"How do you know me?" Stephan asked, looking at Adam who was floating in the air right in front of him.
"On my coming to age ceremony, one of your puppets was there, right? Of course, you will be there. You would never let someone become a threat," Adam said, thinking back about that fateful day.
At that time, he saw a weird vision. He saw a young man who had become a hero. However, the hero was betrayed by the woman he loved.
"At that time, I didn't understand it, so I ended up not thinking about it. But now it all makes sense," Adam declared, "You were already reading my mind at that time, that's why I could access your subconscious, your hidden memory,"
"I see, so that's what happened. I was wondering why I lost all connection with my puppet on that day," Stephan said, not looking surprised by Adam's revelation.
At that time, the memory of everyone who witnessed what happened on that day was erased. That was the last ability that pride used.
However, it didn't take Stephan and Eva long to discover Adam's power. But that entity intervened… That entity used both its curiosity and ego to protect Adam.
'Aren't you curious about what will become of him?' The entity said. They didn't even remember when the entity said this, but somehow, they were convinced that it would be interesting to leave Adam alone.
At that time, Adam was still pathetic and weak. They never expect that he would become a person that could destroy the Empire and stop them… Just a few days ago, he wasn't even a threat.
"So that's how it is… We were just used for your creation. A monster like none other," Stephan continued with a smile on his face.
"What's your goal? Why are you doing this?" Adam asked, but then he noticed the face of the woman lying on the ground, the face hidden behind the veil. He noticed Eva's face. "Is this for revenge?"
"Unlike you, I never cared about becoming a good or whatever. I just wanted to see the despair on this woman's face." Stephan didn't seem to be bothered by Adam's question. He didn't expect anyone to understand him. "As you can, humans don't always end up becoming good even if they were given great power. I understand why the master called us failures… Me and her…"
"Master? Who is your master? Where is he?" Adam asked, feeling that he was close to uncovering the identity of the mastermind.
"Hahaha! You haven't noticed yet?" Stephan said mockingly, causing Adam's brow to frown.
After hearing Stephan's words, Adam looked at the device and saw Neige, and was about to intervene but…
"I would not do that if I were you."
…Stephan stopped him.
"The harvest is already completed. Everything was taken as planned. Down to the very last detail Hahaha! Even this reunion between the three of us was already planned!" Stephan began to shout and laugh at his realization. He thought of himself as someone cunning, but even his own evaluation of himself was used to control him.
Fwooosh! A blind light engulfed the top of the building. Before Adam could even move, the device and Neige who was inside it had already disappeared.
"What happened?" Adam began analyzing the situation.
"Who knows," Stephan answered. He sat down next to Eva. She had died.
Maybe, if that being didn't manipulate her to become the Holy Mother, things might have ended up differently.
Stephan looked up to the sky. "What is this shitty feeling. Why am I not happy?"
At the very end, he finally understood what that being wanted to say. If he managed to become the most powerful person in the world, how come he couldn't even change the mind of a single woman?
"Did he even say that? No, I guess I just realized why hate and love are the same forms of emotion." Stephan said, talking to himself.
"What were trying to achieve? Tell me…" Adam grabbed Stephan by his collar and lifted him in the air. He couldn't see anything strange in the surrounding, but he knew that something was happening and he couldn't see it.
More importantly, the three fragments disappeared with the device alongside Neige, and this was a problem.
"Don't ask me. I don't know, and I don't care. But you talked about becoming a god and all of that crap right? I don't know what's your definition of God, but this thing will give birth to a God, or so that woman said," Stephan explained.
Now that he thought about it, if his master, the God of Eva, wasn't the one who was to be brought to this world using Neige as a vessel, then who?
"I will still kill you," Adam said. Stephan was the one who killed everyone important to him. Even though he had already found a way to bring all of them back, he still couldn't forgive Stephan.
"What are you waiting for? Look, I created an Empire. I ruled this world for thousands of years. And I got my revenge. Do you think I still have any regret?" Stephan spoke arrogantly.
"That's just because you didn't have anything else to do. If you could do that much, why didn't you just aim higher? Create a world where Eva and you would be together. Humans are not evil by nature. You just didn't try hard enough," Adam said, holding Stephan by his collar.
"Maybe. I just didn't think that it was possible. And I didn't have the power to do it. I guess that's the difference," Stephan muttered. "I don't want to think about it anymore…"
After that, Stephan lost all strength and his consciousness vanished. At that time, the real Stephen, who was nothing more than a big brain situated at the heart of the Empire, disconnected himself, erasing all of his data and memory.
Looking at what happened, Adam felt frustrated. Until the very end, Stephan didn't regret his actions.
Suddenly, everything was quiet. Almost every human on the planet had died.
"What to do now?" He muttered to himself. He expected to fight a very powerful being when the harvest began, but he didn't expect anything to just end like that. He had to search for tree fragments again. Then…
Adam turned him quickly, sensing a presence behind him, but then he saw something very nostalgic…
A pyramid of glass. Exotic flowers. White table and chairs. Sweets and… A tea set. It was fairly small compared to the real one, but the thing in front of him looked like the Royal Garden of Kepalta.
"Adam, join me," A voice came from the one sitting on top of one of the chairs.
"M-mother?" Adam muttered meekly, almost shocked. He didn't want to feel such an emotion, knowing that this was not real, but it was still hard to keep his composure. "Who are you?"
However, the being in front wasn't his mother. They were just taking the appearance of his mother, he knew.
However, his fake mother smiled, and the smile was similar to the one in his memory.
This should have made Adam extremely angry, but for some reason, he couldn't feel anything… Instead, he approached the table and sat down on one of the chairs. He didn't even know what he was doing. What kind of power is this?
"So we meet again," the being said.
"No, I never met you," Adam said. "Stop taking the appearance of my mother."
"You don't remember? When you were rejected by that girl, Tracey. You looked embarrassed when you remarked that I was sitting there. I said that I will not say anything," said the being.
"At that time… You were that person wearing a white costume?" Adam said. He thought that the man was doing some kind of cosplay at that time, and he forgot about his existence.
"I don't have much time left. I will disappear soon," the being declared.
"And what does have to do with me? You were the one who controlled everything from the shadow all of this time, right?" Adam said.
"If I had the power to make everything right, I wouldn't have planned all of this just to reincarnate you in this world. This world doesn't allow a God to exist. That's why you have to listen to what I will say. If you want to create that world you have in mind," the being added.
"So this is the continuation of that story? The one about the God of creation and the God of Void?"
"Yes, the God of Void will be revived soon, but that will take time, that's why we can talk. Right now, the authority of Autonomousity is about to activate the new loop. Once it begins, no being that exists can stop it… However, there is an expectation in everything. A unique existence that doesn't exist anywhere in this world. That's what you need to become. That"s the first thing you need to do…"