Ch.17959. The more impossible something seems, the more certain it is to happen.

“Does the Creator of Fire believe that a world under his dominion will perish by mere flames?!”

With a body perilously consumed by flames.

Yet somehow enduring and shouting out.

As the cry of the ram sounded once more, the divine warriors and fire incarnations buried in flames summoned their strength again.

The phoenix submerged itself in black flames, devouring the fire.

Each fire incarnation pushed forward against it.

“My name is the Victorious Fire!”

White flames, baekwa, rose from the boy’s body.

It was something I had seen before… Yes. A flame with qualities somewhat different from what Elhermina had shown when she stood against me.

The pure white fire seemed to catch onto the black flames, attempting to devour them in reverse.

But it wasn’t enough.

The black flames, the black blaze now split even the sky, spreading to burn the entire world.

It was a calamity.

Destruction.

Beyond destruction—great annihilation.

“You… should go back now.”

Heba, who was supporting Kariel while sitting low to the ground, made this request to the struggling Kariel.

“I don’t know much, but this isn’t a world where you should stay, is it?”

“……”

She’s right.

She’s absolutely right, but…

“What about you?”

“We won’t die. We probably can’t die.”

Perhaps.

In this world consumed by flames, we would burn forever, suffering and agonizing.

Somehow, we’d manage.

…Somehow.

“Many people live in this world. You’ve committed an act that will turn them all to ashes and dust. I think it’s a fitting punishment.”

“……”

On that point, I have no intention of defending or comforting her.

She’s right.

It’s an undeniable fact.

However…

“It was they who cornered the rat. Take that into consideration.”

“Your comfort… is quite terrible.”

Heba smiled weakly.

Her sand color seemed… brighter than when I had seen it before.

But what it contained was deep self-loathing.

“Go. This place isn’t… reality for you.”

The same words repeated.

“I who can see the future, and you who can glimpse the past. And you who awakened me. You who appeared beside us at this moment to awaken us again…”

She couldn’t continue beyond that.

Suddenly.

As if she had abruptly foreseen something, her expression twisted.

“No, that can’t be.”

She stared into empty space.

I turned my half-reclined gaze in the direction she was looking.

In the sky, a black hole was being torn open.

And from there.

A crimson girl, a girl in black armor… shot down to the ground like a comb’s teeth.

KWANG!

Given the height, a powerful collision sound erupted as soon as she landed.

-…

I’ve seen her before.

Different from before, perhaps looking somewhat younger, but definitely the same person.

Those crimson eyes staring intently at me.

Though different from the eyes that once held starlight… undoubtedly the same.

“The Demon Lord…”

“What?”

At that moment.

-Things have taken an unexpected turn.

The previous Demon Lord, who had somehow reached my side, looked at the current Demon Lord and me with a grinning face and said:

-But it’s all predestined harmony.

Kariel, do you know who the master of this era is?

“…?”

The Demon Lord who governs the name of wisdom.

Yet also called the Golden Demon Lord.

She threw another enigmatic question at me.

No, not even a proper question.

“The Supreme God of non-birth and non-death. Master of light and wisdom. Yes. He… wouldn’t stand by and watch this situation.”

Though she couldn’t possibly have heard the previous Demon Lord’s words.

Yet she spoke as if she had heard them.

The eternal impurity.

He is the master of the sacred fire.

Even the victorious flame is therefore his subordinate.

Created yet uncreated while being created. A god who existed from the beginning.

It is light.

It is wisdom.

The primordial god of light.

The omnipotent god of goodness.

The primeval sun god.

That is.

The original fire.

“But… this can’t be stopped. It can’t even be suppressed…”

Suddenly.

I meet the current Demon Lord’s red eyes.

Amidst this terrible situation, the girl’s eyes were unprecedentedly calm.

But that calmness… was like the calm within a storm.

Making it all the more incongruous.

Also.

When she suddenly threw herself into the black pillar of fire.

We thought she had gone mad, even I thought so.

“What are you doing?!”

Heba was terrified.

