I had lopped off the head of Cleo—or rather, Graham—with a single flash, but even as it fell to the floor, it wore a faint, eerie smile.
However, it reacted to my words, its expression turning serious.
“…Huh? What did you say? I might have misheard you, so could you say that again?”
His tone was polite, but a hideous aura emanated from Cleo's body and head.
It was a dark, sludgy sothing, clinging like years of neglected filth...
Tia, who was waiting behind , tried to step forward with her weapon drawn, but her legs were frozen in place.
“Lord Liam, please step back. He… sothing is wrong with him.”
Klaus stepped in front of with his longsword drawn, intending to act as my shield.
“He has beco sothing that can no longer be called human. Please, get back!”
Their assessnt was correct.
Marie and Kukuri also gritted their teeth, stood up, and tried to move in front of .
Watching them, even a villain like can't help but be a little moved.
“I can appreciate your devotion, but this is sothing like a duty for a swordsman of the One-Flash style. Don't make repeat myself. Stand back and watch.”
When I gave the order to stand down without argunt, Klaus turned back, his eyes wide… then he resignedly stepped behind .
I'm glad he seed to understand that I was serious.
I looked at the form of Cleo, who called himself Graham.
He picked up his own head and was trying to reattach it to his body, but it was taking so ti.
“I’ve lived a long ti, but I’ve never heard of the One-Flash style. I never imagined it would be such a troubleso sword art. My head won't reattach properly.”
Despite saying that, he sohow managed to connect his head.
So… just for fun, I lopped it off again.
I released the blade from its scabbard with my left thumb, then sheathed it by pushing the poml with my right hand, and Graham's head went flying once more.
The head, which had flown backward, widened its eyes for a mont before showing an annoyed expression.
“You just don't listen, do you? I'm letting you live as long as I'm enjoying this conversation. Do you intend to waste that?”
As Graham's irritation grew, I raised the corners of my mouth and smiled.
“Soone who mistakes themselves for a superior being is the height of absurdity. You've lived for over two thousand years, and you still can't even recognize soone stronger than you?”
“…You’re quite impudent. A far cry from Alistair.”
My great-grandfather's na keeps coming up, but to , he's no different from a stranger whose na I just happen to know.
It's just that Brian brings up my great-grandfather's na at every opportunity, and I'm sick of it.
What would that Brian think if he knew Graham was the one who caused the Banfield family's decline? ...He'd probably just cry, but I'd rather not deal with the increased annoyance.
“While I'm indulging your pointless chatter, I'll answer your earlier question. The one about you having no talent for villainy, right? It's simple. I'm just impressed that despite living for over two thousand years, you've managed to keep at it without getting bored.”
Are you an idiot, being a villain for over two thousand years? In this world where lifespans are already long, continuing without getting bored goes beyond re fastidiousness.
It's like you can't even manage to complete your evil deeds within your lifeti, never feeling like you've truly exhausted the limits of evil, just wasting your ti aninglessly.
“Are the things you do with your needlessly extended life just re pranks? With no villainous aesthetic and no talent, you're a second-rate existence at best.”
As a villain, I may be his junior, but I have my pride from living this life as an evil lord! That's precisely why this guy in front of looks like nothing more than a second-rate fool.
Graham clumsily picked up his head, forcefully reattached it to his body, and glared at .
“…Don't ss with . I could have crushed the Banfield family easily. It would have been boring to just crush them normally, so I toyed with them. And you, who can't even understand that, dare to call second-rate?”
“You're third-rate trash, aren't you? After all, you're being cornered by like this.”
For the third ti, I lopped off Graham's head.
Perhaps getting tired of picking it up, Graham reached out and grabbed his head.
And then, I noticed the whites of Cleo's eyes had turned black.
“For a re human to mock , a transcendent being, is beyond foolish! I thought I'd play with you, but now I will never forgive you. After I kill you, I will thoroughly toy with the Banfield family and erase them from history—”
Before he could finish, I lopped off his head yet again, and black smoke, visible even to the human eye, spewed from Graham's—Cleo's—body.
