章 485: The Marquis of Discord (5)
The river of blood has finally dried up.
The decades-long war between the human and demon realms has been recorded in the history books as the Age of Destruction.
And the day the human world's victory was carved into stone.
A head was hung on the main gate of Baskerville House, a house known for its Iron-Blooded Swordsmen.
<Name: Vikir Van Baskerville>
<Crime: Internal Communication>
Vikir. 'Vikir van Baskerville'.
The illegitimate son of Hugo Le Baskerville, the patriarch of House Baskerville.
A shadowy figure with countless blood on his hands for years behind the scenes.
The hound of the House of Baskerville.
* * *
....
A severed head is speechless.
The world in which the dog's neck hung was still suffering from the aftermath of the war.
The Imperial Capital was destroyed in half.
The Red and Black Mountains were devastated by fire and water.
The Colosseo Academy is in ruins.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Hell Tree that soared into the sky.
Leviathan, Don Quixote, and Usher, are still shrouded in Red Death.
Baskerville, where only smoke rises.
The fallen Quovadis.
The fallen Bourgeois.
Morg, struggling alone.
In Tochka, dead bodies dried up due to the depletion of drinking water.
Broken angel statue.
A crumbling clock tower.
The Nouvelle Vague vanished without a trace....
How can he forget such familiar scenes!
How can he forget this wasteland, reddened with the blood of so many fallen comrades...!
"...! ...! ...!"
Vikir shuddered as if struck by lightning.
Indeed.
Andras had not opened the Gate of Destruction.
However, it was no different from opening the Gate of Destruction.
A world beyond where the Gate of Destruction is already open.
The world that Vikir lived and died in before he regressed.
The portals to it have been thrown wide open!
[Huhuhuhu- A world line where the Gate to Destruction is already open. It's the gate leading to that place.]
This wasn't just Andras's ability alone.
Emperor's blood.
Golding Gerald, the first Emperor of Rock, the great empire that united the continents, was said to have the ability to see the future.
The first crown prince of the Golding family, who inherited the bloodline of the first emperor, also possessed the power inherent in his blood.
The combination of his host's ability to foresee the future and his own ability to open a gate gave Andras the ability to jump through time and open a gate to the past or future.
In other words, he has the power to interfere in parallel worlds.
While this ability was quite limited in many ways, it was still a tremendous power.
Unlike the other Ten Corpses, Andras chose a host with the most power he could muster.
The result was that Vikir was standing here now.
Andras smirked.
[Are you finally willing to make a deal? Tell me who my brother is and where he is now, and I'll spare you the worst of it].
"...."
[You're not planning on destroying this world either, are you? Are you planning to bring only misfortune wherever you go? Isn't it necessary to protect at least one of the world?]
"...."
Vikir frowned.
The original world where he had died.
The Gate of Destruction has already been opened, and the destruction of polar hell has descended.
Tsutsutsutsutsutsuts...
There was a bridge between that world and the current one.
It was only a bridge, but it was still indirectly connected to Hell.
The rains of fire will flood.
Countless demons would cross over.
It was clear that countless human beings would perish once again.
However.
"...In the last life, humans were victorious. In any case, the Age of Destruction is over."
Yes.
Although 99% of humanity perished, and Vikir himself was executed at the end of the story in a plot left by the demon, ... humanity was not wiped out as a result.
The Great Flood came later, ending the rainy season of fear.
All of the Ten Corpses were either dead or disappeared with their magic power wasted.
The thousand fires that lit the world were extinguished, and the remnants of the monsters were hunted down.
Everything must be righted.
All the vile things that crossed the Gate of Destruction eventually vanished.
As a result, the humans, once as numerous as grains of sand on a white beach, were reduced to a handful, but a victory was a victory nonetheless.
"So, even if you created a portal to the other world, there are no flames and monsters to cross over."
Vikir said through clenched teeth.
Before the regression, humanity avoided the apocalypse thanks to the sacrifices of countless heroes.
It was a vision he saw clearly before his throat was cut.
But Andras merely laughed in disbelief.
[Do you really think so?]
"...what?"
