Regina's Resolve
With all the maids sent away, Lilith was left alone in the mansion.
"This is rather sudden. I knew something like this would happen eventually."
She had climbed to the rooftop of the mansion and was quietly gazing up at the sky. To be precise, at the otherworldly rift that was steadily expanding in the heavens.
Lilith's solitary mutter, spoken in the now-empty mansion, should have quietly scattered on the wind. Yet for some reason, a reply came back.
"They've always been like that. Creatures who arrive without warning, destroy everything in their path, and then vanish just as abruptly, repeating the cycle over and over."
The man possessed an eerily complete absence of presence. Not even the faintest ripple of magi could be sensed from him, let alone the sound of his footsteps, the rustle of his clothes, or even the whisper of his breath.
It was as though he were a ghost.
Lilith quietly studied the man who was clad entirely in black.
"...I did ask Bella to contact you, but honestly, I never truly believed you would come."
"I bear responsibility."
As the king who stood at the pinnacle of all demonkind, it was a duty he was obligated to uphold.
Lilith remained silent for a moment before murmuring, almost to herself.
"...If I'd known it would come to this, I should have called you sooner."
The Demon King offered no response to her quiet words. He simply examined the state of the rift for a moment before stating what needed to be said.
"The Tear?"
"Here it is."
Lilith extended the necklace she had been clutching. The Goddess's Tear.
A sacred relic presented as a gesture of friendship by a woman known as the Saintess after the human-demon war was forcibly concluded by the emergence of the Outer Gods.
It had originally been an item given to the Demon King, yet he had passed it to Lilith instead.
There had been no particular reason. She simply happened to be closest at the time, and it had seemed to suit her.
"...I see you weren't wearing it."
"It's a holy relic. And I am a demon."
The Demon King accepted the necklace without further comment and slipped it into his robes. He had heard that the beings from the other world were targeting the Goddess's Tear.
So long as it remained in his possession, no one could seize it unless a true deity descended in person.
...That's not entirely accurate.
Upon reflection, there was one entity who could threaten even the Demon King despite being merely an avatar rather than a genuine deity.
"Seiar."
Mad Dragon Seiar. The Demon King had crossed paths with her once on the battlefield.
Though their previous clash had ended in his victory, there was no guarantee the outcome would be repeated.
It had been nearly even.
A being capable of exerting power comparable to lower-ranked deities despite not being an Outer God herself.
A monster born from a dragon who was already formidable, now perfected by the power of another world.
Among the avatars, she boasted overwhelming might, yet she did not appear to be regarded favorably by the others.
Probably because controlling her is impossible.
Only the highest Outer Gods could restrain the Mad Dragon. After all, Seiar had not chosen to become an avatar of her own free will.
Unless an Outer God descended directly or Mad Dragon Seiar manifested in this place, the possibility of the Demon King's defeat did not exist.
The Demon King stood motionless, gazing at the rift, before suddenly addressing Lilith, who remained standing beside him instead of departing.
"...Why are you still here?"
"Where else would I go when you are right here?"
Lilith subtly drew closer to the Demon King's side. Even through the thick cloak he wore, her body heat seemed to reach him.
"......"
The Demon King did not step away. He simply turned his gaze back to the rift and continued watching in silence.
And then the rift began to open slowly.
"...Just as I feared."
Ominous premonitions had a way of becoming reality.
An impossibly massive, eerily pure-white dragon's head was slowly emerging from the rift.
"Are you really going back?"
"Yes."
"Really, really?"
"Really."
Bella reached out as if to stop me. But—
"Too slow."
With a single step, I naturally evaded her hand.
Did she think I had spent the past six months doing nothing but drilling intent and mental imagery with Namgung Sim?
After dying countless times, I had grasped innumerable principles and truths.
All of my techniques had grown by an entire stage.
I was no longer the person I used to be.
Besides, I now possessed the 'trump card' that Namgung Sim and I had created together after much deliberation.
Though it is admittedly closer to a trick.
I was confident I could thoroughly crush Honcheon Noeje if we fought again.
"Bella."
"...Young miss."
"Stay here and wait."
"Young miss. You mustn't."
Bella adjusted her grip on her scythe and stepped forward to block my path.
"I won't let you go. I'll stop you myself."
"......"
I remembered what Namgung Sim had said.