Along with her, distant screams echoed in all directions.

“What reckless act is this! Do you wish to die?! What audacity! Young lady!”

The boy still burning, Verethragna, was shouting in a different sense of alarm after seeing the figure throw herself into the pillar of fire.

That’s when it happened.

-I! Will burn! This entire world!

So listen to my words! Obey my command!

-LAEVATEINN!

With that cry.

Suddenly, the black flames covering the sky subsided.

Abruptly, the world was liberated from the fire demon.

…A truly miraculous situation.

As if all of this had been a dream.

…All that remained in this world were black embers spreading to burn the surroundings, a devastating sight.

“H-how…?”

Despite the disappearance of the fire pillar.

That figure, her entire body burned by black flames.

Thus, the current Demon Lord was firmly grasping the source from which the flames had erupted.

-Kuuugh! Aaaagh!

Pain!

Who was it that said since ancient times, the pain of burning alive in fire is the pain of all pains, the foremost of all suffering?

And as if to prove this, the girl was screaming in agony.

But… even so, without sitting down or kneeling, without struggling or writhing.

The girl was accepting all that pain to the very end.

-This too shall pass. This too shall pass.

Faintly, from afar, such words could be heard.

-There is no end to pain. Yet it shall pass. It shall pass.

In that voice reciting like a mantra, there was a belief in endurance.

-…

Eventually.

The pitch-black staff in her hand.

The current Demon Lord grasped it and.

KWADEUK!

She thrust its end into her own body.

“What are you doing! Why such an act?!”

Heba was horrified.

Even I, watching this, broke into a cold sweat at the strangeness of the act.

“Stop!”

The divine warrior charged.

More precisely, the boar incarnation tried to ram its large body, but.

-Get lost.

Red butterflies, locusts, moths, swarms of bees, swarms of flies whirled around.

Caught in them, the boar rolled on the ground in agony.

The phoenix, burning its entire body, swooped down like a hawk toward her.

-Pathetic!

As she swung her arm again, this time black flames struck the phoenix’s entire body.

Like a whip containing flames, it not only delivered heat but exerted physical force, striking the phoenix, and even binding and restraining its body completely.

Even the charging bull was caught in that fiery whip, crying out, its four legs bound, pathetically tumbling to the ground, causing nearby scenery and some abandoned buildings to be swept up in the commotion.

“Are you trying to absorb the branch of the World Tree into your body?! Such an act will leave your spirit incomplete! Stop at once!”

Verethragna was ranting as if he knew something about the situation.

But the current Demon Lord paid no attention.

Already half of the staff had been sucked into her upper body.

Normally, the tip should have protruded from her back by now, but there was no sign of it.

-The World Tree, huh.

The Demon Lord wore an expression suggesting the situation was fascinating.

-So it really exists, something I’ve only heard about? I thought I wouldn’t encounter it in this life. The world is full of surprises, isn’t it?

“……”

Would it hurt to say something to me instead of talking to yourself?

-There’s always time for that, isn’t there? But… do you have the leisure to hear about that right now?

“……”

You really leave me speechless.

It’s nice that you understand my thoughts without me having to speak, but…

“N-no way… was I keeping this all this time… for this? For something like this?”

More importantly.

The situation seems to have been quite a shock to Heba.

Both her gaze at the current Demon Lord and her complexion were far from normal.

“This can’t be! This can’t be happening! Why, why is this…! Then all my worries! My concerns! All of them! Have no meaning… no meaning!”

“……”

I thought about saying something to her.

But I didn’t.

What words would be necessary, what words would have meaning?

“Kariel? You know who that is, don’t you? Demon Lord? Did you say Demon Lord? What is a Demon Lord? Are you talking about Ahriman? If not, then what on earth is that!”

“I’m confused too.”

The current Demon Lord.

I’m equally confused about her identity.

Even our previous Demon Lord doesn’t seem to have any idea who she is.

She appeared to be making guesses but wasn’t telling me.

I understand she’s connected to the World Tree, but that’s all.

