Chapter 333: Karma (LI)

The surface was smooth and cold, almost too real compared to the empty white around me.

For a second, I hesitated.

Then I pushed.

CLACK.

The door swung open silently, and blinding light poured out, swallowing me whole before I could even take a breath.

Everything vanished.

The next moment, I found myself… floating.

There was no floor or sky… or even a sense of direction.

Only space.

Endless, beautiful, terrifying space.

Nebulas drifted in the distance — crimson, violet, and blue — all blending together like paint brushed across a black canvas.

Countless stars shimmered faintly, orbiting in slow, elegant arcs.

And at the very center of it all…

A figure floated.

It wasn’t male.

It wasn’t female.

It was… something else.

Something beyond shape. Its form shifted between outlines, sometimes tall and human, sometimes a blur of light, sometimes just a silhouette against the stars.

Billions of faint little orbs. tiny stars. circled around it, like fireflies worshipping a god.

“…What is this?” I whispered.

My voice barely reached my own ears, yet it still echoed through the void like the space itself was listening.

I tried to move closer, and to my surprise, my body floated naturally.

It was as if Gravity didn’t exist here.

The closer I got, the colder the air felt.

The stars around me dimmed, as if they were kneeling before that figure too.

It didn’t react to me. It didn’t move, didn’t even breathe. Just hovered there, wrapped in an aura that made every divine being I’d ever met feel like dust.

“…Who are you?” I murmured, narrowing my eyes.

No response.

So I did the only thing I could.

“Scan.”

My vision flickered for a second, symbols forming before my eyes, golden lines weaving together as the data appeared.

And then…

My breath caught.

The air left my lungs completely.

[Target: ???]

[Name: “The Origin of Divinity”]

[Rank: Limitless—Beyond Concept of True God]

[Note: The first consciousness born from the Source. Creator of the Divine Stairway, and of the… System.]

“…What…?” I muttered, staring at the floating letters.

The Origin of Divinity.

The first consciousness.

The one that made the stairway I’d just climbed.

And more importantly…

The creator of the ‘System’ that had guided me…

A faint chill crept down my spine.

The air around me pulsed faintly, every heartbeat of that being rippling through space like soft waves of light.

It wasn’t alive, not in the normal sense. It didn’t move, didn’t think, didn’t see.

And yet… it felt like it was looking through me.

Then, slowly, the figure’s body began to change.

The light around it shimmered, and from that shapeless glow, a faint humanoid outline began to form, tall, graceful, but still blurred by starlight.

Its head tilted slightly.

I froze.

“Can you hear me?” I asked carefully.

For a long moment, silence.

Then, a faint, distant voice, neither male nor female, echoed directly inside my mind.

『You have finally reached me…』

“Huh… w-were you waiting for me?” I stammered unconsciously.

I never thought that I would meet the creator of the System itself!

『Ah… does this form bother you?』

The voice asked me with a strange tone.

“No, no, definitely not.”

『It’s okay… I can’t bother to use such an ugly form in our first meeting, can I?』

The voice chuckled lightly.

『Let me see your ideal type…』

“W-what?”

Before I could do anything else, the genderless based suddenly shone brightly, causing me to close my eyes from the bright light.

And then… it stopped.

When I opened my eyes, my breath caught.

Before me stood a woman… just like it said…

My ideal type.

Her hair fell like a waterfall of night, black as the void yet streaked with silvery-white strands that gleamed softly under the starlight.

The sides of her head were cut shorter, almost like an undercut, the white fading into the darkness near her temples.

It framed her face in a way that felt… impossible to look away from.

Her eyebrows were shaped delicately, brushed with faint color that brought out the natural grace in her gaze.

Her lips, painted a deep, rich black. curved in a quiet, knowing smile that made my chest tighten.

And her eyes… were truly mesmerizing.

One burned with a soft, haunting red, warm as flame.

The other glimmered with cold, tranquil blue, like moonlight on still water.

Together, they looked less like human eyes and more like two worlds watching me, judging me, understanding me.

Her body was wrapped in a black and white gown that looked both divine and sinful at once, silk and shadow intertwined, hugging her form perfectly.

The white fabric shimmered faintly, tracing her shape like light caressing darkness.

Her long legs were covered in black stockings, thin enough for her skin’s warmth to show through.

At her feet, white high heels clicked lightly against nothingness, like each step she took was echoing through the stars.

