Masquerade (3)
“Urgh… At this rate, I don’t think I’ll get to die of old age…”
Ken, battered from head to toe, crawled out from the rubble of the shattered wall and let out a deep sigh.
The bottomless power that had filled his entire body had already vanished without a trace again.
‘If I pushed myself, I could hold out a little longer, but…’
With his body rapidly breaking down as time passed, there was no need to indulge in pointless bravado.
Because now, there was no longer any reason to go that far.
“Phew. But those people really are members of that Masquerade?”
As he brushed the dust from his body, his gaze turned toward the eye of the storm that had erupted in the distance.
Four figures who had suddenly torn through space and barged in.
Those people, dressed in wildly individual outfits with not the slightest sense of unity, had to be the reinforcements.
The ones sent by the employer who had told him to somehow hold out just a little longer!
“But… I never imagined those reinforcements would be on that level.”
In terms of sheer numbers, there weren’t that many of them.
But when one considered their level, it was clear just how absurd it was for that much combat power to be gathered in one place.
‘Three opponents I can’t properly gauge, just like the Executor… And the other one is stronger than me too.’
To think monsters like that were all moving under one organization.
Just what kind of place was this secret organization called Masquerade?
Frankly, he was confident he could accept it even if someone said they were secretly plotting world domination.
Even his employer, who had summoned and was employing him from what should have been the Demon Realm, was someone capable of sitting still and peering into information from all over the world, wasn’t he?
For Ken, who had somehow become a newcomer to that organization regardless of his own will, it was impossible not to be concerned.
‘And a saint? Surely it’s not that saint of Auterica I know…?’
Was it because he was a demon?
More than the masked vampire or the others, the being scattering dense divine power along with a radiant halo inevitably drew his attention.
Surely he wouldn’t thrust a sword at him, saying he would purify him now that they were on the same side.
“Kahahaha! Don’t leave any behind—eat it all up!”
At that moment, a loud laugh from the scene where momentum was surging lodged itself in his ears.
A shockwave accompanied by a thunderous explosion followed.
Ken twisted his body to disperse it, then furrowed his brow.
‘…That laugh sounds strangely familiar.’
It wasn’t just the laugh.
Though the voice was different, the way of speaking also felt familiar enough to give him a sense of déjà vu.
Enough to remind him of the three-headed friend with whom he had gone on a life-risking adventure not long ago.
‘…It must be my imagination, right?’
Ken stared blankly at the burly, muscular giant who had thrown a punch without warning, then gave a small nod.
Yes, it had to be his imagination.
There was no way that cute puppy with its fluffy fur could be such a hideous barbarian.
Ken, who had spent about twenty years in the Demon Realm and had become thoroughly steeped in demonic sensibilities, turned his gaze away.
Toward the place where the demon he had been exchanging blows with until just moments ago—
The one who had just been gifted a massive opening blow out of nowhere.
***
The four avatars dispatched under the name of Masquerade.
There was a reason, in its own way, for sending such excessive force.
To begin with, this place was a stage the Buncheon Society had prepared as a trap.
Rather than send just enough force and risk the operation being ruined by some trump card they pulled out, he had judged it better to deploy every available combatant so that nothing they did would matter.
‘They’re also ones whose existence has already been roughly exposed after operating on Earth to some extent.’
Since a suitable venue had just been prepared, there was also a need to show off their strength to a certain degree.
Doing so would be advantageous in fully absorbing the “Burning Torch” as well.
‘…Though now that they’ve lost their leader and are practically falling apart, they’ve become a bit of a nuisance.’
Even so, they would be better than nothing.
To continue worldwide activities against the Buncheon Society, the existence of an organization was essential.
They had a considerable number of members, and even transcendents among them, so if he gathered them in for now, there would be some use for them one way or another.
“Hmm?”
One of the avatars sent like that.
Harley, a model mercenary who traveled across all kinds of dimensions and intervened wherever trouble broke out, and a demon hunter who had already faced demons several times, tilted his head.
Considering his individual disposition and the convenient pretext, it was fine that he had brazenly landed the first blow, but…
[Hah, you’re incredibly sturdy. No, this isn’t merely that, is it? Just what are you? Are you even a living creature in the first place?]
Why were there finger-sized holes in his own shoulder?
Even then, if he hadn’t twisted his body according to his instinctive intuition, the holes would have pierced his heart instead of his shoulder.
Of course, wounds of this degree were nothing to Harley, but the problem was that even after being struck directly, he hadn’t properly grasped when or how the attack had come in.
“Well now, this is a first. Not only did you deceive my senses and evade me, you even counterattacked?”
[That is my line. To think you avoided a fatal wound at that moment and ended up with only that much damage. Indeed, truly excellent!]
“Hm? Fatal wound? Damage?”
