Chapter 756: God’s Will

As the Burned One spread his hand, a massive flame fell through a dark hole in the sky.

The fire that pierced the blackened sky instantly incinerated everything below.

Even the buildings and land that resisted the heat of the lava, the lava itself, and the Hunger that dwelled within the lava, were reduced to ash or evaporated and withered away.

“Haa…!”

Oliver was no exception.

As the world’s colors vanished, with the ground and buildings turning to ash and the lava evaporating, Oliver too reveled in the intense heat of the fire summoned by the Burned One.

It was hot. So hot that there were no other words to describe it.

He couldn’t even tell what he was doing, what he was trying to do, if he was conscious or passed out, everything was just hot.

As Oliver’s mind was clouded, the flame that pierced the sky descended to the ground.

Then the flame was caught in the Burned One’s hand and turned into an impossibly small, fragile-looking flame sword.

Snap.

As the Burned One grasped the sword that gleamed like the lightning in his eyes, a crackling sound echoed, and the nearby lava, along with the creatures it had created, evaporated entirely.

The lava that had been personally made by the Burned One, infused with Oliver’s blood, hunger, and life force, disappeared like melting snow.

But it wasn’t just the lava and creatures that vanished.

The very heat from the sword in the Burned One’s grasp erased not only the colors of the world but its forms, and even gravity, reducing everything to nothingness.

An unknown sensation of floating enveloped him, making Oliver feel as though he had been plunged into a blank canvas. At least, that’s how it felt as his body froze, unable to react.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he was paralyzed. Confronted with the incomprehensible sight before him, Oliver was frightened and frozen.

Wouldn’t anyone be? Heat so powerful it erased not just forms but colors and even gravity just by existing. What could possibly stand against something like that…

“Ah.”

Lost in a world of nothingness where the colors, forms, and sounds were all burned away, Oliver let out a small exclamation.

His voice echoed through the world that had seemingly returned to nothingness.

It wasn’t just his voice.

Even though the lava that had bubbled beneath his feet, the buildings that crumbled in the heat, and the horizon itself had all been incinerated, Oliver alone remained, unscathed.

Though one of his eyes had burned away, the remaining eye worked perfectly, allowing him to see.

He could still see his two arms, and the dagger he held in his hand.

Seeing that dagger in his hand reminded Oliver of something Kent had once said.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Before he even realized it, he was screaming, kicking off the ground that may or may not have been there, leaping upward.

Thud!

Fortunately, his legs were still attached to the ground, and by a narrow margin, Oliver managed to escape from the world that had returned to nothingness. At the same time, he saw it.

The Burned One holding the sword in a horizontal grip, standing at the center of a radius of several kilometers, where the landscape had been radically altered as though it had been sliced by that sword.

As the Burned One swung the sword horizontally, the strange landscape evaporated, and a scorching wind swept through, burning even the very space it touched.

Oliver felt the heat intensely. If others had been hit by the wind, it would have been devastating, but Oliver barely managed to stop the spreading wind by activating his power.

Sizzle…

Although he paid a small price for it in the form of light burns on both hands.

‘Well, it’s something I can heal–’

“You won’t be able to heal it.”

While Oliver stared at his burned hands, the voice of the Burned One spoke from above him.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze, or maybe an eternity passed. Oliver tilted his head slowly, but quickly, to look upward.

There stood the Burned One, with wings made of smoke and flame. He had caught up to Oliver in an instant using those wings.

“This sword is formed from my very power. Even the heat it radiates contains my power.”

The Burned One raised the flaming sword, infused with his power, with his single remaining arm and brought it down.

───────────!!!

In one single, simple swing, without any flourish or technique, everything in the path of the sword evaporated, leaving behind only a stark plain of white ash.

It was as though the world itself had been erased.

“Huff… Huff… Huff…”

Luckily, Oliver managed to slip into another space just in time to avoid it.

Thud. Thud.

Though he hadn’t completely escaped the heat, smoke rose from his body, his breathing was labored, and blood trickled from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as a result of overusing his power.

Had the Burned One swung his sword immediately, Oliver wouldn’t have been able to dodge and would have been consumed by that fiery blade, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.

