“What?” the specter couldn’t help but bark out in question.
This wasn’t Babel or Pandemonium. This place wasn’t even in Helmuth. So what was the Demon King of Incarceration doing here?
Until just now, the specter had been heading to Nahama. He was flying over a desert in the middle of nowhere. After first crossing this desert, he intended to figure out his approximate location, then head straight to where Amelia Merwin was.
Amelia Merwin was sure to be startled by his sudden appearance and might even scream. So, after giving her a tight slap on the cheek… the specter intended to kill the Sultan.
This was because he felt like the Sultan was no longer necessary.
Nahama’s defeat in this coming war was already assured. The specter himself was also hoping for Nahama’s defeat. He had no intention of granting the Sultan the glory that the man so wished for. Since the Sultan was only meant to be used as a puppet, in any case, after killing the Sultan… the specter was considering disguising himself as the Sultan.
But what was this? Why had the Demon King of Incarceration suddenly appeared out of nowhere? The specter turned to look around him, utterly unable to understand what was happening.
The sky around him was dark. There wasn’t a speck of light, but the figure of the Demon King was clearly visible. It was as if a picture had been drawn in a different color on top of a sheet of black paper.
The specter knew what this strange world was. This was the palace of the Demon King of Incarceration, which was usually located on the ninety-first floor of Babel. It was also the place the specter had barged into just a month ago.
“This is my palace,” the Demon King of Incarceration, who was standing in the sky, confirmed with a smile. “...Although it might be called that, I don’t really think of it as a palace.”
The specter couldn’t understand what the Demon King meant by those words and that smile of his. This was partly because the Demon King of Incarceration he was currently facing seemed to be very different from the last time they had met. For one thing, he appeared genuinely happy. Also….
“This place matches well with my name,” the Demon King of Incarceration revealed.
…he was being charitable enough to provide clues to a question that the specter hadn’t even asked yet.
“It’s a prison,” the specter muttered in a low voice.
If it was a place that matched well with the name ‘Incarceration,’ didn’t that just mean a prison? Of course, the specter still couldn’t fully comprehend what calling it a prison truly meant.
However, at least from what was currently visible, he thought that the word prison quite suited this place. This was a space in which no light source existed. He didn’t understand how exactly the Demon King’s palace ran all the way from the ninety-first floor of Babel to the ninety-night floor, but each of these nine floors was filled solely with darkness.
There was absolutely no light to illuminate this darkness. It might look like the night sky, but no stars or moon existed. That said, both of their existences clearly seemed to possess color and stood out against the blackness of their surroundings.
In front of the specter was the one and only Demon King of Incarceration.
Floating in the middle of the darkness like this, the Demon King truly seemed to embody his title. This was indeed someone whose role was to imprison something.
But at the same time, the Demon King also seemed to be someone who had himself been imprisoned. Just look at the Demon King’s back. Going far beyond the thousands or even tens of thousands, a truly countless number of chains were connected to his back.
Were those chains imprisoning the Demon King himself? Or perhaps, was the Demon King imprisoning some other entity with those chains? The specter couldn’t tell where exactly the difference might lie.
“That’s right,” the Demon King of Incarceration nodded with a smile. “Just like you said, this place is a prison.”
“Is this your prison?” the specter tentatively asked.
But the Demon King of Incarceration just continued to smile widely instead of giving an immediate response.
The specter changed the subject, “I don’t know why you’re doing this. Didn’t you already kick me out of here last time?”
“That’s because, at that time, I couldn’t give you what you wanted,” the Demon King replied.
—Are you feeling confused?
—Are you looking for the meaning of your existence and the power that you’ve been granted?
—It appears that you would rather die at my hand instead.
In this palace, in this prison… those were the words that the Demon King of Incarceration had said to him.
—It seems that you are misunderstanding something.
At that time, the specter had wished for death. If he died while fighting the Demon King of Incarceration, and if he managed to inflict even the slightest of wounds on the Demon King during the process, then he had felt that it would be a satisfactory death. A death better than one Hamel had faced.
—Since you have come here looking to die by my hand, there is no way I would kill you.
The Demon King had denied the specter’s wish, mocked him, and gone on to say, ' A Demon King is not a god.’ Thus, there was no reason for the Demon King of Incarceration to grant the specter’s earnest wish.
