I kept clinging on.
Even if winning was difficult, I had to get under Faust’s skin.
Draining his stamina and breaking his concentration. That was our win condition.
A messy, drawn-out fight was my specialty.
But unlike other enemies, that was Faust’s specialty too.
It was a real headache of a battle.
I dodged and blocked the power he swung around while steadily pushing him back.
It had already been tough before when he didn’t have the chains. Now, even getting close was a struggle.
“Johan Damus! You will surely meet your death!”
“You seem pretty angry.”
He was especially fixated on me. No surprise. He was clearly holding a grudge.
Well, if someone had wrecked a lifelong plan of mine like this, I would’ve been furious too.
Still, I wished he had been a bit more rational. There were monsters like Lobelia, Ariel, and Theseus right there…so why was he cowardly targeting the weakest one, me?
Then again, that worked in my favor.
“If it broke from just a little nudge from me, maybe it would’ve collapsed anyway, don’t you think?”
I deliberately needled him.
If there was one thing I was better at than anyone there, it was getting under someone’s skin.
“Maybe you should’ve just been grateful you realized it would fail sooner thanks to me?”
Boom!!
At that moment, a mass of chains came surging toward me like a storm.
This wasn’t like when he sent just one or two. The sheer force behind it was on another level.
There was no way to block it.
If I tried to, I would be crushed into minced meat on the spot.
“Johan, you should really have held back on provoking him so much.”
It was Ariel who grabbed me with magic and flung me away. Maybe she had been startled too; she didn’t exactly plan my landing and just hurled me.
“Here we go.”
Fortunately, Yuna caught me as I was sent flying at insane speed.
They were always bickering, but seeing this, they actually worked pretty well together.
“……”
Faust extended his hand.
Then the tip of the chain cluster rushing forward began to blur.
Crack!
The Oracle, having already read the sign of spatial movement, immediately disrupted Faust’s trick.
At the same time, close-combat experts like Lobelia charged at him all at once.
“Hmph!”
Faust’s response to dealing with them was clean and precise.
He spread out the chains that had been bundled together all at once.
“Ugh!”
At that moment, I felt pressure from Yuna’s hands supporting me.
The force was strong enough to be called painful, and I looked up at her face in surprise.
Her expression was ice-cold.
“You bastard…”
A low curse slipped out.
The moment her emotions wavered—
I understood why Yuna was angry when I saw how Faust was moving the chains.
“…The wave.”
The ability of Charybdis Salos called Wave was making the chains move more smoothly than ever before.
That alone was enough to shift the tide of the battle.
“This is—!”
Ariel who had been handling Faust’s attacks head-on cried out in shock, her voice filled with confusion.
The moment her telekinesis tried to grasp the surging wave, it slipped through like water scattering from her grip.
All the other attacks were the same. Fluid like flowing water, yet carrying the fierce force of crashing waves.
With the addition of just that single ability, his attacks had become incredibly difficult to deal with.
“Ugh?!”
And I couldn’t resist that flow either. The chains surged toward me while I was still in Yuna’s arms.
There was no one to block them.
“Johan, hold on tight.”
At least one fortunate thing was that Yuna had already caught and was holding onto me tightly.
There was a bit of pressure in the way she gripped me, but right now, it was nothing but reassuring.
“Yuna, just let go.”
“Got it!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, she dropped me. She trusted me, sure. But it still stung a little.
“Well then.”
Landing on the ground, I looked at the chains rushing toward me and raised my right hand.
Thankfully, not all of them were targeting me.
“Babel Gear, deploy.”
At the same time, my right arm began to grotesquely swell.
Even though I was the one doing it, it looked seriously disgusting.
So how would it look to others?
“Ugh.”
Yuna’s short reaction said it all. Yuna, you’re being kind of harsh today, aren’t you?
Anyway, it proved that nothing drew attention quite like this.
“Ghk!”
Of course, drawing attention didn’t mean I could completely block the chains.
I tried to stop the five chains Faust had sent at me using Babel Gear…only to be blown away.
The Babel Gear overheated instantly, entering a shutdown state.
Still, the fact that I had blocked it without injury counted for something.
Of course, I didn’t pull off that whole stunt just to block a single attack.
Screeeech!!
Now that I had drawn plenty of aggro, the moment I had been waiting for finally arrived.
***
Count Python was weak.
He had tried training and studying, but he was below average at both.
If there was one thing he was somewhat good at, it was quick thinking.
And there were more people like that in the world than one might expect.
Johan Damus, struggling below, was one of them. And so was Faust, swinging his chains while consumed by rage.
They weren’t special. Just the kind of people you could find anywhere.
But generally speaking, not the kind who were easy to like.
People like that were often con artists. That much was well known.
“I can do this. I can do this. I will, no matter what.”
Count Python kept psyching himself up.
It weighed heavily on him that someone as insignificant as himself had been given such a crucial role.
But he was the one who chose this path.
Instead of lurking in the shadows, scheming as usual, he had stepped forward for the sake of revenge.
Even if he were to crash and shatter against a rock—
Wasn’t it better to shatter spectacularly?
