Truth

Time Sea's final memory before his consciousness scattered was Folly's terrifying mouth.

Folly held the two halves of his body and stuffed them into its mouth piece by piece.

Chewing sounds echoed through the space.

Its expression carried enjoyment, as if it had just eaten a wonderful meal.

"You kept me under your thumb for so long. It is time to repay that."

Two shades of blue answered each other across Folly's body. They looked as if they had always belonged together and were only now fusing back into one.

Ren frowned.

For the first time in a long while, he felt a little pressure.

Not since his battle with Death had that feeling appeared.

The two powers finished merging inside Folly.

Terrifying cursed energy erupted.

The power did not feel foreign. Instead, it gave Ren the impression that Folly should have looked this way from the beginning.

It had been completed.

Humanity spent its life seeking truth. Knowledge was one path toward truth, and the greatest enemy on that path was time.

Knowledge was temporary correctness.

Truth was eternal knowledge.

Ren's eyes narrowed.

His instincts warned him that Folly was vanishing from this space.

No.

Not vanishing.

Merging with it.

It was becoming the space's owner, the same kind of feeling Ren had once sensed from Mirror Curse.

Folly sat cross-legged in the void. The tumors on its body had disappeared. It looked closer to human now, though its face had aged by several decades.

"So it really works," Folly said, laughing. "So cursed spirits can improve this easily."

Its voice had become older and deeper.

It examined its body, then looked at Ren.

"Ren Zenin, thank you. Without you, I would never have found a way to deal with that elder."

It seemed to adjust to itself.

"Scepter."

Cursed script appeared in its palm, and a golden scepter formed there.

Folly nodded in satisfaction.

Then it looked at Ren with interest.

"Human, do you have anything to say? Since I am happy, if you beg me, I might let you leave."

Ren frowned slightly.

"I have seen cursed spirits devour one another, but I have only seen this level of near-deification twice. Is there a reason?"

Folly had not expected that question.

It still answered.

"I do not know about other cursed spirits. I only know that I could have reached this stage naturally through endless time. Time Sea only accelerated the process."

Ren thought of Death.

"So your essence is Truth. The time simply had not arrived."

"Correct. You are very clever."

Folly smiled.

"Those two lords likely violated the rules set by the Elder One when they died. Cursed spirits who violate that being's rules rarely end well."

The scepter vanished.

"After removing you, I will also make sure that being can never appear in this world."

White light flashed.

Niten Ichiryu appeared in Ren's hand.

Beneath the calm blade lay countless dead souls and curses. In that moment, man and blade seemed one. Ren's presence condensed to a sharp peak, as if he, not Folly, were the true owner of this space.

No more words were needed.

Niten Ichiryu cut down.

A crescent-like blade aura tore through the air. Space shattered beneath it. Even the surrounding void seemed unwilling to touch the edge.

The slash reached Folly almost immediately.

"Blade aura. Erase."

The four words merged into the space like law.

An invisible hand crushed the blade aura. The shattered space repaired at the same time. It was as if the attack had never existed.

Ren's eyes became serious.

He had not met an opponent worth this much attention in a long time.

In his perception, the moment Folly spoke, the rules of this space changed.

Blade aura would no longer appear here.

Even if he cut again, it would not carry the same power.

Folly saw Ren's expression and smiled playfully.

"You felt it, did you? This space has been taken over by me."

"After I leave, the wider world will become my territory."

Its voice rose.

"The world will crawl under my feet and beg for forgiveness. I will be the almighty god."

"What I say is royal command."

"What I say is truth."

Ren looked at Folly dreaming of its future and frowned.

"Array vision."

Cursed energy gathered in his eyes. Soon, countless lines condensed into his moon-bright gaze, forming the blue pattern of Sovereign Wind Array.

Folly's figure reflected inside the chart.

After a moment, Ren understood.

Folly was merging with the surrounding space, so like Mirror Curse, it could use part of this space's rules.

But there was a limit.

It could not use rules that already had owners.

Death, for example.

Although Yadha was dead, that authority was still not available to Folly. It could only modify unclaimed rules to cancel Ren's attacks.

Ren's eyes lit.

Then what if the rules here belonged to him?

Folly saw Ren's confidence and felt its heart tighten.

That feeling of being seen through appeared again.

Impossible.

It was invincible now.

No one could kill it.

