FINAL CHAPTER The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time I poured you some tea, my dear Lamnecia.” The sun was gentle, the wind mild, and the smell of flowers lingered on the breeze. Little birds sang their songs, brought here by the opening of spring. “Perfect timing, Alicia. I’ve just finished baking some cookies. They came out quite nicely, if I do say so myself.” The flowers in the garden, at the height of their color, provided the perfect backdrop for our little tea party, conducted around a table for two beneath the unspoiled marble of the pavilion arches. I provided the fragrant black tea, while my sister Lamnecia had prepared some irresistibly sweet-smelling cookies. “My! These are simply delicious, dear sister!” Oh, how long I’ve waited for this!! My heart overflowed with joy. Just the other day, Lamnecia couldn’t even stand by herself, much less speak. Now she could bake cookies without being asked. It was proof that the seeds I’d planted were spreading, and the world was slowly becoming right again. “Tee-hee-hee. Your tea is wonderful as well, my dear Alicia.” These were the days I had worked so hard to bring back. Just the two of us, enjoying tea and biscuits beneath the marble arches. Smiling in each other’s presence; that was all I ever wanted. My whole life, I had lived in a world of unimportances, forced to interact with the most repulsive examples of unnecessity life had to offer. How wonderful my life seemed now by comparison, where every day was as a waking dream! “My dear Lamnecia, the seed that restored you to life is now spreading throughout our world. Soon it will be implanted into everything.” Nearly three months had passed since Lamnecia returned to me. My efforts in advance paid off, and the World Tree seed quickly spread to the kingdom, the empire, the beast lands, the See, and finally the land across the sea, where demons roam. Even they fell to its charm and began working to sustain this world where my sister and I could live freely. Ironically, the demons were the easiest to control, their minds eroded as they were from centuries of dependence upon the Demonlight Trees. Of course, some in the realm still evaded my command, taking refuge in the depths of the forests, the mountain peaks, or even deep inside dungeons, but they could not run forever. Either our light would touch them, or they would rot away to nothing. “That being the case…what brings you here?” I set down my teacup with a clatter, turning my eyes upon the loathsome insect that had just crawled into my garden. It was the former hero, Kaito, whom I had last seen making a cowardly flight on the day of my sister’s glorious resurrection. He appeared before me now in spectral form, and not in person. “You’ve killed a lot of people,” he said. “Oh, but they are not dead,” I replied. “They are servants of the World Tree now. Unthinking livestock that serve only a world where I can be happy.” “…Is that the world you want?” “It most certainly is!” “…” A perfect world, made with the power of the goddess. A world for two: my sister and me. Oh, what a wonderful world it was! “Alicia? Who is this person? What are you two discussing?” “Oh, you don’t need to worry about him,” I reassured her. “He’s just an annoying fly who doesn’t know when to disappear.” I stroked her cheek, and Lamnecia’s doubtful look went away. “You’re right,” she said. “I won’t think about him at all.” Lamnecia went back to sipping tea, after which I dropped my smile and turned back to the ex-hero once more. “…” “I must say,” I said. “I’m awfully surprised to see you here…even if it is a mere projection. My barriers were designed to keep even the tiniest insect from wriggling their way inside.” “If you’d prefer to see me in person, you’ll get the chance soon enough.” Kaito’s claim was laughable. “Oh, well, it’s very generous of you to come and be exterminated. I was just going to let you rot away in whatever hole you found yourself in,” I said with a smile. “Really?” answered Kaito without a change to his expression. “Because the look on your face says otherwise.” “Oh, you could tell? That’s strange—I thought I was hiding it perfectly.” “You would never let a mortal enemy escape you.” “And that’s what you think you are?” What Kaito suggested was so ridiculous, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! What a silly thing for an insignificant little worm to say! To be a mortal enemy, you would first have to pose a threat to me!” “…” “If there is anyone I would like to seek out, it is that sneaky little goddess, not you. Ah, but I suppose…” I brought my right hand to my left shoulder, thinking of the scars on my back. “…There was that little message you left me. Perhaps I should teach you a lesson and torment you a little after all, like I did in my first life.” Those scars had long since faded by now, but I still remembered the humiliation and disgrace he had forced on me. Of course, none of it was more than a foul odor on the breeze, something that would soon disappear on the winds of happiness enjoyed by my sister and me, but I couldn’t deny the satisfaction I felt seeing his sorry little face before he teleported away. He was a pathetic man who tried to hide his fear with bluster and only stood down once he was shown the error of his ways firsthand. He was a nuisance, yes, but in the way of a harmless mosquito buzzing around one’s head, not a real threat. “Heh, well, you’re right about one thing. I did need cutting down to size. Everything had been going just a little too well, and it went straight to my head.” “…?” I thought if I just provoked him a little, he would seek to cover that fear with violence once more, or at least give me a pathetic little glare. However… “I’d gained a lot of partners, my plans were unfolding smoothly, and yeah, I got cocky. I’d brought my head above the pool of blood, when I was supposed to be dragging everyone down there with me. But I should have known; sticking my neck out always ends up badly for me.” Kaito punctuated his words with an unsettling cackle. “…Wipe that look off your face,” I said. “You’re giving me the creeps.” Suddenly, an odd sensation tickled the back of my eyes and the depths of my nose. What…is this? Feeling a strange anger take hold, I unleashed my divine aura. It was a manifestation of the divinity I had taken from Lunaris. By releasing it into the air, I caused Kaito’s spectral image to flicker, but it wasn’t enough to shut him up. “Now I’m back,” Kaito said. “Back beneath the sea of blood. “And this time, you’re coming with me. “Mark my words. You will die. I will drown you in a sea of pain and despair, then crush you like an insect.” He was like a ghost. A hateful revenant formed of anger and malice. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!” I laughed. “You must be joking! How could you possibly kill either of us? It’s not possible. To kill me at this point would be to kill the entire world!” I thought he must have come here to bargain for something, but it seems the despair has simply driven him mad! Even with a goddess reject on his side, he cannot possibly dream of staging a comeback now! “Then the world will die as well,” said Kaito. “Say good-bye to this world you love so much. We’ll kill and kill and kill until there’s nothing left. Our murderous rampage will surpass the limits of human reckoning.” “I’m impressed by the depths of your delusion, if nothing else,” I replied. “How are you ever going to harm me? I could make you vanish with a snap of my fingers. In fact, I think I’ll do that right now.” I focused my divine aura upon his spectral form. This would be more than enough to wink his pathetic image out of existence. However… “In that case, let’s set our final stage.” “Hgh?! Why…isn’t it working?!” Kaito’s spectral image did not vanish. Instead, it stopped flickering and became clearer and more distinct than ever. “You heard me, didn’t you? I said you’ll get to see me in person soon enough.” All of a sudden, a black outline of fire burst to life around Kaito’s image. “Black: the flames of rage that burn and burn in endless pits. “So must they always be, to keep the fire alive, the flame untouched. “To touch the one, the few, the many; to spread the fire to every part. “To burn and burn, with I, myself, the pyre, the fuel, the kindling all. “No warning nor calamity; no obstacle can bar my path. “For in mine eyes all laws of men are ashes yet to be reduced.” As he spoke, those black fires flared, as if swallowing the light and taking on his words’ form. “Sword of Sin: Apostate Wroth.” Then the sea of flames parted, and Kaito stepped through it and into stark reality. He was wearing his usual light armor, though it seemed far weightier due to the doom inspired by the black fires surrounding it. In his hands, Kaito held a greatsword that looked like a solid version of those hate-filled flames. Its jet-black edge was laced with crimson, like running blood, and yet its pure ebon composition was sorely lacking in elegance, as if the sword itself could not abide extraneous decoration of its form. The flames thrown off by the sword mixed with those surrounding Kaito himself, scorching the flowers at his feet to cinders. Like a manifestation of his very malice, they tainted the world wherever he touched. He looked just like a nefarious villain from a fairy tale. “…You’re really the embodiment of evil now,” I said. “Well, it was you who made me this way, don’t forget.” A shiver ran down my spine. I felt a psychological madness take hold. I wanted to kill the man before me, even if there was no reason to. It was a clear moment of weakness. For I was so much more powerful than he that I needn’t have bothered. Very well. If once wasn’t enough for you, allow me to put you in the ground again. “Oh, dear Lamnecia? I’m afraid a piece of dirty business has reared its ugly head once more.” “Oh, really?” Lamnecia looked over at me with a sense of unease. Oh, how could you? Look at how you’ve made my dear sister worry! I clutched my chest in an effort not to disturb her further with how I truly felt. “Yes, but you needn’t fret over it, dear sister. I shall take care of this. Nobody will ever hurt you again.” Steeling myself, I smiled at Lamnecia, attempting to set her mind at ease. “Please stay right there, my dear Lamnecia. I will have this finished very soon now. Just sit still and watch.” “Yes, Alicia. I will.” My words greatly soothed her worry, and Lamnecia beamed a sunny smile back. That was better. That was the Lamnecia I wanted to see. “Petals of Snow: Clear Bell.” The pavilion in which Lamnecia sat was immediately enveloped in a transparent bubble. Contrary to its delicate appearance, this barrier could weather almost any attack. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said, turning back to Kaito and descending the pavilion steps. As I walked, I pulled my sword from the ether. It was silver, with a narrow blade and a flowery, embellished handguard. I had created it using the power I stole from Lunaris, and it was surely the finest blade in all the land. Of course, it was attuned well to my own power and glowed a pale pink. “Finished playing with your doll, have you?” asked Kaito. “I see you haven’t yet abandoned that pathetic habit of hiding your fear with jokes,” I replied. “I suppose, on the inside, you’re still the same old miserable coward.” “And you haven’t changed either, still talking up a storm whenever you get annoyed. You’ve come a long way, but in some respects, you haven’t taken a single step, have you?” As I passed the last step, a gentle breeze swirled underfoot, scattering petals into the air. “Now, shall we settle once and for all who is greater than whom?” “Yeah. This is our last battle. I’m gonna enjoy these black flames until they burn me out completely.” There was no signal, no agreement, yet the two of us moved as one. Clanggg!! Our clashing blades stung my wrist, transmitting the impact to my rattling bones. My entire body screamed. Alicia didn’t look anywhere near sturdy enough to be capable of that kind of power. The weight of her presence must have been amplified by the divine power she wielded. Not to mention, the World Tree seeds from which she drew her strength were now scattered all across the world. Her power must have been superhuman. “Hup! Hah! Haah!!” “Rh! Raah!!” The lightning-fast clashing of our blades created a cacophony of metallic, throat-rending screams. Each time our weapons crossed, the power behind them was redirected outward, stripping the flowers at our feet of their color. “Tee-hee-hee. What’s wrong? Surely one graceful young lady can’t be giving you this much trouble.” “How long are you going to pretend like the nice-girl act hides even a scrap of your rotten core?” “Oh my! What a terrible thing to say to the princess of this land!” “Princess? What kind of princess leads her nation to ruin?” Each time our blades collided, the land was torn apart. Flowers were uprooted and ground overturned, exposing the black earth beneath. “I haven’t led anything to ruin,” Alicia remarked. “You’ve turned the people of this world into monsters, and you’re the biggest monster of all if you don’t realize that.” The black flames around my sword clashed with the pale pink glow of Alicia’s, each trying to devour the other’s light. After building up an unimaginable amount of pressure, it all released at once, pushing Alicia and me apart from each other. Alicia landed gracefully, as though she had suddenly sprouted wings. “Whatever do you mean by all this monster nonsense?” she asked, swishing her sword and casting me a venomous smile. “They have become glorious supporters of this earthly paradise. In many ways, they are more noble now than ever. What happier fate could there be on this earth?” Cast against her flowers, Alicia looked just like a painting. A portrait of a pure and innocent girl. If any human saw it, they would think her a thing of beauty. But I could never feel that way, because I knew the hateful witch who lurked beneath. “However,” she said, “I must say, I’m honestly impressed. I didn’t expect you to last this long against the power of a god.” “Hah. Well, technically, my powers are of divine origin, too. I think they can handle someone who only sucked up some phony goddess.” “Phony goddess? To say such a thing of your true benefactor, why, that is the very definition of ingratitude. The one who granted you your power is the real false god, misappropriating what they in turn were given!” “…Huh? Wait, you mean…you don’t know? …That explains a lot, I guess.” Alicia’s strange reply gave me pause. From the sound of it, it seemed like she wasn’t aware of the true relationship between the goddess of Earth, Lunaris, and Luna. It seemed likely that she thought of Luna as some kind of minor deity who had once served Lunaris, and she didn’t know about the other goddess at all. She could have been lying to trick me, I suppose, but there was no reason to at this stage. And besides, if she thought Lunaris was the only god around, that explained why she’d grown so lax after absorbing her. It would also explain why she hadn’t come after any of us when we teleported away. At that moment, she’d thought she’d already won. As everything pieced together in my mind, the princess saw my look of understanding, and her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by that?” she growled. “Well, it doesn’t matter,” I replied. “Maybe you know, and maybe you don’t. It doesn’t change anything.” “I don’t like the way you said that. Do you know something I don’t? Spit it out!” “Are you stupid? Why would I ever do something as dumb as that?!” The next moment, we were right in each other’s faces again. A loud ringing marked the meeting of our blades. “…In that case,” said Alicia, “I shall have to beat it out of you!” Alicia’s sword began to glow even brighter. Then, just like me with my flames, her whole body began to glow as well. I felt the weight behind her blade steadily grow. “I’d like to see you try!” As if in response to her arrogance, the black flames flickered and expanded, as if finally revealing their true, ravenous hunger. In terms of skill, I held the upper hand, but Alicia had raw power on her side. It was only due to the enhanced effects of Apostate Wroth that I was able to contend with her at all. The soul blade grew stronger in proportion to my anger, and any pain inflicted by my opponent was converted into strength. Furthermore, the black flames that surrounded me duplicated and strengthened my attacks and abilities, and these duplicates ignored the effects of any magical interference. By combining this effect with the Transcendent Blade of Translocation, I was able to teleport here in flagrance of Alicia’s barriers. However, once activated, these flames would not subside until my anger was appeased. In that time, they continued to roast my flesh. This was mitigated somewhat by my own defensive buffs, strengthened and duplicated by Apostate Wroth, and to some extent I could control the flames’ intensity, but it still meant I was in constant pain throughout the fight, and the more powerful the flames, the more it hurt. So I was cursed to kill the target of my anger, or else suffer eternal agony. “Die!!” I yelled. “Huh?!” “Tee-hee-hee! What’s the matter? Starting to panic?” Mere moments after our opening clash, the energy of the fight showed no signs of slowing down. I, however, was starting to realize I couldn’t keep it up forever. Tch… Looks like the brute force approach just isn’t going to work. My abilities had shot up as a result of taking the others into me, but it was clear that in terms of raw strength and speed, I was falling behind. “I ain’t panicking! I’m just enjoying it, that’s all! It’s no fun if I don’t give you a chance to fight back!!” “Even your dim-witted comebacks have less kick than usual… O, enveloping flower of fire. Petal of Cinder: Flanecia!” Our battle of fencing prowess steadily turned into an exchange of spells. The black flames transformed my abilities into tigers, dragons, bladed wheels, and hundreds of tiny shuriken that flew toward Alicia. However, the princess deflected them, blocked them, and sliced them up with focused bursts of conjured petals. My abilities could incinerate a dragon in a single hit, but Alicia made them look like child’s play, all the while effortlessly parrying the attacks I was going through so much pain to unleash. “Dance with blades! Petals of Swordsmanship: Flower Edge!” “Krh! Grh!” While I was still distracted by the petals confounding my moves, a blizzard of razor-edged petals attacked me. I couldn’t possibly defend against a million blades at once, and the petals left crimson scratches across my skin. “Oh, what’s the matter? Too fast for you to keep up?” “Ghah!!” An attack came from behind. A bundle of petals as weighty as a giant’s fist. It knocked me flat across the battlefield. “It looks like this is as far as you go,” said the princess, commanding the petals to float around her head. “No surprises there.” She looked down on where I had ground to a halt with a devious smile on her lips. “How brave of you to have come all this way only to meet such a piteous end. You truly are foolish…” “You’re the only fool here, Alicia… You really think I’d let it end now…?” I spat out the blood that had pooled in my mouth before commanding the black flames to heal my wounds. There was no way I could contend with Alicia at my current power level… Which meant I would have to make myself even stronger. “I’ve finally gotten used to