Dark Side (1)
A brilliant radiance blanketed the sky above the city.
The sheer amount of light made it impossible to believe it was the middle of the night, and those who had been asleep woke, throwing the entire city into an uproar.
Of course, it was not simply because of the light pollution.
The noise was probably the greater cause.
How many people could remain insensitive enough to keep sleeping while massive explosions reminiscent of nuclear detonations went off one after another in the sky?
Those who woke and looked up at the sky through their windows had no choice but to suspect they were still dreaming.
Not many realized that a curtain of light like an aurora was protecting the city from the aftermath of the explosions, but the angel radiating a presence so dense it could be clearly felt even from afar stirred something in the heart beyond understanding.
“…Ha, just what kind of fight have we been waging?”
Like the citizens of the city, An, who had been staring blankly up at the sky, murmured in a low voice.
Holding the unconscious President, Frey, tightly in her arms, she let out a deep sigh.
A demon who began by playing freely with time itself; an immortal who fought such a monster without being pushed back; a sniper who rained down that level of bombardment from somewhere out of sight; and an angel who blocked those attacks without suffering much damage.
Was this what they called a heaven beyond heaven?
A battle so awe-inspiring that it made their own desperate resistance feel laughable was unfolding before her eyes, and even though she had watched the entire course of events, it still did not feel real.
An slowly looked around.
Off to one side, the powerhouses of the Beoncheonhoe, whom they had needed every means at their disposal just to face one at a time, lay sprawled like crumpled scrap.
Her gaze rose back to the sky.
An angel descending slowly with wings spread wide.
Its presence seemed to draw every eye in the surrounding area to itself, leaving her with nothing but admiration. ‘I’ve heard of him. They said he was a saint from another world…’ Seeing him now, she could understand why they called him a saint.
No, if anything, the word felt far too inadequate for the reality.
No matter how one looked at it, was that not a being that had already far surpassed humanity? ‘From what I heard, even a dragon has actually appeared before, right? Then there’d be nothing strange about a real angel.’ Of course, he was not the only one who had made an impressive showing.
There was the muscular man in the beast mask who had not only faced the Executioner one-on-one in an even match, but had also mercilessly folded the Transcendents who rushed in to help him escape…
And the helmeted man and the demon Ken, who had played a part in capturing the Southeast Asia Branch Director when he tried to slip away under the guise of helping subdue the others.
Though it was regrettable that they had lost the most dangerous enemy, the Executioner, there had never been anyone who could catch him once he committed himself to fleeing in the first place.
It was nothing less than time stop!
She felt at a loss as to how they were supposed to deal with an enemy with such an ability in the future. ‘We’ll have to seriously think about that going forward too.’ His survival would undoubtedly become a major obstacle in the future.
If the Executioner, bearing a grudge over the failure of the operation, set his mind to repeated ambushes, the Burning Torch, which had only just escaped death, would not last long before collapsing. ‘Still, the situation itself isn’t that bad.’ The Burning Torch as an organization had suffered severe damage, but in exchange, they had formed ties with those who possessed power beyond that.
A secret organization, Masquerade, with the military strength to take on the Beoncheonhoe head-on when it came at them in earnest, unlike themselves.
Simply learning of the existence of such an ally could be called a great gain.
With that thought, she began walking toward them to express her gratitude, only for her steps to come to an abrupt halt.
Because of the sudden sense that something was off.
She looked over the members of Masquerade once more.
The angel wreathed in light from head to toe, and the wounded muscular warrior.
The helmeted man slumped beside the captured enemies as if keeping watch over them, and the demon awkwardly hovering as he looked at the others.
Only after confirming it once more did she realize the source of the strangeness. ‘…Wait, wasn’t there one more person?’
The instant she realized it.
Goosebumps ran across her entire body. ‘Since when? Why didn’t I notice until now?’ He had lacked such presence after his first appearance that she simply had not perceived him… This was not something she could dismiss on that level.
As if such a person had never existed from the very beginning, had she not unconsciously excluded him from her awareness entirely? ‘I even remembered information about Phantom! It isn’t a mental attack, so what on earth is this…’ As she looked around and checked the complexions of her comrades, she realized that no one but her had noticed anything strange.
Even though every one of them was a figure of no small caliber.
Perhaps, if not for her special ability to manipulate fate, she would have been the same as them. ‘Then where is he now?’
As for that.
There was no need to even say it.
***
Grrrk.
The Executioner, his face twisted in a frown, quietly ground his teeth.
Having returned to human form, he pulled the hood of his top low over his head while tending to the wound on his chest that had been inflicted during his escape and had yet to regenerate.
“Damn it, what the hell kind of state is this…”
The place he was now was a mountainous region in Malaysia.
