Give it all.
The flaming sword (Risha) clashes with Seiya.
No surprise—after gaining the power of a demon god, Seiya’s strength was formidable.
They lock blades, shouting.
“Break this barrier! And get out!”
“Don’t get cocky, you bastard! This is! Mine! My hatred!”
A thick, cloying wind blows from the side.
Dodge instinctively—the kick sweeps past, trailing a sickly aura just in front of my face.
“Until I’ve destroyed this country you made! This town! Until I vanish!”
“Do you hate me that much?”
“Of course I do! If you weren’t around—!”
“Look at what you’ve done! You’re the one who charged at me! If you hadn’t, I’d have done nothing!”
“Your damn condescension gets under my skin!”
“Are you a child?”
The flaming sword (Risha) swings sideways—Seiya’s right arm comes off.
The severed arm arcs through the air—Risha swings her blade, scorching it with flame.
“Not even close!”
With a scream, Seiya’s arm regenerates.
“Ugh…”
(You’re all right, master?)
“I’m fine.”
A calm reply, meant to reassure Risha.
Every time Seiya moves, that cloying stench of rotten air presses against me.
A thick, suffocating heat—like the smell of dead fish.
Miasma.
The word flickers through my mind.
Probably that. Or something just like it.
“Gahhhhh!”
“Hah!”
No time to think—Seiya charges again.
I block. Counter.
I cleave him diagonally, splitting his body nearly in two.
His torso, barely held together by a single layer of skin, regenerates instantly.
“Kyo-toooooo!”
“Is your stamina infinite or what?”
"Decades of hatred! You’ll learn your place!"
The battle drags on.
Midway, buildings collapse in their wake.
Each destruction makes the Saint Night’s eyes glow with a dark light.
"How about it, Akito? This way, your little town’s gonna be gone—*poof*!"
"Rebuild it. Saint Night, you don’t get it."
"What?!"
"No matter how much you destroy, no matter how much you level this town to dust—*not even one smile* from my slaves, my Eternal Slaves, is worth it."
"——!"
"Not even one smile from my slaves, my Eternal Slaves, is worth it."
"Down to the ground… I’ll crush you… *crush you*…!"
*Plink.* A sound like a snapped tendon. The blue veins twitching across her forehead burst open, blood spurting.
Not that I’ve crushed you—no, that’s just the truth.
Even if she wiped out the whole district, in terms of magic power, it’d barely register as a few hundred thousand levels.
Just one smile from a slave, that’s all.
Even if I’m not fighting seriously right now, destroying the Holy Night Festival is barely a blip on the scale of magical power.
“Know this, Holy Night. Risha and Arisa. Their combined smiles could rebuild this entire city with ease.”
“Who the hell are they! Those two!?”
“Risha, sure—but remember Arisa’s name!”
Rage sharpened the blade’s edge.
The slave’s sword swept horizontally, severing Holy Night’s head clean off, then slicing it again in half with the return stroke.
Rage burned hot.
Flames consumed the severed head, then devoured the body.
Holy Night writhed, knees pressed into the ground, twisting in agony.
But the flames kept burning.
They kept burning until Holy Night’s body was reduced to ash.
Not fully dead, perhaps—but at least, for now, it was over.
“……”
“Master.”
Looking down at Holy Night’s ash, Risha spoke from behind me, her voice returning from the sword.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t be stupid. What for…”
“Thank you for being angry on Arisa’s behalf.”
“…You didn’t feel anything? Arisa was Arisa, and she served Holy Night until the end. She should’ve served under even harsher conditions than you.”
“Yes…”
“It’s strange. Not even a single spark of feeling.”
“But that’s good, I think.”
“Huh?”
“Because that’s the kind of person he was. That’s why Arisa is now your slave.”
She looked straight at me, eyes steady.
“In the history of Eternal Slaves… we—the ones who became your slaves—are the happiest.”
She smiled, softly.
“Is that so? Then, I’ll accept that.”
“Yes!”
“Now… we’ve taken down Holy Night… huh?”
“Danger!”
A frantic voice from the distance—townspeople, panicked.
Risha exchanged a glance with Mira and bolted toward the sound.
