episode_0067

“Someone” was there, brimming with heroic narratives of non-existent achievements and non-existent exploits.

Even though I had never seen or heard of them, I just naturally knew.

If so─ it would be all too ‘natural’ for the people of this world to forget their exploits.

Could that unnaturalness truly be called the logic of this world?

When I realized it, the hero no longer held worn-out quilted armor or a rusting sword.

It was dazzling golden armor and a sword.

Somehow, typical ceremonial elements that would only appear in unrealistic fantasies were maximized.

It was an excessively unrealistic form of armor, truly devoid of any practicality whatsoever.

“Wow, it’s so flashy it hurts my eyes. Golden Mirror should have seen that outfit.”

Silan shrugged his shoulders, looking at the hero’s attire.

But unfortunately, not all members were gathered here.

“Oh ho ho, I don’t particularly intend to highly rate his aesthetic sense, but…”

Hearing that, Freya giggled as if dumbfounded.

“Even a vulgar man like that would surely discern the beauty and ugliness of such a monstrous getup, wouldn’t he?”

Whether they were a villainous group or anything else, there was no law that mandated all members of a group to be friendly and harmonious.

Nevertheless, that was the minimum loyalty shared among the members.

“Hah, either way is fine.”

Chuckrang Sandalphon twitched his bulging muscles inside his suit as if he couldn’t stand it.

“Is that, a hero…?”

Furthermore, the two female swordsmen present were no exception to seeing such a ‘hero’s appearance’ for the first time.

They, Jeanne and Alina, reborn with the monikers 《Black Saint》 and 《Death Sword》 respectively.

“But…”

They, too, present there, were likewise realizing the strangeness of the ‘hero’s miracle’ that had appeared before their eyes.

Only we were realizing that anomaly.

But even if it was understandable for the original members, why weren’t even they affected by the anomaly? Just because they became members of 《Black Serpent》?

“It’s good to get a good look, my cute new ladies.”

《Jinjo》 Scarlet shrugged her shoulders with an unconcerned voice.

“This is their way, the way they’ve protected the human world for a thousand years.”

“They…?”

Alina asked back. I too held the same curiosity as her, awaiting Scarlet’s subsequent reply.

“─Those who wish for this world to be maintained.”

“Are you speaking of the Goddess?”

Jeanne asked back, recalling the voice that had whispered to her that day.

“She is merely their representative.”

But even the Goddess was only a part of them. That was an unexpected statement even to me.

Nevertheless, I remembered it clearly.

That day, what I saw in the mausoleum was not just the Goddess. Behind her, I remember countless stars, twinkling and illuminating, completely adorning the curtain of the sky.

Then what exactly are those stars?

“─Clientes.”

Scarlet replied.

“That is their name.”

“Clientes…?”

Neither Jeanne nor Alina understood the meaning of that word. I was the same. To me, it was merely a proper noun I had never heard of in my life.

But, that was enough.

The fact that the stars above were by no means an unknown entity to 《Black Serpent》.

Just knowing that fact was more than enough gain for me.

What needed to be done hadn’t changed.

As the leader of 《Black Serpent》, present here in this moment─.

“As the leader, I declare from this spot.”

No longer would we employ a fair one-on-one approach, nor a behind-the-scenes method of observing the hero’s actions from afar.

“Annihilate the hero with full force.”

We would simply reveal our full selves, as we were.

“Heh heh, I’ve been waiting for those words!”

Alice laughed, seeming delighted.

Aria, at last, unbound the black bandages covering her eyes.

Beyond the bandages, black, dark, pitch-black eyes were revealed. Two dark abysses where no stars could be seen.

Black Sword, Saan, Jinjo, Mimang, Chuckrang, Gluttony, Black Saint, Death Sword.

─All eight members present there revealed their full power without reservation, confronting the single hero.

Naturally, it was a battle they couldn’t possibly lose.

The height of absurdity, where evil used its full power against the hero from the very beginning.

