God and Devil and (2)

Is he human or devil?

Is he a monster or a hero?

“I…… am……”

The misshapen monster, Another Hope, opened his eyes in the darkness.

His memories were hazy.

While fighting Lost and being repeatedly overcome by that light, he had managed to regain consciousness, but that didn’t erase what he had done.

Another Hope had killed humans.

Killed many of them.

Even if it wasn’t his intention, it wasn’t something that could be forgiven.

He wasn’t human.

He was just a monster.

And yet…….

-So, everything went well?

-……Thanks to Young Master Another’s protection, I was fine.

-I see. Young Master, there’s no need to bow your head.

Even as a half-demon, he had tried to protect people.

That’s how he wanted to live.

As someone’s knight, he wanted to live like a hero from a fairy tale.

All of it was the devil’s scheme.

A stage created to make him fall even lower.

As his hands became increasingly stained with unavoidable blood. Each time he made increasingly extreme judgments.

He gradually lost himself.

-Young Master Another. People aren’t made by trying to make them. Even if they’re raised a certain way, not everyone can become like that. Bluntly speaking, how many parents wish for their children to grow up kind?

Nevertheless, all of it had been Another Hope’s own choices.

Rather than blame others, he should have made better choices, even slightly.

Even if the path was fabricated, choosing whether to walk it was his responsibility.

However, if there remained a problem…

-You’re too naive. That’s why you ended up like this, biting your lip helplessly.

It was simply that he was weak.

Because he had been walking on a fabricated path, he didn’t know how to proceed beyond it.

Because he had only been following a path created by others, when that path ended, he simply stopped.

He didn’t know how to forge a path.

He had only walked along completed paths.

-You epitomized the classic hero. I didn’t dislike that image. But now it’s time to face reality. You can’t remain a storybook hero forever.

But now he understands.

Another Hope had found the answer to the problem he was facing.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to forge a path. It was because he had been looking back at the past and thinking the path was wrong, so he couldn’t move forward.

When a path is just a path…

-Kill me. Plunge your sword into my corpse and feel that sensation. Feel that sensation of sinking into evil, so deeply that you never forget. Engrave it in your soul and always be vigilant.

If he didn’t know, then he could learn eventually.

A path is just meant to be walked.

If he could ultimately return to his original path even amid despair.

Even if that path once decorated with flowers is now covered in filth.

-And only by overcoming all of that can you become a proper man.

Even if the once artificially constructed fake path is now covered in filth and becomes a thorny field, one must continue forward.

That’s how to forge a path.

That’s the justice he had decided upon.

The end was predetermined.

What Another Hope could obtain wouldn’t be honor and blessings.

Surely in the end, he would face death.

Miserably.

Cruelly.

Grotesquely.

Even if he had to roll in mud and immerse his body in filth. Even if walking such a dirty path would lead to a terrible end. He would walk that path.

Because he believed it wasn’t wrong.

-I…

Yes, the reason he could advance toward that ugly end without hesitation.

-Love you.

It was because there was someone who loved him.

Someone who called him a knight, a hero, a lover, despite him becoming a monster.

Someone who didn’t mind embracing him even though his body was covered in thorns that made it impossible for him to embrace anyone.

-Young Master Another, thank you for protecting me all this time.

For that person.

For Siris Forys.

For the world she lives in.

“I will…… The world where you live…… The world you love……”

In the darkness, the monster opens its eyes.

The misshapen monster that couldn’t even form a precise shape growls.

And that monster.

That hideous monster, with its grotesque voice, howls.

“I will protect it.”

Despite everything, he sought to forge the most valuable path a person could walk.

*     *      *

Two monsters wrestled and rolled.

They charged across the ground stained with red blood and rotten flesh, as if feeling no disgust.

Belial and Another Hope began fighting like that.

“After going berserk, have you even forgotten your parent?!”

Belial, who had been forced to roll on the ground from the sudden ambush, shouted.

In response to Belial’s hideous cry, Another Hope writhed as if wanting to say something, then spoke to Belial in a dull, halting manner.

“You are…… not my…… parent. Just a…… hideous…… lunatic.”

“You still have consciousness?!”

Belial was shocked by Another Hope’s clear expression of will.

Something unexpected. No, a possibility he had considered absolutely impossible.

The malice Belial had scraped together over dozens of centuries. The fact that someone could maintain their sanity despite having the essence of that malice implanted throughout their body made no sense.

It was as if Another Hope was enduring all the depravity in human history as a single human.

“I…… know……”

Another Hope spread his massive wings and burrowed into Belial’s world.

His amorphous body twisted and changed shape several times in midair.

A shape that was unpleasant to look at, like a painting of ugliness.

But Another Hope didn’t care about his own hideousness.

After all, appearance is merely a vessel to contain what’s inside.

Yes, the source is within.

And fundamentally, the heart doesn’t have an exact form.

“Your weakness……”

Another Hope was a being born from Belial. He could become remarkably similar to Belial by having his malice, demonic energy, and authority implanted in his body.

Yet the reason he had become an amorphous monster unlike Belial was because the experiment had essentially failed.

