Whoosh—
After a flash of white light, the golden figure once again appeared within this mysterious space.
The origin of everything—the Lord God Space.
However, the instant she entered, Elise's eyes widened.
"Although I expected it, actually seeing this under these circumstances still feels a little unbelievable..."
Because she had long since grown accustomed to keeping her eyes closed, Elise looked no different from usual most of the time. She only opened her eyes when she was surprised or genuinely wanted to see something.
And that meant something major must have happened, such as the scene before her now...
Est, Ren, and Ophis had all somehow returned to the Lord God Space?
"Est and Ren I can understand. At least they have contracts with me. But what about Ophis?"
"Why did she come to the Lord God Space?"
Elise had indeed once considered bringing Ophis over to her side. After all, this Dragon God possessed the power known as Infinity, something exceedingly rare even across countless worlds. She would definitely have become an enormous help to Elise.
But Ophis' personality was simply too laid-back. Their relationship had never progressed beyond that of ordinary friends connected by a contract.
So Elise had eventually given up on the idea. She never expected to see Ophis inside the Lord God Space.
"What exactly happened?"
This was the first time Elise had encountered something inside the Lord God Space that she couldn't understand.
Wasn't this Lord God Space already crippled?
"Could it be that because I've been constantly traveling between worlds, it's gradually starting to recover?"
Elise was skeptical about this possibility because she had absolutely no evidence. Everything was merely her own speculation.
Unless the Lord God personally jumped out to explain everything, no one could know the truth...
"Hehe, this is where I make my entrance!"
Elise had only just finished speaking when an extremely youthful voice suddenly rang out inside the Lord God Space, immediately putting her on guard.
That wasn't a voice she recognized. Est, Ren, and Ophis all sounded completely different!
Since when had there been someone else inside the Lord God Space?
Elise was the Lord God Space's only Agent. She had already confirmed that much. In all these years, she had never once seen another Reincarnator besides herself.
So who was speaking now?
Then, beneath Elise's wary gaze, a patch of pure white entered her vision.
"..."
How should she put it?
At that moment, a question immediately appeared in Elise's mind...
"Why is it another little girl?"
But after hearing that, the white-haired little girl tilted her head, her face filled with confusion.
"Don't you like little girls?"
"Huh?"
Hearing that, Elise immediately denied it.
"I have never said I like little girls. Never!"
"Why would you even think that?!"
What an injustice!
Was Elise a lolicon?
Of course not!
She had always firmly believed in one thing—bigger was better. As long as it didn't include herself, bigger was better!
Although she said that excluded herself, Elise herself was hardly small. Such a perfect body could crush ninety percent of the people in the world! So bigger was definitely better!
Faced with Elise's emphatic denial, the white-haired little girl said nothing. She merely turned her head in silence and looked toward Est and the others floating nearby...
That expression practically seemed to say:
You literally surround yourself with little girls, yet you still refuse to admit what you like...
How adorable! She even had the expression of Kaguya observing something amusing.
"Ugh!"
"Forget about that for now. The most important question is who you are and why you're inside the Lord God Space."
Unwilling to pay any attention to such embarrassing matters, Elise went straight to the point and asked about the girl's identity.
At present, the most likely possibility was that the Lord God Space had pulled someone else inside without Elise knowing. But was that even possible?
Elise had stayed in this space for so long without the Lord God showing any reaction whatsoever. Why would things suddenly change now?
Perhaps after seeing Elise's expression, the corners of the white-haired little girl's lips gradually curled upward.
"Don't worry. My identity is very special. I'm not some Reincarnator or Agent."
"Elise, you are still the Lord God Space's only Agent."
Seeing through Elise's thoughts, the white-haired little girl immediately planted her hands on her hips and proudly puffed out her chest.
But in Elise's eyes, the sight was incredibly incongruous!
She was obviously just a little girl, yet her manner of speaking and tone made her sound like a mature woman...
So weird!
Although Elise found it strange, she said nothing and simply stood where she was, quietly waiting for the girl to continue.
