—"Are you... trying to deceive me too?"—
The hollow eyes locked onto Aeria’s face.
Even though she hadn’t released any magic power, a bone-chilling pressure instantly filled the air, completely engulfing Aeria.
?!!
Her small legs trembled violently, and terror seized her body as she stumbled backward again and again.
Her cherry-colored eyes were filled with only one emotion—fear.
She couldn’t leave.
If she tried to, this monster would do something horrible...
At that moment, a strong warning rang through every fiber of Aeria’s being, screaming at her to stay still.
Aeria knew one thing for certain—she absolutely couldn’t make a wish to the Evil God.
If she did, it would mean selling her soul to this entity. She would become nothing more than a puppet, completely under her control.
But at the same time... she couldn’t accept being trapped here forever either.
Her grandfather was still waiting for her.
Her sisters could not remain in this corrupted wasteland—not in this miasma-filled land overrun by fallen beasts.
That was unthinkable.
Biting her lip hard, Aeria forced herself to stay strong.
Even though Gaia Lobil’s empty, chilling voice filled her with a suffocating sense of dread, she refused to back down.
"No, I’m not lying to you... If you let me go... I-I will make a wish."
Aeria’s voice trembled, and her body continued to shake, but her resolve remained firm.
She stood there, frozen with tension, staring up at Gaia Lobil with anxiety and unease, waiting for the Earth Evil God's reaction.
She had no idea if this was the right thing to do.
She was just following her gut.
...
On the other side,
After hearing Aeria’s response, the blue-haired girl did not erupt in rage.
Instead, she simply blinked, quietly watching her.
The little girl standing before her was so scared—so utterly terrified—yet she still summoned the courage to answer.
Something familiar stirred deep in Gaia Lobil’s heart.
That expression—
That mixture of fear, defiance, and tears—
Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, a long-buried memory surfaced.
"..."
For a moment, a tattered little girl’s figure overlapped with Aeria’s image in Gaia Lobil’s mind.
And then—
Under the pull of some unknown instinct,
Gaia Lobil reached forward, her movements slow and careful.
Aeria’s eyes widened in confusion, completely taken off guard—
The blue-haired girl’s "hands" gently cupped Aeria’s face.
Time seemed to freeze.
Gaia Lobil stood still, her expression unreadable, as she touched Aeria’s warm skin.
She could feel her warmth.
She could feel her soft breath.
She could feel the delicate life beneath her fingers.
And in that moment—
The overwhelming violence that had been endlessly pouring out of her suddenly halted.
She simply stared at Aeria, silently, as if lost in some distant thought.
Something glimmered in her hollow, deeply unsettling eyes—a faint trace of light, a moment of peace.
—"...Little... Star..."—
But while Gaia Lobil may have felt peaceful,
Aeria most certainly did not.
In some ways,
Having her mother hold her face like this was something Aeria had once longed for.
But Aeria knew this was not her mother.
This was the murderer who had killed her mother.
How could she possibly feel safe?
And beyond that—
The sensation of being touched by these "hands"...
It wasn’t gentle.
It wasn’t warm.
It felt like being submerged in a cold, bottomless swamp, like an icy liquid was seeping into her skin.
Cold.
Fear.
Pure, primal disgust.
The moment those hands made contact, an unbearable nausea crawled through Aeria’s entire body.
No—
No, no, no—
"Don’t touch me!!!"
Aeria’s eyes shrank in horror, and she screamed.
A sharp, hysterical cry ripped from her throat, filled with raw terror.
At the same time—
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Her body reacted instinctively.
The cherry-colored spiritual energy within her surged forth, bursting out of her body in a desperate attempt to protect its host.
A blinding wave of pink light suddenly exploded outward, slamming into Gaia Lobil.
Of course—
Such a small burst of spiritual energy was far too weak to harm an Evil God.
But...
It wasn’t about power.
It was about rejection.
As if sensing Aeria’s deep, undeniable rejection—
The blue-haired girl simply...
