“These damn bastards never change their playbook!”
Whether it’s the “Beginning” or the “End” every last one of those guys with grand backing resorts to the same petty, trashy methods. They all mess with a person’s past. Faust is trying to wear me down by provoking my regrets.
So what about the others?
Kult showed me a hypothetical future where I might’ve been happy, and Mephi forced me to relive the most painful moment of my past right in front of my eyes.
They’re all complete pieces of shit.
Mephi, when I get out of here, you’re dead.
Kult’s already dead, so nothing can be done about him, but that bastard is still alive.
Of course, there’s someone I need to deal with first.
“Is there a way out?”
“There is.”
Get out of this hell and crush Faust.
I muttered to myself, deliberately avoiding the Oracle’s gaze as she looked at me with a puzzled expression.
The moment her appearance completely overlapped with Alice’s, I couldn’t look at her the same way anymore.
Isn’t it ridiculous? Seeing someone who’s alive and thinking of someone from the past who’s dead.
Even if the two of them are the same person, it’s undeniable that the Oracle now is a different person from who she was back then.
The very way I’m looking at her right now is, in itself, disrespectful to her.
“Then why are you just standing around? Do you want to start screaming again like before? If so, I’d appreciate a heads-up so I can cover my ears. Though I guess that would make it easier to find other people.”
See? Alice would never say something like that. The two of them are completely different people.
I have to keep that in mind.
My Alice wasn’t that cynical.
“Well, first we need to clearly understand the situation, don’t we?”
“You said it yourself; it’s hell. Isn’t that enough?”
“That’s where we start. Think about it. Faust trapped us in hell. Then what about himself?”
Here’s the first hypothesis.
This entire space is essentially the inside of Faust.
According to what I heard from Princess Lobelia after she got beaten down by Lapis, it felt like the entire world itself had turned against her.
These hallucinations gnawing at my mind are probably much the same.
“But what if there’s a separate main body?”
But back then, Lapis didn’t disappear.
Of course, she had been the ruler of all hells from the very beginning, so her situation may be entirely different from Faust, who has only just seized a single region.
Something she can do as easily as breathing might require immense concentration for Faust.
This is the most optimistic assumption.
“If he does have a main body and it’s free, then what is he doing?”
And this is the worst-case assumption.
If Faust’s main body is moving just as it did before.
Then why is he leaving us alone floundering in illusions.
He hasn’t attacked us. He hasn’t interfered or tried to sway us.
Of course, he might simply be trying to deal with something else first.
That, at least, would be the better possibility.
But what if that’s not the case?
“Buying time for a ritual.”
“Nice. You’re sharp.”
From the moment Faust came out to stop us in the first place, it was obvious how important this ritual is to him. He showed up despite not even being able to gauge the damage his main force must be taking while clashing with the Imperial Army.
Unlike before, he doesn’t have the luxury of time.
It’s probably because of the absence of the imperial family. The ritual magic he prepared isn’t easily broken, but the imperial bloodline’s power could certainly destroy it.
So he rushed back.
“Faust might be proceeding with the ritual while keeping us tied down.”
“And you’re only saying that now?”
“The preparations might already be complete, or the conditions might have been fulfilled. Or it could simply be a coincidence in timing.”
I won’t say it out loud, but the answer is that the timing overlapped.
More precisely, it didn’t just overlap. It’s more accurate to say we aimed for it.
Faust must be flustered as well.
There’s no way he expected that I would manage to analyze the magic he prepared in such a short time.
He might even think it’s nothing more than a coincidence even now.
“Whatever the case, there’s only one person who can resolve this situation right now.”
“And that would be you?”
This time, at least, I was able to prepare thoroughly for the plan.
I equipped myself and analyzed the enemy.
Unlike with Kult, Tillis, or Vidar, I wasn’t suddenly dragged into this.
Nor was I preparing blindly, unsure of what might come like I did with Deus.
I anticipated what would happen, analyzed it, and arrived at an answer.
“No, Your Highness Lobelia.”
It was a certainty that Faust would use hell.
That’s why he seized it in the first place.
But Faust still doesn’t know.
That the awakened ability of Lobelia can interfere with hell.
This isn’t a hypothesis.
It’s a precedent confirmed during the battle between Lapis and Lobelia in the past.
Crack!
A sharp, destructive sound rang out from within the shadows, echoing in my ears.
Speak of the devil. Looks like she’s finally arrived.
Fzzzzzzzt!
Red currents began to streak across the blackened space.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, the world cloaked in shadow began to shatter into pieces.
“Your Highness, you could have come a little sooner.”
What was the plan if you showed up later than Dietrich and Helena?
“It is a virtue of an imperial member to move with deliberation.”
Lobelia stood at the center of the collapsing world.
Her presence was as if declaring that she herself was the axis of it all.
***
Hell collapsed.
It was likely because Faust’s ability still wasn’t enough to fully control hell. He still carries the same side effects as before.
“The power he wields is immense, yet his immaturity remains unchanged.”
What does it matter if he can now handle the chains perfectly? He still can’t properly wield the Wonder Mage’s power, and the way he manifests the hell within him outwardly is crude. Still, that doesn’t make this a good thing.
“We need to take him down now.”
Being immature means he still has room to grow.
In the past, I wouldn’t have made this judgment. After all, Faust had failed to fully draw out the power of the chains for hundreds of years.
I had underestimated him. But now I understand.
“We have to stop him before he grows stronger.”
