Zion tilted his head, looking at the man on the throne. He had a strange feeling that he had seen him somewhere before.
"For sure… did you say his name was Vincent?" Zion wondered out loud.
As they walked across the fancy carpet, Arius explained in a low voice.
"The image of this person is projected from Shirone's mind. A person's critical conscience is heavily influenced by their father. Normally, it should be strong enough to control a person's selfish desires."
The man on the throne, Ignite, greeted them with a powerful and scary smile.
"So, do you have a special medicine that can cure me?" he asked.
His question was so shocking that Arius was silent for a moment. He felt a powerful intimidation, as if a mighty beast was standing right in front of him.
'This is unbelievable. Is this really his critical conscience in a weakened state?' Arius thought.
Usually, when people are faced with death, this critical part of their mind shuts down. But Ignite was still radiating a strong, unshaken energy.
'I can't help but admire this.'
Arius had explored the minds of many people, but he had never seen a critical conscience this strong. It was like a steel wall that never let its guard down. This was also the reason why people said Shirone had the potential to become a top-tier mage.
Zion snorted and said rudely, "Are you just bluffing when you're about to die? What an unlucky guy."
Arius thought about how weak Zion's own critical conscience must be in comparison.
"There is no medicine that can cure my illness," Ignite declared. "Because this world is already sick. Now, tell me, why have you come to see me? I will let your first lie pass, but from now on, you must tell me the truth."
Arius knew that a clumsy lie would never work on Ignite, the ruler of reason. So, he decided to be completely honest.
"We must kill Shirone," Arius stated plainly.
The moment he said this, the soldiers lined up in the room all turned and glared at Arius at the exact same time. However, because they were under Ignite's control, they did not turn into the wild Egoists.
"Why should I do that?" Ignite asked, his voice booming.
He lifted the huge axe that was leaning against his chair. He lifted it with just one hand, showing his incredible strength. The moment he gripped the weapon, the air in the room became heavy, squeezing the two men's chests like an iron bar.
Zion was so terrified that he immediately summoned his Diamond Armament. The magical sword split into many pieces and surrounded his body like a suit of glowing armor. At the same time, Ignite's soldiers all raised their weapons, ready to attack.
Arius let out a sigh of annoyance. He needed Zion's help to achieve his goal, so he decided to abandon his careful plan and use force instead.
"Please stop for a moment," Arius said to Zion. "It will be over soon."
"What are you going to do?" Zion asked nervously.
Arius walked straight towards Ignite. A bluish light began to glow in his palm. It was the light of a spirit-type magic spell called Confuse.
"… … You have to go into mental remodeling," Arius said, reaching out his hand.
"Cough! Cough!"
Shirone and his friends stumbled out of the doorway leading from the seventh level, coughing from the horrible smell. The stench from the landfill was stuck in their brains, and they felt like they could still smell it.
But things were not any better here. Shirone, Amy, Reina, and Armin froze in front of the door, their faces filled with shock and horror.
The floor of the big square was covered with dead bodies, all with their heads blown off. People were falling from the rooftops as if it were raining bodies.
On the ground, citizens were fighting each other, hitting and beating each other as if they wanted to kill one another. Even though they knew it wasn't completely real, it was the most terrifying scene they had ever seen.
Armin watched the situation with a very serious face.
He knew that if the world's destruction had reached this extreme level, it meant that the enemy, Xenoger, was strangling Shirone's mind faster than he had expected.
While Armin was sadly watching the world being destroyed, Shirone suddenly made a fierce expression. He mischievously reached out and tugged at Amy's hair, as she was standing in front of him.
"Ouch!" Amy yelped.
She turned around with a puzzled look on her face.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Don't stand in front of me. I can't see," Shirone said grumpily.
Amy pursed her lips, feeling a little hurt.
She didn't understand why Shirone, who was usually so kind to others, was acting this way only toward her. She felt like hitting him because it made her angry, but she remembered the promise she made to herself before meeting Hwa-sin, and she controlled her temper.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Amy said with a shrug as she turned back around.
Her calm reaction actually made Shirone feel confused.
He knew she was a good person and on his side. So why did he feel so irritated?
"Why did you come to rescue me?" Shirone asked from behind her.
