The days and months went by.
Tu hadn't yet stepped outside of her tank, but her condition appeared to be stable.
However, there was still a problem Izick hadn't anticipated. "Izick! Izick!"
"Ah, shut up…!"
For the past big month or so, this was how he had been woken up.
"You have to get up early and make sure you eat a good breakfast! Why can't you take proper care of yourself?! You haven't washed up at all, either! You're dirty!"
"Dammit… Gah, I can't get your damn voice outta my head…! I'm free to do whatever I want. It's my damn life I'm living."
"You're not free! You're the one who taught me to hold all life precious!" "Ha-ha-ha-ha! Why the hell do I gotta follow my own rules anyway, huh?"
A year had gone by since he had begun training her personality. Tu was growing exactly as Izick had intended—too much so, in fact.
A living weapon that would pledge to overthrow the True Demon King, fighting with a just heart.
With this came something that Izick himself hadn't anticipated in the slightest… The interpersonal compatibility between someone raised to be an ally of justice and the wickedest demon king of them all was, frankly, absolutely awful.
"Listen to me! This isn't just about you, Izick! You have to treat all other lives as precious, too! You don't need all that material for experiments anymore, right?!"
"Oh, you don't think so? Then, why don't you try to stop me, hm? From inside that tank of yours! Those cells of yours aren't invincible. On my slightest whim, you could dissolve away and die in there, you know."
"Go ahead and try it! I'm not scared at all!" There were many like Tu out there.
Trite justice. Trite anger. Trite sadness.
Izick never understood why they would act under such worthless pretexts.
He thought that if he instilled in Tu the exact same ideals the rabble talked about, he could create a blindly devoted soldier, like the ones who had challenged him before.
He had been too successful.
Unlike Ozonezma, Tu, completely lacking the emotion of fear, couldn't be
brought to his heel.
…Son of a… Why did I end up like this? I'm Izick the Chromatic, aren't I?!
It was the True Demon King.
Their presence had thrown everything in their world out of order. Both justice and evil.
Every time his thoughts turned to the one who had ruined his life, he was never able to let it go.
No matter what price he had to pay, he wouldn't die until he got to see the True Demon King fully suffer and perish.
"Ah, whatever. I'm sure that determination of yours ain't worth shit. Study time, study time! Gonna hammer a bunch more knowledge into that brain of yours, got it? Up first, going over the theory behind a mimic's construction!"
"Nooo! Nooo! No way, no how! I'm not shutting up until you listen to me!" "Mimic cells divide at super-high speeds, and using a form exactly as they
remember it… Shut up, already!"
"No! More! Murder! No! More! Murder!" "Gah, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Izick had slaughtered, all for his own pleasure.
Each of those victims had had their own life and a heart just like Izick's. He had seen plenty of people smugly relate this to him before.
Izick had killed every single one who did, without exception. They had all been fools not worth keeping alive.
It was inconceivable that Izick wouldn't understand something so obvious and natural. It was this heart and the senses like Izick's own that made his victims cry out in torment and scream when in pain. It was because they possessed such a heart that it proved entertaining.
There may have been children just like Tu among his victims. He didn't remember every single person he killed.
It was only natural that they all died. They had been weak.
Even if Izick hadn't laid his hands on them, they would have still been awaiting the suitable recompense for their own weakness.
I haven't lost… Not to anyone. Eventually, not even to the True Demon King, either.
Izick the Chromatic was different from all of them.
At long last, Izick moved the base of operations he had remained at for almost twenty years.
From the True Northern Kingdom to the United Western Kingdom. It would be a long journey.
"…YOU'RE MOVING YOUR BASE OF OPERATIONS, IZICK?"
For Izick, Ozonezma had already served his purpose, but he still continued to use him as a convenient slave.
Ozonezma was stuck acting like a horse, carrying a large amount of research materials, but his only option was to obey.
"Well, I mean, I've really gotten accustomed to this place and all. At first, it was just supposed to keep me outta the elements, but at some point, it ended up becoming my personal lab."
"THAT IS BOUND TO HAPPEN, GIVEN HOW LONG YOU HAVE REMAINED HERE."
"Wait, I guess I'm testing to see if I can even move this body properly for the first time, huh? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I haven't had anything to eat but bugs, weeds, and roots for the last twenty years!"
"ARE YOU GOING TO THE WESTERN KINGDOM ON TU'S WISHES?"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Is that a joke? Thing is, I'm guessing most people have forgotten my face by this point, so I figured they all might be a little lonely! I'm just so damn excited to see how I kill all those worthless worms, I can hardly contain myself!"
Ozonezma didn't pursue the thought any further.
He knew the Izick would pursue creating this one single construct, even if meant sacrificing absolutely everything.
"…IS TU DOING WELL?"
"Oh, curious, are we? When you've never even met her? I had a different construct carry her, so there's no need for you to know anything about her."
"THAT'S RIGHT… THOSE WERE YOUR ORDERS."
Ozonezma was incapable of disobeying Izick's directions.
While Izick himself may have forgotten, he continued to kill champions, exactly as he had been ordered to long ago in the past.
