Chapter 217 : Chapter 217
Chapter 217
The mage who ascended to the seven stars called himself Pāpīyān.
This was because, looking back on his five hundred years of life, he saw three great masses in his life.
They were Greed, Anger, and Ignorance.
He decided to accept these three poisons without casting them away.
The mage who became Pāpīyān had lived a long life.
He was called by many names, but there were three names called enough to be engraved on his soul.
Ma-aya, Karkarsso, Belrsasal.
The soul with three names laughed with three faces.
“““Oho.”””
The Demon King did not hide his admiration and pleasure.
“““O-ho-hahahaha-!!”””
Pāpīyān was Ma-aya, Karkarsso, and Belrsasal.
He was a monster who called himself a Demon King with three faces and three poisons.
The woman, the man, and the old man spread their mad laughter as one mass.
The entire capital, Föhn, rang out, whimpering.
“““Behold! I have been made new!!!”””
Lefren was not seen.
The stopped time flowed, and the thousands in the crowd witnessed the Three-Faced Three-Poison Demon King.
Everyone trembled in fear at the unholy form riding the black lotus.
Screams and lamentations overflowed, and Pāpīyān delighted in it.
The Widow Queen Aida used the ‘Uvula of Abundance’ to protect her people.
Shion and Amethus also helped her.
Evacuating the thousands in the crowd was instantaneous.
This was also thanks to Pāpīyān not bothering to interfere with them.
Pāpīyān, the mage who ascended to the seven stars, was intoxicated by his own power and burst into laughter repeatedly.
Seated in meditation on the black lotus, he expressed his admiration, “O-ho-hahahaha.” Yet, the entire land and sky vibrated.
The Demon King Pāpīyān laughed.
He laughed once, and humans wept.
He laughed twice, and the ground sank.
He laughed three times, and the sky caught fire.
Before the Demon King's laughter, Shion gritted his teeth.
‘…I was careless!’
He was enveloped in bewilderment for the first time in a very long time.
Having come back 19 years, everything had been smooth sailing in the palm of his hand.
But now, the birth of the Demon King Pāpīyān was a truly shocking event, even for the regressor Shion.
The Regressing Prince's existence led to the birth of the Demon King Pāpīyān.
Because he had saved Obro Denoebang, because he had given Belrsasal the chance to take the Underworld, because he had moved 3 years earlier than before, the thread of causality became tangled.
The tangled skein gave birth to a new Man-God named Demon King Pāpīyān.
‘…Think, Shion! Shion Pollinglight! I have to defeat that bastard……!’
He could tell just by facing him.
The Demon King Pāpīyān was an unholy and profane existence.
As he was evil from the root, he was bound to be a threat to humanity.
Among the four disasters the Empire had prepared, the Demon King Pāpīyān alone was more, much more dangerous.
[Truly foolish.]
A beautiful voice was heard from behind Shion.
[Even though the craving for power is endless…….]
“““Haven't you disappeared yet, Lefren?”””
The Demon King Pāpīyān snorted.
As he had three faces, he snorted three times.
“““Our contract should be finished.”””
[The contract with you has been completed. This is now a personal matter.]
Lefren stood facing Pāpīyān.
She came from the outside.
As an existence close to a law, she cannot recklessly interfere with reality.
Pāpīyān knew this, so he was confident even before Lefren.
Lefren felt Pāpīyān was arrogant, but she did not bother to express it.
She was too great an existence to intervene in every little emotion like that.
However, she raised her three faces—one rotten, one only bones, and one beautiful—and gazed into the distance.
[That's right.]
Her gaze was not directed at Pāpīyān.
[You were wise.]
Lefren retraced the past.
To her, who had existed since the beginning, a thousand years was not that long, but it could not be called short, either.
[The two of you foresaw a day like today and made another promise with me. As per that promise from a thousand years ago, I shall temporarily release your constraints.]
“““……To whom do you speak?”””
