The Great Demon must sacrifice themselves.
It was something I heard from Father since I was little, until the Demonic Energy was all drained.
Belphegor kept that phrase in mind and never forgot it for a moment.
The meaning was clear.
The Great Demon, chosen as a strong leader, must bear a great responsibility.
······I believed that until I was a child.
|Belphegor. I have something to show you.|
The day Belphegor was given the name of Sloth as the Great Demon.
After the ceremony was over and it became quiet, Satan took Belphegor’s hand and led her somewhere.
To a narrow crevice created by the ground splitting apart.
It seemed to lead into a dark abyss, with not a single ray of light invading it.
There was a sense of foreboding, but Belphegor wasn’t afraid.
Because Father was with her.
Deep down in the abyss below.
As they reached the bottom, Belphegor could see five statues surrounding them.
Faces that seemed oddly familiar in some way.
They were exquisitely crafted statues, chillingly so.
|What is this, Father?|
|Greet them. The High Elders of the Demon World, the Great Demon.|
|······?!|
Only then did Belphegor notice the strange aura emanating from within the statues.
They were not merely statues.
Realizing that the statues’ gazes were following her, Belphegor froze in place.
She had heard that five of the seven Great Demons were too ill to show their forms.
She never imagined they would be sealed away in a place like this.
Then why?
Who?
As those questions arose, Belphegor began to feel a chill from her father’s back.
|Do you remember? The Great Demon must sacrifice themselves.|
|Y-yes…?|
|Have you ever thought about it? How twisted the Demon World is. Unlike humans in the current world, demons live with many constraints, being part of the Underworld. So, isn’t there a way to free demons like humans? I’ve been pondering for hundreds of thousands of years, and finally devised a way to separate the Demon World from the Underworld. To do that, I concluded that all seven Great Demons must be sealed. Giving birth to you was for this day.|
|······?!|
Belphegor realized the meaning of what her father had repetitively said.
|We will free the Demon World!|
It was the literal meaning.
A massive ritual to sacrifice all seven Great Demons to separate the Demon World from the Underworld.
They intended to seal and sacrifice the Great Demons for that.
|W-what comes next?|
|What comes next?|
|Once everything is over… will we be able to arise from the statues…?|
|What do you mean? The Great Demons will remain sealed in the Underworld, but will gain the glory of being remembered by all demons.|
|That…|
Words escaped her.
It was a stream of incomprehensible tales of responsibility and sacrifice that Belphegor could not understand at all.
Why did they need to separate the Demon World from the Underworld?
What was the benefit of freeing demons from the God of the Underworld’s gaze?
Why must she be sacrificed?
Not a single one made sense to her.
|Now, stand here. And try to imagine. All the demons shouting our names. Life is fleeting, but glory is eternal.|
|······|
|Accept the seal.|
But Belphegor had no choice but to follow her father’s words, unable to even think of rebellion.
The thought of defiance was beyond imagination.
Belphegor stood next to the statues, led by her father’s hand.
And as she began to obey his commands, she slowly started to harden like stone from her toes.
|Ah…!|
No! I’m scared. I’m terrified.
As her body hardened, Belphegor felt fear at her father’s strange smile.
In an instant…
Belphegor had become a perfect statue, unable to even scream.
|Good girl, my daughter. Just wait a bit longer. Once everything is prepared, I will also be sealed beside you.|
After gently stroking the cheek of the statue Belphegor had become,
Satan vanished upward from the abyss.
Left in the abyss, Belphegor opened her eyes, feeling like she would be sick from confusion.
Inside the statue, only limited vision unfolded.
She couldn’t move an inch.
It had only been one minute.
Belphegor felt suffocated, like she might go mad at any moment.
|Is the daughter of anger coming in?|
|Any Great Demon must naturally sacrifice themselves.|
|Don’t worry about not being able to speak yet. In about 10,000 years, you’ll be able to handle enough Demonic Energy to speak.|
‘······!’
Chilling voices echoed from different directions.
The five Great Demons.
The elders who had previously chosen their own seals were addressing Belphegor.
They praised her or whatever, but nothing they said reached her ears.
Voices devoid of any vitality or zeal.
Those things were far too lifeless to be called living.
‘I don’t want to end up like them! I have to get out! I need to escape!’
This couldn’t go on.
Talk of separating the Demon World from the Underworld and freeing demons was lost on Belphegor.
Being sealed like this was more unbearable than death.
‘I must escape by any means!’
But sealed, she could not use Demonic Energy or power.
Time passed endlessly.
As she grew bitter with a desire to escape and hatred toward her father, the years rolled by.
Every scheme and trick Belphegor devised met with failure.
