* * *

BOOM, BOOM, KABOOM!

"Gah!"

It all happened in an instant: Limon slashing Karl as he hovered in midair, and Karl hurtling away in a spray of blood, smashing through a tower and several buildings before coming to rest amid the collapsed rubble.

Limon frowned briefly at the strange sensation transmitted through his blade, then immediately plunged into the rubble. Seeing that Karl had already vanished, leaving a gaping hole beneath the collapsed building, he clicked his tongue.

'Tch. Was the cut a little too shallow?'

He had intended to slice through Karl's heart and kill him outright. But a repulsive force had burst from Karl's robe, and his body had turned ghostly and indistinct as it was pushed backward, causing the strike to narrowly miss its mark.

'He covered himself in defensive items to make up for his weakness in close combat.'

It had not been the items alone. There was the speed with which he activated a skill to raise another shield just before the strike, slowing Limon's sword; the judgment to burrow underground and flee the moment he landed; and the vitality and tenacity that kept him alive despite a wound that should have instantly killed even a man of iron. Karl, the Monarch of Magic and one of this age's absolute beings, was certainly no easy opponent.

Had Limon not caught him off guard with what was hardly a surprise attack, he might have put up a more persistent resistance. But what-ifs were only what-ifs. Just as a defeated man's explanations in war amounted to mere excuses, Karl's fate had been sealed when he appeared before Limon without recognizing him and chose to become a monster rather than admit his guilt.

"Unfortunately for you, you picked the wrong man to run from," Limon murmured coldly.

Then, instead of entering the hole leading underground, he leaped into London's thick fog.

* * *

"Cough, cough, cough! Hah... hah..."

In a corner of the labyrinthine sewers beneath London, Karl coughed up blood as though he might expel his lungs whole. With a violently trembling hand, he pulled a second vial from inside his robe and drained its golden liquid in one gulp.

GULP.

The instant the sweet golden liquid slid down his throat, warmth spread through his body. Only then did Karl finally stop coughing blood. He shuddered as he looked at the wound in his chest, which was still oozing blood.

'I've used two bottles of Elixir, and this is all they've done...!'

Elixir, which only the Monarch of Creation could make, was the ultimate recovery item. Apart from the Divine Monarch's skills, nothing was more effective: it was a miraculous potion capable of reattaching severed limbs. Yet even after using two bottles, he was still in this state. The mere thought of what would have happened with even one bottle fewer was horrifying.

That was not the only horrifying thing. His robe imbued with 『Force Shield』, his shoes imbued with 『Spirit Realm Shift』, his 『Diamond Skin』 ring, and the rest of his equipment were all duke-class items. These treasures had never failed him, protecting him perfectly even on a dungeon's hundredth floor.

Now, however, most of those precious items were torn, broken, or burned nearly beyond salvaging. Even duke-class items worthy of being national treasures could not withstand the aftermath of blocking Limon's sword.

'Someone capable of doing this...'

And so Karl inevitably realized who the black-haired young man was—the man who had effortlessly stopped 【World Break】 and cut him down with a single strike.

'Limon Aspelder! It was him!'

Karl clenched his teeth.

Someone else might have assumed his opponent was another Monarch in disguise. But as the oldest player, who had spent his youth in the closing years of the Age of Heroes, Karl knew better. Only one man could accomplish such absurd feats with a sword alone: humanity's last Sword Master. That only made him angrier.

'He may have fallen from grace, but a man once called humanity's guardian god has fallen for the witches' petty schemes!'

The mist of the Misty hours had been protecting London's citizens all this time? Nonsense! Impossible! He had lost his daughter during the Misty hours. The Great Barrier of London was responsible, and the witches who created it bore the original sin. Therefore, the witches were evil. They had to be evil.

If they were not, then what did that make him? What did that make the life he had devoted solely to eliminating the mist, from the dawn of the Iron Age until now?

GRIND!

Unable to acknowledge that truth, Karl fueled his obsession all the more.

'He calls me a monster over a mere five accidental deaths?'

Yes, perhaps those five would not have died if he had not fabricated the fog that day. But what of it? That many people disappeared during the Misty hours every day anyway. Eliminating the mist would ultimately save more lives.

Above all, the fact that Limon had said it stoked Karl's rage.

'What right does a man who raised mass murderers have to judge me!'

Limon was, after all, the master of the Sword Tower—the very man who had raised Joan of Arc, the Sword Flower, into a Sword Master. In other words, trace the deaths of Richard I and the British people she had murdered back to their source, and the original sin lay with Limon.

