「 ✦ Hajime Nagumo ✦ 」
The taste of blood filled my mouth as I spat out another mouthful. My vision was blurry and hazy, but I forced myself to focus on the person standing before me—Yue.
I never wanted conquest. I never dreamed of some cliché world-domination bullshit. None of that fuck ever mattered. All I ever wanted was to go home, to see my parents again, to return to that mundane life I'd once taken for granted. That singular desire had pushed me beyond every limit, driven me through hell itself.
And I'd been so fucking close. The Compass of Eternal Paths from Haltina's Labyrinth had shown me the way, and Concept Magic had given me the means. I could practically taste the air of Japan, could almost hear my mother's voice calling me and pulling me into a hug.
But the world decided to screw me over again.
"I see. This is the pleasure a vampire feels when drinking blood," came Yue's voice—but wrong, so utterly fucked-up wrong that it made my skin crawl. "I must say it is quite something."
The hand that had just pierced through my stomach belonged to the woman I loved, but the one behind those golden eyes was that bastard god Ehit. He lifted his bloodied fingers to those familiar lips and tasted my blood with an expression of sick satisfaction.
No.
Not her.
Not Yue.
The wound in my gut screamed in agony, but the pain in my chest was worse. To see her face twisted into that cruel smile, to hear her voice speak words that made my blood boil—it was a torture worse than anything those monsters in the abyss had put me through.
"Yue! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" I roared, charging forward despite the gaping hole in my torso. My artificial arm started crackling with lightning as I swung it toward her face, but she caught my wrist effortlessly.
"How touching," Ehit sneered through Yue's lips. "Still clinging to hope, are we? This vessel has already accepted me completely. Your precious vampire is—"
"SHUT UP!"
I triggered every skill I had left. My body burned with crimson mana as I poured everything into breaking free from his grip. The air around us flared with heat distortion from the sheer force of my mana, but it wasn't enough.
Ehit flicked his wrist, and I went flying across the chamber, crashing through pillars. Each impact sent fresh waves of agony through my broken body, but I forced myself back to my feet.
Around me, everything was also in chaos. I could hear the others fighting for their lives—Yaegashi's desperate cries, Tio's roars, Sakagami and Taniguchi struggling against Nakamura and that brainwashed idiot Amanogawa. Shea's war hammer crashed against a handful of apostles while Kaori desperately protected the non-combatants.
But I couldn't spare them a thought. Every fiber of my being was focused on the person walking calmly toward me, wearing the face of the woman who meant everything to me.
"Your toys seems rather troublesome," Ehit said, and suddenly, my guns, my artifacts, even my artificial arm and everything I had—all of it crumbled to dust. Not just mine—I heard cries of dismay as everyone's weapons and artifacts suffered the same fate.
The gap in power was immense. The only time I'd felt this gap was when facing Rimuru, but even then, I hadn't been this desperate. Not even Rimuru took Yue from me, after all. I charged at Ehit again, bare-handed this time. My arm sparked as I put everything behind a straight punch aimed at his smug face.
He caught it with two fingers.
"Pathetic."
The backhand sent me skidding across the floor, leaving a trail of blood. My vision darkened at the edges, but I pushed myself up again. And again. And again.
"You just don't know when to give up, do you?"
Each time I fell, I got back up. Each time he struck me down, I rose to face him. Blood poured from dozens of wounds. It was a miracle I was still conscious, let alone standing, let alone alive.
"YUE!" I screamed her name until my throat was raw. "I know you're in there! Fight him! FIGHT!"
For just an instant—one precious, heart-stopping instant—those golden eyes shone. The cruel smile was gone, replaced by desperate anguish.
"You will not hurt my friends," Yue's true voice broke through. It was weak but unmistakably her.
Hope exploded in my chest. She was still there, still fighting. My Yue was—
The moment shattered as Ehit's will crashed down once again. Yue's expression went blank, then twisted back into that horrible smirk.
"Troublesome indeed," Ehit snarled, and for the first time, he sounded genuinely angry. "It seems this vessel requires a more thorough subjugation."
He began to retreat.
"Where do you think you're going?" I snarled, forcing my broken body into motion.
"You're still not done?"
That's when Alva struck.
