Narikeh, who had been coughing up blood with a confused expression, finally dropped to one knee on the ground. Deus, who had been watching him, suddenly burst into laughter. And muttered while shaking his head.
“Ah, Ash really…”
Deus, who had been quietly letting out admiration, picked up the sword he had dropped on the ground again. Narikeh frowned at Deus’s suddenly changed atmosphere. And snapped in a fierce voice.
“You bastard, what did you do to me?”
“What do you mean what did I do? I didn’t do anything.”
Deus answered as if it was absurd. And rotated his arms backward as if warming up. It was to loosen his body before entering into full-fledged combat.
“The tiger clan are mostly descendants of a hunting people. They built their pack in the barren north.”
“…”
“While the males went out hunting, the females had to protect the pack and children at home. Imagine it. How brave the females who knew how to protect the pack in that cold snowfield must have been.”
Narikeh, who had been frowning at the out-of-the-blue story, soon spat out the blood pooled in his mouth. Blunt chunks of flesh came out as if his internal organs were melting from the inside. He couldn’t even guess what he’d been fed to end up in this state when no poison worked on him.
Narikeh, who had been breathing shallowly, stood up straight staggeringly. And tied his hair that hung down to his waist behind him while sneering.
“Do you want to study history or something?”
“No. The point of this story is that I chose my wife according to my instincts. Brave, beautiful…”
As soon as Narikeh finished arranging his hair, a smile spread across Deus’s lips as he rushed at him as if he’d been waiting. Narikeh, who confirmed Deus’s eyes filled with madness, froze hesitantly.
“A wife who wouldn’t possibly die at the hands of a bastard like you.”
Deus’s sword heavily cut through the air with a whoosh. Narikeh, who barely avoided the sword’s trajectory, dipped his thumb in his own blood and drew a specific pattern on the ground. It was a pattern to summon Dark Magic insects. Thousands of venomous insects that sprang from the pattern quickly flew toward Deus.
‘No matter how strong a bastard is, all beings with life force are adversely affected by Dark Magic. If an ordinary human gets stung even once by those venomous insects with strong Dark Magic, they’ll die.’
Narikeh, who was confident of his overwhelming victory, smiled with a grin. Deus, who had been silently watching the thousands of venomous insects rushing in like a wave, muttered in a voice mixed with a sigh.
“Crude.”
A pitch-black giant circle rose behind Deus. Narikeh’s lips parted slightly as he faced the giant circle reminiscent of a black moon. The thousands of venomous insects sucked into the black circle let out screams. Deus, who had been flicking off a venomous insect clinging to his shoulder with his finger, opened his mouth.
“This can’t be the end, right?”
“You… how can you handle the Void?”
“…”
“No, that can’t be. That power is definitely…”
Narikeh, who had been looking at Deus with disbelieving eyes, smacked his lips as if intrigued. And laughed heartily enough to show his molars. If it was an opponent like this, it was worth fighting with full power.
“Right, if it’s that power, I definitely can’t win with crude abilities.”
Chunks of flesh fell with a plop from Narikeh’s brightly smiling face. Narikeh’s face, which had started melting, soon regained its original ant form.
“I’ll attack with the resolve to kill.”
When Narikeh muttered something, the elderly and children who had been crouching in the corner of the altar staggered to their feet. And lost their reason, intoxicated by the mind-control pheromone, and rushed at Deus. Deus, who had hesitated, looked at Narikeh as if this was too much.
“What a typical villain’s technique.”
The elderly and children who had lost their reason bit at Deus’s limbs. Deus, who swatted them away as if they were annoying, walked toward Narikeh. However, that too was brief—his feet stopped at the distant pain felt from his back. Along with the plop of falling blood drops, a thin voice was heard from behind.
“Die, die, die, die.”
The girl who had stabbed Deus in the back muttered the same words with empty eyes. Deus, who had been looking down at her with an emotionless face, soon felt killing intent and pushed the girl backward.
With a crash, a sandstorm arose. Narikeh, who had plunged a knife into Deus’s stomach in the blink of an eye, smiled with a grin. And muttered as if it was regrettable.
