Endless Debt-Chapter 802 - 261: Writing Reality_2

"Darkness enveloped me, enveloped this land, and it is still further consuming everything."

As soon as Ewen finished typing, the glass around began shaking violently, as if something in the darkness were frantically striking the castle. Wave after wave, cracks spread across the glass, as if they might shatter at any moment, and within the cracks, tendrils of black air tried to seep indoors.

"The King of Demons is right by my side, tempting me with false faces..."

As if to correspond with Ewen’s text, Asmodeus released Ewen, and she slowly walked behind the desk. Meanwhile, her form was changing: her tall figure shortened, her flamboyant skirt turned into plain clothing, and her innocent face looked at Ewen.

"Is that so?"

The familiar voice made Ewen lose his focus for a moment. He stopped typing, looking at the familiar girl before him.

Cinderella, she appeared again in front of Ewen. Ewen thought he would never see her again. He barely felt a joy of reunion before a severe chill filled his heart.

Fake, it’s all fake. Cinderella never really existed, only Asmodeus.

Seeing Ewen’s remarkable change of expression, she laughed joyfully, then took out a book. The cover featured Bai Ou’s head, mouth wide open, eyes bulging, as if silently wailing.

"I can no longer remember the scene of our first meeting, Ewen. After all, there are too many souls for me to harvest; I can’t remember them all."

Asmodeus opened the book, pointing it towards Ewen, then slowly turned the pages.

Within the pages were pasted various Identity Cards, each with different ages, figures, appearances, and stories—just countless identities of Asmodeus playing among humans.

She expressed her annoyance, "There are too many. Which one have you fallen for?"

Ewen stared at her intently, but unlike Asmodeus’s mirth, Ewen’s face turned pale, as if drained of all blood.

"What are you talking about?" Ewen mumbled, then raised his voice in a roar, "What are you talking about!"

Ewen lost control and grabbed a pen, leaned over, and thrust it into Asmodeus’s hand, the sharp tip piercing her flesh, striking the desktop.

"Wow."

Asmodeus looked at Ewen in surprise, then slowly withdrew her hand. The wound expanded, blood gushing, yet she felt no pain, savoring some sort of delight instead.

Ewen stumbled backward, utterly out of composure, while Asmodeus suddenly vanished and then reappeared behind him, pressing him back onto the seat, then gently pushing his head forward, forcing Ewen to look outside the window.

"Tell me, Ewen, what do you see outside?"

Asmodeus made Ewen stare into the darkness, and his pupils were gradually engulfed in pitch-black. In the turbid, viscous dark, a hideous, dreadful voice began to emerge.

Ewen tried to convince himself that it was all false, all hallucinations, but his hands still uncontrollably touched the keys, fingers trembling.

"Speak it out, write it down."

The darkness began to solidify. The illusion felt too real as bloodshot eyes covered Ewen’s vision, and he muttered, "This isn’t real."

Asmodeus looked disappointingly, her fair hands covering Ewen’s bloodstained hands, like teaching him to use a typewriter, gently pressing his fingertips.

The keys were pressed down; fresh characters appeared on the snow-white paper.

"I will show you what’s in the darkness."

Asmodeus removed her hands, and Ewen could no longer control his own hands, compulsively tapping the keys again.

"In the darkness... there are demons..."

As soon as Ewen typed this line, reality morphed into the narrative: a demon leapt from the darkness, crashing into the glass, but the forceful strike couldn’t shatter it, leaving its own head bloodied, emitting blood-thirsty sounds as it retreated back into the darkness. Ewen didn’t think it had left; it was just searching for a gap to invade the castle.

More noises came from the darkness.

Asmodeus said, "Continue."

"I think I am cursed."

Another line etched onto the page, "I possess a certain power... the power to turn words into reality. This might also be the King of Demons’s trick; they would turn everything I write into reality."

A sorrowful wail echoed through the old castle’s long corridors, flies buzzed, and the stench of decaying blood and flesh filled the air.

"Is this the rescue letter you intended to write?"

Asdemor had found the page Ewen had written earlier from the stack, a letter to Bologue, containing Ewen’s confession, but only the beginning had been written.

"This isn’t a rescue letter."

Ewen shook his head, "This is my will."

Asmodeus extracted the page Ewen was currently writing from the typewriter and inserted it into the machine.

"No matter what it is, you have already written it. You must keep writing; it’s the rule. An author must finish his story."

Ewen, with mixed emotions, continued this prolonged torture.

"Bologue, I hope you can know my ending.

This is a prolonged struggle, an orchestration of fate. On that train, I think I truly fell in love with a devil, a spirit I never understood. I think I have come to terms with it, but the torment endures.

She is mocking me.

This story is supposed to be written from my own experience, and now... the story I write will become reality.

I don’t know how to keep writing; all I can imagine is death. And when I pen that despair, I think the real me... will inevitably meet genuine despair."

The demon’s howls echoed under the dark sky, and in Ewen’s writing, he escaped from the Joyful Garden, but within the Daisy Castle, Asmodeus found him again.

Ewen meticulously recorded what happened in reality, relaying it, intertwined with reality, reality and illusion meshing completely, and Ewen, like a true chronicler, recorded the castle’s collapse.

"My friend, I think it’s time for me to pay the price for my wild fantasies."

Ewen finished his will, simply narrating the reasons for it all and the cause of his death... Ewen didn’t want to die silently, without anyone to mourn him; that was too lonely.

Having written that, Ewen felt relief. He realized he wasn’t afraid of loneliness; he just needed someone to confide in. Such self-talk wasn’t bad, and Ewen thought he regained courage.

Perhaps to seek some comfort or suspecting it all would lead to nothingness, leaving no trace, Ewen hopefully wrote down.

"I hope you can see this."

A warm solace flowed through Ewen’s chest, then an immense fear arose. Ewen cursed himself for foolishly doing such a thing.

He ripped off the page, trying to erase that last line, but it was too late. Once Ewen wrote it, it turned into reality. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The page burned, fading away, slipping from Ewen’s grasp.

...

Palmer picked up the letter, his face filled with shock. He called out, "Bologue, come look at this."

Bologue removed his apron, not understanding Palmer’s astonishment, took the letter, and began reading, while Palmer collapsed on the couch, head splitting with pain.

"The game isn’t over."

Palmer said while holding his head, "At least, not for us."

Bologue set down the letter, his expression serious. At that moment, he recalled that enormous chessboard reflecting reality, where beyond the coastal map lay endless snow-capped mountains, beneath swirling blizzards, the true showdown would take place within the somber castle.

Bologue should have realized earlier.