“You hold their legs and put cloth in their mouths.”

“Ahhh, please stop... not that, anything but that... goddess! Losing my legs—”

“I’m sorry. It’s to save your life. I’m forcing something cruel on you...”

Then, almost cruelly, she said it lightly and without hesitation and held it over the torch.

“I-if you’re a god, then why won’t you use ‘divine power’... My injury and this whole fight too! It could end!”

If gods were truly transcendent, they could end this war with a flick of a finger.

“If I use ‘divine power,’ another evil god will immediately use power too and that will bring collapse and if an exchange of ‘divine power’ begins, the Lower World will become something irreparable. It will stop being your story… More than that, the dungeon will not wait for the ‘promised time’ and will break the covenant...”

At the goddess’s state.

The man biting down on cloth with shaking hands asked in confusion, “...Lady Artemis?”

Artemis immediately shook her head, then spoke with renewed resolve.

“Please endure it. I will never forget the blood I take from you.”

* * *

“I can hear it...”

While entrusting himself to overwhelming evil.

‘Evil’ whispered quietly.

“Sound?”

“What do you hear, my lord?”

Vito asked from his place at his side.

A vast underground space.

With dark apostles packed together and countless pillars lined up inside an underground drainage channel, the evil god rose from his chair.

“The sound of struggling.”

With a smile on his lips, Erebus murmured.

“The sound of ‘justice’ writhing like insects so it won’t be crushed.”

* * *

The darkness is soaked in a damp, nasty heat.

What writhes are madmen who worship evil.

Those who brought despair to the world, those who carry hatred, those who wish to reunite with someone stolen by death, a feast of many motives and how ugly and ridiculous it is.

Seven Days of Death, day four.

The dark faction’s familia members couldn’t hide their excitement.

After the Great Feud, after the commemorative day they defeated Orario’s adventurers, time passed and at last the ‘symbol of evil’ they guided showed itself and was about to let them hear its voice.

“Yes, that’s right. This is the sound of those who resist ‘evil.’”

At the upper entrance of the underground waterway.

Jutting out like a balcony, Erebus looked down at the soldiers gathered below, speaking as if for Vito beside him to hear.

“After tasting that much despair, they still haven’t broken. As expected of Orario, the ‘promised land.’ They’re truly tenacious.”

Compared to the beginning, they had lost a great number of leaders, Valletta, Zald and others.

“Even after the former guardian, the symbol of the strongest, turned against them, adventurers still won’t let go of their swords and the good gods trying to support them. Even under dark clouds where the stars have vanished, people still seek light. If we don’t call them ‘heroes,’ what do we call it?”

“Who cares. Hero or mighty warrior, they’re powerless before an evil god’s planning.”

Alfia said it from where she sat quietly at his side.

That was an unmistakable fact and it was praise.

“But... why did Zald die? Are you saying there was someone even greater in Orario?”

Alfia, who had an idea who it was, didn’t say the answer out loud.

Because it could become dangerous if that person was targeted.

Alfia was concerned about that boy.

She wanted to keep him from walking a dangerous path as much as possible.

So she didn’t say it.

When Alfia’s expressionless face made it impossible to tell what she was thinking, some were driven to irritation.

Olivas, an executive, shook his old-man white hair and stepped up toward Erebus.

“How can you be this relaxed... Orario is weakening! Isn’t now our chance! We should press them while their wounds haven’t healed, Erebus!”

“No rushing. The longer time passes, the more Orario is at a disadvantage. Have you forgotten that explanation?”

There was no need for a spokesperson.

Erebus said it with exasperation swelling inside him.

“Even so, the plan’s ‘second stage’ is right around the corner.”

“Wait until then.”

“...B-but we have enemies besides Orario too! The world that wants the Three Great Quests completed won’t accept Orario’s collapse!”

With his face twisted by anger, Olivas argued back.

Orario drew attention from all over the Lower World for better or worse.

No one but the dark faction wanted the Labyrinth City, the ‘lid’ of the dungeon, to collapse.

“Even if merchants are on our side, it’s only some of them! If neighboring countries send reinforcements, they might break through the siege net around the city—”

“And why do you think we increased ‘believers’ outside the city? In other promising nations and cities, ‘simultaneous uprisings’ are happening by now.”

Vito brushed away Olivas' concern as needless worry.

“They’re too busy putting out the fire at their own feet. At least countries with powerful ‘world influence’ cannot move.”

To overthrow Orario, the dark faction had used every means until now.

Outside the city, extreme ‘proselytizing,’ increasing believers in huge numbers, was part of the plan.

Not just communities near Orario but great powers like the Empire were confirmed to be falling into chained conflicts since the Great Feud.

They even distributed suicide devices to soldiers with no power to fight and scenes similar to Orario were spreading everywhere.

Even if they tried to suppress it, other factions with less strength than Orario would only waste time.

Unable to hide his irritation, Olivas trembled and tried to raise his voice.

But.

“Olivas. What do you think ‘evil’ is?”

Erebus asked.

“W-what?”

At the sudden question, Olivas froze, flustered.

Erebus stared at the apostles below, exposing his back as he gazed into empty darkness.

“Is it doing nothing but cruelty? Is it being brutal?”

“...”

“I think it’s a little different. Those are methods, not the essence.”

The god who governed the Underworld, the ‘Primordial Nether,’ laid out his own theory about ‘evil,’ something not included in his own authority.

“‘Evil’ is being hated.”

“Being hated?”

At the side profile of his hair and the lifted corners of his mouth, Olivas unknowingly broke into a cold sweat.

Alfia of course and Vito as well, kept their mouths shut.

