Episode 954 The Rift of the World – 2
A strange ripple arose in the shade of the forest where sunlight did not reach. An old devil slowly knelt on the ground and caressed the false earth.
[A different kind from before… … the footprints of a soul… … clean, free, and distant… … but neither Oldarc nor ‘you’… … Ah… … finally… … finally… … is it?]
His voice trembled.
[Noxias.]
The old devil shed tears.
[Can we… … be… saved?]
The old devil stopped at the boundary of the forest, following the footsteps left by the soul.
The City of Destiny, Lendivar.
Far below the hill, in the realm of the hateful ‘traitor’, there is a savior. It is unknown why such a being drifted into the rift of the world.
If help is needed, I will help.If I must dedicate myself, I will devote my life.Even if they are not the savior I have longed for, I must verify their identity.
Therefore, we must find it.No matter what.
The demons in the forest flashed their eyes.
[I will come to escort you.]
Before the traitor arrives.
* * *
Contrary to common sense, Verden does not harbor hostility toward demons. Furthermore, even if they are enemies, he does not torture them in that manner.For Verden, any act that violates the dignity of a sentient being is a sin.
The torture technician violated the commandments of Verden.
“Excuse me? Who is it—gasp?!”
Verden’s sharp front kick exploded. The torturer’s ribs fractured, and the muscles covering him were severely ruptured.The massive body crashed against the foul-smelling wall and collapsed onto the floor.
I haven’t killed him.Not yet.
Verden picked up a bloodstained blade and severed the leather straps tightly binding the demon’s limbs. He caught the falling demon and slowly sat it down on the floor.
“Can you move?”“Sob…”
The talking demon, half human and half devil, could not control its body and mind, as if its reason had been almost paralyzed by pain.
Still, they have strong vitality, so they won’t die like this.
I’d like to give her a potion, but [Reindia] isn’t here right now, so I can’t open the subspace.I’ll move her for now.If I manage to rescue her, I’ve already thought about where in the city to hide her.
Before that.
Whoosh!
Verden kicked a jar of water placed in the corner. The torturer, who had exhaled with his nose and mouth blocked, opened his eyes.
“Ugh! Cough, cough, cough!!!”“I won’t ask twice.”
The candlelight flickered.The light from the blue eyes hidden beneath the hood was reflected. An unrivaled presence pressed down on the torturer’s mind and body from above.
“Why did you torture a talking demon?”“Y-Y-Y-Eng?”
The torturer trembled, clutching the spot where he had been beaten.His mouth opened by itself.
“That, that’s it, h-h-h, because we have to soften the bones and flesh before the execution… We have to prevent them from coming back up here and send them back where they came from…”“Where they came from?”“His Majesty ordered it. They must be sent back to where they came from.. W-where they came from… where they came from… where, they came from…”
The air became stiff.
“Damn it, I told you not to come.”
The torturer scratched his own skin with his fingernails.
“Cut off eyelids, gouge out eyeballs, pry open fingernails, sever arms, saw through legs, tear open mouths, pull out organs, tear off genitals, peel off skin, scrape out muscles, crush bones. Ahhh!!!!! Contort with pain so they can never rise again!”
Blood foam boiled.
“Stop coming up here!!!!!! I said don’t come up here!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Bang!
The torture technician exploded.
Fragments of the head and chest scattered in all directions, staining the torture room. Verden, who had lifted his cloak to protect the demon, narrowed his eyes.
Was there some kind of ban on it?
I finally discovered the difference from real humans.
Verden’s insight instantly saw through the inner side that had been revealed. That guy. He pretended to be an ordinary human on the outside, but he was completely insane on the inside.
What on earth is this place?
The five worlds spoken of by the gray dragon flashed through my mind.
The present world where Verden lives.Rivereas, where the Great Demon of Darkness resides.The Ark, situated at the boundary of the universe.The Magic Tower of Lefragium, the stronghold of the Resistors.
Finally, up to the fifth world where the source of destiny exists.
“Surely this isn’t the fifth world?”
But to say so… it was unbelievably quiet.After all, the mere mention by the Gray Dragon that the source of destiny lay in the Fifth World had brought a price for taboo severe enough to make Verden sense death.
No, it is still too early to conclude.
