely white, and it's common law for those who have lived a life of ambition to look like they've lost their will to live once they lose.
“I’ve lost.”
Mara readily accepted it.Only then did the heavy burden on his shoulders feel lighter.Now he felt as if he could leap over even the wall of 'transcendence' he couldn't climb before, in one bound.But to the current Mara, it no longer mattered.
'Peace cos only after abandoning and discarding everything.... I desired this tranquility. Transcendence was just a ans to an end....'
Mara had reached the state of possession-less enlightennt.A state not even his master, the 200-year-old giant snake and Grandmaster, had achieved.His heart was filled with an unparalleled peace.
Then—Soone whispered in Mara's heart.
"You're no longer needed. Commit suicide."
"Wha, what, what's...!"
It was a whisper that suddenly tainted Mara's once peaceful heart with darkness.
"I don't quite like it, but I'll use you as a vessel. Didn't you want to beco one? Isn't it glorious?"
A laugh that seed to twist his brain echoed in Mara's head.Under that demonic influence, Mara raised his hand and stabbed his own heart with all his might.Pffft—The pain seed to open every pore, his vision darkened, and it felt like all the air was escaping from his lungs.
"...R-Run away-."
He realized sothing utterly preposterous was happening.He was killing himself to forcibly reach the state of 'transcendence' through karma.He wasn't climbing the stairs himself; it was as if soone was forcibly pulling him up by the head.It was an extre state of malice.Even more so because the being dragging him could be called a demon without any reservations.
"Run away─."
Even though Mara had cast away the arms of Judas, his affection for the children remained.
Rumble—Black light began to pour from Mara's eyes, mouth, and nose.
"Run awaaaaaay━─!"
Soon it completely engulfed Mara's body.It was a pillar of black light.
A pillar reaching from the sky to the end of the earth.It was as thick as a large log, and Tywin felt as if her blood had frozen.
"...This… is a dinsional rift...."
This black light was proof that a dinsion had been torn open.
Soon, sothing extended out from the black pillar.Tywin barely recognized it as soone's palm.Then an arm, a shoulder, and a slender body with a chilling smile appeared.The face was familiar to everyone, but he had only one eye.
『He─llo.』
The greeting, as chilling as an icicle to the heart, left everyone /genesisforsaken
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