The next morning, I carefully took a step forward and placed my foot on the ground.

Nightchaser examined the footprint I left behind for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah. This should be fine.”

"Well, that’s a relief…”

I let out a sigh and looked down at the footprint.

Water no longer burst forth from it. If I’d gone to this so-called new capital while still creating lakes with every step, I’d have been nothing less than a walking disaster.

Still, there was an enormous difference between hiding one’s abilities while human and hiding them after becoming a god.

"This is suffocating.”

The air felt heavy. The ground felt hot. The sunlight irritated me.

As I was now, I could easily list thousands of reasons why I hated this world. Just standing and walking around was enough to annoy me.

"Well, obviously. You’re basically placing burdens on yourself right now.”

"Burdens?”

"Yeah. Normally, it’s natural for a small sea to form everywhere you walk.”

Nightchaser replied as though I were asking something ridiculous.

"When a god forcefully intrudes into a place that isn’t their domain, that’s what happens. Normally, when gods visit another world, they first saturate it with their divine domain.”

"That’s not being a god. That’s just a neighborhood mutt marking territory with piss.”

Natural or not, I couldn’t move around like that.

Accepting a somewhat, no, extremely inconvenient compromise, I walked over to Linmel, who was watching me with fascinated eyes.

"Preparations are done. Let’s go.”

"Okay, but it’s a pretty long trip. Will you be alright?”

"How far?"

"Hmm? About 2 hours?”

"...By horse?”

"No, that’s how long it takes if I run.”

In other words, it would take even longer on horseback.

As I sighed and prepared myself to accept my fate, Linmel suddenly crouched in front of me with an energetic grin.

"What are you doing?”

"Get on!”

"...No, we have to bring her too…"

I glanced toward Nightchaser as I tried to refuse.

She just tossed a wooden cup onto the ground, where she’d gotten it from, I had no idea, then stuck one foot into it.

"Whoa, what’s that?”

"This is how you carry me.”

Nightchaser melted down into the tiny cup, which could barely hold a single glass of water.

Staring in disbelief, I grabbed the cup and shook it while asking,

"You really became human, right? How the hell is this possible?”

"If I were still a god, there’d be no need to travel at all. I’d just sprinkle some water wherever I want to go and appear there.”

She had a point.

Holding the cup of water in one hand, I experienced a moment of internal conflict.

Walking through this unpleasantness for nearly an entire day, or throwing away my pride and riding on Linmel’s back instead.

The decision came quickly. There was nobody watching anyway.

"Honestly…for the only god capable of opposing Great Void, you look pretty pathetic.”

Actually there was someone. Heavenly Balance leaned against a tree, clearly having no intention of coming with us as she looked over indifferently.

"You’re not coming? You could meet your original self.”

"..."

Heavenly Balance didn’t answer immediately. After a brief silence, she slowly shook her head.

"It is not yet time.”

"Is that so?”

Well, if she didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to go. I had no intention of forcing her.

Things were far too urgent to waste time on that.

"Uh, before we arrive, let me down, okay?”

"Okay!"

After I sacrificed my dignity, Linmel performed her role as a taxi perfectly.

We reached the massive capital almost instantly at a speed bordering on supersonic.

The moment we arrived, I cautiously spread out my Tide Sense and probed the surroundings.

"It’s better than I expected…”

"Right?”

It really was.

The scale had shrunk somewhat, sure, but it was unbelievably well-built for a city made by refugees fleeing disaster.

The people didn’t look consumed by fear either. They were living with ordinary smiles on their faces. It was to the point that it was hard to believe the world was on the brink of collapse.

"Look, I helped dig the moat! The western gate was basically all me. What do you think? Pretty good, right?”

"Y-yeah. Good job.”

After praising the moat, which looked deep enough to instantly kill an ordinary person who fell into it, we entered through the open gates.

The moment we did, a female Knight who’d been anxiously pacing nearby rushed toward us. Her face was as pale as death as she rapidly checked Linmel over for injuries before letting out a deep sigh of relief.

"Commander Linmel! Where have you been without reporting in?! Do you know how worried we were? If you got taken out too, we’d really be finished…”

"Ah, right…I forgot to report in. Sorry. It completely slipped my mind.”

So Linmel had become a Knight Commander.

Well, with her strength, that was only natural. As I was thinking that, the female Knight’s gaze shifted toward me.

"And this man is…?”

