In that fleeting instant, Alon searched through his mind and pulled up the little information he had on Calypsophobia.

Because the figure had taken a human form, he wondered if it might be a character from Calypsophobia.

But there was no such being in the information he knew.

And just as his confusion deepened—

“How interesting. Everything is happening exactly as expected. He doesn’t usually have this kind of foresight, either.”

The man before him, sounding thoroughly amused, turned fully away from the red sphere and looked at Alon and Yutia.

Now that he was facing them, the man’s body was difficult to call human.

Half of him looked similar to an ordinary person, but the other half was covered in something like grotesque red mineral.

“...Who are you?”

A smile hung on his lips as if he were enjoying himself.

Red hair.

Looking at this Divine blood he had never seen before, Alon asked the question.

The man answered with laughter in his voice.

“Does it matter who I am? Now that you’ve come here, there’s no chance of you leaving alive anyway.”

“...You don’t know that.”

“Don’t know that?”

The man let out a mocking laugh.

As if he found it ridiculous, and at the same time amusing, he nodded.

“Ah—well, sure—maybe I don’t. Maybe you really can stop me. But—”

He gave a short snicker.

“with the Whispering Void about to descend anyway, that part doesn’t really matter.”

“!”

Alon’s eyes widened.

He still had not figured out what the man before him was.

But the words that came out of his mouth were different.

“The Whispering... Void?”

Alon knew that name.

There was no way he could fail to remember it.

The Whispering Void was one of the fourth-stage Divine blood the blue eyes had mentioned, one of those leading the greatest faction of Divine blood.

‘How is that even possible?’

He could not understand it.

Behind his expressionless face, his features twisted on their own.

As far as he knew, Divine ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) blood had to descend to the surface step by step.

That was why the blue eyes who had told him all this, and the Wanderer who had explained more to him after that, could not descend to this surface.

They could not come down.

And yet the man before him, at a time when only first-stage Divine blood were just now descending, was saying something so absurd it bordered on madness—that a Divine blood that should only descend at the very end was about to descend now.

Could that be a lie?

The obvious suspicion crossed Alon’s mind, but he soon judged that it might not be a lie after all.

The reason was the enormous sphere behind the man.

The red sphere, throbbing violently as though it contained a power beyond anything Alon could imagine, was slowly shrinking as it compressed itself.

The moment he saw that, Alon tried to use magic on the red sphere without hesitation, but—

“Ah, if you were thinking of trying something, go right ahead. No matter what you do, the descent already started.”

“...What?”

The man remained calm.

“Was that too hard to understand? To put it simply, it’s already too late. Too late to stop His descent.”

He even shrugged and stepped out of the way himself, as though inviting Alon to try whatever he wanted.

And the moment Alon looked at him in disbelief—

[...Teacher.]

“!”

Yutia’s voice rang inside his head.

[I’m sending my voice through divine power, so please listen.]

Alon was startled for a brief moment, but at her explanation he gave the slightest nod, and she continued.

[From what I can tell, what that man said is only half true. It’s true that a powerful Divine blood beyond what we can handle is descending, but it’s not too late yet.]

“...!”

[If you can stop that man, Teacher, I’ll do something about the rest somehow.]

Alon looked at her, but she only gave a small smile and nodded, as if telling him not to worry.

“...”

Alon turned his gaze back to the red sphere.

A sphere that pulsed like a living thing, growing smaller as though condensing its power.

...Could he really send Yutia in there alone?

Worry came first, but—

[It’s okay.]

As if she had read his thoughts, certainty shone in Yutia’s red eyes.

He could not hesitate any longer.

Nod—

Alon, too, gave a slight nod in agreement.

[Teacher, be careful of that man. He feels like he’s on a completely different level from the Divine blood we’ve faced so far.]

Listening to her warning, Alon looked ahead.

Honestly, there was still too much he did not understand.

But the most important thing right now was stopping what was happening in front of him.

So he let out a breath and fixed his eyes straight ahead.

And at that moment, Yutia, who had been standing there without the slightest sign of movement, suddenly charged toward the red sphere.

####

Yutia’s figure moved in a flash.

The man, who had been smiling just a moment ago, reached out his hand.

In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of Yutia.

But—

the moment the man’s hand was about to stretch out, Alon, who had already been forming hand seals inside his pocket, used

'Sniping of Oblivion.'

At once, he fired Sniping of Oblivion at the man’s hand.

Not much magic had gathered.

But it held more than enough force to interfere with the man’s action.

And in that instant, Alon saw it.

The magic shot at the hand reaching for Yutia stopped in place.

A sudden, incomprehensible situation.

But by the time Alon fully recognized that strange phenomenon, Yutia had already leaped into the red sphere.

“Tch, she got in.”

The man, as if nothing could be done about it, shrugged and looked at Alon.

“I warned you that you wouldn’t be able to keep stopping me.”

“...For someone saying that, you looked awfully rushed when you tried to stop her.”

