As Planned
A distant divinity surged over me.
Karia, who had barely managed to dodge a single thrust of that threatening spear, hastily retreated, dumping test subjects out of the dimensional gate in a frantic stream.
They were specimens she had spent over a decade—perhaps several decades—carefully cultivating, but...
Now is not the time to be sparing them!
The outsider called Lily Elbrit had, until moments ago, been nothing more than one strong human among many.
Judging purely by level, she was comparable to Kasar, the Duke of Battle Blood, or Birang, the Duke of Clouds.
That alone would have made her someone no one on the continent dared touch, but she was never going to be a match for the great Three Dukes. Not even close.
Thwok!
"Hnngh...!"
But the moment Lily donned that half-shattered 'ring,' something changed.
As if her very existence had transformed in an instant, she radiated a transcendent power and overwhelmed the Grand Demon Duke outright.
When she—barely recognizable as human anymore—gave her spear a light little flick, the test subjects were annihilated in a single blow, and Karia's right arm, all the way in the distance, went flying.
An overwhelming strike powerful enough to punch clean through every one of the 'sacrificial vessels' meant to absorb damage in her stead.
Not only that—it obliterated even the demonic energy surrounding them, down to the last wisp.
She's become far too strong... There's something about that ring...
A magical tool? A medium connecting her to some external power? Or perhaps a vessel holding some mysterious authority...
"My throat hurts."
Come down here.
"Kyaaaaak!!"
KWAAAAAANG!!
Karia, who had been floating in midair, was struck by a clone-spear conjured out of nowhere and crashed down to the ground.
Slammed into the earth, she gritted her teeth and stared up at the woman approaching her.
Hair dyed the purest white, and a spear trailing divinity.
The radiant white glow spreading out around her erased the darkness itself.
And then—
"Any last words?"
—a pair of blue eyes that seemed capable of devouring even that light fixed themselves on her with an overwhelming presence.
Was this how a specimen in a test tube felt, staring up at the face above the glass?
Tremble.
The instant she realized she had fallen from predator to prey, Karia glared at Lily in fury.
"H-haha... how arrogant... If you truly came here to stop me at Arne's behest, then you mustn't kill me."
"......"
"D-do you think the Duke of Yellow Embers would permit my death? Nonsense. No matter how insane that woman Arne is, she would never allow me to—"
Crunch!
"K-kuuugh...!"
"Why won't you believe what I'm telling you?"
Crack-crack-CRACK!!
"...!"
"I came here of my own accord, you know."
Twisting the White Savior that had pierced clean through her left arm.
Karia writhed in agony, shrieking, and the warped spear scattered divinity in all directions.
"A-aaaaagh!!!"
The divinity met the demonic energy embedded in her body and, like a predator sensing its natural prey, tore into it.
Of course, the demonic energy attacked back just as fiercely—but the difference in sheer volume was a chasm. If Karia's demonic energy was a flowing stream, my divinity right now was the tide itself.
This was nothing a single handful could hold back.
Fsss-sss-sss...
The flesh burned, and the soul faded.
About ten seconds remained on the Crown of Succession.
More than enough time—generously so—to erase the 'self' of a single soul.
In the past I might have sealed her and found a use for her.
But she simply wasn't worth the trouble.
Five seconds.
"S-saaaah...!"
Four seconds.
"Uh... ah..."
Her sense of self dwindled away, and the demonic energy within her slowly lost its darkness.
Just a little longer now...
"I won't kill you. You'll simply be reborn as—"
"Pathetic."
KWAGAGAGAGAGA!!!
A sword strike came hurtling toward me.
So massive it could hardly be called a sword slash at all. A violet blade of light, flying in taller than a fortress, crashed down over me.
"Tsk."
Wrenching the spear free from Karia's left arm, I blocked it.
Effortlessly.
"...?!"
"So you managed to find this place."
Having batted aside Sword God's full-power strike with, quite literally, a flick, I looked down at the White Savior, which had lost most of its divinity.
Crack!
At the same moment, the Crown of Succession atop my head shattered completely and fell away.
It's over.
Sword God, who had been waiting at a distance, began walking toward me.
But apparently the nullification of his attack had shaken him badly, because he kept a strict minimum distance and stayed on high alert.
"...What did you do to the Grand Demon Duke?"
"Nothing special."
A complete 'erasure' was impossible as things stood, so I'd simply brought her as close to erasure as I could.
