Chapter 144

The Completed One (2)

When I thought about it carefully, my first memory always began in front of the incubator.

Abigail III, when she had just ascended to the position of Pontiff.

Whenever I looked back on her, she had always been a cold-hearted human being.

There was nothing more important than protecting the Holy Crown Kingdom, the collective that sustained the entirety of its people. It had been propaganda instilled in me since childhood.

The strong had to bear responsibility, and they also had the duty to enjoy the privileges that came from that responsibility, while always maintaining the ability to stand above all others. Those were the virtues demanded of someone in the position of Pontiff.

Abigail III had been no different from someone born for that very purpose.

For that sake, she had killed without hesitation during the succession ceremony, had never knelt before anyone, and had never once been pushed back no matter who stood against her.

Even when compared among the Pontiffs of past generations, there were few who had guarded such a dangerous seat as flawlessly as she had.

So, if it was for her own sake, disregarding basic human morality to some extent was permissible.

Cruel, heartless, yet realistic. That was what she had believed.

Unless someone appeared who could fulfill the duty given to her better than she herself could, that was both her rightful authority and obligation.

That was likely why she had agreed without much resistance to the insane plan of creating a spare body.

“This is a spare body created in preparation for the unlikely event that something may happen to Your Holiness in the future.”

The moment she heard the researcher say that in front of the incubator, the Pontiff tilted her head slightly and asked,

“What is its name?”

“……A name for a spare body?”

Seeing him tilt his head as if he truly could not understand, I found myself unconsciously agreeing.

It was a life that would later be replaced by her as it was. What kind of absurdity was there in giving it a name? Perhaps it would have made more sense to call it a product with a serial number attached.

Abigail III lowered her head and met the eyes of the baby inside the incubator.

‘……I’m not sure.’

They had said that, as a spare body, it resembled her from head to toe, but seeing it in person, it simply felt like a wriggling lump of flesh. At the very least, I had thought there would be no reason for me to feel something like maternal affection.

I had no such thoughts—at least until the baby slowly lifted its eyelids and met my gaze.

“…….”

The moment our eyes met, the baby broke into a wide smile.

Seeing it react that way even toward a creature far larger than itself—the first being it had ever seen since birth—made it hard to call that anything but pure.

They called it the imprinting instinct, didn’t they? That living beings felt goodwill toward the first thing they saw.

……To be honest, I had thought it was foolish.

Though it could not even speak properly and had no means to protect itself, in a situation where it had no idea what the being before it might do to it, it displayed such a harmless appearance.

It was pointlessly innocent and brimming with goodwill.

To the Pontiff, who upheld the belief that innocence was merely a decorated word for incompetence and sin, there was not a single thing worthy of a favorable evaluation.

“Open it.”

“Pardon?”

“I need to check its condition. There must not be any flaws.”

The researcher tried to dissuade her, saying there was no need to go that far, but the one before him was the Pontiff herself. Receiving her icy gaze, he flinched and hurriedly opened the incubator.

And Abigail approached and immediately examined the baby from head to toe.

“…….”

Even upon seeing it again, it was truly a strange lifeform.

There was not a single redeeming quality to speak of.

In what way did it resemble her?

The Pontiff quietly extended her hand to touch the baby.

And at the same time—

“Aba.”

The creature that had been making foolish sounds suddenly grabbed her hand tightly.

Startled, Abigail III tried to pull her hand away, but before she could, the baby had already climbed onto her hand.

Pressing its entire body against her, it rubbed its face against her skin.

It was a gesture as though it believed that the being before it would never harm it.

A movement that seemed to express, with its whole body, that it trusted her.

Abigail III unconsciously tried to step back.

Her hand stiffened as strength filled it.

“Y-Your Holiness!”

The researcher was about to warn her that if she made any larger movement, the baby might get hurt—but it seemed that warning was unnecessary.

Abigail III

was staring down at the baby, her entire body frozen stiff as though she had been struck by lightning.

“Your Holiness.”

“…….”

Something.

As though something inside her body had changed.

“Your Holiness?”

“Researcher.”

“……Y-Yes?”

“You said this doesn’t have a name.”

“…….” 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

“I can give it one, can’t I?”

The researcher stared at Abigail in disbelief.

Arrogant. Tyrant. More a conqueror than a Pontiff.

It was certainly an unbelievable sight—that a woman burdened with such epithets was showing more interest than necessary in her own spare body.

“There is… no issue with that.”

Sensing that something had begun to move in an unexpected direction, the researcher stammered as he answered.

Beside him, the Pontiff stared down for a long time at the baby rubbing its body against her hand.

That

had been her first meeting with Katya.

“-”

My consciousness surfaced back to reality.

Pulling away the veil of memories that had been drifting far in the distance, the Pontiff’s awareness was drawn straight into the present.

