As soon as I made contact, the Gear Doppelganger suddenly self-destructed. The moment I entered through the large door that had risen from its remains…
My vision shifted.
An endlessly burning land. Blood flowed like rivers from the mountains of corpses.
A scene from a horrific painting: beyond that ghastly sight, two enormous figures clashed.
A massive monstrosity that seemed to embody flame itself. And a knight in golden armor, raising a sword of light that towered into the sky.
In an instant, I understood. Those two were not mortals; they were beings that far transcended ordinary creatures… gods.
With the flap of the monstrosity’s wings, the ground became a sea of flames, and the gigantic knight’s sword cleaved mountains, creating valleys.
It was truly a battle beyond the level of humanity… a conflict reserved for gods. Surely, this was a scene from the Godslayer War.
Although there was no planned appearance, the characteristics of those two were so distinct that I could tell what gods they were.
The God of Fire and the God of Knights.
As their battle intensified, the world crumbled around them. This was no exaggeration; the ground was seriously collapsing, and the air was so hot that merely breathing would sear the lungs.
In other words, mortals could not survive even the aftermath of this battle and would perish.
Yet neither the poorly dressed sorcerers nor the knight clad in impenetrable armor fled the battlefield.
They paid no mind to dying from the backlash, nor to being slain by the enemy.
They shouted their faith and were busy sharpening the blessings bestowed upon them and shoving them into their foes.
“We die today and go to Avalon!!”
“Fear not, brethren! Our souls shall burn together in one flame!”
Without hesitation, they offered their lives, wielding swords and flames to take their enemies’ lives.
This was all possible because they believed without doubt they would be guided to the Heaven of the Gods even in death.
…But were their souls truly saved?
The God of Fire may not die on this battlefield, but later would be consumed by the God of the Sun.
The God of Knights would survive a while longer, flaunting his incredible power but ultimately would perish along with the God of Magic.
Surely, their souls would have been led to the gods. After martyrdom, they would enjoy the afterlife in their respective heavens.
But what happens after those gods die?
No one knows the answer.
However, one thing is certain… as the battle continued, the powerless perished without even the chance to imagine what came after death.
As the war dragged on, the flames of the God of Fire blazed hotter, while the sword held by the God of Knights shone even brighter.
Mountains of corpses steadily rose in height, and blood flowed beyond rivers, forming seas.
War was neither glorious nor sacred for the powerless.
It became a sticky tar of pain and resentment, clinging to the bottom of the bloodshed to become a crimson mire.
Those who died without faith. Those who devoted their faith yet perished alongside the gods. Those cursing the never-ending war.
All the malice of the world blossomed in the bloody landscape that spread across the Pan Continent.
Though physically distant, the swamps in various places united under a single emotion.
– The world is detestable.
No one knows who first uttered that word. However, it was sufficient to weave together the pain and malice that had lost their way.
To the eyes of mortals, it was invisible, and even the gods turned away from it, yet the mire that accumulated behind the scenes was akin to a world of its own.
Different from the paradise promised by the gods. A hell created by war.
It was the essence of the faceless demon, condensed and re-condensed.
Later, at the most opportune moment, when the God of Death attempted to resurrect the God of Justice, the faceless demon seized that flesh.
As recorded in history, it killed countless mortals, left deep scars on the gods, and after being suppressed, spread malice and distrust across the world.
Ultimately, it was sealed in a labyrinth, divided into flesh and spirit, embracing the love it had so longed for.
Yet, it instinctively clung to a part of that love, stolen by the Pope.
Their lives were a series of thefts.
They had their happiness stolen, their dignity taken away, their lives claimed, and in the end, even their desire for revenge was snatched from them, leaving them bereft of that pure love they so craved.
Now, only the Prime Doppelganger remains, but the malice contained within has not vanished.
It was now screaming inside the seal, leaking malice through a tiny gap.
Everything was meant to ultimately cover this world in malice once again.
“Hyuk!”
Just as I saw that, my senses returned, and I took a deep breath to fill my lungs with the lacking oxygen.
Looking around, I saw I wasn’t the only one; everyone was in a similar state. No, Benny, who already had trauma, was trembling noticeably.
I rushed over and patted that small back to help her catch her breath.
“Whoo.”
The vision I had moments ago, those memories not my own, contained the journey of an ordinary weakling who fell into hell during the Godslayer War to exact revenge on the world.
It was then I finally understood why the faceless demon couldn’t die no matter how many times it was killed, and why it had been dubbed a disaster.
This disaster was a mass, and even if one met death, it was just one of the countless lingering souls contained within that perished.
