“...”

The atmosphere congealed for a beat.

Compared to the endless Holy Light Feier had unleashed, the sight of a vicious, horrifying Evil God’s residue being smashed to pieces by a dignified young woman wielding cold steel somehow felt... oddly cute in its contrast.

“Yo~” Paul couldn’t help letting out a frivolous whistle. “Now that’s a woman with personality.”

“...”

An didn’t respond. She simply controlled the iron thorns and ground it down again.

Only then did Muen finally snap back to himself.

He stared hard at the few remaining charred scraps—what was left after the Holy Light’s scorching and the iron thorns’ churning—and suddenly felt like the story had veered off-script.

He hadn’t even gotten to make a move. How had the Love God already kicked the bucket?

First appearance: heart pounding, terrified.

Second appearance: a brutal, desperate battle.

Third appearance: tense, fully braced.

And now? This time it showed up, and he hadn’t even finished drawing his blade before “little Love” was already done for. The pressure it gave off was honestly weaker than your mom cleaning your room in the morning before you’ve even gotten out of bed.

The “aura” kept dropping—at this rate it was going to fall straight through the floor.

“Miss Feier... you came prepared?”

“It’s not that I came prepared. This power was meant for something else,” Feier replied. “We only happened to notice its traces. As a member of the Church of Life, I couldn’t just stand by.”

She’d already closed her eyes again. Her face was pale. Even as a mere vessel for Holy Light, burning through that much of it clearly wasn’t something she could sustain for long.

In terms of affinity with Holy Light, she was now completely inferior to Liya, who had become a Saintess.

“Yeah, yeah. What a coincidence.” Muen rubbed his chin. “But this thing isn’t going to play dead and come back, is it?”

He used the tip of his blade to poke at the remnants, carefully prying them around.

Even in this state, it had been that sly Love God. Low “aura” didn’t mean it wasn’t still weird as an Evil God. Who knew what kind of backhanded trick it might still have? He couldn’t afford not to be cautious.

So...

“Go on, Teacher Mela!”

“Do what?”

“Please check it.”

“I can check it, of course,” Mela said with a very sweet smile—one overflowing with doll-like innocence. “But if you don’t let go...”

“My flower sea happens to be missing a daylight lamp. And wouldn’t you know it—my dear disciple has a perfectly good head. Don’t you agree?”

“...”

Tch.

He’d been hoping to take the chance to pinch the doll’s cheeks a little.

Muen let go with a regretful sigh. Mela’s head floated up on its own. Paul—who’d been watching that moving doll head the whole time—widened his eyes and sidled over, lowering his voice.

“A few months and your tastes have gotten this... specific? You won’t even let a head go? I mean, it is pretty cute, but...”

“What tastes? Do you think I’m some kind of pervert?” Muen rolled his eyes.

Paul didn’t answer, but his look clearly said, You seriously don’t realize?

Muen’s mouth twitched. So his reputation really was getting ruined by {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} these idiots’ nonsense.

He didn’t argue. He just suddenly hooked an arm around Paul’s shoulder.

“After saying that, you should be careful.”

“Careful? Careful about what?”

“That ‘cute doll head’ you’re talking about might look like she has a good temper right now,” Muen said cheerfully, “but she’s actually petty. When we get back, she might have someone send a message to some long-unseen elder in your family... say, a great-grandfather...”

“And then?” Paul swallowed.

“And then you’ll experience what ‘an elder’s affection’ really means.” Muen patted his shoulder, his gaze already full of an elder’s affection.

“...”

Paul froze for a long moment before finally reacting. He’d caught the hint that the doll head’s identity wasn’t simple. His expression turned strange at once.

“But didn’t you also say she’s petty?”

“It’s fine.”

Muen lifted his head at a forty-five-degree angle, staring into the sky. In his calm, lake-still eyes gathered the weariness and depth of someone who’d seen through the world.

“At worst, my head gets hung up in the sky as a lamp. Compared to what I’ve suffered in Teacher Mela’s hands, that’s basically the lightest punishment there is.”

“...”

“So you’re unhappy with my kindness,” Mela’s head said.

At some point, it had drifted back.

She didn’t spare Paul even a glance. In truth, from the beginning she hadn’t cared about these young people at all—what they said, what they did.

Of course she wasn’t going to “make things hard” for them.

She didn’t care.

But her disciple was another matter.

“Looks like my dear disciple misses the feeling of his teacher personally bathing him.” Mela smiled with exquisite gentleness. “When we get back, I’ll satisfy you properly~”

“...”

Muen’s heart lurched.

Personally bathing him... she meant tossing him into a huge cauldron and boiling him alive, right? Then adding a bunch of “ingredients” like Evil God fragments?