"This is Jern! Ah, Jern. This is my adjutant.”

"My name is Jern Aspandil. Nice to meet you.”

At those words...

The adjutant’s expression froze solid like stone.

"J-Jern…? That Jern?”

"That...?"

"The one Commander Linmel always talks abou—”

"...Aaaaah! Right, right! That person! Anyway, Jern, I have some things I need to report first! Um, wait for me in front of the Imperial Palace!”

Realizing something in a flash, Linmel clamped a hand over the adjutant’s mouth and shoved her away toward one of the barracks.

"You have to wait there! Seriously!”

"Okay…?”

What was that about?

Tilting my head in puzzlement, I headed toward the imperial palace.

The palace stood there with such overwhelming grandeur that it almost looked as though the Empire’s decline were still far away. As I found myself thinking that they must have suffered quite a bit building this on a mountain, I suddenly noticed something strange. The palace gates were standing wide open.

"?"

Naturally, the imperial palace gates should always be closed. No matter the situation.

Did something happen while Linmel was away? Feeling a flicker of unease, I spread out my Tide Sense.

"...Oh."

Every door was open.

Not because something terrible had happened, though. The moment one servant spotted me, he immediately bowed his head and approached.

"Are you Sir Jern?”

"Ah, yes."

"Please follow me.”

"..."

Having roughly figured out what was going on, I let out a sigh and followed after the servant.

It didn’t take long before he stopped in front of a small room and knocked on the door.

[Come in.]

A familiar voice echoed out.

The servant stepped aside as though touching the doorknob wasn't his responsibility. Left with no choice, I opened the door myself—

"It’s been a long time."

"Have you been well?”

Sitting behind a desk, Sharmia greeted me with a gentle smile.

She looked far more exhausted than the last time I’d seen her, but I couldn’t stop myself from speaking.

"You saw it, huh?”

"Yes. I knew you’d be arriving today.”

"Which means you were assassinated?”

Sharmia possessed the ability to regress.

Whenever she died, she went back into the past with her memories intact.

If she’d used that ability to know I was coming, then that meant something fatal must’ve happened to her…

Seeing the alarmed look on my face, Sharmia hurriedly shook her head.

"No, it’s alright. I only died just now.”

"...What?"

What the hell did that mean?

Sharmia casually ran her fingers along the silver dagger resting on her desk.

"Normally, I wouldn’t abuse my ability to this extent, but as you probably know, the situation these days isn’t very good.”

"That sounds like an assassin showed up…”

"In a sense, I suppose you could say that. That assassin will knock on this door in 10 seconds.”

An assassin?

As I tilted my head in confusion, there really was a knock at the door.

[Your Highness! Urgent news! The ground split open in the western territories, and all the military provisions fell into the hole!]

"Should I kill him?”

"No, he’s actually one of my officials.”

-Thunk.

Dharmia stamped a seal onto a document with a weary expression before gesturing lazily for the door to be opened.

The official who entered through the open doorway was gasping for breath, bowing his head to the floor as though disaster itself had struck. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"At this rate, the western wall only has enough food left to maintain the troops for three more days. If the Fallen attack like this, we won’t be able to hold a proper front line…”

"I already had all the food in the western warehouses loaded onto wagons. If you issue orders to the drivers according to this letter, enough supplies to last a month will depart immediately.”

"Pardon? A month’s worth…? Where in the world did so much food come from…?”

"I’ve been gathering it little by little for times like this.”

"Ooh..."

The official stared up at Sharmia as though looking at a goddess before bowing deeply and hurrying back out.

Only then did I fully realize what Sharmia had been doing, and I frowned.

"...You’ve been using your ability very aggressively. Is that really okay?”

Every time something happened, Sharmia immediately killed herself, returned to the past, and prepared ahead of time.

She’d used letters to tease me before, but judging by how practiced her responses were, it seemed she’d been doing this constantly for nearly 5 years straight.

"It probably isn't, but right now, there’s no other choice.”

Even after I returned, Sharmia had continued dying over and over, rewinding into the past each time.

Now, as though her work was finally done, she stretched her shoulders and sank tiredly into her chair before glaring at me with a displeased look.

"Do you remember what I told you before? About seeing a future where you drown the capital?”

"...Yes. You did say that."

"In the end, that prophecy was correct. It was only a matter of timing.”

Submergence. That was part of my plan. So the future me had already told her.

I answered calmly.

"There’s no other way."

