Chapter 44 - I am... ①

In the game, when the seven deadly sins fought against Lily's group, the only one of them who had a mysterious ending about her reason for becoming one of the demon king's generals was her.

Astraea.

She mentions a dialogue, but due to the sounds of explosions, her last words could not be understood.

But there were players who were so curious that they would dig until they found out what she said.

They couldn't ask the voice dubber as it was in her contract not to reveal anything.

Then, one day they found out thanks to multimedia advances.

Her last words were.

"Thank you for killing me."

Astraea wished to die, she was the sin of sloth.

Dying was her wish, but no one understood why.

◇◇◇

The academy in the capital.

Students and teachers were on the campus and the terrace of some buildings to watch the moon.

"Eli-chan!!!"

"Here~!"

Lily had set up some chairs, a table and a microscope to observe the moon.

Eli came running over with some snacks in her hands.

"Sorry I'm late, but there were too many people and I couldn't get close."

She placed the snacks on the table and they both sat down.

Lily commented curiously.

"I wonder what that red color meant?"

"Who knows. Today we'll try to find out why it turns that color, hahaha."

They both laughed innocently. Unaware that in another part of the country, a battle was about to begin.

◇◇◇

Razel was looking at Astraea in a threatening manner.

He felt a curiosity about her wish.

"Why do you wish to die?"

"An immortal being like you should consider dying as a taboo. right?"

Her mouth moved and she spoke words that shocked him.

"It is painful... to live."

"Every second I spend alive, it hurts. It hurts to remember everything I lived through and what I know."

"If that's so. Why don't you kill yourself?"

She smiled slightly and brought her hand straight to her heart.

She stopped inches away.

Razel watched as a black shadow emanated from her body.

In the game that was known as the essence of the deadly sin.

"You see? This is what prevents me from fulfilling my wish myself."

"So..."

Astraea moved into an attack position.

"Shall we begin?"

She launched herself straight at Razel.

He got into attack position as well, but instead of fighting, he fled.

Astraea arrived in a split second as he dodged it.

Standing a distance away, she threw a lightning palm.

The attack was a success.

But she didn't have a scratch on her.

She quickly made her way to him.

Their eyes met.

"How about this. Every time you give me a hit that causes me to regenerate, I tell you a bit of the truth. It's a good idea isn't it?"

Her hand went to his body.

"Progenitor Blood: Cursed Thorns."

A small red spot appeared on her palm and then turned into spikes that pierced Razel's body.

Because of his clothing that can reduce the damage, he didn't suffer much impact.

But the pain was intense.

He shot straight up to the ceiling.

Using electricity, his feet glowed and he lay motionless there.

Astraea jumped up as well and began to destroy the roof.

With one long kick she swept the entire top.

Debris was falling all around.

Astraea fell to the ground, but didn't find Razel.

Just after she took a step, hands came out of the ground and caught her.

She was pulled straight down.

Razel lured her here, and launched a barrage of blows.

She wasn't covering herself at all.

The bruises caused by the intense speed and power were healed in a matter of seconds.

They went through the floor, and the next one, even the next that.

Using his feet, a swift kick hit her in the head, sending her crashing down.

As she hit the ground, he grabbed her by her legs and just as with Helmut, spun her around at high speed.

She looked like an electric tornado.

He threw her against the wall and she flew straight into a building.

But Razel didn't stop there.

He got into position and flew out of the place.

His feet kicked the air creating small explosions.

The small bolt of blue lightning was approaching with intensity.

He punched it in the face and then another.

He brought his hands together and a big punch hit her.

She fell to the ground like a meteorite.

But Razel wasn't going to make it easy for her.

He too went down and used phase 1 of the lightning speed god.

As he fell to the ground.

He threw the vampire queen into the sky once again and used Kyoka Suigetsu unconsciously.

Razel's clones were beating her up.

But Astraea didn't change her expression despite the beating they were giving her.

◇◇◇

"...What happened?"

It was Bellange who was asking that since she had just woken up.

Beside him was Lambert looking in a certain direction.

In that direction was Krulcifer's smiling body.

They were all gone due to the ghouls disappearing.

Even Leila.

He stayed there because he lost again.

Not because he cared about Bellange.

Then, a rumbling shook the place.

Lambert looked sideways quizzically, then an intense blue glow in the sky appeared.

As he tried to see what it was. Some silhouettes were there.

One of them, the blue one, made him remember something.

The image of Razel beating him up came to his mind.

He grabbed his head and said.

"No... that can't be true."

The lights in the sky disappeared and another tremor was there.

◇◇◇

Razel threw the vampire queen against the ground.

The blow was so strong that they destroyed the subsoil falling into the foundations of a subway city.

Astraea fell in a way that her legs split open.

Bone popped out of her skin and then went back in to regenerate.

Razel was falling straight at her.

She dodged it by leaping backwards slightly.

This time it was phase 2 of the lightning speed god.

Dropping to all fours, he lunged at her.

Astraea dodged it by dodging to the side.

She was on her side with her fingers embedded in the wall.

Razel saw her and threw himself against the wall opening a hole.

Astraea saw it and said.

"Those movements are not human, did your body receive an alteration? Or would it be more like you destroyed your limiter?"

Razel was shot straight at her opening another hole.

Astraea saw it and said nothing.

She ran in reverse.

Razel was chasing after her.

They jumped back and forth.

She was running away from a big cat.

Then, she got stuck in a wall, no, actually it was a huge pillar holding up part of the surface.

"Oh."

She said and Razel approached at high speed with a claw-like electric palm and pushed it until it destroyed the pillar.

It wasn't just that one.

All the ones that followed it were destroyed due to the great speed that was used.

On the surface, the grounds were falling and sinking underground.

A great commotion occurred.

"Run!"