Amy flinched at his question. But she didn't turn back around. After thinking for a moment, she gave a short answer.
"Because we are friends."
Those words pulled a terrible memory from Shirone's mind. It was a memory like a nightmare.
In it, the world was turning upside down and his body felt like it was burning. He saw Amy tied up against a wall like a cocoon. He didn't know what was happening, but the feeling was extremely unpleasant.
"But you… … You couldn't save me," Shirone said, his voice low.
Amy bowed her head sadly.
'Is he still thinking about that? Does Shirone hate me for being weak and not being able to help him?' she wondered.
"Shirone, that… … ," Amy started to say as she turned around to explain.
But at that very moment, a wild Egoist rose up right in front of her eyes! She hurriedly jumped back, and Arius and Reina also quickly moved away.
The people in the square whose heads had exploded were now turning into Egoists one by one. They began to surround Shirone, forming a living wall around him.
Reina looked back at Armin and asked, her voice full of fear, "How did this happen?"
"Avoid!" Armin shouted.
Amy quickly grabbed Reina by the waist and threw both of them back through the doorway to the seventh level. As Reina turned her head, she saw the sky fill with a rain of arrows!
Armin used his flicker magic to instantly teleport out of the arrow range.
The Egoists immediately rushed around Shirone, forming a tight circle. Once she saw that, Amy slammed the heavy door shut.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The doorknob vibrated in her hands as dozens of arrows slammed into the other side of the door.
As soon as the sound of arrows stopped, Amy cautiously opened the door again to check on Shirone. The Egoists had formed a ball shape around him, and it was now covered with so many arrows that it looked disgusting.
"Shirone! Are you okay?" Amy yelled.
The Egoists then separated and slipped away like a retreating tide, revealing Shirone standing perfectly unharmed in the middle. More Egoists moved in close to him, protecting him with their shady, dangerous-looking bodies.
Amy let out a huge sigh of relief. Then she turned to see what Shirone was staring at.
A large group of soldiers was pouring into the square. The archers split to the left and right, making way for the heavy cavalry to move to the front.
"What the heck is that army?" Reina asked.
"It will be the Antithesis," Armin explained. "The Egoist represents Shirone's selfish desires, and the Antithesis is his critical conscience. If Shirone's critical mind is strong and moral, then his Antithesis army will be very powerful. Don't let your guard down."
Amy was shocked when she saw the commander of the cavalry. He was a middle-aged man with a huge axe on his back, and even from far away, he had a powerful and heavy presence.
"Uncle Vincent?" she gasped.
Except for being about one and a half times bigger and having scars on his face, he looked exactly like Shirone's father, Vincent. It was like he was wearing a costume to look like him.
The man, Ignite, let out a shout that echoed through the whole plaza. Even the fighting citizens stopped and turned to look at him with alert expressions.
Ignite held out his giant axe, which looked heavier than his own body, and pointed it straight at Shirone.
"Shirone!" he roared. "Everyone is suffering because of your selfishness! What can a lowly citizen like you possibly dream of? Your strength was not obtained through your own efforts! It deserves to be taken away and given to others! Now, I will end all of this suffering with your death!"
Amy looked back at Armin with an absurd expression.
"Is that really Shirone's critical conscience? Isn't that just the logic of a sore loser?"
"Yes," Armin agreed. "It seems Arius has twisted and manipulated it. Humans can have a desire for death as much as a desire for life. It looks like Arius has seriously poisoned his mind."
"Shirone! Answer me!" Ignite yelled again. "Is this fair? Do you still want to live after causing so much suffering?"
When humans feel extreme fear or pain, they can sometimes start to think that dying would be better. Arius used the fact that Shirone's world was sick to easily manipulate Ignite.
Every time she heard Ignite's voice, Shirone shuddered.
To the part of him that felt desire, the words of his critical conscience sounded powerful and true, like a bible to a religious person.
"He's right! The reason this world has become like this is all because of Shirone!" one citizen shouted.
"Killing Shirone is the only way to get our peace back!" screamed another.
"Kill him! Let's kill Shirone!" the crowd chanted.
The people in the plaza, who were all Antitheses, agreed with Ignite and started to rebel against Shirone. As their numbers grew, Shirone's Egoist protectors became weaker.
