The Fallen Sword Heiress - The World Splits Apart
The world split apart. The floor cracked open, sending stone fragments flying upward. The spotlight that had been illuminating the stage crashed down, and the audience seats sank completely.
The signs of descent continued. The condensed demonic energy that swallowed Kor where he stood at the center was rapidly demolishing the entire theater.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
Kor clutched his head and screamed. It was Tana’s voice. I reflexively moved to stop Cheon Yu-ha from rushing forward, but she didn’t leap out. She simply stared at Kor with a complicated expression.
“Why? I thought you’d rush out.”
“...Yeah.”
“One mistake is enough.”
As Cheon Yu-ha spoke, her hand trembled faintly. She was barely holding on. She tried to sound calm, but she was clearly still clumsy at hiding her emotions. It was the difference experience made.
“Yeah, one time is enough. You held it together well, junior!”
“What are you doing!?”
Elesia suddenly grabbed Yu-ha’s head and shook it vigorously. Her hand completely messed up the sleek black hair. Startled by the abrupt attack, Yu-ha shook her off in confusion and raised her voice at Elesia.
What was she doing at a time like this? Did it look like the mood for jokes? No matter that she was a senior, this was unacceptable…
They were all perfectly reasonable points. Yet the one who had pulled the prank, Elesia, simply smiled brightly without offering any real response. I, too, understood her intention clearly and kept silent.
She must have noticed the trembling hand.
“I knew she was eccentric, but to joke even in an atmosphere like this…”
“Ahaha, sorry, sorry.”
Thud.
The moment Elesia’s playful commotion ended, the twisting of the world stopped. The furious gaze Cheon Yu-ha had fixed on her and the amused one Elesia returned both snapped toward the center.
“Hmm.”
The spine-chilling, cruel scream from Kor cut off, replaced by a low, middle-aged male voice.
“Is this the limit of what I can interfere with right now?”
It was a familiar voice. One I had heard countless times while playing Final Academy, the voice of a character who bookended both beginning and end.
My hand reflexively gripped my sword. If the entity before me was the one I knew, it absolutely should not have appeared at this point. I couldn’t fathom what trick it had used or why it had come here.
Regardless of my thoughts, the creature tested the body it had descended into, turning it this way and that, before lifting its head toward me.
“Ah, there you are.”
Its expression was bright, as if greeting an old friend.
“Keeping my head raised like this is tiring. How about coming down? I’ve never really looked up at anyone before.”
“......”
“Well, if you won’t come down, I can always force you.”
The tone was nearly a threat. Worried glances from both Elesia and Yu-ha turned my way. Who exactly was that thing? Did I know it? Their eyes brimmed with questions about its identity.
“...I’m coming down.”
Yet that was all I could offer them. I didn’t have the nerve to pick a fight with the ‘final boss’ of Final Academy.
As I descended carefully, Yu-ha and Elesia followed behind me. Seeing the pair, the final boss—the demon—grinned.
“You’ve already collected the Sword Saint and the Saint. As expected, you’re fast. It wasn’t for nothing that I failed to catch you.”
“...What are you talking about? The Sword Saint is my grandfather’s title.”
“Ah, you don’t need to know about that.”
It was a short exchange, but questions flooded both Elesia’s and Yu-ha’s minds. In my own head, certainty settled in.
This bastard knew the plot of Final Academy. The demon’s voice I had heard before possessing this body had not been a hallucination.
In other words, the being before me was the one who had summoned me here. But why?
The simplest reason was, of course, to kill me. If the world of Final Academy truly existed, then every record of my playthroughs remained as well. Which meant the necks of all the demons I had slain were still accounted for.
If it sought a grudge, the justification for summoning me here made perfect sense—even if I couldn’t grasp the exact process.
But if that’s the case, it’s left me alive far too long.
If its goal was to kill me, it should have done so the moment it confirmed my enrollment. By unleashing every demon contractor. According to Tana, the demon had even given orders to Chairman Erhen.
It had known my location all along. Yet it had waited until I obtained the Holy Water and approached the main episode…
Which means it either doesn’t intend to kill me yet, or it can’t.
If it was the latter, some restriction was clearly in place. If the former, I saw no way to uncover the reason.
After all, to reach the ending of this game, I would have to cut off the demon’s head.
Just what was the demon’s true aim…?
“Should I give you more time to think?”
“......!”
