The sight of the vast plains and the blue sky was truly a spectacle, but unfortunately, there was no leisure to take in the view comfortably. Ian stretched his hand toward the sky and recited the incantation inscribed in the grimoire.
"The Center is that One; all matter moves according to my God. Thus, you shall be reborn by that One's touch."
Oooong…
His outstretched hand was dyed white. Ian felt as if someone were caressing his hand, and slowly clenched his fist. Following that movement, a distortion bloomed in the world. A sudden white speck in the sky devoured the firmament and the clouds, growing larger.
When it had swelled to roughly the size of the risen sun.
"She shall bless us."
Kwa-rurururk!
The pallid, pure-white speck burst, scattering white rain in every direction. The snow-white liquid that plummeted according to gravity restructured everything it touched according to Ian's will.
Trees committed suicide. Leaves became round spheres and rolled across the ground. The 'ears' of various creatures hanging from the giant trees transformed into awls and stabbed the giant trees. Even those giant trees were slowly dying according to Ian's will.
[What incredible power.]
The Forerunner, swimming through the sky, exclaimed in admiration at the world turning white.
[Magic capable of changing any existence into whatever one desires. I never thought I would observe the magic of the Other God that Mother always kept on her lips.]
"Does she talk about Lea often?"
[Yes. She spits it out like a refrain, repeating how she wants to kill her every time.]
At the immediate reply, Ian burst into a laugh. He could vividly picture the Ruler of the Outer Sea fuming.
It was far from unexpected, but among the Other Gods connected to Ian, the Ruler of the Outer Sea was the most forthright with her emotions. Those emotions were far too human to be called divine; rather than displeasing him, they were burdensome. Receiving one-sided love was more difficult than one might think.
And it wasn't just her. While the Ruler of the Outer Sea was particularly extreme, Lea was not one to hide her emotions either.
He couldn't be certain about the Recluse, having never held a proper conversation, but judging from the characteristics the grimoire had shown so far, she was likely similar. At the very least, he could easily be sure that she wasn't the type to conceal her feelings.
'If I die… would they fight over my soul, each demanding to take it?'
Ian imagined a scene where a massive white lump with eight or more arms, a black octopus, and an incorporeal cloak tore at his body to claim it, and let out a bitter smile. For some reason, he felt as though one of the three might bring an axe, saying, "Let's split it."
[Father, she comes.]
While he was thinking, the girl revealed herself through the very void the Forerunner had passed.
Unlike before, Railie was moving with her. With roots deeply embedded in the girl's heart to fix her body in place, she battered away the snow-white hands rushing in and glared at Ian.
"Magician…!"
"I'll pass on conversation. I've already talked enough for today."
Smiling, Ian swept his white-dyed hand downward.
"Can you keep up?"
Shwaaaa!
The falling white rain began pouring toward the girl all at once. Particles flooding in from above, below, left, right, and the diagonals rustled and squirmed. Railie gritted her teeth, plucked the flower embedded in her head, and chewed it.
Chwak!
Her throat split open, and blood gushed forth. It immediately became a giant flower and blocked the plummeting rain.
But it could not provide a perfect defense. The corrupted flower was restructured into a spear in the blink of an eye and pierced through her body. As if that weren't enough, the spearhead split wide open and tore her body apart left and right.
The corpse, reduced to nothing more than a lump of meat, was sucked into the white pool forming on the ground, and from the flower petal lodged in the girl's heart, she was reborn anew.
"Why do you refuse! Why! I can become your strength! I can become one who understands you! So why! Why, why, why!"
The maws attached to the sprouting hands let out a bizarre shriek.
"Why!"
The air vibrated at the whining voice. But Ian did not answer; he dusted off his hand with an indifferent expression. His declaration that he would no longer converse had been no lie.
There was nothing to gain from an emotional exchange with a lunatic. It would only exhaust his mental strength further.
In the first place, Railie's current state was merely a pretense bordering on falsehood. Hadn't she said so herself? That the only emotions she could currently feel were jealousy and love.
Seeing her rampage like that, having forgotten her own words from mere hours ago, it seemed her intelligence had degraded as well.
There was little point in bandying words with such a person—no, such an aberration. So without any response, he stroked the Forerunner's hide.
"Let's swallow her now."
[Yes, Father.]
The Forerunner answered Ian's will. Azure blood trickled from her blue pupils as she opened her maw wide. Her lower jaw split vertically, and a sharp cerulean tongue hung slackly, following gravity.
[Please hold on tight, Father.]
He did so.
After confirming Ian's grip tightly clutching her outer hide, the Forerunner raised the tip of her hanging tongue to a sharp point. Then, without hesitation, she stabbed forcefully into the air.
Fwook!
With a savage sound, the tip of her tongue pierced through the void. The air vibrated, and cracks formed in space as if glass were shattering.
[Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!]
The girl screamed. No, the world screamed.
The world of the museum, already finished assimilating, was fused to the point where distinguishing it from the girl was impossible.
And the Forerunner forcibly tore that connection apart.
Crack!
Within the shattered space, a transparent sphere floated up. A beautiful sphere, transparent enough to become anything and to trap any light, began slowly swimming toward the girl. Its speed was so slow that even Ian could have caught it.
But he did not move. Instead, the Forerunner opened her mouth wide.
The sphere moved as if being sucked into her opened maw.
And crunch.
The Forerunner bit down on the sphere with her teeth and crushed it.
In that instant, the world turned off.
"…!"
It was not a metaphor. Literally, the world turned off.
The snow-white eye-flames of the Other God vanished.
The forest disappeared.
The girl's form could no longer be seen.
Railie's outline could not be found.
And that wasn't all.