[Do you really think the destruction is over and you humans have won?]
Andras goes beyond ridicule and bursts into laughter.
And underneath that unpleasant smile, there was a hint of composure and malice that could not be hidden.
Soon, several more portals opened around him.
Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsuts...
A portal with an eerie aura.
A mirror-like transparent membrane appeared in the darkness.
The world beyond the portal became a little more visible.
A wider land and a higher sky came into view.
A moment.
"...!?"
Vikir's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
His pupils fluttered as he saw a world he didn't recognize.
After Vikir was executed, the world was becoming more and more cruel.
He sees a great fire rising from the plateau where the surviving humans had gathered.
The roar of giant monsters that were thought to be extinct can be heard.
Centipedes wrapping themselves around mountains, cephalopods as large as islands rising from the sea, giants tearing through the earth, birds so large they cover the sky, and various ferocious monsters racing across the land.
And there were demons, some of them seemingly powerful, leading hordes of monsters on a rampage.
The deserts of the east were turned into muddy pools of human blood.
Storms were blowing, strong enough to turn the jungles of the west into a wasteland.
The seas to the south have been turned to rotten water by a virulent plague.
A tsunami of flame so hot that it turned the snowy fields of the north into lava fields.
The demons and monsters that rampaged in hordes were more numerous and far more vicious than any of Vikir's most desperate times.
O-ooooooooo...
All that could be heard were cries of rage, sorrow, and agony.
The few remaining humans were fighting back desperately, but it was clear that they would not last long.
"Oh, how can this happen? Surely I died after seeing the victory of the Human Alliance...!?"
It was rare for Vikir to panic.
Especially since he'd regressed.
But what was happening now would surely surprise even a seasoned veteran who had crossed so many lines of fire.
"This is ridiculous. Is that really the world I used to live in?"
Vikir's pupils trembled.
The world in front of him was indeed his original world.
This was the intuition of a superhuman.
A terrifying sight that far surpassed all the horrors Vikir had seen and heard before his return.
A sight so horrifying that even a Regressor who had lived through the Age of Destruction would be appalled.
-We're down! More demons are coming!
-Annihilation! This is annihilation!
-This is... impossible!
-How much longer do we have to fight!
-Kill me! Just kill me!
-I'd rather have been there when the Gate of Destruction first appeared.
-The heroes are all dead!
-...It's over, it's the real end of the world.
.
.
Countless people were dying.
The situation has gotten so bad that even the great heroes of the Age of Destruction, the great heroes who fought alongside Vikir, are dying like garbage.
The monsters that burst forth from the Gate of Destruction, and the Ten Corpses who led them, had been little more than a 'tutorial'.
Vikir doubted twice or thrice that Andras was showing some kind of illusion.
[...Human. That's not an illusion or brainwashing, it's real].
It's not a lie, since the same thing is being seen through the eyes of the demon Decarabia.
What they were seeing through the portal was clearly the world after Vikir's execution.
Andras clutched his gaping stomach in disbelief.
[What did I tell you earlier, that the world was much more stable after your death? If I were to be honest, that was a lie.]
"You can't do that! I surely died watching all ten of them lose!"
[You saw it well, It's true that we failed. In any case, it is 'us'.]
"...!?"
Andras chuckled.
[As long as the 'Gate of Destruction' remains, the demons will be able to rebuild their power, do you know why?]
Andras's words were followed by an unbelievable statement.
[Because we Ten Corpses are only the 'weakest' among the Demon Lords.]
Obvious story.
A common cliché.
...But there is a reason why those things work.
That's because the obvious and common things reflect reality best.
And then, beyond the many portals, giant shadows are revealed.
Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsu...
The shadows were so huge, so vast, that as if the world beyond wasn't dark enough, they stretched beyond the portals into the world here.
Andras said.
[I am Andras. 'Marquis of Discord'. and a demon of the Bottom Seats ranked only 63rd in the 72 ranks.... Do you understand what this means?]
With a smile that tore the corners of his mouth past the base of his ears and up to the crown of his head.
[It means that beyond that Gate of Destruction, there are 62 demons stronger than me].
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