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“No….”

After struggling to fend off the monster waves, I managed to endure the mental corruption that engulfed the entire continent.

Now, what remains is to break through the solid barrier and destroy the heart left by the god of madness. It’s also the sketchbook, a relic of the Muse.

If I can just do that, the god of madness will perish, and I will be able to conclude this matter safely. I should be able to return to my original timeline as well.

But I was stuck at the very last stage.

The final barrier of the god of madness is so solid that even in good health, it would be a challenge to breach it.

Let alone now, after losing an arm in continuous battles, and being in such a thoroughly broken state that recovery wouldn’t even kick in.

I, with only my own strength, could never pierce this barrier.

Thus, I thought of relying on the thief god’s help to bypass the barrier and simply steal the contents.

I may be a seasoned pickpocket now, but even so, I’m not at a level where I can openly mock a god.

Yet, the thief god should have enough qualifications to help me.

If Sif were looking this way and could just help me once… that would be enough…

“See, that’s why they call you a thieving wench!”

The problem is, Sif doesn’t even want to look this way and has kept her distance.

I know that such an unlikeable attitude has allowed us to survive until the end of the War of the Gods.

I know, but the truth is, it also makes me very angry. I grabbed onto her godly muffler and shouted.

“Hey! Are you listening? You’re listening, right? Just help me once… just once!”

The power of the muffler is still solid. However, the presence felt beyond it is faint.

“Don’t you find this muffler interesting? How can you not care about something made by your younger brother, Lif?!”

Still, the muffler merely sways in the wind of the god of madness, without any reaction. By now, she should be aware.

Turning her back to me and going to the extent of putting her fingers in her ears, it’s as if she’s actively trying to avoid being involved.

The overly loyal character interpretation leaves me utterly dazed.

“…I’m going crazy.”

Just one more step. I only need to get over this barrier!

Giving up on seeking the thief god’s help, a sudden realization began to dawn on me.

When I was tackling the labyrinth, I progressed while defeating the floor guardians as much as possible.

This was not only to absorb all the growth mechanisms available on each floor but also to gather the divine powers left behind by the sleeping gods of that level.

However, upon reflection, it seemed the gods knew of my existence.

Until now, I thought it was a mere arrangement for subsequent figures to surpass their intended design, but…

Now I can be certain. The World Tree left Eve, the destined queen, and hid the powers symbolizing the Elven King for a reason.

The earth goddess showed her story and revealed herself in her eternal slumber with the Minotaur for a purpose.

The god of machinery, having declared the time had come, had left me a message stating he had failed but asking what I would do.

And the death god, despite having certainly died, murmured cryptically that time was running out.

And unlike all the other gods, the thief god, while not knowing who I am, seemingly acted purely out of necessity when abducting comrades.

As I recalled one after another, piecing together the fragmented clues, the overall picture began to emerge.

There are gods here who have helped me. Especially the World Tree, the earth goddess, the god of machinery, and the death god have clearly recognized me.

Perhaps they deduced my identity at the very least. They must have recognized that I came from the future.

So, in order to maintain the timeline intact, they must have lain dormant in the labyrinth, using the powers they had once seen.

The war god probably has something prepared for me as well. If I can return to the original timeline and clear the Seventh Floor, I will be able to find out what it is.

However, the situation with the thief god is different.

She wasn’t looking at me and didn’t let me know, which is likely why she acted that way on the Fifth Floor.

“Hah.”

I thought I had given up on seeking the thief god’s aid, but receiving a definite conclusion that I can’t obtain her help was a bit of a shock.

It feels as if I’ve been told this is where it ends for me.

“No. Not yet.”

However, that isn’t a reason for me to give up.

Whatever happens, the god of madness will be hunted down, insanity will spread across the world transforming most creatures into monsters, and the War of the Gods will accelerate, ultimately leading to an end.

And at that point, the gods will once again awaken their love for mortals and everything will start anew from the very beginning.

By entrusting the heavy burden to the goddess of love.

Thus, after a thousand years, a city will emerge centered around the gods’ tombstones, and somewhere in the back alleys, I will reincarnate.

The very fact that I’m here now is clear evidence that this entire series of events has already been decided.

“So there’s definitely a way.”

Is it because I’m caught in this dreadful whirlpool of madness? I can feel the powers of the other gods but can hardly hear their voices.

Even now, the goddess of love keeps pouring what little godly power remains into me, sending signals that are nearly just noise.

To comfort her, or perhaps to encourage myself, I deliberately repeated,

“There’s a way. I just can’t recall what it is.”

