[Skill: Body Modification and Ti-Stop are currently unavailable!]
[Skill: Body Modification and Ti-Stop are currently unavailable!]
[Skill: Body Modifica—...]
The blaring alerts, echoing in disarray, stopped like a lie the mont I opened my eyes.
Where am I, and who am I?
I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up.
Kanya was lying in front of .
Her body was clean.
And so was mine.
There was a refreshing sense of cleanness, almost enough to feel pleasant.
“Clean,” huh...?
Sothing felt off.
Shouldn’t things not be clean?
My last mory was clearly getting beaten senseless by the followers and losing consciousness, but now you’re telling things are clean?
Where the hell did the followers go?
The questions tangled one after another, but it didn’t look like there was a way to answer them right now.
I stood up and was about to lift Kanya into my arms to move, when I suddenly felt how heavy my legs were and ca to a halt.
Body Modification.
Right. It said it was unavailable.
I let out a sigh.
Grunting, I slowly hoisted Kanya onto my back and began climbing the rocky mountain.
Seeing how my abilities were vanishing one by one, it was clear the Demon Lords were playing so kind of trick.
If I were the Demon Lords, I’d be pissed too.
So maybe next ti, they’ll co down here themselves.
Then my soul would definitely be shattered for good.
Dying just once is way too much work.
If I could just put a revolver to my head and pull the trigger like a normal person, that would be so damn easy.
But whatever. Guess I’ve gotta try.
So I grunted and heaved Kanya up the mountain, step by step.
As we climbed higher, the air grew noticeably chillier, but with the two of us stuck close together, our shared body heat made it not too cold.
After a long while...
Kanya woke up.
“Jericho?”
“You’re awake?”
“Where... are we...? What about the followers?”
“They’re gone.”
“How?”
“I don’t really know.”
My mory had been completely wiped—nothing ca back.
My best guess...
Asmodeus.
She was the last being I scread for before blacking out. Maybe she pulled sothing off.
In the end, I’d called for Asmodeus.
I ended up using the one power I never should have touched.
Fear and terror.
And on top of that, the crushing despair of being swept up in sothing massive—sothing I couldn’t possibly handle.
What the hell’s going to happen to ?
Asmodeus...
Is she going to gorge herself on enough faith and finally turn into a monster?
What the hell should I have done?
Can soone please just tell what I was supposed to do?
The future felt like a pitch-black fog, and I was fumbling forward blindly through it—frustration swelling in my chest.
“Jericho... can we rest a little?”
“Rest?”
“I’m... really hungry.”
Kanya curled in on herself as she spoke.
Co to think of it, we hadn’t had a proper al since leaving that dingy inn.
I nodded.
Now that Ti-Stop and Body Modification were gone, there was no end to the inconveniences.
We crawled into a small gap between so rocks, and Kanya pulled a few pieces of jerky from a small pouch at her waist and handed them to .
“Where did you get these?”
“I grabbed them after our first fight. I had to load my backpack with bullets, so this was the only place I could keep them.”
Kanya smiled sheepishly as she explained.
I gave a soft snort and took the jerky, stuffing one into my mouth.
It was dry and tough, but the more I chewed, the more edible it beca.
Silence settled over us.
Kon said nothing.
Even with ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the Psychic Amplifier’s lid wide open, it was quiet.
A bit of worry crept in.
He’s not dead... right?
That would suck.
He was a damn good support unit.
Crude as hell, but if he were really gone, I’d be screwed.
I an, it was unsettling to have Kon, who was always mouthing off, go totally silent.
I gently tapped the Psychic Amplifier...
But of course, I had no idea how to fix it.
With nothing else to do, I chewed my jerky, and slowly, the fear crept back in.
What the hell was going to happen at the end of all this?
The Demon Lords were tightening the noose around my neck—thodically and patiently.
My skills were dropping out one by one, becoming either unusable or outright sealed. The followers were showing up equipped with perfect counters to everything I had.
And Kon... was out cold, for who knows how long.
And ?
No clear goal. No clear thod.
All I had was so pointless sense of justice that got into trouble—and no real ability to clean up the sses I made.
Can I even...
Can I actually pull this off?
Can I really save Kanya and then die?
Before I knew it, I’d started tearing at my hair out of sheer anxiety.
I felt Kanya gently take my hand.
“Jericho.”
“Yeah, Kanya.”
“You said you were trying to save ... because it was God’s will, right?”
Back at the inn, when she kept demanding to know why I was trying to save her, that was the answer I gave.
God’s will.
That’s how I told her to understand it.
“Yeah. I did.”
“So... who is the god you believe in?”
That caught off guard.
They call a saint, but I don’t have faith.
I don’t believe in God.
That hasn’t changed.
Not in Korea, not here.
God’s always had his eyes shut when it ca to .
Honestly, I get it when it cos to Korea.
That world didn’t have divine power or miracles—just a normal, mundane place.
But even here, in a world where gods undeniably exist... it was the sa.
The Pantheon never once gave a proper answer.
All they ever did was threaten and tornt .
I hate them.
I hate Lilia, the one who said I’d be thrown into Hell.
I hate Luphiel, who prophesied I’d be killed by the ones I love.
Even if I hated them, they were never the objects of my faith.
