Chapter 248: Abigail: Big Brother, I've come to play with you
Sajou Manaka could never experience the emotions of ordinary people, nor truly step into their world.
Born with knowledge, nearly omniscient, she had never possessed a real sense of reality.
Because the world was too fragile for her.
Because the people in it were too insignificant for her.
That was how it used to be.
But when the unknown appears, when an existence she cannot shake no matter what she does suddenly stands before her, then everything she thought she understood begins to tilt. Her perception changes. Her sense of the world shifts.
For Sajou Manaka, that was what "real" meant.
The feeling of being allowed to act recklessly without being corrected.
The feeling of not having her existence suppressed.
"Are you talking about recklessly trying to kill me?" Rowe asked. "And specifically developing a skill that cannot harm anyone but me?"
"Is that not good?" Manaka narrowed her eyes and smiled.
Rowe smiled back.
"It is excellent."
"I think so too." Manaka's tone was light, almost proud. "That skill I used just now can harm no one except you."
It was power designed to counter the Holy Son. An ability that targeted the Primordial Human specifically.
If not for that, if Manaka had truly wanted to kill Sajou Hiroki and Sajou Ayaka, they would not have survived.
"You do not like me killing my own family, do you?" Manaka said as if stating a simple rule, not because of affection she could not feel. "So I will not do it."
"In any place you can perceive, I will not do it. That is the rule of the game."
"If that rule did not exist, Mister Rowe would not keep playing with me, would he? I would not want that."
That was also why Rowe could still remain patient with her.
Whatever the reason, Manaka had not crossed the line. At the very least, her actions still resembled a human boundary, even if her heart did not.
"Unfortunately," Manaka continued, "the entire Earth is within my perception."
Rowe did not look troubled.
"It is fine."
"Anyway," Manaka said, smiling, "I am already used to pretending to be an ordinary person."
She turned in a small circle, the hem of her dress fluttering despite the oppressive mist.
"So where to next?"
"Wherever you go, I go," Manaka answered her own question. "The world is more interesting with you in it."
"If you want to kill me, you can just say so," Rowe replied.
Manaka blinked.
…
Their conversation faded as they walked.
Behind them, at the Sajou residence, a crater had been torn open by writhing tentacles. Sajou Hiroki stared blankly in the direction they had vanished.
Just now, Manaka smiled.
Not the empty, polite curve she wore like a mask.
A real smile.
For a moment, Hiroki felt time fold.
Back to long ago, before Sajou Ayaka was born, before Ayaka's mother died in childbirth, before fear turned into resentment he pretended not to notice.
Back to when Manaka still sometimes looked like a child.
Had she smiled like that back then too?
"So I abandoned her first…"
Sajou Hiroki lowered his head and stared at his hands.
Perhaps, long ago, he had been the one to push Sajou Manaka deeper into the abyss of inhumanity.
…
"There is a difference between games," Rowe said quietly.
Illusory mist spread across the district, swallowing skyscrapers. Shibuya, wrapped in indescribable fog, was a dark and terrifying scene.
Yet Sajou Manaka walked beside him with the same bright expression as a student on a picnic.
She lifted her face into the wind, light blue dress swaying, delicate body standing straight as if the horror around her was only scenery.
"I did consider playing seriously with them," she said.
"Your family?"
Manaka nodded.
"But they did not accept. So I could not do anything, could I?"
Manaka had never possessed a real sense of the world. Family, friendship, intimacy, they were data on a screen. Cold images stacked into patterns.
But even games had categories.
One required investment.
The other was merely a way to pass time.
Manaka had once tried the first.
Long ago, after Hiroki's fear took root and resentment followed, she gradually settled into the second.
Only for Sajou Ayaka did she still maintain something closer to seriousness.
Because Ayaka had not yet reached Hiroki's point.
Because Manaka was bored enough to want a reason.
"But none of that matters now." Manaka glanced at Rowe. "Because I found a more fun toy."
Her red lips lifted.
"Mister Rowe, would you be my toy?"
"It is not certain who is whose toy yet," Rowe said evenly.
He understood. When Manaka said toy, it was not truly play.
Rowe, who tolerated her recklessness and let her unfold her power without restraint, was the first existence to give her something she could call real.
Once reality exists, emotions have somewhere to form.
"I will definitely find your death, Mister Rowe," Manaka said.
She took two steps forward, then spun lightly to face him, dress fluttering, white stockings flashing beneath the fabric.
Rowe's reflection sat clearly in her blue eyes.
She raised her hands slightly, exposing her pale collarbone.
"Because that is what you want too, is it not?"
"To fulfill my wish," Rowe murmured.
The surface goal had not changed. She still wanted to kill him.
But the core behind her actions had already shifted.
"But I am afraid you cannot do it," Rowe said.
He reached out and ruffled Manaka's hair.
His fingertips met a bloody light that stung faintly, yet still failed to pierce his defense.
"The Crown of the Beast of Revelation. The Flame of the Holy City. It is still not enough."
An invisible crown rested over Manaka's head, just as he had said before.
That same power she had used earlier.
A beast in religious myth that heralded apocalypse. A dragon rising from the abyss after the trumpets of angels.
Doomsday.
An Anti Christ.
A special countermeasure against the Holy Son.
