■■■■■■■■■■■■■■-!!!!

The pure-white existences, screaming bizarre shrieks, began slaughtering the black things that were rushing at the soldiers.

Pure-white spears crushed dozens of black shapes at once as they advanced.

But the black shapes Sloth had made kept regenerating somewhere within the territory, and they charged the pure-white existences that swung their spears, resisting.

Pure-white existences getting hunted like prey by predators—bodies torn apart in all directions in an instant, disappearing.

And yet, even though ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) black shapes were pouring out without end, the pure-white existences—“apostles”—didn’t get pushed back.

No, rather, the more time passed, the more their numbers increased.

“.......”

A soldier stared blankly at the scene.

At the sight of the black shape skewered on a swung, pure-white spear cracking apart, and, before long, being born anew and becoming another pure-white.

The death an apostle brought down called forth a new pure-white existence.

An unreasonable cycle.

“.......”

Selaim and Parkline, too, admired it and let out sighs of relief at the same time.

Because something like that wasn’t their enemy.

And soon, they—

no, everyone gathered here turned their gaze to Sloth and Radan.

At first, unlike when there had been no change at all,

Radan’s appearance had, at some point, already changed in many ways.

The dark armor made you feel ominous just from looking at it, and in those red eyes dyed endlessly deep, there was power that overwhelmed the other side.

More than anything, even though he was just standing there, the faintly flowing—

...magic that resembled the “sin of Sloth” itself

made your skin crawl with tension, even though it was obvious Radan wasn’t an enemy.

“.......”

Sloth, who had gone wide-eyed the moment Radan awakened as a sin, had returned to an expressionless face at some point.

He quietly looked at Radan.

But Alon recognized that Sloth wasn’t merely languid.

Because he could see anguish and worry—hard to find until now—seeping into those eyes.

“Are you... going to continue to ‘exist’ here from now on?”

Sloth opened his mouth.

A slightly out-of-left-field question.

But Radan gave a light laugh, as if he’d known Sloth would ask it.

“No.”

“Then?”

“If it’s long, twenty minutes. After that, I disappear.”

At Radan, who spoke that truth as if it were nothing—

“......So that’s how it is.”

Sloth briefly acknowledged it.

Just one word.

But the murmured line held a lot, and just as Alon was about to feel doubt—

“Then I’ll just carry out my duty.”

Purple threads began to pour out from Sloth’s body.

And with that, the movements of the black things sped up abnormally.

Geudeudeuk-!

Not only that—the powerhouses who had collapsed earlier also rose from their spots, clearly spilling vivid purple light.

With that nauseating purple magic, which wouldn’t fit inside their bodies, spreading sharply outside their bodies.

And in that situation—

──!

Sloth vanished.

No, he moved.

It only looked like he disappeared because no one perceived it.

The place Sloth appeared again was behind Radan.

Taking advantage of a gap no one witnessed, Sloth thrust a fist, aiming for Radan’s head—

Hijeuk-!

Sloth saw it.

The instant the fist was thrown, Radan turned as if he’d been waiting, twisting a smile at Sloth.

Kwaaaaang-!

The battle began.

Pure-white existences and black shapes tangled together and fought, Basiliora erased the lumps of flesh that revived again, and Elivan and Seollang blocked the revived powerhouses.

But by far, the place everyone’s eyes gathered was—the fight between Sloth and Radan.

Kwaaaaang-!

But there weren’t many among them who could properly perceive Sloth and Radan’s fight.

Even without seeing it, they could only feel the oppression of the battle itself.

Kwaaaaang-!

For a brief moment, the ground burst from the shockwaves when the two figures collided, and just from moving, the bedrock split apart.

Faced with a sight like gods clashing in myth, the soldiers’ eyes couldn’t help but gather there.

And at the final moment—

Kwaaaaang-!

Only after a massive blast exploded, ringing sharply in everyone’s ears there, could they see Radan and Sloth with their own eyes.

And they could tell, without difficulty, who held the upper hand.

Sloth’s condition was terribly bad.

It seemed letting Alon’s group’s attacks hit him so many times had become a heavy burden.

His body was damaged to the point it didn’t look like it could function normally anymore.

But Radan was no different from the beginning.

Aside from a bit of dust splashing on him, it was hard to find any difference from before.

So it looked like an obvious victory for Radan.

Pit-!

Until red blood burst out from all over Radan’s dark armor.

“Uh-”

Along with someone’s pale, horrified groan, blood burst from all over Radan’s body as if it had been waiting.

Soldiers dyed in panic.

Alon, too, furrowed his brow, unable to understand.

He hadn’t been able to directly see the battle scene, just like the others.

He had only roughly grasped how the fight had gone by chasing the lingering traces of magic.

And as far as Alon knew, the pattern had been close to Radan’s crushing victory.