There was no sound. As if he had been thrown naked into the cosmos. No noise reached his ears. Not even the sound of breathing.
His vision went black. The concept of light vanished from the world. Visible light, which had promised to reflect upon human eyes, began a one-sided game of hide-and-seek. Darkness, little different from the dictionary definition itself, took its place.
There was no smell. Even the bitter taste in his mouth vanished. The five senses had died.
Even so, he could see. He could hear. He could smell, and he could taste. He could feel.
Meaning there was nothing wrong with his body.
It was simply…
[The world has perished.]
The Forerunner rumbled.
[Not a particularly tasty world, was it.]
In a world where everything had vanished, only the Forerunner maintained her form perfectly.
Wherever she moved, a massive shadow was cast upon the world, and a faint gurgling sound, like swimming underwater, echoed softly.
As if she did not belong to the vanished world at all, she was free from all laws.
It was not a strange thing.
Originally, all things in the world possessed their own world and universe.
Even animals were no exception. And animals fundamentally followed the law of the jungle. The life and world of the prey passed to the predator, meeting a quiet death without anyone knowing.
The predator, meanwhile, lived on. Without any harm. As if it had been that way from the very beginning.
The Forerunner was the same. Devouring the world did not cause her existence to fade. On the contrary, she became even clearer. The epithet "World-Covering Whale" was not attached to her for nothing.
'Incredible. I can see why it's said to be the strongest among summonable creatures, second only to the Ruler of the Outer Sea.'
The world of annihilation. Ian let out a hollow laugh and gripped the Forerunner's scales tightly.
Normally, any living being in a vanished world would perish without exception, but Ian was the sole exception.
It was not because the Forerunner had adjusted her range.
The Ruler of the Outer Sea had excluded the existence known as Ian from the Forerunner's ability.
"…."
Should he call this consideration, or possessiveness?
The moment Ian thought that, a grimoire was suddenly clasped in his empty hand.
It was the Abyssal Chronicle. The grimoire that had appeared without Ian's summons turned its pages on its own, spreading open to a blank sheet.
[I love you.]
Red letters were engraved on a page that should have been blank.
Crooked Hangul.
Writing that looked as if a child who had just learned to write had scrawled it. Ian stared blankly at those letters, visible with inexplicable clarity, then let out a bitter smile.
It seemed it had been possessiveness after all.
[I shall move now, Father.]
The Forerunner began to move her fins. Ian nodded.
Auditory Museum annihilation complete. Now it was time to move on to the sense of smell.
Before that, Ian summoned the guides he would send to the art museum.
*
The art museum had fallen silent. Gim Iseo took in the sight of the half-destroyed art museum, her mouth hanging open.
The massive black whale that had appeared suddenly and swept through. Ruined paintings rolled across the floor, and the corpses of Watchers lay scattered in all directions, grotesquely dismembered. None of them were twitching.
Instant death.
The moment they collided with the whale, they had died on the spot without being able to resist.
Even the art museum's rules seemed distorted; even when they conversed, no eyeballs bloomed upon their bodies.
As far as the Administration was concerned, this was a fortunate turn of events.
But since they didn't know how long it would last, they couldn't afford to dawdle here.
Gim Iseo quickly composed herself and took command of her party, seizing a gap when no Watchers were nearby.
"Mina, how many survivors are left?"
"Ah, just a moment…."
Bak Mina took out a device that tracked the life signs of those deployed on the mission. She hadn't used it because it made beeping noises, but that hardly mattered now.
"Uh… everyone's still alive. There are injured, but no fatalities."
"That's a relief. Then let's move. Our priority is to rendezvous with those near—"
Crack.
A sharp sound rang out from the end of the hallway, cutting off Gim Iseo's voice. She swore inwardly, drew the pistol at her waist, and aimed toward the sound. Gim Yul and Mika also readied their magic.
[Kiek.]
[Kieeeeek…]
Shortly after, two small creatures revealed themselves from the end of the shattered hallway.
About the size of a human head.
Short tentacles clustered around the round maw at their center. They moved like legs, scratching the floor and rolling forward.
"…What the hell are those."
The party's faces darkened at the appearance of creatures they had never seen before. With no leisure to hide their tension, they glared at the seaweed-like things rolling about.
Then, they too spotted the party.
[Kiek!]
[Kiek! Kieeeeek!]
The two aberrations bounced about as if having discovered their targets, then rapidly scratched across the floor and charged.
"Damn it!"
Gim Iseo spat a curse and put her finger on the trigger.
At that moment, Gim Yul, who had been about to fire his magic, spotted a piece of paper attached near the aberrations' mouths and froze mid-motion.
"Wait! Everyone stop! Don't attack!"
Gim Iseo frowned at the sudden shout. But she didn't pull the trigger. She took a step back and asked Gim Yul,
"Why the sudden change? Do you know what these are?"
"No. But I think I know who sent them."
"…Who would that be?"
Instead of answering, Gim Yul narrowed his eyes.
His slightly cleared vision carefully made out the letters on the paper.
[It's me. God Ian.]
[Situation's urgent, so I'll keep it short.]
[Follow these guys.]
"No matter how urgent it is, this is way too short."
Gim Yul let out a hollow laugh.
Just then, several Watchers fell from the second-floor railing. But before the falling creatures could even touch the ground, the Messengers' tentacles split them apart, tearing them to pieces in every direction.
[Kiek.]
[Kik! Kieeeeek!]
They let out scornful cries, having disposed of the Watchers without any effort. Gim Yul stared at the still-warm corpses scattered about for a moment, then turned to the party with a serious expression.
"Let's follow them. These guys are crazy strong."
It was a judgment befitting a magician.