Ch.218The Last Mission of the Squint-Eyed Henchman

Carisia was able to read the memories of the Mage Baekgwang from the Ten Commandments Baekgwang. In Baekgwang’s mind, the Demon King of Magic was the embodiment of the concept of magic as he himself had defined it.

A conclusion similar to yet different from Ortes’s analysis. Baekgwang recounted it this way:

‘Just as lava cannot be burned to death, and the ocean cannot be drowned, the ‘Demon King of Magic’ cannot be killed by magic.’

Thus, Baekgwang created the Infinite Sacred Light that transcended the realm prescribed by the Demon King, but her research had branched out in multiple directions.

Primitive magic from before the Demon King’s arrival, or exclusion using sacred artifacts. Means existing outside the Demon King’s domain to be used when his avatar appeared again.

Carisia brought all of Baekgwang’s preparations into reality.

She constructed symbols of the mythical era centered around Kine. A blade from a world before the Demon King’s arrival, where magical power did not exist.

But this was a power once broken by the Demon King.

She prepared the next symbol. A combination of primitive and modern magic created using Astrape and the Ten Commandments. Magic that depicted skies beyond the ten-attribute system prepared by the Demon King. A branch of magic heading outside the Demon King’s shadow.

It was the legacy of the past, once completely dismantled by the Demon King’s grasp, and though repainted, it was still the Demon King’s own creation. Even with the added divine power of the mythical era, it was insufficient to confront the Demon King.

And Carisia added one more element.

Ortes’s world, which she had seen and heard about at the judgment of Aigio.

The steamship. A symbol from his world where no magical power, not even magic itself, existed.

The first symbol that had been with her since the moment she awakened in this world.

This was different from anti-attributes or anti-magic. It wasn’t something that opposed what existed; it simply did not exist at all. The absence of magic.

Even the Demon King himself couldn’t do anything about Ortes’s homeland. With the third symbol as the final piece, Carisia unleashed her magic.

Kine, who denied the Demon King’s era.

Astrape, who denied the Demon King’s will.

Ortes, who denied the Demon King’s existence.

The Demon King watched with admiration as the magic combining these three symbols unfolded.

That magic could evolve this far in such a brief moment without his intervention. He could understand why the gods of Olympus held expectations for new changes from those who had not ascended.

Yes, the Demon King was enjoying himself. Though certainly unexpected, that was its limit.

Even if that magic struck the Demon King himself and destroyed his avatar, he would simply send a new avatar.

He was guaranteed eternal survival through the immortality he had achieved.

No matter how many times he was defeated, he would return.

Due to the power he had unleashed upon this world, the dimensional wall was on the verge of collapse. Infinite magical power flowed in from his true form beyond the outer dimension.

Above all, there was the fate he had rewritten. The power of inevitable victory.

Even Ortes, whom he had been so wary of—no.

The ultimate magic that could not be interfered with because Ortes himself was the one who had ‘read’ the fate of the Demon King’s victory in 2077.

The Demon King foresaw what would happen next. There was a future where Carisia’s magic would strike the Demon King’s avatar and destroy it.

There was also a future where he rewrote that fate, rendering Carisia’s magic futile.

The Demon King could create futures where Carisia was caught in an attack before completing her magic, and other futures as well.

As long as the one clear milestone in Ortes’s chaotic mind—’the Demon King who returned in 2077’—existed, his victory was immutable.

The Demon King reached out to the wheel of fate and twisted its movement once more. The metaphysical wheel screamed as it turned.

And then, the Pope moved.

***

The Pope couldn’t know the Demon King’s detailed plans. But he could tell that the number 2077 held some significance.

Hadn’t the Demon King descended only after manipulating the Pope’s own holy land to align the ‘time’?

The Pope decided to return to the Demon King exactly what the Demon King had done to him.

The wheel moved. Faster than the Demon King wanted.

Very quickly, like time passing in a flash.

The Pope’s body, which had barely maintained its form, began to crumble into gold dust. The rupture of divinity spread not only through his spirit but also his flesh, disappearing without leaving even a physical form.

He knew this was his final moment as a long-standing artificial demigod.

The Pope had no regrets about his final decision.

If he had any regret, it was that he should have honestly asked rather than arbitrarily judging his brother’s limitations based on flimsy prejudice.

The Pope’s time stopped in 2077.

But time itself did not stop. Surpassing 2077, which hadn’t even lasted a day, it headed toward 2078.

Toward a place beyond the Demon King’s era.

