"Looks like someone seriously dangerous has shown up..."
Enhela frowned deeply and instinctively backed away.
His breathing gradually quickened.
With every breath in, it felt as though he were trying to drag all the suffocating air around him into his lungs. With every breath out, it seemed he was expelling not only air, but also the oppressive weight that had been building deep inside him.
That sense of unease was like an icy snake silently crawling up his spine.
Wherever it passed, a bone-piercing chill followed, making him shudder as goosebumps instantly spread across his body.
Before the supreme might of Divine Right, he should not have experienced such intense emotional fluctuations.
Yet negative emotions surged through him like floodwaters bursting through a dam, quickly drowning out his reason.
This was not a change originating in his consciousness, but the influence of the physical.
Matter determines consciousness. Consciousness is a response to matter.
At this moment, his fragile human body was being smothered beneath an overwhelming sense of oppression.
His survival instinct roared madly within him, throwing his body and Soul into violent conflict and plunging him into extreme disorder.
"Where are you going?"
Just then, a hand gently came to rest on Enhela's somewhat slender shoulder.
The unexpected touch made Enhela jolt violently as though struck by electricity.
Without even thinking, he immediately spun around, instinctively trying to pull away.
His gaze swept across the figure before him, revealing a tall, ferocious-looking Dragonoid.
When did he get here!?
How had he become so sluggish that someone could approach him without his noticing at all!?
Enhela's heart lurched as he looked toward the distant sky.
Beyond the Crack, those horrifying crimson vertical pupils had already vanished without a trace, as though they had never appeared there in the first place.
Yet the Dragonoid now standing before him was undeniable proof that what had just happened was no illusion.
"Could you tell me what happened here?"
Naohara narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze fixed directly on the white-haired man before him. Tilting his head, he asked in a puzzled tone.
Then Naohara lifted one foot and began advancing at an unhurried pace.
One step, two steps, three steps...
The crisp, rhythmic sound of his footsteps echoed through the air, placing enormous invisible pressure on Enhela as he stood frozen in place.
"My... friend."
Enhela drew a deep breath, doing his best to keep his voice steady and composed as he forced himself to appear relaxed.
"To be perfectly honest, I know nothing about what happened here either. I merely happened to pass through this place while fleeing for my life."
Despite his words, Enhela's fists were already clenched tightly behind his back, his nails digging deep into his palms.
But only a moment later, he forced himself to loosen his hands, repeatedly warning himself to stay calm and not lose his composure.
No matter how hard Enhela tried to conceal the tension and anxiety inside him, the faint smile he forced onto his face looked painfully stiff and unnatural.
"Oh, really? But... why does it seem like I can smell the faint scent of a lie in the air?"
The footsteps stopped abruptly.
Before Enhela could even feel relieved, the next words sent a chill through his entire body.
Without warning, a deep purple Crack suddenly appeared.
Enhela immediately stepped backward, intending to escape this dangerous place.
There was something wrong with this guy. Very wrong.
He had to retreat first and decide what to do next afterward.
Just as he was about to disappear into the Crack, a chilling voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
"Are you really that eager to leave? That's rather impolite, you know~"
At the sound of the voice behind him, Enhela felt his entire body stiffen as though it had instantly been covered in frost.
Even more unbelievable was that the Crack, which should have appeared directly behind him, suddenly blurred and shifted half a body length to his left.
With his body rigid and the unexpected change catching him completely off guard, Enhela had no time to adjust.
With a dull thud, he crashed heavily to the ground, sending dust billowing into the air.
His previously pristine mage's robe was inevitably smeared with dirty mud, leaving him looking exceptionally disheveled and ridiculous.
"What's going on... This is absolutely impossible... Divine Right... Divine Right actually...?!"
Enhela stared in utter disbelief.
Why?
Why had its position suddenly shifted?
This was the supreme power bestowed upon him by the God. How could it possibly make a mistake!?
Faced with this undeniable reality, Enhela seemed to have had his Soul ripped from his body as he sank into profound self-doubt.
He looked like a fanatic whose faith had just been shaken to its core, driving him to the brink of madness.
"The world is full of variables and unknowns. Nothing is truly impossible."
"For example, you might suddenly drop dead without warning in the very next second. The odds may be extremely low, but they're certainly not zero."
Naohara walked up to Enhela and explained in a calm, leisurely tone.
