Chapter 410 - The Paradox Of Prophecy

# [Key Points After the Total Attack]

***

"Sigh..."

Still in the hospital.

I sighed as I put down the report that had been brought to me.

...It's already been well over a week since I've been confined to this hospital room. I was starting to get used to it. I was handling all my work from here anyway.

Actually, my body seems mostly fine now except for being a bit weaker... But the reason I'm being detained isn't because of my current condition, but because they don't know what condition I'll return in if I leave.

When my brother was crying, saying I looked like I was about to die and begging me to stay here... it was hard to argue with that.

So here I was, with my abilities gone weird—coughing up black blood after using teleportation just once—unable to leave, and with no one taking my side... confined to a hospital room handling everything.

On top of that.

[Haha! These guys are endless! Alright... let's see how far they'll go!]

[I shall vanquish evil with blazing purple flames... just kidding~]

[Sigh... there's no end to this. Wonder how long we'll have to keep going.]

[Bwahahahaha! Behold the power of Saint Petrius the Death Knight!!!]

I sighed as I looked at the hologram screens floating in front of me.

...Now I could even see real-time footage of my members.

The images of our Ego-squad members on the screens.

Through their masks, I could check on each Ego-squad member's individual situation in real-time on floating screens right before my eyes.

Each screen showed one person.

Choi Se-hee, Seo Ja-young, Mr. Shin-ryong, Uncle Desik, Eun-wol, and somehow even Han Seo-eun who was working at the Association... I could see all of them in real-time.

Of course, this was a system that Seo-eun had set up for me.

She attached tracking drones to each person, allowing me to monitor them in real-time through the drone cameras.

...She provided this after I tried to convince her I needed to leave because I couldn't see how our members were doing from the hospital room. She said I could just watch them in real-time from here, and the other members agreed.

Seriously, is being constantly monitored better than me escaping confinement...

Anyway, just as I put down my mask and turned off the hologram videos for a moment.

"Egostic, what are you doing?"

The door swung open, and Celeste, dressed in a white priestess robe, casually walked into the room.

...Do I have no privacy?

"Just resting. The world seems to be holding up pretty well these days."

Of course, I didn't say what I was really thinking.

...After all, Celeste had betrayed the Sun God she had devoted her life to for my sake. I didn't want to say anything negative to her recently.

She did look somewhat unstable lately.

"Hmm... that's right. Things are going well."

With a faint smile, she pushed her silver hair back and sat demurely in the chair next to where I was sitting.

I looked at Celeste for a moment.

"...Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Ah... I didn't mean to. Sorry."

Perhaps sensing my gaze, she turned her head away with a somewhat embarrassed voice.

No, I shouldn't have known since my eyes were closed.

She was still a bit prickly, but I knew the truth. The reason she was suppressing her temper and cooperating with the Association to create massive protective barriers around the world was all for me.

After all, even her desire for revenge against the Sun God was something I had planted in her.

Since the Sun God's fall, she had become heavily dependent on me. She was anxious without me around.

'...But wait.'

As I was thinking, I realized something strange.

When I collapsed, Celeste was worried when I woke up. She was concerned I might have fallen into confusion while I was unconscious.

However, I heard that when everyone was panicking about what would happen if something went wrong with me, Celeste was the only one who calmly reassured them that Egostic would be fine.

'And...'

Unlike Ego-squad and Stardust who had confined me saying I might die even before the Sun God arrived...

...Celeste alone had questioned whether that was necessary. She said Egostic would be fine.

As if she had some strange basis for believing I would be safe.

What could it be?

Curious, I decided to ask Celeste directly.

"Celeste."

"Hmph. What?"

"...I heard that when I was collapsed, you alone reassured people that I would be fine."

At my sudden question, Celeste, who had been turning her head away with her arms crossed, suddenly froze.

Seeing her reaction, I continued asking.

"I'm truly grateful... but may I ask why you thought that?"

And to my question.

"...I-I just thought you would be fine because you're you. Why are you asking something like that?"

With slightly reddened cheeks, she firmly told me it was nothing, her eyes still closed.

Hmm... it definitely seems like there's something there.

But it doesn't seem like I'll get an answer right now.

Looking at Celeste for a moment, I decided to think about this issue later.

More importantly.

'...I need to do it soon.'

I looked at Celeste briefly, thinking about it.

Specifically, destroying the Sun God's relic.

With the Sun God's arrival not far off, now was the time to smash those relics.

Especially since the Sun God's influence was growing stronger, and the relics were reportedly responding... before it's too late, we needed to act before the Sun God fully arrived and those relics triggered some unknown reaction.

However.

"....."

For some reason, I kept having this strange feeling that destroying the relics now would be a mistake. That's why I had been postponing it.

But what choice did I have? If I didn't destroy them now, everything might fall apart when the Sun God arrives. It made sense to destroy them now before it was too late.

Now was the time when reason needed to prevail over feeling.

So, looking at Celeste who was fanning herself with her head turned away, I made my decision.

It was time to convince her to destroy the relics.

***

"...I heard that when I was collapsed, you alone reassured people that I would be fine. I'm truly grateful... but may I ask why you thought that?"

Egostic's question.

At those words, Celeste was flustered.

'...H-how can I possibly explain that...!'

The reason.

...The reason Celeste firmly believed Egostic would wake up even when he had collapsed and remained unconscious. The reason she firmly believed Egostic would be safe even now.

It was because.

A space made of brick walls.

There, a silver-haired woman in priestess robes was pressed against the wall by a man wearing a black hat.

With her back against the wall, looking up at the man right in front of her with golden eyes, the silver-haired woman spoke in a trembling voice.

"Wait... Egostic, calm down. We shouldn't do this here, okay?"

"I don't want to. I can't hold back."

"No, please calm down. I want it too, but, okay? Just not here... mmph."

"Mmph... wait...! Mmph..."

'Ahh...'

It was because of the prophecy she had seen.

A scene where she was f-forcefully embraced and k-kissed by Egostic.

That prophecy gave Celeste certainty.

'Egostic... until he k-kisses me like that... he absolutely won't die before then.'

That's right.

The fact that she and Egostic would someday kiss...

...interpreted differently, it meant that until that kiss happened, Egostic couldn't possibly die.

Using the temporal paradox that one cannot kiss a dead person.

That's why Celeste could be certain.

Until that scene came to pass, Egostic wouldn't be in danger...!

In truth.

...Of course, that prophecy wasn't exactly 100% guaranteed to happen, but rather one of many future possibilities.

And the Oracle who had given that prophecy had disappeared around the time of the Sun God's arrival, but she chose to believe it anyway.

Because now, she couldn't even imagine life without Egostic.

'....'

In fact.

...Although she didn't show it, she had become heavily dependent on Egostic since the Sun God incident.

Actually, it was closer to obsession and submission than dependence.

It was essentially no different from changing the object of her lifelong worship from a god to Egostic.

...Egostic probably didn't know, but she was currently in such a mentally vulnerable state that she would follow any command he gave with a serious face, no matter what it was. Even to the point of dying if he ordered it.

She had truly become Egostic's priestess.

...Though she tried her best to hide it by acting prickly.

Because of this.

"...Celeste."

"What?"

"...I'm feeling suffocated being confined to this hospital room. Could I go outside for a bit?"

"...No."

"Just once, Celeste. I'll just quietly visit the cathedral and come back. ...I have something to do there. Please? Just the two of us, when no one else is around."

"....."

'E-Egostic and me alone...'

When Egostic asked with a slight smile and a serious face.

She couldn't refuse.