Tyrant.

<Reminiscence 1>

The Deathland and the ruined capital region seemed as if time had stopped.

The sun never rose, it was always dark, and there was no life.

Naturally, there was no process of growth.

Even after the Battlefield of the Gods began and the representative caused various incidents, the Deathland and the ruined capital showed not the slightest change, just as always.

As a result, even the slightest change—one that others would not have noticed—loomed large to the Tyrant, ruler of the Deathland.

The fact that this blue crystal fell from the sky into the palace garden was also a very big change.

“Huh?”

A blue crystal. Holding the shard in his hand, the Tyrant pondered for a moment. It was a kind of power he had never felt in his long life, and its magnitude was immense.

But he trusted in his immortality and swallowed the crystal.

For about a week after that, the terrain of the Deathland changed repeatedly.

Mountains appeared and disappeared, and the earth split apart and then rejoined over and over.

We left the secret room and moved again. And faster than expected, we found ourselves standing before the entrance to the great hall.

I stepped back again, and Froi, who had been walking in front, stopped and looked at me. When I nodded, he smiled faintly, turned his back, and strode powerfully into the great hall.

The party members began advancing after Proy.

This expedition had been unusually successful. With greater expectations than any previous expedition, I followed the others into the great hall.

The scenery inside the great hall was no different from my previous life.

Old, worn-out walls and pillars. A sight that made me worry it might collapse at any moment. Only the emperor’s seat, raised higher than the surroundings, shone brilliantly.

The being sitting on it—the emperor whose name was forgotten by history, the one whose name had become taboo. The Tyrant sat slanted…?

“Welcome.”

“…You, Who are you?”

Perhaps because this expedition had started a little earlier than the one in my previous life? There were several differences.

The biggest differences were that we encountered as many as three high-ranking undead, and unlike before, the Tyrant’s attacks were not persistent.

Before coming here, I thought the Tyrant had become weaker than before and given up.

But when I actually met the one I suspected to be the Tyrant, that wasn’t it. He wasn’t showing himself as he had before. And just being shrouded in ominous black smoke was far from ordinary.

“Well, I’ve been waiting for you all for a very long time.”

“…What are you?”

That languid tone laced with killing intent. It was definitely different. What had happened? I suppressed the creeping unease rising in me and glared at him.

“Are you the Tyrant?”

“Hm? You know me?”

Still wrapped in mist, he asked me while making an awful screeching sound like metal being scraped. Just hearing his voice made me want to frown and irritated me.

“You are definitely different.”

“Different? In what way?”

“…Forget it. More importantly, could you stop hiding?”

“Hm? Hiding, you say? Hiding where?”

He asked me in a bewildered voice, as if he truly didn’t know. The emotion in his voice was confusion. As if he really had no idea.

“…I mean that mist.”

“Hm…? Mist?”

His reaction is strange. He looks plainly flustered, as though I’d pointed out something he had absolutely no idea about.

Like someone who’d been told, after coming back from the bathroom, that he’d been walking around for ages with toilet paper trailing from his rear like a tail.

“Mist? I’m perfectly fine, so what are you talking about? Are you trying to make fun of me?”

“…Forget it.”

His tone was serious, with no trace of sarcasm or mockery at all.

If that was the case, then he truly didn’t know, so there was no point in saying more.

In my previous life, the Tyrant wasn’t especially outstanding in individual combat power. Even so, the reason he was the final boss was that he was a necromancer, a master of mass-production magic, and a specialist in mental attacks.

Hallucination, mental domination, illusion, confusion, fear.

He was a being masterful in every field of mental magic.

“More importantly, you must be the master of the divine dragon.”

“…It’s not a divine dragon. It’s Ja-ryong.”

“Whatever it is. I desire your divine dragon.”

“……?”

So what am I supposed to do? I stared at the mist blankly with that expression. Then I heard a few coughs, and his unpleasant voice continued.

“If you yield the divine dragon, I will grant you some of the treasures passed down by the royal family and let you return alive. What do you say? I think that’s quite unprecedented…”

It was certainly unprecedented. For some reason, he was unusually obsessed with Ja-ryong. And this from a guy who had even made a dragon do his bidding.