Every martial artist was a hopeless creature stuffed full of stubborn pride. I was no exception.
I had always been a greedy person who wanted to possess many things, and my greed was so great that I refused to let go of anything already in my arms.
Time passes far too quickly.
Time flows like a river, never stopping, rushing forward at a terrifying speed.
I had lived in this mansion for what felt like quite a long time, yet the moments I had spent with Mother amounted to little more than an instant in comparison.
Our relationship as mother and daughter was not a bad one, yet the time we had shared was absurdly short.
We never even went on a single trip together.
I am greedy.
"I need to go on a trip. With Mother."
Once that desire had taken root, I had no intention of letting it go.
"Young miss...!"
"Bella. Will you hug me?"
"Huh...?"
I pulled Bella into my arms once more. She had been standing there threateningly with her scythe raised, but she was so startled that she offered no resistance and simply let me embrace her.
"I'm sorry."
"What—!"
I struck her pressure point.
Bella's body went limp like a puppet with its strings cut.
This was different from when I had used the Afterimage Fist. This time I had learned proper pressure-point striking from Namgung Sim.
"You'll be able to move again in a little while."
"Young miss... are you truly leaving? This time you might really... you might die...."
I was fully aware of how dangerous this was.
But in a situation like this, what I needed was Regina's Resolve.
"I know."
I carefully covered the unconscious Bella with leaves so no one would steal her away while I was gone.
"I'll be back, Bella."
I immediately unleashed my lightness technique and began racing back the way I had come.
Rumble—! Boom!
Had the battle already begun?
Dark clouds now filled the sky above the mansion, and between them I could see the massive silhouette of a dragon soaring through the air.
Even from this distance, my skin is tingling.
A dragon that had emerged from the rift... there was no need to guess its identity.
An existence I could not handle alone in my current state. Mad Dragon Seiar.
"She must be fighting Father."
No matter how capable Lilith was, her strength was nothing compared to Seiar, who had transcended even the limits of the dragon race.
In Dust Saga, Seiar had been described as slightly weaker than the Demon King, so the one currently giving her a proper fight up there was surely Father.
"...?"
Wait. Then why did Mother die in the original story? No matter how strong Seiar was, breaking through the combined efforts of both Father and Mother should have been nearly impossible.
That could only mean... there were other avatars besides Seiar present here.
"To think something that powerful was hiding in our house."
A battle with at least two avatars manifested. And at a point in time before the original story even began?
As far as I remembered, there had been no such setting.
Is this a part that was never mentioned in Dust Saga?
But this was an event significant enough for Seiar to manifest. If it had truly been in the original story, it couldn't possibly have gone completely unmentioned.
"Then..."
There was only one possible explanation. A butterfly effect caused by my presence as an irregularity.
Why? All I had done was beat up the Afterimage Faction members and cause a bit of trouble.
"...Ah."
I had been so busy lately that I had forgotten. Come to think of it, there had been one time when I intervened in a major event.
The Northern Frontline annihilation incident. Originally, an otherworldly scouting party was supposed to seize the 'Star of Bitter Cold,' after which Seiar would appear and rampage so violently that the entire northern region would be destroyed.
Because I had stopped Honcheon Noeje, that future had been erased.
So she simply came here to rampage?
Out of boredom? I didn't know. The more I thought about it, the more questions arose.
Let's just drop it.
Thinking about it wasn't going to give me any answers anyway. I wasn't a strategist.
"I just need to beat them all down and protect Mother, right?"
That was something I was very familiar with.
Any gamer from South Korea would have experienced fighting desperately against strangers they had never met in order to protect their parents.
With all those thoughts racing through my mind, I unleashed my lightness technique without pause and soon arrived at the mansion entrance.
And there I saw a face that filled me with both joy and dread.
Mother, preparing to cast her magic. And the one pointing a massive greatsword at her—
"Master...!"
The man who had given me the crucial hint that allowed me to create the Heavenly Thunder World-Opening Art. My master.
I immediately called out the technique.
Blue lightning erupted from my entire body with a deafening roar of thunder.
Take this! Rena, zzirit!
Perhaps my desperate sincerity had reached him. Or maybe Master had sensed my presence!
Honcheon Noeje's head snapped around, and our eyes met.
His face twisted violently.
"As I thought, you were waiting for me, Noeje-ping...!"