Another chapter!

I don't think anyone's surprised about this (and if you are, awesome!). I've dropped enough hints (I think) to imply this. But, well, here it is! Honestly, I had some trouble writing the first part, but that second half was really fun to write.

As usual, some notes (and spoilers) below:

-To that one Reviewer who predicted that this whole thing was about Alternate Universes; nice! You predicted like, half the plot lmao. Still hope you're still here even after so long. Do drop a review if you're here, yeah?

-For those who don't know, Yeshua is the Hebrew pronunciation of Jesus.

Anyway. Enough from me. Enjoy the chapter!


"Grandpa is evil." Gabriel bit out, adamantly staring at her bowl of gochujang. "The worst of the worst. I hate you."

"G-Gabby…"

"Hmph. Grandpa is the worst. Go die in a hole."

It took everything in Issei not to laugh at it all.

It'd been a couple hours since he and Gabriel awoke from their exhaustion, and Gabriel had immediately rushed to the kitchen before Jehovah could get a word in. The man had then turned to him, and driven by general annoyance and some amusement, he huffed and left the room to help with whatever Gabriel was planning.

They made some noodles from what Gabriel found in the fridge, and he couldn't help the slight laugh as he saw how Gabriel reduced Jehovah's portion. They returned an hour later, and now he had a front seat to this live show. It was incredibly gratifying to see the man's expression crumble with every rejection Gabriel spat out. He honestly wished he'd bought some popcorn. It would've been perfect for this occasion.

He slurped up some more noodles, and he thought. Gabriel was a god now. It was slight, but there was a slight air of oppression that surrounded her. It was similar to the weight Jehovah carried, and to the crushing he felt when he faced the Rot. She looked like one as well. She looked even more beautiful than she already was, the glimmering whites and blues of her hair was almost hypnotic to watch.

Or maybe it was just his new eye being weird.

[Eye of the Ancients]

Lvl 1/500 | 2%

The carcass of a beast that lived at the horizons of the universe. Its corpse has been defiled. Its eye is yours now. Use it, for good, for evil, for everything and nothing at all.

Increases sharpness of user's Sight by 2004%

Allows the user to distinguish lies from truth

Your Ego can now expand without limit

He'd thought it was only Gabriel that'd changed when they glanced upon the unfathomable beast that strove through the cracked sky. He was wrong. When he was washing a plate just an hour before, he'd caught sight of his eye in the waters. And what he'd seen had shocked him still.

His eye, once a dull brown, had changed. It was an eerie glowing yellow surrounding a pupil too jagged and sharp to be human. It looked wrong, and staring at his own reflection made something in his gut queasy.

And more than that-

Age: 18 (?) | Race: Human (?)

There was that. He was no longer human. It didn't matter that his Race still told him so, that his body still looked like one. He knew it. Something inside him knew it. He was no longer a human.

It didn't scare him as it once did. When he'd seen that he could change his Race, the excitement had been followed by existential dread and fear. But now, after seeing what people lived and those I've met, being Human no longer sounds as special. Because at the end of the day, he was still alive. His Humanity would remain. That was more than enough.

That, and it was another thing he had in common with his mom. So that was nice.


[You have undergone a great ordeal. +3 Strength, +1 Vitality]

[You have undergone a great ordeal. +3 Strength, +1 Vitality]

He softly whispered every curse he knew in Ancient Demonic. For a language created by demons, there was a startlingly small number of curses.

It'd been two days since his dive into the Archive Cube. Not much had happened since then. Gabriel was still getting used to her new stature as a god, and Jehovah was preparing something in a workshop he refused to speak about. It left Issei without much to do, and with too much time to spend.

He decided to exercise. He hadn't planned much about it. He'd only thought about jogging around Eden. It'd also give him the chance to finally explore the metropolis.

But Jehovah somehow heard of his plans, gave him some magical weights, and forced him to wear them as he went about his jog. He'd been fine when he first wore them. They were heavy, sure, but they weren't terribly cumbersome. He was somewhat confident that he could circle around Eden and not collapse in a pool of his own sweat.

He was wrong.

After an hour of running, he was wasted. Handling the weights and keeping his right leg flooded with mana was a harder task than he expected. The first time, Jehovah had to drag him back home after finding him collapsed on the side of some road. It was mortifying. But then he saw the gains he got to his Strength and Vitality, and like an addict he decided to use the weights again. And again. And again.