“The meaning of your existence is something that you need to seek by yourself,” the Demon King of Incarceration whispered the words that the specter had failed to hear the last time they had met. “It is not something you should look for from a Demon King.”
“What?” the specter frowned, having had trouble hearing the Demon King.
“Oh, my nameless specter, you have found the answer to your existence all by yourself. It doesn’t seem like a very satisfactory answer in my eyes, but like I said… I am not a god. If this is the answer that you have found by yourself and if it satisfies you, then it must be the right answer for you,” the Demon King encouraged him.
Fate often repeated itself. The Demon King of Incarceration was more aware of this fact than any other Demon King, or any God, or even any other being in this world.
“As such, I must acknowledge your existence,” the Demon King said with a nod. “You are truly special.”
The specter’s growth was why the Demon King could say this next sentence with confidence.
“You are a unique existence that will not exist when the next time comes around and can only exist in the present,” the Demon King declared.
The specter’s current fate could never be repeated.
As such, the Demon King of Incarceration had decided to interfere with this newly generated fate. He wanted to take the chance to observe this fate, which could never be repeated and was destined to exist only once.
“Oh, nameless specter, I am curious about your answer to the question of your own existence as something that cannot exist, should not exist, and yet still exists,” the Demon King confessed.
Clicliclink.
One of the countless chains connected to the Demon King of Incarceration’s back rattled into action. The specter quickly tried to avoid it, but he found himself unable to move. He couldn’t escape from this place even if he used the dark power of Destruction. This pitch-black space, this palace or prison, whatever it was, had imprisoned the specter’s very existence.
“So allow me to show you something,” the Demon King of Incarceration whispered.
The long chain stretched out and touched the specter.
The specter wasn’t able to escape from this contact. The chain didn’t try to pierce through the specter’s body or shatter his form into pieces. It was just a light touch.
However, the shock that the specter felt due to this touch was greater than what he would have felt had his body been pierced through or shattered. It was much more painful and harrowing than even the seemingly endless eternity that he had been trapped in while being blended with the dark power of Destruction during the process of being reborn as the Incarnation of Destruction.
Time passed slowly.
The Demon King of Incarceration simply waited without showing any sign of impatience. He was genuinely curious and interested to see what kind of answer the specter would come up with now.
Eventually, the specter weakly parted his lips, “What….”
Unable to remain standing upright, the specter staggered and fell to his knees.
Rooooar!
The specter pressed his head against the ground in agonizing pain. It felt like his skull was being pounded into pieces. His brain was on the verge of collapsing after being forced to comprehend knowledge that it didn’t want to accept, and various distorted reflections could be seen in his eyes as images scrolled through his vision.
“What… did you do to me?” the specter asked weakly while still gasping for breath. “...Just what kind of answer… do you even want from me?”
“I don’t have any expectations on what your answer might be,” the Demon King of Incarceration replied. “Because whatever answer you come up with will be the right one for you.”
“Then why… do something like this… to me?” the specter asked, barely managing to catch his breath. He paused for a moment before speaking once more, “Why pick me?”
“I, as someone who is connected to all cause and effect in this world, cannot directly interfere with the present,” the Demon King informed him.
“...,” the specter listened to this claim silently.
“However, you are unique,” the Demon King repeated. “I wasn’t able to foresee your existence. And there will be no other existence like you in the future either.”
“...I,” the specter eventually spat, “just get me out of here. Send me to where I was going.”
The specter had no desire to voice the answer that the Demon King of Incarceration had proven so curious about.
But the Demon King of Incarceration didn’t seem to feel any disappointment due to this.
He could see it in the specter’s eyes. Compared to when they first met in Babel, the specter felt incomparably more confused about everything he had once thought he knew. Yet even so, the specter would find an answer. Now that the deeper mysteries had been revealed to him, he should be able to find the right answer.
The specter had asked to be sent to his intended destination… the Demon King of Incarceration gave a broad smile and nodded in agreement.
“And one more thing,” the specter spat out through gritted teeth.
Although the following words had come without warning, the Demon King of Incarceration wasn’t flustered by the specter’s additional request. Instead, he actually took pleasure in the specter’s demand.
“It’s not a difficult request to grant,” the Demon King nodded his agreement.
With that, the specter left.
Left all alone in his palace, the smile faded from the face of the Demon King of Incarceration.