“And ‘absolute evil’ is ending all existence. Life, society, civilization, even time. A thing that returns everything built up until now to nothing. Judgment and extermination, or an evil god who laughs as he tips the scales of survival. That is ‘absolute evil.’ Don’t be like good people who pile up virtue, committing petty little evils. Instead of a small citizen’s ‘evil,’ sing of the ultimate ‘evil.’ Because as an evil god, I declared ‘absolute evil.’ If you do it, do it completely. And the time isn’t now. I ask you wise ones to understand.”

No cheers came.

The dark faction members felt their spines go cold and stared up at the evil god.

“Now then, Vito, come with me. We’re going outside.”

“...Seriously, there’s no connection at all to what you just said. Being your familia member is exhausting.”

Vito complained as if nagging.

A god’s driving logic was no different from a moody cat.

Then Erebus left that space with Vito.

“Acting like the naked king makes my shoulders stiff, Vito.”

* * *

Morning in the city.

Compared to recent days, he looked up at the thinning gray sky without any particular focus and inhaled deeply.

“What are you talking about?”

“After causing that much ‘tragedy,’ it makes my spine freeze beyond words sarcasm can explain.”

Vito looked exasperated but when you looked closely, he opened his thread-thin eyes and smiled.

“A ‘tyrant’ who mistakes himself for the naked king is the worst to deal with, isn’t he?”

“Oh, interesting metaphor. Next time I become a woman, I’ll use that bit. A tyrant on the bed, the naked king! Just kidding, hahahaha!”

“...”

“Don’t make that face like ‘wow this god is so unfunny,’ my familia member. You’ll hurt my feelings, you know?”

At Erebus’s joke, Vito could only hold his face in place.

It was a strange feeling.

This was an evil god who was destroying the Labyrinth City and yet Erebus had an easy familiarity to him.

That was the ‘face’ he often showed in front of Vito.

Before the Great Feud, he had called himself a saint named Eren.

But that didn’t matter.

Gods are gods even if they are contradictory and broken.

“I’ll try...”

The laissez-faire god kept walking carefree.

Then.

“Dark faction! And... the evil god Erebus!”

They were spotted by adventurers patrolling in a squad.

“R-reinforcements! Call reinforcements! Tell the ‘Hero’ we found the enemy leader!”

As the adventurers drew their swords and turned frantic, Erebus stayed calmly annoying.

“Oops, we ran into them. Vito, I’m counting on you. I still want to enjoy my walk.”

“Good grief, you’re rough with your familia members too.”

“Complaining now is pointless, isn’t it.”

The red-haired familia member answered his master’s composure... no, his trust.

“Leave it to me, my lord. There will be no fuss.”

“Yes, yes. Just as you said, we’ll return everything to nothing.”

From there it was a one-sided slaughter.

Throats were torn, chests were gouged and blades were driven into the middle of faces.

Before the adventurers could even blink, a sea of blood spread out.

With a single swing of a dagger, he neutralized them, then tore them apart and trampled them without mercy.

“Hahahahaha! So fragile! As expected, at around level 2, they break so easily it’s unbearable!”

Vito laughed.

While ripping apart the adventurers scattering screams, he looked drunk on the blood he flung away.

“Is there no one who can accept my contradiction a little more!? I hate tormenting the weak and yet I love the sound of people crying out! My contradiction!”

And yet that face, those eyes.

The words ‘serial killer’ flashed through his mind and Vito shone like a pure child.

“You look happy as always, Vito.”

The fight ended.

Five corpses lay scattered around.

“Oh, excuse me. My lord.”

“I don’t mind. I don’t dislike you when you shine like a child while cutting people.”

When Erebus said that, Vito trembled and the shock rippled through his whole body.

“Fufu... fufufu. I hate the gods. You who created a world like this, a flawed terrarium like this… But you alone, who proclaims ‘absolute evil’ and would break this Lower World. I find you dear, god Erebus.”

A familia member’s twisted god-love.

Erebus replied lightly.

“Stop. I’ve decided if I’m going to sleep with someone, it’ll be a woman… Yeah, if I’m going to adore someone, it’s a top-class woman who’s strong-willed, proud and carries her will through.”

His bangs swayed over his eyes.

Erebus narrowed them.

“Now then—where are you, Lion?”

And.

“Hey, Lion—”

It wasn’t one shadow that turned around but two.

“—Or so I thought, it looks like I found different familia members.”

“Well, whatever.”

Not an elf but a human and a pallum stared at the evil god in shock.

Black clothes worn loose and jet-black hair.

At the shameless shrug of the being in front of them, Lyra and Kaguya frowned as waves of emotions rushed in.

“You...”

“Evil god Erebus—!”

Enjoying the girls’ anger, the evil god asked.

“I’m looking for Lion right now. If you know where she is, can you tell me? Lost apostle of justice.”

Northwest Orario.

Surrounded by crumbling buildings, Lyra and Kaguya faced off against Erebus and Vito.

“Lion’s location? Don’t know. We want to know too.”

“Even if we did know, we’d never answer. You lied well, god Eren.”

Their eyes and tone held anger.

Kaguya especially was right in the middle of it.

“I didn’t mean to lie. I just copied Hermes a little. But even that is tiring.”

Even with killing intent aimed at him, Erebus smiled as if enjoying himself, looking cool and calm.

“I respected my friend for the first time. There’s no way I could play the clown. Or did you like Eren more than the current me?”

In a flash, his atmosphere and speech changed completely.

“Hey, hey, sharp-tongued beautiful young ladies, don’t make that scary face. The clean and beautiful name of Astraea will cry, you know?”

“...”

The wording was that of a gentle playboy.

The smile on his lips was unmistakably the evil god’s.

The girls being toyed with clearly grew more irritated.

Thinking any more talk would let the god drag them into his pace, Lyra immediately tried to change the topic.

“Hey, god. Why are you targeting Lion? Even before the fight started, you’ve been sticking to her like glue.”