Someone spoke up to question him—Heartia. “You’ll become...a demon king? You’ll stop being human?” He sounded less surprised and more exasperated. His voice cracked a bit as he spoke.
Colgon, on the other hand, was just getting more confident. “What’s wrong with that? I’m already unrivaled on the continent. I might as well be a demon king already.”
“Using an omnipotent power to create an omnipotent being... Ha ha ha, I wonder what sort of god that contradiction will invite.” Almagest laughed dryly at Colgon’s words, but the other man’s confidence didn’t falter.
“It doesn’t matter what shows up in response. A demon king will be able to kill whatever appears.”
“I see. Then the question is whether you can become the demon king or not—to do that, you must become the only caster capable of it here.”
With the lord’s words, Orphen felt the eyes in the room settle on him.
He’d stopped moving by that point, but not because he’d found Colgon’s blind spot.
In the end, Orphen ended up right in front of Colgon, finding it stupid that he’d even tried to run from him.
“Colgon, you’re not omnipotent.” He was a few steps away from him. Orphen took a fighting stance as he spoke.
From the same distance, Colgon lifted the gun up again and pointed it at him. “You say the same things as Jack Frisbee, Krylancelo.”
“Yeah. Perhaps his ‘evil spirit’ decided to possess me now.” He didn’t feel any fear, but he also didn’t feel the elation he’d felt when facing off against the man in the priest’s robes.
He just knew he would win.
“Colgon, Jack Frisbee sneered at me. He mocked me with full confidence after I’d beaten him. I remember his ridicule, so I won’t lose to you.”
“With those wounds?” His words weren’t provoking. Colgon was likely fully confident in his victory.
Orphen knew Colgon wasn’t the type who’d hesitate to shoot if he needed to.
Taking everything in, Orphen still felt composed. What came to mind was the emotionless face of his master when he’d faced off against him in his youth, back at the Tower of Fangs. Was this how Master Childman had felt back then? He asked his distant memories a question he knew he wouldn’t get an answer to.
“That’s as far as the two of you go.” A cautioning voice came from above.
It was Heartia. Looking down at them, he said, “Put your hands down and look this way.”
Orphen did as he asked and looked up at Heartia to find the man holding a shortsword—likely a sorcerous weapon—at Lottecia’s throat. Lottecia herself was just staring emptily into the center of the room, not reacting at all to Heartia.
He likely didn’t intend for them to hear it, but Orphen could hear Heartia quietly mutter, “So this is my role in the end...”
Then he said, “Hold on. That’s enough, Colgon. Move again and I’ll kill her. If I do that, then your grand experiment is done for, right?”
After warning him, Heartia continued, “You haven’t forgotten, have you? It was my job to perform assistance for the Network...to get rid of ghosts. Ghosts have their own weak points. Don’t think that just because you couldn’t do it, I can’t.”
“I think you’re mistaken, Heartia. This is the only way to stop the destruction of the continent,” Colgon said, returning the gun to its original position after he’d started to move it.
Heartia was unmoved, however. “Man, I dunno if it’s good or bad, but I really am the perfect person for this part. The destruction of the world? The world is nothing more than a dinner date two weeks from now for me. It’s trivial. Just stop fighting before you go too far. Isn’t that obvious?”
“What is going on with you two anyway?” he added with disgust. “Are you stupid? All this stuff about being strong or weak. Is that all you know? If you want to decide something, why don’t you just draw lots?”
There was a brief silence before Colgon turned to look at Orphen. His face utterly serious, he said, “Shall we draw lots, then?”
“Huh?!”
A second later...
There was a hard sound like something being pushed followed by a scream and something crashing to the floor. It was Heartia. He had fallen from the upper seats.
Orphen looked up and found that Lottecia had shoved him. She had stood up from her seat. And she was drawing something with her finger in the air...
With no sound, a massive weapon appeared in her hand.
It was like a gun, but much bigger. Lottecia held the weapon, unconcerned by the length of its barrel, aiming it straight at Colgon. She stared down the sight atop the barrel and froze in a position to shoot.
That’s... In concept, at least, such a thing had existed at the Tower. It wasn’t much different from the handguns Orphen was familiar with—if you took those handguns to their natural conclusion, you might end up with something like this.
It was a rifle. With a gun this accurate, even an amateur with no training could land a hit from this distance.
And a hit would mean death. A bullet from a gun like this would pulverize a human body with a single shot.
Colgon aimed his gun at Lottecia as well, but the weapon disappeared from his hand in the next instant. The lord grinned.
Reaching out with his now-empty hand, Colgon groaned, “What do you have...to complain about...Lottecia?!”
It was completely out of place, but the interaction seemed almost romantic. A man reaching out and shouting to a sheltered maiden...
“I should have just submitted to your control...is that it? Wouldn’t that only cause you pain? What do you want me to do about you not being human?” But there was rage in his voice.
“Is that what upsets you? You’re not controlling me... Anyone could see that. But I need you... For this brief moment, at least. Is that not enough for you?!”
A gunshot quieted him.
Just one gunshot. Colgon fell at the same time. The assassin’s body hit the floor with enough force to bounce. Then it went still.
✦ ✦ ✦