The god wearing the demon lord's body had been standing by Ehit's side, waiting for his moment. His magic took me in the back, and the shock of the sneak attack sent me to my knees, gasping.
Before I could react, they were on me. Five apostles dropped down, their hands slamming me down against the cold stone. One pinned each arm, two held my legs, and the fifth pressed down on my back, keeping me prone.
I thrashed against their grip, pouring every ounce of strength I had left into breaking free. Red lightning crackled around my body, the stone beneath me cracking.
"Let... me... GO!" I roared, the words tearing from my throat.
But it was useless. The apostles refused to budge. My strength was spent, my body pushed beyond all reasonable limits. Blood pooled beneath me as my wounds continued to weep.
Ehit had reached the entrance to a gate that led to what I assumed was his base. He paused there for a minute, those golden eyes looking back at me.
"How fitting," he said through Yue's lips. "Perhaps I should keep you alive to witness what I do with this body. After all, a god ought to—"
But then he stopped. His expression changed, the cruel smile replaced by something entirely opposite. Alert? Wariness...?
Afraid?
Ehit's head turned sharply toward something I couldn't see, his pale face going paler. For a second, I could have sworn I saw genuine fear across those eyes.
Just then, a powerful earthquake shook everything.
···—–—⚜—–—···
「 ✦ Shizuku Yaegashi ✦ 」
For one brief, fragile instance after the earthquake, it felt like everything fell silent.
But it wasn't because of that—or even that we were losing, or because Nagumo-kun was screaming Yue-san's name through blood and broken ribs and a hole in his stomach. It wasn't even the hopelessness hanging over our heads like a guillotine blade waiting to drop.
...
I couldn't explain it. I couldn't even sense it properly, but I felt it deep inside my bones. And judging by the look on his face, Ehit felt it too.
The self-proclaimed god who had stolen Yue-san's body—the one who'd toyed with our and everyone's lives—was sweating. Not just metaphorically, because literal beads of sweat were forming on Yue-san's flawless skin, rolling down her cheeks like tears.
And for the first time since I'd laid eyes on this monster wearing her face, he looked genuinely, utterly afraid.
"I made sure," he muttered. "I made sure."
His voice was empty now. No arrogance, no condescending laughter, just cold and panicked reasoning spoken aloud like he was trying to convince himself it wasn't happening.
Everyone stared as he rambled like a madman in denial.
"I diverted every route leading to this world... 2,900 kilometers down, right next to the planet's core. I had the mantle layered with seals and detection spells—with curses and failsafes Keith made using concept magic."
He sounded like a man reading a checklist after a break-in. Like a kid insisting the monster couldn't be real because he'd checked under the bed twice and locked the closet door.
Alva—the other so-called god who'd taken the Demon Lord's throne—was standing still beside him. His expression was tight and grim and urged. Every single apostle that had once pinned us down—every one of them abandoned their positions. They didn't even speak. No one even gave the order.
And still, Ehit kept talking.
"I thought Keith was overreacting," he whispered. "I mean, who could possibly survive all that? That paranoid freak even used that ridiculous artifact, 'Death Shall Do Us Part,' that embodied the idea of 'he who returns shall be consigned to oblivion.' It was practically overkill. There's no way anything should've survived that. Not even you."
He wiped the sweat from Yue-san's cheek with a trembling hand, her expression distorted by whatever war he was fighting inside her.
"But you were the one anomaly we couldn't predict... so I listened, and I agreed. That way, on the off chance you'd managed to find a way back, you'd surely die..."
He trailed off. Then, finally, he looked up. And so did I—and everyone else. At first, I couldn't see anything. Just the broken remains of a castle, with half a mountain shattered in the distance and clouds torn open, as well as snow and ash mixing on the blood-soaked ground.
"Seriously, just what the fuck is wrong with you?"
Then I followed his eyes.
Standing atop a shattered pillar, bathed in moonlight, was a person too beautiful to be real, and a person everyone here recognized. Looking at him now, he didn't look like a warrior, nor did he even look angry. He was just standing there, menacingly.
Rimuru...
Our young, androgynous, slight, and almost delicate hero. His long and wavy blue hair fluttered in the cold wind, and his brilliant golden eyes shone an eerie light. His shirt was torn in places, exposing glimpses of his shoulder, and the unfair curve of his slutty waist, but his body otherwise bore no signs of injury whatsoever.
