For Emperor Abraham, things rarely went according to plan. No matter what he did, variables would emerge, and just when he thought he had patched everything up, another unexpected incident would break out somewhere else.
In a sense, it felt as though the world itself was his enemy.
He was a man who had lived that kind of life.
A man who had overcome all of it.
Perhaps that was why.
Abraham felt a sense of kinship with Johan.
One was a powerful man who had obtained everything, while the other was a weak man willing to stake his life just to obtain something small.
Wasn’t it ironic?
To feel a sense of kinship toward an enemy like that.
And at this very moment,
Abraham could no longer help but acknowledge Johan as his destined rival.
“How dare you.”
The bizarre power emanating from Johan was by its very existence staining the world and reducing it to ruin.
Marble crumbled as though centuries had passed.
The air became laced with poison, and everywhere his feet touched, endings spread.
The whites of Johan’s eyes had turned black, making even his appearance feel different.
The Demon King’s power.
The Child of the Apocalypse, whose very existence led the world toward destruction.
Tap!
For the first time, Abraham went on the offensive. The man who had done nothing but stand in place and fend off everyone’s attacks finally began moving in earnest to kill his opponent.
Until now, it had been acceptable. He had treated it like watching children at play.
But now, things were different.
If Johan intended to draw upon a power capable of destroying the world, Abraham could no longer afford to overlook it.
Whoosh!
There was no longer any restraint in him. Nor was there any lightness.
With the bearing of a conqueror, Abraham swung his sword toward Johan’s neck.
Boom!
Sword met sword.
At that moment, Abraham was forced to feel surprised once again.
Johan was weak. Even if he had gained power through a contract with a demon, he had only ever been tossed about by that power.
And yet Johan naturally blocked Abraham’s sword.
Every spark that flew from it was swallowed by the Demon King’s aura.
“……”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Abraham swung his sword several more times. Each strike unleashed hellfire, accompanied by thunderous explosions.
Against most opponents, enduring such attacks would have been impossible.
The vast majority would have been sent rolling across the ground from a single swing alone.
But Johan Damus endured. Just as Abraham himself had done earlier, Johan succeeded in standing his ground and effortlessly blocking every attack.
Was it simply a difference in power? Was the Demon King’s power truly that overwhelming?
No. That wasn’t it.
Abraham stared into Johan Damus’s eyes, which seemed unnaturally calm.
Even the whites of his eyes had turned black, and the usual sharpness in his expression had vanished, leaving behind only something eerie and unsettling.
“Who are you?”
Abraham asked.
“Jedidiah.”
The Child of the Apocalypse answered.
Abraham was not surprised. The moment he had asked the question, he had already anticipated the answer.
“Then who are you?”
“What exactly are you asking? It can’t be my name that you’re curious about at this point.”
Abraham tightened his grip on the sword he had been holding with one hand and clasped it with both.
The crimson blade immediately glowed hotter and redder than ever before.
Heat intense enough to warp space itself spread through the surroundings, and cracks began to form along Abraham’s arms as he held the weapon.
A temperature so extreme that even Abraham, wielder of the power of Hellfire, struggled to withstand it.
Slash!
The sword swung.
Instead of blocking, Jedidiah chose to evade.
The result of the swing was far simpler than one might have expected. There was no huge explosion, nor did it incinerate the surrounding area.
It merely cleanly severed everything that lay along the blade’s path.
Before Abraham’s sword, resistance simply did not exist.
Stone, steel, even the friction of the air itself—
Everything was cut apart.
Fwoooosh!
Only afterward did the flames erupt.
The space severed by the tip of Levanteinn’s blade ignited a moment later, flames spreading through the empty void and filling it in.
A crimson scar hanging in the air.
Space itself replaced by fire.
“I remember that flame.”
“……”
“Yes. You’re a survivor. No… perhaps a descendant of one.”
Jedidiah had driven countless worlds to destruction.
His very existence was synonymous with apocalypse. That was a separate matter from his strength.
Any world in which the Demon King descended was destined to perish. Even if that world succeeded in defeating him, the outcome remained the same.
The world would inevitably be brought to ruin in the process, making the final result irrelevant.
“I remember those flames. How could I forget the man who threw himself into battle with a fury that seemed ready to consume him and succeeded in killing me?”
The Demon King had suffered defeat on several occasions. But by nature, he was not someone who obsessed over victory or defeat.
After all, the world would reach its destruction in the process of stopping him regardless. Such things held little importance.
Even so, he remembered those who had been strong enough to bring him down.
One of them was likely the ancestor of the man standing before him.
A man who should have died alone in the ruins of a doomed world had somehow crossed into another world, carrying one of the Demon King’s shells with him.
“I remember the man who drove his own world to destruction in order to defeat me. Yes… it was you. Surtr.”
