Drip... drip... drip-drip...
"......"
It felt as though a consciousness reduced to ashes was slowly returning.
A clear, delicate sound, like droplets falling, faintly reached his ears.
At last, relying on those restored senses, he forced open his tightly shut eyelids. But he saw nothing.
"...Whe...re... is... this...?"
If he had to describe it, it was emptiness.
A hollow space where nothing existed.
In that black world where nothing could be seen, he alone lay collapsed.
"...Am I... dead...?"
For a moment he wondered if this was the afterlife, but if that were true, he would have revived in hell again. Realizing that, he grabbed his head and slowly rose.
Fwaaa...
When he placed his palm on the ground, ripples spread out as if he were floating atop a lake, and a strange sensation ran through him.
It was not something he felt through his skin. It was not from the outside, but from the soul within.
"No way... this is—"
Just as that impossible hypothesis crossed his mind at the sensation directly touching his soul—
"That's right. This is your [Mindscape], connected to the soul of nothingness."
A voice spoke.
It was a voice that felt deeply familiar and achingly nostalgic, one he felt he had heard countless times long ago.
And yet, in this life, he had never heard it even once. No—he could not have heard it.
Because that voice belonged to his...
...past life.
"That's impossible..."
Turning toward the sound, he saw a boy in a school uniform.
Even in this place where nothing existed, the boy's dark hair with a faint brown sheen and his eyes shone brightly, and in his left hand he gripped a bamboo sword his father had given him.
His expression was as sharp and blank as ever, and the cold air around him, unfitting for his age, remained unchanged.
"...□□□."
Yes.
He matched perfectly with the "me" from his memories of a previous life, □□□.
"How in the world—"
Unable to understand the situation, he tried to ask that other self what was going on, but he never got the chance.
Because someone else appeared right beside him.
"More accurately, it's our [Mindscape]."
"—?!"
The newcomer was someone he knew well. Very well.
There was no way he could fail to recognize him, when he had the exact same face and voice.
The second person to appear... no, the monster... was his present self.
The only difference was that, unlike his beloved sword [Overlord Black Star], he held a longsword with an ashen hue.
"You look pretty shocked. I can see exactly what you're thinking. You're assuming we're your split selves, or different personalities, aren't you?"
Seeing through his thoughts in an instant, □□□ folded his arms and let out a short breath as he spoke.
Then the other "him," the one who looked just like his reincarnated self, continued where he left off.
"We are not beings you created. We simply gathered here for different reasons. Originally, we are other versions of you who could never have met. It's easiest to think of us as 'me existing in [Another World].'"
"...Then why exactly did you come here...?"
His mind was in chaos.
Waking up in a place called the [Mindscape] was one thing, but the sudden appearance of other versions of himself made everything even harder to comprehend.
Even so, he did not voice those complaints. Instinct was screaming at him to listen to what they had to say.
"...There are many reasons. But with the time we've been given, we can't explain all of them."
"Still, there is one thing we can say for certain... We don't want you to fail like we did."
"......"
Their voices had been emotionless, like people exhausted to the very end, but bitterness seeped through them all the same.
He could feel regret and anger, sorrow and despair, and a longing still burning even after being reduced to ashes.
"You kept making different choices from us. I chose to wait three hundred years rather than set out to find her. I thought too many variables would arise, and that meeting another [Primordial Demons] so early would not be wise."
"And I... I directly summoned Jonne and even succeeded in reaching hell through [Ru-Lawather], but I did not oppose that [Seraphim]. I knew very well it was impossible with my strength."
They were all him, placed in different circumstances, yet the great current of life itself had been the same.
And the reason they had produced such different outcomes was simply the difference in their choices.
"But you were different. You've already been making different choices from us for a long time—"
"—And after this, you'll surely keep choosing differently from us. That's why we entered your [Mindscape]."
The two of them, holding out the bamboo sword in the left hand and the ashen blade in the right toward him, gradually turned into light and began to fade.
"...Tch. That's enough for this conversation. Whether you earn the next chance depends on how you awaken [????]."
"Once we're gone, keep moving forward. There's still one more person waiting for you."
