The Reason
Berick was practically purple with rage, but thanks to his grueling days surviving in the underbelly of Greenjack, he hadn't completely lost his mind.
"K-Khahaha... Not bad, Alzen. Did you prepare all this because crushing you like a gnat would feel too anticlimactic? Splendid. Thanks to your little trick, I can savor your despair even more—"
"Everyone can see how panicked you are, Berick."
"......"
I sighed at the sight of him abruptly clamping his mouth shut, his face contorting through a rainbow of humiliation.
Honestly, compared to the monsters I had been dealing with lately, this guy was embarrassingly out of his depth. There was none of that skin-crawling, suffocating dread when facing him, which completely killed any sense of solemn urgency. Perhaps that was why I kept catching myself looking down on him and letting my guard slip.
Even when I tried to brace myself and stay alert, a bizarre sensation kept whispering that there was simply no need to bother. It felt as though someone were gently persuading my mind that danger didn't even exist. Was this also Kubel's doing?
Come to think of it, when Cecilia mentioned wanting to purify the undead earlier, I had brushed off that subtle sense of discord too. Normally, that wasn't the kind of intuition I would ever overlook.
Phew... What a foul feeling.
The realization that even my own emotions might be nudged by a divine entity sent bile rising to my throat.
"Hey, Berick. How on earth are you even piloting Kubel's corpse? With your level of ability, that should be completely impossible."
"...Ha! It seems there are things even your almighty tricks cannot fathom! Did you honestly think I would fall for such a clumsy attempt to pry into the secrets of my power?"
"What difference does it make whether you tell me or not, you piece of trash?"
I smashed the empty liquor bottle against the stone floor, running a hand through my hair as I took a deep breath to quell my irritation. Then I held out a hand toward Muriel.
"Here you are, Young Master."
Ever perceptive, she smoothly passed me a fresh bottle.
"Well, I don't even need you to answer. The Demon King of Death, Annus, obviously engineered the whole thing from start to finish, and you're just a pitiful pawn dancing on her strings. Ah, right. Now that I think about it, Annus's 'Authority of Death' naturally attracts sacred power. Siphoning Cecilia's divinity was just an application of that principle, wasn't it?"
"Wh-What...?! How do you...!"
I took a moment to relish Berick's stunned expression before continuing.
"Using a Saintess's divinity to temporarily nullify the 'Death' status condition on Kubel's corpse, reanimating it... and plugging you in as a substitute brain. I see. Looking at it that way clears up every question at once. Quite ingenious, really. I was wondering how Annus—who merely hoards corpses without having a way to control them—managed to pull this off. She actually used her head for once."
"Sh-Shut up! I was chosen! Her Eminence recognized my usefulness and my talent! She gladly bestowed this upon me! I am no pawn being manipulated! I am her trusted confidant! This power is the blessing she granted to someone worthy!"
"Keep dreaming. Do you honestly believe someone like you is special? Hmm... Though I still don't quite get why she picked you of all people..."
"I just told you! My talent—!"
"It was probably because of me."
"What...?!"
Astonishment, confusion, and outright disbelief flashed across his face in rapid succession. I offered him a cruel smirk.
"Otiliv, the Demon King of Life, went out of her way to craft a personal avatar just to kidnap me. My name must have popped up on whatever private intelligence network Annus maintains. Damn it. Demon Kings really have way too much time on their hands. The moment something looks mildly entertaining, they obsess over it like maniacs. I really should have killed Rubias back then..."
I peered straight into the eyes of the colossal wolf that served as Kubel's avatar. Though its gaze was slightly unfocused, a faint glimmer of intellect undeniably flickered within those massive orbs.
"......"
I tipped the bottle, took a long pull, and lit a cigarette.
"*Pufff*... Well, I've pieced together everything that matters. Let's wrap this up, brother. No need to drag it out."
Because the spatial expansion of the 'Open Birdcage' had widened the field, the clash between the barbarian warriors and the werewolves was pushed far toward the horizon. But right before the shift, the barbarians had been suffering heavy casualties, and that likely hadn't changed. Tsarkhella was fighting like a demon, but there was only so much one person could do. The faster I cleaned this mess up and went to help, the fewer lives we would lose.
"You figured out everything...? You learned all that with that ability of yours?"
"Let's just say that, sure."
"Then don't tell me... you know why I betrayed humanity, too?!"
"Huh? Why would I care about that? It's bound to be some laughably pathetic reason anyway. You couldn't find a better patron than the Third Princess in the Divine Realm, so the second a Demon King reached out, you leaped at the chance. I bet you rationalized it to yourself with some nonsense like 'Humanity is simply too small a vessel to contain my greatness.'"
"...!!"
"Oh. Bullseye, huh? Man, my deductive skills aren't half-bad when I bother to use them... Or maybe you're just painfully transparent, Berick."
As I grinned mockingly, the expression on his face was an absolute masterpiece.
"N-No, you're wrong! I... this great self serves the Demon King only to guide hopeless humanity back onto the proper path—!"
"Wow, you rationalized it all the way to that? Truly pathetic."
Berick possessed a bloated ego and couldn't stomach the thought of anyone standing above him. He was the type who would do anything to gain power and elevate his own standing. Yet paradoxically, he desperately craved validation from figures of absolute authority. Leaving the Duke's Castle to serve the Third Princess had been born of that exact same neurosis. Unlike Urtega, the Third Princess showered boundless affection on whatever became her personal possession.
To my eyes, every single choice he made was sheer idiocy, but in his twisted mind, it must have felt perfectly reasonable.
"How can you not see that you're being played like a fiddle, petty psychology and all?"
"That's impossible! The Demon King saw my worth and chose me! She acknowledged me!"
"Hmm. Did she leave you with any specific words?"
"Th-That is...!"
