The Young Princess Kills Everyone: Re
Ceres was still forbidden from contacting Mitis.
So they could not even talk the next day.
And climbing through a window probably wouldn’t be so easy every time.
So that was it.
Ceres had no reason to go to school any more, so other than the days when she went out to check on Mitis, she took most days off.
The teachers also seemed to have given up on her and never bothered her.
As usual, Mitis pretended to be a devout believer.
The teachers were also kind towards her for that, and taught her anything she asked them to.
Without knowing her true intentions.
And then, one month after they read Luno’s letter.
Mitis achieved shockingly good results in the test.
She was using her brains for other things as well, and since she had corrected her demeanor too, she was highly praised among the teachers.
Ceres felt strange.
It was not as if Mitis could never study.
However, she was never the kind of person to get genius level results like this.
According to the teachers, she was learning things by herself that the teachers didn’t even teach her.
Her speed of development seemed inhuman.
Mitis was already far, and she only went farther with time.
And the way she looked and moved when looked at from afar already made her seem like a different person.
“Could it be that she really is someone else now……?”
Ceres was returning after going to classes for the first time in a long while.
Sitting in the schoolyard during dusk, she looked up at the library where Mitis was studying by herself, and muttered to herself.
◇
That night.
It was past lights-out time and the dormitory was completely quiet when Ceres woke up after hearing something.
She slowly got up and rubbed her eyes before getting out of her bed.
Then, she peeked outside through the curtains.
She saw a figure in the darkness.
“……Mitis?”
She only saw a silhouette.
But Ceres had a hunch, and she went outside through the window to chase after the figure.
◇◇◇
Mitis was walking through the schoolyard late at night.
She had already created a route without any active surveillance systems.
Creating holes in the security was easy thanks to the teachers who got very talky after some flattery.
She arrived at the cradle without being spotted by anyone.
“Well, let’s begin. The destruction of the world.”
Mitis stood in front of the door, and it automatically opened.
This meant that she was recognized as a ‘God’ by the cradle.
“The instincts of a human being are the strongest security there is. The Will is so nasty.”
To be frank, the cradle had no security.
Because there was no need for it, originally.
Humanity instinctually believed the Gods, and no one thought about trespassing in sacred ground.
In other words, no one would try to disturb the world creation system.
This technology was granted to humanity by the Great Will very long ago, and it was blasphemy to even try to understand its structure.
But things were different now.
During these last few years, the young generation losing their ‘belief’ or even ‘instincts’ was a world-wide phenomenon.
And Mitis read through all of their essays and gained knowledge.
“Hmm, so this is what it looks like inside. It’s pretty big, and the temperature is nice too.”
There was a dome-shaped space inside the cradle.
There were 20 capsules lined on the wall, each one large enough to hold a person.
Luno and the others were inside those.
At first, world creation began on a wide table installed at the center.
But as it neared completion, the capsules came in, and they entered the capsules to go down to the world they created and continue their work there.
The world was displayed on the table’s surface and the monitors on the walls.
Each person progressed differently while transforming into a God.
For example, Judgment’s Nix and Magician’s Hermes no longer even looked human, and Wheel of Fortune only had around 20% of his human body remaining.
On the other hand, Death God’s Luno and Emperor’s Mani were still mostly human.
They still looked the same as they did when Mitis first sneaked into the cradle a month ago.
Mitis touched the monitor displaying Luno, and kindly smiled.
“We’ll see each other soon. The three of us are gonna have fun together again.”
Then, Mitis got closer to the wall.
She held her hand aloft, and some particles gathered around it out of nowhere and created the ‘21st capsule’, which was not supposed to exist.
She entered it as tentacle-like cables stretched and connected to her body.
She closed her eyes, and lost consciousness.
Mitis was originally a normal human being.
That person could not comprehend high-level textbooks written in foreign languages.
In other words, she was not human any more.
Like Luno, she was in the middle of transforming into a God from a human – an angel.
Mitis had no time.
Luno would become a God after a few months and could no longer be saved then.
And that was not the only time limit.
She could not continue pretending to be a believer to the teachers forever.
She had to learn how to take Luno back as fast as possible.
