Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG) - Chapter 561

561. The World Of My Mind

Belphegor stared at the tear in space. A sliver of a hole that led to another plane— a small plane. Like a pocket space. 

That in itself wasn’t all that impressive. There would be no reason for him to gape if he was just staring at an artificial reality. It was what was hidden beneath the peeling veil that surprised him. What he saw was— 

Corruption. The flaking bits of distorted reality. An eclectic of colors smearing together, circling around to make a ring. No— not rings. But wheels. Four of them, each wisping with the fiery flakes of the corruption.

And these wheels surrounded an incomprehensible figure. Belphegor could only make out the six wings protruding from its back. Feathered wings. Pure and white, even when wreathed by the corruption. 

His eyes narrowed as he tried to discern the core of the corruption— the figure that was standing inside of the four wheels. A blurred figure. A white figure. Through the lens of the distortion, it almost looked like a sphere. A pure white sphere.

But then the figure began to shift— a dark splotch appeared at the very center of the sphere. It grew larger, drawing closer to Belphegor. He stared at it, and it stared back at him. Like a giant eye. 

He raised a fist, ready to crush this corrupted creature. But a voice broke him out of his stupor.

“Belphegor!”

A dark clawed hand shot out from the veil of corruption, reaching out for the Primordial Demon. He recoiled and blinked as the familiar voice continued. Distorted as it might have been, he still recognized it in an instant.

“Belphegor! It’s me!”

“You’re… Salvos?”

Belphegor frowned as he caught a brief glimpse of her visage in the corruption. She smiled at him as she proffered her hand.

“You can’t die here— let’s go!”

She screamed. And he blinked. He raised his own hand slowly as the ground shook beneath his feet. The end of the world drew closer. Multiple rifts began to form overhead as the corruption tore through space. His [Golem of the Basilisk] would soon fall. 

It was too much. The corruption was too overwhelming. In the face of this, there was only one choice. There was only a single option to flee. So Belphegor raised his hand—

And he hesitated.

Why wasn’t Belphegor budging?

I stared at the Primordial Demon as he stood there, his eyes glazed over. The normally dark pits that made up his iris and pupils were gone, replaced with a soft gray glow. I didn’t know what that meant— I didn’t even know why his eyes kept changing shape and color. 

All I knew was that if we didn’t get out of here soon, we would be killed by the corruption. I eyed the burgeoning Corrupted Hellspaces in the distance. Then I looked back to see the large Corrupted Hellspace trapped in its [Planetary Prison]. I couldn’t do anything to help him fight against them. I could only teleport him out of this mess.

And yet, he didn’t move. He just stared blankly at me as I gritted my teeth.

“Belphegor, if you die here—”

“What’s the point?”

Belphegor spoke in a soft whisper. He looked away from me as he lowered his arm. 

“I will die. Just like my friends. All those who have fought with me… they all perished. And soon, so shall I.”

I hesitated. I watched as the Primordial Demon hung his head. I wanted to speak up, but I didn’t want to draw his ire either. After all, he nearly mistook me for a corrupted creature just a moment ago.

“It’s his fault— Trico the Trickster. He befriended us. He treated us like we were his equals. But he did it all just so the pain would hurt that much more when he betrayed us.”

I heard a screech in the distance. A loud cry resounded as a tendril of corruption shot up, tearing through the rocky sphere encasing the Corrupted Hellspace. The [Planetary Prison] began to crumble, but Belphegor didn’t even look up. 

I shrank back into the four wheels of corruption surrounding me— a result of my [Corruption Camouflage]. However, I wasn’t sure if this disguise was enough to hide me from the Corrupted Hellspace. I was ready to close my pocket space at any point in time if necessary. 

And I listened as Belphegor continued whispering quietly to himself.

“It was retribution. It was so that we would all suffer. We were condemned to toil away at the end of the world for all of eternity. And yet, while others have found reprieve from their suffering, I still remain.”

The Primordial Demon slowly raised his head. And behind him, his [Planetary Prison] fell apart. The Corrupted Hellspace exploded out of the confines of the Skill. It screeched as it flew straight down at him. I drew back, clenching my jaw, just about to close off [The World Of My Mind].

But then a large stone figure crashed into the back of the Corrupted Hellspace. I looked on as the [Golem of the Basilisk] let out a terrible roar, before chomping down. All around it, tiny bits of Corrupted Netherstones and Corrupted Rocks tried to swarm its back. But it ignored them, its focus fully on the Corrupted Netherspace.

Belphegor sighed as he looked down at the palm of his hand,  

“I am tired. Everyone I know is dead. I have no future left. All that is left for me is despair. So why should I fight? Why should I… live?”

He asked the question to no one in particular. I stared at him— at the husk of a man standing before me. He stood like a statue. Alone and surrounded by nothing but death and destruction. The memories of all that he once knew was what remained. 

