While being constrained by Black Alice, Matthias' fears only increased as he saw the apoptosis' charred skin cracking apart even further, revealing cancerous growths protruding from everywhere across her body.
Said growths took different shapes and colors, completely erasing every single bit of Alice's silhouette until nothing was left anymore. Instead, in her place, there now was a completely different entity that was made up of flesh and metal merged chaotically, impossible to see where one ended and where the other began.
Now, she looked like a being that shouldn't biologically exist, not to mention clinically alive.
But at the moment, Matthias didn't even bother observing the new apoptosis' appearance… Because how could he possibly focus on that when he just found himself suddenly being at point-blank range of an actual firearm's barrel?!
"Eli■■n■te…" That was the last thing Matthias heard from the apoptosis before—
*—BANG!*
…The trigger was pulled.
An explosion of wind slammed on his visage almost like a huge slap, forcing his eyes shut from the mere shockwave; his ears rang out from the sheer blasting noise that hit his eardrums, almost deafening him.
But surprisingly, Matthias felt… fine?
When he recovered from his stunned state, he opened his eyes once again to see what was going on, and it was then that he was greeted by the vision of the apoptosis for a second time…
…Or at least, what was left of her.
In the place where she once stood, there was now a fleshy stump covered in blood and loose electrical wires that released sparks whenever they connected. It was like an invisible giant just scooped up her entire upper body.
But looking just a bit above the stump, right over Matthias' head, one could easily guess that it must have been Black Alice who killed the apoptosis before it could kill him, because… well…
…there was a voracious maw of massive sizes loosely hanging from above — chewing up bloody flesh and crunching down metal plates — seemingly originating from the shadows below Black Alice's long skirt.
「なんて失礼でしょう,あの老狐から正しいきテーブルマナーを教えてもらわなかったのかしら?」The monster spoke to the thing with a tone that suggested annoyance and suppressed surprise, but soon enough, that bewilderment turned into pure revulsion before the maw opened up and spit the remains of the apoptosis.
「不味い... どうしてキメラみたいな味がするんでしょうか ?」
After being eaten and spit out by Black Alice, now what was left of the apoptosis was reduced to conditions that were incomparably worse than the cancerous mutations she underwent a few seconds ago.
Red blood and minced flesh mostly comprised her new form, with some broken and bent metallic plates carrying a familiar militaristic pattern that were pushed inside the chewed meat.
The carcass was also melting down at a visible rate, as if it was sprinkled with a highly acidic substance. It was bloating and bubbling, releasing horrible gasses that could probably wake up even the dead if smelt.
However, what was going through his head wasn't Alice's corpse being turned into an apoptosis, nor was it the new cadaver that had been horrifically mangled up beyond recognition, or even the vomit-inducing smell being filtered through his nose…
…It was his future.
He knew that this was how he would end up, now that he was in Black Alice's clutches.
And that thought… It scared him.
He could already imagine himself being crushed by her maw, severed apart by her teeth, minced apart from flesh to bones until only a bloody mush was left. And the pain he would feel during that period…
…He couldn't even dare to say it was "unimaginable", because that was exactly what he was doing: imagining himself screaming his soul out as his skin would get lacerated on multiple spots, his organs crushed into a paste, and his broken bones impaling him from the inside while Black Alice's teeth tore him apart from the outside.
Folded and refolded, his outsides turning into insides, snap, crack, chew…
*Thump!* Suddenly, Black Alice released Matthias from her tentacle grasp, prompting him to fall on the ground with his bottom touching the dirt. But that wasn't a surprise for either of them.
Matthias did just piss on himself, after all…
As different liquids pooled under his crotch and his eyes, Black Alice looked at her wet tentacle in disgust, before gazing down at the crying man as he caught a panic attack.
「汚らわしいわ... まあ,さっさと終わらせたほうがいいかもしれませんわ.私は忙しい身なのだからね.」 She muttered with a bored expression before she casually swung her tentacle arm around, as if to wipe off the stain of piss from it.