The thread snapped. When I looked around, everything was pitch black. Cheon Yu-ha and Elesia were nowhere to be seen—isolated from me, most likely—and only the demon and I remained inside a small space.
“The Sword Saint and the Saint. Those two aren’t yet qualified to hear this, so I set them aside for a moment. It’s better for you this way too, isn’t it?”
“...What exactly are you trying to tell me?”
“Isn’t that a question you should be asking me? Why I brought you here. What I want from you.”
Knowing it held the initiative, the demon grinned. I glared at it for a moment, then slowly opened my mouth. For now, I would play along.
“Why did you bring me here?”
“For fun.”
“What?”
The demon sat down in midair. Though nothing was visible, it looked as if something supported it from behind. I frowned.
“Just for fun? You called me here for that?”
“Just for fun, you say. To me, that is everything. Do not belittle it.”
I couldn’t understand what went on inside the demon’s head. Come to think of it, in Final Academy, the character with the most unresolved narrative was the demon. It was a transcendent being that reigned as the final boss, yet aside from the subjugation raid, it had never delivered a single line of dialogue.
It was the villain with the greatest weight, remembered by everyone, yet the one whose inner thoughts no one could fathom.
“Well, to sum it up, the story goes like this.”
When I stayed silent, the demon—who had been watching me closely—continued.
“A bug I had paid no attention to suddenly began committing all sorts of bizarre acts and ended up wounding the observer. It isn’t a serious wound, so it doesn’t matter, but a wound is still a wound. I cannot simply ignore it.”
I frowned at the word “bug,” but I couldn’t refute it. According to the setting, the demon was a transcendent being—an existence so distant that viewing humans as little more than insects was hardly strange.
In fact, even its descent as the final boss had merely been a means to prevent its own full arrival. I could feel exactly how overwhelming its power was.
“So you brought me here to deal with the one who wounded you?”
“No, no. If that were the case, I would have dealt with you long ago. You already guessed as much, didn’t you? The reason I said ‘fun’ has nothing to do with that.”
“...Then what do you want from me?”
“Didn’t I already say it?”
The demon spoke again. Fun.
It had dragged me here solely for its own amusement.
“I know nothing of concepts such as past or future. Nor do I wish to. The wound left by a mere bug is of no concern to me.”
“However, the process is what matters. The process by which a mere bug could leave a wound. If I can enjoy the desperate struggling shown in that situation…”
The demon extended its hand. The limb was completely mangled. Black lightning crackled from it. The sight could no longer be called a mere wound.
“Any price is worth paying.”
By paying the price of having its arm severed, it had twisted causality and transcended dimensions to summon me here. Once again, I realized exactly what sort of being stood before me.
Even with the Eye of the Transcendent, I could not sense the demon’s energy. The Heavenly Martial Body, the blessing of mana, the favor of the spirits—every trait I possessed lost its luster. In front of the entity before me, everything was rendered powerless.
Facing the truth, I realized one more thing. The demon did not emit energy. Moreover, it had called me here purely for fun.
In other words, it had no intention of killing me whatsoever.
There was no malice. Only curiosity stood in its place.
“Then… you want to watch me follow the original story?”
“Correct. You finally understand. However, watching the same tale again is something I must decline.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I will interfere with your story.”
My thoughts fell into chaos. If the demon began interfering, I had no idea how the plot would twist. A single whim could lead to total annihilation. It might even seal away everything in Final Academy.
As if reading my mind, the demon raised its hand.
“There won’t be any major changes. At most, I will touch upon the central points. Direct interference places a heavy burden on me as well.”
Its hand continued to burn. It seemed that bringing me here and then descending to a place it should not have appeared at this time was exacting its toll.
It was a horrific sight. The stench of burning flesh stung my nose, and the grotesque, charred skin filled my vision. I wanted to look away immediately. But I didn’t. There had to be a reason it was deliberately showing me this. Maintaining the current situation seemed wiser.
“Well, this is as far as we go.”
When I continued to endure, the demon shrugged and turned away. A pitch-black hole opened before it.
Was it leaving now? I began to let out a deep sigh.
“Ah, the interference begins from now.”
Until that voice reached me.
At the same time, my consciousness plummeted downward. The sensation of falling into an endless abyss. Yet an end eventually came.
What I saw at the bottom was—
“Aaaaaagh!”
Kor, screaming in Tana’s voice while rampaging wildly in every direction.