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“………”

—A line of sight looked down from the distant sky above.

“She” sighed in melancholy as she watched the battle within her miniature garden. It just wasn’t working out that well. A mistake from the distant past had not been corrected and was now being revived after generations, upsetting the balance of the world. And that bug was…Ruphas Mafahl.

The second mistake was her return after having been successfully eliminated previously. She had wanted to seal away Ruphas’ consciousness and ego in order to turn Ruphas into an existence that moved in a way favorable to her will and maintained the balance of the world. After all, it was foreseeable that even if Ruphas was left alone, she would have revived by herself eventually anyway. Furthermore, there was no pawn that could stop her.

In that case, she might as well revive her and move her accordingly…but it seemed to have been a bad move. In the end, a bug was still a bug. It wasn’t something that could be resolved with a superficial fix.

She had hoped that Ruphas would eliminate the Demon King who had recently stopped listening to her commands completely, and was intending to turn her into the “evil” of the world. However, by the time she had noticed it, Ruphas had already become the “evil” to her. How ironic.

What went wrong? Was the time chosen for Ruphas’ revival wrong? Was the tentative personality given to her wrong? Or…

…Whatever it was, she must admit it. She had made a mistake.

Ruphas Mafahl was now searching to find her own way out of the original plans. Once the script had been messed up, the more one tried to fix it, the weirder it would become. And the presence of Ruphas Mafahl would only exacerbate the problems.

This was unacceptable. People would not be able to find happiness this way.

In order for people to be happy, a certain degree of misfortune was necessary. The greater the fall, the greater the happiness they would feel in the end.

However, Ruphas was a bug that completely destroyed misfortune itself. In a world with only happiness, people would not feel happy. They could not be happy.

Therefore, yes, a certain amount of despair and misfortune was necessary for her beloved children as long as it was not overwhelmingly destructive.

So she made the decision to move her strongest piece in the current situation. It was a rough treatment, but it couldn’t be helped…She would eliminate Ruphas with an infinite army.

There was no other way.

♌

After sending the centaurs and the other demihumans to the tower, Sagittarius returned safely. Only the spiderkin remained as he probably had something to say to the youth Sei. It seemed most of the problems had been cleared up, but there was still one thing left to do.

I left Aries and the rest behind and went towards Leon, who was still lying on the ground. The giant lion glared at me with murderous intent, but in his exhausted state, he was unable to break the chains binding him and could only struggle futilely.

“Hmm. I suppose I’ll just say… It’s been a while, Leon.”

“Ruphas…!”

There was only hatred for me in Leon’s eyes. In a sense, it was rather novel, yet it was only natural. As I had only encountered friendly people until now, it felt rather funny. I smiled at Leon, who was desperately staring angrily at me, and decided to check his status by activating Observing Eye.

The Lion King, Leon
Level: 1,000
Race: Nemean Lion
Attribute: Sun

HP: 1/1,500,000
SP: 8,250/10,000
STR (Strength): ???
DEX (Dexterity): ???
VIT (Vitality): ???
INT (Intelligence): ???
AGI (Agility): ???
MND (Mind): ???

Well, it was as expected. Since he had not returned to me, his status was not displayed except for his HP, SP, and level. His name was “Lion King, Leon” instead of “Twelve Star, Leon”, so he was still in a state of rebellion.

However, his HP…Hey, this could be said to be a truly appropriate number. Furthermore, the Goddess’ modification would have been added on top of this, so I knew he would be dangerously strong even without fighting him. Aries and the rest did well to win the fight.

If I were to fight him normally, it would have been quite difficult. It was one of his features to not have any outstanding skills like the other Twelve Stars, but conversely, it could be said that he did not need such petty tricks. His strength lay in overpowering the enemy with his status. He would crush an opponent upfront without any petty tricks.

No matter how good one’s skills were or how much magic one could use, it was all pointless if the difference in power was too great. A Level 100 character could give it his all to make a full-powered attack, but a high-level character could still easily surpass it with just a normal attack. This was the nature of RPGs.

Well, there were also those in the world who limited their playthroughs with low levels or did amazing things like subjugating the Demon King with only low levels. Therefore, I couldn’t say it was always like that.

Since I couldn’t see his status, I couldn’t be sure…but yes, his overall combat power was evidently higher than that of Benetnash in her base state.

“We’ve finally met. I’ve never once forgotten about you in the past two hundred years. Every night, I was reminded of the humiliation I felt on that day…I’m going to kill and eat you!”

“………”

“Now, unravel this chain! Fight me!”

