It was a blue light, as if a star cluster had unfolded.
The feast of stars, distant yet brilliantly sparkling, felt as though it would blind me.
Finally, when the light receded.
I found myself on a beach where deep blue waves crashed.
The dazzling, emerald surface of the water was gone, replaced by dark, heavy swells that filled my vision.
The sky was thick with dark clouds, as if rain would fall at any moment, and the shore was composed of sharp rocks and pebbles.
Instead of a soft, warm white sand, the hard sensation stabbing into the soles of my feet awakened me.
It was a strange space, entirely different from the peaceful place where I had stayed until just a moment ago.
And yet, I felt a peculiar sense of dejà vu. As if I had been here before, even if only in a dream.
A man stood on the beach.
His tall stature, visible even from a great distance, was something that could not be called human.
He was gazing at the sea.
Though nothing was visible except the fierce waves, it seemed as if something were clearly visible to him.
His blue eyes scattered a brilliant radiance.
He slowly raised his hand.
Then, the sea split open.
Something. Giant. Appeared. Overwhelming. Terrifying.
Huh?
I flinched and closed my eyes.
The moment my vision was blocked, a belated terror surged over me. It was the fear of having seen something a human should not see.
Within the darkness of my closed eyes, I heard it let out a gloomy scream.
It was a language I could not understand in the slightest.
Yet, for some reason, I felt that it was pleading.
It sounded like a voice begging for its life, confessing its sins.
Impulsively, I opened my eyes.
I felt that it would be okay to look at this much.
And I witnessed it.
The moment a distant existence was annihilated by an even more terrible calamity.
A cosmic nebula covered the deep blue sea.
The entity of impure form resisted desperately against the starlight enveloping it.
Its final struggle shook the ocean, but it was meaningless.
Before him, even the sea was nothing more than a single drop of water.
The movements of the thing, stained in blue starlight, grew still.
Subsequently, it was sucked into a black space that appeared in the void.
I looked at the black space.
Within it lay a universe filled with beautiful stars.
But if one looked into its essence, it was ultimately a void where nothing existed.
The split sea merged back into one, and soon the waves surged as if nothing had happened. I looked at the being who had accomplished all of this.
I tried to call his name, but I couldn’t.
It was because I didn’t know if that thing was truly the being I knew.
I felt neither dread nor terror. It was because he had surpassed the realm of perception.
As if my brain were paralyzed, I stared at him, unable to move.
He slowly turned his body toward me.
Our eyes met.
A voice resembling a well-tuned contrabass called me.
"Roasted Chestnut."
Like the way the rabbit butler and cat butler called me....
As I stood there frozen, unable to move, he watched me quietly.
He let out a faint sigh and spoke sternly, as if dealing with a mischievous child.
"You should come here."
I had no choice but to approach him.
It wasn’t that I moved of my own will.
Even though I didn’t want to, my body moved forcibly. It was like a survival instinct.
Staggering, I approached him. Then, I lifted my head.
The moment our eyes met was also not something that happened because I wanted it to.
"Were you surprised?"
His tone was gentle.
He soothed me as if he were still the being I knew, the one I had secretly relied upon.
"I am sorry. Had I known you would be this surprised, I would not have commanded it."
I opened my lips very slowly.
"Mr. Dominic..."
I thought a response might not come.
But he answered.
"Yes, Roasted Chestnut."
The way he addressed me was slightly different from before.
He looked down at me quietly.
He was waiting for me to speak, but I.. didn’t know what to say.
There were countless questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t bring myself to utter any of them.
The longer our gaze lingered, the more I felt as if I were being slowly strangled.
The moment I thought I might suffocate from the sensation of sin.
I barely managed to squeeze out a voice.
"Did your.. memories return?"
"Ah, memories."
As if my question were amusing, a hint of a smile flickered in his eyes.
He leaned his head toward me.
A blue universe filled my vision.
"Not yet. See, am I not Dominic?"
He was right.
For now, he was Dominic.
Dominic gave me a thin smile.
"Now that Roasted Chestnut has grown a bit, you will be able to understand. I called it ’memory’ to fit human standards, but it is closer to something else."
He explained it to me step by step.
"It is the act of reclaiming one’s existence. Because Roasted Chestnut lost a part of me while calling me."
In the past, these would have been words I couldn’t understand at all.
But now, I felt I knew what he meant.
Back when I played the game, I summoned him, and he responded to my call to come to Call of the Void.
However, he was a being that a mere ’Trial’ could not contain.
By being forcibly fitted into it, he had lost his memories a part of his existence.
My lips trembled.
"I’m...sorry.... Because of me...."
"For what?"
"The, the things you lost.... If I hadn’t summoned you...."
As I stammered my apology, Dominic laughed lowly.
Warnings that it was dangerous filled my head, but I couldn’t take any action.
I simply had to stare at Dominic as if captivated.
"Actually, I am curious as well."
Dominic leaned his body toward me.
Due to the difference in our size, he had only tilted his upper body slightly, yet I had the illusion that he was pouring.
"No other existence would dare call me forth..."
A voice, deceptively gentle, asked me.
"How did Roasted Chestnut call me?"
I blinked blankly. My tongue moved on its own to answer him.
"I.. don’t really know either..."
If there was anything I knew, I would have certainly confessed everything to Dominic.
But I truly did not know.
To think that such an immense being was summoned by a mere game play of mine and trapped in a Trial.
I, more than anyone, wanted to know how such a thing could happen.
Dominic looked into me.
I found myself staring directly into his eyes.
Blue eyes where stars swam.
The pupils, resembling the universe, were so unfathomably deep that the longer I looked, the more I felt I could never escape.
I felt breathless in the infinite void...
After a very long time, Dominic withdrew his gaze.
