Samael's pitch-black vertical pupils split open like flower petals, seeing through the essence of the monster before him.
Its crimson eyes were the symbol of a demon;
The rotting trees and moss on its back were omens of decay;
The claim that a demon that attained the Way could become a god was nothing but a lie.
Ibuki-Daimyojin was merely a false honorific.
Its true identity was a being produced by Earth, nurtured in the human world, and created to protect nature through extreme means.
It was Beast V, the Beast among the Seven Great Human Evils that governed the principle of "retribution."
It loathed all living things, hated them mutually, and devoured everything. On the surface, it existed to protect Earth, but in truth, it merely satisfied its own desires. That was its beastly nature.
It had been nurtured by Earth to stop creatures from destroying nature, yet it developed its own will and hunger, becoming "the bottomless black hole of desire in the hearts of living beings."
Without restraint, it could devour everything to sate itself, even treating planets as food.
And that was indeed the truth.
The Great Serpent had existed since Earth's birth. As one of the extensions capable of representing Earth's will, its existence permitted humanity to survive as part of nature.
But as humanity multiplied and its population grew geometrically, the Great Serpent came to view the damage caused by human activity as something outside nature. Thus, he began to regard humanity as enemies and created disasters to restrain them, gradually becoming viewed by humans as evil himself.
Thus, while devouring life, it also tried to understand life. This contradictory behavior only made it hate life even more.
Day after day, year after year, this existence drove it completely berserk. It devoured recklessly and