At the other party’s words, Harley blinked as he heightened his senses to the extreme, activating not only “Bio Aura” and the “Mark of the Fighting King,” but even the “Mad Emperor Heart Art (Modified).”
Of course, the holes that had already been carved into his shoulder had vanished without a trace.
[……? What? You regenerated the wounds inflicted by my attack that quickly?]
Even the blood that had flowed out had been completely absorbed, leaving not a single trace behind.
At that sight, even the Executor couldn’t help being flustered.
Of course, among the prey he had dealt with until now, those without regeneration were actually rarer.
Among them, there had even been monsters who could instantly restore themselves to their original state as long as the tiniest bit of flesh remained, so that said enough.
‘But even those creatures were helpless against my attacks.’
It was the same even if the opponent was on the same level as him and he couldn’t crush them with “rank.”
Because that was the privilege he had obtained when he rose to the position of Archdemon in another world, the one that had allowed him to challenge even immortal beings on divine thrones.
And yet, for him to be so perfectly fine…
“Ugh, my stomach emptied out just from that little bit. This fuel efficiency is terrible, isn’t it? It’d be a problem if I started losing muscle over this.”
At the grumbling voice of his opponent, the corners of the Executor’s mouth twitched.
At the same time, fighting spirit began to creep up over his momentary bewilderment.
Flame-like energy rising from his entire body began to burn away the surroundings in an instant.
[Hehehe… Yes, that’s how it should be. Good. Very good!]
This was exactly the kind of fight he had wanted from the beginning.
A fierce death match where he clashed using every bit of his power, where life, soul, and conviction collided.
Normally, he refrained from using his Unique Skill as much as possible and mainly utilized only the power he had built up as a demon.
Just now, he had used it against the opponent who had ambushed him first as both mockery and warning, but even that had not been done with the serious resolve to take his life.
The reason was simple.
[Puhaha! Yes, with this, I won’t have to worry about things ending boringly!]
Because until now, no one except the Buncheon Society Leader had been able to face him when he used even his Unique Skill.
He was even delighted that an opponent had appeared against whom he could mobilize all his abilities.
The next instant.
The Executor, who had been laughing while radiating the force of an active volcano, disappeared.
And at the same time—
“Huh?”
Spurt—
Harley twisted his body reflexively, and his chest split open as blood sprayed up.
Four deep wounds were carved into the body of the “Ultimate Evolved Life-form,” a body that should have remained unscathed even at the hypocenter of a nuclear explosion.
And it didn’t end there.
Riiip— Slash! Crunch—!
His tough skin was shaved away by destructive energy that burned like flames.
His tenacious muscles were torn apart by a grip that distorted even space.
His finger was cut off by something sharp, and before it could even regenerate, his wrist was severed.
[Oho? Even this? Then how about this? Dodge this too. Come on, now!]
“Kgh! This guy’s having the time of his life all by himself, isn’t he?”
Even as all those events swept past like a storm, Harley couldn’t even properly dodge the attacks, let alone counterattack…
Still, there was a harvest of sorts.
Because after repeatedly taking the hits with his senses raised to the utmost, he finally managed to clearly grasp what was happening to him.
‘Could this be…?’
Of course, that was also thanks to the other avatars, who had been able to observe the situation from a third-party perspective.
The eyebrows of Heinz II, who was analyzing the distortions of causality occurring around them using “Insight,” twitched.
The same was true of Harris, who was reading the flow of the atmosphere by mobilizing all his nature-affinity skills, including “Observer of the Milky Way.”
“…Time stop?”
Heinrich muttered quietly, his brow furrowed.
Having been reborn as an angel, an existence of a higher dimension, his newly opened eyes detected something unnatural in the world.
Within time that could not be properly perceived, in a world where everything had stopped, there was a single exception moving freely.
That being stopped moving and toyed with Harley’s blood on his fingertips.
[Hah! Truly remarkable. You reacted at the very instant my attack touched your body?]
Of course, as Harley’s own rank was not low either, that ability was not perfect.
For the instant the Executor’s attack touched his body, the “time stop” he had activated did not take proper effect.
‘But that alone won’t be enough to catch him.’
Only then did he understand why the bastard had been so relaxed.
Its usefulness in combat was one thing, but if he used that ability at a dangerous moment, he could always withdraw to safety, so it was only natural he felt no sense of crisis.
“Tsk, what a boring way to fight. Compared to what you were saying, what you’re doing is awfully petty…”
[Oh dear, it seems I got a little too excited. I hope you’ll understand. Ever since I returned to Earth, the only one capable of receiving my full power has been the Society Leader, you see. I’ve been somewhat frustrated all this time. And the few who had potential became difficult to encounter once the Society Leader forbade fighting among members.]
Well, if he had grown that much in another world, the amount of karma he had acquired must have been tremendous.
Just looking at his own “Avatar,” wasn’t a Unique Skill a supernatural ability with boundless latent possibilities?
If that had reached the realm of authority after acquiring divinity…
‘At any rate, thanks to that, I obtained one more piece of information. In any case, there are others with potential, huh?’
Just the fact that they could respond to attacks launched within stopped time was enough to infer that they were no ordinary beings.
He could learn the details step by step from here on out.
As he was thinking that, the Executor, after sweeping his gaze over the avatars watching from the rear following the probing skirmish that had begun and ended in an instant, spoke as if it were nothing.
[If you’re all done resting, let’s begin in earnest. Hmm, facing you all at once does seem a bit much… Well, no matter. An opportunity like this won’t come again. Driving myself to the extreme and discovering my limits will be a good experience too!]
The Executor was so overflowing with confidence that he was already preparing for the coming battle on the assumption they would attack him together.
Watching that attitude, it was starting to grate on him.
He fully acknowledged that the bastard’s ability was incredible, but that and looking down on them were two entirely different matters, weren’t they?
‘Of course, I was planning to do that from the start!’
A many-on-one cooperative assault, commonly known as a “gang-up,” was a fine tactic proven by history and tradition.
Considering its efficiency, his belief that it was best to actively use it when conditions allowed remained unchanged even now.
However…
‘…Right, come to think of it, just as he said, this is all experience too, isn’t it? It’s not as if I can easily meet an enemy of that level with such a dangerous ability.’
If there was something to gain in the process, it wouldn’t matter if he changed the plan a little.
His true opponent was the Buncheon Society Leader, who was far stronger than him.
In other words, now was the time to build up experience and level up—not the time to breeze on to the next stage.
‘A variety of experiences is also one of the fine values you can gain from battle. …And with so many eyes watching, it wouldn’t look very good either.’
He had decided.
For now, Harley would try it alone until he managed to land a blow somehow.
Pshhh— creeeeak—!
As he slowly stepped forward, his body gradually began to heat up, hot steam rising from him.
Along with it rang out a metallic sound, like twisting steel.
His physique, too, had at some point grown large enough to look down on his opponent.
“Hmph! Enough of that—this time, let’s have a proper fight! I feel like I’m finally warmed up now!”
[Hm? You intend to fight alone? Well, it makes no difference to me.]
The Executor’s gaze, watching Harley stride toward him by himself, flicked briefly toward where the other avatars were.
Though he said that, it seemed he was quite concerned about them.
Of course, to Harley, even that merely felt like the man was looking down on him.
“Puhaha… Mister, want me to teach you one of life’s truths?”
A dark red aura surged thickly from his body.
An alien energy that was neither life force nor aura, something that seemed as if it would contaminate one’s very existence just by coming into contact with it.
Something that had been suppressed to the utmost all this time through every kind of control method—.
The pure ‘madness’ of the abyss, wrung out as if squeezing the 「Seed of Madness」 dry, began to encroach upon the surroundings little by little.
“It’s that there’s nothing more embarrassing than running your mouth all confident-like, then getting your ass handed to you!”
Kwaaang—!
Harley’s massive frame charged straight ahead in an instant.
[That is a story that has nothing to do with me.]
At the same time, the Executor activated his unique skill.
————!
The world began to slow, as though in slow motion.
And when, at last, everything came to a halt.
The only being that moved in this frozen world was him alone—the ‘Eternal Archdemon.’
‘Hmm. If I hadn’t had my unique skill, it certainly would have been difficult to defeat him in a head-on fight. That horrific body, removed from all reason, must be the source of the divinity he carries.’
The monster wearing the beast mask had already come right up before his nose, but he did not so much as blink.
In the current situation, his opponent had no means whatsoever of harming him.
‘I’ll admit that is impressive. However, due to compatibility, that alone can never defeat me.’
In truth, it was his first time facing a body this absurd.
To think that even when exposed to an attack that tore space itself apart, it ended with only a few wounds.
Just how great did the density composing his existence and his resistance to external interference have to be for that to be possible!
And even those wounds regenerated before long.
Even an attack he had put his utmost into had only managed to blow off a wrist, so even in a situation where he could attack one-sidedly, he had no sense of how much more he would have to pummel him before he could inflict damage beyond his regenerative ability.
‘But time is nothing more than an infinite resource to me. If I keep beating him, he’ll break someday.’
Blazing energy rose from the Executor’s grasp.
Manipulating power within the frozen world was quite a burden even for him, but there was no helping it.
If he did not go this far, he would not even be able to inflict a proper wound.
The abnormality occurred then.
The moment he finished preparing all his attacks and approached the giant man preserved in midair.
The corners of his eyes twitched at something he witnessed.
‘Hah?’
The eyeholes of the large lion mask that covered the man’s entire head.
Between them, a pair of eyes shining red and green.
Were staring directly at him.
‘How?!’
Their corners curved ever so slightly upward, filled with a thick, lingering smile.