Sealing her would have been nice, but I had neither the strength to spare nor any special item for the job—and more than anything, she wasn't worth it.
A woman who used the byproducts of the demonkin.
She'd been born with an innate talent for receiving and wielding demonic energy with her soul, true—but that was all.
At this level, she hardly compared favorably to the countless monsters that had been sealed inside weapons in the past.
Pharaoh was one thing, but she didn't even measure up to Karabus, who'd been nothing more than a crab monster.
...Now that I think of it, I should release Karabus one of these days.
Ever since he'd been broken by the Follower and repaired—and ever since I obtained the White Savior—I hadn't used him once.
If I ever wore the Crown of Succession again, I'd let him out then.
Come to think of it, though...
Something had been noisy on one particular front for a while now.
Like there was something I'd forgotten...
"...Ah."
I scanned through the chat once and let out a small sigh.
Did I get too immersed?
I'd forgotten I was even streaming and acted exactly like I used to.
No—the actions themselves I could probably have explained away, but I'd let slip things that were more than a little liable to be misread.
As I debated what to do, I spotted a particular message in the chat.
"Did I say something weird?"
"I do remember, but... something feels..."
I tilted my head, making a show of groping for the memory.
At the same time, I furrowed my brow like something bothered me, and the hand gripping my spear drifted a little lower.
The reaction of someone who didn't understand themselves.
And just like that, the chat began flowing in exactly the direction I wanted.
"Hmm..."
I nodded, as if the answer had left me only partially satisfied.
Just as planned.
"Sword God?"
"...Who are you?"
"I'm Lily. Lily Elbrit."
Sword God stared at me with an expression of sheer disbelief.
And no wonder. The me he had fought, and the me who had just swatted aside his full-power strike as if brushing off dust, might as well have been two different people.
It went beyond a difference in strength—back then, I had been behaving 'as I once did.'
Even if I'd returned to my true self now.
Shing.
"Well then... I'll know once I knock you down."
"Think you can?"
"Right now? Absolutely."
Crack!
Sword God kicked off the ground and swung his blade.
His sword, laden with demonic energy, sought its target—and I swung my spear to meet it.
Spear and blade collided once more.
Dark... it's so dark!
Just how long do you intend to keep me locked away?
Grrrrumble...
Shloop.
Ah. Something else is entering my body again.
Just how many times has it been now?
The human woman beyond the glass wall always wore that unsettling smile as she injected strange things into me.
Each time, the pain made my whole body shudder and my mind went hazy—but there was nothing I could do.
From the moment I awoke, every fragment of this body, composed as it was of spiritual beings, had been pawned away, and all that remained to me was to receive the experiments obediently.
Krrrk-rrrk-krrk...
It hurts.
I'll tear her apart.
When I get out of here, I'll crush that woman's face, then carve her limbs apart piece by piece until she dies.
And then...
'Spirits and humans... the two of them are what made you this way...'
...Yes! The spirits and the humans made me into this!
After everything I did to help you—none of you showed your faces until I'd sunk to this state!
Repaying kindness with betrayal... I'll grind every last one of you down and drink you dry.
'Kuk kuk.'
I had been drawing my revenge in my mind for some time when I sensed something strange.
Around this hour, the mad human woman always came to inject me with something, and yet...
"Why isn't she coming...?"
Krrk?
My hand was trembling.
Impossible.
Unless I was writhing in agony, control of this body had always belonged to that woman, and I could not so much as move a fingertip.
And yet right now, my 'hand' was trembling.
More than anything else—
"She's gone..."
I was speaking aloud.
'The control is gone.'
The question hardened into certainty, and the joy soon burst forth as action.
KWAGACHAAANG!!
Shaaaaaa!
Black claws shattered the glass wall that had held him back for three hundred years with almost laughable ease, and the thick violet liquid that had filled the containment tank came pouring down to the floor.
Three hundred long years.
The black entity, drunk on the taste of freedom, stretched out his legs with a satisfied expression—then, at a sharp crunch beneath him, looked down.
"......"
Broken glass.
The wall he had sworn could never be breached. The wall that had severed him from the world—and himself from it—for three hundred years.
It had all come crashing down with a single swing of his hand.
"...Right. A promise is a promise."
Joy curdled into fury.
Nord, leader of the great spirits—the Earth Spirit King.
Now become Sephid, King of the Spirits of Darkness, he destroyed every last facility as he soared up into the sky.
"I will kill them all. Spirit and human alike."