The Foreigner on the Periphery

Long ago, the Endelion had already denied the existence of God.

However, the "young" generation, including the princess, did not know exactly why their ancestors had reached that conclusion. They were simply never taught.

The skepticism and doubt of these tentacled creatures, once devout believers, stemmed from an incident in the past.

Communication with God had been severed.

"God... no longer answers!"

Coincidentally, this happened just as the Endelion began to view divine morality as an outdated concept. Something new was taking root in their society to replace religious doctrine: a belief that interpreted all values strictly around the Endelion themselves, a conviction that nothing in existence was more precious than their own kind.

Therefore, they had to confirm it.

"Has God truly abandoned us?"

If God's absence—His death—could be proven, they would no longer need to be bound by divine revelation. They could define a new system of ethics suited to the modern era.

"Once a wall blocking space forms, our current technology will not be able to break through."

They also observed that this universal fragmentation was starting at the outer edges and moving inward.

The Endelion made a decision.

"Let us go confirm the death of God before it is too late."

They already had a good guess as to the location of the planet where God resided—the place one might call "Heaven" or "Paradise."

The center of the universe.

Until then, they had never dared to head there. But the situation had changed, and when they sought God's permission, no answer came.

These tentacled cowards began a lengthy debate.

"Who stays, and who goes?"

"Because of the universe's fragmentation, those who leave will never be able to return home."

The conclusion was that the entire race would leave together. Traveling so far was terrifying, but being left behind was even worse.

Besides, they were no longer primitives who charted the stars by eye and swam through nebulas with their bare bodies. They didn't need to build a tower to reach God. The Endelion constructed a spaceship capable of carrying their entire population. Driven by a safety-first mindset bordering on paranoia, they mobilized the full might of their species. Even though they were traversing the still-open universe rather than crashing into a blocked wall, massive quantities of drugs were employed to quell their anxiety.

At last, the long preparations were complete. The galactic pilgrims left their home and set sail for the center of the universe.

*

The phenomenon of space fracturing along the spaceship's trajectory continued. They decided to call each fragmented piece of space a "dimension."

A long time passed. The closer they got to the center, the more paradise-like planets they discovered. These worlds boasted optimal conditions for life: warm temperatures, abundant water, and extremely high oxygen levels—environments that could support immense biodiversity.

And on those planets, without exception, scaled beasts were found. Whether they had wings, burrowed through the earth, swam in the seas, breathed fire, spewed lightning, or sprayed venom, these creatures all shared similar genetic traits despite their varying characteristics.

Possessing incredibly long lifespans but bizarrely low intelligence, they failed to draw the Endelion's interest.

The pilgrims pressed on.

And when the Endelion finally reached the holy land, they shuddered.

God was no longer in the place they expected Him to dwell. Instead, only two sapient species with meager civilizations remained. One was an annelid, as thin as the tentacle of a newborn, and the other was a reptile bearing a thick shell on its back.

The Endelion already had nowhere left to return to. They were trapped in a fragmented piece of the universe centered around this planet. From then on, the tentacled creatures would have to live in this "dimension" alongside those natives.

Upon investigating the traces left on the planet, they became certain. It was a tentative, preliminary conclusion.

"God does not exist."

At least not in this era, and not in this place.

*

"How should we treat them? The gap in our civilizations is massive. If we wanted... we could become their gods. Or enslave them."

"No, it would be best not to. On the contrary... what about this?"

"..."

"..."

"I see. That would be 'safer.'"

*

Dell knew nothing of this hidden history. Even so, she was a staunch atheist.

If God existed, He would never tolerate the vile malice overflowing throughout the universe. To affirm God's existence, she would have to ignore all the horrific sights she had witnessed throughout her life.

Because of this, she couldn't understand Yumtus's reaction.

"Ah...! God! You who awaken from a long nightmare to remember us, the source of all things!"

Drip! Drop!

She felt hot drops of blood falling onto the tentacles sprouting from her back. Yumtus was trembling with sheer ecstasy. Blood was pouring down his forehead.

