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Iron Fist, a skill that increased attack power.
Penetrate Weak Spot, a skill that penetrated defenses.
Revenge, a skill that increased power according to damage received.
Meteor Kick, a skill that removed flight status of its target and inflicted damage.
Shine Blow, a skill with absolute accuracy.
Flash, a skill with absolute evasion.
Double Blow, a skill that attacked twice.
Fourth Blow, a skill that attacked four times.
X-Counter, a skill that negated physical attacks and countered with double damage.
Sonic Fist, a skill that increased its number of attacks according to class and level.
Smash, a skill that always inflicted a critical hit.
Armor Break, a skill that inflicted a debuff to reduce defenses.
Power Break, a skill that inflicted a debuff to reduce attack power.
Speed Break, a skill that inflicted a debuff to reduce speed.
Buster Impact, an exceptionally high-damage skill that could be used only once every twenty-four hours.
Flash Step, a high-speed movement skill.

And various buffs and debuffs from divine magic, recovery divine magic, defensive shields, and more—all these were used without reservations. If it was written like this, it would not be meaningful. Was this just an enumeration of the settings? I would have thought so too.

Could you believe it? This was just a small portion of the skills I used to fight the Demon King. Well, I knew he was strong. After all, he defeated the Seven Heroes (actually only six since Benetnash did not participate) who defeated me. More than anyone else, I was aware of his power, but now I finally felt it for real. Honestly, I wanted to apologize for calling him “Demon King-san (LOL)”.

…Demon King-san was really strong, so (LOL) shouldn’t be added.

My HP was already reduced by 50,000. He should have lost a considerable amount of HP too, but since he was the official last boss, his HP would exceed 1,000,000. My prediction placed him at around 3,000,000 to 6,000,000 HP. I did not think his HP would reach 10,000,000 though.

Basically, what I wanted to say here was that the situation was rather bad. If the fight continued like this, I would lose. Although we seemed to be on par in battle, there was a difference in HP, so it would be impossible to win. In player-versus-boss situations, it would only considered equal when the player could one-sidedly overwhelm the boss.

I could not catch up in terms of healing. Although divine magic was used for automatic healing, it would need some time for a full recovery. I should have brought a weapon at least…If I had a weapon, I could use Sword Master skills, so the situation would be somewhat better. Although I could create weapons with the materials from the surroundings, such dull weapons would be of little use. Anyway, he did not seem like an opponent that could be defeated with just anything.

“Hmm. As expected of Alcor. Even after two hundred years, you are still stronger than the hero Alioth. But are you holding back? Or maybe I’m not worthy of you fighting seriously?”

“……?”

“Your strength is not merely of this degree. The overlord, who challenged the Seven Heroes, countless veterans, and hordes of golems and magical beasts two hundred years ago, should be stronger than this. The one I feared…Ruphas Mafahl should be more brilliant and strong enough to burn.”

I pondered the Demon King’s words and made an idiotic sound. Eh? What? No, my strength was the same as Alioth. However, some skills could not be used in battle within the game. The skills had to be to set for use beforehand and then only those skills could be used. There was no limit now, so I should be stronger instead.

My total ability value was indeed higher than the Seven Heroes, but it was not that great a difference. I could not compete in the fields that were specialized by each of the Seven Heroes. As expected, it was impossible to match the Seven Heroes fighting as a team. If it was possible, I would not be a wild last boss, but the actual last boss instead.

“…Is this really your limit?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Impossible…What in the world…No, I see. Is that it? …The goddess has the initiative.”

I didn’t know why, but the Demon King was visibly sullen and clicked his tongue. Could it be…that Ruphas was stronger and more dangerous before I possessed her? No, no. That kind of strength would not be possible by doping. Even if I played the game tens of times longer than I did, it would be impossible to reach that level of power.

“I see. It seemed I was too impatient. It’s not time yet.”

“You have been muttering to yourself for some time now. It seems you have reached a conclusion that I have not understood?”

The Demon King muttered to himself and apparently reached a conclusion. Could he be very lonely? Soliloquies were known as a sign of loneliness.

After I pointed it out, he turned to me as if finally noticing me.

“No, now is not the time for us to fight. There is no way to go beyond the goddess’ scenario like this.”

“The goddess’ scenario?”

