"So, what's the problem?" Senka asks the moment the door to the astrology lab is closed behind us. The room is filled with shelves laden heavily with books and scrolls, and at the center stands a table with maps and measuring devices.

Placing the doll girl down without answering, I head over to the brass telescope and look inside. It's trained on the moon, the surface of which is still painted with the massive grinning face. When I insert another lens, I can see a large section of its surface, at the center of which is the golden lake left behind by Aurelia. So they were watching our battle from down here, huh?

"As I said, I feel that we're moving toward the end of something." Without turning around, I keep looking through the telescope while moving the dials and knobs to test different settings and angles.

"Why do you say that?" The living doll's voice sounds neutral, genuinely asking for an explanation.

"Today, Oinos, Alverost, and Juzual died." Finally, I stop messing with the instruments and leave the view through the lens in a hopelessly out of focus state. Looking at Senka, I smile wryly. "Of the Old Humans standing against peace, only Shelnir and Areteniha remain."

Something tells me that once they're out of the picture, Mataku will put his plan into motion to devour this world. I have no idea how to defeat him when mass doesn't make a difference for him anymore. The only thing I can think of is to teleport him into the sun, but just as I have Flann to teleport me, so does he have Mithra.

"So you're scared of the future." Senka states with a deadpan expression. I feel defensiveness rise in my chest, but only let out a sigh.

"Yes." Slumping down on the chair at the end of the table, I admit to both the doll girl and myself. Then I glance at Flann waiting by the door. She teleported in rather than follow us on foot, sensing that I want her presence. "Come here."

Gesturing for the blonde girl to come over, I pat my thigh. She follows my request as if it's an order, and wordlessly sits down in my lap. Senka's brow furrows at the sight, but she suppresses the urge to make a snarky comment. I already know what she wanted to say; I denied Tokomaha and skipped Svanhild to fool around with this girl because she can't say no to me.

"Tell me the truth. About everything." I look into Flann's green eyes from which I can glean the otherworldly reality that my kind hails from. "Let's start with my progenitor."

Keeping her eyes fixed on mine, the little gatekeeper stays silent for a moment. She stands apart from the system in which she has to obey the most massive Crawling Chaos in the universe, unlike her father. When I think about it, the fact that Mithra still follows Mataku means that he has more mass than I do even after I consumed about half of it. I'm somehow glad that he left on his own after all.

"Mataku may have mentioned it before. The fate of a Crawling Chaos." Flann begins, maintaining a level voice and emotionless gaze. But even if neither her expression nor words betray it, she does seem to feel strongly about what she's about to tell me. "He must have an unyielding will. After having lived so many millennia, his cosmic hunger must be driving him insane."

"What is that cosmic hunger? I feel quite content with regular-sized meals." At these words, Senka snorts sarcastically.

"Those portions fulfill the regular calorie intake for five girls your age and build." She remarks with a frown. I don't know what she means; I've always eaten a lot even before reincarnating into this body.

"Cosmic hunger is the Outer One's leash with which they control their offspring." Flann continues, ignoring the doll girl's interjection. "So that you shall one day consume this planet that you have been seeded to and return to their womb."

I stare at her, unable to comprehend what she just said. Then I let the lines run through my head once again before putting it into simpler terms. This Outer One uses this cosmic hunger to make us fatten ourselves and then return to their belly. We're nothing more than an automatic food delivery service for a cosmic god.

"Why?" That's all I can ask. If this Outer One is truly a cosmic god, why do they need such a roundabout way to eat planets? Why can't they just come here themselves and swallow it all in one go? Instead, they use such an unreliable method to gain nourishment. What if all the offspring gets eradicated by whatever lives on the planets they're seeded to? Will the Outer One starve?

"Because it exists in a realm beyond time and cannot enter this dimension. The tears created in it by the Imagination Engine are too unstable for it to come here." Understanding the underlying question behind that one word, the blonde girl explains.

My mouth drops at this revelation. The Old Humans accidentally granted access to the Outer One through the creation of the Imagination Engine?

"Then what about the eyes in the sky?" I ask, frantically looking for an explanation.

"They are merely projections of the Outer One's will. They are not physical." Flann replies with such conviction that I can only believe her. "My father was created to stabilize those temporary tears in space just enough for their offspring to leave and eventually return to their realm. Through those, he guided the first Crawling Chaos to this planet."

So even a gatekeeper who can teleport anywhere instantly is unable to help the Outer One come through. Its existence must be beyond the limits of this dimension if only its fragments can cross one at a time.

"And you?" Looking her up and down, I compare Flann to Mithra. She looks plenty human, even if she's always emotionless, but I imagine it's nothing more than a mask. Behind it must lie something similar to me.

"I am an unforeseen factor in the Outer One's eternal feasting." The blonde girl bats her eyelids and looks down. Then she returns her gaze to meet mine, and I'm startled to see emotions in her eyes. She shows hints of uncertainty and fear. "My father has decided to betray the Outer One, and I am one of the tools to achieve that."

"You're not just a tool." Bringing a hand up to caress her cheek, I assuage her worries. But my own thoughts are in turmoil, and it seems that she can sense it. Why would Mithra betray a cosmic god? Is this work so bad?

"I cannot reveal to you the full extent of my father's plans, as I do not know it." Not reacting to my touch, she speaks in her usual tone. "But understand that he is not your enemy."

It sounds like a plea to me, but she shows no such notion in either her expression or inflection. All I can say is that she gives me that impression, so I'll act on that basis.

"What about Mataku then?" After hearing Flann's explanation regarding my origins and Mithra's goals, something tells me Mataku is aware of those. He did say that he wanted to end it all in a massive feast when I confronted him in Adanak. The fact that he didn't do anything afterward tells me that his plans may have changed.

"I do not know." Shaking her head, the blonde girl tries her best to look and sound apologetic. She fails at both, but the thought counts.

"So, for the time being, I'll count him as an enemy." Making up my mind, I state in a matter of fact tone. It won't hurt to think that way as long as I don't know his real goal. After all, he could be loyal to the Outer One and control Mithra in a way that undoes his plans. "But tell me, how long has your father been planning this?"

"He never told me." Flann replies while looking past me out the window. This is the first time I see her like this, deep in thought as if trying to search unreliable memories for the answer. "But it was from before my birth."

Now I'm interested to learn how she was born. And, more importantly, who her mother is or was. Neither Maou-mama nor Mithra ever mentioned her, and Flann didn't talk about her either.

"Queen Pelomyx provided the vessel, and my father placed a consciousness into it." As if having read my mind, the blonde girl states while shifting her gaze back to meet my eyes. Unblinking, she awaits my reaction, but all I can do is stare at her.

Maou-mama is also Flann's mother?