Part 8 of 8
GRARGH! I was already gonna destroy you, but now I’m REALLY gonna pulverize you good!!
…Wait, is it just me, or is the UFO-looking thing that just popped out trying to run away?
Get back here, dammit!!
“Ariel! What the hell is that thing?!”
Potimas’s voice rings out in mounting panic.
At the same time, the vicious attacks from the Omega suddenly stop.
“Hmm? What ‘thing’? You’ll have to be more specific. I have no idea what you’re talking about…”
I shake my head and shrug my shoulders in an exaggerated, mocking gesture.
Normally, I imagine he would’ve just ignored my attitude, but he seems especially on edge right now: I can hear his teeth grinding over the speakers.
“That thing you call ‘White’! What is it?!”
Riiight.
Yeah, I figured as much.
I was only messing with him when I said I didn’t know what he meant.
No one but White could possibly get Potimas into such a panicky state.
He seems to be seriously freaking out, too.
When was the last time I heard him yelling with so much actual emotion? Probably that time when White literally tore him a new one…
Potimas usually looks down on other people, never showing any emotion.
He thinks he’s too superior to be affected by what any lesser beings might do.
I bet he thinks it would be disgraceful to let his feelings be moved by such creatures.
But now, he’s totally losing it.
That must mean something far beyond Potimas’s wildest imagination must have happened.
Yeah, sounds like White’s work to me.
“What’s up? Did White do something wacky?”
I doubt he’s going to answer me, but I might as well ask.
“I’m the one asking the questions here! Just hurry up and tell me what it is!”
At this point, he’s basically shrieking.
Aww, man.
I dunno, I kinda wanted to be the one to make him do that…
But I guess White beat me to it.
“I don’t know what happened, but it sounds to me like White got you good, huh? Well, isn’t that a shame? Serves you right.”
When I give him a well-deserved mocking, the frozen Omega suddenly swings back into action.
I jump back, avoiding an obvious, anger-driven punch.
“You mad? Ooh, you mad? What a short temper you have. Maybe you need to get more calcium? See, this is the problem with you scrawny shut-in types.”
The more I taunt it, the more the Omega comes at me way too directly.
“Damn it! Blast it all! Where did my calculations go wrong? That accursed thing defies all logic!”
Potimas’s cursing echoes in vain.
Such a fragile ego.
This man is a weakling, though I already knew that.
The only reason he seemed strong is because he had only ever fought opponents who were weaker than himself.
It wasn’t that he was strong, but that they were less strong than he was.
That’s why he was able to stay on top.
And why he was able to flaunt his confidence for so long.
But I know the truth.
Deep down, he’s weaker than anyone else.
Because he was always weaker than everyone, he wanted power more than anyone else.
That’s how he ended up here.
He thought he was strong, that he had gotten stronger than anyone, but he’s still just a weak little man.
Now that he’s fighting White, someone who’s stronger than him, the façade has slipped away to reveal the same weakling he always was.
“What a weakling.”
“Excuse me?”
Potimas picks up my muttered words and answers sharply.
“You’re weak, Potimas.” I didn’t really mean for him to hear it, but since he asked, I might as well let him have it.
“Bold words from someone who is content with the temporary power granted by the system.”
That isn’t the kind of strength or weakness I mean, though.
Not that he would understand even if I explained it.
“Ah, yes, the system. What happened to the power to become a god? I have not become a god at all! But what about that thing? How can this be? Ah, damn it all! Curses!”
At this point, Potimas is just ranting nonsensically. I don’t even know what he’s saying anymore.
The Omega is moving erratically, too, perhaps influenced by its master’s sorry state.
The drill closes in on my face.
I catch it with my teeth.
It makes an unpleasant crunching noise, but I put my strength into my jaw and chomp it to pieces.
“Wait. Wait just a minute! It makes no sense. Why? Why are you still alive?”
Oh?
He finally caught on?
“Why have your wounds healed? How are you evenly matched with the Gloria Ω inside the anti-technique barrier? What’s going on here?!”
Took you long enough, dude.
The Omega’s drill gave me a serious beating.
It tore into my stomach, pierced my chest, took off an arm, ripped up my legs.
But those wounds have already healed.
“How can this happen?!” Potimas screams. “It cannot be… Or have you become a god now, too?!”
After he’s looked down on me for so long, now he thinks I’ve gone and achieved his dream of becoming a god before him.
That would probably be the worst humiliation imaginable to Potimas.
“Nope.”
But unfortunately, that’s not the case.
