While Ex steeled himself for what was to come.
『My child.』
A message from Elysia appeared before Elia's eyes.
『The time has come to fulfill our long-cherished wish.』
As though reminding her of what she had always been meant to do, Elysia showed her the objective once more.
『Core Objective
Uphold Justice(S): Kill ‘Ex’.
Success: Hero's Power Awakening
Failure: System Deletion』
『The chance has come for you to uphold justice with your own hands.』
With the eyes and senses of a martial artist, Elia could feel it clearly.
The aura pouring from Ex was unmistakably that of an evil demon. Elysia had been telling the truth.
He was more wicked and terrifying than the Demon King, an incarnation of pure evil who would bring ruin upon the world, the very source of all evil.
Everything before her seemed to prove Elysia right.
“…Why?”
And yet, Elia couldn't move.
“Why did you tell her to kill Miss Lola?”
Maybe she could have moved if she had never heard those words.
“Why is Mr. Ex protecting Miss Lola?”
Maybe she could have made up her mind if she hadn't seen what was happening right in front of her.
“Why is she fighting alongside a demon?”
The questions kept bursting out of her, one after another, like floodwater surging through a broken dam.
Countless doubts linked together into chains that bound her entire body.
And for the first time in her life.
“I don't want to do this. Something's wrong…!”
Elia rejected Elysia's command.
Nearly suffocating beneath the weight of her own questions, Elia clutched her head.
“The Valderun Barony on the border of the Demonkin nation? Was there really a place like that? I smashed my brother's head open? Then what was the name of the brother I killed?”
Blood spilled from Elia's nose, though even a sword couldn't normally leave a scratch on her.
It was the backlash from trying to reach knowledge that her current Intelligence could not access.
“Who were the people I killed there? I read the life story of the Hero? Stories about heroes? Did I ever even read a book like that or hear stories like that? I can't even read…!”
Her brain felt as though it were being burned alive, but there was something she had to know.
Something precious, buried in her hazy past, that she should never have been able to forget.
And finally.
『Intelligence: 0.6 [Increased by 0.1]』
“G-Goddess Elysia. My mother, ‘Yus,’ was… b-beautiful. She was so beautiful that even I… I looked like her. B-But…”
Elia discovered something she was never supposed to discover.
“But I can't remember my mother's face.”
Her memories were full of holes, like scraps of cloth crudely stitched together.
No matter how stupid she was, there was no way she could forget her mother's face or the name of the first person she'd ever killed.
She had simply refused to look at the truth until now.
『Elia…』
After a brief silence, Elysia answered.
『Useless thing.』
There was no affection in her voice.
It wasn't the way someone spoke to her child.
It was the way someone looked at a piece of garbage that had outlived its usefulness.
『So this is all a hastily made Extra amounts to.』
Bzzzt-
Elia's Titles opened on their own, and the information began to change.
A Talent she had never seen before appeared on the final line.
『Talents
Vessel of Descent(SSS): A body capable of receiving the descent of divinity [Disguise Removed]』
More precisely, something that had always been hidden was finally revealing itself.
『Direct interference is far too inefficient.
But now that things have come to this, I suppose I'll have to accept the loss.』
The Talent activated.
Elia's body began moving on its own, completely against her will.
“No… Please, don't do this…!”
Ignoring Elia's grief-stricken plea, her body lowered into a stance and charged forward with everything it had.
The tip of Soul Killer pointed toward a single person.
Someone desperately holding out inside the barrier Lola had created with Iris.
“Miss Circe, is it ready yet?!”
“Almost! The second I give the signal, clear me a path!! …Now!!”
Ex was just about to unleash his power in response to Circe's signal.
He gathered his strength, preparing to release it.
At that exact moment.
「You should probably dodge」
Before the mysterious voice could even finish warning him,
Shhk-!
The blade of Soul Killer punched straight through Ex's heart.
Elia had shattered the Iris barrier and pierced him clean through.
