Rumble—!
The Galaharad Fortress shook without rest under the shockwaves of the great battle.
It wasn’t only because of the fight between Casey and Marias.
In addition to those two, Sheridan, Bellaruna, Arfa, and Betty were also engaged in combat against the Holy Crusaders.
Elsewhere, Lotheron was fighting as well.
With so many beings of superhuman power rampaging in every direction, even a massive and solid fortress like Galaharad could not help but suffer.
“Are you sure this will be all right?”
Suruna turned to Rudger and asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Casey Selmore. Don’t you think sending her to fight Marias Selmore was a reckless move?”
“That’s why I prepared some insurance, just in case.”
“Ah, you mean the new fire spirit that was born after Quasimodo disappeared.”
Rudger had secretly assigned the fire spirit Pasca to Casey.
If he had openly offered to help, her pride would never have allowed it.
“The power of a Color Mage isn’t something a spirit can counter. I’m not belittling spirits, but the opponent is simply too strong.”
“True. But at the very least, it’ll help her hold out a little longer.”
“You said you wanted to give her enlightenment, but she might die before she ever absorbs that lesson. In fact, that’s the more likely outcome.”
“I know.”
“Then why? Why did you still send her, knowing that?”
“Because Casey chose it herself.”
“......”
At that, Suruna fell silent for a moment.
Rudger was right—Casey Selmore had chosen this battle of her own will.
No one forced her, threatened her, or persuaded her.
She might lose. In all likelihood, she would die.
Even so, she went.
To live—and beyond that, to save her family.
It was an irony of fate.
To walk toward death in order to preserve life.
After a moment’s thought, Suruna spoke.
“I still can’t understand you humans.”
Even such a confession didn’t seem to shake Rudger in the least.
“That’s only natural. You’re not human.”
Suruna was an Apostle.
He had no set lifespan and had been born strong, endowed with divine power from the start.
Though he had been born weaker than most Apostles, even then he was still far superior to any human.
Naturally, their perspectives would differ.
Humans themselves differ greatly from one another—
The wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the altruistic and the selfish.
They fail to understand one another, clash, and fight.
If even humans cannot understand their own kind, then it was only natural that a nonhuman like Suruna could not understand them either.
“But there’s one thing I do understand.”
“What is it?”
“You humans always possess duality. That contradiction is your flaw—and also your virtue.”
Just like now.
Like Casey, who willingly walks the path of death to save those she cherishes.
Like Owens, who fights alongside Rudger despite knowing he might die branded as part of the Demon King’s army.
“I don’t know whether it’s right or wrong in an absolute sense. Personally, I think as long as you’re alive, you can still do something.”
Then Suruna continued.
“Still, I find it beautiful. Maybe that’s why I hold you humans in higher regard than the other Apostles do.”
Suruna, though an Apostle, had founded the organization known as the Black Dawn.
His intent had not been noble.
The Black Dawn’s actions had spread chaos across the continent—and that was exactly what Suruna wanted.
The key point was that an Apostle like Suruna had used humans to achieve his goal.
Apostles considered themselves superior to humans and saw no reason to value them.
Do humans ever expect anything from ants?
The Apostles were the same.
But Suruna was different.
He could not fully understand humans, yet he treated them as beings with individuality and will.
He recognized their potential—something no other Apostle had done.
“The so-called god passes judgment on humanity, and yet they refuse to yield—they struggle onward.”
Suruna thought of Rudger and the others fighting on this island.
Each of them was unique in their own way.
Even when pressed down, they refused to bow, choosing instead to fight until the end.
Some would call that barbaric and reckless.
But to Suruna, that was the very spirit essential to life itself.
To that tenacity of existence, he offered boundless respect—
And wished that, at the end of their chosen path, they might find peace and rest.
“Unexpected. I didn’t think you capable of such sentimentality.”
At Rudger’s remark, Suruna gave a faint, bitter smile.
“Yeah. Maybe it’s because things have come this far. Seems I’ve gotten rather sentimental myself.”
“Like a human.”
“Like a human, huh.”
Suruna found it oddly amusing that Rudger would call a great demon like him “human.”
Everyone else had pointed fingers, cursed him, or looked at him only with fear.
Even the other Apostles were no exception.
They treated Suruna merely as one of their kind, not as himself.
‘The first person who treated me as human... was her.’
Arkenis.
As the Saint of Lumensis, she should have been duty-bound to kill Suruna.
Yet Arkenis did not.
Though she had every chance to do so, she had instead spared Suruna time and again—even when he came to kill her.
‘What did she say to me when we first met...?’
At that time, Suruna had lost his god and was consumed only by hatred and vengeance.
He had acted with savage cruelty and earned the title of Great Demon, one of the highest among demons.
When Arkenis faced him for the first time, her words had been so unexpected that he still remembered them clearly.
—“Your eyes are filled with sorrow.”
That was the very first thing she said upon seeing him.
Eyes filled with sorrow.
It was so emotional—so unfitting—for a Saint to say such a thing to a Great Demon that he could hardly believe it.
He had sneered at her words and tried to kill her.
And lost.
Arkenis, though a Saint, was also an Apostle of Lumensis.
Her innate power was great, but her true advantage was her prophetic vision—her eyes that could see the future.
No matter what he attempted, those eyes—like mirrors of the heavens—saw through it all.
It was like playing poker while she could read every card in his hand. Victory was impossible.
When Suruna was defeated, he knew his death was near.
Having lost to the Church’s Saint, there was no hope of dying peacefully.
But surprisingly, Arkenis did not kill him.
—“Go.”
—“...What?”
—“I’ll tell the others I let you slip away.”
Suruna could only gape at her, smiling brightly as she looked at him.
