Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 680: Insignificant [2]

In truth, Lazarus was never supposed to get to the point where it could cause Xa’hurl to experience fear or affect it with emotions.

Even with him reaching the fifth level of emotive magic, Xa’hurl was a primordial being.

The gap between the two was still extremely large.

It should still be impossible for Lazarus to affect a Primordial being.

And indeed it was impossible.

All he could do was slightly manipulate the orbs at his will.

That was his limit before dying.

But if there was one thing that Lazarus had an infinite amount of, it was time. Emotions, even in a loop, carried through to the next reiteration. So long as the ones in the loop could remember everything, the emotions would carry through.

…And as a result, Lazarus started to chip away at the monster’s defences.

From anger to fear, he slowly and surely manipulated the monster’s orbs, slowly making it so that it would start to consume its entire mind.

It took a lot of time and a lot of deaths.

Lazarus had most likely died over tens of thousands of times.

All the torture and pain he had endured led to this very moment, where the purple orb had completely consumed the primordial being.

’This is the mark that Lazarus left before leaving.’

Opening my eyes to stare at the gigantic monster in front of me, a flood of emotions filtered through my mind.

It… had been a while since I had taken control of the body again.

In some way, it felt a little foreign to me.

But thankfully, I was able to get adjusted to it rather quickly as I tried my best to filter out the lingering emotions within my chest.

[S… stop. Make it stop.]

Fear had completely taken over the monster’s mind in that moment.

Staring at it, I kept my hand firmly placed onto the eye, pouring all the pent-up and lingering emotions that Lazarus had left behind.

I knew that I couldn’t kill the monster.

I was still incapable of that. But at the same time…

I wasn’t going to let Lazarus’s ’mark’ go in vain.

[S-stop! Stop!]

Despite Xa’hurl’s cries, I continued to pour everything that I had into the eye. The surroundings shook as a result of the situation, and my right eye was so hot that it almost felt as though half of my face was melting.

But I still persevered.

[Stop!]

Rumble! Rumble!

The surroundings shook further, the red orb threatening to overtake the purple one as Xa’hurl started to grow angry. But I didn’t let that happen. The moment the red orb started to take over, I immediately pressed it down and shrank it to the point where it no longer appeared.

The rumbling stopped in that moment, and all that was left was the trembling eye before me.

[S… stop.]

A weak whisper filtered through my mind.

It was a pathetic sound.

Staring at it and seeing how it was completely taken over by fear, I understood that it was finally over as I pulled my hand away and took a step back.

“…Okay, I’ll stop.”

The world grew silent in that moment, the eye pausing for a moment as it looked at me, unable to understand the situation.

I could see other emotions starting to grow from within it, but I quickly pushed them down.

The only emotion that I wanted to see was fear.

“Don’t mistake my courtesy for anything else. I am merely providing you with a chance. If you wish for all of this to end, then you must follow my demands.”

[Demands…?]

“Yes.”

I didn’t hesitate to nod as I stretched my neck.

“You’ve caused quite a bit of inconvenience for me these past few months. I’d like to get some proper compensation for all of that, don’t you think?”

The eye stood still, its thoughts unknown to me.

But even though its thoughts were unknown to me, its emotions weren’t.

Whether it tried to pull something on me or not, I’d be able to tell. Nothing could escape my eyes at this very moment.

[W-what… do you want?]

Thankfully, the fear had simply consumed all of its thoughts, making it subservient to me as I quietly nodded to myself before listing out my demands.

“If you wish for this loop to end, then…”

I raised my head to look up. In the direction of where the real body of the beast appeared.

“…Release the woman that you’ve absorbed.”

[But—]

“There’s simply no way for you to absorb her in one go. My best bet is that she’s still lying dormant within your body.”

[….]

The beast didn’t answer, but its silence was all I needed to hear in order to confirm my thoughts.

I was more curious about how it had managed to defeat Delilah.

I hadn’t seen the fight, so I wasn’t sure, but I refused to believe she’d lose like this.

There had to be something else.

Something… More.

[…That can be done.]

In the end, the beast accepted the term.

I could tell that it was reluctant to do so, but its fear was simply making it irrational at the moment.

I took advantage of that irrationality to list out another demand.

“….Your bone. I’d like your bone.”

