Velosian trembled as if struck by lightning and shouted,

“My core? As if I would tell you that!”

“You’re dropping formal speech now? Should have done that from the start.”

I replied flatly.

‘Bion. What is this guy’s core?’

<One moment.>

Tak.

Bion displayed the Eye of Omniscience.

No need to mention any levels or clearance ranks for this secret, there was no point. I could now see through all secrets.

In the stopped flow of time, I checked Velosian’s core and let out a low whistle of surprise.

“Huh. Didn’t expect that.”

The screen vanished, and time began to move again.

I said to Velosian,

“You’re better than I thought.”

“W-what…?”

“Heroes.”

I turned lightly toward everyone.

“Would you take a walk with me for a bit?”

From the First to the Fourth generation.

Eighteen heroes and champions in total.

‘Including my party, myself, and Trail… that makes twenty-six, huh.’

<Don’t forget me.>

Anyway, with this many people moving together, we should have been caught long ago. But thanks to the late hour and Neril’s magic, not a single soul noticed us.

Adwin spoke.

“We called everyone at once because doing interviews one by one would take forever. This kind of ruins the point.”

“Sorry. Tiring?”

“Heh. Who do you think I am?”

“You look fine. I was going to finish early, but it turned out like this. Velosian has to die before Aktion.”

Neril nodded.

“Right. If you kill Aktion first, you will be punished by the world’s law.”

“Then you wouldn’t be able to kill Velosian at all. But Impelium said killing Velosian doesn’t invoke any penalties, right?”

“Yeah. Apparently Demon Kings can be killed as much as we want.”

At the sound of his name, Velosian reacted.

“Urgh… mmph!”

He let out a muffled noise.

He was bound tightly from head to toe by Neril’s magical chains. The chains had even wrapped around his mouth, leaving him unable to assert himself in any way.

Xenia, for some reason, spoke with a distant look.

“Did we really almost die to that thing long ago?”

“Did that happen?”

“I don’t quite remember.”

“Of course you don’t, Serein. You were on the brink of death back then.”

“Lisel was so worried at the time… right, Lisel?”

Incidentally, Lisel was currently glued to Grade’s side.

“Huh? What was that?”

“Never mind, carry on.”

“I…I wasn’t doing anything though.”

Anyway, the whole mood felt like a group taking a late-night walk because no one could sleep.

I nudged Velosian with my foot.

“Looks like you’re the only serious one here. Not that you’re really a person.”

“Mmph.”

“Got something to say?”

He nodded vigorously.

I glanced at Neril.

She didn’t look pleased, but she released the restraint around his mouth only.

“Kh… Mide, are you planning to break your promise?”

“So you’re just going to drop honorifics from now on, huh?”

“You’re a hero, aren’t you? Even if it’s a promise with a Demon King, to trample it underfoot in a single day…”

“Hey, Velosian.”

I leaned in close to his face.

“How many people have you deceived in your life?”

“…”

“Did you ever once feel guilty toward the people you tricked?”

“…”

“You didn’t, did you?”

I smirked faintly.

“Then neither do I.”

We arrived in the underground of the Imperial Palace.

The endless rows of white doors gleamed in the pale light.

From what I had learned during the meeting with Impelium, these doors were like tunnels dug to escape the “special room” prison.

Velosian had created these white doors, imitations of that room, in his desperate attempt to reach the “world of Mide.”

At the time, I had thought he had simply gone through a lot of effort.

Now, I saw it differently.

I told the heroes and champions,

“These doors are Velosian’s core.”

“……?”

Everyone’s faces filled with question marks.

But Velosian, lowering his head, silently acknowledged it was true.

Neril asked,

“Wasn’t Velosian trapped inside the special room?”

“At first, yes. But he worked with Aktion to find a way out.”

“……”

“As you know, the special room is the world gifted to Aktion, while the one we live in is Mide’s world. They are entirely separate realms that should never overlap.”

“……”

“But Aktion had the special ability to cross between worlds.”