Unless the whole was extinguished, it could never truly be killed.
The fact that even the body from which the mind has been extracted is treated as the dangerous boss known as the Prime Doppelganger is likely due to this.
Though I set some general aspects, I was still overwhelmed by the curse felt from that vision not knowing the finer details.
But I shouldn’t be more shaken than Benny.
Gently brushing Benny’s shaking shoulders, I asked, “Benny, are you okay?”
“…Yeah. I’m okay now.”
Biting her lower lip, Benny hugged Shadow. Only then did her trembling slowly stop.
Now that her immediate fear seemed to have quelled, I turned to the others and spoke.
“Everyone… did you see?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes. The horrors of a war without rules are… beyond my imagination.”
With a notably pale face, Lydia nodded, and Karen traced the shape of the cross repeatedly, calming herself.
By the way, upon leaving Pangrave, there are various kingdoms, and of course, wars among such nations also exist.
However, this is completely different from total wars like the Godslayer War. It would be more like a grand war?
A few representatives from each nation come forth and fight under their own rules.
It’s a world where superhumans can exist and a bizarre rule has developed because of a world that has previously been destroyed by war.
But this is totally League of Legends…
Suddenly shaking my head to dismiss that thought, I continued speaking.
“Um, by the way, where is this? It feels like a cave.”
A closed space surrounded by dark stone on all sides. Lydia ran her hand along the wall and shook her head.
“This isn’t a cave. It’s inside a building. This is all metal.”
“Metal?”
It didn’t feel metallic at all with its rough texture and lack of any distinctive luster…
“Oh?”
But upon touching it, I realized Lydia was right; it was metal. Metal, yet… for some reason, the Seed of the Mountain, activated when I stood on the ground.
As I tilted my head in confusion, it was Karen, who had quietly stood by my side, that spoke up.
“This is a record from the temple… They say all the gods combined their powers when creating the labyrinth. Perhaps it’s a result of the Earth God and the God of Mechanical Devices working together.”
“Oh! You’re right. There aren’t many gods that could seal something.”
I nodded but then flinched. If this was a place meant for sealing something… it meant the Prime Doppelganger was here.
But there’s nothing here…
“Whoa!”
“What? Why are you suddenly acting like that, Jonah?”
At Benny’s words, wrapped in Shadow like a blanket, I stepped back and distanced myself from the rest of the group.
I pointed at Lydia, Benny, and Karen in turn, yelling, “This is the seal of the Prime Doppelganger! But there’s nothing here… or is there?”
“Jonah. Don’t tell me?”
I nodded at Lydia, whose eyes widened in shock.
“Yes. I believe one of us has been swapped with a fake.”
“A… fake?”
Lydia’s eyes grew wider as she distanced herself from the others. Benny tried to approach out of disbelief.
“Hey! Lydia, are you saying I’m the fake? We’ve been together this whole time and you can’t tell…?”
“Don’t come near me.”
“…You really can’t tell?”
Benny looked hurt at Lydia’s firm refusal. Meanwhile, Karen stood still, gazing at me with worried eyes.
For some reason, I had become the one harboring the seed of distrust. In a horror movie, I would definitely be the first victim…
Crack.
A bone fell from above, coated in a chilling liquid.
“?”
Automatically looking up, I saw something akin to slime stuck to the ceiling.
Interestingly, the moment I saw that gooey thing, which kept changing even now, I realized it was the Prime Doppelganger we had been searching for.
…And that it was targeting me.
While it might have seemed like I was just making drama about the criminal being amongst us, I had truly wandered into danger.
Panicking, I ran toward Lydia.
“Help me, Lydia!”
“I sensed nothing at all…”
Grinding her teeth, Lydia drew her Greatsword. It seemed she felt it was too late to swing it, so she prepared to throw it.
Benny and Karen were also targeting the Prime Doppelganger falling towards my head in their own ways.
But perhaps this was the reaction it was aiming for from the start. All were shredded, the Prime Doppelganger was hard to chase with my eyes, yet it merely regenerated while still torn apart and fell above my head. And then…
Bubbling.
Like an insane person who had stumbled upon knowledge they should never have encountered while researching the universe, it twisted its body and glowed.
As if countless faces of people were passing over the boiling goo, a voice cursing the world echoed, reverberating throughout the cave.
However, all of this suddenly vanished, as if the lights had been turned off, leaving only silence behind.
What remained was merely a fist-sized gray bead.
“Deth?”
Thank goodness I was unharmed, but… I felt a bit wounded.
Seriously, what kind of reaction was that as if I had witnessed something outrageous?