“I don’t know, Kanya. I’m not doing this because I want to. But even so...”
That’s what I ended up saying.
And it was true.
I don’t really know.
How I ended up like this.
Why I’m such a ss.
But one thing’s for sure.
“I just want you to be happy, Kanya.”
That part was true.
The Kanya I saw in the prophecy...
I’m the one who has to replace her.
I die.
And Kanya gets to live a normal life, without having her soul torn apart.
That’s what I want.
It was a brutally selfish calculation disguised as selflessness—but it didn’t seem like Kanya heard it that way.
“You could die, you know. And I don’t just an your body being destroyed and your soul drifting away. I an your soul itself could be annihilated. Permanently erased. The Demon Lords are more than capable of that.”
At her words, I laughed.
Any normal person would’ve trembled hearing that, maybe taken so ti to reconsider.
But not .
That’s exactly what I want.
“It doesn’t matter, Kanya.”
At that, Kanya stopped chewing her jerky.
She looked straight at .
“You’re such a strange person. Do you know that? You seem like soone who’s completely let go of life, like you’ve reached enlightennt, but at the sa ti you feel so... disgustingly worldly. And you seem more devoted than anyone, like soone with unshakable faith—but you’re not.”
She’s spot on.
Kanya opened her mouth to speak again, then stopped.
“I won’t ask who you are. I won’t ask why you’re helping . I don’t know who you are or what your reasons are, but I can tell—through your actions—that you’re really trying to help . So I’ll just say one thing, Jericho.”
Kanya grabbed my hand firmly.
“The Goddess of War always repays her debts. And so will I. As much as you’ve sacrificed for ... I’ll sacrifice for you too.”
Seeing her so determined made laugh without even aning to.
Maybe it was because of her hunched back.
She was really short.
Thin arms and legs from starvation, a tiny fra, and yet she said those words in a voice full of solemn resolve—and all I could think was how cute it was.
I patted her head.
“You’ve already been through enough, Kanya. I’m helping you for my own reasons. You don’t need to carry that weight. If you can just live happily, that’s all I want.”
Kanya stayed silent for a long while, her head bowed.
Then sothing warm hit the back of my hand, and I turned my head.
Kanya was crying.
I panicked and looked at her, but she just wiped her tears and giggled.
“I’m scared, Jericho. My life has never gone the way I wanted. And the closer we get to the mountain, the more terrified I beco. It’s like... sweet hope is right in front of —and I’m scared it’s just going to shatter.”
Kanya buried her head in her knees and started to sob.
It began with a few quiet tears, but soon beca full-on weeping.
“I never wanted to accept Lady Belia. Not once... not a single ti did I want to live like this. But because she was forced into my soul, now I...”
Why?
Why does her crying feel so much like mine?
I’m the sa, Kanya.
Not once did I ever want to live like this either.
I never asked Asmodeus to enter my soul.
Never imagined I’d be wandering around trying to die with a shattered spirit.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
I held her gently as her shoulders trembled.
“I wish I had normal arms and legs, Jericho. I wish my back wasn’t bent. I want to be pretty, even just once. I wish people wouldn’t look at with disgust in their eyes. I want to live without being afraid of tomorrow. Jericho...”
Kanya spilled her wishes one after another.
“I wish the people I love could be by my side. But they’re all dead! Every one of them! I— I didn’t do anything wrong... and yet... and yet... I hate Lady Belia! I understand her better than anyone, and still, I hate her! I wish she’d never co into !”
My shirt started soaking through with her tears.
Kanya cried in my arms for a long ti.
And I silently stroked her back the entire ti.
“A healthy relationship includes hate, Kanya. A true understanding isn’t just about having nice feelings. Yeah, so parts of her are fucked up—but if you can understand that and still accept it, that’s what it ans to truly understand soone. Don’t you think?”
At my swearing, Kanya laughed through her tears.
“You know how to talk like that?”
“I do. So listen, Kanya. Hating Lady Belia... and loving her... both of those are parts of you. Accept that. That’s enough. And don’t just focus on the bad. Try to see the good, too. Got it?”
I turned my back toward her.
The jerky we shared was already long gone.
Kanya climbed onto my back.
And I started walking, slowly, toward the rocky mountain.
“Let’s say you do beco beautiful, Kanya. What would you want to do?”
She didn’t answer for a long ti.
Then...
She shyly gripped my clothes tighter.
“I want to eat delicious food. All day.”
“Nice. You can do that. And then?”
“I want to wear pretty clothes. I want to wear them and dance.”
“That’s doable too. And then?”
Kanya was silent again.
“I want to fall in love with soone who knows what I look like now—and what I’ll look like when I’m beautiful. I want a love so amazing it makes cry.”
That one made laugh out loud without thinking.
If Kon were awake, he’d probably be freaking out right now, screaming that her "core system’s still a virgin" or so bullshit like that.
“You’ll get there, Kanya. There’s gotta be a guy like that out there. So don’t be scared, okay?”
Kanya didn’t answer.
The conversation went on for a while.
We talked about what food we’d eat.
And then, eventually—
Kanya slumped against my back and fell sound asleep.
I carried her and quietly climbed the mountain, step by step.
It was near sundown when our destination finally ca into view.
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