Ch.212Gods, Kings, and Humans (4)

Ortes vaguely understood why the Demon Lord was trying so hard to persuade him.

The Pope had said this world was contaminated by magic power—by the order established by the Demon Lord.

Hector had deduced that Ortes was the Demon Lord’s only unknown variable.

In this world where even the Divine Order and the Pope at its apex couldn’t help but contain some degree of magic power, Ortes alone existed without any magic power.

From the moment he awoke in this world until now, Ortes had consistently remained outside the Demon Lord’s order.

An unpredictable chaos to the Demon Lord. An apostle of the unknown, summoned by the ancient Divine Order to shatter the new order of magic power.

The Demon Lord must have anticipated Ortes’s arrival to some extent. Knowing the Divine Order made prophecies, he had revealed only part of himself to distort the content of “The Demon Lord Who Returned in 2077” that would be written in the future.

However, Ortes had deviated even from the ancient Divine Order’s expectations. Now that all means by which the Demon Lord could indirectly grasp his existence had become useless, Ortes was essentially a time bomb to the Demon Lord.

An explosive with unknown contents. It could be a simple prank firecracker, or it could be a nuclear bomb capable of annihilating the entire area.

Whatever the Demon Lord’s goal was for this world, he couldn’t leave Ortes’s existence unchecked.

That’s why he chose persuasion. Sending him back to his original world.

‘Damn. I wondered how he suddenly recognized me and started talking.’

Ortes’s eyes had been working to break down the Demon Lord’s spells since the moment of his first manifestation.

But the Demon Lord had clearly recognized Ortes enough to hear and respond to his words only in that moment just now. The difference between now and their first encounter was one thing: the space they mutually perceived.

In the moment the Demon Lord spoke to him, Ortes had simultaneously interpreted the extradimensional domain surrounding the Demon Lord.

Even with his own abilities, Ortes couldn’t completely dismantle every component of the extradimension, but somewhere among the infinitely detailed divisions of countless extradimensional fragments, there must have been at least one piece of a passage connecting to Earth.

Earth—the mental image shared by the Demon Lord and Ortes. The Demon Lord had used Earth as a catalyst to understand Ortes’s existence.

It might be closer to interpretation than understanding. Looking at Ortes, who was originally outside the Demon Lord’s field of vision, through the telescope called Earth.

But even that telescope had its limitations. While it could discern Ortes’s overall form, it couldn’t see through to his interior.

That’s why the error of “acting for the world’s sake” must have erupted. If one only saw the role of being summoned by the Divine Order to oppose the Demon Lord, it might have seemed close to a summoned hero.

But Ortes knew well that he was far from being such a hero.

***

“Demon Lord. You don’t know me. You cannot know why I stand against you.”

Silence. I smiled with satisfaction. My coordination with Hector was becoming increasingly sophisticated, and the flow of the world’s essence that had been streaming toward the Demon Lord had now reached a virtual standstill.

Joaquin must have received the signal. Just a little time—one minute at minimum, five minutes at most. I just needed to buy time.

“The White Light told me about you. That ascension was far more terrible than she had thought. Your ascension wouldn’t have been about rising to the heavens alone.”

I recalled the moment when Arguilion had packaged the extradimensional expeditionary force into the Demon Lord’s lunchbox. Wasn’t the Demon Lord’s “ascension” an attempt to achieve that on a much grander scale?

Consider the magic circles of the Ten Towers, said to have been created to assist the Demon Lord’s ascension ritual. The extradimensional purification spell formed by the Ten Towers was of sufficient scale to prevent extradimensional contamination across the entire world. The Demon Lord had designed the Ten Realms to affect the whole world.

In the mythical era, extradimensional incursions probably weren’t as frequent as they are now. I hadn’t found any special mention of extradimensions in the battle records of ancient priests or in the past of mental parasites.

The absence of extradimensional suppression functions in the Great Temple of Pluto also proves this. So when did the world become so desperate to block extradimensions?

The answer was simple. After the Demon Lord’s ascension ritual.