“If you had dodged in the time you pushed that girl, you could have avoided it sufficiently.”
“…”
“Why do you put on airs of hypocrisy when you have such power?”
At the blade digging into his internal organs with a crunch, Deus coughed up blood. Was it because he’d been living quietly doing crown prince duties that didn’t even suit his tastes all this time? Rather than being painful, his lower half hardened at the intense stimulation instead. Deus, who was feeling pleasure while twitching, muttered in a moist voice.
“I… really liked this sensation before. Because it was a life with nothing particularly fun.”
“…”
“But now I just want to finish quickly and…”
Create and destroy. His life up until now had been filled only with those acts. By the time he’d become a monster that no one looked at, he thought that maybe continuing to live like this wouldn’t be so bad. However, there was someone who looked back at him in the end, even though everyone wanted to turn away.
<I’ll give you another world where you can love.>
Maybe Ash was already dead. Maybe he really wouldn’t be able to see them ever again. But even so, he wanted to go to where Ash was. Even if that place was hell, it didn’t matter. He wanted to tightly embrace and tease Ash, who would be horrified asking how he thought to chase all the way here.
Deus, who had been letting out a self-deprecating laugh, gripped the blade with his bare hands.
“I want to go meet Ash.”
If he delayed time any more, Ash could be in danger. He had to settle the situation with overwhelming power. And to do that, the first opening of his ability was necessary.
‘Until now, I didn’t feel the need for opening. Because there was nothing to protect.’
At Deus’s action of slowly pulling out the sword embedded in his stomach, Narikeh’s body was pushed backward. It was an unreasonable brute force that couldn’t be explained by common sense. Narikeh’s antennae wriggled as he felt an eerie presence.
‘But not anymore.’
Deus, who quickly had a pool of blood at his feet, completely pulled out the sword embedded in his stomach. The blood-stained sword rolled carelessly on the ground. A faint smile hung on Deus’s lips.
“Opening.”
As he attempted the first opening, the black circle spread behind Deus grew even larger.
The law of the Void was simple. Nothing inside the Void could escape.
That’s why Deus had never once summoned “it” until now, but if he opened the first power, the story was different. Something slowly emerged from within the black circle that was vibrating subtly.
Grrrrooooooo—
A black tiger with golden eyes slowly walked out from the Void. The air vibrated subtly at the black tiger’s roar. The moment he met the eerie eyes of the black tiger, frozen Narikeh broke out in a cold sweat.
“You bastard…”
Grrrraaaaaa—!
A great roar pierced the earth’s axis. The black tiger, which had been rushing at high speed, soon roughly tore at Narikeh’s body. Narikeh’s body was torn this way and that by the sharp fangs and giant front paws. Before long, Narikeh, whose lower body had completely separated, crawled on the ground coughing up bloody foam.
“Kkeuk, that can’t be. This body… this body…”
Deus, who had been watching Narikeh unable to accept his defeat as if amused, snapped his fingers toward the black tiger. The black tiger, which had become docile as if it had never been ferocious, returned into the Void. The circle closed, and Deus, who had been kicking Narikeh’s cleanly separated lower body with his foot, said.
“I’ve been thinking carefully. The end of a villain should be a bit more dramatic.”
“Huff, urk…”
Narikeh crawled toward the sword that had fallen on the ground with bloodshot eyes. He was strong. He was confident he wouldn’t die from just this kind of attack. Narikeh, who had been crawling with difficulty, froze stiffly.
Because dozens of female ant colonies that had once been made to devour the deposed queen ant were looking at him.
Narikeh, who read the emotion held in their eyes, trembled. That was definitely…
It was the look of seeing new prey.
“D-don’t come. Don’t come!”
“You can eat it all.”
Deus, who trampled Narikeh’s shoulder with his foot as he screamed and struggled desperately, smiled brightly. Terror appeared in the eyes of Narikeh, who had been screaming in pain as if his shoulder blade was breaking. Because the female ants he had so despised and ignored began to tear off his body one by one. Deus, who had been looking down with a bored expression at Narikeh despairing while coughing up blood, added.
“Without leaving a single eyeball.”
