Surprisingly enough, I wasn't as shocked as I thought I'd be.
Perhaps reading my expression, it fell silent for a moment before continuing.
"You can't tell who it is, huh? Well, that's only natural. The only thing different from when I was in the party is my speech. I deliberately chose a tone none of the party members ever used."
Sure enough, none of my party members had ever spoken like that.
Not even Rennel, who always used informal speech with me, was that arrogant and rude.
The voice sneered, as if my tension was amusing.
"The leader of a party that slew countless Demon Kings—even four Arch Demon Kings—is actually a pitiful soul suffering from this mental illness. I wonder what humans would think if they knew?"
"You won't tell me which party member it is, even if I ask. Fine, let me rephrase. What do you want with me?"
"..."
"The party's disbanded by now. You... whoever you are... left with the others."
The Quad wrangle fell silent for a moment before responding.
"Why are you trying to kill the Erosion Demon King?"
"Because he's humanity's enemy."
"Is that really all there is to it?"
I didn't answer.
As if it hadn't really expected one, it started rambling on its own.
"There are currently 131 Demon Kings on the continent, but how do you think all those Demon Kings came to be?"
"You're not asking because you don't know, are you?"
"Answer me."
I sighed and replied.
"The fall of a strong human. When a human of sufficient caliber faces immense trials... when they're pushed to the absolute brink and finally shatter for some decisive reason, another Demon King is born into the world."
"Right. But those 'trials that push one to the brink' don't happen easily. Normally."
"Normally?"
"Natural misfortunes or bad luck have their limits. No matter how unlucky someone is, it's hard for something big enough to corrupt them into a Demon King to happen on its own."
"..."
"That's why most Demon Kings fall due to 'artificially created trials.' In fact, they're the overwhelming majority. Framed by someone, slandered, home invaded by murderers, and so on. Most misfortunes in the world are man-made, aren't they?"
Those words brought the Erosion Demon King to mind.
And the curse he'd placed on me.
Well, it was something I'd already suspected.
'The Erosion Demon King wanted to turn me into a Demon King.'
He was waiting patiently for the moment I'd crumble under his curse and fall.
For a full twenty years, no less.
I swallowed a groan and asked.
"So? Why the sudden history lesson?"
"Just checking... Did one of those 'artificial trials' I mentioned happen to you too?"
"..."
"And seeing how desperately you're hunting the Erosion Demon King."
It continued slowly.
"Your misfortune... wasn't caused by the Erosion Demon King, was it?"
"...And if it was?"
"Just curious. Makes me kind of happy, actually."
...
Happy?
A chilling hypothesis flashed through my mind.
"Hey."
I asked calmly, in a low voice.
"Are you a Demon King too, by any chance?"
And a moment later.
"Uhahahahahakakakahahahahaha."
The Quad wrangle's signature sticky, muffled laughter boomed out.
The fact that it sounded that way meant my focus had slipped.
I redirected all my attention to it.
And it began to sound like intelligible speech again.
"I always think this, but you're quick on the uptake. Except when it comes to reading people's emotions."
"A Demon King... was in our party?"
"Why not? I'm the Absence Demon King."
The Absence Demon King!
Ranked 11th among Arch Demon King-class Demon Kings, his whereabouts as elusive as the Erosion Demon King's, hence the name.
"That's how I exist by nature. One who exists yet doesn't. Anyone can be me, and no one can. If your fundamental existence matches mine, anyone can become the Absence Demon King at any time."
"..."
"Humans really do come up with the best nicknames, don't they?"
I could feel my own face stiffen rigidly.
I said.
"You said you were glad earlier. Does that mean... you were artificially made into a Demon King by the Erosion Demon King too?"
"Heh. Always so perceptive."
"Don't you hate him? The one who turned you—a normal human—into a Demon King. Doesn't that disgust you?"
The Quad wrangle was silent for a long while.
I couldn't tell if it was because it lacked an answer or was too absurd to speak.
I can't see expressions, after all.
Eventually, it spoke.
"Anyway, my curiosity's satisfied. Now you just need to die."
A cold autumn night breeze whispered between us.
A moment later, I couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.
"Kuh."
The Absence Demon King asked, as if I were strange.
"Why are you laughing? Have you finally lost it for real?"
"Absence Demon King. You might pity me. Losing the trust of my party members, them being the ones who wanted to disband first."
"..."
"Or maybe you find me pathetic. A guy vowing to kill Demon Kings, oblivious that one was in his own party."
"You bastard."
"Either way, it's true. But you know."
I grinned.
"I'm in a great mood right now. I've finally met someone who knows the Erosion Demon King's whereabouts."
"What?"
"The Absence Demon King, artificially created by the Erosion Demon King. You must know where that bastard's holed up."
Shing.
I drew my sword and continued.
"I'd appreciate it if you told me nicely."
"You're insane. You think you can take on a Demon King alone, after losing all your party members?"
"Oh, right. I did put on quite the struggle against the previous Demon Kings. Enough to give you that impression."
"...!"
