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IT WAS BECAUSE OF LUCIFER, who was sent by the higher beings, that the entrance opened to the massive dungeon Cocytus, a place that sealed away horrifying monsters. Veranta feared that monsters boasting levels beyond the normal scale would crawl out of the depths one after another, so he was left with no other choice but to summon the powerful from around the world.
Lovis answered the call.
“The others say this is some sort of hell…but I never imagined hell could be so sweet,” he said as he plunged his scythe into the back of a gigantic ogre. “They give us healing potions and equipment and support the fight with golems. And there’s a never-ending horde of monsters! This is paradise! I can feel it… Every time I defeat one of them, the power gathers inside my body!”
Lovis stood atop the monster’s corpse and shrieked with laughter.
“Lovis… He’s perkier than usual,” said Damia, one of Lovis’s underlings.
“…I just hope he doesn’t let us down again,” said Yozakura with a doubtful expression on her face as she looked up at Lovis.
“I-I know you can’t help it…but I think you’re too hard on him, Yozakura.”
“It’s only because he sullies his own honor and way of living.”
“A-ah…I guess I get that…but…” said Damia as he looked up again at Lovis.
Lovis cast teleportation spells to fly around the monsters and allied golems, toying with his enemies. His large scythe flashed as it sliced down into the head of a huge monster.
“Aaah…the power…it’s flowing into me! Aha ha ha ha ha! This is it! This is the world those people saw! More! Give me more!” Lovis howled with mad laughter and rushed across the battlefield.
“I’m scared Lovis is changing into something else in this mess,” said Damia. “The Lovis I admire…is human. But that person there looks like he’s heading toward something more terrifying than that…”
“I think that’s his ideal. I felt it—recently. I realized that Lovis couldn’t live with pride in this world as a simple human. He needed something to act as the trigger to push him over that line. If this moment is that time, then I couldn’t be happier.”
Damia’s breath caught in his throat as he looked at Yozakura’s expression. Just like Lovis, there was a mad light in her eyes.
A huge centipede monster rushed toward Lovis. He used a teleportation spell to leap onto it, then unleashed a series of slashes with his scythe as he ran along its top.
“Eeeeeegh!” The huge centipede shrieked and curled its body up as it tried to catch Lovis in its massive, fanged jaws. Lovis went straight toward its head and embedded his blade into it. The centipede stopped, its life spent.
Lovis increased his level by a great amount during the chaos at Cocytus caused by Lucifer.
As he stood atop the giant centipede’s back, he pulled a small fragment of black metal out. It was a shard of the weapon he once used, a piece of black dragon metal. There were beings in this world, monsters of a different caliber that no human could ever hope to rival in power. Lovis kept that piece of metal as a reminder of that.
He squeezed the shard between his fingers. It let out a snapping sound and crumbled to dust for the wind to take. Lovis watched it go, the corners of his mouth curling up.
He realized that he had finally stepped outside the realms of human capability. With how high his level was, his blade could cut the necks of even those inhuman monsters he’d encountered along the way.
“Just wait… Sopia…Lunaère…Kanata…and you absurd gods who rule this world! I will destroy everything that ever made a fool of me!”