And then, when she was done with that, her tentacle arm began to shift once again.
This time, it opened up in the mid-section, from its tip to the base of the tentacle. It split precisely in half, revealing yet another predatory maw of long sizes, covered in teeth both around the edges and inside – worse than a shark's mouth and more akin to an iron maiden.
Just by looking at it once, one could already see that the reason why such a horrible thing existed was not to just chew up a victim and swallow them down, but to inflict as much pain as possible by impaling the "food" with all of its teeth and extracting as much blood as the devoured vessel contained.
It was an organ made up for pure sadism, having nothing to do with fulfilling one's hunger. A living torture device.
A fearful expression adorned Matthias' face as he stared at the carnivorous tentacle, watching it twist in his direction and growled like some kind of blind beast that was ready to pounce at him. The voracious maw from before also spun around to face him, opening its salivating mouth in cannibalistic starvation.
"W-Wait, I don't want to die…" He whimpered, backing as far as he could from the human-eating limbs in front of him, all while crawling on the ground like the pathetic prey that he appeared to be.
This wasn't fair, so Matthias thought, injustice filling up his heart as some of his fears got converted into indignation.
How did things even come to be this way, so he asked himself, while his thoughts ran faster than ever trying to come up with a justification for this horrible end of his.
It wasn't like he did something out of the ordinary in the past days: he woke up early in the morning, went to work, sighed in relief when everything went fine, or cursed God when everything was going badly.
He did that for months, adding nothing new throughout this entire time.
So why? What was that he did that cursed him to die like this?!
"Fuck you…!" As his grip on Luka's sword tightened, Matthias' mind turned all the fear tinged in his heart into righteous anger.
He was NOT going to let his life end this way, goddamn it!
Matthias glared back at Black Alice, who was flanked by the two voracious creatures that were part of her body, and raised his sword in defiance with no other choice at disposal.
It didn't matter if it was some random weirdo across the road, the cruel Monster Lord of a pornographic game, or some nigh-omnipotent God watching him from the sky…
"...If you want a piece of me, you've got to earn it!"
A thin smile took shape on Black Alice's face at the sight of the struggling man, and with the desire to see how far he could go, she sicced her beasts onto—
"—ILIAAAAAAS!!!" All of a sudden, the man bellowed to the skies, taking the monster by surprise for an instant and prompting her to stop her assault on him as she recognized the Goddess' name coming out of his mouth, regardless of the language barrier between the two of them..
"I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, YOU CUNT!! I KNOW ABOUT YOUR SECRET PLANS TO USE BLACK ALICE AND BECOME A REAL GOD!!"
His voice echoed in the silent woods, expressing a revelation that would have turned the world upside down if it ever got to the public, but with nobody around remotely capable of understanding a single word of what he just said… Well, it wasn't truly "nobody" who could understand him, however.
*CRACK!* Thunder suddenly echoed back from the clear sky, as if a certain Goddess was answering his desperate screams with surprise or outrage.
And as Black Alice raised an eyebrow at the unusual turn of events and kept her voracious beasts back in line under the sound of the thunderclap, Matthias merely glared at her upon noticing her backing down, and regardless of whether he could be comprehended or not, he boldly told her.
"Go fuck yourself, whore." He taunted her with a mocking smile as he pointed his sword at her in false bravado.
He didn't know what else would happen after this, but as long as he could live for longer, he was willing to go against his morals and doom everyone else but him for the sole goal of staying alive.
And as he kept his gaze up to the frozen Black Alice, he decided to remain still, knowing that he didn't truly have the opportunity to run away at this point. He could only wait for the Goddess' judgement, assuming she actually heard him and that stray thunder that resonated in the sky just now wasn't something else.
Time passed, and Matthias gradually began to relax due to the inactivity the devil in disguise showed, acting as if she lost her focus on him and delved in her own thoughts.
