Fled Without Realizing I Had Prevented the Apocalypse

Those who study war history must know the Ghost of the Sword.
A monster who appeared alone on battlefields and settled all disturbances during a time when the sparks of war spread across the entire continent.

If it weren’t for the appearance of the Sword Demon, the continent would probably still be engulfed in war.

“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and glared at the slowly dissipating barrier of black flames.
The black flames infused with the power of an Outer God don’t disappear easily.
They can’t be extinguished by ordinary water, magic, or by cutting off air. You have to either block the medium itself so there’s nothing to burn, or cut down the Outer God’s contractor who created the black flames for the flames to subside.
In that sense, Kyle chose the former.
Through the Sword Demon’s sword strike, he lifted the ground itself so that the black flames created by the spirits could no longer burn anything.
Although it was troublesome, it was the surest method.
As if to prove this, the black flames gradually subsided.
At the same time, I tightly gripped the scepter I was holding.
“How dare you, with such meager black flames.”

Because of the power of the Outer God imbued in it, the scepter won’t be destroyed, but I can feel the souls melted inside vibrating due to the continuous flow of magic power.
These persistent fellows probably won’t give up with just this, but it doesn’t matter since it’s just venting anyway.
“Recreating the Outer God descent ritual…”
I glanced at the sword that was now almost completely crumbled.
I thought it would last for two strikes at most, but it seems to have hit the mark exactly.
Perhaps it was natural, since I used the sword I had used for a long time during my days as the Sword Demon as a key.
I had entrusted it to be used once in situations like this because it had absorbed the energy of quite a few Contaminants while wandering through the wars that broke out everywhere, but…
‘I hoped the moment to use it would never come.’
My hand trembles slightly. The recoil that comes through my entire body in one breath.
It was all the result of reproducing a sword that couldn’t be recreated in the current state.
A single strike engraved using the crumbling sword as an artifact.
It could instantly draw out explosive power because it was created by sacrificing all the divinities and memories engraved in the sword.
“So, is this all?”
Gripping the sword that now barely maintained its form again, I looked down at the scepter.
The appearance of Princess Arlea, and the recreation of the Outer God descent ritual using the Empire’s superhumans and the princess’s soul as a medium.
I somehow managed to block the wave of black flames, which was the prelude to this recreation, but I didn’t think it would end here.
It’s not like this is the first or second time I’ve encountered Outer God worshippers.

In the first place, if they were the type to give up just because the black flames were blocked, they wouldn’t have started this in the first place.
[ As if. ]

As if confirming my guess, the scepter vibrates.
[ The black flames. ]
[ Were just a prelude. ]
[ The true form of the descent ritual. ]
[ Is separate. ]
As the scepter vibrates, the remnants of the scattered black flames begin to gather in one place.
The color is like a demon’s evil energy, but the different feeling of uneasiness is so nauseating that it can be felt naturally without even spreading out my perception.
“Then I just need to cut down that true form.”
So, I raised the sword that had only one use left to deal with that nauseating feeling, but.
[[ Can you really do that? ]]
I frowned as I saw all that energy gathering in front of Princess Arlea.
‘Please kill me.’
Because I saw the words that Princess Arlea barely mouthed before her entire body was enveloped by the Outer God’s energy.
That’s why I had no choice.

“This is…”
The barrier of black flames completely blown away by Kyle’s sword.
Arlea, who had been watching this scene, slumped down on the spot.
It’s not that she feels despair at such a scene unfolding.

Rather, the situation itself is the scene she had been desperately hoping for.
The fragments of the Outer God created by the kingdom’s ghosts. The disappearance of the black flames created by those fragments meant that those ghosts’ plans were being thwarted.
This also meant that the plan Arlea had formulated without a moment’s hesitation after falling in the southern part of the Empire had been realized.
‘Of course, the direction itself isn’t exactly the same…’
Originally, her plan was to go to the imperial palace through the Empire’s intelligence department that was monitoring her, and meet the Emperor.
She didn’t know why her master had become a wanted criminal of the century, but if he was being wanted as a criminal, she thought she might be able to find him by taking advantage of that wanted status.
She couldn’t give direct information about her condition now, with the kingdom’s ghosts constantly watching her through the scepter.
However, Kyle Amillan, her master, was different.
His statement about being able to see the future. She had originally dismissed it as a joke, but for some reason, the Sword Demon, who seemed to know a lot about her from the moment he first saw her, would immediately notice that her condition was strange.
He might even be able to stop these cursed ghosts’ plans.
With such a plan, Arlea moved, and although there were many variables.

