Diligence’s reflection shook its head.

"Oh, Lust, we could truly do this for an eternity."

Vale growled while glaring at the Hero.

"Do what, you bastard?"

"Pretend." Diligence sighed, then added, "But think about it... I can see up to fifty years in the future with striking clarity. Do you really think you could keep half of Mias and Salome hidden for that long?"

Vale’s tone lifted a notch.

"Stop messing with me!"

"But I’m not. [Vicious Allure]. Now, how would I know her new Trait’s name unless I knew she was alive?"

’So she does... wait!’

Oracles could collect information from collapsed futures.

"Huh? [Vicious Allure]? Now you’re taunting me with Traits she would have developed if she were alive?"

Diligence went silent for a few breaths, her voice growing a little stern.

"How about this... Salome lost her arm healing Ximena. And, before you even bring it up, if Salome had died, you would have summoned a Champion capable of saving Ximena so I knew the owl would live. Now, admit she’s alive so we can move on, or you’ll come to regret it. And that is not a weightless threat. She barely survived my previous machination... as impressive as Mias is, I doubt he’d be able to save her again. Even if he did. He’d then have to do so again and again and again and again; her life will hang by a precarious thread. Is that really a life you want to condemn her to by being arrogant?"

Vale stared listlessly at the reflection.

As much as he wanted to continue the charade, hiding Salome for 50 years did seem like an impossible task. Diligence knowing she was alive simply seemed inevitable. Plus there were also his own doubts about what Mias had told him.

If an event had already passed, would revealing Salome after truly change it?

The answer was obvious: no.

However, the counter-point was that if they did expose themselves — assuming it mattered — then the original event would have played out differently and the current future would never exist.

It was a little nonsensical and paradoxical, but something Vale didn’t want to test.

But...

Neither did he want this oracle trying to kill Salome.

Vale dropped his shoulders.

"Maybe she is alive. Despite that, you admitted to trying to kill her, so why should I trust anything you say?"

"Oh? Why? Did you not hear what I said before... She had to die for your future. At least, I thought she did. And as you figured out, my goal was never to have Kindness kill you, but to have Mias take her away."

Vale clicked his tongue, then plopped himself back onto the boulder.

"That’s another thing... Kindness, Ophelia, I don’t know much about her. But from the little I do, it’s clear — it’s all too clear that you forged her entire being."

The reflection tilted its head.

"Whatever do you mean?"

Vale shook his head in response.

"I just tried the same thing, Hero. Don’t think I can’t recognize purposeful ignorance. I know what you’ve done. You manufactured her hatred for me. Her birth as a Virtue. Her failure in her revenge. In fact, Mias told me the villagers all suffered from a brain-eating flower infused with Sloth’s power... but these flowers don’t seem to have ever been touched by Sloth."

"Is that so?" Diligence chuckled. "Perhaps I haven’t been the most truthful to that girl, but what I’ve done or haven’t done is all for the greater good. I can at least promise that."

’The greater good?!’

Ruining and controlling a young girl’s life was for the ’greater good’?

"Spoken like a true villain." Vale wryly chuckled, then added, "Now, seriously, how are you going to get me to trust you?"

Diligence smiled warmly.

"It seems that ship has sailed, Lust. And that’s to your displeasure. Because now, knowing you won’t trust my words, I’ll have to say truths so heinous that doubting them is deplorable and impossible. What better way exists to build trust than that?"

Vale arrogantly scoffed.

"Like what?"

"Perhaps the fact that Fleur is here in Pandora would entice you? And that she’s close. Way closer than you’ll ever know. Of course, you’re free to doubt me. But I promise it’s the truth."

Vale slipped off the rock, stumbling to his feet.

"W-what?!"

"But if you don’t trust me, there’s not really a point in revealing any more, now is there?"

Vale clenched his eyes.

’That... that can’t be true.’

A dreadful silence hung in the frozen air.

Vale tilted his head away.

"Yeah... yeah, there’s no point."

Why believe something so idiotic? So stupid? So unbelievable?

He’d already decided to let go of the past. So that’s what he would do.

Even if...

Even if she really were here...

’Damn it!’

The insidious possibility had crept into his psyche.

There was no lying to himself.

A small hope had been born. A hope that he would get to see Fleur again. And as that hope simmered and bubbled, his eyes found Ximena.

The Crystal Owl frozen in place — the Crystal Owl with an identical face to Fleur’s.

