The air trembled at the Seonggakja's roar. Beyond his hair fluttering in the shockwave, Ian fixed his gaze on Rairie's contorted expression as he opened his grimoire.
He had roughly discerned Rairie's objective.
She was, for all intents and purposes, a being bound to the museum. To be precise, a slave who had to serve the owner of the grimoire *The Submersion of Rüye* for life. For someone like her to get out of this place, *The Submersion of Rüye* also had to leave the museum.
But since the girl who currently owned the grimoire had no intention of leaving the workshop, naturally Rairie had no choice but to remain bound here as well.
So that was why she had ordered Ian to take the grimoire. Since she could not harm the girl with her own hands, she intended to use another's hands to kill the girl, then escape the museum with the grimoire.
If one were to call it cunning, it was cunning indeed.
Had he been an ordinary magician, he would have accepted her offer and become the grimoire's new master. A grimoire of an Outer God inherently possessed the nature to tempt magicians; no matter how composed a magician might be, they would not have been able to resist Rairie's seduction.
But he was the wrong opponent.
Ian, who could perfectly defend against even an Outer God's mental attacks, could hardly be enthralled by a mere oddity's voice. If Rairie had truly wished to escape this place, she should have chosen a different magician to abduct.
Well, it was already too late for regrets. It was nothing Ian needed to bother thinking about. He had no interest in Rairie's circumstances.
“Seonggakja.”
Ian leaned his body against the wall and quietly muttered. The answer echoed through his mind.
[Yes, Father.]
A youthful voice, closer to that of a precocious girl than a mature woman, reached his ears. Ian watched the massive whale leisurely swimming across the sky and moved his lips.
“Collapse space. And open a passage leading to the art museum.”
[I shall move with you.]
Hwoooong…!
The Seonggakja opened her maw wide and bit into the air, twisting it. The sky tore apart as it was.
The stars screamed in agony, and beyond the hole torn in the void, a small attic door revealed itself.
It was a passage leading somewhere. A forcibly placed passage created by a rift in overlapping space.
Whether it precisely led to the art museum was an unknown variable, but it mattered little if it went elsewhere. After all, the only remaining sections of the Museum were hearing and smell; even if they ended up elsewhere, they could simply destroy that place and proceed.
The property that physical destruction was impossible was no obstacle to the Seonggakja. Every action she took was power closer to the very concept of "obliteration." No immunizing effect could apply to her.
That was precisely why Ian had summoned the Seonggakja. Since he did not know the exact method of clearing this, calling a being for whom ignorance was no handicap was the correct answer.
Ian gripped his trembling hands to steady them, then launched his body toward the Seonggakja swimming closer. His falling body settled softly atop her fin.
[Father smells pleasant. I like it because it's different from Mother.]
The Seonggakja howled in high frequency. Yet to Ian, it sounded merely like a calm voice. While remaining lying down, he looked down at the girl whose body was beginning to swell and let out a chuckle.
“What, does your mother smell?”
[She always carries a fishy stench and the scent of blood. She improved greatly after discovering Father, but in the past, she would churn the seas and kill creatures she herself had created out of boredom.]
“…Is that really alright?”
[To us, the law of the jungle is but common sense. It is hardly strange for the strongest mother to devour the weak.]
The Seonggakja spoke as she swam toward the attic door that had appeared in the sky.
[Yet Mother is the one who bestowed upon us eternal hunger. And by abandoning us, she made me and my siblings covet only one another for our entire lives. How could I harbor love for such a one? How could I feel respect?]
“….”
[The word "tyrant" suits our mother more than anyone. I, more than anyone else, despise such a mother.]
The universe bled. The sky collapsed, and the corpses of stars fell as a meteor shower. Black seawater poured forth from rent space as if flooding over.
The world was being obliterated. A single magician's workshop began collapsing from its center. But Ian gazed at the flowing galaxy with an indifferent expression. The sight of a world perishing was quite beautiful.
[Father.]
As he rested, quietly enduring the pain rising from within, the Seonggakja addressed him in a grave voice. Ian nodded as well.
“Yes, I know.”
Kkigigik…!
At the same time as his answer, a bizarre sound came from beyond the collapsing sky. A sharp noise like chalk scraping a blackboard amplified several fold. As if to prove this, a laceration formed on the horizon that had remained relatively intact, and from within it, a chunk of heart fell like a meteorite.
Kwaaaang!
With a thunderous roar, the plummeting lump of flesh expanded massively and absorbed the seawater. The black seawater entered the heart and simultaneously turned to bloody water, discharging back outside once more.
[Nuuuuuuuuh!]
The spewed blood dyed the world. The sea became a lake of blood, and the night sky was painted red. The beautiful falling stars all transformed into human organs and sank into the lake.
[Warning! Multiple hostile lifeforms detected! Within approximately 100 meters in all directions.]
[Warning! Multiple hostile lifeforms detected! Within approximately 80 meters in all directions.]
[Warning! Multiple hostile lifeforms detected! Within approximately 1 meter to the right.]
The reverse targeting system detecting hostility and killing intent blared alarms incessantly. Ian thrust his coat toward the spear-shaped small intestine lunging from the right.
Kwarrururuk…!
The magic imbued in his coat collided with the flying spear. At the same time, the coat rippled like water and absorbed the impact. Ian crushed the feebly falling small intestine underfoot and gazed at the small intestines, large intestines, hearts, livers, lungs, eyes, mouths, and more falling from all directions.
*Assimilation.*
His judgment was swift. Ian looked down at the heart continuously spewing blood and rubbed his throbbing abdomen.
The representative magic of Rüye's Submersion was "Assimilation." In other words, absorption. A phenomenon where things different from one another became the same through one side's absorption. Currently, the girl's magic was activated across the entire workshop.
