Chapter 264
Trapped in a prison of thorns, he called to the evil god and begged for mercy.
"That was my sin."
If only he had conducted himself better, or been strong enough to ignore it all. Then he wouldn’t have ended up imprisoned. He shouldn’t have dared to invoke the evil god, drunk on pain. Who knew what disaster would follow?
And to beg for mercy in that state—he shouldn’t have done that either.
"I know. Evil gods are always like that. Even if you pray for happiness, they never grant it straightforwardly. They always find a way to twist it—granting the most grotesque mercy possible, within the rules, to see how much more miserable you can become."
"But wasn’t that the mercy you wanted?"
"Yes, it was. I wanted a pain greater than what I’d felt when I was locked in the thorn prison. Even that would’ve been a reward to me. I was already mad. I was exhausted. Any change at all would’ve been salvation."
Pain, when eternal, becomes unbearably dull. That was Ather’s torment. He had wished for a hell even worse than the one he was trying to escape, and in that madness, he dared ask the evil god for mercy.
"But what did you give me?"
He had truly given him salvation.
"You were merciful. You were kind. That made it all the more horrifying."
"You were too precious to simply kill, weren’t you?"