Trapped in the space summoned by the God of the Otherworld, Yuri had nowhere to run.
But there was no need to run.
“Is this the Outer Universe?”
[…….]
“So it’s a space that’s half in between.”
Mana swirled and rose above Guilty.
At first, the rotation was faint, but it gradually expanded until it engulfed the entire void surrounding him.
The vortex was more overwhelming than ever.
“Maybe the power of chaos is connected to this place,” Yuri muttered.
The chaos he wielded moved exactly as he willed, from one end of this space to the other.
It was as if the reins had been completely loosened.
Still, it wasn’t uncontrollable. At first, he was a bit flustered by how even a small intention could cause massive changes, but after a few uses, he got the hang of it.
There were no limits.
[…….]
Once again, a message came from the God of the Otherworld.
Along with a fierce will to kill him, there was also a faint piece of advice about the void and chaos.
Yuri couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.
“Is this kindness, arrogance, or stupidity? I can’t tell.”
[…….]
Since they were beings fundamentally separated at their core, perhaps they would never truly understand each other’s thoughts.
Regardless, at this moment, they shared one thing in common:
They had to eliminate the other.
“No objections?”
[…….]
Yuri moved first.
From the darkness surrounding the God of the Otherworld, thousands—no, tens of thousands—of tentacles rose up. They wrapped around Yuri, tightening their grip to crush him.
But when he swung Guilty, they were all severed.
The tentacles vanished.
Then reappeared.
In this space, existence and non-existence were hardly different.
They could become something vast or shrink to something minuscule.
This indiscriminate potential, responding to will, became each other’s weapon, stabbing to kill. For Yuri, it took the form of a sword; for the God of the Otherworld, tentacles.
Space tore apart.
Time shattered.
Their battle was both calm and fierce.
A deafening roar and deathly silence coexisted.
Space and time crossed and collided.
At one point, Yuri found himself standing face to face with the god’s true form, having dropped his sword in the middle of the void.
It was enormous.
Compared to its size, Yuri was nothing but a speck of dust.
A grotesque face adorned with tentacles. Hands and feet made of the same writhing appendages, a body covered in slime.
A being drifting through the Outer Universe was this colossal.
Its furious gaze fixed on Yuri.
Blood-red eyes engulfed his entire body.
The endless void seized him. Incomprehensible concepts and landscapes constricted and twisted his soul.
It was like a planet crushing an ant to death.
His mind shattered.
His soul fragmented.
Under overwhelming pressure, Yuri’s heart and mind were torn to pieces.
But—
Yuri smiled instead.
In his hand, Guilty was once again firmly gripped.
“Compared to the dreams I’ve had every night, this is nothing but sweet.”
Since grasping the power of chaos, he had plunged into the depths of his mind every single day without fail.
The brief moments between closing and opening his eyes stretched into an eternity for him.
Though he told his master, Moyongchan, that he was fine, it only meant he could endure it somehow—not that nothing was happening.
Chaos.
To manifest a realm beyond reality, existing only as possibility.
It was a power far too great for a human.
So Yuri witnessed countless branches of life given to him every day.
He lived and died.
He lived long lives, only to have to kill his own happiness at the end.
Sometimes, he was brutally tortured, sinking into hallucinations.
Even a single life was unbearably heavy, yet he lived out all his other possibilities every moment.
An ordinary human would have gone mad.
But he did not wear down.
Pain that could not kill was merely fertilizer; the deeper his mind sank, the stronger his sword became.
To Yuri, the pain inflicted by the God of the Otherworld was just a fragment of the infinite dreams he had endured at some point in his mind.
He closed his eyes and opened them again.
Guilty was once more in his hand.
In a timeline detached from the outside world, his world fractured once again.
Chaos upon chaos overlapped, creating a thick, endless sludge.
Drip.
As Yuri raised his sword, the space split open, and a black, sticky substance oozed down.
It was the distilled essence of chaos.
So deep that even the God of the Otherworld stepped back.
[…….]
Yuri slung Guilty over his shoulder and looked up at the God of the Otherworld.
Its size had shrunk.
Or perhaps Yuri himself had grown.
With chaos in his grasp, nothing seemed impossible anymore.
“Shall we continue?”
Yuri and the God of the Otherworld stared at each other.
In the Outer Universe, vast and bizarre beings—so large they could be called gods—floated in emptiness.
And now, that emptiness began to tremble.
Jarred aimed his sword at the back of the monster’s head.
Everyone, including him, was desperately squeezing out every last drop of mana, pouring sword energy toward that grotesque face.
But then, suddenly—
Yuri, who had been at the forefront, was nowhere to be seen.
“Your Highness?”
He wasn’t the only one. Something strange was happening to the monster as well.
The darkness that had cloaked its face vanished, and the horrific form that had dwelled within disappeared too.
In its place was a flat mass of slime where its head should have been.
Sword energy rained down on it.
Flesh burst open, blood flowing.
“Uh…”
The monster was no longer the same. Its tentacles counterattacked, but weakly, and when struck by sword energy, it was suspiciously easy to cut.
As the enemy suddenly weakened, the others hesitated in their attacks.
Jarred quickly shouted,
“Your Highness is gone!”
“What?”
Some nodded as if they had suspected, others looked around in surprise.
Jarred shouted again,
“Maybe Your Highness did something? This bastard suddenly got weaker too. We have to save Your Highness—”
“Well, how exactly…”
“Should we ask Inariel?”
“Hopefully he’s not down.”
