Vade’s body turned to ash, crumbling before my eyes. The glittering black flames around my hand reached his source and were almost about to burn him to ruin when Itzelt Jischend swirled violently around him. He was probably trying to tear me apart so that I would be forced to release him.
“You think something like this could kill me?!” he shouted. “Holo are the new life of this world! You demons will all be culled from existence!”
I cackled. “Try saying that after you’ve actually culled me.”
I reached further into his body and layered Jirasd over my existing magic. Black lightning combined with the three spells I had already casted and formed a sharp blade that pierced straight through his source.
“Guh... Gah!”
“You called yourself a purist, but your power is incomplete,” I said. “The way I see it, the holo should have been born as a result of the order of destruction. But I took the Goddess of Destruction’s order and sent her away, resulting in an era of prosperity for humans and demons. Doing that prevented you holo from being born.”
Without destruction, there was no creation. The change in order meant the holo species could no longer be born naturally.
“You...bastard!” Vade roared. “Let me gooo!”
Itzelt Jischend raged at my body, cutting into my flesh. I glared at the wind with my Magic Eyes of Destruction, weakening its power. Then, I stuck my right arm further into Vade’s source.
“Urk...”
“You were born as a result of order trying to create balance by force. Thus, you only have a fraction of your intended power.”
Vade grinned, red blood spilling from his mouth.
“Heh heh.”
The next moment, a magic circle was drawn over my body, and a coffin of darkness appeared behind me. The moment Behelius swallowed my body, Vade erased the Dugara from his right arm and transferred the magic claws to his left.
Vade kicked me while I was busy watching the Dugara. He used the momentum of the kick to force my hand out of his body, then drew a cross of black particles to form the lid of the coffin.
“Moron!” he yelled. “Incomplete? A fraction of my power? Wrong and wrong! I was just going easy on you!”
I struck the coffin from inside, but it didn’t budge.
“Everything I did was to kill you with the Behelius you taught me, mister. I didn’t think it’d be this easy, but I guess I’m just that much stronger! I’ve got you twisted around my little finger, Mr. Misfit!”
Vade turned to me and tapped his temple with a smug grin.
“Ah, but it’s a shame you can’t be destroyed. If Graham’s nihility escaped it’d be a real headache.”
“Hmm. So you can use your head a little.”
“What are you acting so calm for, mister? You can’t run anymore. The great Purist Vade’s Behelius is stronger than yours. I even trapped Anahem in one without breaking a sweat.”
I burst into laughter. “Do you actually believe that, guard dog?”
“Well, you had to go through so much trouble to seal Anahem in your own Behelius, when I, the great Purist Vade, didn’t!” he pointed out triumphantly. “You tried to act cool by calling me ‘a fool who failed to adapt to me,’ but look who’s the pathetic one now! Instantly trapped by a spell I learned from you! Pfft! How embarrassing, mister.”
Vade slowly flew over and brought his face up to the magic barrier of the coffin.
“Say,” he said gleefully. “If you call me the great Purist Vade and beg me a little, maybe I’ll let you watch as all the trash on earth gets culled. How about it? Aren’t I being super generous right now?”
“According to Dilfred, to the gods, the world is like a theater, and everyone in it an actor in a play. If we were to extend this example, you’d be the leading actor that the producer personally casted through favoritism. A large role filled by a ham actor,” I said.
Vade looked at me blankly. “What’s that? Are you being a sore loser? I don’t get what you’re saying, but if you’re looking down on me, I’ll cull you on the spot. Got it, Mr. Weakling?”
“Bwa ha ha. That’s exactly what I’m saying, Vade. Know your place.”
Vade leaned away from the coffin, thoroughly irritated. He sent magic into his fingertips.
“I said don’t look down on me. Farewell, Mr. Misfit. For you I’ll make things a hundred times more painful! Consider it a free bonus!”
The particles of the cross extended to cover the entire coffin of darkness, and at once the curse of eternal death activated.
“Hah hah! Take that! This misfit was just a nobody in the end. All talk and no substance! Ha ha ha!” Vade laughed.
The coffin of darkness shattered like glass.
“Ha... Huh?”
The jet-black flames that broke the Behelius turned into chains that immediately twined around Vade, restraining him.
“Gwuh... You... How?!”
“Behelius kills a target and uses their death as a source of magic to perpetually power the curse and the coffin’s defenses. In short, until the first death, its defenses are paper thin,” I replied. “This flaw is compensated for by restraining, weakening, or distracting the target from being able to prevent the first death from occurring.”
Vade gathered magic in his left arm’s Dugara while listening to my explanation. I had to stay highly alert of those claws.
“What if my Behelius is different?” he asked.
“You think so?” I said.
