Omnipresent.

The god who had taken the form of a crow looked like he had been utterly wrecked by someone.

“Omni!” Athanasia called his name as she grabbed hold of the crow, “W-What happened to you?!”

“…”

“Are you… dead?!”

“…Not quite.”

The crow, Omni, finally opened his beak.

“I’m… not dead… yet.”

Trembling, Omni glanced around with unfocused eyes.

“Where… is this?”

“This is the royal castle of Yaphenon.”

“Yaphenon’s royal castle…?”

“Yeah.”

Athanasia stared at him with a dazed expression.

“You usually know exactly where you are. What the hell happened to you?”

“Were we ever close enough to have such chats?”

Omni responded coldly, shaking off her hands as he flapped his wings and freed himself from her grip.

“Whatever the case, I need to go back. I have work to do.”

“Wait.” This time it was Clay who cut in, “You’re Omnipresent, Omni?”

“Hm? Yes. And you are…”

Omni flinched.

“…The Demon King.”

“So you recognize me right away.”

As one who existed everywhere, Omnipresent could theoretically possess knowledge of nearly everything in the world. Clay was curious how much he actually knew.

“They say you know almost everything in this world. Is that true?”

“No.” Omni denied it outright, “I only learn and remember what I personally want to know.”

“…That’s flattering.”

That meant the only reason Omni knew anything about Clay was because he chose to take an interest. Clay asked quietly,

“Before we get into what I really want to ask—what happened to you? You weren’t sealed, so did something happen with Lutan?”

“You’re… very direct.”

Omni stood, still wobbling as he got to his feet.

“I could avoid being sealed because I can exist anywhere I want. But I still couldn’t heal from Elhaim’s attacks. I’m no longer able to exist in multiple places at once, so I’ve been hiding in the safest spot.”

“The Akashic Record’s Main Hall, I assume.”

“Correct. And I didn’t end up like this because of your enemy Lutan.” Omni shook his head, as if to correct Clay, “It was Yuru.”

“!”

“That damned mage is the one who did this.”

Omni shivered as he let out a long sigh.

“She caught me, saying she wanted to get to the Main Hall of the Akashic Record. I granted her wish, and she immediately tried to kill me. Looked like she wanted to make sure no one could ever access that place again.”

“How did you even come across Yuru?”

Any curiosity Clay had felt about the ancient god dissipated the moment that name was mentioned. He focused entirely on the new thread of information.

“I’m not sure you’re going to like this story.”

“Doesn’t matter. Tell me.”

“…Yelena.”

At that name, Clay’s body jolted.

“Yelena?”

“I had some business with her corpse.” Omni replied casually, “To continue existing, I need to consume power derived from others’ essence. But I can’t kill the living, so I feed on lingering traces left behind by the dead. Elf corpses usually retain a lot of residual presence—they’re rich with essence.”

“Did you eat her soul?” Clay’s eyes glinted with murderous rage, “If you did, you’ll die here.”

“Calm down, Demon King.” Omni raised both wings in a gesture of pacification, “I only take enough to sustain myself. Besides, it has nothing to do with souls. What I feed on is strictly the force that allows a body to maintain form. Souls don’t vanish like physical bodies—they’re not even useful to me.”

“…”

“Still… it’s strange. You treat your former comrades like enemies, yet you react so sensitively to the idea that one’s soul might have vanished.”

“There’s nothing strange about it.” This time, Syltanaro answered in Clay’s stead, “His Majesty has no intention of forgiving the choices made by his former companions in this life. Reincarnated souls are no longer the same entities—they are not the objects of his hatred.”

“You seem to know him well. Must’ve heard a lot through resonance.”

“Yes.”

“But I can’t agree that there’s ‘nothing strange’ about it.”

Omni fixed his gaze on Clay.

“Can you really say your hatred stops there?”

“Omni.” Clay looked at him coldly, “Do not overstep.”

Clay had never granted him permission to ask such things.

“I simply choose the course that suits me best.”

A person’s heart did not exist in just one form. Resentment, regret, pain—they could all coexist.

“My choices are balanced.”

He chose only to express the emotions he could bear—without collapsing into ruin.

“Whatever confusion you feel is nothing compared to the chaos I must carry.”

“…Impressive.” Omni sounded genuinely impressed, “You’re not even fazed before an ancient god. Well, I suppose that’s to be expected—after all, you subdued Athanasia and Vald. Maybe you don’t even regard me as a god.”

“I do consider you a god,” Clay replied, “You know what I don’t. That alone makes you a god.”

“For someone wanting my help, you sure are harsh.”

“If you don’t want to help me, help Athanasia. You two seem to have some sort of agreement between you.”

Athanasia and Omni locked eyes. Omni shrugged his wings.

“Did we ever have such a deal?”

“You’re seriously going to pretend you don’t know?”

