Chapter 259
Agnes shouted.
“Aillet, you have to get out of the domain right now!”
I know. But.
“Aillet! Move! Aillet!”
Damn it, my body won’t listen.
“Kuk…….”
My whole body trembled like a broken wind-up doll. That was the most I could struggle and resist.
“It’s useless to resist.”
Inferinos’s power, the Demon King’s Word, was a type of Incantation. It imbued language with power to control the opponent.
Currently, I had lost control over my body. I was completely defenseless. Cold sweat ran down my neck.
Inferinos approached me leisurely.
“The sin of daring to challenge a King.”
Five steps away, Inferinos’s index finger pointed at my forehead. In that instant, all movement in my body ceased as if I had been impaled.
“By King’s Order.”
By her King’s Order, my body and mind were rapidly being reformed.
My body forgot resistance and became docile. My mind was erased as if my own will was crushed. I was becoming a docile servant to the King.
The King’s solemn voice fell upon my crown.
“Execution.”
“……!”
Ping, a ringing filled my head. No, perhaps it was the sound of my soul wailing.
“Die, Aillet Rodelain.”
“…….”
I was ordered to die. To carry out the absolute command given by the King, I slowly raised my body.
In my fading consciousness, the gleaming blade of Librilly was the last light I saw.✠“W-what?!”
“Your Holiness the Holy Saint?”
“Your Holiness! Your Holiness!”
Suddenly, the center of the battlefield fell silent.
As if to mock the earth-shattering destruction that had been scattered everywhere just moments before, the two beings representing disaster and salvation faced each other in stillness.
It couldn’t be a sudden peace treaty.
Everyone watched with vigilance.
The Demon King’s power shook the space.
“This is the King’s Order.”
The voice pierced everyone’s ears directly.
It struck a drumbeat in the hearts of all living beings. Hundreds of the multitude intuitively understood.
Danger.
“Your Holiness the Holy Saint…!”
The desperate cries were futile.
Even the Holy Saint wavered before this immense power.
All her movements ceased, and one knee bent.
Though not fatally wounded, she was completely neutralized.
“W-what’s wrong, Aillet?”
“Aillet…!”
Hestio and Iphail called out to her with trembling voices, but she didn’t respond.
Then, five powerful figures’ eyes widened.
Inferinos’s language was the medium that carried power. The form of that power was clearly visible to the eyes of the five powerful figures.
Black energy unraveled like threads from the Demon King’s mouth, binding Aillet’s body here and there.
As if targeting a marionette to be controlled.
“Die, Aillet Rodelain.”
At that moment, a puppet show unfolded.
“…….”
Slowly rising to stand upright, the Holy Saint. She raised Librilly with one hand.
The newly sharpened blade of the scythe pointed at her own neck.
“Your Holiness, what are you…!”
“Girl! No!”
“Pink Holy Saint! No, Your Holiness!”
Marquise Lekandro, Duke Hispenril, and Moriphis cried out in a state of confusion.
At that moment, Fliegel Knight, observing the situation with hawk-like vision, reported.
“The Holy Saint’s eyes are unfocused.”
Muriel Philise calmly summarized the situation.
“It seems she’s going to commit suicide, subjugated by the Demon King’s Incantation.”
Those who heard the Saintess’s words turned pale.
Despair spread like a plague in an instant.
They weren’t the only ones who realized the crisis.
“Aillet! Aillet! Damn it…!”
“Sister! Stop!”
“Unnie…!”
Clang, Clang!
Hilde struck the barrier with her 7th Divine Power Tier.
A heavy rebound shook the very air in the vicinity.
But it didn’t reach the Holy Saint.
“…….”
The blade of the scythe was nearing the Holy Saint’s neck.
A thin line of blood gradually widened into a deep crimson area.
“N-no…!”
Hilde screamed.
“Please don’t do it!”✠“…….”
Reed’s eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the stage transformed into a trivial puppet show.
Leaning his chin on his hand and tilting his head, he looked languid, utterly devoid of tension.
In a voice perfectly befitting his posture, he muttered.
“Is the resistance insufficient…?”
Then I’ll have to help.
And the help he, a Chaos Evil God, offered was…
“Win, Aillet Rodelain.”
It was encouragement.
Reed’s seat was the Holy Saint’s cheering section.
According to the rules, the audience in the Coliseum of the Throne War must cheer for ‘their side’, and failing to do so would result in torture.
This was not merely a mechanism to punish those who did not adhere to proper audience etiquette.
Cheering activities also had the clear effect of boosting the morale of the cheered-for subject.
The effect of cheering was proportional to one’s status.