The Burned One merely smiled strangely as he looked at Oliver.

“Your hair has turned even whiter.”

“Huff… Cough! Cough!”

As Oliver caught his breath and prepared to answer, he began coughing violently.

With every cough, hot blood and smoke, tainted by the heat, spewed from his mouth.

“I think white suits me better.”

“Joking even now? Your defiance is something even I struggle to match.”

“I’m serious. Even though I’m a Dark Sorcerer, I’m also a disciple of the Archive. That means I’m a magician, too. Do you know what that implies?”

“What does it imply?”

“It means that even if I have to bleach my stupid black hair to white, I can still pull it off with style… That’s a joke. Go ahead, laugh.”

Oliver spoke, a hint of mock disappointment in his tone, as he looked at the Burned One, who remained silent.

This time, however, there seemed to be no amusement, as the Burned One’s subtle smile vanished. Meanwhile, Oliver touched his face, where the blood that had been flowing from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears finally slowed to an end.

“Do you think stalling with your little jokes will change the outcome?”

Oliver let out a long breath, having confirmed that the bleeding had stopped.

“Sigh… No.”

“It’s only a matter of time. The result is inevitable.”

“That’s fine. As long as I can buy even a little more time.”

It was a firm response. The Burned One took a beat before replying.

“…This time, I won’t show the kindness I did before.”

The Burned One had once tried to burn the entirety of First Step, but in exchange for Oliver’s promise, he had burned only a quarter of it.

Oliver recalled that kindness.

“I don’t resent you. But aren’t you being a bit overconfident? After all, you’re not exactly in perfect condition yourself.”

“Even without a side or an arm, I’m more than capable.”

“But you won’t follow through, right? You made a promise with me.”

Oliver reminded the Burned One of their previous agreement.

The Burned One had promised not to pursue others as long as Oliver remained standing.

“I’m aware. I told you to do your best. So? Would you like to continue fighting against me as I am now?”

“Hah… Of course not.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Oliver turned and fled, leaping across the landscape using his power, disappearing beyond the horizon.

The Burned One’s incredulous gaze felt like it was burning into his back, but Oliver didn’t care, as he continued to flee forward.

The Burned One chased him with his wings of smoke and flame, catching up in an instant.

“This is getting rather troubling.”

The Burned One voiced his honest annoyance as he swung the flaming sword again, and with a sound like the world itself was burning, everything around was reduced to ash.

But, just like before, Oliver wasn’t caught in it.

Once again, using his powers, he crossed into another dimension and hid between buildings, suppressing his presence as much as he could.

The reason he had fled into the Burned One’s field of vision was to deceive him.

Oliver was using the distraction to buy every possible moment of time he could–

Flash!

Suddenly, a brief flash of light and a stinging sensation pierced through his side.

Oliver’s side had been neatly burned and sliced as if cut by a sword.

Sizzle…

“Grrr…”

As the sound of burning flesh echoed in the air, Oliver clenched his teeth, and dizziness quickly overtook him, causing his body to waver.

It wasn’t surprising.

Blood poured from the sword-like wound, and he had already been bleeding before that.

Not to mention, he had added the hunger from devouring the Flesh Cook’s meat to it all, so dizziness was inevitable.

More than anything else.

“The heat. Isn’t it becoming harder and harder to endure?”

Looking ahead to where the voice had come from, Oliver saw the Burned One, standing.

Though his vision was warped by the heat, making it difficult to see, there was no mistaking that figure. After all, in this heat, only two beings could withstand it: Oliver and the Burned One.

“…I already told you I like the warmth.”

“Of course you do. After all, the heat of Hell is burning away your life force.”

Burning away his life force, huh.

Thunk.

It wasn’t just empty words. Unable to fight off the dizziness, Oliver staggered and leaned against a building.

At some point, even sweat had stopped pouring from his body.

Had it been since the Burned One summoned his sword?

No, that wasn’t the issue right now. The real problem was–

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m getting bored, oh noble one.”

The Burned One responded with a tone that contrasted sharply with the honorific title he used.