"No! It's all because of you! If you didn't exist, Divine Right wouldn't have gone wrong! You heretic!"
The moment he heard those words, Enhela exploded like a powder keg touched by flame.
He abruptly raised his head, undisguised murderous intent flashing sharply in his eyes.
Then Enhela charged straight at Naohara, intending to use the power of Divine Right to erase him.
"You'd better not touch me."
The instant Naohara finished speaking, Enhela's movements stopped.
Then both of his hands suddenly clamped around his own throat.
"Breathe... breathe..."
Enhela let out a muffled, barely intelligible sound.
Breathing became increasingly difficult. His lungs began to ache, as though a ball of fire were burning inside his body.
His strength steadily drained away, and his consciousness began to blur.
His eyes, once clearly black and white, had turned a terrifying blood-red, as though blood might seep from them at any moment.
His exposed skin took on a faint purple hue. The sight was horrifying as he collapsed to the ground and convulsed uncontrollably.
He tried to call upon Divine Right, but he could no longer concentrate.
One minute, two minutes, ten minutes...
His struggles became more and more violent until, at a certain point, they stopped completely.
"I already warned you to stop..."
Naohara remained expressionless.
Catastrophe knew no justice, nor did it distinguish between good and evil.
The probability of dying from inhaling pure oxygen was extremely low, but it was not zero.
Catastrophe could turn any seemingly coincidental event into an inevitable outcome.
The torrent of the World Disaster was like an endlessly surging river, omnipresent and seeping into every opening.
No matter where one went, there was no escaping its onslaught.
And this was... the Way of Catastrophe~
"I don't know you, but I can sense that the world's malice has always lingered around you."
To transcend Catastrophe, one had to stand alone in opposition to the world and resist the world's malice with one's own strength.
Unfortunately, Enhela had not reached that level.
Judging his strength by how long it had taken him to die, this guy was roughly around the level of a high-tier area boss.
Everything currently happening in the Roble Holy Kingdom was this guy's doing.
Time seemed to have been ruthlessly severed by an invisible blade, trapping everything within an endless repetition of yesterday.
If a tiny crack had not appeared in that strange cycle for a fleeting instant, allowing time to briefly cross over into tomorrow and the distress Message to be successfully sent...
Even Naohara might have had difficulty noticing the abnormality here.
His mental form had already perished. The Platinum Dragon Lord and the White Dragon Lord were both dead as well. Even the Demihumans and humans of the Roble Holy Kingdom had been wiped out without exception.
Across this land, aside from the hideous monsters that had descended upon it, only a handful of corrupted humans and Demihumans who had lost their sanity still wandered about.
Oh, there was also one guy still alive underground, and there were some unusual spatial fluctuations as well.
"The Soul fragments are still here. It'll be troublesome, but at least Resurrection is still possible."
With a thought, Naohara mobilized the torrent of Catastrophe and sent it sweeping toward every corner of the Roble Holy Kingdom.
Wherever it passed, everything in its path was completely scoured away beneath the overwhelming force of the torrent.
Naohara lowered his gaze toward Enhela at his feet.
The body that had been utterly devoid of life moments before was now faintly emitting a weak trace of vitality.
A Resurrection item? Or magic?
No, that wasn't it.
If either were responsible, there would inevitably have been some sign or residual energy fluctuation.
Could it be... that he had revived through some special ability of his own?
Hadn't he mentioned something called Divine Right earlier?
Naohara shook his head and decided not to investigate the matter any further. It would be far more convenient to simply share memories once his avatar was revived.
Since Enhela had come back to life, he might as well make some use of him.
"Cough..."
Enhela's consciousness awakened once more, but in the very next instant, a dragon claw mercilessly seized him by the throat and lifted him high into the air.
The claws were sharp and vicious, piercing his blood-red skin as though they could crush his throat with ease, sending a surge of intense pain through him.
Enhela tried to struggle, but it was useless. He could only hang helplessly in midair.
"Offer up your Soul and your Life."
A deep voice sounded beside his ear.
Black flames ignited, engulfing his entire body in an instant and beginning to refine him without pause.
[Wild Magic: One's Own Life Reincarnation]
In an instant, countless pale-red motes of light flew from Enhela's body and streamed along the arm toward Naohara like a swarm of red fireflies.
***
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