I fly toward the human army after making sure that Kamii is fine and healing Zancrax of the heavy burns he sustained while protecting her. Lucianus V is still there, but his expression makes it clear that the Lord of the Sky is in charge. He's looking at me, fearing what comes next.
But rather than dropping a Sp*rit Bomb on the human army, I grow in size while floating in midair and look down on them. Eventually, I tower even above the gatehouse, and giants become to me what humans are to them. Nobody is moving as they stare at me in fear and awe.
"Hear me, humans." I cross my arms and let my voice thunder across the slope. "I am Demon Queen Chaos."
I pause for a moment and peer across the vast army still outside the gates. My wording is crucial, now that Zenlith is temporarily rendered powerless - or maybe he's just without an immortal body and doesn't dare to invoke his threat of upturning this continent when I can retaliate by murdering him. In either case, this window of opportunity won't last, and if he regains control over the army, he could restart the war.
There has to be some definitive way of ending this war, not through fear and conquest, but a peaceful method that won't cause future generations to decide to rise up in arms again. Demon corruption is the biggest obstacle to that, but surely, there's something we could do through the Imagination Engine. Other than that, there shouldn't be anything in the way of coexistence, or at least mutually tolerating each other's existences without having to interact ever again. After all, demons have this continent while humans have theirs.
"Lay down your weapons." I start with this. Even though I try to make it sound like a suggestion, in my current form that most likely came across as a threat. Especially after killing one of their gods, that can't have been anything but a threat. Damn.
But the humans do as they're told, what with a being that seems to surpass even their gods standing before them.
"What are you doing? Who told you to surrender?!" But Lucianus V throws a fit like a child. There's no doubt that he's Zenlith, as I can't believe that any emperor who moves with his armies into war rather than stays in his palace can be somebody so ignorant of troop morale.
"If you surrender now, you will be granted safe passage back to your homelands." I really have to force myself to do this. A part of me wants to just kill them all for what they did to my people - and another part is thinking that it's a waste of food. But the calm part of my mind decided that this is the right choice, even if most demons wouldn't agree with me. By showing the humans mercy now, they'll understand that demons aren't evil creatures out to destroy them.
"I will destroy this entire continent, Chaos! Don't try me!" Lucianus V points up at me and yells in a desperate attempt to grandstand.
"This war is over. Never come to bother us again, and we will leave you in peace as well." I conclude my short declaration, ignoring the tiny figure on the platform in the middle of the human army.
"This is not over yet! You hear me?!" That's already going beyond being a sore loser, and all I have to hold back from killing him. If I killed the Emperor of Terminus, the human army would fight with righteous fervor. I'll end him when he comes looking for trouble next time - my revenge isn't forgotten yet.
Of course, if he wants to charge forward on his own, I'll have to defend myself, won't I?
"No, this is over." Suddenly, a female voice echoes across the area, and a radiant beam of light breaks through the clouds above. If not for the unfamiliar voice, I would have thought that Areteniha is coming.
However, the person appearing from within the god ray is a slender girl, barely a woman, with shoulder-length golden hair and clad in a simple white robe while going barefoot. Unlike the Old Human from the sun, she doesn't have a halo; in fact, she doesn't have anything that makes her stand out as a godlike being. Her eyes are closed, and the gentleness of her face lulls me into a feeling of ease.
The Fatas still in the air begin to fly in place before her, their eyes closed and heads lowered in reverence. The humans on the ground look up with longing gazes, raising their hands as if asking for salvation. All the tension leaves the area when she descends halfway from the sky and stops before me.
"Sintress..." Exla comments next to me as she looks at the girl in white. That's the Lady of Brilliance, the one Arcelia and her church adhere to. There was never any mention that she was involved in this game of the Old Humans, but it doesn't seem like she came for that reason. "She hasn't appeared in a long time as her imagination to bring peace to the world turned out not as she wanted it to."
"Please end this meaningless conflict, Zenlith." Sintress addresses Lucianus V directly, revealing his true identity in front of everybody. But I notice that they just stare at her with soothed expressions, no more worries in their features. I realize that she must have been wishing for people to be peaceful around her, but that fantasy of hers may be more of a curse than a blessing if it turns everybody into zombies like this.
"Not this again." But Lucianus V rolls his eyes. "We have been over this before."
