Arifureta : King Of Demons

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"I apologize for being late, Uncle Din."

After Alv's soul vanished and silence reigned, Aletia gently turned Alv's—no, Dienleed's—body onto its back and gazed at his face. Unlike Aletia, Dienleed wasn't a throwback vampire. However, perhaps due to Alv's soul's influence, or because the body was already dead, Dienleed's appearance hadn't changed at all in 300 years from Aletia's memory. This only served to vividly recall past memories, and tears streamed down Aletia's cheeks.

"It is thanks to Uncle Din that I am here today... Please, rest peacefully."

She said this, then gently laid her hand over Dienleed's face, closing his open eyelids. Aldias, who had been watching from the side, knelt beside Aletia and offered a silent prayer.

"Dienleed Gardia Vespertilio Avatar. Your valiant figure, who stood against God for the sake of your sole family... Your decision to hurt the one you loved to protect them... Your resolve to protect them, no matter how much hatred you incurred... I will never forget it. I will carry on your legacy."

After a moment of indulging in sentiment, Aletia wiped away her tears and looked towards Aldias.

"Thank you, Aldias. For indulging my selfishness."

"There's no need for thanks. Rather, I wish I could have brought you together sooner..."

"No, that's not true. If it weren't for you, Aldias, I still wouldn't have known Uncle's true intentions... So, thank you."

"...I see."

Afterward, deeming it inappropriate to leave him on the floor, they moved Dienleed's body to a nearby bed. Then, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the room.

"Hm? Is someone coming?"

"I sent Freed a telepathic message... and I sense Cattleya too."

A moment later, the door to the room where Aldias and Aletia were burst open, revealing, as expected, Freed and Cattleya.

"Aldias-sama!! Are you unharmed!?"

"I heard from Freed-sama!! Are you injured at all!?"

"Calm down, both of you. I'm unharmed. And Aletia is too."

"Mm!"

The two who had burst into the room immediately bombarded Aldias with questions as soon as they saw him. However, their panic was understandable. Aldias's usual composure might lead one to misunderstand the situation, but one wrong step and his body could have been taken, and Ehit would have descended to the mortal realm. Although they didn't distrust him, they hadn't felt truly alive until they received Aldias's telepathic message and then confirmed his safety with their own eyes.

"Freed and Cattleya, you worry too much. With Aldias and me, we won't lose to anyone."

"It's only natural that Aldias-sama won't lose. I was just worried that you would drag Aldias-sama down."

"...Old hag."

"What did you just say!? I'm still in my twenties! You're much older than I am in terms of actual age!"

"Your body remains young. I know, you know? Cattleya recently started worrying about her skin."

"Wha-wha-why do you know that!?"

"Mikhail told me. He said you've been grumbling in front of the mirror a lot lately."

"MIKHAIL—!!"

Cattleya screamed at her colleague in exasperation. To clarify, Cattleya wasn't particularly old. On the contrary, some soldiers in Garland admired her approachable demeanor and mature appearance, and other women often relied on her for her caring personality. However, this time, she had met her match. After all, Aletia's body was eternally twelve. Unlike the women of the world who meticulously cared for their skin, Aletia had no worries about aging. When she was secretly brought to Garland by Aldias, she was still in her teens, so she hadn't paid much attention. But now, in her late twenties, and combined with Aletia's refined appearance, every time she saw her, she unconsciously started comparing herself.

As Freed watched the familiar exchange between the two with a look of exasperation, he noticed Aldias with his hand on his chin, deep in thought.

"Aldias-sama, is something the matter?"

"Are you worried about Cattleya's aging?"

"Aldias-sama!? No, that's not it!? I was just checking, I mean... anyway, it's not that!?"

"...Hm? Aging? What are you talking about?"

"!?─No, nothing at all! Um... are you perhaps thinking about something?"

"Ah... Yes, that's right, I should tell you all. Freed, do you remember our plan for dealing with the human race from now on?"

"Yes, of course."

Discussions about dealing with the human race, should the two pillars, Ehit and Alv, be successfully eliminated, had been held only among trusted retainers, including Freed. Firstly, even though Ehit and Alv were the instigators of this war, the war would not end simply because the instigators were gone. Both humans and demonkin had killed and been killed too much. It might have started as a war for their worshipped gods, but hundreds of years of a cycle of hatred would not easily stop. That's why─

"If you give the order, I will immediately lead the entire army to crush the human race. Now that the interfering gods are gone, there is no one to obstruct Aldias-sama's path to supremacy."

There was only one way to end this war. That was to overwhelmingly defeat the human race with military might and win the war. Originally, due to the emergence of the overwhelming individual, Aldias, the human race had been pushed into a disadvantage. Now that the deterrent of the gods was gone, the defeat of the human race was only a matter of time.

