Penia muttered, startled.

The Observer didn’t show much of a reaction, as if that response was familiar.

“It’s been a while.”

At Alon’s voice, she turned her gaze back to him.

“Yes. It has.”

“Did you know I was coming?”

“I expected it.”

Answering calmly, the Observer glanced once at Radan and Penia standing behind Alon, and at Evan, then said,

“I’m afraid your guests will need to wait here for a moment.”

“......Is that so?”

“Yes.”

When Alon glanced back slightly, the three of them nodded at the same time.

“Understood.”

As soon as Alon nodded after confirming, the Observer reached out a hand toward him—

Woom-!

Along with a light resonant hum, a sphere like bubbles wrapped around his body.

“Then we’ll depart right away.”

Without any particular explanation, the Observer headed straight beneath the water’s surface, and guided Alon to a space in the deep sea.

After a short while—

“We’re here.”

They arrived at the Observer’s space.

“Thank you.”

“For what? Then I’ll be out.”

“......? Wait, you’re leaving?”

When Alon asked in surprise, the Observer nodded.

“Yes. Because the one who will speak with you this time isn’t me. More than anything, I have something to tell.”

“Something to tell?”

“Yes. Up above.”

She added that, then turned away before Alon could say anything.

After throwing herself into the entrance of the abyss where nothing could be seen—

“Don’t worry too much. Once the conversation is finished, I’ll come right back down.”

Leaving those words behind, she vanished at once.

‘......What conversation?’

Still flustered, Alon soon shrugged and turned his body around.

In the first place, it was exactly as she’d said.

The one he’d come to meet this time wasn’t her.

Alon naturally moved his steps into the cave that had formed.

Soon, a familiar hollow revealed itself.

A place where the sky was clearly visible even in the darkness of the deep sea.

The hollow itself was no different from before.

What was different was the sky.

“.......”

Without a word, Alon looked up at the sky of this world.

In the place that had always been nothing but brilliant stars, the Milky Way no longer existed.

There was only a pitch-black night, and the moon drifting smoothly overhead.

The stars no longer existed.

As if they’d never been there to begin with.

“.......”

Of course, this wasn’t the first time he’d seen a night sky without stars.

He’d heard, from the moment he came to his senses, that the stars in the night sky had disappeared, and after he’d been able to move his body, he’d confirmed it with his own eyes.

And yet.

For a long while, Alon stared blankly at the quiet sky with nothing but the moon.

It had been the sky, so he couldn’t even gauge how noisy it ought to be in the first place, but for some reason, it felt quiet.

“.......”

Eventually, Alon slowly started walking, passing under the dark sky and heading deeper inside.

He found the altar he’d seen last time and set the jade ornament he was holding down on top of it.

Uuuuwoong-!

A faint resonant hum, and the sinful mana he could feel.

But unlike last time, he didn’t panic, and waited calmly.

“Former......”

Soon, a soul in human form appeared before his eyes.

A soul created by the sin’s mana gathered into one.

[You brought them all.]

Before Alon could even react to seeing that figure, the Former Observer spoke, and Alon nodded, inwardly startled.

“Yeah. How did you know?”

[Because I told you to gather them?]

“......Hmph.”

[I’m joking.]

As Alon made an awkward face, the Former Observer continued, wearing a faint smile.

[In this state, I can sense things a bit more closely.]

“You noticed from an extremely tiny wavelength?”

[That’s right. First, could you hand me those items?]

Without complaint, Alon passed over what he had in his arms.

The Mask of the One Who Walks Ahead.

The Crying Blessing.

And finally, the Jewel of the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) Closed-Eyed One, obtained from Elivan.

Without a word, the Former Observer accepted them, then arranged the three artifacts in a triangle on the altar where the jade ornament sat.

[We’ll start with this.]

Then sin’s mana flowed into the three artifacts, and a black sphere began forming over the triangle.

And—

Pfft—

A black thorn shot toward Alon.

“!”

So fast.

Was I betrayed?

Can I respond?

Even if I can’t, can I survive?

In an instant, a thousand thoughts flashed through Alon’s mind as he stopped breathing.

But regrettably, there was nothing Alon could do.

The thorn spilling out of the sphere was faster than his thoughts.

And so, just as Alon was about to grit his teeth—

Kraack-!

The black thorn sank into something.

Not his body, but something behind his back.

And then—

“!”

Alon felt it.

The black something that had been behind him was slowly disappearing.

“Th-this... is?”

Blankly staring at the black smoke, Alon turned his gaze to the Former Observer, and she answered calmly.

[“Watcher” would be the right word.]

“......Watcher?”

[Yes. The Watcher that has been watching you the whole time.]

Alon looked behind his back.

Something that had definitely been holding its shape was now completely gone.

“Could I ask you for an explanation?”

[Of course— hmm?]

Nodding, the Former Observer suddenly stared straight at Alon.

“......Is there something else?”

