Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG)

606. How Does the Corruption Work?

I sat with Haec, Taburas, Bertrugil, and Aemula before the Devil himself. His eyes were closed. He soaked in the moment as he regaled his tale— his lips moving slowly, his words like a song.

“Once, I ruled the Netherworld. I didn’t have a single domain— my kingdom spanned across all the layers of the Netherworld! Hundreds of millions… no, billions looked up to me. They heeded my every word. I was more than just a king, I was a god.”

Sal relished in his words. My pocket space began to shift, even against my will, and shadows seemed to crawl across the glass-like walls. The cracks on their surface rippled, taking the vague shape of a vast city expanding throughout [The World Of My Mind].

Haec’s eyes flickered, noticing the moving images. Taburas shifted up next to him, and Bertrugil frowned.

The Devil sighed exaggeratedly.

“And now, it is all gone. My kingdom is gone. My subjects? Gone. Everything I have ever worked for? Gone—”

“I already knew that!”

I interrupted his morose rambling. He blinked, and I raised a clawed hand aimed his way as the shadows creeping across the corner of my eye faded away.

“You said you were going to tell me the truth about the end of the world! But you’re just telling me about things I already knew about!”

My dad waved a hand off dismissively, turning to the four Archdemons sitting to the side. He shook his head as he spoke casually.

“I’m simply giving context to your friends, my dear daughter. My story won’t be as compelling without knowing the full extent of my tragedy…”

“It’s not a tragedy when you literally trusted a guy called ‘the Trickster’. What did you think was going to happen?”

I scoffed, crossing my arms at the Devil. He placed a hand on his chest, affronted.

“I’ll have you know that I was very suspicious of Trico for the first hundred years I knew him!”

“And you still ended up trusting him!”

“It wasn’t just me! Everyone did! He spent over a thousand years— throughout countless cycles of Advent— building up our trust!”

“Well, Belphegor didn’t make it sound like he ever trusted Trico at all!”

“You know what they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty…”

“What does that even mean—”

Haec, Taburas, Bertrugil, and Aemula glanced between my dad and I as we bickered back and forth. It took a while, but Haec finally decided to interject, stopping our argument.

“Salvos, I want to hear what the Devil has to say.”

I paused, turning to my companion with a betrayed look. Sal snickered as I scowled, muttering to myself.

“You’re supposed to side with me…”

“Even your friends think you’re being rude, my daughter. Seriously, do you have no manners? I can’t believe this— where did I go wrong in raising you?”

My dad grinned at me, and I glared back at him.

You didn’t raise me, and you aren’t even there most of the time, I mentally quipped back, but bit back the remark.

He tapped a finger on his chin, wondering aloud.

“Right… so where was I?”

“You mentioned ruling the Netherworld— ruling… all of its layers.”

Haec leaned forward curiously, his head cocked to the side. He continued as shook his head.

“I’ve never heard of these layers before. Not once has Oracli or Regnorex mentioned such a thing.”

“That’s because they are as clueless about it as you.”

Sal smirked as his gaze scanned the four Archdemons in his audience. He tilted his head back, adding quickly under his breath.

“Also because the rest of the layers are mostly gone— but that’s beside the point!”

The creeping shadows returned, and the cracks in my pocket space began to shift once more. The white flames burning outside dimmed as if we were escaping from the Netherworld. But I knew that we hadn’t even moved at all.

The Devil sighed as he lowered his head.

“I built an empire that should have lasted an eternity, but it was all destroyed because of the corruption.”

Haec furrowed his brows, and Taburas glanced at him curiously. He placed a hand on his chin as he slowly turned towards me.

“And this corruption… you said it’s causing the end of the world, right?”

“Yep.”

I nodded in response. I placed a hand on my chin, trying to remember what the Kobolds told me a long time ago.

“So, um, the corruption comes from… these holes in the planes? And they are formed by traveling through them? Or something?”

I wasn’t actually too sure about all the specific details. And evidently enough, Haec had more questions to press me with. He drew closer, interrogating me as I scratched the back of my head.