It was perfection sculpted into flesh.

I felt my throat tighten, my heartbeat picking up before I could stop it.

“You…”

She tilted her head slightly, her black lips curving slighly.

『Is this form better?』

“I, uh—” I coughed into my fist, trying to speak but only managing an awkward laugh.

“Yeah. Better. Definitely better.”

Fuck, why am I so nervous?!

Her smile deepened just a little, enough to make me feel like she could see through every thought in my head.

『I see. So this is what your mind calls beautiful. How… charming.』

She took a slow step closer, the hem of her gown trailing like mist, and the stars around her pulsed with every movement she made.

The air between us seemed to tighten, vibrating faintly.

Snap!

My vision blurred for an instant, and before I could even blink, I was no longer standing.

I froze.

Her soft warmth pressed against my back. I was sitting on her lap.

“W–What the—” I muttered, feeling my heartbeat spike.

My face flushed slightly, and I immediately tried to move, but her arm gently rested on my shoulder, keeping me still.

『Relax.』

Her tone had changed, still soft, but with something heavier beneath it. The teasing glow in her mismatched eyes dimmed into quiet seriousness.

『Aestrea… do you want to know why I chose you to wield this system?』

I hesitated for a second, then sighed.

“…Not really. If knowing why means dealing with even more bullshit than I already do, then really, fucking no.”

At my words, she let out a small laugh.

『Actually… it was on a whim.』

She said in a surprisingly mischievous tone.

『You were just one among countless souls I could’ve chosen.』

I blinked.

“So basically, I was random?”

『Mm.』

She nodded softly.

『But you surprised me. I thought I already knew every path you could take… that you would follow the thread of fate I’d marked you with. But…』

“I didn’t,” I said quietly.

Her lips curved in satisfaction.

『Exactly.』

Her hand moved up, brushing through my hair gently, the touch oddly tender, almost like a mother doting on her child.

『Who would’ve thought… that you’d be clever enough to twist the very system I gave you, bending it into your own tool? And even more, that you’d use it to craft a failsafe, a chain of reincarnations, one hundred lives in total, all so you could eventually survive this realm.』

My breath hitched faintly.

She waved her other hand, and small screens appeared in front of us, floating lazily in the air like shards of light.

Each one showed a different life, my faces, my deaths, my victories, my failures.

『You truly are remarkable, Aestrea. And now… you’ve finally reached the point where you can meet me.』

She smiled faintly again, her voice softening.

『Though, to be honest, I might have… cheated a little to make that happen.』

I raised an eyebrow.

“Cheated? How?”

Her eyes gleamed, the red one flickering brighter for a moment.

『The Divine Stairway is infinite. There is no ‘top,’ no ending. It’s not a test meant to be completed — it’s a cycle meant to break everyone who climbs it. Even the strongest god born of my creation — Chronos — only ever reached the ninth Heaven’s Stop.』

Her gaze softened slightly.

『And yet, you… you climbed to the eleventh, with power far below theirs.』

My eyes widened at that.

“You’re saying… this thing never ends?”

She chuckled lightly, resting her chin near my shoulder.

『That’s right. If the Stairway is infinite, then reaching even a single new Heaven’s Stop is rewriting its law. The twelfth, should it exist, would crush even Chronos into a bug. You can’t imagine the pressure there.』

I swallowed hard.

Then she leaned closer, her breath brushing faintly against my ear.

『So yes… I changed the flow slightly, just so that we could meet here.』

…I was shocked once again.

Never have I been so shocked so many times in a single day.

But well… what do I expect?

I’m meeting with the literal creator of me… the universe, and basically everything.

This would be what they call “God” in my previous world.

Someone… above everything.

But unfortunately… There was one thing I’m still curious about.

“Why did you create a system?”

This question had been bugging me.

Normally, at least in those novels, people create a system and give it to people so they in the end could absorb their power.

In other cases, it was simply their past self helping their future self. Of course, there were also multiple other cases…

But why would her… or him, create a system?

She’s already the most powerful being alive.

There’s no need for it… is it?

By the way, for the people who might remember that it was actually Luna, the Goddess of the Moon, who had given him the system…

That was just a form for him to forcefully awaken his memories, as Aestrea from the past had told her about the system, and even gave her a little fragment of it so she could remember her past lifetimes.

That’s all~

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