-- the collapse of the gates, which had been collapsing rapidly, slowed down.

'Oh dear, my plans have gone awry. It was supposed to be Iori-kun's plan to get into the gate. It doesn't work out so well, does it?''

　I hear Hardia's voice in the distance.
　In my retinas, in my eardrums, Elfie's last words are burned into my retinas, my eardrums.
　The enveloping smile and those words of compassion.

'Oh, ...... out of the kindness of my heart, I'll just say it. You shouldn't expect Elfiszak to come back to life. It's true that she has near-immortal characteristics, but she's not absolutely deathless. Either she can be erased without leaving any residue with her enormous magical power, or she can use her divine authority. By either means, Elfiszak could be killed. --In this case, it's the latter.

----

Elfiszak will never come back.

　--I had the sensation of something inside my head burning out.

'Ahhhhhhhhhhhh ----!

　Kill. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. I'm going to kill, I'm going to kill, I'm going to kill, I'm going to kill, I'm going to kill, I'm going to kill.
　I swear to God, I'm going to kill you.

　I heard the sound of a ring shattering in my ring.

"You crushed my authority ......

　I heard Hardia gasp.
　I don't care.
　I'm going to kill this woman, no matter what it takes.

　I'm going to step forward, and I'm going to...

I knew you guys were dangerous. It's not what we planned, but I'll have you fall in place of Elfiszak. I don't know how Melt's authority would work if we ate them the same way.

　--Hardia snapped her fingers.

'----'

　Zubri,
　My feet sank to the ground as if I had stepped into the water.
　Looking down, I saw a 'gate' at my feet.
　The gate that should have been right in front of me is now opening its mouth at my feet.

''Hardiaaaa!''

　I tried every possible way to get out of the hole.
　But it was in vain.
　Slowly, slowly, the body sinks into the hole.

''--Iori!

　There was a voice calling out to me from out of sight.
　A black flame dragon with twin wings spread and tears spilling out of its eyes - Verdia - was flying towards me.

''Master told Iori to live!　So, Iori has to live--''

You're in my way.

　Depressingly, Hardia waved the 'Tenri Sword'.
　The slash that was released engulfed Berdia.
　With the blast, I saw Berdia crash down to the bottom of the Demon King's Castle.

''Bel, Deere......''

I'm sure you're aware of the fact that the demons have been talking to me for quite some time now. That's very rude. However, I do have a sense of compassion. I hope you'll suffer the same fate as your master.

"Only you ......!　You're the only one I'm going to kill for sure!

　Hardia snickered.
　Then Hardia gave a lecherous smile, as if the idea had occurred to her.

'I'm grateful to you, and it's true. That's why I wanted to kill you first. But the order was reversed, and I'll tell you about me instead.

...

It's a lot of fun to be around.

　So, let's start at the beginning.

As you probably already know, in the war between Melt and me, the demons betrayed me and sided with Melt. In other words, demons and humans have made peace. So why are humans and demons fighting over each other now? After talking to Hilde Garda, I'm sure she's wondering a bit about that.

It's an easy thing to do - I made it happen. It's easy to start a war, it's easy to start a war. All you have to do is disguise yourself as a demon, a human, or a subhuman, and adjust your appearance so that you hate each other. If you shoot a shot of magic at one of the key players on either side, they will easily hate each other.

But every time, that 'behind-the-scenes' Hilde Garda guy tried to stop the war. All of his efforts, all of his efforts, I'm the one thwarting him. It was pretty fun to watch him go crazy.

'Oh, I see. So does that mean that it's my fault that Lucifina became obsessed with that guy as a result?

Well, that's okay. During the hundreds of years of wars, the demon race has become more and more dominant. Humans outnumbered the demons, but each one of them has better quality than the other. To prevent the humans from losing the war, I sent a message to the human side to prevent the war from becoming one-sided. It was pretty easy to do. All you have to do is just tell the demon side's base and strategy.

Oh, I just remembered. I'm the reason why this Gracia Levatain demon has grown to hate humans so much. As I recall, I'm the one who told the humans where the town of Levatain was located. You can't blame them for leaving the town unattended, right?