While listening to his words, I considered what would be the best way to deal with this. The best solution…Well, it would be to fight him like he said. I should just defeat him here to establish the power relationship and forcefully return him back to my control. This would weaken the fool back to Level 800. Yes, this was the best solution. The answer was simple without having to worry about it.

However, the “Ruphas” inside me had a different answer, and I eventually also arrived at the same answer. And that was—

“I refuse.”

“Wha—!?”

“The battle is already over. Aries and the rest have won. That’s all. If I just casually act now, it would taint their victory.”

Yes, the battle was between Leon and Aries and the rest. It was already over. I just casually came over after the fight was finished. I had no interest in restarting a fight that was already over. Furthermore, it would be too disrespectful towards Aries and the rest who worked hard to achieve this victory after overcoming the massive difference in their statuses.

Aries and the rest had won with great effort. If I overturned their victory to restart the fight and beat Leon, it would be like saying I alone could beat him. This would be inappropriate no matter how one looked at it. Besides, Aries and the rest were my subordinates, so their victory would be my victory too. I wanted to be proud of it right now. I would not drag it through the mud.

“Don’t joke around! You’re leaving it all to your subordinates and just being a spectator yourself!? I, I—Am I not worthy of fighting you!?”

“I’ve heard that you relied on the Goddess’ power?”

“—Tsk!”

My statement silenced Leon, who was making a ruckus. He was cornered by people who were weaker than himself, yet he still lost after borrowing the Goddess’ power. This was a great humiliation for him, something he would rather forget. But I wouldn’t let him forget it. If he were to be left alone like this, he would surely be manipulated by the Goddess again.

“I’m not saying that it’s bad to ask for power. It’s fine to use everything that you can use. In that sense, the power of the Goddess was no exception. However, you became unsightly after being taken over by the power. If you had been able to make use of the power and make it your own, I might even have praised you for a job well-done.”

After all, I was someone who suddenly gained the peerless power of a game character. In that sense, I was just like him. Since this was how I gained my power, I wouldn’t criticize his method of gaining power. That would just be an oversized boomerang that would return to strike me.

“However, while being controlled, the person fighting the battle would no longer be you. Even if I fight you now, it would really be a fight between me and the Goddess. You would just be a chess piece moved by the Goddess, an item that was being used by her.”

That was exactly why Benetnash appeared so dazzling when she flatly rejected the Goddess. She carried out her own will, pushing the Goddess away as if she was in the way. Because she was like that, she was acknowledged by “Ruphas” as a rival.

“I’ll answer your previous question.”

In the moment I said those words, I could no longer recognize who was actually speaking. I understood that I was speaking by my own will, but at the same time, I felt like someone else was also speaking through my mouth…using the same words and the same intentions. For the first time, I felt that “Ruphas” and I had completely overlapped.

“The current you is not worthy of fighting me.”

“……!”

After saying that, I moved to turn my back to Leon. I might have said a bit too much, but if I didn’t do so, he would have easily relied on the Goddess’ power again. Leon was a simple-minded fool, but that fool could still be used as a weapon at times.

This current statement established to him that if he were to use the Goddess’ power, he would be unworthy of fighting me. In that case, he would not use the Goddess’ power anymore. Since his biggest goal was me, he wouldn’t choose a route that would bring him further away from his goal.

In a sense, he was easy to understand and somewhat cute. If I had to relate it to something, it was like the cuteness of a silly cat or dog. Certainly, Leon was an annoying guy, but it wasn’t a big problem for me.

I wondered what I could compare him to…If I had to forcefully do a comparison, yes, it would be like a cat. A cat might jump onto a personal computer because it wanted some attention. It would then step on the keyboard, possibly pressing a button that forcefully shut down the entire system. It couldn’t be helped, so the owner played with it, but it soon lost interest and walked away after scratching the owner’s hand. It would be annoying and selfish, such that the owner might think of it as a little *******. But even then, the owner would think of it as cute and forgive it anyway.

For me, Leon was something like that. At least, he was not a piece of garbage like the Dragon King that I once fought was. Although he was indeed self-indulgent and arrogant, it was merely like a wild lion killing and eating a zebra. It was nothing more than that.

………

……Eh? Who’s this Dragon King again?

♊

The location was a forest.

The glow of mana illuminated the trees. In place of plants that couldn’t move by themselves, the divine life-forms created by divine power—the spirits—innocently flew among the trees.

Among these spirits, there were those who awakened their own sense of self and became fully independent from the plants. These were called fairies. Occasionally, they were revered by humanoids and other creatures as divine.

Furthermore, there were also humanoids that were influenced by the fairies. These were the fairy race (elves). Therefore, they had a high compatibility with divine power even though they were mutated by mana.