Let go.
?!!
"Uh...?!"
The next moment, freed from Gaia Lobil’s grasp, Aeria was stunned for only a brief second before she snatched up the basket holding her sisters and bolted.
Panicked, she tore herself away from Gaia Lobil’s arms and ran desperately toward the courtyard.
Within moments, she had vanished from the blue-haired girl’s sight.
And yet—
The Earth Evil God had no reaction.
She simply stood there, silent, as if lost in thought.
For a brief moment, the abandoned city returned to its previous stillness.
...
While the blue-haired girl remained in a daze,
A small pink mass of flesh suddenly rolled out from behind a crumbling wall, its tentacle-like limbs making soft squelching sounds as it moved.
If Aeria were still here, she would have been shocked to recognize it.
This was the very same creature that had been wrapped around her when she first woke up.
Now—
The tiny pink tentacle creature slowly slithered to Gaia Lobil’s side, nudging against her.
At the same time, it turned its scarlet single eye toward the direction Aeria had run off in.
A sinister coldness flickered in that eye.
Clearly,
This little creature was not in a good mood.
"Ying... yingying? Yingying! Yingyingying!!" (That damn brat?! She actually dared to be so disrespectful to you, boss! How outrageous—hiss!)
Muttering to itself, the tentacle mass turned its gaze back to the massive figure cloaked in icy-blue light and black mist.
"Yingyingying!! Yingying~" (That ungrateful little brat should just be taught a lesson, hiss!)
The pink octopus quickly made a suggestion to its boss.
It was completely fed up with Aeria’s behavior.
Sure,
That little girl won the Redemption Game.
But so what?
Their boss was one of the Three Evil Gods, the head of the Earth’s Fallen Beasts, a supreme existence above all living things.
And this puny little human girl dared to act so rudely toward their boss?
She was given a chance to make a wish—she refused.
She was allowed to stay—she wanted to leave.
Their boss, for the first time ever, willingly reached out to touch a human—she fought back with spirit energy.
What the hell was wrong with this brat?!
She refused to drink the wine of goodwill, so maybe she needed a little punishment instead.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.
Hmph!
"Yingying!! Yingyingying!! Yingyingying!" (Leave it to me! I’ll make sure she learns her lesson! She’ll come crawling back to beg for a wish in no time!)
The pink octopus flailed its tentacles, hyping itself up, as if ready to charge into the cave and teach Aeria a lesson.
Sure, their boss was still in a hazy state, but as her most loyal minion, it was necessary to report its intentions to her.
However—
Just as it turned around, preparing to act—
A calm yet chilling voice sounded in its mind.
—"Stop... stop."—
?!!
"Yingying?!"
The voice—
Without a doubt, it belonged to Gaia Lobil.
Although it still carried that disjointed, hazy tone, this time—
There was something different about it.
It was steadfast.
It carried a weight of undeniable authority.
In that instant, the pink octopus’s scarlet eye shrank, its entire body tensing up in shock.
Then—
It whipped around, staring in disbelief at Gaia Lobil.
Because—
From its calculations, their boss should still be trapped in her confused, unstable state for at least another eleven or twelve years.
So how?!
How was she suddenly...?
Had something happened just now?
...
"Ying? Yingying?" (Boss? Are you... actually awake?)
The pink octopus cautiously tested the waters, unsure if it had misheard.
But—
The next moment—
The icy mist and black fog around Gaia Lobil suddenly focused on the pink octopus.
That oppressive gaze fell upon it, making the tiny creature shudder violently.
And at that moment, it knew.
It hadn’t misheard.
"Ying?" (Boss?)
Gaia Lobil didn’t answer immediately.
Instead—
With an expression filled with complicated emotions, she slowly turned her gaze—
Toward the direction Aeria had run off in.
—"That child...? Her presence... could help me...??"—
Feeling the haze in her mind gradually clearing,
The Earth Evil God was overcome with a deep sense of confusion...