It was almost laughable.
I had acted as though I was staking everything, yet in the end, I hadn’t wagered the one thing that mattered most.
Had I really been prepared to face death, but not to stake my soul?
I felt disgusted with myself.
So now, I wouldn’t hesitate.
Slash!!
A long shadow stretched out from my restrained body, spreading like a pair of wings.
“Mwahahahahahahaha!!”
A voice rang out from within the shadow, now expanded enough to blot out the sky itself.
I had never heard him sound this excited in my life.
That was how thrilled she was.
“You are mineeeee!”
With a flap of the black wings, every knight holding me down was swept away by the raging gust.
Well, look at that. She was actually living up to all the confidence she’d shown. Right, if I’m staking my soul, this is the least she should be capable of.
“Shut up.”
I rose to my feet.
Not only had my wounds healed, but my broken limbs had been restored as well.
The power coursing through my body felt more tangible than ever before, and the mana that had once been no more than a tiny well had expanded into something like a vast ocean, its limits impossible to discern.
“Behold, Johan Damus. In the end, you were always destined to accept me!”
“Says the one who was sprawled on the floor claiming she didn’t want to do anything just a little while ago. But… did you get bigger again?”
“I did. What do you think?”
For some reason, Mephistopheles had grown until she looked about my age.
Black hair, red eyes, and a smug grin that seemed completely at odds with her droopy puppy ears.
The audacity of this brat.
“Change back.”
“No.”
“What are the others supposed to say when they see you like that?!”
“Something very entertaining, I imagine.”
“You little bastard.”
Did she deliberately change her appearance to look like that? Surely she wasn’t hoping to sit back and watch me get butchered by the others.
“Fufufu, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m the strongest one, after all.”
Mephistopheles grinned as she wrapped her arms around me from behind.
Her body had grown as well. Even her more prominent features had developed to the point where they rivaled Yuna’s. Well, she probably used Yuna as the model.
And yet, not a single flutter of excitement. Come on now, that’s not something you do with family. Let go of me.
“So you still haven’t had enough of a beating. You can’t even exert your power outside without me, so what exactly are you planning to do?”
“Are you saying we should die together?”
“All I have to do is throw you to them! I can face the kids with my head held high!”
“Hmph! Do you really think things will go the way you imagine?”
That devious little brat. What a terrifying scheme she had concocted.
I never should have trusted an evil demon in the first place. To think she’d been plotting to stab me in the back from the very beginning….
“Enough of that. Just get ready.”
“Understood. Swing to your heart’s content. All of this shall become your power.”
For a moment, it looked as though Mephi was about to fall from where she clung to my back, but instead she naturally melted into my shadow.
From this point on, Mephi would support every one of my actions. Still, we’d been together for a long time, so I trusted she’d do a good job.
It was just as I adjusted my grip on my sword.
“…What have you done?!”
Alice stared at me with a devastated expression, then erupted in fury.
“I told you to listen.”
“I-I worked so hard to protect you! How could you do this?!”
“Protect me? You?”
What a joke.
The one who had driven me all the way to this point was none other than Alice herself.
“Why would you go this far? Alice is already dead. I’m nothing more than a fragment of her!”
“So?”
“You shouldn’t have clung to the past like this. Just for something like this… just for this, you traded away your soul…!”
“Yeah, I understand your point. I can see why you’d think that.”
Maybe I did look foolish.
Maybe it seemed as though I was trapped in the past, unable to move forward.
“But you’re Alice.”
“That’s nonsense! I’m fundamentally different from the person you knew!”
“Well, people can change as they go through life. Alice, you don’t need to be embarrassed just because you’ve matured.”
“What kind of insane nonsense is that?! Who said I was embarrassed about anything?!”
“Yeah, honestly, I think this version of you is easier to look at.”
“……”
Alice glared at me with an expression full of contempt.
That look wasn’t particularly pleasant to see.
“Whatever the case, there’s no way you can stop me. Alice, the person standing before you is someone who spent ten years devoted to a single goal.”