“Indeed, this world moves according to the goddess’ scenario. The demons are no exceptions…or rather, they are the clowns that direct the scenario to its climax. After all, the goddess created them for this purpose.”

Even though I did not defeat him, it seemed I was considered acceptable. Despite having not determined the victor, the Demon King still provided some information. Didn’t he say that I should find out by using my full power? Well, since he was already talking, I should just quietly listen.

“Why do you think that the demons attack and kill the humanoids?”

“Isn’t it to expand their territory?”

“Yes, of course, but that is only the apparent reason. The real reason is…they could not stop killing. It’s like if you don’t eat, you can’t live. If you don’t sleep, you won’t be normal. These are instinctive desires. The demons are…defective creatures that would disappear if they do not kill people. After disappearing, their fragments would be left behind in the world, becoming what you call mana.”

This was a setting that I did not know. Indeed, the game did not explain why mana existed in the world. I didn’t think too much about it, simply assuming that it was a given for a fantasy setting.

“The fundamentals of arcane magic is to recycle their corpses. Without demons, it would be impossible for you and your kind to use such a convenient thing like arcane magic. Yet because of them, the futile killings would continue on. The goddess created the demons for this reason and left the management responsibilities to me.”

“…Management? How are you different from them?”

I felt there was something strange in the Demon King’s words. Whenever he mentioned the demons, he always used the word “them” without including himself. This seemed to imply that he himself was not a demon.

I pondered this and as I was about to ask a question, someone among the hero’s party interrupted, “Please wait!”

This must be the elf-niisan who summoned me. He shouted at the Demon King with a face full of frustrations.

“Wha—What was that about!? It sounded like the goddess wanted the world to be in despair! The goddess…You are saying that Alovenus, the goddess of compassion, wish for massacres!?”

“Indeed, weaklings. The goddess did not want the world to be saved. That was why the war happened two hundred years ago.”

“!?”

“Consider it carefully. Isn’t it strange? Isn’t it unnatural? It was true that people were afraid of Ruphas Mafahl back then…but there was no need to defeat her before we even fought…It should happen after her battle with the demons instead. The ideal scenario should be to let Ruphas defeat me first, then take the opening to bring her down after that. Yet the Seven Heroes rebelled and sealed Ruphas away without waiting for the right time.
…Now, isn’t that suspicious? Even the Wisdom King, Megrez, made such a short-sighted decision as if he never even considered the future. Even a child would know if that was a good or bad time to dispose of Ruphas. Yet the Seven Heroes stopped thinking and simply challenged her.
Well, since Benetnash was already hostile to Ruphas and was aiming for her neck, she would probably do something so silly. But excluding her, weren’t the actions of the remaining six people too unnatural?”

I was speechless with regards to the Demon King’s question. The elf-niisan appeared likewise. Nobody could refute it. It was indeed very unnatural. I did not know how tyrannical “Ruphas” was, but she was ultimately still an ally of the humanoids. According to the books, even though she had a reign of terror, her rule was by no means evil.

Even if she was to be ousted sooner or later, it would be better to let her defeat the demons first. Or rather, there would be fewer sacrifices if they waited for her to weaken after defeating the Demon King. Instead, the heroes attacked “Ruphas” while she was in perfect condition, losing many veterans in the battle between humanoids and then lamenting if they had made a mistake in the aftermath.

What a stupid story.

“Alcor, you probably reached the truth earlier than anyone else. That’s the reason you unified the world and sought to exterminate the demons, even though nobody would really benefit from it. It’s all to forcibly end the goddess’ scenario.”

“……”

“But—”

“X-Gate! Evening Star!!”

A gate, emitting golden light, suddenly appeared in the space next to the Demon King. The surprise attack came so suddenly that even the Demon King could not react in time and was dramatically blown away. As if to follow up on the attack, a golem in a maid costume flew through the gate.

“Program selection! Zubenelgenubi!”

Libra blasted the Demon King who had been blown away. The light, wrapped in purple lightning, surged forth in a straight line into the ground, resulting in an explosion of flames. Libra came over to my side, grabbed my waist, and activated Sky Jet.

“He—Hey, Libra?”

“Master, I propose: Withdrawing from the battlefield is the best option now. Now is not the best time to fight the Demon King.”