However, in order to learn so much knowledge in just one month, she needed a body that did not require sleep, and a level of intelligence beyond humans.
So first, Mitis even skipped sleep to learn the minimum level of ‘hacking’ she needed to.
Then, she secretly snuck into the cradle, and used the capsule to transform her body.
It was temporary, but since she wanted to become a God, her transformation was a lot faster.
And after acquiring a superhuman body that did not even require sleep, she obtained even more knowledge.
As a result, she hacked the world creation system, World, and linked it with her own body.
The Gods curiously tilted their heads when the ‘21st God’ accessed their space.
Simultaneously, the management system was taken out of their control and world creation was forcefully stopped.
“I lost connection to World. What’s happening?”
Vent, no, Wheel of Fortune was the first one to speak up.
He was just in the middle of creating new life.
There was already a massive continent in the ‘world’, and the deployment of life had made a lot of progress too.
Though the area outside the sea surrounding the continent was an empty void.
If this half-way world was forced to materialize, it would probably give birth to a geocentric world.
The Gods looked down on the continent from above the skies and worked on various different spots.
However, since they were all in the same world, they could converse normally and understand each other.
Wheel of Fortune’s voice reached the other Gods.
“Is World moving on its own?”
Nix, in other words, Judgment reacted to Vent’s voice first.
His face was still the same, but his body had mostly transformed into that of a God.
His red scapulars floating like ghosts were empty.
“What’s the meaning of this? Is that even possible?”
Judgment sounded impatient.
Magician, who was wearing a robe with a hexagram drawn on it, answered.
“There are traces of an intruder in the cradle. A non-existent number 21 is interfering.”
Emperor, or Mani Claudi, curled up in fear when Hermes said that.
“W-What do you mean……? Can a human being who is not a God really interfere with us……?”
Luno’s face went pale as she listened to the Gods’ conversation.
Because she had a guess.
(It can’t be…… Is Mitis seriously trying to stop us……?)
She was wondering why Mitis had been so quiet the last month.
She knew that Mitis had become obedient with the teachers, and that she and Ceres had been pulled apart.
Mitis had received ‘guidance’.
Mitis had read that letter.
Luno could think of many reasons.
She wished that at the very least, Mitis would stay out of trouble until world creation ended.
However, someone who had been resisting for so long was not going to stop there.
Now, at this moment, Luno’s worries proved to be right.
“I’ll stop it. I don’t care who it is, I won’t let anyone stand in the way of world creation!”
The first one to move was Justice, who looked like a white suit of armor.
She calculated Mitis’s position and moved there.
Mitis looked at Justice, but stayed calm.
Light shot from God’s hand.
It was powerful enough to vaporize a human.
However, the light immediately vanished.
The next moment, Mitis’s arm was in Justice’s abdomen.
“Gah…… I’m a God…… How can you just……?”
“Then you were no God. Humans can’t become Gods.”
The armor got thrown away and rolled around the world creation space as it clattered.
“Justice. What’s going on, Justice!?”
Judgment shouted.
Mitis laughed.
“Revenge isn’t my objective, but it feels good to your voice like that.”
“Mitis, you bitch!”
Judgment shouted furiously before Mitis emerged before his eyes.
It was too fast for even a God’s perception.
“What gives you the right to do this?”
Judgment glared at Mitis with hostile eyes.
His right arm suddenly bulged and began growing.
“I’m just taking back what was stolen from me.”
“We acquired this by just means! We are just! Don’t you know that this is absolute!?”
“The time to indulge Gods is over.”
“Humans can’t decide what good and evil is!”
Judgment quickly grabbed Mitis’s head.
He wanted to smash her head and kill her.
Mitis was so comfortable that she smiled, and she lightly blew some air.
“Gaaaagh! My arm…… God’s arm!”
That was enough to blow Judgment’s arm off.
She grabbed him by the chest and held him up.
“You look pathetic, Nix.”
“I am just…… You’re wrong……”
“Shouldn’t you be more proud if you really think you are just? You know that you’re a low-life, don’t you?”
“No, no, nooo! I am just! I am absolute!”
“Then stop being afraid and stand up, scumbag.”
