After the nebula fell and pure-white light swallowed everything.

In the world that returned once again, the soldiers—

“......Wow.”

“-This is.......”

saw a gigantic crater.

No, rather than a crater, it almost felt like a gigantic lake had suddenly dried up and shriveled away.

That was how unreal the sight in front of them was.

“What the hell is th-”

“Is this... even possible?”

Of course, the mages’ reactions weren’t much different.

“......This is magic... that a human brought into being?”

“Ha.......”

“This is— the original prototype of primordial magic—”

Selaim and Parkline, and even Sharan, who had been up on the castle wall preparing the plan that hadn’t been carried out, murmured blankly, awe filling their eyes.

While everyone was letting out admiration like that, Alon—

“......Are you okay, Brother?”

“I’m fine.”

was letting out a dry sigh and rubbing his chest.

‘No way it’d be this much.’

Of course, he’d stuffed in every last drop of Reverse Heavens’ magic power, so he’d expected it to be strong to some degree.

But he hadn’t expected it to produce destructive power to the point even he would get swept up in the magic.

‘......If Radan hadn’t been here, it would’ve been dangerous.’

That was why, the instant the magic was realized and came crashing down, he thanked Radan, who had come toward him as if he’d been waiting and blocked the magic for him.

“Thanks. That was close.”

“Come on— for something like this, Brother.”

Radan smiled pleasantly.

“Do you know what happened to the others?”

“Ah, Seollang and the hero, right? Seollang already got out quickly in time, so there won’t be any problem, and as for the ‘hero’—well, you don’t really need to worry too much.”

Muttering, ‘In the first place, that guy even at this point already—’ and fiddling with his chin, Radan trailed off, and Alon turned his gaze to the thick, sticky magic power he felt from the side.

“.......”

There, Sloth was lying collapsed, leaning against a half-shattered “sheep skull.”

Sloth wasn’t normal.

Maybe because the bizarre transformation had failed, the lower half of his body had vanished somewhere, and the sheep skull that served as the medium for the bizarre transformation was almost completely broken as well.

In other words, he’d taken such massive damage that he couldn’t fight anymore.

“......So this is how it ended up.”

Sloth’s murmur drifted through the air.

His eyes had returned to the beginning.

Those languid eyes from back then, when he’d appeared while receiving everyone’s fear.

Even now, on the verge of death, it was the same.

Different from the other sins—

No, while Alon quietly watched the sin’s appearance, different from his memories, he suddenly opened his mouth.

“Can I ask one thing?”

“.......”

Sloth didn’t answer.

He just stared.

But Alon asked anyway.

“What does it mean, that you want to protect?”

Sloth had definitely mentioned it when he first appeared.

That he wanted to protect something.

And that had kept catching at Alon.

The sins Alon knew—

and the sins he had actually seen so far were, clearly, exactly as he knew them.

They appeared while feeding on humans’ despair.

They moved in order to destroy humans.

Rather than existing to protect something, they existed to harm.

But an existence like that—

a sin that was destroying the world in a cycle even Alon didn’t properly understand—

Alon was curious what, exactly, he was trying to protect.

“.......”

Sloth, who had been quietly looking at Alon at that question—

“You.”

suddenly answered like that.

“......What?”

For a moment, Alon’s blank expression cracked.

He couldn’t understand.

Alon, his face twisted up, asked again, but Sloth—who had already begun to slowly crumble into ash—

“Something I wanted to protect—”

and with those words as the end—

“-humans.”

vanished completely.

“.......”

Alon looked at the spot where even the ash had disappeared—

“......What?”

—and could only knit his brows even tighter.

But only for a «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» moment.

Alon couldn’t stay quietly trapped in his own doubts.

“Brother.”

“......Ah, Radan?”

“Yeah. Sorry to interrupt while you’re thinking, but it looks like it’s about time I say goodbye.”

“Ah—”

Only then did he come to his senses at Radan’s words.

If a little more time passed here, the Beast of Possibility would be released.

And remembering that the Radan in front of him would return to normal again, Alon—

“!”

belatedly opened his mouth to ask one question.

But—

“No, Brother.”

As if he already knew what Alon was going to ask, Radan grinned.