At least the goal of finding a solution by going to Kyle Amillan, which she had formulated after seeing the Sword Demon’s face on the wanted poster on the ground, was resolved.
So now there was only one goal left.
‘Destroying my heart.’
More precisely, she needed to destroy the mark of the Outer God engraved in the center of her heart.
After the ritual was thwarted once when the Sword Demon took away the scepter because they had been too confident in their power in the previous ritual, the kingdom’s ghosts used her body as a medium instead of the scepter.
[ Child who brings misfortune. ]
[ Believe in the god and receive salvation. ]
Her consent was not needed in that process.
It had been that way from the moment she fell into the Empire.
Since suddenly opening her eyes, she had never been able to move according to her own intentions.
She always had to keep the scepter in her bosom and get permission from the ghosts.
If she did something that displeased the ghosts, they would use the mark on her heart to restrain her.
The feeling of the mark created by the Outer God’s power forcibly squeezing her heart was not easy to endure even for a princess who had reached the realm of superhumans, so Princess Arlea had no choice but to listen to those words.
[ You are unfortunate. ]
[ Because you haven’t received god’s blessing. ]
[ You were born with such a body. ]
[ This too was a predetermined fate. ]
After such moments continued, the princess moved according to her own intentions for the first time.
It was after she discovered Kyle Amillan hidden behind the mask of the Empire’s Special Forces.
Although his face was hidden by unknown magic power and his body was wrapped in a robe, it couldn’t deceive a superhuman’s senses.
The princess immediately realized that the owner of the magic power wave she felt from afar was her master, the Sword Demon.
After meeting him, everything went according to her intentions.
After the ritual was thwarted by the Sword Demon, the ghosts were filled with hatred for Kyle Amillan, so they immediately responded to the princess’s statement about killing him.
They accepted her argument that if they tried to catch Kyle Amillan in the center of the city, all the Empire’s superhumans might gather due to the Contaminants gathering.
The ghosts also accepted her words about hunting Kyle Amillan herself after distracting the soldiers’ attention with Contaminants.
The princess seemed to have pleased them in the sense that she was trying to hunt down the enemy of the kingdom.

Not knowing that she had done so to reduce casualties and buy as much time as possible.
And so, the princess’s intentions hit the mark one by one.
And now, even at this moment when the ghosts have revealed all their identities and are about to fully unleash the power of the Outer God, her purpose has been fulfilled.
Now she just needs to die.

If someone called it selfish, it couldn’t be helped. It’s shameful to ask her master to kill her and leave him with such aftermath.
The very act of receiving help from others because she couldn’t handle the ghosts with her own power was something that stimulated her self-loathing.
And she.
‘I’m a child who brings misfortune after all.’
She murmured what she had heard from everyone in the kingdom for a long time, and what she herself had thought.
It’s because she brought misfortune that her body became like this.
It’s because she brought misfortune that the soldiers on the castle walls were annihilated.
It’s because she brought misfortune that the catastrophe of the ghosts taking over her body and seizing the ritual occurred.
She, she, she.
Countless self-reproaches and atonements. Princess Arlea looked at herself again.
She still hadn’t grown up.
Despite growing taller and aging, she was still a girl.
A girl who brings misfortune.
Therefore, it was natural for her to die now.
Because if she stayed around, someone else would become unfortunate.
Watching the Outer God’s energy slowly encroaching on her surroundings, the princess gently closed her eyes.
Because it seemed okay to do so now.
“As if it’s okay to do that.”
Crack.
A crack forms. From within the darkness-filled core, light leaked in.
Small, but still filling the interior with light.
At the same time, breaking through that crack, a hand suddenly popped out.
A rough hand full of calluses, but a very familiar one.