"...You didn’t look like someone who’d choose suicide.”

Even as all the vine giants she had created were crushed at once, Heavenly Balance showed no particular emotion.

It was obvious why. She knew that while I was already enduring unbearable pressure, using power on this scale would normally cause me to collapse and burst under my own burdens. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

As she tried to confirm my end—

Her expression finally twisted when she saw me still standing, clawing at my own chest.

"You’re far tougher than I expected."

"..."

I didn’t even have the strength to answer. Instead, I raised a finger.

At the same time, the vines writhing beneath the ground, trying to burst upward, suddenly fell silent.

They hadn’t completely stopped moving, though. Even now, under Heavenly Balance’s command. They were struggling desperately to break through the ground.

But they couldn’t.

Naturally, the entire world fell silent, as if it were dead.

"What is this…?”

Heavenly Balance looked at me, slightly bewildered.

It wasn’t just this area. The entire world was being pressed down.

Unable to understand how I had withstood the pressure, she asked,

"How are you still fine?”

"You think I look fine…?”

I was barely standing at all. My ribs felt like they were about to shatter under the pressure, so I couldn’t say I was fine even as a joke.

Still, I had just enough strength left to force a grin and raise my middle finger.

"I picked up a little trick from your friend.”

A thread was tied around the finger I held up.

A thread connected to the ground.

"...Puppet?"

Heavenly Balance’s eyes widened as realization hit her a moment too late. She slammed her vine hand into the ground.

The earth split open instantly. Seeing that the vines below still couldn’t rise, she clenched her teeth.

"When did you do this?!”

I had used pressure only once, solely to force the vines into the ground.

What kept them from coming up afterward wasn’t pressure. It was the puppet threads entangled around them.

Of course, I couldn’t perfectly use Puppet’s ability. If those giants had truly been separate individuals, this wouldn't have been possible.

"I thought about it you know? There’s no way this world could actually contain that many living things.”

I’d heard it before.

There were only three worlds where life could exist. In the Three Calamities.

And yet this garden was overflowing with tens of millions of lives, despite not being one of them. Even if they were just remnants of the dead.

Naturally, a question arose. What kind of world was this?

Even if it were one of the Three Calamities, could it really hold that many lives?

I got my answer when I saw the vines endlessly multiplying.

"I almost got fooled because they looked different, you bastard…but they all come from the same root, don’t they?”

"..."

"A single root that can produce infinite buds. That's the only thing that exists in this world.”

One root that split and created countless vessels to hold life.

That was the true nature of Heavenly Balance’s garden.

"Once you realize that, it’s simple. Just crush that one thing, and it’s over.”

The vines writhing beneath the ground were already incapable of carrying out Heavenly Balance’s commands.

Even Heavenly Balance herself. Her vine-formed body was beginning to stiffen.

"Tsk..."

Realizing that she wouldn’t even be able to resist at this rate, she glanced at her vine arm, then tore her own face open.

Inside was Heavenly Balance in her human form. Her expression was twisted with anger.

"This is impossible.”

"If you’re going to whine like a loser, hurry up and finish quickly.”

"Puppet’s ability may look like perfect domination at first glance, but it requires the target’s consent. That might work on lesser beings, but the Rootless One of this garden is not something that can be controlled so easily.”

Heavenly Balance pointed out what I already knew, glaring at me fiercely.

Rootless One, a world that contained only a single root bearing that name.

"That thing allowed itself to be controlled by you? Why?”

"I don’t know what it is. I don’t know its thought process either.”

Gritting my teeth, I kept controlling the vines caught between conflicting commands. Mine and Heavenly Balance’s.

From here on, it was a contest whether Heavenly Balance’s command authority overpowered Puppet’s control or not.

"Maybe it didn’t listen to me, but simply didn’t want to listen to you.”

"...What?"

"Hey, you bastard. Look at what you’ve done to this world!”

I shouted, sweeping my gaze across the garden that had once been filled with blooming flowers.

"You think this is all you can do? That it’s fine as long as it satisfies you? Sure, it might be fine for you, but what do you think this world sees you as? It’s living just fine, and then you drag in corpses from other worlds, planting them one by one into its body like you’re farming.”

"What do you even know? This was something it was suited for by nature…”

"Being suited for something and actually doing it are two different things. I’ll admit it. This is a beautiful, even noble graveyard. But isn’t it obvious that the one being turned into this graveyard won’t be satisfied?”

"..."

"If you’re so confident, then prove it with your actions.”

I tightened my control over the puppet threads.

[...!]

Until now, I had only been preventing them from breaking out of the ground, but now, I forced them even deeper down.

If that held, Heavenly Balance would be left with nothing she could do in this world. In that state even I could finish her off, the way I currently was.

"...Fine."

Heavenly Balance clenched her teeth and accepted it, stimulating the Rootless One.

