Translator: Alpha0210
“What do you think you’re doing!”
The Half King, startled, let out a cry that was almost a scream.
Agolet’s gaze drifted briefly toward her face.
“So you’re the Half King? I believe this is the first time we’ve met in person, and I must say, your appearance is the exact opposite of what I’d imagined. In more ways than one.”
“It seems you failed to understand my question.”
Perhaps influenced by Agolet’s tone, the Half King’s own voice gradually lowered as well.
“I asked what you have done. Who are you? Why did you kill my subject?”
That alone was enough to freeze the atmosphere cold.
Drip. Drip. Blood trickled down from Agolet’s hair. Then his eerie gaze suddenly turned toward Residue.
For the briefest moment, a strange light flickered in those eyes.
In that instant, Residue opened his mouth almost reflexively.
“…He’s a madman. As all Four Knights are.”
Having said it, he realized it made him look like he was speaking on Agolet’s behalf.
Residue clicked his tongue inwardly, but words already out of one’s mouth could not be stuffed back in.
“But he is also clever. His thoughts are difficult to read because the level of his thinking is generally of a higher order. This is my own biased assessment, but that man is likely the smartest person here.”
“I did not ask about his identity. I asked why he appeared out of nowhere and killed my subject.”
“I’d like to hear that reason myself, actually.”
Even as someone who had Agolet as a subordinate, defending this level of erratic behavior required at least some justification.
Agolet wiped the blood from his face in a dry, unhurried motion and spoke.
“These individuals attempted to harm the lord I serve. Is that not sufficient reason for them to die?”
Does that bastard have a steel plate bolted to his face?
Those were hardly words that should come from someone who had unilaterally cut off communication with a curt “handle it yourself”. At this very moment, Residue and the Half King were probably wearing remarkably similar expressions. That is to say, faces of utter disbelief.
“Then I suppose I have sufficient reason to kill you as well.”
The Half King’s expression turned frigid.
Every trace of the instability and clumsiness she had shown moments before vanished like a mirage.
Because she had now classified Agolet as an enemy.
…Damn it. Residue could see that the worst-case scenario he had imagined was about to unfold. What good would come of the Half King and a Knight of the Four fighting here? He thought it over carefully, and the answer was absolutely nothing. This would be a fight that left both sides worse off.
The Half King knew this, and so did Agolet. So why did that bastard keep provoking her? He was not the sort of man who would pull something like this without thinking.
Residue hastily strung together the words in his head, trying to defuse the situation that felt ready to explode at any second.
“That one, was he Destruction?”
He was referring to God’s Envoy, of course.
Thinking about it logically, it was the only reason the White Knight Agolet would have suddenly barged in.
Agolet smiled faintly.
“You called them Hides, yes? Normally, mimicry of this sort reverts to its true form upon death, but it seems we’re dealing with beings that defy conventional understanding.”
“I suppose no one explained it to you. That’s what their kind is like. Once they assume a guise, they never reveal their true face until the right moment comes. Not even death can pierce that camouflage.”
“In other words, the reason the Half King is furious is that she still regards this corpse as her subject.”
Agolet said this while nudging God’s Envoy’s body with his foot.
Mockery, and insult.
‘Goddammit.’
What followed was beyond Residue’s power to stop.
The sound of robes whipping through the air, and the Half King lunged at Agolet in an instant. Agolet slid the black sword in his hand back into its scabbard, then gripped his shield with both hands.
“…Haradun.”
The moment he murmured those words in an unknown language, a radiance beyond anything seen before erupted forth. The source was, of course, the shield. It blazed with violent light, as if it had absorbed every last mote of luminance enveloping Agolet’s body.
BOOM!
And, remarkably, the shield blocked the Half King’s attack completely.
Agolet showed no sign of significant strain, nor was his body pushed back by the impact.
The White Knight.
His reputation for being able to maintain a defensive front against even two of the Four Knights appeared to be no exaggeration. But was the Half King’s offensive power really only worth two Knights?
At that moment, Residue caught a glimpse of Agolet’s eyes beyond the radiance.
“……”
“……”
For a split second, the two men locked gazes.
It might have been another act, but right now, Agolet’s eyes were… more serious than usual.
