“Waking up” and diagnosis.

The next chapters will focus on Devas unfucking himself piece by piece—checking what changed on the stream, his status, and collecting the rewards. After that, there’ll be a time skip and a new world!

I won’t linger too much here since I’m busy writing the next chapters. Sorry for not replying to comments—I’m using the time I have to write. I’ll respond in the future.

If you’d like to support me, or just read 3/7/13 chapters ahead, that’s possible on my (P)(A)(T). If not, I’m still grateful to everyone who reads—thank you very much!

With that said, good night and enjoy the reading!

(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori.

[...]---[...]

The moment I “woke up” in Terraria, I became more aware of my surroundings—and of my body.

I was lying on a bed made of leaves and flowers. Roots—or something like them—were attached all over me, mostly on my arm, shoulder, and left eye, wrapping around my face, and a few spread across my palms and forehead.

Some of them were literally rooted inside me, threading through my veins, planted in flesh and muscle, coiling around bone.

It was a bit unnerving. But it didn’t hurt. Just fucking bizarre.

Even more so because I could feel those roots releasing something into my bloodstream. Purification Powder, I realized quickly. Along with what I was certain were nutrients.

Basically, the magical, weirdly organic version of being hooked up to an IV.

To my left, my arm infected by the Void was completely covered in leaves and vines, wrapped in layers up to my shoulder. Each leaf carried mystical symbols and runes across its surface.

A suppressing seal, essentially.

Nature abhorred the Void.

To my right stood Alalia.

The dryad was standing beside the bed, watching me. She didn’t even seem to blink, much less move. She was like a tree.

My body, to my surprise, wasn’t as sore as I expected. I felt both burning hot and freezing cold at the same time, but still miles better than the state I’d been in after the fight with “The Eye.”

Focusing slightly, I could sense Jinn, Ozma, and Tyrian. It was much easier to know where they were thanks to the bond I shared with the three of them.

Jinn and Ozma were both at the royal palace—Ozma in the throne room, Jinn somewhere below, not in the dungeons but in some sort of hidden chamber.

Tyrian was somewhere inside the kingdom, near the eastern wall.

The minimap marked the others’ positions. Almost everyone was in the palace, in different places, except for two within the kingdom itself. One of them I knew was Robyn—the tiara I’d placed on her forehead was still active. The other, by process of elimination, had to be Gilbert.

I didn’t try to focus too much. My headache had been growing worse ever since I’d left my Spiritual Realm. I’d check on them later.

The only one I knew had realized I was truly awake was Alalia. I doubted she’d missed it the very instant I left the Spiritual Realm.

Jinn, Ozma, and Tyrian would probably notice if I reached out through our bond, but I didn’t.

The (CHAT) probably hadn’t noticed either. The people using Reality 4D in Shared Senses mode might have picked up something, though.

It couldn’t have taken me more than half a second—or less—to analyze the room and process all this information. Only then did I move.

Maybe it was because I wanted to distract my mind with something less serious for a moment. Maybe I just felt like putting on a show. Or maybe it was simple impulse, but I didn’t sit up normally.

I moved my right arm without even opening my eyes. The roots there tugged lightly, as if trying to hold it in place, before following the motion without tearing away from my skin or causing pain.

I brought my hand to my head and gripped my face. Then I pulled myself upright like a marionette, until I was sitting.

Only then did I open my eyes. My right vision was normal; my left was washed-out in gray, with crimson tendrils stark against everything.

The shadows quivered at random, highlighted in a bizarre black. Insane eyes blinked from the walls, ceiling, and floor.

I was still blind in my left eye. It remained my “second right eye.” Alalia hadn’t been able to regenerate it. I could still feel the Void there, just as in my arm and left shoulder.

The Demon Slayer Mark was still active, I noticed after a moment.

Come to think of it, why wasn’t my left eye socket sealed?…

Well, just one more question among the many I had.

Without turning my head, still staring forward, I spoke: “Thanks for watching over me while I took a nap. How have things been these past three days I was out?”