To stop the blood from dripping from the wound, he took off his robe, wrapped it around the demon, and held it in his arms. Its weight was light enough for an ordinary human to carry and run around with.He could see its four eyelids, which were completely dry, up close.
‘It seems there are absolutely no means to detect magical power in this city…’
Verden parted his lips.
“Spring, flow.”
The magic of the heart reacted.
Even without magic circuits in his entire body, and even without being able to open the magic path, Verden is a mage.
Incantation magic.
Ancient magic, used in the days when the first magic tower reigned and magic circuits did not exist, was cast through language.
While incantation magic typically utilizes magical power from the external world, there are no such restrictions for Verden. He does not need to traverse the Infinite Path of Magic.This is because a world exists within him.
Swoosh.
Clean water lingered in the devil’s eye, replacing the eyelids. Although it was mixed with blood, the pain in the eye would lessen slightly.
“Ugh…….”
The devil squirms slightly.
What could it be?
Verden felt a stirring deep within his heart.Colors of emotion more intense than usual flickered.
What on earth is this feeling?
And so, Verden escaped from the special prison while staring at the devil. It was some time later that the city realized the devil’s disappearance.
Lendivar has been closed.
* * *
Verden watched the guards bustling about behind the old curtains. They left no traces, but their tracking abilities were also abysmal.Lacking magical items, all they could do was blindly check every corner of the city.
There’s no way I’ll be discovered, even by chance.
He raised his gaze.
The angle of the sun did not change at all.
The merchant in the carriage said.
Oh my, don’t even get me started. There are just so many ‘demons’ these days. It’s a good thing I’m lucky; from now on, I plan to only move around on nights when it doesn’t get dark.
It seems different from the real-world day and night cycle.It looks like demons haunt the area at night.
It is truly a strange world.
dump.
Verden, who had made a floor of an uninhabited building his hideout, sat on the floor. The half-demon lying on the floor spreadwith a robe groaned. He tore the bread he had secured from the store into small pieces and soaked it in water created by incantation magic.
Demons in reality are aberrant species with no lifespan and exceptional regenerative abilities. If this demon possesses the same characteristics, it would recover with only minimal nutrients.
Since the creature had nearly all its teeth pulled out, I forced it to eat the soggy bread with water. I carefully controlled the water flow to prevent it from choking.
Fortunately, change came soon.
Slowly.
The severed fingers and legs slowly regenerate like tree branches growing. The pink flesh is soon covered by pitch-black skin. Teeth rise up. The four severed eyelids also grow back, harboring the eyes of a devil.
A moment later, the devil opened his eyes.
Are you coming to your senses?
The inverted eye on the right, with the whites and pupils reversed, tilted toward Verden. The half-face in the form of a demon trembled.
“uh……?”
The devil struggled to reach out his hand, which had not yet fully regenerated.Tears of blood flowed from inside the station.
“Ah… ah… really…? I… found the car….”
Verden took that hand.
“……I found it.”
flinch.
Verden’s eyelids trembled slightly. For a moment, his pupils stung. It was not pain. It was a sensation like paint spreading.Verden, who had briefly stroked his face with his other hand, asked the devil.
“You said you found it? What do you mean?”“That is—”
The devil’s pupils dilated.
“female…….”
female?
“here…….”
The devil desperately squeezed out a voice.
Here it is!
Saaaaa───
The sunlight seeping through the curtains vanished without a trace. Suddenly, the air froze cold enough to cause breath to condense.
* * *
Has the weather changed?
Verden immediately checked out the window.
Darkness rushed in from the east at a rapid pace and colored the day.Rendibhar was instantly submerged in the night sky.
“W-why is it night…?”“Noble! Call out to the Noble!!”“Kyaaaah!”
As shouts and screams echoed through the streets of Lendivar, a sound cutting through the wind from high above struck the eardrums.
Kwaaaaang!Kwaaaaang!Kwagwagwagwagwagwang!
A pitch-black rock destroyed part of the cluster of buildings. Tentacles extended from the point of impact, hacking at nearby soldiers and civilians.Demons poured out of the massive pit like a colony of ants.
[Kieeeeeeek!]
“Ah, the evil spirit, Aaaaaaaah!”
Collapsing building.
Even the gate through which Verden had secretly passed was breached, and various demons raided the city. As soon as the night turned to darkness, Rendibhar transformed into a battlefield.
