Chapter 15

The Demon King paused for a moment, clearly savoring the feeling of dissecting Qi Xing's heart. "Is it because there are no suitable women? That's even less likely. You lack neither money nor fame, and you have saved countless women. With your masculine aura, seducing any female would be no problem at all."

"As long as you speak up, that Magical Girl would immediately blush and want to have children with you; as for the little nun, she claims it's just a fake marriage for the sake of a mission, but everyone can see what she truly desires in her heart."

"Yet, when they draw close to you, waiting for you to make your pick, you are the one who is unwilling. You dodge even the meat delivered to your mouth, stubbornly locking your heart tight, not letting anyone see even a glimpse."

"What on earth do you want? Are you gay? Or are you a lolicon?"

Qi Xing certainly had no interest in being gay. Why did he deliberately avoid women? He had plenty of reasons he could cite.

For instance, he could complain that in this world, which was like an eroge, daily entertainment was already far too lewd.

The variety of brothels was nearly on par with a certain isekai of pleasure workers. Bookstores openly displayed erotica novels and manga, and strip clubs could be found in every city (※due to gender equality, men stripped as well).

This was a world where too many people sought physical pleasure and carnal satisfaction, aimlessly drowning in indulgence.

Perhaps it was because the underlying source code of this world was too insane. In any case, there was already too much sex-related entertainment. Such a tendency toward lewdness actually made Qi Xing feel quite disinterested and a bit disgusted.

This was, of course, one of the reasons, and a very real one at that.

Qi Xing could also say that for the past ten years, he had been too busy killing bad guys to have time for romance. The women he had decent relationships with were either colleagues or victims he had rescued.

Dating a colleague would easily affect his professional work, wouldn't it? As for young girls like Artemina, she was only fifteen or sixteen—that would be a crime!

But all of the above were, in the end, just excuses.

Reasonable reasons, but none of them were the true reason why Qi Xing dared not indulge in lust.

Deep in his heart, there was a different, special fear that made him afraid to indulge. All along, this fear had quietly filled his heart and permeated his veins.

"At the end of the day, you only say you want power. In reality, you are afraid of something else. This is inconsistency, dishonesty."

The bratty Loli Evil God revealed a mischievous smile like a Cheshire Cat. "Half-Immortal, do you still dare to say your heart is devoid of shadows, and that you cannot let me judge you?"

"Your adamant pretense shows that there really is a problem. If you were truly upright, why wouldn't you want to talk about it?"

Satan was the accuser and mocker of human sins, and she truly enjoyed this process of deconstructing the human heart.

Perhaps for thousands, tens of thousands of years, or even earlier, she had been mocking people like this. She laughed this way when seeing the dead, and she laughed this way when happily enjoying the despair and pain of humanity.

This detestable Loli Evil God was now going to dig out all the darkness hidden deep within Qi Xing's heart, ruthlessly shatter his will, and force him to submit and kneel!

How could Qi Xing allow her to continue being so arrogant?!

But then again, he didn't have a reliable way to reverse the situation and defeat this detestable Demon God right now. What was he to do?

"What exactly do you want me to answer?"

"You're still playing dumb at this point? Haven't I said it many times? There is only one thing I want to know: your hidden desire."

Samael reached out with a push, knocking Qi Xing to the ground, and took the opportunity to straddle his waist.

Her slender, icy-cold hands gently stroked and toyed with Qi Xing from his forehead to his cheeks, and she emitted a scent like roses, not at all like a shadow of a true form.

She was like a cat that had spotted a mouse, wearing an evil grin.

Was Qi Xing's chastity really about to be finished?!

"I like breasts! I'm not a lolicon!" In his desperation, he shouted, "I hate the 'loli bitch' archetype even more!"

"Who said I wanted to mate with you?"

Samael was dismissive, poking at Qi Xing's bulging, sinewy muscles. Not only that, she leered at him. "As for humiliating you… I am a little tempted… but forcing others is not my interest. It's only because you are wary of me that I wanted to close the distance between us."

This feeling was like a puppy about to get food, making her feel exceptionally happy and expectant. She bared her canines and let out a cheerful laugh… Then, finally, at this very moment, Samael realized that her state seemed a bit wrong.

(Strange, what do I want to do to this human?)

How strange, why would I [want] to do something to this human?

