A Villainess Should Be Strong

"..What the hell do you mean by that?" Estelle asked, her nails digging into her skin as she felt frustrated and cornered by the flow of things.

The Absolute came to a complete silence one more time before continuing. The dramatic pauses were the bane of Estelle's existence. She hated it so much. The being hesitating this much made her much more anxious than what she's supposed to be. "How should I say this? I also don't know everything, Rae. I just know that you two are a cursed pair that is not meant to be together, and that fighting the world's fate.. is impossible to maintain," The Absolute said, smiling depreciatingly. "However, I do know that your existence is much more complex than the Chaos."

"The Chaos' motivation is simple, it is simply to destroy creations. It can't create things. However, Creation practically holds both power to create and to destroy. On one simple glance, it looks like your power is stable, but when you really look at it closely, it only takes one extra move from you to destroy an ecosystem. Did you know what caused that eyeball creature to pop up?" The Absolute asked, tilting his head at the agitated child.

"The forest.. became saturated with my magic, right? When I practiced fighting against that element, I... used a lot of Creation Magic," Estelle slowly answered. She had been paying attention to every single detail she experienced in this realm because of her heightened wariness.

When the eyeball appeared, her incentive was not only to fight the creature and use it as a probable test subject, but also finding out what caused it. It only took her a couple rounds of thinking to find out that she was the anomaly in this incident. She practiced her magic against that energy ball when it was supposed to be left alone to grow out in the original scenario.

Thus, she naturally came to the conclusion that she must've been an agent of change.

However, she also didn't think that her impact would be that great. It was only one place in the middle of nowhere. One small town. In this kind of olden day settings, the destruction of one or two settlements would be lamented for, but it wouldn't be such a huge event that it would shake the entire world. She also managed to discover several unexpected things, such as Aleksei's real identity and unknown purpose.

There was no way Aleksei didn't know anything, right?

"So you were aware, after all." The Absolute snickered. "Yes.. the eyeball spawning was the result of your actions. Are you starting to see the point?"

"But.. what does it have to do with anything? If I recall correctly.. Inside the memories I possess, I didn't do anything that would cost the world such a high price,"

"You are meant to create, but your creation will bring forth destruction in the end as well. It might or might not be accidental, but the damage will be done. This damage will continue to stay there forever because your divinity is too pure, too potent, too strong. As a result, you saw how Alfheim became in the current Surface. They once bore slight bits of the power of Creation, and now that they're losing it, they're becoming confused as to how to regain their stability. They have to keep it under wraps because they knew that exposing the information would trigger a much bigger stimulus in effect."

"You are the Absolute being. If we had to name one being as the owner of this entire universe, it would be you and the Origin Tree. But you're telling me that you can't figure out what you have created on your own? You can't control it?" Estelle chided, finding it ridiculous that the world was torn apart so strangely, and the pillar of power was also falling down uncontrollably.

"In fact, I really can't. I can only create and destroy things with my Origin power, but I can't control the natural flow of events. That works around the world's own incentive, operating the flow of fate. Aleksei's existence itself will bring calamity upon the world. It's because he is a rendition of what shouldn't be possible. The world.. the tree that gives life to the world will certainly try to remove him in order to restore balance. To erase the abnormal condition. On the other hand, you are favored by the world because your power doesn't directly cause harm, but rather causes damage as a result of the accidental timing and positioning. Thus, it won't render you as an obstacle and won't try to remove you," The Absolute said.

"Then... What am I supposed to be? What are my memories? Why am I.. Why did it have to be me? If the memories you implanted for me were nothing but placeholders, then what is my original identity? Not as your prized creation, but for something else. right?" Estelle questioned, her mind in pain after receiving all of these uncalled blows. She came here to seek answers, but was she going to come back with more questions than answers once again?

"You are a test subject. To be precise, someone who was created to contain the soul of Creation, who is supposed to coexist with the soul of Chaos. However, I don't know what went wrong in the process. You two developed extreme tendencies and would always either try to fight each other to gain control and be the only living partiture of the Origin, or be intensely attracted to each other. You have always thought that what you felt when you were with him.. was love. But it wasn't. It was just a natural instinct budding from you two's identity and background. The fact that you two are the seeds of Chaos and Creation, the components that made up the Origin."

"The ideal situation would be the removal of these maddening attributes, and coexisting together in peace. However, that simply isn't possible with you two. I have tried many times, experimenting over and over again, but the result would always be the same. It's impossible. Thus.. I came up with another result," The Absolute began to smirk, his intentions unknown.

"What... is that result?" Estelle asked, her nervousness spiking up. She had a bad feeling towards it.

"It's another pathway that will bring us better results. It will cover up all the imbalance, all the destruction and damages, and practically reverse everything to the way it should have been in the first place. It would be the perfect plan. The perfect.. villainess," The Absolute finally touched on the topic of a villainess by himself. The role she was given.

To think about it, who gave her the role? Who told her that she was supposed to be the villainess? Wasn't it the Absolute himself? Then, in regards to this question, he should have a proper answer.

She had been meaning to ask about this prior to her arrival here, but the being actually beat her to it. It didn't matter, since Estelle's curiosity wouldn't be able to be satiated.

"Tell me about it," Estelle said.

"My power simply isn't going to come back, no matter what is done to me. I'm done for. I probably don't have much time left, and keeping your divine vassal alive in the higher realms isn't making the situation any better. Keeping the plan intact also is worsening my state. However, I believe that.. you can make it. You can make it up until you climb up the stairs to your Creation power, overcome Chaos, and create Origin one more time. Then, you can successfully replace me and.. Become not only the Goddess of Creation, but instead.. of the Origin,"

Estelle instantly uttered a sound of astonishment. In truth, she had wielded the power of Origin before.

These provocations, were they all part of a ploy to make her the successor to this entire Origin heritage? Because she would come to bear the power in the future, the Absolute didn't have any qualms in directing this omnipotent power towards her?

"You're telling me to replace you in the future?" Estelle became even more shocked. This was the biggest shock factor, the biggest reveal that she has had.

The Absolute was telling her to rise up and eventually replace him as the Absolute. Restore that balance with the newfound powerhouse. How was she supposed to react to that?

"Yes. And in order to do that, spending time in the Surface, going through the manuals, and.. becoming the villainess is necessary," The Absolute declared.

It still didn't make sense for Estelle. It was all too confusing. Too complex, too complicated. Why did she have such a heavy responsibility in the first place?

To be the Goddess of Origin and replacing the Absolute himself. It sounded way too absurd, but judging by the conditions they were in right now, perhaps that was truly the correct path to take.

How was the villainess connected to all of this?