Great Sage Faust could be said to be the enemy we had the least information about.
Now that things had drifted far from the original game, there was no way to tell just how far his power and abilities had progressed.
So I waited.
For this very moment when he would finally reveal all his cards.
“……”
I would’ve preferred to end this before his ritual was complete, but now that it had come to this, we had no choice but to unleash everything we had been holding back as well.
From here on out, it’s a gamble.
You can’t know which hand is stronger until they clash.
I drew my sword and charged straight into the black light where Faust stood.
“Come, Johan Damus.”
The pillar of black light continued to expand.
The first thing I felt upon entering it was clarity.
The black light accepted me without any pressure or resistance.
Though everything around me was pitch black, I could perceive everything more vividly than ever.
“This is our hell.”
Even as I approached him within that light, Faust looked completely at ease.
It wasn’t hard to guess why.
This clarity I was feeling. The sensation of soul and body melting together.
Now that I was perceiving things not with my eyes but with my very soul,
I finally realized that Faust had achieved his goal.
Under this light, death does not exist. Nor does life.
A world that has reached its end.
Faust had fixed that ending into the form he desired.
Before long, this light would swallow the entire world.
And when that happened, his victory would be certain.
Clatter—
I heard the sound of chains.
I could feel my soul connecting with his.
The purpose of the Under Chain.
To erase death from this world and bind all souls into one.
Yes, no matter how many hidden cards he had, his goal itself never changed.
At the very moment the chain between him and me connected,
I finally understood what Faust had been feeling.
***
His wife died.
His son died as well.
Sitting atop their corpses was a starving child soldier.
“……”
Anger surged.
Hatred took root.
But what held him back wasn’t reason or emotion.
“…Great Sage.”
That undeserved title was what held him back.
So many people placed their hopes in him. So many clung to him.
If Faust had done anything wrong, it was that he lived up to those expectations.
Every one of his actions was given meaning, and those who followed him accepted it as the right answer.
So what if Faust were to kill the boy soldier here? To take revenge?
With his followers watching him anxiously from behind, Faust looked down at the boy before him.
Only the boy could see it. What kind of emotions did Faust truly hold.
“If something is wrong, it isn’t this boy. It’s the war.”
Words he didn’t mean.
Suppressing his hatred, he forced out the “correct” answer.
He chose social responsibility over personal emotion. Or perhaps, more than appearances, he was thinking about his influence.
“This world is what’s wrong.”
In the end, Faust forgave the boy soldier. Because he believed that was the right thing to do.
By doing so, he created a precedent so that others in similar situations might make the “right” choice as well.
“They say you should hate the sin, not the sinner. Killing the boy would be easy, but if we give him a chance, something might change.”
Faust swallowed his emotions.
To the world, he was seen as a sage who had transcended everything. But in truth, he was nothing more than an ordinary man.
Just an ordinary man, pushed forward by the world.
What am I supposed to do?
He repeated empty, polished words.
As if reading from a book, he preached universal morality.
What do you expect me to do?
The world had shackled him with the title of “Great Sage” and with that collar around his neck, Faust had no choice but to say what was right.
Who is going to understand my grief and anger?
He had no choice but to bury it all inside.
But the more he did, the darker those emotions grew.
He missed his wife.
He missed his son.
But even expressing that longing was difficult.
“Great Sage, that boy from before… we’ve heard he was killed.”
“……”
Faust looked up at the follower delivering the grim news with a somber expression.
“I see.”
“Please don’t be too saddened. As you said, Great Sage, the war is the real problem.”
It was almost laughable.
They were telling a victim not to grieve the death of the perpetrator.
But Faust had to meet their expectations.
For those who had nowhere else to lean, he had to force himself to become something beyond human.
“Great Sage, what are you thinking?”
“I’m not sure.”
He was tired. And he was filled with sorrow.
Humans can never fully understand one another.
Beneath the illness called death, Faust made a vow.
“Someday, you too will come to understand.”
If a day came when everyone could truly understand each other, then there would be no more suffering.
***
Crack!
Smiling in a sense of omnipotence and liberation, Faust opened his eyes at the strange sound ringing in his ears.
In this space, no one could harm him. No one could harm each other. Conflict did not exist, and all would become a single collective that perfectly understood one another.
And yet, something went wrong. In that brief moment when he and Johan Damus glimpsed each other’s pasts.
Crack!
The hell he had created, the world itself, began to fracture.
Like a piece of transparent candy splitting apart, the pillar of black light started to break.
Craaack!
Cracks spread across the very fabric of the world.
At a glance, it resembled the Oracle’s method of spatial movement, but it was different.
“I was hoping the ritual wouldn’t be completed. I didn’t want to lay eyes on the world you created, not even for a second.”
A voice rang out.
Now that he was no longer relying on the five senses but was connected to the world itself, hearing another’s voice was unnatural.
“But now, I finally understand you, Faust.”
His vision returned.
The chains that had bound them vanished.
Standing before him was the weak human who had been the first to leap into his new world.
“You were nothing more than a coward.”
“……”
“So of course you wouldn’t have anything like conviction or a grand cause. You were just running away in fear.”
Crunch!
The ever-expanding pillar of black light shattered completely.
It was the end of the ritual magic Faust had spent so long preparing.
“What did you do?”
Only then did Faust glare at him, anger finally surfacing.
“Do I really need to explain?”
“I knew you were trying something, but there was nothing wrong with the ritual.”
“Of course not.”
Long ago, I had managed to make contact with the ritual while it was still in its preparation phase.
All I did back then was inject a small amount of mana into it.
That’s why he didn’t notice. He must have thought that such a trivial interference could never destroy the ritual.
But Faust didn’t know.
“I got lucky.”
The ritual he had prepared and the magic I knew were, at their core, built on the same foundation.