the pain,” I said. “It’s time to begin round two.” “What do you… Ah!!” The fires across my body suddenly flared in intensity even more. “Grh! Krh!” It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. My eyes, my ears, my nose, my mouth, my arms, my legs, my throat, my chest, my gut. I thought the pain couldn’t possibly get any worse, but it did. It felt like my skin was being peeled from my muscles and flesh. And yet… “This is nothing compared to the agony I feel inside.” “Grh! Petals of— Agh!!” In a flash, I activated my powers of teleportation, strengthened by the effects of the black flames. Teleporting around in battle was usually infeasible because the technique required a lot of mana and mental effort to pull off. Alicia was no doubt fully aware of this, and that was why my attack had come as such a surprise to her. But although I had powered up my roundhouse kick as far as I possibly could, Alicia’s hastily constructed shield of petals still managed to absorb about half the blow. The remaining force of impact blew her backward, causing a role-reversed repeat of the events of only a few moments prior. “We can’t let it end here, Alicia. We’ve only just begun. You will die, and I will be the one to carry out your execution. That’s the contract I made with everyone I’ve met. Nothing you or anyone else can do will ever change that.” This smoldering feeling I always felt in my chest. It had to be fire. There was nothing else it could be. It was the fire that tormented my ears and never silenced. If it wanted my pain, I’d offer my pain. If it wanted sadness, I’d offer it sadness. If it wanted my life, I’d offer it my life. “Heh. Tee-hee-hee. It looks like I was right after all,” said Alicia, mud and blood splattered across her cheek. “You are not a human. You’re a thing wearing our skin. Beneath that disguise lies something utterly repulsive. I mean, just look—” On her face she wore a smile, but her eyes were as cold as toxic ice. “—You’re even beginning to burst at the seams.” Sure enough, the power of my dark flames had passed a threshold, significantly altering my appearance. Cracks ran across my skin like a blasted wasteland, and black fire spouted forth from those cracks, tinted crimson with my own blood. Feeding off me, those crimson flames moved as if they had a life of their own—almost as if they were the true beast that had been living inside me all along. But it didn’t bother me one bit. I’d cross any line necessary to achieve my goals. Losing my humanity once or twice was a drop in the ocean. “Hurgh… Let’s keep going.” “Now that you’ve shown your true nature, beast, it is time to exterminate you.” Alicia stood up and commanded her petals once more. Then an idea seemed to occur to her, and her lips curled upward. “…But what am I thinking?” she said. “To vanquish evil, any brave warrior needs a party, do they not?” With that, she plunged her sword into the ground, and a large magic circle spread out from it. Six pillars of light appeared before her, into which Alicia channeled her mana, pumping like blood. Then, with one final push, the light coalesced into six humanoid figures. “Ngrh… Hrgh? Where am I?” “…This doesn’t look like the royal castle…” “…This is not the beast lands. What is happening?” “Oh? Where am I? Soriy? Where are you?” “Mmgh… Gagarland…? Is it morning already?” “Hee-hee… What a pretty place this is…” I recognized them all. In that order, they were Gagarland, the warrior, Guidott, the knight commander, Leon, the fighter, Eumis, the spellcaster, Mimenya, the dancer, and Gordo, the assassin. They all seemed alarmed by their sudden manifestation, but each was dressed and equipped for battle. “Doesn’t this just take you back, ex-hero?” said Alicia with a smile. “It’s your former party, in the flesh!” “It sure does bring back memories.” I replied coldly. “If they were real, I don’t think I’d be able to control myself.” In front of me were the spitting images of six people who had chased me down in my previous life and brought it to a premature end. However, they were not my sworn enemies. They were just like Lamnecia—mere dolls recreated from Alicia’s memories. There was no trace of a soul inhabiting their hollow flesh. “I don’t know what’s happening here, but is this the foe we are to defeat, Princess?” “Any enemy of the state will be met with the full force of the royal knights.” “How the mighty have fallen, wretched hero. In the name of my land, I shall vanquish you.” “Ho-ho! Finally, I get to test out my skills on a real target!” “Oh… I don’t really mind one way or the other… But if Gagarland wants you to die, then I guess I do as well.” “As long as I get to examine his corpse. The body of an otherworlder will make for groundbreaking research!” My six ex-party members quickly got over their initial confusion and launched themselves at me in perfect coordination. “Gagarland Style: Thunderbolt!!” “Royal Blade: Radiant Slash!!” “Heavy Impact: Lion Strike!!” “Ho-ho! Assassin Arts: Shadow Fang!!” The four close-range fighters converged on me at once. “Out of my way!!” I shrank my Sword of Sin down to the form of a longsword while conjuring another identical soul blade in my left hand. With it, I parried Gagarland’s sword, coming from the left, while using my right to deflect Guidott’s attack, coming from straight ahead of me. The momentum from that deflected attack messed up Leon’s punch as he came at me from my right. Finally, for Gordo’s assault, directed at my unguarded back, I channeled mana into my leg and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick behind me, flinging him away. However, while I was busy with them, the two back-rank fighters, Mimenya and Eumis, unleashed the spells they had been preparing. “Lethal Step: Dust Dance!” “Lightning!!” One was a countless flurry of sand blades, the other several green thunderbolts. “Tch!!” I put up a wall of black flames, but it only succeeded in eliminating about half the projectiles, and the rest hit me directly. Luckily, my barrier had weakened them somewhat, but I still took a fair amount of damage. “Still,” I said. “Even if they’re just dolls, I can’t say they don’t get my blood boiling just a little bit. I mean, I never did finish getting revenge on some of them.” The dark flames surrounding me burned ever darker. “Tee-hee. Even if that makes you more powerful,” said Alicia, “I still have the upper hand. Isn’t it about time you bring out your little friends? Where have they been hiding all this time, I wonder?” It was obvious she was taunting me, assuming I was waiting to unleash some kind of ambush. Perhaps I was, in a sense, but she could look all she wanted, and she’d never find the accomplices she sought. “…Maybe you’re right,” I said. “This is getting a little too much for one man to handle. It’s time to let the others give me a hand.” I stuck my Swords of Sin into the ground, and the black flames around me grew stronger, coalescing into five shapes. The fire began to take humanoid form, before finally being sucked into the newly created bodies of Minnalis, Shuria, Leticia, Mai, and Metelia. “Phew. Ah, Master. It’s been a while.” “We’re back in the outside world!” “Ah, ’tis good to see the world again.” “And to be in our own bodies again.” “Tee-hee. Well, then, shall we uphold our new duties?” The five of them examined their newest surroundings. To anyone who didn’t know, it would have looked as though I’d teleported my five companions here in much the same manner as I had myself. However, blessed as she was with the divine powers she stole, Alicia saw what they really were. “Hee-hee-hee! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! I wondered why it was you came here alone, but now I see! You’ve absorbed your precious companions into yourself!!” “…” “What a horrid, contemptible, truly blasphemous deed!! Not only do you look like a spawn of hell; you practically are one! Ah, you couldn’t hope to match a goddess, so you resorted to cannibalism!! How truly horrifying!” Alicia said all this with a flowery grin. “Shut up,” I answered. “I don’t have time to listen to your preaching.” I picked up my swords and prepared to use them, while my partners in crime all turned to look at me. “Their souls,” I said, pointing at each one of them in turn, “are right there, and”—I pointed to my own heart—“in here.” “They’re not the same as your hollow dolls at all.” “…I don’t know what you mean,” Alicia replied. “I don’t care if you know what I mean. Let’s just get this battle going already.” With that, our fight resumed, made all the more explosive by the fact it was now six versus seven. It became a mad clash of perfect teamwork, more like a duel between two titans than a mass brawl. In group combat, a team had to move as one for maximum efficiency, covering one another’s backs and fulfilling a multitude of roles. The team had to act with one mind, and there was no better example of that than what both Alicia and I were doing with our parties at that moment. “I might have guessed the hero’s party would be tough,” said Leon. “This is the first time my fists have faced a real challenge.” “To think such powerful warriors escaped the kingdom’s notice for so long…” “They count the priestess and the demon lord among their ranks, though all five are formidable foes. Ho-ho-ho…” “Tch. They’re not as wimpy as they look, that’s fer damn sure. And what’s with that elf brat? Ain’t she your sister, Eumis?” “Has the muscle spread to your brain, Gagarland? Her hair and skin color are completely different. Besides, Shuria could never be this powerful…” “Hey, don’t make fun of my husband’s stupidity. That’s what’s so cute about him!” Our two teams were closely matched, but the battle was pitching in our favor. “That Leonid man is much weaker than he was when we