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The surroundings shook at my next request, the red orb growing so fast that for a moment, I nearly lost sight of the situation. However, before things could fully go out of control, I pressed my foot forward and touched the eye, immediately shutting down whatever was happening as the red orb stopped growing before shrinking back.

I didn’t stop there.

Putting more force into my hand, I stared right at the eye as I cocked my head and hoarsely spoke.

“…It looks like you have yet to fully agree with me. In that case, we should continue our little play for a little bit longer. Like I said… I can do this forever.”

[No, wait—]

I didn’t wait for the beast to finish, as I poured even more fear into it. While the purple orb couldn’t grow any longer, I could still manipulate the other orbs to take over the space before making the purple orb swallow them.

This most likely heightened the fear that the beast felt, making it tremble further as it started to shake.

[A-h… no, human. Please! I’ll listen! I’ll listen to you!]

It was a pitiful sight.

What once was one of the apexes of the mirror dimension had been reduced to nothing but a begging eye before me.

Lazarus’s death and struggle…

None of it was in vain.

All his struggles were for this. For this very moment.

For the moment when an insignificant being took down a primordial being.

Swooosh!

A pale white light suddenly flooded the surroundings, momentarily startling me as I was about to increase the intensity of the emotive magic even further. But right as I was about to do so, my thoughts paused as I stared at the black substance that stood before me.

I frowned while staring at the substance.

It felt like some sort of viscous goo. Like… oil to some extent.

What was this supposed to be?

However, I realized rather quickly what it was as the primordial being spoke.

[This is my bone… you can take it.]

A bone…? This was?

No matter how much I looked at it, it didn’t look like a bone at all. In fact, it looked more like blood than a bone.

Was it lying to me?

’No, it doesn’t seem like it is. Then this is really its bone?’

I looked at it for a second before reaching my hand towards it. Eventually, the bone hovered towards my palm, and I felt a terrifying energy coming from it as it started to pulse in my hand.

’Yes, this does feel like a bone… It’s just that I’ve never seen one like this.’

I nodded slowly before putting the bone away.

“Alright.”

I turned my attention towards the beast once more.

“I’ll take the bone.”

[Then will you…]

“…Don’t worry, I will end the loop. There are just a few things that I need to make sure happen once this loop breaks.”

The first thing that I wanted was for the monster’s skill to finally be removed. I didn’t want my existence to be completely erased from the world.

While to some extent, it was convenient, I also understood that it was extremely dangerous.

Xa’hurl’s skill didn’t just erase my presence from the world, but it also erased my identity. I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I completely faded from the world if things continued like this.

Furthermore…

I was also certain that while it could erase my presence from the world, it couldn’t erase it from Sithrus’s mind. I was sure he’d be able to tell the moment he stared at me, or sensed me.

It was dangerous, and I needed it gone.

“Remove whatever thing you’ve done to me.”

[It… can be done.]

I nodded.

I wasn’t done with my requests.

There was one more thing that I wanted. Most probably, the most important thing.

’I can’t guarantee my own safety after all of this is over. I need to make sure that it won’t attack me anymore. However, how exactly can I do that?’

Killing Xa’hurl was simply out of the question.

Even though it was currently completely consumed by fear, it could still kill me with the flick of its tentacles. The only reason it didn’t do it now was because of the loop. But once it was gone…?

Who was there to say it wouldn’t kill me on the spot?

I needed to make sure that I could guarantee my own safety after all of this was over.

“I need you to guarantee my safety once all of this is over. I simply don’t trust you. Who is to say that you won’t try something once I end the loop? Provide me with some sort of means to guarantee my safety, and I will let go of you.”

[I… is that really your last request?]

“Yes.”

There were times when the purple orb within the beast’s body showed signs of receding, but I quickly brought it back up to ensure it kept the same level of fear for me.

In the end, as the creature fell silent, it spoke once more.

[It… can be done. I have a way to make sure you can entrust me with your safety.]

“What is it?”

[It’s—]

Halfway through its words, Xa’hurl paused.

Its entire figure froze in place as though it were frozen in time. I stared at the eye in front of me in confusion, unable to understand its sudden action.

But most importantly, staring at the eye and seeing the purple orb grow even larger than before, I grew alarmed.

What?

’What is happening? Why is getting scared? What is making it so scared? Wha—’

Before I even had the chance to figure out the answer, the eye faded from the spot, disappearing as though it had never been there to begin with.

And then…

RUMBLE!

The world shook.