World’s Demise (6)
Elise’s Barrier was a success.
She analyzed the waves of the death curse swirling within the body, reversed the calculation, and then, using an advanced application of Spectrum, she slowed the progression of the curse by grasping the waves themselves with 「Magnetism」.
The magnetism Barrier enveloped the grounds of Petra Hospital and showed significant effects.
As a result, Petra Hospital accommodated ten thousand patients from Edsilla suffering from the deadly affliction.
The media and opposing Senators, who had attacked Petra with accusations of exploiting patients’ hopes for profit, were now silenced.
Thanks to this, Elise also managed to get her achievements broadcasted in the media.
Elise Petra, a first-year student at Edsilla National University’s Department of Magic.
Her name was now flowing continuously in the news.
However, since the progression of the deadly affliction was only slowed and not completely cured, Elise, while making her rounds in the hospital wards, suddenly discovered someone.
A familiar figure from behind.
“……”
Shion Ascal.
He was watching over another patient from behind a wall.
The child from the orphanage named ‘Berry’ had a smartphone tied around his chest like a necklace, hanging from an old string.
Shion let out a faint sigh and turned around.
“!”
He flinched when he saw her.
“You scared me.”
His reaction was endearing to Elise.
“What are you doing there?”
Strange. It’s said to be a big deal when a man starts to look cute.
Elise shrugged her shoulders as she looked at him.
“Why don’t you go and talk to him?”
“What for.”
“You might give him more strength just by being there.”
The child named Berry. Although he was asleep now, it might be possible to wake him up for a moment to exchange greetings.
“Forget it.”Please visit fr𝐞𝐞wn.𝒸o𝔪 website to read fastest update
Shion shook his head.
“Why?”
He smiled faintly.
“……I might soil him.”
A self-deprecating joke.
Elise frowned for no reason.
“You’re talking nonsense.”
“Never mind that. What are you doing?”
“I’m making my rounds. This barrier only slows down the affliction. For now, all we can do is buy as much time as possible and wait for the Magic Tower or some corporation to find a way.”
“No. It’s going to end soon.”
It was a statement close to certainty. Shion said to Elise.
“It was critical to last a week. Thanks to you, we managed. That’s enough.”
“……”
Elise looked at him and then smiled faintly.
“I’m glad to hear that. How’s your work with Libra going?”
She knew that Shion was receiving some kind of training from Libra. She also knew that he was someone loyal to Libra.
“Yeah.”
Shion answered softly. Quietly, he lifted his eyes to look out the hospital window.
Looking into the abyss, he was lost in thought.
About the growing flame in his heart as he got closer to Libra, as he stepped deeper into the core of Libra’s domain.
I have come to stand by Zia’s side.
Now, I will remain a loyal subject until she stands at the pinnacle. I will be by her side until we grasp control of the Parliament.
What lies at the end… I will confront it with my own eyes.
Not only Derek, Johanna, and Jade, but also the most decisive being who has remained unseen by anyone yet, the one who has elevated Libra to its current status.
The secretive specter.
‘Sherlock’ Vels Libra Baphomet.
I will kill him too, and bring down the Aerial Garden to the ground. I will set Libra ablaze…
Thud.
Elise’s hand touched Shion’s shoulder. He quietly looked down at her.
“Think of yourself first.”
Suddenly, a small smile spread across Shion’s lips. He wrapped his hand around hers on his shoulder.
Her pale cheeks twitched.
“You too. Think of yourself first.”
“…I, I will.”
Elise released her hand and for no reason swept up her hair like a curtain.
Thump, thump.
Her heart suddenly races from just holding hands. Elise didn’t like how fragile she had become.
* * *
A void.
An old house filled with nothing but darkness.
The man who had been waiting for a ‘phenomenon’ that had yet to arrive heard footsteps seeping into his ears.
Thud──
Thud──
Jade slowly opened his eyes and lit a candle on the table.
