The Demon of the Capital went on, unconcerned, “The Razor-Sharp Successor, eh...? I’ll certainly acknowledge you as such. If Childman Powderfield were still alive today, I bet he’d be standing right where you are now.”
“...Thank you.”
“I seek your counsel like you’re my equal despite your youth out of respect for that man. So let me ask you. And I want you to answer in good faith—not out of any respect for me, but out of respect for those who died here. What do you suppose our chance of success is?”
Pluto’s tone was almost threatening. Choked by it slightly, Orphen cleared his throat before answering. “We need to consider the fact that this is a plan the sanctuary’s already dismissed... For that reason, I think our chances of success have got to be pretty low.”
“Yet you still...”
“Yeah. There’s no other way to prolong the continent’s survival.”
“What is the plan, specifically?”
He was prepared to be asked the question, but Orphen was hesitant to actually explain it himself. Lowering his voice, he said, “It’s to use the sanctuary’s summoning device, the Second World-Seeing Tower, to summon the god-killing Demon King Swedenborge to destroy the goddess. The lord can apparently use the device.”
“...Mind if I point out a flaw in this plan?”
“I’m guessing it’ll be the same thing I asked the lord about. But just listen. I was skeptical too,” Orphen said bitterly, but Pluto’s voice was still cold.
The Demon of the Capital slowly said, “Let’s not debate the question of the demon king’s existence. After all, we have a monster of myth and legend staring us in the face right now.”
“Right.”
“What guarantee do we have that the demon king will fight the goddess?”
“None. But I received a message from the Celestials once, and I interpreted it to mean that the demon king could be used to kill the goddess.”
“I received a report about a similar message. You’re talking about the Demon King play, right?” He shifted his warhammer on his shoulder and asked, “Then what guarantee do we have that the demon king can beat the goddess?”
“None. I don’t even know what the demon king really is, and what powers it might have,” Orphen said glumly.
At least Pluto was considering his words in good faith. His tone wasn’t exactly warm, but he wasn’t being harsh either. “Say we kill the goddess, what do we do about the demon king then?”
“That’s exactly what I asked. The lord seemed to be aware of the danger as well. But there’s nothing on this continent that can fight back against the goddess anymore. The sanctuary is spent. So all we can do is call on power from the outside.”
“We can’t tell anyone else about this... It’ll affect morale,” Pluto said heavily. As a commander, he had to concern himself with such things. It was true that this plan wouldn’t give anyone hope—it was basically nonsense that would only confuse people.
Orphen shrugged his shoulders in agreement with that. “Unfortunately, this is our best plan. The Celestials made this summoning device. I’d like to believe it’ll allow us to send him back as well. At least consider it.”
“I don’t have much choice. I’ll have the spirits consider it too—if those whimsical, useless fools will even help us anymore. Maybe they can even improve it somehow.”
Pluto strode away, likely wanting to contact the spirits somewhere where his subordinates wouldn’t be able to overhear him. Orphen didn’t want to leave him alone considering the attack by Jack Frisbee the night before, but he didn’t follow. He figured the Demon of the Capital wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. And the man in the priest’s robes likely felt the same way.
Jack Frisbee, eh...?
The lord had called the man in the priest’s robes an evil spirit.
“The last to stand in the way of superhuman sorcerers like you will be regular people like me.” Orphen recalled the sneering man’s words.
“I am an evil spirit.”
“An evil spirit possesses my body. That is the source of my power.”
In their first encounter, Orphen had lost, powerless to resist—he remembered the taste of blood and death on his lips and exhaled a disgusted breath.
You could say he was easily killed by the man. The only reason he was still here now was because Damian Rue had revived him.
And after their second encounter...
Doppel X. If all traitors are called that, then I’m one too. Pluto, the lord of the Imminent Domain, the pope of the Kimluck Church, everyone’s Doppel X.
Everyone’s lying to everyone else...
Everyone’s betraying everyone else...
He could hear Almagest’s words—it was because there was only despair on this continent.
Even Master... He was raised by the Celestial Istersiva, but he had to betray her in the end too. The sanctuary right now is betraying the entire continent. The existence of this continent itself is a betrayal of the gods. And the gods have betrayed the world and are trying to destroy it.
The demon king might simply choose to act the same.
Would he betray them? Orphen asked himself. It had taken sacrifices to summon the World Book with the World-Seeing Tower. The Celestials had put all their hope into the possibility that they could summon knowledge from outside like in the Demon King play. And now humanity was putting their hope in the demon king. Would he betray that hope when they summoned him?
Even if he did, they couldn’t blame him... After all, there was only despair here.
Orphen had killed the Death Instructor Name and the Red Dragon Helpart with his own hands.
He’d seen the deaths of Quo Vadis, Azalie, Irgitte, Winona, Ryan Spoon...and countless others.
“I just want to answer Ryan Spoon’s despair. As one who despairs in the same way.” He remembered Jack Frisbee’s words once again.
“That’s—” Orphen muttered the words he hadn’t been able to say the night before to himself. He felt the anger smoldering in him lighting up. “That’s not something you have any right to say as one who only despairs. Claiomh was the one who answered Ryan’s despair.”
There was only despair here? That wasn’t true.
With those words still on his tongue, Orphen walked away quickly. It would still take some time before they could figure out a way past the barrier. There were tons of things he had to do in the meantime.