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Why was my anger toward this world so faint now? At this point, it was meaningless to dwell on the reason. Making that excuse to myself, I focused on my surroundings. I had thought that no one remained in this eastern country. Yet, I sensed a lone presence, isolated and small, but unmistakably there.

Far from the continent, upon a tiny island adrift in the sea. Why someone would be living alone in such a place, I couldn’t say. But now that I’d noticed, I had no choice but to go. A great presence besides my own seemed to be moving toward that same island. Letting them get there first would be irritating.

Still… why hadn’t I sensed this earlier? Zygos’ power was this world’s power. So long as something existed in this world, it shouldn’t have been able to escape my perception.

◇◇◇

This land had been withering away. The spirits were reclaimed by a certain Demigod, by God, and the world neared collapse, its vitality thinning rapidly. And yet, this small island still thrived with abundance. Trees hung heavy with fruit. Fish swam in the rivers. Enough food existed here for a family to survive until the very end.

How could such a place exist? Surely I should have noticed it immediately, yet even now, standing upon it, Zygos showed no anger. Perhaps that was why it had eluded me.

“Who goes there?”

As I observed, a voice called out. The speaker was an Elf, older even than those in the settlement I had seen before. He was likely the resident of this island. And yet, strangely, I felt no urge to kill him, no desire to erase his existence.

“Who are you, then?” I asked in turn.
“Merely an old Elf with little left to his name, traveler from another world.”
“Someone who knows I come from another world isn’t likely to be just ‘an old Elf.’
Besides… don’t you think it strange that this place alone remains untouched while the world collapses?”

This was, without a doubt, the sort of person I would describe as “hard to deal with.” He probed with his words, as if testing me, prying at what I wanted to conceal. It felt like speaking to someone of rank and cunning. But I had my share of experience. I wouldn’t be toyed with so easily… though whether I could pry out what I wished to know was another matter.

“This land was granted to me by contract with a Demigod. In exchange for giving them the key to Viridis’ Spirit Prison, I was granted a place of safety until the world’s end.”
“I see… Then you must be of Viridis’ royal line. No… more than that, you’re the previous king.”

Why was it that the people of this world seemed to delight in making me sigh? Still, with that hint, I searched Zygos’ memories. It didn’t take long for the truth to surface.

(So that is why Zygos does not move to kill him.)

This man resembled the villagers in the settlement I encountered before, yet was profoundly different. Zygos recognized this.

“And you… You are the one who destroyed Caeruleus. Summoned into this dying world by Caeruleus… An unfortunate soul? No, an unfortunate, powerful soul.”
“They also called me the world’s emissary. You know much, it seems.”
“I have no intent to leave this place. Yet ‘eyes’ that wish to roam freely across the world use this island as their resting place. It is through those eyes I learn. So… emissary of the world. Your purpose is to erase people, is it not? Then tell me, why spare me?”

His gaze was firm, yet not desperate, not seeking to flee. Did he think he could prevail against me, or was there another scheme at work? At the very least, unlike the villagers who surrendered themselves to despair, he showed no sign of resignation.

“No, I will not erase you. You strove for the sake of this world, and in doing so, most of your life was stripped from you.”
“A man who merely failed to die, nothing more.”
“Perhaps. But Zygos sees otherwise. The world itself sees otherwise. And so, I will not erase you.”
“…I see.”

I couldn’t know the full details of this former king’s life. But if even the world hesitated to kill him, then surely he must have acted with true devotion to it. Stripped of his throne, his companions slain, and himself cast into prison… Given an elf’s lifespan, he must have endured an unfathomable length of time within that cage.

So when he said only, “I see,” how much meaning lay within those words? Yet, as one who had once been king, he quickly composed himself again. His eyes were strong as he looked at me.

“You are, in a way, an embodiment of the world’s end yourself. To die by your hand would have been akin to witnessing the collapse of the world. But perhaps I may see the true end with my own eyes after all. Tell me, though, what is it you hesitate over?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were dragged to a world on the brink of ruin. You cannot return to your own world, and so you face perishing in a foreign land. Would it not be natural to hold boundless hatred for all who dwell here?”

At his words, my hand nearly went to my sword. But I restrained myself. If Zygos did not erase him, then neither would I. For now, I was Zygos. Still… I could, at the very least, intimidate him.

“Do you wish to die?”
“You will not kill me, will you? Even if you did, I would not mind. So, what is your answer?”
“Why ask me that?”
“As a diversion, until the world ends.”

A diversion, was it? Whether or not that was his true motive, it didn’t matter. He knew the end drew near. Even if I revealed my thoughts, there was nothing he could do. And perhaps, if I finally voiced what I had long avoided, I might feel like I’m finally letting things free. If I simply erased him here and now, I feared I might lose myself entirely.

“One correction. I can return to my world. Everything that happened here will be erased from my memory, and I’ll be able to live on in my original world.”
“…So, you too met that Demigod.”
“She told me she’s become a full-fledged God now.”
“Then at least, you were rational enough at the time to make a contract with her. Not consumed entirely by rage.”
“True enough.”

Had I faced her in blind fury, what would have happened? Surely she was not the type to soothe an enraged soul and guide it forward. In that sense, perhaps it was not such a bad thing that I managed to hold onto reason, if only barely. But it also meant that here, in this world, my role had already become meaningless.

“You ask why I am as I am now? It’s because there was simply too much to fear. Tell me, do you know what the so-called Demon Lord of this world truly is?”
“…You, is it not? The one the world sends forth to protect itself. That is the Demon Lord. Whether the current one is so, I do not know.”
“So you knew that much.”
“One of the eyes that rests here… it has lived even longer than I. It loves to talk and tells me much.”

A being that lived longer than even Elves. In my own world, that would be said to mean a creature without a lifespan at all, perhaps a dragon, perhaps a spirit. But the spirits of this world had all been reclaimed. Then, perhaps a dragon… That, however, was a matter for another time.