CHAPTER 172

Swoosh.

For a moment, I felt my body being dragged forward… into Idria’s rift.

But the rift I had made caught hold of me.

At first, I thought that was fortunate.

But that was a ridiculous mistake.

My rift and Idria’s rift were each exerting a tremendous pull toward the other.

‘Damn it. It feels like my body’s being torn apart. My upper half that way, my lower half this way!’

[Which side do you want to keep?]

‘You think this is the time for jokes?’

Idria was the same.

She gritted her teeth, resisting the immense pull that seemed ready to tear her body in half.

Swaaaah! Kwaa-kwang.

With the voids we had created, all things in the world began being drawn in.

Mountains collapsed and boulders shattered.

Trees were ripped out at the roots and the ground evaporated.

The clouds in the sky. The mountain birds and insects too.

Even the air itself.

‘I can’t breathe.’

[Looks like even the oxygen has been sucked away. Are you okay?]

‘How the hell can I be okay if I can’t breathe? Damn it, I never thought of this flaw.’

[Idria’s in the same boat. Just hold on a little longer!]

I never imagined the key to a fight with the Demon King would end up being lung capacity.

I could endure my body being torn thanks to a hardened physique.

But not being able to breathe, no great hero could overcome that.

That applied to the Demon King as well.

“……”

Idria’s face was beginning to turn blue.

‘Shake her up a bit. You can talk to her through souls, can’t you?’

[With what words?]

‘Any words. If I speak aloud, I will waste breath I can’t spare.’

Trail hesitated, then spoke to Idria through the soul.

[Idria. Cancel your rift.]

“……”

[You weren’t planning to kill Mide right this instant anyway. This fight was about who could take control, who had the upper hand. It was never meant to be a death match.] Ṛ𝔞𝐍ộBƐŠ

“……”

[You tried to use Mide to kill that monster, Velosian, didn’t you? And Mide felt the same about using you.]

Ah.

My consciousness was starting to fade.

This is really dangerous.

Through my blurring vision, I looked at Idria.

At some point, she had put her hand on the ground.

Trail pressed her again.

[If he wants to use you, that means he doesn’t intend to kill you. Don’t you think a hero holding back from killing the Demon King immediately is already quite the concession?]

“……”

[Cancel your power. I don’t want to see you die from nothing more than a lung capacity contest.]

“Khuk khuk.”

Idria wasted precious oxygen by letting out a laugh.

Ttak.

Wiiing. Sseuuk.

She snapped her fingers, and the black rift vanished.

Naturally, the pull acted in only one direction now, toward my rift.

At terrifying speed, Idria was sucked into the space I had created.

By then, she was already unconscious.

Sseuuk.

Once I saw that Idria was completely inside, I hurriedly closed it.

And when I cancelled the rift, the world began to return to normal.

“Haa… haa…”

[You alright?]

“Just a few seconds later and I would have been sightseeing in the underworld.”

[You have already been there.]

I ignored that and kept forcing air into my lungs.

A few seconds later, as my condition returned to normal, my whole body trembled with exhilaration.

I quietly looked up at the sky.

“I caught the Demon King.”

I called the party back together.

They dismounted from Agril and looked around.

Not that there was much to look at.

Nothing remained.

“Even with Agril supported by Mime, we couldn’t escape the pull of your and Idria’s rifts. If you had been even a few seconds later, you would have seen us getting sucked in too.”

“You should have stayed farther away.”

“Ahaha.”

Xenia scratched her cheek with an awkward laugh.

Offense interpreted it for her.

“She is saying, ‘How the hell were we supposed to get any farther away?’ right?”

“Yes. If you have got a conscience, try taking a look around, Mr. Mide.”

At her words, I scanned the area.

Nothing.

Originally, the Sacred Forest was wilderness on another level from any normal woods.

Like the starting point, it was one of the few untouched places by human hands.

But this was no longer a forest.

Everything had been shattered and consumed, leaving only a vast sunken basin of torn-up earth.

Neril spoke.

“The distance between you and us was at least five kilometers. That means the pull reached that far.”

“Hm.”

“Don’t ‘hm’ me. Just the aftershock of your fight wiped out five kilometers of forest. Or ten, if you count the full diameter.”

“That’s the result of turning fame into power. The amazing part is that Idria resisted for that long.”

Adwin chimed in.

“Still, you’re stronger, right?”

“By a small margin, yes.”

“And Idria is in the space you created?”

“Yeah. Should we talk to her?”

The party all jumped in surprise.

Serein asked.

“Is that possible? The space is sealed off.”

“It’s my space. If I just open it the tiniest bit, enough that she can’t escape, we can talk.”

“My head hurts…”

“Either way, we need to talk. By now she should be conscious again, so I will just tear it open a little.”

I considered drawing my sword, then decided not to.

No need.

Instead, I lifted my hand at an angle and slashed downward, like cutting water.

Crackle.

A tiny crack, about three centimeters wide, appeared in the air.

I raised my voice toward it.

“Idria. Can you hear me?”

“……”

“I know you can. Don’t expect me to widen it.”

“Hoo.”

Idria’s sigh drifted out from beyond the rift.

Neril spoke with a cynical tone.

“The most perfect prison in the world. How does it feel, being trapped by someone with the same power as you?”

“Don’t provoke me. I’m already displeased.”

“Didn’t think it would turn out this way? Even after getting beaten by Mide several times already?”

“That’s how great the strength I gained from Adin’s soul was.”

Idria admitted it surprisingly frankly.

Lisel asked.

“So what now? …Wait, why am I even using honorifics with the Demon King?”

“Isn’t that something you should ask Mide instead of me?”

“You’re the one at a disadvantage right now. Just answer the question politely.”

That doesn’t sound like you at all. Don’t force it, Lisel.

Then Idria answered.

“I was planning to use Mide.”

“So how, exactly?”

“I was going to raise Mide’s fame even higher.”

At those unexpected words, our faces went blank.

Idria chuckled lightly.

“According to Adin’s memories, the old Impelium said that fame could be turned into power. Didn’t they say you had to give up something precious for it?”

“……”

“Raising fame is my specialty. I’m the one who once made that fool Kaeld be called a hero, even if only for a time. Well… not anymore, I suppose.”

No way… this woman?

Seeing my expression, Idria nodded.

“That’s right. The play I originally planned to give Kaeld, ‘the play of slaying the Demon King’, I was going to have you perform it.”

“……!”

“Of course, there’s one decisive difference between you and Kaeld.”

“Whether or not the lies can be harvested?”

“…Hm. So you noticed. Yes, the lies you have told so far haven’t come back to me as power.”

According to Impelium, that was probably because the world judged my lies to be beneficial to humanity.

Of course, I didn’t reveal that fact.

Instead, I asked another question.

“Why did you want to raise my fame? If you can’t harvest lies, then it seems like it would only benefit me.”

“Why ask the obvious? I was going to ask you to turn that fame into power and kill Velosian. Call it a contract killing, if you will.”

She paused briefly, then continued.

“Through Adin’s memories, I learned that humans are beings who can grow infinitely strong as long as their fame increases. Isn’t it a ridiculously favorable world for you humans?”

“……”

“Velosian is an endlessly powerful enemy. Only humans who can grow infinitely stronger with fame… only Mide could kill him.”

“Why not do it yourself?”

“That’s……”

She held her tongue.

But I could guess the rest.

Just as I had suspected before.

Idria deceived humans to obtain lies, but Velosian deceived the world itself.

That meant Idria could never defeat Velosian.

It wasn’t about strength or weakness, compatibility itself made it impossible.

So she had given up on taking him down herself and was asking me to do it.

But I didn’t bother to say it out loud.

Serein cut in, sounding absurd.

“Anyway, Mide is a hero. How could a hero accept a contract killing from the Demon King?”

“Velosian is an enemy you need to take down as well, isn’t he? What does it matter who requests it?”

“……”

“And besides, calling it a contract killing isn’t even accurate. Velosian isn’t human.”

I scratched my head and spoke.

“Why do you want him dead?”

“What?”

“You said during the fight that Velosian wanted something from you, and that it disgusted you.”

“……”

“What does he want from you? Why did he help you?”

There was no answer for a long while.

Just when I was about to press her again, her voice finally came.

“Velosian wants to revise the laws of the world.”

“That’s what he always does. With that power, he transferred Adin’s fame to Kaeld.”

“No. Passing on fame was nothing more than ‘interference.’ I said ‘revision.’”

“What do you mean?”

“He is trying to turn this world into ‘a place for the Demon King.’”

I couldn’t quite understand what she meant.

Idria continued in a self-mocking tone.

“Unlike me, who tried to escape from a world unfavorable to the Demon King, he is trying to reshape the world itself into one convenient for the Demon King. Should I praise him for being so bold?”

“Explain it more concretely.”

“By revising the laws of the world so that all humans perceive negative emotions as positive ones.”

I couldn’t quite grasp it.

But Lisel, who sometimes showed uncanny intuition, covered her mouth and spoke through muffled words.

“Th-that’s impossible. If that happens… then…”

“What? What did you realize?”

“A Demon King is born from the negative emotions created by humans. Like destruction, greed, and corruption.”

“And?”

“But people at least know those emotions are ‘bad.’ They are taught that way.”

That was only natural.

No one preaches that negative emotions are righteous.

Even if their hearts are pitch-black, at least outwardly they hide it as best they can and only let it out in moderation.

Otherwise, society, and their own lives, couldn’t function.

“Ah.”

That’s when I realized.

Idria sneered.

“If all those emotions you have despised are recognized as positive, just how much negative energy would flood the world?”

“……”

“And how many Demon Kings would descend from it?”

“N-no way.”

“Yes. Velosian intends to fill this world with Demon Kings. To make the world theirs. A world ruled not by humans, but by Demon Kings.”

Chills ran down my entire body.

Even a single Demon King descending forced humanity to devote all its resources just to survival.

But if ‘countless’ Demon Kings descended?

It would be nothing short of hell on earth.

“And among all those negative emotions, the greatest one is lies. The thing humanity always utters from morning to night.”

“……”

“If every human believes that ‘lies are good,’ just how powerful would Velosian become?”

“……”

“Strong enough, perhaps, to surpass the ‘special room.’ Once he breaks free of it, Velosian will sit atop the countless Demon Kings who descend upon the world. Hm… compared to the Celestial God, maybe you could call him a ‘Demon God.’”

So, in short…

“Velosian wants to become a Demon God?”

“You could say that.”

“……Wait. There’s something strange here. If he revises the world’s laws so that lies are considered good, the benefits wouldn’t be his alone. Wouldn’t that help you too?”

“……”

“Then why are you trying to kill him? If you sit still, wouldn’t you also have a chance to become a Demon God?”

Idria chuckled softly.

“I can’t become a Demon God.”

“Why not?”

“Because before that happens, I will be killed by Velosian.”

“……!”

“As I said, his scheme isn’t about interfering with the laws, but revising them. For that, an immense power is required. A power so great that the strength I need to create a fake world looks pitiful in comparison.”

A flash of lightning ran through my mind.

So the reason Idria opposed Velosian was…

“He raised you just to devour you, didn’t he?”

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