The memory of ascending the guillotine before the regression was still as vivid as yesterday. The dazzlingly blue sky she looked up at with fading eyes. And the white bird flying across the sky.

The moment she cried out, asking for one more chance, she felt her eyes meet with that white bird in the sky. The very next instant, along with the coolness of the blade slicing her neck, it was a scene she still remembered clearly.

“Oho. So you remember. As expected of Kanak’s descendant.”

The demon god Gilrot made a strange laughing sound, as if satisfied.

“Why… did you grant my wish then?”

Kasha straightened her gaze and stared directly at the demon god.

She had been curious all along. Which god had answered her desperate desire at that horrific moment of death.

She had always wondered why a chance was given to her, who had lived a cowardly and foolish life, let alone lived especially virtuously or accumulated blessings.

And to think it was a demon god of all things.

How was she supposed to interpret this unexpected truth?

Gilrot twisted his beak-like smooth lips slightly.

“Didn’t you say it yourself? To give you one more chance. A chance to trample all over those humans who treated you like a worm.”

“What?”

“Now that I have found you, there will be no need for you to be swayed by those lowly humans anymore.”

“You will now walk the path of immortality with me, just like Lord Kanak. You will be able to crush those lowly humans like bugs with your fingers.”

A passion flickered in the blue eyes of the demon god Gilrot.

“Isn’t that the kind of revenge you truly desire?”

The demon god’s voice echoed not in her ears, but in her mind. Perhaps because he was a god, his voice carried a persuasiveness incomparable to humans and penetrated her heart.

As if peering into Kasha’s inner thoughts, who had dreamed of simple and destructive revenge, disgusted by the terrible misdeeds of humans.

“Kasha.”

At that moment, Leon, who was still held in the invisible grip of the demon god, called out to her.

“Are you alright?”

He seemed to have noticed that her condition was unusual, seeing her dazed expression.

Only then did she come to her senses, seeing the amethyst-colored eyes that were worried about her even in his wretched state.

Before she knew it, the demon god must have exerted his power again, for Kasha was newly enraged to see Leon’s body, with his shirt and pants mostly burned away and swollen red wounds.

She stared straight at the demon god.

“I didn’t wish for a chance to trample on humans. I only longed for a life of my own, where I wouldn’t be swayed by anyone and could grasp what I rightfully deserved.”

Seeing the bright pink eyes that didn’t waver at his inner workings, the demon god’s gaze turned cold for a moment.

“Anyway, I granted your wish.”

The demon god spread his wings wide and flapped them. It felt as if both a sun-like blaze and a millennium-snow-like chill were piercing her flesh at the same time.

“And you have yet to pay the price.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Didn’t I say it? Come with me and enjoy eternity. That is the price I desire.”

“Don’t say such nonsense. That wasn’t a deal. I never promised you any price.”

The demon god twisted his lips as if mocking her.

“Ah, is that so? You won’t pay the price? Then, from now on, you’ll have to bear the consequences of the regression that turned back time, the backlash of causality that I have been enduring with this demon god’s body, with that tiny body of yours? All the beings connected to you will be swept into the vortex of causality and crushed without a trace?”

The demon god threatened, puffing up his body. Before she knew it, the stone chamber was suffocating with the demon god’s presence.

“Do you wish for the beings you love to be swept into the laws of cosmic causality and meet their deaths without knowing the reason? If not, accept my proposal. Come with me, descendant of Kanak. Let us enjoy eternity together.”

Kasha mustered all her strength to not be crushed by the overwhelming pressure of the enormous being.

“I don’t desire eternity.”

Due to the intense heat, sweat constantly poured from her entire body. Dehydration symptoms set in within seconds, but Kasha gritted her teeth.

“…You sound just like Lord Kanak. For a mere human.”

Gilrot’s eyes narrowed vertically. It was directly conveyed that the demon god’s unfathomable mood was plummeting steeply.

“Desiring eternal life is the primitive desire of greedy humans. There is no human who doesn’t want that.”

“I don’t.”

“…Is that so? Then what do you want? Just this lowly human man?”

The moment Gilrot’s eyes flickered, a groan was heard from Leon.

The black scars remaining on Leon’s body darkened even more terribly and emitted a stifling heat.

Leon resisted with his willpower, gritting his teeth, but he could no longer prevent the invisible grip from piercing his flesh. The drops of sweat falling from Leon’s forehead evaporated into steam before even reaching the ground.

“Stop it! I told you not to harm Leon! If you hurt him, I will also die right here!”

