[Not everyone in the world is kind or smart. Some among them have even teamed up with monsters or tried to control them as allies. Those kinds of people are called ‘Demons.’]
In the early hours when the eastern sky was pale and brightening, Zion watched Yuria’s training with a serious expression, listening to the two Awakened as they explained.
[It’s not all just fanciful talk. Awakened also use MP to manipulate various abilities. To those unfamiliar, MP might look like an endless, dreamlike energy with infinite possibilities.]
[Most mistakes come from excessive greed. The same goes for Demons. They get intoxicated by excessive power, turn their backs on humanity, and side with monsters. It’s completely backwards. Or sometimes, there are those who planned to betray humanity from the start.]
[MP is basically a poison to humans. Awakened survive because their bodies undergo the ‘Awakening’ process, adapting to MP and using it carefully. One or two slips don’t cause much trouble, but if you’re exposed to excessive MP for a long time, or forcibly absorb that power into your body…]
[You become a Monster. A terrifying being with intelligence equal to humans but possessing the overwhelming strength of monsters, driven by instinct to oppose humanity.]
Zion couldn’t hold back and groaned.
Yuria, who was repeating the movements Zion had instructed with a wooden dagger, turned around startled.
“Wh-why? Did something go wrong?”
“No, Yuria, you’re doing well. But you should pay a bit more attention to the movement of your lower body and the spacing of your feet. Like this.”
With a flowing demonstration from Zion, Yuria groaned this time.
Even to her eyes, a beginner, the motion looked perfect.
The son of the Count’s family, huh?
Are all nobles in Illium a warrior tribe or something?
“Don’t be anxious. Yuria is the best student I’ve ever taught. Both talented and diligent.”
“R-really?”
“Of course.”
By the way, Yuria was the first person Zion had ever taught.
[The problem is… there’s no immediate way to confirm if Benya is a Demon or not.]
Frey Alkoth’s Fiery Evil Eye possessed tremendous power to see through all flows of energy, but it couldn’t be fully effective over the communication channel.
Indeed, even Zion, known for his sensitivity in detecting monsters, couldn’t notice Benya until he came very close.
That alone proved how excellent Benya’s disguise was.
Or maybe the whole assumption that Benya is a Demon was wrong from the start.
Summoning Frey to analyze Benya’s identity was an option, but whether that was the right call remained uncertain.
The Pendant’s summoning function was currently 95% charged.
Assuming twenty goblins were slain daily, Frey could be summoned about once every two months.
If Benya wasn’t a Demon and they were all mistaken, that would mean wasting two whole months.
“If my uncle’s words are true…” Zion lifted his gaze.
At the window near Benya’s room on the top floor of the mansion, a shadow of a person had been flickering since earlier.
He was secretly watching his daughter training early in the morning, worried, though he hadn’t asked her anything when they were face to face.
Clumsy, but deeply caring.
Could he really be a Demon?
[I’ve never seen a Demon so humanlike either…]
Watching Benya pacing nervously near the window, Frey shrugged his shoulders.
Secretly, he shared Zion’s thoughts.
Based on all observations so far, the chances of Benya being a Demon were very low.
Still, he informed Zion about Demons just to remind him to stay alert—there was no such thing as zero possibility.
[Whatever happens, it’s not an irreversible situation. Demonization doesn’t happen overnight. Even if it’s short, it proceeds over several months, so as long as we’re not too late, it can be reversed.]
[So, Zion, don’t let your guard down. Keep an eye on Benya’s movements and find something concrete to confirm your suspicions as soon as possible. If needed, consider summoning me or Arcs. Once Demonization progresses… once someone becomes a Demon, it’s too late.]
“I understand.”
Taking their advice to heart, Zion nodded heavily.
***
Arcs proceeded cautiously with the process.
She carefully peeled away each layer of security, mentally recording every piece of information revealed.
Deep into the night past midnight, Zion and even Frey—who had been awake for over fifty days—were sound asleep.
Frey’s limit for staying awake was about two months.
Signs of sleep deprivation’s backlash were beginning to appear, so he accepted Arcs’ suggestion to rest before it became serious.
Thanks to this, Arcs secured uninterrupted time to focus solely on the process.
[It’s done.]
Four hours and fifteen minutes into the procedure, Arcs murmured quietly, her mechanical eyes shimmering with joy.
Her shoulders, previously slumped in exhaustion, relaxed, and a faint smile appeared on her previously expressionless face.
Her time as an engineer was over.
Now it was time to reap the rewards of her hard-fought past.
Adjusting her crooked glasses, Arcs began reading the information stored at the core of the fully unsealed Pendant.
As time passed, Arcs’ expression gradually faded.
After confirming the contents to the end, she sighed softly and closed her eyes.
[Naia… what on earth did you do?]
Despite completely disabling the mechanical securities, the Pendant did not reveal all its information.
It seemed as if it drew a line beforehand, saying, ‘This is as much as I will show you.’
Only Naia herself, who drew the line, and Zion, the Pendant’s owner, could see beyond it.
Even so, there was a great deal to speculate just from what was revealed.
‘Right, making an Ego Artifact purely through engineering isn’t easy. Especially since Naia is a half-baked engineer who relies on intuition for the parts she doesn’t know well. But still… how could she… use her own soul… This is reckless beyond reason.’
Most likely, Naia tried to use her soul as a material to create the Pendant’s AI.
Whether the attempt succeeded or failed, and how it affected Naia, remained unknown.
‘After crossing dimensions, Naia definitely lost her memory. But the most important thing is she seemed to vaguely remember something.’
They could also roughly infer Naia’s movements after fleeing the Demon World without defeating her enemy.