“Why can’t these holes be repaired? How do they cause the corruption? Why does it mean the end of the world?”

“Because… that’s…”

I backed away, before throwing my hands in the air exasperatedly.

“I don’t know, alright? Ask my Dad!”

I finally said as I turned to the Devil. He chuckled, shaking his head at me.

“Come on, my dear daughter. I would have thought that at your age, you would rely on your father a little less.”

“I’m like eight years old.”

I replied with a snort. I wasn’t sure if I was actually eight or not— I might have been older, or maybe younger. I didn’t really care to keep track of time. All that mattered to me was my levels.

Sal sighed as he faced my companion. Haec wore a frown, suspiciously looking the Devil up and down. Even though I had already reassured him that my dad could be trusted, there was still some doubt and skepticism present there.

“The corruption isn’t… a thing.”

The Devil explained as Haec blinked.

“Or rather— it is more like the destruction of a thing. A decay in the fabric of our reality that spreads like a deadly virus. When you are corrupted, you don’t become something else. You just become… less.”

His eyes flickered towards me, and he whispered to himself.

“Or at least, that’s what I thought.”

“Huh.”

I cocked my head, but I didn’t say a word. Bertrugil folded his arms across his chest, pondering aloud.

“So you’re saying that the world is slowly decaying, and it’s happening because of these tiny holes in space which we’re causing by moving between the planes?”

He looked down at my pocket space with pursed lips.

“And not only are we not doing anything about it, but we’re only exacerbating the problem?”

I shrank back as he gave me a sidelong glance. Taburas also looked my way, blinking a few times as the realization settled in. But the Devil sighed, leaning back against the glass-like wall of my pocket space.

“The problem already exists. It has existed for a long while. Even if both the Spirit Lord and the Demon King halt their summonings between the planes right now, it makes no difference. The corruption shall continue to spread, and the Nexeus shall collapse.”

“So we’re supposed to just accept our fate?”

Taburas spoke up, staring wide-eyed at the Devil.

“We’re just supposed to roll over and die? Is no one even trying to put a stop to the end of the world?”

“Well, poor ole Reggie boy doesn’t even know the world is ending, and Soli— that’s my nickname for the Spirit Lord— is trying something. Whether it works out or not? I don’t really care.”

Sal just shrugged as Haec narrowed his eyes.

“And why not? This is your world too, is it not?”

“It is indeed my world. But… I already used up all my care for the end of the world a long time ago.”

I watched as the Devil’s eyes flashed with a hint of regret for just a moment. One of the very few times he showed even a hint of seriousness. But it was gone in an instant. And I knew he was going to try and pivot away from this topic— usually with a joke or some dumb remark. So I caught him before he could continue.

“And what does that even mean? Did you try to stop it and fail?”

I pressed him, and he opened his mouth to respond. But I didn’t stop there.

“Is that why you gave up and left Belphegor alone down there to face the end of the world himself? Because you gave up?”

And Sal’s brows snapped together. He definitely wasn’t expecting me to say that. He looked angry for a moment— the very same wrath he displayed when I had affected him with [Zealous Call] when I was still studying in Mavos Academy.

The day he nearly killed me.

But he calmed himself quickly. The anger in his eyes vanished, replaced with a carefree smile that seemed to hide a lingering sadness.

“Did I give up? Perhaps. But it is not as simple as you make it out to be, my dear daughter. For you see, my battle against the corruption started long before the end of the world even began.”

He whispered as the shadows in the room faded away. The vague images of his empire expanding behind him on the glass-like walls vanished, and all that remained was the Devil sitting before us.

His eyes fluttered as he spoke softly.

“Because everything I built… everything I did… it was all to save the world from its demise.”

“But how did you know the world was going to end before it even happened?”

I blinked a few times, staring quizzically at my dad. He looked up at me and held my gaze with his black eyes. His lips twisted into a smile.

“Because, my dear daughter, you see— it was Trico who warned us of the impending apocalypse.”

“Um, what?”

I paused as the Devil nodded.

“It was he who betrayed his own kin— he who slew his fellow Worldwalkers— and offered us salvation.”