The party kept growing.
Strangely enough, I kept running into members of the very terrorist organizations I’ve been involved with.
“Is there even a terrorist group you aren’t connected to?”
“Well, I haven’t received anything from the Under Chain, at least.”
“So your standard is whether you’ve received something from them…”
At first, walking through the graveyard was terrifying. But before I knew it, I had more than thirty terrorists tagging along.
Ha… what a fine empire to live in.
Who knew so many criminals were roaming freely through the capital?
Anyway, I’m no longer afraid of the graveyard. It’s just my own life that scares me more.
How on earth did my life end up in such a mess? Honestly, maybe I’m the true public enemy of the Empire.
“Still, even gathered like this, they’re just a group of misfits.”
“Each one of them is stronger than we are, though.”
“Well, that’s the bare minimum qualities they should have.”
“Your conscience must be dead.”
Fair enough. If they were weaker than me, I wouldn’t be bringing them along in the first place.
“Anyway, at this level, if either the Great Sage or Loki shows up, we’ll be wiped out for sure.”
Something of this scale could only be the Great Sage’s doing.
And the only one who’d target both me and Cattleya at the same time would be Loki.
Of course, there’s a chance this entire situation is just a random attack aimed at an unspecified group of people. But thinking like that is nothing more than optimism.
If you don’t always assume the worst, even final-boss-level figures will just keep dropping dead one after another in this damned world.
“The Great Sage, sure, I can see. But do we really need to be this wary of Loki?”
“Are you crazy?”
Just because Loki died once doesn’t mean he’s weak.
“We don’t have the antidote with us right now.”
“But didn’t you say you put up a decent fight against him last time? With this many people charging at once, couldn’t we take him down before being poisoned?”
“Have you forgotten Fenrir? Once Loki fully sets up his defenses, there’s no way we can break through. Not even Her Highness Lobelia could.”
Loki was a master of defense.
More precisely, he drags battles into a war of attrition, twisting them to his advantage.
All to maximize the use of his special ability: mood poison.
Fenrir, his magic that fuses offense and defense, takes the form of a beast made from water and ice. And of course, water and ice are the perfect medium for mixing poison.
So as the fight drags on, you slowly get poisoned.
The truly terrifying part was that you wouldn’t even realize you’ve reached a lethal dose until Loki finally activated his ability.
From the start, Loki never needed to take risks in battle. Why would he? All he had to do was hold out, and victory would naturally be his.
But once the antidote appeared, his very foundation began to shake. Both his influence and his strength.
And it was thanks to that antidote that we managed to beat him once.
But now? Facing Loki without the antidote?
All I can see in that future is being unable to pierce his defenses and getting wiped out.
“At the very least, we’d need someone of executive rank…”
If only one would just fall into my lap.
Preferably one who has a favorable opinion of me. A barbarian, even better.
The Librarians of Lemegeton were crazy, and the Ex Machina executives might be impossible to reason with.
Eden? Already disbanded. Even if I flashed Helena’s token, no one would care.
But barbarians… the higher their rank, the wiser they tend to be. That wisdom might be buried under their savage appearance, but it’s there….cosmic horror or not.
With someone of that level, maybe it’d be possible to break through Loki’s defenses and strike at his true body.
“And as luck would have it, someone else is approaching now. Let’s hope this draw turns out well. Maybe I’ll finally pull an SSR-rank criminal this time.”
“You sometimes spout incomprehensible nonsense. Then again, I suppose it’s only natural. To be connected with this many terrorist groups and still keep a sliver of sanity…that would be impossible without some part of your mind being twisted.”
“Let’s just call it wisdom.”
All I’ve done is carve out the wisest survival route I could find.
Now then… who could this new arrival be? Judging by the footsteps, not a barbarian.
Light, brisk steps.
“Oh my, what luck to meet you here, Mr. Johan.”
“…Huh?”
The woman who approached with unhurried, almost cheerful steps. Her identity was all too familiar.