My voice came out a little hoarse. My throat itched.

I tilted my head slightly to the side, glancing at Alalia with the corner of my right eye. She looked almost the same, yet different. A fusion of all her “forms.” Long hair of shifting colors reminiscent of the seasons, surrounded by branches and leaves that framed her body, taller than her “Spring” form but shorter than “Winter.”

Her skin didn’t have a single tone. Almost as if she had developed some kind of magical vitiligo. Some patches were pale as snow, others bronze like light chocolate, others a healthier vivid hue, and still others carried a brownish tint.

The colors didn’t stay put, shifting across her skin like oil paint swirling on water.

Honestly, I thought she would’ve thrown herself at me the moment I woke up. All that talk about “my hero” and so on. But no. She stared at me in silence for a moment, with what seemed like countless emotions mixing in her gaze.

Two multicolored eyes, shifting shades as fast as the feelings flickering within them.

I could sense them clearly. It was as if the environment itself reacted: joy, happiness, guilt, sorrow, self-loathing, hope, something almost like worship, and shame.

I could understand the origin of some. The reasons behind others. But not all.

Her mouth opened, only to close again without a word.

Maybe that was for the best, because right then, the stream (CHAT) decided it was the perfect moment to come alive.

Dozens of messages appeared in front of me. Some carried by floating eyes—Demon Eyes. Others launched by tiny catapults, flinging cards onto the Demon Eyes themselves. A few were hauled in by small, bloodied zombies scrambling recklessly across the bed.

Dozens of messages became hundreds. Hundreds became thousands. All in the space of a second or two. Jumbled together so much I couldn’t read a single one.

Then, all of them were swallowed by a “Mini The Eye.”

The “Mini The Eye” turned toward me, chewing through all the messages before spitting some back out, then darted toward where my left eye should have been, vanishing there.

Apparently, the stream still kept its sense of humor.

The messages that survived the “Mini The Eye’s” maw were:

[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]HE LIVES! THE LEGEND, THE HERO, THE CRAZY SON OF A BITCH WHO MADE A SUN AND AN ATOMIC BOMB WITH HIS BARE HANDS! One sec: popping open some champagne to celebrate and drown the stress of the past three days. Sick sword, btw. No idea what it is, but it hit me somehow… kinda gay, I know. Anyway, brb.(Iron Man emote waving “brb”)

[(MOD)JinnOfTheLamp]You’re finally awake! One sec, I’m on my way!(Chibi Jinn emote sprinting full speed)

[MoonPrincess]The protagonist finally awakens? I thought this princess would have to wait a few more days. I see your recovery is as fitting as your strength. You did well to slay that abomination. You have my praise.(Emote of a Japanese princess with long black hair smiling sweetly behind the sleeve of her dress)

[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]Devas! You’re awake! I—we—were all worried! How are you feeling?! But listen: Jinn actually chewed out Alalia on all our behalf, she was our spokesperson!(Red Riding Hood emote carrying a medkit)

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]Finally awake. Good, I’ll go tell Jiraiya-chan and Minato-chan. Glad you’re alright, Devas. Ma says the same and also that you really need to take better care of yourself.

[TohsakaHeiress]Welcome back. I’m glad you’re awake and… CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL THAT SWORD IS AND WHY IT FEELS EXACTLY LIKE THE EXCALIBUR FROM MY WORLD EVEN THOUGH I’VE NEVER SEEN EITHER OF THEM BEFORE?!!!

