The Abyss seemed like a place where no rules or common sense applied, but even here, laws undeniably existed.
The most representative of them was night and day.
At night, aberrations appeared; during the day, they did not.
This was a law even Kreutzwald could not tamper with, and so aberrations did not appear in the daylight.
Well, there might be a few aberrations Kreutzwald controlled directly, but whatever the case, it was better than night.
For that reason, from the expedition force’s perspective, the best option would have been to fight during the day if at all possible.
“……Damn it.”
Unfortunately, it was now time for night to fall.
Kreutzwald had surely aimed for the timing as well.
He had shown Abelard just as night was about to fall, and exactly as he had calculated, the golem troops made up of the Magic Tower’s mages had surrounded them on all sides the moment night arrived.
—Kieeeeeek.
With a chilling cry, the aberrations stirred.
Presences filled every direction, so many that it was impossible to count them.
Unlike before, every aberration was clearly aware of Hio and the rest of the expedition force.
What could that mean?
“……He’s stalling for time.”
More precisely, it meant he intended to exhaust their stamina and mental strength to the limit.
Unfortunately, given the expedition force’s current situation, that could only be called the worst possible scenario.
The aberrations began to charge, and the golems wearing the skins of mages rushed in as well.
If those things got close, there was no telling what kind of variable might arise.
“Hio.”
Ailaitz looked at Hio and nodded meaningfully.
Understanding what he meant, Hio nodded back.
“Now.”
At the same time, a cluster of crimson light burst forth from Ailaitz.
A pink hole opened in the sky of the Abyss.
Kooong—
As though meteors were falling, countless masses began to drop from within it.
Koo-ooong—
Every single one of them was an ice golem.
They were the arrangement left behind by Venus, the former God of Love, something even Vitalianus had never underestimated when facing her.
The golems spread out widely as if to protect the expedition force, then charged straight toward the oncoming aberrations, and what unfolded at once was a chaotic battlefield itself.
Kwaaaaang—!
A collision of force against force.
A clash of numbers against numbers.
The ice golems had originally been Venus’s authority.
However, what Ailaitz had inherited was not that authority, but the ice golem legion itself.
It was akin to having inherited a kind of ownership, so golems that were expended could not be recharged, nor could they be controlled in more intricate detail.
But with this, they had served their purpose.
From here on, battle after battle would follow in which numbers would be of little use.
Kwaaaaang!
In terms of raw ability alone, the golems possessed physical power even stronger than the aberrations.
And the aberrations collided with them with no less force.
The ground trembled and the atmosphere surged.
The energy grew unstable, making it difficult even to concentrate within it.
Which meant this was an opportunity.
“Everyone! Prepare!”
He delivered the prearranged message.
At first glance, it sounded like an order to prepare for battle.
Well, it was not wrong.
They did indeed have to prepare for battle.
“You should all know your roles……”
Freyja drew up her mana in dragon form, and the others also took their respective stances, preparing to unleash their techniques.
There was the variable that Regarda had been removed from their fighting strength, but even that, in the end, fell within the scope of expectation.
Kreutzwald would not step forward personally; he would use the Abyss to gnaw away at their stamina and minds.
Naturally, the expedition force would want to fight during the day, and Kreutzwald would know that well.
To prevent it, he would push all the aberrations and every variable he possessed upon them in the night.
This was the operation devised in anticipation of that.
「Skill — ‘Dimensional Transfer (次元轉移)’ is being activated.」
A surprise attack using Dimensional Transfer.
In truth, from the very beginning, they had not expected Kreutzwald to be unaware of it in the slightest.
Knowing that twisted conviction of his, which had waited for over a thousand years, how could they have planned things so carelessly?
Forming the allied army and altering the passage had in fact been meaningless as well.
After all, the people who would face Kreutzwald had already been decided, and it was something that had to be done by an extremely small number.
Then why had they planned this entire commotion?
Why had they formed the allied army, broken through the ash-gray zone, and deliberately shown him all of this?
All of it had been for this very moment.
A single surprise attack.
A single surprise attack carried out at the moment it seemed they had unleashed the ice golems and were truly about to battle the aberrations.
「Setting target point to ‘20 meters above Kreutzwald’s head.’」
Even the allied army was bait.
The conversations they had shared with them, and even the discussion with the expedition force that should have taken place long ago but had deliberately been held only after entering the Abyss—all of it was bait.
This was the final battle, in which they had already gathered everything they had.
If the expedition force failed, then it was as good as saying there would be no allied army, and no future for the continent.
「Targets — ‘Hio Pavlenko’ and 99 others.」
They would pour everything into a single strike.
「Beginning Dimensional Transfer (次元轉移).」
* * *
Creak, creak. A chair swayed to a steady rhythm.
Sitting atop it and surrendering his body to its rocking made the entire world feel at peace.
A life of doing nothing, simply swaying along as the world swayed.
But such a life was impossible for him.
Because there was a single book resting on his knees.
An old book without even a title.
He carefully ran his fingertips over the blackened cover, worn dark from being read so many times.
A cover with a rough texture, like an old man looking down upon twilight.
The quiet dignity of one who had endured the harsh storms of many years.
Calm waves.
An absent unfamiliarity.
Solid silence.
And yet, if one turned just a single page, what lay within was something entirely different from the cover.
The sparkling joy of one beholding the world for the first time.
