Chapter 221 : Chapter 221
Chapter 221
Amethus had always been mistaken.
He had believed his Ars, ‘Oracle’, resided in his eyes, thinking it was a power that merely allowed him to peer slightly into the future. It was a sufficiently powerful Ars, so he had not bothered to doubt it.
Looking back on why he had been mistaken, he thought it might have been because of Ferbias.
Perhaps from watching his old friend's Ars, ‘Prince’s Eye’—his friend who was now the Emperor—up close for so long, he might have unconsciously mistaken his own Ars as also being wielded through the eyes.
Whatever the reason, he had now realized.
The self who had realized came and delivered the light. Amethus gripped his own soul, a single sword. The sword's name is ‘Vairocana’. It is the light that parts the darkness.
“I see it.”
It was still Avidya (Lightlessness).
It was a terrible darkness with not even a speck of brightness, but Amethus's two eyes blazed with a jade light, and that blaze was fiercer than the darkness.
“Belrsasal, your vile soul is seen more clearly than ever.”
“…Foolish.”
The goat's head panted heavily.
He was still in a seated posture, but his impatience was palpable.
“Even if you see it, can you cut it? Do you mean to say your Ars surpasses the magic of the seven stars!”
Amethus sheathed the sword.
The Vairocana subsided.
But already, the darkness had also vanished.
“My apologies.”
Belrsasal split into two pieces.
“I have already cut.”
***
“……”
The Demon King of Ignorance, Belrsasal, split to both sides and fell.
The black lotus he sat on did the same.
Just when it seemed he split into two pieces, it was four. Just when it seemed four, it was eight, and then sixteen, and in that way, he quickly split into tens of thousands of pieces.
The Demon King's body, split into tens of thousands of pieces, scattered and became ash.
Amethus did not miss a single piece, burning them all away with jade-colored flames.
The sword was already sheathed. His palm was entirely blackened.
The power of ‘Vairocana’ was so immense that it burned even its master's hand.
‘Hh….’
Belrsasal let out a groan.
His body had already been cut into tens of thousands of pieces by Amethus, so his voice did not leak outside.
He remained only as a soul, squirming.
‘…I am split into three. Therefore, unless all three die at the same time, I do not die….’
Even if I lost my body, I just need to recover.
Or I could just get a new body entirely.
He was a seven-star mage, and his true power was bound to his soul.
It wasn't that he hadn't taken a blow from Amethus, but he could sufficiently recover.
‘…However, young Aretion, you are like a monster….’
Belrsasal, remaining only as a soul, felt as if he would be trembling if he had a body.
The Ars ‘Vairocana’ that Amethus had newly awakened was a power capable of cutting even the soul.
The fact that he could save his soul, losing only his body, was purely thanks to Amethus not yet having fully grasped his own Ars.
‘I don't want to face him again like this. Even if I immediately restore my body, rather than having any chance of winning, this time my soul will be damaged….’
Belrsasal activated the string connected to his soul. It was the connection leading to the other two split Demon Kings.
‘I will gather the other two and stomp you in Pāpīyān's name, Aretion….’
Just as he had faced Amethus, Ma-aya and Karkarsso had faced Aida and Shion, respectively. Belrsasal fumbled for the soul connection he had briefly hidden.
‘…Ma-aya, Karkarsso….’
He did not doubt that the two Demon Kings had defeated Aida and Shion.
In Belrsasal's view, the strongest man among the three was Amethus.
Hadn't even Amethus been overwhelmed by Belrsasal before awakening his true Ars?
‘…Greed and Anger. Answer me now.’
‘Why are you calling?’
The first to answer was the Demon King of Greed, Ma-aya. Belrsasal saw Ma-aya tying the Widow Queen up tightly with black vines, tormenting her.
‘I was just starting to have fun.’
‘Ma-aya. Come here.’
‘Oh? That's a shame. Understood.’
Ma-aya's voice was blunt, but she did not refuse Belrsasal's words.
This was because although they were split, they were one soul.
Belrsasal smiled.
Even if Amethus had obtained ‘Vairocana’, he could not reach the Demon King Pāpīyān, a complete seven-star mage.
He was confident he could stomp Amethus soon.
‘Ma-aya. Ma-aya?’
Belrsasal asked.
‘I said to come quickly, what are you doing?’
There was no answer.
The goat-headed old man felt anxiety along with his question.
He expanded the soul connection further. It was to check on Ma-aya's situation and soon, pain flooded in.
‘Ma-aya…?’
‘Kyaa-aaaaaa---!!’
‘……!!!’
A shrill scream echoed. The soul connection was also severed.
Belrsasal realized Ma-aya's soul was suffering from something and had been isolated.
Belrsasal, remaining only as a soul, urgently called the other Demon King.
‘Karkarsso!’
The old man felt impatient, even as just a soul.
‘Answer me, Karkarsso! I must see what happened to Ma-aya…!’
‘…Ah….’
‘Don't tell me….’
Heat flowed in through the passage connected to Karkarsso.
Soon, a scream came with it.
‘…Karkarsso…!’
‘Ah-aaaaah-aaaaaaaaaak!!’
‘…You too…!!!’
The screams of the other two Demon Kings enveloped Belrsasal.
The screams were steeped in absolute pain.
Belrsasal felt baffled.
He couldn't help it.
Ma-aya and Karkarsso were seven-star mages who called themselves Demon Kings.
What on earth could make them scream?
‘…What is it?’
The goat-headed mage felt fear.
He didn't want to admit it, but the emotion he felt was clearly and indisputably terror.
