Episode 235 – World’s Demise (6)

World’s Demise (6)

Elise’s Barrier was a success.

She analyzed the waves of the death curse swirling within the body, reversed the calculation, and then, using an advanced application of Spectrum, she slowed the progression of the curse by grasping the waves themselves with 「Magnetism」.

The magnetism Barrier enveloped the grounds of Petra Hospital and showed significant effects.

As a result, Petra Hospital accommodated ten thousand patients from Edsilla suffering from the deadly affliction.

The media and opposing Senators, who had attacked Petra with accusations of exploiting patients’ hopes for profit, were now silenced.

Thanks to this, Elise also managed to get her achievements broadcasted in the media.

Elise Petra, a first-year student at Edsilla National University’s Department of Magic.

Her name was now flowing continuously in the news.

However, since the progression of the deadly affliction was only slowed and not completely cured, Elise, while making her rounds in the hospital wards, suddenly discovered someone.

A familiar figure from behind.

“……”

Shion Ascal.

He was watching over another patient from behind a wall.

The child from the orphanage named ‘Berry’ had a smartphone tied around his chest like a necklace, hanging from an old string.

Shion let out a faint sigh and turned around.

“!”

He flinched when he saw her.

“You scared me.”

His reaction was endearing to Elise.

“What are you doing there?”

Strange. It’s said to be a big deal when a man starts to look cute.

Elise shrugged her shoulders as she looked at him.

“Why don’t you go and talk to him?”

“What for.”

“You might give him more strength just by being there.”

The child named Berry. Although he was asleep now, it might be possible to wake him up for a moment to exchange greetings.

“Forget it.”

Shion shook his head.

“Why?”

He smiled faintly.

“……I might soil him.”

A self-deprecating joke.

Elise frowned for no reason.

“You’re talking nonsense.”

“Never mind that. What are you doing?”

“I’m making my rounds. This barrier only slows down the affliction. For now, all we can do is buy as much time as possible and wait for the Magic Tower or some corporation to find a way.”

“No. It’s going to end soon.”

It was a statement close to certainty. Shion said to Elise.

“It was critical to last a week. Thanks to you, we managed. That’s enough.”

“……”

Elise looked at him and then smiled faintly.

“I’m glad to hear that. How’s your work with Libra going?”

She knew that Shion was receiving some kind of training from Libra. She also knew that he was someone loyal to Libra.

“Yeah.”

Shion answered softly. Quietly, he lifted his eyes to look out the hospital window.

Looking into the abyss, he was lost in thought.

About the growing flame in his heart as he got closer to Libra, as he stepped deeper into the core of Libra’s domain.

I have come to stand by Zia’s side.

Now, I will remain a loyal subject until she stands at the pinnacle. I will be by her side until we grasp control of the Parliament.

What lies at the end… I will confront it with my own eyes.

Not only Derek, Johanna, and Jade, but also the most decisive being who has remained unseen by anyone yet, the one who has elevated Libra to its current status.

The secretive specter.

‘Sherlock’ Vels Libra Baphomet.

I will kill him too, and bring down the Aerial Garden to the ground. I will set Libra ablaze…

Thud.

Elise’s hand touched Shion’s shoulder. He quietly looked down at her.

“Think of yourself first.”

Suddenly, a small smile spread across Shion’s lips. He wrapped his hand around hers on his shoulder.

Her pale cheeks twitched.

“You too. Think of yourself first.”

“…I, I will.”

Elise released her hand and for no reason swept up her hair like a curtain.

Thump, thump.

Her heart suddenly races from just holding hands. Elise didn’t like how fragile she had become.

* * *

A void.

An old house filled with nothing but darkness.

The man who had been waiting for a ‘phenomenon’ that had yet to arrive heard footsteps seeping into his ears.

Thud──

Thud──

Jade slowly opened his eyes and lit a candle on the table.

Whoosh!

The rising flame illuminated a part of the darkness and soon revealed the ‘destruction’ that settled before him.