[JustAnOrdinaryPeasant]You’re alright! I knew the Lord was protecting and watching over you! May your recovery be peaceful. Amen!(Nun emote praying)

[GryffinPotter]If they gave me this shitty nickname because I survived something like the Killing Curse, then I get to call you The Man Who Lived after facing that thing.(Lion emote with a lightning-bolt scar holding up a sign: “I hereby name you…”)

[TheRainWitch]Nice to meet you! I got this strange device three days ago and talked to these kind people in the chat. I’m glad you’re okay and that you defeated that horrible monster!(Sweet smiling witch girl emote with a pointed hat)

[AdvocateOfGenderEquality]First: glad you’re alive, even if you look all messed up and corrupted. Second: KICK THAT OLD WITCH OUT OF THE STREAM! THROW THAT HAG AWAY BEFORE SHE ATTRACTS MORE OLD, DANGEROUS WITCHES!(Generic guy emote holding a hammer with “BAN” written on it)

[TheGreatGoddessAqua]Amputate that arm right now and burn the part of your soul corrupted by that ABOMINATION! I don’t even want to imagine how awful it’ll be if you’re consumed by the Void! DON’T YOU DARE COME TO MY WORLD WITH THAT THING INSIDE YOU! NO, JUST NO!… please…(Chibi Aqua emote begging)

[MagicalGirlSera-Tan]Welcome back, you MANIAC! Let me kindly ask ahead of time that, when you come to my world, you avoid leaving your orange LED turned on in the underworld. Thanks a lot! Oh, and of course I’m glad you’re fine—not that I ever doubted it for a second.(Magical girl emote putting an eyepatch over her right eye)

[AinzOoalGown]Congratulations on defeating your first major Boss, Devas! And a boss with three negative AoEs at that. Quite the achievement, even if it wasn’t easy—or without consequences. Well done!(Skeleton emote holding up a sign saying “GGWP”)

[TheWizardOz]Welcome back, friend.

[AsuraLady]I’m so glad you’re awake and well, dear. You had me worried these past three days.(Pink-maned lion emote sighing in relief)

It took me a few moments to read through the messages. Strangely, they didn’t vanish like usual, lingering as if waiting for me to respond.

A few smaller ones popped up afterward, but those disappeared quickly into thin air.

Weiss, Yang, Blake, Neo, Percy, Sally, the HOTD crew, Pepper, Jarvis, Snape, Dumbledore, McGonagall. Basically everyone wishing me well and glad I’d woken up.

I’m pretty sure I saw a message from Megumin saying she’d sacrifice every soul in Axel for me if I taught her how to make a magic atomic bomb, but that one blew up so fast I’m not sure it wasn’t just a hallucination.

The first thing that caught my attention in the messages were the two new viewers: [MoonPrincess] and [TheRainWitch].

For the first, I had two theories: either that Brunestud-named fucking thing, or some random generic Kaguya number 36167. There were way too many of those.

But judging by Kazuma’s comment, it was probably the latter…

Touhou was a place that… well, I wasn’t setting foot in anytime soon. Preferably never. Maybe in an eternity, if it were up to me.

Maybe I should follow Kazuma’s advice and just ban her to avoid the stress?…

As for the second name, I had no idea who it could be. At least not yet. There were a few witches with the title of Rain Witch, could’ve been any of them.

Or none. Maybe just someone who picked the nickname. Or someone pretending to be someone else.

Honestly, I thought there’d be more new viewers in (CHAT-FATE). Maybe there actually were. They just didn’t comment. Jeanne did that for a while, didn’t she?

Or maybe they just didn’t have the money to become members? That… was very possible too. Funny, really—someone important enough in their own world to be in (CHAT-FATE), yet too broke to pay the sub and show up.

Again, just like Jeanne.

The second thing that caught my attention was Saya’s comment.

Honestly, I expected her to be angry. Mad at me for putting myself in danger again. I wouldn’t blame her. But she only seemed worried, nothing more…

“Saya, are you okay?” I asked.

The response came in the form of three messages delivered by a small pink-haired zombie, who ran across the bed and tossed the messages into the air before melting and disappearing.

[AsuraLady]You’re far too clever when you want to be, did you know that? You just play dumb, don’t you? You figured something out from just one message.

