"……you……"

There was a dead silence in the hall. The blue-haired boy stared at Fang Zheng in amazement, while the girl behind him opened her eyes wide and said nothing.

"The struggles of mortals are ridiculous and ignorant, but they are also very interesting. Is this your final choice?"

“——!”

As Fang Zheng finished his words, suddenly, several flames emerged from under his feet, opening their mouths like a giant evil dragon, swallowing up the dead bodies from all directions in one gulp.

Seeing this, the girls behind Fang Zheng's face changed slightly, but they did not go up to stop him. They were not fools. After Fang Zheng said that, they knew that the other party was obviously trying to kill them, but was blocked by Fang Zheng. Although dying in this place is not really dying, but... not everyone is willing to live as a dead person!

"Wula, get out of here!"

Looking at the hall where the fire snakes were raging, the blue-haired boy hurriedly grabbed the hand of the black-haired girl sitting on the throne and tried to take her away. However, before he took a step, the blazing flames had completely surrounded the entire hall. At the same time, Fang Zheng walked up slowly.

"Tell me your choice, Miss Wula."

“…”

"Oh, don't worry, if you're afraid of your power, I've already erased it."

"What?!"

At this moment, the blue-haired boy seemed to have heard some unacceptable news. He stared at Fang Zheng with wide eyes, while Fang Zheng smiled coldly.

"It's an interesting myth. God gave Her Royal Highness the Princess the power of death to destroy her enemies? Mortals always like to attribute all irrelevant things to God. If that's the case, there's nothing wrong with me taking back this power."

Fang Zheng raised his right hand, and at the tips of his fingers, a ball of black mist was slowly spinning.

"This is not the power you should have, little girl. Now, tell me your choice."

At this moment, incomparable pressure suddenly descended. No matter whether it was the black-haired girl, the blue-haired boy, the people behind Fang Zheng, or the dead who were desperately trying to avoid the flames, they all stopped moving. They stared at the figure in the blazing flames with wide eyes and knelt on the ground involuntarily - it was not because of reverence, but because of fear. It was the instinctive sense of the power bursting out from the existence far superior to them, just like the fear and terror of an ant when it senses that a person is extending a finger to easily strangle it to death.

This is God.

The blue-haired boy wanted to speak, but even though he tried his best and his face turned red, he couldn't make a sound. The black-haired girl - Wu La opened her deep blue eyes and stared at Fang Zheng. After a moment, she spoke in a low voice.

"Why me?"

"Because you are the ruler of this city, you are responsible for deciding the future of these dead people, and...it was you who made them like this, wasn't it?"

"shut up--!!!"

The blue-haired boy yelled almost like a madman, while Fang Zheng stared at Wu La.

"I think you've noticed it yourself."

"……Yes."

Facing Fang Zheng's gaze, Wu La slowly lowered her head, and hearing Wu La's answer, the blue-haired boy looked at her in surprise.

"Wula, you..."

"I know that I am different from others. I seem to have some kind of power, but I don't know what it is. Today... until now, when this Lord God told me, I know..."

Having said that, Wu La took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then opened them.

"I... did kill someone...? Right?"

"No, it's not your fault, Wula!"

The blue-haired boy tried desperately to reach out, but just speaking at this point was taking all he had.

"It was us. We used your power! This is not your fault! We used your power to eliminate those who tried to destroy Osta and made them our companions. We did all this! We did it!!"

"He who has power, bears responsibility."

However, facing the roar of the blue-haired boy, Fang Zheng didn't even look at him, and continued to stare at Wu La.

"This city, all the residents of Osta, 1.2 million people, have become dead because of you. To be precise, you killed these 1.2 million people. Therefore, it is most appropriate for you to decide their future, because this is your responsibility and your obligation."

“…”

Hearing this, Wu La was silent for a moment, then looked at Fang Zheng again.

"God, I would like to ask, what does it mean to become a ghost?"

"To put it simply, they are spirits that will maintain the appearance of the deceased before his death, but they cannot see the sun and can only live in darkness. They are icy cold and cannot coexist with the living, and the living cannot touch them. Because this coldness will corrode the living. If you stay with a ghost for a long time, it's like a person staying in a cold cellar. Sooner or later, you will die. Of course... the degree is different."

"So, if Chicoli becomes a ghost, does that mean I can never touch him again?"

As he spoke, Wu La looked at the blue-haired boy beside him. That seemed to be his name.

"That's about it."

"Then... God, can you turn me into a ghost as well?"

"What nonsense are you talking about! Wu La!"

Hearing this, the blue-haired boy suddenly shouted, but Wu La just looked at him.

"Do you want to die?! Do you want me to watch you die?!"

"But isn't that the truth?"

"……Why?"

"I am different from Chicoli."

Wu La looked at the blue-haired boy and spoke to himself.

