Prologue
“This is impossible…… This can’t be!”
An old man with graying white hair.
Makarov Williot, once known throughout the world as an ancient archmage, spoke.
“How could a human possibly…… even a being from the Underworld……?”
“Old men always say things like that.”
For the most part, there was nothing impossible in this world. There were only things people believed to be impossible.
Whoooosh.
“Got anything else to show me?”
The seal of the Underworld, said to be wieldable only by the one who had come closest to death in an entire world.
The symbol of the God of Death.
I pointed at the seal of the Underworld floating in midair and grinned.
“You…… have already stepped beyond the boundaries of humanity. Stop disrupting the laws of this world! You know it yourself, don’t you? This is power that was never meant to be granted to a human!”
“Of course I stopped pretending to be human a long time ago. You were the one who killed me fifty years ago, so what kind of nonsense are you spouting now?”
Those were his last words.
Slash!
Splatter!
As the hand of Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld whom I had summoned, swung through the air, the head of the legendary archmage went flying.
“……If you had handed over the item without a fuss, I might have spared you.”
He was, in his own way, someone necessary for maintaining the balance of the world.
He was an existence who had killed me once, but at this point, I didn’t particularly hate him anymore.
After all, it had been a long time since I had become an existence that had transcended even death.
Anyway, with this, I had finally obtained it.
Whoooosh.
“The Goddess’s Tear.”
A divine artifact said to contain the power of miracles.
With this final ingredient, I could finally fulfill my long-cherished wish.
It took a long time.
An incredibly long time.
Ever since the day I had fallen into this incomprehensible world, I had survived hundreds of brushes with death before finally reaching this place.
I actually died, too.
All because of that damn old man who went on and on about protecting the balance of the world.
Back then, his magic had looked like the majesty of a god, but now, it was no different from a clown’s performance. What an ironic thing that was.
“Cerezia.”
“……Did you call me?”
The so-called Fake Goddess. More precisely, a demigod.
Cerezia, who was worshiped in this world as the Goddess of Harmony.
“We don’t need any more ingredients now, right?”
“No. Yes! Of course not!”
“Why are you grinning like an idiot again? Are you that happy because I’m leaving?”
“N-No. I’m just…… happy that you’ve finally achieved your goal…….”
Of course, by now, she was my loyal subordinate.
It must have been around seventy years after I had fallen into this world when I first met her. She had put on all kinds of airs about being a goddess, but after I had completely stripped her down to her very soul, she had turned into nothing more than a pretty local idiot.
“Tsk.”
When I clicked my tongue, Cerezia flinched.
Come to think of it, I’d suffered more than a few times because of her.
Should I teach her a final lesson in discipline before leaving?
“B-By the way, wouldn’t it be better to start right away? The death energy you’re carrying is so overwhelmingly powerful that there’s a possibility the Goddess’s Tear could become corrupted!”
It was an excuse so obvious I could see right through it, but at this point, I didn’t really care.
After returning to her hideout through teleportation, Cerezia immediately placed me inside the magic circle she had spent decades preparing.
“We’ve obtained the core of the spell formation as well, so I think the transfer itself should succeed without any problems…… But as I said, there will definitely be some kind of side effect. There are records of rulers who once reigned over an entire dimension losing their powers after traveling between dimensions, and so on. I-I definitely warned you, so don’t come back and take your anger out on me if something goes wrong, okay?”
“How many times do I have to tell you? I understand. Our relationship ends here. Cleanly.”
That’s right.
It really was the end.
“Hah.”
At last, the curtain was falling on the long, long years.
Here, on Planet Thebe, a necromancer who had been revered as the Living Death would finally return to the place where he truly belonged.
“Take care.”
“Huh?”
“You’re technically a demigod, so stop letting people beat you up wherever you go.”
“…….”
“To be honest, when I first heard it, I thought you were just saying whatever came to mind to get yourself out of that situation.”
Even so, in the end, I really would be able to return.
“Thank you.”
Whoooosh.
That day.
The Lord of Death who had once dominated an entire era left Planet Thebe.
And then—
“I-If you suddenly say something like that…… it makes me feel a little bad about being mean to you…….”
Cerezia, who had secretly played a little prank on the dimensional transfer magic circle, stared at the empty space left behind by the person who had departed and muttered.
“……Well, if your personality is crooked, I suppose it’s better if at least your appearance is rounder, right?”
And so, one story came to an end.
Some time after the events on Planet Thebe.
The Republic of Korea on Planet Earth.
At a police substation somewhere in its capital, Seoul, a woman muttered in a bewildered voice.
“……Are you really saying that this child claimed that she was her own older brother?”
“Yes! Y-Yes, that’s right. Hunter Baek Seo-ha! She even knew all of Hunter’s personal information.”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward a silver-haired girl curled up in the corner of the police station, wrapped tightly in a blanket and trembling.
“I-I’ll turn you into a skeleton…… How dare you…… threaten the Lord of Death…… hic.”
Refusing all human contact and trembling in terror, her frail appearance was enough to make anyone there feel sorry for her.
“……Let’s hear the details first.”
She was supposedly her older brother, who had died ten years ago.
Thinking that this was yet another troublesome situation, Baek Seo-ha, an A-rank Hunter and a highly promising talent of the current era, muttered to herself.