“No, wait a minute. We are having a very important…”

“Withdraw!”

“…conversation!?”

Ignoring my words, Libra flew off without permission.

Was she really loyal to me? She even ignored my commands.

Meanwhile, the Demon King, who was relatively unhurt, returned hurriedly, but Tanaka suddenly crashed into him from the side. Then, Tanaka made a U-turn and went through the X-Gate.

Hey, Dina. You even brought Tanaka along? Its level was low. What would you do if it was destroyed in one hit?

“Descend, Libra. The hero is still down there.”

“No problem. I don’t know why Master is so concerned with them, but the Demon King is obviously after Master. If we withdraw, he won’t do anything to those rats.”

“…You heard our conversation? We should be beyond your range of detection.”

“Dina-sama opened a small gate, so we have been eavesdropping on the entire conversation.”

Oh, so it was like that. That fellow, Dina, was eavesdropping all along. Since I couldn’t win, she dashed in to help and then brilliantly escaped. She acted at that time probably because the Demon King was fully concentrating on our conversation and had lots of openings. If it was during the battle, she might hit me instead in the worst scenario.

Even so, he was saying something fairly important. He was about to elaborate on some unknown settings or past events. Furthermore, it seemed the goals of my previous self was different from what I knew about her settings. If possible, I would like to listen to the end.

Anyway, Alovenus huh? If I thought about it, she was a mysterious existence to me. She was the goddess of compassion who created the world of X-Gate. In the online version, she was the incarnation of the administrators.

Furthermore, she was probably responsible for bringing me here. In reality, my last memory over there was to answer “Yes” to Alovenus’ question. That could not have been unrelated. Yet despite being the goddess of compassion, she created demons. If the Demon King was telling the truth, she would have intentionally created the enemy of all humanoids. If this was a game, it could be explained away as a plot device, but reality itself was different. What were the merits of doing such a thing? She would not be a goddess of compassion, but an evil deity.

Moreover, if mana was the corpses of demons, it would mean that more than half of the humanoids were evolved from demons…Elves, beastkins, dwarves, hobbits, and vampires. These five races had evolved from humans due to mana. If this was true, flügels would be an exception. This was because we were incompatible with mana. In other words, flügels originated from humans without any relation to mana…The theory of being the descendants of angels just became more credible.

Furthermore, the changes in wing colors were due to mana…Eh? Wasn’t this mutation into a magical beast? This implied that I, with my black wings, had evolved into a different race? …When I visited Svalinn where flügels would usually avoid, I did not feel any resistance at all. In fact, it was rather comfortable…Could it be I, Ruphas, was not a flügel…?

♍

“…So it was you who did it.”

Orm got up from the ground and muttered in a bored voice. He was not talking to himself. He turned and walked towards the girl who was smiling slightly…Dina. Despite facing the wrath of the Demon King, she did not flinch.

“Speak. A barrier is in place here. That golem will not hear us. Of course, the hero is outside the barrier too.”

“Hehe…As expected of Your Excellency. There is nothing that you overlooked.”

“Get to the point. What was that supposed to be? Venus…No, Dina.”

Hearing Orm’s words, Dina laughed lightly. She narrowed her eyes, pursed her lips, and said elusively.

“That was, of course, an act to gain trust. After all, there was a doll monitoring me.”

“And so you made an unreserved attack?”

“Oh, but an attack like that was nothing to Your Excellency. This is my trust in Your Excellency’s abilities.”

“What a smooth talker.”

Orm snorted and laughed. He faced Dina and asked in a serious tone:

“Alcor…Ruphas Mafahl has weakened. You know, right?”

“Of course.”

“I think this should not be your doing, right?”

“There’s no way I could pull that off. Only the omnipotent goddess could do that.”

“Indeed.”

Dina laughed and came closer to Orm, whispering into his ear:

“————”

“…I see. So there was this too. Then, I will start preparing for the attack.”

“She would be stopping by Blutgang for a while. I pray for Your Excellency’s good luck in battles.”

“What a strange thing to say. Who exactly are you praying to?”

Dina did not answer Orm’s question. She merely passed by him silently. At that moment, a gust of wind blew. After the wind subsided…all that was left behind were the dumbfounded hero and his companions.