Kasajin was carving a statue.
He was holding a large piece of wood, but when it sat in Kasajin’s huge hand, it looked like a wooden chopstick.
Shuk shuk-
He didn’t use any special tools. The nail of his index finger was sharper than most famed swords, so they performed the task better than any carving knife.
Over time, the piece of wood held in the large hand gradually began to take shape, and before long, it turned into the figure of a man.
After he was done, Kasajin looked down at the finished sculpture.
Lukas Trowman.
[…]
He didn’t feel emotional. In fact, he didn’t feel anything.
What he sought now was practicality, efficiency, and balance.
“My King.”
Then, Azazel’s voice sounded. For a moment, his eyes locked onto the wooden statue Kasajin had sculpted.
There was a brief flash of emotion in Azazel’s black eyes, but it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.
He spoke politely.
“Duke Rose has once again gone against your will.”
Deep anger was clear in Azazel’s voice. After all, Rose had ignored his advice and instead continued doing as she pleased.
On the other hand, Kasajin’s voice was as calm as ever.
[I see.]
“It is time for her to be punished for her insolence. You don’t need to act personally, my King. Just give me the order. I will ensure to properly imprint the authority of the Demon King into her foolish brain.”
[You don’t need to do that.]
Kasajin shook his head.
[There is something more important I’d like you to do.]
“A task…”
[Summon Ugkas and Sipakna.]
Azazel’s eyes flashed with surprise.
He could understand why he might have wanted Ugkas, but Sipakna as well?
Did this mean that whatever he needed required the strength of two of the Five Dukes?
“What orders should I give them?”
Kasajin stopped fiddling with the statue and placed it down.
[Capture Kran of the Top Three.]
* * *
From the moment she was born, she felt like there was a large hole in her heart.
“…”
It just flowed.
All of the components that made up the concept of ‘I’ became thin liquids that blended and mixed before becoming part of a calm river. They began following a current that had a beginning but seemed to have no end.
In some cases, some parts became more prominent while others were lost entirely.
But Sedi Glaston’s thoughts were the same from the start.
‘I feel dirty.’
Her body had already disappeared, but she was still able to look around. Up until now, her body had been floating in the river like pieces of a broken star.
Each piece contained hundreds of years of memories. But most of them were just trivial things.
A cynical smile stretched across Sedi’s lips.
‘Is this what they meant by ‘your life flashing before your eyes’?’
It was a funny thought.
Sedi never would have thought that she’d die like this.
Then, a broken star piece touched her.
Paht!
And Sedi saw her past unfold before her eyes.
* * *
Sedi found herself standing on a wasteland, where the sun blazed down on the barren, cracked ground with never-ending sandstorms.
Sedi realised that this was a memory from when she was a mortal.
She calmly looked around at this nostalgic scene as though she’d simply found an old diary.
It was a planet of fighters who never stopped fighting. In this world, where everything was fought for, Sedi was treated like a traitor. This was because of her unique appearance.
On this planet, where night didn’t exist, no one else had pale skin and black hair like she did. This was probably the reason why the large hole had formed in her heart.
Sedi’s parents had abandoned her at birth. Nevertheless, she was lucky enough to survive.
And when that luck ran out, that is, when she was able to stand on her own two feet, Sedi took her life into her own hands and worked to gain her own food and weapons.
Her story wasn’t grand or extravagant. In fact, it was quite simple.
On the planet of fighters, Sedi fought more than anyone else and lost less than anyone else. And one day, the fighters began calling her ‘the Reaper’.
‘At that time, I felt the most alive.’
As she had this thought, the memory that Sedi was witnessing quickly progressed.
When she turned 30, she had the final battle with the Lord of the planet. He was a half step from becoming a transcendent, and Sedi had nearly died no fewer than five times in their fight. But in the end, she was the winner.
Sedi tore out his heart with her bare hands and ate it. The Lord had laughed loudly one last time as he accepted his defeat.
And with that, Sedi was able to step past the shell of mortality.
What came after was a tale that anyone who’d become an Absolute had experienced.
God came to her and offered her a chance to leave. And without even the slightest shred of hesitation, she took his hand.
She thought that there was nothing more for her in that universe and that by becoming an Absolute, she’d be able to fill the hole in her heart.
But the work of an Absolute was more tedious than she’d initially expected.
