Hyperion had asked Keter to take Alisa back. Keter found it funny, but he could sympathize.

I remember Kadia driving me crazy too.

It was only for six months, but Kadia was stuck to him constantly and tried to control every little thing. Even Keter had found it unbearable.

Since Hyperion had helped him fight the Godfather, Keter wanted to help if he could. In truth, however, he and Alisa were basically strangers. How was he supposed to make her separate from Hyperion?

If things weren’t like this right now, I would’ve jumped at it immediately.

Even if he was acting like a hero now, Keter’s true nature was that of a Solver. There was no way he could refuse such an entertaining request as divorcing an eight-star Irregular from a dragon.

“Brother-in-law, I’ll do what I can, but that’s only if you keep fighting with me to the end.”

“Hmm... Keter, it feels a bit awkward to say this, but I think our role ends here.”

The Godfather was already being pressed hard by the kings of each nation, and the chimeras were being pushed back by reinforcements gathered from across the world. Keter and the Dawn Army had already fulfilled their duty before that, so there was no reason for them to keep sacrificing themselves. That was what Hyperion meant.

Keter wanted to tell him that not only the Godfather, but the Samael Empire was also their enemy, but he did not trust Hyperion’s intelligence enough for that.

If I tell Hyperion, he’ll start watching the empire without any subtlety at all.

So Keter gave him a vague answer instead.

“It won’t end with just defeating the Godfather. We don’t know what’ll happen after that.”

“Ah, damn! Is that so? I’m not good with complicated stuff. Fine, I get it. Stay here and wait, right?”

“This is a real problem.”

“Huh? What do you mean, all of a sudden?”

“You’re already strong, Brother-in-law. If you get smart too, what am I supposed to do?”

“What? Hahahahaha!”

Keter, a man who normally had nothing to do with flattery, gave him praise, and Hyperion, though embarrassed, looked like his grin might split his face.

“In that case, while we’re at it, let’s just sit here and drink together while we wait...”

A light flashed, then Hyperion, who had been holding a bottle of liquor, suddenly trembled all over. More precisely, it happened because the dragon tattoo on his chest began to flare brightly. His expression darkened at once.

Setting the bottle down, Hyperion said in a crawling voice, “Alisa’s calling me. Wait just a bit. I’ll go and come right back.”

Hyperion said it would only take a moment, but once he left, he never came back.

* * *

“Calling you Big Brother feels a little awkward. Haha.”

Daat, sitting across from him, scratched the back of his head. After ten years, Daat had grown up a lot and become much more mature. But to Keter, he still just looked like the Dork he knew from Liqueur.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

Though this time, Keter did not pat his head like he was a child like before. Instead, he placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze.

“I really went through hell.”

“How much of a bonus am I supposed to give you? At this rate, I’m going to lose my entire fortune.”

“Big Brother, are you okay?”

“With what?”

“With Sefira.”

“...Sigh. Does it look like I would be okay?”

Even if Keter looked fine, there was no way he actually was. Sefira had collapsed in an instant.

Of course, it had not been completely destroyed. What had vanished were Sefira’s buildings and servants. Hissop, the patriarch, Anis, Taragon, and Gasilius, who had joined the Dawn Army, had all survived. However, tens of thousands of Sefira’s people had definitely died, and the dependable Endymion had died too.

“This feels worse than anything in my life.”

A family he had spent so long building had been wiped away with a single gesture. It was absurd, infuriating, and hollow beyond words. He felt like tears might burst out at any moment, like rage might tear his reason away.

However, Keter knew that none of that would bring Sefira back. The dead could not be returned to life, not unless one was truly a god.

“Still, I should finish what I have to do first. I’ll cry after that,” Keter said.

“Not everyone must have died or disappeared. No matter how strong the Godfather is, how could he kill so many people across such a vast place with a single wave of his hand? And Lord Endymion, an eight-star, was protecting it. So was Alakir, the god of wind.”

“Maybe,” Keter muttered without much conviction, so Daat changed the subject.

“As you’ve probably noticed too, all the military forces of every nation are gathered here right now. Anything could happen.”

“Luke already warned me. From the sound of it, the empire already knew something like this would happen.”

“The other kingdoms have their own selfish motives too, but none of them prepared for this as long as the empire did.”

“It’s good that we noticed, but can we actually prepare for it?”

