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Volume 5 Interlude Part 1

Interlude

Krishna was sitting on the shore of a lake in the middle of the forest, thinking about all of the troublesome things that happened recently. He was expecting that the Storyteller Orpheus would betray them and try to separate himself from the rest of 『Uroboros』 at some point, but he would never have expected that his betrayal would come about at such an early stage of the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority, all the more so since Orpheus had a very good reason to stay loyal to 『Uroboros』, for the time being at least.

(Orpheus. . . . we of the 『Uroboros』 are the only ones capable of saving your wife from her illness. You knew about that, and yet, you still decided to go against us, even going so far as to point your blade at me. . .  )

Even for a great hero such as Orpheus, who was famous around the entire world thanks to the legend that described his devotion to his wife, the legend in which he descended into the Underworld to snatch her from the hands of Hades himself only to fail at the very end, the only way to save his beloved was to rely on the power that was not his own, but the one belonging to the prominent figures related to 『Uroboros』. It is precisely because their help was indispensable to him that Krishna assumed that he would never go against them for any sudden, unexpected reasons, so maybe he was planning on doing so from the very beginning and the last night’s events were nothing more but a trigger that finally gave him the push he needed to go through with it?

(The Lost Continent of Atlantis is special even here in Little Garden, because it is essentially isolated from the rest of it. It can be said that this land, which has been summoned along with an entire continent, is the one floating between the two words: that of the Outer World, and that of Little Garden.)

The world of Little Garden is the Third Observable Universe. Even in this extraordinary world which is a gathering spot of various Gods, Demons, Buddhas and all manner of fantastical and mythological creatures there are very few cases of an entire continent being summoned, mainly because the impact on the planet that would lose an amount of mass equal to that of an entire continent in an instant would be immesurable. In the past, such amount of mass has been summoned only on two occasions: during the time of the invasion of the Demon Lord Algol and her army of poisonous monsters and when Taisei, one of the Eight Gods of the Koyomi (caused The Seven Stars to drop down from the sky.

(I would like nothing more than to get in touch with our associates in the Outer World, but for the time being any forms of communication are going to fail. *Sigh* it is such a shame that we did not manage to recover any of the Star Particle research subjects.)

The expression on Krishna’s face became truly painful and disappointed. Ideally he wanted to either kill or recover the black Albino girl, but now that the situation has develop the way it did, achieving either of those objectives is going to be extremely difficult.

When t comes to combat, Krishna himself possessed enough power to deal with both Sakamaki Izayoi and Heracles, but only under the assumption that he would be fighting either of them when they were alone.

However. . . he would never have expected that the opponent he would end up fighting last night is not going to be either Sakamaki Izayoi or Heracles, but the Demon Lord hidden inside the body of Sakamaki Izayoi’s younger brother, Saigo Homura.

(He. . . . Azi-Dahaka said that Saigo Homura is supposed to be his reincarnation and his Avatar. That boy being the Avatar of 『Absolute Evil』? That was something that I could not forsee even with Krishna’s eyes.)

『Absolute Evi』 Azi-Dahaka: one of the 「Final Trials of Mankind」and the strongest of all the Demon Lords in Little Garden, as well as its most renowned God Slayer. Out of all the Demon Lords, all of which are said to have their Divinities linked directly to the process of the destruction of humanity, he was the most notorious and most feared one of them all, possessing a power that has supposedly allowed him to single-handedly kill a million Pantheons of Gods. Azi-Dahaka, the Demon Lord of 『Absolute Evil』 and 「The Final Trial of Mankind」. . . . he was a menace whom no one could ever hope to stand up to. . . . . . at least not until he has been defeated by Sakamaki Izayoi and the 『No Name』 Community three years ago.

(Saigo Homura. . . . .  if he managed to proceed with his research of the Star Particle Bodies, then I can certainly see why he would become 「The Enemy of the World」. Once he realizes just how many lives this project of his will have to consume in order for it to succeed at saving humanity from ruination, he will realize the true depths of despair that the Star Particle Bodies are seeped in.)

The appearance of Azi-Dahaka was something unexpected for Krishna, but not the one that could not have been happened at all, and that is what was the most infuriating about it for Krishna: the fact that he could have predicted that such an outcome was going to take place, and his own immaturity in dealing with it. He should have killed Saigo Homura when he had the chance to do so, but instead, he allowed him to reunite with Sakamaki Izayoi and be protected by him from that point forward, and that was exactly the moment where all of his plans started falling apart. If Sakamaki Izayoi was the only obstacle on his way to eliminating Saigo Homura once and for all then he would not have any problems with it, because, like it has already been said, if it was just Izayoi and no one else, then he could have handled him without any problems, but now that he also has to worry about the possibility of Azi-Dahaka emerging once more to guard him whenever it would strike his fancy, that task is not going to be made any easier.

(. . . But no matter what happens, I cannot afford to lose Sakamaki Izayoi. He is the same 『Origin』 candidate as Kalki. Without them, there would be no more human resource specimens whom we could use to perform further research on Star Particle Bodies.)

Even if it should cost him the loss of everything else, 『Origin』 candidates are one thing that both Krishna and 『Uroboros』 cannot allow themselves to lose. Up until this point Krishna has been hostile towards Sakamaki Izayoi, but now that his viewpoint on him has changed. Instead of someone whom he would rather eliminate to spare himself and his comrades a great deal of trouble and potential headaches, he has become something rare, an irreplaceable resource that they cannot let out of their grasp unless they want all of the progress they managed to make disappear just like that.

(Unfortunately, I think that further encounters on the collision course with Saigo Homura are going to be unavailable, and that means more times where I would be forced to go against Azi-Dahaka once more but . . .as I thought, even though my current strength alone is not going to be enough to defeat him, I have no choice but to do it.)

If Azi-Dahaka lost 「The Final Trial of Mankind」, then he would no longer be able to use 『Avesta』. And without 『Avesta』, even the current Krishna should have a fairly good chance of winning against him.

(And for that. . .  if only I could get Arjuna’s consent. . . . )

「. . . .Krishna? What are you doing here?」

Surprised by being called out to so suddenly, Krishna raised his face while suppressing the bloodlust he was directing towards Saigo Homura and Azi-Dahaka, and summoned his best smile on his face.