'Why would I do that?　If you know me, you know that.　The demons betrayed me, after I gave birth to them. It's just spite, spite. If I had to, I'd say it was just to pass the time. You know, I was trapped in the netherworld. Sending my alter ego over here to play with me was my only source of entertainment. I'm like Hilde Garda in this regard. Haha, she was a badly made child, but she was a bit like me in that respect. Well, I'm not happy about it.

'At ....... While doing that, I made Ortegia and sent it to this world, but that guy ate the Elfiszaak, and it got me into trouble. I couldn't open the gate easily anymore. I'm really in trouble. It would have been easier if Elfiszark had killed Ortegia, but he was easily defeated, you know. --That's why Iori Amatsuki-kun. I've decided to summon you,

I pretended to be Melt and sent a message to the kingdom to summon a hero. It would have been nice if I could have summoned him on my own, but I didn't have that much magic left. And Melt has a better technique for interfering in other worlds than I do. That's why I used Melt's magic formula to summon you to this world.

Well, that was close. Was it the heroic Amatsu?　That was a disappointing experience for me 30 years ago. I can't help it, can I? ......, but that was just the result of me trying to do too much.

'Actually, I'm the reason the demon tribe started to participate in the war. Little by little, the demon tribe adjusted the pressure on the demon tribe to take the side of the humans. So, you see, Dionis?　And that's because the demon race was so talented there. I interfered with his dreams and made him have a strong sense of inferiority to others. As a result, he began to work harder than anyone else in the demon tribe. ...... That's all well and good, but he seems to have developed a strong sense of inferiority, even for you, who was supposed to be his friend. As a result, he's going to betray you, so that's really no good for him. I've learned that scum is scum no matter what they do,

And that wizard, that wizard called Liuzas. His village was destroyed because of me. He was the most talented sorcerer in the world. I hated the demons and killed my sister so that she would be more willing to join the war effort. I thought that was a good idea, but I didn't expect ...... to end up resenting you and not the demons who killed my sister. Your talent for magic was good, but your head was a disappointment. It was my mistake to make him your ally. Haha, humans are really stupid, aren't they?

But I was trying really hard after that, you know?　You see, um, there was an Imperial noblewoman named Olivia Eliesteel, right?　She started studying brainwashing magic because I gave her the knowledge. Humans are more susceptible to pain than demons, so I was able to ignore that and help her create soldiers who could fight. Well, it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. He was so happy that he had come up with the ultimate in magic or something.

Also, there was that Cathedral Knight of the Church, George and Lily. After you died, I was the one who made them create the Homunculus of Amatsu as a second plan. I tried to strengthen the human side of the Force, but it didn't work. There's no comparison between a brave man who possesses Melt's powers and an inadequate homunculus.

I even experimented with implanting your power into a knight named Marcus something or other, but a mere human couldn't handle Melt's power. It was a real failure. You destroyed and reset everything, so it's okay.

The first time I saw it, I was in the middle of a battle. But they were more useless than I expected, so I decided to summon a hero once again.

"Actually, I'm the one who freed the sealed Elfiszak. That was just in time, though. For thirty years, I analyzed the magic formula and adjusted it so that the wards would break at the right moment when you came to the Abyssal Labyrinth. Even so, Elfiszak would have stayed that way for hundreds and thousands of years.

'I don't know.　I did my best, didn't I?　When you almost died in church, when we infiltrated Gracia's fort, when we were in the Great Forest, I think I was of great help. I don't want you to be so scared, but I think you should at least give me a little work to do.

'Puh-ha-ha!　I told you so!　He said, "You're going to burn in hell if you don't do this!　I warned you well, but you didn't listen to me!

"Thanks to you and your friends who have hunted down Ortegia, I've been able to regain my strength. I'm going to destroy all living things in this world. And now I'm going to wipe out all living things in this world, humans, demons and subhumans. I've got to wipe them out and clean up this world. Otherwise, there would be no point in dividing Latesia and Ulrchias.

'You wanted to create a world where all species live hand in hand, didn't you, Iori?　And yet, because of your actions, all living things will disappear from this world. In a way, I guess you could call it hell.　So you're creating your own hell and falling into the abyss.

