When Count Python’s strike was blocked by Faust, I was already thinking we had effectively lost.
This was my mistake. I had overlooked the fact that Faust was capable in close combat.
I was preparing myself for the muddy, drawn-out battle that would follow.
But…
“Ghk! Kraaaagh!”
The result was different from what I had expected.
Count Python had deceived not only Faust but me as well.
I had thought of him as the greatest variable I possessed, yet he was never someone who merely danced in another person’s palm.
“A trap built on the premise of failure…”
As he fell from the sky, he had been holding Mistiltein.
That man had been clutching a withered branch in both hands, falling toward Faust in fear.
I never imagined he had intended to make his own death part of the plan.
The incarnation of the World Tree possesses a physical form. Otherwise, there would have been no way for her to constantly bicker with Mephi over snacks.
Still, ordinary people couldn’t even see her, so slipping behind the enemy would have been simple enough.
Of course, she couldn’t have done it alone.
The opportunity was created by the pitiful courage of that unimpressive middle-aged man who had firmly captured everyone’s attention.
What had that man been feeling as he ran toward his own failure clutching a miserable tree branch?
I couldn’t know.
But one thing was certain.
He had reached his goal.
Tap!
The plan succeeded.
Now it was my turn.
I had entrusted Mistiltein to Count Python even knowing he would die, so I needed to give an answer worthy of that resolve.
I immediately charged toward Faust, who was writhing in agony from the World Tree’s power.
Mistiltein.
The branch that kills gods.
No matter how far Faust had transcended death, he couldn’t possibly ignore that power.
Even from appearances alone, it was obvious.
Faust was screaming in pain unlike ever before.
I could see the chains floating around him beginning to slacken.
“As expected.”
I didn’t know the exact nature of Mistiltein’s power. All I had heard was that it could kill gods; I had no idea how it actually did so.
But after seeing this, I became certain.
The World Tree’s role was that of a mediator.
A colossal path connecting the boundary between the world and the outside.
And this was the authority bestowed by such a being.
“So it nullifies abilities.”
In some ways, it was even more terrifying than the imperial family’s famed Power of Destruction.
After all, it dismantled an opponent’s power regardless of output.
And losing his abilities now had to be the worst possible situation for Faust.
“N-No! This can’t happen!”
The chains were people’s souls.
Faust’s power was built by hardening and linking them together through the ability of circulation.
But now, the cycle forming that loop had been severed, and every soul he had bound was being released.
Some had offered their souls willingly, while others had been collected by Faust after death against their will. Charybdis was one of the latter.
Either way, Faust had now lost the two greatest powers he prided himself on.
“Don’t mock me!”
Whoooooooosh!!
Even as Faust steadily lost his power, he did not stop resisting.
It would still take some time before his ability completely unraveled.
Too many things were intertwined within it, and the power itself was far too immense.
I had to consider the possibility that the World Tree’s authority had a time limit.
As long as there was a chance he could regain the power of circulation, dragging this out would only hurt us.
“Don’t come any closer!!”
Faust hurled chains toward me in sheer panic.
But their movements had become drastically slower, and with the links loosened, they even seemed to creak apart.
So he really was a coward after all? The fact that he was panicking over someone like me showed just how excessively cautious he was.
Then again, I was the one who always hid in the back, yet now I was charging forward ahead of everyone else.
Naturally, he would be suspicious.
Fzzzt!
And apparently my companions felt the same way, because they began focusing entirely on supporting me.
Lobelia’s lightning stiffened the chains rushing toward me.
The daggers Yuna threw wedged themselves between the chain links and halted their movement, while Ariel’s telekinesis pushed against my back.
…Honestly, it would’ve been better if they had just charged together with me.
It almost felt like I had rushed ahead while being swept up in my emotions.
But it couldn’t be helped.
This opening had been created through Count Python’s sacrifice. I had to bear responsibility for that.
Craaack!
The space before my eyes shattered apart.
I crossed through the shattered space and closed in on Faust. The distance of several meters vanished in an instant.
Boom!
The Oracle’s radiance pouring down from the sky was blinding.
Step.
Faust, who had been retreating nonstop, finally stopped backing away after being blocked by the Sword Saint’s lingering trace.
“Let’s settle this.”
I raised my sword.
Though visibly horrified, Faust still lifted his club and blocked my blade.
Even weakened, he still wasn’t at a level I could overwhelm.
I couldn’t help frowning at the sheer force behind the club when I took it head-on. Seriously? He was still this strong?
How much weaker did he need to become before he would finally go down?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sword and club collided repeatedly.
Considering the nature of the two weapons, this was a foolish exchange, but there was no way the masterpiece forged by Cynthia would break from something like this. If anything, these clashes favored me.
After all, if there existed a sword that would never break, then eventually even a crude club could be cut apart.
But there was one fundamental problem even I couldn’t overcome.
“Ghk!”
The palm gripping my sword split open.
Before the difference in weapons, the difference in raw strength was simply too vast.
No, why was a man called the Great Sage this physically strong too?
I hadn’t realized it while Lobelia was hammering him from afar, but facing him directly, his strength was beyond imagination.
Maybe insisting on a frontal clash had been a mistake from the start.
Bang!
The two weapons collided again.
For a brief instant, I grimaced from the shock reverberating through my palm.
Was that the problem? I felt the sword slip from my hand.
My palm was already drenched in blood, and the blade had slipped because of it.
I saw Faust smile triumphantly.
And me as well.
“Hup!”
At this very moment, I revealed the final card I had prepared.
I clenched my blood-soaked hand into a fist.
The spell engraved on the back of my hand began to stand out vividly.
But Faust didn’t know.