Clearly, something was happening in the background, something that he had no way to learn about. Was Black Alice lost in her thoughts? Was she communicating with Ilias telepathically? Was she doing something else entirely? Nobody could truly tell the answer to that question.
Eventually, the voracious maws she formed with her flesh gradually receded back into her body, leaving behind only the blonde young woman that she initially took the shape of.
And then, as she flashed a small and mysterious smile toward him, and while holding onto her bear doll with one arm, Black Alice casually lifted the side edge of her skirt with her free hand for an elegant saluting bow. Then, she silently turned around and—
*Fwoosh!*
—She flickered out of existence, leaving behind only a momentary afterimage before it vanished too.
And with that, Matthias was now completely alone in the crater.
There was not a single trace of the blonde devil, and there was still no sight of the blonde Goddess either. Meanwhile, the pile of flesh and metal that was once the 16th Alice was now fully digested into a horrid black puddle that still smelled like a rotting corpse.
And yet, Matthias began losing all the rebellious courage he built up until now and was getting more anxious as time passed by, despite not being under the threat of Black Alice anymore.
He did it… He actually said it.
It hadn't even been a whole hour since he arrived in this world, and he already committed possibly the worst action he could have possibly managed to accomplish in his whole life here.
He… told Ilias that he knew secrets about her that nobody else in this world was supposed to know.
He truly fucked up, didn't he?
"..." Matthias remained taciturn and in a trance as he blankly stared into the ground, not knowing what he should do now as he began to regretfully curse himself out for his rash actions.
Now that Ilias knew about him, the only options left for him was to either join Ilias' side or die; there was no gray area in between.
And as for surviving by taking Ilias' side in the secret war between her supremacy and the monsters' proliferation… Well, that was practically a luxury at this point, wasn't it?
Because why would she keep him alive?
He appeared out of nowhere, disrespected her, and almost fucked up her plans beyond repairs by telling Black Alice what they were, with his only saving grace being that the monster girl couldn't even understand his language…
At this point, it wouldn't be surprising if he was struck down by a stray lightning right where he stood. The only reason that didn't happen yet was most likely because that woman wanted to question him about his knowledge of her secrets.
He was so doomed… He shouldn't have said anything… No, he shouldn't have gone out of the tavern at all.
Matthias sat down on the dirt and kept his blank stare as he put himself in a more comfortable position, left befuddled on his current situation. He dropped Luka's sword beside him and went up to hug his legs close to his chest, instinctively keeping himself as compact as he could.
Maybe… Maybe he should find a pleasurable way to die before Ilias could strike him down? It wasn't like he was going to be allowed to live, in the end.
Although, the closest lethal monster girl from Iliasville would be… the Roper Girl set further north of the continent? She was kind of way too far for his liking.
Well… He might as well make peace with himself now.
*Yawn!* A tired groan escaped from Matthias' mouth as the silence and lack of activity in the surroundings were starting to get to him.
…Speaking of activity, didn't he leave the village for Luka's sake?
"...Fuck it, there's no point on it anymore." After spending a few hesitant moments thinking about the issue, Matthias muttered under his breath with a surrendering tone.
Alice was already dead, there was no way Luka could manage on his quest without anyone who was an actually capable person watching over him during his journey.
At this point, Ilias supposedly should be starting to rewind time back to a moment where everything could still be fixed, since all the retries available after every Game Over reached within the game of Monster Girl Quest were part of the story's lore under the guide of the Goddess' intervention. But, so far, no such thing was happening right now.
Maybe time had already been rewinded, and he was left in a forsaken timeline where the main protagonists of Monster Girl Quest were dead…
Maybe Ilias was still doing preparations for the eventual rewind, which may or may not include his unexpected presence in this world…
Or maybe something else happened…
'…God, this crap is so confusing.' Matthias suddenly stood up, picking his sword half-way through before standing upright, and as he took a deep breath, he marched outside the crater.