He interspersed it all with some reading of the mind-breaking fashion. Reading through Lemegeton was never a pleasant experience, but the shock of magic he received with every page deciphered was positively delightful. He did need to stop himself from time to time, lest he render himself lifeless as a vegetable.

He wasn't sure why he was pushing himself so hard. Even Jehovah had told him to slow down. But he didn't. He ran more. He read more. He did more.

Maybe it was a desire to stand together with the now-empowered Gabriel. He'd killed nearly 500 Eidolons, but she'd killed thousands. His attacks hurt, but a single tap of her spear could fracture entire buildings. Jehovah would know that very well. The girl had shattered an entire wall by accident. The building had barely survived. Jehovah had looked close to breaking into tears.

Maybe it was the need to catch up to his mom. Even now, resting on a patch of grass, he could see his mom's Attributes rising like there was no tomorrow. He didn't know how differently time flowed in the Sunset Upon the Fallen City, but it didn't matter. She was constantly improving, and he needed to put all he could if he wanted to make up for the time he'd lost.

Maybe it was a bit of both. Or maybe it was just the little monkey in his brain that just liked seeing numbers go up. Anything was possible.

He grimaced as he slowly pushed himself up. He snapped the rings of metal of his limbs, and he sighed in relief as the magical weights crashed into the dirt. He politely ignored the loud bang! that echoed from the impact.

It'd been four days since he came into this world. It felt like it'd been much longer than that. Still, he only had eleven days before he'd return back to the real world. It'd waste time, but he'd rather assure his friends that he was still alive and had simply adopted the whole disappearing-schtick his mom had popularized. And once he did, he'd come back to this world.

He idly rubbed his wrists. His hands stung a little, but he didn't mind. Better suffer now than later.

On that note, the Reward he'd gotten from clearing that Eidolon-infested Archive Cube-

[Crown of Withering Thorns]

An Archive Cube, created not from conscious hands, but through the collected grief of a billion eyes. It calls to you. Its weight feels familiar.

Find us. Come back to us.

Warning! When used, Issei Hyoudou will be unable to leave until the scenario ends.

Again. Another thing specifically for him. He was starting to feel like the System was leading him somewhere. No-, he'd already known that, he just refused to think further on it.

He stared at the black cube in his hands. It was smooth, unnaturally so. It was light as well, and if he closed his eyes, he could almost convince himself that he wasn't holding anything.

"Will time stop when I use this?"

[Query: …yes.]

He smiled slightly. "You sound reluctant." He chipped in. "Something wrong with this thing?" He gave the black box a nudge. "Some advice would be nice."

[Query: You're already beginning to lose yourself. If you used this, there's a chance that…]

He grimaced. "Ah," he said, and he stared at the black box with newfound caution. "Something related to the Otherworld Library, huh?" He asked. The System gave no response. "Right. I can see your angle." He laughed to himself. "I mean, I'm already beginning to sound like a psychopath at times."

[Query: I don't want to lose you.]

"Me neither." He tried to smile. "But I don't think we have the time. Jehovah's preparing something. He ain't telling me, but I can tell. And judging from how he reacted when I suggested that Lucifer was alive…" He shrugged. "Doesn't take much to guess what the old man's thinking."

He closed his eyes. "Hey," he turned to the floating panel—his companion from the start of this all. "If my mind starts spiralling, bring me back, yeah?"

[Query: I will.]

He took one last glance at the metropolis. There was no one around him. No one to see if his corpse returned to this world or whatever.

He closed his eyes.

Let's do this.

He crushed the black box. He felt the world spiral, and he flinched slightly as the world beneath him gave away. He didn't fall, kept suspended in some void he didn't dare open his eyes to see. Winds rushed past him. Mana brushed past his skin. Everything around him spun and spun beyond comprehension.

It all eventually settled, and he opened his eyes to find himself standing on a cliff of some kind. There were no plants around him. No trees, no flowers. Not even a small patch of grass. Nothing but cracked dirt that slowly ascended towards some jagged cliff he couldn't quite see just yet.

There was nothing around him. Nothing but a small trail of blood that led up the cliff.

The evidence began stacking up, and he could already feel himself wilting at just what it was that was probably waiting at the edge of the cliff.

He sighed. It was time to face the music.

He followed the trail of blood, somehow still liquid and fresh despite the desolation of the earth around him. He walked upwards, ascending the cliff that slowly seemed to grow steeper the further he went. And on his way he began encountering objects, strewn haphazardly around the place. Shreds of cloth, jagged rocks, an entire log of wood. All smothered in fresh blood.