It was the power of ‘aura infused with will,’ wielded by a 6-Star martial artist.
No matter how useful an artifact Iris was, it couldn't withstand something like that.
“Ex…?”
Blood sprayed in every direction as Ex's heart was pierced.
Lola, standing closest to him, was drenched in demon blood.
And in that moment, she learned something she had never expected.
Demon blood was warm.
“E-Ex…?”
Ex swallowed back the revolting taste of iron rising in his throat.
Then he looked at the person responsible for what had just happened.
“…Elia.”
Of course.
It was Elia.
“I-I… I didn't mean to…”
Elia hadn't wanted this.
She had wanted to talk more.
She had wanted to learn the truth.
She had wanted to look deeper into her own past.
She hadn't wanted to stab Ex.
And yet, in the end, her own hand had driven the blade through him.
Whether a goddess had controlled her or not, the sensation in her hand had still been hers.
“Ah… Aaaah…”
That feeling would become a scar she could never erase for the rest of her life.
“No… No, this can't be happening…!”
As though desperately trying to undo what she'd done, Elia yanked the sword back out.
But that didn't make it unhappen.
“Ghk…”
Blood poured from the gaping hole in Ex's chest.
He stumbled one step away from the panicking Elia.
Elia remained frozen where she stood, unable to do anything but stare.
“E-Ex. Y-Your heart…”
Lola could only convince herself that all of this was some horrible nightmare.
Ex spoke calmly, trying to reassure her.
“Miss, don't worry. Demons don't die. Hurts like absolute hell, but give it a little time and I'll be fine.”
“R-Really…?”
“If I was going to die, I'd already be dead. So…”
Before he could finish.
Crack-!
“Ghk.”
Ex's mouth snapped shut as an unimaginable agony tore through him.
This wasn't merely the pain of being wounded.
“Gaaaaah…!!!”
“E-Ex!! What's wrong?!”
Something deeper, something far more fundamental, shattered like glass.
The agony of his very essence being destroyed seized every part of his body.
‘Poison…? No, demons can't be poisoned…!’
Elysia knew that Ex had become a demon.
Becoming one had never been what Ex wanted, but ironically enough, a demon's body did not die.
And yet Elysia wanted Ex dead.
So what card had she prepared?
‘If she can't kill the body… then she can kill something else?’
If the body couldn't die, then all she had to do was kill something other than the body.
As though answering his question, a voice rang out.
“Ah~ You finally stabbed him~”
Far in the distance, Gremory clapped her hands in delight.
Watching Ex collapse limply to the ground with a satisfied smile, she called out to Elia.
“Elia, you remember how I told you that Soul Killer can't kill demons~?”
“W-What…? What do you…?”
A terrible feeling seized Elia.
Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
“Try thinking about it the other way around. What does it mean if someone dies after being stabbed by Soul Killer?”
The light in Ex's eyes slowly began to fade.
As though savoring every bit of their frustration and despair, Gremory smiled wickedly.
“It means his soul isn't a demon, doesn't it~?”
Elia's heart froze solid.
She had just done something that could never be undone.
And now, she was smart enough to understand exactly what Gremory meant.
Ex wasn't a demon.
She had killed a human.
Just then, an arrow of ice shot toward Elia as though scolding her and slammed into her body.
“Ex!”
Circe immediately unleashed a barrage of magic, driving Elia away.
The moment Elia staggered back without resistance, Circe rushed to Ex's side. Lola was already there, desperately clinging to him.
“E-Ex… Ex isn't moving…”
Lola grabbed Ex's fallen body and shook him.
But Ex didn't react at all.
“Ex… You said you wouldn't die… Why aren't you getting up…?”
Circe's mind was on the verge of exploding at the sight of Ex lying motionless, but she forced herself to remain as calm and rational as possible as she assessed the situation.
‘Possession? No. That reaction was from a demon that had descended.’
A demon using Possession inevitably had its power weakened.
