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I teleported to the surface a short distance away from the large crater while chasing the Rakshasa, Stieg Strom.
"…Rain?"
The sky, which had been clear just moments ago, was now covered in clouds, and small droplets were falling one after another.
"You even put up a barrier to block teleportation outside the island. How considerate."
A voice mixed with displeasure reached me.
When I turned toward it, Stieg stood there with the same seemingly harmless smile as always.
"You always slip away right in front of me. This time, I'm not letting you escape."
"Good grief. It can't be helped. I'm not particularly enthusiastic, but I'll play with you a little as you wish."
Stieg casually swung his hand in a chopping motion.
Ultra-compressed water followed the path of his arm and rushed toward me as a slashing attack.
It was a troublesome move that could easily slice through buildings and was hard to see, but once the trick was known, it posed no threat.
The water blade vanished before it could reach me.
Stieg's expression twisted slightly as he watched.
"You should have realized the moment I was able to put up a teleportation-blocking barrier. There's no way such a simple attack would work on me now."
"…I was half in doubt, but I suppose I have to acknowledge this. Still, just a short while ago you had no idea how to use your power properly. What exactly happened to you in such a brief time?"
Stieg voiced his question.
From his perspective, not even a month had passed since our last contact.
The last time we had interacted was when he had killed Dr. Oswell in Daruane under the pretense of "disposal."
Back then, Stieg had not taken me seriously at all.
Just like during the previous defeat in Tsutrail, there had been an overwhelming gap in our strength, so it was only natural for him to question my sudden growth.
"I just went through an experience that made me want to die."
"…Hmm. Many questions remain, but it looks like I'll have to get a little serious!"
Stieg took a combat stance.
At the same time, holes opened in the sky and several water dragons appeared.
Since Stieg could no longer interfere outside the island, these water dragons must have come from the labyrinth earlier.
"Sorry to dampen your enthusiasm, but it's already too late. The outcome was decided long ago."
I used Felix's special ability, Attraction-Repulsion Manipulation, to strengthen the gravity around me.
The water dragons flying in the air could not adapt to the sudden change in gravity and were pulled down toward the ground.
This area, where rain continued to fall, was blocked from sunlight by the clouds.
In other words, the entire vicinity was in shadow.
I activated Log's special ability, Shadow Manipulation, and summoned countless spears made of shadow from the ground.
They impaled the bodies of the water dragons that had fallen to the earth.
"Simultaneous use of multiple special abilities? In that case, allow me to make use of that as well!"
Unlike the water dragons, Stieg endured the amplified gravity without dropping to his knees.
He then fired the falling raindrops downward like bullets.
While stopping the rain bullets with Psychokinesis, I readied Schwarzheze.
I wrapped ki around the blade and swung with full force as if slicing through the sky itself.
The slash I released split the clouds, revealing the blue sky beyond.
"!?"
Stieg's face showed clear surprise.
"I finally got to see an expression on your face other than that creepy smile."
"You inferior species…!"
Stieg's body trembled as he glared at me with clear hatred.
"You can feel however you want toward me, but there's only one path left for you to survive—answering my demand."
"Demand?"
Stieg's face turned suspicious.
"That's right. I don't actually want to destroy you. If possible, I'd prefer coexistence. Even with you demons."
Stieg was not human.
The fact that he was still moving normally after I had pierced his chest was the best proof.
"Don't spout things you don't mean, human. You who call us 'demons' have no right to speak of coexistence with us! We are fairies who contributed to the development of humanity…!"
In the fairy tales passed down in the world, it was said that the man called the Hero, August, along with several companions and fairies, had defeated an evil god.
In reality, however, fairies had been divided into two groups: those who sided with humans and those who sided with the evil god.
At the time, humans had distinguished between the two by calling the allies "fairies" and the enemies "demons."
Therefore, demons were essentially the same as fairies.
"No, you are demons. I still cannot call those of you who are trying to destroy us humans 'fairies.'"
The moment I said that, the smile completely vanished from Stieg's face.
The ever-smiling, completely inhuman Stieg was gone.
Humans and demons—fairies—were biologically entirely different species, yet both possessed reason and emotion.
At their core, they were remarkably similar.
Facing Stieg like this made me feel that strongly.
"…Truly, the creature known as human is beyond saving."
"Are your kind so noble?"
"At the very least, we are undoubtedly better than you inferior species who can only corrupt the world."
Those words carried more emotion than any Stieg had spoken before.
"I see. I'm glad I got to hear your true feelings. You act according to your own beliefs too. So, negotiations have broken down?"
"There's no need to ask. But I may need to thank you. You've made me realize once again that humans are a species that deserves to perish!"
As Stieg raised his voice, the sea surrounding the island began to rage in response to his anger.
Waves tall enough to reach the heavens came surging forward.
"I'm relieved you rejected my demand. If you had accepted, I would have kept my anger toward you smoldering forever. I've decided to fight for a future where humans can smile and live happily. Since you're trying to destroy humans, you are my enemy."
Facing waves large enough to swallow the entire island, I resolved to eliminate Stieg.
The next instant, the waves lost their shape…
…and poured down like large raindrops.
"When did you—!?"
Stieg muttered weakly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Countless slash wounds had been carved across his body as if he had been cut dozens of times.
Stieg had barely shown any damage even after taking Erebus or being pierced through the chest, but he could not withstand this attack and collapsed on the spot.
"I told you, didn't I? 'The outcome was decided long ago' and 'The only path left for you to survive is to answer my demand.'"
The blade of Schwarzheze I had thrust into Stieg had been wrapped in my ki.
When I had pierced him, I had driven that ki into his body.
I then manipulated it like Hart's internal destruction technique, slicing his body apart from the inside.
