The wasteland had gone quiet.
What had once been an army of seventeen thousand now no longer existed. No banners. No cries. No weapons left buried in the dust. Only silence remained, and at the center of that silence lay Loki.
Collapsed.
Motionless.
The cracked earth beneath him still trembled faintly from the residue of his magic.
Then—
A patch of space a short distance away turned white.
Cold.
A white crack spread through the air like frost crawling over glass, and from it stepped Velzard.
Her heels touched the dead ground softly.
She took one look at Loki and sighed.
"…Idiot."
Her voice was quiet.
But not truly annoyed.
If anything, there was something faintly fond in it.
She walked over to him, white hair shifting gently in the cold wind that followed her.
Loki was unconscious.
His breathing was steady, but the magicules pouring off him were anything but. They were surging in waves now, too dense, too violent, too rich. The land itself groaned beneath their weight.
Velzard crouched beside him.
"So you really did it."
Her pale blue eyes moved over his face.
"After all that…"
A small smile appeared on her lips.
"…you just decided to evolve here and there."
She slid one arm beneath his back, another beneath his legs, and lifted him as though he weighed nothing at all.
His head leaned against her shoulder.
Velzard rose smoothly.
The white crack in the air opened again.
Her gate.
And without another word, she carried him through it.
---
Her room in El Dorado was less a room and more a frozen kingdom carved out of quiet obsession.
Frost coated the walls in thin, glimmering layers. The floor beneath her feet shone like polished ice. Pale curtains hung still in air so cold that ordinary humans would have died before taking three breaths.
It was beautiful.
And terrible.
A freezing hellscape that only Velzard herself could find comforting.
At the center of the chamber stood a bed far too luxurious for such an unforgiving room. White sheets. Silver frame. Pillows soft enough to mock the climate around them.
Velzard walked to it and laid Loki down carefully.
His maroon coat had long since been torn and blackened in places from battle, but even so, his face looked peaceful now.
As if he hadn't just slaughtered an army and triggered the evolution of a Demon Lord.
Velzard sat lightly on the edge of the bed.
Then she rested one hand against his forehead.
At once she felt it more clearly.
The transformation had already begun.
Deep inside him, everything was changing.
Magicules multiplied at a monstrous rate, flooding through his body in violent currents. His muscles, bones, blood, flesh, and soul were all being rewritten, broken apart and remade into something far more terrifying than before.
His very existence was rising.
Velzard's eyes narrowed slightly.
"…Your physique is changing."
That much was obvious.
Even unconscious, Loki's frame looked tighter somehow. Denser. Like every inch of him was being compressed and reforged with absurd efficiency.
His aura thickened again.
Then again.
The room itself shuddered.
Velzard's frost spread further along the walls, instinctively reinforcing the chamber.
[Notice. Evolution to Demon Lord confirmed.]
[Magicule capacity increasing exponentially.]
[Physical body undergoing reconstruction.]
[Infinite Regeneration acquired.]
[Multi-Dimensional Barrier acquired.]
[Natural Elements Resistance has evolved into Natural Elements Nullification.]
[Abnormal Conditions Resistance has evolved into Abnormal Conditions Nullification.]
Frost crept further along the walls as Velzard unconsciously reinforced the chamber.
[Gravity Magic has evolved into Gravity Manipulation.]
[Unique Skill: Forger has evolved into Ultimate Skill: Hephaestus, Lord of Forge.]
[Unique Skill: Soul Scholar has evolved into Ultimate Skill: Hades, Lord of Souls.]
[Unique Skill: Chronomind has evolved into Ultimate Skill: Einstein, Lord of Brains.]
The pressure in the room deepened.
Velzard watched silently.
"…Absurd."
But she did not look displeased.
[Attempting to combine Unique Skill: Tempter and Skill Seeker…]
[Combination failed.]
[Reattempting…]
[Combination failed.]
[Reattempting…]
[Combination failed.]
[Reattempting…]
[Combination failed.]
[Reattempting…]
[Combination failed.]
The room shook violently.
Frost burst across the ceiling like spreading fractures.
Velzard's eyes narrowed.
"…What's happening!?"
[Insufficient compatibility detected.]
[Initiating sacrifice protocol.]
[Ultimate Skill: Einstein, Lord of Brains will be dismantled.]
[Ultimate Skill: Hephaestus, Lord of Forge will be dismantled.]
[Energy conversion in progress…]
[Combination successful.]
[Ultimate Skill acquired: Azazel, Lord of Temptation.]
