Chapter 176

“Rock, paper, scissors!”

“Rock, paper, scissors!!”

Watching my avatars surround the angels, cornering them in the center while acting completely like a bunch of street thugs—honestly, they looked no different from neighborhood hoodlums.

To make matters worse, whenever the angels slyly attempted to use Blink to escape the perimeter, the avatars would smirk and jab their swords through the empty air, tearing the space itself. By distorting the spatial coordinates, they effectively sealed off any attempt at teleportation.

In a situation where even their three dependable Archangel big brothers had already met an early demise by my hands, the remaining angels knew that launching an attack would only lead to them being completely pulverized…

Ultimately, the only thing the angels could do was huddle close together, dumbfoundedly watching the avatars play rock, paper, scissors.

“Wow… are those guys seriously insane?”

Disis, who was also watching the spectacle, burst out laughing.

“Why are you acting like you have nothing to do with this? No matter who looks at them, that’s exactly you.”

“…Don’t try to frame me, alright? Do I really play around in such an obnoxious way? Hey, Baldies. Answer me. I’m not like that, right?”

As I whipped my head around to look back, the three bald men, who had been vigorously nodding their heads, instantly froze.

“…You want to die?”

“Ah, well… we didn’t nod our heads with that kind of intention… it was strictly to mean that what Sword God said is correct…”

“Oh… so you’re saying that what I, Disis, said is wrong?”

“That’s… th-that is absolutely not the case. It’s not, but… uh…”

“What? So you’re saying I really am an obnoxious, edgy, unhinged bastard like them?”

“N-No… it is not that…”

“Hoh. Conflicted right in front of your master, are we? I suppose you’re thinking of switching to a new master at this opportunity?”

“Ugh, uuuh…”

“Hey. You guys better line up behind the right person. If things go wrong, your skulls will get cracked, and you’ll be whipped from morning till night just to fill your monster-slaying quotas. Want to try running around hunting monsters on three hours of sleep a day?”

“Greaaaagh…”

As Disis and I bullied the three unfortunate bald men, cold sweat began to bead continuously on their glistening heads.

“Sigh. Forget it, forget it. It was my mistake to ask a wicked Demon King and a bunch of reckless baldies. Hest, you tell me. Am I really that unhinged? I’m not, right?”

At that, Hest gave an awkward smile and subtly avoided my gaze.

“Well… you see…”

“…No way, Brutus, even you? Am I really like that?”

As I trembled from the sense of betrayal, Disis smirked and nudged my arm.

“See? I told you my words were right. Honestly, self-objectification is just so difficult, isn’t it?”

“…Ugh.”

No, that wasn’t it. I couldn’t draw a definitive conclusion based on such a small sample size.

Instead of this wicked Demon King and these spineless baldies, if I asked Kelly and her group—who had shared life and death with me—they would undoubtedly be infuriated by the false accusations framed against me and roar in anger. Yes, absolutely.

Damn it, since they were from the Western Continent, I had left them behind on Bordeaux Island so their faces wouldn’t be recognized. I shouldn’t have done that.
I should have dragged them along even if it meant disguising them.

Realizing that it wasn’t a good idea to prolong this topic any further, I quickly changed the subject.

“By the way, what kind of concept are you going for today? And where did you even get those glasses?”

Truth be told, Disis was currently wearing a tight skirt that sat about twenty centimeters above her knees, a unnecessarily form-fitting blouse, and a pair of glasses on her face.
To top it off, her red hair, which normally reached all the way down to her feet, was neatly rolled up and secured with a hairpin.

“A Demon King’s secretary. It’s an unspoken rule that a Demon King should have one or two beautiful female secretaries by their side, shouldn’t they?”

“Why would you be the secretary? You’re just the Demon King.”

“Fufu. Well, who knows? I can guarantee that unless we massacre every single human here, you will unconditionally be viewed as the Demon King on the Western Continent.”

“Ah…”

“The witnesses number in the tens of thousands, so isn’t that obvious? I can guarantee that for generations to come, whenever people on the Western Continent mention the ‘Demon King,’ they will be referring to you. As for me… I’ll probably just be recorded as ‘Beautiful Female Secretary A,’ whom the Demon King kept by his side while laughing maniacally.”

“…Damn it. Whatever, forget it. It’s not like I’m going to live on the Western Continent anyway. Even if they know my face, what are they going to do about it?”

And around that time… the four-group rock, paper, scissors tournament finally concluded, and two winners were decided.

“Yes!”

“Hmph. A natural result.”

