“This person is worthy of a fight!”I took a deep breath, gathered my magic sword’s power without releasing it, and focused fully on the opponent before me. This enemy wasn’t someone I could afford to have even the slightest lapse in concentration against.
“Haha, my older brother, do you know just how long I’ve been waiting for this day? One year? 10 years? 100 years? Dimensional laws? No reason to fight? Today, all those stupid reasons are no longer able to stop us. Today, nothing can possibly stop me from having a proper deathmatch with you.”
Karwenz laughed wildly as his limbs started thickening at a speed visible to the naked eye. Demonic spikes grew out of his spine, while various demonic runes started glowing on his arms and legs.
Karwenz’s muscles were trembling as they rapidly expanded. His physically alluring body which had belonged to Ilmisya instantly lost its original form.
Maybe Ilmisya’s original body was quite attractive, but it definitely wasn’t suitable for direct confrontations. Demons and devils were both experts at modifying their own physical bodies. I wasn’t sure if this transformation was Ilmisya’s own combat form or Karwenz’s custom modifications, but it indeed had a scary appearance as Karwenz’s body instantly grew more than four meters tall.
Karwenz had one wing, a long tail, sharp claws, and thick scales, all standard traits of demons.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t you know that the antagonist boss always dies quite quickly after his transformation? Also, you only call me older brother when you want to kill me?”
Although I was spouting rubbish, I was actually carefully on guard against his transformation.
In combat, someone with a larger body size would have more strength, so the advantage would be obvious. Although it would seem cool for someone smaller to have great physical strength, that was usually just a mistaken impression caused by too large of a difference between the two sides. Only by having larger muscles and a solid body would one have greater explosive strength. An advantage in speed would typically be accompanied by an advantage in strength, but...
“Too weak!”
My glorious Holy Light sword Dawn formed in my hand as it sliced with light that could tear through everything, along with creating a pillar of light that was as fierce as dragonbreath.
Correct, too weak. Since I already had experience fighting against Sophocles, I was easily capable of crushing many Demon Lords of this level all together.
“Clang!”
My sword of light was blocked by a magic sword that was becoming ever darker. Karwenz smiled, but then his smile instantly vanished.
My Dawn sword suddenly flashed with blinding light, instantly vaporizing his pitch-black magic sword. Ilmisya’s very existence was beginning to vanish. Her magic sword had lost the ability to directly confront Dawn after decaying so rapidly.
Even the strongest warrior would always have a moment of surprise and weakness when they lost their weapon. I would never miss such an opportunity.
“Karwenz! Take a proper nap for me!”
Dawn flashed in my left hand, but my true attack was in my right hand. Four balls of light intersected with each other on my right palm. The silver ball was Law, the golden ball was Holy Light, the black ball was Death, and the white ball was Ice.
Golden light swirled around my index finger. Black light swirled around my middle finger. White light swirled around my ring finger. Lastly, silver light swirled around my pinky. I snapped my fingers and created four colors of magical runes in the air. In just a short instant, 37 magical runes were all completed, and then instantly sliced into Karwenz’s stomach.
“Seal of the Four Elements!”
Act cool by saving the ultimate technique for last? Only a complete idiot would do that. An ultimate technique that could determine victory should be used at the very beginning!
“I did it!”
I could sense that my arm had already touched a soul. The spell I prepared beforehand was activated as the Seal of the Four Elements was completed successfully!
The demon baby in Ilmisya’s stomach was Karwenz’s true body. The power of the Seal of the Four Elements enveloped him as the ultimate sealing spell bound the struggling soul within.
However, Karwenz smiled in the very next instant, sending chills down my spine when I saw him from the corner of my eye.
I instinctively sensed danger, causing me to unhesitatingly withdraw my arm and suddenly retreat.
*Boom!*
As I expected, a pitch-black sickle crashed down in the next instant, slicing through dimensional space itself. The wind from the sickle swing hurt my face. I would likely have become mincemeat if I hadn’t retreated in time.
“How can he possibly still attack with his soul sealed...”
However, there was no need for me to think too much about the answer. “Karwenz’s” physical body which kept evolving was the best explanation of everything.
“Oh my, Ilmisya really is so pitiful and unfortunate. I’ll properly console her after releasing the seal in the future.”
Apparently, I must have sealed away Ilmisya’s soul just now. The fact that her soul would be in that location doubtlessly meant that Karwenz had modified the structure of his physical body, and exchanged his soul’s location with hers, using her as a shield for himself.
I now clutched Devil Lord Ilmisya’s black sculpture within my hand. I shook my hand and put it into my dimensional storage bag. I had now lost another ace, and also expended a significant amount of mana.
I felt rather mysteriously displeased as I saw how calm Karwenz appeared to be.
“Karwenz! Using your own woman as a shield? How low are you going to fall!?”
Earlier, no matter how much I tortured Ilmisya, she adamantly refused to tell me where Karwenz was. Although Ilmisya and I were on different sides, I was still slightly moved by her resolution.