As a supreme being, the Chaos Evil God spared no expense in utilizing his prestige to empower Aillet Rodelain.
Sincerely.
“You must win. I’ll be waiting.”
Meanwhile, across the arena, in the special viewing box on the opposite side.
There was another person besides Reed who showed no agitation at the current situation.
That was the 117th iteration of Tesillid Argent, who was living Reed’s future.
“…….”
After being forcibly seated, he had never once followed the rules.
To punish this rebellious spectator, the chair transformed into thorns, strongly gripping his entire body.
However, the handsome man’s face remained expressionless, as if his sense of pain was numbed.
His eyes, too, had returned to their previous indifferent state, as if he had witnessed the end of the world.
Before his eyes, Aillet Rodelain was about to take her own life.
The being who had barely protected his desire for life and his good will was about to perish by her own hand.
It was no different from his world ending.
Even as he witnessed a sight more profound than the end of his past 100 iterations, the 117th Tesillid was calm beyond measure.
It was only natural.
Because she was someone he would save.
A low voice vibrated softly through the air.
“Guardian of Attribution.”
As always, he intended to take her wounds upon himself.
Even if it was a wound that would sever her neck.
But he also had no intention of dying.
Swoosh.
Before Tesillid’s eyes, his Holy Sword was summoned by call.
The sword, infused with aura, floated stably in the air at eye level without needing to be held.
The blue square jewel embedded in the hilt of the Holy Sword vibrated. The deep blue was slowly being corrupted.
‘A Holy Sword is useless at a time like this.’
He needed a Holy-Demonic Sword.
He needed the healing power derived from the countless lives he had taken in a past timeline, using them as sacrifices.
She was his goodness.
Protecting her was protecting the last bit of goodness remaining in him.✠Inferinos always found this moment rapturously delightful.
This moment when an enemy, by her single command, turned their back on their own side and became a traitor.
The stronger and more beautiful the opponent, the greater the exhilaration from conquest.
In that regard, the Evil’s Bane Executor was currently providing Inferinos with unprecedented rapture.
The strongest among humans.
The one who received God’s love wholly.
The one who dared to contend with her on equal terms.
That very adversary had now lost her reason and devolved into a subservient puppet.
Aillet stood, facing the desolate wind of the battlefield. Her golden eyes were unfocused, gazing into the void.
“…….”
Inferinos watched her, her lips curling into a smile.
Truly a beautiful human.
She would be even more beautiful once her head was severed.
The command she had implanted urged Aillet Rodelain.
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Die, Aillet Rodelain!”
Aillet Rodelain’s body obediently moved.
Her right hand raised the Holy-Demonic Scythe. The gleaming blade was aimed at her white neck.
A long crimson line traced itself on the left side of her neck.
A sweet smell of blood stimulated Inferinos’s sense of smell, causing her vertically slit pupils to widen in excitement.
Just as Aillet was about to harvest her own neck and offer it to Inferinos, Inferinos’s favorite moment arrived.
“Yes. As per your command, Your Majesty the Demon King.”
The adversary had become a loyal subject, offering the highest reverence.
The meekest words of submission filled Inferinos with ecstasy.
She had controlled the Evil’s Bane Executor.
She had controlled the public enemy of the Demon Realm.
Inferinos smiled, her lips stretching as if to tear.
And in that moment, as she waited for the beautiful head to fall like a camellia blossom.
“……You really like it, don’t you? It was just lip service.”
“……!”
Sliccck!
Librilly’s flexible scythe blade drew a dazzling arc in the air.
The demonic power, clinging to Aillet’s body like black threads, was instantly severed and scattered.
Inferinos’s eyes shot wide open at the sight of the puppet cutting its own strings.
Before her, Aillet unleashed a dazzling blow.
The scythe blade swept past at a dangerously close distance, almost grazing her upturned eyelashes.
The mere impact of sweeping the air stirred up a storm.
Their gazes met as their hair wildly whipped around, pushing them back.
The focus had clearly returned to Aillet’s golden eyes.
The Demon King couldn’t hide her astonishment.
“How?”
“…….”
“How did you defy the King’s Order?”
Inferinos was a demon of knowledge. For her, the incomprehensible realm, ignorance, evoked fear beyond mere embarrassment.
Aillet gave a simple, direct answer to the violently trembling red eyes.
“Mental strength.”
“…….”
“That Demon King’s Word, it’s nothing much, huh?”
It was then that the third-ranked archdemon, feeling mocked, unleashed a burst of demonic energy as if to explode.
The severed connection of the life-and-death struggle reconnected. Immense powers clashed.
Privilege for Possessors