He couldn’t even suspect it. The blood flowing from my palm had perfectly deceived his eyes.
“Haa…”
Honestly, I wasn’t confident in hand-to-hand combat. In a world where people could swing swords, punching with your fists wasn’t exactly something worth recommending unless you were a weirdo on Lobelia’s level.
Still, it wasn’t as if I had no aptitude for it at all.
I took a deep breath, stepped forward with my left foot, and drove in low.
Starting from the planted left foot, my legs, waist, and arm rotated in sequence as I threw the punch.
I had seen it countless times by now. The image of the protagonist crushing opponents with absurd brute force was burned into my mind.
At the very least, I could imitate that strike now.
Smack!
My fist slammed into Faust’s shoulder. Well, this was probably the best I could do. No matter how well I aimed, he wasn’t the kind of opponent who would casually allow a clean hit to the face.
But in the end, I had touched him.
Even if it was only his shoulder, I had still made contact.
“Ugh?!”
The power that could touch Mephistopheles’s true body existing outside the world.
The ability that had drawn blood from Lapis, the living hell itself.
The power of the Demon King.
An absolute power capable of striking even the soul itself.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Before that power, Faust clutched his shoulder and collapsed to his knees.
It didn’t matter that he was a being freed from the shackles of flesh.
A soul worn down as much as his would naturally be more fragile than anything else.
“Do you have any final words?”
Faust was not the man I had expected him to be. He was merely a coward running away in fear.
But because of that, I understood him.
I could understand the man who had been more cowardly than anyone else.
I thought I finally understood why he had called me a strong person over and over again.
To him, even a coward as pathetic as me must have looked courageous.
“So that’s how it is…”
Clutching his shoulder, Faust muttered quietly. The sage who had wandered for so long finally understood.
“So this is where I die.”
It was a voice of resignation.
And at the same time, one that sounded strangely relieved, as though he had finally been set free.
Faust feared death. But it wasn’t dying itself he feared.
It was death itself.
“Bring me my club.”
“……”
Without a word, I turned around and retrieved Faust’s club along with the sword I had dropped.
It had bothered me this whole time.
Why a club?
There was nothing particularly special about this club. So why had he carried it himself instead of storing it away in a chain?
“Gretchen……”
Faust pulled the club into his arms.
“It seems I can finally go to you now.”
That club was likely the product of his very first act of dark magic.
With his own hands, Faust dismantled the symbol of his lingering attachment.
The power of circulation, hardened more firmly than any chain, unraveled by its owner’s own hand.
“Isn’t it laughable?”
Faust sneered as he looked at the club scattering apart.
“There’s nothing contained within this crude bludgeon.”
And he was right.
As far as I remembered, Faust had never succeeded in bringing back his wife and child.
Too much time had already passed by the time he obtained dark magic.
“I simply wanted to believe she was here.”
“……”
Faust had spent his entire life running from death in fear.
But now, before death itself, he looked more desolate than anyone else.
That sight was worthy of his title, the “Great Sage”.
“Mephistopheles.”
Faust raised his head.
There, Mephi descended quietly with her wings spread wide.
“My old friend.”
“You damn idiot, and you still call me your friend.”
“You were the only one. The only one who ever told me I was foolish.”
“I only told the truth. And you not only refused to listen to my advice, you outright ignored it!”
“Because I was foolish.”
“And you know that now, you bastard…!”
Mephi pointed at Faust as though her temper had flared, but soon let out a deep sigh.
“Faust. Your greatest mistake was never trusting anyone.”
“Perhaps that’s true……”
“That’s why I don’t feel guilty for deceiving you, idiot. You dug your own grave!”
“It was quite a deep grave.”
Faust lowered his head.
As he stared at the ground beneath his feet, he looked as though he were gazing into an invisible abyss.
He was someone who had spent his entire life running away.
He ran from the family that abused him, from his own sins, and in the end, even tried to run from death itself.
“Johan Damus.”
“Yes.”
“Please let my old friend rest now.”
“……All right.”
I raised my sword.
The old man, drained of all strength and collapsed to the ground, did not resist.
“My skill isn’t exceptional enough for me to promise it will be painless.”
“I do not fear pain. What I feared was death and loss. So it is fine.”
“I see.”
Tzzzzt!
I coated the blade with sword energy.
Faust said he did not mind, but even so, I did not want to make someone facing death suffer.
Slash!
With a single strike, I severed his head.
Whether he felt pain or not, I could not know.
“How quiet.”
In the place where everything had ended, only silence remained.
There was nothing unusual about that.
By nature, in the places where death had swept through, only wailing, despair, or silence ever remained.
***
The Oracle saw it.
No, Alice saw it.
She witnessed Johan Damus finally putting an end to his long and arduous journey.
She had always waited for this moment.
She had devoted herself to dreaming of the day those who could lead the world to ruin would be defeated. She had burned away her life in service of the world.
Why had she done so?
Because she had seen countless worlds with her own eyes.
“Johan.”
Alice smiled gently.
In a tone unlike her usual one, she called the name of the person who had opened the future for her.
“That’s good.”
Within Cocytus, the hell created by Faust, Alice saw Johan screaming.
Yes, she saw the young boy suffering as he stood before the moment he would be consumed by flames.
She wanted that boy to be happy.
Unlike herself, she hoped he would be able to fully enjoy this vast world.
She hoped endless opportunities would await him.
“Now all that’s left is for you to become happy.”
She hoped he would still be able to find happiness even without her by his side.
Alice now knew. She had remembered who she truly was.
And her dream had never changed, neither then nor now.
I hope the world you live in is a beautiful one.
She hoped he would live happily, even in a world without her.
Yes, that dream……
Unfortunately, it had never changed, not then and not now.
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