CHAPTER 101: ALLIED SOVEREIGN SPECIES MAKES AN APPEARANCE.

Time to see what kind of screwed up trouble I managed to land myself in this time.

With that thought, I looked at the man or whatever he used to be. Because whatever humanity he once had... was gone.

The shape before me was inhuman. its body was a shifting mass of black and violet energy that refused to stay solid.

And the mana was wrong.

It wasn’t something any living being should’ve been able to wield.

And yet...

... Yet I knew exactly what had happened.

This dumb fucker had used that.

Among the cluster of artifacts in this cave, there was one particular scroll—one that was never meant to be touched, let alone used.

Not that anyone was supposed to even know how to use or activate it. One had to recite an ancient incantation that was more curse than spell and feed the scroll a blood in return.

When I sent Bearlo here, I had considered the possibility that he might stumble across it.

But even then, I wasn’t worried because even he wouldn’t have been able to activate it.

That’s why I hadn’t told him anything about it.

Because no sane being should’ve been able to do this.

And yet... here we were.

I had suspected this to be the problem the moment I saw the ominous scroll missing in the final chamber.

And as for why I knew about that particular "useless" artifact when I had just finished calling the rest trash, well, that’s simple.

I, in my infinite wisdom and boredom, had added this artifact in the game as an easter egg.

Yeah.

In the original novel, Noah only mentioned it briefly, the scroll originally belonged to a member of A.S.S.

Yeah. Those guys.

The so-called "galactic invaders."

Apparently, one of them had come here chasing something important but when things went south,

he died and as a last resort, he channeled his soul into that scroll.

The "cryptic incantation" to activate it was nothing more than the Honorific Name of one of the deities that A.S.S. members served in their native language, a name so old and dangerous it warped reality itself when spoken.

In the novel, the villain who got the Crimson Mask had actually stumbled upon the same scroll too... but the idiot never figured out how to use it.

So he sold it on the black market along with the rest of his junk and somehow that scroll reached the Cult of A.S.S—A group of Nytherra residents so delusional that they thought those cosmic parasites were divine messengers.

One of them activated it which naturally brought calamity to the protagonist.

But come on... how could my ever-so-brilliant mind settle for something that cliché? So naturally, I doubled down on the cliché department.

Because, let’s be honest, that’s what sells the best.

It was supposed to be nothing more than an easter egg, a little tease for the players in my game.

I even invented a completely non-existent god for it, one who could grant some uselessly flashy powers

and, naturally, enlarge the chest of the female playable character which was naturally Arza.

The perverted players loved her and they tore each other apart trying to be the first to get that relic and brag about it on social media.

For me, it was a free advertisement. So, I didn’t really mind.

Marketing brilliance, really.

Boobs and power always sell.

But of course... The changes I made weren’t part of the original lore. Which meant that in this world, the one based on the original novel, the scroll wasn’t connected to some fanservice God.

It was still the storage for the soul of that A.S.S. member.

And now some dumb mortal had just opened it.

I guess Karma, that infamous lover boy of Fate,

finally decided to show its fangs to me.

Fuck you, Karma.

I hope that bitch Fate cheats on you right in front of your eyes.

—

In any case, what bothered me more than the bastard himself, the one trudging toward me slower than a damn snail, was the real question:

How the hell did that fucker even learn the incantation?

It wasn’t something you could just guess your way through. You couldn’t just mumble a few random syllables and accidentally summon an eldritch god.

So either he was a member of that damn cult.

Or someone up there was laughing their divine ass off at my misery again.

Wait a fucking minute.

Hey.

Wasn’t this guy the same one I saw back in the Heavenly Realm?

The one from that little mirror?

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.

Of course it’s him.

Still, I wanted to confirm it.

"Hey," I said, turning to glare at Cedric, who, by the way, was still staring at me like he had just seen the last person he expected to see.

"Is that the same fuck—" I paused, catching myself just in time, "I mean, friend you had back on the Air Cruise? The one with the narrow eyes?"

Cedric didn’t answer.

Honestly, I was starting to get annoyed by this dumbfuck. As if those hidden glares from before weren’t already enough, now this guy wasn’t even bothering to hide them.

I could practically feel his eyes burning holes through my magnificent face.

Before I could decide whether to slap him or punch him, Bearlo spoke up first.

"My liege," his voice echoed, low and steady, "he is indeed the same one."

Ahh, so I was right.

But that made me question... how did he know the incantation?

He didn’t seem like someone from the cult...

... and more importantly why the hell did Heavenly Principles show this dumbfuck to me?

That meant I was supposed to know about him.

Were the Principles hinting at this dumbass unlocking the scroll?

Or was there something deeper, something I was missing entirely?

A strange thought came right into my head.

No... that can’t be right.

Right?