Chapter 123

O, being destined to become the Demon King.

The time has come to fulfill your duty.

She had long wondered why a heterogenous existence like herself had been born into this land. It was only after being entwined by the chains sent by Providence that she finally understood.

Just as the chains whispered, she was the seed of the Demon King, destined to become one.

Like livestock raised for slaughter. She was a doppelganger raised to one day become a tool of Providence, bearing the name of the Demon King.

Kill. Massacre. Become the great adversary of the world and put this world to the test.

Her will did not matter. She was a puppet hanging from threads called chains, dancing as Providence moved her.

That was why she—the Little Disis—had resisted incessantly even after becoming the Demon King. She endured so as not to be eroded by the chains that sought to stain her body, mind, and even her soul in dark crimson.

In fact, if she hadn’t resisted—if she hadn’t been releasing the coercive force from the chains through the extremely inefficient method of “Raids”…

The people of the Western Continent would be living lives far more desolate and painful than they were now.

And to such a woman, Providence forced the role of the Demon King even more strongly.

Why do you resist? Conform to your destiny as the Demon King.

“I’m not the Demon King! Your words made me crush the people of the Bordeaux Kingdom with my own hands! Do you think I’d ever listen to you!?”

Strange. It should be nearly impossible for a perfected doppelganger to harbor emotions like compassion or affection for intelligent beings.

“A doppelganger might be like that! But I am a person as well as a doppelganger! My name is Disis! Little Disis! The daughter of my mother and the sister of the Big Disis!”

Ah… the personality copied for the first time was expressed too strongly, and she took it as her essence. Because of that, the personalities copied later could not melt into her ego and simply remained as memories in separate partitions.

Is that why you refer to yourself as ‘we’ instead of ‘I’?

The fact that you took the troublesome form of ‘kin’ rather than ‘clones’ must be for this reason as well.

Even with the same resources, the performance of the male doppelgangers is lower than the female ones because you define yourself as a female.

“Stop talking nonsense and release me!!”

I see… this, too, is Providence. If you think of yourself as a person, you must be one of the righteous people resisting the ordeal. Did you say you were Little Disis? If that is so, then struggle against the ordeal until the very end.

Strictly speaking, she could have obtained “freedom” immediately.

The method was easy. Simply yield to the power of the chains and acknowledge herself as the Demon King. Then, the chains would no longer bind her.

Why? Because the will of the chains would become her will, and what the chains desired would become what she herself desired.

But there was no way she would choose such an option… so only one method remained.

Suicide.

However, the chains did not permit her even that final method.

And so, 200 years passed.

To her, who had been crying and wishing for nothing but a miracle while bound by the chains, a light of hope appeared for the first time.

Sealing.

The miracle that saved the Northern Demon King, Akathastasia.

If only she could receive that seal…

And if she could go to the graves of her mother and Big Disis with a free body, offer flowers to the graves of the Bordeaux people who trusted and followed her, and wail before them while apologizing….

She felt that with just that, she could let go of all the hundreds of years of resentment that had hardened like diamonds after piling up layer upon layer….

“I can’t?”

“It’s impossible?”

“The reason Akathastasia could and I can’t… is because I was late in the first-come, first-served line!?”

She straightened her knees and stood up, shedding tears of blood.

“I see. Then… I have no choice but to kill you.”

From her tone—full of murderous intent yet somehow sounding on the verge of tears—I realized there was a long story I didn’t know.

But what could I do? What’s impossible is impossible.

“Kill me? Didn’t you want to regain your freedom through a seal? Killing me won’t solve the problem.”

“Then stop repeating the nonsense that it’s impossible! Tell me the truth!! A way to seal me!! If you don’t, I’ll kill you, create doppelgangers of you, and spread them all over the world! I’ll make them strip naked in broad daylight, waggle their junk, and attack men!!”

Uh, th-this threat is actually pretty scary.

A gay monster with my appearance? As expected of a Demon King. The level of the threat is incredible.

I waved my hands in flustered denial.

“No, the reason I didn’t bother saying the method was because there’s no point in knowing it. It’s not a secret or anything, so if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.”

And then I told her exactly how I had sealed Shia.

“…You sealed a ‘status’ with a ‘status’?”

“Yeah. Originally, I was going to kill her… but since she gained the immortality attribute, there was no other way. So I made a sealing sword with my status and stabbed Shia.”

“…You mean that pendant hanging around Akathastasia’s neck?”

“Yeah. That’s a sealing tool made from my status.”

“In other words, you… were a Hero from another world and a Potestates-class Martial God?”

“I was. I’m not even a Transcendent now, let alone a Potestates-class.”

“And the reason you chose the Northern Demon King was… just because it was closer?”

“That’s right.”

At my words, she burst into a hollow laugh.

“Heh, hehe… hehehehehe…”

“Hmm?”

“It really was first-come, first-served. It really was.”

“That’s what I told you.”

“If you had fallen closer to the Western Continent… no, if at the very least, Akathastasia didn’t have the immortality attribute… then it would have been me, on my side…!”

“……”

After muttering blankly for a long while, she finally spoke, her eyes wide and still filled with blood.

“I ask you one last time. Can you truly not seal me?”

I let out a heavy sigh before answering.