Alon asked at the sudden strange behavior, but the Former Observer just looked at him for a while longer, then—

[No. It’s nothing.]

Shaking her head, she looked away.

[It’ll take a little time until you meet that person, so let’s talk for a bit.]

As if nothing had happened.

Alon’s mind was filled with confusion.

The vanished divinity.

Divine blood.

The secrets of this world.

And even the Watcher the Former Observer had mentioned.

There were even more things he had to think about.

But regardless of Alon’s situation, the Former Observer kept her mouth shut.

No—more precisely, she seemed to be thinking.

About what she should explain first.

And after she’d been lost in thought for a long time, she finally— 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

[Let’s start from the beginning.]

“......Th-the beginning?”

[Yes. I tried to explain it simply this way and that, but it seems like it’ll be a bit difficult. Well, it won’t be a bad story for you, either. You won’t be able to hear it from just anyone.]

When Alon looked at her, the Former Observer nodded.

[Because this is a story of the past— even before the age of the forgotten god.]

“......?”

For a moment, Alon felt puzzled, but soon understood what she meant.

Because he’d heard something like that from the Observer before.

‘......So what you’re saying is that there’s a past even before the age of the forgotten god?’

‘Honestly, I haven’t seen it either, but I definitely think it exists.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the Former Observer— I mean, my teacher— saw that past, left last words, and returned.’

What she’d said when he first met the Observer and looked out at the longing.

Remembering those words, Alon looked at the Former Observer before him, but her expression remained calm.

[In the distant past, there were two countries on this continent.]

[One was a powerful nation that achieved dazzling advancement through magitech, to the point it could even reach the sky.]

[The other was a nation where people, under the teachings of a great god, realized a method of engraving laws into this world.]

[The names of those nations were the Ilanef Empire, and Babiloia.]

“!”

Alon’s eyes widened.

He knew the name Ilanef from Rine.

But the name Babiloia—he knew it even without hearing it from Rine.

“......Babiloia.......”

Alon muttered without realizing it.

There was no way he wouldn’t know.

If you took the mage route in Psychedelia, you couldn’t help but know Babiloia.

The very word that appeared when enacting a mage’s constraint was a phrase and a hand seal of “Babiloia.”

In fact, Alon himself had enacted a constraint using a ring several years ago.

Even as countless thoughts flashed through Alon’s mind, the Former Observer continued.

[By now you’ve probably guessed, but the hand seals and phrases you use—]

“They’re all Babiloia’s.”

[Right. More precisely, they belong to the “god” who engraved those laws into this world. No— would it be more correct to call them the Divine blood’s?]

“......What?”

Alon’s shocked expression.

But only for a moment—Alon’s mind spun quickly, and listening to the story of the two nations she’d explained, he naturally began drawing one inference.

Babiloia’s Divine blood.

Magic.

Magitech.

Ilanef.

Sin.

......Pluto.

“......Don’t tell me.”

[......Indeed. It seems you’ve already realized the purpose of the Divine blood from the sin. Since you’ve noticed, I won’t need to explain it one by one.]

When Alon looked like he’d understood something, the Former Observer smiled.

[Yes. Just as you expected. Babiloia was the Divine blood’s own cradle, made so it could be reborn as a true god.]

“Ilanef is—”

[A spoiler, that obstructs the future of that Divine blood.]

Alon suddenly recalled one question.

The time he met Utrutus—no, the mad god.

As far as Alon knew, he’d been an outer god from the forgotten age.

And yet he clearly knew Babiloia.

In the first place, the reason he accepted Alon’s battle was also because Alon had spoken Babiloia’s name.

But Alon didn’t interrupt the Former Observer’s continued words.

[The two nations went to war. Both Babiloia and Ilanef suffered great damage. If time simply passed like that, both nations would have inevitably entered the path of destruction.]

“......So in the end, did the two nations destroy each other?”

[No.]

“No?”

[Yes. In the end, the two nations stopped the war right before they destroyed each other. The Divine blood didn’t want to render useless this womb of conception it had created by pushing others aside, and Ilanef also had a plan that required time.]

—Well, I don’t know the details of what plan, she added, and continued.

[Anyway, the two nations stopped the war right before destruction. And somehow, they survived. But—]

She shrugged.

[Ilanef and Babiloia ended up collapsing.]

“......They couldn’t hold out?”

[No. Even if destruction had been approaching, the two nations were mighty enough to rise again. The laws the Divine blood engraved into the world granted humans omnipotence, if only temporarily.]

The Former Observer moved slowly and sat on the altar.

[And magitech advanced to the point it could reach the sky also granted humans more power than they needed. So as time passed, the two nations recovered faster and faster. And then they were destroyed.]

“A second war?”

[No? The two nations didn’t collapse because of war. Like I said, they were destroyed.]

“......By whom?”

At Alon’s question, the Former Observer fell silent.

After a brief pause, she—

[By Monster blood.]

answered.

“......!”

Alon’s eyes widened for an instant.