Whoosh!
The rising flame illuminated a part of the darkness and soon revealed the ‘destruction’ that settled before him.
“……”
─……
Neither of them spoke.
A silent assessment, each gauging the other with their eyes.
The being captured in Jade’s gaze was certainly not something that could be considered human. Ignoring the abnormal size, there was no pulse where organs should be beating.
The exterior was human, but the interior was not.
The creature had long since transcended the category of ‘human.’
Jude quickly expanded the space. Jade became instantly distant, but in the next moment.
Space folded.
As if leaping through time, transcending space.
His fist reached out first and struck his own face.
To Jude, it appeared simply as a tiny flash of light.
That was all it was.
─……
Jude saw his own body breaking apart.
He saw Jade charging with dignity.
His fist made contact.
─────!
Space shattered.
Darkness crumbled.
Debris settled like dust.
The old house, now transformed into nothingness, the world’s cracks etched chaotically.
“Now, do you understand why I am foolish?”
In the midst of that mystery, Jade stood tall, looking down on Demise.’
‘Demise’ gazed up at him blankly.
─…Demise.
A hoarse voice flowed from a throat without vocal cords.
Jude had once known that the world awaited its demise. He thought it was himself.
Clearly, I, Jude Velot, am the World’s Demise.
The will of the world to condemn the evil of humanity and obliterate the continent had been born as ‘me.’
It was not so.
─……
He let out a quiet, hollow laugh.
Now he understood.
If the world wished for its own end, if there was a living, breathing entity to destroy it, it was not him but…
─It was you.
Jade.
He will remember the name.
* * *
“Are you feeling alright?”
In the VIP hospital room, I found Eceline. I had come to deliver the news that Jude Velot’s magical presence had been extinguished, as Akane had informed me.
“Yes, thank you.”
Eceline’s complexion had improved thanks to that.
However, the symptoms lingered like a cold, so she would need to be hospitalized for a few more days.
“I’m feeling better now.”
Eceline’s face was slightly swollen, but she smiled modestly, indicating she was alright. I looked at her chart.
Eceline was the first to speak.
“You’re from Libra, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
I nodded slightly.
“He’s still watching over me, isn’t he?”
I didn’t respond to her laughter-tinged comment.
“It’s a good thing I haven’t been involved in any romance, right?”
She was probably joking, but it was nice to see her cheerful.
I shook my head.
“It’s alright.”
Jade doesn’t care about such things… though I can’t say he doesn’t care at all.
“However, Miss Eceline. The technology for prosthetic limbs has improved tremendously these days.”
I was about to pull out a premium product from Selfless Coffin.
“That’s true. But there’s something more important than that.”
I put the business card back.
“Something more important, you say?”
“Yes.”
Eceline smiled faintly.
“He will be pained to see my arm like this, won’t he?”
“Very much so.”
As if to say exactly that, Eceline raised one finger.
“But, it’s the same for someone else’s arm.”
At that moment, my eyes widened slightly.
“If he can cherish me, he can cherish others too. Even though each person is different, we’re all human in the end, aren’t we?”
She looked at me and raised her eyebrows.
She was a clear-sighted person. A cheerful person.
“I hope he realizes that fact.”
Certainly, she was the kind of person Jade could love, but he would probably never realize it.
Eceline, your wish will not come true.
His sense of being chosen is skewed somewhere.
Because he carries a ‘heritage’ that makes it so.
“What do you think?”
I shook my head.
“Love is discrimination. Just like hatred is discrimination.”
Eceline’s lips tightened slightly. She looked at me with a slightly saddened face.
“Lord Jade is a noble with a heart as firm as his body. Therefore… he will not change.”
Jade cannot change.
Because that’s how he was born.
“Really, all you Libra people are so cold… But still, I believe that one day he will understand.”
I gave a bitter smile.
Jade, indeed, will not understand.
Because that’s how he was born.
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