I haven’t become a god.
I can’t.
If it were that easy, I’m sure Potimas would have become a god by now, too.
“I haven’t become a god or anything. But now I can get strong enough to fight a god, if only for a short time. You know the method, too, don’t you?”
The Omega backs away.
It’s like Potimas himself is recoiling away from me.
“Surely not.”
“You guessed it.”
“Have you gone mad?”
Well, that’s not very nice.
I guess it does seem like an insane thing to do from Potimas’s point of view, though.
That’s why I said he’s a weakling.
I’m generally quite weak myself, but I’d like to think I’m at least brave enough to put my life on the line to achieve my goals.
“Humility.”
That’s the new Seven Heavenly Virtues skill I recently picked up.
Its effects temporarily give me the ability to fight with the power of a god.
When the piece of White’s soul known as “former body brain” merged with mine, it increased my soul’s capacity accordingly.
Until then, my soul had long since been filled to bursting, like a cracked vessel on the verge of breaking open.
But then, White’s soul came in as if to mend those cracks.
Thanks to her, I was finally able to acquire new skills for the first time in so long.
I picked up skills like Telepathy, which I had never needed because I’d always been alone… And the last one I acquired was this skill: Humility.
My ace in the hole, which I’ve kept secret from everyone but White.
And I won’t hesitate to use it now.
Even if it means burning out this soul of mine to nothingness.
<Humility: n% of the power to reach godhood. Allows the user to temporarily gain strength on par with a god in exchange for consuming the user’s soul. In addition, the user will gain the ability to surpass the W system and interfere with the MA field.>
I grab the Omega’s head as it tries to regenerate the broken drill and sink my teeth into it.
The bitter taste of metal fills my mouth.
But after a moment, the chewed-up pieces are broken down and dissolved into pure energy.
My Gluttony skill still works just fine inside my mouth.
That means I have to get it into my mouth first, but once it’s there, I can break anything down into energy and absorb it.
And although there’s only so much energy I can steal with a mouthful, it’s probably still more effective than punching the damn thing over and over.
See, I’ve already figured out what this Omega thing was most likely built for.
At its core, it’s designed to fight a god—specifically, Gülie.
It’s loaded up with tons of energy in preparation for a long, drawn-out battle.
The sheer amount of energy does most of the talking, and it’s tough enough to keep regenerating in an instant no matter how many times you take it down.
That’s its whole focus, without any unnecessary features.
Not sure what’s up with the drill thing… Potimas’s weird tastes, maybe?
…No, I suppose when it comes to physical destruction, a drill is fairly effective.
Then you throw in the anti-technique barrier, and poison gas to exhaust the opponent.
A god is basically just a being with a ridiculous amount of energy.
If that energy is what makes a god a god, then all you have to do is attack it with something that can keep fighting until it finally runs out of that energy.
Yeah, I get it now.
It’s a pretty roundabout method, but it does make sense if you were trying to defeat a god with whatever you’ve got on hand.
Even with the effects of Humility, it’s still giving me a decent fight.
I don’t know if this thing would really work against Gülie, but I can certainly tell that Potimas put a ton of thought into this strategy.
But because he’s using it against me instead, it’s gonna end in failure.
I thrust my hand into the Omega’s torso.
And then I activate magic inside its body.
The anti-technique barrier isn’t all-powerful, you know.
It doesn’t work inside the bodies of living things, most especially allies who need to be able to use conjurings on the inside.
I mean, the Omega’s regeneration is a conjuring, too, and if you block that it’d just be a hunk of metal.
So I can still activate magic…inside the Omega’s body.
I’m using a level 10 Heresy Magic spell.
It’s called Rend Soul.
Heresy Magic directly affects the target’s soul, and Rend Soul is a spell that destroys souls entirely.
And I’m hitting the Omega with it from the inside.
The Omega struggles wildly, smacking me in the side.
I hear the unpleasant snap of a cheekbone breaking as I’m sent flying away from the Omega.
Immediately, I land on my feet, braced for another attack.
But instead, it’s keeping its distance too, on high alert.
Looks like my attack worked, then.
I knew it would, of course.
Energy is stored in the soul.
Without the vessel of the soul, the energy would leak away.
Gods have especially large souls that can hold massive amounts of energy.
In order to kill a god, you have to either destroy the vessel of their soul or get them to use up all the energy within it.
Potimas chose the latter method.
Or rather, he didn’t have any other choice, I guess.
You can also use Rend Soul to destroy a soul directly, like I just did.