Kasha hurriedly looked around and spotted Gilrot’s wing crystals embedded in the stone wall, and without hesitation, she placed her hand on them.

An excruciating heat was transmitted from the otherworldly object, and blisters immediately formed on the skin of her palm. Her teeth involuntarily clenched from the overwhelming pain.

“Stop…!”

“Stop it, Kasha!”

Leon’s voice, far more urgent and desperate than the demon god Gilrot’s, resounded through the stone chamber.

“Think calmly! Ugh, don’t… recklessly injure yourself!”

“But, Leon!”

I’m so afraid you might die at any moment.

Kasha’s fist, clenched in pain, trembled violently. The terrible heat piercing her palm made her feel like she might faint at any moment.

However, what she feared most was the fact that the demon might kill Leon at any moment without hesitation.

“I don’t want to lose you again, ever again. Absolutely not, not in vain like that time.”

Tears burst out of Kasha’s eyes involuntarily from the rushing fear.

How much had she regretted not being able to do anything for him as he died by the swords of the imperial knights before the regression?

Now that she had come to love him, she felt even less able to endure that pain.

Rather than repeating that moment, wouldn’t it be better to take the demon’s hand and do as he wished?

The moment such thoughts came to her, Leon’s urgent voice rang in her ears.

“Trust me, Kasha! We will never, ever repeat the same mistake.”

He seemed to have noticed what Kasha was thinking. The next moment, Leon strongly twisted his body and radiated a blindingly intense divine power.

In the gap where the demon god’s grip loosened from the sudden counterattack, he escaped from the grip and rolled fiercely on the ground.

Quickly picking up the sword he had been rolling with, he infused divine power into the sword in an instant. In that moment, the invisible grip chased after Leon again and crushed his body with immense pressure.

However, despite the pain of his entire body being shattered, he did not yield and crawled on the ground, plunging that sword into the magic circle drawn on the floor. At the same time, a tremendous amount of dark red blood spewed from Leon’s mouth.

“……!”

For a moment, the air in the stone chamber rippled rapidly like small waves. At the same time, Gilrot’s presence began to fade little by little.

“To think a lowly human would dare… Your mind works quite well.”

Leon grinned, raising his blood-stained lips.

“Even if you’re a demon god, it’s the fate of a summoned being to return to where they originally were if the summoning ritual is disrupted. I may be a bit corrupted… but as a holy knight, I know quite a bit about gods.”

“Even knowing that disrupting a demon summoning ritual could endanger your life.”

Gilrot’s eyes now seemed to burn with blue flames. However, Leon, who stood before the demon god in a tattered state, had a gaze that felt no fear at all.

“I won’t die now. I can’t even die unless Kasha allows it.”

“…Insolence, but quite something. I once saw eyes like yours.”

As if recalling something, Gilrot’s momentum subsided.

“However, I will return. I have already intervened in the causality of this world.”

Leon still retorted with a sharp gaze.

“Do as you please. But don’t arbitrarily impose an unconsented deal on my lover, demon. Surely you are aware that the more a being possesses a divine status that exerts a vast influence on the world, the more strictly causality applies to them.”

Even as they conversed, Gilrot’s presence grew fainter and fainter.

Gilrot hurriedly spread his wings and retrieved his wing crystals scattered all around. After confirming the return of the last one, the demon god turned his gaze to Kasha.

And for the next few seconds, until Gilrot completely disappeared, the thoughts he conveyed completely dominated Kasha’s mind.

“I can no longer delay receiving the price. Now that I have already set foot in the world of this timeline, I must either receive the price or return the weight of causality I have been bearing to you.”

Kasha faced Gilrot’s fading eyes with a pale face.

“An, another price. Tell me anything else. Please.”

“Do you think there would be anything I desire in this rotten world?”

Gilrot sneered.

Kasha became desperate. She had to change the demon god’s mind somehow.

She had vaguely worried that the day would come when she would have to pay the price for the regression, but it was never in this way.

At that moment, the crystals embedded in the huge wings Gilrot had spread suddenly caught her eye. Among the pure white crystals, a few gray stains were particularly eye-catching.

In a brief moment, quickly assessing it, Kasha realized that the number of stains was exactly three. And at the same time, she also realized what it meant.

Kasha shouted loudly.

“Those three demon stones! They’re originally yours, right? What if I return them to you? Along with all the magic power imbued in them!”

For a moment, Gilrot’s form, which had almost disappeared, shook violently.