Cid did everything he could to replay every miserable experience from his previous life up to now in his mind, forcing himself back into the state he had been in at those moments.
The first time in his previous life when he learned supernatural powers did not exist in reality... being thrown to the ground again and again by his martial arts master... going an entire year without seeing his biological parents even once... parting without hesitation from the childhood friend he had grown up with.
Cid set down the card in his hand. His eyes were filled with sorrow that seemed ready to overflow, and those flickering pitch-black eyes tugged at Sayaka Kirasaka's beating heart, as if her very soul were being drawn into them.
"Why... why are you so sad?"
As if infected by that sorrow, Sayaka Kirasaka felt those words leave her mouth beyond her control.
"I merely pity another soul that has fallen into darkness."
Maintaining his sorrowful expression, Cid quietly glanced at Sayaka Kirasaka. He had not expected her to be so helpful. The line she had given him fit the mood perfectly.
"Come. Let me show you the deepest darkness in this world."
Only when she heard Cid's voice did Sayaka Kirasaka snap out of her daze. She had many questions she wanted to ask, but seeing that Cid had already put down the paper and walked out, she looked around and chose to follow him.
"You made a wise choice."
Cid strode openly down the corridor. Sensing Sayaka Kirasaka following behind him, he glanced at her and snapped his fingers. The optical barrier behind them vanished, and the huge hole in the wall returned to normal.
Of course, it had only been restored on the surface. It was basically a painting on the wall. Whether anyone discovered it would depend on when someone came to open the door.
"What did you mean by what you said earlier?"
Noticing the movement behind her, Sayaka Kirasaka glanced back, then looked at Cid.
"Exactly what it sounded like."
Seeing that Cid did not want to say much about the person called Tosca, and recalling the deep sorrow he had shown just now, Sayaka Kirasaka felt as if she understood.
Ever since she discovered Cid's terrifying hidden strength last time, Sayaka Kirasaka had been curious about his true identity.
After returning, she had secretly investigated it. The being that had appeared before them back then was Grendel, the legendary Evil Dragon from myth, and currently a member of the Khaos Brigade's Evil Dragon Legion. By the power standards commonly used in the world now, that meant at least SS-rank, already surpassing most Gods from mythology.
And Cid, who had briefly fought against such a terrifying existence and even escaped from it, did not look like the ordinary, unremarkable descendant of a third-rate noble family that her investigation had turned up.
Later, based on the information she had obtained from that leopard Therianthrope and the knights of the Cult of Diablos, along with what she knew about the world Cid came from, Sayaka Kirasaka had already formed a rough idea of Cid's identity.
The real questions now were why Cid had appeared here, and which faction he meant by the deepest darkness in the world.
Please forgive her limited ability. The man in front of her was just too damn cryptic. His attitude practically screamed that if she knew too much, he would kill her, which made her feel like Cid was an enemy.
Once he realized she knew nothing about this place, he decided to spare her. When she said she wanted to stay and continue investigating, he did not turn hostile. Instead, like the sort of villain who died from talking too much, he told her to follow him.
Then, right in front of her, he had said the name of someone she knew nothing about with deep sorrow, and for some reason, her brain had short-circuited and made her sympathize with him.
For example, if this world were a storybook, then the role Cid was playing right now would be the sort of character who sometimes switched sides to help the protagonist group, while also having a deep connection to an evil force and preparing an excuse for his eventual redemption in advance... Sayaka Kirasaka had no idea how to describe that kind of character.
He hid his strength, spoke in riddles every time he opened his mouth, and bullied people with his power. Yukina, what exactly did you see in this man?
Damn it. She really wanted to beat him to his knees right now, make him shut that mouth that kept speaking in riddles, and force him to tell her everything he knew!
She knew he was sad, but could he at least tell her who the person called Tosca, the one taken from that room, actually was? If he was a friend, then why did he say he "merely" felt "pity"? If Tosca was a stranger he sympathized with, then that much sorrow did not fit either. When she asked, he said it meant exactly what it sounded like. Was he being stubborn and tsundere, or was he grieving for all living things? Could he at least say it clearly? Who was supposed to understand if he refused to explain?
Her mind was filled with frantic complaints. In the short span of a few minutes, Sayaka Kirasaka had already beaten Cid up hundreds of times in her imagination.
