Lilith shattered Rubia’s divine realm.
Right after breaking a bunch of unnecessary things from various worlds,
I found myself dropped in an unknown place.
It was a place where various colors mixed against a gray backdrop.
A place where the sky and the ground were indistinguishable.
A place where the concept of time was ambiguous, and various physiological phenomena didn’t occur.
There were no living beings, just a bunch of odd things like strange octopus heads, tentacles, fog, sheep, chaos, darkness, doors, and so on… Entities that couldn’t be described despite staring at them.
If I had to name it, I’d call it the Outside.
I had been dropped right outside the world.
At first, I was a bit anxious.
I needed to get back to Rubia as soon as possible, but I was stuck in this unknown place.
Just as I was about to break a part of this place and leave,
an entity identifying itself as darkness suddenly appeared and started chattering at me.
To summarize,
it said that, from a human perspective, it would swallow the world I live in within a week.
So, I immediately understood where I was. I also realized what those outsiders, mentioned by the Nameless One, were.
And I knew what I had to do.
So I did it.
First, I punched the entity called darkness.
Then I kicked the tentacles wrapped around my legs.
I punched through the fog, kicked the chaos, and chased away the sheep.
Continuing this way, I kept beating and obliterating the bizarre things that kept coming in, maintaining the hierarchy.
I had no idea how much time had passed here. A week? A month? Hmm… couldn’t gauge it.
I had been swinging my Great Sword without a moment’s rest.
But since my body had surpassed that of an ordinary human, I was able to continue this… not combat, but ranking process without getting tired. Thankfully, there were no strong opponents.
Anyway, at the end of this relentless ranking,
I managed to establish dominance over those left in this place.
Their leader was darkness.
The only one who could communicate with me.
So I appointed them as the commander.
I told them to block the new outsiders with the others while I was gone.
If they couldn’t hold them back, I’d come myself.
It wasn’t forced; they said they’d do it.
So, I thought we’d become good friends. I treated them with good words, but…
Where did everyone go?
Did they run away…?
“…Wh-where is this…”
Charlotte, who had been sobbing just moments ago, stopped crying and looked around.
“I—I don’t know the exact name, but I just named it ‘Outside’…”
“Outside…?”
Charlotte, glancing around, looked at me with quivering eyes.
“We can go back… right?”
…Such a pitiful look.
“Of course…”
“Then, that’s a relief… Ha, so… Noah, what did you do here?”
Hermila, holding her breath and looking around, turned to me.
“Ummm…”
My plan was to drag one of the remaining ones here and demonstrate some beating…
But I didn’t expect it to be this empty.
Would scattering some divine remnants bring some out?
“When I first got here, there were a bunch of those outsiders, you know…?”
“…Outsiders?”
Hermila asked in a stiff voice.
“Yeah, kinda like the Nameless One… much stronger, though.”
“Then, Noah… you fought with those outsiders…?”
“Yeah…! I won them all!”
Gasp- Rubia inhaled sharply.
I looked up at Rubia, standing behind me with one hand over her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes.
…Why is she crying when I won?
“Noah… you fought alone… for a year…?”
Rubia, with her eyes getting moist, held my hand tightly.
“Uh… um…”
At first, I was alone, but later, that darkness or whatever asked for help, so…
No, that thing didn’t help much, so it’s right to say I was alone.
“Y-yeah, that’s right. Alone…”
“Ah, ugh…”
Tears fell from Rubia’s eyes. The droplets slowly hovered in mid-air rather than hitting the ground.
Watching those teardrops, Hermila exhaled shudderingly, biting her lip.
Charlotte also shed tears again.
Unlike earlier, which were sorrowful, now… I don’t even know.
I wanted to show them something cool, so why is everyone crying…?
Is it a mistake to come back…?
No? I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s all that darkness’s fault!
If they hadn’t run away, it would have ended with me showing off.
Just wait until I catch you.
“…Huff. Noah, did you… kill all the outsiders here?”
Hermila, managing to calm her breathing, asked me.
It’s more accurate to say I obliterated them… Well, does it matter?
“Yeah… some I killed, and some I captured—”
Zzap.
*
An unknown sensation crawled up my spine.
Noah, interrupting mid-sentence, released the hand Rubia was holding and raised his arm. He clenched it tight. At the same time, crack! with a tremendous sound, a sharp spike appeared in Noah’s hand.
The speed dropped entirely. But the wind from that spike whipped through Rubia’s hair, leaving a mark on her pale cheek.
Blood dripped down. Red drops hovered in the air.
A crimson eye, darker than blood, watched it all.
