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Lily has returned.

Well, actually, saying she “returned” itself has some contradictions.

It’s already been a few months since Lily came back, and a lot has happened because of her.

So, more accurately, I should say that her “mind” has returned.

Many users expressed disappointment and regret towards Lily, but some users welcomed her back with cheers upon learning that her mind had returned…

“Eh?”

“It’s been a while, everyone.”

Somewhere in the Demon Realm.

On the way to the Audience Room of the God of the Dead.

This place, located in a massive dark space, was a temporary residence of the Challenger Alliance, created with the powers of Black Lily.

Here, people gather to receive powers and shields that could rival the God of the Dead and then attempt raids.

Although it was still in the preparation stage and no attempts had been made yet, everyone was getting ready since it was the first boss of the “Mythical” rank.

“You’re all working hard. It’s nice to see. From now on, I’ll help too.”

“Uh… I heard you came back.”

“Well, saying I ‘returned’ isn’t completely wrong.”

“…I heard you collected the users’ holy powers on the way here.”

The leader of the alliance, Knight, felt dizzy for a moment.

When Lily first regained her mind and it was announced that she would be hunting demons instead of angels, he felt relieved.

Finally, the alliance would come together as one.

Of course, Lily hadn’t declared that she would completely exclude or capture angels, but at least it showed she considered demons more dangerous than angels.

There was still time to calmly discuss what to do about angels after taking care of demons first.

Users still thought angels were necessary here, but from the perspective of the alliance’s leadership, it was a bit different.

“Angels shouldn’t let their guard down either.”

Even so, angels were a type of disaster.

Just as they were waiting for Lily to arrive, another piece of news came in.

“Lily collected the users’ holy powers!”

It was a story that made one’s mind reel.

Lily smiled slyly.

“As I mentioned in the alliance broadcast, we must prevent the balance from being fully solidified. Therefore, I smashed all the remaining statues to prevent more contracts from being made.”

“Then… why the collection…”

“Oh, it’s not collection; the holy powers naturally disappeared when the statues were destroyed. Originally, holy powers could only be maintained intact by completing quests like trials.”

Simply gaining holy power just by “praying” means it wouldn’t be maintained once the statues were destroyed.

If users wanted to uniquely retain holy powers or angelic abilities, they’d need to earn them through difficult quests.

And half of the users who had contracts with angels had obtained their holy powers through prayers.

Of course, with all the statues smashed, half of them lost their holy powers.

Knight watched the countless messages from the alliance flood in, asking with a dizzy face.

“Uh… it was fine before, right? When Lady Lily… I mean, when she was confused.”

“At that time, I was merely breaking the statues. This time, I even raised the stakes and severed the connection entirely.”

“……”

“Well, I found some reward in retrieving memories from that time. Thankfully.”

Lily displayed a somewhat subdued reaction but soon returned to her usual demeanor.

“So, is everyone inside?”

“They’re preparing… We’ll go in together once that person gives the signal.”

“That would be Black Lily.”

“Correct.”

Lily nodded.

Knight thought to himself.

Lily, who had destroyed most of the Heavenly Realm and taken out half the users, and Black Lily, who completely turned the Demon Realm upside down.

What would happen when the two Lilies meet?

It seemed like a meeting that would be grand but Knight was too busy trying to gather his scattered thoughts.

“Where are they?”

■

I am heading directly below the Audience Room of the God of the Dead to meet Black Lily.

Getting help from her was crucial if we wanted to take out the demons quickly.

Even though I was a bit uneasy, working together would make things smoother.

‘That said…’

[Lily’s gone mad?]

[Hahahahahahahahahahaha]

[You keep saying she’s back, she’s back, she’s back, she’s back, she’s back!]

[Legendary.]

[Who told anyone to contract with her?]

[But aren’t you meant to fight demons first?]

[My holy power, damn it!!!]

[This is hilarious, lol.]

[I’m untouched here!]

[The free cuts!! Hahaha]

[Where do you think you’re getting it by praying… thwack!]