[AsuraLady]I’m not angry. Worried? Yes. But I’ve already accepted that you’re going to put yourself in danger, whether I like it or not. It’s not always your fault. Most of the time, of course, you’re a stubborn idiot who’ll throw yourself into danger the moment someone you call a friend needs help. One of the many things I love about you, I guess…(Pink-maned lion emote pouting)

[AsuraLady]So I just ask this: fight if you have to, bleed if you must. I hate seeing you suffer and I’ll keep hating it, but it’s inevitable. Just… always come back alive, okay? From every fight and battle. Just come back alive, and we’ll find a way to patch you up. Your sword represents that, doesn’t it?… desperate survival. So survive. We’ll deal with the rest later.

I read every word slowly. In the end, a soft smile spread across my face, and I let out a short, light laugh.

It was silly, but it had lifted my mood.

“I’ll do my best to always come back, then,” I said, as Saya’s messages faded into the air.

I didn’t promise anything. That would have been a lie, and we both knew it. I tried to avoid lying whenever possible.

I needed to get a third Pylon set up soon and establish this network so I could return to HOTD and see her.

Something told me it would be possible in one of the Rainbow worlds I had access to. Three in total: the Amalgam World mission and the two tickets I still had. One of those—if not all three—should give me a Pylon.

And this wasn’t instinct. It was just basic logic.

The Rainbow tier was the “best tier” of missions, so to speak. It made sense that if I were going to get a Pylon anywhere, it would be from one of these missions.

I returned my attention to the other messages. Some of them were amusing.

Ainz congratulating me for defeating my first “major Boss” was almost expected, given him. Harry giving me a new title to add to the ones I already had nearly made me laugh.

The Man Who Lived.

I didn’t know what to make of that. At least it was better than that shitty “The Golem” title the Terraria contractors had given me, for sure.

Aqua seemed a bit desperate for some reason. That “please” at the end of her message felt genuinely sad and pathetic, to be honest.

Now, Rin resonating with the Excalibur Asura was curious. Probably because I’d created the sword based on FATE’s Excalibur.

Jeanne didn’t comment, so maybe she wasn’t from that world?… That seemed likely. But it didn’t say much; she could’ve just chosen not to speak.

Stark had said the sword affected him. So maybe it wasn’t just Rin… Saya had written the concept of the sword herself, hadn’t she? “Your sword represents that, doesn’t it?… desperate survival.” I don’t recall ever saying that out loud before passing out…

Well, something to ask them another time.

And I chose not to comment on Serafall comparing [Echo Humanitatis] to an orange LED… But why the hell did she insist I not use it in the underworld? Maybe it affected reincarnated Devils?… That was something I hadn’t considered, and honestly, it was very possible.

But none of them were in the stream. Even if they were using Reality 4D, Serafall, Sirzechs, Ajuka, and Sona were pure Devils, from the 72 Pillars no less. They shouldn’t have been affected—less human than the Devils, only Daemons could be.

Maybe it was just a hypothesis from one of them. Probably Ajuka. That would make sense, in a way. But something like that wouldn’t appear out of nowhere. If it were the case, Serafall would’ve mentioned it earlier.

I was sure I was overlooking some important detail, just didn’t know exactly what…

My thoughts were interrupted by Jinn, who came running into the room. She wasn’t alone: Ozma followed behind, closing the door as he entered.

I sensed other presences outside—Ísis, Dylan, and Hirael—but they chose not to come in. Maybe because of Alalia, or because Jinn and Ozma asked them to, or simply out of courtesy. Any of those options were possible. I didn’t call them. One thing at a time.

Jinn’s first action was literally to fly straight at me and hug me, pressing my face between her chest.

I blinked, surprised. I hadn’t expected that reaction. Jinn had always been affectionate and fond of hugs, but rarely so… aggressive.

I lifted my head, raising my right eyebrow at her. One eye staring.

“I was worried, I still am!” she replied, puffing her cheeks and refusing to let go. “Do you have any idea how horrible it was to discover what that thing on your body is and not be able to do anything?!”

I let out a muffled sigh, hidden by the blue folds around me. I leaned back and ‘nudged’ our connection, asking her to step away. She hesitated but eventually jumped to the side, sitting at the edge of the bed.

“Miss Jinn, Devas is still recovering. Be careful,” Ozma said, his voice lightly amused.