It felt as though he wanted something from Residue. As though he was expecting something. Damn him. Instead of just staring, he could use his words. Words.
But soon there was no room even for exchanged glances. The Half King threw herself at Agolet with murderous fury, and Agolet had no choice but to pour out an even greater radiance in response.
In the end, it meant Residue had to figure out why Agolet had looked at him like that on his own.
“…Another round of ‘thinking time,’ is it?”
Residue grumbled, but there was no other way.
…Let’s think from the beginning.
That is, from right after he and Agolet had parted ways.
While Residue was meeting the Half King, encountering Futurix, and being attacked by the remaining Void Lords, what had Agolet been doing? He’d said it himself. That he had found all of Futurix’s cores.
After that, he had insolently refused Residue’s call for help and cut off communication. What came after was what mattered. The part Residue didn’t know about.
Presumably, Agolet had seen or learned something after that.
Something dangerous and important enough that he would go back on his own words and come here.
Right. Originally, Agolet had believed Residue could overcome this crisis alone. A damnable thing, but it had actually been a correct judgment.
The four Void Lords had not posed an absolute threat to Residue. They were certainly formidable enough to cost him lives, but as Agolet had said, it was not an insurmountable ordeal.
‘But then something changed his mind.’
The reason Agolet had come here.
Because the danger facing Residue had grown far greater than initially anticipated.
And the reason for that was,
‘Because there’s a Hide among the Twelve Void Lords.’
He might have even caught on to the existence of the Exile.
A rough conclusion emerged.
Residue looked at Agolet again.
Killing God’s Envoy… certainly wasn’t for the touching reason that the man had attacked Residue first. Nor was it something done on impulse.
…Almost there now.
It was difficult and uncomfortable, but he forced himself to think from Agolet’s perspective.
‘…Agolet deliberately provoked the Half King and started a fight.’
Which meant… he had focused the Half King’s attention entirely on himself.
Unbelievable.
Only then did Residue realize that Agolet had been fulfilling his role as the knight specializing in defense.
If one considered the Half King the greatest threat present, then Agolet had forcibly drawn the most dangerous monster’s attention onto himself.
Why?
To peel the Half King’s interest away from Residue. In other words, to create an opening for him to move freely.
Then what did Agolet want him to do?
Residue looked at the two Void Lords before him.
Futurix and Golden Eye.
Agolet most likely… believed one of these two was a Hide. Worse case, he considered both of them Hides. That was why he had killed God’s Envoy. Not on suspicion, but on certainty.
So he had left the judgment and handling of the remaining Void Lords to Residue? With what rationale? What in the world was that bastard expecting of him?
Residue could only regard Agolet with a peculiar gaze now. Because for all he knew, this entire chain of reasoning might be nothing more than his own fantasy. What on earth was going on inside that powdered-looking head of his?
In all his long years of life, Residue had dealt with every kind of being imaginable, and yet even by those standards, Agolet’s presence was unmistakable. Unmistakably and uniquely insane.
“Hmph.”
Residue let out a scoff.
He had finished the bare minimum effort required to understand Agolet.
And the conclusion he reached was the childish notion that since that bastard had run wild as he pleased, Residue might as well do the same. It was childish, but he liked it.
There was no way to perfectly comprehend Agolet’s inner world anyway. Forcing himself to accept it would only tangle his own thoughts.
But one thing.
There was one thing, and one thing alone, that Residue chose to believe about Agolet.
“Hey. You two.”
He called out to the two Void Lords.
The pair, who had been blankly watching the fight, turned their gazes toward him.
“My subordinate has been abruptly discourteous. I apologize on his behalf. But he’s not so far gone as to kill a Void Lord without reason. He is mad, certainly, but let’s call it a uniquely creative madness.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“Agolet killed God’s Envoy with conviction. Conviction that God’s Envoy was a Hide.”
“There is no method to identify a Hide.”
“Under normal circumstances, no.”
But they were dealing with Agolet.
Not just any ordinary person, and not even the self-proclaimed geniuses who bragged that their brains were the finest in the cosmos. Far smarter than them, and even more devious besides… Agolet, the man who had brought about the destruction of an entire universe through nothing but schemes and stratagems. Couldn’t someone like him have found it? The subtle dissonance of a Hide that no one else had ever detected.