“.......”

“You know the butterfly effect, right?”

“......Yeah.”

“I think it’s right for me to help just about this much, then leave.”

Ah— if I could’ve used the relics, I could’ve shown off a little more, too.

Watching Radan mutter on, Alon said,

“......I think it’s fine to ask at least this much.”

“What is it? You have to be careful, Brother.”

“Did you come from the future?”

“The future, huh. Well—”

Radan thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Strictly speaking, yeah.”

“And you and I know each other....... Asking this doesn’t mean much, I guess.”

“Of course. Ah—”

Radan, nodding, suddenly seemed to remember, and handed something over to Alon.

“Brother. When I go back to normal, will you give this to me?”

“......This is?”

“Mm— if you give it to the guy, you’ll know.”

What Alon received from Radan was a blue jewel.

“......Didn’t you say you can’t talk because of the butterfly effect?”

“Ah, what I gave you just now is a little different from that.”

“.......”

What was different about it?

As Alon was thinking, Radan pressed the jewel firmly into his hand.

“Please. At this point, I’m pretty incompetent, you know.”

With that added, he lightly raised a hand and said goodbye.

“Then I’ll say goodbye here, more or less. I’ve got something to tell Seollang and the hero, too.”

“......The hero?”

“Yeah, the hero....... Ah, here, is it Elivan?”

“You were worried about the butterfly effect, but aren’t you spilling too much?”

“Ahh— well, isn’t this much fine?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Radan turned as if to leave, then paused for a moment.

“Ah, and I had something else to tell you, too.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah.”

He walked back up to Alon again.

Tap—

He put a hand on Alon’s shoulder.

“Brother, trust your own choice. Because not even once has your choice been wrong.”

He said it firmly.

“What does that—”

In the suddenly serious atmosphere, Alon tried to ask back, but—

“Then for real, it’s the end—! There’s really not much time left! I’m gonna go, Brother!”

Radan immediately put on a cheerful smile again and vanished.

“.......”

For a while, Alon could only stare blankly at the empty air where Radan had disappeared.

####

In conclusion, Alon won a victory in the battle against the Sin of Sloth.

Also, as the Sin of Sloth retreated, the black territory disappeared as if it had never existed from the start, and the incidents caused by it were brought to an end as well.

However, even after dealing with Sloth like that, the situation in the Ashtalon Kingdom couldn’t be good.

Because more than half of the kingdom had vanished due to the black territory Sloth had scattered.

Of course, the castle and the estates remained, but that was meaningless.

In the first place, if the people of the estates didn’t exist, the estates didn’t mean anything at all.

And the crisis of the Ashtalon Kingdom came at even Alon in a way he could feel on his skin.

The reason was the “Empire.”

Originally, Psychedelia, which dealt with the Allied Kingdoms’ story, and Calypsophobia, which contained the Empire’s story, weren’t connected to each other within the game.

Except for one situation.

When the Allied Kingdoms’ survival was put in danger.

At that time, the Empire was a system that would inevitably invade the Allied Kingdoms.

And basically, the moment the Empire began its invasion, the Allied Kingdoms would collapse in an instant.

Alon was worried about that part, even if only a little.

‘It’s never actually gone all the way to annihilation, so I don’t need to worry that far for nothing—’

How could he easily ignore the original’s settings or background he’d known from the start?

‘Still, there’s something more important right now.’

Alon changed his thoughts and recalled what the sin had said earlier.

‘......He said he tried to protect humans.......’

Even after things were more or less cleaned up, he kept thinking about it.

But Alon still couldn’t understand what Sloth had said.

In the first place, it was only natural.

The sins were aiming to kill humans, and Sloth himself had been trying to destroy this world.

Then why had Sloth said something like that?

‘Of course, if it’s not a common opinion among the other sins, but just Sloth’s thoughts....... No,

even thinking that, it’s strange.’

Tsk, Alon clicked his tongue—how long had he been lost in thought?

“Marquis.”

“Evan.”

“Were you here? I looked everywhere for you.”

As Alon watched the people in one corner of the ballroom lightly raising a toast to this incident ending well, Evan came to find him.

