Unknowingly, his feet were already dirtied.

He knew that it wasn’t there just now, but he had somehow managed to step into a muddy piece of land and now he found that he was unable to move his feet.

File:DDnYnD v05 079.jpg

“…”

So he looked at his feet so that he would be able to pull his feet out of the swamp.

But he found that his feet had not sunk into any mire, even his shoes were clean.

Just that there was a lot of blood.

There was a large amount of fresh blood flowing out from where he stood.

The blood flowed and became a path.

It was like the blood was paving the road that he should take while flowing all over the ground.

He stared at this road.

“…”

Sion Astal used his golden eyes to look at the fresh blood.

No, if he was more accurate, the blood wasn’t flowing out.

At least in reality, no one would see the blood.

But Sion looked at the blood.

He looked at the scene that was in the Other World.

It was a world where there was the G.o.ddess, Hero and Demon.

It was a world where Sion who was being devoured by the Mad Hero belonged to.

It was a world that changed constantly around him.

From where he was standing, red, red, no, because it was so red that it had started to turn black, the curse was eroding the land.

The curse had covered all of Roland, devastating the old Estabul Kingdom and continuing to spread to Imperial Nelpha and Runa Empire.

This curse made the people living on these lands submit to Sion Astal.

This curse spread to the ‘Human’s living on these lands, making them become ‘Human α’.

Then, even if it was Nelpha or Runa, they would be done for.

One of the bonds shackling the Fallen Mad Hero in Roland would be broken.

Towards the Central.

They could already head towards the Central.

But.

“…”

Sion closed his eyes and pulled his consciousness back to reality.

He was now riding on a horse.

They had crossed over the boundary between Runa and Roland, heading towards a new land that the Hero had never stepped on before.

Then invade the new lands.

For this, he had moved his operation grounds to Runa Empire.

Surrounding him were tens and thousands of soldiers.

But he couldn’t hear their voices.

He couldn’t hear their footsteps.

He could only hear his own voice.

“…”

I am using fresh blood and the curse to m.u.f.fle this world’s sounds.

Hearing the sounds of the world changing.

Hearing the sounds of the world changing.

That is the world that I wished for.

That is the mad world that I wished to change.

But he didn’t know why, but he felt quite sad.

“…Sad?” Sion softly said.

“The me who isn’t human any longer, feels sad?” He muttered softly, then started to laugh.

He laughed with a bitter voice.

But Sion Astal could only continue.

The Roland King could only continue.

The Fallen Mad Hero laughed sadly and continued to progress to the north.

For the sake of changing this world.

For the sake of changing this mad world, he—

He suddenly found that he had dirtied his feet.

Fresh blood.

The ocean of blood had dirtied his feet.

“d.a.m.n.” Riphal Edea muttered. Then he raised his eyes to observe the current situation.

He was currently preparing to invade a small country called the Divine City of Elon.

Although the Divine City of Elon was the first obstacle that the Gastark ran into when they started to attack the Central Continent, but there was a large difference between the armies of Gastark and the Divine City of Elon.

So, according to common logic, there wouldn’t be a war. Only Gastark sending out the warning to surrender and then the Divine City of Elon would surrender and the war would end.

That was basically what had happened when they had fought with the smaller countries up north.

So this time, they tried sending a warning to surrender to the Divine City of Elon.

“… Are they idiots.” Looking at the mountains of corpses around him, Riphal said, “Didn’t I say I would protect you from Geihlficlant? Why did you give up your lives for nothing?”

As he said that, a pale and calm man standing behind him—Rigwaltz Pentest said, “…There’s no choice. These countries are dependent on the Geihlficlant Empire. If you compare us, who appeared recently with the Geihlficlant Empire, anyone would choose that side.”

He frowned, then turned towards the mountains of dead bodies. There was a torch on the walls of that country. So that even if it was evening, they could still see the situation clearly.

This city, Aislon was the only place where the Divine City of Elon could block Gastark. If they managed to break through this are, then they would gain direct access to the center of Aislon.

Of course, the Divine City of Elon dispatched nearly all of its soldiers to this city Aislon. And the Aislon soldiers were resisting Gastark’s attacks.

It was obvious that they would fail in battle, resisting futilely, shouting and crying, and then dying.

A frighteningly large number of people had died.

This scene was so saddening that it almost seemed funny.

There were people dying.

There were people dying.

There were people dying.

Riphal walked over these bodies.

He encountered some soldiers resisting and meeting drastic ends, sacrifices on his side. And their progress seemed to be slightly slower than expected.

But.

“It’s ended.” Riphal said.

