“My body has become…… more defiled…… swallowed by…… the curse……”

Bellota’s sobbing from when she had broken down brushed past Seiden’s ears. At that whimper, sharp awareness returned to his hazily sinking eyes.

No, that’s wrong. That’s impossible. A place where Bellota cries cannot be heaven for him.

“Stop hesitating and obtain the desire you truly want, as you always have.”

When that dry voice whispered the final temptation, Seiden’s movements stopped. Panting, he barely parted his dry lips.

“No.”

Surprised, Bellota looked up at him and held her breath.

“Seiden.”

Bellota tried to reach out to caress his cheek, but he firmly denied it.

“This is wrong.”

At that moment, all the illusions unfolding before Seiden scattered. Not just the lovely saintess, but even the wide bed they had been rolling on and the quiet bedroom dispersed like a mirage. He was back on the Forbidden Land.

Seiden’s head throbbed painfully after emerging from the illusion. Seiden realized God had tested him. As he realized this, slow anger and bewilderment washed over him.

Why would the Holy God act like a demon god? No, this was even more sticky, deep, and malicious than that. What did God gain from going this far? However, Seiden knew God wouldn’t give him the answer to that question. He too, at this moment, wanted only one thing from God.

Seiden swallowed dryly and looked up at the sky again.

“All I want is Bellota’s salvation.”

A suffocating silence descended on the barren land. After a brief silence, a voice subtly different from the earlier bored tone spoke.

“……Then can you offer your life?”

A faint expectation seemed to coat the quiet voice. Seiden slowly frowned.

“If you offer your worthless life, I will break the saintess’s curse in return.”

At the following revelation, Seiden’s heart clenched tight. For a moment, the back of his head throbbed sharply. Only then did Seiden realize the true meaning of this prophecy.

What those who had come to defeat the rockdragon had faced wasn’t a rockdragon at all. They had all faced this dignified, eerie, and distant test.

“However, you won’t be able to witness the saintess’s salvation. The saintess won’t know of your sacrifice, furthermore she will forget you, and will eventually come to love another man.”

It was truly a persistent test until the very end. Seiden knew everything He said was true. Bellota wouldn’t know about him dying pathetically here. As time passed, she would forget him. And finally…….

Seiden’s throat painfully constricted.

After a very long time, she might step down from the position of saintess and become another man’s woman.

“But if you still desire her salvation even so……”

Seiden slowly lifted his head and faced the sky with an unwavering gaze.

Even so, he still only wanted Bellota’s salvation. Confirming Seiden’s unbroken will, God’s voice pierced sharply down onto the vast land.

“Offer your life to me.”

When the holy revelation ended, pain like someone breaking all the bones in Seiden’s legs struck him and his legs immediately buckled. His head, which had been held high, couldn’t endure and dropped to the ground. Though Seiden bit his lip to suppress a groan, he felt deep relief.

This was truly fortunate. That the method to break Bellota’s curse was this simple. His heart became indescribably peaceful. God’s offer was utterly clean.

Without needing to calculate possibilities like being unable to obtain the rockdragon’s heart, he could break Bellota’s curse simply by offering his life. How could this wretched life be precious compared to her liberation? After all, his life had belonged to Bellota since long ago. This was the cleanest possible deal.

As an overwhelming smile flowed from Seiden’s lips upon realizing this, a dagger dropped with a thud onto the round light extending to his bent knees. Seiden blankly stared at the dagger that had fallen before him. The blade God had given was surprisingly sharp and would clearly pierce armor in one strike.

After gauging it, Seiden picked up the dagger. This time, not an illusion, but Bellota’s image flashed before his eyes.

Her quietly smiling like a flower blooming in the dead of night, her shyly lowering her head whenever their eyes met. His heart ached remembering her despairing when he discovered her curse and her bravery in rising again to face that distant curse despite everything.

Thinking back now, discovering Bellota’s curse by chance was the first and last blessing given to him. Though it was impudent to think this way, it was his greatest fortune that through it he had earned the right to stay by Bellota’s side for a while and been able to watch her many expressions during that brief time.

“So…… After a very long time…… after I’ve fulfilled my duties as saintess, if Sir’s feelings haven’t changed……”

That shy and sorrowful confession brushed past his ears again.