Pāpīyān turned his head.
He saw. A massive dragon cloud approaching from beyond the sky.
The cloud, brimming with a silvery halo, held a power that even the Demon King Pāpīyān could absolutely not take lightly.
There was only one existence who led a silver dragon cloud.
The Demon King Pāpīyān discovered the trace of fear remaining deep in his soul.
He knew who the master of that dragon cloud was. It was impossible not to know.
He had feared it for five hundred years. Even now that he had ascended to the same position, his heart was stirred.
[I leave it to you.]
Lefren's lips moved.
It was now time to disappear to the outside again.
[Last Mage, and Last Clown.]
***
“What is this!”
A cackling laugh was heard.
“I'm asking what this is, Shion!”
“…This is the first time I've been this glad to see you.”
“Such hurtful words!”
The jester frolicked in the empty air.
Even as he spoke, he did not stop his hands, showing off various tricks.
It's been a while since I appeared, so I have to appeal to myself!
I want to build up my favorability too!
The Last Clown said so, raising his voice.
“Appearing at the perfect moment as always, Beila Beile!”
“Still noisy, Beila.”
“Oh, Sen-!”
The clown greeted him happily.
His voice was cheerful, as if he couldn't even see the likes of the Demon King Pāpīyān.
Every time he laughed, his face color flickered.
It would turn bright red, then blue, then pale white, then transparent enough to see through.
“Sen Sorti, my friend-!! How long has it been?”
“It's Beluchian now, Beila Beile.”
“I know, I know! Beluchian Pollinglight, the Great Witch of the Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom!”
Beluchian Pollinglight, the Last Mage, shook her head.
The Great Witch was already standing beside Beila Beile.
The silver dragon cloud that had filled the sky was nowhere to be seen.
“More importantly, how long has it been!”
“A thousand years.”
“Ah, we haven't seen each other since Cordis was founded? Hasn't been that long then!”
Beila Beile laughed heartily.
Beluchian shook her head, as if she didn't even want to answer.
The Last Clown and the Last Mage.
Two of the Eight Man-Gods had gathered.
The Widow Queen Aida stood as if nailed to the spot, staring at the two Man-Gods.
This was because she had never expected to see the Hotus Eight Gods, whom she had considered only a legend her entire life, with her own eyes.
Shion and Amethus also had to stop for a moment, watching the two who had suddenly appeared.
It was the same for the Demon King Pāpīyān.
The mage who had become a god knew the dignity of those two existences better than anyone.
Having lived for a long time, it was impossible not to know.
The Demon King Pāpīyān's silence meant tension.
The Last Clown snickered, as if finding such a Pāpīyān cute.
“More than that, it's amazing. Yep, truly an amazing thing! To think that a bastard who abused that contract to become like us has actually appeared!”
“He summoned Lefren by offering the Black Light as a sacrifice. How did he open the gate to the Underworld?”
“Your disciple opened it, Beluchian!”
“…Hmm? Really, Clown?”
Beluchian turned her eyes to look at Shion.
It was not an interrogating gaze.
Ever since meeting the version of herself in Shion's memories, Beluchian had come to regard the Regressing Prince extremely fondly.
Shion shook his head as if to say it couldn't be helped, and Beluchian gave a bitter smile as if she understood.
“Anyway, we can't let another thing like us ruin the world.”
“Let's do our job.”
The Great Witch gestured.
She summoned her five retainers and changed them into five divine instruments.
A scaled cloak, a dancing staff, a toothed jewel, living armor, a flaming wreath.
The seven-star mage, armed with the five divine instruments, displayed a dignity worthy of the title First Mage.
“Hey, you're Ma-aya, right?”
“…Do you remember me, Sen Sorti?”
Among the Demon King Pāpīyān's three faces, the woman's face answered.
“Of course. How could I forget? Even after another thousand years, you and Hermai will be remembered by me.”
“…This is quite an honor.”
