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After what felt like an eternity of nerve-wracking ascent, the gondola finally reached its stop. I had asked earlier why we couldn’t just use one of those winged flying machines, but Johnny said he didn’t have a license and that flight paths near the tower were restricted anyway. He did make a reckless suggestion, claiming, “I don’t have a license, but I’ve seen others use them. We just need to find an ornithopter. Want to give it a shot?”

Naturally, I shut that down on the spot. “Are you insane? Things are already bad enough without risking another crash!”

So the gondola became our only viable choice. It was more like choosing between a rock and a hard place, but after nearly an hour of slow ascent, we finally reached a level somewhere between the twentieth and thirtieth floor from the top.

“From here on, it’s all stairs. Will you be alright?” Johnny looked at me with concern, though most of my fatigue was mental.

“I’m fine. My stamina’s just fine. Let’s move. We’re heading to the top, right?” I sighed and raised my eyes to the massive spiral staircase winding upward through the tower’s core. The small chambers that encircled it like petals on a flower seemed long abandoned, untouched for years.

“Yeah. From what I’ve heard, the altar we need to reach is in the sanctuary on the top floor.”
“No wonder they say the higher the place, the more trouble it brings.”

With Johnny following close behind, I stepped onto the first stair. He looked like he still had something on his mind, but he didn’t speak up.

I imagined Azure God standing up here each night, wine glass in hand, looking down on the world and laughing at his worshippers. Then again, I wasn’t so different. With the Sky Garden under my control and people calling me the Graceful Lady of the Sky, the irony didn’t escape me.

◆◇◆◇

After climbing several flights of stairs, we emerged into a vast, open hall. The ceiling soared above, supported by ornate stone columns spaced with precision. The floor was made of polished blue stone, smooth as glass and reflective like a mirror. When I looked down, I could clearly see my entire reflection—right down to under my skirt.

With a sharp gasp, I immediately pressed my skirt down and turned, only to catch Johnny deliberately looking in the opposite direction.

“…Did you look?” I asked flatly, placing the tip of my sword gently against his cheek. Depending on his answer, I might gouge his eyes out.

“I swear I didn’t see a thing! I was looking straight ahead the whole time. Always. Forever.” Johnny’s voice cracked under the weight of his panic, his gaze fixed straight ahead with unnatural intensity.

“Well, that’s fine then.”

His reply was just clever enough for me to let it go without pressing further.

I turned my attention to a raised altar at the center of the room. A pale white mist flowed gently from it, spreading across the polished floor before being pulled into a series of round, manhole-sized openings that dotted the temple’s circular layout.

Both the altar and the mist stirred a sense of familiarity within me.

“A teleportation gate… and Void Mist? So, are the monsters being generated through the mist and transported directly to the surface?”

“Hey, could you speak in terms that make sense to the rest of us? Can this situation even be fixed?” Johnny’s eyes darted nervously around the room, locking onto the unending stream of Void Mist pouring from the altar. While I had been focused elsewhere, he had already drawn his weapon, something between a long dagger and a short machete.

“Well, what to do? Destroying the altar might be one solution. But if I’m wrong, it could unleash a full-blown tsunami of Void Mist, which would be far worse than what we’re dealing with now. Then again, it’s not like things could get much worse. Maybe breaking it is still worth a shot.”

“Could you take this a bit more seriously?! Are we really down to our last resort?”

“I’m not all-knowing, you know… and we’re still missing the most important piece: the Azure God.” I gave the vacant altar one final glance before facing Johnny again. “By the way, is that sword made of steel?”

“Huh? Yeah, I just carry it for self-defense. Why, is there something wrong with it?”
“Not yet. But something is about to be.”
“What the—augh?!”

Without warning, I lunged and swung my blade in a horizontal arc. We were standing too close, so I reinforced the strike by pushing with my left hand on the flat of the blade. Johnny barely managed to block the blow with his short sword, and although it didn’t cut him, the impact sent him stumbling backward.