The demonic aura Ex had released was far too dense for a demon possessing a human body.
Only a demon that had truly descended could release that much.
How he had managed to descend could wait.
For now, she had to reason from that premise.
‘Demons don't die. They just get sent back to Hell. But…’
A strangely named sword called Soul Killer.
The light of life gone from Ex's eyes.
And that girl's words about his soul not being a demon.
It sounded completely absurd, but there was only one conclusion she could reach.
‘Ex's soul possessed a demon's body…?’
Any scholar who heard her say that would laugh at her for the rest of her life, and any believer who heard it would have her dragged before the Inquisition, but there was no other explanation.
Because that single assumption explained everything Ex had done.
‘If that's true, then first I need some way to protect his soul…!’
While Circe desperately searched for a solution.
“Ex… I-I actually knew…”
Lola wrapped her arms around Ex's body as it rapidly grew cold.
“Back when we escaped the mansion, the mana warned me… So I already suspected it. I knew something about you had changed…”
Ex wasn't a demon possessing a human body.
A demon's body had simply disguised itself as human.
For Lola, who was exceptionally sensitive to mana, noticing the difference had only been a matter of time.
“But nothing else changed. Ex was still Ex…”
Even after he changed, he was still the same infuriating liar he'd always been.
Still the same idiot who did nothing but push himself until he broke.
“Why… Why did this have to happen? Hngh…”
“M-Miss Lola. I…”
“Go away…”
Lola held Ex's body tighter as she pleaded in a broken voice.
“Elia… I hate you…”
Those words stabbed straight into Elia's heart.
Elia had believed that once all of this was over, she could go back to Lola, her one and only friend.
She had imagined going to the library together again, studying side by side, chatting about something as ordinary as the weather that day.
But now that dream could never come true.
Because Lola had just said the one thing Elia had never wanted to hear from her.
“I hate you for killing Ex… Mr. Ex said he was sorry to you…”
“Sorry…?”
“He said he was sorry for deceiving you. He said he'd accept any punishment you wanted to give him…”
“T-That was probably a lie… It had to be…”
“Even if it was a lie, you should've listened to him…”
Lola looked into Ex's eyes.
They stared blankly into empty space, never moving.
“Because now you'll never get to hear him say anything ever again…”
This time, Lola looked at Elia.
There was no sadness in her gaze.
No grief.
No pity.
“Now I'll never be able to forgive you…!”
There was only hatred.
A hatred so overwhelming that it surpassed even Elia's own.
“M-Miss Lola… I didn't do this…”
For the first time, Elia felt afraid of someone's hatred.
It burned hotter and fiercer than even her own.
Alongside that fear came a bitter sense of injustice.
It was true.
Elia had not stabbed Ex of her own free will.
“I didn't want to do it… This was all…”
“If you're about to blame that goddess again, I'm sick of hearing it-!!!”
But her words never reached Lola.
Just as Ex's words had never reached Elia.
Just as Elia had refused to open her ears and listen to him.
Now Lola was doing the same.
“Once! That's all it would've taken!!”
Lola's explosion spells multiplied in an instant, spreading around her like a swarm of stars.
Even while maintaining the Iris barrier, Lola had more than enough Magic Power to summon that many spells.
And more than enough fury burning inside her to fuel them.
“If you'd just talked to him once!!”
Lola's eyes blazed blue with mana boiling over inside them.
“You wouldn't have killed Ex!!!”
The stars burned hotter and fiercer, swelling like supernovas.
“And I wouldn't be trying to kill you!!!”
The supernova stars came crashing down like beams of light.
Just as another bombardment of stars was about to descend upon the battlefield.
“So what exactly do you think any of you can do~?”
Gremory's chains of Spatial Restraint tightened around them once more.
There was still one more powerful demon here.
“So tell me, what can you possibly do~?”
Unlike Ex, this one was a true demon.
A real demon filled with horrifying malice.
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won't get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt