Chương 98: Chapter 97

After Seraphina said those words, Nina was left dumbfounded. Before she could even regulate herself, she saw the Goddess move her hand and manipulate a sphere of light. After some time, she finished manipulating it and let go. The sphere split in half. One half dashed toward Seraphina's head, while the other dashed toward Nina's. The moment it touched her, Nina fundamentally understood everything. The existence of Seraphina and herself was due to a tradition practiced by these beings.

They would take their nature and separate it into two halves, sending each individual half to their respective worlds in order to experience lives before eventually returning and combining once more at the end of their lives. Once they returned, the being's nature would be examined. If the combined nature of the two halves had not fundamentally changed, then the being had succeeded in the process. But if it had changed, the being would have to face whatever had altered the fundamental nature of its divided parts.

This could be something that either changed their fundamental nature or improved their understanding of themselves. That being said, when Nina and Seraphina were separated from the being in front of them, Nina was never supposed to go into the Blackmore family. She was actually supposed to live the life in which Seraphina had lived, and should have been born into the Valcrest family. But due to some bugs, she ended up with the Blackmores, while Seraphina ended up with the Valcrest family.

This switch was not immediately apparent. In the beginning, they were both in a state of neutrality, and they remained in that state until the event that was supposed to bring out their respective natures appeared. But due to the changes, the event that was supposed to bring forth the good within Seraphina's neutral nature was twisted. In turn, this caused Nina to become the neutral evil counterpart.

She developed the need to forcefully twist her understanding of the world, which was simple enough when she was seven years old, and that misunderstanding continued to spread and truly grow, eventually becoming the person she was now. It was also the only way of life she could have. If the misunderstanding that had brought forth her awakening were ever resolved, then her fundamental nature would cease to exist, and she would be lost in the cosmos, never to appear again.

Therefore, for the sake of self-preservation, no matter what evidence was brought before Nina, her fundamental nature knew that she had to maintain the belief that had caused her awakening. She needed to believe that in order to gain affection from her family members, she had to do things in return. Otherwise, it would lead to the questioning of her identity. And because she was not the complete being, that would eventually mean the erasure of herself.

This was why Nina had always felt disconnected from her family, but felt more connected to Emma. Emma had spoken to her, and the reason Emma had ended up becoming her friend was because Nina had helped her in the past. Since that incident was connected to Nina's awakening, Nina felt that if she held this person close, her stability could be guaranteed.

But even with that, Nina remained shaky, and it wasn't until she had gotten the Fake Saintess Revenge that she felt more stable than at any other point, remembering what she had seen in the portal. Nina shook her head. Neither Seraphina nor Nina spoke. Nina fell into a brief state of silence. In this world, aside from the System forcing her to remain alive for extended periods of time, she had still chosen to stay even when she was alone. It wasn't so much a willingness to live as it was a reluctance to die.

But that was supposed to be her true state. Had she been in Seraphina's place and lived her life, she most likely would have made things much different.... Seraphina sighed after receiving her information. But instead of falling into despair, she looked at the Goddess with even greater calm and determination. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"This mistake was not something we brought upon ourselves. So why must this world suffer for it?" The Goddess did not speak. Instead, she turned her attention toward Nina, who was still lost in thought. By turning her attention toward Nina, Seraphina understood. The matter lay with Nina. The Goddess's melodic voice echoed through the space, pleasantly reaching Nina's ears and drawing her out of her thoughts.

"The matter lies with you." Nina frowned at the mention.

"Why is it with me?" The Goddess raised one hand. A ray of darkness flowed into her hands.

"You are the central cause of the Calamity."

"The Calamity is within your heart, being Neutral Evil itself."

"The Calamity was meant to be a part of you, and you were meant to struggle within the realms of evil and neutrality."

"But due to the changes, Cause and Effect had fallen through, leaving Seraphina, who is in itself Neutral Good to face something that was fundamentally her opposite counterpart."

"Therefore, the Calamity had to reset the world, destroying everything in sight in an attempt to try again, searching for the key that it needed to fight and struggle with."

"I'm sure you've already experienced the line in which Neutral Good was meant to face there own version of Calamity in that world called Earth, did you not?" Nina pursed her lips.

"But because of the fundamental alignment of evil, a heavy sense of disconnect emerged." The Goddess closed her hand as the darkness ran away.

"You need to choose." With a snap of her fingers, the System's cosmic entity came forth, along with Cause and Effect.

"Will you let go and return to the world you were fundamentally never supposed to be a part of?" The goddess asked.

"Or could it be that you wish to stay within this world prepared for your nature?"