Faust’s ritual couldn’t be destroyed. But it was possible to add something to its structure.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I already examined it thoroughly! A trick like yours had no meaning!”
“You’re right. It didn’t mean anything until I stepped into this space myself.”
What I embedded into Faust’s ritual was nothing more than a scattered puzzle piece. For that piece to gain meaning, it needed to connect with the rest of the puzzle.
Yes, I deliberately left behind a trace in an incomplete state.
That alone was enough.
“I’ve seen your ideal. I’ve also seen the ugliness behind it and I understand now that you’re far more ordinary than you thought.”
For an ordinary person, talent can sometimes be a curse.
That description fit perfectly here.
He had no grand ambition, no conviction. This was simply the place he chose to run to.
He feared death, and he feared expectations. What followed was a long escape that began from that fear.
“There was a certain ‘assumption’. That’s all you need to understand.”
“An assumption? An assumption?!”
Clatter—
Countless chains gathered around the Great Sage. With the ritual canceled, he no longer had any reason to restrain his power.
“So that was the magic you were researching?”
The magic Alice had discovered after long study—
It was the ability to turn something that had already happened into a mere assumption.
Of course, it had limitations. The biggest one was the absurd amount of mana it required.
Fortunately, this time I was able to use it by piggybacking on the ritual Faust had prepared, but under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t even be usable.
“Thanks to that, I was able to drag you down at least this much. I wanted to stop the ritual itself, but…”
And there was another limitation.
Faust had already died once.
We had succeeded in killing him.
But through the ritual he cast, he returned from death and that experience likely made him even stronger.
What I could affect was only the moment after entering the ritual.
In other words, I couldn’t erase Faust’s resurrection itself.
“That’s just how I am. I’ve always avoided the worst and settled for the next best option.”
What I could reduce to an assumption was only the time after the magic had been activated.
“So, we’re back to square one.”
I’ve already revealed the biggest card I had prepared. But honestly, I can’t say the situation is favorable.
We poured everything we had into cornering Faust, and as a result, we’re heavily drained.
On the other hand what about Faust?
Even if only for a fleeting moment, he had fully restored his power through the ritual.
If anything, he might have become even stronger than before.
After all, this was the version of him that had already achieved his goal.
“We’ve both revealed all the cards we prepared. Now it’s time for a brawl in the mud.”
Of course, that was a lie.
***
Chains, dark magic, awakened abilities, even blunt-force combat…Having revealed everything, Faust truly proved himself a formidable opponent.
He no longer hid behind the facade of a sage. Instead, he unleashed his raw anger as it was.
“If we just start over, that’s enough. I’ll kill you all and prepare the ritual again!”
“And how do you plan to gather that massive amount of mana and morale again?”
“That’ll be solved once I kill you. If I taint the souls of the imperial bloodline with death, it will become immense power!”
To be honest, we were being pushed back.
The only reason we had the upper hand before was because our overall strength was superior.
But now, that was no longer the case.
“Haah… haah…”
Lobelia had reached her limit.
There was no blaming her.
She had worked harder than anyone in this plan and delivered results.
Just forcing Faust this far meant she had already fulfilled her role.
The real problem was that we hadn’t anticipated the completion of the ritual.
“Hup!”
Lobelia’s fist struck Faust’s chains once more.
Even in her exhaustion, the blow carried immense power.
But unfortunately, while her will held strong, her gauntlet did not.
Crack!
Unable to withstand the repeated strain of her full strength, the gauntlet began to break apart.
Even as Cynthia’s masterpiece, the sheer scale of power was too much.
It was a miracle it had lasted this long.
“Johan Damus!!”
Magic, swordsmanship, divine power, even the imperial abilities…none of it was enough to overwhelm Faust in his current state.
Everyone was wearing down, and defeat began to feel inevitable.
I could feel the scales tipping.
“Mephi.”
This was the turning point.
And so, I revealed another card I had been holding back.
***
As far as this plan went, Mephi had essentially done nothing.
She had simply been floating high in the sky, drifting about, never directly lending her strength to Johan.
Nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary. Which was exactly why no one suspected or guarded against her presence.
“Here we go!”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait. If I fall from here, won’t I die?”
“Don’t worry. An ordinary person would definitely die.”
“I am completely ordinary, though.”
Mephi, who had been floating in the sky, was holding Count Python.
The greatest variable Johan had prepared.
But it was extremely difficult to make use of it.
They had to avoid being detected and reach the destination alive.
That was why Mephi was used.
Since Mephi could fly through the sky by means other than magic, she wouldn’t be picked up by detection.
“Just die once. I’ll drop you precisely.”
“I-I’m not sure I can do this. M-My hands are shaking.”
“Don’t worry. Your mouth is shaking too.”
“Then what exactly am I supposed to worry about?!”
After saying nothing but worrying things, the demon kept telling him not to worry.
For the first time in his life, Count Python realized he had a fear of heights, and he had no confidence.
“Gather your courage. You can do it.”
“Very touching words. Not an ounce of sincerity, though.”
Clicking his tongue at Mephi’s indifferent words, Count Python trembled.
Could he really do this?
What if he died of a heart attack before even hitting the ground?
“Don’t worry.”
“No.”
Count Python was starting to get irritated at Mephi, who kept repeating the same words like a parrot.
But this time, it was different.
“This fellow will give you courage, so you just need to accomplish your goal.”
The bluebird that had been dozing off atop Mephi’s head slowly spread its wings.
At that moment, all fear vanished, and a small spark of courage began to blaze like a raging fire.
“Right… I can do this!”
Count Python awakened.
At the same time, he began to fall straight toward Faust’s head.
Watching him, Mephi muttered absentmindedly.
“I’m a bit worried though…”
Mephi was a total bastard.
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