He neither asked why she spared him nor thanked her for it.
—“You’ll regret this.”
Instead, he forced down his humiliation at being spared and decided to seize the opportunity she’d given him.
Yet Arkenis merely smiled gently and waved him off, as if utterly at ease.
That composure made him grind his teeth in frustration.
He swore that one day, he would grow strong enough to kill her.
Suruna's power was the ability to learn.
It was also the power that allowed him to adapt to situations and respond accordingly.
The battle in which he failed to kill Suruna only made him stronger.
Having grown stronger through that, Suruna went to find Arkenis and attacked her—
and was defeated again.
‘It really was absurd.’
Arkenis was strong.
So strong that even though Suruna was certain he had become stronger than before, he could not even properly fight her before being utterly overwhelmed.
There had been no carelessness.
Knowing Arkenis’s authority, Suruna had staked everything he had in that fight.
And yet he lost, which simply meant that he was weaker than Arkenis.
—Kill me.
Suruna said to Arkenis.
He had survived once merely by her whim, but he did not think there would be a second time.
However, Arkenis said to him:
—Why do you want me to kill you?
—I am a demon, and you are a Saintess. And I lost to you in battle. Isn’t that only natural?
—Rather than saying such grim things, how about thinking a little more constructively and productively?
—What?
—For example, what if the two of us got along like friends? «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» What do you think?
Suruna laughed at such words from Arkenis.
—So you really are a flower-headed woman. Has your mind finally gone mad?
—Hmm. You could see it that way, I suppose. Sometimes even I think that. Ah, I’m not normal.
—You admit that readily enough.
—Seeing the future is not always a pleasant thing, you know.
The eyes of Arkenis as she said that were somehow filled with melancholy.
At that time, Suruna did not know.
What she was seeing or feeling.
—Fighting all the time is too bleak, don’t you think? We can talk like this—if we keep talking, maybe we’ll find a way to get along without fighting.
—Stop talking nonsense and kill me. If you don’t kill me here, you’ll be in danger later.
If Suruna survived again, he would only grow stronger from this experience.
That was his authority.
Arkenis was not unaware of that. She knew well that he was far stronger now than when they first fought.
Even so, Arkenis shook her head, denying Suruna’s words.
—Go. I’ll just say I lost you again.
—......You’ll regret it.
Suruna left, thinking that Arkenis was not merely insane but truly beyond understanding.
And so Suruna challenged Arkenis again and again, only to lose to her each time.
—That was close. I almost got hurt this time.
With each battle, their fights lasted longer.
Defeat after defeat after defeat.
Each time, Suruna’s determination burned brighter, making him even stronger.
But through those battles, Suruna changed.
Because Suruna could learn and realize anything, the battles with Arkenis made him understand her more deeply.
—Lost again.
The venom in his voice had faded, replaced by emptiness. Arkenis smiled playfully at him.
—That was close. Maybe next time I’ll lose?
—Cut the flattery. No matter how strong I get, you can see the future. There’s no way I could win against you.
—Still, you never know. Maybe even against someone who sees the future, you might win.
—If you can see the future, doesn’t that mean fate is already fixed there? Then no matter how much I struggle, I’ll never escape the fixed fate of losing to you.
—Hmm, perhaps. The futures I see have always come true. Even when I try to avoid them, it doesn’t work. I tried once, but the result was even worse, so I stopped.
The tone of Arkenis’s voice carried a deep, indescribable bitterness.
Of course, her expression soon turned back into that of an innocent girl oblivious to the world, but Suruna could never forget that fleeting look on her face.
—So seeing a fixed future isn’t always such a good thing after all.
—Ahaha. You catch on quickly. As expected of the Apostle of Learning.
—You’re probably the only one in this world who calls me that. The only thing I’ve learned from fighting you is that the fixed future cannot be changed.
—Maybe so. But then again, who knows? Maybe the given future can be changed.
—Didn’t you say it couldn’t?
—That’s true if I try to change it. But no one else has ever tried. So maybe it’ll be different.
—Have you seen a future where the future changes?
—No. Not at all. The future is always fixed. Nothing ever changes.
If Arkenis said so, then it must have been true.
The future could not be changed. That was the shackle imposed by fate itself.
Suruna knew that.
Even knowing, he spoke as if tossing the words aside.
—Fine. Then I’ll change it.
He didn’t even understand why he said that.
But the words were already out.
Suruna decided to keep his momentum and continue.
—I’ll keep getting stronger through my authority until I shatter the future you see.
—Even if it’s an unchangeable future?
—What kind of Great Demon would just take a Saintess’s words at face value and give up?
In a sense, it was a rude thing to say.
He was doubting the Saintess’s ability to see the future and belittling her authority at the same time.
But strangely, Arkenis looked relieved, as if she had been waiting to hear those very words.
—Then let’s make a bet.
—A bet?
—I believe the future cannot be changed. The world will always flow in its fixed form. That’s my stance.
—Then I’m betting that the future can be changed.
Suruna accepted the wager.
—This time, I’ll definitely defeat you.
—......That would be nice. If you ever get the chance, that is.
—What?
—Nothing. You’ll be leaving now, right?
—Yeah. Tell your subordinates to make up a good excuse. Especially that one called Setadel or whatever. He’s too loyal to you—it’s unsettling.
—Setadel is a good person. Still, good intentions don’t always lead to good outcomes, so I’ll talk to him.
—Then I’m off.
That was probably the last time the two of them could talk so comfortably.
If he had known, Suruna would not have left so easily that day.
After that, the Holy War began.
And once Lumenis intervened in the lower realm, everything fell apart.
In the end, Suruna never managed to defeat Arkenis.