“Well…” he answered, trailing off as he thought about it for a moment. “No, not really. You wouldn’t doom the world.”

“Then is that the right thing to do?” I asked, frowning but at the same time feeling relieved that I wouldn’t doom the world—at least according to this former God.

“I don’t know that either,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“The consequences of such a thing are something that you, the Emperor, and everyone involved will have to carry, but I don’t know what they’ll be, since I can’t see the future. I can only make certain assessments of what might happen. In this case, everything’s going to be contained within this world’s people and their politics—And really, I think you know how to handle yourself with those sorts of things, since your biggest worries have always been of ‘divine proportions’.”

“Then… should I do as the Emperor asks…?” I asked, clutching slightly on the phone.

“Do as you please. I’ve told you that enough times already,” he replied. “All I can tell you is that regardless of what you do—or don’t do—there’s no Gods wanting you to do either.”

“So the responsibility falls down to me completely…” I said with a whisper as I looked down and beyond the phone in my hands.

At least now I know that regardless of what I do, this world will go on—if I were to believe Salrak’s words, that is. But he’s been transparent with me so far, so I have no reason to doubt him at the moment. However, just because the world isn’t doomed, doesn’t mean that I won’t cause a lot of harm if I were to choose the wrong thing… I still wasn’t sure of taking the Emperor’s request or not.

“If that’s the case,” Nicole said, causing me to glance at her. “Why don’t we just go back and leave it all up to someone else?”

“Sure, you can also do that. I must admit it’s been both frustrating and amusing seeing you traverse this world,” Salrak followed up with a near mocking tone. “But I guess someone like you did lack a lot of common sense—even in our world—so I wouldn’t mind watching you doing those sorts of things either.”

I turned to look away from both Nicole and the phone to look to the window. It wasn’t the first time that I’ve been told that, and I could still remember what Salrak first said, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling of responsibility that came from the knowledge that what I did opened the way for the Holy Gods to do whatever they wanted.

I brought up a hand to my chest… Even the burning sensation of the Holy Sword stuck in my chest was something that I still remember as I looked incredulously at the Goddess that did so.

No, I couldn’t just go back home, train, get power, and enjoy my life until the Holy Gods found this place, which could be years from now still. I had to do something about the things that my legacy left behind so that the things that happened to Bo’guth and his family at the hands of those Followers of Leyfall don’t repeat themselves.

“I… I think I’ll accept the Emperor’s request,” I finally said, turning afterwards to look at Nicole with determination.

She returned a regretful smile, but just nodded her head. Salrak followed up with a chuckle. “As expected.”

“However,” I said as I looked down at the phone, “I don’t want to kill and destroy without reason. If I were to do this, I want to make sure that I’m not hurting innocent people.”

“Well that’s good… but how are you going to do that?” Nicole asked.

It wasn’t going to be an easy thing to do… but I could make use of the Duchess’ resources to help me with that, and I could probably ask Asteora, and maybe even the Emperor to aid with those sorts of things. Although, I wasn’t sure about how much I could trust either of them.

“I can help you with that,” Salrak said, “I have access to almost all the information of this world, so I even know the kind of things that Lodrick is current doing on his computer, and the kinds of deals that those Followers of Leyfall are doing at this very moment. There’s even a couple of bases that Lodrick and even Asteora missed on their investigations that I also know of as well.”

“Then… Can you also make sure I don’t end up killing innocent people in the way?” I asked, feeling hopeful about this request as I looked at the phone.

“I don’t know about innocence or guilt. I can tell you what people are up to, but deciding whether or not they deserve to die is up to you,” he said, followed by a chuckle. “Such things are determined by each person, after all. So even right now, if I were to tell you someone is innocent, depending on how you weigh the information that you have about them, that person might not be innocent to you.”

“That’s all I can hope for,” I said with a nod and a smile. “If you can just tell me about them, then I think I can do what’s right by me.”

He laughed once more. “So you’re choosing to believe me just like you believed in the Holy Gods? I could very well just be lying to you.”

I paused for a moment. The thought that perhaps Salrak’s words had been lies the whole time crossed my mind once more, but then again, I felt in my own flesh the reality of what the Holy Gods truly were, so I still didn’t think he was lying.

“I guess… I’ll have to trust you,” I said with a forced smile.

“Or, or!” Nicole exclaimed, raising a hand in the air as if she was asking for permission to speak, “We can just go back and forget about this!”

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“No,” I immediately replied with a shake of my head, causing the girl to pout. “This is something that I feel like I must do.”

“But you’ll have to kill people… and stuff…” she said with a low tone of voice. “Isn’t that… bad?”

“It might be, yes. However, I believe that it’s better to act against those who do harm—like the ones that kidnapped Mirlaneth, or the ones that killed Steven—than to allow them to continue to do harm. Eventually, if we let them go, they’ll be all that’s left,” I said and turned my attention back to the phone. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Salrak chuckled. “I can’t say I didn’t try to kill you several times.”

“Then it’s settled. Tomorrow, I shall accept the Emperor’s request, and from then on, you’ll help me do it the proper way,” I said to the phone with a nod.

“It’ll be interesting to do so,” He said, chuckling right after. “To think that I’d be helping you of all people one day.”

It was true that I never imagined myself asking someone I regarded as the greatest evil of the world to help me rid the world of evil. “The sentiment is mutual.”

After we said that, there was a moment of silence. There really wasn’t anything else to discuss, but as I was about to cut off the call, Nicole raised her hand slightly this time. “Well… if that’s what you’re going to do then I can’t do anything to stop you but… How are you going to keep in touch? You’re going to call him every time you need to talk to each other while using your dark powers or…?”