"Nothing, right? Then it's obvious. She wanted to test my reaction by using family ties. Demon Kings are all such creepy, voyeuristic creeps."
Each of the three Demon Kings possessed a distinct personality, and their methods of seeking entertainment differed wildly. Annus was a voyeur who stood closer to death than anyone else, and thus envied, craved, and coveted life. Gauging the reaction of an 'intriguing human'—one marked by Rubias and targeted by Otiliv's clone—was merely a casual pastime for her. In all likelihood, she had acted on pure whim without giving a single damn about the consequences.
"......"
The real issue was that Kubel had slipped into the middle of this mess and subtly guided me here. What in the world was that Beast God planning?
"Do not mock me! I am not some insignificant wretch! One day, I will stand higher than anyone else and look down upon all of creation!"
"...You truly are a pitiful excuse for an older brother."
"Stop looking at me with those eyes!"
Driven mad with fury, Berick lunged. More accurately, the giant wolf he was tethered to kicked off the earth, tearing through the air.
"Not on my watch."
"Who do you think you're attacking?!"
"Showing bloodlust toward the Incarnation is punishable by death!"
In a split second, the Aura Blades of Muriel and Rebecca sliced toward the wolf's forelegs, while Latipi's arrow whistled through the air, aimed dead center between Berick's brows.
"Khk?!"
Startled, Berick prioritized deflecting the arrow. It bought only a fraction of a second, but that was more than enough time for the blades to carve deep trenches into the beast's legs.
Though the flesh regenerated almost instantly, the pause allowed the Master-tier combatants to encircle him completely.
"...As expected, you really don't have the chops."
No matter how magnificent Kubel's divine corpse was, having such a lightweight at the controls made the entire display feel thoroughly underwhelming.
"Insignificant insects! How dare you defy a newly ascended god?! I will slaughter every last one of you!"
"What an eyesore. Tsk, tsk..."
Clicking my tongue, I took a few steps back to put some distance between us. Whatever my opinion of Berick, the power housed within that corpse was the real deal. Getting caught in a stray blast would get me killed instantly.
"Die! All of you, just die!"
The ominous aura erupting from the beast as it thrashed in desperation was undeniably spectacular. Even without measuring it directly, the destructive force had to be immense—more than enough to threaten a Master-rank fighter.
...Yet, compared to the indiscriminate ocean of demonic energy Otiliv's avatar had unleashed, this display was almost quaint.
Crack! Splaaat!
"Gaaarrgh?!"
Aura Blades converged from every angle, carving through the wolf's hide to expose glistening crimson muscle and sending geysers of black blood spraying into the air.
Even against such predictable attacks, Berick couldn't properly mount a defense. Latipi's arrows relentlessly hunted his head, forcing him to devote nearly all his concentration to swatting them away.
"Y-You damned bastards!"
Enraged, he snapped the wolf's massive jaws and swung its claws in a blind frenzy, but the Masters evaded every strike with effortless grace, punishing each miss with brutal counterattacks.
"Aaaargh! Why?! Why can't I hit you?! I attained the ultimate power! The power of a god!"
"Hmm..."
I tilted my head as his shrieks echoed across the clearing. There was truth to his words. If Berick had been a more capable fighter, if he possessed the skill to channel Kubel's corpse—its divinity—and wield its divine authorities freely, he wouldn't be getting dismantled this easily.
Yet even then, it wouldn't have mattered much. At the end of the day, it was nothing more than a reanimated cadaver. It could never surpass a true Demon King, making it at most a slightly annoying nuisance for our group.
Which meant... this battle alone wasn't nearly enough reason for Kubel to meddle in my journey and hand down an oracle just to guide me here.
"......"
Then why on earth had that damn wolf brought me to this place?
Well, from my perspective, finding a suitable target to sacrifice for my Shamanic Ritual Tattoo was a stroke of good fortune. The only catch was that since Berick was physically fused to the corpse, there was a risk of absorbing him along with it...
"...Wait."
A target? A hunt?
A sudden flash of intuition sparked through my mind. It was merely a hunch, but if my guess was right...?
I reached into my coat and pulled out the Invitation of the Forgotten.
"In the name of the Goddess, I bestow upon you the 'Trial of Opportunity.'"
The moment I recited the invocation, an absolute authority surged from the seams of the world, recognizing Berick as a superhuman eligible for the trial. To stand solely on his own merits as a challenger, his existence was forcibly isolated from the environment. In simple terms: all external interferences and foreign connections were severed instantaneously.
"Wh-What the—?!"
What followed was nothing short of a theatrical farce.
Pop!
With an absurdly comical sound, Berick was yanked straight out of the giant wolf's forehead like a stubborn cork from a bottle.
"...Wh-Whaaaaat?!"
Stripped of his divine connection, Berick tumbled through the air in utter bewilderment. To his credit, his honed reflexes kicked in, allowing him to twist his body and stick a safe landing.
"......"
The only problem was that he was completely buck-naked, making the whole display utterly grotesque.
"*Sigh*... Pin him down."
"Oh, um... Yes! Right away!"
"What in the world just happened...?"
"H-How utterly absurd..."
Thrown off by the sudden anti-climax in the middle of a life-or-death battle, the women hesitated for a beat before swarming the naked Berick and slamming him into the dirt.
"Ghk?!"
Still unable to process what had just occurred, a dazed Berick was subdued without mounting even a shred of resistance.
"Now then, that leaves..."
"...Grrrrr."
I tilted my head back to look up. Looming before me was the pitch-black, titanic wolf, looking down at me with primal, fiercely intelligent eyes as it bared its fangs.
"At last we meet, chosen design of the Goddess."
"...I didn't think you could actually talk."
The sheer absurdity of it all finally broke me, and a hollow laugh spilled past my lips.