To ensure that he wasn't idly sacrificing preeminent intelligence and wit, there was only one method for Ozonezma to utilize. He only killed champions who were destined to die.
Therefore, he reigned as the True Demon King's keeper and continued to
slay champions.
He had been doing this the whole time, even after the birth of Tu the Magic had rendered this order meaningless.
Even while he possessed such strength, he was forever unable to challenge the True Demon King himself.
He didn't have any innate faculty for courage. "…IZICK, I HAVE A REQUEST."
However, a small hope was born inside this manufactured chimera's heart. Perhaps a single encounter was enough to change a cursed life like his.
This was why he had purposely come to see Izick once more. "Huh?"
"I WISH TO END MY JOB WITH THIS. I…I WANT TO GO ON MY OWN JOURNEY."
Ozonezma had come across a man named Olukt the Drifting Compass Needle.
A simple bard, weak, and wholly incomparable to any champion. Yet Ozonezma thought he seemed to possess a certain something that could defeat the True Demon King.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Izick simply sneered at his creation's show of will.
"Wait, hold up. Were you still killing people this whole time?! Ha-ha-ha-ha- ha-ha! Well, isn't that admirable?! Sure, go right ahead! I already finished Tu's body anyway! I don't have a use for you anymore. You're disposed of. Dismissed. Go and do whatever the hell you want."
"…I WILL DO JUST THAT, THEN."
Killing the True Demon King.
This venture was sure to be a far more difficult path for him than killing the wickedest of all demon kings who had long held absolute control over him. Now, with his hardened resolve…he thought perhaps he could have killed Izick standing in front of him.
In the past, he should've done so. But as for now… Even if it was possible, he thought he likely wouldn't. "IZICK."
"What now?"
"YOU LIVED FAR LONGER THAN I HAD PREDICTED YOU WOULD. AT THAT TIME, I ASSUMED WHAT LITTLE LIFE YOU HAD LEFT… WOULDN'T EVEN AMOUNT TO FIVE YEARS. GIVING YOURSELF
WHOLLY TO YOUR RESEARCH, WITTLING AWAY AT THE ALREADY SCANT LIFE YOU HAD LEFT…YOU LIVED. I BELIEVE…I UNDERSTAND THE REASON WHY."
"…Don't talk like you know a damn thing about me. That's obviously 'cause I'm the wickedest demon king ever."
"THAT IS NOT IT, IZICK. YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT REASON JUST AS WELL YOURSELF."
"..."
"IZICK, YOU…"
—were a minia after all, the same as any other.
"Ohh, so these are people…! Living, breathing people!"
"…Ha-ha-ha-ha, is it really that much fun? Must be nice to be so simple, huh?"
"But I can see them…up until now, I had only ever heard about them from what you told me, but wow…! There really are parents laughing with their children… Even when one of them gets hurt, they all support each other… Everyone's just living their lives…"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Yeah, well, I guess they are all alive, aren't they?"
Izick laughed vilely as he thought about numerous cities he had once brought to ruin.
He wasn't able to do anything else with the life exhausted from the long journey.
This hillside base of operations situated with a view down over the city could be discovered at any moment.
It won't take time… The only things left are her combat skills and the cruelty to smash her enemies. Once that's over, I can release her…and I can take everything back. Everything I've lost in the past twenty years.
What should he do after that? he wondered.
It wouldn't be bad to rampage like he did in the past, taunting and playing with simpleton fools.
For instance, if he were to annihilate the vast kingdom before their eyes, what sort of face would Tu make?
That was certain to prove very fun.
"…Ha-ha, ha-ha."
"People…real people… Ah-ha…ha…" Tu was crying.
Her tears became tiny droplets, dancing and floating inside the preservative.
For the next day, and the day after that, she pressed her face up against the tank glass and tirelessly gazed out at the people's activity.
The United Western Kingdom did not fall in the flames of war. Nor was it trampled underfoot by some colossal monster.
Yet everything died. Each individual person died in fathomless terror and despair.
The True Demon King reached the center of the Western Kingdom much faster than Izick had thought.
At this stage, there were several things he still needed to teach Tu. "Shit. Shit. Shitshitshit."
Even on top of the faraway hill, he could see the same presence he'd felt back then.
The presence of terror. The unmistakable presence that brought an end to everything—the presence of the True Demon King.
Despite the many years that had passed since, despite excising the memory storage area in his brain, even after Izick had tried all possible means to forget it all, logic seemed to have no effect at all. He still remembered.
It was unmistakably the terror from that time.
…Can I not beat her?
Thus, it was at that moment when he realized this fear.
It was the question that he should've clearly realized from the outset. Was it even possible to defeat the True Demon King in the first place? The True Demon King's terror sheared away the will to try defeating it.
In which case, did the mere fact he was able to complete the creation of Tu the Magic mean that she wasn't enough to defeat them?
Hadn't Izick been aware of this for twenty years?
"Tu…! We gotta escape, or we're in trouble! You want me to leave you behind?! This country's finished!"
"No way!'
Tu raged inside the tank.
Below her eyes, the kingdom she had constantly gazed at day in and day out
was falling into ruin. They couldn't be saved.
