Ch.172Answer (3)

“I don’t understand. Why are you still struggling?”

“Kugh?!”

With a casual wave of First’s hand, Esmeralda was sent flying, rolling across the floor several times.

Just a few drops of blood. She couldn’t even withstand those few drops.

Though she had grown enough to break through First’s downpour, her wounds were simply too severe.

First was right. The match was decided. What she was doing now was refusing to accept defeat and struggling pathetically.

“This attack wasn’t aimed at you to begin with. It was aimed at Third, who has no power besides his authority.”

Even if one tries to make illusions real, one must be positioned where the illusions are visible.

One might hide their body, but they cannot distance themselves more than necessary.

That’s why he destroyed the entire visible range in one strike.

“It was an attack meant to finish off Second, who was already at death’s door.”

Robeno’s speed was something even First had to acknowledge as superior.

Despite being on the verge of death, he had persistently clung to First’s ankles, which was irritating.

So First launched an attack that couldn’t be avoided no matter how fast one was.

Yes, the existence of the hero Esmeralda wasn’t even a concern.

She was merely someone who should have been caught in the crossfire and disappeared.

“If you had just stayed down, I might have passed you by. Why do you persist in resisting?”

First is busy. He needs to invade the human realm soon.

He hasn’t even properly carried out his mission yet, but his feet are tied before he could even set foot on the threshold of the human realm.

Lacrima, with her abilities that cannot be overlooked, and Robeno, a dangerous element on the same level as himself.

Both needed to be killed and eliminated, but Esmeralda wasn’t worth the effort. If she hadn’t gotten up like this, he wouldn’t have even bothered to confirm her death.

“Well, that might have been possible. No, come to think of it, would it have been more effective to ambush you if you came to confirm the kill?”

Esmeralda grinned, once again stabbing her holy sword into the ground and forcing herself to stand.

“Ah, now I understand why I did this.”

Esmeralda pointed her holy sword at First again and spoke.

Despite being stained with blood, her eyes were shining brilliantly.

“If you were to confirm kills, I certainly wouldn’t have been first. Waiting for someone to die before taking action just doesn’t suit my temperament.”

“……”

Winning odds don’t matter.

Does she think others always fight expecting to win?

Esmeralda has always overcome battles where losing was expected.

It will be the same this time.

With that belief, she has always found a way forward even in despair.

“Indeed, your resolve is firm.”

Just looking at the holy sword she’s holding tells the story.

Seeing the holy sword that still hasn’t lost its radiance, it feels like there might be something there despite her dying appearance.

It seems like she might actually achieve the impossible.

“Yes, now I understand.”

First used blood manipulation.

Blood flowing from his wrist pooled in his palm before transforming into a sword.

It looked like a red glass artwork that might break with the slightest impact.

An infinitely thin sword that appeared unfinished, broken in the middle.

Whoosh!

However, First didn’t rush to complete the sword and swung it as it was.

Unable to anticipate that he would swing an unfinished sword, Esmeralda couldn’t notice until the moment First’s sword struck her holy sword.

“I should have broken that resolve.”

Splat!

A light swing. Like swinging a thin branch.

No weight, no impact.

But the holy sword Esmeralda was holding fell to the blood-pooled floor in two pieces.

This was the first time since her encounter with Second that her holy sword had been destroyed.

But the situation was different now.

The holy sword then and the holy sword now differed in strength.

The holy sword had grown stronger as Esmeralda had grown stronger, and she hadn’t been careless enough to lower her guard against First.

Yes, it was her full power.

The holy sword, enhanced with all of Esmeralda’s strength, was cut in two without any resistance.

And by what? By a toy-like sword that was only half-made.

Not by a master’s technique, but by a crude movement like swinging a branch.

“Do you still think you can continue?”

The holy sword was broken.

It was helplessly broken before simple, overwhelming power.

There was no faith or technique there, only emotionless force.

Yes, First clearly crushed Esmeralda with overwhelming power. He shattered her hope.