"I'm sure you know absolutely nothing about my identity, right? But that's okay! I'll tell you, Elise!"
"I am..."
"The Lord God?"
Before the white-haired little girl could reveal the final answer, Elise voiced her own guess first...
With that tone, coupled with her denial that she was a Reincarnator, Elise could think of only one answer.
The Lord God itself!
The instant those two words left her mouth, the surrounding space seemed to freeze. Even the mysterious smile on the white-haired little girl's face stiffened.
"Eh?! Seriously?!"
The moment the white-haired little girl froze, Elise knew she had guessed correctly. At the same time, the hidden video cameras and still cameras were switched on.
"I never would've expected the legendary Lord God who governs infinite worlds to actually be such a tiny little girl. If the people outside found out, wouldn't they laugh themselves to death?"
Before the girl could react, Elise charged directly in front of her. Both hands went to work at once, kneading her little face until it barely looked human.
"That's enough!"
Even the Lord God could get angry when treated like this. She immediately bristled like an enraged little white-haired cat and glared fiercely at Elise.
But that only made her look even cuter.
In the end, her humiliated expression, which looked as though she was about to cry, was successfully pressed into Elise's chest.
For the first time, the Lord God experienced just how terrifyingly destructive the body of a mature woman could be!
But those were merely minor diversions. Elise still needed to know the reason behind all this. Why had the Lord God become this adorable little thing?
"Tell me. How did you end up like this?"
Elise sat on the sofa with a smile, looking at the pouting Lord God beside her as she sulked.
She didn't seem particularly inclined to respond.
But that was fine!
Elise had plenty of ways to deal with her!
And the most famous one was undoubtedly...
"Tell me, Lord God."
"You wouldn't want the people outside to find out what I just did to you, would you?"
...
Why had the Lord God become like this?
Elise had spent quite a while sitting there listening to her ramble about the whole story.
The most important part involved Elise's eyes.
That ultimate ability capable of devouring another person's soul through eye contact, regardless of who the enemy was!
But in reality, that wasn't its true effect at all.
The so-called soul devouring existed solely to repair the damaged Lord God.
It was the final measure the Lord God Space had left behind to prevent itself from disappearing entirely.
When the Lord God was on the verge of extinction, it randomly pulled in a soul from the outside world, placed that soul into a random body, granted it a random ability, and attached the eye-related ability to it.
Even in a weakened state, doing something like this was extremely easy for the Lord God.
As long as the Reincarnator who had been drawn into the infinite worlds used those eyes to observe the world, they would devour other people's souls and use them to replenish the damaged Lord God Space. At the same time, part of those abilities would be fed back to the wielder.
That was why Elise had been able to obtain the Sacred Queen's sacred power and Freya's charm.
As long as Elise had continued willingly using her eyes to look at the world, she would have grown unimaginably powerful within a very short period of time, while the Lord God would have recovered far faster thanks to the replenishment.
"But what I never expected was that you'd actually treat this ability as your trump card! Keeping your eyes closed was bad enough, but why did you have to keep them covered all the time too?!"
"If it weren't for that, I would've woken up ages ago!"
A trump card was an ultimate technique, a final measure, which meant Elise naturally wouldn't use it lightly.
And precisely because of that, the Lord God's recovery time had been extended almost indefinitely by her.
"But looking at it another way, maybe the fact that you treated it as a trump card and only used it against powerful beings is exactly why I recovered this quickly?"
If Elise had continuously absorbed ordinary people, who knew how many years the Lord God would have needed to recover? There was absolutely no way she would have awakened by now.
Existences like the Sacred Queen and Freya, on the other hand, had directly accelerated the Lord God's recovery by a massive amount.
Then came the battle against the three great mechanical Evil Gods in the High School DxD world.
Elise had used power that was far too great for her to control, and that unknown energy had directly caused an unprecedented explosion.
The three great mechanical Evil Gods, and even Elise herself, should originally have died in that battle.
But at that critical moment, the Lord God intervened.
The explosion still occurred as normal, but more than half of the energy it produced was absorbed by the Lord God Space.
