The man, Kaiser, limped his steps and stood upon a high mountain. Three Constellations stood with him. None of them followed Kaiser, but their interests meshed.
“Whoa, he’s truly a terrifying fellow. Dante Hiakapo is....”
“Even among Constellations, at that level he’s probably climbing the ranks faster than anyone in history.”
When Kaiser raised his hand, they too closed their mouths.
Right now, far over there, indescribable light and darkness began to tangle and clash.
Kaiser thought.
If the world were a single stage, then now the two monsters who had reached the final stage were about to dance. He, by birth, would have been nothing but a spectator.
Yet by chance he had been ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ called up onto the stage. Now he stood to the side of that stage.
Having looked out upon the mandate of heaven, Kaiser realized that this point in time was the last.
Only now. There was something only he could do.
“...Forgive me, Professor.”
Everything is a process for this world to find what is right.
***
Humanity stands before a great war with the demonfolk.
It was the tale warned of by the global flow, by the royal family, by the faculty.
In other words, a reality all the professors were aware of.
A colleague they had lived with died. The Mage Tower where they lectured collapsed. At last the great Challenger Shaman Kreutz died. The professors thought:
Perhaps we might die here.
In fact, before the overwhelming might of Summoneken, even the professors who had once acted with pride during Kreutz’s surprise attack were losing their fighting spirit.
They felt fear.
Professors are human, too.
Before natural disasters and catastrophe, humans rightly crumble away.
At that moment, a god revealed himself before them.
The instant Radiant Constellation⁺₊⋆ revealed himself, the faculty each greatly gasped and looked to the sky.
A man riding a massive shaft of light and descending.
Dante Hiakapo.
For some reason he had wounds all over his body and blood ran from his brow. As if he had already fought.
But that momentum, at least, was clearly not human.
“ Raise the sword, O levy. ”
The moment he recited the activation words, a national treasure bared an unseen aura.
『 Spectrometer Summon 』
After a crystal-shaped prism was formed in midair, a somewhat more brilliant light burst from his flesh.
Even for those who were professors, seeing a Constellation’s battle was an event one could count once or twice in a lifetime.
When that Constellation was on one’s own side—
the swelling emotion an ally felt was a thing hard to express in language.
And as the moment reached a hair-trigger, the two-horned demonfolk Summoneken opened his mouth for the first time.
“ Dante Hiakapo. ”
It was not a human voice.
“ The deaths here are what you have brought. ”
It was the voice of a beast.
“ What of Betelgeuse. ”
“ Why ask what’s obvious. If you mean that rat, I made him into chunks of meat and choked off his breath. ”
At those words the Black Abyss faculty of the Department of Assassination gnashed their teeth.
Betelgeuse was like the spiritual pillar of Hiaka’s Black Abyss. A being everyone followed like a father.
“ You betrayed me. Even though you swore before that vile Curse Suit♠. You nevertheless sent the dark hands to crawl into my sanctuary. ”
“ Betrayed, you say... ”
“ Are you saying you can deny it? At the very least, I tried to preserve you and those around you... Everything is what you have brought. I will devour you, your family, everything you cherish. ”
“ Let’s correct your language first. ”
“ What.”
“ I did not betray you. To begin with, I never built trust with a beast whelp that eats people. How can there be betrayal when I never believed. ”
“ ....... ”
Summoneken’s eyes narrowed.
“ And to find the Lord of Eternal Return, your sanctuary is necessary. I earnestly asked you to open it, and you were the one who refused. ”
“ ...Fine. Then even now, I’ll grant a chance once. So you can head to the sanctuary. ”
Summoneken’s momentum eased. This, though he was a monster who hadn’t even blinked as he trampled hundreds and thousands of professors and cadets of Hiaka Academy.
“ I refuse. ”
“ ...What did you say? ”
“ You refused the request. You broke the peace. Though time remained on the contract, you were the first to thrust a blade. And now you even broke my loyal tool. There is nothing you can reverse now. ”
Betelgeuse died in the line of duty.
The crow he cherished followed its master.
Many professors, many cadets, were caught up in the situation and died.
In the end even Ezekiel was gravely wounded, and Shaman Kreutz, struck by a 90s-series curse, sacrificed himself.
“ There is no language left to deliver to you. I intend to handle you as one handles a beast. ”
Dante Hiakapo’s momentum began to grow shockingly sharp. All the professors set on the field there felt—though he was an ally—a thick killing intent burst forth enough to sting their skin.
“ Die. ”
At last, he began to fly in. Enveloped in the radiance of 『Flash Secret of Heaven』, he turned light into a single sword and struck Summoneken directly.
Light blasted up high to the heavens.
Flash! Kwakwakwakwa-boom!!
Through demonization, the giant two-horned demonfolk roughly 20 meters tall—Summoneken—had a hole punched in his abdomen.
Reeling in midair if the hit registered, Summoneken staggered. But there were no organs in the abdomen, deeply shattered as it was. It was simply empty space.
Summoneken did not only take hits. Halting again, he burst the mana he had gathered and began explosively summoning hornless demonfolk.
The sky tore, and gray demonfolk resembling humans poured down like rain.
< Prepare for battle!! >
A roar like it would tear ears sounded. It was Glory.
< We must move! Warriors and assassins, pin them down before the demonfolk spread, and mages, blow them up! >
His command had the power to awaken a person’s head. Even now, beneath Dante who flashed light while flying and contended with the one-horned demonfolk, the professors moved and attacked the hornless demonfolk.
Meanwhile, Dante’s martial might was truly shockingly strong.