And therefore, a power that naturally targeted Rowe, the humanoid standing before her.
It was restraint.
It was targeting.
It was a special attack.
But as before, its specification was lacking.
A cup of water could not extinguish a world consuming fire. Restraint only matters when the difference is narrow.
"Ah, it is only an attempt," Manaka said, unbothered.
She leaned into the touch on her head, eyes half closed in genuine comfort.
"But I think there is still a possibility."
"Mister Rowe will keep playing with me, will you not?"
"Forever and ever."
"I cannot give you that promise," Rowe said as he withdrew his hand. "Your spirit is admirable."
"But we can talk about attempts later."
"Now we need to deal with something trivial."
As they spoke, they moved deeper into the mist. The unnameable fog disturbed time and space, isolating the domain from the outside world.
Even so, Rowe could still sense the source.
It was a tree.
A mottled shadow towering at the far end, threaded with endless complex light.
Illusory, and yet undeniably present.
The Shimmering Hollow Tree of Light.
With that alone, Rowe already knew what had appeared.
"One of Yog Sothoth's proxies in the human world," he said. "Abigail Williams."
A fleeting image surfaced in his mind. A girl he had glimpsed during his brief encounter with an evil god in Great Qin.
Manaka sensed it too. The tree of light. The nameless chaos ahead.
She brushed a strand of short golden hair aside.
"Hmm. Has it exceeded what even the Root can grasp?"
"Yes," Rowe replied, allowing her to hear it. Knowledge was power, and the more she understood, the more possibilities she possessed to threaten him.
"The Great Old Ones represent an ordered manifestation of the old universe's chaos. In truth, They have long transcended the universe itself. They lurk in the cracks between different universes."
Transcendents beyond the Root.
Manaka, connected to the Root, naturally could not peer into Their origin.
The blond girl's excitement became visible.
"This world is becoming more and more interesting."
The one who used to know everything now continuously met existences she could not see through.
"Mister Rowe," she said brightly, "you really are my lucky star."
"So we have to stay together from now on. No leaving, alright?"
"I have a feeling that by your side I can encounter more interesting things."
"It would be more interesting if you killed me," Rowe said.
"Of course it would," Manaka replied without hesitation.
Step by step, they advanced.
The mist revealed more tentacles, thicker, denser, larger. They had been stirring and striking at the real world.
But the moment Rowe entered their range, they froze.
As if sensing a natural predator.
Or rather, a higher ranked existence.
In the world of interwoven light and shadow, a chaotic core began to form.
A concept Rowe carried surfaced behind him. Taiyi, the Unspeakable Body, a presence that did not fit in a human outline yet cast itself through one.
Invisible whispers drifted with the wind, like the resonance of a great bell.
Countless people lost in the mist abruptly woke. They looked up, saw the sun, and saw Taiyi manifest within the fog.
Investigators of the Spiral Pavilion who had entered the mist could not help but bow, revering the Heaven that protected the people of Shenzhou.
On this day, splendor bloomed.
The sky cleared.
The chaotic core gathered from all directions.
Rowe kept walking.
Manaka, with light steps, tugged lightly at his sleeve and followed close behind.
She stared at the tall, slender back in front of her, at his calm profile in modern black casual wear, and tilted her head.
A memory surfaced.
A story she had read long ago.
A dream she had once imagined.
Manaka loved fairy tales, the kind adults dismissed as childish.
The Root Princess who knew all secrets preferred the pure fantasies of children.
She had always wanted an experience like those tales.
A princess in an ivory tower.
A prince who arrives.
"A princess who wants to kill the prince, and a prince who wants to be killed by the princess." Manaka smiled. "Is that not a beautiful story, Mister Rowe?"
"You have a serious misunderstanding of the word beautiful," Rowe replied.
"But I think it is good," Manaka said. "Would a dead Mister Rowe not also be interesting?"
Rowe did not answer.
He had already turned his gaze forward.
The mist had reached its end.
The Shimmering Hollow Tree of Light now stood fully reflected in the world, drawing in luminous fog like a pillar holding up reality.
Yet what was called a tree had no branches, no leaves. From afar, it was only a pale outline, reflecting the Sea of Stars and the endless universe.
And on that outline, someone sat.
A blond girl in a black dress.
A round hat adorned with an exquisite bow.
She sat with her knees drawn up, swinging slender legs that extended from beneath her trousers.
She swayed her head as if listening to music only she could hear. Dark blue eyes half closed, golden hair parted to reveal a smooth forehead.
A black keyhole appeared and vanished there.
Abigail Williams.
The summoner of the Shimmering Hollow Tree of Light.
A being tied to the Great Old Ones, second only to Azathoth. The All Knowing and All Seeing. The guardian of the Gate. The Key. The messenger of Yog Sothoth.
Kin of an evil god.
At the same time, the infant form of an avatar, holding the potential to become something further.
Tawil at Umr.
What appeared here was not merely Abigail.
Not merely a priestess.
But a member of the Great Old Ones.
"Only an existence like this could display such a spectacle," Rowe said calmly.
The instant Rowe and Sajou Manaka stepped into that clearing, Abigail opened her eyes.
She smiled.
"We meet again, Big Brother."
"As promised, I have come to play with you, alright?"
TL: Check out my newly released fanfic
Germany: The Thousand Year Empire
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