“Fallen? My woman? If I told you that she and I are simply master and subordinate, and that I’ve never even touched her body before, and that I even used a special method to forcefully transfer my baby into her body, would you believe me? That’s not all, would you believe me if I also told you that it was Ilmisya’s idea to switch her soul’s location with mine?”
Would I believe that? When Karwenz was someone who had started touching noble ladies back at the age of 12? When he was someone known as the charisma king who had conquered women everywhere across the land? I would never believe something like that!
“Haha, your soul is almost beginning to burn. Are these the flames of the FFF Group that you’re always talking about?”
Karwenz didn’t explain anything else as he laughed. Even though his claim was quite ridiculous, I could instinctively sense that he was telling the truth, which made things even more difficult to understand.
Sophocles and Ilmisya were clearly evil, chaotic, and powerful existences. Abolar, the former Gold Elf Emperor, was someone incredibly wise and noble before he reincarnated as the succubus Didina. Just what did this bastard Karwenz have that such people were willing to sacrifice everything for him?
Karwenz seemed to see through what I was thinking as he proudly explained, “Because I can give them hope.”
I took a deep breath. My mana was gradually recovering from a powerful sensation of emptiness after just casting a spell which was on the level of a forbidden spell. It would take at least three to five minutes for me to recover enough to cast the Seal of the Four Elements again. Karwenz was also stalling for more time in order to better control his new physical body. Since both of us needed time, then we might as well keep stalling.
“Hope? Don’t you mean destruction? Do you know what will happen after opening the door to the dimensional barrier? Do you know what’s outside? Your wooden brain probably hasn’t even thought about it!”
“That’s right, I just want to leave this boring world and properly have some fun. As for what will happen to this world? Who cares? It has nothing to do with me. Why would I need to think about that?”
I originally thought that Karwenz would try to defend himself, but he actually directly admitted that I was right instead. Such blunt honesty only made me angrier.
Someone like him... Someone like him actually had loyal followers who were willing to give everything and trust completely in him? How foolish, and what selfishness...
“I didn’t think that much about things, but they definitely have. Yep, they’ve repeatedly thought things over.”
Karwenz’s next words had some rare sincerity, maybe because he had been pent up for quite a while.
“They probably felt that it’s preferable to open the door to the dimensional barrier and meet the Eich universe’s destruction or evolution rather than let this eternal Holy War go on forever.”
“There’s no need for that!”
I was getting even angrier. What was all this? A brighter future was clearly in front of us, the two Goddesses of Order and Chaos were unable to awaken, magical engineering technology was improving, and war was decreasing, so the future would only become better, yet these bastards were gambling the fate of the entire Eich universe? How selfish, how willful, and how incomprehensible this was...
“It’s necessary.”
Karwenz’s tone was abnormally calm as if he was describing common sense phenomena such as “rain will fall” or “fish know how to swim”.
“Does your nice blueprint for the future have a position for demons and devils? How about for the Chaos Evil Gods? Or for Demon Lords?”
A position for residents of the Chaos Abyss? Of course, I...
I fell silent. How could I possibly consider a position for demons? That would be impossible from the very start. Demons were creatures of evil and chaos who loved to kill. Weren’t they always like this in the Chaos Abyss for all the past millennia?
Have demons work in construction? Or live peacefully with other species? That would be such a terrible joke. Not only would it fundamentally be impossible, the current residents of the lower planes were naturally born to be slaughters and devourers, though I didn’t know if that was the same for the first generation of demons. The current demons would only evolve through slaughtering and devouring. Warring and killing was a very part of their lives.
Souls were food for demons. Would it be possible to make a carnivore become an herbivore?
“Besides, can you guarantee that after the Holy War is over, when the ruler of the mortal plane becomes strong enough to a certain extent, they won’t try to conquer all the dimensions in Eich, and that they won’t try to eliminate the evil and chaos in the lower planes?”
I... was unable to make such a guarantee. Lies were meaningless here. If the mortal plane truly became strong enough, completely eliminating the Chaos Abyss was something that absolutely needed to happen.
Progress in magical engineering would definitely decrease the difference in talent between species. The greatest beneficiary would obviously be humans, who had their own civilization system and societal structure already. The greatest victim would probably be the demons, who relied on their natural talents for dominance.
Perhaps it was actually truly a better choice for the demons, who were trying to fundamentally evolve, to choose the unknown from opening the door to the dimensional barrier?
The tall Abyss Prince had almost completed his final transformation. He shrugged with a casual expression.
“See? You forgot about us since the very beginning. They were the ones who chose me. I suppose that even villains need their savior. But as for me? I’m fine as long as I get to have fun. But, Brother...”
“...I have no reason to lose.”
I fell silent in response. Four different colors ignited themselves in my palm once more. The next instant, everything lit up as our fight continued.
“Yes, yes, yes, Roland, this is what I want! We were the only ones who understood even 300 years ago that useless words can’t possibly change anything in this world! Only the strongest warrior who remains in the end is the one who’s correct!”
“Shut up, idiot!”

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