“Relax. I’m just joking.”

Omni flapped his wings, as if to ease the sharp tension hanging in the air.

“Come now, let’s all calm down. I’m just a crow who scrounges up leftover traces of existence. I have no desire whatsoever to fight you people. If anything, I was planning to say hello eventually, since being near you would mean more scraps to feed on.”

“It seems we don’t have the luxury for that anymore,” said Syltanaro.

“If Yuru has entered the Akashic Record’s Main Hall, that’s serious.”

She turned toward Clay, visibly concerned.

“She’s the Blue Tower Master, a mage thoroughly trained in extracting knowledge from books. If left alone, she may become far too powerful to deal with using the information stored there.”

“I agree,” Athanasia said gravely.

“The fact that she immediately demanded access to the Main Hall when she saw Omni must mean she had a purpose. If she grows stronger than she is now… we may not be able to stop her.”

“…”

Clay ran a hand over his face. He had only wanted to solve his own problem, but something far worse had flared up in its place.

It left a bitter taste in his mouth, but there was only one choice he could make.

“Fine, Omni. We need to enter the Akashic Record’s Main Hall as well. Is it possible?”

“Getting straight to the point, huh, Demon King?” Omni pointed at his own head with one wing, “Normally, yes. But Yuru took my medium.”

“What?!” Athanasia shouted, “Don’t tell me—the Halo?!”

“Yeah. That Halo. My power storage.”

Omni had been storing his essence in the Halo. The key needed to access the Akashic Record’s Main Hall was also in there.

Yuru had taken it to keep anyone else from entering.

“Without it, I can’t go back either.”

“Oh, for the love of—” Athanasia clutched her head in frustration, “Absolutely useless at a crucial time!”

“What?!”

“All that groveling I had to do to summon you, and now this?! Damn useless crow!”

“I never asked you to do any of that, you know?”

“You want to die today?!”

As the two bickered, Clay silently opened and closed his eyes.

“…Enough.”

Such petty arguments would only waste time.

“Omni, can you recreate the Halo? And everything that was inside it?”

“Recreate it?”

Omni immediately reacted, then wore a pensive look.

“Recreating it isn’t impossible… if you’re willing to sacrifice a few hundred thousand lives.”

“…”

“No, no! Don’t actually do that!”

Omni quickly raised both wings.

“Besides, there’s still another way to access the Main Hall without the Halo. I figured something like this might happen, so I made a backdoor.”

“…A backdoor?”

“Yeah, I know it’s not the most dignified term for a god, but you’ll find it useful. Either way, it’ll get you inside.”

Omni then adopted a serious tone.

“But what do you plan to do once you run into Yuru? She’s someone no one can stop right now. If it comes to a fight, we’ll all die—except you.”

“I understand. Just guide me there.”

Clay clenched his fist.

“I’ll go in alone and handle it myself. I can at least bring my weapon, Syltanaro, right?”

“…You’re serious?”

“I don’t deal in empty words.”

Without hesitation, he gave the order.

“So take me there. Now.”

♧

Akashic Record

A space where the knowledge of the world resides.

Rustle—

In the place known as the Main Hall, rows upon rows of towering bookshelves filled the space. Atop a pile of books she had pulled down, a blue-haired mage was engrossed in her search.

‘Where is it…’

Yuru, Grand Mage of the Blue Tower.

She was searching for anything related to memory erasure—a spell said to have been used at least once in the past.

She didn’t know if it was true. But to her, it was essential.

‘If I can just find that, I can get my brother back.’

Clay had become a different person before and after his execution. The simplest way to bring him back was to erase everything that happened afterward.

Of course, truly undoing what had happened was impossible. So instead, she intended to erase those memories from Clay alone.

Swipe—

But unlike spells that simply muddle the mind, magic that erased specific sections of memory was of a different caliber entirely. Even here, in this vault of critical knowledge, Yuru struggled to find what she needed.

“Hm?”

Then, something caught her eye.

“This is…”

It was about memory erasure.

But—

‘This doesn’t erase someone else’s memory…’

It was a method for erasing one’s own memory.

Yuru gritted her teeth.

‘This isn’t what I need right now.’

Still, almost unconsciously, she tore that page out and slipped it into her pocket. Then she went back to combing through more records.

Before she knew it, she’d started absorbing knowledge of powerful magic she herself had never possessed.

It was a tremendous gain—yet she wasn’t satisfied.

“Co…Existence?”

Then she found something strange.

“A body that can wield both holy power and magia at once…”

Her lips curled into a delighted smile.

“Oh, see? This really is fate.”

She had just found another gift to give her precious Clay.

“—Hey!”

It was then that the crow she had thrown out earlier—Omni—returned and extended his wing toward her.

And then—

“…Brother?”

Clay’s figure entered her field of vision.

(End of Chapter)

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