Chapter 85: Bug (3)

‘You... What are you? How can a mere Lesser Being wield such power?’

After struggling for some time, the creature finally turned the question on me.

I had no real answer to give.

How was I supposed to explain an ability I had possessed since birth? It was like asking someone how they breathed.

So I threw the question back at him.

‘What about you? What are you?’

What exactly was this being that had seized control of my body?

I retraced what had happened only moments earlier, trying to understand how any of this had begun.

The cause seemed obvious enough. Everything had started the moment I touched the ice gem—the item known as the Heart of the Frigid Demon King.

Did that mean this creature was the Frigid Demon King?

It was the most natural conclusion.

The creature answered, irritation plain in his voice.

— Set time in motion at once. Only then shall I permit thee to ask thy questions.

As if I would actually do that.

‘I already told you. Give me my body back first.’

— Thy flesh is already mine.

‘Then I’ll keep us like this.’

— Insolent wretch!

Was this thing some kind of monster?

One with the power to steal other people’s bodies?

...Or was this yet another trick the Tower was playing on me?

I still had no idea why the item description had glitched, either.

Nothing made sense.

— Very well. We shall see.

The creature continued.

— I know not what trick thou hast employed, but power so far removed from the natural order cannot be sustained forever. When time begins to flow again, thou shalt regret thy defiance.

‘And what exactly are you going to do?’

— I shall freeze thy entire world. The land, the mountains, the seas—humans and beasts alike. Every living creature shall perish beneath an eternal winter.

Whew.

Terrifying.

I definitely couldn’t allow time to start moving again.

— If thou wouldst avoid regret, release thy power now. This is the final mercy I shall grant thee.

The sheer audacity of it made me snap back.

‘You steal someone’s body and then start threatening them? Frigid Demon King, was it? You certainly have the personality of a demon king.’

— What didst thou say? How dare thee!

‘Fine. Let’s see how this plays out. Sorry to disappoint you, but I can keep this going forever.’

The Demon King scoffed.

— Empty bravado. Thou shalt regret this.

Time passed.

I made no particular effort to speak to him. He didn’t seem like the kind of being with whom a reasonable conversation was possible.

He said nothing to me, either.

There was only silence.

How long had it been?

By my reckoning, several days must have passed.

— ...Thou.

At last, the Demon King spoke again.

He sounded more than a little frustrated.

— Cease this foolish stubbornness. Thou must be nearing thy limit.

I answered with a question of my own.

‘Have you decided to give my body back?’

— Speak no nonsense.

‘Then stop talking to me. I already told you—we can stay like this forever.’

— Ha...! Dost thou claim to be a god? Such a thing is impossible.

‘No. It’s possible.’

The Demon King continued to mutter and complain, but I stopped answering.

I simply ignored him.

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.

.

Another long stretch of time passed.

— Let us be reasonable. How long dost thou intend to continue this?

The Demon King addressed me once more.

I didn’t answer.

— Dost thou truly intend to remain this way for all eternity?

It felt as though an entire month had passed.

I was sick of this, but surely he was just as miserable as I was.

I couldn’t reveal the slightest weakness until he broke first.

‘Khh...’

— What is it?

‘I... I can’t endure it... any longer...’

I released the Time Stop.

The world, frozen for so long, sprang back into motion.

Of course, the Demon King still controlled my body.

“...Bwahahaha!”

The instant time resumed, the Demon King burst into triumphant laughter.

“That is right! I knew it! Thou hast finally reached thy limit!”

Whoooosh!

My body shot through the sky at tremendous speed.

Grinning as though determined to make certain I heard every word, he said,

“Did I not warn thee that thou wouldst regret this? From this moment onward, I shall make thee feel thy helplessness down to the very marrow of thy bones—”

I stopped time again.

My body froze in mid-flight.

— ...What?

He had become so excited that it was almost embarrassing to witness.

‘Did your heart skip a beat?’

I had simply grown bored and decided to mess with him.

