Ruler Vol 3 Chapter 25
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Author: Anit666
Editor: Weasalopes
【Azell’s POV】
“W-Why……… Azell?”
“Sam!”
His comrades shouted when they understood the situation. The Commandments took this opportunity and backed off. One of them headed to the other two Commandments who had been decapitated by Samuel, while the last one headed towards Regina’s corpse. Jack, Reishu, Shiggurath and Bahamut too descended from the sky.
“Azell! What are you doing?!”
And Liera screamed, demanding to know just what I was doing here.
But their shouts and screams mean nothing to me now. Things have been set in motion, and no one can stop them.
“Why…… did you betray me, Azell?”
Samuel’s voice, almost a whisper now, implored me to answer his question.
“To right the wrongs of this world.”
And as his assailant, I thought it my duty to enlighten him on the cause of his death.
“Azell! Just what the-”
“Don’t move!”
I shouted at everyone who was making his way towards me to suppress me and save Samuel.
“Make one move, and I’ll kill Samuel right here and now!”
“Isn’t that what you are doing right now?!”
That girl named Chloe screamed at me hysterically. Well, I can see where she is coming from, but she is wrong.
“Oh little girl, I am not killing him. I am just securing him.”
Chloe, and everyone else for that fact, stared at me in confusion and wrath. And as much as I would have liked to make them see just where I was coming from, I unfortunately didn’t have the time to do that.
“Right the wrongs?”
Samuel asked me as he coughed more blood.
“Yes.”
I answered him and injected mana into Resurgent to activate its main ability. Perhaps sensing what I was doing, Samuel’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Are you… khak! Are you going to turn me…….. into those things resembling crystals?”
Oya? He knew about them?
“You knew about them? Splendid! But nay, what I’m doing to you is something entirely different.”
“My fate, is not going to be the same as Susan?”
He asked, almost innocently.
“You knew about that too? I must say that you are one fearsome opponent, Samuel. But how stupid you are, for you failed to prepare countermeasures even after knowing about Susan. That’s why it all ends here. What I have in store for you is entirely different from her. Rejoice! For you are going to be the one to lead humanity to the next stage and return this world to the way it was supposed to be, all according to our Goddess’s wishes.”
I informed him of my grand plan, yet-
“Ah, I see.”
This time, he replied curtly. His demeanour had completely changed: his words didn’t contain any hint of emotions, and the despair swirling in his eyes was not there anymore.
And what remained…….. was a serene smile as the ends of his lips curled upwards.
I don’t understand.
Just how can a smile be so beautiful, yet so malicious?
“Why are you smiling?”
I asked, because something was clearly wrong here. It would be too optimistic to think that he’s smiling because he’s happy about being of use to our cause.
“You know, Azell.”
As he spoke, his voice didn’t contain the disbelief, wrath or sadness from before. As I finally gulped, he continued.
“A betrayal you can see, is trivial.”
What?!
⟦Found you.⟧
The moment he spoke that, a hoarse deep nasty voice reverberated in my mind. The moment it did, my connection to the mana I had sent inside Samuel’s body was cut off, and a vicious pain assaulted my brain.
T-This is…….!
Just when I finally understood what Samuel had done to me, he shouted.
“Do it!”
A chill ran down my spine, and I reflexively pulled out my Resurgent from Samuel’s body to receive the blow. However, the moment I turned around, for some reason, my balance collapsed and I fell down. I tried to cushion my fall with both of my arms, but that was when it dawned on me.
My arm which should have been holding Resurgent was absent.
The moment I became aware of it, a sharp stinging pain assaulted my shoulder, and I couldn’t keep it in and cried out.
“AAAAAGHHH!”
Just what is happening here?! Samuel should have been under my control, so who attacked me and sliced of my arm?! Just what was that voice I heard?!
As if to answer my question, Samuel, with his wound already healed, looked behind me and spoke up.
“For a moment I was afraid that you had actually died.”
