Shattered Vel.
　A headless giant.
　A mere hand-to-hand sword was understood by this guy who shouldn't have been able to use magic or even the abyss.

　No, wait a minute........

　A person with such a large figure had fallen, yet there was not a single tremor.

''This is........''

　--shouldn't be shaken by reason.

　The body and neck of the giant lying on the ground had been replaced by the baby's.

'My God...'

　There was a skinny giant, but not a floating baby.
　Sweat poured from his forehead and he stared at me, unable to hide his agitation.
　A baby's body and an adult's face.

''--Oh no, what congratulations!

　Suddenly, a double door appears next to me.
　It opens, and Romero appears through it.

"Romero....

It's good to see you back, my king.

What do you mean ... where have you been?

Romero, this is your doing!

　The baby was furious and yelled at me.
　There are veins floating on his forehead and not a hint of childhood.
　The voice is uncomfortable because it is that of an adult male.

''No, no, I was just surprised too. I didn't think that the requirement to become a king was to destroy half your body. No wonder there has never been a king since the beginning of this world. A person who loses half his body is disqualified from being a king - there's no way he can be destroyed if he's convinced of that.

　His tone of voice is different from Romero's usual.
　It's almost as if he was a close observer.

"Well then, let's go, my king. I have much to tell you.

Who are you?

Well this is Romero, by the way.

　Not the Romero I know.

Come on, let's go.

Romero!

　I heard the baby call out.
　Romero turned around.

'It's all going to fall apart?'

'....The King of the Abyss has been born, the world will be opened, that's all. Everything will return to the primordial.

　Romero smiled in amusement.

'Tell him, Zement,'

You....

It's been a while since I've had a cup of tea in the right world.

Hey, you!

Come on. Let's go.

　For a moment, the old man was the same Romero he always was.

　I was invited in, not knowing what to expect, and followed Romero to the back of the door.







You look tired, sir. Quite so too.

....

　At the end of the door was a narrow, dark tunnel.
　After a while, I saw a light at the end of the road--

"This is........

The Temple of Consciousness.

　When we passed through the long tunnel - it was dark.

　The sky was endlessly cloudy.
　Lightning streaks through the clouds and a thunderclap reverberates, and somewhere in the distance the sound of the world cracking apart is repeated.

Let's go.

　I didn't ask him where he was going.
　He just followed Romero as he walked.

　Withered trees on dead earth.
　A swamp, emitting purple smoke.
　As he looked around, he saw a white lake in the distance.

''It's Adolf Sigma's Jealousy Water,'' he said. It appeared when the abyss sprouted on him.

　I don't know what I'm saying and I don't know where to start asking.

'Did he show up?'

All the abysses are here.

　Before I knew it, a girl in a yukata was walking next to me.
　She was licking a candy apple in her hand.

'Fernies?'

Master you look a little peaked, don't you?

　She looked up at me and said.

　I saw something more familiar in my vision.
　A white table with a bourgeois feel to it.
　There was someone sitting on a chair, enjoying a cup of tea.

Is that Snuffy?

　Half of his face is obscured by a mask reminiscent of the Phantom of the Opera.

'Good day to you, Master!

　He waved at me gracefully.

　In another direction, I could see a large face bouncing on the ground and a large foot not moving still.
　A large ball like a red-black bubble in the sky above.
　There were a number of things there that resembled the abyssal magic that I possessed.

''Here it is.''

　I turned at the sound of Romero's voice.
　There was a huge staircase in front of him.
　It was unusually large in width and length, as if it were the perfect size for the relative observer just moments ago.

　When I reached the top of the stairs, the temple stood before me.
　It looks like something I've seen in a dream one day, but it looks different because of the dark clouds around it.

　When I entered the temple, there was a dark square without even a candlelight, and numerous monsters.
　No, these are not monsters.

''--Monsters.''

　The demons turn around in turn and stare at me.

'You know the minotaurs and the slime. All of them belong to the Abyss. More to the point.

　Romero explained that whoever became a candidate for the king would be given a house.
　It was a free space where the interior could be changed at will in the imagination of the master, what the world called a dungeon.
　He said that most of them would find this, whether they could survive the ordeal or not.

'Some, like Oliver Joe, cannot find it. His home has unfortunately appeared at the bottom of the lake. The dungeon is also a product of the abyss, its interior is connected to the Temple of Consciousness here, but it is not the Temple of Consciousness. But it's not the Temple of Consciousness.

　Suddenly, Romero crouched in front of the entrance.
　He held out one arm and tilted his head in a slight bow--as if leading to the throne at the back of the temple.

'The King has returned!

　A voice so loud that it echoed throughout the entire square.
　All the demons in the place leaned their heads towards me, as did Romero.