‘I told you I could keep this up forever. Why won’t you take me at my word?’

— Thou accursed Lesser Being...!

Realizing that he had been deceived, the Demon King erupted into a furious tirade.

I let his cries of “I shall kill thee!” wash over me and sank back into a blank, empty state.

Time continued to pass.

.

.

.

— ...I shall withdraw my vow to freeze thy world. Now cease this.

The Demon King was finally beginning to understand.

My Time Stop Ability truly could last forever.

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t entirely come to his senses.

‘Obviously. I told you to return my body.’

— Have I not said that I cannot?

‘You can’t, or you won’t?’

— ...I cannot. Thy body has already become mine. Returning it to thee is impossible.

If that was true, I had a serious problem.

But why did it sound like complete bullshit?

Especially now?

‘Then there’s nothing else to discuss. We’ll remain like this forever.’

— Madman...! I truly cannot return it!

Ignoring him, I dimmed my consciousness once again, like a bear slipping into hibernation.

It wasn’t actually possible to sleep while time was stopped.

But I could enter a state that was somewhat similar.

I had discovered the trick by accident when the Sub-Tower appeared and I was charging the Warp Device.

It made enduring these merciless stretches of frozen time a little easier.

.

.

.

— Very well. I shall make a concession. We shall divide possession of this body between us.

After another seemingly endless stretch of time, the Demon King returned with a new proposal.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

— I shall permit thee to control the body for half of each day. It is a generous concession on my part.

‘I thought you said you couldn’t give it back.’

— Thou believed me? It was a lie.

The Demon King admitted his deception without the slightest hint of shame.

Not that I had believed him in the first place.

And even now, he was still spouting utterly worthless nonsense.

‘Demon King, do you have a death wish?’

— ...What didst thou say?

‘This was my body from the beginning, and you’re calling that a concession? You don’t get to dictate terms. Give it back.’

There was no negotiating with terrorists.

The Demon King cursed me, raged for what felt like an eternity, and eventually fell silent once more.

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.

.

— I shall grant thee dominion over the world. The masses shall worship thee, and thou shalt possess every imaginable wealth and glory. Any wretch thou wishest dead, I shall slay on thy behalf.

‘...’

— Have I not said that I shall surrender the body to thee for half of every day? In exchange for that alone, I shall place the entire world in thy hands.

‘Huaaaam.’

— Listen to me! Thou Lesser Being!

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.

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— I shall kill them. Thy family, thy lover, thy friends—I shall force thee to slaughter every last one of them with thine own hands.

‘Time isn’t moving. How exactly are you going to kill anyone?’

— ...I shall kill them! I shall most certainly kill them!

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.

.

‘Demon King.’

— ...

‘I’m bored. Want to play Word Chain?’

— ...Silence.

‘Ramyeon.’

[TL: 닥쳐라 (dakchyeora, “silence”) ends with the syllable 라 (ra), while 라면 (ramyeon, instant noodles) begins with 라. The protagonist pretends that the Demon King’s command was the opening move in a Word Chain Game.]

.

.

.

How much time had passed by then?

Surely at least a year.

At this point, I was approaching something close to enlightenment.

Honestly, even I was impressed. I had never realized my mental endurance was this formidable.

Perhaps the knowledge that the deranged Demon King would destroy the world the moment I released time was what kept me going.

— Stubborn wretch...

The Demon King sounded utterly exhausted.

— Dost thou truly believe thou canst endure for all eternity? Thy mind shall collapse before mine.

Maybe he was right.

But for now, I could still endure.

I was determined to see this through until one of us finally broke.

‘Attic.’

The Demon King released a long, weary sigh.

— ...I shall return it. Release time.

The instant he said those words, I became fully alert.

Was he finally surrendering?

‘Really? What are you plotting?’

— Release it! Release it at once! I said I shall return thy body!

Even if he tried something, I could stop time again immediately.

So I allowed time to flow.

Whooosh!

