"Who the hell are you?"
In response to my words, "it" slowly opened its mouth.
"You ask who I am?"
The eyepatch covering Beria's right eye slid smoothly down his cheek as if it had finished its role.
What lay beneath, now unobstructed, was an endless abyss of darkness.
I had heard from the "Hero of Fairy Tales, August" in the otherworld that Beria had lost his right eye in the age of fairy tales and had implanted a spirit's eye to fight demons, but this was so darkly clouded that it could hardly be called a spirit's eye.
"I am the one who seeks to destroy the humans who corrode this world."
The voice distorted the very air as it slithered across the ground. Both the meaning and the emotion contained within the words were utterly alien.
I widened my eyes at the sensation rising from the soles of my feet.
There was no mistake.
The thing before me was—
"—The evil god, Oberon…!"
Oberon turned an emotionless gaze toward my murmur.
"I see. So you are a descendant of August, who inherited the power that embodies human possibility. This is not the time to deal with you. Filly, we are withdrawing."
"Understood."
Filly, who had somehow slipped free of the binding chains, stood up.
"Like hell I'm letting you escape!"
Before Oberon could activate transfer magic, I covered the entire area with a transfer-blocking barrier.
"…How troublesome."
The moment Oberon muttered quietly, shadow-like magical energy seeped out across the ground.
"Begone."
Instantly, the pitch-black magical energy transformed into spear-like shapes and attacked me from all directions, aiming to pierce through.
"—[Final Form: Mont Ende]."
I combined the magic sword with my ki once more and used the newly created magic sword to sweep away the incoming spears.
I then closed in on Oberon using contracted ground movement and swung the magic sword.
Oberon tried to retreat, but his reactions were sluggish.
Before he could fully escape my range, the magic sword reached him.
"Guh!"
Since the effect of Beria's special ability [Eternal Invariance] seemed to have been lost, the magic sword sliced into Oberon's body.
Oberon looked down at the blood flowing from his own chest.
The moment the magic sword touched him, I gained a slight understanding of his current state.
[Eternal Invariance] was still active.
However, it was being used internally—to suppress the massive amount of evil god magical energy required to maintain Oberon's will.
In other words, against external attacks, he was in the same condition as any other person.
Still, the longer this dragged on, the more the evil god's magical energy would seep into Beria's body.
On top of that, maintaining [Final Form: Mont Ende] for too long would be too much for my own body.
I needed to settle this quickly!
"…In my current state, close combat is impossible."
Oberon raised his right hand, and the very space let out a creaking sound as countless arrows of pitch-black magical energy rained down.
Each one carried enough power to gouge out the terrain itself.
(I have to get away from the torii!)
I left the shrine grounds and dodged the incoming arrows by weaving through the trees.
While enduring the rain of magical arrows falling from the sky, I searched for an opening to counterattack.
Every time a magical arrow struck the ground, the explosive impact caused the trees to groan and crack, snapping trunks one after another.
With each tree that had served as cover being mowed down, my field of vision gradually opened up.
That was when magical energy began gathering around Oberon.
(A big move is coming…!)
I sharpened my focus, aiming for the opening that would appear right after the big move, when—
"—That's enough."
A sharp line raced across the side of Oberon's neck.
"—!?"
Oberon's head flew through the air.
While shaken by the completely unexpected sight, I turned my gaze toward the culprit—Filly Carpenter.
With a cool expression, she launched a spell at the flying head.
"—[Super Explosion]."
A massive blast struck the airborne head directly.
Space warped, and the shockwave swallowed everything.
When the surroundings regained their silence, Beria's body had been completely obliterated without a trace.
Only one thing remained.
A darkly clouded spirit's eye rolling on the ground.
Filly quietly picked it up.
"…To think it was only this much. In the end, it was nothing but a fake assembled from Oberon's leftover dregs. Ha… I want someone to give me back all the effort I've wasted until now."
Her voice carried a clear tone of disappointment.
Watching her, anger and an unbearable sadness welled up inside me.
I released [Final Form: Mont Ende] and, while enduring the burning pain that scorched my entire body, forced the words out.
"…Filly, how far are you planning to fall?"
But Filly's expression did not change in the slightest.
While gazing at the darkly clouded spirit's eye she held between her fingers, she said,
"Fall? That understanding is mistaken. I have been at the very bottom from the beginning, so there is nowhere further for me to fall."
Her voice sounded as if she were stating something obvious.
I no longer understood her at all.
"I had planned to watch the extinction of humanity after the god descent was complete and then meet my end, but I've changed my mind. —Let's have a match, Orun."
"…A match?"
"Yes. Whether you can continue believing in something as worthless as 'feelings' until the very end."
There was neither mockery nor provocation in her voice.
"Humans are foolish, ugly, and fragile. Love, hope, and trust are nothing more than convenient excuses. I have been made to understand that over and over again."
