Novel Full Chapter 612: Ritual of Light 4
Chapter 612: Ritual of Light 4
I parted ways with Emilia the moment I got her assurance.
Despite my clear intentions of using her abilities, she didn’t seem to mind.
In fact, from how flustered she looked near the end, I had the feeling she wanted me to leave just so she could calm herself down.
Her cute, awkward reactions really were something else.
I’m not sure if it’s her innocence or just her growing curiosity toward me, but either way, I was genuinely thankful to her.
Emilia wasn’t just a kind girl—she was one of the key figures in the story, someone who never felt truly restrained even in the late-game scenarios.
Whether it was fate, the goddess, or her own will guiding her, she always found a way to act outside of the system’s expectations.
Technically, preparing her this early wasn’t necessary.
In the original flow of events, she wouldn’t have reached her full potential until much later.
But now that she was going to perform a ritual of this scale—something that bordered on divine intervention itself—it was bound to accelerate her growth.
A single successful ritual could change everything for her: power, faith, influence… even the goddess’s favor.
Still, just because I’d managed to handle the immediate threats didn’t mean the danger was truly gone.
Erebil’s influence—her “games”—were never simple.
She was the type of being who didn’t act out of necessity or vengeance, but whim.
If she’d really wanted to, she could’ve ended it all tonight.
The fact that she didn’t meant only one thing: she was still having fun.
I’m glad she was reasonable enough to stop where she did, but I’d be an idiot to take that as mercy.
Everything she did had purpose, even if it looked like chaos.
That was Erebil’s nature—she liked to toy with people, watch them struggle, and then let them believe they’d won… only to rip that hope apart at the last second.
Even in her epilogue chapters, at the end of the game’s story, there was a reason the world-ending event happened only when Lucas was at his strongest.
She wanted him to experience the height of victory before dragging him down into despair.
She liked to savor that moment.
And now she wants it through me….
My knowledge about the future of this world was, at this point, almost useless.
Aside from the key events tied to Lucas, everything else had already begun shifting off course—small ripples turning into waves that I couldn’t predict anymore.
The script was gone. The routes, the flags, the endings I once knew by heart… all scattered.
Honestly, a part of me still doesn’t know what I’m even supposed to do moving forward.
It’s not like before—with the White Queen, my goal was clear.
I just wanted Alice to have her happy ending. I understood her role, her pain, her purpose.
She was tragic, and she was human.
Erebil, on the other hand… she’s something else entirely.
Even now, as an ascended being who can glimpse through countless threads of fate, I can’t see past the shadows clinging to her.
Every time I try, it’s like staring into a bottomless void that just stares right back.
What does she really want?
The end of the world?
Then what comes after that?
If she destroys everything, if the world turns to nothing but ash and silence—what then?
Does she just sit there, alone, in that emptiness she created?
It doesn’t add up.
Even if she’s the evil goddess of darkness, someone who thrives on despair and chaos, the way she acts… the way she lingers… it doesn’t feel like pure malice.
She laughs, teases, plays around—like she’s lonely.
Like she’s searching for something entertaining to distract herself from an endless boredom that’s eating her alive.
Was she really evil just for the sake of being evil?
Or was she just tired of everything—tired of existence itself?
I don’t know.
And honestly, I probably never will.
But sometimes… I wonder.
If I had the chance—if the choice was mine to make—
Would I try to give her a happy ending too?
The thought alone made me groan.
I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed, shaking my head.
… what the hell am I even thinking?
Just imagining it made me feel sick. The idea of trying to save Erebil, of all beings, was ridiculous.
Right now, she was an enemy.
At least, that’s what the world considered her to be.
And honestly, they weren’t wrong.
With my current specs, and the way my allies had grown, everything was falling into place—piece by piece, just as I’d planned.
The preparations, the timing, even the smallest triggers—all of it was leading toward her.
Liyana.
The Chaos Dragon.
The embodiment of nature’s wild, untamable force.
The devourer of worlds, the calamity that would bring even gods to their knees.
As a final boss, she wasn’t like the others.
She didn’t have a convenient weakness, no easy “hero route” weakness to exploit like the White Queen or Erebil.
Once she shed her human disguise and returned to her true draconic form, she became a living disaster—one that even I, with all my foreknowledge, couldn’t perfectly predict or control.
Right about now, the chains binding her soul should already be weakening—
each link snapping one by one.
And as they break, little pieces of her emotion, her humanity, would begin to fade with them.
By the time the next school year starts… she’ll have fallen for Lucas.
The same way she did in the original story.
And from there, my long string of fated disasters will start all over again.
Though…
Will it really happen this time?
Because the Liyana I know now—
the one who teases me in the mornings,
the one who sneaks into my room with that mischievous grin—
she’s not the same chaos dragon I remember from the game.
“Darling, I love you~ hehe~”
“You’re the most special person in my life.”
“Without you, I don’t think my days would ever be as bright, darling.”
“Darling~ wake up!”
