[You will regret your choice... deeply regret it...]
Well then, let's see who ends up regretting in the end.
...….
That bastard... I guess I won't hear his voice ever again...
His words annoyed me, even though I barely understood half of what he said...
Why do they always speak in such strange ways? Will they die if they don't? Tch...
Speaking of which, he said something about the Grand Mirror of the World... I feel like I've heard that name before somewhere.
Anyway, it doesn't matter now. Despair waits for no one.
But before that...
I focused deeply, sitting in a comfortable position...
I started recalling some of the skills bit by bit.
As I expected... I can't use them.
The new power system I obtained does not heed my will or control...
So how can I use skills with no energy?
[Seventh seal has been unlocked...]
Huh...?
I... I feel dizzy...
[My services will now be suspended for a while, my dear little one~]
A woman's voice?
Suddenly… a woman's voice echoed in my head… no, not just in my head…
I don't know exactly where, but it came from somewhere inside my body.
And it's the same tone I heard that time… when I was bitten to death by the chimera...
Was it... the mana of chaos?
But...
But!!!
My body... this unpleasant sensation...
I want to devour something...
Anything!
I began to feel something gnawing away inside me, like a black hole consuming me, reverting me...
I want...
I want to devour despair!
.....
"Sir? Are you awake? Where did you—"
Huff...
No... stay away...
Maria!
"Ah, there you are, sir! What are you doing on the floor?"
I... can't control myself...
I'll say it...
I'm sorry, Maria...
"My dear disciple~ Today is the day your lovely father dies~"
Damn it...
What's happening to me?
One moment I want to devour anything...
And the next, I want to kill myself to release the despair I've always suppressed...
It hurts so much...
I don't want to continue with this unbearable pain...
My emotions are reacting in a catastrophic way, and my desires long for things I never wanted in all my lives...
"Sir… What did you just say…?"
Oh no!
I can't bear even the scent of despair now, let alone letting you fall into it...
Damn it, I'm losing control...
"Sir... Do you really mean that?"
Huh?
That's... not the reaction I expected...
And her face doesn't show any shift in emotion...
Is she pretending, or what?
But thankfully, I don't feel any despair coming from her...
Maybe she hasn't fully realized the situation yet.
"Yes! My dear disciple, your father will experience what even the cruelest of men in hell endure. I will flay him alive and delight in his screams for mercy!"
This is so embarrassing...!!
To think such words came from my mouth...
I want to die...
Die...
Huh?
"Sir... don't joke about things like that... haha."
Her disbelieving face made me forget myself...
I was immersed in that moment for a reason I don't understand, driven by a feeling I've never experienced before...
Could it be… there's still an emotion I hadn't felt in all my lives?
In the full thousand years I've spent lost among wishes...
This is the first time... I've felt something like this!
"My little girl~ Do you think I'm that weak? Listen closely… your teacher here is at a level your father could never even dream of reaching. Do you think that filthy father of yours can even control his own path? That's assuming he has one at all, hahahahaha....."
Why am I rambling so much...
But this... feels good.
Yes, I should have tried this method earlier...
Even a fool learns from his mistakes.
Sigh…
I give up.
"Master!"
She's... crying?
Well, that's expected... but wait a second...
Did she just call me "Master"?
"Do you know how long I've waited for this moment, Master!! I've been waiting desperately for you... Finally, my wish will come true!"
Eh?
Ehh??
"Yes... kill him, torture him, flay him, show him hell, and make him a warning to others!!"
What the...???
"That bastard who only ever cared about himself deserves this."
"W–Wait, my dear~ He's your father, right? You should be crying and begging me to forgive him. That's not what I expected?"
Her gaze..!
"Master~ Don't joke like that. That scum—there wasn't a day I didn't wish for his death… and now you think I'd beg for him? You're too amusing, Master~"
My disciple...
She's insane!
I've finally found someone who can match my madness!
"What... makes you hate him that much?"
She approached and gently held my hand, caressing it.
The look on her face... was just like Mother's...
"Master~ You met Russel, didn't you?"
Shock.
To mention her name... at this exact moment...
The raging emotions inside me suddenly calmed...
While happiness swept over me from one side, rage dominated the other.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Master~ You really are a kind person~ Thank you for being there in her final moments!"
And in a sudden fit of rage, I screamed at my disciple for the first time.
"Speak! How the hell do you know her?!"
Her name had almost returned to the land of forgetting...
Mentioning her while despair consumed me and unleashed all my desires...
It made me forget myself, my essence, my goal...
And it created a gap—one that despair used fully to crash into me, pierce through me, and engulf me.
Everything is over...
From today, I am no longer Telodeos, and Telodeos never existed in this era.
In the end... you were right, pride.
And I... was right too.
From this moment on—I am the Virtue of Despair, and there is no despair in this world but me!
"Tell me!"
"Easy, Master~ Let's sit first. This story is far too long to tell standing."
We both sat on the table, while Maria leaned into me and sat in my lap.
"What…"
She cut me off and began explaining.
"They say the Church has existed since the beginning of time, founded by the first Saintess, who then vanished afterward…"
Maria continued explaining—some things I already knew, and others I'd never heard before.
They say that sainthood is inherited within the Church only by virginal girls with extraordinary gifts and sincere, humane personalities.
Each generation's Saintess is chosen automatically by the First Saintess. How? Only the Awakening Stone at the Central Church knows.
The Awakening Stone reveals the location of the next Saintess to the current one, who then reaches out to the First Saintess to bless the location of the new one's birth.
If a Saintess dies, the golden, glowing Awakening Stone turns pitch black and becomes unusable—for exactly 111 days.
The Pope says the stone grieves its Saintess...
"So, what happens if the current Saintess dies before identifying her successor? And what does this have to do with Russel?"
"That can never happen!"
"What? But Russel did—"
Ugh… that look again. Still can't get used to it.
"W–What?"
"Master~ Let me finish, please."
Crazy Maria surfaced for a moment, then continued.
Saintesses know when and how they will die, so they set out on a journey to find the next one if their time is near. But the Awakening Stone never reveals the new one's identity too early.
'That's why she said that to me when we met… Russel…'
"Master! Are you listening?"
"No, what were you saying?"
At that moment, despair reacted to her words so strongly that all my emotions disappeared…
Empty.
"Russel… Russel is my older sister!"
Yes... it's empty.