“Did someone look for me?”

“There were plenty of people, but that’s not why I came. Your condition can’t be good, but you suddenly disappeared.”

“I had something to think about.”

“Can’t you think while lying in bed?”

“That’s true.”

Muttering his reply, Alon looked down at the lower floor.

“Oooo— this spirit beast is the one that took care of those lumps of flesh earlier—”

[Ahem-!!]

“Oooo—!”

Surrounded by mages, and maybe feeling good at being worshiped again after a long time, Basiliora held their head high with dignity.

And Blackie, lying on another table, was munching food and looking at that scene like it was pathetic.

......Though in truth, Blackie was also surrounded by mages and smugging it up just the same.

Alon, one last time, checked that the nobles were crowded around Elivan, then said,

“They’re having a good time.”

“I seriously can’t stand Basiliora. He’s been doing that for almost two hours. If he was that starved for attention.”

Tsk tsk—Evan clicked his tongue.

“Well, he used to be a god.”

“Do all gods want attention like that......?”

“Well—”

Not all of them, Alon was about to answer, when Kalannon suddenly came to mind.

Her, running around Divine Land as a white cat, trying to recover divine power somehow.

“-Because it’s a matter of survival.”

“......But that guy isn’t a god anymore, he’s just a pet, so he doesn’t need it, does he?”

“That’s true.”

At Alon’s nod, Evan let out a long sigh.

Watching him, Alon suddenly asked as if something occurred to him.

“Evan. Have you heard any news about the Jewel of the Closed-Eyed One?”

“Uh— not yet.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. But they said they found something like a clue, so please wait just a little longer.”

After checking the progress—

“Let’s go down.”

Leaving the doubts that still hadn’t been solved behind, they moved their feet toward their lodging, and—

“Are you Marquis Palatio?”

“......That’s right, but who are you?”

On the stairs down, he met a mage.

A mage in a red robe who looked far older than Alon.

The mage suddenly bowed his head deeply.

And then—

“I am Gunan Kroats, and I hold a professor position under the Red Mage Tower master.”

“Ah, yes—”

“To be honest, I’m quite good at simple computation, and I also participated a great deal in one of the Red Mage Tower’s papers, ‘Atia’s Intermediate Paradox.’”

“I... see.”

“Also, there’s a spell I made with simple computation formulas called ‘Atius Mage,’ and this—”

He started briefing them enthusiastically about himself.

“......?”

Alon, baffled, looked at Evan.

But—

“??”

Evan also tilted his head as if he had no idea what was going on.

“Ahem— I went on too long. Anyway, that’s what I mean.”

After rattling off only what he wanted to say, the Red Mage Tower professor disappeared.

‘......What was that?’

With confusion and a new doubt, Alon finished going down the stairs and was heading to the room he’d been assigned, when—

“Ah, Marquis Palatio—! There you are—!”

“......And you are?”

“Ah, my introduction is late. I am Uyarn Palvin, a full professor from the Blue Mage Tower.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Ahem— first, to introduce myself, do you perhaps know the papers ‘Kroitz’s Reverse Calculation’ and ‘Zalman’s Weighted Arithmetic’ in the field of simple computation?”

“......??”

He had to listen to another mage’s naturally-started briefing again.

“Hello! Marquis, I’m from the Purple Mage Tower—”

“I’m from the Blue Mage Tower—!”

“.......”

From then on, while moving, he had to hear two more rounds of ‘basic computation’ bragging from different mages.

In a situation he couldn’t make sense of, Alon returned to his room in a daze.

The next day.

“Hello, Marquis, I am from the Red Mage Tower—”

“I am from the Green Mage Tower—”

“......??”

The moment Alon woke up, mages naturally streamed into the room.

With this self-introduction parade following yesterday, he started to feel something was off.

And about two hours after that—

“Hello, Marquis! Interview number 19! I am Torin, a mage belonging to the Green Mage Tower! I’m truly confident in basic computation! If you pick me—!”

At some point, shouting out an interview number even Alon didn’t know, amid the mages enthusiastically selling themselves as if it were the most natural thing in the world—

“......??”

......Alon clasped his hands together and filled his head with nothing but questions.