“So that’s the case,” the Demon King of Incarceration muttered to himself, finally able to understand what Vermouth’s intentions might have been.
He now knew why that pathetic yet noble, determined yet desperate man had chosen such a being to serve as his Incarnation.
“You wanted it to finally end,” muttered the Demon King, who was both prisoner and jailor, in the quiet of his prison.
Fwoooosh!
When the specter opened his eyes again, he saw grains of sand being carried by the gusting wind.
He was in the desert once more. The specter gasped for breath and then sat down shakily. Unlike in the Demon King’s palace, where there wasn’t even a single ray of light, out here, the light was extremely bright.
The specter bent forward and placed both hands on top of the sand. The hot sand that had been scorched by the blazing rays of the sun burned his palms.
Drip. Drip.
Cold drops of sweat fell onto the sand and evaporated immediately.
“...,” the specter silently stayed bent over like this for quite some time.
The things that the Demon King of Incarceration had shown him and forced him to comprehend were all swirling inside his head.
“Urrrp…!”
In the end, the specter couldn’t stand it any longer and had to vomit, but the only thing that spurted from his mouth was black blood. After digging furrows in the sand with his fingers, the specter clutched at his head as he kept spitting out dark blood over and over again.
Cracracrack!
His fingers dug into his own skull, and a mix of blood and brain matter poured out.
Even though the sides of his head had just been crushed, the specter still couldn’t stop the thoughts running through his mind.
‘I, whatever I choose to do, will it really be the right thing for me?’
The Demon King of Incarceration had acted like he was stating the obvious.
The specter bit down on his bottom lip and grabbed fistfuls of his newly regenerated hair.
“...,” the specter silently got to his feet.
Forcing himself to stay standing, the specter raised his head to look at the sky.
The blazing hot sun was so bright that it felt like it was burning holes in his eyes. The sky, distorted from the heat of the sun, looked so deep and blue. For a few moments, the specter just stared up into the lofty sky.
Then he turned his head. The specter saw the desert with its endless waves of sand dunes. Through the sandy winds, far into the distance, the specter saw what he had been hoping to see: a city built within this barren desert. Even in this land, where there was only sand, life still existed. People had banded together and made a life for themselves.
The specter looked further into the distance.
Hamel’s memories and the specter’s memories mixed together. Both groups of memories contributed an image of the world in front of him as it had once been, and the two images overlapped within the specter’s vision. So, for a few moments, the specter was left looking at an image of the world projected entirely from his memories, a world that no longer existed in this present day.
This refreshing feeling finally calmed the specter’s heart, leaving even the specter himself surprised at how quickly his heart had settled.
The specter blinked his eyes a few times. When he did so, his vision returned to looking at reality. Soon, the specter had decided on what to do next. His next course of action hadn’t changed much from his original plans.
However, there was a huge change in the emotions the specter had invested into his plans. There was an added sense of desperation.
The specter turned his head to the side. He saw a different city than the one he had been looking at just now. This was the most bustling city in all of Nahama. Its capital city — Hauria. The specter stared directly at the Sultan’s palace, a gorgeous building that stood tall in the center of the city.
Right now, the true master of that palace was no longer the Sultan. Amelia Merwin was currently sitting on the throne in the palace instead of the Sultan. The Dungeon Masters of the desert, who boasted their own long history, had elevated Amelia Merwin to the position of their Grandmaster and had sworn to serve her. Hundreds of black wizards had encamped themselves within the palace, and dozens of high-ranking demonfolk were having their own fun with the Sultan’s harem.
The specter glared at the den of petty demonfolk.
Originally, the specter hadn’t had any desire to spare any more of his focus on the war that would soon be taking place here in the desert. After giving everyone a push on their backs and letting Amelia run as wild as she wanted, he would sacrifice Amelia to Eugene, who had more than enough justification to come looking for her personally, and then… after that….
Just like he had with Molon, the specter wanted to fight with Eugene. He didn’t have any hopes that Eugene might have anything good to say about him. He also didn’t have any expectation that Eugene might come to acknowledge him.
Even so, the specter thought that that was fine. Ultimately, their fight would end with the victory of the genuine article, and the fake would have an exit befitting of his nature as the fake.
That was how the nameless specter had planned to end his own life.
But not anymore.