"Then I will not leave your side until you end this game." Even though it's supposed to be a threat, it just doesn't feel like one. But Zenlith seems to think otherwise, as he gnashes his teeth in annoyance. So that's what Sintress, the Lady of Brilliance is? A nuisance?
"She was the only other person besides me to oppose this game. I wanted nothing to do with it, but Sintress tried to put a stop to it by giving the world light magic." Exla explains the relationship between the Old Humans when they first conceived this game of theirs. "You may have noticed that its properties are different from any other magic."
I think I know what she means. It can heal wounds as if turning back time, without putting a burden on the beneficiary, unlike water magic. And the spirit spears seem to be from outside the system even, able to penetrate any barrier as if it isn't even there - except for the dark affinity. But that doesn't strike me as anything special. The space affinity seems far more unique, especially when there's currently only one human who can wield it.
Well, this is all talk within the system imposed on the humans by their false gods. Anybody aware of the Imagination Engine should be capable of doing anything without being restrained by seemingly arbitrarily inborn affinities.
"You must be thinking about the wrong thing. I'm talking about the light barrier." When the cloud girl sees my skeptical expression, she elaborates on her earlier words. "If used right, it's an inviolable sanctuary that not even I can break. That's the gift Sintress left to New Humanity. The spirit spears are an unintended application of it which more warlike minds conceived."
"What is your answer, Zenlith?" The Lady of Brilliance looks down on the disguised Lord of the Sky with a calm, almost gentle expression. Although she's imposing an ultimatum, it doesn't come across as such; to me, it sounds more like she's asking whether he will stay over or go home after game night ended on a slightly sour note.
"Damn it!" Slamming down his fist on the wooden railing in front of him and breaking it, Lucianus V seems to make his choice. Neither seems that hard on him, but one only has a temporary effect while the other would mean she would continue to interfere in the future. So retreating now and biding his time is the better option. "Sound the re-"
"No need." Serent's voice stops Zenlith before he can finish his order, and the massive skeleton appears behind Sintress from a cloud of inky darkness. His scythe locks onto her neck and runs across it in a motion to behead her. However, the blade disappears upon contact, and even though his face is a blank skull, I can tell that he's surprised by this development.
"You too, Serent. Cease your play at being death. You should grow out of that phase already." Turning around with a reprimanding tone in her voice, Sintress ignores the fact that he just tried to assassinate her. When she lifts a hand to his face, he retreats as if scared of her touch, and then disappears in a cloud of darkness again. It seems that they have the worst compatibility.
So this is the Lady of Brilliance, the Old Human that is the bard's mother - even if she doesn't look old enough to have been a mother. Her confidence knows no bounds, and she seems above everything that's happening in this ugly world.
"Always running away when things do not go your way..." Sintress shakes her head in resignation, then turns her attention to me. "As for you, Demon Queen Chaos. I understand that you know the secret of this world."
This is the moment of truth. She's clearly a pacifist, but she also possesses great power. That type is the scariest when pushed to take violent actions. To me, she just seems far removed from the realities of this world, so she wouldn't understand what causes people to kill each other. Is she going to be my enemy or will she only tell me off and be done with it?
"I am truly sorry for the lives lost today, both human and demon." But she unexpectedly lowers her head and apologizes for something she had no control over. Or does she think she should have been here to stop it before things progressed to this point? "Please accept my help."
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Without waiting for my reply, she extends her arms to her sides, and a warm glow spreads from her. I look around to see humans and demons alike who appeared to be dead rise again, seemingly surprised that they're alive.
But it's not resurrection; she healed everybody equally, but those who are dead remain so. I don't think bringing people back from the dead is possible even with the Imagination Engine, or she would have done it. She really is a saint at heart, though I wonder why she sat idly by all this time when the other Old Humans played with millions of lives for hundreds of years and only decided to make her appearance now.
Once done, she turns her head to Zenlith again, wordlessly signaling him to continue with what he was about to do earlier before Serent so rudely interrupted. He grinds his teeth and calls a retreat, but nobody listens. They're all enthralled by Sintress, whose aura puts them into a docile state of emptiness. I'm glad it doesn't affect me; this really is a powerful curse rather than a blessing.
As if realizing this fact, she flies past me and lowers herself out of sight behind the gatehouse, upon which the humans snap out of it. For the third time, Zenlith calls a retreat, each time further compounding on the deep humiliation he must be feeling. It seems that the Lady of Brilliance's ability lingers a little because nobody questions that decision, and the troops begin an orderly withdrawal. Even those standing right next to demon warriors just walk away without even paying them any attention.
