For the rest of that day, I simply traveled in a direction, running as fast as I could without exhausting myself. I picked up most of the larger rocks I came across, and although I had hundreds of them sitting in my inventory, they only filled a minuscule corner.

I ended up stopping because I found nothing I needed to throw them at.

I wouldn’t call the lands I was traveling through a wasteland per se, but it was undoubtedly profoundly ill. I’ve stumbled upon many zombies besides the wolf but found no reason to get involved with them. A part of me wanted to try resurrecting one and offering an [Oath of Loyalty], but I still vividly remembered my arm exploding as I used [Resurrect].

Sure, my arm regrew rather quickly the first time, but I wasn’t keen on discovering that the consequences of using it could get worse than that.

In any case, my mind was occupied by other things. First, this world was massive. Looking from an even slightly elevated vantage point revealed a horizon that stretched far further than I remembered. I hadn’t been traveling slowly, either, but I had seen no signs of settlements so far.

Second, my bodily needs… yeah… they simply weren’t there. The needs for sleep, food, water, urination, and defecation—I appeared to have no bodily functions.

I had no clue whether this was an element of my [Quasi-Immortality] or the strange race I belonged to, but I was beginning to worry that neglecting these needs could be a mistake.

It was possible that I just didn’t feel the need for them, but the need was still there.

I stopped by a small creek to drink some water. I spotted my reflection in a section where the water flowed most calmly, and I was… surprised by how unsurprised I was by what I saw. I looked precisely as I remembered. It was the same twenty-two-year-old I had been before I lost function in most of my body. Even the length of my hair, which reached roughly down to my ears, was the same.

Seeing no “demonic” features was a great relief. I had been half-expecting to see the face of a disgusting monster.

Once I drank, I killed a bird with a well-aimed rock throw. I then proceeded to roast the bird… over a fire bird. The sight was quite amusing.

The meat was a bit gamey, but I ate it, and it made me full—yet I didn’t feel any different.

Eventually, the night rolled around, and I looked for a safe hiding place. After a bit of searching, I located a small cave, where I constructed a makeshift shelter in a corner by stacking some of the boulders I had stashed in my inventory. The resulting space was small, but it was enough for my naked, skinny body to fit right into it.

I squeezed myself into the tiny hiding place and closed my eyes. It had been a while since I had slept, and although I felt no desire to rest, I really wanted to sleep.

I missed not being awake. I needed a break, a buffer from the constant uncertainty and the numerous questions devouring me from the inside.

At first, I thought that my attempt would be unsuccessful. Time passed by, and I felt no more sleepy than I had when I crawled into the makeshift shelter. But before I knew it, I had dozed off.

***

I slowly opened my eyes, finding myself lying on a flat floor, looking up at a hazy white sky with beige clouds scattered around. “Oh shit!” I yelped and jumped, looking around me.

I was located on a floating platform of marble blocks, much like the one I had appeared on before. But this time, the floating platform was empty. I was alone.

I was back in… heaven? How the hell did I get here? Did another rift open while I was asleep?

Thoughts whirled in my mind as I, too, spun, trying to find any clue as to what was happening. After a while, I stopped spinning. I anxiously scratched my cheek as I—

“Boo!” a female voice sounded from behind me, and I jumped, screaming at the top of my lungs.

As I turned around to see who it was, I did not get any calmer.

The person who stood before me was a woman. She appeared to be wearing a dress of pure, shifting shadow, and her hair looked almost like a pitch-black silhouette of falling flames. Her eyes had deep shadows beneath them, and her lips were also entirely black.

“Welcome!” she shouted cheerfully. A trumpet manifested out of thin air, and she tooted a cheerful tune as a chorus of children’s voices screamed “Yay!” in the background, and flower petals floated around her.

My mind was frozen stiff as I observed the absurd sight.

Stolen novel; please report.

The fanfare ended after a few seconds, and the trumpet vanished. “Hurray!” she said as she clapped her hands. “Welcome to heaven!”

“Uh… hello?” I greeted tentatively. I remembered that I was butt naked but to my surprise… I felt absolutely no shame.

“Allow me to introduce myself!” she said. “I’m the Dark Goddess, Voiya. It's a pleasure to meet you, James.”

I found myself unable to comprehend what she just said. A… goddess? A bona fide deity? Needless to say, to someone who had been an atheist, meeting a god in person was quite a surprise. But also, on a deeper level… the sight of her made me feel sick. Was she evil?

“Ah!” she croaked as if she suddenly remembered something. “You must be pretty grossed out by my presence, right? I'm sorry, but you’re just going to have to bear with it until we finish our conversation.”