“We can prepare, maybe. I’m not sure we can handle it. More than half of the Dawn Army is dead, and the rest are either wounded or completely drained. They would need at least a month to recover. The Transcendentals could recover in two days, but honestly, there’s no guarantee that nothing will happen before then.”

“We got dragged into some filthy business, didn’t we? How the hell did we end up as heroes saving the world?”

“Wasn’t it you who said life is fun because you never know what’s going to happen?”

“Kekeke...”

After a short laugh, Keter picked up the liquor Hyperion had left untouched and drank it. Cheap strong liquor, with despair as the side dish, tasted sweeter and harsher than anything else.

“You have a drink too.”

“One glass won’t do anything for me. I’d rather not drink at all than drink halfheartedly.”

“Well, look at you. Acting confident about alcohol in front of me?”

“Let’s have a drinking contest sometime. I’m going to take the title of God of Alcohol.”

“Sure. Anytime.”

The drinking contest would not happen now. It would happen later. But whether either of them would even have a “later” was impossible to guarantee. They just wanted to give themselves one more reason to survive.

Daat stood up and pointed toward the door.

“You’re even more popular than you were in Liqueur. There are a lot of people waiting for you.”

“That just proves my charm wasn’t limited to Liqueur.”

“Well, I’m pretty famous too, even if not quite on your level. You should check for yourself later.”

“If you die, you’ll get even more famous. Art gets more expensive after the artist dies too.”

“Hahaha.”

“Hehehe.”

It had been a very long time since the two of them had been able to laugh like this.

* * *

After Daat left, the next to enter were Hissop and Taragon. Hissop looked terrible. He was wrapped in bandages so thoroughly he looked almost like a mummy. He could not even move on his own and had come leaning on Taragon for support.

“Keter, are you really okay?”

“Don’t I look like the one in the best shape here?”

“That’s exactly why I’m more worried.”

“...I’m not okay, but I’m fine.”

Just as Hissop said, Keter looked completely unharmed on the outside. But after dying and coming back hundreds of times, how could he possibly be fine? He hurt constantly and all over. His bones, muscles, organs, and even soul were all screaming for him to just let them die. And yet he endured. He could do so because of Keter’s inhuman mental strength, and because he carried the traits of every species within him.

“Judging from your expression, our job still isn’t over.”

Even with one eye wrapped in bandages, Hissop read Keter’s expression at a glance. Keter scratched the back of his head.

“Is it that obvious?”

“It would be stranger if you pretended otherwise. Every nation’s forces are gathered here.”

It was already the third time he had heard the same thing in such a short span, but Keter did not find it annoying at all.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but something is going to happen. So I need you to take the Dawn Army and get out of this battlefield.”

“You’re not telling us to go back to Sefira, are you?”

It seemed the news that Sefira, the home they were meant to return to, had vanished had not yet spread.

Keter hesitated for a moment. He contemplated whether he should tell Hissop what had happened to Sefira. Was ignorance a blessing, or was knowledge power?

Either not knowing or knowing would be fucking awful.

So, Keter decided not to tell him. There was another reason too. He remembered what Daat had said. There was still a possibility that they were safe. He did not want to crush that hope with his own hands.

“I’m not telling you to go back. Just stay close enough that you can rejoin us at any time.”

“Understood. And don’t worry too much. The reinforcements are completely ignoring the Dawn Army anyway.”

“Who would bother being wary of a bunch of patients on the verge of death?”

At that, Taragon added a word of his own.

“And that’s exactly the weak point we’ll be exploiting.”

“Exactly.”

It was called a weak point, but in truth, the Dawn Army was in such bad shape that surviving at all would be a miracle. The elixirs had long since run out because of the war, and they did not even have potions left.

Keter did have healing power, but if he tried to restore tens of thousands of wounded people, he would be out of it, making the whole fight meaningless. Even if he wanted to do something for them, there was honestly no real way.

No, more than that, he did not even feel like doing it because Sefira was no longer the same as it had been in the past. It was no longer a group that absolutely needed him to do everything for it.

They’ll manage on their own.

Keter believed that, and so he simply let Hissop and Taragon go.

* * *

Even after Hissop and Taragon, the survivors who remained came to see Keter and exchanged a few brief words with him. And it was not only the survivors of the Dawn Army who came.

“So you’re the Divine Bow of this kingdom? You’ve worked hard.”