Whatever decision or action Ilias was going to take, whatever fate Luka was doomed into, whatever would happen to the future of this world… None of it mattered, in the end.
His fate was sealed, nothing could change that.
"Let's just go back to the village." He muttered with a casual tone as he tried to climb over the steep land surrounding the center of the crater, but failed to do so as he couldn't get a proper grip on the surface and slipped back to the middle.
"..." Matthias silently stared at the vague trail his body had left on the dirt before looking up to the edge of the crater he was trying to reach.
…Was he stuck here?
'Fucking hell, not a single thing can go right in here, can it?' He thought in irritation as he tried to climb the steep cliff again, using the sword on his hands this time.
However, whether it was because the sword was not sharp enough or because he was too weak to do it, he couldn't pierce through the ground's tough surface.
And thus, plan B was cut off even before it could have its chance to shine…
If the sword didn't work, he doubted that he could use his own job's tools too, as they were just cheap screwdrivers, scissors, and various similar tools he carried around being the electrician he was.
Well, God be damned, he was actually stuck here.
Matthias sat back onto the ground and put his sword down once more, quickly giving up at the idea of leaving the area. He was going to die soon anyway, so why would he care about where he was?
"I wonder if I'm going to end up in Heaven after I die…" He whispered with a curious tone as he looked up to the blue sky in wonder.
If he remembered his information correctly, the afterlife of this world was a concrete concept governed by the Goddess, overseeing the souls that came into her Heaven and sending them to reincarnate afterward.
If he actually went up there after being killed by Ilias herself… Well, that would be awkward.
On the other hand, while there wasn't any sort of equivalent to Hell in this world, there was the Sealed Sinner's Prison where the worst people in the world had their souls sealed in with no chance to reincarnate anymore. Considering what he had said up in the wind, he might very well end up there instead.
…He could try to meet the legendary hero Heinrich over there, since he was sealed in that place for rebelling against Ilias after his attempt at killing Black Alice during his era.
Since at that point Matthias could even forget about joining the cycle of samsara, he could take his time to talk around with his possible future prison mate about some interesting stuff that was never talked about in the games, at least not yet.
About what were his feelings toward Black Alice, what happened between his act of slaying her and his rebellion toward the Goddess who tasked him to do the former…
Even though Matthias knew the game's story by heart at this point, there were still lots of things in the backstory that were left blank for the sake of the present time's plot. As a fan of Monster Girl Quest, he was incredibly curious about such matters that weren't explained at all, at least within the first game and the two currently released parts of the sequel.
Well, he first had to see what sort of end he would meet under Ilias' hands…
…Speaking of which, what was he actually waiting for?
"Why is she not here yet?" Matthias wondered with an interested frown.
Did Alice leave such an ugly mark on the Goddess' face for her to not show up yet? Or was she doing some sort of preparation? Maybe…
*Sniff*
…Hmm?
Feeling something akin to mucus slithering out of his nose all of a sudden, Matthias swiped on his face with a finger before blowing his nostrils out with his hands. Did he catch a cold during his stay in this place?
That was dangerous… He was in another world, so there might be no telling over what sort of unknown disease he might get in the period of time he walked around here. Not that it mattered, of course—
—Huh?
…Why was there blood on his hand? And so much of it, too?
————————————————————————
…Huh?
Matthias blinked in surprise as he saw the huge stain on his hand, just for it to suddenly disappear as soon as he reopened his eyes… alongside everything else in his surroundings.
"—The fuck?" He was left befuddled by the sudden turn of events that would have given him the title of schizophrenic if he ever told anyone about it, before he immediately noticed how "familiar" his new surroundings looked like now.
He knew this place. He knew it very well, in fact. He even got here once, very recently.
Golden clouds circling the bright firmament above him, a marble floor covering the ground below him… This was Heaven, alright; the same Heaven he was brought into about a quarter of an hour ago.
And since he was here once again…
"...Ah." Looking ahead, Matthias could see the familiar angelic figure of Ilias standing right in front of him, looking down at him from her high point of view.