The knights who had just leapt down along Inariel’s magic circle were still trying to grasp the situation, shouting out their battle cries.
Then, sensing the sudden silence, they lowered their voices in embarrassment.
“Ahhh! Aah…”
“Die! Die, die…”
Still, they kept attacking steadily. Blood burst from various spots on the monster’s shoulders.
Soon, the monster began to sway.
“Everyone, plant your swords and keep your balance!”
Jarred quickly stabbed his sword into the monster’s shoulder to brace it.
The monster staggered and dropped to its knees, its body trembling violently.
“Damn it…”
Its movements were slowing.
“Isn’t this our chance?”
“Something feels off.”
“We need to find Your Highness first. Let’s get down.”
Everyone voiced different opinions.
Jarred and the others searched for Yuri, looking around.
It was truly strange.
Yuri, who had been fighting alongside them, suddenly disappeared, and the monster weakened and collapsed.
There had to be a connection between the two, but no one could figure it out.
“If we kill this monster now, with Your Highness missing, who knows what might happen. There could be trouble for him.”
When Jarred said this, everyone nodded.
“Let’s get off the monster before it completely falls.”
Since the monster had collapsed, its height was much lower.
Jarred slid down its shoulder, jumped to his knees, and landed on the ground.
“Your Highness…”
Without Yuri, his absence was deeply felt.
Until just moments ago, they had been fighting with the single-minded determination to kill Cedric and save the continent.
But now, without Yuri, they were confused about what to do.
Should they kill the monster or not?
Where was Cedric? Could they even fight him?
Were there other dangers?
Yuri had always led the charge, making decisions and swinging his sword first. Without him, they felt like mere foot soldiers who had lost their commander.
If even this brief absence was such a burden, would the Anti-Empire Alliance have even formed without him?
“Everyone’s so gloomy just because he’s gone for a moment. Tsk tsk…”
A mocking voice sounded. It was Inariel.
“Inariel, what happened to Your Highness?”
“Who knows.”
“Huh?”
He was leaning on his staff, supported by knights. His salmon-colored hair seemed a little paler.
“I don’t know either. He’s probably…”
He muttered, frowning.
“Looks like he was pulled into the Outer Universe.”
“Huh?”
Inariel pointed at the monster.
“That abomination is a fusion of dark magic and the God of the Otherworld’s power. But suddenly, the god’s presence vanished. So it’s not functioning properly.”
“You mean he took Your Highness away?”
“Seems like they have some business together.”
“If it’s just the two of them, it can only mean a fight!”
“Probably.”
“Ah…”
“Hopefully they’re not just chatting.”
Jarred clutched his head.
He had a rough understanding of what the Outer Universe was and what kind of being the God of the Otherworld was. Compared to such cosmic entities, humans were like ants.
But if those two were having a meeting—
“Your Highness is going to get torn to shreds for sure…”
“What did you say?”
“Your Highness will be covered in blood…”
Muttering absentmindedly, Jarred suddenly turned around without realizing it.
“Huh?”
There stood Yuri, carrying the weight of guilt on her shoulders.
“Your Highness?”
Jared, who had been about to rush forward, suddenly hesitated.
Something felt different.
She looked the same, but somehow it was as if she had been away somewhere for a very long time and returned older. Her clothes were tattered and worn, and her expression was weary.
And her presence had changed.
She seemed more mature, stronger even, than before.
For some reason, Jared found it harder to approach her as casually as he used to. Tentatively, he asked, “It really is you, Your Highness?”
“Yes.”
“Where… have you been?”
“Me?”
Yuri glanced up at the sky and said, “Well…”
She let out a small, bitter laugh.
“Nothing happened.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Do you think I went off to some distant galaxy or something?”
“I guess not…”
“Or that I spent years somewhere else where a second here equals years there, fighting to the death with that Kpufkpu guy before coming back?”
“Uh?”
That was oddly specific.
“By the way, what’s a Kpufkpu?”
“Oh.”
Yuri turned her body. The creature that no longer moved was slumped nearby, occasionally twitching as if in a spasm.
“That’s the name of a god from another realm.”
“A name?”
“Hmm… it’s not really a language or even a sound you can describe properly. If I had to pronounce it in human terms, Kpufkpu is the closest I can get.”
“I see. So you actually introduced yourself to it?”
“Something like that.”
Yuri took a deep breath and exhaled.
“It’s been a while since I last breathed like this.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what happened.”
Feeling a strange distance between them, Jared stepped closer to Yuri. He put an arm around her shoulder and gave it a few light taps.
“What are you doing?”
“I just feel awkward. Trying to get close like before.”
“You’ve never tapped my shoulder this boldly before.”
“No, I haven’t. So you really are our Highness.”
Jared quickly pulled his hand back.
“So, did you beat that otherworldly god, Kpufkpu?”
“Beat him…”
Yuri shrugged.
“Well, if I had to put it that way…”
Jared glanced at Inariel, the only one who might understand the situation.
Inariel stood with her arms crossed, her gaze strange—like she was looking at something suspicious and odd.
She spoke up.
“Yuri Briol.”
“Yes?”
“Are you really okay?”
“Of course, Inariel. You’re still as cute as ever…”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
“Just now…”
“Not yet!”
Yuri gripped her guilt tightly and said, “We still have work to do. We sent that otherworldly god away, but now we have to clean up the trash that was here all along.”
Her eyes went wild.
The form of the collapsed monster began to melt away, revealing a dark core nestled inside.
“Cedric.”