"Achoo. Hmm?"
Cid suddenly sneezed and instinctively glanced behind him at Sayaka Kirasaka, whose body instantly stiffened under his gaze.
Cid tilted his head in confusion and opened his mouth as if to say something, but after a brief moment of thought, he sighed and gave up.
"What did you find earlier?"
His heavy voice placed enormous pressure on Sayaka Kirasaka. After thinking it over again and again, she carefully spoke.
"Traces of what appear to be... Demon Possession experiments."
"That's all?"
"What do you mean, that's all?! This is an act of colluding with the enemy that every faction has explicitly forbidden. Whether openly or in secret, once someone is discovered doing this, every faction will attack them. No matter how high their status is, no one can survive a crime like that."
"Haha... haha... haha..."
Cid laughed awkwardly as he recalled the time before the worlds fused, back when Demon Possession was still just Demon Possession, and the inhumane experiments he had performed on Alpha while she was still a lump of flesh.
"So, you think this is evil?"
Cid asked in a puzzled tone, feeling that he needed to pass judgment on this Fallen Angel base.
"If this isn't evil, then I can't think of anything that deserves to be called evil."
"Fine, fine. Then let me ask you this. If this really is an evil research base, how do you plan to deal with it?"
As he listened to Sayaka Kirasaka's answer, the corners of Cid's mouth lifted. Although he had heard some rather significant information, he continued asking.
"Of course, I'll report it to my superiors, then cooperate with the Witch of the Void, who drove the entire Lion King Organization out of Itogami Island. We'll try to complete all procedures within two days and destroy this evil base."
Sayaka Kirasaka said it as if it were only natural, not yet realizing what information she had unconsciously let slip.
One piece of bad news. The money Vali owed him might not be made up here. Vali would still owe him the value of one-tenth of the collection he had his eye on.
One piece of good news. There was a base belonging to an evil organization right in front of him, and he could empty the entire place by robbing the robbers.
Not only that, but with Japan's awful efficiency and endless bureaucratic wrangling, he could freely dump the blame onto this base. All he had to do was kill every insider when the time came.
Hell yes! Watch him start editing the setting!
Thinking of how he was about to obtain a top-tier base he could freely play with, a delighted smile appeared on Cid's face beyond his control.
However...
"Drove the entire Lion King Organization out? That sounds like the organization you and Yukina mentioned before... You were driven out by Natsuki-chan!"
Because of his surprise, Cid's cold and merciless voice, which he had maintained ever since appearing before Sayaka Kirasaka, wavered slightly.
"...You didn't know?!"
Sayaka Kirasaka was even more shocked. She had never expected Cid not to know about this. In her surprise, she even forgot her current dangerous situation and cried out instinctively.
"Do you remember how many slices of bread you've eaten?"
"...Yukina was driven out too."
"Eh!"
Come to think of it, he really had not seen Yukina Himeragi much these past few days... Damn it, his character setting was falling apart.
"Don't tell me you seriously didn't notice Yukina had left."
"..."
"Don't just go silent!"
"...Enough. We're here. Take a good look at this world, at the darkness born from the human heart."
Cid smelled a thick scent of blood. He casually pulled open the door beside him, blinked at the experimental scene before him, then calmly pointed at the bloody, brutal sight ahead and spoke.
"They... Are they all... urgh..."
"That's right. They're all dead."
The entire room was filled with grotesque, semi-humanoid corpses that looked more like aberrant lifeforms than people. The blood on their bodies had yet to dry, painting the room like the aftermath of a massacre.
Interesting... cloned beasts?
Unlike Sayaka Kirasaka, who was frozen in shock, Cid noticed that although the bodies scattered across the floor had been torn to pieces, even if they were reassembled exactly as they had been, there would barely be a few brains among them, let alone normal ones.
No, not cloned beasts. They felt... more like some kind of cloned filth.
Cid instinctively switched his field of vision, then froze. He realized that the bodies lying on the floor showed no traces of ever having possessed souls.
They were only clones... After wandering around for several years, there was no way Cid had never seen clones before. But a body with absolutely no trace of a soul having existed inside it was something he had truly never encountered.
Even if the body was defective and had genetic issues, that would at most result in an incomplete soul being born. But no trace of a soul at all... It felt like some kind of top-tier filth, something so ominous that the entire world itself wanted nothing to do with it.
