Ch.79Chapter 79. The Condition for Completing Love.

The entire area collapsed, burying the body alive.

Surviving such an impact would be impossible even for someone with an extraordinary constitution.

“…Don’t say such nonsense.”

Originally, it was meant to be a trump card just to lay down cover and buy time to escape.

But the fate of a madman who made an irreversible choice without even a moment’s hesitation was something that not even a fortune-teller with the power to read the future could have predicted.

“You… you’re a demon…”

She supported an army that trampled countless beings while traversing dimensions.

A disaster with its own consciousness, an incarnation of malice.

For such a being to be enchanted by someone she’d only known for a day or two, suppressing even her survival instinct—which should be a selfish demon’s top priority—and rushing over as if bewitched.

How could such a thing exist? And how could someone like herself, who foresees the future with divine help based on precedents, have anticipated this?

“Why does dreaming with such love mean meeting the end together with him?”

She understood through reading the past that this was inevitable, but even while sympathizing, she couldn’t bring herself to respect her.

No matter how much her life had been nothing but torture for hope, manipulating others with one’s own stubbornness could never be called true love.

“…Foolish person.”

Yes, no matter how regrettable, that pitiful and foolish woman should not be allowed near her companion.

-Thud!

Just as she was about to turn away without regret, she noticed something crawling up from the pit filled with rubble.

With a body reduced to tatters.

Shaking off the fragments covering her body with staggering steps, the demon approaching her…

“…Impossible. How.”

She had taken a direct hit from the most powerful spell she could cast.

No matter how much sturdier demons were compared to humans, the opponent had no specialized defensive abilities.

A direct hit should have left her with injuries so severe she couldn’t even stand.

“Ah. I-ri-e…”

Yet this being took a step forward with her tattered body, and when that step turned into a leap, Irie pulled her companion into her arms.

‘I must protect Hyoseong.’

All her carefully laid plans had been ruined.

Nevertheless, believing she must protect this person at all costs, she embraced him tightly.

-Crash!

But what the approaching opponent targeted was not him, but herself.

Her body was knocked to the ground by the impact of the charging demon, but the opponent, disregarding her broken body, merely raised herself up.

“…Irie Haven.”

As her legs that should have extended collapsed back to the ground, her knees shattered.

Despite this, she crawled along the ground, her eyes flashing brighter than the stars in the sky as she began to exude a feverish heat.

“You’re the beeeest!!!”

Directed not at him, but at her.

As if her object of obsession had suddenly changed in this moment.

“Wh-what… ugh!”

“I was so close to reaching it.”

She wanted to create distance, but she too was at her physical limit.

She thought the same would be true for her opponent, yet the demon was dragging her broken legs and clinging to her.

“I was finally about to reach it… but because of you, it slipped away again…”

“Let go of this! What are you even—!”

“I thought I could finally achieve it this time.”

Despite her dying body, the hand gripping her clothes was filled with even stronger force than before.

“Even though it’s within reach… because of you… I don’t think I can achieve it anymore…”

She hadn’t grown stronger. Rather, the control over her body’s power had been released to the point where she didn’t care if her own fingers broke.

“But not achieving it means the desire never ends, right?”

Her reason was completely paralyzed to the point where she couldn’t even recognize this state.

Fixated solely on the object of her obsession.

And using this moment of “defeat” to spread that obsession to those around it.

“Like the Demon Lord, it means I won’t fall into a state where I can’t achieve anything anymore… Am I wrong!?”

Yes, the demon had been secretly afraid.

Having observed the one she admired for so long, she knew painfully well the fate of those who remained faithful to their desires.

That desires grow larger the more they are fulfilled, and when one finally realizes they can’t be achieved, all that remains is emptiness.

That the fate awaiting demons who live and die for desire, after eternally pursuing their desires, amounts to nothing more than that.

“Yes~ I’ve finally found a treasure, so it can’t end like this…”

She believed she needed to bear fruit before that emptiness arrived, and quickly end it in the form of a happy conclusion.

Rather than dragging it out and leading to regret, she thought she should live short but intense—that was the path she should pursue.

Even if it was the wrong choice, she had wandered in emptiness for too long to coolly assess such things.

Wandering in that emptiness, she had watched her lord who could never return to his former self.

“For that love to continue, someone like you was needed.”

Such a wrong choice—not by her own will but by another’s—appeared before her as someone who would stop her with all their might.

She realized that by having her impulsive love prevented by the person before her, it could continue a little longer.

This realization amplified her desire, and as a demon who gains power from desire, she underwent evolution.

“To complete my love, I need a ‘competitor’ like you!!”

The power strengthened by this even awakened the vitality to withstand the fatal blow that had struck her body.

By finding “hope” that she could prolong her desire’s source a little longer without destroying it herself.

“What are you even saying… kuhk!”

“You’re the same, aren’t you? You came because you were worried I might break him. You came to stop me from destroying him!”

Not understanding this madness and gripped by fear, the prophet felt the demon’s hands crawling up her body and beginning to squeeze her throat.

When a body infected by madness, having lost all reason, moved regardless of its owner’s will.

Even though the object of her obsession might be broken at the end, the force in her hands grew strong enough to break even her own finger bones.

“Try to stop me more. Keep stopping me so my love can continuuuue!!”

It was impossible to suppress.

She was madness incarnate.

A demon who couldn’t even restrain her own love, dreaming of suicide together with him—there was no way to restore reason that had flown away in the joy of realization.

‘No, I can’t… breathe…’

But Irie too had exhausted all her strength in the battle so far.

In this situation, the future she foresaw with her remaining power was nothing but pitch darkness.

Yes, at this rate, she would die.