''Come, Your Majesty, to the throne.''

　Naturally, I had a few questions.
　Why did you suddenly call me His Majesty, or when did I become king....
　Why did I resist when I was attacked by the observers?
　Was it because Vel told me to break it, or because he told me to move?
　All of that didn't matter anymore.

　While looking at the demons around him, he made his way towards the throne step by step.
　When I reach it, the throne is at the end of a few short steps.
　I wonder where the dark clouds outside have gone, but only a pale blue light, like moonlight, is shining on the throne.
　Is it coming in through a window near the ceiling?

　I walked up the stairs. I sat on the throne.

　I heard the sound of all the demons standing up behind me. I turned around. All of them were hunched over, their bodies facing us.
　Romero slowly made his way down the central path.
　He kept a respectable distance and stood in front of me across the stairs.

"Welcome back, Your Majesty the Abyssal King!

　There was Romero's voice that seemed to break through the ceiling.
　All the demons said in unison.

''Welcome back, Your Majesty the Abyssal King!

　They all got down on one knee and hung their heads.



*



　The demons are enjoying a dinner party in the hall.
　I don't know what to do with them, and I don't know what to do with them if they call me His Majesty the Abyssal King, although they say they can understand each other's language.

　I slipped out of the hall.
　I walked down the corridor at random.
　After a while, I stopped when I found what looked like a large garden.

'The Pleiades, sir.'

　I heard Romero's voice behind me.
　I sat down in the middle of the stairs leading to the gardens.

'We have the same thing in the life world as we do here.

　The word Pleiades was taught to me by Mr. Khalifa.
　According to one human book, though, it is the name of the Kingdom of God in which the observer lives.

'I suppose its only advantage is that it is an isolated space, unrecognizable from life.

What do you mean, "King"?

You are neither alive nor dead now.

Who are you?

This is Romero.

"You are not the Romero I know. You told me that you were a subhuman. Are you sure about that?

'No, no. I'm a former observer.

　I have no idea.
　But I didn't get any particular impressions.
　I don't care who this guy is or who I am.
　There was nowhere important.
　It wasn't there to begin with....

"In the beginning, this world was one, shall we say, the primordial world. It was a world of the living and the dead, of conscious beings like you and me.

　In that world, it is said that even when death comes, the body does not perish but continues to exist in the form of the dead.
　Sometimes the body is destroyed, but the consciousness remains.
　I've heard that there were many like me.

　Romero stressed that I had a role to play in opening the gate.
　If I opened it, he said, "Let your loved ones come back too.
　He said that death hadn't actually come, that he was just no longer a living person.
　I can hear Romero's voice like that behind the ringing in my ears, wondering what he's trying to say.

'You can't change the fact that you killed him.

　When I said that, my ears stopped ringing and my voice stopped.

''Your Majesty........''

'I couldn't save Toa, I stabbed Sufilia to death, I left Vel to die, that's my reality.

"Release the Temple of Consciousness and everything will be back to normal.

'The whole thing sounds like a clown's nonsense. Why don't you do it yourself, you're the one who knows more than me.

I need the memory of the door that only the King of the Abyss knows.

　I open the dungeon swirl in front of me.
　As I turn my back and try to leave without saying a word, Romero says in a calm voice.

'The abyss dwells on those who kill themselves and fail to die. That world is no longer for you.'

Are we being attacked by those things again?

'No, I'm not, I'm saying that you yourself can't bear it since you know the reason for the birth. Babies don't want love, they want pure death. He bitterly regrets and hates the fact that he was born. But they can't kill themselves, like you, so they cry out.



'You are as pure as a baby now. It is not a kinder world over there than the pure ones can live.

　As I walked forward, I couldn't hear the voices anymore.

　When I exited the dungeon, I found my former world.
　A clear sky with no dark clouds.
　The area was full of vegetation and trees, with a grassy field in front of us.
　This is the road that connects Grayberg and Radshausen. On the way, there is the village of Tanya.
　I walked for a while without stopping at the village.

　When Radshausen came into view in the distance, I stopped in my tracks.
　The last time I saw this view, Sierra and Toa were by my side.
　Come to think of it, that was William's carriage. That's why his guard, Kays, was there too.
　But had Lord Elferise killed him?　I think that's what Tom and the others said.

　They hated people.
　So did I. There were people I wanted to kill.
　I'd have killed them, but now that I think about it, it wouldn't have been necessary.
　Everyone is going to die sooner or later anyway.

"We're all going to die~

　The sky looked surprisingly blue.
　Or maybe I just forgot what color the sky is.

"No one's coming back to life, not anymore...

　I didn't go to Rashausen.