I winced. Could this woman read my mind?

“I can’t read your mind!” she declared. “But I can make a pretty good guess.” Then, she sighed. “Also, I’m not evil if that’s what you’re wondering. I just really like the color black.”

Everything about this person was unsettling to me. I felt like an open book while standing before her, and despite her jovial attitude, I could sense that she wasn’t here to mess around.

“I… uh… Can you please tell me what’s happening?” I said as politely as I could.

“Naturally!” She clapped her hands. “Given that you come from a world without magic, you’re probably quite curious about many things, no?”

My eyes widened, but I wasn’t all that surprised that she knew. Well, I’d expect at least that much from a literal god.

“But there is one thing you have to know first,” she said, and suddenly, her demeanor shifted. “You see, in this world, there is this concept that we call a ‘great evil,’” she started. “A fallen angel is a great evil, a lich is a great evil, a demon is a great evil—just to name a few. But you”—she pointed at me, smiling mysteriously—”you are not a great evil. You are something we don’t have a real name for since, well… you simply shouldn’t exist.”

I gulped, remembering the [Aberration] title.

“To you, this might be a foreign concept,” she continued, “but evil is a tangible thing in this world. And mortal beings—that is, those who live in the mortal plane—can only ‘possess’ a certain amount of evil in their bodies. Simply being a great evil is enough to fill this container half way through. And committing evil deeds will only make more of it accumulate.

“Now for you, well, you come from a world without magic. Even if you were a serial murder-rapist, your soul would be as pure as that of a baby’s the moment you arrived to this world. Theoretically, that would make just enough space to fit two great evils into one body, right?” she asked as she looked at me in anticipation.

“Uh… yes?”

“No,” she denied. “No, it wouldn’t. Because, you see, the process of making someone a great evil twice would temporarily exceed the maximum evil capacity of a body, and then that body would”—she gestured with her hands, putting her fingers together and then imitating an explosion—”pop. They would become a bomb of evil energy. Unless”—she suddenly became frantic—“that person just happened to have a symbiote in their body that just happened to have a weakened soul inside it at the exact right moment and was made of great evil tissue that could temporarily host the excess evil until the transformation was over.”

I stared at her blankly for a few moments. “That happened to me, didn’t it?”

“Yes!” she said. “So I have no choice but to welcome you to heaven’s side, oh double great evil! Or, maybe we should just call you a supreme evil. Either way, welcome aboard!” she said, offering her hand in a handshake.

I stared at her hand skeptically. “How does any of this make sense?” I asked. “Not to be presumptuous, but uh… Doesn’t the fact that I’m a supposed ‘supreme evil’ make me something of an… enemy?”

She smiled broadly. “That’s the funny thing, you see! You physically can’t be an enemy of heaven.”

I scowled. “How?”

“Remember that whole thing about creatures exploding when they have too much evil in their body?”

My heart sank. “That’s going to happen to me, isn’t it?”

“Not if you don’t sin!” she said enthusiastically, pointing finger-guns at me.

I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself. “Not a big deal,” I muttered, comforting myself. “I wasn’t planning on doing anything evil, anyway.”

“No, it’s a pretty big deal,” she said.

“I—” I wanted to say something, but the sudden look of sorrow on her face made me shut up.

Her eyes were filled with profound grief and sympathy as she started walking, slowly making circles around me. “It’s a pretty big deal, James. You aren’t human; you’re a devilich. Haven’t you already noticed that something’s a bit strange?”

I gritted my teeth. “Not much, but some things. Why?”

“Physiologically, you’re a being of pure evil,” she said. “You’ve been human your whole life. Your soul is still human, but your mindset will slowly shift under your body's influence.”

I was afraid to ask, but I needed to know. “And… what does that mean?”

“I’m sure you can guess.”

I felt tears building up behind my eyes. I couldn’t accept this. “I’m human,” I said. “That’s what I’ve always been. I mean… look at me!” I said. “Do I look like some form of abomination to you!?” I shouted. “I’ve seen my reflection; I know that isn’t the case!”

“James… that isn’t what you really look like,” the Dark Goddess declared.

“… What?”

In the blink of an eye, the goddess disappeared, and where she had been a moment ago, now, a mirror stood, showing my reflection. I stared at my face. I was just… me. I was the person I’ve always been.

But then, like a hand out of the void, Voiya appeared behind me, and as she placed a single finger on my shoulder—

Hidden skill revealed: [Shapeshifting: Human Form]

—my body began to shift and crackle. With the sound of snapping bones and morphing flesh, in mere moments, my transformation was undone…

And my true form was revealed.