At the words of the sage Sia, who resembled Yutia, Alon wore a blank expression for a moment before—
“......I will need some explanation. Is that possible?”
“Of course.”
Sia smiled and nodded as though she had expected Alon to make such a request.
“As you have probably already guessed, to explain first—unlike the place you all came from, this world has no humans.”
“!”
At those words, Alon’s eyes widened slightly in shock.
There were two reasons.
One was Sia’s statement itself—that there were no humans in this past world.
The other was within the words she had spoken.
‘The place you all came from.’
Of course, ever since the sage explained the power she possessed, he had already roughly guessed as much, but he had not expected her to know even that much.
“......You know where we came from?”
When Alon asked further, Sia fell silent for a moment.
Then, still without erasing the smile on her lips, she continued speaking.
“I do not know exactly, but I do know that you came from the ‘future.’”
“......You do not know exactly?”
“Yes. As I said, my power is not that perfect, nor is it omnipotent. Mmm—if I were to explain it more clearly, it is more like I know the process.”
“That sounds awfully vague......”
As Penia muttered that while listening to Sia’s answer, Sia smiled and said,
“To put it more simply—it is like this. I know that all of you came from the future, and that you will fight the Seat of War, who also came from the future. But—”
“—you do not know why we are fighting?”
“Correct. What I see is a little information and the ‘process’ that reaches the conclusion.”
At Sia’s words, Alon wore a strange expression.
It was not that he failed to understand what she meant.
Rather—
‘......Her power is not consistent.’
—he had simply realized more clearly that the sage’s power was not consistent.
“I see.”
After a brief pause, Alon answered Sia and organized those thoughts away.
In truth, if he thought about it calmly, it was not impossible to understand.
After all, abilities related to future sight like that could never be perfect.
‘If such an ability were perfect, then as she said earlier, the world would never have ended up like this.’
After thinking that far, Alon continued.
“......May I ask you to continue the explanation?”
“Of course. So then—I had reached the point of saying that there are no humans in this world.”
“......Did humans go extinct?”
At Alon’s question, Sia thought for a moment before speaking.
“......You could say that, and you could also say that is not the case.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means exactly what I said.”
She remained silent for a while, as though considering how best to explain it, before slowly continuing.
“By any chance, do you know the race of Lord Reber, who came here to Keremenia with you?”
“......I heard they are called Lotusfolk.”
“That is right. Lord Reber is one of the Lotusfolk. Originally—”
“......?”
“—he was human.”
“!”
####
“What do you mean by that?”
At Alon’s question, spoken as though he could not understand, Sia slowly began speaking as though deliberately taking her time.
“How much do you know about the Black Flesh, Al-Akulakka?”
“I only know that the gigantic thing up there is it...... and that it is defeating all the Divine blood and becoming a god.”
Alon answered Sia’s question.
At that, she paused briefly before continuing.
“Most of what you know is true, but if I were to add one more thing...... originally, Al-Akulakka was actually not qualified to become a god.”
“......Not qualified?”
“Yes. Its kingdom was the strongest, but it did not have enough believers to become a god. Especially after all the kingdoms were destroyed.”
“Ah.”
Alon understood her words immediately.
Because he already understood to some extent how the process of a Divine blood becoming a god worked.
‘To become a god, one must receive faith beyond a certain threshold.’
As that thought crossed his mind, the sage’s voice continued.
“Originally, it should have taken Al-Akulakka a very long time to become a god, because there were endlessly few humans left to worship it. But—Al-Akulakka wanted to become a god quickly.”
“......Surely not.”
“It seems you already roughly understand?”
“The flesh masses?”
“......That is right. It realized that even if it mutated living beings, there would be no issue receiving faith from them. It discovered a way to receive faith not through something complex and sustained, but simply and blindly.”
“......So it turned everyone in its kingdom into flesh masses?”
“That was not all. Once infected by the flesh masses, those without magic power all became flesh masses as well, so it released them and began infecting the remaining lifeforms. Whatever they were, as long as they were living beings capable of offering faith.”
“......”
Alon fell silent, and Sia continued speaking.
“However, naturally, even that was not enough for Al-Akulakka to become a god.”
“......Because of the numbers?”
“No. The numbers were already solved by the flesh masses mutating and reproducing with other lifeforms. What remained was power.”
“......Power?”
“Yes. In fact, Al-Akulakka spent far more power than necessary transforming the lifeforms within its kingdom into flesh masses.”
“......So it used power to fill the numbers.”
“That is right. In truth, even then, time alone would eventually have solved the problem—but once again, Al-Akulakka did not wait. Instead of waiting, it used its ‘ability’ on itself.”
“......Ability?”
“Yes. Even I do not know the details, but ‘Mutation’—that is the ability Al-Akulakka possessed.”
When Sia reached that point—
“Ah.”
Penia let out a quiet exclamation as though something had occurred to her, then her eyes widened.