"Or do you wish to combine with me?" Seraphina tried to speak, but with a wave of the Goddess's hand, her mouth was blocked.

"Silence, my good child. This is a matter of fate itself." Just as Nina was ready to open her mouth to choose, a slash echoed through the space.

"Seems as though we have a guest." The goddess spoke. Rosa, using a blade formed from her powers, had slashed through the Calamity. After getting into the area, she grabbed the corners of the space and ripped it open.

"Nina? Seraphina? Are you guys okay?" A blazing ray of golden merit lit up the darkness that filled the space, though it did not compare to the Goddess herself. It was still enough to draw Nina and Seraphina's attention.

"Hurry! I can't hold this any longer. Come out. I don't feel right about this Calamity." When the Calamity first started, Rosa had looked at the dark mist and felt intuitively that something was wrong. She didn't know why, but something was telling her that she needed to prepare. So she quickly sent a version of herself into her spatial space, where the line between the real world and the outside world remained, along with her consciousness. As she did, she felt as though her copy had been cut off.

The moment that happened, she felt as though everything in the world had frozen, as though everything had suddenly become eerily silent. In the middle of her spatial space, she opened different portals, checking to see if the world was as she thought it was. And as she suspected, the world had surely become silent. She was still checking when she heard footsteps.

Opening another portal, she saw that Nina and Seraphina were heading toward the Calamity, and she saw that the Calamity itself was still moving despite the world being frozen. Rosa felt that this was not right. Due to the frozen state, she couldn't send her clone in, so all she could do was somehow try to control herself from where she was with everything that she had.

She moved her fingers, using all her strength, because this was the first time she had ever tried to control something without having her consciousness physically there and being able to actively see what was happening. She felt that things were rather strange, but Rosa was not about to give up. She had always gotten a bad feeling from this. As she continued, she saw that they had already gone through the Calamity, but at least she had managed to get her hand to move freely.

Using that movement, she slowly dragged herself out of the state that made her feel like a frozen stick. While she was doing that, she felt a momentary pause in the world. This time, she couldn't even move. Her eyes felt heavy. She didn't understand. She felt conscious, but within the space, she couldn't even move herself. Rosa fell into great despair. Could it be that I'm still this powerless? Like I can't even save my dear friends? No. She had to find a way.

She tried to gauge all her powers, everything that she could use. But she didn't notice that, as she was doing that, the golden merit had slowly been absorbed into her. If the state had remained for any longer, perhaps Rosa would have been able to obtain the rest of the other half of the golden merit that she had consumed. Feeling the state disappear, Rosa felt relieved and stronger. Focusing once again on controlling her body, it felt much easier, though she was still quite slow.

But for the first time, controlling something that was not truly herself, without having her consciousness there and without being able to feel what she was doing, was something that made her happy. Slowly but surely, she made her way toward the swirling black Calamity. Every time she moved outside of her portal space, she would open another portal to show herself what she was seeing, allowing her to continue controlling the body.

Once she reached the outer edge of the Calamity, she tried to touch it, but she felt as though there were a hard wall blocking her. This cannot be it. She wished she had some sort of weapon. Maybe she could... Rosa slowly began to condense her powers. She created something made of nothing but her magical power. Rosa didn't even bother decorating it, as it was nothing more than a dark mass. As long as it was a blade, that was enough.

She began slashing at the Calamity over and over and over again, with each slash making it slightly easier as Rosa became more and more proficient at controlling the body. Eventually, she became so fast that, on her final strike, she saw a thin line. Seeing that, Rosa prepared to slash in the same position once more, putting all her mana and everything she had into the attack. She slashed. A wide gap appeared within the Calamity.

She grabbed both sides with her hands filled with mana, ripping the gap open and trying to transmit her voice through it. She tried multiple times, failing slightly each time, but after a while, she was finally able to get her voice through.

"Nina? Seraphina? Are you guys okay?" She tried to position a portal inside the Calamity, but she felt that doing so would consume everything, including her lifespan. She didn't understand what was happening in there, but this did not seem like a real Calamity. It felt much worse.

"Hurry! I can't hold on any longer. Come out! I don't feel right about this Calamity."

"Nina! Seraphina!" She felt as though she wanted to rest as a heavy drowsiness fell upon her. Rosa didn't understand. She could handle five thousand clones doing things simultaneously, all at once, but this was just controlling a single body. Yet she already felt tired. As she was about to fully pass out while holding the opening apart, she saw a figure coming through. Good. At least one of them is still alive. With that thought, Rosa finally lost consciousness and fell into a coma.