On the icefield, feeling the resistance below, Terra slightly increased the strength in her right hand.

  Boom!

  In an instant, the entire northernmost region was rocked by a violent earthquake. The rock layers deep underground began to tremble violently.

  In one particular area, the rocks surged upward toward the surface under some kind of force.

  Encased within these rocks was a black shadow. Despite its desperate attempts to escape, the surrounding rocks had compressed into a cage, trapping it completely.

  Deprived of any chance to flee, it was lifted continuously toward the surface......

  ......

  At the World Tree,

  within the Sacrificial ritual circle.

  Merkphis put the crystal ball away again.

  "You can forget about Lady Terra coming to save you. Right now, she’s in the northernmost region, dealing with another ‘culprit’~!"

  "Merkphis," Avery spoke up, "why go to such lengths? Is eternal life really that tempting? In my earliest memories, you were extremely upright—someone who could never do something like this for mere desire. What, exactly, changed you?"

  Upon hearing this, Merkphis’s smile faded.

  He stared blankly at Avery.

  "Changed......?"

  "What do you know about me?"

  "What do any of you know about me!!?"

  "You born divine beings will never understand! My pain——!"

  "......"

  "Very well...... Since you’re all going to die anyway, I’ll tell you the truth in your final moments."

  Merkphis looked up and began to speak slowly:

  "It was thousands of years ago......"

  "When I was young, I met Lady Terra for the first time."

  "I was deeply captivated by that adult’s radiance."

  Merkphis, gazing up at the sky, wore an expression of immense happiness.

  "At that moment, I swore to follow that adult forever! And then——"

  "I worked hard. I trained day and night."

  "Finally, I became outstanding. I gained enough strength to stand by that adult’s side!!!"

  "But......"

  The joy on Merkphis’s face faded, replaced by unbearable pain.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "I’m just an elf!!! Even if I obtained power comparable to any of you, there’s one thing I could never change—my lifespan——"

  "It’s limited......"

  The expression on Merkphis’s face gradually shifted from pain to despair.

  "At that time, it spoke to me......"

  Gurgle~!

  Merkphis raised his right hand. A black, vein-like tentacle emerged from beneath his skin.

  "That’s——?!!"

  The Seven Sages stared at the thing in his hand in horror.

  "It’s impossible! This thing was sealed in Mirnabius! Why is it on you!? "

  "Nothing is impossible."

  Merkphis said coldly.

  Gurgle, gurgle......

  Countless pitch-black tentacles stretched out from his body. His original elven form twisted into something terrifying.

  "At that time, it told me that cruel truth."

  "One day, I would exhaust my lifespan and leave that adult."

  "Something like...... something like this!"

  As if suppressing something to the limit, Merkphis roared:

  "I will never accept this——!!!"

  "My wish, Merkphis’s wish, is to stay by that adult’s side forever! Forever!!!"

  "So, at that time, it made me a proposal. There’s only one way to fulfill that wish......"

  Merkphis’s expression grew increasingly maniacal.

  "And that is! To become a being like Lady Terra—to become a god!"

  "What......?"

  "Become a god?"

  "That’s impossible......"

  Everyone looked at Merkphis as if he were insane.

  No...... more precisely, Merkphis had long been insane in his heart.

  "Hehe...... That proposal spread like madness in my mind. Of course, I initially refused to cooperate with it. I wanted to achieve that goal with my own strength."

  "I spent a lot of time researching, investigating, and even accidentally obtained some information from Lady Terra. Finally, I found a way to become a god!"

  "That is——to seize the power of another god-level being in this world! With that power, I can become a god!"

  "Another god-level being...... I’m sure you know what it is~."

  "That’s right——"

  Merkphis spread his hands.

  "It’s the World Tree behind me!"

  "To be honest, when I learned this method, I thought even the heavens were helping me. Because this method only works on an immature World Tree. If I had been born tens of thousands of years later, I’m afraid I would have been powerless~."

  "But now——!"

  "As long as I seize its power, I can become a god and stay by that adult’s side forever~!"

  "However......"

  The maniacal look faded temporarily as Merkphis continued:

  "Fulfilling this wish comes with many difficulties."

  "The biggest problem is the method of seizure."

  "I spent countless long days and nights researching and experimenting."

  "Finally——"

  "I found the way."

  "It’s the sacrificial ritual circle beneath my feet."

  Merkphis glanced at the ground, then at the Seven Sages. He smiled as if introducing his proudest achievement:

  "It truly is a masterpiece of my efforts. Even long after developing it, I’m still amazed by its effects."

  "Specifically,"

  "as long as I find a Sixth-Rank lifeform highly compatible with the World Tree’s power, and use that life as the core of the circle, I can draw out all the World Tree’s power. In the end, that power will flow into me, and I will become a god!"

  "Coincidentally," Merkphis wore a somewhat twisted smile, "there happens to be the perfect candidate right beside me!"

  "Fairy Queen Semiris Pan Genin, the first fairy in the world. She was born beneath the World Tree itself. No one in this world has a closer connection to the World Tree than her~!"

  "You bastard...... So that’s why you lured us away and found an excuse to leave Semiris behind!"

  "Exactly~! After all, to achieve that goal, you Seven Sages are the greatest obstacles. And although I hate to admit it, Lady Terra would probably stop me too......"

  "So——"

  "I accepted its proposal to cooperate."

  "I’ve been by Lady Terra’s side for a long time and know many things about her. I managed to retrieve one of its seeds from the seal and implanted it in my heart, thus evading all detection."

  "As for the one left in the seal—it’s just a decoy to fool everyone."

  "You...... You’ve been plotting this since that time! Could it be that you created the Calamity Beasts from the very beginning?! "

  "As you said, Sylph~!"

  The black tentacles on Merkphis’s body wriggled, and his form twisted further—no longer recognizable.

  "After merging with it as partners, I began researching ways to improve it~!"

  "Oh my, that was such a troublesome and tiring time. But it was also quite interesting. The direction of mutation for each experimental subject was unpredictable, leading to many bizarre creations!"

  "But my hard work finally paid off!"

  "I finally developed a more efficient method. Lifeforms corrupted by it would become far more powerful."

  "However, at first, it was difficult to control. I had no choice but to let them run amok. And that’s the origin of the Calamity Beasts."