But you need the power of the system to do that.
Rend Soul doesn’t work without the support of the system.
Even White hasn’t been able to recreate its effects.
Potimas can’t reproduce Rend Soul without the system’s support, either.
That’s why he had to take another approach.
Potimas could theoretically use Rend Soul, too, if he just had the elves learn Heresy Magic.
But he would never choose that path.
Because Potimas doesn’t even trust the elves.
To him, they’re just convenient tools.
And you have to use tools safely.
So he would never let them learn anything that might threaten him in any way.
Heresy Magic is too much of a double-edged sword for him.
The fact that it’s working on the Omega is proof of that.
If it works on his ultimate weapon here, I’m sure it would work on Potimas himself, too.
Plus, if he wanted to use it against Gülie, teaching Heresy Magic to one or two elves wouldn’t be nearly enough.
He’d probably need several hundred elves to use it together for it to come anywhere near taking Gülie down.
What if he let that many elves learn Heresy Magic, and they rebelled against him?
He would never choose such a risky option.
They say it’s lonely at the top, but Potimas takes it to a whole new level.
In his case, he’s alone because he wants to be.
He’s perfectly content to be locked away in a little miniature garden of his own making.
As long as he can be in charge and do whatever he wants.
Truly, such a small-minded man.
And such a lowlife, too.
“Potimas. How many people’s souls did it take to make this Omega thing?”
I’m not expecting much of an answer from Potimas, who’s still muttering senselessly over the speakers.
But I still couldn’t help asking.
Energy is stored within the soul.
Since the Omega has energy, that means it must have a soul.
There’s a limit to how much energy a single soul can save up, too.
Even someone like Potimas or me can’t cross that line.
Meanwhile, this Omega is loaded with enough energy to theoretically fight Gülie.
One person’s soul wouldn’t be able to hold that much energy.
If he could do that, Potimas would’ve already become a god long ago.
So this Omega could be infused with several…no, dozens, or maybe even hundreds of people’s souls.
All those living souls, reconstructed into this single metal body.
I do pity them.
But I won’t show them mercy.
Destroying those souls with Rend Soul means reducing them to nothingness, never to return to the cycle of death and rebirth.
Truly a heretical magic, just as the name suggests.
But I still won’t hesitate to carry that out.
I can’t afford to spare them, even if I wanted to.
Gluttony, Rend Soul, and the time-limited effects of Humility.
I’ll push my way through with these.
“I’m sorry.”
Murmuring an apology to the poor souls who were made into this terrible weapon, I take a step forward.
How much time has passed over the course of our back-and-forth battle since then?
It feels like it’s been a fairly long time, but I can’t say for sure.
For all I know, it only felt that way because my sense of time has been stretched thin, and it was actually just a few minutes or hours.
I’ve long since lost count of my attacks.
My hand once again strikes the Omega’s chest, and my Heresy Magic eradicates another soul within its mechanical frame.
The Omega’s metal body spasms once, then stops moving completely.
Even after I pull my hand away, the hole doesn’t close up this time, and its body falls to the floor lifelessly.
The clang it makes is surprisingly quiet, like that of a husk that has lost the weight of souls.
It’s over.
No…not yet.
This Omega may have been Potimas’s last resort, but it wasn’t Potimas himself.
None of this is over until I say my parting words over the real Potimas’s dead body.
Oof, that was rough, though.
On the outside I still look totally unharmed, but inside I’m a total mess.
The effects of Humility have been wearing away at my soul.
I was able to use the energy I stole from the Omega as a little bit of cushioning, but while it’s better than nothing, it’s still not much.
What’s going to happen when I turn off the effect of Humility?
They say a candle burns brightest right before it goes out, and all that.
Please, just hang on until I finish off Potimas.
“If you’re done, come outside.”
A voice echoes directly in my head.
A message from White, maybe?
I wish she wouldn’t casually do things like that when the anti-technique barrier is still in effect.
You’re gonna give me an inferiority complex here.
At any rate, if White went out of her way to call me, I guess I better go outside.
I force open the door that closed when I first came in.
Since it was meant to shut in a literal god, it’s no easy feat to move the damn thing.
I wheeze as I finally pry it open, then keep wheezing as I ascend the long slope and step outside.
The sight before my eyes is crazier than I could’ve imagined, to say the least.
The forest is on fire all over the place.
Most of the flames are coming from these giant round sphere things scattered on the ground.
In the midst of this hellish scene, an even bigger shadow stands out.