Even the plan of trying to persuade her father, who occasionally visited, ended in failure, and the word ‘give up’ loomed before her.
|BebgNatetainedU?gRodOeBebgDAman!gBebg!|
‘That person’ extended a hand to Belphegor.
An incomprehensible will seeped into the statue.
Though she couldn’t grasp what it meant,
it was clear that ‘that person’ wanted to help Belphegor.
An unexplainable power began to fill the interior of the statue.
No, it was more apt to call it authority.
At first, Belphegor didn’t know how to harness this power and stumbled about.
But as time passed and she became accustomed to it, there came a moment when she felt she could shatter the statue.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, cracks began to appear from the back of the statue.
How long had it been?
|Haah…!|
Belphegor finally succeeded in breaking the statue apart to escape.
She could breathe.
Her limbs moved.
Just a moment after realizing she had succeeded in escaping the seal,
Belphegor froze when she met the glowering stares of the five statues surrounding her.
As if that wasn’t enough, she sensed something descending from above the abyss.
|I must escape… I must escape…|
She had to run.
To a place where her father’s gaze couldn’t reach.
But where? How?
|The Current World!|
Then she recalled her father’s words.
The Current World.
An independent world located outside the God of the Underworld’s gaze.
A world where free souls who don’t know the Underworld live.
In that paradise-like place, her father wouldn’t be able to chase her down.
She had to escape to the Current World by any means necessary.
But still, the question of ‘how’ remained.
|Belphegor! Where do you think you’re going?!|
|Hyaaa! Father…!|
|I will strip away all your demon identity!|
From above, a thunderous roar echoed.
Belphegor felt all her Demonic Energy being drawn out from her body.
Her strength was vanishing.
Belphegor’s identity and powers as a demon were all being reclaimed.
But just before she became completely powerless,
Belphegor squeezed out her last bit of Demonic Energy and managed to carve out a space.
All that lay beyond was only void.
A dimension beyond that was devoid of anything.
The chances of that place being the Current World, or anywhere but the void, were slim.
But Belphegor had no time to consider probabilities.
She was okay with dying, she was okay with being erased.
She just wanted to escape from this hell, anything would do.
|Ugh!|
Belphegor closed her eyes and leaped inward.
Having lost most of her demonic identity, she had no strength to be dragged back to the Demon World.
Instead, it felt as if some unknown force was pushing her.
It was like a great presence was guiding Belphegor somewhere.
|This…|
The rift in the dimension began to close.
Satan’s hand swept through the air above the abyss.
Yet Satan soon wore a composed expression as if nothing had happened.
|It doesn’t matter. Soon enough, I will end my life in the void, and the seat of the Great Demon will be vacant.|
Surviving in the void was impossible.
Belphegor’s breathing would soon cease.
Then the seat of the Great Demon would be left empty, allowing for a new great demon to be born.
Father could just have another child.
|Wait! How? How are you still alive?!|
But as time passed, the vacancy never arose.
Belphegor was alive.
She existed in a world other than the Underworld.
Beyond the void, which was nothing but emptiness.
She had burst through that absurd probability and reached a world where survival was possible.
Satan gripped the shattered statue, feeling the faint remnants of authority on the fragments, and seethed with rage.
He felt he knew who had helped Belphegor escape.
|Draken!!!|
Satan’s scream echoed everywhere.
.
.
.
|Hah?!|
Belphegor, finally regaining consciousness, opened her eyes.
An unfamiliar atmosphere.
An unfamiliar land.
And unfamiliar light.
Without even turning to look around, she immediately recognized it.
It was the place Belphegor had longed for and wished to go.
A world passed down only in legends.
The Current World.
|I did it! I did it…! I’m alive! I’m alive!|
She was overjoyed.
She was alive.
No longer trapped in that dark abyss.
The great happiness made Belphegor nearly shed tears.
|So beautiful…|
Overwhelmed by the view of the Current World she had never seen before, Belphegor was in awe.
She saw green fields, trees, and flowers everywhere.
Life overflowing with vitality was abundant all around.
Only Belphegor, surrounded by faint Demonic Energy, seemed out of place in this vibrant environment.
|Humans…!|
Step by step, as she wandered, marveling at every moment, there came a time when
Belphegor spotted an unfamiliar being, and her breath seemed to stop.
The intelligent beings of the Current World.
Humans.
Civilized beings.
The village, which seemed unnatural at a glance, was right before her.
Belphegor leaped forward in excitement.
She had heard of it.
Some demons form contracts with humans.
Trading powers and life force across dimensions.
She had finally arrived at a place beyond those distant distances.
What kind of reactions would humans show to demons?
Approaching with pure curiosity and anticipation, Belphegor heard:
“Ah, eek?! What is that!”
“A demon! A demon has appeared!”
“Kill it!!!”
|Huh?|
She could meet pure malice.
