“Surrender…”
I stared at Mamon.
It was impossible to read the thoughts behind that expressionless face.
“There is no need to think so complicatedly.”
“My affection for you is simply greater than my anger.”
He spoke in a mumble.
What should I do about this?
In truth, this was a situation where I had nothing to lose.
I had already intended to absorb their Demonic Energy, and since absorbing Demonic Energy was essentially the same as reaping a soul, it suited my goals perfectly.
The cries of the Demon King I heard occasionally whenever I absorbed a Fragment of the Demon King were a prime example of that principle.
It seemed things were going to be settled easily at the end.
“Mamon!”
“Are you planning to betray us?”
Everyone except Arahel seemed to accept it.
She snarled, looking ready to pounce on Mamon at any moment. However, that violent emotion was merely an attempt to spur her wavering self. Her aura was filled more with conflict than anger.
“What about you?”
I nudged Arahel’s heart with the tip of Bad Bond, prompting her for an answer. In response, she only bit her lip hard.
Mamon had said his affection for me was greater than his anger, even after enduring thousands of years of unrewarded waiting.
“I…”
Arahel hung her head low and clenched her fists. What remained within her—was it anger, or affection?
The answer was soon revealed.
“…Even if it is from within a sword, I want to be with you, you damn man.”
I nodded slowly. It probably was not an easy choice. They must have spent a long time sharpening their blades against me.
However, just because they surrendered did not mean everything was over.
“Do not think of this as your atonement.”
There was a reason I insisted on gathering the Demonic Energy of the Five Creations despite the numerous risks. It was for my atonement, and theirs.
“Regardless of the reason, you have killed countless lives. Do not think you can pay that price with just your lives.”
The two Legion Commanders did not answer. Even when I raised Bad Bond and aimed it at Mamon’s heart, they remained silent.
*Thump—*
His body began to be absorbed into the pitch-black blade. For Mamon, who had the physique of a young child, the blade of Bad Bond felt excessively large. However, the Demonic Energy he possessed was so immense that it felt as if waves were crashing inside the sword.
*Creak, crackle.*
Before long, Mamon’s form vanished without a trace.
“You are next, Arahel.”
I immediately turned the tip of the sword toward her.
*Thump—*
The blade once again pierced through flesh and into her heart. Like Mamon, an overwhelming amount of Demonic Energy was sucked into the sword.
“Father.”
Just before her body was completely absorbed, a faint voice reached my ears.
“Have you ever looked back in regret?”
“Are you regretting it now?”
It was a question of unknown meaning.
“Regretting what?”
I asked back, but her body had already been swallowed whole.
The Castle of Bones was suddenly filled with silence. Standing alone, I chewed over her question. Was she asking if I regretted creating them?
If it had been me from not too long ago, I would have said I regretted it without hesitation. But not now. I had finally realized why the Goddess of Darkness was born as darkness.
At the same time, I realized that the word regret did not suit my relationship with the Demon Realm. They were a necessary evil, darkness born not out of a mistake, but out of necessity.
[You have defeated two Legion Commanders of the Demon Realm.]
[Remarkable Achievement Unlocked!]
[Your Divine Power increases.]
I closed my eyes. Through my sharply honed senses, I felt presences approaching at high speed.
***
“Ugh, aaaaagh!”
Moritz’s voice was hoarse from screaming countless times.
*Boom! Crash!*
Every time a blind spell struck nearby, his screams grew louder.
“Aaron, Gide! We’re almost there! Just hold on a little longer!”
Moritz looked back at the two Paladins. Their faces and bodies were a complete mess from parrying the spells. It was only natural, as they had pushed through an endless baptism of magic to escape.
Soon, the Crying Bird carrying them reached the Castle of Bones. The trio threw themselves through a hole in the top floor.
Although they were in no condition to be called healthy, they had no time to delay when they thought of Richard, who was facing two Legion Commanders alone.
“Richard! Your big brother is here to help!”
As soon as he landed on the floor, Moritz scanned his surroundings. The marble floor was in surprisingly good condition, and while there were traces of battle, they weren’t as extensive as expected.
And in the middle of it all stood the person the trio had been desperately searching for.
“Young Master! Are you safe?”
“We will lend you our strength!”
The two Paladins shouted, their complexions instantly brightening. Slowly, Richard, who had his back turned to them, turned his head.
The elegance and Aura radiating from him were even deeper than before. In his calm eyes, there was a momentum like that of a famous sword. It was qualitatively different from the Richard they remembered.
The trio flinched and swallowed hard. What kind of growth had he achieved in such a short time?
‘But…’
Gide scanned the surroundings with a sharp gaze. For some reason, not a single enemy was in sight.
“Moritz, Aaron, Gide.”
Richard’s voice echoed through the quiet Castle of Bones.
“It’s good to see you. It has been a truly long time since I’ve seen you all alive.”
