The scales of the world
The scales of the world
After hearing the whole story, I approached the Pitfiend and sprinkled the Elixir.
The Elixir worked on demons too. The Pitfiend's body, which had had its limbs broken and face crushed by Ariun, was restored to its original state in an instant.
I grabbed the horns of the guy who hadn't regained consciousness yet, snapped them off, and stomped on his knee joints to shatter them.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
The guy, eyes snapping open in pain, saw the horns in my hand and screamed in spite.
"What kind of monster! Soi tribe? Are you a Transcendent? You damn bastard! Me! In a place like this! Such an insult!"
He kept blabbering like he was some big shot, so I started by ripping the wings off his back.
The guy, neck held in my hand, struggled, but couldn't escape.
He just screamed profanities at the top of his lungs from the pain of having his wings torn off.
I could snap his neck with just a little pressure, but I didn't plan on killing him that easily.
I twisted his fingers and pulled them off one by one, very slowly.
"Gyaaaaaah!! You lowly Soi tribe bastard! To me! How dare you, to me!"
[Blood is also water]
"Gyaaaaaaaah!!!!"
I grabbed his forearm and manifested my [Wish], and in an instant, the blood inside his arm sprayed out, causing it to shrivel up.
Perhaps due to the overwhelming pain and my [Wish], the Pitfiend's eyes were filled with shock and terror.
"Why did you do it?"
Even to my question, the guy trembled and couldn't even dare to meet my eyes, staring only at the floor.
"Since you kept your mouth shut when asked, your eyes staring at the floor are a luxury, too."
Without hesitation, I poked my fingers in and crushed his eyes until they burst.
"Gya, Gyaaaaaah!"
"Why did you do it?"
I poured the Elixir over him again.
Broken horns, shattered knees, torn wings, pulled-off fingers, shriveled arm like a mummy, burst eyeballs. Every single part was perfectly regenerated.
"Cultists! It's the cultists! I was deceived too!"
"Cultists?"
"Ah, it was for the Evil God's advent. I know where the cultists are. I'll tell you."
"Where is that place?"
After hearing his answer, I silently repeated the same actions.
"I told you everything! I don't know anything else! Stop! Stop! Stooooop!"
In pain, the guy spewed out all sorts of words.
I learned various pieces of information, but none of it meant anything. No matter what the guy said, this anger wouldn't subside.
Even though I was venting my anger like this, it didn't settle down one bit. I just wanted to keep inflicting pain on him.
After repeating the process of tearing, bursting, and healing about five times, the guy begged me to kill him.
"No, no. I can't forgive you with just this much."
I repeated it dozens of times.
No one around dared to stop me.
In this blood-soaked place, only the demon's horrific screams were repeated infinitely.
Soon, the Pitfiend was drooling, eyes unfocused, muttering, 'Please kill me. I beg you.'
The guy who had been showing off his pride just a moment ago was nowhere to be found.
I tore off all his limbs and turned them to ash, ripped his wings to shreds, then grabbed his jaw and broke all his teeth.
"Gyaaaaaah! Plee, plee kill me!!!!"
I diluted the Elixir with water and spread it very thinly over his torso, where his limbs had been torn off and blood was spurting out.
That alone was enough to almost stop the bleeding.
I threw the guy, who was left as just a torso like a roly-poly toy, carelessly toward the open space of the site.
"Now, if you can run away, I'll specially forgive you."
Yeah, I'll forgive you. I'll kill you in one go.
But the guy, with limbs torn off and no wings, just wailed like a madman at the reality that he couldn't possibly escape, wriggling like a caterpillar.
"Unfortunately, forgiveness is difficult."
I turned to the Soi tribe and shouted.
"As you know, this guy is the mastermind who made you like this! Treat him however you want to vent your anger, and if he looks like he's going to die, apply this diluted Elixir."
At my words, anger and madness welled up in the eyes of the Soi tribe.
"Don't kill him until your anger is completely vented."
When will he be able to be forgiven and die? I don't know either.
"Ariun, please take care of things until I return, just in case anything happens."
"Ariun will carry out the Lord's command!"
"Serin, please clean things up well too. I have to go to the Imperial Castle."
"Saklasi.... It's not your fault. Don't be too sad."
I nodded bitterly at Serin's comfort and said to the Defender Knights who were on standby.
"「Busanosk」 Defender unit?"
"Yes! Your Highness, Grand Duke!"
"As Grand Duke, I order you. Bring as many personnel as you can mobilize and stay stationed here until I return."
"We will carry out your order! Your Highness, Grand Duke!"