"It's our first time meeting, no?" Ehit said, trying for a smile, but his cracked voice betrayed him. "Had a nice vacation?"
Rimuru's eyes narrowed.
"You changed quite a bit since I last saw you, Yue," he said softly. "But you'd best pick your words more wisely. They're going to be your last."
···—–—⚜—–—···
「 ✦ Rimuru Tempest ✦ 」
I activated Thought Acceleration the moment the threat left my mouth, and the world around me slowed to a crawl as my mind processed everything in that split-second of stretched time.
The situation was bad.
Hajime wasn't looking too good.
He looked like he'd been through a meat grinder—blood pooling beneath him, his artificial arm missing, and a hole in his stomach that should have killed him already. The others weren't much better. Everyone was beaten, broken, barely clinging to life. But as I scanned the crowd, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
Tio was there, beaten but breathing. Shizuku too, looking shaken but alive, though she was pressing her arm against a cut on her side. That was something, at least.
And the one on Yue's body right now... I'd guessed this was Ehit, which meant the other one beside him must've been either Alva or Ghidorah, but the latter was supposed to be super strong so that guy was out of the equation.
I deactivated Thought Acceleration and the world snapped back to normal speed. Without hesitation, I used Godstep to teleport directly in front of Ehit, my fist already pulled back and ready to cave in Yue's face.
But before I could land the blow that would send this false god straight to oblivion, another pair of hands intercepted mine.
"Long time no see~."
Keith appeared out of nowhere, catching my punch with both hands. The impact was devastating—his hands exploded on contact, blood and bone fragments spraying outward as his arms were severed clean at the elbows. Red blood bloomed like flowers in the air, staining the floor red beneath us.
But the bastard didn't even flinch. He just stood there, bleeding from his stumps, wearing that same sick smile he'd had that night when Iu and Daisy died.
Rage burned hot in my chest at the sight of him, but I forced it down. Getting emotional now would only give him what he wanted.
"Remember when you said you were looking forward to me coming for you?" I asked, letting my own smile spread across my face. "Did you picture it going quite like this? Hm?"
Keith's grin widened impossibly, like a wound splitting open. He reminded me of the Joker.
"Oh, this is delicious! Look what you've become!" He said, then threw his head back and let out a manic laugh. "So this is what the seed can get you when you nourish it properly with enough blood. You've gone well and above what I predicted. I'll admit—I'm impressed."
"Okay? I'm glad to impress, but flattery will get you nowhere," I replied dryly. "But hey, since we're catching up, I hope you understand—I'll stop at nothing to make sure I kill you with my own hands."
"HAHAHAHA—!" His laughter was like nails on a chalkboard, and it hurt like damn to hear. "Oh, you beautiful, broken little monster! You actually think you can do it!"
As he talked, I watched his hands regenerate effortlessly, flesh and bone reforming like nothing had happened. But all my mind could focus on was exactly how many different ways I could make this piece of shit suffer before I finally put him down.
"I don't see why I can't."
"Punching and slicing and eating your way through every problem won't work here, Rimuru."
"Nah, I think it'll work fine," I examined my fingernails as I said that. When had my fingernails become this black and long and sharp? "And I don't mean it metaphorically or rhetorically or poetically or theoretically or any other fancy way. I'll kill you, straight up."
"Aren't you too emotional, Rimuru? Well, you always have been! A Demon Lord, sure, but a sentimental one. You're still that same bastard who couldn't protect anything. You lost that night, and you think killing me will fix that?" His eyes shone madly. "Oh, sweet summer child—it won't bring them back! And it brings me ecstasy far greater than anything everrrr!"
What's this bitch on?
His smile and eyes widened even further as he spread his arms wide, like he was glorifying himself for worship. It was so over-the-top, so theatrical, that I couldn't help but stare at him in genuine bewilderment.
A martyr of his own insanity.
Is he high?
This guy was supposed to be a god? This melodramatic clown? Really?
"Hmm. Maybe you gods aren't as smart as you think you are."
"Oh?" He looked down at me, his arms falling back to his sides. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Who knows? Try your best to think about it, come on." I kept my voice perfectly calm, almost bored. "If you can't figure it out... then you really aren't very sharp, are you?"