Upon realizing that it was indeed her, a chill went through his spine as he realized what sort of situation he was currently in, and he immediately scrambled up to his feet out of panic.
In return, Ilias merely stared at Matthias' face in silence as he got back up and returned the stare in between his heavy breaths.
"G… Good day, ma'am." The man greeted her with the first kind of formality that came to mind, but inside, he was raging out.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!' He swore in his heart. 'I'm so fucking dead!'
The time of his judgement had come, and he wasn't remotely ready to deal with such a heavy burden. Even though he had previously thought about just letting himself get dragged around by the flow, it didn't change the fact that he was about to die!
What's going to happen now?
Would he get asked questions in regards to his mysterious knowledge? Was he going to get the answer tortured out of him regardless of his cooperation? Or was he—
"—Matthias."
"!!!"
Matthias' breath stopped short at the mention of his name, cold sweat dropped from his forehead down to his neck, and his body stiffened under the Goddess' cold stare.
"You've been in my world for a mere 20 minutes, and what did you do?" She rhetorically asked with hints of irritation flashing through her eyes.
"First, your presence alone broke Luka's focus enough for him to forget to carry his own weapon in the battle. I have seen that boy follow through some stupid decisions or face stupid moments in his life, but this is a new low that not even I could have foreseen… And it was your reckless actions alone that brought upon such a result."
"If you had simply relaxed and didn't hurry in your way out of his house like an actual prankster, things would have gone way differently than that. Luka might not have been so dumb to forget his sword while heading out to fight the invading monster, and… You might not have been under these circumstances, to begin with."
That was… kind of true?
Granted, Matthias was also of the opinion that Luka was just that stupid to begin with, but such a thing never happened in the original game. It only happened because of Matthias' interference.
Still, he couldn't help but notice something weird about Ilias' words—No, it wasn't just her words, it was her general attitude.
He expected her to go directly to the point and question him, not… give him an evaluation?
"Second," Ilias continued, regardless of Matthias' confused stare. "You go outside to try to save him from the monster girl he was trying to fend off barehanded, but instead of actually following through it, you decided to take a deviation and beeline right to the dead Monster Lord in hope to save her."
"What were you even trying to do at that point?" She rhetorically asked with a mocking tone. "You had no way to communicate with her, so were you hoping that she did? Or did you plan to doodle stupid drawings in front of her in hope that you two could reach an agreement?"
That… Well, it was also true that Matthias did that, but it was important for…
…Huh? Wait a second.
What did she just say—
"—And there is also the fact you shouted my plans to the four winds without a care in the world, only because you hoped that I would put my attention onto you and order Black Alice to not eviscerate you immediately..."
"...Now that you managed to achieve your objective, I hope you're already prepared for what comes next, I suppose?"
Matthias nodded in affirmation, although the truth was far from it.
Prepared? Of course he wasn't prepared! He didn't even start doing his own prayers! How the fuck was he supposed to manage this situation now?!
"Such recklessness and irresponsibility…" As if reading through his mind, Ilias exhaled a disappointed sigh before looking back at the man who was fidgeting around in nervousness.
"Umm…" All of a sudden, Matthias spoke up. "...If I tell you everything, can you please not kill me?"
"..." The Goddess didn't answer immediately, instead keeping her stare up on the man's face to the point it seemingly bore holes in his soul. The awkward silence between them didn't help him at all under her glare.
And then, after a dozen seconds of torturous silence, she finally spoke up again.
"That will depend on your answer." She left her answer vague, much to Matthias' chagrin. "So? How is it that you know this much?"
"Well…" Left with no other choice, all he could do was be honest and hope for the best. "I… Well, it's a weird story."
Ilias said nothing and patiently waited, waiting for Matthias to gather back his wits and tell her the aforementioned "weird story". There was no need to threaten him anymore, when they both knew he had no choice but to say the truth.