“Right. Nicole does have a point. It would be somewhat weird to do this every time, but it’s really the best way to do it, unless…” Salrak trailed off, humming for a moment. “There’s these things created somewhere close to here called ‘Magic Batteries’. You might’ve heard of them. If you’re able to get your hands on one of them, charge it with your power, and hook it to your phone, I might be able to talk to you without having to wait for you to do so.”

“How am I going to get my hands on—”

“Oh! From that Duchess Flameheart, right? Didn’t she say she had people that she could put to use? Maybe if we ask her, she might be able to get you one,” Nicole interrupted as I was pondering about such an artifact. “And, you should get a pair of headphones or something like that when you talk to Salrak. I don’t think it’ll be comfortable to have to carry your phone in your hand everywhere.”

“Well then…” Salrak said, trailing off. “I guess you’ve got your answer on what you should do from now on.”

I slowly nodded and turned my attention to the phone. “Then, I shall contact you again as soon as I can.”

“Very well. I shall be watching until then,” He said, and right after that, I ended my usage of dark power, causing the phone to go into that beeping sound.

“Hehe,” Nicole chuckled with a wry smile. “So… that was a God, huh…”

“He’s not one anymore,” I said with a shake of my head. “But it does resemble the being.”

“I can’t imagine how it must’ve been when you were facing him for real,” she said, and sat back down on the bed. “Must’ve been pretty scary, if just his voice is that terrifying.”

“I wasn’t scared. I knew that with the Holy Gods watching over me, I would be able to prevail… despite the damage that came after that,” I said and placed the phone back on the table that it was before.

“Makes me wonder how the other Gods are like. Like… are they that scary too?” she asked, her eyes on the ceiling of the room.

“No. I remember Them as warm beings that made one feel embraced. The voices of the ones that spoke to me were usually soothing, and I would feel empowered whenever They gave me a path to follow,” I said, making my way to the other side of the bed.

“Really…?” she asked back, her tone somewhat doubtful. “I don’t know. Even after speaking with this one, I still can’t believe that they could be like that. What if—Hey!” She suddenly turned, looking at me with a smile and an expression of someone that got a sudden realization. “What if the only reason you felt like that was because they used that healing magic that makes you feel good!”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, since I didn’t expect her to say such a thing. “That… I don’t think that—”

“But isn’t one of those Gods one that has like the power of healing? Couldn’t that one be the one that made you feel like that?” she asked, pressing her hand on the bed. “Couldn’t it be that the reason you did all those things was because you simply thought that you were doing the right thing because they made you think you were doing the right thing?!”

“Are you implying that I was being controlled?” I asked back with a deep frown on my face.

Nicole answered with quick nods, like a chicken that just found corn. “Yes! Yes! Maybe it’s not really your fault that Arretia was destroyed! Maybe, it had been those Gods from the very start and you just didn’t know!”

I couldn’t help but blink several times as I looked at Nicole’s eyes. The things that she was suggesting weren’t things that I ever even considered, not even after coming to this world. And it was true that I would feel blissful whenever I heard Their whispers, but… sadly, what she’s saying just wasn’t what happened, so with a shake of my head, I denied what she was saying.

“No. That wasn’t the case,” I said and laid my head on the pillow as I looked up at the ceiling.

“How can you be so sure?” she asked, poking me on the arm. “They’re Gods, right? Couldn’t they do that?”

“No. One of the first things that Salrak mentioned when I first confronted him before the Final War was how interesting it was that I wasn’t a puppet for the Holy Gods,” I said, shaking my head once more. “Everything that happened was my doing—even if the Holy Gods urged me to do them.”

“Eh…” Nicole replied, plopping herself on the bed. “Well… if that guy said it, then it’s probably true…”

I heard her grumbling slightly, so I turned to look at her, having her head buried in a pillow. The clock on the room already showed that it was late, and tomorrow we were likely going to have a similar day as today when we got to meet the Emperor, and the Duchess before or afterwards. It was better for her to go get some rest.

“Come on. I think it’s time for you to get some rest. Go to your room,” I said, tapping her on the head a couple of times.

“Hnnggg…” was all that she replied as she buried her head on the pillow and shook it from side to side, before looking this way with a frown. “I’m not sleepy…”

“You’ll need to be well rested for tomorrow when we go to the Imperial Palace,” I said, “Go rest.”

“Arggh… fiiine,” she said, sluggishly standing from the bed. “I guess I’ll train my fire magic until I’m super tired.”

“No,” I quickly said, lifting my head up from the bed. “You’ll burn something.”

“What? Noooo. You know I’m very good with fire—”

“I noticed the burn mark on the room from this morning,” I said with narrowed eyes.

She widened her eyes and then returned a wry smile as she looked to the side. “T-that was already there…”

I continued looking at her in the same way, and I knew that she could feel it, since she was turning her face away from me more and more.

“A-anyway! I think I’ll go get some rest now, hahaha, see ya tomorrow!” she said, and quickly rushed out of the room.

With a sigh, I laid myself back on the bed.

It was quite a surprise to find Salrak once more after such a long time, even if he no longer had the same form from before. But as I thought about Him, the worries that I had about doing what was wrong or right for this world were lessened. He was, after everything was said and done, the one that protected the world and the people in it to the very end, so if there was someone I could trust to help me do the same, it was Him.

With that thought in mind, I closed my eyes, and went to sleep.