Chapter 31: A field of flowers
The image before Erik continued to change.
A city sitting amid endless darkness.
The outer wall had crumbled in many places, the light of the defensive magic flickering on and off. Outside the city were countless dark shapes crowding together, and behind those walls, Succubi covered in wounds were still trying to hold onto their last stretch of land.
The Primordial Succubus looked at that scene for a long while.
For the first time, Erik could clearly sense the gravity in her voice.
"I don’t want the world I created to end up as a dead land."
The images before his eyes slowly faded away.
The black-and-white space returned to silence.
The Primordial Succubus looked down at Erik.
"I want it to become a field of flowers."
"One that can keep growing, give rise to new things, and make the Succubi who live here truly feel that life is worth looking forward to."
Erik was silent.
She continued:
"You are very different from the men of this world."
The reddish-purple eyes swept over the hand still holding Felyn’s.
"From the moment you appeared, I’ve been seeing a great deal of emotional value that had been growing rarer and rarer in this world begin to resurface."
"Elowen, Carmilla, Felyn... along with the other Succubi you’ve come into contact with."
"You make them happy, angry, jealous, embarrassed, full of anticipation and stirred. More importantly, most of those emotions appear naturally."
Erik raised an eyebrow slightly.
Hearing that...
He sounded an awful lot like a human-shaped emotional battery.
The Primordial Succubus seemed to read his thoughts.
The corner of her lips curved up.
"Don’t think of it in such a strange way."
Erik gave a light cough.
"I didn’t say anything."
"Your expression said it."
"..."
Erik decided to move past that topic.
The Primordial Succubus spoke slowly:
"I’m not asking you to save every Succubus, much less expecting you to become some kind of savior. I only hope you can keep living the way you are now, develop yourself, change the things you feel are wrong, and create more interesting things for this world."
The reddish-purple eyes looked straight at him.
"If you can, help the Succubi of the world I created find again what they’re gradually losing."
"So that this world can keep growing."
"That is what I’m asking of you."
Erik reached up and rubbed his chin.
He truly thought about it.
But only for about a few seconds.
Then he nodded.
"Alright."
The Primordial Succubus was silent.
She seemed to be still waiting.
A few seconds later, the reddish-purple eyes blinked once.
"That’s it?"
"Mm."
"You don’t need to think about it more?"
"I already thought about it."
The Primordial Succubus looked at Erik with a strange expression.
"You have no demands?"
Erik shook his head.
"No."
"You could ask for power, resources, longevity, or even a few things that ordinary people couldn’t imagine."
Erik was a little surprised.
He thought for a few more seconds.
Then still shook his head.
"No need."
This time the Primordial Succubus truly didn’t understand.
"Why?"
Erik looked at Felyn standing beside him.
Then a great many images surfaced in his mind.
Five years ago, he had woken up in this world after dying.
The fire that burned down his house had become a memory from a past life. The woman who had once betrayed him also belonged to another lifetime.
Here, he had the chance to start over.
Then he met Elowen, awakened the System, and gained strength he had never imagined in his past life.
Even the world itself...
Erik had to admit it.
A world where the majority of the population consisted of beautiful Succubi, and where men were valued to the point of practically being a strategic resource.
For a man who had once died because his fiancée betrayed him, it was really very hard to complain.
Erik broke into a laugh.
"I already died once."
The Primordial Succubus listened in silence.
"After that, I got the chance to live one more life, and I was even brought to a world like this."
He slightly raised the hand still holding Felyn’s.
"I have strength, I have people who treat me well, and I have a future that I feel rather excited about."
Erik looked toward the colossal woman.
"Just the fact that I was reborn and get to live in this world is already a very big reward for me."
"So you want me to help out a bit..."
He shrugged.
"Then I’ll just help."
The space was quiet.
The Primordial Succubus looked at him for quite a while.
Then a laugh suddenly rang out.
"Pfft..."
Erik raised an eyebrow slightly.
The colossal woman had been trying to keep up her air of mystery, but in the end she still broke into a laugh.
Her reddish-purple eyes curved slightly.
Even her voice became a great deal softer.
"You really are a good man."
Erik was silent for two seconds.
"I feel like that sentence is rather dangerous in this world."
The Primordial Succubus laughed again.
"I’m liking you more and more."
After a while, she gradually stopped laughing.
"But I don’t have the habit of letting others work for nothing."
The Primordial Succubus raised her hand.
A point of purple light appeared in the center of her enormous palm.
The light slowly descended.
When it reached Erik, it quickly shrank in size, finally transforming into a mirror just small enough for him to hold in one hand.
Erik reached out and took it.
The mirror was oval-shaped, its frame a dark purple-tinged black, the surface completely transparent yet not reflecting his face.
Instead, what lay inside looked like a layer of silver mist slowly swirling.
A notification panel appeared.
[Mirror of Myriad Worlds.]
[Quality: Unidentified.]
[Owner: Erik.]
[Effect: When the owner advances to a new Major Rank, the Mirror of Myriad Worlds will unlock the coordinates of one world.]
[The owner can enter the unlocked world for a limited period of time.]
[Upon returning, certain things from that world can be brought back.]
[Specific limitations depend on the current Major Rank.]
Erik read it through from start to finish one more time.
He was silent.
Then he looked up.
"This thing..."
The Primordial Succubus rested her chin on her hand, reddish-purple eyes carrying an amused glint.
"Quite interesting, isn’t it?"
Erik looked at the mirror in his hand.
Quite interesting?
This thing was clearly far more dangerous than the way she put it.
A new world at every Major Rank.
He could enter it.
And then he could bring things back.
If those worlds had civilizations, technology, resources, or entirely different power systems...
This ability alone held a value that was hard to imagine.
Erik looked at the Primordial Succubus.
"Are you sure this is just payment?"
"Of course."
The corner of her lips curled into a coquettish smile.
"The stronger you become, the more interesting the places the mirror can take you will be."
"So do your best to level up."
Erik looked at the mirror for a few more seconds, then stored it in the space bracelet.
"Then I’ll accept."
"That’s more like it."
The Primordial Succubus nodded in satisfaction.
At that very moment, the entire black-and-white space suddenly trembled.
The lines around Erik all shifted at once.
A colossal gate slowly appeared before him.
Erik looked up.
The gate stood nearly ten meters tall, its entire body black, its surface covered with dark purple patterns that were slowly flowing.
The instant it fully took shape, the System that had been silent since Erik entered this space finally let out a sound.
[Ding!]
[The Awakening Fruit has completed its transformation.]
[Special energy detected.]
[Heaven Gate forming...]
The purple patterns on the gate all lit up at once.
An invisible pressure surged out in all directions.
Erik watched intently.
After a few seconds, the final notification appeared.
[Congratulations, Host, on successfully opening the Heaven Gate.]
[Heaven Gate Rank: SS.]
Erik’s eyes went slightly wide.
"SS?"
In the distance, the Primordial Succubus watched his reaction, the corner of her lips curving up once more.
This time her smile no longer carried the aloofness of an existence that had lived for who knew how many years.
On the contrary, it held a touch of coquettishness and mischief.
"It seems your luck is rather good."
Erik looked at the colossal Heaven Gate before him, then looked back at her.
He had a feeling there was something off about that remark.
But before Erik could ask, the silhouette of the Primordial Succubus had already begun to fade.
"Go on."
Her voice rang out one last time.
"Take good care of the girls of this world for me."
The reddish-purple eyes curved gently.
"As for us..."
"We’ll meet again."
Right after, the entire black-and-white space began to shatter apart.