'Oh, yes. In the form of Ortegia, I told you that you were the 'weakest and bravest', didn't I?　That was the truth.

I don't have the means to return a person I brought from another world to his or her home world. I've set it up so that I can summon someone I can kill easily enough to get out of the way after defeating Ortegia. I'm not going to be able to get a lot of magic out of the Proof of Valor.

And I have one more condition.

It's just a nice, sweet person.

'I wanted to call out the naive people who really think they want to save the world or trust others so quickly.

Because it's easier to handle.

In fact, you were sympathetic to my story in the Great Forest, and you trusted me. Hmmmmm. You like Elfiszak, the kind of person who has a sense of humor, but who also has a strong belief in things, right?　So I played that kind of character for you to like.

'Hahahahahahahaha!　Thanks, Iori-kun!　It wasn't a bad trip with you. The look on your face, always painful, desperate, full, disproportionately troubled and trying to do your best, was hilarious and the best fun to watch!


　----.
　------.
　--------.


"Fu......za, don't kill me!　

　Scratch.
　By any means.
　Whatever.
　Anyway, as long as I can kill that scum, that's all that matters.

'You don't have to shout so loud, I can hear you fine.

I'll kill you!　Get down here!　Only you!

You always try to play it cool, but seeing Elfiszak dead in front of your eyes just won't do. Well, I don't really care.

　Falling down.
　The gate swallows me up and down.
　Hardia's figure grows distant.

-Bye bye. You're going to have to feed me there, at best.

　Finally, I heard that voice.

◆

It's in very bad taste, isn't it, to steal a god's image?

　Immediately after seeing Iori Amagatsuki disappear to the bottom of the gate, Hardia said that in a low voice.
　Nothing existed beyond her stare.
　In the space where nothing existed, Hardia reached out her hand and forcefully squeezed something invisible.

'The bugs,'

　Muttering lowly, Hardia looks down at the gate that continues to release its own magical power.
　The gate that was on the verge of collapsing has been stabilized to some extent due to the inclusion of Elfiszak.
　However, the scale of the completed gate is smaller than I had expected.

''Will it take a good amount of time for it to return to full strength? ...... Well, no matter.

　Spreading his four wings, Hardia left the Demon King's Castle - and appeared in the sky above the battlefield.
　Unusually, the Alliance and the Demon King's army, they stopped fighting and just stood there in a daze.

　--The cause was Hardia.

　Hardia is Ortegia, Elfiszak, and Amatsuki Iori.
　The crushing of the existence that could be the hope of humans and the demon race was projected as an image above the battlefield.
　The reason why Berdia, who had broken away from the Demon King's Castle, rushed over was probably because she had seen that image.

''-- A good look.''

　What they have on their faces is despair.
　At that expression, Hardia puts her hand to her cheek and exhales in ecstasy.
　It's a face worthy of the eyesore and the descendants of the demon race who betrayed him.

''You've been tricking us.

　In the midst of the silent battlefield, a woman speaks up.
　Maria Theresia Stragen.
　She is the cathedral knight that Hardia has been eyeing and using to her fullest potential.

'- Oh. You guys, who thought I was Melt and were lying down, have helped me a lot.

"--

　The demon tribe that was standing very close to Maria directed a sharp hostility at her.

''How dare you, Ortegia-sama--''

　Lefise Gregoria.
　A descendant of the demon race, created by Hardia in her first period.
　The fact that this woman followed Ortegia made the hassle much more difficult.
　The fact that Lefise was in the Demon King's castle meant that she couldn't touch the sleeping Ortegia.

''--The incompetent child who forgot the debt of gratitude I bore her, and the person who took her away from me, are no longer needed.

The "Tenri Sword" is raised.
　The sword made of power finally shows its true value as it inhales Hardia's magical power.
　The cloudy black magic power is amplified in the sword and swirls violently in the sky above the demon king's domain.

''Now, let's prepare a suitable place to welcome Melt.

　Maria and Lefise try to do something, but it's too late.
　It's all too late.



"--"End of World, World End Meltdown



　The end will fall.



　-On that day, the Demon Lord's Domain disappeared.