"What is going on here?"
Looking at the bubble world resident before him, who had reacted to the sight of him as though he'd seen a ghost and immediately fled in panic, the Ferryman furrowed his brows beneath his hood, momentarily baffled.
But if there was a question, he could simply ask.
Since this flaming man was capable of communication, that made things easy. The Ferryman had no intention of letting such a conveniently delivered source of information escape, so he immediately moved to capture him.
"D-Don't come any closer! Spare me! We know we were wrong! We'll never dare do it again!"
"Calm down. I have no intention of harming you."
Incidentally, since these bubble worlds were all located in the Sea of Quanta near Earth in the proper world, they could, in a sense, be considered partial reflections of Earth. Thus, the people living within them all spoke languages found on Earth, and there was no communication barrier.
Although the Ferryman himself possessed nothing more than an ordinary mortal body.
He was neither a Herrscher, nor a MANTIS, much less a Pseudo God. But he possessed a large number of Ether Anchors, allowing his strength within bubble worlds to surpass even that of some multi-core Herrschers.
The flaming man before him was captured with ease.
However, upon feeling the flames radiating from the other man's body, even the Ferryman sucked in a sharp breath, finding the situation utterly unbelievable.
How in the world is this man still alive?
If not for the protective power of his Ether Anchors, the Ferryman knew his hand would already have been burned to ash.
At that moment, the flaming man he had captured froze when he saw the Ferryman's face beneath his hood.
"N-No... You're not that demon."
That white-haired youth with heterochromatic golden and blue eyes, whose appearance seemed bestowed by the gods themselves, had long since become the nightmare haunting every person in this bubble world. They would never forget him, even in death.
Although the two of them piloted battleships with identical appearances...
The Ferryman's voice and appearance were clearly vastly different from the demon's features etched into his memory. And after taking a closer look, the man realized that their ships differed in size as well.
"I don't know what you're afraid of, but I'm not the demon you're talking about. However, I am very interested in this demon who frightens you so much. So... tell me everything you know."
The Ferryman showed the man no courtesy.
Repeated failures over the years had long since transformed him from a naive idealist into a cold and ruthless fanatic. The only thing remaining in his heart was his lifelong wish to create a utopia.
For that purpose, he would not hesitate to seize hundreds of Ether Anchors from different bubble worlds, even if doing so caused those worlds to collapse ahead of time.
"Aaaaah—!"
Under his terrifying pressure, the bubble world resident nearly fainted. At that moment, he suddenly realized that although the two men differed completely in appearance and bearing...
This black-robed man before him might also be a demon!
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! But... can you tell me who you actually are?"
"Me? I'm merely a ferryman. You could say I'm the owner of a small vessel. You may call me the Ferryman."
"Is... is your ship connected to that person?"
"Hm? I don't know who you're talking about. Besides, I'm the only person aboard my ship. I don't have any companions."
A trace of sorrow entered the Ferryman's voice.
Once, he truly had possessed people he could call companions. But all of them had since left him.
Because the path of salvation he had chosen was no broad and level road. It could not even accommodate two people walking side by side.
Meanwhile, after learning that the Ferryman had no connection to Elias and that the two were not allies, the bubble world resident breathed a deep sigh of relief.
But...
Immediately afterward, incomparable hatred poured from him.
Along with a terror that had seeped deep into his bones and could not be concealed.
Even merely recalling what had happened that day made his body tremble uncontrollably, despite the fact that he was still being scorched by searing Herrscher flames even now.
"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!"
"Good. Speak."
"It's all that demon's fault! Our world used to be a beautiful paradise, but then one day, the demon suddenly descended upon it! His witch burned our dream to the ground, and the demon transformed our world into the hell it is now!"
The man spoke with furious indignation, doing everything in his power to smear Elias and Rosemary. He completely omitted [Nightmare] and the fact that they had burned Rosemary at the stake, embellishing the story until the pair sounded like an utterly invincible duo of supervillains!
Even the Ferryman was startled.
Especially when he heard the description of Elias' appearance. He took out the footage he had previously observed and displayed the blurry white figure before the man.
"It's him! That's him! He's the demon! I'd recognize him even if he were reduced to ashes! These flames on our bodies that will never go out are all because of that demon!"
"I see. Interesting. But... altering a bubble world to this extent must have come at a considerable cost."
After hearing the man's story, the Ferryman was not swept up by his emotions or filled with righteous indignation.
Although he intended to become a savior, the Ferryman knew himself well enough to understand that he was hardly some champion of justice. If anything, he had already become a villain responsible for the destruction of hundreds of bubble worlds.
Someone like him had no right to feel righteous indignation.
Thus, the Ferryman merely analyzed the situation calmly.
(According to this man's account, the one they call the Devourer is known here as the demon. First, he burned away this world's dream, then transformed the reality of this bubble world into hell.)
