Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

98 - GODS AND DEMONS

Tiz stood in the castle's courtyard. He whispered, staring at the remains of the destroyed Sapling.

"...Shedy?"

Shedy had used the magic sword to cut down the final Sapling, taking something from within the vanishing light into her hand. Then she disappeared into the cocoon of light.

She wasn't gone. She was there. He could feel the enormous weight of her magic power, the presence of a true Dark Lady, still there.

But she wasn't moving.

She was frozen as though a victim to her own power, as though her snow-white form had meant something far more literal.

As worries gnawed on Tiz's mind, he, together with everyone else still staying behind in Touze Empire, all shivered as they suddenly felt a malevolent presence outside the city.

"...the Unseelie Lord..."

Fiorfata, the Unseelie Lord. A pinnacle of demons, a terrible being worthy of the name Evil God, summoned by mad humans. It wielded enough power to swat down the prided battleships of humans as though they were nothing but flies, and to bring cities and countries to ruin with a flick of its hand.

It was the face of the sins of the human race, the sins of mankind.

The humans had claimed the World Tree, what should have been the very lifeline of the world, as their own; had brought suffering to so many lives; had set the world onto the path of ruination. And now their sins had manifested themselves in the worst way possible, to enact indiscriminate retribution upon the whole world.

Despite how irresponsible it might sound, this was no longer a matter that humans could solve. And even if they had the power to, in all likelihood they would have used it only for themselves.

They had done it for their citizens. For mankind to prosper. And it might have even been necessary to some degree, but to the world of Yggdrasia, it was nothing more than a sin.

This was what Tiz had realized. It was the reason while despite being the emperor, he had abandoned the very keystone of his country that was the Sapling, gambling everything on the only one with a chance to win against this apocalypse: Shedy.

The Evil God Fiorfata silently floated above the city.

It didn't need to do anything. Just the sight of it had sent people shivering, and those unfortunate enough to be showered in its overflowing, malevolent miasma soon decomposed, even as they stayed conscious through it all.

Fiorfata pointed its featureless face toward the white cocoon of light.

"――̀͟͠∴̀͞͡≠̸̡∬̧͢†̨‡∝̶͞∮̛̀―̵―̸"

A vast amount of magic power gathered at Fiorfata's fingertips. Nearly a hundred beams of light shot toward the castle, centering on Shedy.

Just as Tiz readied himself for his impending death, he sensed a powerful surge of magic from behind him, from the light that had been the remnants of the Sapling. And he finally heard the voice he had been waiting for.

"—Bend—"

Upon the voice, enormous crystallized snowflakes appeared, each around a meter in diameter, and they instantly dispersed to cover the castle. They reflected Fiorfata's beams of light away and into the sky.

Then they shattered. The fragments glittered in the light of the scattering lasers, turning into white, powdery snow that danced as they descended. And just as the first specks touched the ground, the cocoon of light slowly gave form to a person.