The Seven Deadly Sins
I cheered inwardly.
I wanted to dance.
If Emperor Penguin was Wilhelm, everything about the present situation made perfect sense. Only he could push me this far, all the way to the end.
But how had a dead man come back to life? And in an entirely new body, no less?
Sinner. Player.
That was the only possibility that even half-fit. Among the countless memories carved into my flesh, more than a few touched on the subject.
But—
What does any of that matter?
I shook my head. Right. It didn't matter. The fact that my opponent was Wilhelm—that alone was enough.
…I'll show you everything.
I still had my final trump cards left. Meeting him again filled me with such joy that the world itself looked beautiful, simply because I could finally show him all of it.
A reunion after a whole year. Wouldn't it be a waste to end it like this?
I would throw everything I had at him. If I died after that collision—so be it.
Come. Let us begin. From this moment on, it was the real fight.
After he roared Wilhelm's name, the atmosphere changed.
His intent is getting harder to read.
The Champion was strong, no question. But his intent, his movements—those had been easy to see through. His consciousness itself was simply too vast and too powerful. Anyone else would have frozen in place before that pressure, but for me it had been the opposite: an advantage. That was precisely why Heaven and Earth alone, from Creation of Heaven and Earth, had been enough to dismantle a hundred of his unique skills.
And yet—
That scattered intent is gathering into one. Under the name Wilhelm.
A single, absolute thought. A desire to see this through to the end, and nothing else. When consciousness and unconsciousness mixed into a frenzy and fused into one colossal purpose, reading an opponent became far more difficult.
……He's certain that I'm Wilhelm.
A chill ran through me. How had he recognized me? Heaven and Earth of Creation of Heaven and Earth were principles, nothing more—a sword art with no fixed forms. Grasping it just by watching the blade was impossible. I was wearing a mask. I had carefully adjusted my stance and movements. I had been sure there was no way he could catch on. So how had he known I was Wilhelm?
Was he always like this?
The man was ecstatic. His consciousness was reacting so violently it seemed ready to fly apart—ever since he realized I was Wilhelm. Goosebumps rose across my entire body. I had never felt anything like this while crossing blades. I had never seen anyone bare this much raw desire toward Wilhelm.
……I should end this.
The unease was growing by the second. The idea of seeing this fight through with him was something I needed to abandon.
Ahh!
It was rapture. Every time our blades met, joy surged higher. At the same time, I wanted to gouge out my own eyes—these two useless knots of flesh that had looked and still failed to understand. Standing right in front of him and never realizing it… the sheer stupidity made me want to vomit.
Ahh. Wilhelm. Knight King Wilhelm!
For the past year I had waited for you and you alone, day and night without rest. Not a single day, not a single second, had passed without thinking of you. Even in my dreams I endlessly replayed your swordsmanship, your movements, everything about you. Nights I couldn't sleep for the regret of never having dueled you. I had been certain that only you could quench this endless thirst of mine.
Take everything I have!
I poured it all out. And still it felt as if none of it reached Wilhelm. I could not end it like this.
—Devour him! Eat him up!
A voice thundered through his skull, and the Champion clutched his forehead.
"Kh……!"
His head felt ready to split. Pain beyond anything he had endured until now.
—His entire body! Not a single part of him is waste! With Wilhelm's flesh, it will finally be complete, my friend!
What the hell was this thing saying? I had simply been glad. Glad to finally meet a powerhouse who could show me my own limit. Glad to finally stand before that honorable knight! Pure joy—nothing more. So do not taint that joy, you demon.
—Is that truly all? You waited just for a duel? Don't lie. You coveted him, didn't you? You wanted a stronger body!
The headache intensified. The demon's voice swelled louder still.
"What's wrong with him?"
"H-he just dropped to his knees?"
"Is the Champion finally hitting his limit?"
"Holy shit. How strong is Emperor Penguin?"
The stands erupted in confusion. Mid-duel, the Champion had suddenly clutched his head and collapsed to the floor. His guard was so open that a single stroke could have taken his head—something no one had ever seen from the man who had held the Champion's seat for so long.
—All you ever wanted was to take him. To steal that finished, perfect body! To become once more that infinitely radiant, honorable human! Yes—you wanted to become Knight King Wilhelm himself!
Shut up!
—You dense, pathetic fool. Three thousand years, and you haven't changed at all. Damned hypocrite.
I said shut—……!
—Step aside. If you refuse, I'll do it myself. The way I always have!
Ahh. His head was splitting. He wanted to let go of everything. The Champion squeezed his eyes shut.
And in that instant, he became an ancient demon from a distant age.
"W-what……?"
Auryll took an involuntary step back. A stench stabbed into her like a blade—the reek of something so old it had long since rotted, pouring off the Champion. That was not human. Nothing that reeked like that could possibly be human.
A demon worshipper?
