The Director's Final Party
Blood geysered from Fossil's shoulder like a fountain after Teren's final strike. The wound was so severe that the slightest movement of his left arm might cause the entire limb to tear free from his body along with the shoulder.
“Aaaargh…! That hurts like hell!”
“Don’t move. If you move, you die.”
This was no joke. It was a sincere warning. Fossil collapsed to the floor, clutching the shredded flesh to keep his shoulder from ripping away entirely. A few thin, thread-like strands of muscle were all that remained. Several of them snapped the moment he touched them.
“Attack.”
Fossil issued the order to his office. Unfortunately, the office ignored his command as if it had never heard him. No action was taken.
Fossil’s gaze shifted toward Adam and Lifter, who were waiting just outside. Adam’s Goldfish Grass was spitting out round seeds. The seeds that had fallen to the floor rolled along, taking root inside the office. Like an invisible cancer, they were infiltrating the office’s interior, rendering it completely immobile.
“Your office can’t move anymore either. Just surrender.”
Even Teren’s earnest advice only made Fossil laugh.
“Hahaha. You really are just a kid.”
“What…?”
“That last attack was full of emotion. I assume you originally planned to capture me alive. But you already know, don’t you? I’m already a dead man walking.”
Fossil grabbed the chair behind him with his right arm and slowly began to stand. Seeing this, Teren shouted desperately.
“I told you not to move! You’ll really die!”
The usual playful demeanor had completely vanished. Teren knew it too. The option to take this man alive no longer existed. One emotional strike had thrown that choice away. Because of his own decision, he was now being forced into murder.
No matter how many people inside the museum this man had killed, no matter how he had tried to kill him and his friends, Teren didn’t want to commit murder. Why?
“Are you afraid of killing? What exactly are you afraid of? The image of a murderer that society brands you with? The pointing fingers of others? Or is it the murderer you’ll become?”
Fossil began relentlessly digging into the mental weaknesses of a boy who was still only in his late teens.
“Hey! Hurry up and kill that bastard already! What the hell are you doing?!” Adam shouted.
Adam was right. But Teren’s hands were shaking violently.
‘He says something like “just kill him” so easily? Would Adam have done the same in my place?’ The thought kept tormenting him.
“Ugh, move. I’ll do it myself.”
“Don’t come over here, Adam! I’m thinking!”
“Thinking my ass! While you’re hesitating, more people are dying out there!”
Fossil didn’t miss the chance for a counterattack he had barely earned. He summoned his summon, Galosa, then lifted the creature and shouted.
“Everyone, head to the office and kill them all!”
The command echoed throughout the museum, reaching the Red Wyverns, dinosaurs, and every other creature Fossil had devoted his life to collecting. The sound of them charging toward the office began to rise.
“Th-this…!”
Fossil’s Galosa could issue wide-area commands, but only very simple ones. That was why the command had included the summoner himself as a target. If he dismissed Galosa now, everything would be perfect. Even if the summon was canceled, the order would still be carried out.
“Rubber Robber!”
At that moment, Lifter’s summon stretched its body long and thin, reaching Fossil. The Galosa in Fossil’s hand vanished and reappeared in Lifter’s grasp.
“What…?”
“Galosa, right? Everyone, stay put!”
Lifter shouted into the deep grooves of the Galosa. Instantly, the sound of the charging monsters vanished cleanly. The people’s screams stopped as well. When they checked the surveillance cameras, every single monster was either sitting obediently or standing still with blank expressions.
Lifter’s Rubber Robber had the ability to steal anything an opponent was wearing or holding and take it into its own hands. At the same time, if what it stole was a living creature, it could seal one of that creature’s unique abilities. This included the ability to dismiss a summon.
That was why, during their team practical evaluation, when Teren had his Wear Wolf stolen, he couldn’t dismiss the summon and call it back to wear it again. He hadn’t chosen not to—he simply couldn’t.
Lifter had been waiting for Fossil to summon his creature. And he had succeeded beautifully.
“Damn it… To think my entire plan would be blocked by four students…”
Fossil seemed to have given up completely. Like a sulking lover, he turned the swivel chair that had been facing away from him, then collapsed into it, leaning back heavily. The chair was instantly dyed red with his blood.
Information about one’s opponent was the most important weapon in battle. But Fossil hadn’t known the students’ abilities, while Teren’s group had received hints from the agent. Their victory had been born from that gap in information.
