Dazai's crimson eyes widened slightly.
For the first time since Beatrix had begun recounting the ancient history of Heaven, Olympus, the Sins, and the Ten Grand Speculums, his expression lost some of its usual composure.
The words Creator God lingered in his mind.
His shoulder lowered beneath the weight of the revelation. His posture remained upright, but the subtle tension running through him betrayed what his face refused to show.
There was something about the concept that disturbed him.
Not because there was a god above Athena.
But because, for the first time, Dazai could see a pattern.
He slowly lifted his gaze toward Beatrix.
"So there really is a God above Athena… and the rest of Olympus?"
His voice was quieter now.
"And this Creator you speak of… are they sealed somewhere? Sleeping? Waiting to awaken?"
Beatrix remained silent.
Dazai continued.
"You keep talking about Seeds. Weapons. Speculums. The Creator. But you haven't told me where I fit into any of this."
His fingers curled slightly against his palm.
"I've fought in this world. I've planned in it. Built things. Made enemies. Made allies."
His crimson eyes hardened.
"This world dragged me into itself, yet everything I've experienced keeps pointing toward the idea that I was somehow meant to be here."
His voice grew sharper.
"As if I was chosen."
The crimson aura surrounding him flickered faintly.
"Tell me, oh great Sin of Lust."
A humorless smile appeared on his face.
"Was all of this really coincidence?"
He leaned forward slightly.
"Because I'm no hero."
His gaze remained fixed on Beatrix.
"I'm a businessman."
Silence.
Even Akatsuki's expression changed.
His blue eyes widened slightly.
He knew that tone.
He had heard it before.
It was not the voice of Dazai when he was joking, manipulating someone, or casually threatening an opponent.
It was the voice of a man who had finally reached the point where uncertainty had become more irritating than danger itself.
Akatsuki sighed.
"Yeah…"
He rose from his chair and stepped forward.
"The boss is right, Mother."
Beatrix glanced toward him.
Akatsuki crossed his arms.
"And when he gets like this, answers are better than another history lesson."
His expression became unusually serious.
"There's always an action and a reaction. Something happens, something causes it, and something comes afterward."
He gestured toward Dazai.
"You can't lead a blind man down a road and expect him to understand where he's going when you won't even give him a stick to feel the ground."
Beatrix stared at him for several seconds.
Then she chuckled.
It wasn't mocking.
If anything, there was something strangely fond within it.
Her eyes softened.
For the briefest moment, the ancient Sin seemed to remember another age—one where the world had been quieter, where peace had been something she could actually call home.
She tilted her head.
Her emerald hair slipped gracefully across one eye. With a delicate motion, she tucked it behind her ear.
"My, my…"
A faint smile touched her lips.
"You're both still children, even after being given a second life."
She looked between them.
"Demanding answers as though you were judges standing before the truth itself."
Her expression gradually became more solemn.
"But perhaps you've earned the right to hear them."
The celestial void around them seemed to darken.
"This world…"
She slowly raised one hand.
"…is merely a shard."
The surrounding stars shifted.
"A fragment of a much larger diamond called reality."
Dazai remained silent.
Beatrix continued.
"The Creator God."
Her voice carried unusual weight.
"Also known as the Unseen."
The void trembled.
"The writer of worlds brought into existence by something as simple as a stroke of a pen."
Around them, countless points of light appeared. Some expanded into galaxies. Others became entire universes before vanishing into the distance.
"They created universes beyond counting. Faster than even the greatest gods could comprehend."
Her eyes followed the celestial formations.
"And eventually, those creations reached beyond
what ordinary beings could perceive."
"The outer scale."
Dazai's expression tightened.
"Realities upon realities. Universes layered beyond measurement. Existence extending beyond the comprehension of those who believe themselves divine."
She lowered her hand.
"That is the Creator God."
Dazai's jaw tightened.
"And me?"
Beatrix looked directly at him.
"You asked why you were brought here."
The silence that followed seemed deliberate.
"Why you were spared the ordinary fate of a mortal."
Her voice became quieter.
"Why death did not simply claim you."
Dazai's crimson eyes narrowed.
Beatrix's answer came without hesitation.
"Because it was never permitted to."
A faint pulse of power moved through the void.
"You are—and always have been—a fragment of Pride's power."
Dazai froze.
"His shard…"
Beatrix nodded.
"The one that carries L."
The words struck him harder than any attack could have.
Fragments of memory began assembling inside his mind.
The strange shifts in his previous life.
The moon.
L's appearance.
Athena's approach.
The powers that had emerged within him.
The impossible coincidences that had followed him from one world to another.
His choices.
His survival.
None of them felt random anymore.
Dazai's breathing slowed.
His eyes widened as everything began connecting into a single, terrifying map.
"So…"
Crimson energy slowly began leaking from his body.
His coat stirred despite the absence of wind.
"These powers…"
His voice dropped.
"They weren't gifts from the gods."
Beatrix said nothing.
Dazai's aura intensified.
"They were compensation."
His eyes sharpened.
"For something that's coming."
The crimson aura expanded around him.
"So this entire existence…"
He looked toward the endless celestial void.
"…is merely a story that's already been written."
His expression became cold.
"And now we're simply acting it out."
A bitter smile crossed his lips.
"The Unseen…"
The words escaped almost as a whisper.
"So that's the truth."
Beatrix's aura answered.
Violet energy erupted around her, shimmering with countless distant stars. It collided with Dazai's crimson presence, yet neither force overwhelmed the other.
The void itself seemed to tremble between them.
Beatrix's expression remained calm.
But her eyes carried something far older than amusement.
"Calm yourself."
Her voice was gentle.
Almost maternal.
Then her gaze sharpened.
"My Pride."
Dazai's crimson eyes flickered.
And somewhere deep within his soul, something ancient answered.