There was no way I could accurately keep track of the time since Sage is disabled when I’m dreaming, but I think about thirty minutes had passed by the time D was done with her story.

Sure, she might’ve accidentally forgot to mention most of the important events, possibly distorted some of the other ones, and maybe vilified some of the good guys, but it’s all fine and dandy, I trust her!

Believing any of the bullshit this woman spews might be the peak of stupidity, but personally, I’m willing to indulge her in whatever antics she comes up with.

After all, having a natural goddess as a friend pretty much guarantees that I won't have to live in eternal loneliness anytime in the future.

I had never mentioned this before because honestly, I didn’t want to face it, but it’s a fact that it’s only a matter of time before all of my loved ones pass away.

They are but mortals at the end of the day.

It’s not like I didn’t think about helping them become gods or achieve an infinite lifespan.

In fact, this world already has a few races with a very long lifespan, like vampires and demons.

The problem is that while being turned into a vampire would make the physical body immortal, it doesn’t help with the soul aspect.

If the person in question doesn’t have an ever-expanding soul like mine or they’re not a naturally born god like D, they will eventually die.

Their soul itself would get snuffed out, it’s like a candle burning out.

“–And because of that, The Living Rose was determined to do everything in its power to stay with its caretakers forever whether they’re dead or alive! Quite a touching story, isn’t it?” D said while dramatically dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.

… I might’ve believed you if it wasn’t for that massive gloating smile taking up half of your face.

I ain’t gonna be the party pooper though, so you go girl!

“Indeed it is! I never thought movie love stories could be real, let alone such a pure touching affection between a human and their tool!” I replied passionately while imitating a certain doppelganger's pose.

 

Anyways, D’s question pulled me back to the present.

The fucked up descriptions she comes up with for horrible events do say a lot about her life experiences, but who am I to judge?

She’s probably been bored out of her mind for centuries by now, it’s quite obvious judging by her actions.

And it’s not the I’m bored, I wanna watch TV kind, but the I’m bored, let's go destroy and rebuild a couple of worlds kind.

She’s a living powder keg, and the only reason she hasn’t gone ballistic is probably because something’s preventing her from blowing off a bit of steam, in the literal sense.

Now is letting an evil goddess capable of destroying planets on a whim go unattended a good thing? Hell no!

But here’s the thing, I don’t actually care about any of those potentially destroyed planets unless we’re talking about Earth or this world, so I’m on her side this time.

And as such, I’ve decided that I’ll be crushing whatever’s blocking her way as soon as I can.

For now though, I’d better focus on actually becoming a god first.

If D, who is hailed as the most evil goddess, can’t do anything about it, I would probably serve as nothing more than an exotic lunch meal if I’m in her place.

 

The short version of D’s story went like this: angels settled on the planet, humans worshipped them, humans fucked up, the angels were slaughtered, and so they decided to become a flower.

How are any of those things related, you ask? Beats me.

Laplace’s Demon and The Butterfly Effect are both terrifying phenomena, so I always try to avoid utilizing my Tomoko RAM in that direction.

Basically, The Living Rose consists of the unconscious will of those dead angels attached to a flower they received as a gift from a young human priestess a long time ago.

Its function is to collect all types of energy and transform them into pure MA energy.

And by all types, I mean ALL types. This thing’s THE fucking perpetual machine humanity has always wished for!

Of course, the only reason why this one could be created is because its creators are angels, a veritable divine race.

It’s physically impossible for humanity, or any mortal race at that, to come close to achieving something similar.

And even this one, which was created by gods, is still far from perfect. The angels of this world are by no means saints nor are they stupid, they’re actually a battle-oriented race.

D confirmed that they did indeed leave a hidden backdoor in the rose, but as you’d expect, she refused to tell me what it was.

“Na-a-a-ah, can’t tell you about that! This one’s for you to discover, I wouldn’t wanna spoil the fun.” was what she said at the time.

I appreciate that she’s not one of those riddlers who leave their words unfinished, but why’s she gotta say it in such an irritating manner?!

Sigh… Guess it’s impossible to have all the good in one place, though I would certainly pick D over a riddler any time of the year.

 

The reason why The Living Rose became a soul snatcher has to do with the MA energy shortage mentioned in Taboo’s information installation.

Millenia after the number of angels were reduced to just one, the world which had slowly settled over the centuries was once again plunged into strife.

