<Episode 114>

“What are you scheming?”

Eveline questioned Abellard, as if pressing him for an answer.

“I’m not scheming. I really do plan to take your and Elkais’s powers.”

“Why? You proposed to me just yesterday. You know that if you take the power, you can’t marry me.”

“What?”

Elkais glared at Abellard at those words. He pulled Eveline tightly into his arms, drawing her waist back toward him.

“Do you not realize I could kill you?”

“Hah, go ahead and try.”

Abellard snapped in response to Elkais’s threat.

Elkais seriously considered killing Abellard now, taking his divine power, and returning him to an ordinary human life. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

But he didn’t know if Eveline would forgive him for it.

On top of that, doubling the divine power would only make stabilizing it take even longer.

More importantly, if Abellard remained hostile while having the power taken from him, the divine backlash would make stabilization even more difficult.

It felt like he was standing before a bridge he could never cross—and that frustrated him. But holding Eveline eased that feeling a little.

“Why are you hugging me with that expression?”

“I’m trying to hold myself back. Please understand.”

Elkais hugged her tighter from behind and rested his head on her shoulder. Eveline found it cute and was about to stroke his hair—but then stopped, noticing Abellard looked like he might cry.

“Brother, why did you make this decision?”

Eveline looked at Abellard as she asked. Elkais, in turn, hugged her even tighter, as if breathing was difficult for him.

“Because I love you, Eve. That’s why.”

“Then that’s all the more reason you shouldn’t.”

“It’s because I love you that I want to take the power.”

Eveline doubted his words. The Abellard she knew would never say such a thing.

But if he did take the power, he’d truly have to back down.

He’d have to give up on marrying her. Even if he had stabilized Yulias’s power to some degree, he didn’t have the compatibility to handle the other two gods’ powers.

It could take hundreds—or even thousands—of years.

And yet he claimed he would take the powers?

“Tell the truth. Aren’t you planning to kill Elkais afterward? You could take the power first and kill him later.”

Even as Abellard’s expression soured, Eveline didn’t believe him. Anyone else might have been fooled, but not her—not after all she’d been through with him.

“If you don’t trust me, give your power to Elkais first. Then I’ll take it from him.”

“Before I transfer it, swear on your divinity that you won’t kill either me or Elkais.”

“…Alright. I swear on my divinity.”

Breaking an oath sworn on divinity meant being sealed and cast into a void for decades, even centuries, to repent. It was a punishment designed by Remeros—immutable, at least until Elkais could fully master the divine power.

So until he could wield it completely, all three of them were bound to keep their divine oaths.

“Alright. It seems better for me to give it to you directly, so let’s do it now.”

If Abellard rejected the transfer from Eveline to Elkais, she wouldn’t be able to marry Elkais.

Only Elkais would then be responsible for stabilizing the divine power, and Dekarv’s power would likely react adversely to him.

“No.”

“Elkais?”

Eveline looked at him, surprised—he hadn’t opposed her in a long time. Elkais looked at her face for a moment, then his lips parted.

“Let’s do it tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Just… not today. Not today.”

Even as he spoke, Abellard cut in immediately.

“If we don’t do it now, I might change my mind. I’m holding back my feelings for Eveline as it is.”

“…”

Elkais looked pained as he lowered his gaze.

Seeing his expression, Eveline placed her hand gently over his, which was still wrapped around her.

“Let’s do it now.”

At her words, Elkais hugged her tighter and murmured,

“Then I guess the proposal has to wait until tomorrow.”

“You’ve already heard my answer. Are you really that impatient?”

“I think I’ll be impatient until I’m standing at the altar and you become Eveline de Robein.”

She gave a soft chuckle at that.

“And after we’re married, you’ll be anxious about the child. And after that, something else will worry you, right?”

“It’s because you’re too beautiful. I wish you weren’t.”

“Tell me about it.”

He really did wish she were a little less beautiful. But he doubted he’d notice any part of her becoming less so.

Unless her eyes fused into one, her mouth split into two, or she grew four ears or something…

“Alright… let’s do it. Come here, Eve.”