If she wasn’t stopped here, she would simply die.

-Crackle.

Just as she resigned herself to that pitch-black future, a spark suddenly appeared.

At that moment, as Irie regained consciousness, she simultaneously felt the grip on her neck gradually loosening.

She realized the demon’s attention, which had been fixated on her with obsessive madness, was now turning elsewhere.

“Haa, really.”

Yes, someone was approaching.

A woman with a tired expression, wearing casual clothes and smoking a cigarette.

Though she appeared to be an ordinary human on the surface, Irie could tell from her aura that she was no ordinary person.

“I came here thinking I’d get some rest in a quiet place.”

“Where did these brats crawl out from, making a scene in someone else’s front yard at dawn?”

Tashian Pailoi—the Dragon of Smoke.

A calamity, the largest and oldest created by this world, who was not permitted to vanish from the world despite reaching the end of her lifespan due to her innate nature.

And a mere “bystander” who, after giving her weapon to her companion, vowed not to interfere with the world’s fate unless his death was confirmed.

“Ta-Tashian. Why are you…?”

“And who are you…?”

Perhaps having lost her reason, she failed to notice the being’s presence?

The frenzied demon, forgetting even to strangle her victim, forcibly straightened her broken knees and prepared to approach Tashian.

“Why are you interfering suddenly? Are you after Hyoseong too?”

“What are you talking about? Why would he be here?”

Tashian frowned and shifted her gaze to the side.

There lay the figure of a man, collapsed and unaware that the abandoned city was being turned upside down.

Hyoseong Woo.

The man to whom she had entrusted the fate of humanity, which was destined to be destroyed by her own hands.

“…And why is he sleeping here with his mouth hanging open?”

“Ah, I see. So you’re after Hyoseong too.”

As she was wondering why he was here, the annoying demon began charging toward her.

“Good… I actually welcome a fight! Come at me, you dog…”

-BANG!!

Flicking her finger against the demon’s forehead, the charging body flew backward and sprawled out in the middle of the road.

“Ugh, ack…”

A strike powerful enough to subdue even the madness that had been forcibly moving a body at its limit.

No, it wasn’t even an attack.

Like punishing a child, the dragon showed not a hint of seriousness as she sent her flying.

“You, half-god brat.”

Yes, even in decline, a dragon is still a dragon.

As Irie swallowed hard watching the scene, she heard the woman’s voice from behind her.

“Come here. If you don’t want to get hit.”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

Whatever the reason for her presence, it was impossible to go against her mood.

Following her words, Irie approached with her injured body and looked up at the figure before her with unsteady eyes.

“You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Y-yes. I do know.”

Looking down at her with indifferent eyes, Irie felt a fear she had never experienced before in her life.

Until now, the opponents she had faced were at least on equal footing, but the being before her, despite having a human body, emanated a presence like standing before a great mountain.

To make a comparison: a monster versus a disaster.

Someone who could threaten but still be dealt with, versus someone against whom one could only wait to be struck.

“Since you seem to be able to see the future a bit, you probably know what I’m about to do.”

Discarding her cigarette butt and putting a new one in her mouth with such nonchalance, Tashian Pailoi seemed unconcerned with such evaluations.

Taking advantage of this moment, Irie sensed her own future with her precognitive ability and smiled awkwardly as she spoke with difficulty.

“I-I see myself getting hit ten seconds from now… Could you please spare me?”

“……”

Tashian Pailoi looked at her listlessly with the cigarette clenched between her teeth.

After exhaling smoke with a sigh, she looked down at her with indifferent eyes and asked.

“You’re saying you’re going to get hit anyway, so can’t I just let it go?”

“Do you really think that makes sense after you just said it yourself?”

“…No, I suppose not.”

-WHACK!!

A blow to the forehead that evaporated all reason.

The bloody battle between the two women ended so anticlimactically.

And then…….

****

-Whoosh.

Thick fog, and a gentle wind blowing through the ruins.

Feeling a sense of familiarity, I followed it and spent some time wandering through the ruins.

Something I had experienced before, and had experienced several times since that day.

-Tuk, tuk.

At the end of my journey, I found a blue-haired girl digging sand in the middle of the ruins with a trowel.

A child I had seen several times in my dreams.

Moreover, though I had never met her directly, she was a child who had always helped me.

“…Excuse me.”

As I spoke first, drawing on that familiarity, the girl immediately stopped digging and turned to me with a bright smile.

“Papa!”

Yes, that child always called me that.

Though I’m not actually her father, since I’m essentially her owner, I’ve come to accept it.

“Oh, y-yes. Daddy’s here.”

“Papa~”

The soul of the ego weapon… presumably… hugged me and started giggling.

Embracing the child, I finally realized that I was in a dream.

After all, meeting this child directly is only possible in dreams.

“Hehe, Papa, Papa~”

“…You like that so much?”

The girl smiled brightly just from being hugged and having her head patted.

Pleased by the sight, I felt it was time to acknowledge that I was something like this child’s guardian, and quietly asked a question.

“By the way, I still haven’t heard your name. What should I call you?”

“Name?”

“Yes, that’s right. What would you like to be called?”

It might be strange to name a weapon, but this child clearly has her own consciousness.

So in preparation for such occasions in the future, it would be good to learn a name to call her by.

“Tachia.”

The girl answered with a bright smile, as if she had been waiting for this question.

“…Tachia?”

“Yes, Tachia Pailoi!!”

Tachia something…

I think I heard such a name when we first met.

And thinking back, it was because this child said such things that I said similar things in front of her.

“Could your name be Tachia Pailoi?”

Recalling the past, I uttered the familiar name on a hunch.

“Yes!”

The girl claimed it was her name.