,
Mr. Handsome looked at Teyat with sudden surprise.
"I-I don't understand?"
It was too late.
Teyat, in return for being torn apart 365 times by Mr. Handsome in agony, used one of the greatest rewards given to him in his previous world before death—his ability to lie. He performed a flawless, masterful act, making Mr. Handsome believe in his lies, transferring to him the endless suffering and curse he had endured in the infinite cycle of pain.
Because of this, Mr. Handsome, trusting Teyat's magnificent and seemingly sincere lies, refused his duty of his own will, condemning himself to eternal torment.
And it was too late to find any solution to escape this endless torment, even if there was a one percent chance. Because Teyat, to fulfill his task assigned by the God of Darkness, began to move slowly but surely to the designated place.
In the simple and plain darkness, his headless body, emitting white sparkles as it slowly faded away, illuminated the darkness. Alongside him, a book floating in the air also disappeared with the white sparkles.
Teyat, as the white sparkles climbed from his feet to the top of his body, gave a smile to Mr. Handsome, who looked at him in shock, trembling with growing fear and dread.
But this smile held neither deceit nor mockery.
Before disappearing into the white sparkles, Teyat gave a pure, sincere smile.
And with seriousness.
"I'm sorry and thank you, Mr. Handsome. I'm sorry for giving you the endless suffering from the cycle where you are about to go after this task, but you deserved it. And..."
His smile grew with pure sincerity from his undefined mouth.
"And thank you for giving me the experience. The experience of dying hundreds of times."
With a broad smile and the genuine words leaving his mouth, the sparkles rose further up his body, reaching his waist as his headless form slowly disappeared.
Mr. Handsome's surprise shifted to a bitter smile of hopelessness as he sighed.
"What a great liar you are, hehe... Well, for thousands of years, I stood alone in this realm, with my sole duty from the moment I existed being to guide the heirs of the Darkness, to introduce them to their legacy, and to apply what was necessary for them."
He smiled.
"I cut you up, tore you apart, countless times. And I lived the most thrilling, exciting moments of my existence. I'm sorry for killing you over and over again, but thank you for letting me enjoy it. Heir of the Darkness... Good luck to you as well."
The sparkles reached the middle of Teyat's chest, most of his body now gone, and the book engulfed in dark flames had already disappeared.
Before leaving this place, the last words Teyat heard from Mr. Handsome, spoken in that careless tone, were:
"Seriously, you... you're such a cunning bastard. You know that?"
Teyat responded sincerely to the last words he heard.
"Thank you."
And with a glow of white light, both the Heir of Darkness and the Book of Darkness vanished from the darkness.
In the plain, empty darkness, Mr. Handsome, once again, placed his hands behind his back, clasped them together, and offered a pitiful smile towards the dark sky.
"I'm alone, I'm alone again. With my darkness and the pain to come. I'm alone."
Mr. Handsome sighed deeply. And disappeared into the darkness with white lights from head to toe
•
"Sleep early and mentally prepare yourselves for your first mission. Tomorrow, we will perform the soul sacrifice ceremony to our supreme deity."
In the woodland area, with towering trees whose enormous leaves covered the starlit night sky, a group of people sat around a large fire. The trees, bearing these massive leaves, were home to a forest that hosted tents reminiscent of those used by nomadic peoples of old. There were five tents arranged in a circle, facing the fire, made of fabric in black and brown hues. Each person wore garments adorned with a red rose symbol, sewn onto the right side of the chest. The rose was closed, with a thin, red stripe running vertically from the top of the rose, down past the belly button, ending at the kidney area. Along the edges of this stripe were slight ridges. In addition, a white stripe, also thin and slightly ridged, extended horizontally from the rose to the left side of the chest.
These people, all dressed in the same uniforms with the rose symbol, continued discussing the ceremony they would conduct tomorrow.
After the reincarnation process, Teyat's soul had taken over a body that appeared to be in its late teens or early twenties. This body had moderately long, wavy, onyx-colored hair that gently swayed in the cool breeze, and eyes with pupils the color of blood. However, his right eye had four faint black lines extending from the top, bottom, left, and right of the pupil, reaching toward the outer edges of the eye. His new face was slightly more attractive than the one he had before death, but not overly so. He now stood in a circle with four others, all dressed in the same uniforms, around the fire.
Teyat, surprised by his new body, opened his eyes wide in astonishment and gazed at the fire with an emotionless, somewhat cold expression. Then, he looked around, examining the tents encircling them and continuing to observe his surroundings, still in shock.
Beside him, someone with slightly curly hair and closed, brown eyes—who had been gazing into the fire—turned to look at the newly reincarnated Teyat, who was staring around in surprise.
"Hey, newbie, what's with the shock? Is this your first time seeing this forest?"
Teyat, still scanning his surroundings in amazement, turned his startled gaze towards the curly-haired, brown-eyed person who was wearing the same outfit with the rose symbol and stripes.
"What?"