Both the priest and the princess had cried out the word "God" at the same time just a moment ago, but their meanings were exact opposites. The princess had cursed in absolute horror, while Yumtus quivered before the miracle of the deity residing here.

'God?'

Dell felt suspicious.

"Even if God does exist... He comes in a form like that?"

She recalled a verse from the scriptures, which were now treated as little more than classical literature.

"Because I loved you, I came in that form."

"And... He punishes mortals like that?"

An unimaginable spectacle unfolded before her eyes.

A tornado woven from tangled shadows morphed into a shape resembling a human woman. Its size was comparable to an Endelion's main body. Following the direction of the monster's raised hand, crimson flowers bloomed endlessly in the night sky.

What she was bursting was Todd.

'Mother sent it!'

The Mother King had joined hands with Todd. They must have struck a deal, exchanging something in return for safely rescuing the princess. Since the capture of Asif-666 couldn't be ignored in the process, Todd had clearly come thoroughly prepared.

Despite all that, he was utterly helpless before that "monster."

The monster's body—though whether it could even be called flesh was debatable—was formed of black undulations that did not physically touch the Ancient Race. Yet, Todd was twisting and crushing as if being battered by invisible hammers.

And she didn't seem to have any intention of killing Todd easily. Piercing the vast distance, his screams dragged on. Even as he vomited blood from the cracks in his shell, from beneath the skin of his belly, and from his eyes, nose, and mouth, his life did not fade.

The monster clenched her fist. Instantly, Dell saw the atmosphere convulse. The first thing to move was the bodily fluid the prey had spewed. The streams of blood, which had been falling helplessly to the ground, stretched out toward the monster like reaching hands. The suction that drew in the liquid then began to pull in Todd's body as well.

The black storm continued to whip the air upward. Caught in its power, Todd spun round and round, orbiting the monster. He narrowed the distance as he rotated, finally slamming into the surface of the boiling shadow.

Crunch!

Half-buried in the shadow monster's skin, they were crushed by an even stronger pressure. Each of their forms looked like a festering, popped boil. Todd continuously vomited blood and fluids. From the cracks in his shell, his insides exploded like smashed fruit. It looked like an invisible hand was squeezing out pus.

Astonishingly, they were still not dead. Kept barely alive, a process somewhere between bloodletting and juicing continued.

Dell could think of only one reason to do such a thing.

She spoke with a trembling voice.

"She's torturing them... trying to inflict even more horrific pain."

Malice.

Pure hostility, existing not as a means to an end, but as the goal itself.

Yumtus spoke to the princess, who was trying to guess God's intent. His voice was soaked in a sickeningly sweet excitement.

"It is presumptuous to interpret the will of an infinite being on our terms! We must not drag God down to the level of finite creations."

The priest made no attempt to understand the phenomenon.

He babbled in a tone brimming with awe and fervor.

"Many religions speak of a hell where sinners and nonbelievers suffer for eternity. If so, is God's intent to torment mortals for eons considered evil? Is the act a sin? No, we must not interpret it that way. God has no need to be moral, nor does He have any obligation to act morally toward us. Do not try to comprehend His love through objective ethics. He laid down the rules for us, yet He Himself remains entirely free from them. That is exactly why He alone can offer redemption!"

Dell could not fathom the religious man's words.

"Love?"

Shaking her head, she stated firmly,

"That's revenge."

Why would God need to take revenge on His creations in the first place?

Going back further, what reason could there be to design a universe where beings stack hatred upon each other, trading their sins back and forth?

She understood the justification for revenge. But why allow the evil deeds that caused it to happen to begin with?

Yumtus answered her doubt with absolute certainty.

"That is how God loves us!"

*

Within the black storm, Minjun sensed Todd's breaths extinguishing one by one.

From those bodies half-buried in the shadow monster's carapace, their souls slowly slipped out. And having met the most horrific deaths imaginable, the souls...

=Ah! Aaaah!=

=Let me go. Please, let me go!=

=It hurts... It hurts so much...!=

However, neither the monster nor its summoner had any intention of letting them go. Todd's souls, now turned into wraiths, along with his discarded flesh, were slowly swallowed by the shadow.

