“What are you doing…?”
Yuri, who had momentarily lost consciousness, was startled by the mysterious dark magic radiating from Cedric and instinctively swung her sword.
Cedric’s arm was severed.
But he only chuckled.
[Hahaha…]
From the severed stump, tentacles sprouted, regenerating his flesh. It was no longer a human arm. The bio-organic tissue made of writhing tentacles emerged as if it had a will of its own.
Cedric floated upward into the air.
Yuri swung her sword, Guilty, once more.
Cedric raised a black barrier, but Yuri sliced through it entirely.
The sword’s chaotic soul energy was the natural enemy of dark magic.
Glancing at the trembling ceiling, Yuri asked, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
[Curious?]
“Cut the tricks out.”
[I don’t want to.]
The battle’s course was clear to anyone watching.
No matter how much dark magic Cedric unleashed, Yuri cut through it all.
Yet Cedric endured, thanks to his infinite mana.
His dark magic, fueled by countless sacrificed lives, was as bottomless as the sea. It might not overpower Yuri’s sword, but it would never run out.
Cedric kept scattering dark magic, sacrificing his own body in the process. Gritting her teeth, Yuri cut through the dark magic and pressed her attack.
Instinctively, Yuri sensed something was unfolding.
[Yuri.]
Suddenly, her body froze. Cedric unleashed a dense wave of dark magic, gripping her tightly.
Yuri struggled to shake it off.
Cedric spoke, almost reluctantly.
“Admit it. I never thought I’d say this. Yuri Briol, you truly are…”
He curled his lips into a smile.
It was a gentle smile, soft enough to evoke memories of a happy childhood.
[I’ve lost.]
He admitted his defeat.
[I’ve lost, Yuri.]
“What kind of trick is this?”
[No trick. It’s my honest truth.]
Cedric smiled faintly, recalling the past.
His mind was so extraordinary that he could recall and relive his entire life’s trajectory in an instant.
Born with exceptional talent, Cedric couldn’t understand others. What he saw as obvious was invisible to other humans.
To him, humans were merely a lower species, a rung beneath himself.
Had he not discovered the grimoire in the underground library, he might have pretended to be a kind Cedric until adulthood, only to be crushed by the gap and take his own life.
But he gained dark magic—the source of infinite power.
No longer did he need to mimic the monkeys surrounding him.
Instead, he would become their master and offer them a new world.
He would create a proper ‘human’ world.
Freedom was too much for them.
This despicable species, who inflicted violence on each other for foolish reasons and abandoned themselves for fleeting pleasure, would be placed under his control.
Unnecessary conflicts would vanish, and wars and famines born from individual greed and incompetence would become mere historical records.
And perhaps, someday—
These pitiful monkeys might evolve enough to see something like him.
There would be sacrifices along the way, but that was inevitable. Just as humans don’t care about ants crushed underfoot, to him, humanity was just a swarm of monkeys.
If sacrificing some meant creating a new world, he would gladly do it.
But—
[Yuri, you were my joy, but now you bring me sorrow.]
His younger sister, Yuri Briol, had appeared.
At first, she was just a curiosity, a little more interesting than others.
She was cuter than the other monkeys, playful, talented with a sword, and possessed an inexplicable charisma.
Though she couldn’t see what he saw, she had the potential to be a great talent in the monkeys’ world.
If she joined the new world he would create, she might be quite useful.
That was all Yuri Briol was to him.
But then, something changed.
To someone who could predict everything, Yuri Briol introduced uncertainty.
She disrupted his plans one by one.
At first, it was amusing.
It’s more interesting when unpredictable elements enter a game whose outcome you already know. That’s why humans gamble with money—they crave that thrill.
But gradually, it became serious.
The foundation of his plans crumbled.
The Alliance army was the beginning.
The eastern orc faction he had painstakingly built was destroyed by Yuri Briol.
If not for her, the Alliance would have failed, and Okua would have remained the eastern victor, threatening the continent indefinitely—a precious trump card for him.
Then, all his secret plans in various countries fell apart, and foolish humans who could never unite began rallying under a single banner.
At the center was his beloved younger sister, Yuri Briol.
How long could he tolerate her?
Cedric felt both joy and fear.
For the first time in his flawless life, failure had been etched.
Maybe he would lose.
Deep inside, that unease was growing.