It’s a huge, disc-shaped thing, blocking out the sky as it flies through the air.
I’m reminded of the ancient weapon that Potimas, the Pontiff, White, and me, among others, had to miraculously team up to bring down.
Potimas is the one who designed that thing, so I guess it makes sense that they look similar.
In short, it looks like a UFO.
You know, the kind from the made-up-sounding stories about aliens or whatever.
But it’s probably a fairly accurate way to describe this thing—because it really is a spaceship.
Potimas knows the shape this planet is in, of course.
He only stays in a place that’s essentially a house built on sand because of the system.
I know he was talking down about it just a few minutes ago, but that’s only because it failed to meet his expectations.
Potimas had high hopes for the system.
He thought it could make him into a god.
Potimas never became a god, but he still stayed on this planet in the faint hope that he might still be able to do it one day with the help of the system.
But I’m sure he knew that the chances of that were slim.
So of course he would have something prepared.
A means of escaping from this planet.
Potimas could leave the planet anytime he wants.
That’s why he’s able to stay so calm even if the world is on the verge of destruction.
And obviously, the thing floating up there is his escape plan.
However, the escape plan in question is currently being held in place by white threads.
It looks just like a fly that’s been caught in a spiderweb, and can do nothing but wait to be devoured.
In fact, that’s so on the nose that I can’t help but grin.
You’re really something else, White.
This is what you were up to while I was messing around with that Omega?
It’s so impressive, “good job” doesn’t begin to cut it.
I have no doubt that the real Potimas is in there.
He must have realized that things had gone south beyond any possible recovery and abandoned the Omega to make a break for it.
No matter how much time and effort it took to build, the Omega was still just one more tool to Potimas.
If he had to choose between that and his own life, he wouldn’t even think twice about it.
One of the threads holding the spaceship in place is attached to the ground right next to me.
It’s thick enough that a person could walk on it without a problem.
I glance around, but I don’t see White anywhere.
Still, since this thread looks like an open invitation to walk up it onto the spaceship, I’m sure that’s exactly what she intended.
So I climb onto the thread and use it to start ascending.
I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of ascending in the past few minutes…
I was worried that the spaceship might shoot at me or something, but soon I reach it without incident.
Maybe White has rendered it powerless already.
Hopping on top of the spaceship, I look around for a hatch.
Before long, I find it, pull it open with yet another show of force, and go inside.
It’s shockingly dark inside the spaceship.
There’s no light at all.
Not that it matters, since I’ve got the Night Vision skill.
I walk forward.
Since this thing is so huge, the corridors are stupidly long.
I keep walking.
Behind panes of glass, there’s an area that looks like a factory, and another that looks like a farm, and so on.
It’s probably set up so that anything a person might need can be provided within the spaceship.
After all, it could easily be roaming through outer space for hundreds of years.
Maybe Potimas stayed on this planet not just because he had hopes for the system, but also out of fear of the unknown future that awaited beyond it.
Gülie is the only god on this planet, but there might be much more of them on other planets.
That’s not something you’d want to mess around with.
I keep walking.
Some robot guards pop out, but they’re ridiculously weak compared to what I fought underground not long ago.
I take them down easily.
Fighting these other robots, it’s even clearer to me that the Omega I fought was a specially made model.
I keep walking.
A Potimas clone attacks me, bellowing oddly.
Its handsomely chiseled features are twisted grotesquely with fear and panic.
Until now, even if one of Potimas’s clones was killed, its composed expression never wavered like this.
He didn’t care how many clones he had to give up, but I guess having his real body killed is a different story.
I mean, obviously.
I quickly finish off the clone that attacks me.
At this point, even if it’s strengthened with mechanical parts, I’m long past letting a mere clone stop me.
“Basically, you’re screwed.”
I keep walking, and when I finally reach the end, I find it.
An elderly elf, inside a transparent cylinder.
Countless tubes are attached to the elf’s body.
The old elf doesn’t move at all; maybe it’s somehow frozen with special materials inside the cylinder or something.
But while the body doesn’t move, the speakers are spewing out desperate screams.
“Stop! No, no, don’t do it! I don’t want it to end! No, it can’t end here! I must go on living eternally! I beg you! Please stop!”
Endless pleas for me to stop flow from the speaker, mingled with wordless screams.
I guess you can keep screaming forever if you don’t have to breathe.
As far as Potimas is concerned, a body is just a receptacle for life, so it doesn’t matter what state it’s in as long as it’s still living.