He wasn’t simply cowering. He had been searching relentlessly for a way forward.
In a sense, it even inspires a degree of respect.
It means that despite having an almost infinite lifespan, he hasn’t wasted his time.
Now that the long years of patience are beginning to bear fruit,
It’s certain he will grow exponentially stronger than any enemy we’ve faced.
“To be more precise…”
I looked up at the sky.
I could see the mysterious power gathering above the camp begin to flow through the chains as a medium.
Just as expected.
That devious bastard had been using hell to tie us down while preparing a ritual.
I had wondered why he wasn’t attacking despite being so defenseless. Seems like he simply wasn’t in a state where he could.
The chains stretching across the sky had taken shape like a single massive magic circle.
He was pouring all of that immense soul power into one spell.
“Do you think you can stop it?”
Standing defenseless beneath the magic circle, Faust asked with an indifferent expression.
I didn’t answer.
One by one, the comrades who had begun to gather also remained silent.
Everyone assembled here were veterans who had turned the tide of battle countless times.
There was no need to say what had to be done now.
Tap!
Faster and swifter than anyone else, it was once again Dietrich, the paladin wrapped in radiant light, who charged forward.
Kill him before the ritual is complete.
The method was still unclear, but he knew better than to stand idle.
Tzzzzzzzt!
Faust answered Dietrich’s charge with magic.
Through his awakened ability [Cycle], the violently rotating mana began to spark flames from nothing more than friction with the air.
Whoooom!!
The unleashed mana became a storm and crashed down upon the charging Dietrich.
The fire storm delivered absurd destructive power even with a small amount of mana.
“Ghk!”
Losing momentum to the storm, Dietrich responded by swinging his sword.
No matter how powerful Faust was, he couldn’t overwhelm a Sword Saint.
And so their clash reached a stalemate. But even that alone was enough for Faust to achieve his goal.
Even if Dietrich hadn’t fallen, his charge had been stopped.
“As expected of an Archmage.”
Lobelia, the thunder lord wrapped in crimson lightning, charged in from another direction.
“Hah!”
Faust once again tried to push her back with a storm of mana, but Lobelia’s response was even faster.
“Not a chance!”
The unleashed storm was struck head-on by the lightning bursting from Lobelia’s gauntlet, and in that instant, it lost its rotation and began to scatter.
It wasn’t even a direct attack. Just the aftershock of preparing one was enough.
“……”
Frowning, Faust immediately prepared his next spell while simultaneously casting dark magic.
The shadow spreading from beneath his feet soon took form and began to press in on Lobelia.
The shadow at her feet and the archmage’s magic erupting right before her eyes—neither could be ignored.
But with his attention fixed on Lobelia, there was no way Faust could notice.
“I wonder what happened to the mark I left on you last time?”
“……!”
Slash slash slash!
The world’s greatest assassin carved into Faust’s body with her daggers.
This time as well, red lightning crackled along her blades.
She already knew it wouldn’t kill him, but that didn’t make it meaningless.
“Even if it won’t kill you, it’s still annoying, right?”
Blood sprayed from Faust’s body. He staggered for a brief moment, but he didn’t stop.
Even as his body was being shredded, Faust never ceased pressuring Lobelia.
But it wasn’t enough.
Without being able to use the chains which were his greatest source of power, his overall strength was bound to be diminished.
Boom!
Like a hammer crashing down, a torrent of divine power erased the shadows that had been trying to bind Lobelia.
Crack!
The spell Faust had been casting was disrupted and shattered, as if interfered with by something.
It was Ariel’s dispel. It was a technique on the same level as Helena’s blessing empowered by the holy relic.
A seamless chain of coordination.
Everything prepared for this moment was unleashed at once.
Boom!
At last, with no interference left, Lobelia reached Faust.
A fist imbued with violent lightning shot straight toward him.
“Oh?”
Just before striking Faust, Lobelia’s eyes flickered with a brief spark of interest.
Even facing her, Faust did not give up. If anything, he went so far as to extend his hand, trying to deflect her attack.
A chill ran down my spine.
That bastard… don’t tell me he can fight hand-to-hand as well?
There’s no telling how many more tricks he still has hidden.
Crash!
But it wasn’t enough.
Faust failed to stop Lobelia, and in the end, her fist struck his body.
Rumbleeeee!
Thunder roared.
Crimson lightning swallowed the world.
“Guhk!”
For the first time, a pained scream burst from Faust’s mouth.
As expected. No matter how formidable Faust was, he couldn’t come out unscathed from Lobelia’s full-powered attack.
“Hngh!”
But if there was one thing we hadn’t anticipated—
“It’s not over until it’s over!”
—it was the sheer desperation shown by Faust who had always been so indifferent and composed.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood and a large hole tore through his body, yet even in that state, Faust refused to give up. He grabbed Lobelia by the wrist and hurled her away.
Thud!
Then, as if from nowhere, he pulled out a club and drove it into the ground.
A truly crude weapon.
But only upon seeing it did I fully understand.
“Yeah… so you’re just as desperate, aren’t you?”
Faust was no sage. Nor was he merely a scheming manipulator.
“Of course. My dream is not mine alone.”
From the man who looked indifferent and half-dead, I could feel a burning fervor unlike ever before.
The man who feared death more than anyone else was, paradoxically, devoted enough to his goal to risk death itself.
Now, I could finally make a proper judgment of Faust.
“What a hopeless dreamer.”
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