“What the hell, Hiyuki?! Why are you attacking me?!”
I let out a tired sigh. “Still pretending, huh? You should just stop already.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about! What is going on?!”
“It’s not me you should be questioning. It’s you, John… or should I say, Devta.”
“You seriously believe I’m the Azure God? What even gave you that idea?!”
“I’ll give you credit, your performance was convincing. But I found it very curious how you were able to block a real attack from me. I expected your ‘Indestructible’ trait to disable you, not protect you. And even ignoring that, there’s no way an ordinary sword could block Gilles de Rais.”

Johnny looked stunned. He lowered his gaze without speaking. For a moment, I wondered if he still planned to play dumb. But when he lifted his head again, everything about him had changed. His expression was now cold, calculating. He still looked like the same young man, but the presence behind his eyes was that of an old and cunning being.

“Impressive. You figured it out sooner than I expected. What tipped you off?” His voice remained the same, but there was a cold sharpness to it now that hadn’t been there before.

“I noticed something was off pretty early. The world is well made, sure, but the details gave it away.”
“Oh? And what kind of details are we talking about?”

Azure God—or maybe I should call him Johnny—kept his casual expression as he lowered his weapon. I did the opposite, tightening my grip on mine as I recalled the things that had seemed off.

“You went overboard with the perfection. Take that meadow we walked through, places like that are normally crawling with flies, mosquitoes, and all kinds of bugs. But there wasn’t a single one. And not just that, you and everyone else in the city had no body odor, no scent of dirt or sweat. That kind of cleanliness is impossible unless you’re bathing daily and washing your clothes with proper soap or chemicals.”

What had always bothered me about these kinds of worlds was the smell. Even if there was magic like the ‘Cleansing’ spell, without regular bathing, people still get dirty and start to stink. Spices were expensive, so garlic was often used in food, which should have left everyone with bad breath. And the bleach they used for laundry? Its base ingredients came from human and animal waste, which should have made their clothes reek. But here, everything smelled unnaturally clean.

“To sum it up, you’ve always viewed the world from a distance. No wonder you overlooked the finer details. Maybe if you had mingled with ordinary people more, you’d have seen things differently, and I wouldn’t have caught on so easily. Your biggest mistake, though, was calling me ‘Hiyuki.’ As far as I recall, I never once told you my name.”

I let out a quiet sigh as I finished. In response, Johnny spread his arms, wearing an unreadable smile.

“Looks like you got the better of me. I took this form hoping to throw you off, but it was pointless in the end.”
“Hmph. I figured as much. You based it on Joey, didn’t you?”
“You got me. I skimmed through your memories and figured he was the one you’d be most vulnerable around.”

Johnny smiled bitterly.

“Skimming, huh? So I was right. The mist monsters, like that bear, were scanning me the whole time?”

“Could be.” Johnny gave a smug smile, and for a moment, his outline shimmered, like a screen flickering with static. When the distortion cleared, standing before me was an adventurer in full metal armor, a magic sword at his hip. He was a perfect copy of Joey, from head to toe.

“Or maybe it’s been me by your side from the very beginning. What if I replaced him early on and kept this appearance the whole time? What do you think, Hiyuki?”

My breath caught for a moment, the shock making me hesitate. It was clearly a trick, a psychological jab to throw me off, but still…his imitation of Joey was flawless, down to the smile, the voice.

That moment of hesitation was all he needed. Still wearing that same calm smile, the Joey-clone suddenly turned and sprinted toward the altar.

“Wait!” I rushed after him without thinking, but a familiar light-based sword slashed toward me from the front.

Looking back, I should have dodged. But caught up in the emotion of the moment, I reacted on instinct and knocked the blade aside. By the time I regained focus, Joey—no, the Azure God—was gone, swallowed by the mist.

“Come find me if you can, Hiyuki. I’ll be waiting on the other side. I’m curious to see what choice you’ll make, and what version of yourself will show up before me.” His laughter echoed one last time before his form dissolved completely into the swirling fog.

“You damn b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! I’ll chase you into the depths of hell if I have to! And when I catch up, it won’t just be a punch! I’ll make sure you regret every second of this!”

Fueled by pure fury, I bolted straight into the mist. As I drew near, the familiar azure barrier shimmered into place around me. Sensing it still worked as expected, I launched myself into the heart of the altar without a second thought.

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