fought,” noted Minnalis. “It must be because they are different people, recreated from Alicia’s memories,” said Metelia. “They seem to have been powered up, but that’s not enough,” said Leticia. “Well, I’m happy,” said Mai. “I only came to this world after Kaito had already slain many of his foes. I’m excited to fight them, even if they are only cheap copies.” “I’m happy, too!” said Shuria. “I can’t believe I get to kill Eumis all over again!” Our advantage was beginning to show on my team’s faces as well. “…” “Hah. What’s the matter? You look displeased.” “…I’m just realizing I may have made a slight error in judgment. I thought my divine warriors would be a little hardier than this.” “Your divine warriors? Is that what you’re calling these straw dolls? You must be out of your mind if you think we’re going to lose to them. None of them have their original souls—the thing that harbors a person’s growth, experience, and skills. You think a bunch of mashed-together fakes is going to beat us? Don’t make me laugh.” I shot her a venom-filled glare, but Alicia only tipped her head in confusion. “Oh? I think you’re misunderstanding something,” she said. “What?” “When I called them my divine warriors, that was no lie. Each of them has offered their body and souls to the goddess. They exist to create this divine sanctuary.” Alicia clasped her hands in prayer and began to explain. “…” “The fact they can fight is merely incidental. That is not their true purpose.” I thought my hate couldn’t get any wilder, but I was wrong. The look on Alicia’s face was one I had seen in my dreams again and again. It was a smile that captured the exact moment a flower opens its petals, releasing a sweet and sickly scent that captures all those who come near and drags them into a swamp of toxic nectar. A bright and colorful smile, tipped with poison. “You say they have no souls,” she went on, “but that simply isn’t true. They are imbued with one at the moment of their creation. It isn’t their soul, of course, but what can you do?” “That’s what you call a soul? It’s just a bunch of remnants, patched together.” There were indeed souls within Alicia’s dolls, but they were twisted and grotesque, unworthy of the name. They were not souls. They were rotten hearts forced to keep beating long after the life had left them. “I couldn’t care less what you call it. All that matters is it possesses the required energy.” Standing before me was the very same person who had knocked me into the pits of despair when I had been looking for a way back home. The very same smile as when she had cruelly thrust a knife into my hopes and dreams. A single flower, sucking the nutrients from all life in its vicinity. “And now,” she said, so full to the brim with venom it was beginning to leak out of her smile, “allow me to show you a glimpse of the perfect world we’ve created.” “Urgh! Wh-what the hell is happening to me?!” “I…feel weak. What have you done…Princess Alicia?” “Princess? What are you doing?” “Hoh?! My old bones…!” “I…I’ve never seen magic like this! I can’t…dispel it…!” “It hurts! My darling Gagarland, please save me…!” Suddenly, Alicia’s five thralls began writhing in pain as though they’d swallowed a deadly poison. Their bodies cracked like eggshells, expelling a glowing dust like hot steam. Each of them fell to their knees and began clawing at the scorched, barren soil. Then, like flowers crushed in a grip, they each disintegrated into some kind of pure energy. It was then that I saw it. “What is this?!” The sky was blinding white, and I heard from somewhere the rhythmic sound of ringing bells. It was a place I recognized, along with the terrifying feeling of being watched. It was the so-called “divine realm”—the passageway that connected this world with Earth. “Is this…heaven’s domain?!” Alicia’s very being roiled, like an asphyxiating fish given water. From a human, to a monster. From a monster to a god. Simply standing near her gave rise to an overwhelming pressure that threatened to crush my mind like a ripe fruit. Sweat dribbled down my neck, and even my partners in crime wore grim frowns, despite the fact that as temporary vessels formed of my mana, they should have been safe from any physiological effects. “Tee-hee-hee-hee! Welcome! Welcome to my—to our—Utopia! You gaze upon a perfect world, where only that which pleases Lamnecia and myself may exist!” Before I knew it, the environment had transformed itself into a perfect replica of the garden where our prior battle had taken place. Off in the distance, I spotted a castle that resembled the royal palace. However, it didn’t feel the same. It didn’t feel real at all. It was all too perfect, too…manufactured. As if it would always look the same way, no matter how many ages came and went. Unending. Unchanging. Eternal. As if plucked straight from Alicia’s damaged mind and made real. And the one in control of that realm… “Does it meet with your satisfaction, my dear Lamnecia?” “Yes. What pretty flowers. I love it, Alicia. Thank you.” “You’re welcome, my dear Lamnecia.” Before I knew it, Alicia was over by her doll’s side, a blithe smile plastered across her lips. It was as though she’d completely forgotten the rest of us were here. Without any word from me, the six of us launched ourselves at her in attack, but just as I tried to move… “Urgh…!!” I felt an enormous pressure, like I was rooted to the spot. What’s happening…? I fell to one knee and could only watch as the fight unfolded. “Anemol Arsenal: Wind Cutter!!” “Intoxicating Phantasm: Venomblaze Sword!!” “Puppet Possession: Rust Armor!! Quintuple Slash!!” “Hellfire Blaze: Flaming Wheels!!” “Sparking Glacier: Verse of Chains!!” The other five pushed through the immense force and closed in on Alicia. At that moment, I saw her turn to me and flash me a malicious smile. “Oh, won’t someone silence these wretched flies?” Then, a flick of her wrist, as though she really were dealing with nothing more than a swarm of insects. “Grh!” “Eep!” “Nrgh!” “Gah!” “Eek!” Alicia’s simple gesture utterly annihilated the oncoming spells and threw their casters against the ground. “…Alicia…!!” I grunted. Most likely, she had incapacitated me only so that I could watch. “Tee-hee-hee! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Oh, how pathetic! You’re like a bunch of pitiful worms! Where has all your fire gone?” Alicia chortled loudly, as though she could hold it in no longer. “People like you are precisely what make this world so wretched and miserable,” she said. “You only have to lift a stone to find more of you wriggling around beneath. It’s far too much trouble to stamp you all out one by one, which is why I’ve decided there won’t be any of you in my new world.” “Wh-what do you mean by that…?” I could only imagine one outcome that meshed with what Alicia was saying. “You mean…you’re going to remake this world from scratch…?” “Precisely,” said Alicia with a grin. She surely didn’t mean it in a “rebuild society from the ashes” kind of sense. She could have done that with the power of the World Tree seeds alone. “With all this power at my disposal, it would be foolish of me not to,” said Alicia matter-of-factly. “I shall break down this world and rearrange its parts to create a new one, leaving you insects to wallow amidst the dregs.” In other words, she was planning to drain as much power as she could from this world, and bring it here, to her so-called “divine realm,” to live out her fantasy alone. “…Ha… Ha-ha…” A hollow laugh escaped my lips. I couldn’t bring myself to care about Alicia’s dumb plan. All I could think about was completing my revenge. Still, I was awed, in a sense. Alicia had betrayed me, betrayed her goddess, betrayed her country, and now, she was betraying the world. “At least,” Alicia went on, “that was what I originally planned to do…but perhaps it would be better to exterminate the lot of you right here and now.” With that, Alicia passed her judgment. “Urgh!” “Er…gh…” “Grh!” “Ah!” “Krgh!” My companions were immediately crushed beneath an unbearable force, like that of an industrial press. They groaned in agony, pinned under a weight made only to inflict suffering. My partners in crime turned to me and stared, but I was still unable to move. They were minds without bodies. Will without life. And yet, when I saw them all trying to hide their pain from me, I felt an ache in my heart I was supposed to have forgotten. When I beheld their final moments, I felt tears in my eyes where I thought there was only hate. Each of them dissolved into black flames and returned inside me. And with them, their pain. ““““Aaaagh! Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate!!””””” Five people’s rage recombined within me. Five girls’ immoral joy, putting an immediate end to any other sentiment. One final consolation on the verge of my death. But Alicia couldn’t even allow that sweet moment to pass untainted by her venomous words. “Now, it is time to end this,” she said. “My long nightmare is finally over, and I can awake into a world of pure light.” She spread her arms and took a single step forward. “What shall the final words of this wretched tale be, my dear ex-hero?” Her smile was one I had seen so many times before. “Oh, I don’t know…,” I replied. “It’s been so long…” The outlook was dire. The thing before me looked like a person, but it was something that transcended the very framework of our reality. “Ever since this second world began,” I said. “I’ve been dreaming of how I would kill you.” I knew. I had always known. The path I walked was a dangerous one, and my enemy was far mightier than any I had ever faced. She was pure malice given form. “It’s strange,” I said. “I tried to give up once. I resorted to these horrible means and yet… Ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” I always knew she would come after me, an evil sneer across her lips, and try to extinguish me completely. I couldn’t stop laughing. “Oh my, have you broken at last? I suppose we can’t expect much from a miserable worm.” Alicia snapped her fingers, and an enormous flower appeared behind her, pure white but wrapped in a golden glow like sunlight. Silver light began gathering at the flower’s center. “What should I do, Alicia? I’ve fallen so far, and it’s still not enough. I can’t stop laughing. People gave their lives so that I could go on, and the only thing I can do is laugh.” “Oh dear! Looks like you’ve finally realized how miserable and pathetic you are! Well done!” Alicia smiled and clapped her hands in mock applause. “Unfortunately, it’s time to erase you from my sight…permanently.” With that, the flower unleashed its charged energy, a devastating laser beam that torched the air and dust. I was in Alicia’s world now. “Ghuh…” The laser burned a gaping hole through my stomach, disemboweling me and causing the black flames to snuff out immediately. My eyesight blurred, the strength left me, and I collapsed onto my back, defeated. “Tee-hee! Tee-hee-hee!! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I did it! I did it! I finally exterminated that rotten, oversize pest!” Alicia’s laughter rattled amid a world of silence. “Oh! I’d forgotten how good it feels! I thought my dear sister was all I needed to escape my painful past, but I should have done this a long time ago! Don’t you agree, my dear Lamnecia?” “I’m not sure what happened, but if you’re happy, Alicia, then I’m happy.” “Now that that’s done with, we must expand this beautiful world. You may have anything your heart desires, my dear sister. Tell me, where shall we beg—” “…Fire burns even the hovering hand.” The words fell from my lips like fire. “…Oh dear. Have you not realized yet how utterly futile your predicament is? I would much rather not listen to the crippled buzzing of a dying fly.” The pain was unbearable. It had crossed that point a long time ago. The black flames flared up once more, filling the hole in my stomach, substituting and reknitting my flesh and blood. “Let my pain burn the heavens. Let my grief burn the earth.” Alicia had absorbed a goddess. A false goddess, but a goddess nonetheless. I had known from the very beginning that once she went all out, it would be over. And so, everything that had happened…was exactly how I had planned it. “You don’t know when to give up, do you? This time, I shall scorch your entire body to ash, so that not even a speck remains. Please take shelter inside the castle, my dear Lamnecia. Once I finish exterminating this pest, we can take a nap together.” Alicia snapped her fingers, and Lamnecia was teleported away in a flash of light, while dozens of flowers just like the first appeared in the sky. “When we seek ever more, even past the point of no return.” It was the flames of my pain, of my anger, that fueled my powers. And the technique I wanted to unleash required far more than I could generate on my own. So yes. Everything to this point was exactly how I had planned it. I had planned to summon my partners in crime and watch them die in agony. Because the condition to activate this power… …was to be killed by the target of my hatred seven times. Leticia. Minnalis. Shuria. Metelia. Mai. Sixth, my death just now, and lastly, the one that began my second chance at life. I had tasted the pain of death seven times by now. Each of them by Alicia’s hand. “Whatever trick you’re concealing up your filthy sleeve, it won’t be enough,” she said. “Even with all the power of this earth combined, you cannot strike back at a being of heaven.” After the black flames finished regenerating my missing organs, they cloaked me in fire once more. Alicia had no intent to leave a single part of me alive this time. Her flowers hung in the air, each brimming with far more energy than the first, waiting to be released. “The road I came, my very being. The fire takes all and hands down its judgment.” “Disappear, you pest. Entirely, this time.” “Come now, and deliver your verdict. Sin’s Day of Fire.” The moment Alicia unleashed her spell, I uttered the final word of my chant. As Alicia’s many lasers converged into one, the flames surrounding my body reignited, transforming into hard, clear crystal. When the two collided, the laser emitted a sound like shattering glass and burst alight. The fires worked their way backward to the flowers, too, engulfing them in black flames. “Wh-what?! Why?!” “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.” “K…krgh!!” Faster than the eye could blink, I was by Alicia’s side, the tip of my blade lodged in her horrid heart. “Finally, the time has come to complete my oath. To destroy you.” I plunged my sword again and again. Ten million times in the blink of an eye. Yet still the black flames consumed my mind, never allowing me to grow accustomed to their presence. An intoxicating joy dribbled into my brain, like droplets of acid that burned whatever they touched. Alicia, meanwhile, looked unperturbed as she gazed down at the sword in her chest. “Hee-hee-hee,” she giggled. “I’m afraid that’s impossible.” She grinned. “Let me tell you something,” she said. “Becoming a god comes with the power of resurrection. I cannot die, no matter how many dirty rats like you scratch at me with their filthy claws.” “And let me tell you something,” I replied. “There’s a downside to eternal life. I’ll show you what living in eternal hell is like.” The battle was already over. All the preparations were complete. From here on out, there was only one thing to do… “Come, Alicia! The final piece has fallen into place! Let me show you the hell we’ve been living in!!” It was time for vengeance. “Grh?!” The sword lodged in Alicia’s heart suddenly glowed black, and then, she exploded. However, the blasted parts of her body turned into flower petals and re-formed, making her whole once more. “Tee-hee-hee. Didn’t I tell you? It’s no use. I can re-form myself as many times as I desire! You cannot kill a god!” “…” “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! You tried so hard, too! What a shame! But I suppose that’s all a miserable little worm is capable of!” Alicia resumed her laughter. “I see you were able to destroy my flowers with those black flames, but I don’t see them around anymore. Are you all done already? Talked such a big game and that’s all you can manage? Wake up, fool. You’re on your last legs, and you haven’t a drop of mana left!” An ecstatic smile spread across her lips. “Now, let’s try that again, with a little more power behind it this time. It may put a strain on this new world of mine, but pain is temporary, as they say…and yours shall be very brief indeed. Don’t you want to say thank-you? Ah-ha-ha-ha—” “…You really think that?” I said, interrupting her laughter. “You really think a god can’t be killed?” “Of course not,” she said, a little peeved at my interruption but still with a gloating look in her eye. “I am—” “You think you’re the top of the food chain?” “Ten million. Does your feeble brain know what this number means?” “Yeah. It’s the number of lives you have left.” “Grh! Q-quite right. It is the number of sentient beings my seeds have infected, and as a result the number of lives I may draw upon. All of mankind, nothing more than livestock to be—” “So?” “What?” “All you’re saying is you can be killed. I just have to do it ten million times.” “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! You really think that’s possible? Look at you, on the verge of death! Even your last dirty trick only managed to scratch the surface of that number! How would you even begin to accomplish such a futile task? Oh, I know! You must be so ridden with despair that all you can do is retreat into your world of fantasy, is that right? Oh, what a pathetic—Guh!!” Alicia’s words were suddenly cut short. To her, it must surely have come as quite a surprise, because without any word or gesture from me, a toxic purple crystal burst from her chest. “I thought I told you already,” I said, unable to hold back a grin. “The final piece has fallen into place.” I silently smiled, heralding the beginning of the end. “Wh…whatever manner of trick you used, I told you, it won’t—Ghah!!” After the purple crystal fulfilled its purpose, it vanished, but while Alicia hurried to fix her wound, dozens of metal stakes suddenly appeared, filling her full of holes. When these vanished, Alicia quickly healed herself back up again, like some awful slapstick comedy sketch. “Wh-what have you done?! Explain yourself! This is the world I created! You should not be able to penetrate my defenses so—Aagh!!” I finally got to see Alicia bewildered, and then she was engulfed in fire this time, and her beautiful skin charred black in an instant. As I watched her turn into a lump of coal, I felt as though I was watching a highly amusing play. “Haah! Haah…haah…haah…” Alicia’s head was the first part of her to be remade, and she immediately began panting heavily. “You have been judged,” I said, “by Sin’s Day of Fire. You’ll face the wrath of my partners in crime for every wound you inflicted on them.” “Your partners…in crime…?” “Yes. Every last one…of the ten million partners I’ve recruited while you were making this perfect world of yours!!” Ever since the fires of passion stirred my body once more, I had been walking, collecting. While Alicia had been spreading her seeds, populating this world with her clones, I had scoured the continent, listening to the screams of grief and hate. My soul blade, Apostate Wroth, was based on the Holy Sword of Vengeance, and possessed upgraded versions of its effects. Using that power, I acquired the