Chapter 373, The Beginning of the End

South of T’oued, south-east of Faltown…

Three eccentric individuals were gazing at a cocoon-like structure, one so ominously dark yet beautiful as a flawless jewel.

 

[Wonderful.
But what is this arcane energy…!?]

 

Ishtar — better known to some as Idïa — said as she observed the structure enveloped in a stream of electricity.
Next to her was Lloyd —  better known to some as Leon — simply standing there.

 

“HIS arcane energy, augmented by ours, that’s what it is.
…Hmm, indeed, it is quite powerful.”

 

After attacking Tūs in the Far East Wasteland, Gaspard had come here and joined forces with Idïa and Leon… to do something most unusual.

As Gaspard just said, the three of them had expended a great quantity of their own arcane energy, giving it to the Devil King in order to accelerate the process of his resurrection.

God’s prophecy that Asley had seen several times in his dreams, in and of itself, had not been mistaken.

However, it did not take into account the Devilkin’s actions.

 

…And now, by the power of these three individuals, the Devil King was forced to resurrect.

 

While Idïa braced herself, Gaspard walked casually toward the Devil King’s cocoon.

The cocoon unleashed lightning bolts at Gaspard, perhaps to threaten him.

But Gaspard deflected them away, and even walked past them as if he was transparent, as he kept on walking.

 

“Now then, whose turn is it this time…?”

 

He muttered as he placed his hands on the cocoon.
The shock of the dark thunderbolts echoed through Gaspard’s body, but his expression did not change whatsoever.

He simply kept his hands on it, letting his power flow into it, eventually creating a crack on its surface.
Before long, the cracks multiplied, and the structure began to crumble.

Gaspard then plunged his hands into the mass of darkness and pried it open.

The next moment, a swirl of darkness rose into the sky and spread out like a dark cloud.
It stretched out for hundreds of meters in all directions, and then, as if time was being turned back, it converged back to Gaspard’s location.

The emerged a gigantic figure — a Devil with a male humanoid form, jet-black body surface, crimson hair, and a large pair of wings.

 

“Aha, Satan…”

 

The Devil King, referred to as ‘Satan’ by Gaspard, looked at his hands, then around him… then at Gaspard.

 

“…How do you know my name? No… why was I born now? My resurrection must have needed more time… And none of my associates are here.”

 

He did not seem confused, but his words suggested otherwise as he passed the moments thinking out loud.

No answer came, and so he once again set his sights on Gaspard.

The moment he saw Gaspard’s eye look back at him, Satan came to a realization.

 

“Why? Why do I dislike those eyes of yours? Know your place, you condescending clown.”

 

Satan reached out his right hand — at a speed such that Idïa could not perceive even from a distance.

But Gaspard blocked it easily, flicking it aside.

 

“…What?”

 

Once again, Satan reached his hand out to Gaspard.

This time, Gaspard leaped backward, the look in his eyes utterly unchanged from before.

 

“Disgusting.
Leave my sight now — Quad Dragon!”

 

What he invoked with blinding Circle drawing speed was a superior form of the Double Dragon magic spell — the zenith-level Quad Dragon.

The two dragon heads further divided, becoming four as they streaked toward Gaspard.

Idïa and Lloyd, sensing the danger of the situation, promptly left the vicinity.

Gaspard, however, did not move even a single inch.

The dragon heads exploded, causing massive damage to the surrounding area — was what anyone, even Satan, would expect to happen.
But immediately upon impact, the Quad Dragon disappeared, leaving only a momentary cloud of dust from which Gaspard emerged unscathed.

And in his right hand… was the Quad Dragon that Satan had unleashed.

 

“–!? Did you just… grab a Zenith-level magic spell?”

 

Satan glared at Gaspard, his voice quiet but noticeably startled.

The Quad Dragon flailed in Gaspard’s grasp, but soon dissipated in a puff of smoke.

 

“You think too highly of yourself, Satan.
Well, I suppose I cannot blame you — you DO possess a great deal of arcane energy, after all.”

“Who are you? How do you know my name? And the man and woman there… Hmm?”

 

Seeing Leon and Idïa, Satan raised an eyebrow.

He locked his sights on Idïa in particular.

Noticing this, Gaspard took a glance at Idïa as well.

 

“Idïa, you should learn to better hide your presence.”

“A-apologies…!”

“Ah, so you are my associates, then? Why do you show such animosity towards me?”

 

Gaspard turned back to Satan.

 

“That is not right, Satan.”