I used the magic circle I drew with Zola e Dypt to create my own Behelius.
“Raaagh!”
Vade swung his left arm and thrust his Dugara claws into the coffin. The Behelius vanished, like it had been swallowed by a vortex.
“That won’t work—”
His entire left arm was severed at the shoulder and went flying through the air, having been cut by the Vebzud, Jirasd, and Aviasten Ziara congregated at my fingertips.
“Stupid,” I chided. “That was just a decoy.”
He tried to transfer the Dugara to his other arm, but failed. I had sliced off his right arm before he could do so.
“I can heal this much instantly— Huh?!”
The light of Ei Chael gathered at the cut section, but my chains of hellfire immediately wrapped around the area. Even though the arm wanted to regenerate, the section of the cut was wrapped so tightly by Zola e Dypt that its growth was blocked.
“Hmm. It seems you can’t grow the claws from your feet.”
Dugara appeared to be a spell exclusive to the hands. Judging from its spell formula, adapting it so it could appear on other parts of the body wouldn’t allow it to be as powerful.
“Now, Vade,” I said, drawing a magic circle over his restrained body. “There isn’t much difference between your Behelius and mine. Yet you were able to shut Anahem in your coffin with ease. Why do you think that is?”
The already tightly wound chains of Zola e Dypt tightened again with a loud creak. Vade was trying to cut them by releasing his magic power. I cast Beno Ievun over the hellfire chains to restrain him further.
“Because I’m...a purist...” he answered.
“Correct.”
Vade’s eyes widened. He probably hadn’t expected me to agree with him.
“The order of this world acknowledges you as a purist.”
“Tch!”
Magic circles of Itzelt Jischend appeared one after another, but I destroyed them all before they could activate using my Magic Eyes of Destruction.
“Gods cannot defy order. Even Militia, with all her love and kindness, had no choice but to entrust Ennessone to Wenzel. If Abernyu hadn’t reincarnated, she wouldn’t have escaped her fate of destruction either.”
Vade ground his teeth as I spoke.
“Why can’t gods defy order? If gods themselves were order, it wouldn’t be possible for them to develop feelings of love or kindness. Do gods really have no love and kindness to begin with?”
Magic power filled the circle, and a coffin of darkness appeared behind Vade.
“What if their emotions had been erased from them?” I asked. “What if, instead, there was a cog inside them that locked away their hearts and controlled order? The gods would move exactly as the cog dictated—with the exception of the few gods that don’t lose their love and kindness.”
Gods had hearts. It’s just that their hearts had been stolen from them.
“In other words, there is a pillager in this world. One who stole the hearts of the gods, the firedew, the magic power of the world, and people’s lives. Above all, they stole the truth of this world.”
Particles of darkness formed the shape of a cross, covering Behelius in a magic barrier.
“The pillager made it look like the gods were obeying order—that the gods were order themselves—when, in fact, they were obeying the cogs the pillager implanted inside them. This was why Militia stole my memories when I reincarnated two thousand years ago—because the pillager wanted to prevent me from ever reaching this place.”
“I am Vade the Purist! I can’t be defeated like this!”
Vade tried to break the Behelius by headbutting it, but all he did was make a ruckus.
“This is also why Delsgade and Everastanzetta could be stolen from right under our noses,” I said, undeterred by the noise Vade was making. “Misha and Sasha became demons when they reincarnated, meaning whatever cogs the pillager implanted in them were left behind in their divine bodies.”
By using the cogs in their divine bodies, left behind in their respective castles, the pillager had controlled the two castles—and by bringing the Solar Eclipse of the End to earth, was still doing so now.
“Shut up! I have no idea what you’re blathering on about!” Vade yelled.
I shot him a cold look. “Do not interrupt me, you defeated dog. I’m not talking to you.”
Vade looked at me dumbfounded as I brutally cast him aside.
“Wha... Who are you calling a defeated dog?! Who do you think I am?! I am the Purist—”
“I’m telling you to stop your barking.”
The lid of Behelius closed, sentencing Vade to eternal death. From the coffin of darkness came a scream of pure agony.
“Anahem didn’t even make a sound, you know?” I remarked, shaking my head.
I sighed and added more magic to Behelius, making the coffin soundproof. Vade’s cries gradually quietened, then fell completely silent.
“Your pet dog has been dealt with. If you want me to return your precious purist, show yourself,” I said.
They probably didn’t even have a name; even after coming to the Firmament of the Gods, they were nowhere to be found. In essence, their existence was one not meant to be discovered.
However, the man who noticed there was something weird about this world—the other misfit besides me—had given that being a name.
And he had given their name to me in order to reveal their identity.
“The king of gods, the one who should not exist—the Almighty Radiance, Equis.”