That soul-piercing, sour-sweet sensation seemed to rise back up in his mind.

That sort of thing—no, thank you.

“All right. Back to business,” Mela said.

She had no interest in continuing this warm teacher-disciple skit in front of outsiders—especially after that “personally bathing Muen” line had made everyone’s expressions weird. An was even starting to wonder if this was a new kind of pest.

Mela didn’t care at all. She returned to the point.

“It won’t come back. At least not here.”

“So there really isn’t any backhanded trick? It’s just that weak?” Muen asked, surprised.

“It’s not ‘weak.’ The Love God is one of the Evil Gods, but it doesn’t actually have much power of its own.” Mela’s face was full of disdain. “Most of what it has now is basically stolen.”

“The Love God has to rely on those it controls—those it corrupts—to gain power. While most Evil Gods gain followers through brute force and mental Pollution, it can only exploit holes in the human heart. Among all Evil Gods, whether in raw strength or in the Authority itself, it truly doesn’t measure up.”

She nodded toward the ash.

“Like now. It used that demonfolk crowned one’s body as a vessel. Once the body is destroyed, it can’t do anything.”

“So that’s why it’s called the shame of the Evil Gods,” Muen sighed.

Its first appearance had been overflowing with “aura,” but the more time passed, the more he felt “little Love” had a faintly comedic vibe.

“You can’t put it that way,” Mela said. “It might be lacking in power, but it’s still an Evil God.”

“Its Authority is still extremely disgusting. That Pollution is completely different from any other Evil God’s. It isn’t affected by any external force, and it isn’t affected by how strong the corrupted person is.”

“It only targets the human heart.”

“The human heart?” Muen frowned.

“Yes. The heart. The Love God’s corruption is special. It can plant a seed in your heart ahead of time. The process might be a single glance. It might be one contact with a corrupted person. It might even be touching some object related to it.”

“In any case, once the seed is planted, it hides in the deepest part of the mind. Under normal conditions, it’s almost impossible to detect.”

“That scary?” Muen’s brows knit tighter.

“Relax. That almost unconditional planting also means the seed itself does nothing. It doesn’t affect your thoughts, and it can’t influence your mind in the slightest. It’s more like a mark placed in advance.” Mela’s expression grew a shade heavier. “But...”

“Once the ‘soil’ inside your heart meets the right conditions and the seed actually takes root and sprouts, you’re finished. No matter how strong you are... it’ll give it a perfect opening.”

“...I see.” Muen’s eyes narrowed.

It was true. Whether it had been Eluca in the beginning, or that former Saintess from the Church—none of them had been corrupted by brute-force mental overwrite.

They’d fallen because a crack formed inside their hearts.

Twisted love—an Authority that sounded half-true and half-false—was exactly what made the Love God so disgusting and so uncanny.

To be honest, even now Muen didn’t know where the boundary of “twisted love” lay. What kind of love counted as twisted? How far did it have to go before it became twisted?

Most people probably couldn’t answer that either—so before the Love God set its eyes on them, they stayed blissfully unaware of danger.

“You should be careful,” Mela said with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “With how promiscuous you are, you might get hit someday.”

“What are you talking about?” Muen said solemnly. “My love is very devoted and pure.”

“Heh... I hope so.”

Muen had zero desire to keep discussing “true love” with this out-of-touch old doll. Once the Love God topic ended, he turned to the others.

“So you’re still here because you were specifically tracking the Love God’s traces?” Muen had run into Paul and Reta earlier in a room, and he’d guessed Annie would be with Reta. What he hadn’t expected was that the other person wasn’t Margarita, but Feier.

Then again, Margarita was still a princess of a nation. She couldn’t possibly take part in a dangerous deep-Abyss mission like this.

“That’s one of the reasons,” Feier said. “But the most important thing is that we’re also here to help the female adventurers trapped inside escape.”

“We already secretly led a third of the captives out, but...” She paused. “Just now, something unbelievable seemed to happen. All demonfolk died.”

“To be safe, we’re investigating the cause. Mr. Campbell, do you know anything about this?”

Annie had asked the same question earlier, but Feier still couldn’t suppress her curiosity.

Gutongs Castle—maybe even the entire demonfolk—had completely vanished from the world. The Abyss was no longer humanity’s forbidden zone; it had become unowned land.

Something this absurd was enough to shake the entire continent. Compared to it, the war between Empire and Kingdom felt trivial.

And those chains that had filled the sky earlier, and that rainbow light that had split heaven and earth—those weren’t things you could just ignore. They’d even faintly heard a terrifying roar... like a dragon from legend.

“Well...” Muen glanced at Mela.

“You don’t need to worry about it,” Mela sighed and took over. “I’ll talk to Hezekiah myself. If you want answers, go ask him when you get back.”