I rise.
Within the light, my body floats.
In truth, I stand still. My two feet are planted on the ground. Yet I am without doubt rising right now.
Humans, whose two feet were bound to the earth, must once have looked up at the birds free in the sky without shackles and held yearning in their hearts.
But what we yearned for was not the flapping of wings. It was freedom. The freedom to cross mountains if mountains lay ahead, to cross rivers if rivers lay ahead.
Thus, rising meant the release from shackles; floating meant freedom.
I was, right now, becoming free.
‘......Reconstruction, is it.’
At this moment I sensed the change within me. My body, my mind, my soul were being reconstructed.
In essence, whether a [Challenger], a [Grandmaster], or a [Bronze], the bodily composition is the same. Organs and viscera are there. At the ends of muscles, ligaments extend to touch bone.
But from [Constellation] upward, it is different.
My body was being reconstructed in a form I could not comprehend. The number of ligaments, the very composition of muscle fibers was changing. The count of internal organs and their workings were altering. Even the composition of my blood was transforming.
The sensation of becoming a creature entirely unlike a human.
In this moment, I realized I had become something wholly different from the humans spread all over the ground.
‘So this was it... why Constellations obsess over realms and ranks....’
Just by breathing, I realized I was becoming superior, that I had become an advanced humanity.
As with the two Heroes of old, the dozens of cannons, the several high-ranked assassins, the Challenger-class warrior Falcon Higrid, and Agion who once fought me.
I, too, felt a godlike omnipotence.
‘......’
< ⁺₊⋆ : You are shining bright. >
< ⁺₊⋆ : You are the best! >
A status window floated up as if to pour oil on that emotion.
Childish, yet the meaning carried was different.
As if telling me to savor the feeling of being a superior being above the dregs who never reached Constellationhood......
But I would not be swayed by such pranks of the stars.
< ⧉ 『Game System』 resists. >
It was like dunking my head into ice water.
My mind snapped awake.
‘Who am I?’
Dante Hiakapo.
The only player of this game.
A professor of the Assassination Department, moving to save the world in the Demon King battle.
The world was still under threat. I had not yet definitively saved it, so I was still one who had achieved nothing.
With such thoughts, I regained my center.
‘What has changed?’
First, combat power.
< Total Combat Power : 409,111 → 613,285 (▲204,174) >
First of all, my total combat power had skyrocketed so much that all I had scrabbled to gather until now seemed laughable.
An increase of 200,000 at once, and along with that, [Stats] and [Proficiencies] in many aspects had risen.
Also—
< Stigmata Ability │ Acquired [Lv.9] ability 『Flash Secret Heaven』. >
< Stigmata Ability │ Acquired [Lv.8] ability 『Radiant Bullet』. >
< Stigmata Ability │ Acquired [Lv.8] ability 『Spectrometer Summon』. >
I had acquired three high-rank abilities—Stigmata abilities at that.
『Flash Secret Heaven』 was a footwork inherited and forged by successive Radiant Constellations ⁺₊⋆, the fastest means of traversing long distances among all Stigmata abilities in the world.
Agion once used it to cross 2,000 km from the Goldenfield Auction House to the Empire’s frontier outskirts in just an hour and a half. Save for the level-9 grand magic 『Intercontinental Teleport』, it was the fastest speed.
Another was the summoning of a 「Spectrometer」, a summoning art unique to the Radiant Constellations ⁺₊⋆. An ability that, under certain conditions, let a Radiant Constellation ⁺₊⋆ contend even with higher Constellations.
< ⁺₊⋆ feels great joy at the birth of a new human companion and wishes for you to soar high. [300] >
With even that bonus granted, I now realized that with what I had piled up, I could already reach the tail end of rank 33.
Up to here. Having made a short summary, I turned my head, and astonishment spread over everyone’s faces. Not only the Blazing Constellation of Flame 火 Uki, but the Peaceful Constellation ☮ as well. The guards, too. And lastly—
“......”
The expression of the Reaper Constellation Ω had also turned grave.
She must have come to abduct me, knowing from the Reaper Assassination Corps’ assault that my realm was low. But if I had become the Radiant Constellation ⁺₊⋆, the story was different.
Kiiiiiiiing...
As the light ebbed, the giant Reaper Dolls Ω that the Reaper Constellation Ω had summoned moved to target me.
They, who had been steadily pushed back by Uki’s flames, seized their chance.
Five meters tall, yet each one possessed the might equivalent to a [Grandmaster]. Hooded in white, they swung their great scythes.
『 Flash Secret Heaven 』
In that instant, I moved with the light gathered to a single point, flying into the sky with a beam.
‘Impossible. Such footwork....’
It was a speed nearly akin to teleportation. Most of all, it required no casting motion. No inertia.
Yet the Reapers did not miss the opening and flew in to kill me.
But they were forced to stop.
Uki was standing there.
Wearing a rotten expression.
“......”
Countless thoughts crossed Uki’s mind, but leaving aside emotion, he knew what he had to do.
The relationship of stars comes before the relationships of men. Fire and light are friends.
“...Tch, damn...”
Uki gave me a glance, then scrunched his features and raised his flames. Against the Reaper Constellation Ω and her army of Reaper Dolls.
“......”
The meaning of that act was clear.
The scales tipped.
Now the Blazing Constellation of Flame 火, the Peaceful Constellation ☮, and the Radiant Constellation ⁺₊⋆ were one faction.
Even if she soared and leapt, the Reaper Constellation Ω could do nothing against three Constellations.