***

Thus, all symbols converged on Ortes.

As a symbol of the mythical era created by the old Divine Command Sect, he could embrace the power of the priests summoned by Kine.

As a master of breaking magic who could dismantle current formulas and patch together two different formulas, he could see the future of magic that would progress along a different path from the Demon King’s.

And above all, as a soul from Earth.

He was a living witness to a world without magic.

The Demon King had turned the entire timeframe of ‘2077’ into a trap to utilize Ortes, or more precisely, ‘something summoned by the ancient Divine Command Sect,’ which was his only unknown. A time of fate subordinated to the Demon King.

To break this, Carisia crafted a new fate centered on Ortes. What Carisia hadn’t anticipated was the Pope’s final move.

The remaining embers of the mythical era extinguished the Demon King’s era. Ortes now realized that everything depended on him.

Carisia smiled brightly. It was a flawlessly sparkling smile whether seen with physical eyes or spiritual ‘eyes.’ Ortes could almost hear Carisia’s whisper.

‘A good boss’s job is to delegate appropriate tasks to excellent subordinates, right?’

Ortes knew what Carisia had ordered. Carisia herself was the hint. Carisia was a bug created from the collection of data deleted from countless worlds.

‘Infinite’ iterations was a magical phrase that could easily yield at least one error when applied to any attempt.

To delegate such a crucial task until the very end—truly a terrible boss.

But a good subordinate always fulfills even the most unreasonable requests.

Ortes raised his sword. Different eras depicted by the three symbols. The chaotic divinity dwelling within Ortes could embrace all those overlapping uncertain futures.

Destinies that might come someday, that might have existed in other worlds. The tip of Ortes’s sword began to graft fate to fate, transcending formulas.

The fate controlled by the Demon King, where everything converged into a single order, became tangled in disarray, creating new branching points for the future.

There was an era filled with steam engines and acrid smoke.

There was an era of grave robbers excavating the legacy of ancient civilizations after magic disappeared.

There was an era of demigods gathering followers as God-streamers, showing themselves on network cameras.

The era drawn by the Demon King scattered chaotically into infinite disorder.

The Demon King perceived every branch of the endlessly diverging fate. He drove a wedge into the timeline closest to the magical society’s extension. The Demon King predicted that Ortes would compete with him for control over the direction of fate.

The inference that Ortes, like the Demon King himself, would guide the world toward a future where he reigned as the absolute master of fate.

The most effective response was to occupy more futures and seize control over fate’s determination.

The Demon King’s shadow fell over fate. Based on the futures he occupied, he was rapidly pruning other potential futures.

But fate was expanding much faster than the Demon King could dominate the era. It was incomprehensible.

In such a chaotic future, no one could become the master of fate.

The Demon King realized his misconception. Ortes neither sought to dedicate himself to the world nor to reign as the master of all fate.

For him, chaos alone was sufficient.

The Demon King withdrew all magic. He focused solely on the magic of return to banish Ortes from this world. Even if it meant losing the ability to interfere with the world for centuries to come, not just this avatar, he had to drive that thing away from here now.

Ortes lamented that the return he had so desperately wanted was now his final adversary’s last strike.

And that the only formula capable of opposing that great magic, of overwriting the formula, was the explosion of the artificial Ten Commandments that he had so strongly advised against.

Ortes couldn’t comprehend the other Ten Commandments. While not impossible, he couldn’t match the speed at which the Demon King’s banishment magic was being completed. But the artificial Ten Commandments—

Ortes could understand and graft the explosion of those Ten Commandments, in whose conception and birth his own will had participated throughout.

“Boss! Now’s the time!”

Ortes shouted urgently. Carisia had been anticipating the ‘now’ Ortes spoke of longer than anyone. She fired the gauntlet and detonated it in mid-air. As one side exploded, the other gauntlet exploded as well.

The left gauntlet that Carisia had left behind was embedded as the detonator for the magic circle to explode the artificial Ten Commandments.

An enormous explosion that should have obliterated the city of Etna. Ortes redirected the formula of that explosion and grafted it onto the Demon King’s return formula. The ultimate end of the artificial Ten Commandments spread to all futures commanded by the Demon King.

Ortes sent a farewell message. To the Demon King who would have to face the annihilating light of the artificial Ten Commandments across as many branching infinite futures as the fates Ortes himself had taken root in.

Words that Simon Magus, as recorded on Earth, would surely know.

“Let there be light.”

And there was light.

The light of chaos illuminating the dark shadow of order cast by the Demon King.