Mitis threw his body away.
Then, she clenched her other fist.
She was about to punch him in the face before her hand hit something else.
Mitis clicked her tongue and glared at the person who threw that ‘gear’.
“Tsch, don’t stand in my way, Vent. It’s this guy’s fault that your sister jumped down.”
“You cannot be forgiven for this.”
“No, you’re the ones who can’t be forgiven!”
She swung her arm.
It created a wind that split Wheel of Fortune’s body in two.
“Guh…… How can a human overpower a God……!?”
He was broken very easily.
Mitis quickly looked over at Judgment, who was crawling away on the ground.
“I-In that case…… The world is still incomplete, but I will dive!”
“You think I’ll let you!?”
She stepped on Judgment’s head and crushed it.
But he still kept moving.
He was inhuman enough to survive such a thing.
“Please wait, we’re not even fully Gods yet!”
Luno frantically tried to stop him, but Judgment didn’t listen.
“That’s just…… a matter of time…… I’m diving……!”
Judgment vanished before Mitis’s eyes.
The other Gods also left after him.
“Fools. It was still possible for you to ‘come back’.”
She spoke as if spitting the words out.
After a God dove, they could no longer return to their original world.
Normally, they would only do this after the world was fully complete.
But Mitis could still accomplish her goal.
Because Luno still remained.
“Mitis…… Let’s stop this already……”
She sadly hung her head down while speaking to Mitis.
But Mitis was in a good mood after the obstacles in her way went away.
“Then why did you stay behind?”
“Because……”
“Right now, I can kill you as a God.”
“Are you really going to do that?”
“And in the end, I’ll activate Fool and eradicate myself too. That will be the end of everything.”
◇◇◇
Ceres heard Mitis through the monitor.
She followed her to the cradle.
And she entered it.
It was possible for her since she was still a reserve candidate.
“Mitis, did you just say you’ll go away? You’ll kill Luno and vanish too!? Liar, Liar! You said you’d come back!”
She shouted at the monitor.
Then, she looked around.
“Don’t leave me, I don’t want to be left alone! If you’re going, then I’ll go with you two! I don’t want to be alone!”
She confusedly touched everything she could put her hands on.
Then, a new capsule formed next to the capsule Mitis entered.
Ceres stood in front of it, and it automatically opened up.
Almost as if inviting her in.
“Can I be with you two if I get in this too……?”
Ceres entered the capsule.
The cables connected to her body.
Something was injected into her body, and she lost consciousness.
◇◇◇
Luno opposed Mitis, who said she was going to end everything.
“There’s no guarantee we’ll go back to normal if we vanish here!”
“Yes, I didn’t find anything like that in any articles.”
“Then why!?”
“Because that’s impossible to prove. No one knew…… until now.”
Mitis was full of confidence.
She had obtained overwhelming power, and was leading even the Gods around by the nose.
“But I know. We can’t save the ones who dove already, but I know I can save you, Luno. You can be human again if you kill yourself as a God, that’s what my brain is telling me. Let’s go back, Ceres is waiting for us.”
Mitis held her hand out.
Luno clenched her hand by her chest, and worriedly averted her gaze.
“But if we do that, then we’ll……”
For a moment, there was some static in Luno’s form.
From Mitis’s eyes, she looked like she turned into something else.
Luno was in the gap between a God and a human right now – that was what Mitis inferred.
There was no time left.
“We’ll be treated as criminals for blowing up a world. We’re going to live in hiding.”
“……!”
It was certain death if they were caught.
Could the three really be happy while living in such danger?
“What are you thinking right now? Were you just thinking that our future is worse than your future as a God?”
Luno shook her head sideways.
She would be happy.
No matter how cruel the world was, if the three of them could be together, then-
“Yeah.”
Mitis smiled.
“I think so too. If the three of us can live together, I don’t care if the whole world sees us as their enemy.”
“Mitis…… I, I……!”
Luno’s heart unraveled.
She finally wanted to take Mitis’s hand.
And at the same time, this meant betraying her parents.
She decided to walk with Mitis even if it meant conflict.
(Our dream is finally going to end.)
Mitis was sure.