“With a sword shorter than a dagger, with faith that has lost its radiance.”

As always, in an everyday tone, in a calm manner as if it were nothing.

“How long did you think you could persist with your stubbornness?”

First broke her hope.

***

Belphegor thought.

‘What is this?’

The Heavenly God is weak. She made him that way. Though she had thought of him as the final enemy, hadn’t he already been stripped of most of his power?

He was never a match to begin with. Just a symbolic something.

But…

‘How is he enduring?’

A situation where blue flames collide.

The imperial palace, already in ruins, was reduced to ashes with not even debris remaining.

No one could intervene in the fight, and the world was already engulfed in blue flames, making it impossible to distinguish up from down.

Despite such an overwhelming environment, Lug was enduring.

With power no greater than a small candle compared to Belphegor’s flames, he was deflecting all attacks.

It’s not that the attacks weren’t effective. With each deflection, the impact alone made Lug cough blood and roll on the ground.

“…Are you surprised?”

“Yes…”

Lug, lying face down on the ground, repeatedly tried to get up only to fall again.

Arms giving out and collapsing several times. Knees giving out and sitting down several more times. The sight of Lug barely managing to stand up evoked a definite, inexplicable fear.

“Actually, it’s natural. The power you’re using now wasn’t originally yours, was it? The original owner knows it better.”

“Just because you set the fire, doesn’t mean you won’t burn? You should make sense.”

“Haha…”

Lug laughed as if in despair.

Belphegor’s argument was valid. No matter how much it’s one’s own power, the one using it is a different being.

Just because it’s your weapon doesn’t mean it won’t hurt you.

“I think, you and I are similar.”

“Well, sure. You look stupid too. Why are you just taking hits?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

A figure staggering as if about to collapse at any moment. Yet Belphegor couldn’t move carelessly.

After all, Lug wasn’t dead yet. Moreover, he hadn’t attacked her even once so far.

Despite having opportunities many times, Lug didn’t move.

To Belphegor, it seemed like he was preparing for a single fatal strike.

To use his one chance at the most certain moment.

That’s why he kept enduring.

“We were both failures.”

“……”

“We were people who had to face failure time and again because we were more ignorant and powerless than others. A life where nothing went right.”

Just as Belphegor had made every effort to save Lilith.

Just as Lug had stopped many times to discover his brother’s whereabouts.

They failed but repeatedly moved forward again.

“But there is a clear difference.”

Lug straightened his body with a gentle smile.

“You were born with the qualifications of a transcendent, but I was originally walking a fate where I could never become a transcendent.”

Even though she was destined to die, Belphegor was born strong.

Her talent was beyond what an ordinary person could catch up to, and her mere existence was enough to render someone powerless.

But Lug was a person with no talent. Someone everyone laughed at, shook their heads at, and showed pity to.

These two people stood on the same line.

But because their origins were different, there was one clear difference between Lug and Belphegor.

“You asked if I don’t burn even though I set the fire? Actually, that metaphor is a bit wrong.”

Whoosh!

The blue flame burning on Lug’s palm scatters like embers in the wind.

“Because I wasn’t born strong like you, I had to consciously create things that were natural to others, one by one.”

The scattered embers seep into Belphegor’s embers that are burning everywhere.

Those tiny embers are swallowed by the great fire and disappear.

“So to use a metaphor, it’s like this.”

Belphegor belatedly noticed.

That his physical condition, which had seemed on the verge of collapse, had improved.

Thanks to his lightened body, his thinking could expand further.

That’s why he belatedly realizes.

“Things that are natural to you, like hearts beating and blood flowing, I had to design from the beginning.”

Power was stolen. The Heavenly God was reclaiming his status.

The method is unknown. Or rather, if pressed, the moment their flames touched, regardless of size, it was stolen.

Because they were handling flames of the same color, she didn’t notice.

“If I have the blueprint, can’t I handle it even if it’s been in someone else’s hands?”

Half of the flames already burning everywhere had passed to the Heavenly God.