Wind struck my face.

Feeling the cold against my skin for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I descended and landed on the ground.

“...Whoa.”

I stared in quiet amazement as I opened and closed my hand.

My body obeyed my will.

The Demon King had truly returned control to me.

What had happened to him?

Had he finally left my body?

— Not a chance, thou Lesser Being.

Apparently not.

His voice echoed inside my head.

— I have returned thy flesh for the present, but forget not that I may seize it again whenever I please.

Ah.

So that was how it was.

I clicked my tongue in irritation.

I had managed to recover my body for the moment, but the fundamental problem remained unresolved.

‘Can’t you just leave? If you take over again, I’ll only stop time.’

The Demon King scoffed.

— I have no intention of leaving. And even if I wished to depart, I could not.

‘Enough with the lies.’

The Demon King gave no answer.

...Damn it.

Could he actually be telling the truth?

I was staring uneasily up at the sky when it happened.

[Error detected.]

“...?”

A message from the Tower appeared before my eyes.

[Correcting error.]

— ...!

My entire body convulsed.

I was overcome by a sense of dread and revulsion unlike anything I had ever experienced.

There were no words for it.

I couldn’t move.

It felt as though some vast, transcendent being was gazing down upon me, reaching out with an enormous hand.

The Tower.

I knew it instinctively.

The Tower was about to do something.

— ...Time! Stop time!

The Demon King’s voice rang out in pale, naked terror.

I stopped time at once.

The instant the world froze, the overwhelming pressure crushing me vanished as though it had never existed.

...What the hell had that been?

I was only just beginning to recover when—

‘...!’

This time, I sensed the Demon King doing something.

It felt as though his soul were struggling desperately to burrow deeper inside me, searching for somewhere to hide.

‘...What are you doing?’

I asked him.

The Demon King didn’t answer.

The Tower had announced that it was correcting an error.

There was no possibility that the message was unrelated to the Demon King.

...What was I supposed to do?

I had stopped time in a panic.

It seemed as though the Tower was trying to remove the Demon King.

Would allowing time to flow again be the right decision?

But I didn’t particularly want to give the Tower exactly what it wanted, either.

While I hesitated, I felt the Demon King conceal himself completely.

I released the Time Stop.

The crushing pressure immediately descended upon me again.

I could feel the Tower’s gaze fixed directly on me.

It almost felt as though it were glaring.

Whatever it was, the sensation was so deeply unpleasant that my skin crawled.

“...”

Then, without warning, the pressure disappeared.

Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath.

I exhaled sharply.

“Haah...”

Whoa.

Fuck.

What was this?

My thoughts were spinning.

I couldn’t begin to understand what had just happened.

— Damn it all.

The voice returned inside my head.

The Demon King had somehow escaped erasure.

He was still there.

‘What did you do?’

I asked him.

The sensation inside me was strange now.

How could I describe it?

It felt as though the Demon King’s soul had burrowed into my own.

There was one thing I understood instinctively.

The Demon King had anchored himself firmly to my soul.

Just as it had been with Diul, his soul and mine were now partially connected.

I couldn’t be certain, but had he done this to escape the Tower’s reach?

I could also sense that control of my body had returned to me completely.

In this state, unless I voluntarily handed control over, the Demon King no longer seemed capable of seizing my body whenever he pleased.

‘Hey. Why are you so quiet?’

Even when I called out to him, the Demon King didn’t answer.

Still, I could clearly sense his foul mood.

He was probably sulking because he had been forced to surrender control of my body.

Well, whatever.

Did this mean the problem had somehow been resolved?

There was no longer any danger of him stealing my body again, although having him take up permanent residence inside me was irritating in its own right.

“Phew.”

Then a thought occurred to me.

I returned to the place where the pit had been.

The item—the Demon King’s Heart or whatever it was called—had disappeared.

‘Did the Tower erase it?’

...I had no idea.

My mind was exhausted.

For now, I needed to go back.