[…Are you serious? You’ll kill everyone? When you could be happy if you just stay like this?]

“Is there any reason why I shouldn’t? If you’re going to take away what I need to protect, why shouldn’t I?”

The Darkness tilted its head at Magnus’s fierce gaze.

Without expressions, it was impossible to tell what kind of face it was making or what it was thinking.

“And I’ll cut down, trample, and burn the World Tree you so desperately want to protect.”

As soon as Magnus’s chilling words ended, bright red eyes suddenly appeared on the expressionless black face.

The round, bright red holes that appeared where eyes should be were actually so empty and void that it was creepy to look at them.

[…You bastard.]

The bright red mouth moved.

[You dare……]

The Darkness began to drip black liquid.

The black substance flowing from the bright red holes was too black and sticky to be called tears.

Magnus frowned with an unpleasant expression. Feeling it was too much to keep holding on, he let go of his hand.

Then, the Darkness, keeping its body in place, stretched out only its neck until it was right in front of Magnus’s nose.

It was a grotesque form.

[You worthless—How dare a mere human utter such words!! Do you not know whose grace allows you to be born and live, on whose sacrifice you stand, you weak and worthless… filthy beast who doesn’t know its place……]

The outpouring anger was vicious. Magnus frowned at the black liquid falling at his feet.

[Do you think you’d even be here without Her? Do you think you’d… be breathing without Her?!]

Magnus frowned at the Darkness’s anger.

For a transcendent being, the emotion-filled outburst this black form was spewing seemed… almost human.

“Did my emotions seem light while yours seemed heavy?”

[What?]

“Just as the World Tree is precious to you, Serena is precious to me. Just as you cherish the World Tree, others have things they cherish too… You’re acting like a child.”

[Enough now, if I kill everyone here… it’ll all be over.]

The stretched-out neck returned to its original position. The Darkness bent over and burst into mad laughter.

[Serena! See, these guys are dying because of you. It’s because you were greedy. You know……]

Stab–!

The darkness’s voice cut off at the chilling sound of something being pierced.

It lowered its gaze slowly with its bright red eyes widened even more.

[Se… rena…?]

Serena was holding Drukan’s sword, having stabbed it into his chest.

[What are you… doing now……]

“You… you f*cking bastard. Do you think people are fools? I should’ve made rabbit stew out of you earlier……”

Serena said, glaring at the black figure with a vicious expression.

[…Kuk… what are you doing?]

“Eliminating a villain? Exorcising an evil spirit?”

The sword Serena was holding began to cut through the darkness a bit more. The pure white light emanating from the sword began to surge and devour the darkness.

Pure white cracks appeared on the black body.

“I had a hunch, but you can’t kill me directly, can you?”

The red eye holes looked at Serena, who was speaking calmly.

Serena turned her head slightly and let out a short sigh.

“You didn’t dodge Magnus’s attack, but you bled when hit by my attack. So I had a hunch.”

Thinking a gun wouldn’t work, she borrowed a sword from Drukan.

Her added voice was concise and firm. The darkness’s red eye holes seemed to tremble like they were pupils.

“Why? You can kill me, but I can’t kill you?”

[You’ll regret this, Serena.]

“It seems like I’ve only had things to regret in life, so one more at this point doesn’t matter……”

Serena shrugged her shoulders.

At that indifferent voice, the Darkness turned its body completely towards Serena.

Black, filthy water flowed between the pure white cracks. It’s unclear whether that was darkness or something else.

“I’ve been thinking, even if you disappear, something else will appear in the world again.”

[This is why I hate humans. You always change your mind so quickly. You want to die, then you want to live, then you want to die again after wanting to live.]

The Darkness spoke in a boiling voice, as if it had been greatly betrayed by Serena’s words.

Serena stared blankly at the Darkness, its voice gloomy and dark as if scraping iron.

“Well… isn’t that what being human is?”

She said as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“More precisely, that’s what it means to be ‘alive.’ If the choice I made seems wrong, I can go back once more, think it over once more, and choose once more.”

Being able to think means literally being able to retrace what you’ve done over and over again.

Just as beasts evolve by hunting prey in different ways after being caught ten times while always targeting prey in the same way, thinking beings evolve like that in the end.

“If you want to say that ‘humans’ are fickle beings… you’re no different.”

At Serena’s words, the amount of filthy water flowing from the darkness’s body increased.

It poured something out of its body in a way that seemed like it would soak the floor completely, seep into everything around, and dye every place in darkness.

[Are you saying I’m the same as you humans!! Do you dare think that I, this being, am the same as you worthless creatures who only know how to bark like beasts!!]

Boom!

Rough winds burst out in all directions at the Darkness’s thunderous roar.

As Serena staggered, Magnus quickly reached his arm into the prison and firmly grasped her hand.

“Well… you’re also regretting things now, aren’t you? You regret not being able to protect the World Tree, so you blame yourself and that’s why you want to kill.”

The Darkness hesitated at Serena’s indifferent voice.

The red eye holes and mouth hole, which had widened with anger almost to the point of touching each other, slightly reduced their size.

“You regretted your own complacency that almost killed the World Tree, so you made a plan, but failed once.”

Serena spoke, recalling the words Magnus had shouted at the darkness in anger.

“So you regretted again and chose me anew, right?”

[So…… so what? As long as you exist in this world, this world will eventually be tainted by your malice and set on the path of decline.]

“……”

[Serena!]

The darkness roared in anger.

[What was the world you lived in like? Was that world you speak of, where all emotions are alive, clean? Was it uncorrupt? Was there no death or darkness in such a developed world?]

“……”

[No! Everyone would have been selfish, and everyone would have lived hiding dirty schemes in their hearts. That’s the kind of creature humans are. Given the chance, they’ll stab others in the back at any time, kill and abandon and *buse even the parents who fed them without a second thought, and try to s*ck out even the marrow after being given everything.]

The Darkness’s red eye holes grew larger and larger. The eye holes and mouth that had grown so large they seemed about to cover the entire black face now looked grotesque.

Serena watched the black darkness striding over the iron bars and entering.

Despite having the sword stuck in its stomach, it kept approaching.

Finally, the darkness, which had pushed its body up to the front of the sword handle Serena was holding, thr*st its grotesque face in front of Serena.

[Is that all? They abandon, beat, and starve to death the children they painfully gave birth to. The bosom friend they said was their one and only yesterday turns into the worst enemy in the world over a bit of money or a glass of alcohol.]

“……”

[What about you? Weren’t you the one who experienced the world’s indifference and injustice the most, living in an orphanage after being abandoned by your parents?]

Serena’s shoulders flinched. Her lip ends tremble slightly at the voice poking at her painful spots.

[Was the world you lived in kind to a parentless child? Did you find happiness there? Joy? How did it feel to live without the things others took for granted? What about the judgmental stares cast upon a child without parents? The automatic label of ‘orphan’ slapped on you when you made mistakes, without proper education, without money?]

“……”

[What was left in the end in the world you lived in after achieving development after development! Serena, what happened to you in the world that evolved while left in human hands?]

The black hand lightly touched Serena’s cheek.

Serena’s body trembled slightly at the feeling of cold air without warmth touching her.

Eventually, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.