Finally, I shrink down myself and watch as the humans who had pushed through the gate earlier leave the same way peacefully. Turning around, I find that Sintress is standing barefoot in the mud of the road, which became this way after Zylos' short-lived glacier melted. She doesn't seem to mind the dirt at all, as she smiles at the demons around her with a saintly expression.
Walking over to her, I look around to make sure the humans are retreating from atop the walls as well. Their morale was already broken before, but if Zenlith in the guise of Lucianus V had ordered to fight to the last, they might have been swayed to do so. Her appearance pacified their minds completely, and he wouldn't have been able to rouse them even if he had tried.
"Rest easy now. The war is over." Sintress announces in her soothing voice, and even the demons who weren't affected by her aura look at her as if she's a saint. Now that she's standing before me, I notice that she's several centimeters shorter than Hestia. While floating in the air, her presence was larger than life, but by standing in the mud, she has now shrunk down to a relatable size. Much like me, though I did it physically.
"Why did you decide to come forward now?" Exla comes down next to me and scrutinizes her fellow Old Human with a skeptical look. It's the same question I asked myself, and I'm interested to hear the answer.
"Because you decided to do the same." The Lady of Brilliance maintains her closed eyes, but that was clearly directed at the little cloud girl beside me. "I was called to the Rhodos Station to heal Alverost. There, I learned that Zenlith requested for the restriction of your access rights because he feared your interference in his game."
So Alverost is still alive after all. And Sintress healed him, huh? It seems that she doesn't differentiate between good and evil, and wishes to save everybody equally. Maybe she believes that evildoers will turn good once they have seen the light; it's naïve and helps those with the will to continue doing bad things. I'm sure Alverost didn't have a miraculous change of heart after coming back from nearly dying.
"It took you this long to reach here from the station?" Exla frowns as if suspecting that there's more behind her delay. After all, Areteniha made it here in pretty much exactly the time light takes to travel from the sun to earth.
"I saw Juzual on the moon." Suddenly, Sintress' expression clouds over. "Or rather, the being that disguised itself as Juzual."
"Huh?" I blink my eyes in surprise at these words. "What do you mean?"
"A great evil is occupying the moon base where Juzual went to after your argument with your brother." She addresses Exla with these words, but the implication is that the one I met was an impostor. "If it realizes that the Imagination Engine's amplifier is there, it may tamper with the system."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'great evil'?" I get hung up on Sintress' earlier choice of words.
"The same kind I feel from you, but far greater." She points a finger at me, but there's no accusation in her voice. Well, it is an accusation nonetheless because she called me evil just now. But I have a bigger worry than that.
"So it's a Crawling Chaos." I mutter, and Exla turns to me with a concerned expression. She knows what I am, but it doesn't seem any of the other Old Humans do. Revealing myself before Sintress like this might have been a bad move.
"As long as it remains on the moon base and does not do anything, everything is alright." But she doesn't seem to know what a Crawling Chaos is or thinks it just another creation by Alverost. "I will return to the Rhodos station and search for Juzual's whereabouts in the engine."
"You're going to leave already? Stay a little longer. We have a thousand years of things to catch up on." Exla pouts a little and floats over to embrace Sintress. Rubbing her cheek against hers, she squeezes her tightly.
When I think about it, Juzual is what she is, Shelnir is a psychopath, and Kanundra seemed to be a tomboy, so the only gentle girls among the Old Humans are these two. Of course, she doesn't want to get separated from her this quickly after being able to meet her again.
"Your Majesty! A human envoy has come to parlay!" A messenger - a girl at one-to-four scale with translucent wings, which is obviously a fairy but is grouped under demonkind for some reason - arrives next to me to report.
"What now?" I turn around and look through the gateway to see Arcelia and Thorvadis approaching on horseback. Behind the latter is Basarab, and to my surprise, I spot Ninlil riding with him. And in their midst is Dregana, sitting on a horse while covered in a blanket with her gaze lowered. They came to return her, huh?
"Lady of Brilliance!" Arcelia is the first to call out to us. Her voice sounds desperate as she jumps off her horse and steps into the mud in her pure white robes without worrying about dirtying them. Running forward with her arms outstretched as if asking for salvation, that action only causes some demons to bar her way thinking she's trying to attack me who's standing next to her.