Eveline reached for Abellard’s outstretched hand. Abellard summoned a glowing white magic circle on the ground, and said to her:

“Eveline, transfer the power of Dekarv to me.”

“Alright.”

Surprisingly, the divine power began to transfer quite simply—with just a spoken agreement.

Eveline felt the divine power that had been wrapped around her heart slowly flow out through Abellard’s arm as they held hands. Soon, a white light radiated from around her chest and moved visibly beneath the skin through their joined arms.

She stared at it blankly, then let go once a large portion of the power had been transferred.

“Is that it?”

“Of course not.”

At that moment, Abellard shoved Eveline onto the bed.

“Ugh… Brother?!”

“You won’t be able to stop me now, Elkais.”

With those words, he unleashed the power of destruction on Elkais. Since it was Dekarv’s power—once filled with hatred for Remeros—it surged toward Elkais, resonating with that enmity, and absorbed into Abellard as if it fully obeyed him.

Boom!

Elkais quickly created a portal to send Eveline away from the impact. The problem was, in doing so, he came into direct contact with the destructive power.

“Die, Remeros.”

“…How?”

Elkais watched calmly as the arm Abellard had touched turned to ash and scattered. Then, he recreated his arm and stepped back, glaring.

Now that Abellard had combined Yulias’s power with Dekarv’s, his strength surpassed Remeros. But Elkais had never been weak to begin with.

“Suffering in the void comes from time continuing to pass.”

“So you stopped time?”

“Yes.”

Yulias’s power could manipulate time—but only to halt it completely.

“But you can’t keep it stopped forever.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Elkais’s eyes turned to Eveline, frozen mid-moment. She wasn’t hurt—just unmoving, locked in time.

“If I die, Eveline will grieve.”

“I already am. And if I can’t have her, then no one can.”

Abellard was crying as he spoke. Elkais had no intention of letting him win.

“Which will happen first—your mastering of the power, or me killing you?”

With that, Abellard launched another attack. Lacking the power of creation, he had to fight physically.

Elkais had never lost a fight like that.

Abellard lunged to punch him. Elkais summoned a transparent barrier to deflect it and conjured a blade to strike back.

“Urgh…!”

Abellard flinched and shut his eyes tight—so Elkais couldn’t bring himself to land the blow.

If he cut Abellard down, Eveline would be heartbroken. But if he didn’t, he might die here.

His mouth tasted bitter as he frowned and spoke:

“Give it up. Eveline doesn’t love you. To her, you’re just family.”

“Shut up. If it weren’t for you… if I had gotten to you first and taken you out… No, I shouldn’t have purified you when you were trapped in the Grand Duke Croppers’s body.”

Abellard was crying even as he said it.

He hadn’t known Elkais would be summoned through the gods’ wager. All he knew was that Eveline was one of their chess pieces.

If he’d killed Elkais back on the island—if he had ignored Eveline’s desperate pleas to save him and only protected her…

Then maybe things wouldn’t have come to this.

“I really hate you.”

Tears streamed down Abellard’s face.

Seeing it made Elkais increasingly reluctant to fight him. But no matter how much pity he felt, it would never outweigh his love for Eveline—so he resolved to win this.

“I guess I’ll have to kill you.”

“Funny, coming from you.”

Elkais muttered as if justifying it to himself.

“I’ll just say you lost control of the power and took your own life.”

“I’ll kill you and leave Eveline alone. I won’t let her reincarnate until I stabilize the power.”

“…You call that love?”

“I do. And in every reincarnation, I’ll make sure she meets me again. Over and over. Forever.”

Abellard sobbed as he said it. His blue eyes, now rimmed with red from crying, stood out even more.

“That’s not love.”

“Oh? And if Eveline had chosen me, would you have let her go without a fight?”

“No. I’d have begged her. Pleaded.”

Abellard was surprised by Elkais’s honest answer and fell silent.

“But if she still chose you, I’d want her to be happy. I’d probably have taken my own life.”

“Who told you you’re allowed to do that?”

At that moment, both men turned toward the voice.

“You both seriously need to be punished.”

Eveline, frowning and holding her aching head, glared at them both.