PROLOGUE
FELDWAY
Immediately after his loss to Ludora, Feldway ordered Mai—whom he had kept on standby, just in case—to return to the Celestial Palace, their safe base. He was already there, his face contorted in humiliation as he shouted, still wearing his bloody vestments.
“Ludora?! Don’t give me that nonsense!” he snapped. “What kind of ‘hero’ do you claim to be if you couldn’t even protect Lord Veldanava?!”
Those were Feldway’s true feelings on the matter, so enraged was he. He knew Ludora was decently strong, but he had never dreamed that he could be defeated by someone like that once he had Castle Guard. Never in a million years did he expect that the supposedly invincible Castle Guard could be broken—and even if he hadn’t been his usual cautious self, that would’ve been more than enough reason to opt for a retreat. He knew there was no shame in fleeing, but he just couldn’t contain the anger welling up inside him.
As repulsive as this defeat was, it was still not a decisive one. Feldway repeated this to himself, attempting to regain his composure. He wanted to forget about his own loss, instead turning his attention to how the others were faring in battle. Then another unexpected truth shocked him all over again.
(Sir Michael, have you taken care of the demon lord Rimuru?)
That demon lord was his biggest concern now. Feldway wasted no time sending a Thought Communication over to Michael…but there was no response.
…? What’s going on?
Sharing the same skill, Michael and Feldway were essentially one and the same in body and soul. No matter how far apart they were—indeed, even if they were situated in wholly different dimensions—their two wills would never be separated. Such a separation would be possible only if one side was in a situation critical enough that there wasn’t any time to respond to a call…but even then, Michael (unlike Feldway) had a mastery of Parallel Existence and therefore should have been able to revive himself from anything.
So there wasn’t that much reason to panic. Or there shouldn’t have been. But hearing no response whatsoever was unusual.
If time is no longer stopped and operating like usual again, the battle should have been won long ago…
There was no way the demon lord Rimuru would know about their time suspension skills. The moment they used Leon to lure him onto the scene, the mission was already accomplished. And yet…
Feldway’s heart raced as an ominous premonition ran through his mind. And then the message arrived.
Ah…my wish has come true. My only regret, Feldway, is that I must leave you behind as I pass on…
Michael sent the communication to Feldway with the last ounce of strength he could muster before he ceased to exist. Feldway could feel Michael’s power within his own body—but his will was not there. And that meant just one thing: Michael was dead.
“No… Michael’s a Parallel Existence! No matter what situation he’s in, I know he can be revived as long as I’m safe…”
Feldway was distraught enough that he didn’t even try to pretend nothing was amiss. Michael was the first friend he ever made. People like Zarario and Fenn were one thing, but this was a friend of the heart—someone he wouldn’t hesitate to bare his soul to. Cautious as he was, Feldway had always prioritized Michael’s safety, layering plan after plan until he felt absolutely sure he’d be safe.
But there was no sign of Michael coming back. Lord of Justice, Feldway’s ultimate skill, hadn’t disappeared, and Feldway could even feel his manas restoring itself. If he spoke to Michael, he’d receive a response…but there was no sense of self. All that remained was the power to control Michael, Lord of Justice, in its complete form. This wasn’t Michael, Feldway’s friend, who had hoped with his own free will that Veldanava could be revived—this was something fundamentally different. And with that, Feldway had to accept facts. His friend was gone forever.
“Why…? How did this happen?” he wondered out loud, but no one was there to answer him. The unbelievable truth of the event stunned him.
Then he thought about Michael’s last words. His wish had come true? What did that mean? Feldway had no idea, but at least he knew Michael’s final moments weren’t spent in pain. He had found meaning to his life after all, and that at least provided a little solace.
At the same time, however, Feldway couldn’t help but feel jealous.
How is this fair? Having all the satisfaction to himself, then just leaving me behind…
………
……
…
Feldway was alone.
As head of the Seven Primordial Angels, he was in a position of leadership, his shoulders sagging with the weight of responsibility. Consulting someone else never occurred to him, so all decision-making was left to his own will. With Veldanava gone, there was no longer any escape from that pressure. But Feldway continued to stand at the forefront as a leader. He had to, if only so he wouldn’t make anyone else uneasy.
Since he was unilaterally making all these decisions, it was perhaps inevitable that he was largely walled off from his peers. Feldway never really cared what his companions and coworkers thought, which was a fault of his. Over the years, this had led to severe discord, and before Feldway could even realize it, the gears of the machine he oversaw began to fall out of alignment. By that point, the whole group was incohesive at best—Feldway remained unaware of this, for better or for worse…
Fenn, his erstwhile conversational partner, counted as a friend, but not one trustworthy enough to reveal any weakness to. Thus, in the end, despite all the great big worlds out there, no one on any of them could truly understand Feldway enough to heal his mind.
Then Michael appeared. In him, Feldway found a comrade who held the same goals in his heart, as well as a friend he could truly resonate with. Michael completed him, in a way, bringing a kind of joy Feldway had never experienced before. At some point, he became as important to Feldway as Veldanava.
But reality was a cruel thing. This friend he finally acquired—one he felt completely at ease with—had vanished, leaving him behind.
What should I do…?
For the first time in his life, Feldway felt weak.
………
……
…
“Heyyy, Boss, quit actin’ so damn weepy and tell me what I should do next.”
Temporally speaking, it was over in the blink of an eye, but it was true that Feldway found himself stunned. However, Vega—not exactly known for caring about other people’s feelings—paid this no attention when he spoke to him. There was another person, Mai Furuki, but she remained silent as usual as she watched them. Only Vega was as indifferent as ever, and Feldway looked at him, offended.
“Silence,” Feldway spat. “I just lost contact with Michael. Understand that I have no interest in dealing with you right now.”
He hoped this statement would quiet Vega. But Vega was never good at reading people.
“Huh? After all that arrogant crap he spouted, Michael lost? Man, that’s pathetic.”
It was beyond reckless of him to say. It was also more than enough to make Feldway snap.
“I told you to be silent!” he shouted before launching a harsh, aggressive shot of his aura at Vega.
“Damn… That’s crazy…”
The yawning gap between Feldway’s and Vega’s strength was like the distance between Heaven and Earth—it could never be bridged. But even though he knew that, Vega refused to keep his mouth shut.
“Whoa, whoa, Boss. Are you sayin’ I’m wrong or something? It’s about survival of the fittest in this world, ain’t it? All that talk about justice and blah, blah, blah doesn’t mean crap if you die! Prove me wrong!”
The words themselves were intensely incendiary, but that was what Vega really felt—the credo behind every action he took. It was a sound argument, in a way, and also the supreme truth. Regardless, Feldway wasn’t about to agree with him.
“Someone like you should never dare to utter Sir Michael’s name!”
Feldway took a swipe at Vega, hoping to cut off his words that way. But not even that silenced him.
“Hey, what’re you talking about? Look, you didn’t give a damn when that guy Cornu died, and you sat by and looked the other way when I ate Orlia and Arius, yeah? And that’s because you thought I was doing the right thing, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”
He was correct. The news of Cornu’s death didn’t sadden Feldway at all. The failure of his mission had displeased him, but he was too busy thinking about a plan B to dwell on the matter much. That was how he acted toward some of his oldest colleagues, too, and Orlia and Arius were just pawns on the chessboard to him. Nothing about them mattered at all to him. If Vega ate them, well, it’d help him get stronger, at least—that was the almost machinelike response Feldway had to it. He didn’t blame Vega at all for doing that; in fact, he thought it was probably the best thing for his own power.
“Tsk! You and your big mouth…,” he muttered.
“Hee-hee! That’s just how I am.”
Having his mind so clearly read unnerved Feldway a little. So he intimidated Vega some more, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
“What would someone like you understand? We have a higher purpose, you know, and we’re willing to sacrifice anything to achieve it—”
“Shut up!” Vega said, defiantly interrupting Feldway. “You’re sounding like a spoiled brat!”
The pressure around them was so intense that it felt like the space itself was being compressed. It’d be impossible to resist an authority like this, usually, but Vega kept going, furious.
“Besides, everyone knows it’s a cruel world we live in.”
Vega had grown up in a harsh environment, so he knew just how cruel the world was. Feldway found himself falling silent, allowing Vega to speak.
“Yuuki, my old boss, was trying to resist all that cruelty, you know. Looking back, I’m kind of amazed he got that far with what little power he had. But I still believed in that guy. I was all ready to kill him in his sleep if he showed me any weakness…but Yuuki was kinda tricky that way. You saw how he was pretending to be controlled, for example.”
“…So what? Yuuki’s gone too now, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he is. Not even he could do it. When you’re faced with such a huge gap in force, it’s hopeless, no matter how idealistic or righteous you are.”
When he heard Yuuki’s mind was being controlled, Vega was looking forward to making fun of him to his face. But somewhere in his mind, he also saw Yuuki as dangerous. He wrote that off as a habit ingrained over the course of his life, but perhaps his instincts were telling him Yuuki was of sound mind after all. It was a good thing, Vega thought, that he didn’t fully join the bandwagon with him—but when he learned Jahil had killed him, he couldn’t help but sigh. Nothing was ever permanent in this world.