“Darling… I’m pregnant~”
I could almost hear her voice ringing in my head, every ridiculous, dramatic, and affectionate word she’s ever said to me overlapping all at once.
The way she looks at me now…
Her love for me—it’s a mystery I still can’t solve.
Maybe it’s a remnant from the timeline I’ve already broken,
or maybe it’s something new entirely.
But one thing’s for sure—
no matter how dangerous she becomes,
no matter how much fate insists she’s my enemy…
I’m not giving up on her.
I wonder what she’s doing now…
Knowing Liyana, she’s probably perched somewhere high above the academy, watching me with that infuriatingly smug smile on her face.
She always did like stalking me—
No, observing, as she’d call it.
I sighed softly to myself as I walked through the quiet, moonlit corridor, the faint glimmer of the hallway’s magic stones guiding my steps toward my private dorm.
The academy was silent now, the chaos of the day replaced by a peaceful calm.
It was a rare, fleeting tranquility I didn’t often get to enjoy—
“Riley Hell, I believe….”
The voice that interrupted my thoughts was foxy, smooth, and strangely melodic—like silk laced with hidden venom.
I stopped mid-step, my hand hovering near my pocket, instincts sharpening.
It was already deep into the night.
No students were supposed to be roaming the halls now.
And yet—there she stood.
A woman, poised and graceful, as if she belonged to the night itself.
Even under the dim, flickering glow of the enchanted stones, I could see her clearly: long crimson hair tied neatly into an elegant bun, foxlike crimson eyes half-lidded in languid amusement, and a delicate fan concealing the lower half of her face.
Her attire—flowing robes of deep red and black threaded with gold—carried the distinct markings of eastern origins, reminiscent of Seo’s homeland.
“…You are?” I asked, though the answer was already clear.
She tilted her head ever so slightly, her eyes gleaming with quiet mirth, as if my feigned ignorance amused her.
“That was rather rude of me, wasn’t it?” she said, her voice a soft purr. “Allow me to introduce myself properly.”
She lowered her fan, revealing a calm, refined smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“My name is Aera Nari Gyeoul—current head mistress of the Gyeoul Clan.”
Aera Nari Gyeoul—the Fox Matriarch.
“I’ve always wanted to meet you,” she said smoothly, snapping her fan shut with a crisp clack. “So, if it’s not too much trouble… would you care to spare me a moment of your time?”
I exhaled softly, suppressing a dry laugh.
So, she finally decided to show up.
The wife of the future head of the Gyeoul Clan—Seo’s stepmother.
In the game, her presence was nothing short of a nightmare.
A cunning villainess draped in elegance, manipulative and dangerous, whose every smile carried poison behind it.
A late-game boss in Seo’s route, and one that had frustrated even me when I played through it.
Her methods were subtle, her words sharp, and her power… terrifying when provoked.
I knew our paths would cross eventually.
Her being here at the academy, coupled with my connection to Seo, was enough to make me a target of interest—or irritation. Probably both.
Still… I didn’t expect her to confront me this late at night.
The halls were empty, silent except for the faint hum of mana from the crystal lights embedded in the walls.
Her presence was oddly out of place here—like a predator wandering into someone else’s territory.
I sighed inwardly and kept walking.
“Hmm, since it’s quite late, how about we—”
Her words cut off abruptly as I walked right past her without so much as a glance.
Her eyes widened. “Hey… where are you going?”
“…”
I didn’t bother replying. The exhaustion was clawing at me from within.
I might have looked fine on the surface, but my body wasn’t exactly in its best shape.
Ever since that encounter in Asmodeus’s realm, I’d burned through far too much of my divinity.
Even now, the fragments of divine energy running through my veins were unstable—like embers struggling to stay alight.
Right now, the only thing I wanted was sleep.
Unfortunately, Aera didn’t seem to care about that.
“Wait—!”
SIIISHHH!!
The sound of condensed mana cutting through the air echoed in the corridor.
Crimson daggers materialized from the shadows—one by one—until I was surrounded by floating blades shimmering with killing intent.
The air grew heavy, tinged with iron and frost.
I stopped walking.
Then sighed again, this time louder.
Really… I didn’t have the patience for this.
Slowly, I turned to face her.
Her fan was lowered now, her lips curved into an amused but challenging smile.
The faint gleam in her eyes said let’s see what you’ll do, outsider.
If she wanted a display, fine.
Blue light flickered in my irises as I allowed a trace—of my divinity to leak out.
SHHHHH!!!!
The pressure in the air shifted instantly.
The crimson daggers trembled midair, their forms flickering as if unsure whether to remain stable under the sudden divine dominance.
Aera’s confident look faltered.
Her breath hitched.
Her body froze.
Then—
THUD.
She dropped to her knees, gasping as though the very air had turned too heavy to breathe.
My voice came out calm, almost casual—but each word resonated with quiet divine authority.
[Let’s have this talk tomorrow.]
The command sank into her spirit like a divine seal, undeniable and absolute.