That’s how he had been able to roam freely through Mide’s world, shifting from body to body.

Until Impelium defeated him and forced him back into his own realm.

“He must have taught that method to Velosian.”

“I see.”

“Velosian kept splitting his core, these white doors, in search of a way to connect to Mide’s world. In other words, these doors are Velosian himself.”

Each door here was like a tunnel he had dug in an escape attempt.

“The most successful of them was the one connected to the underground of the Imperial Palace, the one we used.”

“……”

“The door where we met Grade.”

Grade frowned deeply, clearly displeased.

Lisel gently soothed him and asked,

“What do you mean by ‘most successful’?”

“Through that door, he could emerge into Mide’s world with the greatest amount of power. Still far weaker than his true body, but comparatively strong.”

Even after that, Velosian had continued splitting his core, focusing on creating “better doors.”

Some of those connected to the weapon vault where Dame’s sword was kept.

Sometimes to the kitchen where Serein’s parents once dined.

Sometimes to the altar where Lisel’s trumpet rested.

Sometimes to the plains where Beyond’s massive searching magic circle was drawn.

And sometimes to the place where Leon researched necromancy.

“But none of those were as efficient as the one beneath the Palace.”

“Right. So Velosian concentrated the power divided among the other doors into that single one. Because of that, all the other doors became disconnected from Mide’s world and froze in their original states.”

That was why Serein’s parents had endless meals, and Dame’s sword remained unbroken and pristine.

Anyway, the explanation was done.

The heroes and champions simply stared down at Velosian, who squirmed on the floor like an insect, bound tightly by Neril’s chains.

“Neril, release him.”

“Alright.”

Clatter.

As the magic lifted, Velosian looked up at me.

I said,

“Choose.”

“Choose what?”

“Whether you will die fighting or die quietly.”

Velosian, stunned, said nothing.

I slowly gripped my sword.

“I will give you five seconds.”

Mide Mohan began counting.

“One.”

Exactly five seconds.

And in the very first second, Velosian felt a terror unlike anything he had ever known.

A fear greater than what even Impelium had made him feel.

‘Wh-what is Mide’s fame right now?’

He couldn’t check fame as easily as Aktion could, but judging by rough estimation, it had to be nearly twice that of Impelium at his prime.

He himself hadn’t even been a match for Impelium.

So if Mide was nearly twice as strong as that.

‘Damn it. I never should have handed over the former heroes’ fame.’

He had been mistaken.

He had never imagined the previous generations of heroes and champions would permanently pass their fame on to Mide.

For a hero, fame was worth more than life itself.

So of course, he had assumed they had merely lend it temporarily, just until Aktion was slain.

‘But what did they say? They would just… give it away?’

If those heroes and champions, now watching with folded arms, hadn’t completely transferred their fame…

Then maybe, just maybe, he could have survived.

At least until after Mide’s death.

Why in the world had they made such an absurd choice?

“Four.”

When Mide counted the number four, Velosian’s mind began spinning at breakneck speed.

Two options.

Die fighting, or die quietly.

He already knew he couldn’t win if he fought.

But to simply die? Just like that?

My dream…

What about my dream of becoming a demon god?

“Three.”

When Mide said three, rage erupted within Velosian.

How had it come to this?

Why was he the one who had to die like this?

At first, he had wanted nothing more than to survive.

Velosian had always known that every Demon King before him had fallen to a hero’s blade, so above all, his focus had been on living.

But then came Aktion.

After meeting him, his dream had changed.

Aktion’s whispered ambition.

Why must every Demon King crawl at the heroes’ feet?

If this land were filled with Demon Kings, and he stood as their supreme ruler, wouldn’t he finally escape such a pitiful existence?

Aktion’s goal had slowly become Velosian’s most precious, irreplaceable dream.

“Two.”

Ah…

No time, no time!

This wasn’t the moment to lose himself in nostalgia.

‘Should I fight? Or just die?’

Rage gave way to regret.