"You underestimated humans too much. It's true that you hold the advantage when it comes to magical power. But when it comes to ki… we have the upper hand. Even though you're possessing a human body, a corpse has no ki circulating through it. You couldn't even perceive it."
Fairies and demons normally cannot directly interfere with this world.
To do so, they need to use humans as intermediaries.
That was why Stieg used corpses as vessels to operate in this world.
His abilities would be inferior to when he manifested directly, but his own death would not be linked to the death of the body.
However, this was not something Stieg could do alone.
Belia's special ability, Eternal Invariance, was probably being used to prevent the corpse from decaying, and another special ability would have been needed to enter the body in the first place.
The church had caused a civil war in the Kyokuto region several years ago and had since ruled the country from the shadows.
I had thought the reason was to seize control of the Phoenix Shrine, a core part of this world, but it seemed there were other reasons as well.
"Ki, huh. What a detestable power, as always. …Very well. I'll concede this round to you. But how unfortunate. This body is not the only one I have. Let us meet again in another place. Next time, I'll drag you down into the depths of despair."
Stieg returned to his usual composed, ever-smiling demeanor and gave me a parting greeting.
Stieg was a demon. The body I had sliced apart was nothing more than an outer shell.
He was probably planning to transfer to another corpse.
Magical power—the core of Stieg—began to emerge from the body.
It rose into the air like smoke and started to drift away somewhere.
"You weren't listening to a word I said, were you? I told you, didn't I? 'This time, I'm not letting you escape.'"
That's right. I would not let him escape.
I would cut him down for good right here.
"—Magic Sword Unity, Alteration. Final Form—Mont Ende."
I transformed Schwarzheze into a magic sword and absorbed it into my body.
Then I combined it with the ki circulating through me.
The "power" that could not be contained within my flesh leaked out from my body.
The clothes I wore transformed into a magic garment upon contact with that power.
Azure-black lightning crackled around me.
I created a new magic sword and gripped it.
At the same time, I activated Magic Power Convergence and Spirit Domination.
The magical power drifting near the corpse Stieg had been possessing began to take on the color of the blue sky.
It gradually took on a human shape, and a young man with sky-blue features appeared.
"What—!?"
I had forced Stieg to manifest in this world.
Caught completely off guard, Stieg wore a look of confusion.
"Now I can finally bury you."
I readied the magic sword and gathered "power" into its blade.
"…! Orun Dura!"
Stieg shouted as he charged at me.
But it was already too late.
"—Demon-Breaking Heavenly Flash!"
I unleashed the power meant to erase demons in the style of a heavenly flash toward Stieg.
The jet-black slash that caught him turned into an explosive shockwave.
When the shockwave vanished, everything that had been there was gone.
◇
"…Guuh!? Cough, cough!"
While I was confirming whether Stieg had truly disappeared, intense pain shot through my entire body.
I dropped to my knees on the spot.
Blood spilled from my mouth as I coughed.
(As expected, it doesn't work the same as when I was in the otherworld…!)
I immediately released Magic Sword Unity, Alteration, but my body tissues began to break down as if poison had spread through me.
"I can't die… in a place like this…!"
I activated Time Regression and rewound my body's time back to the state before using Final Form—Mont Ende.
"…! Haah… haah… haah…"
The pain throughout my body gradually subsided as I prevented its collapse.
Final Form—Mont Ende was an overwhelming power.
There was probably no one who could stand against me in this state.
But this power was a double-edged sword.
Since it could even destroy my own body, I had to choose the right moment to use it.
That said, if the situation demanded it, I would use it without hesitation.
Hesitating and losing something precious would defeat the whole purpose.
While I crouched and caught my breath, footsteps approached.
"Is it over?"
Fuuka, who had come closer, asked.
"Yeah, it's over. How did it go on your end?"
"Mine went smoothly too. The Battle Ogre was a demonic being modeled after a vampire, just as you predicted. I only cut away the ogre's power, so he isn't dead, but he should have become an ordinary powerless human now."
"…I see. Thanks for sticking to non-lethal, Fuuka."
I stood up and offered her words of appreciation.
"Yeah. Did you kill the Rakshasa? Since he's a demon, he's outside your no-kill rule, so it wouldn't have been a problem."
"No, I didn't kill him. Fairies and demons are essentially clusters of magical power with a unique core personality. I severed the connection between that unique magical power and the rest. So he still has consciousness, but he can no longer interfere with the outside world in any way, such as activating magic."
"You mean he's just conscious but completely unable to do anything?"
"Pretty much. That guy took something precious from me. I'm going to make him suffer worse than death."
"I see. If that's the ending you wanted for him, I won't say anything more. …So, what's next?"
"It depends on the church's movements, but Nagisa Asagiri, who has the special ability Spirit Interference, should notice right away that Stieg has disappeared. Once that happens, the church will naturally learn that I've regained my power. After that, labyrinth overflows will begin in various places. Next up is eliminating Belia Sans."
Nagisa Asagiri was the current head of the Asagiri family that ruled the Kyokuto region.
They had originally been a branch family of the Shinonome family that governed the Kyokuto region and were in charge of religious rites.
Several years ago, the Asagiri family had led a coup d'état in the form of a civil war.
In that conflict, every member of the Shinonome family except Fuuka had died.
According to Fuuka, Philly Carpenter had been deeply involved behind that coup.
Well, with her special ability, inciting internal division would have been easy.
"Sorry… for the trouble my relatives caused."
"It's not your fault or hers. She was most likely forced into it by the circumstances. She's not the kind of girl who would do something like this willingly, right?"
"Yeah. I swear she's not the type who enjoys doing things like this."
"Then we have to free her."
"Yeah. I will definitely take back the Kyokuto region."
Fuuka's face, usually expressionless, now held strong determination.