It was another end of the week, another meeting came.

  Lea opened her eyes, finding herself at the table with the other three. Lady Keter was at the seat of honor as always, reading a book titled "Water Margin".

  "I have an announcement for you all.", Lady Keter started with a smile, "Congratutions, the end of the world is upon us all."

  That announcement sent panic to everyone.

  "What do you mean by that, Lady Keter?", Rasputin was the first to ask.

  "Simple, really. Someone was stupid enough to awaken a world destroyer.", she tapped her compass, commanding particles of light to form a 3D image.

  Zorro stiffened a bit, seeing the man with long hair wielding a cracked sword. Even in this monochrome world, that gaze of absolute madness sent chills down his spine.

  "The man isn't what you all should pay your attention to, it's the sword.", Lady Keter chuckled while she maniputed the image, scattering the man and focusing on the sword.

  It was a sword with cracks on the bde, its edges chipped to an unreasonable degree. Yet the former beauty of the bde could still be felt, making everyone here wonder what the sword looked like before.

  "To put it simply, this sword is a divine entity.", her eyes took in their awe at the weapon, then sighed, "I was meant to tell you this ter, but since it is a case of emergency... I will say it right here—"

  Bck smoke coiled upward, curling around Lady Keter's face as if to gag her. The shadow behind her stretched unnaturally, twisting like an impatient child throwing a tantrum.

  Lady Keter spped the smoke away with her book, gring at the mass of wrongness, "Mashhith, stop that. I am in the middle of a briefing."

  The shadow quivered, producing a sound like nails screeching on ste. The table rattled faintly, and Rasputin's teacup cracked in his hand.

  Lady Keter pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling annoyed, "Yes, yes, I know I promised not to bring it up so early, but the situation has changed. We don't have time for your theatrics."

  The shadow stretched into something vaguely like crossed arms, looming behind her chair. The squealing noise dropped into a low grinding hum that made everyone else cover their ears.

  Yet Lady Keter was unfazed, "No, it is not cssified forever. If they're going to be running around without a clue, they'll die faster than Zorro's st duel."

  "Hey!", Zorro protested.

  The shadow hissed, shuddering, then extended a tendril to snap the book shut in her hands.

  Lady Keter growled, swatting it with her hand this time, "Mashhith, behave. Don't throw a tantrum now, or else I'll."

  The darkness spread wider, blotting the walls. A jagged ripple ran through the entire room, as if even the furniture was reconsidering its loyalties.

  Lady Keter's smile tightened, "Stop showing off."

  The shadow hissed, pulling itself into tall, shifting shapes, looming so high it might reach the bck hole in the sky.

  Keter leaned back in her chair, utterly unimpressed, "Mm-hm. Very scary. Towering shapes, suffocating aura, yes yes, the usual routine. We've all seen it before."

  Lea whispered to Rasputin, "We have?"

  Rasputin shook his head, his knuckles white on his cup. "No. And I wish we won't."

  The smoke shed out, snapping her book shut with a decisive thud.

  Lady Keter sighed, lifting a glowing sword and poking the darkness in the chest like a scolding teacher.

  "Listen, you can sulk all you like ter. But right now, I need to expin before these four go running off half-prepared. And you don't want that, do you?"

  The shadow stilled, vibrating with a sound that felt like a refusal, but thinner, weaker than before.

  Lady Keter smirked knowingly, "Thought so, now sit there and glower like you always do. Leave the words to me."

  The smoke seethed, folding back into a crouched, sulking shape behind her, though it still radiated a pressure that made the entire table creak.

  Lady Keter cleared her throat with a little victorious smile.

  "Now... as I was saying, before certain parties decided to get emotional..."

  Dawn, who was quiet the entire time, spoke up, "What exactly do you want us to do, Lady Keter?"

  After bickering with "Miss Mashhith", Lady Keter turned to her, "Nothing much, really. I just need you all to dedicate a few years of your life to me—"

  "That's a lie...", Lea spoke up, cutting off Lady Keter.

  She remembered what Auger told her. Respect Lady Keter, but don't trust her.

  "Auger told me... that you, who holds dominion over Time, can stretch it out infinitely.", Lea was nervous, ready for the wrath of the Lady of the Library, "A second for you could be an eternity, you only need a year..."

  Everyone was stiff, quiet as they gnced between Lea's stressful expression and Lady Keter's never-changing smile. She merely looks at Lea with interest.

  Then she finally spoke, "You are correct, my dear Avenger. I merely want to see your dedication toward the world."

  "And in response, that would transte to how serious I would be."

  "So you mean... You won't get serious?", Dawn frowned, feeling a bit disappointed, "Even if the world gets destroyed?"

  "Since Zorro found the problem early and reported back to me, I could act, but I could also not.", her smile deepened, "Even if I don't act, the other gods would. Though how much of the world would remain when an evil god actually made a move?"

  Zorro thought back to what he witnessed, in just a few days, the majority of life and terrain of the volcanic region was destroyed. Even an Oath Keeper, who foolishly attacked the Heavenly Demon, was reduced to mere chunks of meat in less than a second. That thing easily dealt with a Sixth Step Pathstrider, blessed by the Goddess of Madness no less, as if he were just a bug.