No.

No, no, no!

The transcendent smirk on the devil's face vanished.

[++Self-Check++]

In an instant, she used spiritual waves that only she could perceive to issue a command to herself, beginning to check the trajectory of every drop of her soul flowing within, as well as the rotation of every gear in the metaphysical darkness.

She possessed senses that transcended humanity, capable of perceiving and processing information in ways humans could not imagine. If she wished, Samael could see the widest range of electromagnetic waves, hear the buzzing of cells beneath people's skin, see the most basic composition of various substances, and see the atoms, molecules, and fundamental chains that made up objects.

If she wished, she could even see the gravity that pierced through time and space, and see the cause and effect that connected fate.

Thus, she finally discovered what kind of mistake she had committed.

"Your synchronization rate with Osiris is way too high?!"

In order to prepare a King of the Earth to rule on her behalf, Samael played the role of the Goddess Isis, who selected the king, within this [Inner Realm].

Everyone knows that the Goddess Isis is the wife of Osiris.

She is a perfect wife who deeply loves her husband, even going to great lengths to resurrect him after he dies, bearing him a son, and supporting him to become the King of the Underworld.

Of course, Samael had taken precautions beforehand, lest she get trapped in the role herself, which would be disastrous.

But first, it wasn't as if just any loser playing Osiris could achieve a significantly high synchronization rate—King of the Underworld, Judge of Condemnation; these were titles for which Osiris was worshipped by humans as the God of the Dead, tied to the resurrection of the dead.

A person who has not yet experienced death and resurrection cannot have a very high synchronization rate with the Underworld King Osiris.

Secondly, Samael possessed an extremely high-ranking suppression over the souls of this world. Even in the [Inner Realm] role-play, they could at most become her Horus (son); it was impossible for them to become her Osiris (husband).

The souls of this world could simply not be equal to her.

The souls of this world could simply not trigger true miracles.

It was just a pity that Samael overlooked one thing.

Osiris had another important element that did not need to be tied to the resurrection of the dead, but was strongly related to [Master Leipu].

Furthermore, she hadn't carefully checked before where exactly Qi Xing's soul came from.

"Your soul was not created by me?!"

By the time she discovered this and realized it, wanting to instantly blast Qi Xing to death—she could no longer bring herself to do it!

Her own infinite power, the Inner Realm laws she herself had planned and laid out, were now, conversely, binding her to death!

Although everything in this world could be solved with absolute power, the one thing one could not do was use absolute power to beat oneself up. In the end, the most difficult problem to solve was always the contradiction one created oneself.

(Soul? Created by her?)

Qi Xing did not know what state Samael was in at the moment. He only saw the Evil God straddling his waist, suddenly stunned, wanting to hit him but at a loss for what to do.

He only realized that this was the one and only golden opportunity to reverse the situation and win.

A spearhead silently fell into his palm.

Without waiting for Samael to recover from her confusion, he seized the chance to strike while she was vulnerable—Qi Xing gripped the spear of longinus head and, without mercy, stabbed it fiercely into her throat!

——

[Mythological sidebar not quite suitable for the main text]

Osiris, his son Horus, and the Sun God Ra, whom everyone knows, were actually often conflated with one another.

The ancient Egyptians, especially during the New Kingdom period, believed that the essence of all Pharaohs' souls was essentially the same Sun God, and all Sun Gods were the same soul.

When the sun rose in the morning, it was the young Horus; at noon, it was the God Ra; in the evening when the sun set (which was equivalent to the sun dying), it was the Osiris of the Underworld; and the next morning, it would resurrect again to become Horus.

As for whether Horus was the son of Osiris or whether the God Ra was the grandfather of Osiris, such family relations were simply not an issue for the ancient Egyptians. The point was the soul; the point was that the souls of all Sun Gods were the same.

That was why the living Pharaoh was the embodiment of the Sun God, and why, after death, he would return to the Sun God to be resurrected.

Most scholars believe that the ancient Egyptians did not have a strong concept of linear history; their concept of time was cyclical. The past was the present, and the present was the future. Ra was Osiris, Osiris was Horus, they were the Sun God, the head of all gods, the alternation of life and death, and the masters of the two worlds.

019: It must be to be the wife of the Great King!