---
Far away.
In another nation.
Shizue Izawa suddenly froze.
She had been standing still one moment, and in the next something warm and foreign had brushed against her soul like a hand pressing gently from the other side of existence.
Her eyes widened.
Then pain—
Knowledge.
A new structure settled into her spirit.
A skill.
She staggered slightly.
"What…"
Her breathing caught.
Inside her soul, a new power had awakened.
Unique Skill: Adapter.
Thought accelerated instantly.
Survival calculations branched.
Her body seemed to become more aware of itself and the world around it.
It was not overwhelming.
But it was profound.
And the first thought that appeared in her mind was immediate and instinctive.
'Loki-san!?'
She looked up sharply toward nothing at all, as if she could see across the distance between them.
Her chest tightened.
He had changed.
Something enormous had happened to him.
And somehow—
It had reached her.
---
Elsewhere, Razen stopped mid-step.
The old mage's eyes narrowed sharply.
His breath caught as a strange and dreamlike power unfolded inside him.
For an instant, the line between waking and sleep became thin.
Very thin.
Then it settled into his soul.
Unique Skill: Daydreamer.
His expression shifted.
Reality Rejection.
Dream Manipulation.
A skill focused entirely on the uncertain boundary between what was real and what could be denied.
Razen stood still for several seconds.
Then slowly exhaled.
"…Loki-sama."
Even without being told, he understood.
This gift had not come from nowhere.
Somewhere out there—
Loki had evolved.
And he, Razen, had been touched by the aftermath of it.
His eyes narrowed with complicated emotion.
"…Unbelievable."
---
Deep within the Underworld, Blanc was smiling long before the gift reached her.
She had already felt it.
That change.
That glorious, intoxicating rise in his existence.
Her little brother had become something greater.
And then the gift arrived.
Her eyes widened with delight.
A new power bloomed within her.
Unique Skill: Diplomat.
Persuasion.
Power through alliances.
The ability to gather strength not through violence alone, but through the bonds and networks she cultivated.
For one heartbeat, Blanc simply stood there.
Then her hand rose to her lips.
A trembling laugh escaped her.
"…Little brother."
The words came out almost like a sigh.
Then another.
And another.
Her cheeks flushed.
Her body trembled.
Pure ecstasy lit her face.
"He's grown so strong now…"
The gift his evolution had given her thrilled her down to the soul. It was intimate in a way only she could appreciate. Proof that even in his ascension, some thread of that moment had reached her.
He had evolved.
He had changed.
He had become a Demon Lord.
And she had received a gift from it.
Blanc pressed both hands to her face.
For a few precious seconds she simply drowned in that feeling.
Then another emotion slipped in.
Hot.
Sharp.
Ugly.
Anger.
Her expression shifted.
The joy remained.
It just had something darker running beneath it now.
She lowered her hands slowly.
"…And I wasn't there."
The words came out cold.
Her eyes hardened.
That moment.
His harvest.
His evolution.
The transformation that would mark the rise of her dear brother—
And she had not been there to witness it.
To hold him.
To congratulate him.
To stand beside him.
The room chilled.
Blanc's smile returned.
But it was no longer soft.
No longer merely ecstatic.
It had become dangerous.
"I see."
Her fingers curled gently.
"Then I really cannot waste any more time."
The Underworld around her seemed to hold its breath.
Because the White Primordial had just gained another reason to move.
And that meant the world would soon have another problem.
---
Back in El Dorado, the frozen room remained still.
Loki slept on.
His body was now complete.
His soul transformed.
His evolution finished.
Velzard sat beside him, watching quietly.
Then, after a moment, she let herself smile again.
"…When you wake up…"
Her fingers lightly touched his hair.
"…you're going to be even more troublesome."
[Notice. Evolution to Demon Lord completed.]
[Notice. Commencing Awakening to Angel.]
---
A/N: So I know some of you will absolutely want to chew me up for this, so I'll clear it up here. I didn't properly do my research on who gets gifts during the harvest festival. I just thought it's anyone the Demon Lord views close to him or are subordinates. I didn't know it had to be someone he named.
And by the time I actually did my research, I was already four chapters ahead. And I actually don't have the energy to rewrite all those chapters anew differently. So just ignore it for now. I'll find a retcon for it.
And don't start commenting stuff like "I'm dropping this novel", just drop it bro. There's no need to tell me. I'm human too and I make mistakes.
---
---
Find early chapters and daily updates on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]
Follow me on Instagram [www.instagram.com/tenten100_?]