Epilogue — After the Ending
And so, Rai's birthday party began.
Thanks to the cards Vella had prepared in advance, every dish that arrived was some luxurious delicacy they rarely had the chance to even lay eyes on in everyday life. The table groaned under steaks and seafood dishes, pastas and salads, and a spread of desserts, with a big birthday cake sitting right in the middle of it all.
Everyone had gathered in the living room.
These were people who normally bickered and squabbled at every turn, but today—today alone—they had all come together to celebrate Rai's birthday.
Bat stepped up beside him and gave his head a gentle ruffle.
"Twenty-four now, huh~?"
"That's right. Hard to believe it, but yeah."
Rai turned the number over in his mind for a moment, then smiled a little ruefully. "Mid-twenties... time really does fly."
"What's there to moan about?" Shalla cut in from the side. "You're only three years older than me."
"Three years is a pretty big gap, actually."
"Whaaat~?" Shalla narrowed her eyes at him.
But before Rai could even finish speaking, she plucked a small decoration from the top of the cake.
Pop.
And held it out right in front of his face.
"Here."
"......What is this?"
"The thing stuck in the cake. It's edible."
Shalla glanced away awkwardly. "Like I'd ever normally give you something like this."
"Not remotely. It really is a special occasion, then."
"So eat it and be grateful."
"Yes, yes~! I'll eat it with the utmost gratitude~!"
Rai replied with a grin, took it from her hand, and popped it straight into his mouth.
Shalla watched him for a moment, then gave a small snort. "......Getting that worked up over something so trivial."
Just then, Vella raised her glass. "You know, how about we all toast together?"
"A toast?"
Bat looked around at the group—and then her eyes went wide, as if she'd suddenly realized something. "Come to think of it...... you're all adults except for Orchi, aren't you?"
"......What?"
Shalla's brow twitched. "So we were coming across as little kids to you?"
"No, no." Bat smirked. "You all act so much like little kids that I just forgot~!"
"Whaaaaaat?!?!"
"Haha~!"
Bat laughed breezily and raised her glass without a care in the world.
Just then, from across the room, Orchi spoke up with her mouth stuffed completely full of food. "Me too!! Orchi wants to do it too!!"
"Not yet, you don't."
Rai looked at her and smiled. "Give it, oh, ten more years, and you'll be able to drink with us."
With that, he picked up the bottle Bat had brought. "Wait... isn't this stuff pretty expensive?"
"It is."
Bat glanced at the bottle and shrugged. "Isn't that exactly what special occasions are for?"
"......Can't argue with that."
Rai smiled and held out his glass. Bat poured, and Vella and Shalla filled theirs as well. For Orchi, a glass of orange juice took its place.
Everyone lifted a glass. Orchi gripped her orange juice tightly with both hands.
And then they all looked at Rai.
"To Rai's birthday!!"
"Happy birthday."
"Congratulations, sunbae~!"
"Happy birrrrthday, Rai~~~!!"
Clink.
Glass met glass, and a bright ring of sound rippled through the room.
Rai raised his own glass with a smile. "......Thank you."
Laughter filled the living room to the brim.
There was delicious food. There was cake. There were people to clink glasses with.
Rai looked out at the scene—and suddenly, it hit him.
Being celebrated like this, having someone wish him a happy birthday... it made him so happy it almost ached. It had been a very, very long time since that feeling had registered so vividly in his chest.
["...Come to think of it."]
A quiet smile spread across Rai's lips. ["So this is what it feels like to have a birthday celebrated."] He looked down at his glass and chuckled softly. ["...Took me far too long to remember."]
At that very moment, on the rooftop of a building beneath a dark night sky, three women stood facing one another.
One was Sinedes Zugarite of Argentium.
One was the S-rank Awakener, Chain Curtlay.
And the last was the mysterious woman, Touka.
A cold night wind whipped through their hair. For a long while, none of them opened her mouth first. The air between them was taut, each woman clearly wary of the others.
Sinedes spoke first. "Since you three are the ones gathered here tonight, I trust you already know—but the Chairman is sending me in his stead."
Chain gave a derisive snort. "So the dog comes instead of the master. Is that it?"
Sinedes's expression hardened in an instant. "Chain Curtlay."
"What?"
"Choose your words carefully."
"Was I wrong?" Chain tilted her head slightly, regarding the other woman. "You're still playing the lapdog, aren't you?"
"......"
Sinedes's eyes went cold and still. "Say it that way one more time, and I see no further need for us to converse."
"Fufu."
It was Touka who slipped in between them, laughing with easy grace. "Ladies, ladies, no fighting~! We came here to talk, didn't we?"
"......"
"......"
Both women fell silent. Touka's gaze moved back and forth between them, and then she continued slowly. "The reason we've gathered tonight is a simple one." Her smile faded a shade. "To share what each of us knows. And lies will not be tolerated."
Chain's eyes narrowed. "Says who?"
"It is the Chairman's ability," Sinedes answered.
She went on without a flicker of hesitation. "Anyone who speaks a falsehood in this place will receive punishment befitting the crime." She paused, then pointed at her own chest. "I am no exception."