"That's because I was diverting some of my mental focus to the group. To not miss their skill combos or calls for support."
"..."
"It was the shackles the Erosion Demon King put on me. The curse he laid to make me fall."
Cling.
I aimed my sword and said.
"The party's disbandment hurts, but honestly, it lets me focus entirely on the enemy in front of me."
"Hmph. Enough bluffing..."
"If you feel like telling me his location, say the code phrase."
I continued coldly.
"Let's make the code 'Spare me.'"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
How much time had passed?
"Hah... kuh... cough."
The Absence Demon King was dying before me.
Of course, objectively, I couldn't tell if the Quad wrangle was truly dying or just pretending.
But the sensation of my sword piercing its heart lingered clearly in my fingertips.
For someone like me who can't visually confirm an opponent's status, that sensation was an absolute marker.
I said with conviction.
"Forgot the code already?"
The Absence Demon King didn't respond.
I wanted to see its expression, but since it hadn't died yet, it was still obscured by white squares.
Seeing those white squares, I said offhandedly.
"You said you were a Demon King made by the Erosion Demon King too. You must have been cursed by him."
"..."
"Maybe a different kind from mine, but no less vicious. How can you protect the one who brought you that trial and pain? I just can't understand it."
I wasn't expecting a reply.
But unexpectedly, the Absence Demon King spoke.
Its Quad wrangle voice was already hard to understand on a good day, and now on the verge of death, I had to focus entirely just to make it out.
But what it said was far too off-topic to be an answer to my question.
"There was a time I had high hopes for you, Dai-il Magnus."
"What?"
"If you'd lived up to them... I might have helped you fight the Erosion Demon King."
I twitched my brow.
"Spouting nonsense on your deathbed."
"It was the truth. You had that much natural leadership."
"..."
"If everything had gone right, you could've been a Hero candidate... no, maybe even the Hero. You had the vessel for it."
Hero candidate?
Hero?
First time I'd heard those words.
"What's a Hero?"
"Too little time left to explain. And I have no desire to tell you."
"Then shut up and spill the Erosion Demon King's location."
"Hmph."
It continued with a mocking sneer.
"Why not just fall and become a Demon King? Then I could've given up on you sooner."
"..."
"Dai-il Magnus. A half-baked nobody who couldn't become either a Demon King or a Hero."
I finally admitted I wouldn't get any information from it.
Swish.
So I aimed my sword and said.
"These will be your last words. Ideally, make them the code we agreed on: 'Spare me.'"
"Heh heh."
And it left words exactly opposite my hopes.
"Kill me."
Slash.
Thud.
I slashed horizontally.
Across where I figured its neck would be—though it turned out to be around the chest.
The white squares split into quarters and collapsed.
Just like with Mother, the white squares vanished from the Absence Demon King's face as life left it.
Revealing its true form.
"Sand? Is this its real body?"
There lay fine grains of brown sand scattered about.
All Demon Kings can freely alter their faces and bodies.
Usually to human form, to evade pursuit.
But their true bodies are invariably unique, bizarre, and gruesome.
'A sand true body, though... that's a first.'
Not that it mattered to me.
What I really wanted to know was...
"Who the hell were you, anyway?"
Surprising as it was, I knew all my party members' faces.
Even if real-life views were blocked by white squares, portraits and sculptures weren't cursed.
I'd confirmed everyone's faces via their registration portraits when they first joined.
I just couldn't believe a Demon King was among those kind faces.
Not that it mattered now.
Thud.
I sank to the ground and ran a hand through my hair.
"This is bad."
Suddenly, I'd become a great hero who'd slain five Arch Demon Kings in the top twenty.
But I felt no joy.
Because the path to the Erosion Demon King was still blocked?
That had always been the case. No reason to be disappointed now.
What soured my mood was...
"Cough."
I spat up a mouthful of blood.
My body was wrecked from the final technique I'd used.
Rummage.
I dug through my tattered pack for a potion.
Unfortunately, they'd all shattered in the fight.
"Saintess. Heal..."
I murmured thoughtlessly, then chuckled bitterly.
This was it.
Facing a rank 11 Demon King alone, mutual destruction was my limit.
Let alone the Erosion Demon King, called a Demon God—impossible solo.
'I need my party members.'
And the Absence Demon King had to be among them.
Going by its dying words, I just needed to meet its expectations.
Make it choose me over the Erosion Demon King.
But what good was such regret now?
"Sorry, everyone."
For making you suffer under a lone, incompetent leader.
"I'm sorry, Mother."
I couldn't get revenge after all.
My eyes slowly closed.
My vision faded, along with the cold and pain.
They say hearing is the last sense to go when dying.
Maybe that's why, right before my breath stopped, I thought I heard a hallucination.
"No one in history has come closer to being a Hero than you. Just like that Demon King said, you became neither."
"..."
"So I'll take a little gamble myself."
In my final moments,
I realized.
That 'hallucination' I'd just heard wasn't the Quad wrangle's sticky, muffled voice.
It was the first normal, properly articulated voice I'd heard in twenty years.
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