It was a strange thing to say. He had only been gone for a short while, yet his greeting was deeply sincere.
“S-Saint? For now, I am glad to see you are safe.”
“Where did those Legion Commander bastards go?”
At the impatient questions from Aaron and Moritz, Richard smiled thinly. A surge of Demonic Energy, unlike anything seen before, erupted from the black blade of Bad Bond as he raised it slightly.
“I took care of them.”
Simultaneously, an intense light, more powerful than anything they had ever witnessed, burst from the pure white blade.
***
*Kaboom—!*
The ground was violently trampled. A feast of countless spells rained down from the heavens to the earth. In that grim bombardment, numerous Liches were scattered into handfuls of dust.
The light in Bafel’s eyes flickered faster and faster. Even as he watched the Liches bearing the Markus crest crumble, he could not take any action.
His skeletal body fiercely commanded him to resist those Wizards, but his soul refused that command.
‘I…’
He raised a hand that was riddled with cracks. Magic struck his hand incessantly. The light within that magic was so warm that Bafel hung his head even lower.
“I served the light.”
‘Then why is the light attacking me?’
The question he had tried so hard to ignore tortured him once again. More painful than the agony of his crumbling bones was the question piercing deep into his soul.
How did they become Liches, and how did they come to massacre so many people by raiding this Kingdom? And why were they fighting them now?
He looked back through his memories. Perhaps because he was bathed in light, his mind, which had been foggy, cleared up like mist vanishing. Thanks to that, he was forced to face the cruel truth.
He remembered the hideous, giant eyeball he had seen once before. Why on earth had he accepted that as the light? That darkness was by no means the light.
“I was… deceived. If so, then I… what have I…”
Suddenly, many things came to mind. As the memories of when he was submerged in madness flooded back, Bafel screamed silently.
He had tried to gouge out the eyes of his own daughter, Alisa, tried to kill Alan, whom he cherished, and sought to destroy the innocent Laplace Kingdom.
In the process, his two sons who followed him were sacrificed in vain. Because of him, who had fallen for the trickery of the wicked darkness, everything had become twisted and ruined.
“Ah, aaah…”
How long had he grieved? The bombardment, which felt like it would last forever, stopped. Amidst the ruins where half of Typhon’s Capital had been erased, Bafel wailed, now a mere wreck.
The bombardment had stopped, but the lines of death etched into his body had not ended. The tips of his fingers began to turn into powder and drift away.
He wanted to raise his head and see his precious ones. They would be over there—his eldest daughter, whom he once intended to make the next Lord, and his youngest, who was the apple of his eye.
Knowing how those children would be looking at him, he couldn’t bring himself to lift his head.
Then, a light as hot as midsummer’s sun shone down from behind his back. When he turned around, he saw four knights. Among them, his eyes met a man who shone brightly.
“Ludwig.”
The man he had wanted to surpass, even if only through Magic. The man he had made his lifelong rival and treated as an enemy.
That man, standing upon a star that shone as brightly as the sun, looked just like the Ludwig of his youth.
“Bafel Marx. You were a brilliant, yet pitiful existence.”
The man descended from the star. Bafel’s gaze naturally fell to the floor. The light was so dazzling that he did not dare look at him.
“Raise your head. Raise your head and look at what you wish to see.”
The voice of the man who resembled Ludwig was benevolent. However, the strictness felt within it was like an irresistible Divine Command.
The thing he wanted to see.
Bafel turned back and looked far away, toward the Castle of Wood. A woman wearing a Crown. A young man enveloped in white flames.
By the time he managed to look at them with great effort, half of Bafel’s body was turning to dust and drifting away.
“I am sorry. Because of my foolishness, I have caused countless sacrifices.”
Bafel’s mumble was full of self-derision. Bafel Marx, the Wizard who once dominated an era.
‘I ended my life as a pathetic father and a pathetic leader.’
As he thought that and was about to lower his head again…
[O you who are stained blacker than ink]
The voices of Alisa and Alan echoed across the battlefield. The thousands of Wizards who had gathered to stop the maddened Markus family also raised their voices.
[The lamp shall restore your color]
*Thump. Thump.*
The sound of the knights’ march became the rhythm of the song.
[O weary soul]
[Commit no more sins]
[For you were great and radiant]
The melody mixed with light swept across the battlefield. it sounded like a funeral march for the corpses.
“Ah…”
Bafel stared blankly at his eldest daughter and his youngest. The sorrow shimmering in their eyes was undeniable.
*Grit.*
He turned his head.
“Please… lead them well.”
He realized at the very last moment that this man who had come to find him was the true light.
*Frizzle—*
The Head of the Great Magic Family met his end in that way.
“I do not lead.”
As the white dust drifted away on the wind, Richard murmured to himself.
“A world that must be cared for by a God is not a right world.”
Therefore, his job was simply to set everything right again—so that they could live well even without a God.