  And to his horror, according to Lady Keter... it was just idling about. It had not yet shown its true power.

  "I... am willing to dedicate all of my life.", Zorro stated firmly.

  Like Lea, he embarked on the journey to godhood for revenge against Akasha Monodrama... but his bond is not only in the main continent but the New World... he won't let a single one of them die.

  If he could use his life to exchange for the safety of those he cared about, he would have no qualm about giving up his life.

  Lady Keter understood his gaze, she chuckled quietly, "Very well, I understand your dedication."

  Her eyes gnced at Lea, "But I won't be taking that much from you, since someone exposed the technicality in my operation."

  Lea felt a chill running down her spine. She doesn't know if Lady Keter was merely teasing or now has a vendetta against her... it is impossible to read her emotions.

  "Then what about you three?", she asked everyone else.

  Rasputin was hesitant for a bit, then he answered with resolution, "As someone who was previously a soldier before a man of the cloth, there is no price to pay when it comes to the safety of the ones behind me."

  But Dawn answered differently, "I... honestly can't spare a single second of my life, what I want is the improvement of my country... and separate the world's subtle dependence on the mystical world."

  Her ambition burns bright, even if it costs the world itself.

  And Lea...

  She honestly wasn't feeling it at all. Her Soul already tainted by evil and the pleasure it brings, she was selfish for not wanting to sacrifice her life. Yet the kinder part of her, her former mundane self, was fighting back... in vain.

  The moment when she fully merged with Malediction - when she ascended to the Second Step - she had unconsciously stopped praying to the Three Rings...

  The Heavenly Demon is not a threat to her, not yet at least...

  "I... will only sacrifice one year of my life, no more, no less.", that was her answer.

  "Women, am I right?", Lady Keter chuckled at her own joke, "Anyhow, except for Bathory, I will take a year each of your life."

  She closed her eyes, "Now, where were we? Ah... I was about to expin the Laws of this World."

  "Basically, all gods and their Divine Thrones embody a singur w that makes everything move. Miracles and authorities alike, all come from one of these Laws."

  Zorro leaned forward first, curiosity gleaming in his eyes, "Then... the Light Seeker? What Law do They hold?"

  Lady Keter's smile was indulgent, as if humoring a bright student with a dangerous question, "The Law of Curiosity. Their is the endless hunger for what lies beyond the horizon and drags Mystery out of its hiding hole. Without curiosity, civilization stagnates. They stir mortals into asking, into reaching, daring to follow Their steps. And in that way, the world keeps moving forward."

  "But that one is quite the jobber in my opinion.", she chuckled.

  Zorro's breath caught, his shoulders stiffening. He hadn't expected such a direct answer, and the weight of it pressed down on him like a secret that could burn his tongue if repeated.

  Rasputin cleared his throat, his voice measured, "And the Goddess of Madness? Her blessings bring both insight and torment. What Law does She embody?"

  Lady Keter's tone softened with strange fondness. "The Law of Sentience. Consciousness itself, the spark that lets mortals dream, despair, create, and destroy. That is why Her presence twists the mind, She magnifies what it means to be alive."

  Rasputin paled, his knuckles whitening around his cracked cup. To name sentience itself as a Law was bsphemy, or perhaps truth too vast for priests to stomach.

  Dawn adjusted her gsses, voice steady but her eyes narrowing with academic fire, "And the Chalk Princess? If She is who I believe She is..."

  Lady Keter chuckled lightly, "The Law of Progression. To move forward, to build upon what came before, refusing to stay still. Every invention, every step away from the primal, is a hymn to Her Law. She is the road that keeps unfolding."

  Dawn's lips curved faintly, but even she hesitated, the enormity of what she had just been told pressing against her ribs like a vice.

  Lea shifted uneasily, then asked, "The Three Rings... what Law do They embody?"

  Lady Keter's eyes glinted. "The Law of Equilibrium. They are the scales upon which good and evil rest. Too much of either, and the world colpses. Through them, the bance remains."

  Lea swallowed hard. That was knowledge mortals weren't meant to touch; she could feel it. Her skin prickled with the danger of simply hearing it spoken aloud.

  Still, she forced herself to press one more question, "And... the Tome of Light?"

  Lady Keter's smile widened, her tone mock-gentle, "The Law of Tales. Stories told, legends remembered, the very narratives that define gods and mortals alike. What is remembered becomes truth; what is said is the present. What is forgotten... only It knows."

  The table grew silent. Even the air seemed heavier, as if the monochrome world itself was listening in.

  Lady Keter let the silence stretch, clearly amused at their unease.

  Then, almost too casually, she added, "Oh, and since we are already so far off-script... the Heavenly Demon? It embodies the Law of Separation."

  The word struck like a hammer. The others recoiled instinctively, their bodies tensing, breath hitching. Separation— of what? Of souls, of worlds, of existence itself? None of them dared ask.

  Lady Keter's smile never wavered. She tapped the edge of her book with a finger, pleased as a schoolteacher watching pupils squirm at a lesson too advanced.

  "Now...", she said sweetly, "You understand why I don't usually expin these things so soon. But a little knowledge never killed anyone."

  Her eyes glinted.

  "At least not directly."