“I never knew the Demon King was such a talkative man.”
“The owner of this body is who he is.”
“Ah, that’s certainly a convincing explanation.”
Recalling Johan’s usual sarcasm, Abraham let out a faint chuckle.
“I don’t know who this Surtr you’re talking about is. Perhaps one of my ancestors bore that name. But does it really matter?”
Abraham had always known that the imperial bloodline was special. Abilities were powers born from one’s soul.
The fact that the same power appeared within that bloodline over and over again was strange in itself.
Whether it manifested as fire, lightning, or something else entirely, one thing remained constant:
The power of destruction was always woven into it.
A power inherited through blood.
It was not something that originated from one’s ability but from a particular individual.
But as he had said before, none of that mattered.
The power of Destruction was not the qualification required to become Emperor. It was merely one of the Emperor’s powers.
“I have no intention of continuing this conversation, Demon King Jedidiah.”
“I see.”
“So die. Your existence is a blight upon this world.”
Fwoosh!
Abraham’s sword drove Jedidiah back again and again.
What did it matter if he was the Demon King?
Whoever he was, it made no difference.
This world belonged to humanity.
Slash!
The sword carved another scar through empty space.
Filling space itself with flame, Abraham relentlessly pressed the Demon King.
Sparks spread, and hellfire erupted.
Every single strike carried enough power to destroy an entire nation.
Yet at the same time, all of that destructive force had been compressed to its absolute limit.
Jedidiah could tell.
The Emperor’s desire to protect the world was genuine.
He compressed his power as much as possible to minimize the damage.
Even that minimized damage was horrifying, but it was not beyond repair.
Of course, anyone struck by those attacks would inevitably meet destruction.
“I agree with you on that point.”
Jedidiah looked at Abraham with emotionless eyes.
He saw a man struggling desperately.
Of course, a being like himself had no place in a world such as this. An inevitable apocalypse was unnecessary.
That was precisely why he had divided himself apart and dismantled the phenomenon known as the Demon King.
The end of a world should be decided by those who belonged to that world.
“That should be enough.”
Jedidiah closed his eyes.
And when he opened them again—
“For fuck’s sake, idiot! Why are you hiding when there’s a monster right in front of us?!”
Johan Damus had returned.
Even I hadn’t expected the Demon King, Jedidiah, who existed within me, to step forward.
That was because there happened to be an idiot who got swallowed instead of swallowing the Demon King.
I told you to wield its power, not let it take control of me.
“Answer me.”
“I-I apologize. It was my first time, and I let my guard down.”
“If the Demon King had been plotting something, both of us would’ve been dead. Got it?”
I berated Mephi for her incompetence despite the contract and widened the distance between us and the Emperor as much as possible.
Fortunately, Emperor Abraham did not pursue us.
Was it because the Demon King’s power had been withdrawn?
Whatever the reason, it was a relief.
Taking over the role of [Thought Split], I observed the world from within my own body.
Jedidiah was incomparably stronger than someone like me, but even he was no match for Abraham.
An Emperor who could beat the Demon King to death—
Just what kind of monster was this man?
“So… what do we do now?”
Along with Jedidiah’s silence, Abraham withdrew the overwhelming heat.
But I had seen a glimpse of his true power.
And I realized that, at this rate, we couldn’t win.
“You think too much.”
Booom!
While I stood there uncertain of what to do, the one who acted was Lobelia.
She moved even knowing she would lose.
No….she probably believed that if she did nothing, there would be no chance of changing anything at all.
Fzzzzzzzzzzt!!
Her fist shot toward Abraham, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he blocked it.
But something was different.
“……”
It lasted only for an instant, but Abraham’s hand which had caught Lobelia’s punch was pushed back.
Only then did I notice that both of his arms had been burned away.
It must have been the aftereffect of that horrific sword.
At that moment, I understood why Jedidiah had said this would be enough.
The Emperor, Abraham, could not even withstand the full extent of his own power. Jedidiah had known that and had drawn that power out of him.
Instead of attacking, he had focused solely on evasion, steadily draining Abraham’s strength.
No wonder he had done nothing but run away so helplessly.
For someone whose abilities were already exceptional, this guy seemed pretty smart too.
Unlike a certain someone.
“M-My apologies.”
“Then do better.”
If you’re going to be worse than what remains of Jedidiah after being reduced to fragments, you might as well quit.
Well, whatever the case, the situation was far better than it had been before.
There was no guarantee Abraham couldn’t use the same level of power he had used against Jedidiah again, but it was undeniable that he had weakened to some extent.
“This is your chance to make up for it, Mephi.”
“Understood.”
I charged at Abraham once more. Like the ashes left behind after a fire had burned out, Abraham seemed hollow. He swept his indifferent gaze over us.
That look was terrifying enough to send chills down my spine. It made me want to stop in my tracks right then and there.