The foundations of the wall had exploded due to their efforts and it had started to collapse, preventing the soldiers from making any further action to use magic to attack them.

Rize nodded, “Yes, Aislon has collapsed. This way, the Divine City of Elon has ended.”

“If I knew that we were going to have such a stubborn resistance… I would have used Glovil.” Riphal said, looking at the unbelievably long black sword on his back.

It was a cursed sword called the Sword of Regeneration. It needed to eat its owner’s body- namely Riphal’s body- to release a strong destructive power that was equal to that of the G.o.d’s.

But Rize shook his head and said, “If it were so easy to use that sword, then it would be troublesome. If we use it so easily, then even if you have many bodies, it won’t work… Even if it wasn’t like that, please don’t use that sword for more than three times in the future…”

Hearing this, there was an ache in Riphal’s left eye that had been eaten by Glovil.

“…”

There were three more times… he thought.

That was the number that he could use Glovil to collapse the three states in this central continent.

Riphal examined the powers in the Central Continent again mentally.

In the Central Continent, there were thirteen countries, including the Divine City of Elon and three states. Although it was put like that, but those thirteen countries were vessel countries of the three states, so it could be said that there were only three countries in the Central Continent.

And the names of those Three States were—

Geihlficlant Empire

Republic of Ertolia

Remrus Empire.

These three countries had a larger land ma.s.s than the northern continent and were therefore more powerful than them.

If it included the powers of the vessel countries, then perhaps their combined power would be stronger than the Gastark Empire that had unified the Northern Continent.

As a side note, the country, the Divine City of Elon that was about to surrender to Gastark was a country in the east of the Central Continent, and it was a vessel country of the Geihlficlant Empire.

Although Gastark had sent warnings to the Divine City of Elon at the start of the war, but it had rejected it as they feared Geihlficlant.

After they allowed the other party to witness Gastark’s power, Gastark had sent another warning, but they were rejected again.

Then Gastark sent people to investigate why the Divine City of Elon was rejecting them so vehemently.

They found out that the royalty and n.o.bles had already fled to Geihficlant. Nearly all the n.o.bility and cadres of armed forces had escaped to Geihlficlant. Only the people and soldiers left behind were ordered to buy time so that Geihficlant could arrange an army to deal with Gastark.

That meant.

“…”

At this moment, the wall collapsed.

Then yells came from the soldiers, even though they had been abandoned by their leaders. Even though sadness appeared on their faces, but the soldiers of Divine City of Elon continued to fight.

But.

“…It’s ended.” Rize said.

Riphal nodded, “Yeah. And they didn’t manage to buy enough time for Geihficlant.”

Rize laughed, “That, before Glovil, what preparations do you think they can make? Even before that cursed sword, the Rhule Fragmei can’t even influence it…”

But Riphal used his right eye that had not been eaten to stare at Rize, “If we had allowed them to prepare, then the soldiers that would have sacrificed their lives in front of Glovil would have increased.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, more people would die for nothing, right?”

“Yes, that is true.”

“I hate seeing people die.”

Hearing what Riphal said, Rize smiled calmly and said, “I hate it too. So you can rest a.s.sured.”

But Riphal laughed bitterly, using that helpless smile and unhappy eyes to look at Rize, “… Can Geihlficlant like Stohl, using Glovil to make them surrender?”

“Who knows? This is the first time we’re fighting with such a strong country. And our opponent has even hired the Azure Princess. And that Azure Princess can use Rhule Fragmei. This situation, compared to previous occasions, is more…”

“Is it troublesome?”

But Rize laughed. Then he bent down and put his hand on the ground. He touched the red earth that had been stained with the blood of the soldiers of the Divine City of Elon with a sad expression.

“…I will work hard to prevent the situation from progressing to that stage. That means that where would we use that Glovil. Anyway, if we use that sword, we will pay a great price. Because we are using Your Majesty’s body as a sacrifice, so we can’t overuse that sword’s power. So, where can we use it? The important thing is that we make the enemy have disappointing results. I also hate seeing people die. But we need to use it in an area where the enemy would definitely despair when they see it. Then, where should we use it? Because this time, the enemy can use the Rhule Fragmei, so we need to practice devouring that power, giving the enemy despair…” As if talking about his own views to himself, he stood up, laughing and said, “Well, no matter, we can’t lose now.”

Riphal nodded, “If we lose, then I should have died with those comrades who sacrificed their lives for this sword.”

“Yes.”

Riphal stepped to the front, although his foot sank into the soil that was mixed with blood, he didn’t mind it. Because my hands are stained with my comrades’ blood.

I have finally come to a place where I can see my sacrificed comrades’ blood in the Gastark Empire, this has already cursed my soul.