“No way......!”
“Oh my, and I have not even finished explaining yet. It seems you figured it out.”
Sia looked at Penia with slight surprise before turning back toward Alon.
“Al-Akulakka used ‘Mutation’ a total of two times.”
She continued speaking.
“The first mutation was on itself. It mutated itself, abandoned its original form, and took on a shape devoted solely to becoming a god. The result was—”
“That thing in the sky?”
“That is right. In exchange for the mutation, Al-Akulakka became capable of absorbing this world. In other words, it mutated into the form most capable of obtaining the lacking power as quickly as possible.”
At those words, Alon recalled the countless varieties of flesh masses he had seen across the ground until now.
“......That ability itself is a disaster.”
A short sigh escaped him.
However, the sage shook her head.
“No, it is not.”
“Why?”
“Because naturally, there was a price for becoming like that as well.”
Sia spoke.
“In exchange for becoming like that, Al-Akulakka gained two restrictions. One was that it lost its own combat ability, and the other was that it gained an overwhelming vulnerability to ‘humans.’”
“......To humans?”
“Yes. As a result of focusing its own body entirely on absorption, it completely lost all defensive capability against one specific race. That became the shackle it placed upon itself.”
“......Ah.”
After hearing that much, Evan suddenly let out a sigh of realization.
Alon had also already understood by this point.
“......The second mutation—”
“Yes. In order to erase its weakness, Al-Akulakka ‘mutated’ all humans.”
“And that became the Lotusfolk?”
“That is right.”
At Sia’s nod, Evan, who stood beside them, spoke.
“But if that is true, then the Lotusfolk...... no, Reber should know that he was originally human, shouldn’t he?”
“Ordinarily, yes. But Al-Akulakka even altered cognition itself.”
“......It completely erased the awareness that they had once been human?”
“That is right. Most likely to completely control any possible ‘variables.’”
“Well, I was unaffected because of my ‘power,’ though,” Sia added.
Watching her, Penia spoke as though she could not understand.
“......I expected as much, but...... for a Divine blood not only to mutate people through an ability, but even manipulate cognition...... is that really possible? That is practically—”
She muttered briefly.
“—like a god.”
At her words, Sia answered.
“For an ordinary god, it would have been impossible. But Al-Akulakka could do it. In exchange for turning all of humanity into ‘Lotusfolk,’ not only did it consume all the ‘power’ it had gathered until then, it even lost its own ability.”
“......So it abandoned all the power and abilities it had gathered?”
“That is right. In the first place, the reason this world still remains intact is because it is in the process of abandoning its power and gathering it once more. If it had still retained that power—”
Sia murmured,
“—then the world would already have ended one way or another.”
Then she cleared her throat.
“......In any case, originally, this world had nothing left except destruction.”
Sia’s words were true.
If what she said was true, then Al-Akulakka had ultimately created a perfect situation for itself.
However, there had been one anomaly.
“Until all of you came here.”
That anomaly was that Alon’s group had fallen into this place while fighting the Seat of War.
“......I see.”
And that all of them—
were human.
####
“Whew—”
Right after hearing the entire explanation, Alon let out a sigh without realizing it.
Although not much time had passed, for some reason he felt exhausted.
At the same time, however, he also felt relief.
In the end, by coming here, Alon’s group had learned where the Seat of War was.
‘Of course, the situation is not very good.’
Even taking that into account, the current situation was far better for Alon.
Compared to before, when they had not even known where the target was, now at least there was room to try something.
As Alon was thinking that—
“Mm, now that I have explained this much, while we take a brief break, may I ask Lord Alon one thing as well?”
“......What is the question?”
“Mm, it is nothing much, but perhaps—”
Sia suddenly spoke to Alon.
“Does this person called Yutia really resemble me that much?”
At her words, Penia and Evan both looked startled.
However, Sia still wore a subtle smile, and Alon opened his mouth.
“......How do you know that name?”
“Ah, I heard it when I first met all of you.”
“......You were quite far away.”
“My hearing is rather good. Besides—”
The sage stared directly at Alon as she spoke.
“—I could especially feel how flustered Lord Alon was.”
“Was I?”
“Yes. And after that, you kept staring at me. Your gaze was rather intense as well.”
“Uh......”
Alon thought, Was it?
“......His gaze was not intense.......”
Penia muttered sulkily beside him as though dissatisfied about something.
“So I became curious. Why is he looking at me with such intense eyes? Perhaps I resemble that lover named Yutia?”
“......They are not lovers, though?”
Penia immediately refuted Sia’s words.
“Oh, is that so? But the look in his eyes was extremely intense. If you are not lovers yet, then perhaps Lord Alon has feelings for this person named Yutia?”
However, Sia continued looking at her without erasing the teasing smile on her face.
“......”
“......”
Inside the room, which had suddenly fallen silent—
“......”
Alon thought.
What is this?