If he wants to move, he can just use a clone.
The flesh inside of this cylinder, living but not moving an inch, is Potimas’s actual body.
I had imagined it might look something like this, but seeing it with my own eyes, it’s really quite pitiful.
The lifespan of an elf is long, but it’s not infinite.
Potimas has lived far, far longer than an elf’s natural lifespan.
So I figured he was probably keeping himself alive through rather extreme methods.
And now, the man who has so desperately pursued eternity for the sole purpose of clinging to life…is about to meet his end.
“I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Noooo! I don’t wanna diiiiiiie!”
“Sorry, Potimas, but I’m afraid you’re going to meet a fate worse than death.”
I have no sympathy for Potimas as he continues shrieking.
But I’m not quite in the mood to rub it in his face, either.
I always imagined that I might be overcome with some feeling or other when the time came, but I’m actually shocked at how little emotion I feel.
“Abyss Magic.”
Hearing my quiet murmur, Potimas screams even more madly.
Abyss Magic is quite unique.
While Heresy Magic destroys the soul, Abyss Magic dismantles the soul and returns it to the system.
Just killing him wouldn’t be enough.
I’m going to make him pay this world back with his very soul.
I start preparing Abyss Magic.
Unlike Heresy Magic, Abyss Magic spells require a complicated construction.
I’m sure the great D made it that way on purpose.
Heresy Magic was designed to oppose gods.
But Abyss Magic was made for the people of this world to pass judgment on one another.
It steals away the option of being reborn and sentences the transgressor to be returned to the system.
In essence, it means that person has been judged to be more use to the world by being restored to it as energy than by being reborn.
Personally, I think that’s why it takes so long to activate, making it a poor fit for use in battle.
This man has lived a very long time indeed.
He must have saved up a great deal of energy, enough that returning his entire soul to the system would be of some use.
At the very least, I’m sure he has the Immortality skill.
There’s no way he wouldn’t, since his ultimate desire is eternal life.
Immortality costs an insane amount of skill points, and therefore requires a lot of energy.
It would be a waste not to put that energy to good use.
Not that I think that could possibly begin to atone for all his sins.
“Damn it! Damn it all! If only I could have unlocked the secret to your perpetual youth! Damn you! Damn yoooou!”
Potimas unleashes a bitter volley of screams.
For some reason, I don’t age.
I don’t know if it’s because Potimas’s experiment succeeded, or an effect of the system, or something else.
But whatever the case may be, I somehow attained perpetual youth, the primary goal of the eternal life Potimas always desired.
Maybe that’s why he’s always been especially cruel to me.
Jealousy, I guess.
But it doesn’t make much difference how eternally youthful my body might be.
Because I’m reaching the limits of the lifespan of my soul, not my physical body.
And I’m sure I’m not the only one.
…Most likely, Potimas has been feeling the limits of his soul, too, just like me.
It looks like he succeeded in artificially keeping his body alive, but the soul can’t be fooled so easily.
Like mine, his soul has probably been weakening under the weight of the overgrown skills and stats we’ve accumulated over far too many years.
His physical body might be reaching its limits, too, but either way, Potimas sensed that his time was growing short.
So he started to panic.
I’m sure that’s why he’s been particularly active these past few years.
He must have agreed to take in the reincarnations in the hopes of finding some clue to extend his lifespan.
Maybe he thought one of their unique skills would be able to grant his wish.
Unfortunately for him, it’s not that simple.
But he still refused to give up, kept struggling, and ultimately ended up like this.
Running away from death, always running…
“……”
Suddenly, a question occurs to me, and I open my mouth.
But judging by the endless, meaningless yelling coming from the speakers, I doubt Potimas would be able to give me the answer I want.
In fact, there’s probably no point asking the question at all.
“Was there really any meaning to a life you spent fleeing death?”
I guess it’s better not to ask…
“Goodbye, Father.”
As the real Potimas goes on screaming, no longer forming any words with meaning, I direct the Abyss Magic toward him and activate it.
Then all that remains is silence.
The creation of the system was a major turning point in this world’s history.
…When it was first constructed, D gave me a script and forced me to read it, and it was broadcast to everyone in the world.
Let the record show that those were things D made me say, not my own thoughts.
Ahem! Let us not delve any deeper into that incident.
At any rate, when the system was instated, this world changed dramatically.
Sariel, dragons, and humans…
The delicate balance that kept the world running was completely upended when D appeared.
It may sound wrong to say that the world became D’s plaything, but it did indeed belong to her from that point on.