And he kept avoiding battle, saying he’d let us leave alive.

I lowered the Ja-ryong on my head with both hands and stared at it at eye level, and it screeched, ‘Gyaa! Gyaa!’ while struggling.

—Master! You’re not seriously going to hand me over to that pervert, are you?! If you even thought that for a moment, I’m disappointed! That would make you dumber than Arun!

Through the talent ‘Communion,’ Ja-ryong’s intentions came through far too clearly and firmly.

Dumber than Arun. I thought that was a bit harsh, but I decided to understand Ja-ryong’s position.

“It says it doesn’t want to. And I don’t want to either.”

“Then my generosity ends here. I shall take it by force.”

The languid voice sharpened as he delivered a one-sided declaration.

The black mist spread slowly. I couldn’t feel any particular divine power from it, but for some reason it gave me a bad feeling.

“Naruan!”

At my call, Naruan’s ‘True Flame’ swung. The flames rising from ‘True Flame’ seemed as if they were burning the mist, but after seeming to wrestle with it, they soon went out with a ‘phit!’

“Tch!!”

I quickly moved behind Naruan, who was about to swing her weapon again, and tossed her toward the others. Then I shoved Froi aside as well, stepped forward, and swung ‘Predator,’ imbued with breaker, in a wide arc.

Pach-chchchchchch—

The sound of static discharging spread out long and the mist flinched and receded. In the meantime.

“Hazel! Defense. Attack the mages first! Use lightning or fire attributes!”

For the first time in a while, standing at the front and commanding the group, I gave the order and then looked at the mist as it began advancing again.

『Battlefield Analysis is beginning synchronization with ‘Argus’s Eye.’』

『Master, the properties of that mist cannot be identified. Please be careful. There is only one case in which I, linked to part of your inspection authority, cannot identify it.』

“A god?”

『Yes. More precisely, it’s the authority of a god.』

“There’s nowhere it doesn’t get involved.”

And at the most unlikely times, too. Was it that guy again, the one claiming to be Manus? The only god who came to mind as capable of doing something like this was him.

For a moment I wondered how he would know, but I set my curiosity aside for now and focused on dealing with the mist trying to engulf us.

The mages’ attacks began, and Hazel’s space-separating defense unfolded layer upon layer. In addition, the unbleached cloth and talismans used for Shumix’s headwrap also seeped through the mist.

The attack proceeded in perfect coordination. If I had to name the greatest gain from this expedition, it would be this—the harmony of attack.

With the attacks fitting together perfectly, the black mist swayed and repeatedly vanished and refilled with great speed.

“Ugh!”

In the middle of the battle, a scream came from Hazel, who was defending by separating space.

Since Hazel had never once so much as shown signs of strain, much less screamed, the members and I were greatly shocked.

Hazel’s face was deeply contorted. Was that mist so tremendous that it could affect even severed space?

I changed from attacking with breaker to using Deicide. It was only a moment before ‘Predator’s’ long blade was dyed black, similar to the color of the mist.

I swung the flexible ‘Predator’ with a light twist of my wrist.

The more actively ‘Predator’ stirred the black mist, the faster the mist dispersed, and soon from inside it came the sound of someone swallowing a breath with a ‘Kk!’

“So you are the master of the divine dragon. A battle with you… is something I look forward to. In that case, there shouldn’t be anything in the way around us, should there?”

As though the Tyrant’s low voice were some absolute command, the atmosphere around us changed, and the spacious great hall began to fill up with undead.

“Mr. Kim Han!”

“Lee Hyo-ju, take care of them quickly. You can handle undead like that even with your eyes closed now.”

“…Yes!!”

After a brief pause, Lee Hyo-ju answered firmly.

I also told Ja-ryong to help, then moved along the wide, empty path opening between the Tyrant and me.

‘It’s definitely strange.’

As I said before, if anything, the Tyrant was closer to a mage type. And not even a battle mage who directly manifested magic, but a necromancer who controlled creations from behind the scenes.

But now he was showing speech and behavior like some macho warrior. He looked ready to clash blades directly.

