First, Asilis had rescued her friend from the village. Her friend had said she wanted to go to the mountains, and now they were standing at the edge of a cliff.
“…I have one more question.”
“What is it?”
“Will there come a day when God judges humans, rather than humans judging each other?”
Her friend jumped off the cliff without waiting for an answer.
Asilis stayed at the cliff until it was completely dark.
Afterwards, she committed the massacre, the gravest sin in the Moon Clan, and left the clan.
It was only after harming dozens of people in the village where her friend lived that Asilis realized she had never once considered them as equals.
This perception of Asilis was in direct conflict with the teachings of the Moon Clan.
The Moon Clan loved equality. They did not rank people as superior or inferior based on whether they were part of the clan or not. No member of the Moon Clan considered “ordinary people” to be inferior to themselves.
But that was no longer the case. Asilis had left the clan.
Asilis wandered the world.
During her travels, she met a man.
“You’re from the Moon Clan, right? But not anymore. Am I right?”
The young man recognized Asilis’s identity at a glance. Asilis also quickly realized that the man was in a similar situation to hers.
“And if I am?”
“Hmm, when did you leave the clan?”
“Well, about fifty years ago, I think.”
“And your abilities?”
Members of the Moon Clan are each born with a unique ‘ability.’
Asilis calmly told the man about her ability. She didn’t think it was worth hiding.
“A perfect ability!”
“This? It doesn’t seem very useful.”
“No, that’s not true. Now I have to tell you about us.”
“…Us?”
“We are people who left the Moon Clan long before you did. And we’ve been having children and selecting the best ones to create a new tribe.”
“What?”
“Our goal is simple. To create a world ruled by a God.”
“God ruling the world… how?”
Asilis was genuinely curious. One thing she had learned during her long time wandering the world was that gods seemed to have no interest in humans.
Angering the gods.
Pleasing the gods.
It seemed humans could do neither.
“Do you know about the Evil God?”
“Yes, I’ve only seen records of it. Isn’t it the idiot that appears in the world once every thousand years and gets sealed by the descendants of the Celestial Gods each time?”
“That’s an accurate description. According to records, the Evil God will resurrect in a few decades from now. Of course, it will be sealed again. But this time, we will summon the sealed Evil God once more.”
“What?”
“And make the Evil God the ruler of the world.”
“How on earth…”
“We can do it. With your help, we could make it even more certain. How about it? Will you join our clan? “
“……”
“You’ll come to realize it too. A world where a human rules over another is completely rotten.”
Is that so? Asilis thought she didn’t really know about that aspect.
In fact, whether the world was rotten or not didn’t concern her much.
But…
“Alright. I’ll join your clan or whatever it is.”
“You’ve made a good choice! Since you’ve become part of our clan, no matter how you’ve lived until now, you must not act recklessly in the future. Our clan must remain hidden from the outside world.”
“You mean not to stand out or reveal my identity? Got it. Don’t worry. If such a thing happens, consider me a disgrace to the clan and tear me apart.”
“…Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
I almost really got myself torn apart.
Asilis, lost in thought, muttered to herself, and the people around her turned to look at her.
Asilis, meeting their gazes, spoke again.
“Just talking to myself. It’s a meaningless comment, so please continue with what you were doing.”
The people returned their attention to their tasks after hearing Asilis’s words.
The group, including Asilis, was currently in an underground chamber with walls completely sealed off.
Since no light came in, it was as dark as could be expected in such a space, but now it was dimly lit, thanks to candles placed on the floor.
Except for Asilis and a few others, the rest were drawing complex patterns on the floor and around an unconscious girl lying in the center of the room.
Asilis stood by, watching the scene.
Perhaps it was because the unconscious girl on the floor was of a similar age to someone from Asilis’s memories.
“Who would have thought that the little brat would turn out to be a descendant of the Celestial Gods?”
The past suddenly came vividly to her mind.
Years ago, when she was still in the Marquisate of Hildegarde, Asilis had been enjoying a hobby.
Yes. Her hobby was to cunningly destroy and play with ‘ordinary people’ who were inferior to her.
But suddenly, two kids—a boy and a girl—interrupted her hobby. Neither of them was an ordinary child, especially the boy.
Asilis fled from the scene that day, sustaining physical injuries. She was overwhelmed with a terrible sense of humiliation.
Afterward, Asilis waited for a chance to retaliate, but the opportunity never came.
This was because what had happened that day was discovered by the leader of her clan.
Asilis avoided being torn apart, but in return, she had to stay under constant surveillance by the clan.
“Tsk… Well, it’s fine. If that kid is a descendant of the Celestial Gods, then this event can be my revenge.”
Just then, the man who had been drawing the patterns on the floor finished his work and spoke up.
“Preparations are complete.”
“Ahah.”
“Finally…”
“The time has come to welcome the one we have long desired.”
“Ah!”
“I can’t believe I’m really witnessing this moment.”
Some people in the underground chamber began to cry. Asilis felt like laughing instead.
Anyway, they were definitely a group of lunatics.
Of course, since she was among them, any criticism would only end up as mud on her own face.
“I will begin.”
The time for emotional reflections and wiping tears passed quickly.
The people responsible for drawing the patterns sat around the girl lying on the floor.
Their smooth, youthful hands, without a single wrinkle, touched various parts of the girl’s body, such as her arms, legs, and head.
A short while later.
“…Cough!”
One of the people who had been touching the girl’s body collapsed.
His hand that fell to the floor was wrinkled and shriveled.
One of the candles went out.
“Ugh!”
Another person collapsed.
A second candle went out.
“Ah!”
A third candle went out.
“…Ugh.”
A fourth candle went out.
Then the fifth, sixth, and so on…
“…Everyone.”
The last man still standing looked around at Asilis and a few others.
“Until the end, please…”
The man, whose mind had gone blank, was unable to finish his words and collapsed.
The last tenth candle went out.
The underground chamber was completely engulfed in darkness. Asilis slowly closed her eyes and then opened them.
At that moment, eyes appeared in the darkness.
The pupils were bright enough to dispel some of the darkness. Moreover, their color was extraordinarily mysterious.
Was that what it would feel like if you embedded opals into your eyes?
“…Now.”
The person beside Asilis whispered. It was something she didn’t need to hear. Everyone here had likely been thinking the same thing before that.
Asilis used her “ability.”
Soon, people around Asilis began collapsing as well.
Asilis endured and, eventually, fell to her knees.
“Gasp, gasp.”
The surroundings were quiet. Everyone except Asilis seemed to have lost consciousness.
They would likely all die soon. They had used up all their energy.
Asilis would probably meet the same fate.
Dying from aging before her lifespan was over—a complete reversal of what she had anticipated decades ago.
“What is this?”
The silence was broken. A voice that Asilis had not heard before reached her ears as she gasped.
“What have you done to me?”