The Ten Towers were built to prepare for the ascension ritual, and after the ritual was performed, they fell into the hands of the tower masters. The first apostles who created the current form of magical society established the extradimensional purification spell.

Was the extradimensional gate opened because the Demon Lord’s ascension “failed” due to betrayal?

I didn’t think so. From the beginning, the Demon Lord had intended to “open” the extradimensional gate. A gate leading to the Demon Lord’s true form waiting in the extradimension.

A gate connecting to the hungry mouth of an extradimensional being.

The entire fate of a world being swallowed whole into the hands of the ascendant. That was the true nature of the ascension ritual the Demon Lord had plotted, and likely the reason why the White Light betrayed him.

I somewhat understood why the original novel’s first part ended that way. The ending where the Demon Lord “failed” to stop the White Nameless, resulting in extradimensional gates opening simultaneously, was designed to imply that the Demon Lord and the extradimension were adversaries.

Even the ending was distorted to hide his true purpose.

Now, this is the important part. What words should I use to keep this boundless being, who has nurtured such an immensely vast plan to devour an entire world for so long, from turning his attention away from me?

I carefully chose my words.

***

“That grand plan of grasping the entire world was certainly a concept beyond ordinary humans. But, Demon Lord.”

Hector nodded as he watched Ortes’s tongue suddenly grow longer.

‘The kid’s finally triggered.’

From the moment the Demon Lord first recognized Ortes and spoke, Hector thought all their plans had fallen apart. It meant that even Ortes, the Demon Lord’s only unknown, had been caught in his sight.

Indeed, with each echo of the Demon Lord’s voice, Ortes’s blade grew duller and his movements more monotonous. He could feel the strength gradually draining away. Hector, sensing death approaching, was devising ways to extract Ortes somehow.

But at some point, Ortes suddenly regained his vitality.

“I am no ordinary human.”

He didn’t just regain vitality—he was attempting to deceive the Demon Lord!

There was a famous saying: ‘When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.’ If the Demon Lord was an entity worthy of being everyone’s abyss, then Ortes was also an entity positioned in the deepest abyss of chaos.

The two abysses gazed at each other, and one abyss transcended its limits.

Hector’s only disciple was still growing even in this moment.

“Then what reason is there that I cannot use your plan for myself!”

…Though his growth was in a rather strange direction, not in swordsmanship.

***

Indeed. Thou art no ordinary human.

The Divine Order reversed the flow to reach the old gods, even to the most ancient of them, to create thy existence.

Thou art perhaps the closest being to the most ancient gods in this world.

Then. Dost thou also seek to reach ascension by the same path as I? What a ridiculous notion. I see the karmic connections thou hast built. Thou canst not betray them all.

“When did I say I would betray everyone? The Ten Realms remain. If I can fully claim even just one of them, couldn’t I reach the sovereignty of complete divinity, not just an incomplete god like now?”

A new extradimensional being, is it? After being a compatriot, thou wouldst become my successor?

“An eternal being, ageless and immortal, a true transcendent beyond mere humanity. I will eliminate your avatar that extends into the magical world, and with that destruction and the Ten Realms, I will become a new god. Between returning to Earth with no reward and becoming a god, the choice is obvious!”

Ortes proclaimed this as if it were his lifelong aspiration. It was a declaration so persuasive that even Hector, who had the longest relationship with Ortes in this world, was momentarily tempted.

But Hector had watched over Ortes since his early days of awakening in this world. Enough to naturally realize that all those statements were a ploy to keep the Demon Lord’s attention.

An ambitious dream. As one who has already walked that path, I shall not say thy dream is impossible.

The gods of Olympus would be pleased. Though the method differs from what they desired, their purpose in leaving Earth to create a new world would be fulfilled.

“The ancient high gods wanted the birth of a new god…?”

Not exactly, but created for a similar purpose.

But nameless compatriot, to achieve that purpose, is there not a wall thou must overcome?

“You mean yourself? Can you be a wall when you already fear me enough to try to expel me from this world?”

Ortes felt the color spectrum in his vision distorting. The precursor of Eleusis covered the space warped by the extradimension.

From above the Demon Lord’s avatar, Elysion was aimed.