anxiety, nervousness.
These were the only things I could feel in the lab recently.
No wonder.
Even though I’ve poured so much time, I haven’t even gotten to the point yet.
No, at least one thing is certain.
When ‘Deva’ is exhausted, a person dies.
Aren’t there people who are dying even now, not completely depleted, but only thinned out?
Every time someone’s death is heard on the news, every time the statistics about it come to them as a solid figure.
Researchers were exhausted.
It was a situation where I enjoyed the powerlessness to the extent that I would never have it again in the world.
Therefore, the entire laboratory is dark, gloomy, and lonely.
It was the usual laboratory, but… … .
“What… … ?”
Something was different today.
What Theo felt when he opened the door to the laboratory was silence. And it was choking enough to make my throat tight.
It is impossible.
It is a place where people who are researching while reducing their sleep to save the world because their lives are precious are gathered.
Some people may be able to take a break like myself, but it is not possible to be so lonely without people.
“Me, over there!”
Theo opened his mouth cautiously out of unknown anxiety.
I wanted to find someone.
But at the same time, I was confident that I wished no one was there.
I just hope everything is my own illusion and baseless.
I wanted to open the door right away and see the exhausted researchers sitting in their seats again.
“… … .”
The laboratory is large.
Isn’t it a place where research is done to save the world?
It is a place where all available equipment and materials are gathered, as well as support from the country, no, from all over the world.
It was a size that could not be lacking even if it was a single village.
The feeling of desolation that lingers in such a large laboratory, the dark background.
He grabbed Theo’s legs and kept him from moving.
While Theo hesitated like that.
“Well? Ah, Researcher Theo. It was you.”
“Chief… … ?”
I saw Gentilis approaching with a benevolent smile.
“Researcher Theo. Listen to me. I finally found a way. Our hard work has been rewarded!”
Theo saw Gentilis slowly approaching him and backed away slowly.
“During the course of my research, I realized that we are imperfect lives. What is the reason, why did the God who created us make us this way?”
“Chief.”
“Of course, it wasn’t like that from the beginning. I thought it was because we just couldn’t figure out what a ‘Deva’ was, so we couldn’t find a countermeasure.”
“Chief!”
“But I have finally figured out what a Daeva is. Daeva was the energy that formed the soul!”
“Chief!!”
“ah… … .”
Gentilis stopped at Theo’s shouting.
“You talked too much about me. Yes, Researcher Theo. What do you want to say?”
Gentilis took a step back and asked in a calm tone.
Theo trembled, his complexion turning blue.
I didn’t understand the current situation.
Gentilis smiled benevolently at him, but there was something decidedly different from usual.
“What the hell did you do with the other researchers… … ?”
The white robe that seemed to symbolize Gentilis was stained with blood.
No, it’s not just white clothes. There was no place where there was no blood.
“Well? Oh, that’s right. It seems to have been explained too incoherently.”
“Isn’t that… … .”
Gentilis was as usual.
Yes, even though there was blood all over his body, it was the same as usual.
Theo felt sick.
This person isn’t crazy all of a sudden. It’s just that I haven’t had a chance to show that aspect until now.
He was this kind of person from the start.
“Did you kill him?”
“If you look at the results, it will be like that.”
“why… … . Did you kill him?”
“Because this is the law to prevent extinction.”
Gentilis continued his explanation, wiping his blood-stained glasses.
“Like I said before. We were imperfect lives.”
Gentilis has always been suspicious. How can they survive without supplementing their nutrition?
Others thought it was a blessing, a proof of perfection, but he had a different opinion.
Why are they different? Could it be that they weren’t just test subjects that someone put on the lab table?
And when you realize that ‘Deva’ is a remnant of a god. When he realized that it was the last mercy of the god who abandoned him. Gentilis finally realized.
“Deva was limited from the beginning. We were failed creatures, experiment subjects to be euthanized.”
then.
At this point when I realized that.
Who the hell could accept that?
It was the same with Gentilis.
“Deva is a soul. To be precise, it is the energy that forms the soul. And since our souls were unstable, we periodically took Daevas into our bodies.”
It’s not like God’s blessing.
They were more imperfect creatures than any other creatures.
“Isn’t God creating us because he wanted to make perfect creatures, but because he failed to do so, he left only energy as a minimum mercy?”
Their extinction was certain.
If the Daeva is the power of the soul, and only God can create it.
I can only think of their current situation as being abandoned by God.
“But there was a way. We don’t get energy from normal fancy goods. But, like other creatures, it has a mouth and a digestive system. Why do you think?”
“no way… … .”
“As expected, Researcher Theo. I thought you would notice it sooner than anyone else. Because you look like me.”
“It wasn’t enough that they killed the researchers, they ate them… … ?”
“It’s a little different. I had to eat it alive. It is only natural that the soul leaves a dead human being.”
Theo couldn’t say anything more. I was speechless.
Even if that’s true, it’s not normal to be able to kill people without hesitation.
“… … Did they try to kill the warden? Or did you commit a sin that deserved death?”
“No way! they have no guilt How can those who have poured out their time and effort for the sake of the world be guilty?”
“Then why the hell… … .”