The thick stench. In this world, "evil" was not a single thing. Demons, demonkin, death gods, the Abyss—each lived with its own role and domain. Among them, demons were beings deeply bound to "sinful karma." The vanishingly few true demons of this world, and the "demon worshippers" who followed them. Perhaps the Champion was one of those.
No. That is a demon itself!
But Auryll shook her head almost at once. A demon granted a worshipper immense power in exchange for a price—something like a Demon Heart. A human who obtained one transcended their limits, but lost the ability to awaken through the Stars. The being before her now was nothing like a demon worshipper empowered by a Demon Heart. The stench and the sinful karma radiating from him were far worse. He was evil itself.
Her Majesty once said that from the beginning of this world, there have been seven demons.
The ones called the Seven Deadly Sins. Only those seven were true demons, she had said. Only three of them walked the present age; the rest had vanished without a trace. And if all of them ever appeared in the world at once, another Ruin might be born… The World Tree and the Queen had said so clearly.
Then was the demon before her eyes one of those sins—an ancient demon lost in the distant past?
"W-what is that?"
"His body's swelling?"
"Is he about to self-destruct?"
As the Champion's body began to bloat, the crowd cried out in alarm. His flesh was literally inflating like a balloon.
"Ah……."
At the same time, Auryll went rigid. That was a colossal mass of evil. Alongside the stench, an enormous hunger of desire was gathering inside it—the desires of hundreds, thousands… tens of thousands of people. It was nothing like the desire she had once felt from Randolph. Where Randolph's desire had been something that encompassed and dominated all things, the desire inside that thing was pure, viscous obsession.
Then Karas's voice began to ring inside every mind present.
"All of you—run. He is coming."
He? Who?
Karas's voice was thin and trembling, as if he had already lived through this once before. He continued:
"The real Sancha…… is coming."
The ground shook. The tower itself was trembling—at the Champion's transformation, at the emergence of the true Sancha.
Hearing Karas's words, I finally understood.
So that's why no one ever knew Sancha existed.
I had only learned the name by chance myself—something Karas had told me back when I climbed the tower as Wilhelm. Beware of Sancha. This time had been the same. Karas had warned me to be careful of Sancha. But I had never been able to grasp what Sancha actually was. Where he was. From where he watched the matches. What he even did.
So that is Sancha.
After the spectators had all fled, the massively swollen thing ceased to be human and became something else entirely. A centipede-shaped demon with countless arms and legs—and every one of those limbs had once belonged to other humans. Countless eyes studded its torso, and only at the tip of its head sat the Champion's face.
……Hideous.
It was an extremely grotesque monster—something that could never have been shown on a game screen at any rating.
Even the level refused to display. One thing was certain: facing that monster head-on was impossible.
"Flee, last descendant of the Crow."
At that moment, Karas appeared before me. But Karas was incomplete. As master of the tower, he had already been violated by Sancha. The crow god's wings now sprouted from the centipede's side. Losing those wings must have cost him the greater part of his power.
"I received much aid from the Crow Clan. They were a clan of administrators who managed countless towers."
The Crow Clan. Those ominous crows had been the administrators of countless towers? I had never heard that before. Another piece of lore that did not exist in the base world setting—the appearance of the towers, and the administrator clan that managed them.
Karas continued.
"Though Sancha tore away a portion of my flesh, the tower is still mine. I have deliberated long, but in the end I must bury him together with the tower—before he escapes it. I cannot allow him to devour even the last descendant of the Crow."
A voice thick with regret, as if he should have done so long ago. Then Karas looked back at me.
"Still, I am curious. You are of the Crow Clan, and at the same time…… you remind me of him, from a year ago."
Just like the Champion, Karas had recognized me as well. So I nodded.
"That is so. I am Wilhelm."
I spoke with a measure of courtesy. He was staking everything on saving my life, after all. Karas nodded as if he had expected nothing less.
"As I thought…… so that is why Sancha hungered for you so desperately. Knight King. No—inheritor of the holy blood…… of the Emperor's Blood."
"……The Emperor's Blood?"
"Ahh. Your origin lies in the Heavenly Realm. I am not permitted to speak further than this, but the will of the Crow shall guide you onto the proper path."
"Hmm. You seem to be under a misunderstanding."
"……?"
Had he truly expected me to give up and run? I shrugged and opened my mouth.
"I am Wilhelm. I have never once turned my back and fled."
I spoke Wilhelm's name—and with it, the will not to run. No. Not merely the will not to run. The will to kill that demon.
Supreme Sword.
I drove the blade into empty air.
CRAAAAACK—!
A vast domain tore open, ripped apart, and above me a colossal dark space yawned wide. Similar to Sword Saint Gracia's Heavenly Sword Domain—yet so much larger that comparison was meaningless. The hidden skill of the Supreme Sword Saint, too dangerous to ever use before.
At last, it revealed itself.