A scream echoed across the sea off the coast of Tsuranami.
Broken masts, tilting decks, soldiers thrown into the water. Kyokuto and Federation troops alike all let out cries of terror.
Towering in the center of the sea surface was a massive black shadow.
Its countless tentacles writhed as if trying to swallow the entire world.
(If this keeps up, hundreds will die!)
There was no time to hesitate. I readied Schwarzhase and circulated my ki throughout my body.
I would kill it in a single instant.
But right then, the phantom beast's tentacles reached toward the sky and began glowing with black light.
A vibrating noise loud enough to split ears spread out, crackling sharply.
"Is it charging electricity!?"
A terrible premonition ran through me.
If I did nothing, a high-voltage current would run across the entire sea, and everyone in the water would...
"Like hell I'll let that happen!"
With a roar, I released my ki all at once.
The air shook and the sea surged.
Using psychokinesis, I lifted every drifting person around me, hundreds in total, out of the water at once.
People rose into the air one after another as countless water droplets scattered like mist.
It felt like someone was screaming inside my head. My brain burned from the extreme focus, and my nerves screamed in protest.
(Do not drop them... Absolutely do not drop them...!)
I poured every ounce of my concentration into controlling my ki.
The slightest mistake would cost lives.
In that extreme state where I could barely move my own body, the sound of wind being torn apart reached me.
A massive tentacle was closing in at the edge of my vision.
I could not dodge it.
But a golden trail flashed in front of me.
"!"
The next instant, the tentacle was sliced diagonally and fell into the sea.
Oliver had cut it.
"If you want to kill the king, you will have to go through me first!"
"Oliver, thanks!"
"Orun, keep everyone safe. Leave this one to me!"
Oliver raised his sword and murmured quietly.
"Aegis, the Golden Oriole Armor."
Golden oriole-colored magic power wrapped around his body and formed armor and light wings.
He flapped those wings of light and charged straight at the phantom beast.
His golden trail sliced through tentacles and carved wounds into the black surface.
His feathers turned into fine blades that rained down, slowing the monster's movements.
Meanwhile, I continued maintaining the psychokinesis. Waves of fear from the people pressed against me, trying to disrupt my control.
"Stay calm... It's okay, I'm saving everyone...!"
I spoke to them while refining my ki again.
During that time, Oliver continued his fierce head-on clash with the phantom beast.
Gold and jet-black light crossed, blades and tentacles scattering sparks.
The collision of such immense power made it feel as if the sky itself was screaming.
Oliver was fighting well. He flipped his wings, coordinated his slashes with flying feathers, and steadily wore down the phantom beast's movements.
But there was no decisive blow.
No matter how many tentacles he cut, the wounds regenerated almost instantly.
(As I thought, magic power attacks cannot defeat it.)
The phantom beast was created from the power of an evil god. Attacks using the same type of energy would not destroy it.
To cut the main body, I had to strike a vital point with an attack made of ki, the power of life.
However, I was currently using psychokinesis to hold hundreds of people in the air. Controlling my ki alone took everything I had. Reproducing other abilities was impossible.
Even so, I could not give up.
The people in the sea were at their limit. While holding down those who were panicking, I looked around.
There it was.
One ship had suffered relatively little damage and was still afloat.
Its hull was tilted and its mast was broken, but it remained on the water.
In my current state, pushing my ki to the limit, using magic-based abilities was extremely difficult.
But if I complained and gave up, a huge number of people would die.
I did not want to lose anyone.
I did not want anyone to die.
That was why I fought, to keep people alive and connect them to the future.
"Return...!"
I reproduced Time Regression.
The creaking hull groaned and twisted back into shape. Shattered wood fragments flowed backward and returned to their original positions.
The sails unfurled again and the broken mast regenerated.
My vision shook violently.
My knees trembled.
The core of my head burned hot.
But I had no time to worry about that.
In just over ten seconds, though it felt much longer, the ship returned to its undamaged state.
"Everyone, get to that ship!"
I used my ki to lower the people onto the deck.
Water splashed across the deck one after another.
I could not save everyone, but I managed to rescue more than half.
Once I had some breathing room, I manipulated my magic power.
"Freeze!"
Ice flowers bloomed across the sea surface and quickly froze the area around the ship.
I used the frozen ice platform to lower the remaining people one by one.
The air grew cold and the sea breeze turned icy.
When I finally finished lowering everyone, I let out a long breath.
The taut threads of my ki unraveled and my knees shook.
On the deck, Kyokuto soldiers and Federation soldiers glared at each other.
But no one reached for their weapons.
They were still alive. That fact alone was enough.
In the middle of it all, one Federation soldier staggered to his feet. He was covered in wounds and his face was blackened with soot.
Even so, he asked me in a trembling voice.
"You... You're the Demon Lord, right...? Why... did you save us...? You are our enemy..."
I stayed silent for a moment. The smell of the sea burned by war stung my nose.
In the cold wind blowing past, I answered slowly.
"Just because someone is an enemy does not mean I can abandon them."
The soldier gasped.
I kept my gaze on the sea and continued.
"There is no victory or defeat here. I simply heard voices asking for help. I could not ignore them and do nothing. That's all."
The sound of the waves filled the brief silence.
In that quiet, the soldier dropped to his knees and bowed his head deeply.
I said nothing about it. I simply looked out over the sea once more.
The massive black shadow, the phantom beast, was still writhing.
Its tentacles tore through the air, ready to rampage again.
There was no time to rest. It was not over yet.
I used Flowing Flight Elseria to move next to Oliver.
"Oliver, thank you. Thanks for drawing its attention."
"I wanted to finish it myself."
"You did enough. I'll deliver the final blow. Oliver, clear out the annoying tentacles for me."
"Got it."
Oliver smiled.