’N-no way... Right?’

It didn’t make any sense.

It couldn’t make sense.

’Ah, that’s what this is...’

Somehow Diligence knew Ximena resembled Fleur and was using that to rattle Vale’s mind. To make him think that the impossible was possible.

It was nothing more than a sick manipulative tactic.

Diligence slowly said:

"Hmm... What if I told you Fleur isn’t exactly human, nor was she ever. Oh, and that her love for you was a manufactured lie."

’Yeah, yeah... keep spouting this bullshit.’

Vale sardonically laughed.

"Seriously, Diligence, stop this nonsense. I don’t care for these crude jokes."

Diligence smiled warmly.

"Oh? But I promise it all to be true. And by the way, some truths hurt. You were never meant to know this, but you wanted to be difficult, so now you do. And say you don’t believe me all you want, but think about it. Wasn’t your meeting with her too convenient? As well as her death? Almost as if the world itself was crafting you into the perfect vessel for Lust to draw to Pandora."

Vale slowed.

Diligence had said something... wrong. Impermissible.

She’d said something that made a minor amount of sense. But then again, she was just playing to the conclusions Vale had drawn in the past of why he was chosen.

Yet...

Diligence’s words were laced with venom. Venom that slowly broke down rationalism — words that bred scorn.

Even if Vale knew them to be wrong, true spite flared within him.

"Keep her name out of your vile mouth. And stop trying to trick me, fiend."

"Trick you? Am I, though? Think about it. Her corpse... how did she die? No wound, no blood. Just a body that ceased functioning, like its soul had been lost. Now let me ask you this, what do you think happened to your body back on Terra?"

’Wait...’

What did happen to Vale’s body?

From what he knew, only his soul traveled, leaving it behind. Which would...

’No.’

That had to be some sick joke, right?

Right?

So then why...

Why was the lie making sense.

Too much sense.

Just as Diligence said, Fleur’s death was bloodless. Nor was it slow deterioration. She simply... ceased. There was never an explanation for her death, no matter how hard he searched.

And the one Diligence just provided...

’Fuck!’

For all Vale knew, she was lying.

How was he supposed to confirm what happened to his body on Terra? And what became of Fleur’s soul.

All Diligence was doing in this game of hers was switching from playing with what Vale knew to providing potential answers to what he didn’t know.

Vale screamed:

"Quit the bullshit!"

Diligence gave Vale a sinister smile.

"Your body died, losing its connection with the soul. Now, think about it, wouldn’t that fit what happened to Fleur as well? Her soul having left her body and drifting to a different world."

’N-no...’

Diligence had said the potential conclusion her words had led him toward.

’Shut up!’

"One more thing... Fleur wasn’t even from Terra. She was from Kaldora. And she came to Terra with a single purpose: to break your spirit. To become your reason for living, then rip that reason away, leaving you a hollow mess."

Vale nearly dropped to his knees.

"Stop messing with me! Stop lying!"

That lie...

That lie was simply too much! Too much to even consider that it could ever be the truth!

That she loved him to break him?

No.

What they had was real. Too real to ever consider fake.

Diligence’s voice flowed directly into his ear. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Am I lying? Or are you just unwilling to accept the truth?"

Vale looked down at the ground, at the shredded mind-eating flowers under him. He wanted to blame his unraveled state on them, but he could tell they were stagnant. Their effects left behind in the witnessed world.

’Damn it...’

Deny it. He wanted to deny it, but a shard of possibility had been stabbed into his heart.

One that explained all the unexplainable.

If he simply turned his head and claimed it to be impossible, he’d become the liar. Everything she said — every damnable word — made sense. Too much reason to doubt.

Diligence was a liar. He knew that much; he didn’t doubt that.

But a liar’s greatest tool was the truth.

With a warm tone, she said:

"Oh, let me add one last thing... perhaps it will provide some context..."

’S-stop...’

Vale fell to his knees.

’Stop! No more!’

Slowly, his body keeled over until his forehead pressed into the red rock.

’Stop...’

"Sloth, the original one, was the one who sent Fleur to you."

Vale’s mind was on the brink of shattering.

His life...

’N-no...’

That had to be a lie. It couldn’t be true.

’Don’t believe her, dumbass! Don’t believe her!’

Diligence smiled.

"That’s right, your life was never yours to live. You were always fated to end up here, because a woman from a different world decided it centuries ago."