Thoughts and stray notions crowded his mind until he felt stifled.

"... I thought you..."

At first, he had thought him human. But as time passed, he realized that wasn't true. Humans lived an average of fifty years, and even under the best circumstances, they struggled to live past a hundred. He had considered whether the new humanity might live longer, but even that could not explain it.

What human could spend 281 years molding a horrifying mush of flesh into a person?

"... I remember... calling you."

Only now, so very late, did he remember.

"I, I... I'm certain... inside that cramped prison..."

"You called me."

"I was afraid. Being alone was so lonely, and I had suffered for so long that my mind was clouded. I didn't want to stay that way any longer. I couldn't bear it anymore..."

"I would say you endured enough."

"..."

"Do you regret it?"

"..."

"You seem to, a little."

It felt quite horrifying to have summoned back into the world the evil god he had sealed with so much blood and flesh. Yet he was grateful at the same time. In the end, this evil god alone had reached out in answer to his screams and calls.

Contradictory emotions filled him at once.

"..."

Ater bit his lip hard, took a deep breath, and asked,

"... Why do you take human form?"

"Because I was human."

"... You... were. Yes. That's right..."

"There is another reason, too."

Arjio was not complete.

"I am, hmm. How should I put this?"

"...?"

"Not all my pieces are here."

"... Not all your pieces?"

"Only ninety-nine out of a hundred have come together."

His assimilation was incomplete.

"Quite a few pieces have come together over time, but much is still missing. To tell the truth, this isn't really my true form. From the age of ten onward, I was always a beast, but I knew how to imitate a human..."

Arjio's current appearance was thus a kind of mimicry. The form of 'Arjio' that people from 'back then' remembered most. Ultimately, Jio was a portrait now; there was no helping it.

"So you needn't worry. I cannot become as threatening a being as you fear, since I have yet to reclaim the most essential and important piece."

"... Where is that piece?"

"Beneath this tomb."

"There's something beneath...?"

"It seems the mages did some sort of rearranging to borrow my power while creating the false world. Strictly speaking, it would be closer to the power of 'the evil god Arjio' than to 'my' power..."

"Are the two very different?"

"It would be difficult to call them the same."

The evil god was a monster formed from the accumulated hatred and resentment of countless saints. Arjio's personality might exist within it, but that did not make him the whole of it. Becoming a portrait had allowed him to suppress the endlessly burning wrath, but he had merely subdued it. It had not disappeared.

"You could say my heart and limbs were divided into tens of thousands of pieces and stored separately."

"... Why haven't you reclaimed them?"

"I cannot reclaim them."

He looked at Ater as though the answer should have been obvious.

"You and your companions sealed me, did you not?"

"... Ah."

Ater sat dazed for a long while.

"..."

Eventually, he asked,

"... It's still there? The seal's influence?"

"So many precious lives were sacrificed. Of course it should remain. The mages only tampered with its location and upkeep, not the seal itself."

"Then what are you, standing before me now?"

"The very last beast of the Black Forest."

"... No."

Ater's hands clenched tightly.

"You were a saint."

"Oh, please. I'm not particularly fond of that word."

Saint was a word suited to someone like Giovanni, with the temperament to gently guide his lambs. Evil god, monster, beast—those were the words that fit Arjio perfectly. They symbolized unfettered wrath and suffering that held worth.

But Ater apparently did not hear them that way at all. His expression was troubled.

"..."

"Good heavens, are you blaming yourself?"

How admirable.

"Because you think what you did might not have been justified?"

"... Why, why would you... say such a thing... when you were the one we did it to?"

"That is precisely why I can say it."

"You hated us. That was why you killed so many people."

"I did kill them, but I did not hate them. At least, 'I' did not."

He meant it.

"I simply wanted to rage."

"Then at least be angry with me."

"But the wrath I harbor is not directed at you. It is meant for the cowards who insulted me as a filthy beast and burned my family in the Black Forest. You must not demand that I stoop to such base anger."

"..."

Ater's lips moved a few times before his face crumpled utterly.

"You seem conflicted."

Thinking he needed time, Jio was about to rise.

"... Wait a moment, Arjio."

"What is it?"

"T-tell me..."

After hesitating, he made his request. Determination showed in his narrowed eyes.

"Please tell me your story."

The records in the ruins had taught him many hidden truths, but those were mere fragments. They were nowhere near enough to learn, remember, and reflect upon the stories of those countless saints.

He wanted to hear Arjio's story.

"Tell me what sort of being you were."

"That would be easy enough."

Jio tilted his head.

"But can you believe it?"

"... I will do everything in my power to judge."

"... In that case..."

He liked that.

"You are human indeed."

You possess a weighty worth.

* * *

"I was born into a distinguished family."

Despite his imposing voice, the evil god's story unfolded gently.

"They served as a shield, keeping the monsters of the calamity-ridden Black Forest from breaking out. It was a family respected by the people, carrying out an honorable duty."

"... And you were...?"

"The youngest son. I was deft with my hands and possessed ideal looks, so I was much adored. I showed exceptional talent in the arts in particular. Dance, painting, music..."