"Get ready! They're coming this way!" Armin shouted.
At that moment, the heavily armored infantry began to charge, their footsteps shaking the ground. Archers pulled back their bowstrings from the sides of the plaza, and the angry mob of citizens also rushed straight at them.
"I can be comfortable without you!" a citizen yelled as he grabbed a wooden pole and swung it hard at Shirone.
Just in time, an Egoist leaped forward, hugged the man tightly, and knocked him to the floor. The Egoist then turned its whole body into a giant mouth full of teeth and chewed the Antithese to pieces, making him scream before he was torn apart.
But Ignite's soldiers were not so easy to deal with. They were much stronger, swinging their weapons with a brute force that could overwhelm the Egoists. The Egoists who were attacked by these Antitheses exploded into pieces with a sound like air escaping from a balloon.
"Kill Shirone! Everyone, charge at Shirone!" the soldiers chanted.
The dead people in the square turned into new Egoists and fought desperately to protect Shirone. On the other side, all the living citizens had become Antitheses. It was a huge battle between Shirone's desires and his sense of reason, colliding in the middle of the plaza.
The one making a big difference in this close fight was definitely Ignite.
He was far stronger than any Egoist and much more powerful than the other Antitheses. Every single time he swung his giant axe, Egoists were blown apart like clouds of dust.
"Shirone! That power is not yours! Stop letting it go!" Ignite roared.
Armin, who was watching the battle, was completely dumbfounded.
'How could this be happening?'
Reason was winning over desire.
This meant that Shirone's critical conscience was incredibly strong. But when he thought about the situation, it was absurdly strong. Even soldiers who are willing to die for their country still have a powerful desire to live when their life is actually in danger.
'But is his desire to live really that weak? Is it because his head is being cut off in real life? Could an eighteen-year-old boy really have a spirit this strong?'
Armin knew that even Arius would not have expected the Antithesis to win. If Ignite captured Shirone, they would never be able to get the thing they needed, Ataraxia.
Shirone's beliefs were beyond those of a normal human. Like the great prophets from history, Shirone was a person who was willing to die for what he believed in.
"This is bad. We have to join the fight too," Armin said.
He cast his Flicker spell and instantly teleported into the middle of the battlefield.
Their most important job right now was to save Shirone. If Shirone's mind was destroyed here, they would never be able to catch up to Arius.
Amy defended herself with a Fire Mist spell and then cast a mighty Fire Wall.
A tall wall of fire roared to life, running right across the border between the Egoists and the Antitheses. As Amy concentrated, the wall of fire grew taller and taller. The heavily armored infantry screamed in agony as their armor became burning hot and they couldn't take it off.
Reina climbed up onto a rooftop and began to snipe the enemy archers. The arrows she had gotten from Neid's world were many times stronger than real ones, so she could easily pierce two or three soldiers with a single shot.
"Get out of my way! I will punish you myself!" Ignite's powerful voice boomed from the other side of the Fire Wall.
And then, he appeared, breaking straight through the wall of fire!
With his large axe held over his shoulder in a swinging stance, the first person he aimed for was Amy. Many Egoists rushed to attack him, but he scattered them all with a single mighty blow from his axe.
"Amy! Dangerous!" Reina shouted from the rooftop.
Reina quickly grabbed four arrows from the quiver on her thigh, placing them between her fingers. She fired all four shots in an instant! Each arrow flew towards a different part of Ignite's body: his shoulder, his wrist, his thigh, and his heart.
Without even taking his eyes off Amy, Ignite sensed the arrows coming. He grabbed his large axe with both hands and swung it in a wide, powerful arc.
A sound like a massive storm wind roared through the air.
KANG! KANG! KANG! KANG!
The arrows, which had strong penetrating power, didn't simply bounce off the axe blade. But as they hit, their shafts bent at a 90-degree angle, lost all their power, and fell uselessly to the ground.
"You foolish girl!" Ignite roared.
He continued his charge, brandishing his large axe. He swung the axe blade behind his back, building up power for a huge strike. As his upper body straightened, Amy felt like a massive, unbreakable wall had just formed in front of her. She didn't have enough time to cancel her Fire Wall and cast another defensive spell. She was in terrible danger!