“There is no particular reason. I just wanted to live. What a pity. They were special human beings like me.”
“… … .”
Gentilis felt no guilt.
I was just looking at everything objectively. It was narcissism that was disgusting even to be called a sociopath.
“When I collapsed due to the lack of Daevas. I had a sudden realization and thrust my teeth into the scruff of the researcher who was trying to support me. Do you know what happened at that moment?”
As if not paying attention to Theo’s frightened appearance, Gentilis shouted in rapture.
“I have made an evolution!”
“… … Evolution?”
“yes! My teeth are sharper than the fangs of beasts, and my strength surpasses that of humans!”
Gentilis tried to put on his wiped glasses again, but threw them away and said,
“Looking at it now, my eyesight has returned. Do you understand Researcher Theo? All we can ingest was one from the beginning. as soon as… … They are kin.”
Took.
Gentilis threw something bloody at Theo.
“ah… … .”
A red heart that is still beating as if not noticing its own death.
It was only when the heart hit the floor that Theo realized that he was sitting there.
I was afraid. But that didn’t stop me from sitting down for that reason.
“This is the moment of choice. Researcher Theo.”
I had no strength in my whole body.
It felt like something important inside of me was about to dissipate.
– Mr. Rosen who lived next door. He passed away suddenly yesterday.
What suddenly flashed into my head were the people who were weakened by the lack of Daevas.
Yeah, it’s just that it was his turn next.
It would be Theo’s future to die of weakness like the others.
but… … .
“Even though our bodies are perfect, our souls are unstable.”
A red heart in front of my eyes. Evidence of the horrors that must be disgusting.
“The essence of man is soul and body. Which one do you think?”
Can it look so sweet?
“Where should we, who are imperfect souls, place our purpose of existence? Is it the soul or the body?”
Gentilis smiled at Theo as he reached for his soul-beating heart.
“Yes, we who cannot find the meaning of existence in the soul must become ‘outside beings’.”
Gentilis looked at Theo for a long time. In the act of him picking up a puppy, as if he were trying to hide his good deeds like an adolescent boy.
Others may have felt the disingenuous good deeds, but well… … .
-Well, if it’s such an imperfect life, a higher creature like us should take care of it. That makes sense.
“We cannot be heroes.”
It looked different to Gentilis.
“After all, it’s because they believe they are more special than others.”
Theo decided to rise above the death of others in order to live.
He had just been crying out for morality to Gentilis, but he forgot everything and coveted the lives of others.
In that ferocious and miserable look.
“Yes, after all, you were a hypocrite like me, steeped in the idea of the chosen people. Researcher Theo.”
There was only ‘himself’.
* * *
Having swallowed the body of the present Theo, that is, Delade, he thought.
“There is nothing more foolish than struggling with an end in sight.”
He chose life in destruction.
After devouring the heart of someone he didn’t know the name of, he desperately tried to find another way.
But there was no other way.
The choice left to them is to live as a monster or die as a human.
There were only two of them, and Theo chose to live as a monster.
“It’s funny.”
Penny chose to be human.
Many other people wished to die as human beings.
But what about the results?
Unlike when the concentration of Daeva was low, when it completely disappeared, people began to disintegrate rather than weaken.
The soul itself disintegrated and began consuming whatever life was around it.
“Because you want to stay clean, because you cry out for justice.”
Theo first witnessed the phenomenon in the form of Penny, who wished to die as a human.
“It’s not necessarily like that.”
Penny, who must have been dying slowly on the hospital bed, swallowed Theo’s puppy in an instant.
Like a hungry beast filling its stomach.
looking so miserable.
It wasn’t a penny anymore.
It was just a beast that devours other life to fill its collapsed soul.
‘Look at the hypocrites who cried out that they wanted to remain human!’
In the end, wasn’t he himself who had abandoned his dignity in order to survive?
There is no ‘penny’.
Only ‘Theo’ remains.
So no more regrets. Theo alone can’t be any words, so even regret is impossible now.
“… … So stop now.”
Theo had been looking inside the empire in Chrysos’ castle ever since his conversation with Oz went wrong.
His plan has not yet been realized.
Even if it succeeded anyway, such a plan would not have been very effective.
It’s much simpler to think of post-processing than defense.
“Isn’t it time to give up?”
But, foolishly, there was someone who blocked such an attack by himself.
More ineffective than ever, more emotionally than ever.
“Why the hell are you holding out?”
There was someone who didn’t give up on things he couldn’t do in the past.
Oz Quo Vadis.
He had already been thwarting Theo’s plans for nearly two weeks.
This is a battle between groups and individuals.
Oz is bound to be in a state where he cannot rest comfortably even for a moment as he has to respond to surprise attacks.
But what you can get from doing so is only to earn time.
“A cowardly hypocrite.”
Why don’t you give in even in front of obvious results?
Theo eventually decided to devour others in order to survive.
However, Oz did not back down even in the face of obvious results.
It was as if he was reprimanding himself for not doing so.
“… … It will fail in the end.”
It was so unpleasant.
The result is obvious as you can see.
But nonetheless.
“It is certain that you too will eventually become a monster in the face of a catastrophic failure… … .”
He couldn’t take his eyes off the sight of him struggling.