"... That doesn't seem to suit the evil god I know."

"I'm truly delighted to see you making jokes now."

He said he had once been loved.

"But monsters had been born into this family for generations. Those monsters would gradually take on the form of beasts, eventually growing into demons beyond description. When the signs began to show, the family would confine the young beast in the Black Forest to prevent calamity."

"Why? Out of simple hatred?"

"I wouldn't say that played no part... but otherwise, the young beast would draw calamity out of the Black Forest and spread it through the world. Believing the Black Forest and the humanlike beast to be one, the family continued that tradition."

"But you were supposed to be saints..."

"It was simply that no one remembered."

Calamity did not flow out of the Black Forest because a monster had been born. Rather, the birth of a saint meant that the forest's calamity could be held back. As the long years passed, people forgot that and remembered only that 'the monster must be abandoned in the Black Forest.'

"That was how I grew up in the Black Forest. And there, I came to understand the true purpose of my existence."

"You must have felt wronged."

"I found it amusing more than anything. I wondered what on earth gave humans the confidence to behave that way. In a sense, they were so insignificant that they were almost cute. Such is the nature of fragile beings that break and crumble whenever I stir things up."

"..."

"Well, in time..."

The face of the self-proclaimed monster softened.

"I found many friends and family members."

"... You mean the beasts of the Black Forest?"

"Them, too."

"There were others?"

"Those I captured and brought back."

"..."

After hesitating, Ater spoke.

"You mean the living sacrifices offered to you."

"Indeed. They also earned me a reputation for eating humans."

"Why would you let that..."

"The more people fear me, the easier it is to do as I please. And above all, what point would there have been in denying it?"

Arjio knew human obstinacy and unreasonableness better than anyone. Hadn't that stubbornness made him the monster of the Black Forest? He had found that turn of events quite enjoyable, but his anger at their contempt for him had not disappeared.

He simply had no reason to persuade them.

"Why bother?"

And so Arjio lived as a beast.

"A fair amount of time passed. I lived as I pleased, and people were terrified... Perhaps the family felt they had to do something, because they made their move. They actually unleashed a part of the Black Forest."

"... I don't quite understand."

"I told you my birth family had spent generations holding back the calamity sealed within the Black Forest, didn't I? They brought out what lay at its deepest point, the essence of the calamity that forms the Black Forest... the water."

"Water...?"

"I simply called it black water."

Other people called it something else.

"The people of the world called it a plague, you know?"

"... Wait."

Ater was taken aback.

"Even that wasn't your doing?"

That dreadful poison that rotted people's reason, ate away their bodies, and ultimately drove the world to destruction hadn't belonged to the evil god? Even that had been an act of human stupidity?

"I thought it must at least have escaped from the Black Forest... B-but why was it... Shouldn't something like that have been kept in the Black Forest? Why was your family keeping it?"

"Judging by the past the very first saint remembered, I suspect the aim was to share the burden. They likely divided their roles by keeping one world-upending calamity in the forest and another with the family."

"Why did your family spread it through the world?"

"They never imagined it was a calamity. They merely thought it a very dangerous but ancient, sacred weapon handed down through the family. They intended to use it as a weapon to slay me."

"..."

"They must have found me quite intolerable."

It was a closely guarded secret that such beast-shaped demons were born into that noble family. But the young monster had survived the Black Forest and now wandered the world. They feared he might one day open his mouth and disgrace the family, or come seeking revenge.

"Quite stupid, isn't it?"

In the end, they had opened their 'weapon' to slay Arjio, the cruel beast. The result was the plague that engulfed the world. The family never took responsibility, quietly falling with their mouths firmly shut to the very end of their line.

"As a result, I became a demon who tore people apart and ate them alive, caused countless incidents and disasters, and even unleashed a plague that rotted everyone from little children to the elderly."

"... And so..."

"The Black Forest was burned. You probably know this part. In the end, the royal court dispatched an army, and they closed in on me from all sides. I burned alongside the Black Forest, suffered terrible injuries, and finally died in my family's embrace."

"... And that was how 'the evil god Arjio' was made? The cruel beast?"

"It seems you've understood well."

He smiled in approval.

"Are you curious why I didn't flee the fire attack?"

"... Were you not powerful enough? But according to the records... you could easily have..."

"Perhaps I could have escaped."

But he had not.

"To tell the truth, I don't remember why."

"... Pardon?"

"It seems that memory lies deep asleep within my remaining piece. Well, perhaps there was some treasure in the Black Forest I didn't want to leave behind. Or perhaps I loved my homeland too dearly to abandon it. Or the army may truly have closed in too thoroughly for me to escape."

"... Could you simply have been tired?"

"That is a reasonable thought, too. Perhaps I considered it the most fitting end for me."

A monster's end for a monster.

"... Well, that was what I thought, but..."

"The evil god Arjio could not conceal his hatred for humans."

"Because I was not the only one who made up that evil Divinity."

"Yes, of course."

Ater knew all too well what had happened after that.

"... You truly never hated us."

"At least, I had no reason to."

"... Ha..."

He felt hollow.