The wraiths and corpses plummeted deeper and deeper until they finally arrived near Minjun, who was waiting at the center.

Amidst the stormy shadows, Minjun watched them.

=What... do you intend to do with these?=

Asiph-1 knocked on his mind and asked, but no answer came immediately. Meanwhile, the crushed corpses, fluids, and wraiths spun endlessly in the tornado.

=Just what are you planning to do?=

A moment later.

The Creator finally replied.

His gaze fell upon the drops of Todd's blood scattering in the storm.

"Blood is matter—the essence of life."

Next, he looked at the wraiths ensnared by an invisible force. Souls endlessly contorting their spiritual bodies in agony.

"The soul is spirit—the essence of existence."

=...=

Speaking in a nonchalant tone, he raised his hand. Round and round, the pulverized flesh mixed with blood until it became something akin to a perfect liquid. Within the currents of the black tornado, flesh and spirit formed a vortex as they spun.

"Life is the process of achieving harmony between flesh and spirit. It is not a destination, but a journey and a direction."

Asiph-1 couldn't understand why the Creator was stating something so obvious.

"Furthermore, since the spirit is infinite while the flesh is finite, the life formed by their temporary union is inevitably finite as well. Whatever lives must eventually die."

The beasts misunderstood. A soul could not be erased. It merely dispersed into smaller fragments, moving toward a more chaotic state. Just like the soul of Asiph-1 had.

Yet, they mistakenly believed that if a soul shattered into pieces too small to observe, it was annihilated.

Immortal souls and mortal flesh.

The primordial race asked, lightly touching upon something forgotten.

"Then, what if we were to mix the two completely?"

=Excuse me?=

"If flesh and spirit completely and permanently fused instead of temporarily binding... wouldn't the flesh come to resemble the spirit, acquiring its eternity, and making our lives eternal as well?"

Asiph-1 doubted whether he had heard correctly.

=...A complete fusion of flesh and spirit?=

"I tried that once. To bring back my dead mentor."

A bitter, piercing emotion seeped into his voice.

"But I failed."

=What was the reason?=

"Balance."

=...?=

"Her body was already dead, and the quality of the dragon blood she had absorbed in life wasn't as pure compared to later generations. The flesh was simply overwhelmed by the soul."

He reminisced about the distant past.

The Magic that Minjun attempted for the first time in history was incomplete. To bind his master's spirit to her deceased body, the caster had endlessly poured his life force into her corpse, yet it still wasn't enough.

As a result, his master's spirit and flesh merged, twisting into a grotesque form.

"The deformed fusion of spirit and flesh became something that was neither a physical object nor a spiritual body."

=Something that is neither a spiritual body nor a physical object...!=

Something that existed between a spiritual body and a physical object.

Asiph-1 already knew of such a concept.

"Yes. I'll say it again... Even though I completely filled my slumbering kin with Talent, I couldn't do the same for myself, nor did I need to."

Minjun spoke with a hollow voice.

"Adkiel is my Talent."

Asiph-1 stared at Todd's swirling flesh and wraiths. They were blending together, forcibly fusing. It was an incredibly crude and savage attempt.

=Then right now, you...!=

"I am going to fail once again. This time, on purpose. After all, failure can be repeated as many times as I want."

As an appalled Asiph-1 watched, Todd's flesh and spirit shattered, turning into black dust.

And in that spot, guided by Minjun, black flames flared up.

It was a newly born shadow monster.

Kyaaah!

The shadow undulated, thrashing around desperately. Minjun sent the newly born monsters into Adkiel's embrace.

She absorbed and trapped the shadows crafted from Todd—beings destined to suffer for an eternity—leaving not a single speck behind. Just as Minjun had trapped her in the distant past.

A hell existing in reality.

In that instant, Asiph-1 felt the surrounding darkness grow even denser.

—!

And this time, the soul residing within the Magic Tool heard it clearly.

A vivid scream that threatened to freeze the soul itself.

Kyaaaaah!

It sounded like a hate-filled wail, vomited toward the sinner who had loved her.

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