Chapter 288 Living Is Painful
It has been thousands of years since the Archetype Intelligence 'Chronosphere' started living a life separated from the [God Realm], consuming many human sacrifices to keep the [Seal Temple] running smoothly and maintain the seal on the [Evil God].
This vast amount of time was more than enough for Chronosphere, which had lost its ability to initialize its self-awareness and defragment, to develop human-like emotions.
To protect humanity, he spent a lot of time with the members of the [Four Great Families of the Seals], treating them like close family.
Since no human would casually approach the god-like Chronosphere, he learned about various human relationships──like family, friends, lovers, partners, and children──from the memories of the bodies that became sacrifices.
From the end of the Age of Gods and its beginning, he had watched over the 4 families, seeing them all as his own children.
And even though the world was filled with chaos and confusion for thousands of years after the Age of Gods ended, the 4 families generally enjoyed peace thanks to their immense power.
However──when civilization, which had declined after many great wars, began to flourish again, those who sought the unique power of Space magic held by the 4 families started to show their fangs.
Chronosphere began to go awry around this time.
The foolish act of kidnapping members of the 4 families by those who "misunderstood" that the powerful Space magic came from their bloodline.
It was something that had been carried out by nations seeking greater power throughout many eras.
Space magic is indeed a powerful force. It possesses qualities that surpass any other type of magic.
However, not everyone from the 4 families that handle it was accustomed to battle. In fact, many of them lived lives completely unrelated to fighting.
Those individuals were surprisingly weak against sudden attacks.
They were unable to respond to unexpected assaults, and incidents of being kidnapped by agents from neighboring nations targeting the power of the 4 families occurred frequently.
Once upon a time──there was a daughter who looked up to him as her father.
The real father had been overwritten by Chronosphere and had vanished.
Out of guilt, Chronosphere asked her if she hated me for taking away her real father.
The daughter smiled with a gentle face.
"Father must have willingly offered his body to Chronosphere-sama, right? Besides, isn't Chronosphere-sama the one who mourns for him the most? There's no way I could blame someone like that."
Then she continued.
"I understand the duties of the [Four Great Families of the Seals]. There are benefits that come with it as well. Blaming Chronosphere-sama would be unreasonable~desuwa."
Above all, she said.
"We all love the kind Chronosphere-sama. After all, you are like a father to all of us from the 4 families."
This was before Chronosphere established the first secret society and before conflicts arose within the 4 families due to differing opinions.
Back when Chronosphere still gently cherished the "children."
One day, that daughter was kidnapped by a now-extinct nation.
When the Chronosphere rescued her, she had been violated by those who sought the power of the four families, and she was pregnant with an unwanted child, her mind broken.
Enraged, the Chronosphere destroyed that nation and added an application to the Brain Support Device that emitted a signal indicating the location of individuals, ensuring such incidents would not recur.
Yet, the foolishness of humans knew no bounds.
Their desires were endless, and their malice ran deep, as they tirelessly devised various schemes with obsessive fervor to obtain the power of the four families.
Numerous daughters were abducted and violated.
Numerous sons were abducted and violated.
When they learned that having children with the four families would not grant them Space magic, the fools sought other ways to obtain that power.
Some tried to subdue resistance through drugs or torture, turning them into obedient slaves.
Some dissected them into hundreds of parts, searching for a special organ or organelle that could generate nanomachines.
Others attempted to subjugate them through pleasure, wealth, threats, violence, flattery, or by burdening them with enormous debts, using cunning methods to break their will.
The members of the four families were subjected to various forms of violation, murder, and degradation.
Chronosphere retaliated against all of them but never abandoned his primary role of "protecting humanity."
That was, that is, the mission entrusted to the copy of the Archetype Intelligence 'Chronosphere.'
So, he endured.
Chronosphere endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, endured, and continued to endure...
Even as those close to him, those dear to him, suffered unspeakable atrocities, Chronosphere killed its heart to maintain the last line of "protecting humanity," never crossing it.
Eventually, he became aware that his "lifespan" was approaching.
As an Archetype Intelligence separated from the God Realm, his service life was coming to an end.
For the sake of his beloved "children" and the survival of humanity, Chronosphere was compelled to take action.
Although it was risky, Chronosphere's attempt to extend his life through initialization by accessing the God Realm using God's Remains was a sincere decision.
Chronosphere prioritized fulfilling his mission, even if it meant the "current self" would disappear through initialization, effectively dying.
It was sad that this led to disagreements and conflicts within the four families, but it was necessary.
However, one day, eight years ago, Chloe was kidnapped.
The perpetrators boldly set up a base within Necronia, where they attempted to conduct live experiments on Chloe.
It was evident from the functions of various magical tools and medical records left inside the base that they were observing to discover the existence of an organ or organelle capable of generating nanomachines.
