“True... I do believe my objective is somewhere inside here.”
The boy smiled at the answer. There was hope. That was what he believed.
“Oooh! Then...!”
“However,” Kudou Riku said, making the boy swallow his words. “While I am here as the Demon King who will destroy the world, my understanding of such an end is quite apart from your own.”
“Huh...?”
The boy’s expression froze. A shadow fell over his faint hopes—a shadow of endless despair.
“Think about it carefully,” Kudou said, a chilling smile on his lips. “How can the world possibly be destroyed?”
“Wha?!” The boy’s eyes shot open. “Wh-What’re you saying?! This place can—”
“Oh, no. I understand. The world is unexpectedly fragile. It’s possible to break if you try. I don’t doubt that.”
The boy’s mouth flapped open and shut, unable to comprehend.
“But that’s only now that things have reached this stage, right? I’m talking about before this. Normally, you would never consider it. Physically destroying the world, I mean.”
The boy was speechless.
“So when I say I’ll destroy the world, isn’t it obviously in a different sense from when you say it?”
At the very least, during the time Kudou Riku had marched forward as the Demon King, he hadn’t known that the world itself could be destroyed. Given this, his objective couldn’t possibly have been to physically destroy it. This meant that, as a matter of course, his interests weren’t in alignment with Jinguuji’s group. What they believed would be their wild card was in fact no more than a dagger to their throats.
“A-Aaah...”
Sensing that his death was near, the boy turned pale and staggered backward. There was nowhere to run, though. He was surrounded by monsters.
“Aaah...”
He was going to be killed. He was dead. It was over. The moment before his spirit broke, his bloodshot eyes noticed something.
“Ha ha!”
The boy burst into laughter. He jumped backward and threw his sword at Kudou Riku.
“Futile resistance!” Dora yelled, knocking the sword out of the air with her shadowy blade arms.
Now the boy had no weapon, but that didn’t matter. Using the small amount of time he’d bought himself, the boy picked up a certain something from the ground. It was a large sword with a bizarre blade.
“As long as I have this...!”
The magic sword was capable of cutting anything and everything. It was what the masked man had been using. He’d probably dropped it when Kudou Riku’s monsters had trampled through the area. Having lost the ultimate class of close-quarters weapon, its owner was probably dead, but this had given the boy a chance to survive. In terms of pure combat abilities, he possessed the strength of a warrior, making him far stronger than the masked man. Naturally, when using the same weapon, the results would be different.
So long as he had this, he could survive. With that conviction in mind, the boy clenched the sword’s grip. His next foe came lunging at him—the Mad Beast.
“Graooooh!”
“Like hell I’m gonna die!”
Facing the howling abomination, the boy poured his mana into the sword and swung. The strongest of beasts, once known as Takaya Jun, was covered in fur that warded away blades. With the sturdiest of muscles serving as its armor, any normal sword would bounce right off its body. However, that wouldn’t be the slightest of problems for this sword. Having reversed his fortunes from being on the verge of death, the boy felt exaltation as he prepared the ultimate strike.
“Graooooh!”
The mindless beast lunged at him, scattering drool all over. Feeling pity for the ignorant beast, the boy’s lips curved into a smile. He swung his sword to meet the incoming fist. First, he would cut off that arm, then turn the sword to cut off its head. Killing the vanguard would definitely leave an opening. Using that chance, he would kill Kudou Riku too.
“You dumbass!”
He put as little strength behind his strike as he could. Normally, this would cause the blade to be repelled with ease, but this slash was an exception. The bizarre blade sent the beast’s sturdy arm flying. At least, that’s what the boy had expected.
“Huh?”
His blade had been easily repelled. Right to the very end, the boy had no idea what had happened. The Mad Beast’s fist didn’t slow down at all after colliding with the sword, caving in the boy’s cranium. He hadn’t even been given the time to scream. His lifeless body collapsed backward.
“How foolish,” Dora sighed, having stayed by her king’s side just in case.
It was rather anticlimactic after that display of resistance. However, Dora quickly grimaced. Her king’s slender face remained full of fighting spirit despite having already won.
“Be careful. It isn’t over yet,” he said.
“Huh?”
In the next instant, something strange happened to the monsters surrounding the area.
“Scatter!” Kudou immediately commanded.
“Wha...?!”
Dora was speechless. It all happened in an instant. A figure falling from the trees swung a sword. The moment she perceived the descending shadow, the monsters in the immediate vicinity were reduced to mincemeat. The swordsmanship on display was hardly that of a master. It didn’t look like much more than a person recklessly swinging a stick around. And yet, the blade cut through flesh and bone as if there was no resistance.
It was a masked man. He stared at Kudou Riku carefully through the slits in his mask. It was a bizarre situation. After all, he wasn’t wielding the same sword as before. What he had wasn’t even magical in nature. It was just a sword. And yet, his slashes had dealt unimaginable damage. Above all else, the amount of mana Dora sensed coming from him was enough to chill her spine. He was unmistakably a cheater of the strongest class.
“I thought that might be the case,” Kudou Riku muttered. There was surprise in his voice, but no confusion. He knew this man’s identity, after all. His lips formed a smile so wide it seemed to split his face. “So this is where you’ve been hiding—Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji!”
✦ ✦ ✦
