◈ Episode 525. The True Calamity (3)
Paimon.
The noble Demon King looked down at his incomplete body.
As expected, it had not been enough.
Even after offering up his entire domain as a sacrifice, it had still been insufficient for him to manifest in full. It could not be helped. Had things gone according to plan, the curse was supposed to have manifested him upon this land over several days.
They simply failed to meet my expectations.
“Copper, Silver, Golder, and Primordial Satan.”
Though they had not helped me manifest completely.
Even so, I shall graciously forgive them.
The corners of Paimon’s eyes curved in an arc.
“Thanks to them, I am now able to face you in your entirety.”
From the Demon World, I heard your voice.
“Just as I did not forget you, you did not forget me either.”
Even if all he had thought of was tearing him apart, Paimon was delighted.
For that, too, was one piece of proof.
Paimon’s pupils gleamed coldly. “Proof that a single ray of light was in the way.” In that sense.
An insignificant demon with nothing of worth beyond the singularity of being your blood kin.
Pride’s scheme had not been bad.
There was no need to extinguish that single ray of light.
All that needed to be done was to make that ray of light go out on its own.
By bestowing upon the light a cruel trial.
“So this is the land where your light began.”
Soon after.
Swoosh.
Paimon’s gaze turned toward the limping Pride.
“In recognition of your merit, I shall grant you one final chance.”
“……?”
Even if he was your blood kin.
I cannot allow him to steal away the time I have to face you.
Paimon declared to the hesitant Pride.
“Leave this land.”
“……
Guhk!”
At that moment, Pride’s body, not yet fully recovered, collapsed once more in excruciating pain. If Pride had lost half his life force after their encounter in the Demon World, this time he lost half of that half.
“It means you are not to disgrace yourself here.”
Now that Pride had sustained internal injuries so severe he could not even move.
There was nothing left to obstruct Paimon. And so, even an incomplete manifestation would do. Was the negative energy surging in this place not becoming my power?
Sssss.
From transparent to translucent.
Then to corporeal.
Paimon examined the flesh adorned in gold, silver, and jewels, then raised his head.
“That piercing gaze of yours stings more sharply than a blade, my dear.”
It was no clumsy metaphor. In truth, Paimon was pouring a considerable amount of magical power into counteracting the threatening surge of compatible mana.
“And your silence, too, is bitter.”
I suppose you do not even wish to exchange words with me.……
Shudder.
Was it the strain of overexerting an incomplete body?
Or was it ecstasy?
Paimon trembled lightly, then continued speaking once more.
“But that cold demeanor, too, is part of you. Thus I shall not turn away; I shall face it. Just as you said. Even if you think only of tearing me apart, if that is your will……”
His golden pupils flashed with madness.
“Then for your sake, I shall be torn apart and die.”
Ruuuumble……!
And then the change began. The presence pouring out from Paimon had transformed. Even the players, who could not understand a single word because their levels were different, could sense it.
“Has it started? The final boss raid……!!”
“……
The pressure is no joke.”
“Hey, someone punch me in the face! Help me snap out of it!!”
They could feel the air itself had changed.
Flash.
Soon, their vision flickered. [The Demon King of the Ninth Throne, ‘Noble Paimon,’ changes the field. The Eternal Golden Domain, the Golden Land, overlays your five senses with a golden hue.]
The first sentence, obscured as though by mosaic, could not be read properly, but the latter half was enough to infer what was happening. Analyst Nam Cheolmin shouted to everyone listening to his signal.
-It’s a status abnormality from one of the Ten Thrones! Everyone, don’t lose your minds!!
At those words, some clenched their teeth, while others rummaged through their inventories and took out unique-grade potion bottles they had been saving. Still others slapped their own cheeks as they activated their skills.
But every single action was meaningless.
“Wh-what is that……?”
An ant and an elephant—a gap even greater than that.
No matter what means or methods an ant used to respond to the elephant’s stride, unless the elephant collapsed on its own feet, the ant could never survive.
It was a gate.
A massive gate made of gold and jewels was descending slowly from the cursed formation in the sky above Jeju Island.
