An uneasy feeling swelled up.
But first, there was something that needed to be done.
No need to talk about it. The moment I saw the empty cavity, Eliserde and Belial were already charging ahead.
That settled it.
I had my job cut out for me.
I took a moment to gather myself and quickly expanded.
In an instant, my body swelled hundreds of times and rushed out of the cavity.
The scale of the Holy Kingdom was enormous.
It took quite a long time just to get to the surface.
And the moment I broke free from the cavity…
[…I’m late.]
A hazy sight crossed my view.
The moon rose.
A massive, blood-red moon illuminated the vast sky, dyeing the entire world in crimson.
In the very center of the Kingdom, there stood a bizarre structure.
A gigantic tree that resembled black tar soared skyward.
On that tree, stretching wickedly towards the heavens, were countless unknown cocoons. With my transcendent sight, I realized that they were wrapped around humans.
At least that was a bit of good news.
The people inside were still intact.
They could breathe freely and their hearts still beat steadily.
But…
[They are changing.]
Something was twisting.
The structure that should be human was aiming to completely break out of that shell and transform.
Like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
The humans were mutating into overwhelming beings.
But the essence of that transformation was nothing but becoming a more horrific and grotesque entity.
It was too late to touch it.
At least, with my abilities, it would be difficult to revert beings that had changed so much back to their original states.
However, there was a sliver of hope.
[With the Goddess’s power, it might be possible.]
She must have given me a token for that purpose.
Then the quandary lessened.
My task was clear.
[?!@#!@#$%@$^&]
A malevolent being.
A massive, amorphous monster that overshadowed the sky tilted its head and gazed at me.
I didn’t need to ask what it was.
The remnants of the Demon God.
One of the fragments it left behind.
Its density was on a different level from the fragments within the Saintess. If the fragment within the Saintess was a part of a cell, this was akin to a finger of the Demon God.
But its rank was lower.
To be precise, it seemed devoid of rational thought.
At least, the Demon God’s fragments appeared intelligent and acted accordingly, while this one seemed to be rampaging solely on instinct.
As evidence of that,
It kept muttering something incomprehensible, spewing out sounds that were closer to excrement than language.
It soon flashed its true nature.
With the revelation of its hidden form, the amorphous liquids that composed its body vanished in an instant.
[……!!!]
Only then did it let out a horrific scream and writhe.
Could it be because it was the residue of the Demon God?
Despite the overwhelming essence it emitted, which could obliterate ordinary beings in an instant, it was merely wounded on the surface.
I could sense instinctively.
Simply emitting essence wouldn’t be enough to annihilate it.
Its total essence wasn’t that great.
A being with that level of essence should have been totally obliterated just by revealing its essence.
But the density was different.
Though it was called a remnant, it was indeed the remnant of the Demon God.
The essence of the God of Creation, and the original God, was overwhelming. Even as a fragment, its density surpassed mine.
Thus,
My essence couldn’t overpower it.
The collapsed black liquid expanded and quickly regained its original form.
Simultaneously, its body wriggled, and the black liquid transformed into sharp thorns, aimed straight for me.
Predictable.
I wasn’t the type to fall for such slow attacks.
I swerved my body adeptly, weaving between the protruding thorns, and charged towards it.
The thorns tried to twist inward to press me down, but I had already anticipated such a move.
Before the thorns could twist in,
I swiftly contorted my body to snap the thorns.
Crack!
The shattered thorns embedded into the ground.
In an instant, the liquid from the broken thorns clung to its body, but I immediately shot out essence.
——Fizz…
The thorns dripping onto its body melted away.
Indeed, as long as I was away from the main body, my essence worked perfectly.
With a quick strike, my fangs plunged into its body.
At the same time, a horrific poison tore through it.
I created some distance.
From afar, I observed the writhing amorphous creature.
Its body twisted and a blue liquid oozed out.
Once it hit the ground, the liquid rapidly sank beneath the surface.
[Poison doesn’t seem to work after all.]
Maybe it was because it was originally a liquid?
It contorted its body while spitting the poison out.
Once again, the thorns were shot at me.