The Luminous Clan.

I confirmed last time that she hates my father’s bloodline more than anyone else.

…It’s confusing.

CAW! CAW!

A flock of ravens surrounded and attacked the current Demon Lord.

But as the black, no, now reddish-black flames emanating from her body exploded once, sweeping the area.

Making their charge seem futile, all the ravens burst and were thrown to the ground, instantly turning to ash and scattering.

“She’s already… made it her own?”

Heba was even more shocked.

And toward us.

Suddenly, one raven flew over and landed on the ground before our eyes, blinking.

After flapping its wings a few times formally and pecking at its own wings with its beak.

At that moment.

-Want some help?

The raven opened its mouth.

No, that’s a mistake.

The words were resonating in my head.

“W-who are you?”

Heba asked first.

-Who could I be? Any guesses?

“…How could I know?”

It’s unlikely that the divine warrior is speaking to her.

After all, the raven is one of Verethragna’s incarnations, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, the previous Demon Lord standing beside us snorted and gave a clue.

-Throughout history, many have used ravens as incarnations, messengers, and avatars.

If there’s one most famous among them?

“……”

I’ve heard about this briefly before.

No, not before, but quite recently.

“O…din?”

It can’t be, but.

Let me ask anyway.

Then.

-Correct answer, little one.

He reveals his identity willingly in a rather pleased tone.

“What are you saying? Odin? Did you say Odin?”

“…Wodanaz, perhaps you know that name? Verethragna was babbling about it to you earlier. Or Weda? Wodan? Wodans? Wotan?”

Besides the name Odin, there are many equivalent expressions associated with it.

I could recall them effortlessly without having heard them from anyone.

“Wodanaz? That… could it be? The supreme god who was said to be devoured by a wolf?”

-Is being devoured the same as dying? For mortal creatures, perhaps. Yes, I was devoured. True. I was devoured. Because that was the prophecy.

But you know what?

-Was that my death? Couldn’t it be affirmed as a process that protected me from Ragnarök? Inside the wolf’s belly, I mean. It was incredibly warm and cozy, you know?

“B-but your world, your divine realm… was destroyed, wasn’t it?”

-If it was destroyed, so be it. That doesn’t mean I was destroyed. Don’t you think? Do I have any reason to fret over such things? Victory and defeat are always part of the process. Coming empty-handed, taking the world, and returning empty-handed—that’s the journey, that’s life. Don’t you agree?

…He’s beyond what I imagined.

“The messenger of the gods. One of the twelve Greek gods named after a pile of marker stones. Hermes was said to be the god who presided over travelers and shepherds, eloquence and commerce, and also thieves, liars, and cunning, wasn’t he?”

-That’s right. You’re indeed different somehow, Kariel. I’m quite impressed by you in many ways. Though our ways of thinking don’t seem to match at all. Your mind is too rigid. How can you live wisely in the world like that?

“……”

-You just took a jab at me too, didn’t you? I’m not going to be petty about such things, am I?

He’s frivolous.

But what if even this frivolity is an act, a false appearance?

“…You seem closer to being a trickster god yourself.”

-Hvedrung! I was the one who brought Loki to our group. Did I not know he would cause discord and worsen situations? I knew everything. Everything! But it was necessary work. Ah, have I said too much?

Somehow.

The time around us was flowing sluggishly.

Anyone could see this was the doing of the being pretending to be a raven before us.

How is this possible?

-So what will you do? Want to make a contract with me?

“……”

-Kariel, I’m not talking to you, so don’t worry. You’re already sweating over the one contract you’re managing, aren’t you? I’m not that harsh.

-How many beings have had their lives ruined by that silver tongue? A being who has used gods and creatures alike without reservation.

-That insufferable woman. If I wanted, I would have willingly plucked out my eye! I would have willingly strangled my own neck! My goals have always been my top priority! Know the facts before you run your mouth. Don’t babble thoughtlessly.

What’s this? Could it be… can Odin see the Golden Demon Lord too? Then her words… are actually being heard?