Heavenly Demon

Swaaaash!

Swaaaaash!

The sound of waves hammering the ground. The moment I crossed the gate, I stood before a vast ocean.

An island?

An enormous island and sea with no end in sight. I stood motionless in the middle of a sandy beach.

Where is this?

Was this really the Abyss? I tilted my head and pulled the Teleport Book from my coat.

…As expected.

A place where Warp couldn't be used. This sea and island were almost certainly somewhere in the Abyss. But a space like this shouldn't exist in the Abyss. If someone had created it artificially, it could never have felt this natural — the chirping of insects and the singing of birds reached me with vivid clarity.

A region of the Abyss that hasn't been eroded yet?

No other explanation came to mind. But could such a thing even exist? Hadn't every zone already been eroded and sunk into the Abyss?

That was when it happened.

Letters rose across a single sheet of paper. The explanation read almost like a game.

A Starlight Expedition, huh.

The rules themselves were simple. Collect thirteen Starlights and embark on the Expedition. Done. But if you failed to properly assemble a Starlight Expedition Party, you would fail — and lose your most precious possession. Succeed, and you could claim this island and its star.

If I can just gather the Starlights, I don't have to clash with anyone.

Eight other participants besides me. The combat power of each one was enough to shake the heavens and the earth. Powerhouses whose very names sent a chill down the spine. Collide with them, and there was no guarantee of survival. But if I followed the rules, there was no need to clash with them at all. Gathering Starlights was enough.

So this must be the map.

A sheet of paper floating in the air. I flipped over the side that had held the rules and found a map drawn on the reverse. The glittering spots scattered across it were almost certainly the locations of Starlights.

…There are a ridiculous number of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them.

Starlights glittering within my immediate radius alone. Just the ones I could see numbered around a hundred and fifty. If similar densities were distributed across the entire island, the total Starlights here numbered in the thousands. I only needed thirteen of them. There was no need to explore other regions at all — I could hit thirteen just from my surroundings.

The traits of the Starlights will probably differ subtly by zone. Combining them into the optimal state to form an Expedition Party is the real objective.

But of course it wouldn't be that easy. There was definitely a trap. Whether the other eight Absolutes would even follow these rules was already in doubt.

The Eternal Lord's Heart isn't activating.

…The Eternal Lord's Heart, which could erase a single rule, wasn't activating either. No — it wasn't just the Eternal Lord's Heart. I had the distinct feeling that none of my Hidden Traits were activating at all.

And I learned the reason soon enough.

A Starlight nearby. The moment I picked up that light buried in the earth and glowing —

…A strangely familiar name. This was unmistakably a Hidden Trait. The name of the Eternal Lord's Heart before it evolved had been the Iron-Blood Lord's Heart.

Have all the Hidden Traits been transformed into Starlights?

I stroked my chin thoughtfully. The thirteen Hidden Traits I'd possessed at the very start. Just to be sure, I searched further — and the other Starlights, too, inherited the names of those Hidden Traits.

One question arose from that.

The basic Hidden Traits number thirteen. But mine evolved and multiplied.

I currently held a total of fifteen Hidden Traits. Eternal Randolph and the God of the Demon Blood Species had been added. Did those exist somewhere on this island as Starlights as well?

But there was no guarantee that I alone had evolved and added Hidden Traits. The eight gathered here were powerhouses beyond imagination. The odds that they, too, possessed multiple Hidden Traits were overwhelmingly high.

If every Hidden Trait has become a Starlight, then to win this game, the right approach isn't gathering ordinary Hidden Traits — it's prioritizing the evolved and additional ones.

The problem was where they were. They wouldn't have been left somewhere easy to find.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

As I continued turning it over in my mind —

Goooooooooooh—!

A colossal presence's resonance slammed into my eardrums. I frowned and turned toward the sea, the source of the sound.

Holy hell.

And I saw it. A whale so vast its end couldn't be seen. The whale that shattered the axis of the world — I recognized at a glance that this was the Whale of the Celestial Axis.

And that wasn't all. The instant it appeared, the creature raised its enormous tail and swung it toward the island. Was this what it felt like to watch a massive meteor approach? With the clear intent of destroying the island itself, the Whale of the Celestial Axis shook the very axis of the world.

KuoOOOOOOOOOH!

KRAAAAAAAAAANG!!!

…I covered my ears. A light so insane it was deafening. But the island was not destroyed. A blue barrier enveloping the entire island had blocked that absurd attack.