“Then…… I want to be properly by your side.”

Would she resent him for being unable to keep his promise? Bellota would end up hating him for making this choice. But he knew that in the end, she would understand him as she always had.

His throat choked painfully thinking of Bellota waiting anxiously for him who wouldn’t return. But Bellota would no longer suffer from the curse, and perhaps she could guess his end from that.

She would grieve. He hoped that grief would last a little longer. That Bellota, who would eventually find peace, would remember him just a little longer. This selfish wish was all he wanted.

Thinking only of Bellota who would finally be liberated from the curse and obtain salvation, Seiden plunged the dagger into his heart without a moment’s hesitation. Intense pain like demon fire scorching his heart struck instantly. Seiden collapsed forward and took several rough breaths. After a few seconds passed, all of Seiden’s movements stopped. The dark red blood flowing from his mouth soaked God’s land.

No sound of life echoed in the Forbidden Land anymore.

Finally, Seiden Blackwood died.

* * *

A hundred years ago, demons and humans waged a fierce war.

Led by the saintess who had received God’s revelation, the human army defeated the cunning demons and dark mages and finally brought down the demon god. The long war that sacrificed countless lives and soaked the vast continent in blood finally ended in human victory.

Cornered and finally facing the crisis of extinction, the desperate demon god cried out to God:

“Oh God who conceived me, bore me, and finally corrupted me, why do you raise their hands? Why do you place this holy world you created in the hands of such weak, selfish, and worthless beings? Only I can make your land stronger and more beautiful. I can make it a holy place that no one dares covet.”

Then God, who had conceived and given birth to the demon god and caused its corruption through jealousy toward humans, responded.

“Pitiful one. I raised their hands because they are beings who know love and sacrifice. This world does not turn on your mighty power and holy beauty alone. Their sacrifice is what makes this world continue. That is because I made it so.”

Then the demon god gave an insolent answer.

“Do you truly believe that? Do you think they are your most faithful servants? If I dare prove your thinking wrong, will you then give this world to me?”

God fell silent.

“I will prove it. I will prove that they are selfish, full of evil, writhing with boiling desires, weak and hideous beings. I will surely prove that they are unworthy of receiving your protection.”

The demon god was a being God had created before humans. Though corrupted, the demon god knew that God cherished and pitied it, the first child, more than humans. The demon god also knew well the God who had created it. God was holy and wondrous but not as blind as humans’ blind faith.

God was always a cold and cruel monarch ready to test humans, endlessly confirm their faith, and mercilessly abandon them if there was even the tiniest crack in that faith. It knew that within God always dwelled the desire to test them.

The demon god also knew humans well. How enormous the greed, desires, selfishness and evil parasitized within those weak beings. How hypocritical they were, possessing even the desire to hide that ugliness while having it.

The hideous humans had existed until now only because they had been lucky enough to pass God’s tests each time. So this time, the demon god would prevent that.

After a moment of silence, God answered.

“If you dare fail to prove it, you will sleep forever. And you will never receive the light of salvation again.”

God accepted that insolent yet interesting proposal. Thus began the wager between God and the demon god.

The conditions the demon god set were indeed as insolent and abominable as their corrupted existence. The lives of three of God’s most noble children who betrayed God’s expectations and themselves. If it claimed those, this wager would end in the demon god’s victory.

While the demon god placed insolent curses on God’s children, God must not directly save the children by His own hand. That was the condition of this impudent wager.

The demon god ordered its most faithful servant to place a curse on the saintess who had given it defeat. Then a deep and cruel curse that would pass to the next saintess, and the next.

The only way to break that curse was to pass God’s test. God gave a prophecy to test them.

‘The one who brings the rockdragon’s heart shall earn the right to dare propose to the holy saintess.’

When the prophecy descended, for a hundred days countless people came before God, volunteering to grasp the saintess’s fate. From noble princes to aristocrats, wealthy merchants, honorable knights and free minstrels, none were excluded.

God asked them:

“Have you come to possess my most precious child, the saintess who is proof of my living existence?”

They all answered yes.

“Do you truly cherish and love the saintess?”

Everyone answered yes.

“Then can you sacrifice your life for the saintess?”

No answer came readily to that question.