The knights obeyed my order immediately. It felt like I was throwing my weight around, but it couldn't be helped.
Now, it's time to go hear the reason why the Azure Slug cannot be exterminated.
For whatever reason, I will exterminate every single one of the demon bastards and Azure Slugs in this world without exception.
Even though it was a one-sided notification that I would go in the middle of the night, Katerina was waiting with the knights, holding her ceremonial robes.
Entering the Imperial Castle, Kalina and the seven princesses were gathered just like this morning.
"I was waiting, Saklasi."
"Why can't the Azure Slug be exterminated? Your Majesty, the Emperor."
Seeing the intense anger in my eyes, Kalina said calmly, as if she understood.
"It is a very sad thing when people around you die. Yes, actually, I can exterminate the Azure Slug or the Pink Grima. Yet, I couldn't do it. Even though this led to nonsense rumors that the Empire is trying to tame the Allied Kingdoms. I simply explained that 'Before the Sun' cannot solve everything. And that was the truth."
"Are you saying that even Your Majesty's 'Before the Sun' cannot exterminate them?"
"I will tell you the conclusion first. If the two races are exterminated, the demon of the Black Pit will be released. It seemed that even with 'Before the Sun', I wouldn't be able to kill that released demon."
"Is the demon of the Black Pit the Evil God that the Pitfiend mentioned?"
"It probably is. And—"
Kalina told me everything. Satan, Arch Satan, the location of the Black Pit, the entity summoning the demons, the cycle, the cultists who follow them, and even the fact that the Azure Slug and Pink Grima are included in the races that must not be exterminated...
"Saklasi. Would you like to go and check for yourself with me? That demon of the Black Pit."
Kalina headed straight to the Demon Continent where the Black Pit is located. To Kalina's words that it would take three hours to arrive, I replied that I would follow shortly as I had things to take care of first.
It didn't matter if I killed all the cultists.
I can't stand the sight of you bastards living and breathing for even one more minute, one more second.
As one of the binding ropes that had been shackling his right wrist disappeared, Abaddon burst into laughter, his mouth stretching wide.
"It's erased! It's erased! Now only one remains!"
Abaddon knew that the World Tree had disappeared. As the World Tree disappeared, the scales of the world tilted because of it.
The tilted scales would inevitably release him from this pit.
Once liberated, Abaddon would burn everything in the world to ash with hellfire, then reincarnate the burned-to-death lives as demons.
This was purification.
Once a world ended like that, Abaddon would cross dimensions and head to a completely new world.
Having arrived at a new world, Abaddon would again be sealed in a deep pit and summon the demons of the previous world.
A being that burns worlds, reincarnates them as demons, crosses to other dimensions, summons those demons, and endlessly destroys worlds.
It was a true Evil God.
"Hmm? Two people is a first...?"
Abaddon felt something pierce the barrier and enter the Black Pit.
There was still quite a bit of time left in the cycle for that High Elf called the Transcendent to visit.
"Is it a High Elf who tells me their name without me asking, or a High Elf who rushes in to make a bet?"
He had no interest in other High Elves, so he quickly chased them away with hellfire.
Since his hellfire also burned the demons that were being summoned from the Black Pit, he had only been summoning demons bit by bit outside the pit.
The more he did that, the less frequently Kalina visited, but,
'This must be related to the Soi tribe engraving disappearing this time.'
Thump! Thump!!
Soon, two figures landed on the ground. One was the familiar High Elf Transcendent, and the other was...
"Soi tribe?"
The Soi tribe's eyes seemed surprised to see his massive self for a moment, but soon his gaze stopped on the engravings.
Judging by the trembling pupils, this was definitely related to the fact that one of the Soi tribe engravings had disappeared this time.
"I see! Seeing you flustered by this Soi tribe picture, you must have already known and come here! Yes, what kind of Soi tribe's lineage has been cut off, anyway? There are still two more Soi tribe engravings left! I wonder if one of them is you?"
The moment Abaddon said that, clapping and looking amused as usual,
[Blood is also water]
Abaddon's eyes snapped open upon hearing Saklasi's [Wish]. Nothing could deal direct damage to him while he was in the pit.
Even knowing that, it was an incomprehensible [Wish] just from the resonance that echoed in his mind.
"What are you...?"
Even though Kalina had visited and asked countless times over 2,000 years, Abaddon had never revealed his name, nor had he shown any interest in Kalina's name.
That Abaddon was, for the first time, showing curiosity toward a mere Soi tribe individual, a being that was, compared to himself, inferior itself.