‘Confirm.’

‘What?’

Unknown origin? Then that means Manus had not ‘directly’ handled it before, as if pressing a button.

By chance? Not a chance. If it had been a coincidence, then in my previous life the one who had coincidentally absorbed divine authority should have met the then-Rebound in the same state as now.

Which means someone had given him a fragment of divine authority under the guise of coincidence…

How? Manus couldn’t possibly know that I would go to the Deathland and subjugate the Tyrant. So how could he give the Tyrant authority in advance?

If he had gotten ahead of us, he should have killed me—killed us—instead…

Ziiit—

While I was lost in complicated thoughts, killing intent flew in secretly, aiming at my heart. I reflexively stepped sideways to dodge it and glared at the mist.

“What are you thinking about, with an enemy right in front of you?”

The Tyrant casually spouted nonsense, as if he had deliberately not killed me.

I put aside thoughts about how he had changed. I could always beat him up first and ask directly later.

‘Predator’ let out a pleasing sword hum with a ‘bzz-bzz’ and leapt into the mist.

After ‘Predator’ hid itself in the mist, it began to turn black from the hilt outward. So far, it was the same as before.

A ‘Burning Ice Spear’ formed in my hand that wasn’t holding the sword.

A scientifically hard-to-comprehend spell: an ice spear with a black sheen, as if coffee had been frozen, blazing with pitch-black flames.

“Discharge.”

Flames of cold, a type of Destruction magic, formed in a line and were endlessly sucked into the mist.

In the world of the mind, the most dramatic progress I’d made through training was in Destruction magic. The teachings of the superhuman ‘Disturber of Rest,’ who could handle Talis like a child, were incredible.

No small sound came from the ice spears that vanished into the mist, as if they had no effect. Naturally. That was never the purpose for which I had cast the magic in the first place.

“Explode. Burn.”

Crack— crack— crack— crack—

Clang— clang— claaang!!

The moment I heard the sounds of ice breaking and glass shattering, a bizarre scream rang out and I felt the sensation of contact in my right hand gripping ‘Predator’.

I could feel it vibrating ever so slightly with the resistance of the blade digging into something.

And with a whoosh, a crackling firewood-burning sound came from within the mist, and the mist gradually thinned.

“K, Kraaagh!! Y-you, why is this, why!! Aaaagh!!”

Hearing his scream, I felt satisfied and retrieved ‘Predator’.

―Master! No!

At ‘Predator’s’ scream-like warning, I quickly deployed my protective qi and spread my senses wide. Then something rapidly approaching from the direction of the returning ‘Predator’ caught in my senses.

What covered my left hand where Destruction magic was manifesting was Deicide. Thick, and dense at that. A technique beyond qi spun around, expressing its presence with a chilling ‘woong— woong—’ sound.

Matching the timing of the thing riding in on the retrieved ‘Predator,’ I thrust out my fist in a concise strike, as if shaking off the Deicide covering my left fist.

KWA-A-AANG!

With a deafening boom like a bomb exploding, the mist cleared and I heard something whizz away and slam into the throne. Then the undead that had filled the great hall vanished all at once.

“Huh?”

“Boss!”

“Mr. Kim Han.”

All of the Rebound members quickly came up behind me. At that moment, the Tyrant was getting back to his feet.

With the mist cleared, the Tyrant’s appearance was that of a middle-aged man with a pallid complexion, like someone about to die. Yet on his head he wore a black dragon robe and a dazzling crown that didn’t suit that appearance.

“…How dare you lay hands on my body! You wretches!!”

A completely different person. It was as if the Tyrant who had just been urging me to offer up Ja-ryong had switched personalities. His killing intent was unrefined and rough, spilling out indiscriminately.

“Writhe in despair!”

A tremendous divine power circulated. Not only the Tyrant, but the entire great hall seemed to move according to the Tyrant’s command.

The tense members drew their weapons and went on guard.

After the storm of divine power that had raged like a typhoon and made the great hall tremble came to a halt, what revealed itself was not something like undead.

“Huh?”

“Hm?”

“W-what is this!”

“This is really the worst. Ten idiot Aruns, of all things.”