Ardain finally looked straight at Vera.
✦ ✦ ✦
Standing across from each other, he answered.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Now, in what you’ve seen so well, what did Alaysia and I do?]
✦ ✦ ✦
The instant he tried to reply, Vera felt his jaw clamp shut.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘...Nothing.’
✦ ✦ ✦
They did nothing.
✦ ✦ ✦
Alaysia and Ardain simply watched.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain chuckled.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Indeed, that was not our role.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“...I don’t enjoy talking in circles..”
✦ ✦ ✦
[Hm, an impatient child.]
✦ ✦ ✦
With a shrug as if he had no choice, Ardain’s manner irked Vera, who exhaled deeply before speaking.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Let me ask again. What is the sacrifice? For what purpose do you exist? And I…”
✦ ✦ ✦
Clench—
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera’s hands tightened into a fist.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Why am I the Tenth?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain silently stared at him for some time, then nodded and said.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Indeed, personal stories are not important currently.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“What is the Tenth?”
✦ ✦ ✦
[It is the end of an era.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain waved his hand.
✦ ✦ ✦
The world began following flowing at a very fast pace.
✦ ✦ ✦
Within it, Vera saw.
✦ ✦ ✦
The sacrifice placed upon the altar atop the meadow, the sacrifice burning upon the cross, the sacrifice chained to a boulder while crows feasted upon their flesh.
✦ ✦ ✦
And countless other sacrifices.
✦ ✦ ✦
[The turning point that marks the end of one era and the beginning of the next. That is the sacrifice.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Each scene made him frown.
✦ ✦ ✦
As Vera watched them, he asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Were all of these you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
It wasn’t a baseless question.
✦ ✦ ✦
The aura he sensed from them was far too familiar, nearly identical to the presence before him now.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain affirmed it.
✦ ✦ ✦
[It was like that until now.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“Until now?”
✦ ✦ ✦
[Is it not different now?]
✦ ✦ ✦
Saying so, he looked at Vera.
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera grasped the meaning of that action.
✦ ✦ ✦
No, it would be more accurate to say that he could now draw one conclusion from that action and everything he had witnessed so far.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Are you saying I am the reincarnation of your torn soul?”
✦ ✦ ✦
[You’re a clever child.]
✦ ✦ ✦
He laughed and spoke.
✦ ✦ ✦
[You are different from me, and yet the same being. Fate will lead you to becoming the sacrifice one way or another. You will become the Lamb of God, to be bled for the next era.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain approached Vera.
✦ ✦ ✦
[I am the first creation. And the last creation of the era as well. Such is my fate.]
✦ ✦ ✦
He halted before Vera.
✦ ✦ ✦
[And you, who bears this burden, will be the same. Alaysia exists for that purpose.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera steeled himself.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was to restrain his shaken mind, to grasp the meaning of those words.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...You are the beginning of the era.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Words that captured the essence of what Ardain conveyed.
✦ ✦ ✦
To which he replied.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Indeed, Alaysia is the end of the era.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“The Smallest World is…”
✦ ✦ ✦
[The name that closes the era.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera asked next.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Alaysia did all of this to stop your death, am I correct?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Bitterness seeped into Ardain’s voice.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Yes, that child tried to resist. Our shared fate, and the parting that waits at the end.]
✦ ✦ ✦
The landscape flipped once more.
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera recognized the scene this time.
✦ ✦ ✦
Inside a tent, Alaysia was in full-term pregnancy and Ardain was interrogating her.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Foolishly, the child acted greedy. She tried to create a replacement sacrifice for me.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain’s heart was ripped out.
✦ ✦ ✦
Alaysia devoured it, and soon her body burst apart.
✦ ✦ ✦
What emerged from that was a fetus in a blasphemous form.
✦ ✦ ✦
[It was something she should never have done. So, I tried to stop her. But I may have hesitated.]
✦ ✦ ✦
The fetus melted away.
✦ ✦ ✦
Alaysia’s laughter followed the horrifying screams.
✦ ✦ ✦
[I could have stopped her. But I did not.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera silently listened to him.
✦ ✦ ✦
[...Love is truly frightening. My greed to avoid tarnishing her heartfelt desire chained me down.]
✦ ✦ ✦
Next, a long period from Alaysia’s perspective unfolded.
✦ ✦ ✦
Alaysia, who had created a land of apostates and adorned herself in all kinds of evils, appeared.
✦ ✦ ✦
In the end, she concealed her castle built on corruption beneath a lake and moved on.
✦ ✦ ✦
[I knew what waited at the end of the path she walked, and how she would perish. But still, I couldn’t bring myself to harm her, and so…]
✦ ✦ ✦
In the depths of her castle of corruption, she confined herself.
✦ ✦ ✦
[...I tore myself apart.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“What did you wish for?”
✦ ✦ ✦
[For her to stop.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why did you do that?”
✦ ✦ ✦
[I wished for her to find peace.]
✦ ✦ ✦
“Was that more important than the sacrifices of so many?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Ardain fell silent.
✦ ✦ ✦
Vera glared at him as he awaited an answer.
✦ ✦ ✦
In a voice broken beyond description, Ardain replied.
✦ ✦ ✦
[To me… it was.]
✦ ✦ ✦
In the halted flow of time, Renee’s breath stopped.
✦ ✦ ✦
- Can you hear me? No, the fact that you’re listening to this means you’ve come this far, so asking would be meaningless.
✦ ✦ ✦
A clear voice resonated.
✦ ✦ ✦
Somewhere in it was a mournful quiver.
✦ ✦ ✦
- At last, you have made it here.
✦ ✦ ✦
The voice she heard was her own.