But running away any longer would be too pathetic, wouldn’t it?
“Good. Come.”
Abraham remained as impassive as ever.
And so the rotating assault carried out by Lobelia, Lapis, and me resumed once again.
***
Abraham swung his sword without end. His gaze remained indifferent, but the tip of his blade was still as sharp as ever.
“Urk!”
He kicked away Lobelia as she charged toward him.
Fwoosh!
Again and again, he set Lapis’s body ablaze whenever she tried to attack from behind.
Clang!
He knocked aside Johan Damus as he rushed in with his crude swordsmanship.
The entire sequence played out with mechanical precision.
But after his battle with the Demon King Jedidiah, Abraham had become noticeably quieter. And he himself was aware of that fact.
Why?
Why was he unable to shake this sense of disappointment?
Was it because the one he had considered a worthy rival had withdrawn so readily?
Was it because he despised himself for swinging his sword while surrendering to a fleeting emotion?
He did not know.
Right now, he felt as though he were standing in a gray world, like ashes left behind after a fire.
What had he been expecting?
What had he been hoping for when he had already decided how it would all end?
Abraham did not know.
Having lived for so long with a single purpose, he had never possessed a dream of his own.
What was it that I saw in that man’s eyes?
Now, the only thing that lingered in his mind was Jedidiah’s gaze as he had looked at him with those indifferent eyes.
That gaze bothered him.
He did not know why.
“……”
Abraham swung his sword mechanically.
The movements of those pressing him were so transparent that he could read them with ease.
Not just a single move, but every step of their retreat and every charge that followed.
Perhaps he could even hold out for thirty minutes with both his eyes and ears sealed shut.
Amid such monotony, his consciousness gradually drifted away.
And then, in that moment—
Slash!
Abraham bled.
The sharp pain piercing his shoulder snapped him back to his senses.
“Hah……”
A smile appeared on his face before he even realized it.
That strike had not come from Lobelia, Lapis, or Johan Damus.
The one who had successfully landed this surprise attack was Dietrich, the black-haired boy who had defeated his old friend.
The moment Abraham laid eyes on the boy, he smiled.
Was it because he had placed his hopes in him?
No.
It was because he remembered the reason that boy had been able to come here.
“I see.”
Almost reflexively, Abraham unleashed [Hellfire] toward Dietrich.
Engulfed in flames, the boy was blasted far away.
It was not a fatal wound, but it was undoubtedly a painful attack.
Boom!
But the boy’s wounds began healing in the blink of an eye, and the light of the blazing sun overhead started to bear down on him.
Craaaack!
Space itself seemed to compress around Abraham as though trying to seize him, while a beam of light shot toward him from afar and arrived before his eyes.
“Haha!”
His mind snapped fully awake.
The world that had begun to fade into shades of gray regained its color.
The monotony came to an end.
At that moment, only one thought occupied Abraham’s mind.
“So you have chosen to stand with them as well, Prophet!”
It was the betrayal of the one who had gathered all these possibilities together.
It was the change in the girl he had believed would never waver, no matter what happened.
Dietrich, who had been able to launch a surprise attack.
Helena, who had called down the radiant light.
Even Ariel’s telekinesis, which now held him in place.
All of it was the work of a single person.
One person had brought them all together.
It was the new answer given by the Oracle who had willingly cast herself into the flames for the sake of the world.
“Good.”
Fwoosh!
[Hell Fire] blazed to life.
Lævateinn that was held in his hand once again glowed with a vivid crimson light.
Heat fierce enough to burn the world itself distorted the surrounding space.
“Then prove it.”
Abraham understood.
He understood why his world had, for a moment, been painted gray.
He understood why Jedidiah’s eyes had unsettled him so deeply.
“Prove that I was wrong!”
It was because those eyes had felt like looking into a mirror.
Because he had realized that he was no different from the Demon King.
If so, would the outcome be the same as well?
“Please… show me that there is another path!”
Abraham believed himself to be a villain.
That much, he considered an undeniable fact.
But he also believed that the path he walked was not wrong.
No.
He was right.
Only he was right.
He had walked through centuries with that conviction. Until now, no one had ever denied it.
No one could.
There had been no one capable of defeating him. And because of that, he believed he could not be wrong.
And whenever someone did deny him, he defeated them.
That was how he had forced his righteousness upon the world.
Yet now, after all those long years, people had appeared once more who sought to deny him.
“Come, then!”
And so Abraham smiled.
Because there might be an answer beyond the one he believed to be right.
If that was the case, then it was fine for him to be wrong.
It did not matter if he was remembered only as a failure, a loser, a tyrant, and a villain.
“Let’s settle which of us is right!”
Because he had lived solely for the sake of this world.
And if someone emerged who could surpass him, he would gladly accept that fate.
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