John was writhing so violently that she could tell he was in pain just by looking at him. His face was covered in tears, and his shiny blond hair was soaked with cold sweat.
His arms, legs, and neck were covered with rough scars reminiscent of burns.
Odette recognized the scar immediately. It was the scar that had formed right where John's body had been torn apart in the deep sea.
Every time the cold sweat flowed down over the red scar, John felt as if he was touched by the fires of hell. John's sobs became more intense.
Ugh. His panting breaths felt like those of an animal, not a human. His innate dignity and neat appearance were nowhere to be found, and he was writhing like an animal on fire.
Even though she knew it was impossible, it was the moment when Odette instinctively reached out his arm at the pitiful sight.
"...Odette."
John called her name...
'Can you see me?'
Odette, who thought he had found her, looked at John's face. However, John's gaze, crouching down, was not directed at Odette. His blue eyes were just wandering in space.
"Odette..."
Only after he called her name again did Odette realize why John had called her. He had called her to forget his pain.
As if to prove that fact, John's expression brightened slightly every time he whispered her name.
On a subject that looks so miserable that even uttering a single word is difficult. On a subject that looks worse than an animal because of the pain.
He smiled faintly, as if he had put the sweetest thing in the world in his mouth, as if he were filled with happiness just from that. Odette's heart sank at the sight of his expression filled with affection.
It was a moment when she couldn't take her eyes off him. Golden light flowed out along John's burn scar. And starting from that scar, John began to shatter like light.
'Why, why?'
It was like the fruit of disaster that Odette had purified in the deep sea had disappeared.
A flustered Odette frantically reached out to grab the light, but she was not there for him. The golden light passed through her hand and escaped.
'No. No. Don't disappear. Don't disappear!'
John dispersed into light and disappeared. He evaporated into the air, leaving behind not even the golden dust that had remained like fireflies.
Odette looked in vain at the forest where nothing remained. What John had just encountered was not death, but annihilation. The process of disappearing because an existence that was out of order had to disappear.
'What is this...? This is three months into the future?'
Why? Karl clearly brought John back to life!
At that moment, the World Tree gave her the answer through the Laurel of Light. Since Karl's power is fundamentally time, he can turn the living into the dead, but he cannot completely revive someone who has not been given coordinates in advance.
Karl's order to revive him also merely turned the transcendent beings' time back to that moment when life and death were at stake.
Furthermore, the transcendent beings, including John, were creatures created directly by the dead god. Even if Karl was the god of this world, it would have been difficult for him to exert omnipotence on John, who was under the god's authority.
Just as there was a limit to Karl's influence on Odette's purifying water, there was also a limit to Karl's ability to fix the Transcendents to the coordinates of time.
So, the time that Karl could force their time to be held onto this world was only three months. He could not stop the flow of time for John and the other transcendent beings forever.
'Then... what should I do?'
She asked the World Tree again, but instead of giving an answer, the World Tree returned her to her original world.
John was standing where the trust had disappeared.
He had a calm and serene expression, but his vision was cloudy, just like in the oracle just now.
'It's not that it was quiet, it's that it had to be quiet.'
The pain was that severe. Odette reached out and grabbed John's arm. Then she rolled up his sleeve.
"Odette. Wait a minute..."
John panicked and tried to pull his arm out of Odette's grasp, as if his arm held a secret that he couldn't let get out.
But Odette was resolute, and John, slow to react to pain, could only watch as Odette rolled up his sleeves.
The moment she rolled up his sleeves, a scar that looked like a burn scar from the oracle came into view. It was a scar that looked like his limbs had been torn apart once and had been forcibly reattached.
It wasn't as red as the oracle she had seen earlier, but it was obvious that it would soon turn as hideous as the one she had seen.
'Karl can only provide temporary shelter for John.'
She didn't want to admit it, but this was reality.
In the end, their time flows. They are abandoned vessels that have completely lost their monsters. According to their fate, they will eventually disappear. Victor and Sion were the same.
"..."
Odette held her breath in confusion.
The World Tree belatedly gave an answer to Odette's question. There is no way to stop their annihilation, but there is a way to postpone it. That was Odette's purification, which was paired with them.
However, it had to be done properly, and it wasn't something that could be done in one or two tries. Their fate could not be stopped with the same clumsy skinship as before.
'What on earth do I do?'
She couldn't let John die. But, but... She couldn't purify John. Hadn't Odette already promised her love to Karl?
She felt like she had reached a dead end.
Having decided on the direction her heart should go, having physical contact with another man was no different from betraying her lover. Since she did not love Karl yet, the only thing Odette could return was trust. That is why betrayal was something she should never do.
'But how can I have skinship with John while leaving Karl behind?'
Odette looked at Karl reflexively. Even if it was cowardly, she wanted to follow Karl's choice, whether it was permission to save John or to let him die.
But Karl just looked at Odette quietly.
Instead of eyes that give answers, they instead ask Odette questions.
It was a look that asked what she would choose, as if it already knew this would happen.
"...Karl."
Odette called out to Karl. Karl came to Odette and cupped her cheeks.
"You don't need to ask permission from me. It's you who needs to ask permission, not me."
"Karl, do you know what you're talking about right now...?"
Odette's voice, as she asked Karl who was talking nonsense while holding both of her cheeks, was filled with fear. However, Karl's bloodshot eyes did not waver.
'Skinship with John... is it really okay?'
John loves Odette, and Odette knows it too. But he says it's okay for her to have physical contact with him if she feels like it? Does that make sense?
She wished it were Karl testing her, but there was no sign of that in his red eyes.
Odette, who was looking into his eyes, suddenly realized that she was still holding onto John's arm. She let go of John's arm, startled by a feeling of guilt.
She was holding onto John while her cheek was wrapped around Karl. She was afraid that her disorganized mind had been completely exposed.
But John would not let Odette take her hand away. He entangled his fingers with those of Odette, who had moved away.
"...!"
Something like a blue flame flashed in John's eyes.
'Look at this... Everything has become such a mess. '
How is his current behavior any different from that of the Count? It is the Count's behavior of deceiving his wife and cohabiting with Mrs. Becker.
"We can't let him die."
Karl spoke warmly, as if he were comforting Odette. It seemed to him that whatever she did to John would be nothing more than a 'purification'.
Odette would rather have it be that way. If it really was just a pure 'purification'. So if her skinship with John was nothing more than a complete sacrifice to save a person, she would be able to be proud in front of Karl even after saving him.
But that wasn't the case. Odette's intuition that he might not mind physical contact with John made her afraid.
'If I... were willing to have skinship with John?'
Odette desperately wanted to save John. Her desperate desire was proof that she cherished him.
That is why she could never make the decision to purify him. Wasn't that a betrayal of Karl and a betrayal of herself, who had promised to love Karl?
"I understand you and I accept you completely. You have never betrayed anyone. You don't have to ask me for forgiveness."
Karl spoke to her as if to assure her, but the more he spoke, the stronger Odette's guilt became.
"The only thing that matters is your heart."
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