‘…What is it that attacked Ma-aya and Karkarsso?’
Doubt.
Bafflement, terror, and anxiety combined to constrict Belrsasal's soul.
‘The other two versions of me are screaming. What on earth could have done this….’
“It is I.”
A growling voice was heard.
Belrsasal was in the unseen world, remaining only as a soul, yet that voice was clearly heard by him.
Presently, a pair of blue eyes glared at Belrsasal.
“I am the one who tore them apart. I ripped them to shreds, and finally, I incinerated them, making them scream.”
The murmur resembled a roar.
“And now, your turn has come, Belrsasal.”
***
It was a single dragon.
Its entire body was black.
He looked to see if it was covered in scales, but it was tens of thousands of layers of thick iron chains.
The iron chains were disgustingly hot and disgustingly heavy.
Blue flames flowed out from between the chains.
The dragon came leaping from far away.
Even Amethus did not properly see its appearance.
Just when he thought it had come from that side to this side, it already had the goat head in its long maw.
The long maw was full of fangs.
Each and every one spewed blue flames.
They were sharp enough to drag out Belrsasal, who had been hiding as just a soul, into reality.
“……Hh….”
The goat's head spat out a groan.
The groan immediately turned into a scream.
“……Hheuu-aaaaah……!!!”
The Demon King's scream tore the world.
The dragon paid it no mind and chewed the goat's head to bits.
It was so sharply hot that even the soul was torn to shreds and became ash.
Belrsasal writhed in pain and flowed deeper into the dragon's throat.
And within the throat, he saw.
The other two Demon Kings were there as well.
Both Ma-aya and Karkarsso were already being chewed to bits, burning in the blue flames, writhing with screams.
The three Demon Kings, reunited in the black dragon's throat, squeezed out their last bit of strength and raised their voices.
“…I am Greed!”
“…I am Anger!”
“…I am Ignorance!”
The three Demon Kings who had been one, once again become one.
The complete seven-star mage, the single calamity with three bodies, ‘Three-Faced Three-Poison Demon King Pāpīyān’.
“““I am Pāpīyān-!!!”””
The black dragon's maw gaped wide.
There was a force pushing from within as if to tear the maw apart, and this was Pāpīyān.
The united Demon King Pāpīyān once again sat in zazen upon the black lotus.
One Demon King, three heads,
Three bodies, three magics.
The seven-star magic, ‘Avidya’.
The seven-star magic, ‘Black Heaven Flame’.
The seven-star magic, ‘Kalasutra’.
There were three seven-star magics, each capable of tearing the world apart on its own.
Black darkness, black fire, and black vines emerged from the Demon King Pāpīyān.
And the dragon,
Shoved all of it back into its maw.
It crammed the magic and the Demon King in all at once and chewed them to bits.
Ah-aaaaah-!!
The Demon King Pāpīyān screamed once again.
The inside of the dragon's maw was like a furnace where blue flames billowed, melting even the seven-star soul.
“……Don't tell me….”
Amethus muttered.
The black dragon did not even give Amethus a glance.
It only spewed flames toward the Demon King Pāpīyān. Amethus, having newly awakened his Ars, had gained a greater power to see through the world than before.
So he could not fail to know.
The dragon's wings were made of thousands of invisible hands.
The dragon constantly pushes away those with hearts.
The dragon's scales were made by wrapping thick iron chains round and round.
The dragon was enormous and distorted, and it was also screaming.
The flames the dragon spewed were a vivid blue, like a soul, and the dragon's two eyes were a brilliantly beautiful, blue color.
“……Shion?”
The black dragon vaguely resembled ‘The Screaming Hunchback’.
But it was more miserable, and more gruesome.
The Hunchback was the form of an infinitely distorted human.
Even as it threw a tantrum like a child and trampled the world, it was barely human.
But that thing was clearly not human.
Even Amethus, who had found ‘Vairocana’, could not help but express his bafflement.
“……What in the world happened?”
***
It happened not long ago.
Just as Amethus had faced Belrsasal,
Shion had faced Karkarsso.
“I am Anger (Jin)!”
Karkarsso was a Demon King entirely covered in muscle, sinew, and blood vessels.
He raised his voice against Shion, roaring and shouting.
The Demon King recognized that Shion was the Fifth Prince Zionis and declared that he would vent his anger on Shion on behalf of Emperor Continua.
“This Demon King will now reveal his fury! Realize and know my fury! Accept my wrath with gratitude!”
The seven-star magic, ‘Black Heaven Flame’.
Karkarsso puffed up his cheeks and spat out black flames, the personification of his fury.
The whole world burst into black flames. Shion Pollinglight also burst into flames just the same.
As Black Heaven Flame was a seven-star magic, and as Karkarsso had accumulated much fury over the long years he had lived, it was hot enough to turn the land, the sky, and all people completely into cinders.
Shion could not be an exception, so he burned just like the world.
“……”
Shion Pollinglight was on fire.
The black flames clung to him and burned him, but he did not become cinders.
Karkarsso scoffed and spewed black flames once more.
He did not forget a triumphant shout.
“Behold my hatred, son of His Majesty!”
“No.”
The Regressor Prince muttered from within the black flames.
Even though his body was blazing, he paid it no mind and spoke coolly.
“That is not hatred.”
Shion burns.
The black flame tried to seep into his heart with scorching pain.
But a counter-fire was lit. Inside Shion's heart, there was already a blue flame, so the black flame could not seep in.
“Hatred cannot merely be this kind of blaze.”