I could see the gears turning in his head, trying to understand what I was getting at.
"But I knew from the beginning you were a dumb fuck, so let me simplify." I casually slipped my left hand into my pocket and pointed at him with my right index finger. "I don't care what 'winning' means to you. Sure, I lost that night. Maybe that's true. But it changes nothing. All I care about is watching you die while I'm the last thing you ever see. So congratulations on your big win, Keith—hope it was worth dying for."
For the first time since he'd appeared, Keith was speechless. That twisted smile finally slipped from his face. Then, a moment later, he glared at me with pure, undiluted murderous intent.
"You really don't expect to lose, do you, you arrogant little prick?"
"Hah! To you?" I let out a confident laugh. "Hell nah. I'd win. Now you better look forward to that, because I won't stop at just killing you."
"I see," he nodded slowly, that cruel smile snapping back into place like a mask. "Good luck with that, my loveeee!"
Then he and his entire group vanished in a flash of light. Teleportation magic, probably hoping to escape before I could track them down.
Too bad for them I wasn't some amateur.
You got it, Raphael?
<
How long until my ultimate skills come back online?
<
Good. We'll wait until then so I can destroy every last trace of them.
<
I turned toward the crowd of wounded people, already reaching for some healing potions before I remembered that all my supplies were stored in Beelzebub's Complex Space—which I currently couldn't access thanks to my ultimate skills being temporarily offline.
Everyone was staring at me, and they had so many different looks on each of their faces that it was making me uncomfortable.
"Tch. What a pain," I muttered under my breath.
That's when my eyes fell on someone I could barely recognize among the wounded. Wait, was that...?
"Now color me surprised," I pointed at a girl with messy white hair and a face I remembered. "Eri Nakamura, right? How did you even make it back? Better yet, they took Freid along with them and left you behind? That's got to hurt."
Eri Nakamura flinched at the sight of me, but I was already moving on. I walked forward and cast a barrier spell that enveloped the entire castle, sealing us in and any potential threats out.
"It would've been less painful for you if you'd just stayed dead... but hey, we all make mistakes, don't we?" I added casually, then cast a basic healing spell I'd picked up during my time in Engrassia. It wasn't anything fancy—just standard healing magic—but it was enough to stabilize everyone and prevent any deaths.
Even Hajime, with that gaping hole in his stomach and the ridiculous amount of blood he'd lost, started showing signs of improvement.
Speaking of Hajime... he'd gone completely silent. I could still sense a trace of his consciousness, but was he passed out? It was hard to tell.
As the healing magic worked its way through everyone, slowly bringing them back from death's door, I took a moment to assess how much stronger I'd become.
I'd shattered Keith's arms with a single haki-infused punch, and I'd been holding back. During my fight with Hel, I'd deliberately restrained myself to avoid showing my true capabilities to any watching gods. I wanted them to underestimate me. But even then, I probably couldn't have killed the Goddess of Death with a single punch.
If I'd gone all out—ultimate skills, haki, arts, everything—maybe I could have managed it. But Keith was supposedly stronger than Hel, so why was he so easy to cripple?
<
Oh, is that so?
I'd totally forgotten I could do that. How silly of me.
Movement caught my attention. Hajime's body had begun to twitch. His stomach wound had closed and the bleeding had stopped, but he was far from perfect condition. It made sense that he'd be unconscious after losing that much blood.
But he was twitching while unconscious, which was... odd.
"Are you sleepwalking, Hajime?" I asked, but got no response. His remaining hand clenched and unclenched as he struggled to stand up. "Oh... well, we can still get Yue back, so cheer up, I guess?"
Still nothing. He managed to get to his feet, but his head hung down so I couldn't see his face or his eye. He was definitely still unconscious though—I was sure of that much.
"Hajime?" I tried again. "You okay, bro?"
Then, suddenly, an uncomfortable itchy feeling settled over me. I looked at Hajime more carefully, noting the way he stood perfectly still despite being unconscious, the way his remaining hand had stopped twitching and now hung limp at his side.
"Oh shit."
···—–—⚜—–—···
SNAP!
The sound echoed through the throne room like a gunshot. Everyone went dead silent. I looked down at my right arm—or rather, where my right arm used to be. It was just... gone. Severed clean at the shoulder, no blood, no pain, just empty space where a limb should have been.
