"……"
The story of Eve and Adam has come to an end.
But Acadia's tale continues to journey towards the horizon.
Merka sits in the shadowy realm of his heart, resembling a projection room.
He wants to keep reading Acadia's story, but as he looks around, he suddenly notices that the projector above his head is making a sizzling sound, as if malfunctioning.
The large screen not far away gradually becomes blurry and stuck as well.
Here, Merka regains his true sight.
But what he sees is the scene he regrets the most confronting.
The swarming tentacles, like swallowing pythons, coiled over the hills, ghostly bird-shaped gateways loomed in the wilderness below the mountains.
Countless people lay on the ground like needle-felted cloth; horrifying human flesh turned into pulp, buried in the earth; livers and intestines shattered in the tentacled brook; tendons and skin torn into strips, hanging at the tips of the tentacles.
Merka inhales deeply, expecting to smell the decayed, putrid stench.
But what actually reaches his nostrils is the startling, hair-raising scent of wormwood.
Stabbed by the horror before his eyes, Merka cannot help but close his eyes.
When he opens them again, the familiar magical vision unfolds, and he finds himself back at the silent lake by his home.
The shadow silently stands beside Merka, looking at him with a smiling tone.
"For millennia, beneath this bleak soil lie the cold corpses of those fallen in wars."
"Now you are also one who knows the truth."
"I am eager to hear your thoughts."
"……"
A flood of memories drills into Merka's head, causing him a splitting headache. He clenches his teeth, grits his teeth, and looks up at the shadow.
Kagtua, horrific with flamethrowers all over its body, presents itself before Merka once again, only to disappear in an instant.
It appears to stand on the mountaintop while also seeming within arm's reach of Merka, emitting a ghostly evil light. Its disgustingly tumor-filled body undulates slowly, the flamethrowers emitting a faint glow, as if every breath would produce a scorching flame.
"My thoughts..."
Merka furrows his brow deeply, uncertain of what to say.
As a once devout believer, he is now speechless.
His mind is like a lump of mush, any hint of thought being drowned out by the sticky liquid.
"Are all the so-called soul, bones, and flesh... all part of Kagtua's body?"
"Are we all descendants of Eve?"
"But, none of this makes any sense..."
"I don't understand, I really don't understand, why would you do this…"
"Ah."
Merka suddenly seems to have a revelation, his gaze darkening slightly.
"The reason you do all this..."
"Is it to fulfill Eve's desires?"
"Are we all sacrificial pawns for her wishes?"
The lake before him ripples in the windless night, casting its brilliance in the frozen darkness.
The shadow nods slightly, shaking its head.
"Pawns… that sounds too harsh, doesn't it?"
"Have you ever properly compared the living environment abroad?"
"People fight each other, and kinfolk kill each other."
"One collapsed civilization after another, and groups of declining countries."
"Humanity is so cruel."
"Even if thousands of years pass by, even if billions of years pass by, they will never understand that some things can be achieved through compromise."
"But they always insist on destroying the other side completely before they are willing to stop willingly."
"Human beings are born with the inferior roots of killing each other, do you understand?"
The shadow paused, approaching Merka and speaking to him in a very focused manner.
"Don't you think that Acadia is actually a very strange place?"
"Why do the people of Acadia live such peaceful and prosperous lives, with the population not excessively increasing over the years?"
"Why, despite having such great power, have the people of Acadia not expanded externally and provoked external disasters?"
"All of these are my accomplishments."
"All thanks to Eve's desires."
"It has nothing to do with your own efforts."
"So now, are you still going to say that you are sacrificial lambs?"
