In that instant, the Witch couldn’t understand what had happened to her.
She only understood that she was breaking apart after a smile was drawn on Legion’s dying face.
‘......Huh.’
She was breaking apart.
Following a single line drawn from around below the pelvis, her viscera, the area around her heart, her clavicle, her lower jaw, her lips and cheeks—she was breaking apart.
Her head tilted to the side in a way even she couldn’t understand, and that was the only luck that let her avoid instant death.
‘......How.’
Still unable to understand—
In that moment. The spirits of Reaper Constellation Ω—four Reapers Ω—appeared and caught her as she collapsed. Then they hurriedly drew up mana and fixed the body that was about to shatter.
They were beings who oversaw death, with no particular power when it came to saving lives, but—
For moments like this, the Witch had one piece of insurance.
Out of the four Reapers, the one Reaper who alone adjusted a pink hat placed a hand near the Witch’s heart.
「 ♥ 」
With that, a red barrier formed and held her body together as it tried to break.
This was nothing more than keeping her breath attached.
The instant the barrier broke, the Witch’s already-split body would be unable to exchange matter.
In other words, she would become a corpse.
‘.......’
Only now, the thought that entered the Witch’s mind as she barely survived wasn’t pain, or that she’d been defeated, or the sensation of being close to death.
The Witch couldn’t understand.
‘......Why.’
She was the Reaper Constellation Ω, and at this point in time, Rank 2. If you talked about “tiers” even among [Constellations], she was one of the two standing in the sky.
And 「Authority of Death」 was power that, no matter which Constellation she poured it on, would inflict a fatal wound—and if the Constellation’s level was a little lower, it could almost certainly kill them.
‘......Why, even this.’
Why had it returned to her with a single word.
With just one ridiculous word: “Reflect”......
Of course, it wasn’t a perfect reflection.
Legion, too, was standing crookedly, bleeding. But that expression—on that mouth that had been broken—now had a smile hanging on it.
“...Impressive, isn’t it?”
Legion took a few steps back and leaned against a wall.
Then he sank down weakly.
Under the moonlight, blood ran down from his mouth.
“.......”
Countless assassins standing atop tall buildings at a distance hesitated with their swords drawn.
No matter how skilled you were.
No matter how experienced an assassin you were.
This was the first time in your life you’d seen a situation like this.
They couldn’t decide what to do.
“This is... this is the ‘language’ of a higher dimension....... I was half doubtful, but after facing you, I know for sure.... No matter how you fly and crawl. No matter how outstanding you are. If you’re a being bound to this world, you can’t resist before my ‘language.’”
It was the most primordial will composing this world.
A will that ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) refused to let one world end in happiness.
A force that kept granting trials, trying to return a climber who wanted to rise high back to the primordial beginning again.
Eternal Return.
“......If this world is a single play, then everyone lives and dies inside their assigned role.”
That was why the seat of the Demon King was something the entire world did not allow.
“But someone had a question.”
A role was providence born from the ancient beginning.
Setian was not satisfied with his role.
“He couldn’t accept it.”
So if it was an order the world had decided, he swore he would twist it with the ancient language and become the Lord of Eternal Return.
“......Do you even...... know...... who that is......?”
The Witch asked, moving her half-shattered mouth. A droplet of blood formed there.
“I don’t. Me.”
Legion merely understood one thing.
The blind will of the one who made this power.
To demons, humans are enemies.
To what extent is that sensation?
The moment you see one on the street, you want to run over and kill them.
If you stay in that house for even one day, by night you feel like chopping up the entire family.
This was similar to the sensation awakened humanity felt when facing demons.
From the most basic, fundamental molding, they were made to hate each other.
And yet—
“But I know one thing.”
Setian, changing masks, had spent nearly five hundred years smiling inside human society.
Suppressing the disgust that rose every day.
Turning away from the hatred that swelled every minute, every second.
Smiling at the face of a newborn you wanted to strangle.
Patting their head.
Blessing them.
In front of people, as a mature, strict, dependable... just slightly peculiar in how much he doted on his own sanctuary, a splendid chancellor and respected elder.
He lived like that for five hundred years.
“That person wanted the whole world to be destroyed. With his own hand.”
Even after Setian died, that will did not disappear.
In this world, will transmits mana.
All data has a maximum storage range.
And a permitted will escapes the program unit and creates an error.
The manifestation of overflow.
This was the truth of humanity’s first 100-series curse.
The truth of 「Demon King-ization」.
“Pretty older sister. Want me to tell you something?”