He was in his Nightmare form, his body hidden under loose, desert-toned fabrics of dull green and gray. A deer mask covered his face.

Jinn wasn’t wearing armor either: just a plain light-yellow summer dress, barefoot. At least she had the decency to wear a bra and panties—which, coming from her, was almost surprising.

“Quiet, old man! Don’t ruin my fun!” she shot back, pointing at him before turning her finger toward me. “And Devas could’ve dodged if he wanted! Your condition is bad, but not bad enough to not be able to dodge.”

Don’t expose me, woman!

I stayed silent and returned my gaze to Ozma.

“Why send the message in the (CHAT) if you were coming to see me seconds later?”

“Why not?” she shrugged. “And the stream showed you the message, so it judged that it was the right thing. How do you feel?”

Everyone’s attention turned to me.

I examined my body for a moment before answering: “Curiously… fine. Aside from the headache. And I’m not lying.” I added the last part when I noticed Jinn’s look.

“I know my current state looks bad—”

“Horrible!” she interrupted. I ignored it.

“But it’s not as debilitating as it seems. I don’t feel physical pain, and my soul is stable as well. At least internally,” I continued. “What bothers me most is the headache.”

I paused briefly. “And the fact that I can’t purge this abomination from my body, of course.”

“Melissa, Alalia, and I managed to stabilize some things in you,” Jinn explained, her voice clearly irritated when she mentioned the dryad. “But we couldn’t address the root problem. It’s as if that thing on your arm and left eye simply doesn’t exist, as if it were…”

“As if it were just Void?” I finished. She nodded, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Alalia did too. “I thought so. Here, look.”

I projected my status and selected the debuffs, sending the screen for Jinn and Ozma to see along with the (CHAT). Despite her irritation with Alalia, Jinn even created an illusion so the dryad could read it too.

I needed to ask her why she was annoyed. Well… I already had a pretty good idea, it was kind of obvious, even if I disagreed a little. Especially after Ruby had said that Jinn was the (CHAT)’s “spokesperson.”

While they read my semi-terminal cancer report, I pulled my phone from the Voidbag to check the stream. I could’ve just opened the stream screen in front of my eyes, but I had gotten into the habit of using my phone for it.

In the end, it didn’t change anything besides costing a few extra seconds—maybe not even that—and I didn’t mind.

The first thing that caught my attention were the red “New!” markers. Points blinking to draw the eye.

Some were on the achievements section. Others on the stream update notes. At least ten in total.

But what really held my attention was the alert in the (SPECIAL - CHAT). The chat I had created long ago, if I remember correctly just before Jille, for the stream to notify me of important things.

Since its creation, only one message had ever appeared there: when Kazuma died. Since then, it had been empty.

Until now.

I opened the chat. The message was short and direct:

[Member “DoctorHiraeth” has joined the stream!]

… Who the fuck are you? And why were you important enough for the stream to even bother alerting me?

A single message was enough to trigger almost every alarm in my mind. I’d have to be an idiot not to be suspicious of this viewer.

I quickly pulled up the chat window with Jarvis and mentally typed only to him: “Jarvis, has this DoctorHiraeth ever commented in any stream chat?”

The answer came moments later:

[(MOD)Jarvis]: No, Mr. Devas. I’m monitoring all (CHATS) as always, and I haven’t seen any viewer with that nickname comment even once in any of the (CHATS). The only relevant new viewers in (CHAT-FATES) are [MoonPrincess] and [TheRainWitch].

[(MOD)Jarvis]: I should also inform you that the number of viewers has increased by almost three thousand since you fell asleep after the battle. The peak was 15,237 viewers.

[(MOD)Jarvis]: Do you want me to try to provoke a response from this viewer?

I restrained myself from shaking my head in denial and responded mentally: “No. Just keep an eye out in case this person comments. I’ll talk to him—or her—soon. Notify me if any viewer seems noteworthy for any reason.”