wrath of all those turned into monsters against their will. And now, at last, the final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. “Watch!” I cried. “Watch what happens when you abandon a world and leave it to die!” I flung my arms wide, and a rift opened in the sky behind me, revealing an enormous television screen. The monitor showed an endless crowd of the princess’s clones, with an empty ring at the center, where stood a single glassy-eyed Alicia opposite a second copy of myself. I had created this other self to act as judge, jury, and executioner in the events to come. The Alicias, meanwhile, were made when Alicia implanted the World Tree seeds into the people of this land. They were the innocent, yet horribly transfigured civilians who made up all ten million of the princess’s extra lives. “You tied your life to these people!” I explained. “And now, each time one of them dies, you’ll feel the same pain they feel! I’m going to take my time making sure each and every one of you meets a dark and grisly end!” The fine line I had walked throughout the battle had finally culminated in this moment. “Oh, well done, you sniveling worm! I suppose you want a medal for this—Gblaaargh!!” The princess’s words were cut messily short as she was suddenly flattened into chunks of meat. On the other side of the screen, my other self had just squashed the Alicia clone with a massive hammer. After a few seconds, the princess’s body came together and re-formed, like a video played in reverse. “…Ghah! Gh… Haah…haah…haah…” “Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that the target of this ability cannot interfere with the judgment in any way. Until the trial is over, you won’t be able to resist…or die.” “You think there is power in this land that can stand up to the might of a god?!” “I don’t just think it—I know it. This power writes that stipulation into the natural laws of the world. Even a god can’t interfere until my vengeance is complete.” The princess glared red-hot daggers at me. “…I’ll kill you,” she said. “Yes… I was wrong. I should never have left you alone… I ought to have—Ghah!—crushed you like the bug you are…!” The next death was a simple skewering of the heart. Dozens of blades stuck out of the clone like a pincushion, leaking crimson blood onto the floor. “Ten million… You may be able to hurt me with this technique, but you can never truly harm me!” “…” Beaten to her knees, the princess glared at me with seething hatred. Ah, that face. That’s the face you deserve after what you’ve done, Alicia. “You had better enjoy yourself while you can, maggot. Once this power wears off, I’ll reduce you…and this entire continent to ash!!” “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! See, you get it now, don’t you, Alicia?! This is our final game!! A game of killing and killing until all the clones I’ve contracted are gone! A game which will reduce you to a crying, sniveling mess!!” With a dramatic sweep of my arms, I snapped my fingers. “Grh… What now…?” Behind Alicia appeared a giant cross which expelled blazing black chains, snatching Alicia’s wrists and ankles and binding her to the crucifix. Then the air behind the cross shimmered with heat, and an enormous titan of fire stepped out of the ether, gazing down upon Alicia with the watchful look of a prison guard. “GROOOOOAGH…” The giant possessed hollow, sunken eyes of crimson flame and a suit of armor stained red like blood. Its breath sounded like the wails of vengeful spirits trapped deep beneath the ground. Seven orbs floated above its back like balloons, each one displaying a face twisted in hate. A demon. A demon of such hate that it was reflected in his very appearance. An obsessive fiend so imposing, it was like the embodiment of hell itself. “Now, sit and watch as my clone wreaks havoc upon your other selves out there! Of course, I won’t be resting on my laurels, either. I think I’ll summon some of them here and have a little fun myself!” “Argh… Urgh…” I grabbed one of the Alicia clones I’d summoned and swept her legs, causing her to fall face-first onto the ground. “Gaff!!” Laughing hysterically, I stomped on the head of the Alicia that lay at my feet. “I’m going to enjoy killing each and every one of you, and I’m not going to stop until I’ve had my fill! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” Laughing, laughing, laughing. Endless laughter filled my head, enough to make me giddy. To kill someone ten million times. Just saying it aloud really drove home how absurd an act it was, yet it was also a thing of sublime beauty. “Grh… Ghah…!” “Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha-ha!” How many Alicias had I slain by now? I was losing track of time, but it had to have taken me at least a month. Including the one right here with the real Alicia, there were ten of me carrying out my dark task across the continent. I had created them using my ability, and I shared my senses with all of them. Which meant… I got to kill Alicia by submerging her scar-ridden body in a vat of sulfuric acid. I got to kill her by tossing her into boiling magma. I got to kill her by grinding her body to dust beneath a heavy boulder. I got to kill her by chopping her to pieces. I got to kill her by chaining her up and ripping off her limbs. I got to kill her by placing her into a vacuum and waiting until she suffocated. I got to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill… “A…gh! Grh… Aaagh!!” “Haa-ha-ha-hah-haah! Ahah-hah-ha-ha-hah! Ah-ha-hahh-hah!!” Every few seconds, the Alicia up on the crucifix would relive the pain of death, suffering an identical fate before being resurrected by her divine powers. Ten million lives. Enough for each of my ten selves to kill one Alicia every thirty seconds for almost an entire year. Until my judgment was complete, I was immune to restrictions of the flesh, while Alicia was bound with no hope for escape. That meant I could continue this mind-melting feast without needing to sleep and without being interrupted. “Isn’t this fun, Alicia?! All the ideas I’ve concocted, I don’t need to pick just one! I can try each and every one! Are you having fun yet?!” “Haah…haah… Graaagh!! Die, die, diiie!!” The look in Alicia’s eyes was that of a crazed wolf, baring its fangs. Simply looking at her filled me with such twisted pleasure, like opium injected directly into my heart. “Ha-ha!” I was on some kind of high; even I could tell that. My power made it so that my body was always in peak physical condition, disregarding the requirements for food, water, and sleep. Not a day had gone by where I hadn’t dreamed of this moment, and now that it was here, I was so excited I just couldn’t stop myself. I could go on killing and killing forever, without a care, and it would never get old. “I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you—Gaaaghhh!! I’ll…I’ll kill you!!” I never thought the day would come that Alicia’s vile voice would sound like music to my ears. Even if it was merely of Alicia’s making, this place was divine territory. It was not somewhere ordinary mortals could tread. Plus, the experience of even one death was enough to shatter any normal mind. Those who could keep hold of their sanity in such circumstances were the crazy ones, while those who lost it could no longer be called human. There was nobody here but us monsters. “What should I do next? How about the death by insects that Minnalis cooked up?” I summoned another Alicia and, transforming my dark flames into maggots, poured them down her throat. “Grgh… Gagh… Can’t…breathe…!!” “Oh, can you not? I wonder if that’s because the maggots have eaten away your lungs?” I couldn’t help but smile, watching her writhe around on the ground like that. I felt the hateful glare of the real Alicia, and thanked my lucky stars that her mind would never break until it was done. With her powers sealed off until the judgment was over, there was no way Alicia could tell what this ability was really doing. Perhaps she thought that its purpose was to make her feel the same pain her dying clones felt, and that was all. This torture was set to last for a year at this rate. Surely Alicia would figure it out before then. And if she did, then perhaps she would realize just what it was I planned to take from her in the end. “Khuh… Kkh…” “Die.” “Urgeeegh!!” The worm-eaten Alicia clone breathed its last. Its fate was reflected in the original, and a torrent of maggots flowed from Alicia’s mouth, leaving only her empty skin, its contents devoured, deflated and sagging like an old plastic bag. Then, after a few seconds in which Alicia felt all the pain of a long, drawn-out death, her body began to regenerate once more. “It’s just amazing!” I cried. “Even I’m surprised! A whole month of doing this, and it never gets boring! In fact, it’s only getting more and more fun!” I summoned another Alicia and began stabbing her with my sword, over and over and over again. “Even if I do it…the same way, it just gets better…and better…every time!” “Agh! Ghah! Ghh! Gah! Agh! Gggghhh!” “AH-hah-HA-HaH-Ha-Ha!!” Thicker. Deeper. Hotter. The slaughter never ended. Death is normally accompanied by an unbearable pain. It feels like the borders of your reality crumbling into dust. It feels like being incinerated and frostbitten at opposite ends. If I were still the delicate young princess of the Orollea Kingdom, the pain would have broken me a long time ago. “Hm-hm-hm! Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm!” “Guagagaggagaagagag…” Humming, the repulsive man before me drove burning metal rods down the throat of one of my clones. Forced to watch this horrible sight, my mind raced in search of a way out, but I could see no way of opposing the man’s strange ability. He truly did draw his powers from the divine, as he claimed. “Gaggh!!” I could only watch as the man broke another one of me. On one of the nine screens that filled the sky, I watched as another clone was force-fed poison until her skin turned purple and blotchy and she collapsed. A few seconds later, I experienced her death for myself, distilled into a single moment. It felt like my entire body was being impaled by spikes. My guts, my bones, my flesh, my skin. “GggaggaaGagagGAg!!” I may have become a god, but that didn’t mean I no longer felt the sensations of the flesh. From my mouth came tortured cries, completely disconnected from the workings of my brain. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt. “Gaah! Haah…haah…haah…” “A-Ha-hah-Aha-haah-Ah!! Oh, that’s so good! Let’s see you keep suffering, Alicia!!” The man cackled endlessly like a broken toy. I knew my pain only amused him further, but I couldn’t hold back my screams. “I’ll kill you… I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill yoooou!!” What was pain but another trial to overcome? This was nothing compared to the pain I had felt when I’d lost my dear Lamnecia. Laugh while you can, you rotten man. You really think ten million deaths will be enough to slay a god?! It was true that I could drain the life of one of my clones in order to restore my own. However, they were not my only source of immortality. I had selected a few specimens who caught my eye and absorbed them into myself to act as the basis for a new race of humans who would support Lamnecia and me in the new world. So it didn’t matter how many of these clones he’d contracted; in the end, I would have the last laugh. At the current rate of progress, I would have to put up with this bothersome farce for a whole year in total. I knew that maggot had not lied, as no lie can deceive a god. Gods knew many things that ordinary mortals did not. And so, I knew that once this detestable trial was over and all my clones exhausted, his power over me would end. When that happens, I will call upon all my divine might to put him through a living hell!! Creating this world had blinded me to the limitations of my divine powers. That hubris of mine was to blame for my current predicament. If I had summoned all my strength from the beginning, instead of playing games, this farce would already be over. I’m sure he thinks that my mind will break before this torture is through. Ah-ha-ha-ha! But I’ll endure it… Oh, I’ll endure it… I glanced at the royal castle in the distance. There, Lamnecia was waiting for me to return. I had a goal. All I needed to do was endure. Compared to my days lost in despair, not knowing what I should do, ready to give up and hurl myself from the parapets…my current situation was a blessing. Once I get out of here, I’ll kill that man and secure a peaceful future for Lamnecia and me! “AAagaGAgagAGGAgagaGaGa!” Blood, hate, and humiliation swirled in my veins as I bided my time, waiting for the moment to strike. Another three months passed, and eight months remained. “Aggaaaaaggaaaaagaaa!!” “Ha-ha! Die, die! Let me hear your screams, you miserable woman!!” There was little to no change in Alicia’s condition. Her screams could be heard all across the continent. Killing 24/7 made the days blur together, but while I could no longer track the passage of time, I never forgot how many of her I had killed. The end of this feast was a long way off yet. Another three months passed, and five months remained. “I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you I’ll kill you…” “Yes, yes, that’s the spirit, Alicia! Oh, I want to take it gently, but when I think about how we’re already past halfway, I just get so angry that I can’t help myself!” Alicia seemed to have grown used to constantly dying every three seconds, because her screams were quieter now. However, that only left her with more time to foster the hatred in her heart, and there was nothing that brought me more joy than getting to tread on a person who looked at me like that. Another three months passed, and two months remained. “Hggggggghhh!! You swine!! Agaggggh!!” “Hm-hm-hm! Heh-heh-heh! Oh, music to my ears once more, Princess!” It was only natural that dying so many times would dull the senses, but I couldn’t have that dampening my long-awaited revenge. That was why I cast Sense Up and Pain Up enchantments on the princess. Her screams became sweet melodies once more, and soon enough, the end of my long road of vengeance came into view. The final two months came and went, leaving… “Well, here we are, Princess.” “Haah…haah…haah…haah…” The screams that had become my constant accompaniment these past twelve months were finally silent. “It’s finally over. Finally over.” I thought back over all the things I’d done on my long journey. “Here we are at last. The last one of your wretched clones.” The monitors that showed what was happening all across the continent were gone. The last of Alicia’s glassy-eyed simulacra stood in front of me. I slowly conjured Apostate Wroth, in its greatsword form. Its black flames burned hot enough to melt the rocks in hell. I plunged the blade into the heart of the doll, which showed so little reaction it may as well have not been alive. “Agh… Grh…” The flames spread from the wound, crackling as they burned Alicia’s flesh to coal from the inside out. “During this second life of mine, I lived only for revenge,” I explained. “Any righteous words about the futility of my actions only made me want to puke. You understand, don’t you? How could I forgive and forget after what happened to me?” “It burns… It buuurns!” Ever so slightly, the fires picked up, growing in intensity. “So suffer, Alicia. Why are you smiling? Die. Why are you living? You think I’ll let you’ll get away with it? Even when I wavered. Even when I was about to give up…I never forgot what you did to me.” “It burns! Aaagh! It burns!!” The flames built and built until Alicia was a burning pyre. “Now burn to ash.” “…h…ah…h…” Her skin cooked, her flesh black, Alicia’s final fake crumbled into dust. Then, a few seconds later, the Alicia on the cross burst alight. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaghh!!” An enormous gash appeared in her chest, and black flames spread from it, covering every inch of her in fire. After the screams died down at last, Alicia’s body re-formed on the cross. “…Heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha-ha! I did it! I survived! I survived it all!!” Her voice was quiet at first, but soon rang out across our arena. However… “Ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha…ha…” As soon as she realized she was still stuck to the cross, her laughter died down. “Did you trick me? Trick a god? No, that’s not possible… But how?” She was confused, just as I expected she would be. “I’m sorry you don’t seem to understand,” I answered, “but I never lied. I mean, you can’t lie to a god, can you? No…I’m afraid the truth is…we’re not finished yet.” I’d had my fill torturing Alicia physically. It was long and enjoyable, but I was satisfied. It was time to move on to the next stage. To kill her mentally. And it was time to show her just what I’d prepared in order to do that. “Out of all my contractees,” I explained, “your clones have been exhausted.” Come on, Alicia. Did you really think I’d be happy just torturing you to death? “…There’s only one more person left.” “…No…” I put up a barrier around myself and summoned my final assistant. “Lamnecia!!” It was Alicia’s favorite doll, her one and only elder sister. Then, there was a metallic crack, as the fiery chains binding Alicia to the cross burst open. I felt it would make Alicia’s reaction all the sweeter if she was allowed to move freely. “Lamnecia!! You rotten worm! Unhand her!! Unhand her right now!!” Alicia stumbled over her own feet, crawling on her front toward the barrier. It was exactly the reaction I’d hoped for. “Hmm? Where am I…?” Lamnecia asked. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! As I’m sure you’ve guessed, she’s my final contractee! Or, to be precise, five of the human souls you stuffed her with are!!” To bring her dead sister back, Alicia had used a thousand human souls. My contract was made with just a small fraction of them. That was all I could get away with behind Alicia’s back, but it was more than enough for my needs. “When did you—Agh!!” “The moment I activated this ability,” I replied. “When I impaled you with my sword, I created a path through you.” That was the final thing I needed. This doll, into which Alicia had poured so many of her hopes and dreams. “You maggot!!” Alicia pounded her clenched fists against the barrier, while glaring at me with more venom in her eyes than I had ever seen before. My spine tingled with excitement. “So have you noticed it yet?” I asked. “Shut up! Just let her go!!” It looked like she didn’t. Ignorant to the very end. In that case, I needed to spoil the surprise. I couldn’t keep this to myself any longer. I wanted to see how she looked, overcome with fear. “I’ve been saying it from the very beginning,” I explained. “This ability of mine will pass judgment on you. That means it will decide your crimes and punish you, appeasing the hate of all those you’ve wronged. Look behind you—don’t you see them? The people who hate you. Souls driven to madness by your mere existence!” “What?!” I pointed over Alicia’s shoulder, at the dark, fiery titan that been watching Alicia’s deaths over the past year. “Eek!” It stood there as imposingly as ever, not having ever moved a muscle since the trial began. But it looked different now. All across the titan’s body, armor, and the seven spheres at its back…were faces. The haunted visages of vengeful ghosts, too many to count. Ten million souls, all merged with the demonic giant. “Agh… Gh…!” “Do you get it yet? Back there are the souls of my partners in crime: every last person whose life you stole to revive yourself!” Souls ruled by instinct and fear, boiled and concentrated into a living curse. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Now, let’s put them to rest! Let’s give them what they want! We’ll take away everything you love, Alicia! Destroy it all and plunge you into despair!!” I raised my greatsword high, ready to dish out my final judgment. “No! Stopppp!!” “And there, you’ll die.” “Guph…!!” I brought my sword down upon Alicia’s favorite doll, who burst like a wet balloon, just like Alicia’s clones when I’d killed them with my hammer. The only difference was that this time, the doll contained many lives, not just one. “Agh…It huuurts… Alicia, it huuurts…” It was a truly grotesque sight, watching her moan as her body stitched itself back together. She was only a doll, but I guessed she could revive herself another ten times or so. “You…! You, you…stinking maggot!! I won’t allow you to get away with this!!” “Oh, but you will, Alicia! You won’t have a choice! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!” I laughed and laughed and laughed. While the laughter eclipsed my words, the newly re-formed doll began to burn. “Gaaaaaaaagh!!” “You will be judged! You’ll have to bear the very same burden you made all of us bear! And you’ll be happy with it! You’ll beg for it!” “What do you—Aghhh!” As before, my ability let Alicia relive the same death her creation experienced. “Once I use the power of my soul blade, you’ll have a…shall we say, change of heart?” “Ur…gh… Wh…what…?” Now that she was no longer bound to the cross, Alicia had to support her own weight, and the burden of death made her fall to her knees. All I saw in her glare was confusion. She still failed to comprehend the meaning behind my words. “Are you stupid or something?” I jeered. “I mean, your feelings are going to be mine to command.” I slowed my speech, like I was talking to a particularly thickheaded child. “The things you like will become things you dislike. The things you admire will become things you despise. And the things you love…” I was laughing, laughing, laughing. Come on, Alicia. Do you see it yet? “…will become things you hate. Yes, even her.” The spindly hand of death, coming to drag you into the grave. “Wh-what?! That’s impossible!” “Now, it’s time for my last contractees to pass their judgment. Count down with me, Alicia! Three!” “It huuuuurts… Aghhh… Gah!!” I sliced the doll’s body to ribbons once more. “S-stop it… Stop it!!” “Two!!” Each time the doll was resurrected, I destroyed her again. Each time, the count went down by one. Each time, Alicia’s face turned a little paler. What a lovely face it was. “No… No… No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!” “One!!” I was down to the last. I made sure to take it slow. “Please… I’m sorry… I’m sorry. Please, find it in your heart to forgive… I don’t want this!” “Nope! Sorry!! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Gazing upon the wonderful sight of Alicia’s tear-stricken face, I swung my sword down one final time. “Gph…” Cleft straight down the middle from the force of my strike, the two halves of Alicia’s doll fell to each side. This time, however, the death didn’t flow back to Alicia. Instead… “:okert$WOWEo;fw;EftjWeFTGj:G;ekrgAT:l:kFEKL:r” From behind her came a growl as if from the depths of hell itself. Like a raw curse, impossible to put into words, delivered as if by multiple voices, mingled together. Then like bubbles atop a pool of boiling mud, the vengeful specters freed themselves from the giant’s fiery surface and descended upon Alicia. “Noooooooooooooooo!!” After the crowd swarmed her, all I could hear was a relentless chewing. But the souls lacked bodies, and so not a single wound appeared on Alicia’s skin. Nonetheless, those spirits were taking something from her. “Agh… Ah… Stop… Stop, stop, stop!! I’m disappearing! That’s…me! That’s meeee!” Alicia immediately began floundering, flailing her arms and legs wildly as if she was drowning, but it did nothing to abate the flames of hate. “Give it…back! Oh, why did I—No!—Why did I kill you?—No! That’s fine!—No it’s not!” “Heh-heh-heh-heh! Everything about you is going to be rewritten! Everything you did, everything you worked so hard to accomplish, all of it will be reversed in your mind! There won’t be a single event left in your sorry life that you won’t hate! Now, fall! Fall! Fall so deeply into hell that you can’t even breathe and drown there!!” “NOOOOOOOOOOO!! My head… It’s breaking…!!” “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” I couldn’t stop laughing amid the music of Alicia’s screams. “Aah… Agh… Gh… Ah…” After what could have been a second or an eternity, the souls flooding into Alicia like a raging torrent finally calmed down. The princess was enveloped in the hate of those vengeful spirits, still crying out in anger, unable to be contained. “Now, Alicia,” I said. “It’s time to pay.” I let down my barrier and turned to Alicia, whose senses of joy, hate, and morality I had utterly rewritten…and tossed before her the doll she had sacrificed the entire world to be with. “This is everything you dreamed of—” I said. “Gh… Agh… Ali…cia…?” The doll began crawling toward Alicia, crying out in pain. The princess, however, looked like she was about to snap. Her eyes quivered and went out of focus, and she shivered violently, taking short, rapid breaths, as if desperately trying to hold herself back. “—I want to see you destroy it with your own hands.” It was all over in a moment. “WRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!” “Kh…?!” Alicia unleashed a bestial howl and plunged her hands into Lamnecia’s chest. “Why…Alicia…? It hurts…” “DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!” She couldn’t even tell who she was killing anymore. “Aghhh! Gaaagh! Why do you live?! Aaaaaaaaahhh!” “Agh… Aghhh! Ughhh!!” Alicia was unthinking, consumed by hate. All she could think about was reducing the being before her to a lifeless mess, using only the most primal means available to her. With her fists, she crushed her, tore at her flesh, bit with her teeth. “Ah-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! That’s right! That’s it! Oh, finally! You’re finally down here with me, Alicia! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” I could feel something inside me filling up, filling to burst, until whatever it was seeped through the cracks and overflowed, but there was so much of it I didn’t care how much was spilled. It had been so, so long, but I had finally reached the end. I had finally dragged them all down, to where I was. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-h-aha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” “What have I done…? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!!” “Hga…h… Hg…h…” My laughter wouldn’t stop. No matter how long I went on laughing, I could never stop. My cackling, Alicia’s screams, and the feeble cries of a doll on the borderline, endlessly dying and reviving, finding no solace in either life or death. The ending, by contrast, was rather unsatisfying. Alicia’s doll simply turned to dust, refusing to reanimate anymore. “Haah…haah…haah…huh…? Why did I do that? Hmm? Hmm? It just doesn’t make sense!” “Oh dear!” I jeered. “You broke her! You ruined everything you dreamed of! You tore her up so much there’s nothing left! Don’t you remember how many people you killed so you could have her? And now you broke her yourself! Do you feel better now? Does it feel good being reduced to a being of pure hate?” “Something’s wrong. What’s wrong?! What did I do? Was it wrong? What’s not wrong? Hmm? Hmm?” “What’s wrong, you ask? Isn’t that obvious? Everything you touched is wrong, including us. So we made you wrong to match!” So much had been taken. So much had been lost. All that was left…was two people who were completely, utterly wrong. “What’s wrong…is this world,” I said. I drew my sword and approached the broken remains of the princess, Alicia. “Give it back! Give it back! That was important to me! That was mine! It was mine, mine, miiiiiine!! I don’t want to hate! I’m a nice girl! I’m not a bad girl! No, I’m not! Aaaaahhh!” “This is the end,” I said. “With this sword, I’ll burn your soul to ash, until there’s nothing left to revive.” Her fair face twisted in madness, Alicia clawed at her own skin with one hand and reached her other out toward me. “Come to think of it…this is how our journey began.” I thought back to how Alicia had looked on that day. “Thank you for coming, Hero.” The circumstances, the surroundings, the details, our positions, and everything else were different, but that one point stuck in my mind. Those five words were where everything had started to come undone. “This is the end,” I said. “Of my miraculous do-over. The end of my road. The end of my vengeance.” And so, there was one expression I wanted to end it with. Perhaps the only way it ever could end. “No. No, no, no! No, please… I… I never did anything wrong—No, you’re wrong! I have to suffer and die! I only ever made mistakes, I need to die—No! I… Why?! Why do I…? WHYYYYYYYYY?!” “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m going to grind you into mincemeat. I’m going to drag you so far down that you never see a single ray of sunlight. Your whole life will fall to ruins, and then you’ll die.” And so… At the end of my long path… I wore the biggest grin I’d ever worn. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” “…Aah, vengeance is sweet.” I had never tasted anything so sweet, so bitter, so hot, and yet so cold as the feeling of my blade piercing her flesh. It completed me.
Chapter 124
70 min read