Ch.237Chapter 237. Saboteur of Desire

“Ah, aah…”

Madness washes over me.

The prophet’s mind, which had calmly accepted even her own death, now begins to sink into the deepest despair.

“Aaaaaaah!!!”

Reason vanishes and composure collapses, leaving only the fragile heart of a child searching for its mother.

Following this instinct, the prophet crawls on all fours across the floor until she clutches the crystal orb she had dropped, and begins to wail.

“De-Destruction God, Mother of the Beginning…! Please, please… answer me!”

The one who brought her to this place.

She desperately hopes that the guide who had always led her would extend a helping hand here.

-Kuung.

But the connection has already been severed, and the dimensional rift has closed due to her wariness of the intruder who attacked her.

As the disaster that induced this takes a step forward, tremors begin to envelop the scene where they stand.

“Come… here…”

Expectation gradually surges through a mind where only madness remains.

With it, the voice leaking from her widening smile begins to stimulate like driving a stake into her rapidly beating heart.

“Hurry, release your power. To… quench my thirst…”

“N-no. This is…”

“Let’s fight until one of us dies!!!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

The prophet loses her reason at the malicious cry and curls up on the floor, head down.

In the darkness that eventually came, she could only repeat one wish endlessly.

‘A dream, it’s a dream. It’s just a dream…’

It’s just a nightmare.

The night before the ceremony, she simply didn’t sleep well and was seeing things, that’s all.

-Kwarrrrung!!

But even at this moment, the rift in the sky continues to accelerate.

Its aftershocks make her skin tremble even now, forcing her to face reality.

‘Who…’

Yes, the opponent is a being with power strong enough to cause dimensional rifts alone.

In this moment when such power extends its malice, there can be no hope.

‘Anyone, please…! I don’t care who!’

Yet the fallen demigod continues to repeat futile wishes endlessly.

It was at that moment that the demon beside her moved.

“…Demon Lord.”

Mephisto Rage.

The only being who could restrain the Demon Lord, who now focused his attention on the despairing demigod.

“Mephisto, step aside. What’s there right now is…”

“Merely dust, nothing more.”

Yet facing her lord who was taking an aggressive stance, she spoke with an infinitely cold voice.

Without a trace of fear before a being who could bite gods to death and destroy the world alone.

“What you desire is not satisfying your curiosity, but seeking battle with the strong, isn’t it?”

Her gaze turned away from her lord, gradually lifting toward the sky, toward the dimensional rift that was growing in scale due to his power.

“If you waste time here, you’ll delay meeting them even longer. Isn’t that the fight you’ve been anticipating?”

The powerful wave of force is strong enough to distort everything in its path.

Because of this, the rift would widen on its own without special effort, but it would take a long time before leading to the collapse of the entire world.

To achieve what he truly desires, he would need to pour more power into it.

“…Ah, yes. That’s right. This isn’t the time to be dawdling elsewhere.”

Realizing this through his loyal servant’s words, the Demon Lord stopped, quietly turned around, and began to aim both hands at the sky.

“What I should… aim for… are the beings on the other side…”

The vast power concentrated in his hands shoots toward the sky again.

There was no control of power there.

Filled with anticipation, he was exerting his full power without reservation, wanting to reach the expected moment as quickly as possible.

-Kwarrrrrrung!

Clouds are sucked into the rift that opens at the end, and as its power gradually increases, its influence extends to the ground as well.

Light materials begin to rise one by one toward the sky, defying gravity, and their scale continues to grow over time…

“What on earth…”

“He’s trying to cross dimensions. Just like he’s always done.”

As Irie trembled, not understanding the situation, Merilyn stepped forward, pressing down her silk hat.

“It’s simply pouring his power into making a hole in the dimension, and following the path that appears when the world begins to collapse to cross into another world.”

“Simple, you say…”

What’s happening now is an absurd phenomenon unprecedented even in this world of continuous disasters.

If left unchecked, it wouldn’t be strange if the world were destroyed, yet how can she define it with just the word “simple”?

“According to Merilyn, everything will be annihilated. Everything in this world, if this continues…!”

“That’s right. Until now, we demons have been safe under the Demon Lord’s protection, but the current Demon Lord finds little charm in protecting anyone.”

His sole purpose is to fight with the strong who can fill his emptiness.

Having realized that such strong beings exist on the other side of that dimension, he will not stop destroying worlds until he faces them.

Everything that exists in that process will crumble before his power and eventually disappear without a trace.

“Then why did you encourage…”

Why did she guide the Demon Lord to engage in such behavior?

-Jjeok!!!

Before an answer could come, a card was thrown into the Demon Lord’s back, causing blood to burst from his withered body.

The absolute being who crushed everything with the mere force of standing still.

He had suffered enough damage to bleed from a single card thrown by the one pretending to be his loyal servant.

“…A being who isn’t even a god is destroying the world.”

It’s not impossible.

Though he has the power to kill gods, he is not a god himself.

“That’s not something that can be achieved as easily as crushing what’s in front of him. It literally requires the Demon Lord to pour out all his power…”

Though his vast power stems from endless desire, he too has limits, and there will certainly come a moment when that power is depleted.

Just like now, when he’s distracted by the expectation of fulfilling his desire, pouring all his power into destroying the world.

“In other words, this is the only moment when the Demon Lord can be killed.”

-Ttuduk, ttuk.

Blood slowly flows from where the card was embedded.

Even the card was pushed out by his regenerative power and fell to the floor, but that cannot heal the wound carved into his heart.

“…Mephisto.”

The only one who could no longer feel anything for his subordinates…

The loyal servant he had hoped would guide him on the path he wanted had stabbed him in the back.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“Well, how should I describe this situation… Ah, yes. There’s a perfect phrase.”