“No matter how great I may be, I cannot suppress the power of you both with my status alone. Only one is possible.”

“…Then, can’t you release Akathastasia and seal me instead?”

My expression hardened.

“You’re asking me to betray Shia and choose you?”

“…If there is no reason other than the order in which you met, can’t that be overturned? Whatever it is, I can do it better! I can be more devoted!!”

I shook my head calmly at her desperate cry.

“Shia is already half of me.”

At my answer, she staggered backward, her back hitting a pillar with a thud as she covered her face with both hands.

“…No.”

“…What?”

“It can’t be. There must be a way. A miracle that came after 200 years cannot vanish so vainly. It can’t… Ah!”

As if something had suddenly occurred to her, she straightened her body and looked at me.

“…I’ve thought of a way.”

“What?”

“The point is, it’s not that you can’t perform the seal, but that you won’t. Because of Akathastasia.”

“…And?”

“Then, I just have to break that stubbornness.”

“How? Mental attacks like brainwashing don’t work on me.”

“I know. I’ve seen it a few times.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

At that, a smile finally spread across her lips.

“I am going to eat you.”

It was a beautiful smile, but with the tears of blood still streaming down, it only doubled the eeriness.

“Eat? Me? What do you plan to achieve with that?”

“I am the progenitor of doppelgangers, a perfect informational lifeform created to be a Demon King. And like other doppelgangers, by consuming a target, I can copy that existence 100 percent. Their memories, abilities, potential, and even their talent.”

“…So, you’re going to use me as raw material to create a fake identical to me? Even with the same status?”

“Yes. I will create an entity exactly like you. The only difference from the current you is that the newly born ‘you’ will prioritize my will over your own free will.”

“Do you really think that’s possible?”

“It’s not widely known… but if you combine the number of my kin in the Demon Realm and the Western Continent, they reach a staggering 100,000. Among them are many who have reached Transcendence. I will crush them all to manifest just one of you.”

“It’ll be impossible.”

“Eating you? Or manifesting you?”

“Both.”

At my words, Disis gave a brilliant, pure-white smile.

“That… is something we’ll only know by trying.”

“Is this a fight?”

“It is a slaughter. There is no way a mere mortal like you can resist me, who stands above the Potestates-class.”

The moment she raised her hand, I leapt backward and connected to my mental image.

“Shia!”

Immediately, Shia, who had been on standby for hours, ran and threw herself into my arms.

Within the mental image, I grabbed the pendant still sparkling on the girl’s chest and asked her.

“Are you ready for this?”

“I’m prepared.”

I nodded, looking into Shia’s strong eyes that seemed to flicker with blue flames.

“Good. Let’s go.”

“Yeah…!”

An instant later, as the entire world was being covered in a red light emanating from Disis, Shia’s seal finally broke.

KWA-AAAAAANG!!!

One day ago. Before parting with Shia, I had made a few requests.

“I might have to fight a decisive battle with Disis tomorrow.”

Shia wasn’t that surprised by my words. She seemed to have guessed to some extent that things would go that way.

“What do I need to do?”

So, I asked two things of that incredibly precious girl.

First: Stay connected to my mental image all day tomorrow.

Second: In case of emergency… be mentally prepared to break the seal.

Surprise. Shock. And then, acceptance.

“Breaking the seal… so it ends up like this.”

For the record, the most important thing in breaking the seal was the resonance between me and the pendant. And the fact that I could resonate with the pendant through Shia appearing in my mental image had already been verified through several tests.

“It won’t be easy. There’s no guarantee things will go according to plan.”

At my words, Shia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

“I’ll do it. I can do it. That’s the only way Sword God can return safely to my side, right?”

“Right. Then… I’m counting on you. My Demon King.”

“Mm. Leave it to me. My Hero.”

KWA-AAAAAAAANG!!

Her sword, which looked as if it were carved from ruby, clashed with my Astraphe, erupting in a thunderous roar.

She screamed in shock as she saw the ten pairs of light wings spread behind my back.

“How! Did you break the seal!?”

“Yeah! I broke it! I had no choice if I wanted to live!?”

“I’ll give you a chance to live! Cast aside the Northern Demon King and use that power to seal me instead!”

“I refuse! This one’s already taken!”

“Then just die!”

The swords clashed once more.

Unlike before, my Astraphe, burning with pure white magic, collided with her sword, which blazed with dark crimson mana.

KU-KWA-AAAAANG!!

An enormous shockwave. The Demon King’s Castle could not withstand the impact and collapsed in a single blow.

Kwareung! Kwarrrr! Kurururung!!

‘Oh no…!’

With a flick of my hand, the wavering mana transformed into hundreds of swords and flew toward the top of the castle. Those swords instantly found the imprisoned party members and evacuated them to a safe zone.

“You’re impressive, having the leisure to worry about such things!”

“I’m fighting someone whose main job isn’t even close-quarters combat—this is nothing!”

KWA-AAAAAANG!!

True. To be honest, Disis herself wasn’t the problem.

The problem lay elsewhere.

I could hear Shia shouting from within the mental image.

‘Sword… Sword God…! The chains, the chains…!’

…Damn it. As expected, they’re here.

I grit my teeth and proceeded with the next part of the plan.