"Let her through." I signal the soldiers, who give me a surprised look but do as they're told. I'm glad that they're not brainless drones who follow every order and at least questioned it for a moment - before realizing that if I can kill a god without sustaining any injuries, a human won't pose any dangers to me.
The Saint of Luminosity drops to her knees a few steps away from Sintress while disregarding the muddy ground and lowers her head in reverence. She only came here to see her goddess, but the others remain on horseback until they're right before us.
Suddenly, Thorvadis pulls out his wand and mutters something while pointing at the ground. The mud around him solidifies as if dried out in an instant before he gets off the horse. I was prepared to kill him instantly if he had pointed the wand anywhere near me. Does he not think that it was a move that could have been interpreted as an attack?
"We have come to return the Kinslayer to you." The principal's voice sounds a little coarse as if he has something stuck in his throat. It must be the feeling of having lost the war despite all the grandstanding earlier, and then his opinion about me being proven wrong when I announced that I would let the human army leave in peace.
When I see Dregana from up close, her expression one of suppressed anger and shame, I remember Morelit getting blown up into my face in the trap they set for me where they captured her.
"Were you the one who made the wall explode?" I point at Thorvadis and ask in a neutral tone that doesn't betray my feelings. Even though I didn't know the Petsobek division commander that well, he was a comrade and didn't need to die in such a manner. If he admits to doing it, I'll have him put before a military court and tried for that war crime.
"It was the Blast Knight, Clerebolg." Basarab suddenly speaks with a rasping voice. He could have tried to invoke his mind-control ability right there, but didn't; I was too slow to react to that prospect and let him finish a whole sentence.
To be fair, after today, I know that the humans of this era aren't the evil ones. Neither the principal nor Basarab ever attacked me out of malice; they even tried to negotiate with me twice. Both times, it was me who initiated the hostilities, so they had to act to protect their friends and themselves. The same must have been true for most soldiers in this war.
Everything is the fault of those Old Humans still playing their game: Zenlith, Alverost, Oinos, Serent, and Shelnir. Though I'll keep a question mark next to Areteniha's involvement in this, and Juzual is another issue altogether.
"Very well. Tell the Blast Knight that if he ever shows himself before me, I will bite him to death." Halfway through the sentence, I transform into Morelit and employ his aggressive voice to bring across my point. Thorvadis' expression doesn't change, but Basarab and Ninlil flinch at my casual transformation.
The demons around me seem to realize what happened to the Petsobek division commander and lower their gazes while suppressing the pain in their hearts. Unlike Rhosk, he was very close to even the lowest foot soldiers, sharing drinks and stories with them in their barracks.
"Rise, my child." Sintress has approached Arcelia and tries to make the latter stand up again.
"Why have you abandoned me for so long?" But the Saint of Luminosity remains on her knees and asks while sobbing. The two of them seem to have prior history, or Arcelia is just generally speaking about the Lady of Brilliance's absence from this world.
"I am so sorry." Falling to her knees as well, Sintress embraces her opposite. "Even though I tried so hard, I could have never been the mother you deserve."
Wait, Sintress is Arcelia's mother?
"You're Sigurd's mother?" Suddenly, I hear Kamii come up behind me and ask this. I spin my head around to the little dark elf, then back to Sintress. That impure bard is this pure girl's child?
"How do you know Sigurd?" The Lady of Brilliance sounds surprised, but her eyes remain closed even now.
When I think about it, she has at least two children right now, so maybe that bard being her child shouldn't be that surprising. How many children did she have with how many men across how many centuries?
"Can you please bring me to him?" It seems that checking on Juzual can wait.
"I will come, as well." Arcelia suddenly announces in a firm voice.
"We cannot leave without you, Lady Crux." Thorvadis chimes in with a troubled expression. It seems that Basarab and Ninlil think the same. The catgirl in the back is glancing at me with an uneasy look, averting her gaze whenever our eyes meet. She must be worrying that I hold a grudge over our fight that day I was sent to the moon when she delayed me enough for the principal to complete his gravity spell.
"Wait!" It suddenly comes to me, and my raised voice causes everybody to flinch in surprise. Why haven't I thought about this before? It should have been so obvious. I turn to Sintress with a grave expression. "The one on the moon is the Primordial Crawling Chaos."