I… couldn’t possibly understand how he felt. I couldn’t empathize with him. Not based on my own experience. It would be like if I had failed to stop Regnorex from crossing the Mortal Plane, and I was forced to watch as all my companions in the Mortal Realm died. 

To me, such a reality was just not possible. I couldn’t comprehend it. So I couldn’t feel the pain Belphegor felt. 

Not through my own experiences, at the very least.

But I could still try to understand him. I could still try to feel what he felt. I took in a deep breath and took a step forward. [Truth Divination] began to take over as the world around me began to grow silent. I didn’t hear the screeches of the Corrupted Hellspace as it tore into the stone scales of the [Golem of the Basilisk]. I didn’t even feel a shred of fear as I exited my own pocket space, facing Belphegor.

Instead, I felt what he felt. And what I felt was— 

Pain.

A growing pit in my stomach. A ceaseless sense of dread that poured forth, inundating my thoughts with despair. Regrets. Agony. Terrible, overwhelming feelings. All that made life miserable plagued me. Like I had lost everything.

It had to have only been a fraction of the pain that the Primordial Demon had suffered over the course of an eternity. And yet, I found my legs trembling. I felt my eyes watering, and tears streamed down my cheeks. 

But I steeled myself. A single thought crossed my mind— a question that I carried from the very first moment Belphegor spoke. 

I raised my head, even as my vision blurred. And even as my lips quivered, I still asked the question weighing on me.

“What about my Father?”

And Belphegor blinked. His pain vanished for a moment, washed away by confusion. Then he reminisced. He remembered.

I steadied myself as I blinked away my tears.

“My Father still lives— what about him? He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

“I…”

Belphegor started, trying to forget about my dad. But I felt what he felt— even if I didn’t remember the memories he was recalling, I could still feel the emotions he felt when he was reminiscing about the past. 

I felt joy. 

Sadness.

Relief.

Glory.

Love.

He thought of the time he had spent with Samuel. And he tried to repress the feelings he felt. But I didn’t let him. I couldn’t let him forget it.

“I don’t know what happened between you and my Dad, but I know that you still care for him. I know that the reason you’ve fought for so long is because… because…”

I felt an aching in my heart. But it wasn’t my own aching— it was Belphegor’s pain. And it was not the same misery he had suffered from the end of the world. It was a pain he harbored from as long as he knew Samuel.

I didn’t know what this feeling was. I had never felt something like it before. It was strange. Completely alien to me. But it was intense, and I know that Belphegor still felt it even now.

I shook my head as I gestured past him, towards the end of the world.

“The reason you’ve fought for so long is because of my Dad, right? That’s why you have not left the end of the world. You’ve done it to protect him.”

“That’s…”

Belphegor’s eyes widened. He took a step back as I heard a howl in the distance. My [Truth Divination] finally came to an end, and my own feelings returned to me. I panted as I placed a hand on my chest. I bit my lower lip, looking towards the [Golem of the Basilisk] as it was ripped in half. Then I looked back towards the end of the world and watched as the first of the nascent Corrupted Hellspaces were birthed.

I turned back to Belphegor, proffering my clawed hand once again. 

“So let’s go. You can’t die here… right?”

I was cutting it too close. I should have just gone the moment Belphegor rejected me. But now that I had used [Truth Divination] to sense his thoughts and feelings, I couldn’t quite just run away without him. 

He closed his eyes as his [Golem of the Basilisk] died from the first Corrupted Hellspace. As a nascent Corrupted Hellspace emerged from the rifts. And he slowly placed a hand on his chest.

“That’s right…”

The Primordial Demon spoke in a soft whisper. The nascent Corrupted Hellspace cast its gaze towards him and screeched, but he didn’t even flinch. 

“I did this all because of my King. I did it all because of him.”

And his hand tightened into a fist. The nascent Corrupted Hellspace charged, moving straight for him. I cursed as I backed away, trying to escape back into my pocket space. But the nascent Corrupted Hellspace reached him—

And he just swung up with his fist.

“[My Right Hand: Destruction]!”

The nascent Corrupted Hellspace exploded. My eyes grew wide as I watched a powerful shockwave ripple out, followed by a flurry of blasts. Tens of thousands of small explosions followed after the trail of the shockwave, ravaging the army of corruption around him.

Even the first Corrupted Hellspace recoiled as its veil of protection was shredded open. But it still lived. It began to regenerate as I finally returned to my pocket space. I desperately reached out for Belphegor.

“Let’s go—”

But he simply glanced dismissively at me.

“No.”

I blinked, watching as his eyes were filled with an iridescent light once more. He shook his head at me before turning to face the rifts forming in space. He took in a deep breath and started forward.

“I was mistaken in thinking that I had slew the cause of the incursion back in the first layer. That was but a nascent Corrupted Hellspace. But this?”

He glanced back towards the regenerating Corrupted Hellspace— the one that had followed me through the storm of the void. 

