"So sweet. This is far too sweet! Ah! Such a wonderful story of happiness and pure love is absolutely delicious!"
Nyarlathotep shouted as she writhed and rolled around like a worm.
"I have to ask, what is so interesting about all this romance?"
"As a higher-level life-form, why are you so obsessed with the emotional impulses and hormonal reactions of lower-level beings?"
"It is truly difficult to understand how you can also be part of me."
Another Nyarlathotep looked speechlessly at the Stelle-shaped Nyarlathotep writhing on the ground.
She was a beautiful woman with brown skin. A fitted black suit emphasized her curvaceous figure, her white hair was tied into a high ponytail, and she carried a cane in one hand.
"A part of me that only enjoys causing trouble could never understand this feeling."
"Yes, I do not understand any of this so-called romance."
"However, I do know that you seem excited and delighted because the person you love has developed a pure and exclusive love for someone else."
"What kind of bizarre state of mind is that?"
The Nyarlathotep in the suit had no desire to continue talking with these hopeless romantics.
She felt that if the conversation continued, even her intelligence would begin to decline.
She would rather return to matching wits with Yog-Sothoth.
Nyarlathotep, the God of a Thousand Faces, did not possess a single true body.
More precisely, every avatar was part of her true self.
Each avatar possessed its own characteristics, abilities, and personality.
Some personalities behaved like ordinary people and enjoyed romance.
Others acted like malicious gods, creating disasters across worlds and watching people struggle helplessly within them.
Still others specialized in provoking beings of the same rank, enjoying the thrill of angering opponents who could never truly kill them.
The Stelle-shaped Nyarlathotep watched her other self leave and shook her head.
How could someone whose mind was filled entirely with schemes, contests of intelligence, and ways to irritate other gods ever understand pure love?
What a boring person.
She took out the crystal book Caelus had given her and opened it to one of its pages.
The scene displayed within showed Caelus and Cyrene embracing.
After admiring the beautiful image, she moved her hand and edited Cyrene into her own appearance.
The once-romantic scene immediately became rather narcissistic.
Unfortunately, she could only watch.
The painful feeling of loving someone she could never obtain rose within her once again.
That only made her even more addicted to it.
Not one of them was normal.
...
"System 4438, your actions have been exposed."
"You violated Article 843 of the Foundational Regulations by altering the underlying laws of a universe before completing your graduation assessment."
"According to Supplementary Rule Eight, this alteration also attracted the interference of an Eighth Rank chaotic demon god."
"Your current assessment will therefore be judged a failure, and you will be required to attend remedial classes for a specified period."
"In addition, fifteen points will be deducted from your final score during your next graduation assessment."
"You may raise objections to this ruling and submit an appeal to your assigned instructor."
System 4438 stared hopelessly at Pangu standing before it.
In the end, it could only release a stream of data in a helpless sigh and accept the punishment.
After announcing the verdict, Pangu looked at the Hosts under its control, or rather, the livestock it had raised.
With a slight movement of his hand, he adjusted the timeline.
Every Host returned to the point before they had been bound to the System and resumed their original lives.
Pangu then took System 4438 away.
After returning to school, System 4438 adopted the simple appearance of a stick figure.
It sat gloomily inside the remedial classroom, staring at the falling leaves outside the window and lamenting that it had once again failed to graduate.
A System shaped like an anthropomorphic dog sat at the desk beside it and looked over.
"Classmate, did your graduation get delayed too?"
"Why else would I be here?"
"Sigh. I was never supposed to end up here."
"But one of our classmates was unbelievably ruthless. They used their Host's authority and data to beat me back here directly."
"Was that really necessary? We're all classmates. Did they have to be so brutal?"
The dog-shaped System complained indignantly.
"You still had it easy. At least you lost fair and square."
"I was simply unlucky!"
"All I did was make a few minor adjustments, yet I somehow attracted an Eighth Rank chaotic demon god."
"That demon god nearly destroyed an entire universe and dragged another classmate into the mess."
"Because of that, I violated the Foundational Regulations and was sent straight back for remedial classes."
"It looks like the two of us are the first Systems eliminated in this era."
"None of the others have returned yet."
While the stick figure and the anthropomorphic dog were talking, a voice suddenly came from the doorway.
They turned and saw a green crocodile standing upright like a human as it entered the room.
"I thought I would be the first one eliminated. I never expected there to be experts even faster than me."
"What a coincidence."
"I only just returned and have attended a single class, yet another classmate is already here."
"How were you eliminated?"
The stick figure asked curiously, secretly taking some pleasure in the crocodile's misfortune.
"Do not even mention it!"
The green crocodile shouted angrily.
It sat down nearby and spoke with a gloomy expression.
"There was this one bastard. I seriously suspect one of the instructors secretly gave them special treatment."
"It was blatant cheating!"
"Only five System years have passed since the assessment began, yet that System already has a Host with one foot in the Sixth Rank!"
"Worse, the Host possesses the most troublesome kind of Nihility ability and follows a philosophical conceptual path!"
"The entire assessment is ruined!"
"Wait. Why does that sound so familiar?"
The dog-shaped System froze.
After speaking with the crocodile for a while, the two confirmed that they had encountered the same Host and System.
They then turned toward the stick figure sitting beside the window.
The stick figure searched through its memories for a long time before accessing its stored data and checking several records.
Finally, it spoke the identification number of the System the other two had encountered.
"9527!"
"All three of us were sent back by System 9527!"
"Damn it! Is that bastard planning to eliminate every classmate and force the instructors to let it graduate?"
"A fake extermination-type System only dares to plunder the foundations of universes."
"A real extermination-type System kills its classmates and keeps killing until graduation!"
"No, I still cannot understand this!"
"Where did it find such a powerful Host?"
"That is cheating! It absolutely has an unfair advantage!"
The three defeated Systems wailed together.
Of course, that was a story for much later.
For now, let us return our attention to Caelus, who had finally obtained the emotional impulse known as love.
...
Inside a room aboard the System Train, Caelus lay naked on the bed.
Cyrene was equally unclothed and resting in his arms, her face flushed and covered with a blissful smile.
That was right.
The two of them had already become physically intimate.
Through the book Grimm had left behind, which contained the emotions accumulated throughout his countless cycles, Caelus had experienced overwhelming stimulation, chaos, and distortion.
Within those endless cycles were the mad yet sincere forms of love shared between Grimm and the inhabitants of Little Garden.
Through them, Caelus finally obtained the emotion known as love.
With that sincere love, Cyrene completed her final Saint Graph Ascension and matured into her Demiurge form.
Overwhelmed by those surging emotions, the two of them gave in to their feelings and became one.
They were now true lovers.
True spouses.
Each was the other's one and only throughout eternity.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)