The spear of longinus, the God-Slaying Spear, the Holy Spear—this was the highest-level relic in the Christianity system that even Qi Xing knew of, and perhaps the most important holy object of the entire church.

Why did the hypnotic Uncle Professor Vanstra steal this holy object from Rome? It was impossible to confirm now. Originally, Qi Xing thought he wanted to use the holy object to summon a Great Demon, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

Qi Xing did not understand what kind of magical power the spear of longinus possessed. Perhaps it was related to the Professor's phallic device resurrection. But in any case, considering common sense, using it to stab a devil should have a special effect, right?

As it turned out, this special effect seemed a bit too good.

The tiny spearhead was just a piece of pig iron crudely ground into a spearhead, no larger than a palm, with bloodstains on the blade, old and dull, having lost its sharpness.

Such a simple iron spearhead could not destroy the Evil God's impenetrable defense—how could such a small thing be possible?

Impossible!

——The blood-red spike stabbed into her throat just like that.

"Guh-wah?!"

Samael did not bleed. She was merely a shadow of her true form, without a single drop of blood in her body. Qi Xing braced his waist and stabbed the spear into her throat, sending her flying with a forceful thrust.

At the same time, the entire surrounding [Inner Realm] cracked like glass with a snap, splitting into two or three fissures.

The crude, old spearhead was dull, dull enough to cut through space; it was so dull that it could sever reality.

It had waited too long for this nemesis before it, ever since its last slaughter, all the way until now!

The divine power suppressing Qi Xing had dissipated.

He leapt up from the ground, gripped the spearhead, chased after her, and was about to stab another blow immediately!

"Wait a second, wait a second!"

The expression on the Loli Evil God's face had changed drastically. A moment ago, she had been full of pride and arrogance, a sense of superiority that looked down on everything, and casual confidence; all of this had now vanished without a trace.

She began to panic.

"If you stab me until I explode, this [Inner Realm] will also explode immediately! My true form will be fine regardless, but you will fall into the [Sea of Collapse], you know?!"

The Sea of Collapse, which was the Dream of All Living Beings, the collective unconscious of humanity. Even a Earth Immortal, if they fell into it, would have their personality and consciousness dissolved, turning into a drooling idiot.

"If the last enemy before I die is a sinful Great Demon God like you, I don't care!"

Qi Xing stabbed as he spoke, not stopping at all!

"No, I don't want that!!"

The Loli Demon King, who had been full of smugness just a moment ago, instantly reverted to the expression of a foolish child; for Qi Xing, this was truly delicious.

The invincible Evil God had been stabbed in the throat; the casual and carefree attitude from just a moment ago had been discarded entirely, and for some reason, even her power had greatly diminished. Was this the original effect of the God-Slaying Spear? Or was there another reason?

Qi Xing didn't understand this, but who cared?

Holy object, divine artifact—they were meant to be used anyway! Used to crusade against evil and save lives!

The spear blade pierced in, dead on target, passing straight through her head. The two figures were briefly frozen together for an instant, Osiris and Isis, connected by the blade.

Utilizing this divine weapon, Qi Xing channeled and injected all his remaining will into it.

The roar of thunder, the burning solar fire, golden lightning splitting the firmament, exploded with an incomparable shockwave, like an electric current passing through metal, traveling along the ancient spearhead, and the resulting fireball was brighter than anything in the world.

Then the light faded.

The spear blade slid out, and the Demon God fell.

Then heaven and earth collapsed.

The entire [Inner Realm] shattered amidst the thunder.

——

Outside.

The cruise ship [Heaven-Breaking Great Love], which existed simultaneously in two world phases, also burst apart at this moment amidst the collapse of the [Inner Realm].

The fireball ignited by this explosion on the sea surface was even larger than an ordinary nuclear explosion.

Everyone on the ship who could be saved had, of course, already been dragged away via portal. Aside from the inevitable property damage, the explosion did not have much of an impact.

That said, at this moment, the nun Elaine, who saw the cruise ship explode from a great distance away, still looked so desperate.

The [Inner Realm] collapse and explosion meant that Qi Xing had not lost to the devil. He had won, or perhaps perished together, but at least he had not fallen.

He also had not fallen into the hands of the devil, to be subjected to endless torment, ceaseless ultimate humiliation, and even have his soul toyed with.

At least, being able to die in peace was a good thing, right?