It was easily hundreds of kilometers away from the small city in Thailand where the battle had taken place.
Thanks to time stop, he had been able to reach this place in the blink of an eye. He slowly steadied his breathing and closed his eyes. ‘…I ended up owing that half-wit a debt.’ The moment a sense of crisis surged in him, warning that he would truly be in grave danger if things continued as they were.
He had barely managed to escape the situation thanks to the ultra-long-range sniping that had come raining down from the sky.
He had ended up receiving help from that woman he had mocked for being unable to fight properly up close and only pecking at enemies from afar.
“Tch!”
Of course, he could not say it was purely thanks to that assistance.
After all, without his subordinates, who had no choice but to draw attention in his place due to his “command,” and without his ability to stop time, escaping would have been impossible.
But considering that the angel, who could be considered his worst possible matchup, had been forced to leave the front line because of that bombardment, he could not possibly deny that he owed a debt. ‘Masquerade… I will never forget this. The same goes for that rabble of resistance fighters. Next time, I’ll tear every last one of you to pieces.’ He would make them regret sparing him out of pointless altruism.
They should have ignored all damage and captured him first, whether the bombardment erased the entire city or the remnants of the Burning Torch, who had exhausted most of their strength, were wiped out.
He would make sure that was all they could think of as they died. ‘I pushed myself a bit too hard this time. I’ll need to hide for a while and regulate my condition. Still, thanks to that monster, my urge for struggle has been thoroughly satisfied, so calming the contamination shouldn’t be too difficult.’ The problem of mental contamination was a destiny that naturally followed from the moment he accepted a demon’s karma.
No matter how high his original level rose, as long as the cause and effect remained that he had crossed the wall thanks to demonization, it could not be helped. ‘Once I finish adjusting to some extent, I’ll repay them immediately. I’ll make them realize with their lives what it means to make an enemy of this eternal archdemon… of one who rules time…’
Just as those thoughts continued.
Flinch.
His mouth twitched as he froze in place.
Then his head slowly turned toward the space behind him.
“Ha!”
His face distorted once more as he let out a breathless laugh.
At first, he had not been certain, but by this point, it was clear.
“…I never imagined I’d be tailed.”
As if answering the words he muttered under his breath.
“You have good instincts. Better than I expected.”
A cold voice flowed quietly from the shadows of the underbrush.
“Hmm, should I have kept a greater distance while following you? You should have been fairly exhausted, and yet you still noticed this much. It seems I underestimated you a little.”
Along with the words that followed, a figure emerged from the darkness of the forest.
Unlike the Executioner, whose appearance had been left a mess from his battle with the relentless Harley, the man wore a neat suit just as he had when he first appeared.
“Phantom…”
The pinnacle of vampires, wearing a white opera mask, who had used “Existence Denial” to erase his presence from the world and tail his opponent—
It was Heinz II.
However, even as he faced him directly, the Executioner could not help but have one question.
“How on earth did you track me?”
He had surely not only stopped time, but had also withdrawn while thoroughly erasing every trace he left behind.
Movement within stopped time left no ripple of mana, making it far stealthier than simply using spatial movement.
It was only natural, since one’s position changed literally in the blink of an eye without any warning whatsoever.
Of course, since he had to move his body directly, it was far from a convenient means of travel, but that was irrelevant to him, who possessed the body of an archdemon.
Had he not, even now, crossed hundreds of kilometers in that brief instant of stopped time and reached Malaysia beyond the border?
He could not understand by what means he had been followed here so quickly.
“Who knows?”
Of course, Heinz had no intention of kindly answering that question.
There was no need to hand information to his opponent for no reason. ‘No matter how much he erased his presence, the game was over the moment I secured his blood through Harley.’ For a Divine Blood vampire, whose very foundation of divinity was blood itself, locating a target whose fresh blood he had secured was no trouble at all.
Of course, since his opponent possessed an equivalent level, it would become more difficult the farther apart they were, but a mere few hundred kilometers was not a distance that posed much of a problem.
“In any case, this is unfortunate. I had hoped that if I let you go on like this, I might be able to obtain something from you.”
“You bastard…”
“I would have liked to watch you a little longer and draw out more information if possible, but as expected, things don’t always go according to plan.”
Heinz looked at the Executioner with regretful eyes.
He had maintained a certain distance out of concern that if they got too far apart, the man might slip completely out of his grasp like the Doctor.
As expected, secretly tailing a demigod-class opponent who had half escaped the framework of the world was a difficult task even for him.
“Well, there’s no helping it now that I’ve been found out.”
Heinz lightly shrugged.