With a smile spreading across her lips and arms outstretched.

With it, cards escaped from distorted spaces all around and began flying toward the Demon Lord.

“I’m succeeding to the throne. Father.”

-Pupupuk! Seogek!

The Demon Lord’s entire body is slashed by the sharp attacks.

Yet he doesn’t express any pain, only staring at his loyal servant.

“Or is it mother? Or perhaps a sister or brother I know?”

As if he might have misunderstood something.

Unable to erase the thought that she who had guided him well until now couldn’t possibly betray him.

“My, I’m not sure how to define you. It’s difficult to establish a standard when your appearance changes each time I see you…”

But what was drawn on her lips was close to mockery disguised as sympathy.

The wretched and gaunt appearance before her was teaching how empty and ridiculous the path he had traveled was.

He has characteristics of both men and women, and despite having an adult body, aspects of a child are also visible.

Beyond that, his body shows aspects of an elder and a patient, a warrior and a sage, an intelligent being and a beast—the result of transformations in response to his desires throughout his rampage.

“I could just call you ‘lord’ to avoid this dilemma, but unfortunately, that’s no longer possible.”

A cauldron of chaos created by inconsistent changes entangled together.

Even such a being once held the expectation that he could fulfill her wishes, but that too is now a thing of the past.

-Kwarlung!!

The harbinger of destruction unfolding at this moment is by his hand.

For someone who wants to settle and live in this world, he who induces the destruction of this world is a being that must not be left alone.

“…Mephisto.”

Such a being is now addressing her.

“Have you truly betrayed me?”

As if unable to accept the current situation, he suppressed the fever he had shown until now and trembled.

“I’m sorry, Demon Lord. I abandoned all loyalty to you long ago, when I submitted my resignation.”

Despite feeling fear, the demon did not back down.

Since even the Destruction God who believed she could kill him had failed, the only way to fulfill her desire was to defeat him with her own hands.

“You’re just an obstacle now. With you around, I can’t achieve what I want.”

No one should interfere in that fight.

Neither her love, nor the rival who would suppress that love’s rampage, nor the environment and people they seek to protect.

The true happiness she has been pursuing can only be grasped after preserving all of those things.

“So, Demon Lord, please don’t resent me.”

“You know well that I too am a demon who can only be faithful to desire, don’t you?”

Yes, the demon was in love.

She was determined to seize with her own hands the happiness she couldn’t grasp by merely longing for the past.

If she had to discard her past for that, she would gladly do so.

The storm of cards raging at this moment was imbued with such firm resolve.

“…I had just found it, finally.”

But for whatever reason, the Demon Lord sees her only as an obstacle.

Even if that opponent is his former loyal servant, such loyalty is considered worthless if it doesn’t help achieve his purpose—that is the nature of demons.

“How dare you, Mephisto, forget even the grace I bestowed upon you… and try to interfere with me!!!!”

-Kwaaaaa!!

Power begins to surge with the roar.

Merilyn flinched at the formidable force, but soon corrected her posture and began infusing her magic into the cards.

Calmly and coolly.

And with her wishes.

‘Hyoseong, don’t worry. I’ll end everything here.’

Faithful to the beating of the demon core in her chest at this moment, teaching her that she is a being true to desire.

She prepares to meet head-on the wave of power rushing toward her without mercy.

‘So when this is over… let’s ring our wedding bells. Let’s have children like Irie and live happily.’

Though everything is being turned upside down, believing that hope exists beyond this future.

‘Let’s live happily in this world, despite everything. Us.’

With such expectation as her driving force, the demon began to clash with the approaching malice with all her might.

And…

*****

-Kwarrrung!

The rift in the sky widens increasingly, and the imperial palace shakes precariously from its impact.

Crossing over the collapsing stairs, I rushed to head back to the banquet hall of the imperial palace where I had turned away before.

-You fool! What are you trying to do by going back now?! Can’t you see the world is turning upside down?!

“I know! That’s why I can’t just stand by!!”

I know I had to give up on Irie.

If things had gone according to her intention.

If the Destruction God had truly descended and prepared to annihilate all disasters existing on this land.

“…Something went wrong.”

But the rift through which the Destruction God was supposed to descend has closed, and the torrent of power that spread afterward is tearing space apart more chaotically than the previous rift.

Not targeting only specific parts, but literally expanding with the force to swallow the entire world…

Irie couldn’t have aimed for such a thing.

The torrent of power I saw before leaving the imperial palace must have caused a problem by interfering with the ceremony site.

“Please, please…!!”

Even if I don’t know specifically what the problem is, I can’t just stand by if something has gone wrong.

With such anxiety, the first thing I saw when I finally reached the ceremony site was Irie crying desperately while looking at someone collapsed on the floor.

“Merilyn! Wake up, Merilyn!!”

Merilyn Sutherland.

My other lover who, until coming here, had volunteered to draw the Demon Lord’s attention.

“Meri…lyn…”

Why is she lying collapsed before me?

What caused the blood flowing from her body?

“…I thought you might be able to stay with me until the end.”

Amidst such confusion, a voice begins to be heard.

What my gaze captured was a demon, whose body was battered like a bloody pulp, raising his hand.

And what was held in that hand was the demon core—the source of a demon’s power and their vital point…

“…No.”

A cry burst out as soon as I realized it, but he simply applied force to his hand, paying no heed.

“It’s truly regrettable that it came to this, Mephisto.”

“No!!!!”

The demon core shatters into pieces, ignoring the burst of lamentation.

-Ttuk!

As soon as I recognize this, something snaps in my head.

And eventually, everything I see begins to transform into afterimages.