Chapter 160 - Volume 8 (2/2)

As Kyoji, the Hero of Water, issued instructions, the spies that he had trained scattered themselves.

The battlefield was the game board, and the soldiers were the pieces.

Kyoji had taken the war in hand from the very beginning, and controlled not only Sail’s army, but also the armies of all of the eastern nations and was manipulating them at will.

There was no room for either love or mercy.

From the very beginning, Kyoji…… had no feeling of anxiety at all ever since he had faced down that monster as Keiji.

No matter how brilliantly the others shone on the battlefield, he would always take the head of the enemy general.

Fame was born not of the few who were on the battlefield, but from the families awaiting the soldiers’ return in their home countries.

His first objective was to rise to the top of the world.

And the next was to rule it from behind a screen.

But that was all a lie that Kyoji used to fool the idiots into following him.

He really just wanted to own everything.

Everything…… yes, he wanted it *all*, including the world.

The forces of light and darkness, the humans, the nations, these were all small things. He wanted it all, including the world of spirits and fairies.

Some people once asked, “What will you do once you get everything you wish……?”

To Kyoji, there was no question more foolish than that one.

If it existed, he wanted to own it. And once he got it, he would break it. After breaking it, he would remake it. And then the cycle would repeat itself.

For the sake of being that [King], everything, including this world, was nothing more than a game for him.

“Sefira, did you manage to find where that person went?”

As Kyoji asked that question, Sefira quietly knelt down before Kyoji.

“Yes, Lord Kyoji. That person went into the very center of the forces of darkness, within the great cavern.”

“Will there be any problems?”

“It was impossible for me, but Lord Kyoji, you should have no problems whatsoever. The way to your [Kingship] is open.”

“Thank you.”

Kyoji laughed at Sefira’s foolishness in his heart, even as he lightly stroked her cheek and gazed upon her face.

It had been ten-odd years since he had fallen into this world. And finally, the path to his kingship approached.

But……

“Did you manage to find the Saint?”

“No, ………I’m sorry. I have no clue……”

“Is that so?”

For Kyoji, neither the war nor the powers of light and darkness nor the other heroes who were his match in fighting power were enemies.

For Kyoji, there was only one “enemy”.

The irregular in the world. Coming in from a strange world, an unknown quantity with unknown knowledge that was under no-one, whose influence swelled with the knowledge it gained from this world, just like that monster he met on terra…… All of these were things that made Kyoji jealous.

That otherworld Saint, Yurushia.

What was she thinking? He didn’t understand how she worked at all.

What she did, …… no, he couldn’t even predict what she was going to do.

It made the same impression as that monster called “Yuzu” that had traumatized Kyoji.

“Continue your search. This is our top priority.”

“Yes, Lord Kyoji!”

And with that, Sefira nodded seriously and left…… and the moment she turned her back on Kyoji, a tiny smile crept onto her face.

And then…… it suddenly happened.

“Wha-!?”

“Haa!?”

“What…?”

All three heroes suddenly shouted out from where they were, spread out across the battlefield.

They heard the screaming of the soldiers. There was some strange irregular black things wriggling on the battlefield.

They ran across the battlefield, attacking and scattering the forces of light.

But it wasn’t a normal part of the forces of darkness. The darkness who were on the battlefield attacked everyone else but themselves, including Nefertia’s army that planned to strike at them from behind.

It looked like both a human and a beast. Anything living was considered its enemy.

“………Demons……”

Someone uttered the phrase.

They were something that only existed in fairy tales, that had almost never appeared in this world.

They were the natural enemy of all living things that evoked the primeval [Fear] that was rooted at the core of humanity.

The [Demons] that were the nightmare of thousands suddenly bared fangs in the “real world”.

“Retreat!”

Kyoji’s shout was drowned out by the screaming of the soldiery, and the battlefield that should have been a board game turned into a hellish pandemonium filled with screams of horror.

“………What is that………”

Someone spoke out again. It might have been Kyoji, or Kanzo, or Minkichi.

An enormous black beast with the body of a bear with bull’s horns the size of a mountain emerged from the dust clouds of the battlefield.

As the very image of despair set in…… some of the soldiers stopped fleeing altogether and sank to the ground, unable to move.

But that was not the true despair. The real [Fear] was of the thing on top of that behemoth.

“…… the Saint……but how?”

A girl in a platinum dress that stood on top of the behemoth.

Everyone, from the soldiers to the officers to the heroes, knew that figure.

It was the golden saint that had come from another world.

But was that girl truly a Saint?

The Saint, who had always had a soft smile, wore no such expression now. Her face only radiated a terrifying beauty that chilled to the bone.

The golden hair, that symbolized the golden saint……

It had turned into black hair as it lengthened to her feet.

And as they saw the black Saint, the thousands of demons who had been rampaging across the battlefield all stopped, prostrating themselves to bow before her. It was then that the rest of them all realized.

A true [Demon Lord] had eaten the heart of the kidnapped holy maiden, and descended upon this world.

Author’s Notes:

The heroes are all rotten.

Next time, the behind-the-scenes!