"I’ll correct that foolish idea of yours. That a world could have a will of its own.”

On the other hand, if those vines broke through the ground again, it would be over.

I was already enduring the maximum burdens I could possibly handle.

We stood there, doing nothing but staring at each other. However, beneath the surface, no, beneath the earth, a fierce battle for control was unfolding.

[...!]

[Aargh...]

[Kugh...]

The only one suffering between us was the Rootless One.

Its vines rose on their own, sank back down, burst apart, and regenerated. This cycle repeated dozens of times.

It felt like watching someone smash their own face in self-harm over and over again. I knew it was just a mass of vines, yet it was pitiful enough to make me uncomfortable.

Minutes passed, and sweat began to bead on Heavenly Balance’s face.

"...Kgh."

Heavenly Balance was not the owner of this world. That was Great Void. He had only temporarily lent it to her.

So I couldn’t tell by what method she was controlling the Rootless One or holding dominion over this world.

It didn’t really matter though. There was only one outcome left in the end.

[...]

My Tide Sense told me the vines were slowly being forced underground.

The root chose to return to where it originally belonged. Deep beneath the earth, a place that required immense strength just to uproot.

It was my victory.

"Hah."

Realizing there was no way to reverse it anymore, Heavenly Balance let out a hollow, almost strange laugh.

"...It was my greed."

"You think you can call that just greed? It’s far beyond that. It’s obsession.”

What Heavenly Balance had done was, in essence, an attempt to create her own version of the Three Calamities.

She wanted to create another sage world to contain life like the First Mage once did.

But she lacked the power.

A world given by her enemy, and even that world reduced to a graveyard that didn’t want to be one.

That was the place she had spent her entire life to obtain.

And now, even that place had betrayed her. It was only natural she’d feel crushed.

"Kill me.”

But contrary to my expectations, Heavenly Balance looked almost relieved as she said it.

Even facing death, she remained composed. Just as she had from the beginning.

There was only one thing to say in response.

"I told you already. I’m not going to kill you.”

"...Then I have no idea what you want.”

Heavenly Balance glared at me with a tired expression.

"You’ve heard the prophecy and destroyed my world, and yet you won’t leave. What is it you want?”

"You."

"...What?"

I pointed at her and let out a sigh.

"To be honest, you’re right. I don’t feel like I can accomplish anything against Great Void. Coming to find you was just impulsive. I thought maybe I’d hear the prophecy and get something useful out of it.”

"You at least understand your own limits.”

Heavenly Balance replied with a wary expression, then asked,

"So what? Are you planning to do something like I did? Build a sanctuary?”

"Don’t get it twisted. That doesn’t mean I’ve reached the same conclusion as you.”

Heavenly Balance had run away when faced with an impossible problem.

It might have been the most rational choice, but if that choice equated to defeat, then calling it escape was only accurate.

But I had no intention of doing that.

"If there’s no way, then I want to find one.”

"As your predecessor, I’ve tried thousands, no, tens of thousands of times…”

"If I can’t find one, I’ll make one.”

Cutting Heavenly Balance off, I met her gaze and lowered my head.

"Even if they’re methods that already failed, I’d like you to tell me.”

"...All of that led me to use this world, though.”

"That’s just because you were incompetent.”

"?"

If it were me, I could do it.

I had to.

"I’m capable. I’ll achieve what you couldn’t, so just help me a little.”

In the end, it was a request.

Threatening to kill her wouldn’t work on someone like Heavenly Balance.

"..."

Seeing her expression turn even more incredulous than when the Rootless One had been crushed, I grew impatient and added,

"Besides, if everything ends the same no matter what I do, then it shouldn’t matter if you help me, right? You said the conclusion is already set, right? So whether you help or not doesn’t change anything, does it?”

"I seem to have misjudged you.”

Heavenly Balance shook her head, her expression turning cold.

"Enduring the Abyssal Sea with that body and dancing so well even if it was on Great Void’s palm. I thought you were someone exceptional.

"I mean, that’s not entirely wrong…”

"But in reality, you’re nothing more than a stubborn fool.”

Heavenly Balance let her hand fall limply with a sigh.

"I never thought I’d see someone even more foolish and obstinate than my past self.”

"..."

Was she refusing?

Well, from her perspective, there’s no reason to side with the losing side.

As I swallowed the bitterness rising in my chest, Heavenly Balance suddenly said something unexpected.

"Kill me.”

“I told you, even if negotiations fail, I’m not planning to—”

"That way, you can take me without Great Void noticing.”

"...?"

Still looking at me like I was hopelessly foolish, Heavenly Balance continued.

"You said you’d reach a different ending than mine.”

"...Probably?”

"I don’t believe you—but I’ll watch.”

Glancing around at the desolate world, she muttered in a gloomy tone.

"No matter how it turns out, it should be better than being stuck in this barren place.