“Hup…!”
Count Python clenched the branch Johan had given him.
The greatest variable, reserved for this very moment.
Now that Johan had drawn everyone’s attention, this was his chance.
But…
“Eek?!”
Faust wasn’t fooled.
He had been momentarily distracted by Johan Damus’s grotesque form, but he quickly sensed that something was off.
The moment their eyes met, Count Python froze in terror, nearly screaming.
Faust raised his hand.
With just a slight motion of that hand, Count Python would be torn to pieces in midair.
I’m scared.
The fear that Mastema had suppressed began to creep back in.
The blazing courage that had burned so fiercely started to fade.
No matter how much he tried to control his emotions, he couldn’t overcome the weakness he had been born with.
There was no point in forcing himself to do something that didn’t suit him.
But still!
Count Python’s body trembled.
Even so, he didn’t let go of the branch he was gripping.
He had no courage. Fear coiled tightly around him.
But he had already decided. He would move forward despite the fear.
He hadn’t thrown his life on the line because he believed someone as weak and cunning as himself could actually succeed.
It was fine if he failed.
After all, he was the kind of person who found more satisfaction in seeing someone he hated fail than in succeeding himself.
“Veil Python, was it.”
Just as Faust, in a detached voice, was about to swing his hand toward him—
Flap!
Mastema spread its blue wings once more.
However, the fear Count Python felt was not something small enough to suppress, and the ember that remained in his heart had grown too faint to rekindle.
Mastema’s goal was not to restore courage to Count Python but to the opponent who stood gazing up at the sky with an indifferent expression.
“Chirp! Chirp-chirp!”
Faust looked down on Count Python. He had thwarted his assassination attempt before, and even now, the sight of him falling from the sky was utterly pathetic. Ability? He had none at all.
He wasn’t even comparable to Johan Damus.
Count Python could do nothing. He possessed neither ability nor any variable that could change the situation.
He wasn’t even worth dealing with.
“……”
Faust lowered the hand he had raised toward Count Python.
Complete disregard and contempt.
In that fleeting moment of emotion, Faust took no action.
And then, belatedly, he realized.
What in the world am I relying on to simply leave that man alone?
That his emotions had been tampered with.
It was true that he had looked down on Count Python. It was also true that he believed the man couldn’t do anything.
But he wasn’t foolish enough to ignore an opponent openly attacking him.
This is…!
Johan Damus’s deception.
Veil Python’s weakness.
And above all…
The Judge’s power?!
Even the ability to control emotions.
Having finally shaken off Mastema’s power, Faust was struck with shock.
Such meticulous planning.
For the sake of this single moment, Johan Damus had revealed most of the cards he held.
And that fact meant—
This is dangerous.
It meant they were about to reveal an absolute, guaranteed winning move.
Faust fixed his gaze on Veil Python as he flew toward him.
It was too late to intercept. No ability he used would be able to stop it.
Chains, magic, dark magic.
All of them required at least a minimal amount of preparation.
Before he knew it, Faust noticed a small tree branch drawing near his eyes.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Ghk?!”
Faust immediately grabbed Veil Python’s wrist.
Johan’s plan had been perfect. It was a design so chilling it sent shivers down the spine.
But there had been a flaw in that plan.
“This fight is mine!”
They failed to account for Faust’s close-quarters combat ability.
Chains, magic, dark magic. They were all too slow.
But nothing was faster than moving one’s own body.
“Ghk!”
Crack!
Faust seized Veil Python’s wrist and slammed him down.
Combined with the force of his fall, Faust’s attack inflicted a fatal wound that left Count Python with no way to respond.
Failure….
He was weak. The most fragile man here.
With no swordsmanship, no magic, not even any special ability, he was no different from an ordinary person.
He had no talent.
If there was anything he could claim, it was nothing more than petty cunning, making him a truly pitiful man.
And yet, because of that—
Who said this was a failure?
Thud.
Count Python let go of the tree branch he had been clutching.
The branch had already crumbled under the strength of his grip.
“I… am someone who works from the shadows.”
It was because he had no faith in himself.
He knew he couldn’t succeed. That was why he had searched for the most efficient solution.
“How could someone like me, a mere petty schemer, ever kill a Great Sage?”
Thud!
As Faust watched Veil Python dying, he flinched at the strange sensation from behind.
Something stabbed into his lower back from below.
“……”
Faust turned his head to see what had pierced him.
It had a shape similar to the branch Veil Python had tried to stab him with moments ago.
Then who? Who could have attacked him?
“The Judge of the world delivers judgment upon a creation that has disrupted its laws.”
Something unseen.
And so, Faust was stabbed in the back by the World Tree’s own power.
As he lay dying, Count Python watched that moment and smiled. It was the satisfied smile of a schemer who operated from the shadows.
The final move he had devised at the very end was something no one here could have anticipated.
“Behold. Even if an egg cannot break a rock…”
Humpty Dumpty.
“…it can shatter brilliantly and deceive everyone’s eyes.”
The egg that fell from the wall met a dazzling, spectacular end.
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