The screen of water broke and fell to the pool below. Nyx smiled bitterly at Issac, who did not look happy.

“I…uh, wanted to forget this,” Issac smiled, but his eyes weren’t smiling.

“Oh, but you can’t,” she shook her head. “This experience might stay with you for the rest of your life. Every time you close your eyes, that man’s scared and dim eyes will flash in your mind. They have etched into your eyelids.”

“Can I really not forget?”

“Of course you can! But for that, you need to kill more and more,” Nyx’s dark blue irises swirled like galaxies. “You’ll soon forget and stop paying attention to your victims. Their faces laced with that same agony and fear will soon mesh together, and at one point, you might not remember who you’ve killed just the previous day.”

Issac stayed silent for a long time, his expression was the same neutral one he had when he first came to her, but his ocean-blue eyes were tumultuous.

After a long while, he asked again, “Why show me what happened yesterday? There must be a reason.”

“Do you remember anything wrong here?” she asked mysteriously.

“Why my eyes failed to see anything there?”

“Yep, and another thing, though both of them are related.”

“That being?”

“Your eyes might be able to see the ‘truth’ of all things, but it isn’t at a level where it can still do the same when your- as you say- ‘insides are all messed up.’”

“I have never said that.”

“‘The Owner,’ as you call him, had lit incense, one that’s aroma messes with the mind. And with a simple bit of magic, made it seem like there was no one on the other side of the door.”

His mind jolted as the pieces fell together, “So, this was the sweet aroma…?” He rested his head on his hands and kept thinking about what Nyx had said.

He asked the one thing he wanted to know, “So, why did you summon me? It could’ve been anyone. Why not get Ray here? He’s the one who’s adapted to this world the best.”

Nyx answered his question with a question of hers, “With those eyes of yours, have you seen something ambiguous surround your- huh!?”

Without letting Nyx finish, Issac reached over the chabudai and grabbed Nyx’s hands with desperate eyes, “You know what that is!? Tell me. How do I get rid of this thing?”

Nyx quickly regained her composure. She rose from her seat and walked across to him. Issac was too focused on her answer to notice that, unlike him, who had to walk with his ankles deep in the water, she simply walked on the surface of the water without creating any ripples.

She came over and sat on her knees next to Issac, her Persian-blue eyes staring at his. She spoke softly, “It’s called 『Malice』. And it doesn’t directly harm the person it’s affecting. It enhances their desires and, to put it simply, ‘makes them have thoughts they’re not supposed to.’”

“What does that mean?”

“Do you think cheating on your girlfriend is a good thing?”

“Wha- no!”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Exactly, 『Malice』 makes bad thoughts like this sound very appealing. The feeling of doing something you’re not supposed to, 『Malice』 makes this feeling feel close to euphoria.”

“Wait, hold on!” Issac stopped her, “Isn’t that like really bad? If I’m right, people in our world fear the consequences of a crime far more than the people here do, then wouldn’t 『Malice』 also affect us ten-fold?”

Nyx nodded, “That’s right. And that’s why 『Malice』 affects Otherworlders far more than the people here. It’s something that the inhabitants of this world are well accustomed to, but for Otherworlders like you- you have no resistance towards it. And as for you-” Issac’s ocean-blue eyes stared at her curiously, “-there are trace amounts of 『Malice』 in you as well. But it’s not enough to drastically change you like your other friends. If you do well enough to avoid it, perhaps you’ll only have the amount your friends have once you’re 80.”

“Then please tell me how to get rid of it!”

Nyx closed her eyes and said slowly, “As of now, there’s no way to get rid of it.”

Her answer instantly made Issac darken, and he closed his eyes. He rubbed his eyes with a bit of force, and a sigh escaped his lips. “That is not the answer I want.”

“I know, but it’s the answer you’ll get regardless.”

Issac raised his hands to slam the chabudai but stopped halfway and dropped it helplessly. “Why is this happening to us…?”

“Issac, don’t you still want to save your friends? Get to the bottom of what the Queen’s scheming?” She held Issac’s chin and gently raised it up. Looking into his eyes, she continued, “Don’t lose hope, Issac. Never lose hope.”

Issac stood up with a jolt, looking down at Nyx, “You just told me that there’s no way to save them.”

“There’s no way to get rid of 『Malice』, but there’s still a way to save them.”

Issac raised an eyebrow, indicating for her to go ahead though he didn’t hold much hope in his heart.

She continued, “Issac, you need to take them away from the Queen. As long as they are near the Queen, they will never be the same from 『Malice』. But first and foremost, make sure to survive, Issac. If you hear your friends say something that they would never ever say otherwise- it means they’re too far gone. If that happens-” Nyx held his hands in hers. With her almond eyes looking at his, she pleaded, “-please run away; as far as you can, as fast as you can.”

“…leaving all my friends behind?” Issac asked quietly.

“At that point, they-” Nyx paused and exhaled before saying, “-won’t see you as a friend, Issac.”

Without letting Issac process this information, she continued, “When you first came here, you wanted to know why I visited you here?” She giggled and leaned in close to him again. With a mysterious tone, she asked, “Have you ever wondered what it feels like to live for mega-annum after mega-annum?”

A bit surprised, yet Issac did not put too much thought into it and answered, “Boring…?”

“Yes, boring!” she clapped her hands excitedly and looked at him with warm eyes. “I knew you’d get it! It gets so, so boring that at one point, you can do nothing but sleep. You know, at first, it was fun talking with Àite and Uair, but that quickly became boring after the first ten millennia. I felt excited when Àite created that child Mir. He was a ball of fun. Like his father, trying out new things. But after some point, even he chose to sleep.

Never in my life have I liked to sleep. For me, it’s just one darkness to the other. So, when Mir chose to sleep, I decided to stay awake and watch the beings on his body, and after the first millennia, I understood why he grew bored with his creations. More specifically, I understood the problem with living forever. At one point, you’ll have seen everything, and waiting for new things becomes so boring that you just want to shut your eyes and die.

Now, I just stay in my house while the new kids cause trouble on Mir’s body.”

Issac was so taken aback by her rant that he did not know how to respond. But to him, her eyes looked blank when talking about those times, and her voice felt almost monotonous, losing the eagerness she had at the beginning. Nyx noticed Issac looking at her, and a smile bloomed on her face like a lotus. Those same dull eyes regained their luster, and her voice was full of life, “You know I’ve seen all the heroes and even talked to them; but why is it that only you talk to me like this? Some groveled at my feet, some simply dismissed it as a dream, and others… went mad. Just like every fucking one in this world.” She looked into his eyes. Those enchanting irises of hers seemed to pull him in, “But you…you flirt with me, you get angry with me, you’re surprised by me, and once you wake up, you won’t simply dismiss it as a dream. No, you won’t.

So, to answer your question, I visited you to give you my power. And why do I want to do that? Because it’s the only way, the only key, the only escape I have from this fucking cage called ‘Immortality.’”