“Well, there’s always the off chance. But if she’s already gone in, then there’s no reason to stop her anymore. No, actually, I think this worked out even better.”

“...Why?”

“Why? Because now I get to fight the Star Eater myself.”

The man continued speaking, the smile never leaving his lips.

“I was too curious why He’s taking such an interest in you. And I was curious why He moved this plan up so much because of you.”

“...”

At the man’s words, Alon realized instinctively that the Whispering Void was someone who remembered the first timeline.

And that what was happening in this temple had been moved up because of him, though he did not know why.

“And more than anything—now that I’ve reached the second stage through His grace, I wanted to try out the power I gained.”

Alon stayed silent for a moment before speaking.

“...Are you Divine blood?”

He was nothing like the Divine blood Alon had seen until now.

At that, the man laughed cheerfully for a moment, then answered coldly.

“You’re comparing me to those half-finished things wandering the continent, ones that can’t even properly draw a law and can’t handle their inherent power?”

“...”

“Of course, until recently I wasn’t much different from them either.”

“...You talk as if you’re different from the Divine blood outside.”

“Do you think I wouldn’t be?”

The man’s expression twisted.

“There’s an enormous difference between being able to handle a law and being unable to handle one. You don’t know that?”

“...Should I?”

“No, you don’t need to know. I just don’t really understand why He told this Bringing-In Night to kill you.”

Muttering, “Well, whatever, it’s fine,” Bringing-In Night

lifted a hand with a faint grin.

“I’ll show you.”

It smiled dryly.

“The difference between the riffraff outside and true Divine blood.”

And then—

its hand slowly clenched shut.

Thunk—

Something abnormal happened.

“...?”

At first, Alon could not see through it.

But in the next moment, one realization came to him.

'...It’s rising?'

Small fragments of stone were floating upward.

And the moment he noticed that change—

Thunk—

the anomaly truly began.

Kwagagagagak-!!

The temple’s outer walls, the very walls beneath Alon’s feet, were torn away with terrifying speed and ease and sucked into the sky.

As though climbing against gravity.

Kwaduk-! Kwadududuk-!

The temple floor.

The enormous pillars.

The carved murals with meanings no one could understand.

In an instant, they all shattered to pieces and were sucked into the sky and vanished.

Even Alon’s own body.

“Basiliora—!”

The instant he realized his body was lifting into the air, a shout burst from Alon’s mouth.

And with that—

■■■■■■■■■■■■■-!!!

Smashing through the temple, Basiliora the Bearer appeared.

Grabbing hold of Basiliora’s body and gaining a broader field of view, Alon’s eyes widened on their own.

“—!”

The range of the suction did not stop at the temple alone.

The giant temple.

The red eggs.

The towering trees that existed there.

...And before long, even the hill.

It was greedily devouring everything in this entire area.

Countless red things across the vast grassland were being crushed together, shattered, and absorbed.

The small hill in the middle of the grassland was ground apart and absorbed as though being pulled into a black hole.

And the last thing Alon saw was—

“...Huh.”

a giant meteor floating in the sky.

Made by absorbing everything on the surface.

A red earth.

So absurdly enormous that it blotted out even the sky and made even Basiliora look like an ordinary snake, and a hollow breath escaped Alon’s lips.

“Do you understand now? The difference between riffraff and true Divine blood.”

Bringing-In Night, who had created that giant meteor, twisted its lips into a smile.

####

“...This is insane—”

Far away, Evan, who until just moments ago had been leisurely watching what was happening at the temple, muttered a curse under his breath.

Beside him, Penia let out a hollow laugh.

“This makes no sense—”

A giant meteor hanging in the sky.

It was so overwhelmingly massive that the moment it fell to the ground, it could erase everything with absurd ease.

“...”

Of course, Penia had roughly expected a situation like this.

Alon had already warned her that something dangerous would happen at this temple.

But she had never thought Alon would be easily pushed into danger.

Before entering the temple, Alon had already finished every possible preparation he could make.

The fact that he had been able to respond immediately with Basiliora was proof of that preparation.

But even if there was another plan waiting after this—

“This is just too much—”

Penia’s empty voice drifted away, and her gaze turned toward Alon.

Normally, he should have been too far away to make out clearly.

But her eyes, strengthened with magic, were able to see Alon’s face.

His expressionless face.

And then—

“...Huh?”

Penia let out an involuntary gasp.

Naturally, it was not because Alon was expressionless.

He maintained that expression no matter what the situation was.

The reason she was surprised was the posture he was taking.

After watching Alon for a long time, Penia had learned how to read his emotions.

That method was his posture.

Unlike his face, his emotional state showed in his movements.

And at this moment, the emotion Penia caught from Alon was not pressure, fear, or resignation—

'...Confidence?'

It was confidence.

And just as Penia was reading Alon’s emotions like that, inside the red mist Yutia had entered—

“It’s been a while—”

[I figured you’d come back, you monster bitch.]

—she was facing a giant eye with her own red eyes.