Surely Yuri was just another monkey, but she was becoming something he couldn’t comprehend.
So he destroyed Laurent.
He wanted to see how Yuri would react if he ruined Laurent—the one she cherished and worshipped.
Would he cry out?
Or would she, like any other human, distance herself and despise Laurent?
Was Yuri’s heart, too, ruled by instinct, a monkey that shunned the ugly and craved only the beautiful and sweet?
But the elf mage Inariel was more capable than he expected, and that plan failed.
From then on, Yuri’s advance was unstoppable.
The god of the otherworld had left, and the anti-empire alliance’s defense failed.
Yuri Briol even cut through all the dark magic with an unknown power.
Just as he feared, Yuri became an unstoppable storm.
Now he understood.
His plan was too perfect.
That’s why he lost.
When the impurity called Yuri entered, his perfectly meshed gears simply broke down. That was why he lost.
At this point, Cedric thought his defeat might be inevitable.
The fate of the world was pushing him.
As he tried to establish a new order, humanity raised Yuri Briol as a rival to prolong their ugly, tenacious history.
She was the very will to survive of humanity.
Watching that struggle, Cedric felt disgust.
Why were these monkeys so persistent? Why did the world side with them despite the countless absurdities, tragedies, and foolishness they created?
Watching Yuri Briol follow him to the very end, refusing to fall and instead raising her sword—
Cedric felt something close to despair.
He had to admit it now.
[Yes. I’ve lost.]
He lost.
But his plan would not fail.
Because—
[But you’ve lost too, Yuri Briol.]
If he couldn’t have it, he would destroy it.
Cedric looked up at the dark core he had forged by combining all the life force, wicked artifacts, and the demon’s grimoire he had gathered.
It was his true form, the essence of his dark magic.
He decided to activate his last resort plan.
He would open the gate to the Outer Universe.
When he made a pact with the god of the otherworld, he had only briefly opened a back door to shake hands through the gap. That delicate operation had consumed enormous mental and magical power.
But opening the gate outright was different.
He would just smash the door open with the dark magic he had amassed.
Then, the surface world would be exposed directly to the beings of the Outer Universe.
[I will destroy everything.]
Understanding his intent, Yuri’s face twisted.
“Why would you go that far?!”
[Hahaha…]
Cedric laughed.
For the first time, he felt like he had landed a blow on Yuri Briol.
He smirked and continued.
[I will open the gate to the Outer Universe. Then those terrible beings will descend upon the surface. They are empty inside, ravenous like piranhas, devouring human life greedily.]
“You’re insane…”
[No, I’m not. You are.]
Cedric spread his arms wide.
His core trembled, distorting the ground beneath him.
[The world is so unfair, yet you live as if nothing is wrong. You are the ones who are mad.]
“Cedric, calm down. You’ll die too.”
[No, I won’t.]
Cedric’s lips curled upward.
Then he chuckled darkly.
[The underground city I built is impenetrable to the beings of the Outer Universe. The gate will remain open for maybe a hundred, two hundred years. They will clean up humanity for me, and during that time, I will prepare. When the time comes, I will rise to the cleansed surface and create a new world. Don’t worry. I will select the seeds of humanity and manage them.]
Cedric smiled brightly.
He hadn’t expected to use his contingency plan like this.
He never imagined losing, so he thought such extreme measures unnecessary. But his mind had calculated every step, including unnecessary ones.
He would open the gate to the Outer Universe.
Dimensional rifts possess the power to heal themselves, so over time, the portals would close again, and whatever had come through would return to the void.
The beings of the void hunger for humans.
Plants and animals, being of a lower order of existence, fail to capture the interest of the gods from other realms.
Only humans.
The void’s entities would devour all of these pitiful, insignificant creatures whom this world inexplicably favors.
[Good. Let’s start from the beginning. This world has been flawed since its inception; it’s only right to rebuild it from scratch.]
The ceiling of the underground city split open.
Infinite magical energy radiated from the core, causing tremors that tore through the earth’s surface.
Cedric rose slowly toward the surface, carrying the core with him.
“Cedric!”
Yuri clung to him, swinging her sword wildly.
His body began to unravel.
But Cedric paid it no mind.
There was no way to defeat this one through combat. Absurd as it was, his younger sister had gained a power beyond reason—one that could even sever incorporeal things. So he focused on dividing and shifting his own existence, letting Yuri’s attacks slide off him.