A sea of torrents where every kind of emotion mingled and swirled.
Familiar curiosity.
A delicate stir.
Unlike the cover, blackened by the stains of countless hands, the white ground of the book remained utterly unsoiled.
Contained within the crooked handwriting was a pure heart toward a new day.
Such things continued day after day, forming a single diary.
Just as he was about to open the diary as usual, a memory difficult to forget suddenly became a voice and echoed in his head.
—Pitiful Kreutzwald, who has even lost the heart of a human.
The voice of his disciple, who was foolish and clumsy, yet arrogant on top of that.
A bastard who knew nothing and had neither strength nor ability.
If he had obediently surrendered his body, Kreutzwald would have taken care of granting him peace.
That stupid disciple, who had doubted him and refused to believe in him until the very end.
Still, thanks to him, there was one thing he had come to know.
“To have lost my heart, is it.”
His heart had been stolen.
It was something he had never considered before.
Now that he heard it, it did seem that way.
This diary he looked at every day had been his only reason for living; everything else truly did not matter in the slightest.
No, in truth, even this diary stirred no particular emotion in him.
It was nothing more than an act he performed out of habit.
And so, instead of opening the diary as usual, he flipped through it all at once.
He barely read it as he turned the pages to the very last one, then closed it entirely and slowly rose.
He had roughly read the diary he was supposed to read once a day, like a promise, and now he intended to do something more interesting.
His foolish disciple, struggling desperately, and that disciple’s companions, even more foolish than he.
Those pathetic things had crawled in on their own feet, not even knowing that the Abyss was as good as the palm of his hand.
By now, they were likely raging at the golems he had sent and fighting the aberrations with all they had.
Seeing as they had pulled out the ice golems they had hidden away, it seemed they intended to begin fighting in earnest.
Making them reveal the hidden cards they had kept one by one was far too easy for Kreutzwald.
In the end, they would be placed before him stripped nearly bare.
Then all he had to do was finish it.
Judging by the way that stupid disciple had entered with such confidence, he must have prepared things like authorities quite thoroughly.
Even Kreutzwald had to be cautious of authority.
Just as they had never experienced the Abyss, he too had never faced authority before.
Of course, it was not something he needed to worry about greatly.
He had concealed his location perfectly, and even if he were discovered, he could simply move.
To think they would fight the master of the Abyss directly within the Abyss.
Even if they knew nothing of the battle between the former master of the Abyss and an ancient god, how could they be so foolish?
Just thinking about it made him laugh without realizing it.
He did not know how long it had been since he had worn a true smile, but how could he possibly hold back his laughter?
“Kleklekle.”
With those thoughts, he focused his mind.
Then the entire situation of the Abyss appeared vividly before his eyes, as if painted there.
It was night now, and battles were taking place in every direction.
The allied army’s camp was the same.
He had deliberately deployed the strongest aberrations late.
So that those who had fallen into the hope that they might manage it would gradually fall into despair.
If asked for the reason, there was only one.
Because it was more entertaining that way.
Perhaps that strategy had indeed worked, for the allied army was being pushed back more severely than ever before.
“……That is somewhat strange.”
They were retreating defensively to an oddly extreme degree, even though it should not have been that bad.
“It seems the divinity has weakened a little more as well.”
Sensing something amiss, Kreutzwald swiftly shifted his perception.
Not to the allied army, but to the place where the expedition force was fighting.
Kwaaaaang—!
The noise of the battlefield reached him in an instant.
The strength of the golems and the aberrations was quite similar, so they destroyed each other and shattered in turn.
If one side had been overwhelming, that would have been another matter.
But with evenly matched opponents colliding with all their might, the waves of force were considerable, causing the entire battlefield to shake and reverberate.
Was that why?
Or was it because he was not personally present on the scene, and was merely sensing it through the Abyss?
It took him a little too long to find what he was looking for.
He could not see them.
They should surely have been fighting somewhere with all their strength, and yet he could not feel them.
Had they perhaps hidden somewhere?
If so, that was truly a foolish thought.
Because in this place, they could not escape his eyes.
Nor was it likely that they had some other means or method of movement.
They would not even know his location, and if they could use such power, why would they have brought along those fools of the allied army and gone through this performance?
Then there was only one possibility left: flight.
They were trying to flee back to the original world through that purple dimensional cleaving from before.
They must not have seen an answer.
They had come in trusting only a few paltry authorities, only to find that the Abyss was far more dreadful than expected.
Had he not even shown them the works he had personally created so that they might feel that?
“Klekl…… How foolish. How very foolish.”
If the expedition force, which could be called the core, fled back to the original continent, then what would become of the remaining allied army?
Well, he had no particular ill will toward them, and it would not matter if he let them live.
“I should kill them all.”
He would step forward himself and kill them one by one.
Because he thought that would be more entertaining after all.
Just as he thought so and turned his body—
His surroundings suddenly brightened.
The Abyss did not recede before most light.
In other words, there were only a few kinds of light bright enough to drive back the Abyss.
A god’s divinity, flames imbued with will, Hio Pavlenko’s Transcendent Skill.
Or perhaps all three.
Whatever it was, there was no doubt that something beyond his expectations had occurred.
At the resounding crack that rang out, Kreutzwald raised his head and looked up at the sky, and on his lips hung the brightest, most innocent smile.