From the days when Arcana had been nothing more than a game.
He drew upon his experience as a ranker who had faced countless monsters.
Hisagi narrowed his eyes. ‘……What’s beyond that gate?’
He could not even guess.
Was it a weapon, an army, or perhaps a mass of powerful mana that would obliterate Jeju Island without a trace? Even as he racked his brain without pause, he did not stop doubting.
“We must not believe everything we see.”
“What the hell are you talking about, snake eyes?”
“You all saw the system message, did you not?”
“……!!”
That was right.
Had the system message, which never lied, not warned them?
That their five senses had already been overlaid with the color of the Golden Land.
Clang.
Hisagi pulled his magic spear close and said,
“Shall I put it more directly? It means that no matter what comes out from beyond that gate, we must not retreat. Even if we are seized by fear, it will be an illusion brought on by the status abnormality.”
Nam Taemin snorted and replied,
“I was wondering why you were acting so damn cool, and that’s all you wanted to say? Sorry, but if I was going to run away halfway through, I wouldn’t have set foot on Jeju Island in the first place!”
It was not only the three guild masters of the Great Alliance.
Even if they were enthralled by the light of the Golden Land.
Everyone on Jeju Island refused to step back before the gate of the Golden Land.
Creak.
When all their gazes converged upon it.
The gate of the Golden Land slowly began to open.
As the gate opened, Paimon’s lips moved.
“Will you listen, my dear, to a tale of the beauty of the Golden Land?”
As expected.
No answer came back.
Yet Paimon paid it no mind and continued.
“With your aesthetic sense, looking upon the same place as I, you should be able to understand the Golden Land. Of course, I have no intention of showing my treasures to those worthless dregs.”
Not only sight, but hearing and feeling as well.
Their senses had already been blocked by the golden light long ago.
So it should be fine.
Paimon continued speaking, his gaze fixed solely on Grandfell.
“As the artwork to raise the grand curtain, ‘Rain’s Scream,’ which unfailingly displays aesthetic sensibility, would be fitting. It is a painting drawn with blood smeared upon the feet of a beast writhing in pain, so it can be called, quite literally, a painting imbued with vitality.”
His gaze shifted to Jeju Island, shrouded in compatible mana.
“Would this scenery not become even more beautiful with a masterpiece added to it?”
Thud.
At last, the gate of the Golden Land opened fully.
As he had just said.
The order had already been decided in Paimon’s mind. After sketching the outline with “Rain’s Scream.”
He would display artworks bearing even deeper colors.
He would completely cover this land where a single ray of light had begun.
“As expected, I knew you would understand.”
The Golden Land.
Many had tried to glimpse its interior.
Most recently, there had been the Demon King of the Eighth Throne, Gentle Barbatos. But even the mediator of the Demon World, who possessed a high level of understanding, could not comprehend Paimon’s aesthetic sense.
-“Horrid. You are a horrid being, Paimon……!!”
A superior Demon King.
Noble Paimon.
The perspective of a lofty existence existed on a plane entirely different from that of other demons.
But at this moment, Paimon’s face was filled with rapture.
“I believed you would not avert your eyes.”
That was why, all the more. ‘I will make it so you can never return.’
A single ray of light.
He had to extinguish that existence completely. Just as Pride, that lowly bastard, had said, he had to deny the very land where the light had begun and make it impossible for the light to return.
“In that case, the next artwork shall be……”
According to plan.
Paimon was about to bring out the next artwork.
Then, suddenly, he opened his mouth.
“No. Before that, I would like to hear your impression.”
It was simple curiosity.
My Golden Land.
My aesthetic sense.
If you have fully understood them, what sort of impression will you give?
After waiting for eternity.
At long last, Paimon had finally faced.
An equal existence.
Paimon’s lips quivered.
“Any impression will do. Even criticism would be welcome, if it is your criticism.”
Soon after, as if in response, Grandfell’s lips began to move.
However, it did not take long.
For Paimon’s rapturous face to turn deathly pale.
“□□.”……
What?
“……
M-my dear?”
“□□ □□ □□□□□□.”
I cannot hear your voice……?
I……?
He could not hear the voice.
No, it was not that he could not hear it.
It was that he could not understand it. ‘……Why?’
He had felt this sensation before.
The Demon King of the First Throne, Foolish Baal.
In the moment he had faced that incomprehensible existence.
It was that sensation.
Gulp. He swallowed dryly. ‘Could it be that you stand at the same level as Baal?’
If it were none other than you.
It was not impossible to understand.
But what he could not understand was the consideration that had disappeared. ‘You clearly said you would tear me apart……?’
You are different from Foolish Baal.
Because you have formality.
Because you have dignity as a noble.
Had you not spoken in a way I could understand?
And yet, why, now of all times.
Are you pouring out words I cannot comprehend, my dear? ‘……Wait.’
That was not the only question. ‘It is far too quiet.’
The effect of “Rain’s Scream” was not appearing. The dregs, who should have long since been stamping their feet as if dancing in pain, were perfectly fine, looking up at the sky.
“What is……?”
But as stated, the question did not last long.
“!”
Because it had entered Paimon’s field of vision as well.
A massive hand.
The gate had opened.
What emerged from the opened gate of the Golden Land was not one of Paimon’s artworks. As if it had slaughtered all of those artworks with its own hand, the hand was drenched in blood.
It was the hand of Foolish First Demon King, Baal.
Paimon stammered.
“B-Baal. Why……?”
The puzzle pieces fit together in his mind.
The reason he could not understand your words.
That was it.
“……
Those words were not meant for me?!”
But Paimon could not finish his sentence.
Because Baal’s hand.
Had snatched Paimon’s body whole.
“……
Kuh!”
He could not even struggle.
The body of one of the Ten Thrones collapsed horribly beneath the pressure of that hand alone.
Paimon could instinctively tell. ‘I will die like this.’
Yet in the moment of death.
What flashed through Paimon’s mind was not a lantern of the past.
It was the future.
Not his own future, but yours.
Even in a world without me.
Will you be able to become free from the light?
Paimon, tormented by the thought, smiled.
“……
Ah. My dear.”
Crunch.
As Baal’s hand clenched, Paimon was reduced to pieces of flesh.
In the fleeting instant that consciousness remained.
Paimon completed his final thought. ‘It will be possible.’
Yes.
So this was your picture, Baal.
Only in the moment of death.
Did I finally understand Baal’s will.
Ecstasy wrapped around the torn scraps of flesh. ‘You gave me inspiration to the very end, my dear……!!’
*
Grandfell said,
“Baal, that one was my prey.”
However, Baal’s hand simply burst the prey.
Paimon, still caught within its grasp.
And so the prey vanished.
The target to be torn apart had disappeared.
Grandfell said,
“He was one who should have died more painfully than anyone. Yet not the slightest trace of regret showed in him. You bestowed such a death upon one of your own kind.”
Then.
“You shall pay the price for that sin in his place.”
An even darker compatible emotion surged.
In order to devour Baal.
If only it could devour Baal.
As if it did not matter what else was caught up in it.
It began to billow.
It was then.
Whoooosh.
Prosnax released his polymorph and soared upward.
Because it was reflected in the dragon’s eyes.
What would happen to this land if things continued like this.
But even the Ice Dragon’s flight was meaningless.
“!”
It had merely grazed the compatible mana. Yet the Dragon Skin began melting away as though ice were thawing. But more shocking than that fact was the gaze.
“O Dark Dragon……”
From the beginning, it had not been directed at them.
That vision was focused solely.
On Baal.
It was then.
Baal’s hand began to disappear.
As if its objective had already been achieved.
It scattered without leaving a trace.
“……?!!”
Yet no one could rejoice.
The target had vanished.
Then.
Where would this vast compatible mana be directed?……
Swoosh.
As if answering that question.
Grandfell’s merciless gaze turned toward Jeju Island.
An indescribable terror.
Wrapped around Jeju Island.
The Republic of Korea.
And the entire world.