Then, light gathered in the palm of her hand in order to kill Luno and herself as Gods.
She heard a faint noise.
“Don’t leave me behind.”
It was a quiet whisper that could easily pass by unheard.
Mitis’s body instantly went limp
“……Huh? Why isn’t World reacting?”
She got goosebumps.
She felt her body get cold in shock.
Luno tilted her head and curiously stared at Mitis.
“Wait, I’ll fix it right away. Ugh, now is not the time!”
“……There must be an error because you intervened by force.”
“I’ve just hijacked the management system as it is. If there is an error, then World had an error from the very start.”
Luno took some distance from Mitis while watching her fret.
She then squinted her eyes and bit her lips.
She was fine with getting killed by Mitis.
She was fine with making the world her enemy if she really could go back to being a human.
But-
“Huh, what? Its functions are disabled? Is someone from the outside intervening with superior rights!?”
Luno looked at Mitis panicking with wide open eyes, and pulled out a bone handle from the back of her hand.
She held it with both hands, transformed the handle, and a massive edge formed at its tip.
“Luno…… What are you doing?”
Mitis stared in shock at her friend holding the scythe of the Death God.
Luno quietly replied in a cold voice.
“I am…… a God.”
Wings grew out of her back.
No, they were giant bone arms resembling wings.
They had sharp claws at the fingertips, which made them look like the hands of a demon’s skeletal remains residing inside a human body.
Her outfit also changed.
Her school uniform disappeared and changed into a white and black gothic dress the likes of which Mitis had never seen.
It was as if she was emerging as a God.
“You’re kidding me, right? You just had to wait a little! That’s all!”
“I was going to allow it if I could have died immediately.”
“You only had to wait a short while!”
“But world creation is still the ‘just’ thing for me.”
Luno’s transformation was slow, but she was certainly changing into a God.
No matter how much she loved Mitis, in the eyes of a God, Mitis was nothing more than a lower being.
Indeed, the conflict was not over.
Love had only momentarily tipped the scales.
But when the heat cooled down, the recoil made it tip the other way.
“Are you…… serious……?”
Mitis backed away.
Luno did not reply.
“Are you seriously saying you’re going to kill me and become a God? Are you telling me that it’s worth throwing everything away for!?”
Red mana waves swirled around Mitis’s feet, and skeletal hands materialized and grabbed her ankles.
She fell on her back.
“Then you shouldn’t have saved me! You should have abandoned me long ago and never made any promises! Giving someone something only to take it away later is more cruel than just killing them!”
She tried to run away, but she got her wrists caught as well, and could not move.
Mitis appealed to Luno’s feelings of guilt, but Luno did not stop.
“Like I said, I’m already dead.”
“Am I supposed to accept your suicide note after you got so angry at me for mine?”
“……It’s just the truth.”
Luno sounded sad.
She did not want to kill.
But she had to kill.
As a God.
As a human.
In the gap in between them.
“Is your power back yet?”
“Yes….. Will you accept my wish if we go back now?”
“It’s too late.”
“……Oh.”
“I have to fulfill my duties.”
Luno raised her scythe.
Then, she ripped Mitis apart with a cold, emotionless face.
“As Death God.”
Blood splatter stained her face and white dress.
Mitis, on the ground in front of her, was barely muttering something, but she quickly lost her life and stopped moving.
Her eyes lost the light of life, still hatefully staring at Luno.
She could not stand that gaze, and transformed an arm she grew from her back into a beast’s head.
She crunched the corpse with her fangs and swallowed it.
Luno clenched her teeth and looked down as she felt Mitis’s corpse get absorbed into her body.
Then, with a shaky voice, she spoke to the other Gods who dove before her.
“I’ve recovered World. I’m diving too now.”
Luno vanished along with Mitis, whom she absorbed.
To go down to the world she created, as a God.
Without knowing that her compensation for absorbing World would be a hellish existence for the coming hundreds of millions of years.
She could never go back to her own world again.
The world creation space went quiet after everyone left.
But, there was a faint figure of a human floating around in there.
“Don’t…… leave me behind……”
Ceres spoke in a frail voice before diving into the world after Luno and Mitis.
–