"Do you remember?"
Standing before the 'Sleepless Lake Princess', facing the tip of her sword.
Aider suddenly reminisced about the distant past.R/ê/Ad lat𝙚St ch/a/pters at nô(v)e(l)bin/.c/o//m Only
"There was a time when you invited me to go on a picnic together."
"…"
"You said there was a hill on the outskirts where we often played as children. With a big zelkova tree, and flowers blooming in summer…"
The 'Sleepless Lake Princess' couldn't recall any memories.
"You were the one who first suggested we go on a picnic there."
The 'Sleepless Lake Princess' couldn't summon any emotions.
"You have no idea how my heart raced then. Just imagining spending a happy moment alone with you, whom I secretly loved, kept me up all night in excitement."
Such distant memories are nothing but forgotten, burnt ashes.
She's only listening to this man's words because he's a former player. The Outer Gods are cautious, not knowing what tricks he might have prepared.
But Aider was simply, calmly unfolding his old memories with care.
"But it rained on the promised day."
A tender smile appeared on Aider's lips.
"It suddenly poured, so the picnic was canceled. I was utterly disappointed and dejected."
"…"
"But do you remember what you said to me then?"
No memories.
No emotions.
Surface.
Yet somehow, suddenly.
The sound of rain echoes in her ears…
"When it rains, we can see the rainy scenery."
The two of them,
In their forms from five hundred years ago.
"And when the rain stops, we can see a rainbow."
Sitting side by side in a pavilion in the palace courtyard, watching the falling rain together…
Eventually, the rain stops.
As the sky clears brightly, the young princess smiles.
"Come, Aider. Let's go see the rainbow."
The princess's outstretched hand takes the slave's hand,
And the two step into a world where sunlight seeps through, where the rain has stopped-
"Let's go… see the rainbow…"
When she blinked once, the distant memory vanished as if it were a lie.
This is a battlefield.
Standing here are not a princess and a slave, but the master of nightmares and a failed hero.
"…The rainbow I saw with you that day."
Aider quietly confessed.
"It has kept me alive all this time."
"…"
"The beautiful things you gave me were so brilliant… They're still embedded in my heart, refusing to disappear, and that's why I've lived until now."
Aider's halted steps began to move forward again.
"Since the day the Lake Kingdom fell, eternal black rain has been falling in your world."
As he approached, the sword in the 'Sleepless Lake Princess's' hand emitted an eerie aura.
Aider paid no heed.
Whatever was in her hand, it didn't matter from the start.
What he wanted to reach was only her heart.
"My poor princess, who took in all that rain to save a world drowning in black rain."
Aider took another step closer.
Shunk-!
The dark sword thrust forward, piercing Aider's chest.
But Aider continued to step forward even in that state.
His pierced chest crumbled and scattered like dust. Blood surged up, wetting his lips. His trembling legs wobbled, seeming ready to collapse at any moment.
But with truly desperate will, he took one more step forward-
And reached out his hand.
Aider's weathered fingertips touched the princess's cheek beneath her veil.
"This time, let me."
Caressing her cold cheek, Aider smiled with his blood-stained face.
"Show you a rainbow."
The Outer Gods, sensing something amiss, urgently tried to pull the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' back.
But it was already too late.
A dazzling flash burst forth from Aider's fingertips.
The silver light enveloped the puppet strings controlling the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' — the Outer Gods' 'gazes' — and shot straight up into the sky.
In the spirit realm, the Outer Gods forcibly expanded the passage, and as a result, their gazes directed towards the human world intensified.
The black gaze connected to the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' became clearer than ever before. The Outer Gods injected an unprecedentedly intense will to not lose even the slightest control over her.
The gaze wrapped around the 'Sleepless Lake Princess's' body was almost visible like black spider webs.
This was the moment Aider had been waiting for.
The moment when the Outer Gods strengthened their connection with the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' more than ever before.
This was the moment when his 'trump card' would absolutely not miss its mark.
"Destroying 'Apocalypse Play', no. Your very 'system' itself…"
The reason he deliberately stepped back from being a 'player' to become a 'director'.
The reason he had been handling the game called Apocalypse Play and its system.
The reason he had been searching for flaws in the system over countless years, preparing means to bypass it, and gradually infiltrating his own traces.
Everything was for this moment alone.
For the rebellion to be attempted at the very last-
"This is my small revenge."
It was a kind of virus that neutralized the system.
It was the very embodiment of one man's obsession who had fought an unbeatable opponent for an eternal time.
Following the black gaze connecting the Outer Gods and the 'Sleepless Lake Princess', the flash Aider shot up surged like a wave.
Chwaaaarrrr!
And following that trajectory, the Outer Gods' gazes simultaneously malfunctioned, exploded, and lost their function.
Faced with this sudden situation, the Outer Gods tried to hastily cut off the connection, but they couldn't.
Because they were connected to the 'Sleepless Lake Princess' like a spider web by their own will.
Flash-!
The flash that finally climbed all the way up the sky reached the eyes of the Outer Gods.