Judging it dangerous to inhale the foul-slling smoke, I swept it away with a single flash.
When the black smoke was cleared by the flash, Cleo's body lay collapsed on the floor.
Cleo's body, now an empty husk... Behind it, a translucent, human-shaped being, presumably Graham himself, glared at with a face full of intense rage.
“…I no longer need a vessel. As of today, I will beco a true transcendent being. When that happens, I will beco an evil god who toys with you humans. Humans… know that there are domains you cannot tread!”
Perhaps unable to maintain his human form due to rage, Graham's figure imdiately wavered, becoming like a fla mimicking a human shape.
Graham raised both arms toward the ceiling.
“What I placed on this true throne is a tool called the Chalice of the Evil God! This capital planet itself is a lost legacy that has been accumulating the negative emotions of the entire Empire for over two thousand years!”
I had thought the capital planet, covered by an outer shell, was a very distorted planet.
I never would have expected the capital planet itself to be the tool Graham spoke of.
“For a petty villain, you sure cause a lot of trouble.”
Just how much energy has it accumulated? There's no doubt he'll be a tougher opponent than that octopus monster I slaughtered before.
Could he be an even greater opponent than Farabar?
Can I handle him as I am now?
Feeling a slight unease, I reluctantly spread my feet and took an iai stance.
Graham was laughing boisterously.
“Hahahaha! For this very day, I have long been manipulating things so that negative emotions from all over the Empire would gather here! All for today, for this mont! …For this…”
A reddish-black liquid poured down on Graham from the glass chalice on the ceiling, called the Chalice of the Evil God... It seed to be a cursed liquid called Cursed Star Poison, but sothing was off.
Graham looked at his own body in confusion.
Graham's form was more stable than before, regaining its human shape, and his translucent body seed to have beco solid.
However, Graham was dumbfounded.
“Why… Why is this happening? I spent two thousand years on this, so why has so little accumulated? How many wars do you think I started? How unequal do you think I made this country? Why is there so little!?”
Graham, clutching his head in incomprehension, was wide open.
Just as I was about to unleash a true flash, thinking now's my chance.
“You should have said that sooner!”
A familiar voice rang out.
“…The Guide!?”
The Guide, appearing before in tatters, seed to be angry at Graham.
◇
The Guide couldn't help but shout at Graham, who was unable to accept the current situation.
If Graham had designed the capital planet to easily accumulate negative emotions, it made sense to the Guide.
He had thought it was suspicious, what with how comfortable it was and how quickly he recovered after absorbing negative emotions.
Whether he had actually thought it was suspicious was, in itself, suspicious.
Graham looked at the Guide who had suddenly appeared.
He seed to realize they were the sa kind of being, fellow kin who favored negative emotions, but Graham apparently judged the Guide to be his inferior.
“…It seems a gnat has wandered in. It would be easy to blow you away, but first, tell the aning of your words.”
The Guide, having been called a gnat, felt intense anger, but the thought that he had to do sothing about Liam was stronger.
However, being called a gnat made him dislike Graham as well.
So, his response was poor.
“I didn't know you were stockpiling it, so I sucked up all the negative emotions on the capital planet, you i-di-ot!!”
Maybe… maybe Graham could beat Liam! The Guide, whose hopes had been betrayed, was terribly dejected.
“What transcendent being, you fool… That's why you can't beat Liam.”
From the Guide's perspective, there was already no chance of victory.
After all, the Guide himself had been continuously stealing negative emotions from Graham for the past hundred years.
Every ti he was beaten by Liam, he would heal his body on the capital planet and replenish his negative emotions... Furthermore, he had completely drained all the negative emotions for this battle.
Graham was going to lose because of the Guide.
Realizing this, Graham moved to dispose of the Guide before dealing with Liam.
“You were the one who interfered with eee!!”