And the one who answered him was-
“Hmph! You actually went ahead and almost killed me without even saying anything! Did you expect me to understand everything by myself? What would you have done if I hadn’t woken up on time, huh?!”
It was the Demon King Regina.
“W-What?! But you should be dead!”
“Yeah, I should be. But I am back from the dead. Keeping that aside, so it was you who was manipulating us from behind the scenes, huh?”
“Y-You- AAAAGHHHH!”
I screamed in pain as my left arm was also sliced off, by Liera.
“Ah, Liera. You are late to the party.”
Liera looked in my direction for a moment, spat in disgust and then glared at Samuel in disbelief.
“To think that what Jack practically forced me to believe was in fact the truth. The traitor really was on our side.”
“I still don’t understand how you deduced that.”
Regina chimed in.
“You are welcome.”
Samuel bowed towards both of them slightly with a vicious smile.
“Eh? EHH? Just what is happening here?!”
Chloe exclaimed, but listening itself was becoming too painful for me. If I don’t stop the bleeding soon then my life would be in danger.
“I’ll explain to you later. For now….. yosh.”
Samuel brushed her off, approached me and cast healing magic on my shoulders to stop the bleeding. Due to this, the pain subsided and I could think properly again.
And what arose within me was wrath.
“Liera, you….! How dare you betray me?!”
How dare she go against the teachings of the very Goddess that made her the vanguard of humanity!?
The moment Liera heard my question, her eyes glistened with hatred and she kicked me in the face.
“I betrayed you?! The traitor here is you! YOU were the one who stabbed Susan in the back! YOU were the one who lied to us and manipulated us for your filthy selfish reasons! YOU were the one who made me fight my own comrades! You bastard, I will fucking kill you right now!”
“Whoa whoa, calm down lady….”
Jack appeared out of nowhere and held back Liera.
“Let me go, Jack! I will torture and kill this bastard myself!”
“Please calm down for a minute…..”
Jack said sounding troubled as he patted her head. Liera scowled at him, but before she could open her mouth again, Regina moved.
“You sick fuck, I will kill you right here and now!”
She summoned the Devourer out of thin air and lunged at me, only to be stopped by Samuel as he leapt into her path and stopped her desperately.
“What the fuck is wrong with you violent women? Calm down for a moment, you’ll get the chance to kill him soon enough.”
But there was one thing that I still couldn’t understand. From the way he had been acting till now, he probably knows why I acted the way I did. So why?!
“Samuel! You are the sword of the Goddess Phiria! You were granted your powers by her! Why are you siding with these filthy demons?!”
“Filthy?”
Samuel cocked his head in puzzlement.
“Yes, filthy! These filths that have deviated from the path Phiria laid for this world are inferior to us humans and must be eliminated! Only then will the world go on its right path!”
“Aaaaah, I see.”
But he just exclaimed in understanding.
“I now have a full understanding of your motives. You were most probably trying to use a really large-scale magic spell to wipe out demons from this world, correct? And I was just a catalyst for it.”
If he understands this much then why?!
“But tell me, why do you have such a misconception? Who told you that the demons were inferior to humans?”
“The Goddess did, who else?!”
His brows furrowed.
“Phiria told you that the demons are inferior to humans? There’s no way in hell she would do that.”
“Shut up! Just what do you know?! We humans were the chosen ones who had been created by the Goddess of Life, but the demons were created by some unknown filthy Demon God! As such, they go against our Goddess’ creed: they are filth polluting our world! They must be eliminated!”
But Samuel eyes looked at me with pity and he shook his head in disappointment.
“So you are saying that the Goddess Phiria personally tasked you with the job of making demons extinct, and all the evils you had committed till now were for that very cause.”
“Yes! You finally understand! Then-”
“Hmph, you sure are very egoistic. I’m sure Phiria would never do such a thing. But why should you believe me? I’ll let you ask her directly.”
Huh?
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