Even if Tu headed off to save them right at that moment, it would've been too late. The terror of the Demon King extinguished all hope.
"We can just look for a different city, can't we?! We can find more of those minia you love so much! There's still plenty of 'em, tens of hundreds of thousands of them all over the world! But if we die here, it'll all be for nothing!" His only option was to convince her. If he ignored Tu's will and forcibly carried her off, he would never be able to control her again. However, if he
released Tu from the tank right now, she'd never return to Izick's side again.
Once he took her out of the preservative liquid, he couldn't dissolve her away and dispose of her, either. Izick had created her to be an invincible organism.
"No…! No! No! No!"
"Why can't you understand?! You can't win the way you are now! Your heart… You gotta become the perfect weapon, right down to your heart, or you won't be able to kill her! There's still time! I'm not… Listen, okay?! I'm not dying until I perfect you! You understand?! I can't die yet! So stop talking back and listen!"
Right. If he could just complete Tu, then she could defeat the True Demon King.
Even if, perhaps, he had merely convinced himself of this and could do nothing but put it off forever.
"But you were the one who said it, Izick!"
Tu the Magic was different from any of the constructs Izick had made up to that point.
For him, only ever having underlings who obeyed every word he said, it was almost as if she was…
"You said that the most important things in this world are justice and courage!"
"Obviously all that shit was a big fat lie, dammit! You're a weapon! A weapon solely meant to kill that True Demon King!"
"No! No…! I get it!"
Inside the tank, Tu looked hard at Izick in front of her. She had beautiful eyes, sparkling green.
Her appearance, the ways of the heart, were practically the exact opposite of the demon king said to be the wickedest of them all.
The fact she was even created by a man like Izick the Chromatic seemed like a bad joke.
"Defeating the True Demon King, saving the world… I don't want to think that I had to abandon someone else to do it! If I was made to be a champion, then I want to live in a way that won't make me ashamed to call myself one! I want to believe in justice! I want to believe I have the courage to fight!"
"Dammit…! Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!"
There was neither the time left nor the possibility for Izick to create another specimen.
He was going to die.
Tu the Magic was going to challenge the True Demon King in her incomplete state, and it was all going to end up meaningless.
I failed.
Tu the Magic, whom he staked his second chance at life on making, was a total failure.
Why? Why? Why?
Why had he made something that he knew couldn't win? Why had he taught someone so useless?
…Why did he do that?
"Curse you…! What the hell was I… I just…ha-ha… My life, it's…n- nngh…ngh…"
"…Izick."
Tu placed her palm against the tank as she spoke.
"You raised me up until now, Izick. Even if it really was all a lie…to me, that world you told me about was the real one! All the colors that you gave to me when I was blank white slate! This heart you instilled in me, that was true righteousness!"
"Enough, you dumb asshole! Piss off! Don't you dare take me for a fool! I'm the wickedest demon king of 'em all! That's who I was! Me! I—I…"
Izick the Chromatic touched the tank structure with a trembling hand. He would dissolve Tu the Magic and dispose of her.
In that past, that's what Izick would have done. He was surely able to, even now.
The fluid began to drain from the tank. Everything, in that moment, had gone to waste.
Izick shouted in order to avoid looking at Tu as she stepped out into the world for the first time.
"Fine…go on, then! Dumbass!"
He wasn't going to look at her, no matter what.
Her body should have felt unbelievably light. She should be able to breathe. Be able to walk.
Because, after all, she was the greatest creation of Izick the Chromatic. "Thank you."
…She must have been smiling.
The fact he could tell was the worst part of it all. "Thank you, Dad!"
With her braid fluttering behind like a tail, she disappeared far into the distance.
Then in the present.
The only thing left in the room Tu the Magic had stayed in was the aftermath of tremendous destruction.
Most of the destruction had been caused by the construct army Krafnir had unleashed. He used up all his might in an attempt to stop Tu.
…This was all completely pointless.
The revenant Krafnir used as his terminal was twisted apart and leaning up against the wall.
Even after pelting her with an attack powerful enough to damage himself in the process, Tu never stopped. He knew.
He also knew that the reason she didn't stop wasn't because she possessed an invincible body.
I knew…
The fifth match. She had conceded victory to Kuze the Passing Disaster, who had a reason for advancing through the tournament.
However, it was definitely not because Tu was weak of heart. At the time, Tu did exactly what she believed she was the right thing to do.
I understood…what Tu held in her heart.
A Mind Arts caster, capable of controlling the mind, heart, and soul.
This reputation that Krafnir the Hatch of Truth had earned for himself seemed all too ironic.
Even though he had systematized the creation of constructs that acted in accordance with a set structure and had devised unmatched and peerless technology to project his own heart and soul into a construct…never once had Krafnir been able to create a construct like Tu, with the same sort of heart and mind as any other person.
"AH… RIGHT, TU…"
Tu was going far away and might never return to him. That was why Krafnir was able to say it.
"…PLEASE, TU…KEEP GOING …"
She could simply continue forward, without listening to whatever anyone else had to say. To the ends of the earth, as far as she could go.
Since that itself was the life for those with hearts and minds of their own.
"…SAVE EVERYONE."