Chapter 258: True Enemies and True Allies

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 something, clinging like years of neglected filth…

Tia, who was waiting behind me, tried to step forward with her weapon drawn, but her legs were frozen in place.

“Lord Liam, please step back. He… something is wrong with him.”

Klaus stepped in front of me with his longsword drawn, intending to act as my shield.

“He has become something that can no longer be called human. Please, get back!”

Their assessment was correct.

Marie and Kukuri also gritted their teeth, stood up, and tried to move in front of me.

Watching them, even a villain like me can’t help but be a little moved.

“I can appreciate your devotion, but this is something like a duty for a swordsman of the One-Flash style. Don’t make me repeat myself. Stand back and watch.”

When I gave the order to stand down without argument, Klaus turned back, his eyes wide… then he resignedly stepped behind me.

I’m glad he seemed 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 some time.

“I’ve lived a long time, but I’ve never heard of the One-Flash style. I never imagined it would be such a troublesome sword art. My head won’t reattach properly.”

Despite saying that, he somehow 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 pommel with my right hand, and Graham’s head went flying once more.

The head, which had flown backward, widened its eyes for a moment 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.

“Someone 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 someone stronger than you?”

“…You’re quite impudent. A far cry from Alistair.”

My great-grandfather’s name keeps coming up, but to me, he’s no different from a stranger whose name I just happen to know.

It’s just that Brian brings up my great-grandfather’s name 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 mere fastidiousness.

It’s like you can’t even manage to complete your evil deeds within your lifetime, never feeling like you’ve truly exhausted the limits of evil, just wasting your time meaninglessly.

“Are the things you do with your needlessly extended life just mere 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 me looks like nothing more than a second-rate fool.

Graham clumsily picked up his head, forcefully reattached it to his body, and glared at me.

“…Don’t mess with me. 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 me second-rate?”

“You’re third-rate trash, aren’t you? After all, you’re being cornered by me like this.”

For the third time, 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 mere human to mock me, 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-smelling 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 me with a face full of intense rage.

“…I no longer need a vessel. As of today, I will become a true transcendent being. When that happens, I will become 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 immediately wavered, becoming like a flame 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 moment! …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 seemed to be a cursed liquid called Cursed Star Poison, but something 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 seemed to have become 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 me in tatters, seemed 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 seemed to realize they were the same 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 me the meaning of your words.”

The Guide, having been called a gnat, felt intense anger, but the thought that he had to do something 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 time 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 meeee!!”

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 became 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 seemed 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 abdomen 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 game together.”

The four of them were bewildered by Liam’s suggestion to play a game.

Liam explained the rules of the game.

“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 ornaments, 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 immediately 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 game!”

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 seemed to have identified an important device from the movement 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 me… Quickly! Where’s the Prime Minister! Call someone! Now!”

As Graham tried to summon the absent Prime 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 seemed 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 become a transcendent being…”

Graham, who vanished as if burning away, didn’t even leave ashes behind.

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