And was the Sword Flower the only one? Vlad, the Sword Demon, who had allied with black mages; Gandhi, the Sword Man, who had started World War II... Most of the Sword Masters responsible for the Age of Heroes' most horrific massacres had been Limon's disciples. As for those Limon himself had slain in the name of protecting the world, they were more than enough to fill an ocean.

And now that man sided with the Blue Dragon Princess and the witches, condemning Karl as though he were some paragon of virtue!

'Disgusting hypocrite!'

Karl ground his teeth at Limon.

Yet beneath his seething rage, he could not help feeling bleak. Cir, the legendary Great Witch. Rose, the Seven Dragons Society's Blue Dragon Princess. And Limon Aspelder on top of them. Against any one of them, he might have been able to overwhelm his opponent, or at least fight on equal terms. But even he could not face all three at once while so gravely injured.

'If only I had more power...!'

And so Karl could only lament his own powerlessness—called an absolute being, yet unable to thwart an evil witch's plot. He resented Rose and Limon, who could not distinguish true right from wrong and were being manipulated by evil. And he yearned for the power to oppose them and cleanse London.

It happened at that very moment.

[The constellation contracted to you responds to your fervent prayer.]

['The One-Eyed Seer of Truth' offers to renew your contract. If you agree, you will gain the power to escape your current crisis.]

[Will you agree to renew the contract?]

"...!"

Karl's eyes widened. Even he, who had encountered all manner of information about constellations and players as the Monarch of Magic, had never heard of a system message like this.

His first reaction was suspicion. But it quickly faded, replaced by burning desire. Karl had entered the ranks of absolute beings by contracting with a constellation and receiving its power in the first place. He had no reason to refuse a contract now. Above all, if it meant gaining the power to rid London of its evil witches, he would have contracted even with a demon god rather than a constellation.

"I acce—!"

But just as he was about to answer without hesitation, Karl froze. Beyond the system message floating before him, a translucent figure had faintly appeared.

Brown hair in a single braid. A cute, frilled dress. Even the teddy bear cradled in her arms. The sight of a little girl he could never forget stunned Karl.

"A-Amelia?!"

His little daughter, lost decades ago. Karl trembled at the sight of the girl's ghost, looking exactly as she had the last time he saw her.

"Amelia! Amelia!!!"

Ignoring his injuries, Karl sprang to his feet and rushed over to embrace her.

But his efforts were futile. No matter how he reached for her, his hands simply passed through the girl. As he stood aghast, his eyes widened again. Another faint ghost had appeared behind the girl holding the teddy bear.

"Sophie? You too?!"

A woman with her brown hair pinned up. Karl stared, stupefied, at his wife Sophie, who had died in a traffic accident after pushing herself too hard in the search for their missing daughter.

"Why... why are you and Amelia here...?"

He had longed to see them all his life. But he had never imagined being reunited with his wife and child this way. After a moment of staring blankly at their ghosts, Karl suddenly raised his eyes.

"I see! Is it this mist? The witches have bound your souls with their evil tricks, Sophie—you and Amelia!"

With that realization, burning hatred surged anew: resentment toward the witches who had not only stolen his wife and daughter but were tormenting them even after death.

"Don't worry, Sophie! I swear I'll destroy the witches and set you and Amelia fr—!"

Just as he was about to turn back to the system message to avenge them, Karl faltered. Confusion crossed his face.

"... Why?"

"Why do you look so sad, Sophie?"

"Why won't you smile at Daddy, Amelia?"

Sophie and Amelia gave no answer, merely gazing at him with sorrowful faces. His bewilderment soon gave way to a rising sense of injustice.

"I did this for you—!"

Karl, who had raised his voice without thinking, was stunned. Amelia recoiled in fear. Sophie stepped between them as if to protect their daughter. Above all, his own face, twisted with rage and hatred and reflected in their eyes, told him why Sophie and Amelia had appeared before him—and why they were looking at him with such sorrow.

"Are you saying... I was wrong? That all of this was nothing but stubborn pride, and I hurt innocent people through misplaced assumptions and blame?"

Still, there was no answer. But their sorrowful faces alone told Karl what it was. He was Sophie's husband and Amelia's father, after all.

"... I see."

Karl's expression went hollow.