Hwaaa...
After leaving those final words behind, the two of them immediately turned into light without even a shape remaining, and were absorbed into his body.
"...Move... forward?"
Staring blankly at the sight of the two selves becoming light and sinking into him, he followed their words and slowly walked on.
**
Step... step...
How many minutes, or hours, had he walked like that?
At some point, the ground changed until it felt as though he were stepping on grass, and crimson-burning magic power began to rise around him.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!!
Before long, that magic power had grown far larger than his body and gathered into a single road.
At the same time, the world that had been nothing but black brightened in an instant like dawn under a rising sun, casting two shadows.
One of them was, needless to say, himself.
And the other—
"You've finally arrived."
—belonged to a boy smaller than him.
The boy had the same ash-gray hair as him, very pale skin, and a face that still retained youthful softness.
The black coat he wore was very similar to his own, and even the hilt of the sword at his waist resembled [Overlord Black Star] somehow.
He looked like what Adelio might have been if he had reincarnated a few years younger.
But he also possessed one trait that was the complete opposite of him.
Crimson eyes.
"Those eyes..."
Those beautiful ruby-like crimson eyes were not like his.
They were exactly like hers.
Even his aura was similar to Adelio's, yet a little closer to hers.
'No way... that child is—'
"It seems you have something you want to ask me, but the two before me used up too much time, so I'm sorry, but I can't answer. There's a question I absolutely must ask you first."
Cutting him off before he could ask about the eyes, the boy calmly walked up to him and spoke.
"...What will you do after you leave this [Mindscape]?"
"......"
It seemed abrupt, yet it was an extremely important question.
Unlike the other two, who had given him answers, this boy was demanding one from him. Adelio found himself speechless for a moment.
'...Come to think of it... back in hell—'
Because what had happened before he entered the [Mindscape] came back to him.
What that angel had done to him, that def—
Crk...!!
'...No. Not yet.'
Clenching his fist with rage, he pushed aside his questions about the boy and the other versions of himself and focused on only one thing.
Fighting that [Seven Angels of Origin] again.
As long as a demon did not give up, the result called defeat would never truly come.
No matter how much time it took until victory, if in the end he was the one who won, then a demon had never lost.
So all he had to do was challenge him again and burn with this fury.
'...I can't accept defeat in a place like this.'
Then the answer was obvious.
"—I'll fight. I'll keep challenging him until I win."
"...Even with such an overwhelming gap between you, you'll keep fighting?"
"Yes."
Even if he fought for hundreds or thousands of years, the result might remain the same. But if he refused to give up and kept challenging it, there was still possibility.
"A demon that only avoids battle can never grow stronger."
A demon who crossed the line of life and death continued to grow.
That was why he believed in that possibility for growth.
It had nearly been broken once, but in the end, it still had not broken even now.
"...I see. As expected... if it's ■■■, then that is how you would answer."
After hearing Adelio's answer, the boy murmured so softly that Adelio could not hear him. Then, with a faint smile, he bid him farewell in silence.
In truth, there was much more he wanted to ask him, but for Adelio's sake, the boy swallowed all of those other questions.
There would be chances later. For now, this was enough.
'I'll see you again later, ■■■.'
Soon, wrapped in magic power, the boy flew away—not into Adelio's body, but into another world.
A world called the future.
*
And then—
[Report. The energy of the unregistered skill [????] has been transferred to [Hero's Egg]—]
The soul of Adelio, returned to the world of the present,
[—Confirmed. Additionally, [Hero's Egg] has hatched.]
using them as stepping stones, shattered its shell,
[With the complete awakening of [Hero's Egg], [the body of a sage] has evolved, and [the body of a saint] has been acquired. —Continuing. In accordance with the evolution of the body, the evolution of [Divine Demon]... successful. Race has evolved into [Deva Lord].]
seized the moment of evolution,
[Additionally, a renewed attempt to integrate the Unique Skill [Answerer] and the Unique Skill [Seeker of Learning]—successful. Evolved into the Ultimate Skill [Odin], [King of Inquiry].]
and held on to it.
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