“Do you think I’m going to thank you for that?”
“That’s none of my concern.”
“You really are…!”
“Come to me, Alice.”
“……”
“I know what you’re afraid of. I know why you’re acting this way. Then shouldn’t you know something too?”
I started walking toward Alice.
She couldn’t move, as if she had been nailed to the spot.
“You should know what kind of person I am by now.”
“Yes! I know! You’re a coward. Petty, vicious, and only concerned with protecting yourself!
”
“And?”
“You have a foul mouth, and you’re ugly too.”
“I’ll let the first part slide, but I can’t agree with the second. Anyway, what else?”
“……”
Alice bit down on her lip.
I could see tears beginning to gather in her eyes.
“You’re an idiot. Stubborn. The kind of person who suffers losses because you’re underhanded in some ways, yet never cruel enough to truly see things through.”
“Right, and?”
“You’re someone who never backs down once you’ve set your mind on something.”
“You know me well.”
“You willingly took on danger for your younger brother, even knowing the risks, and you solved the Transcendence Disease that everyone believed was impossible to cure.”
“It was my life’s ambition.”
“You were someone who could have been happy even if things had stayed this way.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken.”
“You’re even foolish enough to risk your life over something so trivial.”
“The fact that I’ve gone this far proves it stopped being trivial a long time ago.”
“You…!”
Alice cried out as though she were finally spilling everything she had kept buried inside.
She had probably been trying to condemn me.
Trying, somehow, to make me disappointed in her and walk away.
But by now, she knew.
She knew exactly what kind of person I was.
Which meant she also knew that no matter what she did, I would never give up.
“…You’re an amazing person.”
In the end, Alice murmured the words as though she had finally surrendered. The tears that had gathered in her eyes were already running down her cheeks.
“Yeah. That’s the kind of person I am.”
The person you loved.
And the person who loves you.
“That’s why I won’t back down. Because I want to be that kind of person too.”
A man who is underhanded, yet never quite ruthless enough. Foolish and powerless.
The reason I can keep moving forward is because you’re there to see someone like that and still think he’s admirable.
I walked right past Alice and approached the Emperor.
“Can’t you just run away? Please, can’t you just stay alive?”
Alice pleaded as she clutched the sleeve of my coat. She knew I wasn’t going to back down.
Even so, the fact that she was still doing this probably meant I hadn’t given her enough faith.
That, despite steeling my resolve like this, I was still someone who fell short.
“Alice, do you know the name of the magic you left behind for me?”
“……”
“Adventure. It embodies the countless possibilities you dreamed of, and your desire to accomplish everything you ever wanted to do.”
The moment I fully deciphered that magic, I finally understood just how greedy Alice had been.
There were so many things she wanted to do.
She must have wanted to experience all of them.
That was why she wished for a magic like this.
A magic that would let her challenge anything and endure failure over and over again.
“So I’m going to create the ending I want most.”
Because that was your dream.
Because you wanted my life, after endless attempts and adventures, to finally reach its ideal conclusion.
I took hold of the hand that was clutching my sleeve.
Her hand came willingly, devoid of strength, and after giving it a firm squeeze, I spoke.
“Wait for me here. I’ll go deal with that senile old man and come right back.”
At last, I stepped into the very center of the stage.
***
Power overflowed within me.
Opportunities were just as abundant.
But I couldn’t afford to let my guard down. No matter that I had formed a contract with Mephi and gained access to her power, my opponent was still the Emperor.
I had only just earned the right to stand on the same stage as him.
“Johan, I find myself feeling rather conflicted at the moment. Do you know why?”
“Because I’ve become stronger than Your Majesty?”
“No. Because I find myself wondering whether I ought to put down a man who has made a pact with a demon.”
“Your Majesty didn’t see anything.”
“And yet you dare conspire to conceal a crime in front of the Emperor himself.”
Abraham remained completely at ease.
He had yet to properly swing the sword in his hand.
At most, he had swung it a few times at the charging Lapis.
