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CHAPTER 275 – THE GRAND THEATRE OF MAD ELEGANCE AND COUNTLESS SINS ~ SECOND ACT ~

 

Before my eyes, my comrades were burning.

No—that isn’t right. I know better.

This was an illusion, a ‘performance’ staged by Zoa.

Nothing more than a piece of stagecraft… a fabricated scene.

…but that doesn’t matter!

 

「…He…help me, Aun.」
「Ah… Aun-sama, forgive…me…」
「Guuh… Gaaahhh…」
「Ugh…hck…」

The screams of Kinu as fire engulfed her.

The vacant eyes of Shinku, who had abandoned the will to live.

The grinding teeth of Drake, trembling with rage.

The quivering voice of Nelfie, smothering her fear.

「I said… cut it out already, damn youuuu!!」

I roared, scraping the words out of my throat, but nothing changed.

From the crown of my head to the tips of my toes, I felt the blood drain away as though my body were being frozen solid.

Again.

Just like back then—something precious is being torn from me, and I’m powerless to stop it.

Strength left my legs, and my knees hit the floor without resistance. My breaths grew shallow and ragged, my fingertips beginning to tingle with numbness.

「No… I don’t want this…」

The words slipped out. It took me several seconds to realize they had come from my own mouth.

As though he’d been waiting for just that, Zoa let his presence melt away like mist.

Then, when the air stilled—A breath grazed the nape of my neck.

He was behind me before I knew it, whispering into my ear like a line delivered on stage.

「‘Powerlessness’… that’s the very first piece that makes you who you are, isn’t it?」

The voice was a sneer clad in reason. A sound chosen only to drop a spark deep into the tinder of my emotions.

Not words, but intent, stabbed into my heart.

The moment I understood, something inside me snapped apart with an audible crack.

 

Heat welled in my frozen core, until my chest blazed like fire. My heartbeat thundered like rolling stormclouds, and my vision was rimmed in red-black.

「…Ahh, that’s right. That’s what I was.」

What rose unbidden in my mind was the memory of myself before I became a zombie.

The weak man who could do nothing, who was on the verge of giving up everything.

Deceived, discarded, cutting himself off from others… And yet still hurting, still lonely… Yearning for a bond of true trust, yet unable to take that first step.

Afraid of being tricked.

Afraid of being rejected.

Afraid of being betrayed.

But once I died, once I lost so much—even my humanity itself—

Paradoxically, I was freed.

Becoming a Dungeon Master, forging a bond with Ars, I was released from those thoughts that had shackled me like a curse.

Meeting Kinu.

Meeting Ils.

Meeting Barbaru.

Meeting Shinku, Drake, and Nelfie.

The encounters with so many companions, the warm times we shared— They made me realize I had already regained the things I thought forever lost.

The strength I built up step by step through countless evolutions.

The battles fought back-to-back with comrades I trusted with my life.

The genuine smiles we shared, laughing over little, foolish things.

All of it—everything I wanted to protect.

At the root of my power, my true reason shouted in my skull loud enough to drown out thought.

 

「Even if it’s a false image. Even if it’s nothing more than a fleeting illusion…!! No one… no one will take away what’s precious to me ever again!! Anyone who dares rob them of their smiles… I’ll judge them all myself!!!」

 

At that instant, searing pain lanced through me— And with it came a voice I hadn’t heard in a long time, flooding into my head.

≪All evolution conditions fulfilled. Commencing Special Evolution—transition to 【Enma Ruler】≫

My eyes opened before I realized they’d been shut.

The ceiling split apart above me, and a bolt of black lightning crashed down, spearing through the figure of myself standing on stage.

The blast shook the theatre walls, warping the very air as overwhelming energy raged across the stage.

My body brimmed with so much mana it threatened to burst me apart. The black lightning coursing wildly around me seemed to mirror my heart’s own fury.

My chest burned hot as an inferno, yet my fingers and head were cold as ice—Every nerve sharpened to a cutting edge.

And with that clarity, I knew.

Something within me had awakened.

Mana, and will.

 

(No matter what happens… I’ll protect my comrades, my family, everyone’s smiles.

For that—I’ll…)

 

≪Special Evolution of individual: Doumeki Aun complete≫

 

「For that—I’ll devour anything and everything I must!!」

For the first time, Zoa’s smug composure cracked, his eyes narrowing. In the stands, the shadowy audience recoiled all at once, fear in their movements. This was a scene unscripted in the play.

「Marvelous… utterly marvelous!! The ‘Judging Black Thunder’ that arrogantly slays all foes! To feed upon even the ambient mana itself in order to claim that energy whole…」

But he faltered, tilting his head as he stared at me.

「…Ho. That torrent of mana… no, the essence within: ‘to devour.’ …I see.」

A grin, cold and knowing, twisted his lips.

「So it is true—you carry the blood of Doumeki strongly indeed.」

He must have been appraising me from the moment I entered this dungeon.
Even my new race, even my evolution—he knew it all.

「Then let us draw the curtain at last. Come—「Finale 」. Let us begin the end of the play!!」

Zoa spread his arms wide.

Out of the darkness, multiple ‘actors’ appeared—Each a shadow molded from fear and weakness, masses of concentrated mana.

But I no longer had any reason to fear.

「Fine. I’ll play along with your little script… and crush the whole damn lot while I’m at it.」

Lightning raged around me, streaming down my spine into my core. My eyes lit with thunder, my voice growling like it rose from the earth.

「The final curtain, huh… Then let’s make this climax one hell of a spectacle.」

The storm of feelings that had been tearing at me was now strangely calm. I knew what I wanted, what I had to do.

First, I would show Zoa my strength. By obeying my heart… and bringing judgment down upon the ‘sins’ that stood against me.