Something inside him knew these things. Seemed rather fond of them, actually. He decided to listen for once.

He let the feelings drag him forward. There was apprehension in his chest, a worry only made worse from the words he shared with his System. But he didn't let them deter him. He knew what could happen once he reached the apex of this story. There was a chance he'd lose himself, let his Ego shatter and remade different.

He didn't let it stop him.

Eventually, on his trek up this cliff that never seemed to end, he came across something that made his stomach drop.

Three wooden crosses, propped up from the earth and completely covered in blood. Two of them had corpses hung from them, their features removed and their faces lacking any eyes and mouth. The one in the middle of the two was empty, the rope that a body would normally hang from cut and left to drift in the winds.

Ah, shit.

A Crown of Thorns, objects covered in blood, a cliff, three crosses. He knew these things. He'd read about this. He'd seen this illustrated before. He'd beeN hERe bEfOrE.

He took a breath. The edge of the cliff was close.

He kept walking. He came across more things, all covered in blood. But they appeared less and less now. The road became sparse, and soon it was just him and the trail of blood that led him onwards. The cliff had become nearly vertical by this point, but Exodus kept his feet glued to the earth as he walked upwards.

Then, the walk ended on a small plateau. He stepped onto it, and he found himself staring at the clear skies that greeted him. A sky colored a gentle orange-red by the setting sun, clear of any clouds or any rain. The colors of the sky were especially bright, unbothered and untainted by what pollution there was on Earth.

And there, standing on the opposite side of where he stood was a young man. The man's hair was a light brown, flowing down his back. He was garbed in a cloak of pure white cloth. There was an earring attached to his right ear, dangling and sparkling as the light of the sun fell on it.

"You're here." The man said, his voice soft yet rough. The man turned around. His face was shown. His left eye was closed, with a deep scar cutting right through the eyelid. His right eye was a disturbing, bright gold. Much like his own.

A golden eye met gold.

"I am." He said, pushing past the slowly building buzzing in his ear. "Who are you?"

The man cracked a small smile. "You already know, don't you?"

[You have glanced at one that has Transcended]

He'd seen that smile before. Saw it reflected back at him many times before.

Issei smiled back. "Yeah. I do." He said. "What should I call you though? I mean, it'll get confusing if I…you know."

The man hummed. "I think Yeshua would do."

[A cosmic Truth is attempting to enter the System]

[Your mind fractures heavily]

The buzzing grew exponentially. Issei winced, forcing his smile to remain as he felt blood trailing down his cheeks. "I'll take Issei, then." He said jokingly, his voice gravelly as he idly wiped a hand across his cheek. His knuckles were red with blood.

He could feel his left eye leaking with blood.

[Issei Hyoudou's Ego is fracturing]

"Don't worry. I have no desire to take that name from you." Yeshua said, his voice somehow clear despite the painful buzzing in his ears.

"Thanks. I like my name."

"That I know." Yeshua suddenly sighed, and his eye fell as a sad smile came onto his lips. "I know that too well. But alas, circumstances came, and I am who I am now."

Issei huffed. His head was hurting. He could feel his forehead being cut by something. Blood was pouring over his entire face. "That's rough." He said. He had some more words he wanted to say, but a sentence bubbled past them all. "But, it didn't work, did it?"

Yeshua blinked, and then laughed. "For me? Yes, it didn't." He laughed some more. "I'd failed." His laugh fell away, and a melancholic smile came onto his lips. "We had failed."

[Multiple Identities are colliding]

He could see it in his mind. Various different Issei Hyoudous, all living their lives, all fighting for their desires, all dying. They were all like flares, rising towards the stars and leaving behind a trail of dust and sparks before disappearing into the night sky. There were thousands-, millions, no-, billions of them. All shooting to the stars and disappearing to the winds.

And suddenly it made sense why the voices in his chest grieved so often. It made sense why the monster locked in his chest was so preoccupied with keeping his friends close and never letting them go.

These voices, those memories, the static contained in Lost Data-

They all came from him. All of them.

He saw it all in his mind's eye, somehow visualized and made clearer through the unnatural golden eye jammed into his skull.

[[Eye of the Ancients] detected. Preparing for Ego Reconstruction…]

Then came pain. Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It was a pain that struck him at everything, anywhere, all at once. It reminded him of the pain he felt when he first learnt about Jehovah. Yet, strangely, he didn't collapse. It hurt, but he found himself standing despite it all.