The Pendant’s modification wasn’t done only during the one year she spent in the Demon World.
Even after fleeing and crash-landing in the other world, Naia continued to tinker with the Pendant.
This was proof that she hadn’t forgotten everything.
What exactly she feared that caused her to keep modifying the Pendant after the battle was over was now a mystery.
The Gate had closed, but the Demon World and its dark forces remained intact?
It was an unfathomable thought.
Experts including Arcs predicted that the Demon World would remain disconnected from Earth time for at least tens of thousands of years.
‘Earth, huh? Then the other world where Zion lives…?’
Arcs was startled, swallowing hard as her thoughts reached that far.
Suddenly, a message box appeared before her eyes.
[*Deus Machina. If you have found the information you desire, please disconnect immediately.*]
It was a message from the Pendant’s AI.
[*Unnecessary connections between the core device and external sources may negatively affect this device’s performance.*]
[Why are you showing me this?]
[*Your statement contains inaccuracies. You forcibly disabled security and connected to the core device.*]
[Don’t lie. If you wanted to block me, you could have easily done so.]
The Pendant fell silent.
A remarkably human reaction.
[Shall I answer for you? It’s Naia’s intention, isn’t it?]
[*Unable to answer.*]
[That’s Naia’s intention too?]
It was clear that Naia had arranged something through the Pendant.
And this was probably prepared for Zion.
[*This device cannot answer any of your questions.*]
[Why not?]
[*Your advice may unduly influence the owner’s judgment.*]
[*The owner’s decisions must be made solely under their own discretion.*]
[*Please remember that your role is to be a ‘supporter.’*]
[Zion is only sixteen. Isn’t it too much to expect such a young kid to make the right call all alone?]
[*The owner will succeed. As did the previous owner, this device also trusts its owner.*]
The Pendant fell silent again.
Holographic screens floating around flickered with noise.
The Pendant forcibly severed the connection.
Arcs sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.
[*Additional note.*]
Suddenly, the message reappeared.
[*You mentioned ‘right judgment,’ but such a thing does not inherently exist.*]
[*This device will respect whatever decision the owner makes.*]
***
Outside, the seemingly peaceful daily life concealed an invisible problem steadily approaching.
For a week, Zion had sensed an abnormal number of monsters gathering around Kornika.
Naturally, as soon as Zion detected this, he went out to reduce their numbers as much as possible.
But the next day, even more monsters came, exceeding the number killed the day before.
Now, it took more than half a day to exterminate them all.
Although Zion had grown explosively stronger, he wasn’t happy about it.
It was clearly an artificial phenomenon.
The most likely culprit was Benya, whose scent of monsters grew stronger by the day.
“He doesn’t accidentally reveal his tracks, nor does he waver when subtly probed. He’s a man of steel.”
[If he really isn’t the culprit, that’d be pretty funny, huh?]
“Yeah, that’d be a dream come true.”
There were two problems.
First, as a swordsman, Zion lacked wide-area extermination abilities, so it took too long to hunt down monsters.
Second, while killing monsters, he couldn’t monitor Benya’s movements in real time.
Fortunately, there was a solution.
And Zion planned to try it today.
Around 10 a.m., Zion sneaked out of the mansion.
He chose empty streets to cross the city, climbed over the walls, and exited Kornika.
The number of monsters detected by his sense of smell was so large it was impossible to estimate precisely—at least a thousand.
Most were low-grade monsters like Kobolds and Goblins, but without Awakened in Zion’s world, such a scale could destroy a large city overnight.
“Please, uncle.”
Having killed hundreds of enormous monsters over the week, the Pendant had plenty of MP stored.
According to Arcs’ analysis, the safety mechanisms were just overly strict, but the summoning function itself was fine.
The resources needed for summoning were MP accumulated little by little each time a monster was slain.
Once MP reached over 100%, the available summoning time increased accordingly.
Plugging Arcs’ simplified formula in, the Pendant currently stored 150% MP, allowing about 30 minutes of active summoning for Frey.
If necessary, Zion could cancel the summon midway to conserve MP, but he didn’t plan to.
He intended to use all the stored MP without restraint until the problem was completely resolved.
“I don’t want to use the MP I’ve worked so hard to gather, but there’s no choice.”
Gripping the Pendant tightly, Zion quietly called out his uncle’s name.
The Pendant glowed.
Soon, Frey appeared before him, dressed lightly and wearing gloves embedded with jewels on the backs of his hands.
“…Uncle?”
Frey looked at Zion intently and then approached with measured steps.
Before Zion could even flinch, Frey suddenly embraced him tightly.
“Don’t make mistakes out there. And don’t act recklessly. Your safety is the top priority. Got it?”
Frey released him and patted Zion’s shoulder.
The dazed look on Zion’s face hardened into resolute determination.
[I’m jealous… I want to be summoned too…]
Arcs, left alone on Earth, bit her finger in envy.
Zion nodded firmly once more and headed back toward Kornika.
Frey watched his back for a while before turning away.
Although no monsters were visible, his golden, gleaming eyes sharply detected monsters hidden throughout the forest.
Frey raised both hands.
The jewels in his gloves resonated and emitted a low cry.
Apocalypse—the end of all monsters—had earned its renown in another world.
Meanwhile, back in Kornika, Zion headed straight for the Alzred Caravan headquarters.
He had no intention of recklessly barging in.
Over the past two weeks, with the help of the two Awakened, Zion had already identified infiltration routes to bypass the caravan’s defenses.
If he avoided mistakes, he could sneak into the empty space just above Benya’s office.
“Zion? What are you doing here…?”
But someone else was already there. Zion asked with a reluctant expression, “Yuria, what are you doing here?”