With Jean in a good mood again, I walk towards Deus, the sub-god of the end.
Itâs not that Iâve forgotten to be vigilant, of course. ă ăI donât want to endanger my friends twice by making the same mistake, and I donât want to look uncool to Jean for setting the stage for me to do so.
âWell. Youâve got wounds, Deus.â
ââŠâŠâŠâŠ. I donât know what to say to you, but I have not lost to you.â
âHaha, thatâs exactly right.â
He was still immature after all.
He is not satisfied with the situation he is in, and he didnât want to admit defeat.
The intelligence itself seems to be quite high, but the emotions are not controlled.
But thatâs why itâs easy to see what this guy wants.
âAll right, then, letâs have a rematch, shall we? If you can beat me, one on one, Iâll admit you.â
âAre you insane?â
âOh, Iâm sane.â
What this guy wants now is simple.
He wants a revenge match.
The only reason he lost was because of Jeanâs overwhelming power, which he did not expect.
The original plan would have been to grow in power over time and declare war on the world when the World Tree had been fully absorbed.
So he thinks that he could have been much stronger than Jean, and he hates to admit defeat to us, who are probably less powerful than him.
And in a way heâs right.
If it werenât for Jean, I would have been defeated by surprise, and I could have seen in 10,000 years from now that he would have destroyed the world if he had taken his time.
But even with that in mind, I still think itâs a bit naive.
Because there is no such thing as âIFâ in the real world.
If I can use a time machine, âIFâ will never come to this guy who doesnât have that power.
And thatâs where the opportunity lies.
Deus of today, who thinks hypothetically, or maybe, or really, would accept a one-on-one with me.
Since this was an opportunity for him to prove he was right, he wanted to prove that his calculations and the thought that he could beat me were right. The thought about âIFâ will come true.
But there was trap in those ideas that he didnât notice.
âAll right. I accept your challenge. Either way, I canât possibly lose to you.â
âOkay, we have a deal. Now the contract has been made.â
ââŠ!?â
I activated my new skill [Contract] of [Composite Job: Akuma] which I had during my two months in the dungeon capture.
And the content of the contract is that the winner of the one-on-one will be admitted by the other party.
Itâs a risky ability that will blow all your magic power once you use it, but Iâm glad it worked out.
Well, anyway.
For me, if Deus wins, he will be able to prove to me the âvalue of his own existenceâ, and if I win, I will be able to prove to himself that I have âaccepted the existence of Deus Ex Machinaâ, the sub god of the end.
In other words, the contract we made harm no one no matter which side loses.
Hahaha, there you have it, boy, thatâs the dirty way of being an adult in the modern world.
I donât need to defeat him in the first place.
It doesnât matter if I win or lose.
The important thing is to recognize the âvalueâ of this Deus entity.
Hey, isnât that right, sub-god of the end?
In the end, you donât know what you were born to do, and you donât know what you should do, so in order to prove your vague existence, you did this conspicuous act and tried to carve some kind of recognition in the world.
You know what I mean.
From the moment you created the dungeon in the World Tree.
And then I said,
âAll right, I give up. Iâve lost.â
âWhat?â
At that moment, I recognized Deus as a worthy being who had been born into this world through my own skill of [Contract].
And this cognitive skill can never be broken from within.
âWhat? Whatâs going on? What did you do, Kenji?â
âHahahaa! Well, there you have it, Father! Wonderful, itâs wonderful, really!â
âExplain that to me, Jean!â
âHahaha!â
Behind me, Mizzet and Jean are playing with each other.
Apparently Mizzet didnât understand what was happening now, but Jean, who had mastered the misuse of manna as a Demon God, knew what my skill was.
Iâd say that his ability is great.
ââŠâŠâŠâŠ why?â
âHmm? Are you curious? âŠâŠâŠâŠâ
Deus seems to be wondering why I admitted defeat.
Even now, the inorganic body sends me a puzzled blank look.
Heâs an unexpectedly straightforward guy, being able to convey his confusion with a blank expression.
âThe answer is simple âŠâŠ Iâve acknowledged of you from the beginning. Thatâs all.â
ââŠ..!â
âBetween you and me, Iâm the creator of this world. I donât like the idea that you were born in this world as a worthless. So I just have to make you admit yourself, thatâs all. â
Deusâ eyes widened as I said this.
Oh, there was a pattern other than expressionless?
âOh, I see.â
âYeah, thatâs right.â
âI see, I have finally found it. I finally found the [One who knows the answer to my beginning and my endp].â
âWhat?â
Suddenly he said something and the riddle began.
I wondered what it was all about.
âNow that I have recognition as the reason for my existence, there is no need for me to act out any moreâŠ. It is not good to destroy this world, so Iâll cut off the connection with the World Tree. Then send the power back through the internal connection to the World Tree that has not yet been absorbed, hastily register the master and âââââ.
Deus starts mumbling some obscure words and goes into his own world.
Behind me, Mizzet is fussing, Jean is laughing and Kuroko-san is fuming at Mizzetâs swashbuckling.
Are?
Am I the only one left behind?
Thatâs weird.
Even though I thought Iâve been actively acting cool.