Path of the Extra

”Why go to such lengths for him? All of you—powerful gods—want him gone... but why? Just how powerful, how evil, can he truly be for all of you to act with such assiduity?”

Pollux asked, looking at Aevor.

”Is it because he ended the Holy War? Do you seek revenge because he sealed you all away?”

Aevor turned to him and narrowed his eyes.

A sudden, dreadful fear snaked over Pollux’s body, coiling around him. The time around him froze again, leaving him trapped where he stood as Aevor walked toward him, wearing the same maddened abhorrence Pollux himself had once shown toward the god.

”I never said he ended the Holy War,” Aevor said. ”He merely stopped it. Like a pause in time.”

He drew closer.

Pollux clenched his jaw. The false Pollux tried to step in front of him—only to realize that he, too, was frozen.

Once more, a heavy pressure of mana descended upon all of them. Breathing became difficult. And yet Pollux could not even bend his knees, unlike Lucifer and the Second Authority, who groaned on the ground as they struggled to endure.

”Make no mistake, child. The Holy War has never come to an end. Only the Age of Bellum Sacrum has. The Holy War itself has been going on for such an unfathomable length of time that your mind could never comprehend it.”

Then all of them heard it.

The slow, steady sound of a clock.

Tick...

Tick...

Tick...

Tick...

Aevor now stood directly before Pollux, looming over him as the god he was.

”And yet, the revenge I seek... the anger I bear toward the anomaly... has endured for far longer than even the Holy War itself.”

The ticking accelerated into a maddening crescendo, each second striking with the violence of a death knell, as though time itself had synchronized with the frantic palpitations of their hearts.

Hearts drowning in unspeakable trepidation.

”This is a story that has been unfolding for more than five hundred thousand years.”

”...!”

”And still, there has yet to exist someone both brave enough and foolish enough to bring it to an end.”

Five hundred thousand years?

Just...

Just how old was the God of Time?

No.

Just how old was the human called Azriel Crimson?

”Is that all you can do?” Pollux asked, forcing himself to remain steady. ”Try to make us fear that human? Is that your goal? If not because of the Holy War, then why do you and the Goddess of Death specifically want him dead?”

Pollux steadied himself and looked at Aevor with intrepidity.

Aevor merely regarded him with derision, while the other three remained visibly agitated.

”I pity you,” Aevor said. ”The Goddess of Death must not have told you much. And Lady Fate must have been equally quiescent.”

”It does not matter,” Pollux said. ”I will do what I was born to do.”

Yes.

The eyes of Aevor truly conveyed the ruth he felt for Pollux.

”A long time ago, that vile human stole something very precious from me.”

As if something had been triggered inside him, Pollux looked down and realized he could move again. His hand rose to cover his mouth as he recalled something he had seen in Azriel’s memory.

Something...

Someone had said something to Azriel.

Something the Goddess of Death had said to him.

———”To lose everything you once knew, without understanding. How pitiful... Oh, you are the child who stole from ț̶̢̛͇̰̱̐̇͆̆͘i̵͕͚̙̋̓̅͋̆͒m̷̢̢̡̛͚͛͗̓̑̈́̍̚͘ę̷͉̲̗̟̦̖͙̀͂͆̏̏.̸̹̤̭̼̝̻͉̏͆̇̾̄̀̊̚ͅd̷̢̛̼̺̯̩̖̙͇͒̉̇̍͌͐e̸͎͓̜̠͓͋͑̋̔̐͛͋́͘t̷̟͖̘̜̳̪̟̓͂̾̄̉͂͝ͅͅḧ̸͓͙̪̙̰́̎̿͛̓́̋̏̓.̴̡̢̘̩̤̭͒̓̈́͂͠... How vile.”

Those were the words the Goddess of Death had spoken to Azriel when he became the Son of Death.

As though he already knew what Pollux was thinking, Aevor gave a blithe smile.

”There was something else you assumed, child. Something else you were wrong about.”

Pollux shifted his gaze back toward him, silent and confused.

”You thought we did not know his memories were sealed?” Aevor said. ”We do. I do.”

”What...!? That is not possible, Father! Believe me, it must be a tri—”

Aevor merely glanced at Lucifer.

Lucifer fell silent at once, lowering his gaze beneath Aevor’s stare.

Then Aevor looked back at Pollux as though nothing had happened.

”Before the Age of Bellum Sacrum, hundreds of thousands of years had passed since I had last heard his name. Entire ages went by without me knowing whether he still existed at all. And when he finally emerged during the Holy War, he vanished once more, leaving behind nothing but uncertainty. It was not until mere chance—or perhaps fate and destiny, the very things he had destroyed with his own two hands—that we found him.”

His eyes sharpened.

”Living the life of a human called Leo Karumi.”

Something sinister, something close to anger, flashed through Aevor’s gaze.

”Then he disappeared again. How, I could not understand. Even now, I do not know. But finally, we had him. Azriel Crimson. After all that time, we finally had him in our grasp. And I made certain, personally, that he would have nowhere left to run.”

Then Aevor looked elsewhere.

Toward the place that gaze had come from.

”The fool does not remember. That gave us the advantage. More importantly, it gave us time. Leo Karumi, then Azriel Crimson. That is the sequence by which it has always unfolded.”

He paused.

”We knew the demon would be too problematic. We knew the anomaly might fight back in a way that would cost us too dearly if we acted too rashly. So the three of us created a [Unique Skill]. Not one meant to exploit everything we had. Not a blessing. Not a curse either.”

”You don’t mean...” Pollux’s voice quavered.

”The [Unique Skill] called [Redo] was created for the sole purpose of imprisoning him inside a time loop.”

”...!!”

The sound of the clock surged to full throttle.

Tick!

Tick!

Tick!

Tick!

”Moreover,” Aevor said, ”what better ally could we have than the anomaly himself, while his memories remained sealed?”

The gaze they felt from the demon suddenly intensified. An invisible pressure began to press down upon them.

But Aevor kept his eyes on Pollux.

”Humans are fragile creatures,” he said. ”But on occasion, they stumble upon wisdom. As they once put it...”

Aevor’s face lowered slightly.

”Keep your friends close.”

Then, abruptly, he gave an abstruse smile.

”And your enemies closer.”

He whispered the words before turning his face again, looking toward the Judged Realm.

Toward one specific scenario inside it.

”...Someone seems to be meddling with time.”