My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

As the words left my mouth, the already darkened sky seemed to blacken even further.

Waves of black cumulonimbus rolled in from all sides, smothering the sky in an instant as the distant sound of thunder shook the atmosphere.

Then, at my behest, the ground fissured all across, and from these crevices, sable tar rose.

Instead of idling by as puddles of goo on the ground, however, it continued to ascend into the air, high up until it met the clouds.

Like a hellish reverse rain, countless droplets and streams of this 'Nightmare Essence' fell into the sky and formed a lake.

Of course, I didn't know what exactly any of it was, but that didn't matter.

At this point, it was all the same.

Anything could be everything; it only depended on my will.

And, not having a clue what was going on, they could only gawk in astonishment.

Before long, the sky had turned completely black, transforming from a once limitless bright blue horizon to a prison wall, devoid of any sort of colour, sense, or meaning.

Or rather, the only meaning it held was hopelessness.

And then, just as what happened in the Otherworld, two crimson masses slowly formed in that ominous sky above our heads.

With but anomalous, slit black pupils to define it, anyone could tell at a glance that it was a pair of eyes.

A massive pair of eyes that could only be described as evil, demonic, and perhaps only attributable to the Devil himself.

It was only when that very pair of eyes turned to stare down at the group in front of me that they began to truly realise what I had done.

"What the hell..."

"..."

"What-- What the hell did you do...!? Cipher! What the fuck is that thing!?"

Saburou yelled, but he was focusing on the wrong thing.

See, instead of worrying about what I was doing...

Drip-!

They should be thinking about a plan to stop it.

Drip, drip-!

Looking up, I wondered if this alone would be good enough.

Drip drip, drip-!

Of course, I could never be certain about that, so I planned on going a little further than just this.

Drizzle...!

Rain fell from the sky, rapidly turning from intermittent droplets to a shower.

"...?"

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However, the hero and his party could instinctively tell.

This ink-like rain.

In this situation, it couldn't be anything ordinary.

And I mean, if you thought about it logically, was it even possible for ordinary rain to fall from a sky that looked like that?

"Hey..."

Naturally, they didn't know what was wrong with it, but they had a feeling something was off.

"What is...?"

And, needless to say, it didn't take long for them to realise.

Squelch-!

"...!!"

Gradually, the black, sticky rain formed puddles, and those puddles suddenly began to move on their own.

Attracting each other like magnets, they assembled, combined, and metamorphosed.

-- Kkrriiieeeeeehhk...!

What was a king without his subjects?

As an army of hellish monstrosities emerged out of seemingly nowhere, letting out countless shrieks of a banshee as if to announce their descent on the Earth, everyone's faces instantly paled.

The Pawns of the End had arisen, and as was intended, they terrified.

Living up to their name as Nightmares, they weren't a force that could be stopped by ordinary means, and that could be figured out with but a glance.

It was now that those people could no longer fret over what I was doing, for they had much bigger concerns to take care of.

In any case--

"―Cipher..."

Rather abruptly, Kiryuuin called me. Bearing a sort of steadfast emotion I couldn't even fathom in his eyes, he looked towards me with an expression fitting the hero of a story.

"For the last time. Stop this."

His words went in through one ear and out the other.

Despite having experienced a fraction of what I can do to him already, he didn't appear perturbed, and rather than the content of what he was saying, I was more impressed by the fact he could find it within himself to speak at all.

Or maybe, they were not his words, but the words of the 'greater orchestrator'.

Well, either way.

He was the protagonist of the original novel, after all, so I suppose it could be argued that something like this was predictable.

"What is there for me to stop, exactly? Look around you."

Deciding, or perhaps being compelled to speak out in reply, I gestured to the gradually increasing number of Nightmares all around us, slowly filling up the chaotic neighbourhood and even the wider scope of the city beyond.

Like dogs, they patiently awaited my command.

And, like dogs, they will not care if a mess will be made.

"Do you see all of this? This is your problem. This is your obstacle to overcome."

These Nightmares are here because of me, but I am not the one you need to fight.

Still, what's more important than even these seemingly endless monsters is the devil looming above.

"And that."

Casually pointing one finger at the sky, everyone's gazes followed along, with some having been glued there since it first appeared.

"That is what you are fighting."

"What you are foolishly trying to resist."

"And what you will inevitably fail to defeat."

Naturally, The End was not something one could simply 'beat'.

Living in this kind of deterministic world, it was the inescapable fate of everything and anything.

Even for someone like me, who might as well be considered a god with my current level of influence on reality, it's something I have to come to terms with.

No matter who you are, where you are, or what you do, The End will always come eventually.

The time will always come when the next word written on the page is the last.

It might be possible for you to live a life beyond that point.

It might be possible to persist in this world even after The End has arrived and left.

Perhaps even leave an 'after story' chapter or two.

But, in the end.

If your life after that point is not confirmed by Him.

If what you experience isn't in the text printed on the page.

Then it is known by no observer.

And therefore, it might as well not exist.

Someone else might be satisfied with just the possibility of continuing life after everything is over.

But not me.

Living in a world that isn't even real...

Everything that exists within my memory is what exists on the page.

If I "remember" something that isn't on the page, the very act of me recalling that memory is then written onto the page, therefore solidifying the memory in reality.

So, at the very least, I can say for certain that everything I know and have experienced is as real as it can get for me.

To imagine a life where nothing is printed as text on the page, and therefore not real?

To the current me, that sounds more like hell than anything else.

As I said, I will choose the ending.

An ending that finishes on the page and continues for no longer than that.

I don't want to live a "Schrödinger's Life" that nobody even knows exists or not, including myself.

I want to live 'my life'.

And I want it to be real.

The only way to do that is to have my life printed on the page.

When the page ends, so does my life.

When my life ends, so does the page.

By the time the final page is written, read, and closed, my life will have ended.

That's how it should be.

However, my life only exists when the page is observed, and that can only happen when He deems it deserving of that spot.

For my life to be observed... It all comes down to Him.

That's why, with all of that said.

Highest Existence, you bastard.

Give me free rein over the text on the page for a while.

Do that, and as I promised, I'll deliver an ending that's worth remembering me for.

Even after death, if I can live on in the memories of whoever reads the pages that prove my existence, that's the only way I will continue to live on.

After everything is over, that's the only way worth living on.

"Kiryuuin. All of you. You will all be confused by my words or actions, but in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't matter."

"There is no need for me to explain myself to you."

"There is no need for you to hear what I have to say."

"Because they can see it all."

"And they are the only ones worth bothering to explain myself to."

As I said, they proceeded to frown or otherwise knit or furrow their brows in response to my words that must sound overly cryptic.

But, also as I said, it doesn't matter if they "get" it or not.

I don't need them to understand.

Because you already know.

And you are the one who is going to remember me even after the page is closed.

"Now then..."

I've stalled a lot of time just sharing my thoughts like this.

But, I think it's about time to get things started for real.

"Go."

So, look forward to what is to come.

-- Kkrriiiieeeeekhh...!

For the next page just might be the one I decide to call my last.