"About that... we need to make some changes to the plan."

"Changes...?"

"Yes, the goal of ending the war remains the same, but... if possible, we need to consider an alliance with the human race. Well, the probability is almost zero, though."

"What!?"

An unexpected statement from Aldias left Freed speechless. Aletia and Cattleya, who had been listening, also widened their eyes in surprise.

"W-why an alliance...!"

"...I saw his past from Ehit's soul."

"His past...? Oh, you did mention that. What about it?"

Aletia, who had been listening to the exchange with Alv, murmured as if remembering and questioned Aldias.

"Yes, to put it simply, Ehit wasn't a god from the beginning... He was originally human."

"" " "!?" " "**"

"...Really?"

Freed and Cattleya were speechless at the shocking truth revealed by Aldias. Although no agitation could be heard in her voice, Aletia could not hide her surprise, her crimson eyes wide.

"It's hard to believe... but it's the truth."

The true identity of the evil god who had dominated Tortus for thousands of years was a human. It was a fact that would make anyone living in this world doubt their ears. Even these three, had it not been Aldias who spoke, would have dismissed it as nonsense.

"But if that's true, it's an annoying story. After all, isn't it just the humans' own doing? We demonkin were just caught in the crossfire."

Cattleya made a face, expressing her dissatisfaction with the human race. Originally, since the war's cause lay with the gods, there was some belief that humans, like demonkin, were victims of the gods. However, if the god's true identity was human, the story changes. Cattleya's anger was understandable.

"No, that's not it. Ehit was originally human, but he was not of the human race."

"Eh? What does that mean...?"

"...Could it be, like the heroes summoned by Ehit..."

"Yes, like them... he was a visitor from another world."

Ehit was born in a different world, not Tortus. That world had more developed magical technology than Tortus, and Ehit too was blessed with rare magical talent. However, Ehit's overwhelming power eventually destroyed his own world. Even for Ehit, if the world was destroyed, his own ruin was unavoidable. So, Ehit came to Tortus through transfer magic... or so it seems.

"I see... I can't imagine power that could destroy a world, but if he had that much power, then transferring to another world would be possible—"

"Impossible."

"...What?"

Freed, who hadn't understood everything but had a convinced expression after hearing the story, was immediately contradicted by Aletia.

"No, no, Aletia... While destroying a world is certainly unbelievable—"

"Not that part. What I said was impossible was the transfer to this world."

"But Aldias-sama saw his memories—"

"Aletia is right."

"...What does that mean?"

Freed and Cattleya were confused by Aldias contradicting his own words. Aldias gave Aletia a look, and Aletia cleared her throat and explained to the two.

"First, I will explain the process of activating magic to both of you."

Magic is activated by expending one's own magical power or the magical power in the atmosphere, but it cannot necessarily be activated just by having magical power. The crucial factors are understanding or imagination. First, understanding. As the name suggests, it's grasping and comprehending the magical formula. By understanding how magic formulas are structured, what processes they undergo to be converted into attributes like fire or lightning, magical power is first activated as magic.

Next, imagination. This involves imagining in one's mind what phenomena will occur when the magic is activated and what the extent of its effects on the surroundings will be. If this is insufficient, the magic may not produce its intended power or effect, or conversely, the magical power may run wild and harm oneself. If either of these two is perfect when activating magic, the other can be omitted.

"And for transfer magic, among these two, the understanding of the formula is considered particularly important."

Transfer magic—as the name suggests, it's magic that allows instantaneous movement over a specific distance, but compared to other magic, the importance of the formula is extremely high. Not only is it necessary to grasp one's own position at the moment of activation, but precisely determining the coordinates of the destination is absolutely required. In other words, one must clearly define where, to where, and how one will move. This is why Aldias's "Shadow Star" has the condition of having visited the destination before. If the destination is unknown, it cannot even be activated. That is what transfer magic is.

"Just to confirm, did Ehit use any special magic or artifact during his transfer?"

"No, I did not confirm any such thing."

In this world, there existed an artifact called the "Compass of Guidance," created by the Liberators through conceptual magic. The concept imbued within it was "points to the desired location." It was originally created by the Liberators to find Ehit's divine realm, but Aldias didn't feel the need for it, intending to lure Ehit to the surface by using himself as bait, so he never brought it back, thinking someone who needed it might appear someday. Aldias did not confirm the existence of such magic or artifacts in Ehit's memories.

"Then it's still strange. Even with world-transcending transfer magic, the laws don't change... How did he transfer to a place where he didn't know where it was, or even if it truly existed?"

"...Ah."

"Th-that's certainly... But if so, then how did Ehit...?"

"Even if he couldn't transfer, if he was summoned to this world, as Ehit who became a god did, then it makes sense."

"...Eh?"

"...No way!?"

"...Lies."