As a result, no other gods could interfere with this world.
None of them would ever be reckless enough to meddle in D’s domain.
Thus, though our world became a plaything, it was also placed under D’s protection.
In that chaotic sequence of events, humans used up MA energy, and brought the planet to the brink of destruction.
The dragons left a massive scar on the world and absconded, and Sariel tried to sacrifice herself to save it.
Though ultimately, it seems the device Potimas supposedly prepared to save the world would not have actually had that effect.
Hmm? What now?
Could Sariel not have seen through that lie, you ask?
…Well, you see, Sariel technically specializes in combat.
To put it bluntly, she is something of a muscle head…
I doubt Sariel would have understood the particulars of the conjurings built into Potimas’s technology.
At any rate, when she activated the device, D interfered and whisked her away as the core of the system. Otherwise, she would have died for nothing.
And Potimas alone would have reaped the benefits.
…Truly, what an unforgiveable act.
Think of how Sariel felt when she offered herself up as a sacrifice, how the children of the orphanage felt when they said goodbye to her…
Even Dustin’s determination, too.
Potimas’s plan made a mockery of all their noble feelings.
Inexcusable. Completely intolerable!
…And yet, I am forbidden from interfering with Potimas.
“We administrators are supposed to observe and make adjustments. Just like real gods, wouldn’t you say? So you mustn’t try to kill a particular individual, I’m afraid. Sariel wouldn’t want that either, would she?”
That is what D said to me…
No doubt she thought things would be more amusing if Potimas was alive.
D thinks of this world as a source of entertainment, through and through.
If I had chosen to erase Potimas anyway, I know not what might have happened to Sariel and the system.
So in the end, I did nothing.
Although I did get to give Potimas a warning, at least.
If you do anything extreme, I told him, I will kill you.
If you try to leave this planet, I will kill you.
I must say, this threat worked extremely well.
Thanks to that, he holed up in the barrier of the elf village and could no longer attempt such large-scale schemes.
In truth, I could not do anything to Potimas under D’s orders, but he did not need to know that.
Besides, even if I could not harm Potimas himself, I could at least crack down on any excessive mechanical weapons and so on.
While I could not destroy the root of the problem, I could at least interfere with his actions.
After all, Potimas could still destroy the world if he were so inclined.
I am sure I was at least of some use in deterring him.
…At least, I must tell myself that much, or I cannot go on.
Being an administrator is a very stressful position.
Which is why I occasionally try to mix things up.
Namely, by making a second body for myself and mingling with human life.
Like what I am currently doing as Hyrince.
Living as a human brings a fresh new perspective, and insight I never would have gained from the outside.
And living as I please as an ordinary human, instead of an administrator, is certainly freeing.
Besides, by coming into such close contact with humanity, I have come to feel willing to forgive them.
It became clear to me that they, too, are doing their best to live their lives.
I have been a merchant, a farmer, an adventurer.
In all my many different lives as a human, I have inevitably had many fortuitous encounters.
Of course I sometimes met unpleasant humans as well, but in almost every life I have lived, I was always able to make at least one human friend who I could trust completely.
In the case of Hyrince, I suppose that would be Julius.
Yaana, Jeskan, Hawkin… Meeting all of them was a blessing, too, but it only happened because I met Julius first.
It really was a coincidence that Hyrince’s childhood friend Julius became the hero.
Normally, I would never attempt to get close with the hero, a human with particularly strong influence on the world, but this time I happened to get involved and ended up meddling a bit.
I simply could not leave him to his own devices.
That ability to draw people in was probably Julius’s greatest strength.
…He truly was a great person.
Which is why I dearly hoped he would be happy, but alas…
Still, I doubt my past self would believe I might ever come to wish happiness on a human.
But so much time has passed that it would be difficult to carry on being angry all this time.
I think it has been long enough that I, and this world, can forgive the humans.
Whatever she might say, I believe Ariel does not truly hate humans very much, deep down.
…Or perhaps that is just my wishful thinking.
But Ariel has been watching over this world for as long as I have.
She too had enough power to wreak destruction on humanity, if not as much as Potimas.
The fact that she did not do so seems like answer enough to me.
Amid the children of that highly unusual orphanage, Ariel was once the quietest and most ordinary of them all.
No matter how much power she has gained, deep down she is still a kindhearted girl who could never do anything so monstrous.
But now, I have allowed her to be stuck with the role of demon lord…
I truly hoped that she could live a quiet and peaceful life, too…
Nothing ever turns out the way I want.