“You were such a cute girl when you were young. I called you ‘baby’ back then.”
The Great Witch remembered.
Five hundred years ago, Ma-aya, who was just learning magic, was a girl who was truly rewarding to teach.
But look at her state now.
It seemed she no longer knew if she was a woman, a man, or an old man.
“Now you've even forgotten who you are.”
“…….”
“You acted up too much, baby.”
The Last Mage spat out coldly.
“I have a lot of worries, so I made a request to Lefren a thousand years ago.”
She fumbled through her memories to the time she had ceased to be human.
It was the time the name Hotus Eight Gods was born.
To be precise, it was about thirteen hundred years ago, but since there was no great difference between thirteen hundred years and a thousand years to her, she didn't bother to say it.
“‘Just in case… there might be someone who discovers our contract and commits the same error. If that happens, give us the chance to stop them with our own hands.’”
“Lefren is a kind Demon Queen, so she gladly promised.”
“And after a long time, she kept her promise.”
The Great Witch bared her teeth and smiled.
It was all fangs. They glinted sharply, as if they could chew up even a mountain range.
“We were bound by all sorts of constraints, but it's different now, baby. Lefren temporarily released our constraints.”
“We could blow away a country with one snort! But that's no fun, so we won't!”
The clown and the mage transformed.
No, they regressed to their original forms.
They revealed the true nature they had hidden, afraid they might trample the world with their mighty souls.
“Even if you ascended to the same position with the same contract as us, you were just born, and we've aged for over a thousand years.”
“Hehe, can you even call it the same position? You just used our contract.”
“That's true too. Look at that soul, Clown. It can't split, it can't become one, it's unstable.”
“Still, it's enough of a threat to destroy a world, Mage.”
“Right. So we have to stop it.”
The Last Mage was a dragon.
A long body sparkling with solid silver scales, with forty-eight wings attached.
The five divine instruments danced by her side.
The Last Clown was a flower with a thousand petals.
Each and every petal was a hand, and in the center was the clown's face.
The flower, truly bizarre in form, cackled and rolled around in the empty air.
“You crossed the line, Ma-aya.”
“Let's call him Pāpīyān. He'll be embarrassed if you keep calling him by his childhood name.”
The Demon King Pāpīyān distorted his three faces.
“““…Heh……”””
Laughter burst from the three distorted faces.
“““Heh, hahaha-!”””
The clown and the mage were puzzled.
There should have been no reason for Pāpīyān to laugh.
However, the Demon King Pāpīyān continued to laugh.
“““You are right. I cannot defeat you. But… I knew you would come.”””
The headless old man, Belrsasal, held the goat head he was cradling upside down.
He shoved his emaciated hand into the cross-section of the severed neck and pulled out a small bottle.
The transparent bottle was full of black liquid.
The Last Mage recognized it.
“An Ancient Weapon. ‘Moon-Shadow Cranium’. But that alone won't be enough.”
“…Uh… no way…….”
“What's wrong, Clown?”
The Demon King Pāpīyān shook the tear bottle.
“““Do you remember your promise with Moon-Shadow, Last Clown?”””
“…….”
The Last Clown's face stiffened.
He was a clown who never lost his cheerfulness, but now he could not suppress his anger.
“…How do you know that?”
“““I asked if you remember the promise!”””
“…Yes, I remember.”
“““Then keep the promise-!!!”””
“…Dammit……”
Beluchian could not help but ask.
“…What promise did you make, Beila?”
“…A thousand years ago, I was the one who subdued Moon-Shadow.”
“You were.”
“…I made a promise back then. To grant the wish of the one holding its remains, just once……”
“…Huuuh?”
The Great Witch finally realized why the Demon King Pāpīyān was so triumphant.
The Last Clown covered his face with his thousand hands.
“How did that bastard know……”
The Demon King Pāpīyān spoke.
“““Last Clown, I will state my wish.”””
“…Say it.”
“““You will take the Last Mage and exit.”””