Wait, what is this ecosystem?
Cid switched to another perspective, and the moment his sight entered the ecosystems of those bodies, he was stunned.
He did not understand it completely, but anyone with eyes could tell something was wrong when three ecosystems that clearly did not belong to the same world had been stitched together.
Three of them! Cid's own body evolving a unique Tree of Life could already be called a miracle. One Tree of Life, under normal circumstances, was enough for a world to use from birth until destruction.
Among the separate Trees of Life Cid knew of that differed from this world's, his own counted as one. The original form of Demon Possession might be one as well. As for the other world... he had not observed it carefully, but there should be one there too.
"Although I expected this, I still can't help but sigh. Fallen Angels. Those who indulge in desire without restraint are doomed to be devoured by desire."
Speaking as if he had anticipated everything, Cid shook his head with a sigh. He pulled Sayaka Kirasaka, who was nearly nauseous from the bloody sight, and continued walking with a calm expression.
"Were all of those... done by the Fallen Angels?"
As they walked down the corridor, an angry voice came from beside him. Considering that he had followed a Fallen Angel here, and that the Fallen Angels were definitely involved somehow, Cid nodded, but still gave her a warning first.
"I don't know. The forces here are far too tangled together. I'm not sure who that place belonged to."
"What other forces are here?"
"You want to know?"
"Yes."
"Let me think. Aside from the Fallen Angels, there's the Khaos Brigade under the Infinite Dragon God, Shadow Garden led by Shadow, and the Cult of Diablos."
"Shadow Garden led by Shadow and the Cult of Diablos?!"
Since Sayaka Kirasaka had cried out in surprise, Cid naturally took her words as a question.
"Yes. They are the two most mysterious forces in the world."
Cid suppressed the corner of his mouth before it could rise out of control. He was not surprised by Sayaka Kirasaka's shock. The Khaos Brigade was currently the world's scapegoat, while Shadow and the Cult of Diablos were his own original settings.
While Cid was getting excited, Sayaka Kirasaka's gaze sharpened as she looked at him. Now, whether the man in front of her belonged to Shadow Garden or the Cult of Diablos seemed about to be revealed.
"Knowing too much may get you killed. Are you sure you want to know?"
"I'm sure."
"Heh. Fool."
Cid laughed coldly.
Sorry, Eta. Let me borrow your character setting for a bit.
"The Cult of Diablos. In my world, they were once the hidden rulers controlling the world from the shadows. But the passage of long years left them rotten. If nothing unexpected had happened, they would have been replaced by the new overlord, Shadow Garden led by Shadow."
He's from Shadow Garden!
"Unfortunately, they were still a thousand-year colossus. The world fusion awakened them, and they were reborn from the ashes with new vitality. The evil Shadow Garden could only barely hold on until, in the end, due to a series of events, both sides formed a peculiar tacit understanding."
He's from the Cult of Diablos!
"And this place was created when the evil mad scientists of Shadow Garden and the benevolent scientists of the Cult of Diablos worked together to lure in the Fallen Angels."
"Then, it attracted the Khaos Brigade while they were still immature, and the despicable Khaos Brigade secretly took control of this base.
"The result is what you see now. This base has already become a three-way standoff."
Damn it, which side are you even on? You dragged three forces through the mud in just a few sentences.
"Wait, that's not a three-way standoff. The Khaos Brigade, Shadow Garden, the Cult of Diablos, and the Fallen Angels. That's four sides, isn't it?"
Cid's expression stiffened slightly. Only after Sayaka Kirasaka pointed it out did he realize he had spoken too smoothly.
"The Fallen Angels? They're just pieces used by the three forces. Their ambition doesn't match their ability, so they're destined to become clowns on the stage. How amusing. The original flag-bearers became chess pieces instead."
It did not matter. As the director, his authority was unlimited. Watch him eat his own setting.
"Then what about you?"
"Me?"
Cid met Sayaka Kirasaka's eyes and blinked. Come to think of it, he really had not given himself any particular setting.
"The leader of Shadow Garden, the Khaos Brigade branch of the Cult of Diablos. Shadow. Pfft, just pretend you heard something real."
"..."
"You didn't actually believe that, did you?"