With what I currently have, I need to pierce through the barrier right in front of me.

Smashing through it is impossible. I wouldn’t be able to if I were in good shape, but in my current state, I’m practically on the verge of death.

Then deceiving it won’t be easy either. The god of madness has abandoned his flesh and has become madness itself, the essence closest to his true nature.

Even without eyes, he’s still in a state where he’s glaring with a ferocious gaze. How can I steal something when there are no gaps in perception?

To either smash it or steal it. Other than those two, the only option is…

“…sometimes ignorance can be helpful.”

Recall the time before I reached this point. When I was enduring the storm of madness, pushing through with my body.

Didn’t I reduce the pressure of madness by empathizing with the god of madness and sorrowing over his sadness as if it were my own?

Though he abandoned his body, it allowed him to spread madness more strongly and widely.

But the other gods, who surely were aware of that, found it easy to give up their own flesh.

It’s a simple matter. The body is the most primal boundary that separates me from the world.

Gods representing concepts could exercise their powers more freely by abandoning their flesh, yet… unexpected things can happen as well.

Just like how I managed to navigate through the pressures of madness more easily by aligning myself with the god of madness.

Aligning.

To align with a god who has lost their boundaries is an act that involuntarily turns others into the self.

In that case, the same logic should apply to the barrier before me.

It cannot be smashed nor secretly bypassed. However, I should be able to pass through it with confidence.

Given that the god of madness has become so fundamentally close to essence, the barrier in front of me shouldn’t be something with a physical entity, but rather a conceptual barrier.

It doesn’t outright prevent anything from passing through; rather, it only allows passage if one is mad enough.

“Fuh.”

Taking a deep breath, I sheathed my dagger at my waist. Then I stretched my empty hands out before me.

The crimson power of madness and bloodied hands glimmering red.

At the moment they touched, intense… no, an emotion that could hardly be described as vivid surged through my hand.

My senses were raging out of control, memories that did not belong to me surged into my mind, and an unfamiliar voice kept tickling my ears.

The sensation of layering my being with another.

But I couldn’t let go of myself; my memories are far too powerful.

I have memories of the time when I was planning this world—debating whether to give names to the gods or to just call them by their divine titles.

I remember simulating where to start and stop if it were a gender reversal, working through each comparison.

From small things like whether to sever Ellie’s left or right arm, whether Eve’s chest needed to be larger than her head or only as large as her head, whether the corruption of the temple was merely standard but creating a pretty yet insane pope or a man with no regrets of death, and so on.

Countless settings related to the continent’s lore remain vividly in my memory.

This self is far too alien and massive to be consumed by the god of madness.

Adding to that the various mental protection powers given by the goddess of love, I was able to accept the madness more easily than expected.

My hand gradually pushes deeper into the final barrier. As my wrist surpassed and my forearm followed, just a little more and I would grasp the sketchbook. But…

“Crap.”

My mind can handle the madness, but it seems my dying flesh cannot.

Crack.

My arm twisted with a grotesque sound. Just like the monsters, it must be transforming due to the madness.

Under normal circumstances, I should lose my mind and transform into a monster with a twisted body; however… could it be because my mind is still intact?

The arm that had been bending seemingly in rejection suddenly swelled and then exploded.

Pffft!

Debris flew everywhere. Fortunately, my body had already grown numb, so there was no pain.

The issue is, I no longer have an arm.

The alignment is nearly finished. If I could just move forward a bit more, I would be able to grasp the heart of madness.

The overbearing despair that is more oppressive than the mental corruption of the god of madness… But it’s too late to give up now.

With a dying body where most of the powers couldn’t function properly, the only feeble strength still alive is the one connected to the goddess of love.

Embodied by the goddess of love is an effect that fixes me in what I consider an ideal form.

…And since I’ve gone through reincarnation, it’s not just my body as Jonah that’s included but another body as well.

Now, memories I intentionally ignored as they became just a past life came to the surface.

Whaaat-!

My body, now arm-less, enveloped in a soft glow, transformed.

Soaring height. Gaunt figure. With excessively sharp eyes and faint dark circles beneath them.

A far cry from the goddess of love’s tastes. But above all, a figure so familiar to me.

Even so, it was a shape much closer to my soul… in simpler terms, my former body in my past life.

With that ideal incorporated, it still holds the most crucial point that both arms are neatly attached.

“Adding on two additional adjustments.”

As I spoke those words while feeling somewhat nostalgic, I reached out once again.

 

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