Distantly, he noticed more blood trailed down his face, and it was only when he reached a hand up to his head that he realized that he'd been wearing a crown woven from sharp wooden thorns.

The name of this place made a little bit more sense now.

"You're beginning to remember, aren't you?" He heard Yeshua say. And though he could not speak, he forced himself to nod. "I…apologize for this. It would've been preferable to give our knowledge to you slowly, but as you know, we have no time."

"Did-" Issei took a gasping breath. "Did-, we all really-, fail?" He grit his teeth. "And-, from what-?"

Yeshua weakly sighed. "Yes. In one way or another, we had fallen. Whether it was to monsters or devils or humans or those from the beyond." Issei forced himself to turn his eye to the man. And it was to see Yeshua's white robe begin to turn red, slowly stained by blood. "And like them, I too had fallen."

Issei could see it in his mind's eye. Of an Issei who had died to some beast that came from the stars. But he was smart, and using his strength he diverted the river of samsara and sent his soul back to the past. He found himself reborn as the Prodigal Son, a third of the Holy Trinity. And when it came time for God to sacrifice his life to seal away the Beast of Humanity, Yeshua took God's place instead. He thought eliminating the original Beast would stop most otherworldly threats from coming to Earth. He thought it would hide Earth away.

He was wrong. The world fell anyway, and those that still lived were forced into the undergrounds.

"But you, you're different." For the first time, Yeshua's voice became light. Airy almost. A voice of hope. "The Rot had awakened. One half of the Trihexa that had escaped. Humanity would've been doomed. But you won." Yeshua laughed then. "An eldritch god, formed from the collective strength of humanity, felled!"

"Hah-, it was-, the System's help." Issei said back. "I-, didn't-, do shit-"

"Is that so?" Yeshua hummed. "I would say otherwise. The System has helped, perhaps, but your strength? It is yours. It was you who cultivated your magic. It is you who, even now, struggle to strengthen yourself. The System has never forced you. It is you who did it all."

Yeshua smiled sadly, pressing a palm onto his chest. His robe was stained with even more blood. "It is a little frustrating to know that the one who could lead us to find our happy ending is not us, I admit. But-" Yeshua closed his eye. "To know that she had gone so far and did so much for someone like us, it…made me beyond happy."

He caught that immediately. He forced a moment of clarity through his pain-addled mind and narrowed his eye. "You know-, who created the System?"

Yeshua nodded. "I do." He grinned. "Do not expect me to tell you who it is. I don't think she wants to be known, nor do I think it's all that important." He then smiled. "But you do know who she is."

"Is-, that so-?"

Issei took a breath. It was…embarrassing to know that Yeshua was so proud of him, but at the same time…

He grimaced. "Can-, I really-, do it?" He grit his teeth. His mouth was filling with blood. "So many of-, us fell-, and I just-"

"Don't listen to it." Yeshua said sternly. "That niggling voice—ignore it. You can do it. You've already done so much, and now I'm-, no, we are here to help." Yeshua walked up to him, and though his body bled with rivers of blood, the man placed a comforting hand on Issei's shoulder and smiled. "And not just us. Your friends, your family, all of them. They're all ready to help." Yeshua smiled gently. "You're never alone."

[The Otherworld Library's Faith in you has been solidified. A Gate has been breached]

[The Skill [Ardent Reflection] has been unlocked!]

Then, the world around him shattered. Issei gasped as the ground beneath him vanished, and he grit his teeth as he began falling. He caught one last glimpse of Yeshua before he too shattered with the world.

The man had been smiling.

Suddenly he fell into an ocean of some kind. One not made of water but one of blood. He knew this place. He'd nearly drowned in it before. He tried swimming up, but there was something pulling him deeper into the depths, dragging him further and further downwards.

The pain intensified. More images flooded his eye. More memories surged into his mind.

He knew what was happening. The knowledge and memories of billions of his previous iterations was flooding into his soul, and he could feel himself breaking. He could feel pieces of himself being stretched beyond repair, details about his life slowly shattering.

But he refused to let himself disappear. He refused to yield. He'd promised, to his System and his friends. He wouldn't break here. He would come back.

He didn't know how long he spent, trapped in the depths of an ocean of blood and silently screaming as his soul was torn to shreds and stitched back together. He didn't care. He kept a tight hold on himself and refused to let himself be washed away. That was all that was important.

Then-

[The Ego will now begin its Reformation]

Those words flashed before his eye, and he lost consciousness.