"Do not bluff," Folly shouted. "I will be invincible, and you are only a stepping stone on that road."

"Space Solidification."

Ren felt as if he were trapped in glue. The surrounding space hardened and forced him in place.

Folly laughed.

"Much stronger than Time Sea's restraint, is it not?"

"Goodbye, Ren Zenin."

Blue light flared from the ground.

A chart opened beneath Ren's feet and spread through the entire space.

The pressure around him loosened.

Ren lifted one foot and walked a circle inside the array.

Sovereign Wind Array's priority was clearly above Folly's control.

"No. Impossible. How can you move? How can you defy my command?"

The scene broke Folly's understanding. All the knowledge it had stored seemed like waste paper.

Humiliated rage took over.

"Space Collapse."

The space behind Ren began breaking apart. Turbulence surged inside the cracks. Anything it touched dissolved into nothing.

Ren swept one slender hand behind him.

Blue light passed.

The broken space rippled like water and repaired itself.

After that, Ren lifted his chin and looked at Folly.

"Do you want to try anything else?"

The words ignited Folly's rage.

"You forced me. I am a cursed spirit. As long as humans exist, I do not die. But you are only human."

Cursed energy gathered in its chest.

"Space. End."

Cracks spread across the entire space.

The fragments began vanishing from below. It was not death. It was not decay. It felt as if the space itself should never have existed, and was being restored to that state.

"End?" Ren said. "You need my agreement first."

His foot touched the ground.

The enormous array spun wildly. Blue energy poured out and filled the space.

The destructive force slowed, then stopped.

Everything happened too quickly for Folly to react.

It looked at the restored space with fury still burning in its eyes.

But now was not a good time for revenge.

Folly had survived this long and successfully devoured Time Sea because it knew how to judge the situation.

Record what happened. Think of the best solution. That had become instinct.

Right now, instinct said one thing.

Leave.

Go to the real world, become familiar with this power, and return later.

Folly waved a hand and cut open a gap.

"Leaving?" Ren asked. "You did not ask me."

Blue energy sealed the opening instantly.

Folly stared in terror.

Ren's control was even stronger than its own.

He looked more like a god of this space than Folly did.

"No. I cannot die here. I survived until now. I became a god. I cannot fall at this step."

Folly's color began shifting toward red again.

"There must be another way."

Its eyes suddenly lit.

"Cursed energy. Erase."

All cursed energy in the space vanished.

The energy gathered around both of them disappeared at once.

Folly laughed.

"Ren Zenin, without cursed energy, what will you use to fight me?"

The space without cursed energy excited it, because it could still use rules.

"Air. Era..."

Before the second command finished, a white shadow flashed.

Ren stood behind Folly with Niten Ichiryu in hand.

One arm fell from the air.

"My arm! What did you do?"

Folly clutched the wound, trying to restore it.

Niten Ichiryu cut the source.

The wound would not heal.

Ren loosened his fingers, and the blade vanished.

He walked toward Folly.

Each step sounded like a countdown.

For the first time, Folly truly felt death approaching.

"Stop. I command you to stop."

The command merged into the space, but Ren did not even pause.

"You still do not understand?"

Ren looked at Folly with the calm of someone studying an object that no longer mattered.

Blue light rose around them.

When Folly opened its eyes again, it had been brought into another space.

"A domain?"

"Before me, time, space, fate, the nine palaces, all of it has no independent meaning."

Ren stepped forward, and the chart turned. The dark surroundings filled with starlight.

"I am the sovereign. I am the only one."

"This is the universe?"

Folly wanted to speak, but its throat refused. Its body could not move, not even a finger.

Time control?

It was frightened by its own thought.

Ren, as a human, could use power at this level.

Only now did Folly understand how ridiculous it had been.

It had been calculating against this existence all along.

It had not lost unfairly.

Folly closed its eyes and waited for death.

Ren raised a hand.

"Let us complete the ritual from earlier."

"Spirit Dominion."

No black crack opened. No dark chains appeared.

Instead, powerful blue light erupted from the array and wrapped Folly. Incomprehensible symbols surfaced one by one.

Spirit Dominion pressed down the consciousness of this "god."

When the blue light faded, Truth had become Ren's possession.

Immediately, countless insights into truth filled Ren's mind. Immense energy appeared around his body.

"Too much."

Ren frowned.

"I need somewhere to enter seclusion."

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