"I agree. I truly do. But I still don’t understand how you plan to actually defeat Great Void afterward.”

The Imperial Princess tilted her head curiously.

"I heard you became something close to a god. Maybe you really can drown the world. But once you confront Great Void after doing that, can you actually defeat him?”

"—Of course not.”

That answer hadn’t come from me.

The cup hanging from my waist wiggled, and Nightchaser crawled out from inside it, once again appearing as a younger Linmel as she answered Sharmia.

"You humans seriously don’t understand Great Void at all. Do you even know what determines the rank of a god?”

"I don’t. As you said yourself, I’m only human.”

"It’s determined by the size of the domain they control. That’s why we gods constantly invade and steal each other’s territories.”

After saying that, Nightchaser glared bitterly at the ceiling.

"That bastard was born owning the sky. Half the world is the sky. Even if the entire remaining half of the world united together, at best it’d barely reach an even split. But now Great Void doesn’t just own the sky. He’s also devoured the domain of magic too and swallowed countless other Outer Gods on top of that.”

"..."

"Even if every remaining Outer God attacked him together, they still wouldn’t stand a chance. So trying to fight him while relying on nothing but this rookie god here is basically just suicide…”

"I understand. Thank you for explaining, Nightchaser."

"...You know my name? That’s genuinely creepy. What the hell?”

"She’s the Imperial Princess, so watch your mouth.”

"She’s still just some human ruler…”

Grumbling, Nightchaser glared at Sharmia again and continued.

"But if we’re choosing the highest chance of success, then what this guy said is correct. If we fight without any countermeasures, then even if we somehow win once in a hundred million chances, that bastard can still escape whenever he wants. So first, we have to make sure he can’t run away.”

"This brings us to the same question, then. If you manage to prevent him from escaping, can Jern actually defeat him?”

Nightchaser snorted.

"Well, first he’ll have to use methods similar to Great Void’s. If he devours as many Fallen as possible—then even if victory is still impossible, at least he’ll be able to throw one more punch.”

"...Understood."

Sharmia closed her eyes and slowly nodded.

"If something is merely impossible, then Jern has already accomplished it countless times. Becoming…that from an ordinary human, something close to omnipotence, was impossible too, wasn’t it?”

"That’s…true.”

"And as for me, I’m someone who has no choice but to keep killing herself over and over again. So if I have to place my hopes somewhere—then I’d rather place them on the person who has already made the impossible possible once before.”

Sharmia gave me a weary, strained smile.

"My greetings are late. Welcome back, Jern.”

"Thank you.”

I bowed my head with the bare minimum courtesy owed to the hero who had been supporting humanity all on her own. I then moved onto the most important subject.

"But before hunting down the other Fallen, there’s something we need to do first.”

"And what is that?”

"Elisia.”

"..."

At that name, Sharmia’s expression darkened slightly.

"I want to save her first. What exactly happened?”

"How much have you heard?”

"That after I disappeared, Elisia fell and caused catastrophic damage to the Empire…”

"If it had only ended in damage, that would’ve been fortunate.”

Sharmia sighed and lowered her head.

"Not long after your disappearance, she abandoned her noble title and status entirely and joined Scarlet Abyss.”

"...What??? Why would she do that??”

"I don’t know. Maybe she wanted information about you. Maybe there was another reason. But eventually, she was expelled from Scarlet Abyss...in a broken state. She had fallen.”

"Scarlet Abyss expelled a Fallen?”

Wasn’t that backwards?

Not expelled because they discovered she wasn’t a Fallen but expelled because she fell?

The sheer absurdity of hearing that Elisia had joined Scarlet Abyss gave me a headache, but Sharmia continued with something even worse.

"Elisia is no longer aligned with either Scarlet Abyss or humanity. She has become a third faction entirely. You could say she has become a being that hates both sides.”

"What the hell happ—Where is she right now?”

Just hearing the situation wasn’t enough to understand what had happened to her or what she had become. The urge to see her myself only grew stronger. After hesitating briefly, Sharmia finally answered.

"The Witch of Emptiness, Nihil, is in the capital’s library.”

That made me tilt my head. But this was the capital. What other capital could she possibly mean?

Then I heard the rest—

"The old capital. The library you used to frequent.”

...The moment I heard that, I realized exactly why she was there.

Even though I’d feared it might be the case…

"...She’s searching for me."

Just like Linmel…

Elisia had been searching for me as well.