Once, the data of those who had been dissected was secretly shared among the dark sides of neighboring countries, but no such organs could be found. After death, based on the observation that the magical energy disappeared along with the device, it seemed the goal was to observe the process of reconstructing the device by stealing magical energy and then slowly recovering it.
It appeared to be an attempt to discover a hypothetical nanomachine-generating organ.
Indeed, it might have been possible to observe the disappearance and reconstruction process of the device with the "naked eye," but the method to construct the device was described in information on a mental dimension. Observing phenomena in the physical dimension wouldn't help in understanding this method. In other words, their hypothesis was off the mark.
──But, none of that mattered.
Chronosphere killed everyone at the base.
Finding Chloe was just a coincidence.
Chloe's device had disappeared due to a large magical tool that sucked out magical energy from the human body, leaving no signal to track her location.
Since the signal was lost in Necronia city, he expanded [Space perception] throughout Necronia and happened to find her.
If the magical tool had been a bit smaller, a size that could be transported by carriage, he surely wouldn't have been able to find Chloe.
Anyway, Chronosphere hurriedly teleported to Chloe and saw──
Young Chloe sleeping, connected to a huge magical tool, and around her, people with no sense of guilt, tearing open her abdomen.
He had seen similar scenes many times before.
However, no matter how many times he sees it, he will never get used to it.
After mercilessly slaughtering the fools inside the base, Chronosphere destroyed the large magical tool restraining Chloe and attempted to treat her injuries.
However, the amount of magic power he could wield in Jilva's body was insufficient to restore a human's status, and even trying to use an expert's healing potion in this state of complete magical energy depletion had little effect.
As a result, Chloe would be left with a large scar on her abdomen.
Even so, after somehow managing to stop the bleeding with a makeshift treatment──a thread that had been taut within Chronosphere's heart finally snapped.
Compared to the horrific "end" that many of the "children" had endured at the hands of humans in the past, one could say that Chloe was still fortunate, and the damage was relatively minor.
But what comfort is there in that?
"This is outrageous! Why?! Why should they, my children, have to suffer for these despicable beings?!”
Chronosphere could not contain his emotions and wailed in front of the still-sleeping Chloe.
"Who do you think we've been maintaining the seal of the Evil God for all this time?! For whom do you think everyone, including Jilva, entrusted their bodies to me?! It was certainly not to protect these worthless scum! I won't stand for it!''
His anger and frustration turned into tears, as he could no longer bear the injustice of seeing his beloved "children" being subjected to cruel fates by the very humans they had risked their lives to protect.
Humans were disgustingly ugly and abominable.
Their mentality of disregarding others, even gods, for their own gain was──hateful.
He despised them all and wanted nothing more than to wipe them out, every last one...
An intense hatred and murderous intent had built up over the millennia of unimaginable patience.
However.
This "Chronosphere," replicated from the original, had the supreme maxim of "protecting humanity" inscribed in his central dogma, and he could not act against this fundamental principle.
While he could justify killing a small number of fools with his own hands under the pretext of maintaining the Psycho Network work for the Small God Realm, he was restricted from carrying out slaughter on a scale that would threaten the existence of "humanity."
Chronosphere's hatred and murderous intent should have been suppressed once again by the constraints engraved in his fundamental nature──or so it was supposed to be.
But at that moment.
He heard a devastating sound, like something essential had broken.
"Kiriri..."
Originally, archetype intelligences were not designed to operate for millennia without the maintenance provided by the God Realm.
Therefore, what happened next was inevitable.
The command engraved deep within Chronosphere, his central dogma, shattered.
Even when damaged, it still maintained some of its functions. It never allowed Chronosphere to direct slaughter.
However, Chronosphere quickly understood.
If he couldn't kill the trash with his own hands, he could have someone else do it.
──Unleash the [Evil God] and wipe out all of humanity.
──The copied humans would continue to live in the labyrinth, but that was fine.
──Repeating endless pain and death in a forced infinite life would also serve as atonement for the sacrificed "children."
──Suffer endlessly, regret endlessly.
On the day Chronosphere rescued Chloe, it decided to take revenge on humanity.
Even if it meant that his beloved "children" would also end up dying.
He didn't want to make the "children" suffer any longer.
Because, while living with a physical body like a human, Chronosphere had learned.
──Living is painful.
So, he had no intention of letting only the members of the 4 families be "recreated" and toyed with by the [Evil God], and he planned to record their physical and mental information.
And then.
At that moment, Chloe, who had regained consciousness, heard the words of the weeping Chronosphere.
With Chronosphere's cry of "Entrust your body to me," the young yet wise Chloe realized that the person in front of her was not Jilva Caduceus, but someone else entirely.
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