The man, acting as though he were Keter’s superior, introduced himself as one of the Samael Empire’s seven dukes and carried himself with all the arrogance to match.

“We of the empire will handle the rest, so you needn’t concern yourself with it.”

“...”

Keter crossed his arms and stared at the duke. He could not tell whether the man had come to sound him out, or whether he was simply one of those idiots every nation seemed to produce.

No matter what, he is still from the empire, the strongest nation on the continent. And if he’s a duke, then he’s one of the highest-ranking nobles. There’s no way he’s really this stupid.

Perhaps he took Keter’s silence as a positive sign. The duke’s tone only became more overbearing.

“Judging by your expression, I see you understand the situation now. The Lillian Kingdom is finished. I hear Sefira has also suffered severe damage, so Hallan—my family—is willing to take Sefira in. You’ll be recognized as proper nobles of the empire, and in return, you will serve me...”

Smack! Crash!

Keter brought a liquor bottle down on Duke Hallan’s head, then pressed his fingers to his temple.

“So he was just an idiot. Next!”

After kicking the unconscious duke out of the way, Keter was just about to receive his next visitor when...

Kwaaaaah!

A dragon-like roar thundered from outside. The earth and sky shook as if they were about to split apart. Since it was a battle between gods, heaven and earth being overturned should have been natural, yet it was not.

Right after the battle began, the grand mages had put up an extremely thick barrier so that the conflict would not affect the surrounding area. It was a barrier built through the deliberate cooperation of the greatest mages from every nation. Even if it could not stop a direct attack from a god, it could at least block the aftershocks.

Yet, the roar and trembling were now spreading through even that barrier. Something extraordinary had clearly happened.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. It hasn’t even been a full day!”

If the battle was decided in less than half a day, the Dawn Army would have no time to recover.

Boom!

Keter blasted through the roof of the tent and flew toward the battlefield of the gods. As expected, the barrier woven by the grand mages had been torn to pieces. The sight of magic circles, as thick as fortress walls, shattered apart was a spectacle in itself, but he had no time to admire it now.

At the very least, I have to stop the Godfather from pulling something.

Even if the Godfather died, he would not die quietly. He might even be trying to fake his death. More than anything, Keter did not trust the gods of the other nations. At the very least, he wanted to see with his own eyes how this would end, so he sharpened his gaze.

The battlefield of the gods was twisted by warped space and colliding divine power to the point where it could not even be observed with the naked eye, but Keter’s eyes were special. The eyes of Sefira’s bloodline, combined with the traits of every race connected to sight, allowed him to see beyond the veil.

Around the Godfather stood black pillars driven into place, and chains wrapped around those pillars coiled around the Godfather’s entire body. The Godfather had been completely subdued. And beside him, four people who were presumably the gods of different nations were arguing fiercely over him.

“I was the first to arrive. That makes him mine.”

“Arrival is only a physical standard, is it not? By that logic, I have been watching the Godfather for hundreds of years, so he rightfully belongs to me.”

“Heheh, I was the one who landed the decisive blow. How shameless of you, who did little more than watch, to say he belongs to you.”

“Let’s divide him into four.”

At the sight of them hesitating instead of finishing the Godfather off immediately, Keter felt his chest tighten.

“Just kill him already!”

He understood that the Godfather had been neutralized. But even so, the fact that he was lying there so helplessly looked far too artificial to Keter.

Only Keter, who had seen the Godfather up close for so long, felt this instinctive unease. The gods, however, were filled with confidence that even if the Godfather had some hidden scheme, they could handle it.

“This won’t do.”

He would go kill him himself. Right now, even Keter could kill the Godfather.

Of course, a being like the Godfather could not be killed permanently in the physical sense. Even if slain, he would revive with time, but even so, killing him first was the best option.

Just as Keter made up his mind and was about to rush forward, someone blocked his path again. This time, Keter had already expected it. He had known that someone would try to stop him again.

Even if it’s Hissop this time, I’m just ignoring him and going. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Having already resolved himself, Keter tried to brush past the person in his way, but...

“Keter.”

“...!”

The person blocking him had done nothing more than speak his name, but when Keter heard that voice, he froze. It was a woman’s voice. He had never heard before, and yet it clawed into his chest, into his soul.

He turned around. A woman stood there, silently looking at him.

Keter blinked twice, then said, “Akrah?”

She slowly nodded.