Someone who shouldn’t possibly be here. No….more than that, how had anyone even let her into this place?
“Saintess…?”
The chief Librarian of Lemegeton.
Ostillis Liberatio.
Damn it, what are those Under Chain bastards doing, throwing a shark into their own fishing net?
“How did you end up here, Saintess?”
“Well, I was tailing you, Mr. Johan.”
“…Who?”
“You, of course.”
Why me?
What did I do? No…more importantly, since when has she been watching me?
“And while I was following you, suddenly the whole space warped, and here I am.”
“…Never mind that. Why were you following me in the first place?”
“Because you carry the last spirit. I want to keep a close watch, so I can kill you and retrieve it at any moment.”
“Ah, I see.”
I didn’t expect her to so casually admit she’s ready to kill me at any time.
And Tilis doesn’t even realize there’s anything strange about what she just said.
Well, that’s just the kind of person she is.
“Since I have no intention of contracting with a demon, you’ll have to wait a few more years.”
“We’ll see about that.”
…When I threw Loki at her, I never imagined it would lead to this.
Looking back, I might just be the ripest fruit Tilis could ever want.
It’s like she’s sitting under the tree with her mouth open, just waiting for the day that fruit drops.
“Well, isn’t this perfect for you? The Saintess is a famous powerhouse, right? You’ve been talking about needing someone at executive level. And now you’ve got one on your side.”
“……”
Except this wasn’t an executive joining us. It was the final boss.
Am I really supposed to be happy about that?
Already, every demon in our party has gone silent, too terrified to even speak.
Is this what it feels like to run into the chairman of a corporation during a casual outing?
“…Anyway, let’s move together, Saintess. It’ll be easier to find a way out if we stick as a group rather than splitting up.”
“Oh, in that case, do you mind if we stop by somewhere first?”
“Here? In this place?”
“Yes. I happened to notice something earlier, and it’s been bothering me.”
“Well… if something seems suspicious, it’s probably better to check it out.”
With her joining, the whole party suddenly felt much more secure.
At this point, I almost wanted the Great Sage or Loki to just show themselves already. So I can immediately throw Tilis at them.
“This way!”
Tilis strolled lightly along the graveyard path, like she was on a pleasant picnic.
“Here it is.”
“…This is…?”
She led us to a place no different from the rest.
Rows of gravestones scattered here and there.
That’s it. There was nothing at all to distinguish it from everything we’d already seen.
Maybe there’s something invisible here. Something only good people can see?
“These are my parents’ graves.”
“…Huh?”
But what came out of Tilis’s mouth was the last thing I expected.
Her parents’ graves?
Graves for people who should have died long ago at the World Tree?
“Wait a second…”
First, I examined the gravestones Tilis had mentioned. There were unfamiliar names written on them, but if what she said was true, these must be her parents’ names.
In that case, let’s think this through again.
Why are these graves here?
“……”
No, it’s better to start from the basics.
I began inspecting the surrounding graves one by one, almost at random.
Name after name I didn’t recognize, grave after grave filled with strangers.
And then—
Something caught my eye.
[Kult Hereticus]
“Huh?”
A grave that shouldn’t exist, that couldn’t be allowed to exist, was standing there.
As if possessed, I started digging it up.
Would I find the body? Or maybe a belonging?
To skip straight to the result…
“This wasn’t a grave after all.”
Nothing came out.
Only the gravestone stood there, alone.
Just in case, I tried digging up the others as well, but the results were the same.
Not a single corpse.
These weren’t graves for the dead.
No, this place was…
“A memorial stone, huh…”
A place meant to record the deaths of certain people.
More precisely, graves for those who left behind not even a body….no, not even a soul.
And what that meant was surprisingly simple.
Shrrrrk!
“Names that even death, eternity itself, couldn’t hold onto.”
“……”
This isn’t a graveyard. It’s Faust’s domain.