『…!』
With inaudible screams, the Outer Gods tightly shut their eyes.
All the 'systems' that the Outer Gods had overlaid on this world simultaneously malfunctioned. The passage that allowed them to interfere with this world despite existing in a far-off otherworld suddenly went dead.
"How was it, my lord?"
Watching the scene of countless eyes covering the sky closing in pain, Aider suddenly asked Ash.
"Was the timing good?"
"It's the perfect timing, Aider…!"
I shouted.
Aider's 'trump card' had struck, and the Outer Gods covering this spirit realm also trembled in pain all at once.
The Outer Gods' power to interfere with this world rapidly weakened.
But this is only a temporary phenomenon.
Before the Outer Gods regain their strength — we must settle this now!
"Demon King!"
I shouted towards my eternal rival.
"Can I leave it to you?"
The Demon King, meeting my gaze, smirked, his mouth like a white crack, and then.
"Of course."
He answered simply, yet reliably.
The Demon King shot up into the sky, leaving a trail of darkness like a long brush stroke behind his body.
And standing at the center of the sky, he stretched out his arms to the sides, and from his fingertips, he emitted an enormous amount of darkness… grasping the passage connecting to the otherworld.
"Kuuugh…"
As a painful cry burst from the Demon King's mouth,
"Aaaaaaah!"
Kuguuuguuung…!
It began to close.
The sky.
The Outer Gods, who until just now were opening that passage with giant hands, tried to create those giant hands again to interfere, but perhaps because their system was destroyed by Aider, the hands couldn't properly form and crumbled on their own.
『What are you doing, Demon King!』
The Outer Gods shouted urgently towards the Demon King.
『Stop! Are you going to violate the providence of this universe that we established?!』
『You too were once a constellation! If you, such as you are, go against the laws you set, your very existence will be annihilated!』
『This world is just a play on a small stage! Are you willing to die for such a thing?!』
Scattering darkness like blood in all directions, the Demon King shouted.
"I don't care!"
『…!』
"Constellations, universe, providence, play, I don't care about any of it…!"
Even as the system collapsed and the passage crumbled, the Outer Gods desperately poured out 'flickers', 'gazes', and 'touches' to attack the Demon King.
Enduring all those attacks, his body repeatedly shattering and reconnecting, the Demon King roared.
"There has never been a soul I couldn't corrupt. So, if I can corrupt that person…!"
At this moment.
On this small stage of a play.
"I don't mind if my soul burns away completely…!"
For the first time, the Demon King took on the leading role.
"I'll show you that you're nothing but an ordinary human…"
At some point, his destroyed body could no longer recover.
As the passage to the otherworld closed, the Demon King's power was also fading.
"That you're just an ordinary human who should live ordinarily, die ordinarily, be happy ordinarily and be unhappy ordinarily…!"
But the Demon King, with unbelievable determination, continued to close the sky with his body that was being torn apart and exploding.
"I'll prove it by corrupting you-!"
The Demon King desperately squeezed out his last strength,
"Aaaaaaah-!"
And just before the sky's gate closed completely-
Chwaaaak…!
Unable to withstand the countless 'flickers' pouring from the other side of the otherworld, his entire body finally exploded and collapsed.
The Demon King fell powerlessly.
Falling down with his body in tatters, he desperately turned his broken face to look for me.
And…
Taat-!
The moment he fell, I was simultaneously soaring up.
As we brushed past each other in mid-air, our gazes met.
The Demon King asked with difficulty.
"Can I leave it to you?"
I grinned.
"Of course…!"
Flying up to the center of the sky, I stretched out my hand.
On my hand was the [Imperial Seal Ring].
"As the racial god of humanity, no…"
With eyes wide open, I declared.
"As the leader of the World Guardian Front, I represent all free will in this world!"
Then, from all over the world, white and transparent energy began to pour towards me in a whirlwind.
This was not power borrowed from the outside world.
It was the pure power of this world, the free will of all people in this world. It was their sum total.
"I wish on behalf of this world."
Gooooo…!
The will of the gathered people is hot.
It was deeper and heavier than any sum of will I had gathered before.
That's why I don't hesitate even more.
The responsibility to properly represent the hearts of those who believe in and follow my flag… lies with me!
"We reject all oppression imposed on our world…"
I forged the 'world's will' gathered in me and…
"We reject it-!"
I shot it towards the sky.
A dazzling white light covered the passage connecting to the otherworld.
The Outer Gods attempted a final resistance. Somehow pushing their broken fingers into the passage, they poured countless 'flickers' towards me.
The endlessly overlapping 'flickers' and the Outer Gods' touches finally blocked the world's will.
For a moment, our powers were in equilibrium.
A tense tug-of-war continues.
"Aaaaaaah-!"
I roared and stretched out my hand.
How did we come this far?
Do you think we'll be pushed back here?
"Just a little more…"
Feeling my whole body burning in the torrent of light, I desperately shouted.
"Just, a little, more…!"
And.
Tuduk, tududuk…
Unable to withstand the fierce battle, cracks began to appear on the [Imperial Seal Ring].