What could be the purpose?
Ever since awakening in young Oscar's body, it was a thought he often had at dawn.
Who was it that revived him, and just what had they brought him back to life for?
Whenever those questions followed one after another in a chain, he would frequently watch the day break.
“....”
It felt as though a puzzle that had gone unsolved for a long time was falling into place.
The Great Emperor, settled in a corner of his soul.
He had always wondered just how that bastard had come to dwell within his spirit.
‘All of it.’
If all of it was Silgrim's handiwork, it made sense.
At this point, not believing it wasn’t an option.
The moment he heard those words, he had realized it was the truth.
“...Then that makes it make even less sense.”
Oscar muttered in a low voice.
At this, Silgrim replied, looking visibly pleased.
—Speak. What is it that you do not understand?
“If what you wanted was the annihilation of my soul, you would have had opportunities in spades.”
He had died at the end of his battle against the Great Emperor.
If one were capable of breathing a soul into another’s body, extinguishing that soul would have been far easier.
—A foolish question.
Silgrim let out a quiet snort.
—What meaning is there in obliterating your soul when you have already lost your physical form and become feeble? With something like that, I cannot wash away my disgrace. Nor does it serve as proof that I stand above you.
His skeletal finger pointed at him.
—That is why I brought you back to life. So that you would breathe again, learn magic again, and climb once more to the heights.
One corner of Silgrim’s mouth curled upward.
—Because what I desire is to annihilate a living Oscar Sage.
“....”
Listening to that nonsense, the churning mud inside him settled, and his dizzying mind cleared.
Oscar let out a faint breath and muttered.
“Just where does that confidence come from?”
—...What?
“I was stronger than you in the past, too. Did it never cross your mind that if you gave me a new life, I might become even stronger?”
That was not arrogance or bravado, but a fact.
Even right now, he was vastly stronger than when he had been 7th Circle in his previous life.
Oscar stared intently at Silgrim.
“The moment I merely reach 8th Circle, you're dead.”
A pure declaration, devoid of hatred, anger, or any emotion whatsoever.
Hearing those words head-on, Silgrim’s chest and shoulders heaved.
—...Ha.
The laughter, once burst open, resonated loudly as if filling the entire battlefield.
—Haha! Hahahaha! Uwahahaha!
After laughing for quite some time, Silgrim wore an expression that was far from displeased; rather, he looked satisfied.
—Yes, this is it. The Oscar Sage I wanted to kill was precisely this kind of human!
“....”
It felt disgusting.
A sensation as if tiny insects were crawling all over his body.
Rather than a simple threat of murder, the fact that this creature had been waiting for him so desperately was far more chilling.
Silgrim’s laughter gradually subsided.
—I knew it.
—If I were granted such an opportunity, I would grow stronger at a speed beyond comparison to before. I thought it would be the same for you.
“Knowing that, you still revived me?”
—Yes! You will climb faster than anyone, higher than anyone. And only then will the time come.
As if intoxicated on some drug, Silgrim closed his eyes with a dazed expression.
—The moment the Great Emperor awakens, and you are obliterated, soul and all.
“....”
For an instant, he couldn't muster any reaction.
Because he had never, not even once, entertained the thought that the stronger he became, the closer he drew to death.
‘On top of that, the stronger I get, the closer the Great Emperor's resurrection draws?’
Just imagining it in his head made his fine hairs stand on end.
Oscar asked.
“What circle.”
—Hmm?
“At what circle did you set the Great Emperor to awaken?”
The four eyes curved maliciously.
As if he saw right through what was in his mind.
—To think that is the extent of your curiosity. Since it is a rare occasion, I shall answer. It is the 7th Circle.
“...What?”
Oscar’s brow furrowed.
It had already been quite some time since he attained the 7th Circle.
In fact, he was currently in a state where the 8th Circle was well within sight.
—Your mind must be in turmoil. Yes, but it is the same for me.
Silgrim grumbled faintly.
—Normally, the moment you reached the 7th Circle and liberated your world, that physical vessel should have been seized by the Great Emperor, and your soul should have been torn into thousands and tens of thousands of shreds....
Tilting his head sideways instead, Silgrim asked.
—You, why are you still alive?
Even if he asked him, how would he know...
At that moment, something flashed across Oscar’s mind.
‘Could it be.’
After reaching the 7th Circle, the red moon that had risen at the same time he liberated his world.
The one that had blocked it was the Divine Being, Ithaca.
‘Come to think of it, Ithaca said that simply suppressing the Great Emperor's presence was overwhelming.’
Looking back now, that fellow had been preventing the time bomb planted within his soul from going off.
—Ho-oh.
Silgrim, who had been watching him, chuckled with interest.
—Judging by your expression, it seems you have an inkling.
“Think whatever you want.”
Oscar had already reached a conclusion inside his head.
‘I must never let this bastard check the state of my body.’
If he discovered that a Divine Being was suppressing the Great Emperor’s soul, he would take counteracting measures.
Therefore.
‘Never. I must never be pushed back.’
At the same time Oscar's finger flicked.
『Spatial Slash』
Without even a warning, the empty air split open.
—Hmph.
When Silgrim lightly bowed his head, the blade of space that grazed past the air carved a long rift across the plain.
—You have become hasty. Do you have some urgent business?
“It’s just that listening to that muddy voice of yours is starting to wear on me.”
Oscar’s figure vanished.
Paaat!
In an instant, appearing to the left of Silgrim, he unleashed a slash.
And the moment Silgrim's head turned in this direction.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Using 『Blink』 once again, he shifted to the bastard's rear this time.
‘Spatial Slash.’
Slashes of space rained down as if besieging him from front and back.
With nowhere left to dodge, Silgrim lightly—thud!
Slammed the bone staff against the ground.