“Welcome to Under Chain, Johan Damus.”
“…I didn’t exactly come here on my own.”
“True, you came quite comfortably.”
“No.”
That’s not what I meant.
The shameless bastard waved his hand like he was done with the pleasantries.
Seriously, what the hell is this guy?
“Why did you call us here?”
“For a simple thank-you. And to make an equally simple proposal.”
“A thank-you?”
“Yes.”
Faust turned his head and looked toward Cattleya who was just now running up, out of breath.
“Thanks to you, I’ve found a clue on how to escape the cycle of reincarnation.”
“You crazy bastard! You stole it from me and now you’re spouting nonsense?!”
With a single sentence, Faust scraped at Cattleya’s nerves.
What was amazing was that he looked genuinely confused as to why she was mad at him.
“If you don’t like gratitude, then I suppose that’s that.”
“Wait a second. Don’t tell me you’re planning to show your thanks with just words?”
Did she smell money or something?
Though she’d been furious, Cattleya now asked calmly. Well, it made sense. The master of Under Chain might actually be able to offer a decent reward.
Looks like Cattleya’s still a merchant at heart, even with all that talk of revenge.
“True gratitude comes from the heart, not from clinging to material things.”
“……”
In the end, Cattleya was left speechless.
I didn’t know what to say either and could only stand there, frozen.
“And you.”
“Me?”
With the group fallen into awkward silence, like someone had poured cold water over us, Faust now turned to Tillis who was smiling cheerfully.
“I have a proposal for you.”
“What kind of proposal?”
“After seeing the soul of Loki Vicious von Miltonia, I realized something. The key to breaking the cycle of reincarnation lies with demons.”
So that’s what he confirmed when he took Loki.
“I became curious about the method. So I’m making you an offer.”
Faust stretched out his hand.
The chains attached to his body clattered loudly as they dragged along the floor.
Feeling bound to the world, he spoke as if he longed for freedom.
“Hand over the Lemegeton. I can make better use of it.”
“Huh? No.”
“Why not?”
“Just don’t want to.”
A shameless man and a clueless woman.
Truly, birds of a feather.
Anyone else would’ve been too dumbfounded to speak after hearing Faust’s proposal, but Tillis simply laid bare what she felt.
He asked for it because he was curious, and she refused just because she didn’t want to.
It’s hard to believe this childish exchange is happening between two potential final bosses.
“Well, I suppose there’s no helping it then.”
Faust clicked his tongue in disappointment and slowly closed his eyes.
And when he opened them again—
“I’ll just take it myself.”
In his eyes swirled an abyss deeper than the Void itself.
***
We were running for our lives right now.
And the reason was ridiculous.
Faust suddenly started fighting Tillis.
They exchanged just a few words, and then bam….negotiations failed and the battle began.
It’s not like they had any bad blood between them, so the way it all ended feels strangely simple.
Of course…
“Unbelievable. Seriously.”
What followed was anything but simple.
The graveyard began crumbling under the aftermath of their fight.
If we wanted to survive, we had no choice but to run with everything we had.
And just like that, around thirty of us began fleeing from the heart of the battle.
Still, with this many skilled people, surviving shouldn’t be all that difficult.
But then, at that moment—
“Guh?!”
Suddenly, a researcher from Ex Machina running nearby collapsed.
Foam mixed with blood bubbled at his lips, and his face had gone deathly pale.
Was he caught in the crossfire?
No, his body was completely intact, without a single wound.
“This is…”
A chill ran down my spine. And by the time I sensed it, it was already too late.
One by one, the thirty party members I had worked so hard to gather began coughing up blood and collapsing.
“Hmm, I guess having antibodies slows the poisoning process after all?”
When we fell into the graveyard,
Cattleya and I had considered two possibilities:
The involvement of the Great Sage and the involvement of Loki.
But like fools, we overlooked what should have been obvious.
“Loki…?”
The possibility that both of them might be involved.
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