Chain clicked her tongue and smirked. "Still an insufferable power, I see."
"You are free to find it insufferable."
"So that's why you always look like such a piece of work."
"......"
Sinedes's eyebrow twitched, ever so slightly. Touka watched the exchange and grinned.
"I have no intention of lying." She spread her hands open, palms up. "It would be nice if, tonight, each of us could walk away with what she wants to know."
"That said..." Sinedes looked around the rooftop. "One person isn't coming?"
Touka understood immediately. "You mean Shalla?"
"Yes."
"She declined the invitation."
"........!!"
Chain's face twisted visibly. "......How very like her."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Touka asked, puzzled.
"Exactly what it sounds like." Sinedes's face was blank as stone. "Apparently she did not strike anyone as the type to sit obediently at a gathering like this."
"Oh, I don't know~!" Touka considered it a moment, then nodded. "It makes sense, actually. She's quite content with the world as it's been remade now~!"
Chain snorted at that. "Well, well. So the day comes when even you show her some understanding."
"I don't understand her."
Touka's reply came back cold. "I merely understand the situation."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"Not even slightly~! Fufu..."
Chain let out a sigh. "Fine, whatever. If Shalla's not coming, we can just start without her, can't we?"
Sinedes turned to Touka. "Then may we begin?"
Touka nodded slowly. "Yes."
The playfulness drained from her face.
"Half a year ago..."
A cold wind swept across the rooftop.
"...this world was utterly destroyed."
Chain's eyes changed. Sinedes, too, stared at Touka in silence.
Touka's gaze passed from one to the other as she went on. "And in that destroyed world, there were figures at its very center." She raised her fingers, one by one.
"The Demon King, Curse Eternalpain."
The first finger rose.
"The Mediator, La Place."
The second finger rose.
And last of all...
"The Calamity, Akra Minus."
A faint smile touched Touka's lips once more. "Tonight, let's talk about these three."
Chain crossed her arms and scoffed. "Fine by me."
Sinedes regarded her calmly. "Then where do we begin?"
Touka looked up at the night sky for a moment. "From a very, very long time ago. Everything we know—and everything we never knew about one another."
In that instant, the air between the three of them grew heavier still.
No one said it aloud, but all of them knew.
Every single word exchanged on this rooftop tonight had the power to redraw the map of everything to come.
The Age of Gates.
Roughly thirty years ago, the world witnessed a strange phenomenon humanity had never once experienced before.
A rift between dimensions.
People called it a Gate.
The first Gate discovered had appeared out of thin air one day. There was no warning of any kind. The sky had not torn open. There had been no explosion. A massive door had simply materialized in an empty stretch of space, as though it had been standing there since the beginning of the world.
Nothing could be seen beyond it.
No light. No darkness. No sky. No earth.
As if a slice of the world had been carved clean away, an entirely different space—the likes of which had nothing in common with reality—waited on the other side.
Strange phenomena erupted around the Gates without pause. Compass needles spun awry; electronics died for no discernible reason. People who approached too closely sometimes felt vertigo, as if the ground beneath their feet had begun to tilt. At times, unfamiliar sounds drifted out of the empty air—the sound of something whispering from beyond the door. But not a single soul could identify what language it spoke.
What frightened people most of all was that no one could say what the Gates even were.
Who had made them? Where did they lead? Why had they appeared? And what existed on the other side?
To every one of those questions, humanity had no answer.
The sudden appearance of the Gates plunged the world into chaos. Governments scrambled to lock down the surrounding areas, and military units and special forces converged on every site where a Gate had manifested. Countless scientists studied the Gates, yet no instrument on earth could properly analyze their structure—as if the very concept of science simply refused to apply.
And then, one day—
It was not long after the first Gate had appeared.
The Gate changed.
The massive door, which until then had shown no reaction to anything, began—slowly—to move.
Kuuuuuuung...
The ground trembled. The air around the Gate warped. Hundreds of soldiers raised their rifles as one.
"The Gate is moving!"
"All units, combat readiness!"
"Do not approach under any circumstances!"
Clack.
Clack.
Several hundred gun barrels trained on the Gate in perfect unison.
And at last—
The Gate opened.
KWAAAAAAAAANG!
In that instant, an enormous surge of mana swept across the area. Soldiers' hair and clothing whipped violently in its wake. A blinding white light spilled out from beyond the Gate.
And out of that light, a man walked, unhurried.
In that moment—everyone on the scene lost the power of speech.
The thing that emerged was not human.
Long golden hair. Sharply pointed ears. A face of impossible, otherworldly beauty. And robes of black and pure white, magnificent as those of some ancient king.
He was so alien it was as though he had walked out of a place utterly unbound by the laws of this world.
He looked at the sea of gun barrels trained upon him.
And smiled, as if it were nothing at all.
"My name is the Demon King."
His voice rang out, quiet yet immense. "Curse Eternalpain."
In that moment, the entire world heard his name for the very first time.
And the Demon King, gazing out at the countless humans surrounding him, spoke:
"I shall grant your world the privilege of an audience with me."