In the Silver Age, when human civilization flourished, witches and priests dominated the world much as players did now. But those who ruled over them were another kind of being altogether: gods descended to earth, known as avatars.

Even the most arrogant human had to learn humility before an avatar. Possessing the stature of gods, they were born with miracles beyond human reach.

'Tch. I knew something felt off when I was fighting Eugene...'

That was why Limon had sent everyone else back and was fighting this fierce battle alone. Whether it came from a unique skill or something else, Bellows had become an avatar and attained godhood. Even the Infinite Monarch, Lee Cheon-gi, could be killed instantly if he made one wrong move against him. The fact that Bellows was already moving freely despite the restrictions of 『Rule of Law』 made that clear.

'Not just ordinary immortality, but an avatar's deathlessness. What a pain.'

Limon slipped inside Bellows's reach and severed his neck. He bent backward to evade the hammer swung even as Bellows's head fell away, then spun like a top and cut off his legs. Just as Limon turned his sword behind him to block the hammer drawn back toward the rear of his head like a scythe—

THWACK!

A severed heel flew into Limon's side. He drove his sword into the floor to stop himself from being hurled away, then deflected the hammer that came at him as though Bellows had been waiting for that moment. Frowning at the ache in his side, Limon thought, 'What?'

He had clearly blocked the heel and dodged the hammer. Yet somehow he had ended up blocking the hammer instead, throwing himself off balance and leaving his side wide open to the heel.

Still, Limon did not panic. He merely clicked his tongue and swung his sword.

Twisting aside from the swinging arm, he angled his blade and peeled the muscle from the bone along with the armor, as neatly as peeling a potato. He stamped on the severed muscle to prevent the arm from regenerating and was about to dismantle the remaining limbs when—

CLANG!

His sword cut nothing. Instead, it caught the hammer's initial swing, and Limon slid backward.

'... Well, look at you.'

Limon narrowed his eyes. He had unmistakably dodged that hammer and carved up that arm. Yet the situation had changed as though he had blocked the hammer instead of dodging it—as though everything he had just done had been made to never happen.

This was the second time it had happened. Limon was too seasoned a veteran not to see what was causing it.

"Time reversal... No, is it causality distortion?"

WHOOSH!

A hammer swung at him instead of an answer. Rather than dodge it by a hair, Limon deliberately took a step back and muttered, "Either way, if you can keep up with my sword, you must have the divinity of an avatar of war or battle."

Avatars were not all-powerful. The divinity they possessed depended on which god they embodied: one might grow crops, another command the weather, and another rule over souls. What made Bellows troublesome was that his divinity concerned combat.

'Damn it. If he were a sword god, I could crush him with the principles of swordsmanship.'

As a Sword Master, Limon could predict Bellows's every move. But if Bellows could break the causality of the 'past' whenever he needed to, predicting his 'future' movements meant nothing.

A sword strike that had landed became a miss. An opponent he had killed became one he had not. An attack he had dodged became one he had failed to dodge. The power to alter even past cause and effect to create the reality he wanted was a divine miracle that interfered with the very order of the world.

And it was not the only miracle Bellows possessed.

'A miracle that makes him stronger every time he's killed? What kind of maggot-ridden god is this bastard?'

Each time Limon severed his neck, his body grew tougher. Each time Limon split his heart, his movements grew faster. It was a power too lowly to be called a miracle, as though it proclaimed that so long as Bellows did not stay dead, he would eventually win. That only made it harder for Limon to deal with.

'Causality distortion means I can't restrain him. The longer this drags on, the worse it gets. If I'm going to do it, I'll have to cut through his divinity in one stroke...'

Of course, he was Limon Aspelder, humanity's last Sword Master, who had even cut down the Demon God. He knew perfectly well how to kill a god.

There was just one problem: the aftermath of killing Bellows.

'Gods never die quietly, even when they finally croak.'

Gods were bound to the order of the world. Their deaths alone sent tremors through it. Depending on their divinity, a death could bring calamities such as earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, or volcanic eruptions.

Bellows was only an avatar, and an incomplete one at that, so the aftermath would be smaller than that of a true god. Limon weighed how great it would be if he killed Bellows.

*'...If I kill this bastard here, half the metropolitan area will go with him, won't it?'

* * *

He clicked his tongue inwardly. This was a lump of divine shit that could cause a catastrophe killing millions if he handled it wrong. His mind raced as he tried to work out how to dispose of it safely.

* * *

["... What's going on here?"]

"I wish I knew."

While Limon wrestled with how to deal with Bellows, Yu Na-gyeong had finally reached the lobby. She and Li Qingyu stood side by side, tilting their heads in confusion. They could put the lobby's transformation into a maze down to some skill or other. But Bellows, who had fled in such a sorry state, was now rampaging like mad, and Limon was fighting him alone. Neither sight was what they had expected.

"I'm sorry the hotel ended up like this, Your Highness."

"Don't worry about it. He wasn't an opponent you could fight while worrying about the facilities. More importantly, could you explain what's happening?"