Yukihime who was running away with some slaves shouted.

Behind them buildings were collapsing.

While in other places.

"What the fuck is going on here!"

Bellange was carrying Lambert on her back who couldn't move for some reason.

Krulcifer's body was being dragged through the foundation straight into the black pit.

While at the Pleasure Palace, Helmut's corpse was falling straight into the same pit and being buried by a cross-shaped rock, just like Krulcifer, they received a strange burial.

And near the slums.

Claudia and Sophia were running, behind them a large crack was approaching.

Just as the crack approached their feet.

"Hold on girls!"

Gladys ran out of an alley and held them both like they were dolls.

Some were not so lucky and were arrested by the landslide.

Almost 1/3 of the duchy was destroyed by a tremor.

Or so they thought.

Then from the ground a red beam of light followed by a blue one emerged.

Approaching almost to the sky, they collapsed.

The red light was struck by the blue light.

Being at a considerable distance, the red light said.

"Progenitor Blood: Blood Beast."

While the blue color said.

"White Tiger!"

A red dragon manifested in the air, while a large blue tiger with white stripes approached straight at dragon.

Both touching each other exploded.

Combined red and blue meteors were falling all over the duchy.

Explosions here and there

They even came close to people.

But a huge purple shield mysteriously protected them.

The impact was so strong that the shield seemed to have cracks.

Then... the blue light zigzagged and hit the red one with a strong kick, sending it straight into the black tower.

Razel was quickly approaching as well.

After arriving, he moved in to hit it with a powerful attack, but something happened.

"Puah!"

A large amount of blood was spat straight at her, only a drop landed on her cheek.

On Razel's body, one of his kidneys exploded from the overload of energy.

He fell to his knees and touched his stomach.

Astraea saw him and said.

"You made me regenerate with that last attack."

"Well done. Let me tell you what I know."

As he agonized, she told him the "truth".

"First of all; the world you know, is false."

"This world is actually a faker."

Razel wasn't listening to what she was saying because of his inner pain.

"When I was a child, me and my sister were part of some experiments from a country known as the republic."

"Unlike what my eyes see, in that place everything was so different and white in color."

"It was a place known as the republic. Everything was amazing compared to what I see."

"But that wasn't all, that place was in conflict with the true owners of this world. Creatures known as primordial dragons."

"...!"

It was there that Razel finally reacted.

He looked at Astraea who was still telling him the truth.

"Humans and dragons were at war, that's because they, the humans, invaded their world."

"...What do you mean by their 'world'?"

She pointed straight to the sky.

"Just as I said. They, the humans, came from the stars as I heard."

Razel opened his eyes at such madness.

"Something like that is already surreal! It's even impossible to think of the first humans as spaceship colonists!"

Astraea showed an expression of surprise.

"Oh! So those flying ship-like things are called spaceships, huh?"

She seemed to know it was a ship, but mentioning a flying one, made Razel's head go into confusion.

(This is an otome game world! ... Isn't it?)

(Why is she talking about something sci-fi?)

(Humans certainly are strange. Magic power is something of fantasy, but it's because there's mana in this world, not because they were created by humans.)

"I figure you must be thinking what I'm saying is weird, right? Let me tell you some more real truths so you can understand me."

She pointed to herself and then to Razel as she spoke another unimaginable truth to him.

"We progenitors, we are creations of humans. The humans who ruled that white place, they told us that the higher ups ordered them to create warriors who could not die easily."

"The early prototypes were long-eared beings. They were also the pioneers in developing an incalculable bug known as magic power."

"The magic element already existed, but humans could not use it, only dragons."

"Because of that mistake, the high humans declared all-out war on the dragons."

"Such an event caused much of the planet to be destroyed and the corpses of the dragons expelled a toxic substance that made most of the planet toxic to human survival."

"But the humans, they wasted no time. They built a dome according to what Epstein was telling me."

Then, Astraea remembered something else.

It was a room in an operating room, she was on a table strapped down with her limbs immobile.

A person in a white coat with a badge, with Epstein's name on it was approaching her.

He was telling her that everything was going to be all right as he pulled out a power saw.

She laughed.

"Truly, what an unpleasant memory, but more unpleasant must be that you found out your ancestors were actually experiments by bastards."

"Now you know a little of what I know, but..."

"Like I care."

Razel said after recovering and standing up.

He balled his fists and an electric current emanated from them.

"Who cares if this world is the otome game or not?"

"Who cares that we're actually fake humans?"

"Who cares that there are mysteries shrouding this world?"

Astraea turned her gaze to the drop of blood running down her cheek, took it delicately and tasted it.

Then, her eyes widened in surprise after a while.

"I see... you're a transmigrator, this is the second time I've encountered one."

"I am...!"

"Shishigami."

Her lips moved to say a word unknown to her.

But the moment he heard that, Razel stopped.

His face wore an expression of having heard horrible news.

His high gaze lowered to look at her who looked even more quizzical.

"Shishigami Naoto is your original name, isn't it?"

Razel then remembered things he forgot.

At the same time, Astraea's hand moved to point at him.

"Why are other young people stabbing you?"

In Razel's head, a memory came.

In an ordinary classroom in Japan, a group of young men were pointing at a boy.

His desk was smeared with insults, the blackboard too.

It was written in kanji and read "Shishigami the Ugly."

Then, Razel freaked out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The magic power flowed uncontrollably over his body. his blood soaked eyes saw Astraea and he said.

"IF YOU EVER MENTION THAT NAME AGAIN, I WILL NOT KILL YOU AS YOU WISH!!!"

Astraea made a serious face.

"I see. So that's what mortifies you, I guess I'm not the only one who wants to die. No, you already died and you're trying to live a lie."

They both broke the ground with their magical power and threw themselves into a fight once more.