“That Corrupted Hellspace would pave the path for the end of the world if it is not stopped. It is the reason why the corruption has spread as significantly as it did. It was a mistake on my part. So I will have to rectify it.”

Belphegor started forward. I could only see the shadow of his figure facing down the end of the world. The wall of infinite corruption continued to approach, but he didn’t falter. I pursed my lips as I stared at his back.

“But if you die—”

He glanced back once. 

“I won’t.”

The Primordial Demon replied simply. An iridescent aura began to wreathe his body, and his chest began to glow. Like a hole was forming at his core.

“I will live. I have to live. For the sake of my King.”

Belphegor turned away from me, whispering softly as more nascent Corrupted Hellspaces were birthed.

“That is why I have chosen to suffer in his stead. That is why I have condemned myself to… hell.”

And the nascent Corrupted Hellspaces charged him. The hole fully formed in his chest, and the iridescent light covering his body shifted, twisting in a brilliant white glow. He shone brighter than the end of the world, with each step he took leaving behind a burning footprint behind him. 

He raised his head, staring down the nascent Corrupted Hellspaces as they reached him. Three of them, all at once. And he bellowed.

“[My Soul: Indomitable]!”

Belphegor leapt through the first nascent Corrupted Hellspace, tearing it apart. The second swung its tendrils at him, but he just caught the attack, before pulling hard. I watched as he crashed into the Corrupted Hellspace after Corrupted Hellspace, taking them down in mere moments.

The first Corrupted Hellspace began to rise from the ground— regenerating from the damage it had sustained earlier. Belphegor landed right before it, standing atop the corpse of a nascent Corrupted Hellspace. He glanced back at me, breaking me out of my daze.

“Go!”

He cried out to me.

“Live— get out of here!”

I blinked, before taking a step back. I swept my gaze over my surroundings. I stared at the storm of the void— the bubbles of non-existence. Then I looked towards the end of the world. The wall of infinite corruption. An army of corruption continued to converge around Belphegor.

The nearby Corrupted Netherstones seemed to ignore me, zipping by my pocket space without even giving me a passing glance. So I was mostly safe… for now. 

The moment Belphegor and the first Corrupted Hellspace started fighting, I would have to teleport out of here. But I didn’t leave. Not just yet. I just stared at Belphegor as he shouted at me once more.

“The second layer is no place for someone like you! So go!”

I gritted my teeth and shook a fist back at him.

“It’s no place for me yet.”

Belphegor paused. He blinked at me as I gestured at my surroundings.

“I will return. One day, I will come back here… so you better be alive then!”

I grinned at him. The Primordial Demon just stared at me. He chuckled before lowering his gaze.

“I see.”

He spoke loudly as he turned away from me— his voice sharp enough to cut through the chittering of the corruption, even from a distance. 

“Promise me then, when you do return, if I have been taken by the corruption, you shall destroy me. End my suffering so that I am not one with the end of the world.”

For a moment, his gaze flickered with the same melancholy from before. 

“Not just me, but the [Hydra] too— do not let us be slaves to the corruption. Please let our souls rest in peace.”

I stared at him. I recalled the Corrupted Hydra. And I just nodded.

“I will.”

“Thank you.”

Belphegor turned back to the face the Corrupted Hellspace, and I was about to close [The World Of My Mind]. But he caught himself at the very last moment. He glanced back at me again, this time hesitantly, even as the Corrupted Hellspace loomed over him.

“And when you see Samuel— when you see your father…”

He took in a deep breath, before sighing.

“Tell him that it’s not his fault. Tell him that I do not blame him. That if I were given a second chance to redo my life— that I wouldn’t change a single thing.”

I stared at the Primordial Demon. I saw the pain in his face, but I also remembered what he had felt when he remembered his past. His story. Whatever it was he experienced before the fall of my dad’s kingdom— it must have been a tale that would have taken forever to regale.

And the things he had experienced… it was all worth it. Even if now he was condemned to despair. 

[The World Of My Mind] began to close around me, and Belphegor’s eyes fluttered shut. Right as the last fractal of reality covered my pocket space, I gave the Primordial Demon a reassuring smile.

“I promise.”

And he smiled back at me.

“Thank you, Salvos.”

The Corrupted Hellspace swung down at him, cutting off his words. I flinched, even in the safety of my pocket space. But then I watched as Belphegor began to rise from the ground, carrying the corrupted tendril above him. 

He roared as the white aura wisped around him. He threw the Corrupted Hellspace back into the end of the world as my own pocket space flew higher up into the air. I began to focus, casting [Greater Teleportation].

And I watched as Belphegor reached for the hole in his chest as the army of corruption bore down on him.

“[My Love: Everlasting—” 

There was a flash. I blinked, hearing his words echo in my head. But he was gone. I just stared at an empty room. A broken altar. And a voice echoed in my head.  

I was finally back in the first layer of the Netherworld.