And finally, much to Matthias' own disappointment and regret for his past actions leading up to this moment…
…He spoke.
"I learned everything from a game." He told the Goddess with a tone expressing complete surrender.
"A game?" Ilias, in return, raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "What are you talking about?"
"Well… I know it sounds weird, but from where I come from, this entire world was all part of… a game, yeah. An interactive visual novel, to be precise."
Under the Goddess' interested gaze, Matthias began to spew everything, talking about everything he could come up with at the moment that was related to Monster Girl Quest, as a game.
He told her about the game's synopsis, the game's plot, the protagonist Luka, the antagonist being her and a few chosen other people, the side characters, how the game actually worked behind the scenes, the main storyline and optional side quests…
…Everything.
And after that—
"—And that's how you know so much, I see." Ilias commented as Matthias concluded his explanation, leaving her to hold her chin in a thoughtful expression.
As her mind lingered on the long-winded speech of his, her mouth opened up by itself. "...Too much, if I have to say."
"...Yeah, I'm sorry." With nothing else he could do about it, Matthias meekly agreed with her assessment. "...So, it's okay now, right?" He further asked her.
The young man awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he looked up to her. "I promise I won't do anything weird anymore—No, wait, I'll even do anything you ask me for. Just… Can I stay alive, please?"
Once again, Ilias fell into silence while staring at him with narrow eyes, as if musing over his words…
…Or as if she couldn't believe how naive Matthias truly was, for thinking he was still allowed to keep his life intact after all of this.
"I don't think you understand how precarious the situation is…" She began, using a tone of voice that gave the man chills through his spine.
"Luka has already fallen victim of a monster girl's techniques and is currently getting violated in the slimes' nest as we are speaking now, that whore of a snake is now dead and gone forever with no possibility to recover her anymore, and I cannot even bring things back to a previous point of time like I used to for such situations because the Soul Return Network is broken."
"All the preparations I've made until now, all the work I've done to push the world to reach this point… It all went to ruin—" Ilias jabbed a finger on Matthias' chest as she trailed off with her words. "—because of you."
Then, she grabbed his shirt's collar and pulled his face closer to hers, and in proportion to the shortened distances, her gaze scrunched into a purely murderous glare. "If you want to keep your life after all of this, you better come up with a miracle that not even I myself can pull off."
"..." Cold sweat washed over Matthias' forehead as he stared back into Ilias' glare, knowing that his definite end was reaching soon. Time seemingly slowed down as all of his neural system was active like never before, all for the sole purpose of saving his own skin.
If he didn't do or say something soon, he would die. That was a certainty that nothing else in this world could rebuke…
…No, wait, would he even survive if he did something at all?
She clearly was pissed with him after ruining everything she set up in the last thousand years, there was no way she would allow him to live, would she? If he were to be in her shoes, he would have exterminated himself as soon as he outlived his usefulness.
If only there was something he could do to Ilias that not only would let him live for longer, but also give him enough time and peace to think up a solution for all this mess…
But what could it be?
He already told her everything about the visual novel, and even if he wanted to talk about Paradox, it probably wouldn't change anything either way.
Should he maybe just join her side and use his knowledge to his advantage to assist her in spots where she couldn't act on her own? No way! How would that even work? He was just a mere weak human with no training or exercise in his whole lifetime!
It would be a different matter if he was actually capable like Luka later in the game's story, though—
—Like Luka?
…Wait!
"Waitwaitwaitwait!" Matthias screamed under Ilias' collar grip, feeling a sensation of enlightenment flashing into his mind under all this mental stress he was subjected to. "I—I got an idea!"
"Let me replace Luka! I'll carry out your plans in his stead!"
"..." Ilias' eyes narrowed upon hearing his absurd words. "Elaborate."
After taking a deep breath, Matthias immediately proceeded to explain his thought process. "Okay, so… You know that I know everything you wanted to do with Luka, and I also know a lot of stuff — more than him. If you let me contract with the Four Spirits and train myself, I promise to do as you originally planned for Luka to do and kill Black Alice when she eats you."