The pursuit of universal harmony. The words sounded grandiose, but in truth, she was little more than God’s errand boy. In fact, she couldn’t help but feel that it had been more rewarding to constantly risk her life back on the planet of fighters.
After carrying out the same task over and over again for a long time, her sense of self gradually began to fade.
Her individuality gradually disappeared and she became a rigid, inflexible existence just like the other Absolutes.
Then, she found the Ruler.
The Black Horned Demon God.
When she met him, for the first time in her life, Sedi gave up the thought of fighting.
She’d finally found someone whom she was afraid of. And, naturally, she submitted to him.
From that day forth, Sedi was bestowed the name ‘Glaston’ by the Demon God and was taken under his wing.
Sedi worshipped the Demon God with all her heart. She truly believed that despite being a Ruler, he was a being greater than God. She believed that if she served him, the hole in her heart would be filled.
In fact, whenever she followed his orders, she never had to think about the pain in her chest.
Feeling satisfied with that fact, she followed the Demon God unconditionally. Sedi thought that the Demon God would also care about her, in particular, to some extent.
After all, there were few Absolutes who carried out orders as faithfully as she did.
And yet…
‘…it’s the Demon King, not me.’
The Demon King.
Sedi had realised it the moment she met him. Whom, between her and the Demon King, the Demon God cared about more.
She couldn’t understand it. And she fought desperately and resentfully. But she was defeated horribly.
A devastating defeat was worse than anything she’d experienced in her long life.
The Demon King took everything from Sedi.
Not just the external force that made her an Absolute but even the demonic energy that the Demon God had personally bestowed to her.
Sedi didn’t have any complaints about it. Because the law of the jungle, in which the strong preyed upon the weak and the defeated lost everything, was already deeply entrenched in her mind.
Nevertheless, her misery didn’t disappear.
‘Did I live just for this moment?’
To give up everything she’d built to that Demon King?
As she had that thought, Sedi couldn’t help but let out a self-deprecating laugh.
Why did she think that?
Was she trying to make her death seem more noble? Did she still think of herself as an Absolute?
No. That wasn’t it.
Sedi was just upset that everything she’d achieved until now had been in vain.
Of course, she had made several achievements as an Absolute. After all, she’d saved at least a few hundred universes from destruction.
But she didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment in that.
Sedi wasn’t satisfied.
‘I guess I’ll disappear into the post extinction world now…’
The post extinction world.
It was the underworld to which Absolutes, whose bodies and souls had separated, were sent. It was a place no Absolute had ever returned from.
‘…ha.’
It was only then when Sedi finally understood her true feelings.
-I don’t want to die yet.
Suddenly.
“Ah…”
The calm flow of the river suddenly sped up as it began to be sucked in a specific direction. Sedi, who was blankly drifting along the river, was caught up in the flow and sucked in as well.
Then, a pure white light enveloped her body.
“…Ah.”
And a voice sounded.
Sensing the sudden change, Sedi opened her eyes. And after blinking a few times, her blurry vision cleared up.
‘This is…’
It was an abandoned building.
No. It was a half-destroyed building that could barely be called abandoned. She could see the night sky from the completely broken ceiling.
It was a familiar sight.
It took Sedi a few moments to realise that this was the half-destroyed house she’d been staying in since she arrived.
She sat up.
“Ugh…”
Then, she collapsed again as a throbbing pain wracked her entire body.
It was at that moment when she heard a voice.
“It would be best not to move.”
A familiar voice.
When Sedi turned her head, she saw Lukas leaning against a wall, looking at her.
“…you…”
“I’m amazed you’re still alive.”
“I’m… alive…? I.. Gurk!”
Sedi spat out a mouthful of blood.
Then she looked at the blood she’d just spat out with a startled expression.
This feeling.
A feeling that she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
That of a body of flesh and blood instead of the body of a transcendent.
She spoke up with a confused voice.
“M-, my… my body. What the hell happened to my body?”
“Do you really not know, Sedi Glaston? Or do you not want to know?”
Sedi looked at Lukas with a blank expression. The voice that she heard after carried a slight hint of bitterness.
“You have been demoted from your position as an Absolute.”
“Wh-, what are you talking about?”
“You are now…”
Lukas paused for a moment before finishing his statement.
“…mortal.”