Sariel, Julius, Ariel…
Everyone I have wished happiness on has drawn the short end of the stick and suffered in some terrible way.
…But it seems that, too, is coming to an end soon.
While I have only been able to stand by and do nothing for so many long centuries, that creature has brought about dramatic changes in this world in just a few short years.
There is no stopping it at this point.
I do not know what form this ending will take.
No, I will not wish for a perfect ending in which everyone and everything is saved.
I cannot.
We have already lost far too much for that dream to ever reach fruition.
But if I may wish for as many to be saved as possible…
Then I will pray.
And if praying alone is not enough, then…
Then I shall have to prepare myself.
The time may yet come when even I am forced to act, after being dormant and useless for so long.
Do I even have the right to act now, when I have never done so before?
I cannot say those doubts do not plague me, but the time has come to forget such thoughts.
Ariel and the others have been drawing the short end of the stick for so long.
The time has come for me to draw a lot of my own.
No matter what might happen to me because of it.
My clone that’s monitoring the system informed me that the slot for Diligence opened up.
I immediately arrange to fill the empty Ruler Privilege slot, careful to adjust so that there’s no effect on the operation of the system.
On top of that, I force myself into the newly opened slot.
Now I only need one more slot.
If the Diligence slot opened, that must mean that Potimas has died.
Or I guess it’s more like he was erased.
What kind of karma is it that Potimas, who continued to live only because he didn’t want to die, met a fate far worse than death in the end?
Honestly, it’s almost too fitting.
But for a guy who committed so many heinous crimes, his end was honestly pretty quick.
When I think about all the things he’s done, I can’t help feeling like the Demon Lord should have tortured him more before hitting him with the Abyss Magic.
I guess maybe she just wanted him gone as soon as possible.
Somehow I get the feeling that’s not really it, but I don’t think anyone but the Demon Lord could understand how she really feels about the whole thing.
Their history was way too deep and complicated.
Even I can’t guess what she must be feeling.
I step into the UFO that I trapped with my threads.
This thing popped out after I brought down the sea urchin swarm and the pyramid.
Based on the timing, I had a feeling this thing was Potimas’s actual final fortress, so I just captured it instead of destroying it. Apparently, that was the right call.
I would honestly be shocked if there was still yet another trick up his sleeve after this.
At that point, I’d have to give Potimas even more credit.
But since the real Potimas is dead now, I guess that must have been the last trick after all.
When I finally reach the end of a pointlessly long corridor, I find the Demon Lord sitting in a chair, messing around with some kind of console in front of her.
“It’s over,” she informs me without turning around.
“I see.”
She’s probably got some serious inner turmoil going on after finally putting an end to such a long struggle.
Judging by her detached tone, I’d be willing to guess that she’s so overcome with different emotions that she can’t even sort out her own feelings.
Sometimes, when you’ve got too many strong feelings, you end up feeling emotionless instead, y’know?
“Look at this.”
The Demon Lord points at the monitor.
Skimming over the text there, I find something pretty unpleasant.
A deification experiment using reincarnations’ souls to become a god, huh?
To sum up the long-winded theory or whatever, the idea is basically to shove the souls of a bunch of reincarnations into a target and see what happens.
Potimas had figured out he couldn’t become a god with the system’s power alone.
No matter how many souls he collected in the form of experience points, he could never break through the limit.
So he decided to try a different kind of experience point grind—namely, the souls of people who came from a different world—and see if that might be able to break through his soul’s limitations.
Talk about stupid.
I’m sorry, but come on.
I hate to say it, but I definitely don’t see that working out well.
You can’t break through the limit by gathering souls from this world.
So let’s just use souls from a different world instead!
…Yeah, if it were that easy to become a god, lots of people would do it.
Although I guess I’m not one to talk, since I became a god by accident…
But this is why he was gathering the reincarnations, huh?
Poor Ms. Oka, who’s been trying so hard for their sake…
“Well, I imagine Potimas didn’t really think this would work to turn him into a god either, y’know? It was just a tiny possibility.”
“But it looks like he put a whole lot of effort into carefully researching the theory and making equipment for it…?”
“That’s just how Potimas does things.”
The text on the screen displays thorough records of machinery in development, equations for the experiments, and so on.
From the looks of it, the reason he made a point of preventing the reincarnations from picking up skills in their everyday life is so their souls wouldn’t adapt to this world and be altered, or something.
