“Good afternoon, Ailuka. Have you eaten?”

“That roast lamb from last time—really hit the spot.”

Muen stood atop the writhing flesh, looking down at Ailuka below.

All killing intent was hidden. All hostility discarded. Muen smiled faintly as he wiped the blood off his face, as if he were meeting an old friend. His eyes were soft.

The sun was warm. With the light behind him, he was wrapped in a sacred halo.

“Ah...”

Ailuka stared blankly at Muen, as if the curve of his lips had soothed her rage. Her still-delicate face softened.

“Mister Muen... have you finally come to accept my love?”

“I’m not going to accept your love,” Muen said.

“Why? Is it... because my love isn’t enough?”

Ailuka widened her eyes in confusion.

“But I’ve already given everything I have. My blood, my flesh, my soul—is that... still not enough?

I just wanted all of you to be with me forever. I just wanted you to accept my love.

So why? Why won’t you, or Master, accept it?”

“Of course we won’t,” Muen murmured, lowering his gaze.

“Because that’s not love.”

“Not love...”

Ailuka echoed, voice soft. Then her expression twisted violently, like she’d just been gravely insulted.

“Liar. Liar! This is love. This is love!

Look! Everyone who’s accepted my love—they’re so happy!”

All around her, the hundreds of faces screamed once more. A tidal wave of “I love you” surged out, a sonic ocean threatening to drown everything.

The limbs that had been shattered by the man’s final blow regenerated, rising again like hunting sea anemones, surging toward Muen.

“Come now, Mister Muen, let’s be together forever. My love—it’s infinite!” Ailuka smiled as she locked eyes with him, gaze brimming with adoration.

Like a girl gazing at her beloved.

But how could Muen be her beloved?

Her true beloved was never him.

And love... is not infinite.

Only what is directed toward the one you love—that can be called love.

“...So trying to wake you up with words really was just a naive fantasy,” Muen sighed quietly.

He lifted his eyes. His expression hardened.

He no longer looked back—because he knew that Anne, finally freed up, would absolutely protect his back.

So Muen gripped his short blades and plunged them into either side of Ailuka’s head.

“AHHH!”

Ailuka’s face twisted in agony—a real, visceral pain. Possibly the first she had truly felt.

The monster’s enormous body convulsed violently. The flesh beneath Muen’s feet rippled like a storm-tossed sea.

It tried to hurl him off.

“Anne!”

He didn’t need to say more.

A bridge of steel shot up through the monster’s flesh, stopping right under Muen’s feet.

With solid footing, Muen drew a deep breath—and brought both blades slashing down with full force.

Massive wounds tore open on either side of Ailuka’s head. The crimson flesh within twisted and reformed, healing far faster than any other part of her body.

Almost as if... something was hidden there.

“So I’ve found the right spot, huh?”

A smile curved on Muen’s lips. Abruptly, he released his blades and plunged both hands into the gaping, grotesque wound.

The monster’s blood corroded his arms, but Muen didn’t even flinch. His fingers searched deeper through the flesh.

The monster screamed, thrashing harder, but every attack was blocked—Anne gritting her teeth and giving everything she had to shield him.

At this point, she’d never let her Young Master be harmed again.

At last, Muen’s hands found something solid.

“No no no no—stop! Stop!”

The moment he touched it, sheer terror flooded Ailuka’s eyes.

She screamed at him to stop—but with only a head left, what could she do?

She couldn’t even lift her beloved wand.

And the one who had always protected her... had just become one of those faces that could only whisper I love you.

Muen’s smile grew brighter—his gaze, more sorrowful.

“Finally caught you, you damn Evil God.”

He pulled his hands free from the flesh.

Gripped tightly in his palm was a statue.

A girl, embracing a heart, as if she were trying to press it deep into her chest. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Though pulled from bloody flesh, the statue was completely unstained. Instead, it emitted a soft, holy light—so radiant it made you want to kneel instinctively.

No doubt about it. This was the source of the corruption.

Now, all he had to do... was destroy it.

“Anne!”

Not that he even needed to shout—Anne had been watching closely and was already prepared.

The moment Muen tossed the statue into the air, a jungle of steel crashed forward like a dump truck going berserk in rush hour.

The mass of metal swallowed the statue, twisting and compressing—again and again like a massive industrial press—until finally, rotating blades carved both steel and statue into dust.

Under Anne’s control, the metal reformed—but the statue’s fragments could not.

Scattered in the roaring autumn wind, they vanished without a trace.

Not even dust was left behind.

Truly, nothing ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) remained.

“It’s over.”

Watching this, Muen finally let out a long breath.

It was finally over.

But the moment his mind relaxed, exhaustion surged through his body like a crashing wave.

His legs buckled—he nearly collapsed.

He barely managed to catch himself on the monster’s body.

“So disgusting...”

Muen straightened, flicking his hands with revulsion. He looked for something to wipe the monster’s stinking blood and mucus off—

Then suddenly realized—

He was still wearing that damn beast-hide skirt.

“Can’t believe Anne managed to hold it in and not roast me.”

A tiger-skin-skirted hero saving the world... Seriously, what the hell.

But it probably didn’t matter.

After all, the only living people left here... were him and Anne.

Muen glanced down at Ailuka’s head—eyes closed—and at all those faces that no longer moaned I love you.

He gave a bitter smile.

Turned to wave at Anne, who was running toward him from a distance.

He opened his mouth to say something—

And froze.

Wait. Something’s wrong.

If the medium the Evil God used to channel its power was gone... why was the monster’s body still intact?

This thing was clearly a patchwork abomination fused together by divine corruption. Without that power, it should’ve disintegrated instantly.

Could it be—

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!”

Muen screamed at Anne.

Then immediately turned around.

And just as he did, he heard it—

The sound of water dripping.

A drop of pure black liquid, source unknown, landed squarely on Ailuka’s forehead.

Too late to stop it.

Ailuka’s eyes snapped open.

No whites. No pupils.

Only endless black.