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“I’m in a hurry to sort this out because I don’t know when a problem will crop up. The longer we drag this out, the more troublesome it becomes.”

I can understand Black Lily’s feelings, but if we delay any further, it could really turn into a big issue.

Perhaps…

“They might balance things out by sacrificing the souls of the celestial beings under their command.”

So far, they haven’t done that, but if they feel cornered, it’s entirely possible they might resort to such measures.

“Just until a while ago…”

[Hahahahahahahaha]

[Not happening]

[Don’t obstruct normalization]

[Cute, though]

[That’s definitely them]

[Long time no see, lol]

[Where’s Black Lily, sis?]

[I want to see Black Lily]

“So come out for now. I won’t disturb Lady Black Lily right now. I promise.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“…What if I refuse?”

“Then we’ll just have to go separately.”

My aim isn’t to stop Black Lily but to kill the God of the Dead.

I’d prefer to coordinate if possible, but if they don’t want to, then we can go our separate ways.

“It doesn’t seem like it would be much different whether we see it in the Audience Room of the God of the Dead or here… wouldn’t it be better to go together if we can?”

“Even if it’s similar, we hold different powers. It’s not something that can just be meshed together.”

“Even if our temperaments are different, the ‘essence’ is the same. I’m not hoping for some fusion of techniques or powers, but if we can help each other, that’s enough for me.”

After all, holiness and magic are forces that cannot blend together.

The very idea of preparing something powerful by merging our strengths is contradictory.

All I want is to use the divine power to suppress the God of the Dead while Black Lily deals additional damage.

Or, we can fight in a way where Black Lily disrupts the magic the God of the Dead uses, and then I finish it off.

Of course, our powers might interfere with each other during that process, but if we’re going to fight together anyway, cooperation would be better.

Black Lily seemed to ponder for a moment, then shook her head while swirling her blood-red wine glass.

“There are users around, so there’s no problem. But isn’t it more important to stop the angels? You’ve heard the news, right?”

“Lady Uriel? Yes, I’ve heard a bit.”

I had heard this just earlier from the Challenger Alliance and the Knight.

“The soul of the God of Balance had been dwelling in Uriel. Black Lily tried to capture that God of Balance, but ended up committing suicide herself…”

It was quite an important story. After Black Lily shared this fact with Neris, she passed it on to the Challenger Alliance again.

What we can glean from this story is that the God of Balance is scheming.

The God of Balance might be more dangerous than the God of the Dead, who’s quietly waiting for Black Lily.

No, actually, they are the greater threat.

“We can each do our part. I’ll take care of my side for sure, so you handle the angels. That’s what you want, right?”

“If I kill more angels, it might throw off the balance completely.”

“No, it won’t fit. Do you know how many spells have been laid around here? Do you think something bound by the limits of the System can see through all that? Without a terminal?”

Black Lily announced grandly, radiating a hue mingled with red and purple.

Indeed, there were numerous spells laid out from the moment we arrived here.

Those spells were something I didn’t even know about; they were beyond the contents I had obtained from the Book of Magic A.

As much as I excel in technology and physical abilities, Black Lily was capable of handling magic at a divine level.

No matter how much the God of Balance is a deity, they could not possibly know everything about the situation here.

[?]

[Why is Black Lily so excited?]

[Lol]

[Bring back Dark Lily, ah lol]

[Lily, my divinity!!!]

[? lol]

[She’s mad, huh?]

[Is she always like this?]

“Who knows? Since she’s a top-tier existence, she might have some tricks up her sleeve. Besides, she’s not ‘just’ a top-tier being, right?”

“Even so, she’s still an angel. In magic, she can’t compare.”

“Abeing that has touched ‘reason’ sees through essence.”

“She’s neither real nor the fake that inherits legacies. It’s impossible.”

“…”

“As long as she’s not the highest being of the Demon race─”

“Don’t keep hiding in the back and just come out and speak!”

At my words, Black Lily, whose eyes turned two-thirds purple, blinked.

Her eyes returned to their original red.

She seemed to be assessing the situation, bobbing her head up and down, before making a sulky expression.

“…I feel bad.”

“Originally, the divine being is like the control of body and spirit. It’s a natural phenomenon that arises when you fall behind in ranking.”

“I was just told to pass the message.”

Hmph.

Black Lily glared at some corner of the mansion while drinking the blood in her wine glass with dissatisfaction.

Originally, Black Lily was delivering a message.