I dunno, it seems like a painful amount of effort to put into an experiment with astronomically small chances of succeeding.
Did he really want to be a god that badly?
Yeah, I guess he did…
“We’re lucky he was so extra-cautious that he didn’t actually get around to executing it. If we’d given him another year, he might’ve finished the equipment and thrown all those reincarnations into a blender.”
Please don’t say scary stuff like that.
She’s totally right, though.
This time, it worked out in our favor that Potimas was always so careful.
After all, he does have a track record of actually trying to put the goddess Sariel into a blender and use her for parts.
“There’s tons of records of Potimas’s other experiments here, too.”
“Whoa,” I can’t help but say aloud.
Potimas’s research materials.
I bet there’s all kinds of nasty stuff in there.
“So I’m just gonna take a quick look over everything and then destroy it.”
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.”
Letting stuff like this stick around would cause nothing but trouble.
If anything, I don’t think there’s even any need for the Demon Lord to check it over first.
“So that’s the deal here, anyway. What about on your end?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to, hmm?”
I totally nailed it, obviously.
I’ve already recovered the remains of the sea urchins, the pyramid, and so on.
I put out the fires so they wouldn’t spread to the rest of the forest, too.
Not to mention I completely blew up the secret base that was hidden underground.
Oh yeah, and…
“Ms. Oka is the only elf left alive.”
All of the elves have been obliterated.
After I captured this UFO in my web, I hunted down the last of the elves with my clones.
There are some half-elves and quarter-elves and so on remaining, but there are no more pureblood elves anywhere in this world.
“Gotcha. So once we get rid of this spaceship, it’s really over, huh?”
“Feeling emotional?”
“A bit.”
That said, looking at her in profile, the Demon Lord looks quieter than usual.
“Oh yeah. Hey, I kept my promise.”
Promise?
Oh, right. I made her promise to stay alive.
“I completed my mission safely, boss.”
The Demon Lord spins around in her chair and throws me a jovial salute.
Safely, huh…?
“Can you really call that safe?”
“Hey, as long as I didn’t die.”
The Demon Lord smiles.
Yeah, right. She’s so close to death, she can’t even get out of that chair.
The Demon Lord has no physical injuries.
But there’s a very deep wound, not on her body, but on her soul.
Her presence used to carry so much weight, but now she seems incredibly frail.
“How bad is it?”
“Hmm. Once I get some rest, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get around enough that it won’t hinder my everyday life, anyway. The only reason I can’t move right now is ’cause my magic’s all dried up. Once I recover that, I’ll at least be able to walk again.”
“In other words, you can’t fight.”
“Sure I can, if you don’t mind me shortening my lifespan even further.”
“Demon Lord…”
“C’mon, I’m just kidding. Either way, I don’t have much time left. I’d say maybe a year or so. So I’ll be using the last of my life to see things through with my own eyes.”
Even before this, the Demon Lord’s lifespan was growing short.
But I’m sure she still had a while left to go.
And now, after she shortened it in that battle, she’s only got a year.
“My role ends here. I would’ve liked to keep at it a little longer, but I’ll have to leave the rest to you, White.”
“Got it.”
“So, you’re going to get started, yeah?”
I nod at the Demon Lord’s question.
We’ve taken care of Potimas, the enemy of the world.
The next part of the story is saving the world.
But while I’m going to save the world, I never said I would save the humans.
So from this point on, I’ll be playing the part of the enemy of humanity.
Now, then, time to destroy humanity and save the world and the goddess.
Even if that goes against the goddess’s wishes.
AFTERWORD
Happy New Year! I’m Okina Baba!
Last year was rough, so I’m really hoping this year will be a good one.
Especially since the anime has finally started!
Yes, that’s right! The anime adaptation has begun airing. Please be sure to watch it!
By the time this book is on sale, I bet people will already be talking about the first episode. Just thinking about it makes my heart pound!
Wha?! Could this be love?! (Not exactly…)
It’s not love per se, but I hope the anime will bring feelings of heart-pounding excitement to all the viewers.
Now then, since I don’t have much space left (page number-wise) this time around, let’s jump to some abbreviated thank-yous!
Tsukasa Kiryuu-sensei, the illustrator.
Asahiro Kakashi-sensei, the manga adaptation artist.
Gratinbird-sensei, the author of the spinoff comic.
Everyone who’s involved in the creation of the anime.
My editor W, and everyone else who helped bring this book into the world.
All of you who have picked up this book.
And last but not least, the viewers of the anime!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.
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Part 8 of 8