It was dark. But there was at least enough light beneath it to open my eyes and examine my surroundings.

The First Altar.

A torch touched by the breath of the God of Purification. Even submerged beneath water, it defied the laws and burned endlessly.

Gazing at it, the Pontiff looked down at the enormous magic circle drawn across the floor.

“O God of Purification—”

With a voice that was tearing apart, she continued as though coughing up blood.

No—there was actually some blood mixed in.

The life-support device embedded within her body—the one she had even shown to Aiden Kellermain—was writhing, burrowing more viciously into her flesh.

It seemed that this thing understood as well. That the flame of life within this body was nearly extinguished. That in order to maintain the level of divine power she desired, this much was necessary.

All of it had been paid as a ‘price.’

For the one and only goal she sought.

“—Your faithful servant humbly makes one final request.”

So I only needed to endure a little longer.

The Pontiff spoke as she stared at the faintly glowing circle on the floor.

“……There isn’t much time left.”

Whether it was my body.

Or until everything came to an end.

Either way, the words applied.

▣

When I thought about the original game, it was a world filled with all sorts of madly powerful individuals, fitting for a setting where threats capable of shaking the world itself constantly appeared.

There was no need to look far—right now, even Katya and Noel around Aiden were monsters who, if they so wished, could single-handedly overturn the tides of a battlefield where thousands or tens of thousands clashed.

And if we were to speak of the Pontiff, that was not merely a matter of changing the battlefield’s flow—it was closer to calling her a strategic weapon.

Monsters who wielded destructive power great enough to casually topple an entire minor nation with a single human body.

And to add an absurd fact to that—

Even among such humans, there was one whom they could never defeat in close combat.

As befitted a game, I remembered having seen a settings collection that expressed the characters’ stats and overall combat abilities in parameters.

You know—the kind drawn as a pentagon, labeling one as A-rank, another as S-rank, allowing you to gauge ability by the size of the shape.

And ‘The Completed One,’ Magnus,

in close combat, was a human whose parameters pierced through the graph alone and extended beyond the page itself.

Of course, the developers had likely inserted those stats half as a joke, and I remembered laughing in disbelief when I saw them in my previous life.

But that episode suggested only one fact.

From the very beginning.

From the start,

this was not a character created to be defeated in battle.

“---!!”

Noel’s body was flung away like lightning.

From her mouth, bright red blood mixed with the impact of her organs being struck burst out in a long spray. She had been trading blows with Magnus at the front line, but her current state was so ruined that even the word battered failed to describe it.

It would be more accurate to say it was a miracle she was still alive and moving.

Of course, Magnus—the one who had reduced her to that state—could hardly be called unharmed either.

His limbs were tattered. His body was covered in slashes and burn wounds.

But.

The light in his eyes had not dimmed in the slightest.

If anything, it seemed to burn even brighter than when the fight had first begun.

‘……You monstrous bastard……!’

The words I had muttered in disbelief earlier now echoed through my head as sheer shock.

The supernatural power pouring from Magnus’s body made heaven and earth rumble. Divine power so overwhelming that the faint-hearted would faint merely by facing it scorched the surroundings.

Even Noel, called a walking power plant of supernatural ability.

Even Katya, who wielded such vast divine power that she could forcibly cling to her own life no matter how desperately she wished to die.

An absolute quantity of divine power that none could approach suffocated everything around us.

It was not as though his divine power possessed any special trait. It was not particularly specialized in efficiency like Noel’s, nor did it grant abnormal abilities like Katya’s pseudo-immortality.

But the output. The mastery with which he controlled it. The combat skill to apply that supernatural power precisely where it was needed in battle.

All of that combined in this man—

“-Ha, hahahahahahaha!!-”

This walking calamity, bursting into mad laughter as though even such grievous wounds were nothing but delight,

……was undoubtedly a ‘final boss’ that did not even seem defeatable.

“…….”

Noel, who always asked whether there was a way, remained silent this time as she looked at me.

Which meant she understood as well. That even I—who had sliced apart dragons and even a Kraken without hesitation—would struggle against something like this.

“What are you staring at me for.”

I let out a faint chuckle as I answered.

“Of course there’s a way to deal with him.”

“…….”

“…….”

Noel and Katya shot me piercing looks at the same time.

“……May I ask why you did not use it sooner……?”

“It’s not exactly a method I want to use either.”

……More precisely,

I was reluctant because even I could not calculate what kind of backlash this would bring.

A method to face Magnus was something that even these superhumans standing at the pinnacle of humanity would find difficult.

There was no way, on a human level, to confront such a calamity.

Right.

On a ‘human’ level.

“…….”

I opened my skill window.

“Shall we try summoning a god?”

“……Pardon?”