“I should have killed the agent. No… that guy wasn’t someone I could capture with the office. If I hadn’t dropped him, I would have been the one subdued.”
Fossil muttered to himself, reviewing the events, then nodded cleanly in acceptance of his defeat. It had been an incredibly enjoyable party, but it had ended far too quickly. The conclusion was the final stop of a life that had lasted over eighty years.
Of course, even on the day his life would end, Fossil had already designed the party that would continue without him.
“…”
“What are you staring at? You won. You should be happy.”
“Why are you so calm?”
“Even if the author dies, the work lives on.”
With those final words, Fossil closed his eyes. His body and the chair tipped backward together.
While an unpleasant feeling still gnawed at Teren’s heart—
“Hey, this guy’s summon hasn’t disappeared yet?”
That was right. When a summoner died, their summons were supposed to vanish automatically. Yet Fossil’s summon, Galosa, was still held in Lifter’s hand. Moreover, the monsters that had been ordered to stay put were still alive.
“What the hell is going on…”
-Rumble…!
Suddenly, the walls began to move. The reaper that exploded everything it touched was slowly pushing inward. The space between the walls was gradually narrowing.
“Hey, the walls…!”
“They’re closing in!”
The final party he had prepared was a climax in which everything would explode together with his masterpieces.
-Slice!
“Ughhh!”
My left arm was severed by the ‘Spear of Longinus’ held by the angel and sent flying far into the distance. I quickly used jet-black flames from my opposite hand to regenerate the arm while dodging the angel’s next attack.
Most attacks couldn’t even cut my skin. But the Spear of Longinus that this bastard held was the ultimate spear, capable of slicing through anything regardless of the opponent’s defense or resistance.
‘Hahaha, this is seriously terrifying. None of the challengers I killed in the Demon Realm ever managed to cut off my arm!’
I hadn’t fought the Seven Deadly Sins, so I couldn’t say for sure, but one thing was certain: this guy had grown far stronger than when I first killed him. No, “grown” wasn’t the right word. Back then, he hadn’t been prepared to die.
“I aimed for your neck, but you slipped away like a damn eel. Next time, I’ll really kill you!”
For an angel, this guy had a filthy mouth. I summoned the Absolute One’s nose. As the massive blue nose inhaled, the angel was sucked inside by the powerful breath.
-Slice!
“You think childish tricks like this can defeat me…”
Calculating the exact moment the angel would slice through the nose and emerge, I threw my body forward in advance and punched him squarely in the jaw. The impact made the angel drop the Spear of Longinus.
“You son of a—!”
I summoned the Absolute One’s ribs. Grabbing one, I tore it free. The angel spread his wings and shot toward the spear at incredible speed.
‘Ah, he’s disgustingly fast. Like a damn fly!’
I roughly calculated the trajectory and hurled the rib. Fortunately, the bone pierced straight through her stomach.
-Grab!
With single-minded determination to seize the spear, she grabbed it even while her stomach was impaled. Then she pulled out the bone embedded in her abdomen. White blood poured down in streams.
“You should have aimed for the head.”
-Hmph. I did aim for it. You couldn’t hit my head with the spear either.-
I tore out two more ribs and held one in each hand. As if by agreement, we both smiled and charged straight at each other. Her spear flew toward my head. My ribs flew toward the angel’s head.
“Everyone, head to the office and kill them all!”
At that moment, a single voice—the command from the man she had saved—rang inside the angel’s head. Her mind knew she had to focus on the fight against the King of the Demon Realm, but her body instinctively tried to obey the order, creating an opening.
I didn’t miss that instant. I drove a rib into the angel’s heart and used the other to sever her arm. The arm that had been gripping the spear fell to the floor. The angel dropped to her knees. White blood flowed down the bone and soaked my hand.
“So… saving me… wasn’t God’s will after all…”
-Obviously. Would God even have an office?-
The command Fossil had given to kill Teren and the others had led the angel to her death. I formed letters with black flames to communicate.
-You should have pulled that fossil out of your head.-
“I wanted to be a god… So I believed it was something God had planted in me…”
-That was your mistake.-
“I know.”
I pointed at her spear.
-If you had only broken your faith and stubbornness toward your god, you would have won.-
“Ridiculous… Before that, your bones would have… cut off my arm anyway…”
The angel collapsed with a thud.