The next instant, his golden wings flapped powerfully.
Oliver and the phantom beast clashed once more.
The moment the wind calmed, I readied Schwarzhase.
"What I need to do is harmonize three powers."
I murmured to myself as I gathered the flow of ki and magic power inside me and made them clash.
Then I awakened the third power hidden within my body: youki.
Youki wavered in the space between ki and magic power.
(I will use youki to suppress the backlash from the clash between ki and magic power.)
The three powers collided inside my body.
"Three-Phase Unity, Drygration."
Ki and magic power circulating through me collided and burst like lightning. The destructive torrent flowing through my body was wrapped and melted by youki.
Ki, magic power, and youki achieved perfect harmony and became a jet-black power.
I then wrapped Schwarzhase in that jet-black power.
For a moment, the air fell silent as if frozen.
Dark blue particles floated and shimmered like the night sea.
"Integrated Jet-Black Sword, Integration."
The moment those words melted into the air, the world held its breath.
Magic power, ki, and youki, three different powers in harmony, converged into the shape of a sword.
What appeared was a jet-black sword similar to, yet different from, a demon sword.
The light overflowing from Oliver's body turned into blades that sliced through the tentacles attacking from all sides at once.
Jet-black miasma erupted from the cut surfaces, and the sea shook with a roar.
"Orun, now!"
Oliver had cleared the path.
I swung the jet-black sword down.
"Ten Gen."
The jet-black slash reached the phantom beast.
The instant it made contact, the shockwave born from the clash between ki and magic power, which destroyed all things, erased the phantom beast.
The light faded and the wind returned.
The storm stopped. The clouds in the sky parted and sunlight poured through.
The black mist drifting on the waves dispersed, and the scent of the sea returned.
"Is it over?"
I lowered my sword while exhaling.
"I never thought you would truly master youki..."
Oliver landed beside me and smiled faintly. His golden armor turned into particles of light and vanished.
"Yeah. Though I still cannot control it perfectly."
"But you will master it completely one day, right?"
"Of course. I will show you I can maintain this state unconsciously. If I cannot do that, I will never be able to defeat an evil god."
As I spoke, I looked into the distance. There stood the five children in red cloaks.
They said nothing and simply watched us with emotionless eyes, as if recording everything that had just happened.
I needed to question them as well. The moment I thought that, they turned their backs at the same time.
They flew off toward the western sky, their red cloaks fluttering.
"Oliver, can I leave this place to you?"
"Yeah, go ahead!"
We nodded to each other and I cut through the wind.
I activated Flowing Flight Elseria and chased after the five shadows.
After flying for a while, I saw two familiar figures under a clear sky that made the earlier weather seem like a lie. It was Shion and Luna.
Both of them looked badly exhausted.
Shion was limp in Luna's arms. Luna's hair had returned from its earlier white color to its original deep blue.
A short distance away, a red-haired girl raised her hand.
In that instant, a flame bullet was fired.
The heat tore through the air and light tried to swallow the two. At that moment, I dove in.
I swung my demon sword and canceled the flame bullet.
"Demon-Breaking Heavenly Flash!"
The jet-black slash tore through the sky.
I descended while blowing the flame bullet away.
When Luna saw me with my jet-black clothes and jet-black sword, her eyes wavered slightly.
"Orun...!"
Looking around, I saw the five boys and girls, the red-haired girl, and one unremarkable man, for a total of seven.
Their cloaks fluttered in the sea breeze.
The red-haired girl was unmistakable. That hair, those flames. It was Ruari the Inferno.
She glared at me with pure rage. But her body was clearly near its limit. She was ragged and breathing in short gasps. She was standing on willpower alone.
"This is as far as we go. Let us withdraw."
The man beside her spoke calmly.
Ruari clicked her tongue. The next instant, flames swelled at her feet.
A roar sounded and white smoke burst out. Flames and wind mixed together, turning my vision pure white. Multiple presences retreated beyond the smoke.
I was not going to let them escape. The moment I thought that, Luna grabbed my arm.
"Orun! Look at Shion's condition. Her body temperature...!"
Shion's face was deathly pale.
When I touched her arm, it felt icy cold.
"Why is she in this state?"
"She used a spell that stops time."
"Don't tell me she used Fimbulvetr, the Frozen Hell Box Garden!?"
Shock escaped my voice. That was a spell that interfered with the laws of this world to manipulate the flow of time. Normally, one had to go to the Phoenix Shrine and use the crystal there to operate the laws. Skipping that process and interfering directly would carry a heavy price.
"It's okay. You will feel better soon. Just hold on a little longer, Shion."
I held out my palm and reproduced Nagisa's ability, Spirit Interference. At the same time, I activated the support spell Full Ability Increase, Status Up. I sensed the wavering ki waves in Shion's body and activated Spirit Interference on them.
Soon, a faint color returned to Shion's cheeks.
Her frozen fingers regained a little warmth.
"Phew. This should be fine for now."
"Really...? Thank goodness...!"
Luna let out a breath of relief and hugged Shion.
I sheathed my sword and looked up at the sky.
The battle was over.
But a small thorn remained in my chest. The words that boy had spoken.
"First verification experiment complete. Moving to the second verification experiment."
Did the experiment refer to the appearance of the phantom beast? Or was it something else?
The wind blew. Sunlight reflected off the sea surface and wrapped the world in a dawn-like glow. It felt as if I could hear the sound of this battle's curtain falling.
But the path I needed to walk continued. The investigation into the laws of the world was progressing smoothly. I had also learned how to interfere with genes using my own body. In the not-too-distant future, I would complete a spell that would grant Demon-Breaking to all humanity.
That meant the preparations to break through the wall of the laws were steadily coming together.
At the same time, it meant the final battle against the Order, and by extension the evil gods, was drawing near.