And perhaps that was life.
From the moment you fell into Hell, you had no choice but to learn to change. You had to assume the worst of every creature you met. You turned so many things into arithmetic, into additions and subtractions. Just like now-even though you didn't want to, you still couldn't help exploiting the last shred of guilt you had left.
You were still exploiting that relationship. Even though it was already dead, you wouldn't stop until you had squeezed out its last ounce of value.
That was why, sometimes, it had to be said.
You really were a demon!
You were no different from most of the creatures in this world. You were calculating, you toyed with people's hearts amid that tangled chaos of cause and effect. As long as something benefited you, there was nothing you wouldn't exploit!
Supporting himself against the cracked tree trunk, Lynn staggered painfully forward along the twisted passage.
He panted hard.
His eyes kept shifting between chaos and clarity.
"Hahahahaha..."
He trembled, bracing himself against the tree trunk as another uncontrollable series of low, turbulent laughs escaped him. His whole body shook under the wrenching frenzy of his laughter.
Crack-
He suddenly clamped a hand over his face, his scarlet eyes peering through his fingers at the path ahead.
And there, just a few dozen meters away.
He saw those blood-red strands of flesh, like a gigantic embryo tightly imprisoning the silver body beneath them. The flesh hadn't swallowed her completely yet. She was like a sleeping beauty being gradually eaten away by slime and chunks of meat, wrapped in that clinging mass, her eyes tightly shut and her face bone-white.
Her lips trembled, as though she were being tormented by a nightmare.
Even her silver hair had long since