That was why, just for now, Residue chose to believe in Agolet.
“But I have a method.”
Residue pulled the necklace from within his garment once more.
Of course, it was nothing but the chain, with the gemstone that served as its core almost entirely shattered… but even in this state, there was still something it could do.
“What is that?”
“A one-of-a-kind gem capable of identifying Hides.”
“It appears to be broken.”
“It is. But by some miracle, the core seems to be intact. I should be able to use it once or twice more. Now, with this… I’m going to determine which of you two is the Hide.”
“……!”
Futurix’s face twisted in shock, and Golden Eye’s pupils contracted.
“That’s…… is such a thing truly possible?”
“You want me to prove it on top of everything else? I’m sorry, but I have neither the time nor the inclination. The only reason I’m bothering with this explanation is because I’d like you to mind your conduct. Neither of us has any love for the Hides, do we?”
“What do you mean?”
“The enemy of my enemy might just become an ally.”
Residue let the ambiguous words hang in the air, then, judging his explanation slightly insufficient, added more.
“It’s simple. I’m going to use this to identify the Hide and kill them on the spot. I’m not even asking for help. Just don’t get in the way.”
Any further explanation might backfire.
Without giving them time to think, Residue gripped the necklace and squeezed.
CRACK.
The necklace shattered completely, and from its fragments, a faint red light seeped out. It wavered weakly like a heat shimmer… then pointed toward one of the two Void Lords.
“So it’s you.”
With those clipped words, Residue cast One Step Through Time and Space.
He surged toward his target with genuine intent to kill.
*
The ‘first Destruction’ was, for Residue, more of a nuisance than a terror. The reliable means of identifying them were simply too limited.
The most troublesome aspect was that when those creatures were acting, they themselves forgot the fact that they were Destruction.
In other words, whether God’s Envoy’s true identity was a Hide or not, until the moment the mask came off, he would have genuinely believed himself to be God’s Envoy.
The same was true of whatever Destruction now stood before him.
Until their trigger was pulled, they would deny the fact that they were Destruction.
…To share Residue’s thoughts at this juncture: the claim that the necklace could be used once or twice more had been a lie. The core miraculously intact? There was no way such convenient luck would just happen to occur. Reality was a gutter.
He had simply clutched the gem and generated a bit of heat, creating a trick of red light.
Just dramatic enough to make it look as though the gem had faithfully performed its final duty.
In short, he had put on an act that didn’t suit him at all in order to deceive someone, though of course, it wasn’t these two Void Lords he was trying to fool.
As stated earlier, even if these two truly were Hides, they would, for the time being, believe themselves to be Void Lords.
But… the other Hide watching this scene unfold would be different.
Residue cast One Step Through Time and Space with genuine lethal intent. He considered both of them Hides, and frankly, it wouldn’t matter even if they weren’t. These two had been trying to kill him anyway, so whatever happened to them when his attack landed was their own luck.
Half a gamble.
No, in truth it was more than ninety percent gamble, but as he threw himself forward, a strange certainty took hold.
This is going to work.
And sure enough, there was a reaction.
Within the sluggish flow of time, Residue saw space suddenly split open. From it, the Exile revealed himself.
‘That’s right. Come on out.’
From the very beginning, the one Residue had been trying to deceive was not the Hides who were acting, but the Hide who was watching.
Now then, if that bastard’s appearance could trigger the other Hides to reveal themselves as well, that would be ideal… but the thought was severed midway.
Because the Hide’s full appearance was shocking. The Exile had always been an oddly built creature, but now it was different.
Occult Hand. The strange power the Exile had obtained in The Outside. It had caused his arms to emit an eerie energy, but now that condition seemed to have spread across his entire body.
Grotesque, too.
His whole body was bloated. Like a long-abandoned corpse swelling up like a balloon, and the moment Residue met the eyes buried between folds of flesh…
He had the unsettling sense that the Exile had been watching him for a very, very long time.
‘…Was the necklace shattering really just a coincidence?’
The thought flashed through his mind unbidden.