『 Spectrometer Summon 』
Right after the giant crystal set in the sky increased to two, he moved in earnest.
『Armory of the Celestial Soldier』
From the heavens something like a meteor shower blanketed the firmament and poured down on the two giant demonfolk.
In an instant it split Soserche’s ribs in half, and even “Kambatuk” had its 108 arms and head split in half.
Belatedly, Soserche 『Teleported』 its massive bulk whole, moving behind the mage faculty. Lighting all its remaining ribs, with a 『Destruction Ray』 it targeted the mages. A purple, ominous ray swept the mages. But it was blocked by Ezekiel’s 『Six-Sea Tortoise Wall』.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaang !!!
The old royal professor who had sunk to his knees gagged and spat blood.
“Department Head!!”
“Goddammit! Hold those bastards off a little more!!”
Meanwhile yet another giant crystal body increased in the sky.
『 Spectrometer Summon 』
It was steadily increasing Dante’s output by 20% each time, and from an absolute disadvantage, once Dante appeared it had become even, and now it was moving to humanity’s advantage. Everyone believed so.
But Ezekiel’s thoughts differed.
‘Dante’s essence is an illusionist.’
Yet he does not use illusions. He cannot use them. Why?
‘Summoneken keeps scattering the [Stigma] of Reaper Constellation Ω and scraping the space.’
Summoneken knew exactly what made Dante Hiakapo uncomfortable.
Radiant Constellation⁺₊⋆ was also not a star with strong physical might. It was a star that manipulates light to hide essence and manifest phantasm.
‘Indeed Dante is alone facing three one-horned demonfolk and a two-horned demonfolk... but he lacks finishing power.’
Strictly speaking, the finishing power itself was not lacking. But Summoneken had already assumed battle with Dante and brought every setup he could, sniping Dante.
Just then, one 「Spectrometer」 was broken by Summoneken’s black magic.
Jjang—rang—!!
Illusions were blocked. 『Armory of the Celestial Soldier』 was spent on the one-horned demonfolk, and 「Giant Soldier’s Sword○」 did not reach easily.
The Radiant Constellation’s stigma abilities could reach, yes, but knowing that, Summoneken also desperately shattered and broke the 「Spectrometer」.
‘...If the spectrometers become four, it’s Dante’s overwhelming victory.’
Dante once more created the third 『Spectrometer』. It poured light like a tiny sun and brightened the night,
but Summoneken also drew out the 「Reaper’s Scythe Ω」 to check him.
It was, among the thirteen blades of the 「Grim Reaper Ω」 said to have been used by the Thirteen Demons, the 「Fallen Angel’s Grim Reaper Ω」.
With each strike, space split by dozens of meters and even severed radiance.
And at last, high up in the sky, at a height near enough to touch space itself, a fourth 『Spectrometer』 began to be set.
It seemed Dante was pouring his strength to lay the spectrometer while avoiding the [Stigma] of Reaper Constellation Ω.
‘Please, please...!!’
Surrounded by clergy and receiving treatment, Ezekiel clenched his fist tight.
“ Nonsense. ”
However, Summoneken sent vibrations of the Reaper Constellation Ω’s stigma far, and the 『Spectrometer』 was broken.
It had been an illusion! At this, Ezekiel was aghast,
‘Dante can cast illusions at such far distances, and that bastard can break even illusions that far away!’
Dante again set a spectrometer even farther, and Summoneken broke even that.
It was truly a battle beyond common sense. The two were, with a space easily fifty to a hundred kilometers aloft between them, a god and a monster pitting strength.
“ Do you still not understand? It means that within my domain your illusions, wherever they may be in this world so long as this body is, cannot deceive me. ”
Summoneken, too, seeming in high spirits, let his voice flow with the Reaper’s Scythe in hand.
But in the next moment, Ezekiel’s mouth fell agape.
‘F-Finished!!’
The fourth spectrometer was complete.
‘How?’
No, more than that—where?
Had he perhaps installed it in space? That made no sense at all.
Just then Dante Hiakapo spoke low.
“ I have no need to deceive the world. ”
As Summoneken’s face crumpled, Ezekiel also realized.
Ezekiel’s abdomen, which Dante had broken beforehand!
There is no reason to put the Reaper Constellation Ω’s [Stigma] there. It would confuse even his own mana.
There, Dante had used 『World Forgery』 to forge sense and the entire space, and completed the 『Spectrometer』!
“ I only need to deceive you. ”
Within that space of about two meters in diameter, dazzling light began to burst!
『Punishment from Heaven』
The four 『Spectrometers』 simultaneously burst light. Immediately thereafter, from high in the heavens, starlight poured like lightning and trapped Summoneken’s body in light, and now that nimble monster who loved confusion was frozen still.
“ Eve―! ”
At the same time the order fell. The female-type Hero, who from the moment Dante arrived had sheathed the holy sword and conserved her strength, soared high into the sky.
Dante’s light naturally embraced her and shot her toward the monstrosity.
The 『Swordsteel』 gushing from the holy sword even contained light drawn from Dante’s radiance and exuded sanctity. It vwooomed, unfolded, gathered to a point, and thus was compressed in several layers and held within the blade.
“ Kgh!!! ”
While Summoneken, unable to move, convulsed, Eve’s sword dug toward that deeply gouged abdomen.
Boom ─
From the abdomen into the heart, the light that was driven through pierced the two-horned demonfolk’s back and covered the sky. Dozens of kilometers around were lit bright as midday.
There was no scream, but the body of that massive two-horned demonfolk bent. One horn snapped.