The fact that Another Hope was maintaining his sanity right now was proof of that.

Belial had failed to create a devil.

In a closed world adjusted so that neither gods nor devils could be born, no matter how much effort was put in, a new devil couldn’t be born.

He had merely settled a broken human soul into a devil’s body.

But humans are beings who can rise again and again, even if they get hurt, suffer, and break.

“It’s…… in there…… isn’t it?”

Another Hope charged at Belial again and they became entangled.

But the situation was still advantageous for Belial.

Even if he possessed the same type of power, he couldn’t become identical to Belial, who had lived for dozens of centuries.

Belial transformed shadows into swords, spears, chains, nets, and various other forms, connecting and controlling them.

“Mere failure.”

Another Hope’s head was shattered.

His limbs were severed, and his wings were broken. Such moments were continuously repeated.

As he regenerated his body, as he changed his form.

Belial responded to each and every one of Another Hope’s methods.

Even the initial attack had succeeded only because he was caught off guard; it was impossible for the failed creation Another Hope to defeat him.

But…….

“Hmph……”

For a moment, Another Hope’s body changed to become closer to human.

He brought his hands together in a knight’s stance.

The culmination of the human Another Hope’s efforts.

Whoosh!

He tempered his own body into a sword.

Dark demonic energy wrapped around it, creating an ominous aura blade.

He was becoming increasingly accustomed to it.

How to utilize his own form that was both similar to and different from Belial.

“Aaaaaaaaaahh!!”

Crack!

Another Hope’s sword plunged into Belial. But Belial was holding out by gripping Another Hope’s wrist.

Unfortunately, Another Hope’s technique also couldn’t reach Belial.

The sword had only cut a small part of his shoulder and couldn’t advance further.

But that was enough.

If he had inflicted a wound, if the sword tempered from his body could penetrate that body.

“Got…… you……”

The body that had formed the sword began to writhe again. The hand holding the grip melted and connected with the sword.

The sword, or rather what should now be called a grotesquely twisted arm, began to penetrate into Belial’s body.

Like that, the arm that had pierced through Belial began to spread strands like tentacles and tear at Belial’s insides.

“I…!”

“Begone!”

Belial struggled to remove Another Hope’s arm that had penetrated his body and spread darkness.

The writhing darkness eventually enveloped Another Hope’s body. His arm was broken, his eyes were crushed, and more than half of his body was blown away.

But despite that, Another Hope’s arm remained embedded in Belial.

As if concentrating all his focus on the arm that had penetrated Belial’s body, he didn’t even move.

The devil he had created.

Not a single entity that had been born, but a failure whose mind was collapsing and whose body was also crumbling.

He never imagined that this failure would catch him off guard in such a way.

“To…… atone…… I will…!!”

Crack!

Another Hope applied force to his arm that had pierced Belial.

His body writhed and concentrated on that arm. Another Hope’s body, whose mouth, eyes, and even nose had become part of the arm.

That which could only be described as a single massive arm finally succeeded in grasping something inside Belial.

“I will kill you!!”

Crunch!

Another Hope’s arm finally tore something out of Belial’s body.

Something that looked like a black orb.

The power of a being that had both concealed Belial’s demonic energy and served as the source of that power.

Clang!

Another Hope grasped that power source with all his might.

*     *      *

The world returns.

The ground, once drenched in blood, transforms back into hard marble.

The sky, once stained black, changes to a sky with a red sunset.

Yes, the mental image of the devil Belial had been shattered. The one who accomplished all this was none other than the one who wanted to be a hero.

“Hahahahaha!”

Another Hope laughed while still clenching his fist.

The prowess of the human Another Hope. It had worked effectively in this situation.

After laughing like that for a while, Another Hope hunched his body again and quietly glared at Belial.

“Ha…… Hahahahaha!”

Seeing Another Hope taking a battle stance, Belial burst into laughter.

It was truly an unexpected situation.

He had been backstabbed by none other than his own toy, and the source he had built up over dozens of centuries was destroyed.

“Hmm.”

Belial observed the people gathering around him.

Though all of them were in tatters…

“Not a single one has dropped out.”

They were all alive.

And at this point, such injuries weren’t a problem for survivors.

If demons had regenerative abilities through demonic energy, priests had healing through divine power.

The malice bestowed by Belial’s world was merely an anomalous phenomenon that necrotized parts of the body from where it touched.

Since nothing was broken or removed, the wounds could be treated with just divine magic.

Then what about himself now?

“This will be an unfavorable fight.”

Belial opened his hand and drew out demonic energy above it. The shadow authority he had been using was long shattered. It had reached the point where he even had to relinquish the title of King of Darkness.

“An unfavorable fight but……”

Belial clenched his fist.

Behind him, more than four pairs of wings still remained.

Though the shadow authority was gone, demonic energy still remained.

Yes, there’s no reason to give up everything now.

“I have always survived from the position of the weak.”

Belial was a mere low-ranking devil.

His survival in the war wasn’t because he was strong, but because he was cowardly.

Struggling isn’t exclusive to humans.

“And so it shall be this time as well.”

Yes, the time has finally come to put an end to the war between gods, devils, and humans.