And the moment he lightly snapped his fingers, the “Mystery of Blood,” which he had been covertly preparing with “Existence Denial,” manifested.
A unique domain created by Heinz II to counter his opponent’s time stop.
Particles of blood, no different from a part of his body, surged through the space and isolated the world from the outside.
[…How dare you. You think you can face me with something of this level? Alone?]
The Executioner, who had at some point returned to his demonic form, growled low.
Of course, it was true that he had suffered no small amount of damage from the consecutive battles, but he did not think he would be defeated by that Phantom alone.
If things seemed unfavorable, he could simply pull back again.
No matter how much his opponent was of the same class, he would not be able to stop him if he committed himself to breaking away.
If he watched for a suitable opportunity, tore through the barrier, and used time stop once more…
“So this really is a bit lacking? How greedy.”
Unfortunately for him, however.
This was not the only move that had been prepared on this side.
“Then again, it would be a shame not to use something I’ve already set up… I’ve already obtained enough, so I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to pursue a bit of efficiency.”
From the moment the bombardment of the city began, from the moment he realized that the Beoncheonhoe had assistance, there was one thing he had hastily prepared.
Had he not gone through hell rushing to prepare just in case support on the same level as the Executioner was added, or perhaps even the leader of the Beoncheonhoe stepped forward personally?
Would it not be far too wasteful to pretend it had never happened and let it pass now?
Ssssss—
In that instant, the temperature within the space plummeted sharply.
The brightness of the world dropped by several stages, as if a filter had been laid over it.
[…What is this?]
The Executioner’s body stiffened.
Then he slowly turned his head toward the direction from which a sudden presence had appeared.
[Well, well, if this isn’t the finest experimental subject I could ask for! I had been feeling as though I’d recently run into a wall, too. If I study you, I’m sure I’ll be able to obtain something.]
What method had he used to appear without even the slightest sign?
That being was there.
If one got right down to it, he was the person who could be called the starting point of this “Masquerade.”[···Hahoe Mask!][Kahahahat! A Demon King-class demon I can dissect and study to my heart’s content? Excellent, truly excellent. To think I can even research the differences and commonalities between each dimension—what a windfall!]
Hans, who had shown himself on Earth for the first time in a long while, burst into laughter at the sight of the fresh offering.
But the newly appearing figures did not end there.
“Hm-hmm~ That’s a Demon King from another dimension? Well, seeing it like this, it is rather novel.”
A bewitching voice that eroded the mind just by being heard.
Even with an opaque veil draped below her eyes, her beauty was apparent—a demonic woman who could captivate even those of the same sex narrowed her smiling eyes and glanced at the Executor.
At the same time, the abyssal darkness spreading from the skull staff Hans held wrapped around the isolated space, and Hella’s 「World of the Demon Heaven」 was overlaid atop it once more.
At this point, it was practically on the level of another dimension rather than Earth.
Naturally, it went without saying that every connection to the outside had been severed.‘What is this?! Just what the hell is this?!’With the situation turning out like that, cold sweat could not help but run down the spine of the Executor, who had been so full of confidence.
Three opponents, each one on the same level as himself.
And if he included the angel and the undying monster he had encountered first···.‘Impossible. Not only did I fail to grasp the existence of these bastards until now, I didn’t even realize they were united as one? What kind of dogshit is this···! Oracle—! There’s a limit to dereliction of duty, so what the hell are you doing!’It was the moment every member of Masquerade’s Dark Side descended upon Earth.
As avatars whose very energy was far from positive, they were unsuitable forces to openly bring out in crowded places, but in a place where only they were present like this, it would not matter in particular.
“This works out nicely. I wanted to test how far I could respond to time stop with my Mystic Eyes. And also···.”
Hella, her pupils shining in brilliant five-colored light, continued languidly.
Her jewel-like eyes, shifting not only through domination but annihilation, stasis, precognition, and more, stared straight at the Executor.
With a gaze that seemed tinged with greed.
“This is actually a good opportunity. If we kill him clumsily for no reason, there’s no telling where he might come back to life like the Doctor. Even if we extract everything there is to extract, it would be better to leave the finishing touch to a specialist.”
Heinz II lightly tilted his neck and slowly stepped forward.
The droplets of blood floating around his body began to spin with increasing ferocity.[Precisely! For I am the one who rules over death—.]
Following Heinz, Hans let out a fierce shout imbued with his own rank.
The king’s proclamation, as though flowing out from the underworld, echoed within the isolated space.[You shall not be able to escape even through death!]
The foundation of his divinity was “death.”
For him, a specialist in this field, bypassing resurrection and rendering someone into a state no different from death was as easy as eating cold porridge.···Of course, he couldn’t actually eat it.