"And you think they will lend their powers to you?" Ilias immediately brought upon a doubt that silenced him as soon as he registered those words.
…No, the answer to that question was no.
To contract with the so-called Four Spirits was the equivalent of pulling an Excalibur out of the stone, to say it shortly. It wasn't a matter of whether one was willing or not, it was more about whether the person in question was worthy of the power.
And Matthias, for the sake of assisting the person who renounced the Four Spirits as false pagan gods and would aim to reshape the world they were created from, there was no way they would so readily agree to end their freedom, if not their lives.
But… But what else could he do?
"Then… Maybe I can learn magic? I think people can still learn about it, even if they can't do it as easily as monsters." He said, albeit with barely any hope in his voice.
But once again, Ilias crushed it all with apathetic coldness.
"You wish to face a 500 years old Monster Lord only by studying magical theory within that limited lifespan of yours? This is no time for having dreams."
And once again, Matthias could say nothing to it.
She… She wasn't wrong at all.
How could he possibly kill a 500 years old monster? Even assuming he would learn magic at the same pace as she did, Black Alice still had a lead of half a millennium over him. It wasn't a gap that could be covered with hard work alone.
And that was to not mention what else she was capable of… Freely able to transmute her limbs, superhuman physical strength, incredibly acidic digestive fluids, and those chills she gave him whenever she stared right into his eyes…
He did suggest to Ilias that he could replace Luka in killing Black Alice, but now that he thought about it…
…How was he supposed to do that?
It was impossible.
The only people to have managed to do were legendary hero Heinrich and the protagonist Luka, the former having the advantage of fighting a young Monster Lord with the aid of the Four Spirits and years of mastery, and the latter having all of the former plus angelic powers he could tap on and Alice's assistance, while also facing off a 500 years old version of Black Alice who was also severely enhanced through drug administration and special circumstances.
Meanwhile, what could Matthias do?
He didn't have an angelic inheritance like Luka, he didn't have affinity with the Four Spirits like Heinrich, and he definitely didn't seem to have any special power carried by his world-hopping situation either.
He was just a regular human… It was impossible, even with all the knowledge he had about the game.
"...I'll see what I can do." This was all he could say under Ilias' omniscient stare if he wanted to keep his life with him, but having already lost hope for any second further to the future beyond his untimely death, the voice reflected his inner thoughts very easily.
But—
*Thump!*
"Huh?"
—Ilias let go of Matthias' collar, giving him back the freedom of movement around his neck and almost making him stumble back down onto the ground due to the sudden release.
"Six months." She suddenly said, much to Matthias' surprise as he stared at her face with an incredulous look.
Meanwhile, the Goddess waved one hand through her locks, which were starting to get in the way of her sight, and observed Matthias with a solemn gaze. "You will have precisely six months to get strong enough to replace Luka in my plans, understood?"
The young man said nothing in return, he didn't dare to. All he did was simply nod in understanding and thank his fate for the opportunity given to him.
He was going to stay alive, that's more than enough for someone who was supposed to be dead by now.
"If you can't do it before then… I don't think I will have to elaborate on what will happen at that point." She said with an enigmatic tone, although the meaning behind her words were crystal-clear.
And then, it happened, without any warning whatsoever.
*CRACK!* Lightning struck from nowhere.
A searing heat enveloped Matthias' body, burning him from inside-out.
He flinched in the instant his brain registered the indescribable pain brought by the scalding lightning, the sensation of having his entire skin being riddled with insects crawling from within, and with them both replacing the feeling of control he just lost at the same time he was hit.
Instinct took over as he was about to scream his soul out, before his vision turned pitch-black and his voice went silent.
The last thing Matthias heard, along with the white noise brought by the divine thunder, was the voice of the Goddess resonating through his mind.
"Let this pain be a reminder of your future, should you fail."