He should have walked away the moment he realized Impelium was involved.

Aktion seemed to know more about Mide… he should have pressed him harder.

Why had he been so arrogant to think he held the advantage?

Why had he ever joined hands with a fool like Kaeld?

No, why…

Why had he dreamed of becoming a demon god in the first place?

He had known this world was built so that Demon Kings could never win.

“One.”

Aaaah….

Aaaaaaahhh!

No, no…

Please. Please spare me.

I don’t want to die.

I can’t die like this.

‘Wait!’

Mide had only given him two choices, right?

To die fighting, or die quietly.

But was there no third choice?

No, there had to be.

‘Beg. Just beg for your life.’

Beg him to spare you.

No, that’s too pathetic.

But still, I have to live. I have to survive first, only then can I try anything.

Maybe I should just die cleanly. Face death calmly like the Demon Kings before me.

No… no! I want to live!

Velosian’s mind was splitting apart.

Mide’s lips moved.

It was decided.

He could no longer bear to show such disgrace before the heroes and their comrades who were watching.

He would die quietly. Peacefully.

Accept this defeat and close his eyes.

That’s what he meant to do.

“P-please! Spare me! Spare meee!”

“Done.”

Mide’s sword became a storm.

In an instant, that blade tore through space itself, shattering every single door.

Kwagwagwang! Kwa-gagang!

“Ah…”

The light faded from Velosian’s eyes.

Damn it.

‘What… what did I just scream?’

Before he knew it, every door had been destroyed.

Only one remained, the one connected to the Imperial Palace’s underground.

He clearly saw Mide’s sword fly straight toward it.

Velosian coughed blood and spoke his final words.

“Spare… me…”

KWAANG!

And as the last door shattered…

Fsshh.

Velosian’s body turned to ash and scattered away.

Clink.

I sheathed my sword.

By destroying the final white door connected to the underground, Velosian had been completely erased.

Grade, who had been silently watching, let out a whistle.

“Took you less than a second, didn’t it? To destroy every door in here.”

“Did it?”

“You’re not even a hero anymore, huh.”

“That’s an odd way of complimenting someone.”

Leon snickered for some reason and said,

“Oh, right. How do we get out? You destroyed the door that led to the palace too.”

“Look around and tell me where we are first.”

At that, not just Leon but everyone else began to glance around.

One by one, they murmured in disbelief.

“We are… outside.”

“It’s the Imperial Palace.”

“Ah, there’s a door!”

“There is only… one left.”

I nodded.

“That’s the special room. By destroying all the other doors, only Aktion’s world remains.”

When I had checked Velosian’s core through the Eye of Omniscience, I had already seen what would happen if all the white doors were destroyed.

I probably should have explained that earlier.

“From the start, Aktion was linking that red door to different worlds, his own and those gifted to other heroes.”

“……”

“He kept that up for about forty thousand years, and about ten thousand years ago, the world he linked to was this one, Mide’s world.”

“Hm. Doesn’t look red.”

“Sorry, what?”

Neril smiled faintly.

“It’s still not red. That door.”

“I-it’s not?”

“At first, I thought only heroes could perceive the special room as red. But since even the previous heroes saw it as white, that can’t be it.”

Then a system window appeared with a pop.

<Of course. Only Lord Mide can properly perceive the special room, because he is…. well, was the master of the world.>

“……”

<The red door means your world is under attack. Those who aren’t world masters don’t need that warning, so they can’t see it.>

So that’s how it was.

I scratched my head.

Then returned to the matter at hand.

“Anyway, as I said earlier, Velosian struggled to connect his white doors to Mide’s world while keeping his true power intact.”

“……”

“Now that Velosian is gone, only the original red door remains.”

“Got it,” Lepia said playfully.

She had that strange knack for lightening heavy moods.

Probably not as a hero, but simply as Lepia herself.

“So what now? Are we going to storm into that special room and kill Aktion too?”

“Hmm. One moment.”

I stepped toward the chamber and grasped the doorknob.

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