(But altering a bubble world on this scale... He probably borrowed the power of an Ether Anchor. Yet after first destroying the world and then rebuilding it, the Ether Anchor he used should have been completely drained by now... Wait.)
The Ferryman suddenly thought of something.
He returned to the Hyperion's bridge and conducted another observation of the bubble world. The resulting energy index was so low that the world would collapse within only a few years, causing his heart to sink.
(An energy level this low means this bubble world has already lost its Ether Anchor. Could it be... that the Ether Anchor the Devourer used belonged to this very bubble world?)
"Looks like this trip was for nothing. No... At least I obtained important information about the Devourer, so it wasn't entirely fruitless... By the way, did you see an enormous monster with nine heads beside that demon?"
"N-No, I didn't. But he has a ship that looks exactly like yours. It's just... yours is smaller."
"Oh? A Hyperion?"
The Ferryman immediately showed a trace of surprise.
Having traveled through countless bubble worlds, he was extremely well-traveled and had even seen several other Hyperions belonging to different bubble worlds.
But the Ferryman had never expected this Bubble World Devourer to also be a Hyperion captain. He mentally circled that piece of information in red, marking it as especially important.
"Now take me to the place where that demon of yours appeared. Perhaps I can avenge you."
"Really?!"
"Of course. I don't tell lies that serve no purpose."
The Ferryman spoke indifferently. In truth, helping them take revenge was merely something he had said offhand. Nor was he naive enough to completely believe everything this bubble world resident told him.
Hatred easily blinded the heart and twisted truth into falsehood. Even what one saw with one's own eyes and heard with one's own ears could be deceptive. Thus, the Ferryman was merely extracting information from the man's account.
However, the Ferryman truly had begun to regard Elias as an enemy. It had nothing to do with good or evil. He had simply judged that Elias would pose a threat to his plans.
A long while later...
"So it really has been completely exhausted."
Inside Rosemary's former cottage, the Ferryman found the lantern whose ghostly flame had gone out. With his experience, he naturally recognized it as the Ether Anchor of this bubble world.
And he could also tell that all the energy within it had already been depleted.
The Ferryman casually tossed the lantern aside. An Ether Anchor with no energy remaining held no value to him and could not become one of the foundation stones for the new world he intended to build.
"Forget it. Obtaining information about the Devourer is already enough. It's time for me to leave this bubble world."
"W-Wait! Please wait!"
"Hm?"
Just as the Ferryman was preparing to return to the Hyperion and leave, the bubble world resident whom Elias had turned into a flaming man hurried over and threw himself at the Ferryman's legs, hugging one of them as he pleaded.
"You're really powerful, aren't you? Can you save our world? Or just save me! Help me put out these damned flames on my body. That's all I ask! Please!"
"...I refuse."
"Huh?"
"Unfortunately, neither you nor your world possess enough value for me to waste precious Ether Anchors on you."
As he spoke, the Ferryman pushed the bubble world resident away.
Had this been the Ferryman of the past, he truly would have tried to save every person he encountered. But now, he had already accepted reality.
There was no such thing as a perfect ending in this world.
At least, none existed in his world.
With the power of an Ether Anchor, the Ferryman truly could extinguish the flames on this man's body and even save this world. But in his eyes, doing so would be utterly meaningless.
The Ferryman's ideal was to create a bubble world that could never be eroded by the Sea of Quanta, one that could become a home for everyone. To achieve that, he needed a vast number of Ether Anchors as its foundation.
And this bubble world would collapse soon regardless. So what difference would it make even if he transformed this hell into paradise?
Such an act would merely waste precious Ether Anchors. Besides, the Ferryman had come here in the first place precisely to seize this bubble world's Ether Anchor.
"H-How can you be so cold-blooded?! Don't you think we're pitiful?! Why?! Why won't you save me?!"
"Because I want to save more people. But I know that a single pair of hands can only do so much. If I want to save more people, that means I'm destined to abandon some of them... And if I must abandon something, then naturally I should choose what is useless and unnecessary."
"Useless... unnecessary..."
The man stared blankly at the Ferryman. Then his entire body began trembling as he erupted into a stream of curses, ugly and pathetic.
But someone who carried such a grand lifelong wish would hardly lose his composure over a few insults. The Ferryman did not spare the man another glance. He boarded his Hyperion and departed immediately.
...
"This bubble world is beyond saving, whether it's the people inside it or the world itself."
The Ferryman set a new course for his battleship.
Although the vessel appeared old and worn on the outside, its actual performance was extremely high, and it possessed numerous pieces of advanced technology.
That was because the Ferryman had once traveled with a lobster-headed doctor, a bubble world counterpart of Tesla, who had invented all manner of remarkable devices. Unfortunately, that lobster-headed doctor had ultimately managed to get herself killed through her own carelessness.
Ferryman: "Hyperion, initiate warp. It's about time I met this Devourer myself."