For the severely weakened Guide, even a Graham who was only on the verge of becoming a transcendent being was a threat.
“Hih!?”
The Guide was about to be blown away by Graham's shockwave... when a certain human beca enraged at the sight.
It was Liam.
“You bastard, what the hell do you think you're doing to my Guide, you piece of shit!!”
Liam had been listening intently to the conversation, but it seed he had reached the limit of his patience, converting his anger into power and preparing to unleash a true flash.
Behind Liam, a giant of light wearing a warrior's mask appeared, puffing out its chest and crossing its arms.
The golden, shining giant was the materialized form of Liam's power, invisible to humans.
As the giant shot a sharp glance at Graham, Liam spoke.
“—Secret Technique: One-Flash.”
The flash unleashed by Liam was clad in golden light.
To the Guide and Graham, it was poison.
And the utterly weakened Guide, just by getting close to that light...
“Ah…”
His body crumbled to pieces, and only his hat was left, blown away.
◇
The true throne was swept away by Liam's flash, and the negative emotions vanished.
Graham desperately tried to reconnect his severed torso, but the power, the exact opposite of negative energy, prevented it from joining.
Reddish-black fluid spilled from his abdon as his strength drained away.
“N-No. I don't want to die. I can't die yet! There are still so many things I want to do. I'm going to hurt people more, toy with them more.”
Graham, barely clinging to life, was already in a state where he couldn't lay a hand on Liam and the others.
Watching him, Liam wore a faint smile.
“…Klaus, Kukuri, Tia, Marie. Let's play a ga together.”
The four of them were bewildered by Liam's suggestion to play a ga.
Liam explained the rules of the ga.
“This room was the Chalice of the Evil God, built with lost technology, was it? It seems to be a device. I thought there were a lot of tasteless-looking ornants, but they must be part of the device… In that case, isn't there a part that stored his body… no, his soul?”
Liam had accurately pinpointed Graham's weakness.
He deduced that there was a part that stored and supported the soul of Graham, who had extended his life by switching bodies.
Hearing that, Marie imdiately sprang into action.
“So we go around destroying this room, and whoever makes Graham disappear is the winner, is that it!”
Not to be outdone by Marie, who was going around destroying the surrounding devices, Kukuri also started moving.
“This looks like it'll be a fun ga!”
Graham watched the two of them rampaging, clutching his stomach and screaming.
“Stop… Please stop! If I lose the device in this state, I'll! I'll!”
Watching the screaming Graham, Tia seed to have identified an important device from the movent of his eyes.
“Oh, could it be this one, perhaps?”
She pierced the device with her rapier and glanced at Graham, but he hadn't disappeared, so she clicked her tongue.
However, it was a major blow to Graham.
“That's the recording device! If you don't repair it quickly, I'll stop being … Quickly! Where's the Pri Minister! Call soone! Now!”
As Graham tried to summon the absent Pri Minister, he saw Klaus, who didn't seem very enthusiastic.
Klaus's inner thoughts could be heard.
(I can't quite get into the mood of everyone else, but if I do nothing, I'll just ruin the atmosphere. I guess I'll destroy this small orb.)
What Klaus chose was a small, marble-like orb.
Graham's eyes widened.
“Don't touch thaaaat!!”
“…Eh?”
Startled by the shout, Klaus dropped the orb and crushed it under his foot.
At that, Graham could no longer maintain his form and began to slowly crumble.
“M-My soul… I'm disappearing… I'm being annihilated… No… I don't want to… disappear… Mommy…”
As Graham faded away, Liam was clapping.
“It seems Klaus hit the jackpot. Congratulations, Klaus! That's without a doubt the greatest contribution.”
“…Eh!?”
It seed Liam had already lost interest in the fading Graham.
Graham watched Liam and was filled with regret.
“If only you weren't here… If only I hadn't laid a hand on you… I would have beco a transcendent being…”
Graham, who vanished as if burning away, didn't even leave ashes behind.
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