Which meant—

‘...Not an external blow, but an internal one—’

While Alon formed a hypothesis in his own way, Radan glanced at the blood flowing from all over the armor and slightly knit his brow.

“Like I thought... I pushed it a bit without the relics? I figured it’d be fine since I didn’t even use ‘power.’”

Radan scratched his head.

But even so, there wasn’t much sense of crisis on his face.

As if this situation itself wasn’t a big deal.

At that moment.

■■■■-

Without anyone noticing, above Sloth’s head, now torn to shreds, a massive sheep’s head in the shape of a skull rose up.

And then—

──────────────-!!!!!!

Purple threads extending from that sheep’s head began to form a body like blood vessels.

Over and over, they layered and clumped, making a framework, composing a gigantic painting woven of thread.

Alon realized without difficulty.

That Sloth was moving into a bizarre phase.

At that moment.

“Hyung.”

A voice suddenly reached him.

As if possessed, Alon turned his eyes.

Radan was there.

He was clearly different from the Radan Alon knew.

His hair had been dyed black, and his eyes shone red.

But that characteristic smile was the same as the Radan Alon knew.

“Are you all set?”

...Even that cheerful-sounding tone.

Radan treated him so naturally.

Instinctively, Alon felt, keenly, that this guy had come from the future.

And not Radan from a worldline where Alon hadn’t saved him.

Radan from the worldline where he saved the villain.

A question rose up about it.

But there was no time to waste on questions right now.

“Yeah.”

“Then please, hyung. Looks like I can’t bring even the relics with me.”

I mean, I can keep the treasure-vessel open the whole time.

Watching him add that, as if he knew Alon’s plan in full, Alon steadied his breathing and slowly turned his gaze forward.

Sloth, spewing purple threads and using the black territory as a body as he proceeded with his bizarre transformation.

“.......”

The moment Sloth’s bizarre transformation was completed, the tide would tilt again.

While Radan from a future worldline, for whatever reason, couldn’t bring out all his original power, a transformed Sloth would grow far stronger than before.

But Alon had been waiting for this moment.

More precisely, the moment Sloth would be unable to move because of the bizarre transformation.

The single moment when the attack he had prepared could never miss.

“Whew-”

Alon let out a long breath and looked at Radan.

“Radan.”

“Yeah, hyung.” 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“I think it’s time to ‘show’ it.”

At that, Radan formed a deep smile like he understood, then—

snap-

lightly touched his fingers together.

A very light act.

But at the same time, the rift that had been giving off a blue light grew even larger, and something began to appear from inside it.

And then—

“Th-that—”

“A ship...?”

Just like the word one mage blurted out, what was coming out of the blue rift was a ship.

The treasure-vessel Alon had been riding.

“.......”

After coming down from the ship, Alon hadn’t done anything up until now.

Even when Sloth suddenly appeared and told them to attack for one minute.

Even when the minute ended and Sloth attacked the powerhouses.

Even when Radan appeared.

Alon had only stayed silent.

Because he knew.

That you could never kill a sin with ordinary attacks.

So from the moment he assumed a fight with Sloth, he had been preparing this plan.

A plan solely to kill a sin.

From a place hidden enough that Sloth couldn’t sense the threat, even going down beneath the ship himself so that Sloth wouldn’t recognize him as a threatening existence.

Hwaaaaak-!!!!!

The ship that had come out beyond the blue rift.

From there, a pure-white light stretched out long as if it were bursting, delivering light to the entire world.

And what formed was—a shape of light like a gigantic nebula.

“...That—”

“What in the world—?”

Alon aimed toward Sloth, whose bizarre transformation was in progress, with his index and middle fingers pressed together, and then looked up at the sky.

There was a ship radiating light as intense as the sun, devouring the blue sky.

...In truth, it should’ve been impossible to realize magic somewhere else like this.

Yeah—

[Kyuu-!]

—if Blackie hadn’t been there.

Blackie, tilting the head atop that massive bow, came into view.

...In truth, making Blackie use magic was impossible.

Unless it was very simple computation, heavy magic formulas were hard for Blackie to endure.

But the magic he had analyzed this time was different.

Magic Bolt didn’t have complicated magic computation as its basis.

The essence of Magic Bolt was, in the end—to endlessly change magic into physical force, without any limitation.

“Cough-”

Meaning, under the premise that you could supply magic infinitely, it wasn’t any strain at all to make Blackie use magic.

Alon looked forward once again.

Sloth, whose bizarre transformation was nearing completion.

Purple threads that would steal control the moment anyone got caught in them wandered everywhere, and the body made of black territory was larger than a great mountain, and above Sloth, that sheep-shaped head was moving purple light with chillsome magic, forming a gigantic sphere in the sky like a meteor.

But it was fine.

Because Alon was sure.

That this strike—

“An Unforgetting Snipe—”

would reach the sin.

As Alon, with a firm will, murmured—

───────────!!!!!

the nebula fell.