He could endure this.
Though he would lose, Yuri would lose as well.
[Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…]
Cedric’s laughter echoed thunderously through the underground city.
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
From birth until now, his life had been nothing but boredom—until Yuri came along and changed that.
Once she died, the world might become more complete, but he would once again be tormented by crushing ennui.
So, the effort to shatter and recreate the surface felt like a fitting tribute to her memory.
Knowing he would never see her again, Cedric felt a strange sense of brotherhood.
He reached out to Yuri.
[Yuri.]
“Shut up!”
He watched as Yuri swung her sword.
Yuri Briol.
Sweating, gritting her teeth, never giving up, her eyes burning with determination as always.
She was beautiful.
Cedric realized something.
He could never understand the monkeys disguised as humans, and they could never understand him.
But Yuri was different.
She was a third kind of being—neither like him nor like the monkeys.
[Yuri, my little sister.]
Cedric’s hand brushed her cheek.
Though guilt tore through his body and soul dozens, even hundreds of times every second, he smiled all the more.
[I’m glad I met you.]
No matter how strong Yuri’s newfound power was, she wouldn’t survive once the gate to the outer universe opened.
The gods from other realms he had summoned were but fragments of the void. Far stronger and more colossal beings existed beyond.
[Let’s end this now.]
A massive current of energy Cedric created enveloped Yuri, and together they soared through the widening rift toward the surface.
As soon as they reached the ground, Cedric shook Yuri off.
Yuri, still pointing her sword at him, was soon swept away by the swirling currents and flung far into the distance.
[Hah…]
Cedric planted his feet firmly on the surface.
He felt countless gazes upon him.
Admiring Yuri for having gathered so many humans and powerful warriors, Cedric summoned his magic once more.
Humans rushed at him belatedly, but the barrier he created blocked their approach.
[This won’t take long.]
Cedric saw the twisted faces turned toward him.
That entire crowd was united in their desire for his death.
Their hatred only confirmed to Cedric that his decision was right.
A hundred years, maybe two hundred.
Or perhaps even longer.
It wouldn’t be too long.
Thinking of the new world he would build, Cedric raised both hands.
His core ascended, eclipsing the sun as it rose into the sky.
It was another sun underground, but on the surface, it was like a shroud casting darkness.
An eclipse had begun.
Darkness spread across the world.
At this moment, when morale was higher than ever, Cedric’s core pulsed with magic, knocking on the gate to the outer universe.
The sky trembled.
Cracks began to form.
The barrier separating the world from the outer universe was slowly breaking down.
Soon.
Cedric counted silently.
One.
Two.
Three…
Then, at that moment—
Someone stood beside him.
[Kori?]
Small, tiny in stature. Even that was marred by a limp, and recently, a bent spine had made him look even more pitiful.
Yes, he was here.
The wretched creature who took pure joy in seeing the once proud Laurent reduced to such a sorry state.
Such untainted emotion was something Cedric had never seen before.
He felt awe.
Assuming humans were mere vermin, perhaps Kori was the purest expression of humanity.
[You’ve come a long way, Kori. Yes, come with me. Let’s go underground together. Once the cleansing is done, we’ll build a new world. As I promised you, in this new world, no one will ever mock or despise you for your ugliness.]
Cedric reached out his hand.
[Take my hand, Kori.]
Then, movement stirred in Kori’s distorted face.
His mouth twisted, his eyes contorted.
Though Cedric had no understanding of emotions, he could tell that the movement of those facial muscles was a smile.
Kori was smiling.
Then he spoke.
“No.”
Cedric’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer.
“I will not follow you.”
[What are you saying?]
“I deceived you from the start. I disguised myself to stop you. The reason you couldn’t make a contract with the gods from other realms was because I interfered.”
[That can’t be. You…]
“Me?”
[You definitely…]
“Me?”
Kori looked up at him quietly.
Cedric felt a strange sensation.
Unfamiliar.
If Yuri Briol was a being beyond prediction, then at this moment, Kori felt like something utterly unpredictable.
The unknown.
A sensation utterly foreign to Cedric.
Seeing Cedric dazed, Kori smiled faintly.
[Cedric. Tell me.]
His words felt less like sound and more like a presence.
[What kind of being am I?]