/
“Haaaaaa….I am so tired this time.”
After safely returning to the [White World] I stretched out on the spot and took a deep breath. We were there for a period of time,but most of all, it was too different from what I had done before, and the end result was so different that it filled me with an indescribable sense of completion.
“Good work. I’d like to have a cup of tea….but I guess it’s not possible.”
“Hahaha, I can’t drink it, but… you were able to subdue the Demon King, so why not try that too?”
“Ugh!? Hey, I’m a little interested, but I think I have too much to lose… mumumu”
At my words, Tia wrinkled her brow and started to worry. Even for me, I’d be interested to see what would happen if we ate and drank here,… but, no, can we do anything now?
“Hmm… I guess I won’t. More than that, Ed…”
“I know, {Records Of The Hero’s Story}, right? Now—“
“No, not that”
Tia stopped me with a serious look on her face as I was about to walk over to the table.
“Hey Ed. What were you talking to the Demon Lord about? What is the reason behind the Demon King looking like you?”
“Ah, Are you curious?”
“Of course I’m curious! I don’t want to force you to tell me something you don’t want to tell me, but I’m going to make sure you know I want to hear it! Besides, I have something on my mind too…”
“Well, what is it?”
It was subtly predictable, but I still asked Tia. But unfortunately, my hunch at times like this was rarely wrong….
“You know, I just remembered. When I fought with Alexis and the others… the Demon King at that time looked exactly like you, Ed.”
“Ah, …..”
Yes, correct answer. When I made a slight scowl at the most unpleasant correct answer in the world, Tia continued.
“That Demon King was covered in black miasma at first, too. But when Alexis cut through it with his holy sword, he found …. well, yes, it was the same as this time. Of course, I knew right away that it wasn’t Ed himself. But I was definitely surprised, and more importantly, Alexis was very angry. He said, “How dare you mock our comrade who gave up his life to pave the way for us! Heroes are not so naive as to get upset just because you look like them!”. After that, as you know, We defeated the Demon King, and somehow I seemed to have forgotten about it, but when I saw the face of the Demon King … just now, I suddenly remembered. That’s what happened at that time. If it was only in that world, it could still be explained, but if even the Demon King from the other world had Ed’s face, then there must be some connection between Ed and the Demon King, right?”
(T/N: Man Alexis one of the best heroes)
“…… Well, yes. There is atleast a strong connection. It’s a long story, it’s not interesting, and it might make you feel awful to hear it, but ….. do you still want to hear it?”
I didn’t want to willingly talk about it, but I couldn’t avoid answering the question if asked. If I ignore it here, the question will remain in Tia’s mind forever. …. If I choose not to tell her, my relationship with Tia will slowly break down.
Rather than clinging to it and turning away from the rottenness, it would be better to come clean here. I was ready to make my decision, but Tia took my hand with a smile on her face.
“Yeah, tell me. I’m sure I’m here to know that and carry it together with you.”
“… I see.”
Man, why is Tia like this? How can she be so ready to take on my personal crap before even listening to me when I have no intention of letting her take on any of my personal shit?
She is a bottomless idiot. The ultimate softy. But I’m willing to talk to the elf lady in front of me if she asks for it.
Then let me tell you a story. The story of the Demon King and God who were once born somewhere in the world. The story of Ed and the Demon King, who are still in the middle of their journey.
Once upon a time, there was a Demon King who had the power to end everything. And God was very fearful of the existence of such a Demon King. After all, if he had the power to end everything, he might be able to “end” not only the world he had created, but even God himself.
Although the Demon King was neither hostile to God nor engaged in destructive activities, God, who could no longer stand the fact that there was an existence that could threaten him, challenged the Demon King to a battle. After a long and bitter battle, God finally defeated the Demon King.
However, although God was able to defeat the Demon King, he was not able to destroy him. This is because the [Power to End All] was the power of the Demon King, not God’s power.
Therefore, God extracted the power and memories from the Demon King’s soul, shattered it into 100 pieces, and scattered each piece in a different world. Then, the soul of the Demon King, which has lost its will and power, was sealed in [Eternal White] where not even time has passed.
However, God was still not relieved. The soul and power, which were originally one, were drawn to each other, and one day, they might even cross the boundary of the world and return to their original state.
Then God thought ‘If the Demon King cannot be destroyed by me, I will dye his soul with despair so that one day, when he regains the [Power to End All] he himself will wish to disappear and be gone.’ Once such a mechanism was created, the Demon Lord would destroy himself without doing anything else. … God carried out such a wonderful idea without any hesitation.
God then implanted false human memories in the soul of the ignorant and innocent Demon King, gave him a fragile human body, and imposed a test on him for the sake of his plan. That was, “If you want to return to the world where you were born, you must visit 100 different worlds and be “banished” in all of them.”
The Demon King’s instinct to “return to the original” had been replaced by a nostalgia to “return home,” and the Demon King’s soul, processed into a clown doll, desperately wandered across other worlds and was harshly “banished” wherever he went.
He was humbly accompanied by a hero who went to defeat a fragment of his own power, but the soul of the Demon King, who lacked not only the ability to fight but even the common sense of that world, was shunned, disgraced, and cursed in all worlds, but he still continued his activities with the single-minded desire to “return to his original world.”
And when the soul of the Demon King, finally banished from 100 other worlds, passes through the door with false nostalgia and thoughts of a nostalgic home that does not exist, … there was a clown doll with all memories erased and returned to its initial state.
Yes, it was an eternal circle. A tragedy and a comedy that will never end, given to the Demon King who had lost the [Power to End All]. The soul of the Demon King continued to be rejected and banished by human beings for a period of time so long that the world born of stone will return to stone again, and for repetition that was even more numerous than the number of stars.
Memories disappear. But the dark thoughts that have stuck in his soul will not disappear. At the end of a long, long repetition, the power that leaks out of the world and accumulates little by little each time a fragment of its power comes in and out of the world of existence eventually comes to fruition as a crystal ball in [Eternal White].
It was the power to make any wish come true in the form of an “end” for anyone who touched it. If the soul of the demon king, tired of being here, wished for its own extinction, everything would be as God intended.
But the soul of the Demon King did not wish for that. The soul of the Demon King, who had been endowed with a personality that prevented him from being driven by anger or revenge, was therefore moderately kind. The Demon King’s soul, which not even the gods would destroy, exceeded his expectations slightly in terms of its resilience.
The soul of the Demon King did not wish to escape from the painful reality or to disappear from his uselessness, but to “become strong enough not to bother anyone and to help those who helped him.”
Thus, the soul of the Demon King put an end to his ‘powerlessness’ and became able to use a portion of the power accumulated in the crystal ball as his own. And from that day on, slight cracks began to appear in the perfect plan of God…