Black magical energy leaked from the spirit's eye in Filly's possession.
"But you believe differently, don't you? You intend to keep believing in such sophistry no matter what. …That is why I want to break your heart. I want to see your face twisted in despair."
Filly's voice remained perfectly calm.
There was no anger, no excitement.
Only an ecstatic tone, as if she were laying bare the depths of her desire.
At some point, in the hand opposite the one holding the spirit's eye, she was gripping something that looked like a magic tool.
The moment Filly operated the tool, the pitch-black magical energy overflowing from the spirit's eye began spiraling toward her right eye and being sucked in.
Sensing something ominous in the bizarre sight, I tried to leap forward.
"—!?"
But the instant I stepped out, a black gust-like magical energy blew straight at me from the front, pushing my entire body back.
The magical energy howled like wind and twisted the space around us.
Even when I tried to step forward, it felt as if my whole body was being pulled backward.
Perhaps because the backlash from [Final Form: Mont Ende] was still eating away at me, I could not put strength into my body properly.
Even so, I gritted my teeth and tried to push forward.
However, the violent storm of magical energy swirling around Filly grew even stronger, as if rejecting me.
In the center of that storm, Filly's body trembled slightly.
But it was not a tremor of rejection or pain—it was a shiver of someone immersing herself in pleasure.
"…Fufu. This is… this is Lord Oberon's magical energy…!"
A geometric magic circle-like pattern slowly rose in her right eye.
Black magical energy dripped from it like tears, running down her cheek.
The storm-like magical energy suddenly subsided, yet the surrounding space continued to waver.
An eerie silence enveloped the area.
In the center of that space, she smiled quietly.
"I see… So this is the scenery you transcendents were looking at."
The words slipped out like a sigh.
"I feel like I understand just a little… the 'illusion' you want to believe in."
As she murmured that, she narrowed her eyes slightly.
Her gaze held emotions too complex to put into words.
"But even so, it is incompatible with me. —Still, I have come to fully understand that it is an illusion worth destroying."
Just like Shion and Oliver, Filly had fused the spirit's eye with her own.
Moreover, the magical energy was that of the evil god.
The pitch-black magical energy dripping from Filly's right eye fell to the ground.
In that instant, a roar like a howl echoed from deep beneath the earth.
The ground shook violently.
Dense miasma swirled at the peak of the sacred mountain.
An impossible giant shadow appeared at the summit.
A massive serpentine body, far taller than the clouds, twisted into countless coils.
Eight heads writhed and roared toward the heavens.
"Eight snakes…?"
"I recreated the mythical monster from the old tales of the country that preceded Kyokuto—the Eight-Tailed Serpent, Yata no Hebi. What do you think?"
"Yata no Hebi…"
Perhaps her right eye hurt, because Filly pressed a hand to it, yet her expression was dyed with an almost ecstatic smile.
"I will take my time and carefully teach you just how fragile and powerless the things you believe in truly are."
With those words, she pointed toward the sky.
One of the eight heads of Yata no Hebi slowly moved.
Its gaze was directed at—Hanemiya, the capital of Kyokuto.
"First, learn how easily human lives can vanish."
The head opened its mouth, and magical energy began to condense.
The ominous power warped the air.
"Stop!"
The moment I shouted, my body was already moving.
Ignoring my screaming muscles, I gripped the magic sword tightly.
"—[Fifth Form: Mont Fünf]."
I transformed the magic sword into a magic shield.
The next instant, a mass of calamity was unleashed from Yata no Hebi's mouth.
I leaped into the direct path of the attack and blocked it with the magic shield.
"Guh…!"
The torrent of magical energy slammed into the shield.
I desperately endured the crushing impact that threatened to flatten me.
Eventually, the flow of magical energy dissipated, and a brief silence fell.
(Haa… haa… Somehow, I managed to protect the city…)
I felt relief at having safeguarded the city spreading out below, when—
"Well done."
From within the pitch-black magical energy drifting near the summit, Filly looked down at me.
However, the evil god's magical energy seemed to be a heavy burden, and she appeared exhausted.
"That is exactly why it will be so satisfying to break you."
As she spoke, her outline slowly began to fade.
Swallowed by the magical energy, she vanished from my sight.
"Next time we meet, show me your twisted face."
Leaving those words behind, Filly's presence disappeared completely.
The remaining Yata no Hebi let out a roar from the mountain peak.
"…What a troublesome parting gift. —[First Form: Mont Eins]."
I took a deep breath and gripped the magic sword again.
The backlash from [Final Form: Mont Ende] had recovered to some extent.
One of my original objectives—driving out the most troublesome member of the cult from this country—had been successful.
But nothing was over yet.
I would finish everything properly.
Only then would this country finally be able to move forward.