What he had dismissed as chance now struck him anew.
The Destructions possessed intelligence.
And the one manipulating all of them from behind the scenes… might not have been one for elaborate schemes, but was supremely skilled at the long game. Preferring not the radical approach, but the slow, steady, assured method of building up advantages. The polar opposite of Residue’s nature, in other words, but that was beside the point.
‘What if, from the very beginning, the target wasn’t the Half King?’
What would have happened if the Half King had taken that blow?
She would have suffered significant damage. But she wouldn’t have died. She would have needed time to recover again, yes, but she could have made a full recovery.
And what about Residue, who had taken it in her place?
He had burned through a massive number of lives absorbing the Hide’s trump card. Those spent lives would never return, with no way to replenish them. On top of that, the invaluable tool capable of identifying Hides had been destroyed.
In other words, when all was said and done… the one who had suffered the greatest loss was Residue.
And then, Residue became lightning and thunder, and collided with the Exile.
Thunder lashed out in every direction, annihilating everything it touched. But Residue could not afford to care about something as trivial as buildings crumbling around him.
A bluish energy erupted all at once from the Exile’s entire body and completely seized Residue’s field of vision. Then, suddenly, his consciousness felt as though it was being pulled out through the top of his skull. Beyond the collapsing mechanical structure, it seemed to drift somewhere impossibly far away.
His risen consciousness crossed the sky, crossed the cosmos, and upon leaving a certain ‘domain’ that enveloped the entirety of that cosmos… once again, an expanse of pure white filled his sight.
Though different in hue, this too was a universe.
A white universe, filled with stars dyed black as though everything had been inverted.
Residue stared blankly into that place.
…Fwip.
He heard the sound of a page being turned.
‘……’
For some reason, he could not easily turn his head.
His neck was stiff. Since only his consciousness had risen here, it was all an illusion, surely.
Residue forced his gaze toward the source of the sound.
There he was.
…Fwip.
Reading a book with half-lidded, indifferent eyes.
Wearing the same face as Residue, dressed in the same clothes, yet bearing an entirely different expression.
“It was you from the start.”
The voice was likewise the same, yet it sounded nothing like the timbre Residue’s own body produced.
“I’ve been watching only you. All along. Residue.”
The creature spoke on in that voice.
“The Half King. The Four Knights, the Rulers, the Twelve Void Lords, every other Absolute out there. Strong, certainly. But not enough. None of them can contend with me. And so the greatest obstacle, the strongest enemy in the conquest of the Unified World, was you from the very beginning. Residue. That is my conclusion.”
A laugh rose up.
It was not, of course, this humorless creature who had suddenly burst into laughter.
Residue realized that he himself was cackling wildly.
“…Ah. I see. Now that’s a fresh experience.”
Absurdly enough, Residue had been underestimating himself all this time.
And this one.
Great Mage and Great Master, commander who puppeteered every Destruction, the foretold fifth Destruction, and Residue’s one and only true friend.
Even though Residue was currently weaker than the Half King. Even though he didn’t even have the power to overwhelm the Four Knights or the Rulers. Even after the conference with the Twelve Void Lords had failed, even after he had failed to protect what remained of his bonds, even when he had been holed up like garbage in a one-room flat in that grey city afterward…
He had been watching Residue as the greatest obstacle of all.
Residue laughed for a long while, deflated, like the air going out of him, and before he knew it, that smile had twisted into something fierce.
“How amusing. This was never a war between Destruction and the Unified World. Before that, it was a fight between the two of us. …Isn’t that right? Lukas.”
“I’ll give it everything I have. Methodically, relentlessly, and sometimes with cowardice, I will break you down, bit by bit. If I kill you, we win.”
“Playing the long game, are you?”
“I always have. That’s who I am.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Residue spoke, satisfaction plain on his face.
“How about a wager?”
“What kind of wager?”
“The loser does whatever the winner says. No complaints.”
“Would that even matter?”
“It would. Without a doubt.”
“……”
The two men, sharing the same face, stared at each other as if looking into a mirror.
Soon, smiles of distinctly different natures formed on their identical faces, and those smiles became laughter.
And so the two of them laughed, loudly and at length, in that white expanse of space.
*****
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