*
What on Earth is happening right now?
───Swoosh
A cold downpour started pouring from the sky.
The stench of blood pierces my nose, and screams resonate through the chilling air.
People are impaled and their innards splattered, caught in the grasp of shadowy tentacles.
Pina wished that what she saw right in front of her was just a figment of her imagination.
She hoped it was just a bad dream.
That when she shut her eyes tightly and opened them again, she’d wake up in a cozy bed and none of this had happened.
She wished she could tell her beloved servants that she had a bad dream.
Emilia, who always brushed her hair before bed.
The head chef, who made delicious black tea and scones.
The royal teacher who taught her about the Empire, and even the gardener who tended to the garden blooming with roses.
“Ah, ugh… ahhh…”
Those who had smiled brightly and greeted her just yesterday…
Were all there, lifeless and unable to even close their eyes.
Pina could only slump helplessly to the ground and weep.
Why, out of all people, was this happening to her?
No matter how bad the Demon Kings were, torturing innocent people like this…
‘This isn’t… right…’
Nothing made sense.
The once grand Imperial Palace buildings were now a mere ruin.
As if the sun had set and crashed onto the ground, everything around was engulfed in flames.
A woman with black hair leaned wearily against a wall.
The moment she saw the familiar dark hair that looked just like hers, she rushed toward her.
It can’t be. It shouldn’t be.
Only thoughts filled her head, rendering it blank.
“Um, mother…?”
Her face and hair covered in blood.
The one who looked like she had suffered a fatal wound from the Demon King, on the verge of death, was…
“Our daughter… Pina…”
A Mage with exceptional magical talents, born once in a thousand years.
The only woman loved by Emperor Rock.
Queen Bellin Grancia of the Grancia Empire.
She was spitting blood as she uttered her last words to her daughter, Pina.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you…”
“Mother… No… please…”
Even when Pina clasped her delicate hands over her mother’s abdomen and tried to cast Healing Magic, it failed.
The wound was like a gaping abyss, unfillable.
“Mom… I’m just a little tired… I need to sleep…”
“…Why, why isn’t the wound healing…? No, no… please…”
The power of the Demon God was burying the past that had already happened.
The Magic Hat was recreating the old tragedy right here.
“……”
Healing magic wouldn’t work.
“Our daughter… still… can live cheerfully…?”
Seeing her only daughter crying because she was witnessing her death…
Queen Bellin forced a tear-stained smile through the agony leading to her demise.
“Mom… mom… waaaaah…”
“Yeah… our Pina… good girl… Everything will be okay…”
With her last ounce of strength, she wiped away Pina’s tears that flowed down her cheeks.
A downpour falling so hard it numbed the ears.
Her mother’s body, gradually losing warmth and growing cold.
There was so much blood already pooling around.
“……”
No matter what she did, she couldn’t save her.
Pina looked at her mother with a blank expression of despair.
It felt like a shattered glass, broken beyond repair.
As Bellin’s arm finally lost strength and fell silently, something in Pina’s heart broke too.
What if she were just a bit stronger? What if she could protect the people from the grasp of the Demon God?
Endless self-hate flooded over Pina, making her gag.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Someone had been watching all of this.
The Demon God of Truth, the Magic Hat couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Hahaha!! This is so entertaining! Absolutely hilarious!!”
Not even feeling guilt over young Pina’s tragedy, he was grinning ear to ear.
“Ah, love breaking right before your eyes is just the best.”
He pointed at crying Pina in front of Queen Bellin.
He started to praise this scene, as if it were a masterpiece.
“…People only realize how precious something is once they’ve lost it.”
Laughing so hard that tears seemed to trickle down.
He even remarked how impressed he was that Bellin tried her best to ensure her daughter wouldn’t be sad.
“Truly, a contradictory and selfish race, don’t you think? Beloved Hero.”
He approached the girl weeping at her dying mother and mocked her.
“Oh, you can’t respond, can you? How unfortunate.”
“……”
“Now everything you love will belong to me. Wouldn’t you agree!!”
As if all this meant nothing.
Like he was thanking the audience who fed his amusement.
“I’ve finally triumphed!”
Spreading his arms wide and laughing toward the sky.
Even as glass shards fell and blood trickled down, his smile never wavered.
“I’ve finally eliminated all variables and succeeded in creating the Grand Route that fixes the world line!”
The Grand Route.
Eliminating all variables, merging all possibilities into one.
Connecting even different world lines into sublime unity.
There was absolutely no way to change the Grand Route into a completely ‘new possibility.’
“Now, the Demon Gods of other worlds can’t touch me!!”
It seemed no one could stop him now.
Even Pina Grancia, corrupted into a Demon God in another world…
Or the Wolf King, who ruled his empire after winning wars, couldn’t come here now.
“The condition to become a Demon God is the determination to reclaim what was lost! I’ve beaten that damned black-haired empress!!”
Yes, from another world, a Demon God wouldn’t be able to change the Grand Route itself.