“I’m hurt by that.”

“It’s not your fault. You’ve done quite well. Honestly, it’s more my fault… I suppose I may have drawn my sword a little too early.”

The voice of the Burned One was tinged with both disappointment and regret.

Crack. Crack.

The flaming sword in the Burned One’s hand let out a comfy crackling noise that didn’t match its fearsome power.

“I was so impressed by your efforts that I failed to control myself. That’s on me.”

“You’re making it sound like you’re blaming me for not living up to your expectations.”

“That’s not entirely inaccurate. I never expected you to flee so shamelessly.”

“Running away is what I do best, you know.”

He was dead serious. In fact, it was the truth. Back in the orphanage and mines where Oliver grew up, all he ever did was run away.

From all the evil, injustice, and violence in the world, he ran away, choosing to ignore everything to ensure his own safety.

At the time, all Oliver wanted was to survive, and he had no pride or self-respect to speak of.

Even after being taken in by Joseph and becoming a Dark Sorcerer, that never changed. He fled, unwilling to face responsibility, first from the Joseph Family and later from his own fate.

He had no sense of responsibility at all. The only thing that truly interested him was his own amusement.

So, it wasn’t strange that he was running away even now. He was an existence without pride or responsibility, so if running meant he could stall the Burned One even a little longer, then he’d gladly keep running. No matter how pathetic it made him look.

The Burned One, however, seemed to disagree. He shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I dislike wasting my time. If it’s a desperate effort to change the outcome, I’m willing to give you some credit, but if it’s just aimless and meaningless, I can’t tolerate it.”

“Dragging things out can still change the result.”

As soon as Oliver finished speaking and attempted to leap across space once more, the Burned One’s wings thrashed like lightning, sweeping through his surroundings.

────────!!

With that flap of his wings, Oliver’s attempt to leap through space was thwarted, and not only did the buildings in the vicinity crumble to ash, the ground beneath them burned and cracked, with huge flames surging up from the fissures.

Fires from Hell itself, their overpowering heat surrounded Oliver, preventing him from escaping.

‘Even so…’

“Can you still try to run?”

As Oliver surveyed his surroundings for an escape route, the Burned One asked the question, pressing down with unbearable heat.

The Burned One gripped his sword horizontally.

Shiver…

Oliver recalled the first time he had seen the Burned One summon that sword, and a shiver ran down his spine as his eyes, without thinking, wandered to the distant people who were still evacuating in the background.

If the Burned One swung now, they’d be caught in the attack.

“Isn’t this going against the agreement?”

“It’s simply more efficient. I’m tired of chasing after you one by one, so I’m broadening the range. When you’re walking, it’s only natural to step on a few ants, isn’t it?”

Fwoosh!

From the horizontal blade of the flaming sword, a faint but ominous sound echoed, and a vision suddenly flashed through Oliver’s mind.

The sight of the entire country of Seland, engulfed in flames, beyond just the Capital.

That unreal sight was about to become reality, right here and now, so Oliver gripped both his quarterstaff and dagger, channeling his power to stop the Burned One’s attack.

In that very moment, as Oliver activated his powers, the Burned One swung the horizontally gripped sword, and the world vanished in an instant.

***

Everything had disappeared from his sight.

All that Oliver could feel was an overwhelming heat enveloping his entire body, a sense of floating, and the fierce wind rushing against him. That’s right. Oliver was soaring through the sky.

He had tried to block the Burned One’s sword but had been unable to fully withstand its power, causing him to be flung into the air.

He rubbed his right eye desperately, trying to regain his vision, and saw the proof: the sky itself had a hole torn in it.

His shriveled body, devoid of strength, had lost control of his limbs, and he soared like a ragdoll before slowly falling.

The savage wind rushing past his ears, and the heat that even the wind couldn’t drive away, reminded him that he was still alive.

‘Did I stop it?’

Oliver wondered.

Did he manage to stop the Burned One’s attack, one that was set to burn up the entire Seland and beyond? Fortunately, it seemed that he had.

He passed over the scorched land below him, seeing both people who had survived and his own two, thoroughly scorched arms.