However, at some point, she felt the need to have a serious discussion with me and began conversing through her physical form.

It is possible to peel off a part of her soul or create a clone to communicate, but that might get me caught.

In terms of magic, she was far ahead of me, but I possess the strength to break through all that magic.

I can use powers of quite high-tier beings like ‘Lance of Rest’.

Conversely, the abilities Black Lily can wield are entirely singular.

“I want to go out.”

As Black Lily’s physical form faded due to fatigue, she disappeared.

In her place stood Neris, who was being held in the mouth of a large black crow.

Neris was glaring at me, one of her eyes tinged with purple.

Like Black Lily, Neris is in a state of divine possession.

However, perhaps due to the special nature of users, or maybe due to Neris’s ‘ignorance’, her mind seemed intact.

And the crow said…

“Plague Behemoth?”

[?]

[It’s huge]

[Crow]

[Oh]

[It’s Neris, Neris haha]

[Looks cool]

[Do you know the monster?]

It was the Plague Behemoth.

An ancient monster that roamed across the continent, spreading plague and death.

I haven’t seen it since it vanished from my empty space; why is it here?

“Why is Lady Black Lily keeping the Plague Behemoth with her?”

“Uh, um? You want me to pass that on?”

Neris slipped out from the crow’s mouth and sat in the place Black Lily had just occupied.

The Plague Behemoth took flight and left the mansion.

“She… said she ‘picked it up’?”

“You picked up an ancient monster?”

“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

“Not like you took it away like the Iron Devourer, right?”

It feels just like yesterday when Yena and I worked hard to tackle the dungeon and took the Iron Devourer.

Of course, from Black Lily’s perspective, she would have been helping pull the Myeosin out from the System, but the Myeosin still hasn’t been extracted.

‘Because the Administrator was guarding it.’

At my words, Neris tilted her head and shook her hands in denial.

“Rather than having been taken away… it’s more like ‘just deck compression.'”

“?”

“No, it’s just a joke.”

Seeing my incredulous expression, Neris nodded, as if to say it’s real.

Really?

[Hahahahahahahahaha]

[What a joke lol]

[Black Lily, sis…]

[She’s kind of similar to Lily, huh?]

[Haha]

[Black Lily hasn’t turned on the broadcast]

[Please come out]

[Deck compression haha lol]

“It wasn’t needed, really.”

“Right, lol.”

Cough, cough.

“Anyway, Lady Lily suggested that focusing more on the angels would be wise.”

“Of course, I will kill the angels. The priority has just shifted.”

“Even considering that, she told me to leave it to you.”

“No way.”

“…….”

“Black Lily is proficient in the demon world and sharp about those matters, but I’m the opposite. With my holiness, there are things I can see that are separate.”

I’ve fought countless battles and traversed numerous battlefields.

Therefore, I am confident that my clarity in recognizing the essence of holiness is superior to anyone here.

I thought of the massive, hazy entity I had seen while severing the contracts of many users.

It resembled a celestial scale close to the horizontal.

“The God of Balance… is already almost at the state of balance. If we kill more angels here, it might truly become ‘perfect.'”

“……”

“And regarding ‘me,’ how could I not be aware?”

Black Lily abhors the Demon race.

While my disdain is towards the Celestial race, they differ in targets, but the underlying way of thinking can be seen as quite similar.

If it were ‘me’, I would have gladly accepted Black Lily’s help in capturing the God of Balance.

If it involves taking down the Celestial race, it wouldn’t matter if that was another version of me, a user, or even a Demon; I wouldn’t care.

Even among the Celestial race, it wouldn’t matter.

Anything that leads to the reduction of one Celestial being in this world is a better outcome.

Yet Black Lily would not do that.

She refuses my request, and the users are merely auxiliary beings.

She solely wishes to confront the God of the Dead with her own power.

‘Even though it involves capturing the Demon race that she loathes.’

“What’s the goal? Do you just want to kill the Demon race alone with your power? Or do you want to be freed like ‘that child’ from the Altar of Impossible Beings?”

“……”

“If not…”

I recalled a sense of sensation and a part of the memory I had forgotten when I reached ‘up’.

Black Lily is not merely a ‘clone’.

Although I’m not entirely sure, she is a part of me and arose from within me.

And I believe she knows that too.

“Are you afraid? That being with me will erase the meaning of ‘Black Lily’?”

“……”

“But it doesn’t have to be that way…”

KWAAM!!!

Thousands of spells engulfed me.

─Go back.

 

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