“……”

─……

Neither of them spoke.

A silent assessment, each gauging the other with their eyes.

The being captured in Jade’s gaze was certainly not something that could be considered human. Ignoring the abnormal size, there was no pulse where organs should be beating.

The exterior was human, but the interior was not.

The creature had long since transcended the category of ‘human.’

“Are you that demise?”

─…You are merely human.

Demise responded.

At that moment, Jade smiled faintly. There was a certain melancholy in that smile, a tinge of sorrow.

This bizarre being, called demise, was undoubtedly strong. One could not even fathom what lay beneath the skin that resembled that of a human.

However, the creature itself could not look inward. It could not measure the grandeur that lay within its body.

From this, Jade was certain.

It was beneath him.

It… was not his equal.

─Human, what are you thinking?

Jade felt a bit bitter about that fact.

The idea that no one could reach him meant, conversely, that he could not reach anyone either.

“…I am thinking that the whole world is unreachable to me.”

The notion that I exist alone, unable to be understood.

─what?

“When I heard about you, I might have had some expectations.”

Jade’s eyes sharpened. He swallowed a sigh and gazed upon demise.

“I hoped you would be an entity similar to myself.”

He had felt anger at the indiscriminate attack on Eceline, but at the same time, he harbored a faint sense of kinship.

“You possess an uncommon dignity. An existence closer to the heavens than to humanity. But that’s all it is.”

Jade rose to his feet, peeling off his stiff leather gloves.

Bare knuckles.

“Even so… you are worthy of this much respect.”

Demise looked at Jade. Its eyes, which did not reflect light, remained bleak.

─Humans are indeed foolish.

“Your reasoning?”

─They do not know their own cause, nor do they understand their own effect.

“Do you have a cause and effect?”

─I am a phenomenon created to bring about the demise of the world. My effect is demise, and my cause is the world. The world that desires the extinction of humanity has summoned me.

Demise recited as if it were a rehearsed line.

Jade nodded slightly.

“I agree. Humans are foolish.”

With that, he looked at his own bare hands.

─What is your reasoning?

Demise asked.

“Because they always desire what cannot be achieved.”

Jade sought understanding from the world for himself.

An unattainable wish.

The commoners desire equality. Natural rights. They spout nonsense that all humans are ultimately the same.

Jade could not comprehend such nonsense.

Because humans are ultimately different. Nobility and lowliness are original sins determined at birth.

“…But do not be mistaken.”

Jade himself was the proof.

He was born different. It was inevitable, irresistible. He simply walked and found himself at the end of the world.

Therefore, he became an existence that could never be understood in his lifetime.

“You cannot become ‘something that cannot be achieved.'”

──In that moment, the air underwent a violent change.

Jade summoned his Magic Body with all his might. ‘Demise’s’ eyes widened. The shock that originated in its retina surged through its body.

Time stretched to one ten-thousandth of a second.

Jude Velot rose abruptly. It was an ‘instinctive’ reaction.

Almost human-like…

But there was no time for confusion.

A fist struck down in a straight line. The impact hit right between the eyes. Jude Velot’s body flew through the air. No sound was heard.

The strike had surpassed the speed of sound.

In the silence, Jude saw Jade flying towards him after the rebound.

───!

The sonic boom followed belatedly. Jude manifested a spell before Jade could reach him. He detonated the accumulated damage on his own body back at Jade.

Jade shattered it with his fist. Jude tried to distance himself, but Jade’s speed had already crossed the threshold.

Jude merely adjusted the causality of space. He inverted all concepts, not just speed.

Fast to slow, slow to fast…

──Click.

Jade’s feet halted.

“……”

Jade stared silently at Jude. Unknowingly, Jude stepped back, his jaw twisted out of place.

“■■, ■■■■……?”

Jade tried to speak, but only a bizarre noise escaped.

It seemed as if the entire concept of this space had been flipped.

It was only for a moment.

“…I acknowledge it.”