The major factions living on the planet are now the surface technological civilization and the hidden Kratinz civilization.

Well, the members of the former were exiles of the latter, meaning that they’re actually one and the same, but that’s besides the point.

Then the surface fellas fucked up again. See the pattern here? Yeah, I can’t say I’m surprised about humans fucking up anymore.

When the MA shortage hit the Kratinz folks, there was no energy left for the rose to absorb anymore, so the energy consumption of the city was diverted to the stored energy instead.

The rose was never meant to be used as a battery though, the stored energy wasn’t much and the consumption of the outer barrier was ridiculously high.

Soon they were facing a crisis due to a lack of energy.

An ancient ritual was performed with the purpose of supplying it with the vitality of the living human sacrifices as energy.

It was a last resort measure for an extinction level threat which is exactly what they were facing at that time.

However, the scrolls for the ritual were ancient, to say the least, and so was the language it was written in.

Translators versed in this language did exist, sure, but the strength of Murphy’s Law is directly related to how fucked up the situation is.

And so, a teeny tiny mistake was made when they were inscribing the ritual’s construction, but it was this mistake that caused this entire civilization to perish.

Instead of having the rose absorb vitality for energy like they wanted, they made it so that the rose could absorb anything and everything it could as energy.

What’s the best source of MA energy? Well, it’s souls, of course!

I mean, it’s quite obvious when you think about how the W system functions.

If vitality could sub in for souls, Sariel and Güliedistodiez wouldn’t have had as much trouble with saving the planet as they had back then.

Before the Kratinziens even realized what had happened, the souls of everyone in the city were forcibly dragged out of their bodies and absorbed by the rose they believed in.

Normally, those souls would be transformed into MA energy and supplied to the rose and that would be the end of it, but this was a special situation.

The rose sensed the shortage of energy, so the unconscious will of the angels went ahead and created a closed reincarnation loop to supply itself with energy for the sake of survival.

Or more specifically, I believe the rose was influenced to act this way by a certain evil goddess.

After all, the concept of a closed reincarnation cycle is a bit too similar to a certain system which was, coincidentally, created at about the exact same time by D.

Yeeeaaah, I call bullshit!

 

D’s story has basically addressed most of my questions, but the most urgent one is still unanswered.

“That explains a lot, yeah, but you still didn’t answer my first question. Why’d you decide to show up in front of me all of a sudden?” I look at her inquisitively.

“Where did your hidden detective go?” She quipped. “Just try to remember what happened in your last dream and link it to the story.”

My last dream…? I don’t remember anything significant about it except for– Oh.

When Sariel attempted to uncover my true soul, a shadowy figure popped up from my body and blocked her.

I ignored it at that time because I was scared of confronting both Sariel and whoever’s actually strong enough to deter her, but now that I think about it, that figure looks oddly familiar.

My eyes drift towards D and I soon confirm it, that shadowy figure had the exact same body shape as her.

The thing is, while Sariel might’ve had a temporary direct connection to my soul back then since I was evolving, D shouldn’t have anything like that.

So, the only way she could show up and deter Sariel is if she had a direct connection to my soul.

If so, then the anchor for that connection would be–

“Mischief. The skill you exclusively designed and gifted me has hidden effects, right?” I said in a certain tone.

“Indeed.” She replies as her lips stretch into a teasing smile. “The fish self-destruct button was inside me all along, fufufu~”

That sounds wrong on too many levels!!

“Anyways, what you’re talking to right now is a projection of my soul coming through Mischief, so I’m not actually here.” D pauses as her look towards me turns complicated.

“Of course, this meeting wasn’t supposed to happen now, but who would’ve thought you’d dive into the rose’s lair, triggering Mischief’s hidden defense mechanism, for the second time.”

Uhhh… Tehe~

“Well, I just wanted to inform you that the self-defense mechanism can only be used one more time. If you wanna go on more suicide missions like this one, you might want to develop your divinity field first.” D said before just poofing out of existence.

…?

That’s an awkward way to leave if I've seen one.

Looking at her last position, I pout before shaking my head and re-focusing my attention back on the dream itself.

I’m still in a dream state even though Mischief's self-defense mechanism has supposedly blocked the rose’s attack.

More than that, I haven’t a single clue about how I’m supposed to get outta here.

Well, if this isn’t a terrible situation…