The Empty Shell
A horizontal slash, stretched wide, erased the very fabric of space in a single stroke—lines and planes alike. It was an absolute authority unleashed to wipe away every last trace of the flesh puppets that had rained down upon the ground. Under normal circumstances, the underground passage Pride had created would have collapsed from the sheer force of the attack. Yet, surprisingly, that did not happen.
"So this was possible too?"
Reapers dealt only with the affairs of the dead, never touching the living. Thanatos's power, given form as a concept, allowed her to ignore the surrounding cavern and strike only at Tenma. The attack cut through Tenma, the flesh puppets, the strikes they had unleashed, and even the traces they had left behind in the mortal realm. It was a reversal of causality that carved away even the scars Tenma had gouged into the cavern walls while indiscriminately spewing undead.
Thanatos answered Pride's quiet admiration with an indifferent tone.
"It is nothing remarkable."
It was merely the act of severing events that had deviated from their original flow along the axis of the world's time. Since it involved direct interference with the system itself, the most she could erase was a few seconds into the past.
"It would be far more efficient and practical to simply rewind time with magic."
Whether one should call it fitting for an Absolute Being to dismiss such a feat as trivial, or whether her humility in downplaying her own achievement was unbecoming of one—Pride's thoughts briefly wavered between conflicting judgments. Leaving the man behind, Thanatos walked slowly forward and casually picked up the fragmented soul of Tenma, whose connection to the mortal world had been completely severed.
"……"
At the same time, the brow of the woman who had never once revealed her emotions twitched ever so slightly.
It's light.
The soul's weight was far too light. As if it had only just been born. As though every trace of karma accumulated through countless cycles of reincarnation had been stripped away.
It's empty inside?
There was no doubt that this soul belonged to Tenma. Yet every piece of information recorded within it had vanished. It was as if the hardware of a computer remained perfectly intact while its software had been completely wiped. Or like the hollow shell left behind by a lobster after molting.
"……A pointless parlor trick."
Whether it was irritation at having been bested by a mere mortal, her mood had soured considerably. A killing intent thick enough to make one's skin crawl began to seep from her.
"An applied version of Soul Absorption Arts."
Perhaps sensing the abnormality from Thanatos's expression, Pride approached her side and muttered while closely examining the soul fragment in her grasp. Soul Absorption Arts was a collective term for abilities that directly interfered with another's mind and soul—mental magic, soul-separation techniques, possession arts, and the like. It was a forced ascension of the soul, achieved by transmitting the data engraved upon one's own soul into the astral plane.
"Come to think of it, the Fan Empire had that superstition about immortals or the immortal realm. He must have drawn inspiration from there."
A higher existence that martial artists were said to reach through spiritual cultivation and enlightenment. Of course, to Pride, it was nothing but absurd nonsense. Could one truly transcend humanity through nothing more than mental discipline? Anyone who had even once witnessed an Absolute Being—a monster beyond human limits—would never utter such drivel.
Still, regardless of whether immortals or their realm truly existed, it was clear that Tenma had made use of the myth. The immortal realm, a non-material world whose very existence remained uncertain, was by definition included within the astral plane that Tenma manipulated. In other words, he had artificially attained enlightenment, shed the shell of his soul, and forcibly ascended to a higher dimension for a brief time—using black magic, the very discipline that defied the laws of the world.
"It is certainly an outrageous feat."
It was something even most superhumans could never accomplish. A technique possible only at the very edge of superhuman power, nearly reaching the realm of Absolutes. Such an act could plausibly deceive even an Absolute's eyes, yet Pride could not hide his disappointment toward Thanatos.
"Master would never have made such a mistake."
Thus, he directed his rebuke at her. It was an outrageous remark, directed at the second-in-command of the underworld, an Absolute-level being comparable to the Death King himself. Even knowing that a reaper could not harm the living, it was an act of madness few would dare commit. Only Pride, who placed no one above himself save the Death King, could speak so freely.
"Do not compare me to that monster who defies all common sense."
Thanatos shot Pride a sidelong glance and let out a deep sigh. If it had been Kain standing here instead of her, such a mistake would never have occurred. Yet being compared to him in this manner left even Thanatos feeling somewhat wronged. The first soul to ever ascend to the seat of an Absolute—an absurdly talented individual. An ebon so unreasonably powerful that even Hades, the King of the Underworld, could be slain by it. Comparing herself to the underworld's heir, whose fate had been sealed behind Hades by the system itself, was absurd on its face.
The leader of the Grim Reapers holds him in such high regard.
Except for rare cases like Binghu who had suddenly obtained power, every Absolute possessed an unshakable pride in their own strength. The same held true for Thanatos, who had always brushed aside Pride's arrogance without concern. Yet even she acknowledged that Kain stood above her.
Is this what it feels like to be on drugs?
As one who served the Death King, her faith in her master had risen another level today. The joy that welled up from deep within her heart was enough to offset the irritation of having summoned Thanatos only to let Tenma escape. A smile unconsciously formed on her lips, but Pride quickly suppressed it with rapid emotional control and turned toward Thanatos.
"What now?"
"We catch him. A fugitive criminal."