A young man walked alone in the forest.

This man in pure white armor had authority and power that were second only to the Demon King among the demon race. He was Terra, known as the son of the Demon King.

He was walking towards the deepest part of the forest with a dignified stride. The spirits and fairies watched him with great interest, sometimes even flying around him mischievously. Terra smiled at them without raising his hand to drive them away.

The appearances of spirits and fairies could vary widely, but they were generally cute boys and girls about twenty percent the size of humans. Nonetheless, this was not absolute. Some powerful fairies were indistinguishable from humans. There was even a pirate-style man with an unnecessarily strong body.

Eventually, Terra reached the deepest part of the forest and saw a girl standing there as if she knew that he would be coming. She had semi-long, warm honey-colored hair that reached down to her shoulders. A headband was worn on her head and her eyes were green. She wore a three-colored dress, consisting of red, blue, and white. An armored heroic spirit (einherjar) had taken on a temporary body to serve next to her.

“Such an unusual guest, but I can’t welcome you.”

The Fairy Princess Pollux, who was at the top of all fairies, sat in the deepest part of the fairies’ home, Alfheim. As the top of the life-forms created by divine power, she was the polar opposite of the Demon King. If the Demon King and the demons symbolized darkness in Midgard, Pollux and the fairies symbolized light in Midgard.

Although the two of them could not possibly mix with each other, they never actually clashed, keeping a state of passive opposition for many years. It was as if they were secretly in contact with each other to maintain the balance of light and darkness, preventing either light or darkness from sweeping away the world.

“Greetings, great elder of light. My name is Terra. First of all, please forgive my sudden, impolite visit.”

“Hmm…? If I recall correctly, you’re that, right? The Demon King’s son. I’ve heard that Orm had a son, but I imagined the son to be simply a smaller version of him. It seems you’re rather polite.”

Pollux watched and observed Terra. There was no sense of hostility. His sword was sheathed and respect was evident in his eyes. However, he was a demon, so unfortunately, he wasn’t a reliable person.

“So why did you come here? If it’s not an important matter, please go home.”

“I want you to give me detailed information about Avatar and, if possible, teach me how to make one.”

“………”

Hearing Terra’s words, Pollux narrowed her eyes coldly.

Avatar—It could be said to be the birth of a spirit or fairy. After all, they were basically temporary bodies (avatars) of plants. Although there was a difference between divine power and arcane power, they were still similar to the demons who were created from mana.

In an extreme sense, spirits and fairies were divine magic used by plants. Plants could not move by themselves, so they would generally evolve in two ways. One way was mutation. They could mutate into monsters, which included the demihumans known as dryads. The other way was to create an avatar, giving rise to spirits and fairies.

However, it was said that the essential method of creating an avatar was known only to three individuals in this world—the Goddess, the Demon King, and the Fairy Princess. Plants require Pollux’s permission to create avatars. They could not be created do so without her assistance.

The question remained how her all-important self was created, but nobody could answer that. This was because even if someone were to return to the time before the humanoids were created, Pollux had already existed back then.

“What would you do after knowing that?”

“I want to free someone from the fate of the demon race. Her friend sacrificed himself for this purpose. We are not the Goddess’ dolls. We want to take our lives into our own hands.”

“…I see.”

For a moment, there was gentleness in Pollux’s eyes as she looked at Terra. At the same time, her eyes were dyed with sympathy as if she was looking at a pitiful thing. But that lasted only for a moment. In the next moment, she became cold as ice.

“Sorry, but it is a secret. I can’t teach you despite whatever reason you may have.”

“I know, but I cannot give up regardless of the reasons. I swore to my friend who died that I’d definitely do it.”

“Then what would you do?”

“What do I need to do to be acknowledged?”

“Well…”

The Fairy Princess waved her hand. At the same time, more than a hundred heroic spirits appeared and stood before Terra. All of them were over Level 700. Of course, there were also Level 1000 characters mixed in among them.

“Dance, my beloved children. —Return of the Heroic Spirits (Argonautai).”

The guardians of the sanctuary from various generations appeared. Whenever Midgard was shrouded in darkness, heroes would descend to disperse the dark clouds. The first flügels, from a time before the consumption of the forbidden fruit, descended like an army of angels.

There was Eir, the valkyrie who blessed the poor with her fruits. Brunhild, who led the noble warriors to the Goddess, was present as well. The great people from history revived one after another, creating a ridiculous difference in combat power when compared to Terra.

“If you win, I can give you a hint. But basically, I just don’t feel like teaching you anything.”

As she said this, the Fairy Princess showed an icy expression that was full of ridicule.

Cover of Light Novel Volume 6