"What do you think you're doing, Hajime?" I asked, more surprised than concerned.
But Hajime was still unconscious, standing there with his head hanging down like a broken puppet. The healing magic had patched up his worst injuries, but he was still barely half-alive. What caught my attention wasn't his condition though—it was his mana.
It had turned into something nansty. An ominous vortex of black and red swirled around him, and when I focused, I could see dozens of ultra-fine chains orbiting through that storm of energy, so thin they were almost invisible.
My hand regenerated instantly as I ducked under another snap. Then another. The chains moved faster than most people could track, but I could see them coming. Dozens of them in the span of seconds, each one trying to erase whatever they touched.
I kept dodging until I found an opening, then appeared behind Hajime and delivered a solid punch to the back of his head. He went down hard, face-first into the floor.
<
"Talk to me, Raphael."
<
"Well, ain't that just wonderful," I muttered. "Everyone snap out of it and get moving! You don't want to be here when this gets messy."
Most of them started scrambling for the exits, but Tio hesitated. "What happened to him?"
I glanced back at Hajime, who was already getting back to his feet despite the head trauma.
"With Yue taken from him, he probably doesn't see any value in the world anymore. And he's not exactly the type to just accept losing what he cares about."
The chains were forming again, more of them this time.
"That grief turned into something that wants to destroy everything," I continued. "This is an unconscious driven by pure loss and rage."
"Will you be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," I said, dodging another chain that tried to take my head off. "I'm the strongest here. There's just no way I'd lose to Hajime."
Tio nodded and started herding the others toward the exits. "You heard him! Move! Hajime Nagumo's turned into a puppet of carnage—he's going to target whoever seems strongest!"
I knew I could count on her to understand the situation perfectly, even with all this going on.
First up, I tried talking to Hajime. I had to at least make the attempt.
"Hey, Hajime. I know you're hurting, but this just isn't going to work."
No response, just more chains moving faster now.
"Come on, man, snap out of it."
Still nothing. The chains kept coming, and his mana kept getting more violent.
Raphael, will any kind of stimulus work?
<
Figured.
I wasn't one to believe in the power of friendship or whatever bullshit anyway. If talking wouldn't work, then I'd just have to beat him unconscious the old-fashioned way.
The problem was doing it without killing him, which was easier said than done.
One of the chains caught my shoulder, and I felt a chunk of myself simply stop existing. My regeneration kicked in immediately, replacing what was lost, but it was still annoying. Even if my Infinite Regeneration could outpace his erasure ability, getting hit still hurt and slowed me down.
This kind of pain was beyond Pain Nullification's paygrade, apparently.
I ducked under a barrage of chains and landed a solid hit to his ribs. Hajime staggered a bit, but didn't fall. Tough bastard, even when he was unconscious.
This was going to take a while.
Another chain grazed my leg. Another piece of me erased and immediately regenerated. I returned the favor with a knee to his gut that should have dropped him, but he just kept standing there, swaying like a zombie.
It was almost nostalgic, in a weird way. I'd always fought Hajime like this—me beating the crap out of him while he refused to stay down. It usually ended with him looking like he'd been run over by a truck, and it looked like today wouldn't be any different.
I caught him with an uppercut that snapped his head back, followed by a combo of body shots that would have killed anyone else. Hajime just absorbed the punishment and kept swinging those chains at me.
His tenacity was actually getting annoying. I couldn't go all out without risking killing him, but holding back meant this fight would drag on forever.
Alright, bet.
I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the nearest pillar hard enough to destroy it. His chains lashed out wildly, erasing chunks of my arms and torso, but I held on and kept hitting him.
"Stay down, dumbass."
He didn't listen. He never did.
I kept beating him, methodically and efficiently, until finally—finally!—his mana started to settle. The chains dissolved, and his body went limp.
Hajime collapsed, unconscious for real this time even though he was unconscious to begin with. Blood pooled beneath him, and his breathing was shallow, but he'd live.
I stood over him, flexing my newly regenerated fingers. "Should have just stayed down the first time."
The throne room was quiet again, except for the sound of Hajime's breathing. Everyone else had cleared out, which was smart of them. I looked down at the broken, bloody mess that used to be Hajime Nagumo and shook my head.
"Goddamn it."