He had refused to believe even the confession of Rose, the Blue Dragon Princess, or the condemnation of Limon, the hero of old. Yet even Karl could only acknowledge his own folly before the wife and daughter he had missed all his life.

What had his life been all this time? For a moment, belated remorse, despair, and emptiness left him bereft. Then Karl lifted his head forlornly. After gazing steadily at the two ghosts, he turned toward the system message and spoke softly.

"I refuse the contr—"

No, he tried to speak—until his mouth suddenly closed of its own accord and doubts surged within him.

Could he believe this? Was this another trick by the witches? Wife and daughter or not, how far could he trust two beings now reduced to mere ghosts?

'... What is this?'

It was too late to give up now anyway. Limon would not spare him. His only means of resisting was to accept the opportunity the constellation offered.

'What is this?!'

He only had to defeat Limon. Then he could escape ruin and continue enjoying wealth and glory as an absolute being. No, he could go beyond that and become this world's supreme, unrivaled king.

Karl shook uncontrollably. These were clearly his thoughts, yet they did not reflect his heart. As though rejecting his resolve to acknowledge everything and surrender, endless whispers and seething rage shook him from somewhere within—as if something were trying to consume him.

After struggling briefly against that confusion, Karl clenched his teeth hard enough to crush them. Suppressing the overwhelming turmoil trying to consume him, he shouted in a tearing voice,

"I refuse the contract!!!"

At last, the system message vanished. But the confusion engulfing Karl did not. Instead, as though enraged by his decision, it consumed him still more fiercely and forced his mouth open. A spell assembled itself in his chaotic mind, forming a skill even Karl himself did not know.

'This skill?!'

Thanks to 『Ultimate Mastery of Magic』, Karl instantly understood its effect and tried to stop it in horror. But despite his desperate efforts, he could not prevent his own skill from activating.

"『Chaos Scream』."

'No!'

SCREEEEEECH!

Immediately afterward, a tearing sound rang out across London, and Sophie and Amelia's ghosts began to unravel, their faces contorted in pain.

The hundreds of items Karl had installed throughout London to destroy the mist resonated with his skill, shaking the Great Barrier of London and striking the ghosts it had summoned.

'No! No, stop!'

"The... con... tract..."

No matter how hard he tried to stop the skill, the noise only grew louder. As though that were not enough, the system message reappeared. Hearing the words spilling from his mouth of their own accord, Karl felt a chill.

This was a power that even he, an absolute being, could neither defy nor comprehend. He could sense that a tenth-class spell, wielded by a being beyond humanity, was twisting his will.

And so he realized whose power, emotions, and will were controlling him.

'... So, just as he said, I had already become a monster.'

"Re... new... al..."

Karl squeezed his eyes shut. He had lived a life in which he would do anything for revenge. Now he could no longer tell whether that life had truly been his choice—or whether even that desire for vengeance had been his own.

Once he finished those words, he would become a monster in full and bring London to ruin, stripped of everything by the being he had believed was giving him the power to take revenge. There was only one way to prevent it.

'I'm sorry, Amelia.'

Karl slowly opened his eyes. A mournful expression crossed his face as he looked at the suffering girl's ghost and the woman shielding her.

'Take good care of Amelia in heaven, Sophie.'

Slowly. Ever so slowly, he drew his staff toward himself. Forcing his uncontrollably trembling body to move, he placed its tip against his chest.

THUNK.

He drove it in with all his strength. The wound, barely half-healed by the Elixir, gaped hideously open again, bringing excruciating pain. Karl did not stop. Pushing 『Ultimate Mastery of Magic』 to its limit, he gathered spells amid the turmoil and pieced together a single skill.

"I... acce—!"

Perhaps it had belatedly realized his intent. His hands spasmed, trying to pull out the staff; confusion tore through his mind; and his tongue moved to force out the words as quickly as possible. Yet even as his flesh and mind threatened to run wild beyond his control, he steadfastly continued completing the spell.

As the great Monarch of Magic. As the Master of one of the ten great guilds. And above all, as a man who had been a woman's husband and a little girl's father. To stop the monster about to enter the world, and to take at least some responsibility for the sins he had already committed.

'I'll pay the remainder of my debt in hell. Please take care of what comes after, Countess Rose.'

"『Great... Elemental Break』!!!"

And so he bit down on his wayward tongue, forcibly reclaiming control. The instant he let out that thunderous shout—

KABOOOOOOM!!!

An explosion of vivid blue light erupted from Karl's heart and engulfed his body.