He quickly adapted to the concept, twisting his mouth as he glared at Jude.

“You were not all talk.”

Jude looked at him.

If he could only understand how his Magic Body worked, how it manifested, he could reverse the providence and defeat him.

After all, he was just a human in the end.

Jude stretched his own time.

─…Ha.

But the more he focused on the counter, the more his reason wavered.

The toughness of this human did not stem merely from magical power. It was a strength that operated purely from within his bones.

Something that seemed utterly impossible for a human…

───!

Jade shattered the space. His punch had smashed Jude’s causality.

Jude quickly expanded the space. Jade became instantly distant, but in the next moment.

Space folded.

As if leaping through time, transcending space.

His fist reached out first and struck his own face.

To Jude, it appeared simply as a tiny flash of light.

That was all it was.

─……

Jude saw his own body breaking apart.

He saw Jade charging with dignity.

His fist made contact.

─────!

Space shattered.

Darkness crumbled.

Debris settled like dust.

The old house, now transformed into nothingness, the world’s cracks etched chaotically.

“Now, do you understand why I am foolish?”

In the midst of that mystery, Jade stood tall, looking down on Demise.’

‘Demise’ gazed up at him blankly.

─…Demise.

A hoarse voice flowed from a throat without vocal cords.

Jude had once known that the world awaited its demise. He thought it was himself.

Clearly, I, Jude Velot, am the World’s Demise.

The will of the world to condemn the evil of humanity and obliterate the continent had been born as ‘me.’

It was not so.

─……

He let out a quiet, hollow laugh.

Now he understood.

If the world wished for its own end, if there was a living, breathing entity to destroy it, it was not him but…

─It was you.

Jade.

He will remember the name.

* * *

“Are you feeling alright?”

In the VIP hospital room, I found Eceline. I had come to deliver the news that Jude Velot’s magical presence had been extinguished, as Akane had informed me.

“Yes, thank you.”

Eceline’s complexion had improved thanks to that.

However, the symptoms lingered like a cold, so she would need to be hospitalized for a few more days.

“I’m feeling better now.”

Eceline’s face was slightly swollen, but she smiled modestly, indicating she was alright. I looked at her chart.

Eceline was the first to speak.

“You’re from Libra, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

I nodded slightly.

“He’s still watching over me, isn’t he?”

I didn’t respond to her laughter-tinged comment.

“It’s a good thing I haven’t been involved in any romance, right?”

She was probably joking, but it was nice to see her cheerful.

I shook my head.

“It’s alright.”

Jade doesn’t care about such things… though I can’t say he doesn’t care at all.

“However, Miss Eceline. The technology for prosthetic limbs has improved tremendously these days.”

I was about to pull out a premium product from Selfless Coffin.

“That’s true. But there’s something more important than that.”

I put the business card back.

“Something more important, you say?”

“Yes.”

Eceline smiled faintly.

“He will be pained to see my arm like this, won’t he?”

“Very much so.”

As if to say exactly that, Eceline raised one finger.

“But, it’s the same for someone else’s arm.”

At that moment, my eyes widened slightly.

“If he can cherish me, he can cherish others too. Even though each person is different, we’re all human in the end, aren’t we?”

She looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

She was a clear-sighted person. A cheerful person.

“I hope he realizes that fact.”

Certainly, she was the kind of person Jade could love, but he would probably never realize it.

Eceline, your wish will not come true.

His sense of being chosen is skewed somewhere.

Because he carries a ‘heritage’ that makes it so.

“What do you think?”

I shook my head.

“Love is discrimination. Just like hatred is discrimination.”

Eceline’s lips tightened slightly. She looked at me with a slightly saddened face.

“Lord Jade is a noble with a heart as firm as his body. Therefore… he will not change.”

Jade cannot change.

Because that’s how he was born.

“Really, all you Libra people are so cold… But still, I believe that one day he will understand.”

I gave a bitter smile.

Jade, indeed, will not understand.

Because that’s how he was born.