“Ah, how did I lose this?”

“I feel like I failed the body gacha. Isn’t this one a defective product?”

“Shut up, you loser.”

“Yeah. Don’t you know the defeated have no right to speak?”

With that, only the two of them actually stepped forward, lightly leaping toward the angels as if they were just going out for a casual neighborhood stroll.

I let out a sigh and shook my head.

“Sure, fine. Knock yourselves out.”

I shifted my attention away from the fierce battle taking place in the distance between the two avatars and the seventeen angels early on.

There was really nothing left to see when it came to the ordinary angels… and since the avatars were all minor copies of me, what would there even be to watch?

‘Anyway. With this, the lower-ranking angels are practically taken care of. I’ll leave the cleanup to the avatars…’

Now, the only ones remaining were the two Archangels and twenty-four ordinary angels maintaining the barrier up above.

And currently, they were caught in a dilemma.

To maintain the barrier, they had to give up fighting, and to fight, they had to abandon the barrier.

Since the angels were well aware of this fact, their restlessness was plain to see.

As I looked up at them with eyes wondering how I should cook them to make it a legendary feast, the two Archangels exchanged glances. Then, the smaller one—who was still as massive as a mountain and possessed four arms (this wasn’t an exaggeration, it literally had two extra hands attached to both shoulder blades)—began busily weaving hand signs for some unknown purpose as he addressed me.

• Before we fight, may we speak for a moment?

“Go ahead.”

-First, I wish to ask this. You are a mere mortal whose rank is no higher than an Archangel’s, so how can you be this powerful? Your strength and mastery… it is as if I am looking at a combat angel of the Principality rank, not the Archangel rank.

“Just be good at it. Very good.”

-…….

“What?”

-…Never mind. Then I shall ask one more thing. Why do you obstruct us to such an extent?

“If a thief breaks into your house, do you say, ‘Oh my, welcome,’ and hand over the place? What kind of absolute nonsense are you talking about?”

-It is for the greater cause. It is to achieve the ultimate good.

“Your invasion of Bordeaux Island was ultimately to prove the absence of a Demon King and plunge this Western Continent into a great war, wasn’t it?”

-That is correct. You know precisely.

“Since Equos and Morta share the same intent as the false gods… what they ultimately want is for the world’s negative karma to accumulate through that war.”

The angel readily agreed.

-Righteous. As negative karma accumulates, the Demon Kings grow stronger, and the restrictions binding them weaken. We desire for the world to be destroyed by those Demon Kings who have regained their power and freedom.

“Cut the crap. What kind of greater cause or ultimate good is there in the destruction of the world?”

The angel furrowed his brow and shook his head.

-Because this world is a failure. If something is poorly made, isn’t it only natural to break it and create a new one?

“Is the world a piece of pottery to you? What do you mean, break it?”

-From the looks of it, you do not seem to know what this world was like 200 years ago.

-It was a truly horrific era. An age where hatred bred hatred. An era where plunder and murder were considered an actual livelihood.

-It was a time when humans ate humans, and humans killed humans without even understanding the reason why they were killing.

-An age of beasts, where humanity was more wicked and cruel than orcs.

“I’ve heard stories that life was difficult back then or that wars broke out all over the place… but it was a mess to that extent?”

-Because the only ones capable of telling such stories are the long-lived races who have survived for over 200 years. And those long-lived races are mostly part of the ruling class. They could distance themselves by a step, no matter how difficult and grueling the world became.

-Ultimately, those who properly experienced the horrors of that era were the human majority. And they do not live even a full 100 years. Therefore, it is only natural that the true extent of that cruelty could not be properly passed down, is it not?

“…….”

-As a result, the Demon King descended. Not you, but the real Demon King.

“Hmm…”

-The main Governing God Yuel, who hailed from the Laniakea Unified Force, had not been a managing deity for very long. To be precise, this current civilization is only the second one their hands have touched.

-Because of that, to put it nicely, they possessed a sense of romanticism, and to put it harshly, they were clumsy.

-In their desire to return the world to humanity as quickly as possible, they brought the Age of Legends—which could be considered the infancy of civilization—to an end far too prematurely.

“…….”

-If proper education is not conducted during infancy, a person becomes twisted. Furthermore, once they become an adult and their mind hardens… such a distortion becomes incredibly difficult to fix.

-And that is exactly the same for the world.

I was slightly surprised to see such unexpectedly detailed information pouring from the mouth of a mere Archangel.

