Chapter 359: Johan’s Apocalypse Part 10

Although she often showed disappointing sides, Mephi was still a Great Demon and, at the same time, the Demon King’s successor.

Yes. At least in terms of potential, she was no less than the Demon King.

Even if a fragment was missing, our contract allowed us to interfere with each other directly for now.

“Put everything you’ve got into it, Mephi.”

I thought this was the opportunity. The moment Emperor Abraham had finally shown an opening.

If not now, then never. Emperor Abraham was fighting far more conventionally than I had expected.

There was no arrogance, no reliance on tricks. Even if it was somewhat slow and methodical, he steadily and correctly dealt with every problem in front of him.

That was why the occasional unexpected move he made was deadly enough to take a life.

Dietrich had already been killed once, hadn’t he?

So there would only be one chance. We had to throw in every possible means and variable and bring down Emperor Abraham in a single strike.

Tzzzt!

The black sword energy that had changed when I formed a contract with Mephi naturally contained her power.

Then what exactly was Mephi’s power?

She had tried to persuade me with all sorts of offers.

The way she talked made it sound as though she could do anything, though in reality that couldn’t possibly be true.

Still, it was enough that she possessed an ability close to that.

Mephi’s signature power was time.

The ability to manipulate time could only be an overwhelmingly powerful power.

She really could do the things she claimed.

She could cure Ariel’s transcendence disease, and she could bring Alice back to life.

All of those were things that could eventually be accomplished through the manipulation of time.

“Hoo…”

The energy flowing over the blade was like the very flow of time itself.

That flow was irregular, sometimes accelerating time, sometimes slowing it, sometimes reversing it, and at times stopping it altogether.

What I held in my hand was the embodiment of that flow. And with Mephi exerting her power to the utmost, I could confidently say that her power rivaled that of the Demon King’s power.

Its name was the “Chrono Blade”.

Anything touched by this erratically flowing time would be utterly destroyed.

The moment it made contact, weathering and degeneration would occur simultaneously. There was no way anything could withstand it. Truly, it was worthy of the title of the Demon King’s successor.

In any world, the flow of time could never be defied. In Mephi’s own way, she too possessed the power to bring about an inevitable destruction.

“Go, Johan!”

Abraham could not move.

Even if he had adapted to every force that had been suppressing him until now, he couldn’t have anticipated the variable Yuna had created.

The burden weighing down on his body was far greater than before.

And wasn’t this right after he had unleashed a tremendous amount of power to shake off Lobelia and Dietrich?

“Let’s see if you can do it.”

Yet Abraham moved.

Even under all that pressure, he raised his sword and tried to block my attack.

The blade he held was changing from crimson to a vivid scarlet, just as it had when he faced Jedidiah.

I knew its power. I remembered the absurd heat it had produced, enough to leave scars on space itself.

“It’s fine.”

But I trusted Mephi.

I chose to believe that Mephi’s power would not fall short of his.

And if it did, well, then I was done for.

Honestly, I wasn’t confident I could have done any better against an emperor who was preparing a counterattack even in that condition.

Woooooong!!

A heavy sound rang out like a huge bell tolling, and black light surged forward.

Fwoooosh!!

A crimson blaze, burning as if to destroy everything in its path, surged back in response.

At last, a direct clash.

I had no doubt that this single exchange would decide the outcome of the battle.

Clang!

When the two immense powers collided, surprisingly little noise was produced.

Was it because their strength was evenly matched?

There was almost no collateral damage spreading outward. It sounded as though nothing more than two swords had struck each other.

This was a problem.

A huge explosion would have been preferable to this.

A situation like this, where the outcome would be decided solely by swordsmanship and technique, was inevitably at a severe disadvantage for me.

Tzzzt!

The two blades tangled together as they remained locked in contact. The momentum shifted back and forth again and again.

I tried to redirect his blade and then bind it. A single swing had led into this grueling contest of strength and skill.

I was being pushed back. Naturally.

When it came to technique, there was no avoiding it.

“Ghk!”

My hands became tangled.

I was losing the contest of strength.

A smile bordering on a sneer appeared at the corner of Abraham’s lips.

The outcome seemed obvious.

Tzzzzk!

The two entangled blades twisted apart, and their force dissipated into empty space.

I had deliberately deflected the clash. Even though he had tried to stop it, he couldn’t.