And then there were the souls of the three mechanical Evil Gods...
It was precisely thanks to such an enormous amount of replenishment that the Lord God's consciousness—the white-haired little girl—was finally able to awaken.
That was the true nature of the ability known as the Gaze of Corruption. After learning the truth, Elise finally relaxed a little.
It wasn't nearly as disgusting as she'd imagined. Thank goodness!
"I really should thank you, Elise."
"Although I still haven't fully recovered even now, at least I've awakened. Compared to those other guys who are already dead, I'm doing vastly better!"
Feeling refreshed, the white-haired little girl stretched lazily and slowly stood up from the floor.
"To help me recover completely, I'll let you keep those eyes. But I'll need to make a few small adjustments first..."
The white-haired little girl lightly touched Elise's forehead. An incomprehensible power flowed from her fingertip into Elise's body.
"Back then, I urgently needed energy replenishment, so soul devouring was made into a passive ability..."
"If I change it so you can activate it voluntarily, there won't be any major problems!"
"Your life should become much easier from now on too!"
Elise looked at the cheerful Lord God, wondering about something.
Speaking of which, this Lord God is clearly much livelier than before. And there's something else...
Maybe it's just my imagination, but doesn't she seem a little too concerned about me?
Are we really close enough for that?
There were too many things Elise didn't understand, and even if she asked, the Lord God might not necessarily answer.
"That's fine, but..."
Elise looked as though she wanted to say something but hesitated, prompting the little Lord God to immediately look toward her.
"What is it? You seem to have a question. If it's something I'm allowed to answer, I can explain it to you!"
After receiving a clear response, Elise finally looked over.
"Since you've already awakened, Lord God, then..."
"Can you start issuing missions and things like the Lord God Spaces I remember?"
"And after completing those missions, can I receive some decent rewards... Do you have anything like that?"
The instant Elise asked the question, she began observing the Lord God. An extremely obvious look of awkwardness appeared on the girl's face.
"Missions... Well, you see..."
Her eyes drifted to the side, and her head unconsciously lowered... Isn't that obviously the prelude to a lie?
Elise had no intention of making things too difficult for her. After all, the Lord God's attitude toward her just now had been extremely friendly, completely unlike the systems and Lord Gods in novels that casually erased people from existence!
"Could it have something to do with World Analysis?"
The Lord God, who had originally seemed unable to think of a good excuse, immediately had a strange light flash through her eyes upon hearing the words World Analysis.
"That's right! World Analysis!"
"I never expected you to be so impressive, Elise. You've actually managed to figure out the Lord God Space's rules this thoroughly..."
Although there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her expression on the surface... didn't the sweat on her forehead give everything away?
There aren't actually any missions at all, are there?
"Speaking of World Analysis, that really is something extremely useful!"
Elise was startled after hearing that. She had only randomly picked a topic to continue the conversation, yet she'd somehow hit the mark?
"If the World Analysis of a world reaches one hundred percent, then afterward, all rights to that world will belong to its controller..."
"Once you control that world, you'll be able to return there whenever you want, Elise!"
"After controlling an entire world, all I get is the ability to return whenever I want?" Elise asked doubtfully.
"Of course. What else would you do with it?"
I really get the feeling this Lord God is useless...
Still, Elise asked the question she cared about most.
"What about rewards?"
"None..."
"Then what use are you?"
"Didn't I turn into the form you like so I could warm your bed? Teehee!"
"..."
Sensing that the atmosphere had become somewhat dangerous, the little Lord God immediately made an adorable expression. Most people probably would have found her extremely cute, but Elise wasn't impressed...
What a joke. Elise had seen plenty of beautiful women!
Sylvia from Asterisk War, the goddesses from the DanMachi world, the angels from High School DxD... which one of them wasn't breathtakingly beautiful?
Besides, Elise herself was a beautiful girl!
Unable to tolerate the Lord God's deliberate attempt to act cute any longer, Elise once again reached out with her sinful hands and began kneading the little Lord God's cheeks into all sorts of shapes.
"Then I really have to thank you!"
"Sowwy, I was wong..."