Jarvis replied only with a “affirmative, boss” emote and sent no further messages. I pushed the chat aside.

At that moment, Jinn let out a soft, low, but anything but subtle: “Holy shit…”

I looked at her. The shocked expression on her face amused me more than it should have, I won’t lie. It was almost the same with Alalia, who wrinkled her face as if she’d seen—rather than tasted—something disgusting while reading the information.

Ozma, I suppose, was probably feeling the same—but with the mask, I couldn’t be sure. Still, the emotions I sensed from him were a mix of shock, fear, disgust, and sadness.

Jinn lifted her eyes from my status and looked at me with a trembling, uncertain gaze. I spoke before she could:

“So, what’s the verdict, doctor? Will we need to sacrifice the patient?” I joked, earning from her a slightly amused and completely exasperated huff.

At that moment, a message shot in front of my eyes, spraying out of a water fountain that spelled the words:

[TheGreatGoddessAqua]Yes! Holy shit, it’s way worse than I thought! Forget amputating the arm—incinerate yourself to ash for everyone’s sake! Just die!

…Fucking useless goddess.

I grabbed the message with the tips of my right thumb and index finger and flicked it away. I was still avoiding moving my left arm, since I wasn’t sure exactly what Alalia had done to it.

I made a mental note to get back at Aqua somehow when I got to Konosuba.

Maybe I could create a device that converts alcohol into clean water within a few meters? It would be a lot of work, but theoretically possible.

Then I’d just make it compact, put an activator on it like a remote control, and drop it in Kazuma’s hands…

Come to think of it, I’d forgotten to put a middle-finger statue in front of the Ironwood barracks, hadn’t I? I’d have Qrow and Neo make one and place it there for me later.

Right after that, the (CHAT) notified me that Aqua had been given a one-day time-out, courtesy of Stark. Then Ruby bumped it up to a week… and then a month.

…I’ll shorten that later. Aqua’s messages are too entertaining to go that long without reading her nonsense.

“Is she really a goddess? She… doesn’t seem like it at all,” I heard Ozma mutter more to himself than anything.

“I’d say the same…” Jinn murmured, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Then she turned to me. “And no, the patient does not need to be sacrificed.”

She paused before adding, “Even if he appears delirious.”

“I vehemently deny that accusation,” I shot back. “I’m completely sane.”

Jinn didn’t look convinced at all. Nor did Alalia, actually. Ozma even less so.

[TohsakaHeiress]Everyone knows that’s a lie. You’re completely disturbed and—

I flicked the message away before it even fully left the summoning circle that had formed in the air.

What the hell? I’m already beat up and injured here, and now everyone decides to gang up on me? Kick a dead dog, why don’t you?

The “fun” atmosphere in the room disappeared immediately after that. Jinn stared at me silently for a moment.

“We don’t know how to cure you,” she finally said. “We’ve tried everything. But nothing seems to last. Suppressing MoonBite is relatively simple, as is The Outer Foreigner Presence. We had experience with both of those.”

“But Starless and Nightwither, as the stream calls them…” She frowned, looking down for a moment. “The first one is manageable. We don’t know how to cure it, but we can suppress it. Over time, it should disappear, but…”

“But Nightwither prevents that,” I finished. I already knew that. She nodded, a hint of regret in her gesture.

“Individually, each is relatively simple, but the combination of all debuffs creates a resonance that makes fast healing practically impossible. At least with our current knowledge.”

Alalia chose that moment to speak for the first time since the start of the conversation.

“I managed to extinguish MoonBite from your body. But it returned after a few minutes,” she said slowly. I turned to face her. “Same with The Outer Foreigner Presence. It was much easier than healing the Terrarians, since the ‘disease’ doesn’t affect your mind, only your body… But no matter how hard I try, I can’t fill the ‘void.’”

“In fact, my brief attempts only seemed to strengthen it. As if feeding a hungry mouth.” She bit her lip, anger and frustration spilling over. “I didn’t have the courage to continue, to avoid making your current state worse.”