This move had been meant to secure victory in a single strike, yet the opportunity had once again fallen back into Abraham’s hands.

Fwoosh!

Abraham’s sword came down toward me once more.

I could have blocked it if I wanted to.

All I had to do was recover my own deflected blade and bring it up in defense. But if I did that, this stalemate would inevitably drag on.

And if it did, I would undoubtedly lose.

I couldn’t defeat Abraham in a head-on confrontation.

If he could still move like this despite all the restrictions placed on him, I was unlikely to get a better opportunity than this.

Which meant there was only one thing left for me to do.

Wooooooong!!

The ever-reliable strike of sacrificing flesh to cut bone.

If Abraham aimed for my body, then I would aim for his.

I wouldn’t play by his expectations.

Even if it meant taking a fatal wound, this was the moment to do something unexpected.

“…….!”

Abraham’s eyebrow twitched.

It seemed he had assumed I would naturally defend myself, because the sword he swung carried less force than I had expected.

As for my side… well, even if I had intended it, it would have been difficult to deliver a proper strike.

The gap in skill between us was simply too great.

Slash!

The wound was shallow.

That was because Abraham had tried to pull away at the last moment.

But the aftermath was anything but shallow.

The sword that had merely grazed my shoulder filled me with indescribable pain.

Abraham, whose chest had been lightly cut, was likely experiencing the same thing.

The power contained within the power imbued in the blades was simply too overwhelming, regardless of the force behind the swing itself.

At this rate, it wouldn’t have been surprising if my entire body burst into flames.

“Endure.”

But it was fine.

As long as I held on, I could win.

After all, I had the next Child of the End assisting me.

If this absurd pain could be stretched out and distributed over time, then even if it took a while, I should be able to avoid death.

But what about Abraham?

“An impressive power.”

He simply endured the pain.

Even though it must have been the agony of living flesh twisting and tearing apart, he paid it no mind.

In that brief instant when I frowned from the pain, Abraham was already preparing his next move.

Fwoosh!

The [Hell Fire] blazed.

With my stance disrupted like this, there was no way to evade it.

And just as my vision was dyed red—

Crack!

Space shattered once again.

***

The opportunity had come.

The moment Abraham saw space begin to crack, he shifted his body.

He had already memorized Johan’s position.

The instant the spell broke, he was fully prepared to cut Johan down.

Crack!

And then, the moment space completely shattered—

Slash!

Abraham unleashed a strike unlike any he had shown before.

As his sword cut through the air, the crimson blade extended outward, releasing a sword energy that stretched as though the blade itself had lengthened.

The crescent-shaped crimson slash flew toward the place where Johan had been standing.

But…

“…….!”

Johan was not there.

Not only that, the spell had not been broken.

He had certainly seen space shattering.

He had merely witnessed the phenomenon itself.

“I see…”

Abraham had forgotten.

Johan was not the only one capable of producing the aftereffects of such an ability.

In that final moment, the space cracking apart around Johan had not been the activation of Johan’s spell.

“It seems you truly were more cunning than I.”

What had activated was Oracle’s ability.

What had shattered was the precursor to spatial transit, a phenomenon that connected one world to another.

Johan had not died.

Though he suffered within the flames of Abraham’s Hell Fire, he had endured without breaking the spell.

The power of the great demon Mephistopheles protected him.

And through the rift in the shattered space, Abraham could see—

“Not bad.”

Boom!

Lobelia was preparing a strike, planting her foot firmly into the ground.

Fzzzzzzzzzzt!!

As Lobelia drove her foot down with enough force to crack the earth beneath her, crimson lightning burst outward in every direction.

An immense power gathered in her fist, compressed to such an extent that it was beginning to leak out.

Craaaaaaakle!!

Then, accompanied by a deafening peal of thunder, Lobelia’s fist slammed directly into Abraham’s torso.

Even with such a perfect opportunity, she had targeted his body instead of his face. A choice that was unmistakably Lobelia’s.

“Kaahk!”

For the first time, a pained groan escaped Abraham’s lips.

Even the power of time that Johan had displayed had failed to make him flinch, yet before the overwhelming violence contained within [Crimson Lightning], Abraham had no choice but to cry out in pain.

Alice had prepared it, and Lobelia had unleashed it.

Abandoning all concern for defense and spending a long time gathering its power, the strike she delivered was no less formidable than the power of a Demon King.

Flash!

The lightning released from Lobelia’s fist left behind no sound.

