As the two exchanged jokes, Nyx’s mood turned hostile.

[…You two, I’m not joking right now.]

“I’m not joking either.”

Serena, who had been looking at Magnus, said as she turned her head to Nyx.

Her hand tensed.

How many times had she experienced death, which others say they only experience once in a lifetime?

“I don’t want to die anymore.”

Serena said firmly.

“……”

“Really, I don’t want to die. How many times do I have to die? How can I trust you in the first place? You… you didn’t even keep your promise with the other kid.”

No, actually, that’s beside the point.

Serena shook her head.

“I’ve had enough. Happiness or whatever, now… I don’t want to adapt to a new life anymore. I, I don’t want to die. I hate dying.”

Serena said over and over that she didn’t want to die.

In reality, she no longer wanted to die anymore. It was too hard and painful. It was agonizing and tormenting.

Being reborn and adapting to that life, having to build new relationships, and even enduring a burdensome life was difficult.

Others experience death only once in their lifetime.

That’s why everyone lives desperately before that death comes.

But what about Serena?

Now she couldn’t understand at all what was important and precious about life.

Sometimes she came to think that death was welcome.

The vivid sensation of her body being torn apart, the feeling of life slowly leaving her body, it was the worst.

So now, whether it turned out well or not, she wanted to live until the very end.

[…You’re mistaken right now, Serena. Of course, it might be fine now. But how much more unhappy do you think your life will become?]

“I don’t know.”

Serena responded firmly to Nyx’s words.

Nyx opens its mouth with a grinning face.

[You’ll just become unhappy. The moment you slip up even for an instant, one of the many futures you’ve seen will come.]

At Nyx’s words, Serena’s shoulders stiffened.

Serena’s mood changed, and Nyx’s smile deepened.

The small rabbit was now smiling so wide its mouth was splitting.

It even showed sharp teeth, making one wonder if it could still be called a rabbit.

[You don’t like that, do you?]

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Magnus said, watching Serena who had started trembling.

As he placed his hand to open the prison, sparks flew, seemingly rejecting his intervention.

[Magnus von Kelahinum. You have no right to interfere. This is between Serena and me.]

Nyx said, turning its head.

“Don’t be ridiculous! I’ll kill you!”

[That’s what you want… but it’s impossible for you. You who can’t even properly control the darkness within yourself and live with the risk of rampage. This is partly because of you too.]

“I’m asking what you mean.”

Nyx looked at Magnus as though he was looking at a troubled child.

Watching Magnus who had drawn his sword with a menacing air, Nyx hopped down from the bed.

The small rabbit moved its body with the hole in it, hop hop, and slipped out through the gap in the prison bars.

[There are several unstable factors in one world. As many misfortunes are born with the birth of a world. Some of those factors are you.]

Nyx’s stubby hand pointed at Magnus once and then pointed at Drukan again.

Drukan, holding a sword emitting white light, frowned.

[This is all for your sake, you know? Why can’t you understand? Serena… well, yes. She’s a sacrifice for the great world to run smoothly. It’s something humans often do. Like offerings.]

Nyx hopped up and down.

The small rabbit lightly stepped on the air, hop hop, and suddenly rose to the same height as the two people’s eye level.

[Serena is fine. Actually, she was supposed to be a bit better… Ah, it’s all because of you, Magnus von Kelahinum.]

Nyx muttered softly, “Poor Serena…” and then looked at Magnus with a pretend angry face, putting its hands on its waist.

All those actions looked so infinitely light and playful that Magnus’s face turned fierce.

[Serena was fine anyway. Because all her lives were unhappy. This life wasn’t particularly more painful, you see.]

Flinch, Serena’s shoulders trembled.

“You, how can you say such…”

Magnus’s expression turned pale.

How could it say that since her whole life had been unhappy, it’s okay for her to be unhappy now?

Nyx, too. Though it was in the form of a rabbit, hadn’t it been watching by Serena’s side?

Her unfair treatment, that is.

How can that be treated as if it’s nothing?

[But because of you… doing unnecessary things, Serena came to have vain hope. If left alone, death would have been the happiest path for Serena.]

As Nyx blamed Magnus in a regretful voice, Magnus’s pupils finally dilated.

“You bastard!!”

Swish, boom!

The sword swung horizontally and flew as if to cut the rabbit and made a thunderous noise.

Watching his eyes dripping with blazing fire, Nyx smiled.

The sword didn’t touch Nyx. Pitch-black darkness rose up like flames, becoming a shield protecting the small rabbit.

[The source of the power you hold is darkness, so it doesn’t work on me. I am the master of all darkness.]

“D*mn it!”

Creak–, creak.

As the sword and shield collided, white sparks burst, spark, spark.

Veins bulged on Magnus’s arms and the back of his hands as he applied force trying to shatter the shield.

[I told you it’s useless.]

Nyx laughed in amusement.

That’s when it happened.

Boom–!

The pure white sword shattered the shield in an instant.

Nyx hopped up and looked down. Drukan was looking up at him, holding his sword.

[Ah, how cruel. Did the World Tree tell you to attack me?]

“No.”

[Then why are you attacking?]

“Because it didn’t tell me not to attack either.”

At Drukan’s words, Nyx dropped its head with a thud.

[What a willful believer. The World Tree has always been too soft. Because it’s soft… because it was so soft, it ended up like that.]

Nyx’s red eyes, which had been muttering softly in regret, turned bright red.

[So……]

Boom!

Darkness began to ooze out of Nyx.

[It’s better if darkness doesn’t exist.]

The small rabbit denied itself.

Whoosh–! Darkness began to gather from all directions.

Thump, thump, thump, as the darkness gathered, the rabbit’s form gradually changed, growing larger.

Eventually, as if the shadows had been peeled off, the darkness took on a shape. It was a pitch-black, dark figure.

The darkness opened its mouth wide.

[Magnus von Kelahinum. Think about it. Serena’s entire life was nothing but unhappiness. Her life was unhappy and miserable, so she herself has been wishing for death.]

“…What?”

[I was just trying to give her the death she wanted. I did the same for you. Serena is tired now, as you said.]

“Even so, do you think it’s right to take her life in that way! It’s all your doing!”

Magnus’s voice grew louder.

Serena, either affected by something or lost in other thoughts, kept her head down without saying a word.

[Yes, so what? She was a being who wouldn’t crave happiness in the future because she didn’t know happiness. Just like how you don’t covet the emperor’s throne because it’s not yours.]

Nyx asked with round eyes, perplexed.

Magnus was at a loss for words.

[For Serena, happiness was like that too. Something she could look at but not covet.]

“Do you… think that makes sense? That… now…”

[If only Serena disappears, you all will be happy. Everyone can be happy with the sacrifice of one person. Don’t you think the sacrifice of one person is natural then?]

The voice asking if the sacrifice of a few isn’t better than the sacrifice of many was unbearably cheerful.

[Think about it, the whole country criticizes her. Her reputation has already fallen as low as it can go. Who will mourn her death now?]

Serena raised her head blankly.

[No one, no one will be sad. Everyone will be happy that darkness has disappeared.]

“I will!”

Magnus grabbed the darkness’s neck and pushed it.

Thud–!

The pitch-black figure without expression or face was slammed hard against the iron bars, its neck gripped by Magnus.

“I will be sad. If you kill Serena… I’ll become the evil.”

Serena’s eyes, who had been listening quietly, widened.

[……]

“I’ll kill everything in sight, and become a darkness more vicious than the Ripper you failed with. You’ve failed this time too.”

Magnus said.

“I’ll become the bloodbath that you so terribly fear.”