"I discovered when I was a kid that Chicoli has always been like this, and everyone else is like this, but I am different. I remember very clearly that I was just a small child, but every day when I woke up, my height would change. Before, I was only as tall as Chicoli's waist, but now, I am only a little shorter than Chicoli."

“…”

A girl who was raised by a dead man has no common sense of the outside world. Unlike other people, she has no one around her to grow up with her. There will be no companions to compete with her to see who is taller, and no one will meet her after a while and say that she has become more beautiful than before. Everything remains unchanged. The people she sees, the people she meets, the people around her, everything, will always be like this, but she is the only one who is different.

If this doesn't raise any doubts, then it's not just natural, you're probably a fool.

However, the girl in front of him was obviously much smarter.

"I know that my eyes can have some kind of effect on people, and I also know that you are trying hard to hide this from me, but I have never been clear about what I have done. But I think that even if it is so, it doesn't matter. Since everyone doesn't want me to know, then it shouldn't matter if I don't know."

“…”

Hearing this, the girls behind Fang Zheng were stunned. Ai also widened his eyes in surprise and looked at Wu La.

"To be honest, I'm still not very clear about what killing is in this world. Even if the Lord God told me so, I still don't quite understand it. However, some people breathed a sigh of relief, some sighed, and those who were originally fighting each other with weapons stopped fighting and came to Osta, and some chose to go to the wilderness. However, everyone showed an expression of being liberated..."

As he spoke, Wu La looked towards Fang Zheng.

"My Lord God, my existence... my death, is that bad?"

"That's cowardice."

Fang Zheng answered silently.

"Mortals are cowardly when they try to escape the rules of order. Of course, everyone has their own reasons, but birth, aging, illness and death are an inseparable part of order. This world is not so naive that you can get anything you want without paying a price. The desire to survive is the instinct of any creature, and the same is true for escaping death. In the final analysis, what they want is eternity, but eternity does not exist in this world. Everything will perish one day, and death is to make them understand this truth, not to give them an excuse to continue to escape."

Having said this, Fang Zheng pointed at the blue-haired boy in front of him.

"If I burn him here now, how would you feel? If you don't understand, then I will make it clearer. You will never see him again. He will no longer talk to you or smile at you. You will no longer have a future. Your calls will no longer be answered by him. He will disappear forever - this is the real death."

With every word Fang Zheng spoke, Wu La's expression became more painful. She reached out and pressed her chest.

"Is this... death?"

"Yes, that's what death is. It separates the dead from the living, and the two sides are separated by yin and yang, never to meet again."

"This... is too painful!"

"But, it is precisely because of the fear of this kind of pain that we cherish each other's existence more, right?"

"……Why?"

"Thinking that one day the other person might suddenly disappear or die, shouldn't we cherish the present moment with him? But what about after he becomes immortal? Will the feelings still be so pure? Ten or twenty years might be fine, but what about a hundred or two hundred years? Since both parties cannot die, will they still cherish each other at that time?"

Having said this, Fang Zheng chuckled.

"But you are just a little girl after all, so it's not time yet. Maybe when you live for a few hundred years, you will have a personal experience. So now... make your choice."

“…”

Faced with Fang Zheng's request, Wu La fell silent again.

"I...I don't know if my choice is the right one."

"There is no such thing as the right choice. Oftentimes, the choices you make may produce results that are completely different from what you thought. You may regret 'why did I do that at that time' or be glad 'I did that at that time'. The important thing is that you made a choice."

“…”

This time, Wu La was silent for a long time, and finally, she raised her head.

"I see."

The road leading to the core area was as dark as ever, even a little cold, but no one seemed to care about that.

"Mr. Fang Zheng is truly a god..."

Saten Ruiko walked behind and spoke to Misaka Mikoto and the others in a low voice, while the other girls also looked unable to accept it.

"I really thought he was joking..."

Misaka Mikoto also looked like she didn't know what to say. Although they had always been close to Fang Zheng, they still thought that Fang Zheng was just joking when he said he was a god. However, at that moment just now, they clearly felt that kind of power.

The power that was so overwhelming that it was almost impossible to resist was not something that humans could possess. Even Shokuhou Misaki couldn't give people this feeling. No matter how much she manipulated people's hearts, she could never have this level of pressure.

But... I still can't imagine it!

"Kuroko, what do you think...Kuroko?"

Thinking of this, Misaka Mikoto looked at Shirai Kuroko beside her, subconsciously wanting to ask for her opinion. However, to Misaka Mikoto's surprise, Shirai Kuroko was silent with a complicated expression. The expression was so complicated that Misaka Mikoto seemed to have never seen this expression on Shirai Kuroko's face before.

"Kuroko? Are you okay?"

"Hey? Ah? Onee-sama?"

Hearing Misaka Mikoto's call, Shirai Kuroko was stunned for a moment before she came to her senses.

"Nothing, I was just a little scared."

Having said that, Kuroko looked at Fang Zheng's back again.

"Yes... I was just a little scared..."