Dominic looked at me with interest as I gasped for air, like someone who had been plunged into deep water and barely pulled out.
"It is truly a fascinating thing to feel curiosity."
"Once Roasted Chestnut grows a bit more, perhaps the reason will become clear."
He brushed away the hair dampened by my cold sweat.
He comforted me, saying that reclaiming his existence was something that would eventually happen anyway, so there was no need to worry about that part.
Then, he spoke other words to me.
"Now, Roasted Chestnut. Right now, there is a more important matter than such trivial things."
Dominic asked with a subtle smile playing on his lips.
"Was ■■■ pleasant to play with? I couldn’t stay by your side because I had to cut it down a bit so that Roasted Chestnut could handle it easily."
That was ’a bit’?
The thing that overturned the world, melted and swallowed all existence, and plunged everything into illusions?
"Ah, what I just dealt with was the remainder of ■■■. Thanks to that, I have reclaimed a small part of what I lost."
He continued, saying that if he had touched a larger existence, he would have reclaimed more, but this was not bad.
He also didn’t forget to praise me, saying it was a great feat for me, a young god, to handle ■■■ even if it was only a tiny fraction.
The explanation, tailored to my level, was kind.
When I failed to react, he lightly placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Roasted Chestnut."
I recoiled, shaking off his hand.
Stepping backward, I looked at Dominic with eyes full of vigilance.
"What did you just do?"
I felt the exact same sensation as when ■■■ tried to burrow into my mind.
Dominic answered softly, as if signaling that he was not dangerous.
"I only intended to ease Roasted Chestnut’s tension."
"I’m fine, so I’d like to just talk like this for now."
Only after saying it did I feel afraid.
I wondered if I had been too arrogant, but strangely, Dominic seemed amused.
"Very well, Roasted Chestnut. I shall not touch you."
He smiled, readily promising me. His blue gaze landed on me.
It was a silent command to come closer again.
I wanted to run far away, but there was nowhere to flee.
I also knew that running away wouldn’t solve anything.
I grit my teeth and approached Dominic with cautious steps.
He knelt down. Bringing his gaze level with mine, he held something out to me.
The bead, similar in size to a candy, looked terribly harmless.
However, the moment I saw the neon green color of it, I thought it looked like someone’s eyeball.
"Since you found it difficult to eat last time, I tried making it a bit differently this time."
After staring at the round bead for a long time, I finally realized.
"Mr. Dominic."
And I asked him.
"Did I eat the heart and eyeball of Infernus?"
"That is correct."
My strength drained at the way he answered readily, without even a single denial.
After the S2P, I had suffered from heat.
I had always felt heat whenever my eye color changed.
But this was entirely different. It was a flame that burned me from my very core.
Caught up in the heat, I had committed violent thoughts and actions.
I recalled the time when I, as a young god, was engulfed in intense heat.
Filled only with the thought that I had to burn the opponent, I created abilities akin to punishment.
I didn’t listen to the warnings from the system window at all.
I was in a completely irrational state.
I concluded that the cause was the heat of a flame I couldn’t handle, caused by eating the things of Infernus.
If I were to eat this now likely made from ■■■ what would happen?
I didn’t think anything good would result.
At the same time, a fundamental question arose.
What did Dominic want?
He had fed me Infernus, and now he was putting in the effort to specifically prepare ■■■ to feed me.
I could clearly feel the goodwill Dominic had for me.
He wanted me to grow as a god.
But why?
Because I was a young god and a contractor? Or to satisfy his curiosity?
Various thoughts came to mind, but none seemed to be the right answer.
I very carefully chose words that would not offend Dominic.
"Mr. Dominic... Thank you for your consideration, but I’m fine this time."
I had almost lost my reason to the flames of Infernus; I felt I shouldn’t accept something new here.
At my refusal, Dominic’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
"It will not hurt. Did I not promise you?"
I had no memory of promising him that.
To him, who thought I was refusing because of the pain, I replied.
"I feel like I’ll become strange if I eat that."
"I see."
Dominic lowered his gaze for a moment and rolled the bead around in his hand.
The bead resting in his large hand felt incredibly small.
"Roasted Chestnut."
"Yes."
"You are badly hurt."
I bit my lip at the reproaching tone.
I felt it to some extent myself. Because pain was still continuously surging.
When I didn’t answer, Dominic slowly closed and opened his eyes.
He took my hand and placed the bead on my palm.
Then, while holding my hand with the bead between us, he spoke.
"Look. Roasted Chestnut should be able to see it now."
While I was wondering what he meant, I felt a shock that made the hair on my neck stand up.
It was because I had looked into myself.
Bewildered words tumbled out.
"This, what is this...."
Golden lines were crisscrossed all over my body.
The irregular lines looked precarious, as if my shattered body had been barely patched back together.
As if I would scatter into pieces again if touched even slightly.
"It has been like this since the first time I looked into Roasted Chestnut. It is getting worse. Using your abilities this time must have caused severe internal wounds... I will check for a moment."
"...!"
He reached out his other hand. I screamed.
"No! It hurts!"
The hand that burrowed into my chest caressed my heart. The touch, as if checking for something, was somewhat rough.
I struggled and tried to escape somehow, but I couldn’t flee because of the hand firmly gripping mine.
Seeing me in pain, Dominic frowned.
But he did not stop his hand.
"As I thought... to be this broken."
He rummaged through my inside, showing clear displeasure.
"Stop it!"
A low voice repeatedly fell upon my ear.
"You have done a truly foolish thing. Why did you choose regeneration? You have become even more endangered."
The large hand gripped my heart.
Thump, thump-the movement of the beating heart trapped in his grasp was felt vividly.
Dominic spoke as if delivering a solemn sentence.
"At this rate, Roasted Chestnut will vanish."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter