Think about it.
Isn’t it strange?
They said the gods poured an enormous amount of their authority into constructing a perfect system, and that all gods thereby fell into eternal sleep.
If you think about it even a little, it is full of oddities.
Does the System truly possess that much power?
Does it contain such immense authority and power that every god would be extinguished?
Of course, the System is an extraordinary thing, but is it truly something that beings called omnipotent gods would sacrifice their own bodies to create?
The answer was “no.”
It was true that all the gods had vanished.
But it had not been to construct the System.
“The gods perished together with the Abyss.”
All the gods set out to hunt the Abyss.
And thus they personally destroyed the master of the Abyss.
But as the price, they too had to prepare for their own extinction.
“What they created at the end of it was the System. And the final arrangement they made was the transferred ones like you.”
Then why had the gods not told their child this truth?
Why had they not told even the dragon who protected the world the truth, the future?
Just what sort of future had they seen, that they had no choice but to hide it despite knowing things would turn out like this?
He did not know the reason, but no one on the surface had realized the truth.
Not the pope of the Holy Kingdom, nor the emperor of the Empire.
Not the most wondrous dragon, nor the most noble elf.
No one had even imagined that the gods and the Abyss had died together.
Except for one person.
The greatest mage, Kreutzwald.
As for how a human mage, no matter how great, could have discovered a truth that even the progenitor of magic and the most wondrous dragon had failed to uncover—
“Because I was the founder of black magic.”
It was because he was the mage who had personally created the new magic known as black magic.
He believed black magic to be the most perfect magic.
In truth, its limits could not be known, and in the end, had he not even glimpsed the truth of the world?
Had he not even seen the future thirteen hundred years hence?
The young Kreutzwald of that time had trembled.
Because he could not even begin to guess how great a value the truth of the world he had glimpsed, the future, possessed.
They said that merely thinking about how to make use of it was enough for an entire day to pass in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, the Kreutzwald of that time did not know that everything obtained through black magic came with a corresponding price.
He thought he had merely offered a simple sacrifice as he always did, and that it had ended there.
Before long, he lost his kingdom. He lost tens of millions of his people and his homeland.
Rumors spread among the people that he was a dreadful monster who had destroyed a kingdom all on his own.
It was agony enough to make him want to die, but perhaps he was able to endure because his family remained by his side.
His wife, kind and beautiful by nature, and his daughter, who resembled that wife exactly.
But the truth of the world he had seen was far too vast.
It took his wife from him.
It took his daughter from him as well.
It took his wealth, honor, and power.
It erased his life from the world.
And so, in an instant, Kreutzwald became a dead man in this world.
“I had no choice. With the truth of the world I had glimpsed and the knowledge of the future I had overheard, I had no choice but to enter this place at the end of the world.”
He entered the masterless Abyss and seized the empty throne.
And so he became the master of the Abyss.
“But it was futile. This became a shackle, and I could not leave this place. It was not enough. As the master of the Abyss, I was not enough to revive my family, nor to restore my kingdom and homeland.”
That was why he had resolved.
“I must become a god.”
Having heard the entire story, Hio wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and broke into a grin.
The more he listened, the more absurd it became, so he could not help but say something.
“That really is one nuisance of a life.”
Just how many people had suffered because of the black magic Kreutzwald had unleashed?
What crime had the annihilated kingdom and its people committed, and was that damage not still continuing even now?
Even at Hio’s mockery, Kreutzwald replied with an expressionless face, utterly unmoved.
“That is why I intend to turn it back.”
“By becoming a god?”
“Indeed.”
“And why are you telling me that?”
“Because the chances rise if you agree of your own will and offer me your body.”
“Hah.”
As though dumbfounded, Hio swept a hand through his hair and looked around. It was already a mess.
Only one exchange of offense and defense had passed, and Hio had already suffered internal injuries.
Kreutzwald, on the other hand, was no different from when they had begun.
The difference in power was not merely clear, but extreme.
“Why do you think I’d agree to that? No, why me in the first place?”
“Child, I know that the authority of a god lies dormant within your body. And in the end, you will have no choice but to agree.”
“……On what grounds?”
“Think on it. I become the master of the Abyss and a god at the same time. Not only will my shackles be undone and I will be able to leave the end of the world, the continent will never again face a crisis like the one it faces now.”
“And for that, I should sacrifice myself?”
Kreutzwald nodded.
“Are you not a hero?”
“……”
Hio was so incredulous that he was at a loss for words.
Why was he being told to clean up the shit this bastard had taken?
“Even if you do not accept, I will take your life. However, the probability that I will attain divine status will decrease by that much. Either way, your death remains the same, but if you resist out of some pointless foolishness, you will die and the continent will ultimately be destroyed as well. Because of your inadequate decision.”
“……I’ve been listening and listening, but you really do spout insane nonsense with skill.”
He had not understood it in any great depth, but he grasped the general idea.
In other words, this shameless monster Kreutzwald—
The reason this mad black mage had endured for over a thousand years in an Abyss like this—
“You just want to bring your family back to life, don’t you?”
It was not some grand cause or guilt.
Just his wife and daughter.
He simply wanted to revive his family.
“What is wrong with that?”
Kreutzwald tilted his head, genuinely puzzled.
“It was already spilled water. The gods had vanished, and the world had failed to clean away the dregs of the Abyss. I am saying that I will personally rule the Abyss, obtain divine authority, and save the continent. Reviving my family would be no more than the compensation that follows.”
“You lunatic.”
His ideology was rotten to the core.
He was a monster who could not be persuaded with words.
“Pavlenko. Do not deny it. Do not force yourself to avert your eyes. You too know that you cannot refute my words.”
“……”
“You will die regardless. It will not be a worthless death. The authority contained in your body will merely be taken by one more suited to it. It is a power beyond your station.”
With a hollow expression that held no emotion at all, Kreutzwald continued speaking.
“I have known of you since an age so distant you could not imagine it. You were born with the fate of a hero. But only that much. The reason the last goddess handed her authority to you was because she knew I would take that power through you. You were born bearing the star of sacrifice. Therefore, in the end, you will have no choice but to accept it. Because you know that this is the only way to prevent the continent’s destruction, and that if only you alone are sacrificed, everyone else can survive.”
Kreutzwald’s words carried no emotion.
His voice had no rise or fall, as if he were merely reciting the facts with calm indifference.
His pitch-black pupils were like the Abyss itself.
Facing them, Hio nodded.
“It certainly sounds plausible.”
It did sound plausible.
That he had been born bearing the star of sacrifice, or whatever.
That if Hio alone were sacrificed, everyone could live.
When a mage with that much power said such things with that face, it looked extremely plausible.
“But you know.”
But Hio had spent over a year right beside Kreutzwald, wary of him, endlessly suspecting him, watching him every day.
“Even now, you’re…”
So he had no choice but to know.
“Acting, aren’t you?”
Even that expressionless face.
Even that chilling voice he was using now.
All of it had been manufactured.
Kreutzwald’s mask still had not broken.
Hio’s eyes and Kreutzwald’s eyes met.
Silence followed.
And soon—
“I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Kreutzwald’s mouth began to twist.
The corners of his lips rose in a broad grin.
The muscles of his face twitched and distorted.
“If I extract your brain and spinal cord and study them for about a hundred years, the answer should come.”
Kreutzwald raised both corners of his mouth until they nearly touched the corners of his eyes, then flicked his staff.
At that, the Abyss—the entirety of the end of the world—began to surge.
“……You monster bastard.”
Facing him, Hio also raised his staff.
* * *
There are only two superhumans on the current continent capable of handling Will.
The Sword Saint Vitalianus and the Dragon Knight Regarda.
Gale Ainsidel, Mellisa, and Claire, who had been making a name for herself recently, were expected to one day reach that realm, but the fact remained that there were only two existing users of Will.
Hio had finally ascended to that realm as well, but he did not feel the slightest swelling of emotion or joy.
The reason, needless to say, was the monster before his eyes.
The Abyss came crashing in.
Kwaaaang—!
All the Abyss existing on the continent surged toward Hio alone at Kreutzwald’s command.
It gave the sensation that the world itself was rushing at him.
Now, he had to draw out every card he possessed.
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Realm (天上)’ is activating.」
In the world that had been nothing but darkness, an unfamiliar light descended.
Divinity magnificently swelled, and the goddess’s touch revolved around Hio, enveloping the area—
Kwaaaang—!
But the Abyss, which had faltered for a moment, soon received Kreutzwald’s will and began to crush the Heavenly Realm.
Under the force of an entire world pressing down, the domain of the Heavenly Realm rapidly shrank.
Even though it was a highest-grade defensive skill, it did not seem as if it would last even ten seconds.
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Realm (天上)’ has been canceled.」
「Skill - ‘Blue Flame (靑炎)’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ is activating.」
So he quickly canceled the Heavenly Realm and summoned Blue Flame and Thunder Emperor.
Two eyes burning white.
The power of lightning dwelling throughout his body.
Blue flames splendidly wrapping around his surroundings.
And when he flicked a finger crackling with electricity—
Kwaaaang—!
Black lightning struck down.
Blue Flame confronted the Abyss.
They were highest-grade attack skills with the same names as before, but they were no longer the same.
The weight they carried was different, and the power they contained could not even be compared.
The blue flames bearing the principle of endurance burned even the Abyss.
Hundreds of bolts of lightning carrying the weight of endurance dropped directly above Kreutzwald’s head.
Kwaaaaaang—!
But he was the true master of the Abyss and an archmage of at least the 8th Circle.
Even though Will had been imbued into them, they did not work.
“So that is your Will.”
Kreutzwald, who had opened his mouth wide and was giggling, lightly waved his staff.
“Not bad. It looks like it will be worth devouring.”
At the same time, enormous mana filled the area.
Overwhelming mana that dazzled the eyes and set every sense screaming in warning.
Hio immediately tried to use Ground Shrink to put distance between them, but he could not move very far.
It was because the master of the Abyss was personally controlling the Abyss.
Then, Blink.
But even that was canceled.
“Did you think you could cast even one paltry spell before me?”
Some spell Kreutzwald had cast, some mana field, was interfering in advance with every spell Hio tried to cast.
The overwhelming difference between an archmage presumed to be at least 8th Circle and an empty-shell 7th Circle mage who had barely qualified for the rank.
However—
「Skill - ‘Blink’ is activating.」
He could not interfere with skills that activated with dazzling effects.
He was a mage, not a god.
He was the master of the Abyss, not a god.
It was the power of the System he had dismissed.
“That is rather irritating.”
Kreutzwald’s face crumpled, and he began pouring out magic in earnest.
The ground split open, and from within it a toad-like hellish monster lashed out with its tongue, so Hio hurriedly activated Blink—
「Skill - ‘Blink’ is activating.」
But as though his destination had been predicted, a massive black explosion erupted at the same time.
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Realm (天上)’ is activating.」
Kwaaaaang—!
That single blow punched a hole through the Heavenly Realm, and as Hio flinched from the shock to his heart, pitch-black rain fell.
The ground melted.
Black hands stretched toward him from every direction.
More than a dozen spells whose names he could not even identify accurately came pouring down.
First, he had to dodge that.
But he had just realized that, in front of Kreutzwald, even using Blink as a skill was dangerous.
The man had a peculiar constitution like Hio’s, allowing him to see mana with his eyes.
Predicting the point he would move to with Blink would be easy enough.
「Skill—‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ is active.」
The most primal means of movement—he became lightning and moved.
Kwaaaang!
He stretched out his hand and fired a bolt of lightning, then continued dropping overlapping lightning strikes over Kreutzwald’s head.
Kwaaaaang—!
It had meaning.
The speed and destructive power contained in a highest-tier attack skill.
And the will of endurance added to it.
No matter how much of a monster Kreutzwald was, dealing with that speed blow by blow and continuing to block hundreds of overlapping lightning strikes would be a burden.
And that was not the end.
“Blue Flame.”
He called in the Blue Flame that had been burning away the darkness from a short distance away.
He compressed the sea of fire, vast as the sky, into a single point again and again, imbued it with will, and fired it.
It was a blue sun.
Small, yet holding the heat of the sun, and a weight to match—the true power of the Blue Flame.
“It’s more useful than it looks.”
But after witnessing all those attacks, Kreutzwald’s impression was one that strayed far beyond ordinary common sense.
“It was worth forcing the vessel to expand.”
His face was satisfied, as though Hio’s body had already become his own.
The corners of his mouth twitched grotesquely.
At the same time, with a thud, he struck the ground with his staff.
“……”
From behind his back, a darkness thicker than the abyss seeped out.
“Child, this will be the last time, so watch closely.”
A pitch-black deeper than pitch-black.
An abyss deeper than the abyss.
An infinite darkness that neither the flames of the Blue Flame nor the flash of lightning could reach.
“This is my will.”
「Skill—‘Blue Flame (靑炎)’ has been canceled.」
「Skill—‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ has been canceled.」
As it swallowed the Blue Flame and wrapped around the Thunder Emperor, the skills were all canceled.
As if they had been ravenously devoured by that will, every light was extinguished in an instant.
“……Will, you say?”
Within the abyss where every light had gone out, Hio stared straight at Kreutzwald’s darkness, darker still.
Having seen that, the feelings of fear or terror had instead vanished.
“As if something like that could be will.”
What filled his heart in their place was displeasure.
Or perhaps pity.
That was not will, completed by projecting one’s own conviction, mission, faith, or life.
That was simply an abyss.
Empty.
Infinite because there was nothing within it.
Or perhaps a hollow abyss.
And so, without even thinking of casting the canceled skills again, he looked at Kreutzwald.
That monster babbled as if he knew everything, yet he did not even know Hio’s true ability.
He had prattled on as if he had uncovered every truth in the world, but what he had seen was surely only a fraction of the truth.
And so.
“How pitiful.”
He was simply pitiful.
As the price for glimpsing a faulty future.
As the price for learning a shallow truth, he had lost his homeland, lost his kingdom, lost his wife, and lost his child.
He had lost his life, lost his existence, and in the end, even his emotions and humanity had been stolen from him.
“How foolish.”
Even those words, that he would become a god and surely save his family, were a lie.
And he was desperately turning his eyes away from that fact.
“How wretched you are, Kreutzwald.”
「Congratulations! You have achieved the target value for the hidden trait ‘Violence Is Not Okay!’ A hidden reward for the hidden trait will be granted.」
「Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet! : The effects of skills become real, not false. Accordingly, the ranks of the skills will be readjusted, and their skill names will be changed.」
「Skills evolved as rewards will not be deleted.」
「Please select one of the skills you possess.」