“I had expected it wouldn't be easy, but as expected of an Outer God's grimoire.”
Ian let out a chuckle and took in the sight of the girl's figure hanging limply from the side of the heart.
Unlike the massive heart, her physical body was extremely small.
However, having continuously undergone assimilation and become one with the workshop, she was now a being difficult to even call human. In fact, this space itself had to be seen as the component constituting her.
To kill such a girl, he would likely have to capture every museum and space within the workshop's range, seize Rairie by the ankles, and only then murder the girl.
“Ha.”
He thought so himself, but wasn't the difficulty simply absurd?
In the end, eliminating the girl was the correct answer to erase the existence known as the Museum of the Five Senses from the world.
Yet he couldn't imagine the process of getting there was possible through common means. He thought he could understand why the Administration had been mostly annihilated.
But to Ian, common sense was a concept that hardly needed his attention. Grimacing from the pain, he pressed his back against the Seonggakja's body with a sardonic smile tugging at his lips.
“Daughter.”
[Yes, Father.]
The Seonggakja let out a low cry. Black mist flowing from her body melted and absorbed the lumps of organs falling from the sky. It formed a carapace.
“How much must you devour before you are satisfied and think of returning?”
[Satiety does not exist for me. Therefore, my price is one planet. Or one world.]
“Outrageous.”
Ian burst into laughter. The Seonggakja swam quickly toward the attic door.
[But do not worry, Father. I shall not lose my reason and attempt to devour you. For at least three hours.]
“And after three hours?”
[You would go to Mother's side.]
“Terrifying.”
[I am frightened as well. I am terrified of what Mother, having obtained Father, might do to you.]
“Is that so? Then I'll finish this within three hours and flee. You can rampage and return on your own, or….”
[Or simply devour this entire space.]
The Seonggakja dribbled saliva. Ian opened his grimoire and watched the girl whose body was beginning to slowly unfurl.
“From now on, I'll use magic without thinking of consequences. This is a world of oddities, so it won't affect reality. Therefore, you too devour everything without hesitation. Except humans.”
[Understood.]
The Seonggakja swished her tail. The girl tore open her left and right atria and spread them like wings, taking flight into the sky. The grimoire was wedged crookedly in her neck.
[Then, Father.]
The Seonggakja accelerated, gazing at the sky that was beginning to dye a deep red.
[I go.]
Hwoooong…!
The Seonggakja swam through the sky at high speed ill-suited to her massive frame. The moment air touched her body, it turned to viscous seawater and dripped down. The girl charged after Ian and the Seonggakja.
[I'LL KILL YOUUUUU!!!]
[Killing Father is my role, insect.]
Kwaaaang!
The Seonggakja smashed through the attic door and crossed space.
Blink.
When he opened his eyes, the scenery had changed.
A white art museum. A corridor displaying all manner of paintings. The Seonggakja appeared, destroying the center of it, blowing away half of the museum's second floor. Walls, ceiling, and floor were crushed entirely, and the Observers standing before the lounge were torn apart along with the door without any resistance.
“…Huh?”
At that moment, the group resting inside the torn-out lounge spotted the massive whale and Ian who had appeared destroying the museum, their expressions blank. Ian spotted them brushing past right beside him and his eyes went wide; then, seeing the girl following behind, he shouted.
“Hey, you are dodging people as you charge, right?!”
[I do not know. I cannot control the exact location where we appear.]
“Damn it. If anyone died, let's call it a glorious sacrifice.”
Ian spat out those words and switched his grimoire.
The Pure White Grimoire was gripped in his hand, and he checked the applied formulae of ceremonial magic and re-creation magic that he had been unable to use normally due to the aftermath. The grimoire read his will and opened the pages on its own.
Ceremonial magic that could be used through voice, not ritual magic requiring magic circles to be drawn one by one. Normally, its power should fall short of ritual magic, but such laws did not apply to an Outer God's magic.
“That which falls is a pigment. Borrowing that one's authority, I borrow a piece of flesh. May the Pure White Touch descend.”
Drip.
At the spell's conclusion, a drop of white paint fell from the ceiling. It slowly fell and touched the girl's heart precisely.
In that instant.
…Crackle.
With a sound like something twisting, the area touched by the paint corroded and regenerated. However, it was no longer the same as before.
A pure white hand.
The red flesh that should have followed the girl's will transformed into the Pure White Touch and squirmed. It soon stopped simultaneously, then all at once began tearing the heart apart.
[AAAAAAACK!!]
The girl screamed. The Seonggakja swung her tail, sending the girl flying whole toward the sky, then followed and bit down. Ian confirmed a part of the heart had entered the Seonggakja's mouth and hurriedly spat out:
“Don't swallow. You'll be assimilated.”
[Yes.]
Jjeoeoeok…!
The Seonggakja opened her mouth wide and spat out the flesh she had chewed off. The mangled lump of meat floated through the air and exploded, and a small remaining piece of the right ventricle beside the girl expanded greatly to form a new heart.
But the Outer God's magic that had once attached to the organ did not disappear. The Pure White Touch, which had already finished re-creation and become a part of her, remained in its place even after regeneration.
[AAAACK! Get off, I said get off!!!]
“Let's move to the next section. If you devour from here, all the survivors here will die.”
Ian muttered, looking down at the convulsing girl. The Seonggakja shook her head briefly and opened her maw.
Kwajik!
She bit space itself, causing a rift. A massive iron gate appeared in the wide-open sky, and the Seonggakja charged her body against the gate without hesitation.
The place they moved to.
“…Hah.”
A vast meadow. A forest filled with green trees. Yet a forest of death where no sign of life could be felt.
At its center.
Beneath a giant tree, human corpses and ears hung like fruit.