[For real, lol.]

The chat was going wild.

It was all because of the “contract break” I executed on all users before I got to this place.

It sounded plausible, but the method was simple.

I would find the locations of those angel statues I had smashed or that had newly appeared.

Then, I would reduce those statues to powder and briefly stand ‘above’ to sever the contracts connected to users.

There was nothing I could do about users who had officially succeeded in their contracts through quests given by the ‘System’.

But users who gained holy powers through weak quests like ‘praying’ or taking down a few corpses all lost their holy powers.

People were in a complete frenzy, and their reactions felt even worse than when they were losing their minds.

‘But there’s no other way.’

There was no way I could let nearly 80-90% of the users fall into the hands of the God of Balance.

If I was going to save about half of them, this was the only choice.

I firmly shook my head.

“It can’t be helped. If things go on like this, most users will end up being played by the Celestial Race. It was something unavoidable for a normal confrontation.”

Killing users who had contracts with angels would be a heavy burden, but severing contracts with users didn’t impose any drawbacks.

It was something I had to do to stop the Celestials.

[For real, lol.]

[Cutting the rice-growing team is the right choice.]

[Normalization, get ready, Lily, haha.]

[Wow.]

[That’s not a bad point, Lily. Seriously, how did I get this?]

[Hahahahahaha.]

[You’re making a mistake, haha.]

[Is it true that someone can take away user abilities like this?]

[Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.]

“It’s just the strength that angels casually ‘spread around.’ It wasn’t a legitimate quest; it was to ensure as many users got holy powers as possible.”

The angels giving holy powers to users wasn’t because they wanted to win over their goodwill or to defeat the demon race.

Their goal was merely to have more users affiliated with the ‘angels.’

The more users who had holy powers, the more weight they could wield.

“Since it’s power that’s easily distributed, conversely, it can easily be affected by external influences as well. If they had any sense of ‘reason,’ anyone could have done it, not just me.”

I wondered if even Yena could do it?

Thanks to Yena, I had regained my mind, but I still hadn’t heard from Deoen yet, despite the significant influence from that ‘above’ moment.

I would have to find her later and thank her.

[So you’ve free-cut people, right?]

[Wow.]

[Hahahahahahaha.]

[I’m fine, but why is everyone angry?]

[For real, lol.]

[This is ridiculous.]

[Black Lily, let’s go meet!]

[From today, I worship Lily once a day.]

[Praise Lily.]

[To be honest, I didn’t like anyone having holy powers, haha.]

[That’s normalization.]

[She’s a god!]

“…Everyone, calm down. First, we should get to business.”

The Celestial Race had been sufficiently dealt with, so there shouldn’t be any problems for a while.

My job was to quickly clean up the demon race and then sort out the Celestial Race without giving any balance time to recover.

I went straight to where Black Lily was staying, and a violet curtain blocked my path.

A curtain filled with magic was nothing short of extreme holy power for someone like me who possessed holy powers.

“Ugh.”

Crack!!

Of course, in the face of overwhelming strength, that advantage mattered very little.

When my hammer, imbued with the power of destruction, broke through the curtain, the interior was revealed.

The interior of the neatly decorated mansion.

Inside, countless spells I didn’t know about were spread, with Black Lily’s magic flowing through them.

And sitting in a grand chair in the middle was…

“Hello.”

“I heard about it, but seeing you again in person is a different experience.”

“Hmph.”

It was Blodia.

An entity that followed the progenitor Lasty, and a boss I had hunted down before.

I had suspected that Black Lily would bring her, but seeing her like this brought back memories.

“Where did Black Lily go?”

“She said she wouldn’t meet someone so scary.”

“What? Then how are you supposed to take down the God of the Dead?”

“I’ll handle it myself, so you focus on your own business.”

Blodia waved her hand dismissively and summoned a servant ghost.

From Black Lily’s perspective, it would be best if she could handle it without my help.

Meeting me in itself wouldn’t be a good thing for her.

I smiled softly and shook my head.

“That’s not going to happen.”

 

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