"Hah!"
Shido yawned, with obvious dark circles under his eyes, looking as if he had not rested well at all.
"Oh! Our brother Shido, who has multiple girlfriends, seems to have been very busy last night. I wonder how many people's unfulfilled dreams he satisfied. Living the wonderful life with a girl on each arm, you look pretty exhausted now."
Hearing the clearly teasing tone of his good friend, Hiroto Tonomachi, Shido sighed and said, "I just didn't sleep well last night. I kept having nightmares. I kept dreaming that this world became warped and eerie, but I can't remember the contents of the dreams at all. I only have a vague impression of them, which made me keep waking up in fright. Basically, I was startled awake every hour."
"Could it be that you've been under too much pressure lately, causing nervous exhaustion? Do you want to see a doctor?"
Although he had been joking just now, as a friend, Hiroto asked with concern after hearing Shido's current condition.
"Maybe. After school today, I'll go find a doctor and get checked."
Shido felt that he might have been affected when dealing with Inverse Nia Honjou before, causing some mental issues. However, Fraxinus had complete physical examinations and mental assessments, so his problem should be cured quickly.
Soon, the class bell rang, and Caelus, the history teacher who seemed so plain and ordinary in everyone's eyes that it was impossible to remember him clearly, walked onto the podium and began his history lecture.
Sitting below, Shido's eyelids grew heavier and heavier as he listened. All the surrounding sounds, and even his vision, became increasingly hazy, until finally, he slumped directly onto the desk and fell into a deep sleep.
His sleep quality was very good. Even the end-of-class bell did not wake him.
When the lunch break bell rang, Hiroto woke the sleeping Shido. Looking at the dazed and muddled Shido, he sighed and said, "I helped you ask for leave from Tama-chan-sensei. If you're not feeling well, don't force yourself. Hurry back and get some good rest. I saw that you weren't disturbed by nightmares during these few classes. Since it's still a bit early, go have lunch, get some proper rest, and then go see a doctor."
Shido shook his head, forced himself to cheer up, and after thanking his friend, left early.
Origami Tobiichi, who had been observing Shido, naturally saw his physical discomfort as well, and her heart was filled with worry.
Similarly, Tohka, the Spirit girl whose heart was also full of Shido, naturally noticed that something was wrong and quickly followed him.
Perhaps a certain male protagonist would still have to endure his illness to deal with the jealous confrontation his Spirit girl was about to start for him.
"Ah!!!"
A black-haired boy collapsed onto the luxurious carpet, his entire body twitching incessantly from extreme pain. His wide-open mouth let out hoarse and unpleasant wretched screams, and saliva constantly flowed from it. His eyes were bloodshot, and his eyeballs looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.
At this moment, if anyone were to see the scene beneath his clothes, they would feel horror and dread, because the flesh under his skin seemed to be filled with various foreign objects that were constantly writhing, as if they might break through his skin and reveal themselves to the outside world at any moment.
The boy had no idea why such a terrifying mutation was happening to his body. He could even feel that his flame of existence had been polluted. Perhaps before long, the images that had been vaguely flashing through his mind would fully manifest, and in the end, he would completely lose control, turning into a monster without reason that acted purely on crazed instincts.
At that moment, the sound of shoes treading across the floor, neither heavy nor light, rang out.
Strangely, the echoes of those sounds, which clearly did not seem unique, allowed the boy's nearly collapsing mind to gradually regain its reason. The pain in his body began to fade, and even the strange things writhing under his skin began to calm down.
The boy breathed heavily, greedily enjoying the current relief. When he recovered from that wave of pain, he saw a gray-haired youth looking down at him with dim golden eyes.
"You're another System holder, aren't you? Such clever methods. You used that strange mental pollution style, or is it a forbidden spell from the Cthulhu Mythos?"
The boy knew he had no chance of defeating the enemy before him. In his current state, let alone fighting this powerful and terrifying opponent who possessed transcendent power and had reduced him to this state, he could not even contend with an ordinary strong human male.
He had already lost. He just wanted to resolve the doubts in his heart before he died, so he could die a bit more peacefully.
"I didn't launch any attack against you. It was your own bad luck that you saw the source of one of my causal lines."
"What?"
"In that timeline, you completed your plan and gained the ability to view the existence of others. Then you found an avatar I left in this world, and by following the karma of that avatar, you saw the karma of Azathoth, the Finality of All as One, upon me. Then you directly collapsed and mutated, becoming a monster that brought madness and apocalypse to the world. If I hadn't reversed time, this world would have already been destroyed."
Listening to Caelus's simple and direct answer, the boy froze on the spot. He then stared blankly at that familiar appearance and finally sighed.
"So that's how it is. My loss wasn't unjustified. To be able to maintain self-reason while wielding such powerful Cthulhu Mythos strength, losing to an existence like you doesn't feel unfair... Also, are you the Stelle Caelus from Honkai: Star Rail?"
"A part of my foundation is indeed that Stelle Caelus, but I am the Caelus from multiple unchosen fate lines."
"Then it's not strange. It's not strange at all. Losing to a juvenile Aeon of Finality, I can even say my loss was a matter of course... I know some things about the future of that world. Remember, Amphoreus..."
"Thank you, but there's no need to tell me these things. Regarding the future, I want to see it for myself and understand it myself. Besides, the future you speak of is the path a Stelle should take, not the path of a Nihility walker like me."
"...Damn System, what kind of enemy are you making me face? This guy is impossible to beat, yet you still make me fight?!"
The boy shouted with full resentment, then collapsed completely onto the ground, motionless, waiting for his fated death to arrive.
Caelus did not show mercy. He cleanly and decisively ended the other's life. He did not devour the other's remaining memories and existence, but instead let him become a part of this world, returning to the dust, which could be considered a burial for him.
Huh?!
The second after Caelus killed the boy, a System notification sounded in his ears.
[Ding! System 10048 has submitted a request to you. Do you agree to the request proposed by the other party to change Systems? If you agree to this request, System 10048 will provide you with a high-ranking status in the Primordial World, allowing your origin to ascend and become a Xiantian being.]
(To be continued.)