The room fell silent for a few seconds. It felt like a shitty wake, as if someone was about to die. That someone, in this case, was me.

Which, frankly, was far from the truth.

“Well, then we just wait,” I shrugged, trying to sound casual. “I’ll recover on my own over time. My body doesn’t even hurt anymore. Just an annoying headache. I’ll just be weaker in the meantime. You guys talking like that makes it sound like I’m about to die.”

“And you are! You might be! You were! We don’t know!” Alalia shouted, frustrated, catching me off guard. Tears streamed down her face. “We don’t know if this will get worse. You’re stable now, but in five minutes, you might not be!”

She stared at the floor, whispering softly: “And it’s all my fault… I should have helped more…”

And… there it was—the reason she looked like a wilted flower, and why Jinn decided to chew her out…

“Your body wasn’t in good shape when we brought you to the palace, Devas,” Ozma said, stepping toward the foot of the bed and leaning on his cane. “Between Miss Jinn, Miss Alalia, Miss Melissa, and me, none of us could even explain what was happening to you. That, combined with the (CHAT).”

Jinn reached out and placed her hand over mine, squeezing gently. Instinctively, I noticed how soft—and frankly fragile—her skin was.

“Inexplicable is a good word to describe it…” she murmured, before explaining slowly:

“You were and weren’t injured. Your muscles were covered in lacerations, but they healed so fast that, before one could fully open, another would appear in its place, repeating endlessly. Your blood was more like magma than blood; it flowed so fast through your veins it circulated your body over a hundred times per second.”

“Your bones were so cold they should have crumbled from the chill. Or frozen your blood and caused an explosion from the temperature difference. But it just… didn’t happen. I don’t know, no one knows why.”

“Your skin was even stranger. Simultaneously hard, soft, cold, and hot. Harder, more flexible, more temperature-resistant, and sharper than anything I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” Her gaze fixed on my right eye. “Remnant, Terraria, Earth… We searched almost everything on these three planets, plus Kazuma’s world and Ainz’s. No substance in any of these five worlds resembled your skin at that moment.”

“Do you have any idea how much energy it would take to sustain a body like that for just one minute?” A rhetorical question—one she answered herself: “Enough to power Vale and Atlas together for over ten years. Everything around you should have been vaporized just by your existence. It didn’t happen, and no one knows how.”

“Along with mana, spiritual energy, and nightmare energy, you were literally generating energy through internalized nuclear fusion to stay functional.”

“Alalia isn’t wrong, Devas. You’re much better and more stable now, but we don’t know if it could worsen at any second. For all intents and purposes, you are and, at the same time, are not almost dying.”

“…We’re worried about you.”

At the end of her explanation, she fell silent, watching my reaction.

I didn’t respond at first. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say. What could I even say here? I wasn’t minimizing things when I said I didn’t feel that bad and wasn’t on the brink of death like they thought.

My current state was a mess—worse than that—but I wasn’t about to drop dead at any moment. What I did was an extremely risky bet, albeit vaguely controlled.

…Very vaguely, alright.

The (CHAT) also had concerns like the ones Jinn had listed. I could read the messages.

And then there was the fact that I’d have to explain the Shadow Puppet and the Demon Slayer Mark. The latter was manageable, but the Shadow Puppet? That was a whole other can of worms, and just thinking about it made my headache throb even more.

At this point, shouldn’t I be immune to headaches?

Finally, I just said what had been on my mind for a while:

“All this… just to kill a single rotten, dead eye.”

I was still kind of pissed about that fact.

[...]---[...]

First off, I want you to know I didn’t mess up Morgan’s nickname. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. Why? Simple—she’s still Morgan, and Morgan lies and manipulates.

Everyone’s concern is valid: Devas is completely screwed, even if he tries to downplay it. Of course, he’s not as close to death as people think; he’s actually fairly stable.

Jinn got her calculations right, so yeah—Devas was basically going nuclear when he fought “The Eye.”

That’s about all I’ve got to say. The next chapter comes out on the 19th. Wishing you all a good day and a great read!