“.......”
While the Witch still just stared blankly, Legion, getting excited, decided to talk a little more.
“You didn’t doubt it because you thought this world was everything, right. You believed in your realm. Your power. The superiority that crushes others. You thought you were the second-strongest frog in the well. But you know what’s outside the well?”
“.......”
“Outside the well, they say there are worlds beyond count. This place is just one of those wells. I don’t know whether it’s big or small....... In another well, there might be a being overwhelmingly stronger than you.”
“.......”
“The problem is, they say there’s one ‘owner’ per well. That isn’t you. And it won’t be that Transcendent Constellation✯ who’s Rank 1 but has ascended up in the sky and has no interest in worldly affairs....... There’s someone else. A ‘well-keeper’ receiving the privileges of the entire world.”
And Legion still didn’t know exactly who that was.
A 100-series curse only has the purpose and direction of the curse itself.
It doesn’t transmit knowledge.
“I’m going to kill that well-keeper.”
At that moment.
The Witch realized exactly who the “well-keeper” Legion was talking about.
There were many great people in this world.
Many strong people, many outstanding people, many wise or wealthy people.
But there was only one human who appeared out of nowhere, flipped the whole world upside down and shook it, then stopped moving perfectly right after an incident ended—and did the exact same thing twice.
“......You......?”
Clutching at her ragged breathing, the Witch asked.
Even now, her personality was still her personality, so her voice carried a sneer.
Even I.
No—
A man even the Constellations of the whole world, and the kings and emperors of nations, and even the agent of that Lord of Eternal Return couldn’t do anything about.
“......A thing like you, with what method...?”
The humor vanished from Legion’s mouth.
“I’m going to go outside the well. I’ll go out and seek greater power. Then I’ll come back and kill the well-keeper.”
“...Hah.”
“Hah? Did you just laugh at me?”
“...So what if I did?”
“.......”
Legion’s mouth twitched.
He was a being with no desire at all, perfectly chaste and pure, so he could laugh when a taxi driver scammed a few coins—
But he couldn’t laugh at words that denied the purpose of existence.
“Don’t laugh at me.”
But the Witch wasn’t the type to bend just because something growled.
“...Why would I?”
“.......”
“...Look at yourself. Look at the dream you’re trying to hold. Isn’t it funny?”
“It’s not funny at all. That’s why I told you not to laugh. Listen while I’m saying it nicely. I’m starting to get really angry.”
“...Don’t want to.”
“Stop it. Stop. Stop laughing at me. If you keep laughing like that, I start wanting to kill you for real. Why don’t you understand that the only reason you’re still alive and breathing is because of my mercy?”
“...Try killing me, then.”
“No? No. I can’t. I can’t. Sorry, but you can’t die here. Until I go outside the well and come back, I absolutely need you and your power.”
“......What are you talking about? I—”
“【Stop.】”
Ttuk—
Like someone pressed a [pause] button on the world.
This time, the Witch’s mouth, which had been about to insult Legion at length while even taking a big breath in, shut.
At the same time, all the assassins who had been about to rush in as Legion’s rising excitement surged also stopped.
In the middle of them, Legion, wearing a white top soaked in blood, slowly pushed himself off the wall and stood.
He looked around at everyone who was frozen.
Then he asked.
“【Will you help me?】”
At that moment, the light in the assassins’ eyes began to fade.
The killing intent was erased.
The will was erased.
The different colors in their eyes that had been tapping out complicated calculators in their heads—all of it blurred.
One by one.
Clearly.
“.......”
That flow, carrying contagion, reached even the Reapers as well.
And finally—
“.......”
It stole the light from the Witch’s eyes too.
“.......”
With the expression that had been sneering now gone,
the Witch stared blankly at Legion.
“.......”
He asked her to help.
So she felt like she should help.
───
if (event.trigger == TriggerType::VoiceCommand &&
event.command == "Will you help me?" &&
IsHostile(event.target) &&
HasWillOverride(event.caster))
{
event.target.SetRelation(event.caster, Relation::Ally);
event.target.AI.SetState(AIState::Assist);
event.target.AI.SetTarget(event.caster);
LogSystemEvent("HOSTILITY_OVERRIDE_BY_VOICE");
}
───
***
It was right before the Witch was consumed by some kind of “influence.” The Reaper wearing the pink hat closed its eyes and transmitted its will somewhere.
「 ♥ 」
That will flew and reached the sky—
│m♥] ...??
│mo) ...?!
It reached two spirits who were watching the situation.