Fremd Torturchen - Volume 9 - Chapter 11

11

And with That, the World

It was a tale from long, long ago.

There once was a boy who was brutally killed by another, and there once was a monster who cruelly killed others.

Or perhaps there was a child who was abandoned by his parents and a sinner who was abandoned by the world.

By now, there was nobody left who knew how they spent their days.

But the sinner was fine with that.

The two of them used to be together.

That was enough for her.

But that was a big fat lie.

In truth, she had a wish.

A single, glimmering, starlike wish.

For the sinner wanted,

once,

even just once would do,

to see the boy again.

The black cloak flapped away.

When it did, it left behind a familiar figure dressed in a military uniform.

His faded brown hair was tied up short in the back, and he had a boyish face and was short of stature. He was also underweight, and his growth had clearly been stunted.

There was the person who had sacrificed himself to save the world.

It was, without a doubt, Kaito Sena.

He surveyed his surroundings with a quiet confidence. It was then that Elisabeth realized something odd about him.

The amount of mana Kaito had in his body was far greater than it had been before.

He had surpassed the point he’d been at when they called him the Mad King.

In fact, given the state he’d reached…

…he can no longer be considered human.

“Sorry for the wait, Elisabeth. I was gathering the pain of all God’s creations, using Diablo to convert it into mana, and transferring it all into my immortal body inside the crystal. I only just got the full amount I needed. Now I have complete mastery over God.”

Kaito Sena’s tone was calm as he spoke that unbelievable truth. Elisabeth gasped.

In a sense, it was the same as the method she’d conceived of to sever their world’s connection to God and Diablo. However, she never imagined that Kaito Sena himself would be the one to attain full control over God.

Elisabeth found herself at a loss for words.

Meanwhile, Kaito Sena snapped his fingers.

It took Elisabeth a moment to realize what had happened. All traces of Diablo, including the ones in her own flesh, had vanished from the world. The ousted demon grandchildren had no doubt suffered the same fate. Kaito had forced God to recognize all of Diablo’s acts of violence, including the lesser demons’ acts of destruction, as “destruction carried out before the reconstruction.”

As such, God had rejected Diablo and expelled it from the world.

It was an unthinkably grand feat, and Kaito had pulled it off with a snap of his fingers. And yet in spite of that, Elisabeth wasn’t dead.

Kaito had swapped out her demonic flesh for completely normal flesh that still generated enough mana to sustain her vital functions.

No mere mage could have pulled off a feat like that.

At that point, Elisabeth came back to her senses. She lashed out at Kaito Sena. “You utter fool! Nobody asked you to go that far! Nobody asked you to shoulder all that!”

“I mean, you say that, Elisabeth, but you’re pretty beat to hell yourself. I gotta say, it’s not like you. Here.”

Kaito Sena snapped his fingers again, and all the wounds on Elisabeth’s body vanished in an instant. She blinked. It was only then that she belatedly realized that, at the moment, God and the world loved Kaito Sena with all their heart.

In fact, he and God were now one and the same. His smile was the same as ever, but Kaito was something more than human. He had ascended in every sense of the word.

A smidgen of despair flitted through Elisabeth’s mind, but her thoughts were soon interrupted.

“Why… I was supposed to be powerful… You’re Kaito Sena! You’re Kaito Sena, right?! What did you do?!” Alice screamed. Her voice was filled with a mix of awe and dread. Kaito quietly returned her gaze. He closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded, as though he’d just learned everything there was to know about her. “The Fremd Torturchen, Alice Carroll, Sara Yuuki… Ah.”

“See, you got to see him! You got to see him, Elisabeth. So why… Why? Why is it just me… Father, FAAAAATHER!”

“You don’t even understand the weight of your sins, do you?” Kaito remarked. “I can’t just kill you. Killing you wouldn’t resolve anything. So instead, let’s do this.”

Kaito Sena snapped his fingers once more. The moment he did, Alice’s golem body was transformed into a human one, and all her mana faded away. However, she didn’t have a chance to get startled by her transformation. The next moment, she vanished altogether.

Alice had been sent somewhere else.

Elisabeth’s eyes went wide. That “somewhere else” wasn’t even in their world.

Kaito’s new influence even extended to other worlds.

As he performed this outrageous feat, he chose—for some reason—to wipe some dust off his uniform. “All right, next up…” He scratched his cheek, then nodded. A long sword dropped into his hand.

The inscription etched in its blade seared itself into Elisabeth’s eyes.

“All things are pardoned unto me. But I am ruled by none.”

Elisabeth was struck by a terrible premonition. She shouted at Kaito once more. “Kaito, wait! What exactly are you intending to do?!”

“…Ah, right. I should’ve figured you’d notice.”

Kaito smiled awkwardly. Seeing that made Elisabeth feel like she’d just been stabbed in the chest. His smile hadn’t changed a bit. Despite all the changes he’d gone through, he was still the same person.

He was, and would always be, her foolish servant.

For even with all that power, Kaito Sena was just Kaito Sena.

And because of that, she needed to stop him.

She faced him and ran her mouth a mile a minute. “I shan’t allow it. Not after you only just got free of that crystal. I shan’t allow it, not on my life.”

“But you get it, don’t you, Elisabeth? People have been freed from Diablo’s influence. And I’ve ordered God not to begin the reconstruction, but…as long as I’m around, someone’s always gonna show up who tries to use me for evil. Either that or I’ll just end up becoming this world’s new god.” Kaito paused for a moment. Elisabeth could all too easily imagine things playing out that way. People would doubtless flock to him and revere him in God’s place. He gave his head a sad shake. “I’d just as soon avoid that whole mess. No good can come of having higher entities remain here.”

“Perhaps…but…why would you go to such lengths to protect this world?!”

“Well, that’s an easy one. Isn’t it obvious?”

Kaito smiled gently, just like he had the last time.

He was the strongest person in the world. He had surpassed even God.

And yet with a look of utmost admiration in his eyes,

“It’s because you live here, Elisabeth.”

“What do you intend to do about your promise?!”

Elisabeth shouted the same thing she had once before. She grabbed his hand tight, desperate not to let it go. Kaito Sena could have shaken her off with ease, but he stayed put.

She went on, shouting so hard she was liable to hurt her throat. “You told me, did you not?! You said you would remain by my side! You and you alone!”

“And hey, you bringing me back to life and summoning me here must have been some kind of fate… So until you start walking the road to Hell, I’ll try and stick by your side for as long as I can, even if I’m the only one.”

It was a promise the two of them had exchanged long ago.

Throughout Elisabeth Le Fanu’s bloody life, she was accompanied by a single foolish servant.

The two of them had thought that sounded just fine.

“Don’t worry,” Kaito had once said. “I plan on keeping it.” And after preventing the reconstruction, he had gone to his slumber inside the crystal. The fact that he was shouldering the weight of the world meant that he wasn’t even able to die. That had been his way of staying by Elisabeth’s side.

But now all he said was,

“I’m sorry.”

With that, Kaito Sena spun his sword around and laid its slender blade against his own neck.

He spoke in the voice of a person waving good-bye.

“Good-bye, Elisabeth. I love you.”

And with that statement, full of an almost-childlike tenderness,

Kaito Sena sliced open his artery.

With the death of their contractor, God and Diablo vanished.

Now their ability to interfere with the world was sealed away,

and a blinding light seared Elisabeth’s gaze. Tears gushed from her eyes and sprayed through the air. Her body felt like it was burning. Yet she refused to release that hand. She refused, in no uncertain terms, to let go.

Then she could see nothing,

and with that, the world was well and truly saved.

And they all lived happily ever after.