Countless ages had passed since the beginning of creation. In all that time, how many souls had fled from the Grim Reapers, unable to accept their own deaths? Far more than one or two. And the Grim Reapers had never once failed to recapture a soul that had escaped right before their eyes.
"If he had never been discovered at all, that would be one thing. But to flee right in front of me? I will not let him go."
She could see it. Tenma fleeing through the astral plane, the path and trajectory of his movement.
"……"
Though she answered with such confidence, Pride remained somewhat skeptical.
As expected, neither Tugwi nor the Empress have made any notable moves.
The Academy Tournament. The young lady was participating, and Master had personally traveled all the way to the Mendelssohn Grand Territory to watch her. While it seemed like a situation born of repeated coincidences, Pride had viewed it as an opportunity—an opportunity to determine whether Tugwi, the Empress, or anyone else on that side possessed any means of restraining Master.
And just as Pride had anticipated, unlike in the Vivaldi Territory, no disasters in the form of Tugwi or the Empress had appeared in the Mendelssohn Grand Territory. Even though they must have prepared countermeasures, fearing Master's possible participation just as they had in Vivaldi.
Only one possibility remains.
The only thing capable of restraining an Absolute was another Absolute. Aside from Tugwi and the Empress, the Church's forces possessed yet another card capable of checking the Death King. And Pride had one individual in mind who might be that card.
The Pope.
A figure of mysticism whose face no one outside the cardinals had ever seen throughout the Church's long history. Like the Death King who ruled the underworld, his very existence remained uncertain to ordinary people. Yet he was undeniably real, and his true nature was the ego left behind in the mortal realm by the Undying King, who had long ago been dragged into the deepest depths of hell—a past now lost even to history.
An Arch Lich created by the Undying King to fulfill his own objectives. His power was woefully insufficient compared to the Undying King himself, and as a non-human, he could never cross the final threshold into the realm of Absolutes that led to godhood. Even so, he was the ego of a being said to have created all disciplines and spread the methods of handling mana to humanity. If he had survived for centuries and continued to enjoy eternal life, it would not be strange for him to have prepared one or two methods of dealing with Absolutes.
If the Pope is here, that foolish woman may take longer than expected to catch Tenma.
And that would shift the matter from pursuit to a full-scale hunt. From Pride's perspective, it would be a result that could only be called a failure. In the end, the only gain from summoning an Absolute was learning that the leader of Immortal had once been active in the Fan Empire as the Heavenly Demon.
"……"
Pride watched for a moment as Thanatos vanished from the spot, then turned his back.
If he moved to the astral plane through ascension, then the components used to return must also exist.
Tenma was a puppeteer who used flesh puppets. Creating an exit from the astral plane back to the original world was an extremely simple matter for him. And he had openly created yet another flesh puppet right in front of Pride.
Now that I think about it, Eun Ma-hyun was the Plan B that Tenma had prepared.
Recalling his death at the hands of the first head of the Masao family, he had prepared a backup measure on the spot, just in case. All without knowing a single detail of Pride's plan to summon Thanatos. A thoroughness born of extreme caution. To hunt Tenma, his tenacious and desperate desire to survive would prove a greater obstacle than his raw power.
If he resurrected in Eun Ma-hyun's body, then Sloth must have failed as well.
Even Pride had no choice but to admit that he was a step below Tenma. Naturally, Sloth would not have succeeded in capturing him completely. By now, she was probably awake and pounding her bed in frustration. That girl had a habit of being unable to sleep properly for days after someone forcibly broke her inner world, staying awake for nights on end. Whether it was a personal jinx or a demerit of her inner world that shook the world itself, even she did not seem to know.
For the next few days, I can work her to the bone.
Well, from his perspective, it was rather fortunate. Having her suffer from insomnia and actually get some work done was far more beneficial than her sleeping through everything and accomplishing nothing.
"……"
Pride stepped into the dark passage where all the lights had gone out. By failing to catch Tenma, the fact that they had made some kind of deal with the underworld had been exposed to their enemies. Even without that, the underworld—or rather, the Death King—was already an extremely troublesome and irritating existence to their opponents. How would they respond in this situation?
I had hoped Master would not have to step in personally…
Thanatos's failure seemed likely to ripple outward and affect the other side as well. This was merely Pride's prediction, yet it was a guess that bordered on certainty.
Perhaps they have already begun to move.
In the pitch-black darkness, Pride's fingers tapped rapidly across the only source of light—the screen of his smartphone.
"Hoo."
After sending a report to Master, Pride slipped the phone back into his pocket and paused in the darkness. With Thanatos gone and Tenma escaped, leaving the underground passage empty, Pride let out a deep sigh.
BOOM!
Unable to contain his frustration, he slammed his fist hard against the stone wall. Despite personally intervening, he had achieved no clear results. The wound carved into his towering pride. His eyes, stained with irritation, gleamed savagely in the dark.
"There will be no next time."
Tenma—that bastard—he would hunt down no matter what it took. The laxness that had crept into Pride's mind from endless paperwork was, with this incident, returning to the way it had been in the past. Back to the moment when he had first met Kain and conquered the underworld.