***
After everything she had gone through, Hemoria had finally ended up lurking in the shadows of the city’s back alleys within the slums of Hauria.
However, Hemoria… wasn’t all that dissatisfied with her current situation. Because, in Hemoria’s opinion, whether it was the wealthy merchants, the high-ranking nobles, the devout priests, the drunkards who spent every day drowning themselves in wine, the petty thieves who picked other people’s pockets, the murderers who plunged their knives into other people’s bodies, and all the other types of people that could be found within these alleys, they were all just human in the end, which meant their blood didn’t taste all that different.
In other words, Hemoria didn’t have much of a problem when it came to securing her meals. After drinking all sorts of blood and chewing all kinds of flesh, she found that most humans were edible as long as they were still alive when she got her hands on them.
Perhaps this was because Hemoria had never considered herself to be a gourmet. Still, Hemoria didn't feel much dissatisfaction over the fact that her life had led her to drink the blood of the beggars who lived in the slums.
However….
The reality was that Hemoria had had no choice but to hide in these slums. Also, the frequent throbbing in her chest caused Hemoria to feel constantly afraid.
‘That bitch will definitely try to kill me if she gets the chance,’ Hemoria thought with worry.
Hemoria had indeed betrayed Amelia, but she couldn’t help but feel slightly aggrieved that the black wizard had found out so quickly. After all, she hadn’t betrayed Amelia outright; instead, she had conspired to betray her.
While being assigned to spy on Sienna Merdein, Hemoria attempted to contact the Archwizard and secretly handed over information on Amelia. Hemoria’s plan had been to get Sienna to kill Amelia when the Archwizard had the opportunity to do so someday.
Her actions had only been possible because Amelia was dying. The connection between them had become thinner due to the distance, and Amelia’s control over her had no longer been as powerful as it was before. On top of that, Hemoria’s strength had increased as a result of receiving Alphiero’s blood.
At first, Hemoria wondered if it would be possible to hide from Amelia and use the ritual that the dark wizard was spreading around to become a Demon King herself.
But after listening to various pieces of news, she had given up on that course of action. Even if she did become a Demon King, it seemed like she would just end up being subjugated by that damned Eugene Lionheart, the Saint, and the Wise Sienna.
In that case, it would be better to just sell out Amelia, obtain complete freedom, and then disappear and go into hiding.
If the world became even more chaotic, that would be satisfying as well.
While that might be one of Hemoria’s deepest wishes, what she hoped for even more than that was for Amelia to die. Her utmost wish was to see Amelia die a miserable death in front of her. And if Amelia’s death happened to be brought about by her own betrayal of the dark wizard, then—
“Grgrk,” Hemoria ground her teeth in frustration.
Some time ago, Amelia suddenly appeared in Nahama without even contacting Hemoria beforehand. Amelia also didn’t have the same deathly look she had the last time they met. So when Amelia, who seemed to be in perfect health, came face to face with Hemoria, the dark wizard immediately noticed that her pet’s leash had become loose.
Hemoria had run away before the leash could be tightened once more. After all, what if Amelia read her mind, and dreams of betrayal were revealed? Things wouldn’t end with just the violent punishments that she had received before. Hemoria didn’t want to die, so Hemoria slipped away into the darkness and ended up wandering the slums.
‘She must be looking for me,’ Hemoria thought with fear as she manipulated the blood in her body to force her heart to keep beating.
Amelia had managed to somehow escape death and recover her strength, but fortunately for Hemoria, her restraints were still loosened. Otherwise, Hemoria’s heart would have burst right away, or her body would have started moving on its own and forced her to return to Amelia.
‘I need to look for an opportunity to hide—’ Hemoria wasn’t able to finish that thought.
Startled, Hemoria raised her head as she sensed something above her.
The tall buildings around her only permitted a narrow view of the sky. Hemoria had been trying to not draw any unwanted attention, but now she had no choice but to make a move. Nervous, Hemoria leaped up to the roof of a nearby building.
“What… is that…?” Hemoira murmured.
Looking over Hauria’s city walls, a large black cloud could be seen amassing in the distance. Although it was still far away, Hemoria was astonished to see the things floating within those clouds.
Hemoria had spotted the Centipede Mountains that had previously been fused into the sky of the underground city of Ravesta. And apart from them, numerous other demonic beasts that had once been sealed in Ravesta were also now floating within those clouds.