Sizzle…

His blackened arms were smoking, releasing faint trails of ash.

It appeared as though he had lost his grip on the quarterstaff and dagger, leaving his hands empty.

But that wasn’t a priority at the moment.

Struggling against the intense agony that wracked his entire body, Oliver focused on the one thing that mattered most. The Burned One. He–

“I’m right here.”

The Burned One reappeared above him, using his wings of fire and smoke to hover.

As expected, he looked entirely unscathed.

Aside from the injuries Oliver had dealt earlier to his arm and side, there was no sign of change.

“Are you going to try running again?”

The Burned One raised the flaming sword vertically and looked down at Oliver, who was flailing helplessly in the air.

Beneath them, people on the ground were looking up, watching.

Oliver had to stop him. But he wasn’t sure if he could.

As Oliver tried to say something, the Burned One, with little interest in hearing it, prepared to bring down his blade. Oliver gave up on speaking and immediately began chanting.

[Longinus]

Just as the Burned One had summoned his flaming sword, Oliver’s quarterstaff and dagger, now fused into one, tore through the black hole in the sky and aimed for the Burned One’s back.

The quarterstaff and dagger that had flown off earlier when Oliver blocked the Burned One’s sword now proved unexpectedly useful.

Seeing the quarterstaff speeding towards his back, the Burned One turned around and lazily deflected Longinus instead of swinging his sword.

Oliver’s last resort had been easily brushed aside.

But, that was enough.

Thrust!

In the brief moment when the Burned One had turned to block Longinus, Oliver latched onto his back and stabbed his right arm into the Burned One’s back.

“This feels familiar, doesn’t it?”

The Burned One mentioned the events of the New Continent.

Oliver agreed. It was almost the same as back then.

Stabbing into the Burned One’s back, Oliver sought to extract his power and burn him from within.

It was with this infernal right arm that Oliver had gained the power of the demon back then.

Just like before, the stench of burning flesh and the waves of pain came surging in. There was only one difference this time.

“The result will be the same.”

“No, it will be different. Now, I can extract all of my emotions.”

While still impaling the Burned One with his right arm, Oliver extracted all of his emotions and life force and poured them into his arm.

He reached deep into the Burned One’s body, which was comparable to Hell itself, and grasped onto the Burned One’s heart.

Thump! Thump!

He felt the heart beating with pure hatred beneath his fingers.

This time, Oliver was determined to summon Hellfire from within the Burned One.

A hellish gate was opening inside the Burned One’s body. Whether even a demon could withstand it was unknown. But at that moment…

Thump.

The Burned One’s flame sword pierced through his own back and stabbed Oliver’s right shoulder.

The Burned One had stabbed himself to strike Oliver.

Overwhelmed by the searing pain Oliver lost feeling in his right arm. The Burned One used that moment to free himself from Oliver’s grip as he turned around, raising his flaming sword once more.

Then, he swung the sword down on Oliver.

***

The sky above was colored in an otherworldly, indescribable shade of white.

People who had been bowing their heads to avoid the blinding light now slowly looked up again.

Something was falling from the empty sky, like a shooting star.

A burning meteor leaving a trail of smoke and ash.

Even though no one said anything, they instinctively knew what it was. Falling from the sky were Dave and the Devil.

The massive flames that had seemed to reach the heavens exploded and then subsided, as Dave soared through the air, only to be rapidly pursued by the Devil with his wings of smoke and flame.

The people who had been watching dumbfounded now made room for the falling meteor, assuming it was a good idea.

Coincidentally, the falling meteor landed directly in the middle of that clearing, scattering an unbelievably thick and fierce flame all around.

Thankfully, no one was injured. As though someone had precisely controlled the impact.

The flames and smoke were so dense that it was impossible to see inside for some time, but after an agonizing wait, they could finally see.

“Ah… Ah…”

Lying on the ground, completely scorched with his right arm cut off, was Oliver, at the feet of the Burned One, who stood above him holding the flaming sword.

The scene was one of complete despair, freezing everyone in place. Then, the Burned One glanced up and asked the crowd.

[What were you expecting?]