Once the light died down, the sound of people clamoring leaped into Jade’s ears.
The powerful light of the sun was beating down on them, in a sharp contrast from that calm and dark space. They were onstage in the fighting arena, right where they’d been before being dragged into the hidden dungeon.
“Look, someone showed up out of nowhere!”
“Jade of Silver Sword…and who’s that other guy?”
“The Executioner isn’t here!”
The audience didn’t seem to understand the situation, still sitting leisurely in their seats as they chattered. Jade looked around the arena with a start and realized that Alina wasn’t there.
“Alin— Executioner?!”
No matter where he looked, he couldn’t find her.
“Ahhh, Gose is gone, too. Maybe he was dropped off somewhere. These crystal gates are unstable sometimes,” answered Gald, who had also been teleported. He was talking with disinterest while amusing himself with the god core he’d extracted from Raum, tossing it in the air over and over like a toy.
“Somewhere…?!”
“He may have been left behind there, and he might’ve fallen somewhere around here. Not that I care, since my job here is done—” Gald snatched the god core out of the air, held it up to Jade, and smirked. “By the way, shouldn’t you be worried about this?”
“…!”
So Gald planned to turn into a dark god—
A chill ran through Jade’s heart. It wasn’t difficult to imagine just what Gald was trying to do. This place was filled with people. If he were to change into a dark god here—
“Turning into a dark god would just overwrite your personality! Things wouldn’t go your way…!”
“You don’t understand anything. The idiots who get controlled by the god cores end up that way because of their idiotic pursuit of skills.”
“What do you—?”
Just then, a yell cut between them. “You people!”
When Jade turned to look to find the source of that reckless voice, he saw the judge, striding over to them and looking quite upset, his face red. “This is why I can’t stand people who don’t stick to the rules! Stealing the victory prize, breaking it, vanishing and reappearing—this isn’t a place for an anarchic brawl! It’s a sacred fighting arena! If you understand, then get—!”
“Don’t be stupid, stay back!”
Jade’s warning was too late. Gald gave the judge a bored glance, then generated a little blue flame from his palm and tossed it. The fireball soundlessly passed through the judge.
The judge, who had been yelling right up until that moment, instantly stopped talking.
No—he could no longer speak—since there was a little hole in his chest where the blue flame had passed through.
The light vanished from the judge’s eyes, and he fell to his knees, as though a string had been cut.
“…!”
Gald had killed the judge as easily as he breathed. This brought a scowl to Jade’s face.
For a moment, the place was enveloped in utter silence—and then, the moment that the judge fell face forward and hit the ground—
“Yeeeeeeeek,” a piercing shriek erupted.
“Is he dead? Did that guy kill him?!”
“He killed the damn judge!”
“Run! Hurry!”
With that, the audience instantly fell into confusion, and everyone started running for the exits.
“Ahhh, the idiots are going nuts.” Watching, Gald smiled.
“You bastard…!”
“These maggots just don’t shut up,” Gald muttered, tossing the god core into his mouth. He swallowed it so effortlessly that it took Jade time to process what had just happened.
“You’re swallowing it…?!” he cried.
“Now then, what’s gonna happen? ” Gald spread his hands in amusement.
The next instant, a dark shadow leaped out from his mouth and instantly covered his face. It was such a repulsive sight that Jade was struck speechless. The screams from the audience grew louder and louder.
Eventually, the shadow that covered his face converged on his forehead, forming a black mark of Dia.
“Hmm, a well-made core really is different.” With a lick of his tongue, Gald gave a composed smile.
“…Your personality hasn’t changed…?”
When Glen had turned into a dark god, a cruel and brutal personality similar to that of the other dark gods had taken hold of him. But even after swallowing the god core, Gald was coolly keeping ahold of himself.
Gald shrugged at a rattled Jade. “To be more precise, the core doesn’t go out of control. That dark god before said so, right? What harms the core is having the wrong source of power…human souls. Once a human soul gets into the mix, you’ve got a cruel and capable killing machine on your hands,” Gald said, like it was nothing.
Jade furrowed his brows. “…Where did you learn all this about god cores?”
Gald knew far too much. Seeing this was giving Jade déjà vu.
“…Did you learn this from them?”
“Them”—the person who had given Glen knowledge about god cores and prompted him to turn himself into a dark god. He had curried favor with Glen for a long time, using him to retrieve god cores. And then he had taught Glen that humans could embed a god core in themselves to become a dark god. “They” clearly knew quite a lot about dark gods. And knowing that, he’d told Glen only what was convenient, taking advantage of his weaknesses and using him.
When Gald had killed the dark god Raum, he had said it was a “nasty assignment.” In other words, he was acting on someone else’s orders.
After a slight pause, Gald opened his small-pupiled eyes wide and gave a toothy grin. “So what if I did?”
Seeing Gald acknowledge it so readily, Jade froze.
“But, well, it’s not like I worship them. Maybe they think they’re using me, but I’m just using them. Dia skill? Human souls? I don’t need those. What I want is power—the power to flaunt the truth to those skill-brained idiots and crush the cowardly Dark Guild…!”
No sooner had Gald said that than he swung an arm at the stands. At the same time, Jade felt the arena suddenly grow darker. He looked up at the sky—and his breath caught.
“!”
There was a blue ceiling above them.
No, it was all blue flame. The same fire that had soundlessly pierced the body of the judge just now. That brutal blue flame was filling the whole sky of the arena.
“Wh-what is that…?”
The audience members froze for a moment, their brows furrowing in unease and suspicion as they stared at the blue flame curiously. The corners of Gald’s lips curled, and he laughed cruelly.
“—Now then, a question: How many people in this arena will still be recognizable after experiencing what’s in store?”
Jade moved before he could even think. “Composite Skill Activate…!” He put one hand to the ground and cried, “Millia!”