Did it lack the ability to learn? I easily dodged to avoid the same thorns as before.
And the moment I was about to break the thorns again…
——Squelch.
The thorns melted.
The previously hard thorns transformed into liquid, quickly turning into a hellish quagmire encompassing me.
The gigantic liquid engulfed me.
In an instant, Jörmungandr’s body completely vanished into the liquid as it started to swallow me whole.
Was it trying to digest me?
At the moment the writhing Jörmungandr was utterly consumed by the liquid—
——Boom!
The amorphous slime burst apart into pieces unrecognizable in shape.
As that gigantic mass exploded, the entirety of the Holy Kingdom’s buildings were reduced to ruins and swamped by waves of black liquid.
In the midst of it all, Jörmungandr, whose true size had swelled, opened its mouth.
[Did you think I would be consumed?]
A tremendous force gathered in the gaping maw.
Particles of pure white light accumulated in its mouth, forming a sphere of pure destructive power.
[Be annihilated.]
Brilliant light consumed the Holy Kingdom.
* * *
Accidents? I’m just going to… what’s happening? No way?
It squirms.
It keeps squirming.
It fades.
As the squirming body touches the white light, it shrinks like an insect.
Twisted as it may be.
Even as I stretched out my tentacles to reach for the shadows.
The divine light wouldn’t disappear.
It’s obliterating.
An instinctual sense of crisis threatened the remnants.
I want to live.
I must survive.
I have to cover myself.
I have to engulf the world.
Move.
Struggle.
Twist.
Endure.
Repeating dozens of obliterations.
Eternally, the disheveled pieces were burned and melted by the light.
Tens of billions of massive pieces.
I felt them all meet their end simply by coming into contact with the pure white light.
The speed was increasing.
The life force connecting the remnants was severed.
Gradually, thought faded away.
It became distant…
Soon, even the instincts for survival couldn’t continue to think.
I need to survive.
How?
I must endure.
How?
I must swallow.
How?
I must resist.
How?
The remnants of the Demon God realized they must spit forth the greed they had harbored.
Lingering emotions remained.
This was my prey.
The prey I had swallowed whole.
You want me to throw this up?
No way.
I hate it.
Everything that created this situation is terrifying, resentful, and filled with hatred.
And that anger became the trigger to help me make a decision.
The remnants of the Demon God opened its massive jaws.
At that moment, it vomited everything it had swallowed until now.
People.
Countless people who had to eternally pray for his sake were expelled from its empty belly.
They were alive.
Because they had to pray for him.
But it felt good.
I don’t know why, but the moment people were expelled, I sensed that gigantic entity was flustered.
Is it wrong to harm people…?
For a brief moment, hesitation arose in the divine light.
If it continues like this, all those humans would die, causing hesitation.
I don’t know.
That kind of thought couldn’t continue.
Moreover,
The hesitation in light that had paused intensified once again.
The intense sun poured down.
The red-dyed moon diminished, and a brilliant sun arose in its place.
I twisted my body.
The remnants of the Demon God felt it was about to be entirely obliterated.
All thought.
The instinct that had urged it started to fade.
A fleeting heartbeat.
The heartbeat of life began to disappear.
It gradually faded.
And just as that heartbeat reached its ultimate end.
Get up.
A voice resonated.
The remnants of the Demon God could instinctively sense it.
That was the Demon God.
It was everything.
He was shouting.
Get up; you can’t fall here.
Aaaah…
The remnants looked up in awe towards the sky.
To the God of Destruction, who could obliterate all creatures.
The greatest primordial deity.
The remnants offered their worship towards him.
Ah, great Telos.
* * *
[…….]
Jörmungandr quietly stared at the remnants.
The complete absence of even a faint heartbeat.
Sensing that, Jörmungandr finally ceased the waves of light being emitted.
It was perplexed when it first expelled the people.
It had never expected the ones it had swallowed to be still alive.
At the moment it had unleashed those waves,
Changing the property to only react to magical beings had proven effective.
Thanks to that,
People were still alive.
It was over.
I thought it ended.
——Boom!
With a deafening noise.
A massive black column covered the Holy Kingdom.
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