The Whale of the Celestial Axis has zero intention of playing this game by the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rules.

I knew it the moment I saw that. An existence that shattered the world's axis. Rules meant nothing to that whale.

…Wait.

Already? I doubted my own eyes. How long had it even been since this started, and it had already gathered thirteen Starlights and embarked on the Expedition? There was no way it would succeed. An attitude that treated the risk of failure as completely irrelevant.

…I got it. Now I understood for certain.

These bastards have no intention of playing a normal game.

They were just doing whatever they felt like.

…Interesting.

I was so dumbfounded I let out a short laugh. What kind of lunatics were these? To think there were this many people like me.

So how was I supposed to win in a nest of creatures like this?

By becoming even more insane.

I had to become so deranged that even these lunatics would think I'd lost my mind. And there was only one way to do that. The way to look the most unhinged among the unhinged:

Play it by the book.

Actually follow the rules of the game.

I erased my presence and quietly explored the island. There were plenty of Starlights, but as expected, I couldn't find any of the special ones.

There must be conditions.

It was reasonable to assume there were conditions for finding or creating special Starlights. Searching this thoroughly without finding a single one was strange no matter how I looked at it. What were the conditions? All the Starlights had similar abilities. If they needed to be combined for synergy, I needed to figure out how they were supposed to be held.

Or do I need to balance Attack Power and Vitality at a certain ratio?

…No. Maybe I didn't need to combine or balance the Starlights at all. It could be a game you win simply by holding a certain ratio of Attack Power and Vitality. There had to be a reason each Starlight had different Attack and Vitality values.

I ran experiments in various ways. Gathering Starlights of the same name, holding one of each type — nothing changed.

"Ah."

Then a thought struck me out of nowhere. What if it was the order?

The thirteen Hidden Traits I'd held when I first dropped into Pangenia. How had they been arranged?

When I first fell into the Calzman Desert, hands bound, facing a Hydragon —

I remember.

I rearranged the Starlights in the order that came back to me.

The moment I arranged them in that order —

…Bingo!

I immediately checked the map. Orange glowing points. Those were the hidden Starlights. It seemed this was a game where the winner was whoever collected Starlights in the correct order and held a certain level of Attack Power and Vitality.

KRAAANG!

In that instant — an explosion from not far away. Crashhh! The unmistakable sound of combat. For smooth progress through the game, ignoring it and leaving would have been the wisest move.

"You insolent little pup…!"

"What a curious technique. Some kind of formation arts?"

But I was curious. Just how much power the renowned rulers of the Abyss and the Primal beings truly possessed. So I suppressed my presence as much as possible and approached.

"I'll sink you!"

There, a battered old man and a man in black martial robes stood locked in confrontation. The man in particular left an impression. Hair and eyes black as pitch. A single blade he swung with absolute leisure. He seemed to be swinging it casually, yet the old man was utterly helpless. And the path of that casually swung blade felt, somehow, incomparably beautiful.

"Tsk. No better than a beast."

The man clicked his tongue as if disappointed and stamped his foot. Boom! The old man's body slid through the air and slammed into the ground. Not a single gesture of the hand, not a single kick of the foot, was ordinary. Everything about him was utterly ordinary — and yet overwhelming.

In that state, our eyes met.

"…"

I slowly stepped out of the shadows. I'd realized that hiding any longer was meaningless. The man looked at me and nodded.

"You've got decent instincts, child."

The tone of someone who would have killed me if I'd just kept hiding. I shrugged and opened my mouth.

"Hard to sit still watching someone beat up an old man."

"Beat up an old man?"

"I'll take a lesson from you."

"A lesson? From this seat?"

The man smiled as if amused.

…He was strong, no question. Strong enough that a frontal clash offered no chance of victory. Which made this an opportunity. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

I immediately arrayed my thirteen Starlights in the air. And then —

"Mm…?!"

The Heavenly Demon's eyes wavered. …As expected, these bastards had no intention of playing the game properly. To think he held no Starlights at all.

Succeed in every Star Expedition and become the master of the island. As I'd predicted, that meant defeating the challengers in duels. Seize the most precious possession from each of the eight challengers — that was the meaning.

"You…!"

And the Heavenly Demon's most precious possession — the single blade in his hand — was already gripped in mine. The Heavenly Demon raged at the sight, but he was already a step too late.

Whoosh!

The Heavenly Demon's form vanished as if evaporating in an instant.