They immediately understood the meaning of Aldias's words to the bewildered three. Their expressions instantly turned pale.

"First of all, the process by which he became a god is not convincing. To become a god just by gaining worship from humans? If one could become a god with that much, this world would be overflowing with gods by now."

It was hard to imagine that a man who was once human could become a god simply by gaining faith from people. At the very least, technology for soul sublimation would surely be necessary. However, Ehit actually became a god through faith alone. Considering Ehit's transfer to Tortus, as well as his sublimation to godhood, it's natural to assume there was some kind of intervention.

"B-but, Aldias-sama saw Ehit's memories, didn't you!?"

"I did see them, but only the memories before his world was destroyed were missing. If he was originally human, he should have had a family and a hometown, but that part was entirely absent, as if it had been cut out... No, it's more accurate to say it was overwritten. There's no doubt that some external influence was at play... something so subtle that Ehit himself didn't even notice it..."

An interdimensional transfer that should have been impossible. Ehit, who ascended to godhood merely by gaining faith from humans. Unnatural memory gaps. All of these were inexplicable phenomena, but if one assumes the involvement of a certain entity, all the dots connect.

"Th-then, there's still... in this world...!"

Freed... Cattleya... Aletia... looked at Aldias pleadingly. Despair was clearly etched on their faces. They thought it was over. They thought they had finally broken the curse that had bound this world for hundreds of years.

But it wasn't so. On the contrary, it could be said that they had finally reached the starting point of understanding the world's true nature. They had realized. They had understood what Aldias was concerned about... Yet, they wanted him to deny it. They wanted their lord, in whom they placed absolute trust, to tell them it was a misunderstanding.

He was probably aware of their state of mind. However, he couldn't hide it. The being they would surely confront in the not-too-distant future...

"Yes, they're definitely here. The mastermind who summoned Ehit to this world and made him ascend to godhood, bringing calamity to Tortus..."

─The true God of this world.

"Oh? You've noticed my existence."

This was a space of even higher dimension than the divine realm where Ehit and others resided. The entire surroundings, up, down, left, and right, were unified in white, making it impossible to tell which way was up, or if there was even ground beneath their feet.

In such a world, a man lay on his back, gazing into the void and muttering. His gray hair was slicked back, and his eyes, reminiscent of twilight, exuded a warm feeling. He was probably about sixty years old. An old man with the appearance of a benevolent grandfather.

"Not only did you achieve god-slaying, but you also uncovered so much as a mere human. Ehit-kun's memories were supposed to have recognition-hindering magic on them, I believe... Interesting."

The old man, who had been contemplating alone, allowed a faint smile to play on his face.

"Aldias-kun... was it? I'd like to meet him and have a talk... Yes, I'll go meet him."

Perhaps it was a case of striking while the iron was hot, but the old man immediately decided on his next course of action based on his own words. He rose with a heave-ho, brushing the dust-free seat of his pants with his hand.

"How many millennia has it been since I last descended to the mortal realm? I find myself getting excited, quite unbecoming of my age."

A magic circle appeared at the feet of the old man, who smiled like a child going on a picnic. The light emanating from the magic circle enveloped the old man, and then—

"No, please wait a moment."

Just as it was about to activate, the magic circle dispersed.

"I recall seeing in some book that it's rude to suddenly visit someone without prior notice... I also hear that first impressions are important to people these days. It would be a loss of face as a god if I were to be rude. Besides, Aldias-kun is the ruler of a nation. The war is still ongoing, and if I suddenly went to meet him, wouldn't he be too busy?"

The old man mumbled to himself, twisting his head this way and that, but after a while, he seemed to have an idea and clapped his hand together.

"That's right, why don't I also start a war?"

If anyone else had been present at that moment, such a statement would have made them wonder if the old man had lost his mind.

"That way, I can directly see Aldias-kun's power, and also observe the current level of humanity, killing two birds with one stone. The war with the human race is ongoing, but Aldias-kun should be able to end it quickly. However, that brings up the question of what to do with my soldiers..."

He mused that for a battle, he alone would be sufficient, but for a war, it wouldn't look good for him to be alone. Then, without much delay, a brilliant idea struck him.

"...That's right, let's use the dolls that Ehit-kun supposedly created. Some might be ruined, but they should suffice as cannon fodder. And suitable demonkin... no, Aldias-kun would probably get angry, so that's out. Although their individual power is undeniably lacking, it might be good to pick out one or two suitable humans."

Even afterward, perhaps excited by the prospect of returning to the terrestrial realm after so long, he gleefully planned out a scheme that would undoubtedly bring despair to the "people" below, all while wearing a genuinely joyful smile.

"Ah, I'm already looking forward to that time."

─Indeed, will you be the humanity I idealize...? I have high hopes for you, Aldias-kun.