They encountered monsters along the way, but without Holy Night, the creatures writhed in agony, their bodies crumbling apart.
Ignored them. Pressed on.
They reached the outskirts of town. The edge of a dome-shaped barrier, glowing faintly.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
“Your Majesty! Look! Look at this!”
A townsman shouted, pointing.
Risha looked, as instructed.
“The barrier… it’s moving? No—shrinking!”
She checked not just the front, but the sides, the sky above, even the distant rear.
The dome-shaped barrier that encircled Akito’s town was slowly getting smaller.
The shrinking barrier had just touched the town’s outermost edge—the wall.
“…It’s melting.”
She gasped.
The town wall—Doreca’s wall—melted away in an instant upon touching the barrier.
And the barrier pressed closer, relentless.
“Uwaaah!”
“L-let’s run! Run!”
The townspeople fled, scrambling toward the inner parts of the town.
The barrier shrank further, swallowing buildings along the way—constricting the town, inch by inch.
“Oooh!”
Risha struck the barrier with the True Eternal Slave.
No resistance. Just the dull thud of hitting a thick layer of air.
“Master! The sword—it’s melting!”
“Mmph.”
Risha cried out.
Looking down, part of the blade had already dissolved.
“The True Eternal Slave…?”
“We must flee, Master. Let’s retreat through the magic gate to Rebec.”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t abandon Akito’s town.”
“B-but…”
“…”
I thought.
Backing away slowly from the approaching barrier, I thought about what I couldn’t do.
There, beyond the barrier, was the battleship—Risha.
The main cannon fired. The shell, with its unmatched destructive force, bounced off the barrier.
The battleship’s main cannon—useless. True Eternal Slave—useless.
A barrier woven by Saint Night. A parting gift left behind.
“…So much hatred, huh?”
I couldn’t help but be impressed.
“You really hate whatever your master made, don’t you?”
“Huh? Ah… yeah?”
“Eh?”
“Wait—what did you just say?”
Risha blinked, confused.
“Um… you said you really hate whatever your master made… didn’t you? You said something like that during the fight just now.”
I… did say that.
—Destroy this country you made! The towns! Until they’re all gone! Until they vanish!
Saint Night had said that. Screamed it, face twisted with pure hatred.
“…Risha. Do you still have the card?”
“Huh? Oh, yes.”
Risha pulled out the slave card, still looking dazed.
“Use ‘Dismantle’.”
“Yes, but… what exactly should I break?”
“Everything.”
“Huh?”
“All of it. Everything I made. Everything made by DORECA.”
“Everything?!”
“Yeah. Everything—clothes everyone’s wearing, too. All of it. DORECA-made. Hurry.”
“Y-Yes!”
Risha dashed off, flustered.
The barrier was shrinking, slowly, pressing the townspeople into the center.
No time to explain. Me and Risha split up, tearing through everything—endlessly, without pause.
Some resistance. Mostly the king’s mad ramblings and the ones muttering nonsense.
Ignored them. Kept dismantling.
“Master! It’s all done!”
Eventually, all buildings were gone. All townspeople stood stark naked.
“The barrier… it’s not stopping.”
The dome that had covered the entire town was now only the size of a baseball field.
There wasn’t much time left before the barrier swallowed the townspeople huddled together in panic.
“Yeah, well.”
I stared at Risha and said.
“Not stopping as long as these remain.”
I used DORECA to cast ‘Dismantle.’
True Eternal Slave vanished.
“Ah…”
“Risha.”
“Yes?”
“Sorry about this… but I’ll have to break it too.”
I said it to the collar around Risha’s neck.
The slave mark given to Eternal Slaves—the very one they smiled at most.
The one I’d made myself with DORECA. If I didn’t break it, the barrier wouldn’t stop.
I felt a little guilty, honestly.
But.
“I understand.”
Risha didn’t seem to mind at all. She lifted her chin and pushed the collar forward.
“You sure?”
“Everything a slave owns belongs to her master. If it can help, please go ahead.”
“Huh. Thanks.”
Using Doreca, she erased her dress, her slave card, and the collar.
Risha stood completely naked, just like the townsfolk.
And the moment everything “I made” vanished from within the barrier—
the barrier itself vanished too, soundlessly, quietly.