“…Noah, Noah… are you okay?”
Rubia wrapped her hands around Noah’s arm, avoiding the spike he was holding. Opening his hand, Noah found no wounds. Not even a scratch.
Charlotte and Hermila stared in confusion at Noah’s expression. But that didn’t last long.
With the crimson aura seeping ominously from Noah’s body, their questions faded away.
What remained was an inexplicable fear.
Hermila recalled the fear she had felt moments ago when Noah had appeared at the world’s end.
A fear that scratched at the bottom of their souls.
A terror consuming something fundamental to humanity slowly.
Her body trembled. Cold sweat poured down. To shake off the fear, her tightly closed jaws cracked, and nails dug into her palm.
Charlotte felt the same way.
She was nearly pale enough to have passed out. The color drained from her lips, and blood trickled from a bitten lip.
Rubia…
“Noah.”
Rubia embraced Noah’s body.
“It’s okay. It’s okay…”
She shivered, with cold sweat dripping down.
Her voice cracked, and her breathing was unstable, as if she had forgotten how to breathe.
Still, Rubia, in a calm voice, whispered Noah’s name while gently holding his body.
Only then did Noah snap back to reality, shaking his head and apologizing.
“Uh, um… I-I’m sorry… uh, um, just a moment.”
Then, fidgeting, he swung his Great Sword. Lines were drawn around Hermila and Charlotte, including Rubia. From that line, the crimson power, Noah’s divine realm, rose up, enveloping them.
Divine Realm.
Faces of those who entered the divine realm began to regain vitality. The trembling body, the suffocating breath, the chilling fear—everything calmed down and disappeared.
“What do we do…? Ugh… it’s, okay…?”
Then, the scene around became visible.
Charlotte, wide-eyed, turned as pale as a ghost, seeing what unfolded behind Noah.
Hermila also gaped, pointing behind.
“Rubia—”
Rubia called out Noah’s name with a worried voice. But that sound was drowned out by the noise emitted from the unknown entities.
Noah read Rubia’s lips.
So he smiled. It was a completely inappropriate innocent smile as he slowly began to speak.
I’m, okay!
Rubia reached out her hand.
Noah turned away.
He looked at the throngs of outsiders filling this place.
Entities whose shapes couldn’t be properly described despite seeing them.
Figures that seemed to gather all negativity.
With that in mind,
Noah threw the spike in his hand.
Thud—KWAANG—!
A sound that shook the very ground.
Simultaneously, a void opened among the throng of outsiders filling the scenery.
Then, he lifted his Great Sword from the opposite hand.
A black sun rose. The space I named the Outside trembled. The screams of outsiders echoed.
Sounds that couldn’t form a language filled the air—something incomprehensible to human ears.
What they felt was fear.
A tremendous existence felt fear from a girl who could be considered incredibly small among humans.
They screamed and fled. Some even charged toward Noah. Facing them, Noah swung his Great Sword.
From right to left.
Those rushing in the trajectory vanished.
Black hair danced chaotically as Noah swept it back with one hand, looking over his shoulder.
His crimson eyes gleamed fiercely.
His innocent smile curved up.
His petite lips parted.
Did you see?
He tilted his head playfully.
Charlotte and Hermila turned even paler.
Noah, bursting into a joyous laugh at their faces, turned to face forward again.
Thud. He stood in place. Noah’s Great Sword blended in with the outsiders in an instant, crafting a crimson path in the air. Along that journey, thousands upon thousands of outsiders tore and shattered.
When every existence in this place finally disappeared,
the black sun set, and the Great Sword halted.
Then, Noah turned around.
Amid the terrible scene of scattered outsider pieces, she was smiling brightly.
*
The office, returned once again…
was a mess.
The papers neatly arranged on Charlotte’s desk were torn, crumpled, and flying all around the office.
The chair Charlotte was supposed to sit in had a leg broken off, and the leather of the sofa we had occupied was shredded.
In that chaos, Charlotte’s empty voice could be heard.
“…Guys. We were in there for at least 30 minutes, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Hermila, who had collapsed heavily onto the tattered sofa, replied.
“Then why… hasn’t even 30 seconds passed…?”
“What, are you saying…?”
Panicking, Hermila quickly sat up and stared at the clock.
After a moment, she looked at me.
“Noah… according to this place’s time, you were there for a whole year…”
Charlotte also looked at me.
“Rubia said… it was 394 days…”
Rubia looked at me too.
“After being alone… for such a long time….”
Tears streamed down Rubia’s face.
“…Huh.”
Did I stay that long?