“Is a mere Archangel allowed to prattle on about that kind of information so casually? I heard you pay a heavy price if you run your mouth incorrectly.”

-I am a body that will die soon anyway. What does a thing like that matter?

“Oh… look at that bravado.”

In truth… I knew very well the exact reason why this guy was running his mouth like this, but I overlooked it and played along anyway. My interest had been piqued by his words.

-Morta and Equos were not originally figures beneath Yuel from the beginning, but were recruited from the outside, so they were able to look at how broken this world was objectively.

-It is the natural law of providence for that which is bound to perish to meet its destruction.

-Therefore, the two of them petitioned Yuel to scrap this failure of a product and start over from the very beginning.

-However, Yuel refused. Because it was only their second world, their attachment to it was immense.

“…….”

-Just around then, the trial descended. Due to the accumulated negative karma, the Demon King manifested. The two of them believed the world would soon be destroyed and rejoiced. Because that was something even Yuel could do nothing about.

-However, unexpectedly, the trial was vastly different from what the two of them had anticipated. The trial that should have been harsh was far too gentle.

-If it is a trial, shouldn’t it act like a trial? Why attach all sorts of miscellaneous restrictions onto the Demon King?

-A Forbidden Step, of all things! How can a Demon King who cannot even step outside their own home truly become a trial for this world!

-The two of them realized. This was not a trial meant to ruin the world… but a switch to grant them another opportunity.

-An education meant to teach humanity how to unite and escape from strife and hatred by establishing a common enemy known as the Demon King.

-Of course, the Forbidden Step and all other restrictions will eventually be lifted. Because that is the fundamental rule. But when on earth is that supposed to be? 100 years later? 200 years later? Or perhaps when this world has completed every single preparation to stand against the Demon King?

“…….”

-That is why the two of them joined hands with the false gods. In order to erase this world, this current civilization, and completely reset this planet.

“…….”

Before long, the Archangel, drunk on his own speech, concluded with a flushed face.

-That is precisely our greater cause and our goodwill. Has it been explained?

I clapped my hands at the angel’s passionate speech and nodded my head.

“Ah… I listened well to a great story. But ultimately, doesn’t that just mean every single person currently living in this world should drop dead? Why are you proceeding with such a monumental matter while completely ignoring the opinions of the parties involved?”

-You are the one being strange. You are a Precursor who has ascended to the rank of transcendence. How can someone like you think in the exact same manner as mere mortals? Even if this world is destroyed, it is enough for you to simply rejoin the next world.

“Aha. I see.”

-Do you understand now?

“Yeah. I understand. It means Equos and Morta are wicked bastards, and no matter how much longer you and I keep this conversation going, we’ll ultimately remain on parallel lines.”

-Insulting…

“Insulting or whatever. Are you finally finished with what you were doing?”

-What?

“Your objective was to buy time anyway, wasn’t it? It looked like you were preparing something grand alongside the other angels… is that all done now?”

-…You knew?

“You and the other angels have been busily weaving hand signs together like that… it would be stranger if I didn’t know.”

-…….

“Go ahead and try it. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll take it head-on. Everything up until now has been completely tedious, so I hope it’s something a bit entertaining this time.”

-…I will make you regret this.

“Oh, I look forward to it.”

Glaring at me with bloodshot eyes as if he wanted to devour me alive, the Archangel whipped his body around and signaled the other Archangel.

At that moment, almost half of the ordinary angels erupted into flames with a scream, turning into pure light—

Fwoooooosh!!

—Before long, using those lights as materials, a massive circle of Law Magic manifests high up in the sky.

A super-large, high-dimensional circle of Law Magic whose sheer visible size easily exceeded well over five kilometers.

And… the other Archangel, who had been presiding over the ritual alongside the ordinary angels, also burst into flames just like them, letting out a final, death-rattling shout that sounded as if it would tear the entire world apart.

-Heaven’s Judgment!!!!!!

And then, the heavens opened.

The circle of Law Magic transformed into a gate.

As the gate opened, the world beyond, overflowing with absolute light, was revealed.

And… from that world overflowing with light far beyond the sky, a colossal ‘sword of light’ descended.

Rumbleeeeeee…….

A massive sword of light that was far too large, easily appearing to be at least seven to eight kilometers long.

No, it was light taking the exact shape of a sword.

Looking up at that spectacle, I felt a bead of cold sweat trickle down for the first time in a long while.

…As they say, a salted mackerel is still a fish; they actually had a decent move hidden up their sleeve.

“…This might be a slight crisis?”