I turned around to walk away when a voice called out from behind me.
“Hold it...right there...” Zepes tried to get up, but his wounds were too severe. With his body uncooperative, he crawled along the ground.
“You’ll survive if you receive immediate treatment. I recommend you surrender.”
“Ha. That’s what I thought, you disgrace of a demon... Calling yourself a descendant of the founder when you can’t even finish off your enemies...”
Was he talking about the lineage of the Demon King? I didn’t need to call myself a descendant—I was the founder.
“If you talk too much, you’ll die.”
“Kill me.”
“I would, but there isn’t much value in killing small fry like you.”
Now, what was I to do?
“Ha! Can’t do it? Go on, just try to make me surrender. I’d rather die than give in!”
If I ordered him to surrender, he’d probably do so immediately...
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re gonna fall back on your compulsion magic, no? Go ahead—try it. You know you’ll never get me to give up, right?! Ha ha ha! Bwa ha ha ha ha— Oof!”
I stepped on Zepes’s head, pressing his face against the stone floor. “Good grief, how haughty. You want to bask in such puny superiority so badly? What a miserable fellow.”
However, he had said something rather interesting.
“So you think I can’t make you surrender without compulsion magic, huh?”
“It... It’s true, isn’t it? You scum...!”
Despite having his head stepped on, Zepes continued to argue back. He sure was enthusiastic for a petty underling.
“Hmm. An interesting idea. All right, I’m in. If I make you surrender without the use of compulsion magic, I win. If not, you win.”
“Ha, you sure you should be talking so big? I’d rather die than surrender!”
With the blink of an eye, I activated Zecht—contract magic. The terms stated that if I couldn’t make Zepes surrender without the use of compulsion magic, I would surrender myself.
Zecht was absolute. The caster and those who signed the contract with their magic were bound by it.
Zepes signed without hesitation. “You dumbass... No matter how much pain you inflict, I won’t surrender... You’re going to regret this! Ha ha ha ha!”
I brought my index finger before his forehead...
“Hah? What—”
...and flicked it.
“—are yooou—?!”
Zepes’s entire body splattered across the field.
“Oh... I thought I was holding back enough, but I killed him anyway... I see.”
Goodness. At this rate, it’d be my defeat. There was no helping it. I cut the tip of my index finger, letting a single drop of blood drip down.
Ingall.
Zepes’s body regenerated; he was resurrected in an unharmed state. I even modified his sword and armor to strengthen it a little.
The audience was dumbfounded.
“Wha... What is that magic?! Zepes was dead!”
“He was brought back from the dead...?! I’ve never heard of a spell like it!”
What were they so shocked for? The audience was making a lot of fuss over something so trivial as Zepes coming back to life. If one couldn’t perform such magic, death would mean actual death.
“Wha... I...” Zepes looked at me with a befuddled expression.
“Well? How did you like dying? Feel like surrendering yet?”
“N-No way... Who would ever surrender to y— Gah...!”
I flicked my finger again, killing him.
“Ha ha, oops. I accidentally killed you again. But it’s fine; as long as I use Ingall within three seconds, there’s no risk of permanent death. You may know it as...the three-second rule.”
A deathly hush fell over the spectator seats.
Hmm. Had I, of all people, failed to land a joke?
The three-second rule had been a surefire quip in the Mythical Age... How could it have fallen flat? Standards of comedy must have changed in the past two thousand years. In fact, upon closer inspection, everyone looked mortally horrified. Was my joke really that terrible? I’d have to hold back on the jokes until I understood the Magical Age better.
“Ah...!” Zepes, having been once more resurrected through Ingall, looked at me with fear.
Now, time to corner him gently. Enough not to cause any trauma, that is.
“You said you’d rather die than surrender, but did you think you’d only die once?”
Zepes didn’t reply—he was too busy trembling.
“Now, let me ask you again: do you feel like surrendering yet?”
Despair flashed in Zepes’s eyes, but he managed to squeak in a feeble voice, “S-Someone, hel— Aagh...!”
Figuring it would take one more push, I killed him again. Even so, the single drop of blood required for Ingall sure was bothersome.
When Zepes’s body regenerated once more, he looked at me in pure terror.
“By the way, there’s an intriguing philosophical dispute related to Ingall. If a person is brought back to life, are they the same person that died? Or are they a different person with the same personality, memories, and body? What’s your take?”
Zepes’s teeth chattered behind his trembling lips. His face was as pale as a sheet. “Y-You bastard... You’re insane...”
“Hmm. Not interested in the debate, huh? It was a heavily discussed topic back in my day.”
Well, if the standards of comedy had changed so much, I shouldn’t be surprised if interests in philosophy differed as well.
“Oh well. I guess I’ll try killing you one more time.”
“Y-You... You talk about killing so easily...”
Even I chuckled heartily at that one. “What’s wrong? That’s a rather drastic change of heart. It’s not as though you’ll die permanently,” I said lightly, bringing my hand to Zepes’s forehead.
“Wa... Wa... Wait, please...”
“Huh?”
Oh. Oops. My finger slipped, and I killed him again. How careless of me—it seemed I still wasn’t used to this new body. He was just about to say something too. Well, I could just hear it after resurrecting him. Ingall.
“Y-You jerk! I asked you to wait!”
“Ha ha, sorry. My finger slipped.”
“Don’t laugh at me, you bastard! Who kills with a slip of a finger?!”
“Oh? Still lively, I see. Let’s do one more round, then.” I brought my finger to Zepes’s forehead once more.
He immediately shrank back, paling further. “W-Wait...”
“What now? There’s no room for hesitation in the midst of battle.”
“It’s...” His expression was filled with humiliation, but his words were clear. “It’s my loss. I give up.”
Oh? What a letdown.
“Was that all it took to crush your will? How weak of you. Here I was prepared to kill you another ten thousand times.” I was joking to express my lack of hostility, but for some reason Zepes trembled even harder.
Voices rose from the spectator seats.
“He just treated Zepes like a kid...”
“That was beyond one-sided... Who is that guy? I’ve never seen him before...”