You must decide

"...I need to conquer who?"

I felt like time had stopped when I entered this place but I didn't know the explanation behind the phenomenon. The law of time and space inside the mystical place was clearly different from the outside world.

'A hero? Save the world? What the hell is that? I don't think that I am the right person for that kind of job. I need to focus on becoming stronger to be able to protect myself and those who are important to me first,' I thought after listening to Pride's sudden warning.

"This is it, Mark, this is the problem with you. You are so indecisive, so inconsistent..." Pride began talking again, all of a sudden as if he was reading my mind. "All of this time, you looked like you know what you wanted to do but now, it's clear that you are unsure of your true emotions. Is it because you are used to lying to yourself?

"However, even if you think that you know what you want, your emotions can't lie and they trigger the power of the primordial authorities to execute the desire of their host. In your previous life, for example, you were never convinced that you are a loser, right? You just tried to act like one to run away from the reasons for your failures, and when you finally get the chance to change, move forward, and discard your loser self, you became scared. You are just being a hypocrite."

His words were like knives, stabbing me where it hurts...

"What do you even know? I am running away? When did I even run away from anything? At least, I faced my weakness head-on" I shouted.

"No, you are wrong. The problem is that you are stuck, Mark! You can't move forward and you just stayed in your little world, where you feel like you are someone that deserves something more than you already have. You are just a loser. You tried to sound humble with these endless monologues of yours. You were trying to make yourself the victim by belittling yourself but in the end, you didn't mean what you were saying..." Pride continued without mincing his words. "...You wanted to feel superior to others despite your ugliness and petty character. That was your hidden desire and everything you wanted to do was for the sake of that pathetic dream."

"You think I don't know that I am a loser? I know... And I am trying" I replied, feeling frustrated by his words.

"So you want to overcome your weakness? Yes, overcome... That's a pretty interesting thing to say. So how do you plan to do that? By trying to pick up a girl that is a way out of your league? Did you forget that you are a loser before? So tell me exactly, how do you plan to overcome your weaknesses?"

I had many ideas on how I should do things in this second life but at that moment, I couldn't find anything to say.

"I… I…"

Pride glared at me with sharp eyes, and his words were clear.

"It's simple, Mark," he said. "You don't know what to do. In the end, you just wanted to run away from your weakness again now that you are in this world, didn't you? After all, overcoming your weakness and running away from them are two different things. But things are different this time, Mark, because if you run away again, then you will die for real."

"I don't even know why a person like me was given a second chance in the first place, and I don't know even know why I should listen to you… But do you think I will just die like that? Don't mess with me!" I said, feeling like Pride's character had changed and he was berating me.

"That's not the question. Mark, why are trying to restrain yourself?' It's okay to be more ambitious, no one will stop you. Do you want to hold the ultimate form of power in the palm of your hand? Then do it, find a way, and explore the possibilities. Do you want to build a harem? Then do it. You will only waste your second life if you try to limit yourself to the norm of your past life…" Pride talked and made charismatic body and hand gestures that were appropriate to what he was saying. "Now, things are different from your past life, and you have more options to choose from, you can fulfill your desires, so all you need is the willingness and the ambition to achieve new heights..."

I was surprised by what Pride said, but he was just stating the obvious, yet, somehow I wondered why I just thought that these things were too much for me.

"And more importantly, you also can become the hero of this world. You can beat the Villainess and stop the destruction of this universe. Now is your time to choose whether you want to stay a loser forever or to take this chance and face this new world for real," he added.

"Tch... Stop with that... I don't want to be a hero..."

Everything that Pride said was probably true, I couldn't deny that, but I couldn't accept everything he said. He wanted to imply that I could do more than become a successful person in this world. But for what reason? Would that even make me happier?

Even the fact that I would die if I didn't save the world sounded to cliche and illogical. The universe would get destroyed If I died? That doesn't logical, and honestly, I want to void such a responsibility, because it sounds like there are too many problems related to it... In the first place, how can a single person achieve all of that? Yet this guy... In the first place, how did he know all of those things anyway? Or is he just making up things?' I thought.

"I am persuaded that you will make the best choice. I want to believe in you. That's why I will help you one last time. After this, I won't be able to help you anymore so you need to continue alone from here."

"..."

"As such, I will use my power to alter your memory and all of the people on this planet," Pride explained. "You will forget about me, about Judgment, because he will not be able to take control of the main body as long as you don't remember us and the seal of your memory isn't broken."

"What's the problem with me knowing about your existence or remembering everything, or understand?" All of this didn't make any sense. He just said anything he wanted without any consideration.

"The Holy Church. Your guess was right. Everything you did today must be erased from reality because of the one who hides in the shadow of the Holy Church... But for now, you don't need to know why…"

"Hey…" I tried to say something but Pride was already gone.

Then, I regained consciousness.

*****

:::[Third person POV]:::

While Pride and Adam were having a serious conversation inside the mystical place, Judgment was going out of control as he took control of the main body.

Judgment was the depiction of purity, strength, and justice.

In his eyes, everything that wasn't pure and perfect was equal to a threat to his existence.

Liu who was in front of Judgement understood that there was nothing more and nothing less than purity about him, and his aura and existence were the quintessence of rectitude.

Judgment was nothing less than the perfect form of destruction.

'Such a thing, such an entity shouldn't exist in this universe,' Liu thought as her vision locked on the two crystal-like eyes that looked like they didn't even consider her as a being that existed.

Liu understood that she couldn't win against this entity and she wasn't even sure if someone could do anything about the situation.

Liu was not the only one who realized that this being was something that shouldn't roam around in this world.

All of the people who saw the strange phenomenon happening around the city felt scared and it was an extreme form of fear because most of them didn't even understand what they were afraid of.

They saw their face in these fissures that appeared in the void sometimes as a child, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman, to the point that their brain couldn't even process what was happening.

Like Liu, Amelia who was looking at what was happening turned pale and couldn't even speak at all. She was feeling something that she couldn't even express with words.

Her special eyes could only see a black hole that felt like it was sucking her soul.

'What is this?!!!'

Amelia wanted to run away at full speed and never turn back since she was just there because her father wanted to help her build relationships with more people but never in her dream did she think that she will witness two of the most unexplainable occurrence in the universe.

After all, those who were present such as Julius, Delio, and the other soldiers, nobles, and Lords were all living their worst fear.

There was no exception.

All of that happened just because a single being who looked like Adam but at the same time extremely different appeared in this place in this world, in this universe.

"Adam… What is going on with you?" Julius was extremely worried and his mind was overloaded.

Julius always had some feeling that his son was not normal but what was happening was outside of his understanding.

But when people were about to despair for real, Judgement grabbed his head with his hands and his body quivered violently.

Then Judgement's hair turned black again and his body stopped shaking. "Guuh."

Liu was surprised by this sudden change in personality and appearance. Now two crimson red eyes were looking at her and the baby that she was holding also calmed down and even reached her hands toward Adam or more precisely Pride.

"Oh, you are…" Pride reacted at the presence of the baby, looking at the baby.

Then, Pride snapped his finger and every living being on the planet fell into a trance state for a few seconds when they regained their consciousness, they forgot about the existence of Pride and

Judgment and all of the strange phenomena that they created as well as Adam's display of power. Only the fact that he froze in place during his speech remained.

Adam also regained control of his body, forgetting about the mystical place and the memories of the fallen hero but couldn't stay afloat in the air and fell.

"Huh? Aaaaaaaa!"

Then, Liu used her power to create an ice dragon that caught Adam and helped him land smoothly on the ground.