Kwadudududuk!
At the same time, thorns of bone that erupted from the earth collided with the Spatial Slashes.
—Certainly, compared to the past, your way of fighting has changed. It's not bad.
“It hasn't changed.”
Whooosh!
Wind condensed at Silgrim’s feet.
“It was added.”
Paa-ang!
The compressed air exploded, and Silgrim’s left leg disappeared from below the shin.
The moment Silgrim’s body tilted to one side.
Oscar did not miss that opening and reached out his hand.
“Wind Archive.”
At the same time the grimoire unfolded.
Ooo-oo-oong!
His possessed mana surged through the seven mana circuits more furiously than ever before.
‘If this enters a prolonged battle, I can never win.’
Therefore, while he was still off-guard.
He would sever his breath before the opponent could liberate his world.
Oscar consumed dozens of pages, amounting to half of the Wind Archive at once, and muttered.
“Thousand Swords Blooming.”
A thousand blades bloomed like flowers.
Mana amounting to 30% of his total mana dispersed in a single breath, and in its place, spewed out wind.
—This is....
Silgrim’s four eyes narrowed and turned upward.
Swords.
In the sky above, roughly one thousand swords of wind hovered, aimed solely at him.
—Quite a nostalgic....
Before the words could even finish, Oscar’s lips parted.
“Pierce.”
The moment that single word echoed through the space.
Shwaaaaaaaa—!
A thousand swords plummeted simultaneously.
At the noise that sounded as if tearing the sky itself to shreds, Silgrim’s pupils moved rapidly.
—Hmph.
When the bone staff struck the earth.
Kwadududuk!
The plain split apart, and hundreds, thousands of bones intertwined to erect a hemispherical barrier.
Its thickness alone was around ten meters.
Upon that rampart of a scale capable of withstanding even ordinary siege magic.
Kwa-aang!
The first sword drove right into the exact center, and bone fragments scattered.
“....”
It was certainly thick.
The moment he confirmed this, Oscar controlled his mana to directly manipulate the swords.
“As a single drop of water pierces the rock, and a thousand years of wind carve the canyon.”
Chrarararak!
Roughly a thousand swords aligned in a single file and drove down sequentially.
That location aligned precisely with where the first sword had struck moments ago.
Kooo-ong! Koong!
—...Hmph.
Standing inside the barrier, Silgrim’s eyebrows twitched.
‘It seems it is not merely a matter of large numbers.’
Each and every sword harbored a power equivalent to high-tier magic.
What was most grating was the opponent's mana control.
‘He has been digging into only one spot from earlier.’
He could tell what the brat wanted.
He must have realized from the first impact that if the swords pounded the barrier omnidirectionally, they would never pierce it.
So what he had chosen was single-point breakthrough.
—However, you know one thing but are ignorant of the other.
Thrusting into only one spot ultimately meant that its trajectory was fixed.
Silgrim shifted his steps inside the barrier.
That position was a location slightly away from the direction the opponent was piercing through.
Tudududududu!
The barrier was not breached even as the 950th sword passed.
However, when the 987th sword stabbed into the barrier, the tip of that blade became faintly visible, and then.
Kwa-aaang!
The 999th sword and the 1,000th sword pierced through the barrier and entered the inside.
‘Even so, it is merely two blades.’
The moment Silgrim lightly tapped the ground with his bone staff.
Chrarak!
The barrier made of bone dismantled as it was, turning into sharp thorns.
—Now it is my turn.
Thousands of bone thorns, completely incomparable even to the thousand swords, surged toward Oscar.
Chrarararuk!
While evading the pouring thorns utilizing 『Blink』, Oscar's two eyes remained fixed on Silgrim.
Even while continually shifting his position, he controlled the two swords.
Ka-ang!
Silgrim’s bone staff, coated in demonic energy, lightly smashed one sword to pieces.
A feeble force to the point where he couldn't even feel the impact near his wrist.
Subsequenty, the last remaining sword rushed toward the back of his head.
—You are becoming annoying.
The moment Silgrim turned his body and swung his bone staff.
Slash!
The wind sword, having cleanly sliced through the staff, grazed shallowly across his Adam's apple as it passed.
“Tsk.”
Seeing that, Oscar felt regret.
Had it been just a little deeper, it could have pierced right through his throat.
Gush, gush.
Clutching his bleeding Adam's apple, Silgrim glared with his four eyes.
As the wound regenerated rapidly, he opened his mouth.
—I see, you coated the tip of the blade with space to reinforce its power.
Then the first sword was a feint.
He had deliberately made him perceive that it was of a power sufficiently blockable with the bone staff, and prepared the strike just now with the second sword.
Grit!
Silgrim ground his teeth.
—Decades have passed. And right now, when your realm is far humbler than mine to boot....
Again, it was Oscar Sage who had dismantled his method first.
—Yes, this is why I hated you.
The corners of Silgrim’s mouth twisted upward.
As his anger and inferiority complex manifested, the surrounding air vibrated.
—Under normal circumstances, I would hate to use it in a place like this... but it cannot be helped.
The ground where Silgrim stood rotted away, turning pitch-black and dying.
The aura of death that arose alongside the demonic energy stained the plain.
The black earth that spread outward with him at the center instantly encroached upon the entirety of the Pervache Plains.
—World Liberation.
Originally, demons cannot use World Liberation.
This was precious information that humanity had uncovered after countless sacrifices.
However, in this world, there existed exactly one exception.
“...You traitor bastard.”
A being born human who chose to live as a demon.
A black mage who had already ascended to the realm of Master long before his apostasy.
The Master of Death, who had ultimately subordinated even death to his own world.
Silgrim Fonerth.
—All Deaths Return to the Master.
From this moment forth, death, which ought to be fair to all, was solely on his side.

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