So there is no way to not progress because I am stained with my enemy’s blood, after all that has happened.

So Riphal looked at the collapsed wall of the city and said, “Then, let’s go the next place. If we don’t attack the central hub of the Divine City of Elon and attack the Geihlficlant Empire, then what would the other powers do?”

Rize replied, “No problem. There is still a large distance from here to the Remrus Empire. There is probably nothing they can do now. As for the Republic of Ertolia, according to the information from Sui and Kuu now, there does not seem to be any intentions in helping Geihlficlant. Well, these two countries have not been on good terms. That means if you want to, we can probably attack Geihficlant and Ertolia at the same time…”

At this moment, Riphal raised his hand and interrupted Rize, “You can do anything about that. Anyway, we have to fight with Ertolia sooner or later. After we defeat Geihlficlant, we can plan to attack any other countries. Talking about which, how about the movements of the users with magical eyes?”

“There have been no leads.”

“You didn’t catch sign of anything.”

“Yes. Although Sui and Kuu have already infiltrated the Republic of Ertolia, they haven’t discovered anything… Perhaps they have moved their operation grounds.”

“Don’t tell me they went to Remrus?”

“I don’t know about that. No matter which country, they all hate people with the magical eyes, so maybe they have hidden in a country without any permission?”

Riphal thought about the figures of those users with the magical eyes. He thought about the figures of those sad people who had been living a cursed life because they had been born with those cursed eyes.

And those figures overlapped with his own body.

They overlapped with himself who had been born in despair and who had been cursed with this destiny and sword.

But even so, he would not sympathise with them. Because they were definitely a group of people who had been cursed. A group of people who would make everything strange just by living in this world.

Although he said it like that, ma, even if it was Iino Dwoe, Ebula Crypt, Wilno Heim, Alpha Stigma or the number of Rhule Fragmei that the Gastark held, thinking about it should not be too much of a problem.

But.

“But if they appear now, it would be very troublesome.” Riphal said.

According to his sources, the king of all the magical eyes, the ‘Solver of All Equations’ had left Roland. If this happened, then all the people with magical eyes could gather at his side.

His name seemed to be Ryner Lute.

At this moment, Rize said, as if seeing through Riphal’s thoughts, “Riphal does not have the ability to choose women.”

“Idi~ot. Kiefer will definitely return.”

“I don’t think so.”

“That woman has already fallen in love with me, ai?”

“Ai~ I can’t see it at all~”

“You’re lying?”

“Really. Anyway, you know it’s true, don’t you? The one she loves is Ryner Lute. She is a pitiful woman who has fallen in love with a ‘monster’. So I said, if you don’t kill her, then you’ll have to s.n.a.t.c.h her away, right? Even if you forcefully make her love you, she will still be happy by your side. But why did you let her go?”

Riphal looked at Rize and then suddenly laughed, saying honestly, “Because I really love her.”

Rize revealed a defeated expression and said, “You’re always like this.”

“Idi~ot. If you don’t really fall in love with a woman, then what else can you do?”

“Yes yes. As long as Riphal says he has completely fallen in love with a woman, he will definitely be dumped.” Rize said. He didn’t use ‘Your Majesty’, but Riphal.

Riphal laughed, “If I am dumped again, then accompany me and get drunk.”

“Ha ha ha, but before that, we have to drink a celebration toast to defeating Geihlficlant. Then, we should clean up.” As he said this, Rize walked to the front. He commanded a few of his subordinates and started to arrange for what they would do after the war.

Riphal looked at all of these and then looked to the southern sky, thinking of Kiefer, who he had allowed to return to Roland and said softly, “… Well, anyway that person will return one day.”

If she wanted to save Ryner Lute—this ‘Solver of All Equations’, then she would definitely need my help. So Kiefer will definitely bring the Demon here.

And she will come back while crying.

Because she would come back crying with despair and begging me to help.

Save Ryner.

Save him.

Please kill him so that he could be released from this curse.

Kiefer will definitely beg Riphal to do that.

“…”

He didn’t want to see her crying face. He thought. No one would like to see the woman that they loved crying. So it was best that before things like that happen, I kill that guy.

And then to the source of the distortion of the world.

Kill Sion Astal too.

“…”

If Kiefer likes Ryner, then I will create a world where Kiefer and Ryner can happily smile and live in.

Then.

“Well, even so, I can only continue to progress in the end…”

He said, then he walked to the front.

He walked to the mountains of corpses.

He hid the sad expression behind his eye patch and announced his tyranny over this piece of the Central Continent.

And the one to be their first victim would be the Geihlficlant Empire.