Lost in the victory before him, the Magic Hat had overlooked something important.
While he laughed and gnawed his tongue, he was oblivious to what was unfolding.
As he looked at Pina, he started to speak.
“Ah, the Black Knight. Soon, the one you love will be me. The place of the Nameless Saintess will be mine─.”
Suddenly, he realized that she had stopped crying.
And from the edge of his sight…
“…Wait, why has Bellin Grancia transformed into the Queen of Hearts…?”
The Queen, who had moments ago been dying, had vanished, leaving behind a single card lying on the ground.
He had never used any powers on Bellin.
Capturing someone in a card was undoubtedly his power of deception.
“I didn’t use my power. Or could it be…?”
Who on earth had used it?
“Why, did you think only you could do this?”
A rumbling voice came from behind.
Upon hearing the voice, the Magic Hat felt a chill run down his spine, and cold sweat began to trickle down.
“Thoughts, Affection.”
The same Demon God, now a Black Knight, could wield the powers of other Demon Kings.
Lee Soo-hyun was glaring at him, dripping with blood, barely clinging to life.
“With this sword, I will take Pina’s tears in her stead.”
He was clutching a glass-like sword, donned in gem-like shining glass armor.
*
A serpent that bites its own tail is called Ouroboros.
Like a never-ending loop, it possesses a shape where it’s impossible to discern where it begins and where it ends.
Wasn’t my and Pina’s lives similar to that?
‘24 failures, the 25th attempt.’
Upon reflecting countless times on why Pantoze said that, one thing became clear.
She couldn’t remember being chosen by the Holy Sword when she was young.
Even though she hadn’t seen the corpse of Queen Bellin, she somehow knew she was dead.
Even though I had touched the Magic Hat’s magical sword, the Queen of Hearts card, I felt no recoil.
‘I did something for Pina in the past.’
The Power of Pure Thought that erased concepts from the world.
If I hadn’t performed mutual destruction with that rascal, there were simply too many contradictions to explain.
“This is surprising. I never thought you’d fall to the Demon God.”
“Why, out of so many people, did you or Pina become a Demon God? Now I get it.”
The condition to fall to a Demon God was the obsession to reclaim someone you loved who you lost.
There simply weren’t many people who fitted that condition.
It seemed like a trivial sentence upon analysis.
What kind of being was the God of Darkness that established such requirements to become a Demon God?
“The Mind Sword’s change in guise… truly interesting, Black Knight. To think a mere human could weave a Holy Sword.”
The Magic Hat looked at me, his expression dazed.
Pretending not to be disturbed despite witnessing me use his powers.
“But, being alive is impressive at this point.”
Even though he used the power of deception, he was still unable to recover.
As he said, blood continued to seep from my abdomen.
‘The wound is too deep.’
Healing using the Dragon Heart was impossible.
Right now, I am in the past, and my magical circuit is not connected to Pina.
“If you surrender now, I’ll spare your life.”
“…..”
Whether it was the ability of omnipresence or not, the Magic Hat had been spouting information I didn’t know since earlier.
Surely if a few more minutes passed like this, I would die.
“Do you really want to see Pina Grancia die?”
“Cough, cough….”
Crack!
The Demon God was strangling young Pina, threatening her.
Had he never intended to uphold any promises from the very beginning?
I didn’t have enough strength left to slay him instantly, and there were people I needed to protect.
Pina, smiling at the cute spirit, shedding tears in her sorrow.
Watching raindrops turn into glass shards due to the Mind Sword, I made one resolution.
‘Even if I’m forgotten in this world…’
I wanted to protect her.
There would be no more sorrow, Pina.
I raised the glass sword high into the sky and began to concentrate all my remaining strength.
“Yeah, now throw that sword away─.”
Bright light bursting forth from the sword illuminated the encroaching darkness.
The shards of glass began reflecting the light, illuminating the surroundings like daylight.
Soon, the shadows that the Magic Hat had cast over the Imperial Palace began to dissipate one by one.
“Wait, what are you doing…?”
Sensing the anomaly, he immediately tried to strangle Pina again.
But that hand became transparent, passing right through her as if it had never existed.
“Don’t tell me, you’re trying to meddle with the world line?!”
His hand began to crackle like noise.
As the Magic Hat observed his physical form dissolve starting from the extremities, he shouted in shock.
But as I watched the writhing creature filled with screams, I felt no guilt.
This choice had led to contradictions.
And for this, I fought without giving up.
Even if the price required me to sacrifice my own life.
“If this happens, you won’t be safe either!! Black Knight!!”
“…I don’t care.”
Not a Hero nor a Demon King, but a Black Knight from the beginning.
Had this fate been destined from the start?
A pure-hearted Black Knight protecting love? How laughable.
My consciousness began to blur.
The noise surrounding me crackled as my body began to fade away, just like the Magic Hat’s.
“With the powers of a Demon God, I’ll erase you from this world.”
If this is the outcome, even if I disappear, Pina shall not be unhappy.
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