The artificial white light illuminates the girl who sinks into the huge vessel without any excess - yes, the deformed body.

　Perhaps the worst abomination in human history.
　An affront to life. That is the answer we arrive at after this study.

　The head of the heads of state who are filled with astonishment and deep guilt on their faces are able to hang on to the girl in front of them - no, they were unable to put out of their mouths any words related to the girl in front of them.
　What should I say, praise or pity? None of those things would be very rude to the girl. So they were silent, and in silence they would substitute gratitude.

　You can't find any more feelings inside for the girl who has protected humanity alone in the solitude of not knowing anyone. There are no words to say to the girl who is kept alive by a piece of demon meat.

　It's a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you're looking for. Of course, Loki too.
　Even now, I found myself wondering if this was necessary. There would be no point in thinking about it. The future that branched out endlessly and could not be seen, etc.

　Just a false peace given by one person's sacrifice. The future that was to be built must be better than the present. That's what I felt.

　No one can stop Ars from moving at this point in time.


　Loki softly closed his eyelids as if he knew Ars would open his mouth. It was a decision they had made together. He would never regret it, he said with such certainty.
　It would be an important first step in the world he envisioned. That's what Loki wants more than anyone else, and he wants to see it happen.

　I wanted to live in the same world and see the same landscape as him.
　No matter how far he went, Loki felt deeply that he was greedy. It just couldn't be helped that his heart, which should be restrained from doing so, was so full of joy - it would be so unavoidable that he had no choice but to give it up.

　Above all, he didn't give up on her to the end. He didn't give up on this inexplicably irredeemable world. In the past, Loki would surely have pouted.
　But now, he was a little glad that somewhere deep in his chest, he had a warmth in his heart.


'You know,' he said, 'that Babel's protective barrier won't hold anymore. I don't know when it will end, either. Maybe it's going to be OK for a few more years. And that's if you let them expand their protective wall any further. That's why...
If you want to stop it, you'll have to use force....

　There is no one here who cannot understand the words behind the words that Ars uttered as if they were somehow provocative.
　That's probably why.
　As if realizing it, Haorg takes the lead in letting out a leak.

''He's a clumsy fellow. We came here to take it all in. No one is to blame but if ignorance is a sin, it comes down to us, not the people. No one is to blame, that role is reserved for the head of state. That much we are prepared to do.

　
　A silence of agreement followed.


　Ars created the [Third Babel] for that reason, and built a new system in this world.
　The [Association of the Seven Nations Mages] is aiming for a kind of Babel-like significance to its existence. Not an object of faith as incomprehensible as a god, but an alternative as the greatest visible and familiar protector.

　By eliminating the bondage of the state, the association provides equal security.
　This allows all of humanity to share an outward perception of who and what is protecting us and what is saving us.


　At the very least, it would be obvious that the distant cause of this situation is the Ahrzeit royal family. The fact that only Cicernians are allowed access to Babel is the best proof of this.

　There is no point in exposing and covering up that crime now. As Haorg told us, the sins that have been passed unacknowledged until today are equally as bad.

Latifah, I'm sorry I'm late. Your own hero's achievement. I'm only an understudy, not your brother, but you'll have to forgive me for that.

　As soon as he said that, Ars touched one hand to the cold container. Shortly after, a snap and a crack, the liquid leaked out, and then the thick glass covering it shattered.

　For the first time standing here, Ars didn't feel like he was on to some strange agenda. Crokel could have gone either way from the beginning. Even if he sacrificed Ars as an alternative to Babel, or even if he was defeated, didn't Ars himself think that he couldn't overlook the state of Babel in the end? It seemed faintly so.

　It's a good thing that the two personalities of Kronos' body tissue-laced Crockel were somehow confused. Wasn't that a fragment of the memories lost by Kronos?

　A side effect caused by the rewriting of information when he took in Kronos, perhaps the fact that his appearance did not match his age should lead one to believe that he controlled Kronos in a different way than Ars.

　If you still think that the two personalities, the mixed memories, were all in all an act of trying to help his sister, and not a heroic one.

　--That's too convenient. An evil man who has arbitrarily taken so many lives.

　The words that follow are hesitant to be uttered even in her chest. It was all settled for her to think about it.

　Without paying attention to the liquid wetting his feet, Ars steps inside.

　The tightly restrained fetters held the girl who had transformed into a demon tightly in place. He flicked his fingers once at the contents of the injection he had taken from his waist.

''Ars, is that...?''

　Cisernia, who was watching everything in front of her, asks with a pale face, as if seeing something terrible while her hair is soaked. Everyone's consciousness is now completely at Ars's hand.
　But it's probably the only choice they have to accept. It is because the girl is only being kept alive by a demon.

　It's the only way to find salvation if you are going to find it.

　But...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not the guy you think I am, so don't take your word for it.

　Well, watch, and while saying that, Ars looked up at the huge body that couldn't even be identified as a girl. The girl's body leaps with a nimble step and inserts a needle directly into the skin of the demon that would be buried in the girl's body.
　Then the light red liquid inside was injected.

　If the information taken from Ars's own blood was from Kronos, then it was also Ars himself who overcame it. It was strange that his own elucidation could be useful in this way.

　Perhaps Crokel himself had the capacity to accept demons from the beginning. It means that Latifah, his blood relative, is no exception.
　In other words, that was probably why he didn't immediately die even if he transformed into a demon. Ars assumes that the only success story is because of the existence of such an array of magical power. Between the two of them, there must have been something solid because they were brother and sister. Something that could only delay even the erosion of demons.

　That's why Latifa was most surprised that when Ars entered the scene, Latifa had barely left the human part of her body behind. Then he asked Ilyce to help him draw blood - the water that made up the body, to be precise, since she had no blood against her will.

　As a result, Ars was able to create a single potion. This should be called a kind of poison.

　However, the bloated demon's arms slowly began to return to dust. Slowly, hurriedly, the black ashes danced and then disappeared.
　And then the girl's body fell as if it were being peeled off. All of the demon's outer skin was already gone.

　The girl fell like a feather, Ars caught the girl with both hands and covered her naked body with her own jacket to hide it.
　Her bony body showed through her veins clearly. Most importantly, she was growing slowly while being invaded by the demon. Among the materials sent by Cicernia were Crokel and Latifa, but their ages at the time were twelve or three.

　By simple calculation, they must already be over sixty. Even so, the fact that they only have symptoms of malnutrition is still probably due to the effects of Kronos. It's also proof that he resisted it more than anything else.

　It's not possible for such an unstable being to sustain life, yet the faintly pulsating body barely held on to life.
　Surely not for long. Realizing this, Ars realized his responsibility.


　........And it was also the moment when the wall that had protected people in seven countries and for half a century was lifted.