Chapter 303

[The Lord appeared.]

Having said that, the Monster Lord fell silent.

[Would you like to hear more?]

"……"

[If you wish, I can tell you more.]

A sly grin.

The upturned corners of his lips and his half-open eyes.

Damian's face wore a brazen expression.

He was enjoying it.

Killian's reactions.

‘Now that I see it, it was closer to observation than Insight.’

He recalled what the Monster Lord had been like more than two hundred years ago.

‘Even in human form, he possessed a serpentine sort of cruelty.’

Even then, he had been imitating human habits, but he had not reached his present level.

‘He imitated them, but in essence, his true form was closer to a Chimera.’

He had taken on a human form to escape the trauma imprinted by his previous four defeats and to pressure the heroes.

This time was different.

There was plainly a monster inside, yet Killian felt as though he were dealing with a real human.

‘What is he plotting?’

He freely revealed his past five lives, which even Killian had not known, as well as what could be called his weakness in the sixth life.

"There is something I do not understand. You were never this kind, were you?"

He was a being who had risen through rivers of blood.

"What are you plotting?"

Killian gave voice to his thoughts.

[I decided to take my time.]

"Take your time?"

[I thought it was perfect, yet I failed.]

The Monster Lord ran a hardened hand over his chin.

[The Lord created me. And He wanted me to become the Continent's new master in place of humans. Why do you think that was?]

It was a question he could not have answered before.

Not now.

"Did He wish to change the laws of the world?"

[Correct.]

The Monster Lord did not bother to suppress his laughter.

[Adamas, an ancient human.]

Using Mana, he had reached the Presence of Transcendence alone.

He became a Godslayer and changed the laws of the world.

The Lord had wondered.

[What will happen if a creation I made reaches transcendence?]

And so.

[What will happen if humans, Adamas's species, fall, and monsters, a new species, rule the world?]

Whether the laws of the world would change as He intended was unknown.

[But it is a gamble worth attempting.]

"That is exactly the sort of thing He would do."

It was an attempt unlike building temples to delay the weakening of Divinity, repeatedly experimenting on species to create Demigods, or merely remaining in the divine realm to preserve one's level.

‘It is not merely a gamble.’

If humans had lost the Great War as He intended.

If monsters had thus become the Continent's masters.

Killian was certain that the laws of the world would have changed.

"Why are you telling me this? You said the Lord came to you again."

The Kingdom Alliance had been defeated by the Monster Lord and the Emperor.

Once the Monster Lord devoured the Emperor's level, that would happen again.

Although time had been rewound, all he needed to do was walk toward that future once more.

Regardless of Killian's return through time, there was no need for him to tell Killian everything as he was doing now.

He should have been doing everything in his power to bring Eurasia down once again.

[There were two variables.]

One was that Killian Eurasia had returned.

Adamas's core had reincarnated as Killian Eurasia.

He had not reached the level he had possessed as a sword, but he was a man born with a destiny capable of overturning any situation.

In truth, when he appeared after turning back time, he had become one who had attained 9-Star in both Mana and Divine Power.

Even in his prime, the Monster Lord would not want to guarantee victory against such a powerful foe.

[I had doubts.]

The Godslayer had lived from ancient times for thousands of years.

Perhaps he might be the final victor who seized even the one-in-ten-thousand chance.

"You are more honest than you look."

Killian spoke evenly.

The Monster Lord had coveted Damian's body, absorbed every curse of the Anomaly sealed within Adamas, and shattered Edan's soul.

Even now, he possessed a level at which the outcome of a fight was difficult to predict. If he took Damian's body hostage and deliberately fled, there was no telling what variables might arise.

‘Even this conversation may have another purpose.’

Just as Lan had needed to explain things in order to activate the Makeshift Boundary, the Monster Lord might have a reason for behaving as he did now.

[You have doubts as well.]

"We have fought for more than a thousand years. It would be stranger if I trusted you easily."

The Monster Lord shrugged and continued.

[The second variable was that I was not the Lord's only card.]

"Now that is an intriguing statement."

Hybrids created by the Gods to overturn the laws of the world.

[Beings likely to one day possess the Presence of Transcendence are called Demigods, are they not?]

The Monster Lord and Siren.

Edan Eurasia and Diana Cornelia.

Simon Eurasia and Killian Eurasia.

And.

[If those who once cut me down had been given more time, who knows what they might have become?]

The Lord had not invested solely in the monster species.

[He selected useful humans as well and watched them for ‘a long time.’]

The Monster Lord placed emphasis on the words ‘a long time.’

At that moment, a thought passed through Killian's mind.

‘Could it be……?’

[Yes.]

The corner of the Monster Lord's mouth twitched.

[Heinrich.]

The thousand-year Empire, Heinrich.

In the war between races over supremacy of the Continent, humans had won, and Heinrich had been the family that began to establish itself in the center before anyone else.

It had been a time when the families had suffered enormous losses in wars between different races.

Some pointed accusing fingers at the Heinrich Family, claiming that it had made other families bleed in order to preserve its own troops while waiting for an opportunity like this.

Before long, those families were trampled under Heinrich's Knight Order and vanished.

Heinrich rose into a kingdom and expanded its territory through territorial wars.

It rose atop countless lives and became an Empire.

[It had always been a question.]

The Monster Lord's first life had come before the Empire's founding.

His reincarnation violated the laws of nature.

The Lord had made it possible, but blood had been necessary to make it so.

[Blood.]

Fresh blood, regardless of species.

The mountain ranges piled monster corpses into new mountains.

The Continent formed rivers from the blood humans shed.

A mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Only after the world had been thoroughly soaked in blood could he be resurrected completely.

[Without exception, it was the Lord who activated the Formula.]

No one knew what Authority He possessed.

Killian gave a hollow laugh.

[The wars Heinrich starts, and the blood spilled because of them, fulfill the conditions for my resurrection.]

The Great War had continued for thousands of years.

And after the Empire was formed, only the war two hundred years ago and the present one could be called Great Wars among humans rather than monsters.

He had thought it was a struggle for a just life, resisting the Empire's tyranny.

Edan had thought so, and Simon likely did as well.

Yet the paths countless humans had walked, and would walk in the future, had already been foretold.

The one behind innumerable wars between races and territorial wars was one of the highest Gods.

It was hollow.

‘If what it says is true, the Lord stands behind the Emperor.’

The inhumane deeds and experiments the Emperor had committed until now.

‘Reincarnation must have originated with the Lord.’

He had walked the path of a Godslayer to escape the Gods.

He had thought things were different now that he had been released from the seal.

Yet everything had been in that bastard's palm.

It would have been stranger not to feel hollow.

Even so, one question remained unanswered.

‘The Monster Lord called himself the Lord's card.’

Why was he telling him these things?

"What did the Lord propose to you?"

[A proposal? Hmm……]

Rubbing his chin, the Monster Lord shook his head.

[That was not a proposal.]

For the first time, his mouth twisted.

He looked as though he had recalled an unpleasant memory.

[I brought Eurasia down.]

Only one final step toward transcendence remained.

[Let me tell you one thing.]

He gave a dry laugh.

[I do not believe in God, Adamas.]

***

Before time was turned back, the Lord appeared before the Monster Lord, who radiated a fearsome aura.

[Lord.]

[It has been a long time.]

[Why did You not show Yourself?]

He asked why he had reincarnated with a level different from before.

[Did you not achieve your grand dream even without my assistance?]

Clap. Clap.

The Lord brought His palms together in a face devoid of features.

[Why did I not show myself, you ask?]

Screech—screech—

Two round eyes were drawn onto the Lord's face.

[Because the shock was great.]

[……]

[I brought in Gods and Anomalies and placed my wager. Even so, you failed.]

With a single sword strike, a plan that had lasted thousands of years crumbled in vain.

[Your fifth failure was a great shock to me as well. I could no longer repeat failure.]

The Lord continued.

[I began to doubt.]

Perhaps it was impossible to change the laws of the world through the monster species.

[Doubt became certainty.]

Perhaps He needed to place His wager on humans, the species Adamas had been.

[I decided to change cards.]

He gave power to the Imperial Prince of the Empire that had maintained the existing order for so long.

He gave him the power to subdue two Magic Tower Masters.

As He had done for the Monster Lord, He helped him reincarnate.

And indeed.

[Humanity's development was remarkable.]

A mage's desire for immortality exceeded His expectations, and the Emperor who ascended the throne wished to become a Transcendent himself and preserve an eternal Empire.

[Human heroes had Adamas.]

He had attached the Anomaly to the Monster Lord, but the attempt had failed.

[The Emperor was different.]

He did not hesitate to use his own body, or even his bloodline, as test subjects.

Under the pretext of the war for the throne, he had even succeeded in fusing not only Mana Hearts but the powers of Gods, Anomalies, and monsters.

The Monster Lord denied it.

[I won everything through my own strength.]

Without the Lord's aid, he had absorbed the Anomaly's power, shattered Edan Eurasia's soul, and regained his former level.

Krusty Heinrich.

The human chosen by the Lord would become a new sacrifice for his transcendence.

[Yes, but you are too late, Mortal who was bestowed my name.]

[……]

The one more likely to change the laws of the world was not the Monster Lord, but the Emperor.

If one Mortal was to be raised to transcendence, it would be the Emperor.

Therefore.

[Accept death obediently.]

[I refuse.]

The Monster Lord did not hesitate in the slightest.

[You refuse your creator's command?]

[I am a king.]

He was a being who had stood before the Presence of Transcendence time and again, the ruler of a species who had risen once more to challenge it.

What he had been like at first, no one knew, but—

[I, too, am Lord.]

[……]

[Did You not say it Yourself? That Your Authority is incomplete?]

The Monster Lord did not hide his fighting spirit.

[As I did, all You need to do is win it Yourself.]

Through the Formula engraved in his body, he would be resurrected again and again.

And someday.

[I will become the true Lord.]

Whoosh—

Evil Energy in which all manner of things had mingled surged and rolled.

Existence Force. He revealed the potential he possessed with fierce intensity.

[I knew it would come to this someday. The selfishness of vermin crushes a God's consideration.]

[That is something You should say to the Emperor. I am not Your puppet.]

He pointed the Adamas he held toward the Lord.

The Lord burst into laughter.

The sword that had once sealed the Godslayer.

That sword was now held by His own creation.

[Was Cronis the only one who saw this future?]

The Lord did not reveal His true power.

He merely said.

[What a shame. If time had permitted it, I could have seen how far my power has fallen.]

Every feature vanished from the Lord's face.

[We will meet again, my creation.]

Immediately after the Lord disappeared.

Grind—grind—

The sound of interlocking gears rang out.

Screeech—screech—

Time began to turn back.

That was how the past had led to the present.

[Adamas.]

After taking possession of Damian's body, the Monster Lord used the traces Damian had left while wandering the mountain ranges as bait to lure the ancient Godslayer into the Mind Image World.

[Will you hunt the Lord with me?]

He made an offer Killian could not refuse.