It simply swallowed Abraham whole in a blinding burst of light.

“Huff… huff…”

After landing that blow on Abraham, Lobelia staggered as she drew ragged breaths.

It had been a strike that placed an enormous burden on her as well. It would not have been surprising if she collapsed on the spot.

But Lobelia endured.

Because the opponent before her, Emperor Abraham, was still standing.

“Hmm.”

Abraham’s condition was horrific.

His luxurious robes, woven with countless enchantments, had been reduced to rags, and his crimson hair, which had once flowed like living flames, was more than half burned away.

His body was covered in branching Lichtenberg-pattern scars, and one of his eyes had even burst apart.

Yet Abraham remained standing.

Even though he was clearly in no condition to continue fighting, he stood firm.

“Tell me.”

“……..”

Abraham directed the question not at Lobelia, but at Johan who was sitting awkwardly behind her.

“Was I truly wrong?”

Abraham would not fall.

He still believed he was right.

And because of that, he could not collapse.

Despite the searing pain that felt as though it were burning his entire body alive, Johan answered.

“Yes. You were wrong.”

This was different from the Johan of the past.

No matter how terrible a villain his opponent might have been, he had never been the type to simply declare them wrong without reservation.

It was not a matter of right or wrong.

He simply had never been confident enough to make such a judgment.

But this time was different.

At least here, today, he could say it.

Because he had witnessed countless cautionary examples and learned from them.

“Some people lived for the sake of the ideal world they believed in. Convinced it was right, they tried to impose it on others.”

The Prophet Kult had wished for a world where everyone was equal.

In the end, however, he failed.

He accepted his death only after acknowledging the ideal Helena dreamed of.

“And others tried to use evil to devour evil, seeking to force the world under absolute control.”

The Judge Ostilis Liberatio tried to devour all evil in the world and cover it equally in shadow, but she failed.

Only afterward did she realize how much pain she herself had been carrying, and through that realization, she came to understand that others suffered as well.

And so she was able to stop.

“And someone else sought to save his people through death.”

The Great Warrior Vidar drew a strict line between the barbarians and the beastkin, willingly committing atrocities while waiting for his own death.

But was that truly right?

His plan could never have worked without Ariel’s existence, and that alone could not justify what he had done. In truth, many innocent people died because of the scars he left behind.

“And someone else was willing to abandon everything for a dream.”

The Scriptwriter Deus even cast aside his human body in pursuit of his dream.

Yet he came to realize that it was not the fulfillment of the dream that mattered but the journey of pursuing it and the moments spent dreaming.

And because of that, he was able to let the dream go.

“And someone else sought to achieve perfect control by binding everyone together in chains.”

The Great Sage Faust tried to weave all people into one collective consciousness and free them completely from death.

But in the end, he had merely been running away.

From death. From expectations. From his own weakness and sorrow.

Too frightened to trust anyone, the man who had led the greatest number of people met the loneliest death of all.

“Do you know who these people are?”

“I do.”

Every one of them had been a lesson for me.

“Then do you also know that they all failed?”

“I know that as well.”

“You were the same as them.”

“…….”

There was no difference.

Arrogant. Self-righteous. Trusting only himself and acting accordingly.

That was why he was wrong.

That was why he had to be defeated.

“Let me tell you one final story.”

“…….”

“A person believed the world belonged to humanity and that it should not be dictated by the will of some transcendent being.”

“That is…”

Yes.

This was the story of Emperor Abraham.

His story.

His problem.

“But did he ever realize that he was no different from the transcendent beings he despised so much?”

“……..”

“He oppressed others. He ruled over them. And he sought to decide even their destinies.”

Emperor Abraham had become the very thing he had sought to overthrow.

In the eyes of others, he was no different from the gods he had hated and fought against all his life.

“Look. It’s really that simple. The issue isn’t whether a being is transcendent. What matters is that there exists someone who acts that way.”

“I see.”

A faint smile crossed Abraham’s lips as he replied.

“Then I suppose there will always be someone who rises to oppose such a being. Someone weak, petty, and foolish perhaps, yet still capable of raising their voice in protest.”

With those words, Abraham lowered the sword he had been holding.

“Yes. I was wrong.”

And only then was he finally able to fall.

For hundreds of years, not once had the emperor allowed himself to sit down and rest.

At last, the emperor who had borne that burden for centuries dropped to one knee.