I, too, existing as the leader in this place, was part of that absurdity.

“《Snipe Shot》.”

With the incantation, magic surged from my fingertips, and a long-range sniping spell activated.

While looking down at the horizon from atop the ridge, a pure white bullet formed at my fingertip shot straight out.

Towards the nameless hero, an object of faith who appeared like a miracle and slaughtered the immortal army.

“─.”

Along with that, the hero’s sword was swung.

Slicing through the magic bullet that should have pierced him, all too naturally.

When I realized it, he was looking at us.

It was a sniper shot from atop a ridge ridiculously far away.

But he turned his head precisely towards the direction the magic bullet had flown and looked this way with an expression devoid of any emotion.

─They were faded eyes.

Ash-gray eyes, utterly devoid of any color, light, or anything, for which the word “hollow” was insufficient.

No sooner had I thought those eyes were aimed this way than…

The distance, narrowed. Sandalphon, excited by the sight, shouted.

“Come…!”

When I realized it, the hero had surged forward at a speed greater than the launched from my fingertips. A physical distance of over one kilometer narrowed in an instant.

An absurd charge technique that defied the logic and common sense of this world.

At the end of his charge, the hero was suddenly facing all of 《Black Serpent》, who were alone there.

He disregarded the immortal army he was supposed to protect upon his appearance, or the innocent people of the Holy Kingdom being slaughtered by that army.

“Kuh-hah, this is it!”

It was Chuckrang Sandalphon who blocked the hero’s path.

He never panicked in the face of a charge that defied common sense and logic, and took a stance against the hero who surged forward in a fair contest of strength.

“It’s a shame we can’t have a fairer fight!”

Of course, our fight was far from fair. Even just by numbers, our side had an overwhelming advantage.

Then, would the ‘remaining heroes’ who remained silent to balance things out move?

For a moment, I thought that. I couldn’t tell.

But the hero, who clashed swords, said nothing.

He simply acted with an expressionless face, devoid of any emotion or color, clad in golden armor so unrealistic it felt out of place even in this world. What did he do? He acted like a hero.

An overwhelming difference in numbers. Furthermore, we weren’t even the type to rely solely on sheer quantity.

Because each and every one here consisted of individuals with a strength level counted among the best in this world.

Nevertheless─.

The hero present there performed in a way that made me certain: if a single member were to face the hero in this place, they would absolutely not be able to win.

He was strong.

From the moment he appeared, the hero before my eyes was no mere beginner who had just started a game.

The strength of a terminator, one who had completed everything, finished all achievements and exploits, and concluded all stories, resided within him.

‘…What is this?’

Therefore, I couldn’t help but be flustered.

I had thought that I had once played a game called Heroic Century and raised heroes within that world.

But the hero who appeared before my eyes now was far from such naturalness.

He simply revealed himself like a miracle, without any premonition of his existence, without any logic or rationalization.

In a form that was all too easy to understand and convenient.

Was only this hero uniquely alien? Or did the heroes I believed I had raised with my own hands also manifest in this world in the same way? I couldn’t tell which.

At least, I could only describe the nature of the being before my eyes with one phrase.

─Deus ex machina.

A god from the machine.

And if, in this world, such a form of god existed.

What kind of battles had the members of 《Black Serpent》 been fighting, then?

Who was ‘Rain Grey’ trying to confront, leading this organization?

How absurdly powerful were they, to have tried to fight against a being that freely trampled upon common sense and logic?

I asked myself again. Even after asking, I still didn’t know.

There was only one thing I could do. To retrace the clues he left behind, the man’s trajectory and traces.

Moreover, it was no longer a method of sending members into mortal danger and sacrificing them.

“《The Garden of Original Sin》.”

Rain Grey’s technique, which snatched everything from the man called Divine Spear in an instant of darkness.

That darkness, which could rightly be called a finishing move, cast a black and dark veil over me and the single hero.