What is the situation?
Verden could not hide his bewilderment at the brutal landscape that had transformed into a slaughterhouse. Human corpses lay scattered regardless of age or gender.
Bang, thud!
A giant demon grabbed the knight whole and swung him like a club. The knight’s upper body was shattered. The citizen struck by it was reduced to a pulp.
The demons chase the next victim.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp……!”
A father is running to survive, holding his crying child in his arms. The father and daughter tripped over a stone and fell face down on the ground.It was at this moment that Verden was about to instinctively move to stop the demon.
[There is… … no reason to save it.]
From the shadow of the half-demon, a gaunt old demon rose. It was a formidable presence, powerfulenough to crush the knights of the special prison with a single finger.
The demon army you led the attack on.
[I am… … Legion Commander Hadras, who… … commanded Lord Noxias’s demons in the Battle of Destiny.]
The old demon, Hadras, bowed his head.
[There is nothing here… that truly has substance… except for us… there is no time, so you must get outside immediately… .]
“…….”
[Please… … believe me.]
While Verden hesitated for a moment, the father and daughter were torn to shreds by demons. Choice, choice, choice. Whatever is right, a choice must be made.Bearing the responsibility is indeed the right and duty of one who holds the power to choose.
He spoke of the War of Destiny and Noxias. There is no falsehood in that attitude.
Verden held the half-demon, who was still unable to move properly.
Move.
[… … !]
Hadras opened his eyes wide as if overwhelmed with emotion, then bowed his head again.
[I will provide some information.]
A four-legged, eyeless demon in the form of a monster stopped in front of the window. Verden followed Hadras and climbed onto its back.
[Retreat.]
[Kuoooooo.]
The monstrous demon raced in a straight line, smashing the road with its weight. The demons followed it. No buildings or humans remained in its path.
Verden said.
“I’m being tracked.”
From the center of Rendibhar, beings clad in armor different from that of the knights closed the distance.They were running at a considerable speed.
[Here… … they are called nobles… … but… … at least here… … they never reach us.]
Hadras asserted.
[Because the Savior believed in us… … there is enough time.]
Before the nobles could even approach, the monstrous demon breached the collapsed castle gates once again. The demons that had been slaughtering humans also left the city.As they moved away from Rendibhar, the darkness naturally began to lift.
[The day fades… … and darkness descends… … and when the day returns again, the cycle is completed… … .]
Rendibhar is restored to its original state starting from the part where the sunlight shone. Verden turned his head and watched the scene from beginning to end.
[Fate shall repeat itself.]
Rendibhar was completely restored to the state it was before the demon raid. There was no pursuit. The gate guards inspected those attempting to enter the city as if nothing had happened.The presence of the nobles who had been fiercely chasing them had also vanished from sight.
It was as if time had been rewound.
“What is this world…?”
[This place is not a world… … a ‘gap between worlds’… … also a passage where unpermitted souls flow in… … and … a fence of fate.]
So it’s not the fifth world after all.
However, there must be a connection.
The part about the passage of the soul is particularly concerning. This is because… Isabella encountered taboos related to the soul through her keen eyes, and the first servant had once directly spoken of the soul’s taboo.
[I understand… … your confusion and doubts, Savior… … but rather than rushing to give you an answer… … right now, we must focus… … on getting out of this realm… … .]
Verden guessed the reason in his own way.
Is it because of the existence of that Majesty?
[That is correct… … the one who manages the rift of this world under ‘your’ command… … the servant of fate… … the worst traitor… … .]
Hadras whispered softly.
[The first king of the human world… … now that the time has come for him to return to the kingdom… … it is highly likely that he has noticed the anomaly by now… … .]
* * *
He, who remained in the Rift of Worlds due to the enforcement of the World Tree’s taboo, flinched violently.He felt it.The alien presence that had entered his kingdom guarding the Rift, the ‘Blockade Line of Fate’.
Destroyer of Fate.
The True Cross hanging around the neck swayed violently.How could he be there?There is only one being capable of secretly intervening in the rift of the world. Even in that place, sustained by the repetition of a limited destiny, time ultimately exists.
“Hiante……!”
The old fanatic of Gargant gripped his greatsword and headed toward the kingdom. With massive strides, he slowly folded space as if leaping across cliffs.
To Rendivar, about 44 steps.