“Any world where we can be happy,” he told Feldway, “is just an illusion, really. We gotta be more honest with ourselves, y’know?”
“Honest?”
“Sure. If survival of the fittest is the unbendable truth we live under, all we have to do is make sure we’re standing on top.”
Might makes right, Vega reaffirmed to himself. No matter how flowery your words, they meant nothing if you couldn’t back them up with action. On the other hand, if you could make what you want happen, you were free to do whatever the hell you liked. As long as you didn’t lose, you were good—and no matter how fiendish the act was, if nobody could take you down, it meant justice was on your side. No matter how much of a natural-born coward you were, if you survived to the end, you won. That was how Vega lived his life.
From that point of view, Michael—now defeated—no longer had any worth. Yet here was Feldway, someone far stronger, mourning this loser. It made little sense.
“Look, Boss, you’re a powerful guy,” Vega said. “Jahil got Yuuki, even, but he couldn’t compare with you. That girl Velzard’s a monster, too, but I still think you could beat her…to say nothin’ of that Michael guy.”
“…”
“So as far as I’m concerned, you’re my boss now, okay? And I’m sure no one’s gonna complain about that.”
As strong as Feldway was, that was a foregone conclusion. Vega didn’t hesitate to make that clear.
“You’re such a simple man, aren’t you?” Feldway told him.
“Hey, butterin’ me up ain’t gonna earn you anything.”
That wasn’t a compliment, Feldway thought with a sigh. But he could also tell the grief of losing Michael was starting to fade a bit. Maybe this was Vega’s way of consoling him—he couldn’t help but think so.
“Power, huh…? As far as that goes, at least, we didn’t lose much of it,” Feldway mused.
Michael was lost, but his power had returned to Feldway. Some of it had vanished for good, but Michael had used the last bit of his strength to entrust that power to him. That, above all, proved just how much he cared about Feldway—and if so, there was no way Feldway would let it go to waste. It might not be right to steal a friend’s power the way Vega had, but what Feldway just did was pretty much the same thing. He had no intention of criticizing Vega to begin with, but just then, Feldway began to feel a sort of kinship with him.
“All right. From now on, I will serve as your king in place of Sir Michael. I swear to all my subjects that I will defend the throne until Lord Veldanava is revived.”
Once Feldway was resolved to that, it was time to take action. He had always lived under Michael’s thumb. He had kept his true form hidden from view because of that, but now there was no more reason to hold back. It was time to unleash everything he had in his true body, kept hidden in another world, so he could fully leverage the power Michael left him.
“It has been a long time since I revealed my true form to anyone,” he said.
Feldway was the first servant Veldanava created, and as such, he looked very much like his creator. While Veldanava had long, jet-black hair infused with the shining radiance of the stars—like the cosmos—Feldway’s was long and silvery-white, like light shining down from above. His almond-shaped eyes shone like blue stars, lending him a look that was more divine than strictly beautiful.
In those eyes now was a determined will of steel. His old self—a bit like a doll or the creation of someone else—seemed laughable by comparison. The way he could be seen as either male or female was unchanged from before, but that was because he was simply too beautiful for words.
This beauty was framed by his tremendous physical presence. All the powers Michael had collected now belonged to Feldway. The manas Michael had authority over contained four angelic ultimate skills—the sole ones beyond his grasp were Raphael, Lord of Wisdom; Uriel, Lord of Vows; and Sariel, Lord of Hope—and all skills associated with them were fully accessible to Feldway. Not only that, the factors of two True Dragons—Velzard and Velgrynd—were infused in his body. In terms of fighting force, Feldway had never been better equipped.
“Dang… You really are a monster…” Vega gasped a bit as he softly spoke. He couldn’t keep the truth from escaping his lips. That was how much of an aura Feldway was emitting. It was like a completely different person.
“Vega, I am now awakened…thanks to you,” Feldway said. “I appreciate the favor.”
“Heh! Don’t worry about it.” Vega laughed, a little embarrassed. But he quickly regained his composure and went back to his usual brazen look. “But don’t forget, okay? I always got my sights on you. I’ll do your bidding now ’cause I know I can’t take you, but if you show me any weakness, I’m gonna grab ya!”
Vega may have said that only to hide his embarrassment, but he meant every word of it, too. Feldway understood that well, but he still happily nodded at it.
“Heh. I’ll look forward to that.”
His smile had a heart-stopping dread to it now, like nothing he had shown before.
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