“One minute remaining until detonation.” Huyghe also heard that announcement as he was crawling through a narrow passageway, after passing through the ventilation shaft.
“The Chimera are running wild… It had ended up taking longer than I expected…” Due to the Chimeras rampage, the route that he was originally supposed to have taken had collapsed and become impassable. What’s more, the path he was currently on had also crumbled, making it impossible for him to move through without crawling. If everything had gone as planned, he should have already arrived at his destination.
“Brown, you bastard. I won’t let such a stupid man destroy my and His dream…!” His white Church Knight uniform was stained with blood and dust, his face was covered with dirt, and a look of hatred was fixed on his face. But if it was for the sake of reviving Origin, he didn’t care one whit about things like appearances.
“Lord Origin, give me strength…!” As long as he retained the pride of having created God himself, his self-esteem would remain intact. He had devoted his entire life to Origin. He would even murder people for Origin. He believed that Origin was worth that much, and even now, he had no regrets. As the end drew near, Huyghe finally made his way through the passageway and arrived at the hallway just outside his destination. It was the missile storage hangar. In the corner of the facility was a small room used to control the weapons. Essentially, launch operations were carried out remotely from the central core room, but if you had the authority, you could also launch from the control equipment here as well.
“There’s still time. Ah, Lord Origin! I will surely burn to death those ugly, horrible demons who trample upon your beautiful countenance and who continue to breed! Lord Origin!” With bloodshot eyes, Huyghe opened the door and rushed into the room. But when he entered, he stopped by the entrance.
“Bart…” Sitting down in front of the control equipment and occupying the space was none other than Bart, his subordinate. He had activated his Iron Maiden. While it could only be used to protect from the front, it covered the entirety of the equipment.
“What are you doing in this place? You’re in the way. Move.” Huyghe drew his sword and approached Bart. “I said, ‘Move.’ Did you not hear me, Bart Charon?!” Huyghe yelled angrily and swung his sword at the same time. However, Bart’s barrier was solid, and the sword bounced off with a loud clang.
“The day my wife and daughter died, I ignored a directive from my boss to go into work on my day off and chose to go on a trip with my family.”
“What’re you mumbling? If you are a knight, then follow orders! Do not stand in my way!” Huyghe repeatedly shouted insults and abuses at Bart and slashed at the wall, but it seemed like Bart couldn’t hear them.
“Thirty seconds remaining.”
“After my wife and daughter died, I believed that the accident had been my fault. I had no luck, no sense, so obeying orders from above was the right thing to do, in accordance with my own will.”
“Stop talking about this trivial nonsense!” Huyghe’s rage and impatience intensified. The sight of Huyghe swinging his sword wildly with a demonic expression on his face, like he had gone completely mad, was terrifying enough to make anyone tremble in fright, and the old Bart surely would have never, ever dared to defy him. Actually, no—even now, if you looked closely at Bart, you could see that his hands were shaking as he gripped his shield and his face was pale.
“Move! Move! We’re going to die, so get out of the wayyyyy!” However, Bart did not move.
“But that had all been a big mistake! Following such a crazy man as you can’t possibly be justice! My justice is to protect the lives of many people with this power! You will not pass! That is what I have decided, with my own will!” Bart’s will was unshakable, which was why Huyghe’s sword was never going to pierce that wall. Actually, even if Huyghe could break the wall, it was already impossible for him to stop the missile from detonating at this point. Huyghe’s words of hatred that he was spewing were nothing more than the rantings of a sore loser unwilling to admit defeat.
“Don’t be ridiculous! This shouldn’t be happening! Our dream cannot be stopped by such a ridiculous, stupid man! It’s unthinkable! It can’t be real!”
“Twenty seconds remaining.”
“What’s with that look on your face? Do not be satisfied with stopping me! This is blasphemy against God! God’s wishes must be fulfilled! Only the wishes of God…of my beloved, of Learners, must be carried out, without fail!”
“Ten seconds remaining.”
“No! I do not want it to end this way! My love! My love for Him transcends time and space! It cannot possibly end like this, can it?! Was I not revived for the purpose of breaking the seal?!”
“Five.”
“I have devoted my life for this day!”
“Four.”
“There can be no such thing as a world where He isn’t given his reward!”
“Three.”
“I will not accept it! I will not permit such a world to exist!”
“Two.”
“Lord Origin! Please, grant me—”
“One.”
“I wonder if you’ll think your daddy looks cool now…”
“Bartttttt!”
“Zero.”
✦ ✦ ✦
After Flum and the others had been transported to the audience chamber inside of the Demon Lord’s castle, they immediately went outside and looked up at the sky. Far, far away, up in the sky, a dazzlingly bright round glow, like the sun, swelled and engulfed Tokyo. The surrounding clouds were blown away by the blast winds, and blue skies stretched out across the demon realm, which was a rare sight for the area. It took another ten seconds for the sound to reach the Demon Lord’s castle. They thought they heard a very heavy, bassy sound, almost like a rumbling in the earth, and it gradually grew louder and louder, eventually turning into the sound of an explosion that carried far into the distance, up in the sky.
A few more seconds later, Flum and the others could feel a slightly strong wind brush against their cheeks. Perhaps that had been the blast wave. The impact felt on the ground was limited to that extent, and the battle was ended so quietly and so abruptly that it made it hard for them to believe they had been on the verge of being killed by an army of Chimera just moments ago. Eventually, even the flames in the distance faded away, and nothing, not even the wreckage of Tokyo, remained.
“This means the battle with the church is over, doesn’t it?” As Flum said those words to herself, for the first time, she felt like the battle was truly over. The Chimera weren’t running amok in Selayde, where Origin itself should have been close, and now that Tokyo had fallen, peace had returned. Perhaps what happened with the Chimera at the last moment was just a vain, last-ditch effort on the enemy’s part. Milkit, standing next to Flum, squeezed her hand.
“We can be…together from now on, can’t we?” Flum squeezed her hand back and answered while intertwining her fingers.
“Yeah. Let’s be together, always.” The pair leaned their shoulders against each other and gazed up at the blue sky for a while.