Yo U-in had come over and bowed respectfully. At Li Qingyu's question, he gave her a brief account of what had happened in the lobby, taking the events in order and sticking to the essentials.

["A god? You're saying he's an avatar?"]

"That is what the Sword Lord said."

Of everything Yo U-in told them, Yu Na-gyeong was most startled to hear that Bellows had suddenly become an avatar. Avatars were rare in this age, when players held sway—especially when this one was no devout priest, but a ghost of the Liberation Brigade, a vicious criminal.

"... You're saying his armor suddenly changed?"

"I suspect he used some skill by sacrificing the guest who was his comrade."

"Could that be it?"

Unlike Yu Na-gyeong, Li Qingyu paid no attention to Bellows becoming an avatar. She simply studied his armor, so plainly different from when they had fought below, with a curious expression.

'I didn't think a Star Spirit Machine could be strengthened all at once by a skill or a sacrifice.'

Keeping the thought to herself, she wondered how Bellows could have strengthened the Star Spirit Machine enough to contain such immense power if neither a skill nor a sacrifice had done it. Or, more precisely, how he had survived such a reckless strengthening.

'If there's something that could make that possible...'

["Huh?"]

As Li Qingyu gazed steadily at Bellows, Yu Na-gyeong blinked. She had a strange tickle at the back of her head, the feeling that someone was watching her. After looking around for a moment, she spotted something she had missed while her attention was on Limon and Bellows's noisy fight. Her eyes nearly popped out.

["Eek! Team Leader's friend?!"]

Bellows had torn out Eugene's heart and left her kneeling there, looking almost like a corpse. Yu Na-gyeong was horrified. Without thinking, she hopped from Li Qingyu's arms and hurried over to Eugene, nearly tumbling as she went. She grabbed Eugene's knee with her wings, shook it, and called to her.

["Miss—no, Eugene! Stay with me. You can't lose consciousness now!"]

Perhaps because the situation was so urgent, Yu Na-gyeong even addressed her openly through telepathy. But Eugene showed neither surprise nor confusion at the sudden voice from the baby bird. She only gave a faint smile and moved her lips.

["What do you mean, hello? Is this the time to exchange greetings?!"]

["I know I talk well!"]

["Don't talk anymore. Ah, no, keep talking. You need to stay conscious..."]

["... What? What did you say?"]

["Wait, what do you mean by that?"]

As Yu Na-gyeong carried on her telepathic conversation with Eugene, who could only move her lips, Li Qingyu finally drew her gaze away from Bellows and came over.

"Do you know her?"

["She's a friend Team Leader made recently. But why is she here...?"]

"A friend of the Sword Lord? Her?"

Li Qingyu looked surprised. Unlike Yu Na-gyeong, who had failed to grasp the situation because she recognized Eugene, Li Qingyu knew who she was. What could have happened to make this berserker, one of the most deranged people in the Liberation Brigade, a friend of Limon's?

She regarded Eugene with bafflement, then asked calmly, "So what did she say?"

["Uh, well..."]

Yu Na-gyeong faltered. Looking far from confident that anyone would believe her, she relayed Eugene's words.

["She's talking about a violin?"]

* * *

'The Violin of Deepest Black. That damned thing is his weakness.'

Coincidence or inevitability, Limon was reaching much the same conclusion just as Li Qingyu began hearing about the violin from Yu Na-gyeong.

It was not merely that Bellows kept hold of the violin in one hand even while swinging his hammer. Limon had discerned that the melody of the self-playing violin resonated with Bellows's divinity—or, more precisely, with the power of the constellations that made up that divinity. After all, the Violin of Deepest Black had dissolved the fragments of starlight lodged in Limon's body. It was hardly strange that it could affect the power of constellations dwelling in someone else's.

'If I can somehow stop it or separate it from him...'

There was one problem. Knowing a weakness did not mean he could exploit it.

'Damn it. He really won't let go of that thing, even if it kills him.'

Whether Limon cut off Bellows's arm or seized the violin, Bellows distorted causality each time, making it all as though it had never happened, then counterattacked. Limon frowned. As long as that miracle of causality distortion remained, the weakness was meaningless. It was also why he could not drag Bellows out to the open sea and finish him there.

*'Do I have any choice left?'

* * *

That was when Limon thought of his last resort.

'I'll cut through the very order of the world connected to his divinity.'

If a priest or witch had known what Limon was thinking, every one of them would have called it madness. It was like cutting a boat floating on a lake and then, to prevent the ripples, trying to obliterate the entire lake.

Limon knew how absurd a gamble it was. Even in his centuries of life, he had done something this reckless only once. He had succeeded, but the backlash from the world's order had nearly killed him when he took all of it into his own body.

Yet he did not hesitate. It was the only way to kill Bellows without causing any other harm, and he was certain he could do it. He was Limon Aspelder, humanity's last Sword Master. He had overcome hardships like this time and again.

He made up his mind and was just about to grip his sword with both hands when—

CLINK!

"... Hm?"