“You will meet me again.”
With those grim words, the Reaper Constellation Ω turned away first.
And I, too, could head to Room 17 without obstruction.
Room 17 was where the Bureau’s 17 Elders, with 17 national treasures and treasures, decided the Bureau’s future. But now, fire and killing aura had swept the Bureau’s grounds, so they had fled.
So only 17 chairs arranged in a ㄷ-shape were left.
“...Wait here, Professor Dante Hiakapo. I don’t know how you just became a Constellation, nor why the Reaper Constellation Ω targets you... but you must attend the hearing. Uki! I hope you’ll cooperate as well.”
“...Damn it, what the hell’s going on...? Why did that bastard suddenly...? And what about the Emperor’s assassination? Hey, old man, what happens now?”
“No one knows. It is war.”
While the two exchanged words, I kept silent. I had no choice. An immense flood of information was pouring into my mind, leaving me no chance to speak.
Countless pieces of information tied to this place. In other words, <Synchronization> was occurring in vast quantities.
The information Abraxas had heard from the Reaper Constellation Ω about the Lord of Eternal Return.
The circumstances of Abraxas leaving the Empire Security Bureau.
The way Abraxas slipped secretly into the Kingdom of Hiaka, and his purpose.
The children Abraxas visited at the Hiaka Royal Castle. And the sequence.
‘Ah.’
In that moment, I recalled the fact that Balmung and Elize had followed me unusually well.
That the 「Command」 had worked on them. (Sit! And Elize sat.)
‘I had met them!’
Just before the Second Assassin War broke out. About 15 years ago. Abraxas had met all the children then, five to seven years of age.
And it was not just a simple meeting.
At that time he had saved Balmung from having his three dantians and reproductive ability cut by his own mother.
He had secretly dragged Elize away, about to be slain by her father’s blade, and helped her flee far.
To Kendrake, too stupid and constantly putting a gun in his mouth, he granted the 『Curse of Sinking』.
Before Rebecca entered the royal household, on a country road, he visited Rebecca and her stepfather, who was still living happily with her but plotting to sell her for money. That was just when her stepfather was making the deal with the royal household to hand her over. Abraxas had stood at that scene, too.
‘This man... knew everything....’
It was a startling story. No—beyond startling, it was shocking. There had been other Constellations, like those who wanted to place me in the Assassin Decider, or Kaiser who spoke of Heaven’s Way and mentioned the world’s artificiality. But Abraxas had done far more.
‘Every move Abraxas made was to prepare for the Demon King battle.’
He had no contact with the Hero. It seemed Abraxas had not even known of the Hero’s existence.
Then another question arises. Why had Abraxas moved so? Why had the two assassins of the Hero Party nearly been killed by their parents in childhood?
‘Without a Hero Party, the Demon King cannot be slain.’
But if, before I started the game, they had already died... then was this game structurally designed to be impossible to clear?
Then something struck me. I felt the back of my neck grow hot.
‘...Dino said hundreds of gamers fell into Hell Difficulty, but not one survived.’
Of course, I was an old-timer who spread guides across the community.
But there was no law that said there weren’t other old-timers like me somewhere.
Yet they had all perished. Could it be because this [Hell Difficulty] was structurally impossible to clear?
Abraxas had known that beforehand and acted...... there was no other way to see it.
‘Abraxas visited the Habanero family too.’
But when he visited there, it was not to save anyone.
He merely approached Gray, left alone, dumbfounded after his family’s death, exchanged a few words, laid some [blessing] upon him, and left.
“...??”
Gray, bewildered, bowed his head.
That was it.
There had been brief encounters with Elize, Balmung, Gray, Kendrake.
‘Quan was a Spy Constellation│ㅅㅇ) from the start. So the one with no contact at all in the Dormant Dragon Cadets is Kaiser.’
Because there was Rebecca.
I follow the fringe of memory, walking side by side.
Rebecca at that time was young, but very mature and extreme.
The moment she realized her father had sold her for money, she seemed utterly unable to hold back her rage. Little Rebecca’s heart collapsed. She wept as she raged. After quarreling a few times with royal soldiers, Rebecca, smiling softly, apologized to them. After gaining a brief moment of free time, she returned home.
It was a night of full moon. Rebecca went back to the house where she lived with her stepfather, confirmed he was passed out, and somewhere wove a rope. She tied it to the ceiling.
Dressed in the beautiful court clothes for going to the royal household. She slipped the noose around her neck and kicked the chair.
It was then that Abraxas first revealed his image before Rebecca.
Beneath the moonlight.
Before the sight of a human hanging in daze as though the cord were cut, with toes curled up in the noose.
He pulled Rebecca down from the rope. Took her outside, let her float in the sky with him, showed her fireworks above the heavens.
‘......Ah.’
And in this moment, I recalled the red eyes of Rebecca with whom I had a contract marriage.
The way little Rebecca had gazed up at ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Abraxas.
And the way adult Rebecca’s eyes, from the time contract marriage was mentioned, had suddenly grown docile—
were astonishingly alike.
‘......’
After those memories passed, Abraxas had headed to the royal household.
There he had fully grasped about the Lord of Eternal Return.
‘Damn.’
But <Synchronization> ended there. His memory had been forged two- and threefold.
‘The royal household... the last answer is in the royal household.’
And that place seemed to be the “Sanctum of Setian, the Two-Horned Demonkin” that Rebecca had told me of. A suspicious site within the palace veiled by a great curtain.
I was certain.
If I went there, I would gain the last memory about the Demon King.