As for Lobelia, he had merely deflected her attacks or met her with his bare fists.
The fact that he could go toe-to-toe with Lobelia using only his fists was enough to prove he was far from an ordinary opponent.
“Johan Damus. You have rejected my generosity time and time again.”
“You know, if you’d accepted my first refusal, your mouth would probably be hurting a lot less.”
“Haha, judging by the outcome, I suppose you’re right.”
The crimson blade pointed toward me.
“Do you understand now that you have become the target of this sword?”
“Would you look at that, Your Highness. It seems I’ve been judged worthy of a higher tier than you.”
“Not judged to be an atrocious criminal?”
“I already was before.”
“I can’t exactly argue with that.”
Lobelia still wore a dubious expression. To think she’d look like that even after reinforcements had arrived in the form of me. It was almost disappointing.
“Come.”
Abraham beckoned with a finger from the hand holding his sword.
The confidence was astonishing. Not only was he unarmed, he was doing that with the very hand holding his weapon. If I struck now, would he lose his grip on it?
Either way, there was no reason to hesitate.
“Let’s go, Mephi.”
“Leave the support to me.”
I wasn’t the same person I used to be.
I was no longer the Johan who had spent his life watching his step and dodging danger at every turn.
“Hah!”
I swung my sword at Abraham’s neck.
Instead of sword energy, an unknown darkness clung to the blade.
Tiny specks that looked almost like stars drifted within it, and strangely enough, the sight wasn’t unpleasant.
Clang!
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Abraham blocked my strike.
There wasn’t even a hint of surprise on his face.
Knowing how strong I had been before, his reaction almost made my newfound power feel insignificant.
Just as that thought crossed my mind—
Booooom!
The instant a single spark from Abraham’s sword touched the ground, a massive explosion erupted and flames shot skyward.
It was an attack I had never anticipated.
Rip!
In that instant, I died once.
“Ghk!”
I came to my senses with a feeling of utter disgust at the flames that seemed to be burning my entire body alive.
When I opened my eyes, I was back where I had been standing with Lobelia.
“……”
Without a word, Abraham leveled the tip of his sword at me.
For an instant, my temper flared.
Maybe it was because my body was literally overheating, but it even felt as though my ignition point had dropped.
“That’s a shame. Under normal circumstances, you could’ve killed me.”
“I don’t find it particularly regrettable.”
I deliberately shrugged my shoulders and activated [Adventure] once more.
“Sorry, but I’m not scheduled to die today.”
“One never knows. Perhaps you’ll suddenly feel like making room in your schedule for it.”
“……”
Abraham really was strong.
Even after I had effectively revealed that I was in a state bordering on immortality, he remained completely unfazed.
“Bulking yourself up with borrowed power changes nothing. You’re already struggling to control your own strength. How do you expect to face me?”
“Why ask a question you already know the answer to?”
I tightened my grip on my sword once more.
The heat from earlier still hadn’t faded.
Even though I had turned it into a dream and awakened from it, the sensation lingered.
The agony of being burned alive refused to leave me.
Just like the dream I had awakened from moments ago, my mind still remembered it.
“Your Majesty knows as well as I do.”
My hand trembled.
Well, gaining a little power overnight wasn’t going to change who I was.
Right now, I was afraid.
Then again, considering who I was facing, it would be stranger not to be.
But strength and skill wouldn’t be what decided the outcome of this battle.
“You keep going until it works.”
“Then how long do you think you can endure?”
“And how long do you think you can?”
This was a battle of willpower.
Either I would give up under unbearable pain, or Abraham would eventually allow a fatal opening amid the endless bloodshed.
The moment one of us broke mentally, it would become an actual defeat.
But honestly, that worked in my favor.
“I know You’ve lived for centuries, Your Majesty, but I’m someone who spent ten years focusing on a single thing without ever taking a break. I like my chances.”
Because this wasn’t Abraham’s stage.
It was an improvised stage that I had prepared.
Now then, both of our plans had been thoroughly tossed into the trash.
At last, things were finally fair.
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