“What?”

“YOU are MY associate.”

“Nonsense.
If that is the case, then I would not have manifested the Devil King.
Or are you here to claim that you are the Devil King, not me?”

 

In response, Gaspard shook his head.

 

“Not quite…”

“……I do not appreciate your lack of direct answers, clown.”

“Not quite, but what I will say is that… you are an obstacle.”

“Ah, so you do not value your life.”

 

Idïa’s face froze over as Satan’s surroundings were distorted by the sheer mass of his arcane energy.

It took only moments for the condensed energy to wrap around Satan — signifying the activation of the Devil King’s Ultimate Limit.

Gaspard removed his cloak and lowered his stance.

 

“See if you can’t entertain me.”

“You have made one too many jokes, clown! Die! Thunder Burst!”

 

At the same time, a gigantic thunderbolt struck in a straight line from the heavens.

 

“You ought to try it, too.”

“Ngh–!”

 

Gaspard, just like before, grabbed the thunderbolt and threw it back at Satan with tremendous force.

 

“Wind Slash!”

 

Satan dodged it and countered with countless bladed blasts of wind.

 

“Transient Blades.”

 

At the same time, Gaspard summoned swords of light from his Craft Circle.
They clashed with Satan’s magecraft, canceling each other out.

 

“Did you just defend against an advanced magecraft with an elementary one!? Impossible!”

“Everything is a matter of ingenuity.
I am strong now that I have abandoned my pride…　Satan.”

“You have no idea what you are dealing with, clown!”

 

Satan rushed at Gaspard as soon as the clashing magecraft disappeared — and Gaspard did the same.

The two clashed at the very same spot where their magecraft had, creating a huge shockwave.

With each blow from Satan and Gaspard, arcane energy burst forth, filling the vicinity with blinding flashes of light.

The impacts were so strong that Idïa felt the quaking right in her body.

Each of the explosions was so concentrated that the rubble in their wake became fine dust.

And all the while, both Satan’s and Gaspard’s expressions did not change one bit.

Their clashes split the earth and rended the clouds, and after countless traded blows, they landed on the ground once again.

 

“It feels as if I am dreaming.
To think there is someone who is able to match me in combat… You who have greatly disregarded the natural way of the Devil King’s resurrection.”

 

In response, Gaspard’s mouth turned up slightly.

 

“Ah, so you do know about THAT mystery.
Or should I say that you are the ringleader of it, you condescending clown…?”

“Surely your body has accustomed itself to the arcane energy by now.
Take the fight seriously.”

“…And you have noticed this, too? Very well.
I shall show you what a Devil King at full power is like.”

“Enough talk.
Overcome the Ultimate Limit… if you can.”

“…! OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

 

Satan’s deep crimson eyes opened wide as he drew out his latent powers.

His arcane energy aura went silent, returning the distorted space around him to a state of stillness.

Lights of all colors of the spectrum drifted over the surface of Satan’s body, as if they were swimming.

 

“This is it.
This is what I have been waiting for.
The released arcane energy is concentrated and held on the surface of the body, enabling one to cast any spell and magecraft they desire — the ultimate technique beyond ultimate… ‘Transcendence’.”

“Mysterious associate, now I know what you are.
Your true identity–“

 

As Satan was about to finish his sentence, Gaspard’s body underwent a major transformation.
His body pulsated and expanded, and a black arcane energy aura consumed him.

…It was the awakening of his Devil form.

Satan smiled faintly as the form was fully revealed.

 

“I knew it was you.”

 

　◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

 

“This battle is beyond what we could ever have imagined, don’t you think so, Leon?”

“Yes, Mother.”

 

They were looking down at a crater — one so deep that it seemed bottomless.

Man-made disasters of inhuman scales were occurring endlessly, but the two of them did not seem to care.

One Devil stood near the crater, while another was on the ground.

 

“…How… how did I lose…?”

“Nothing to it.
I was stronger.”

“Hah… To think my time would be so short-lived…”

“Keep your dignity.
You could at least face your last moments like a Devil King.”

 

Compressed arcane energy converged in Gaspard’s right hand.

 

“I want… one question answered…”

“…Ask away.”

“Your heart is one of pure evil.
You are no Holy Warrior! Why… why do you seek to defeat the Devil King!?”

 

Satan’s question was what any of his kind would ask.

Why had Gaspard appeared here? Why had he hastened the resurrection of Devil King Satan?

Gaspard held the mass of arcane energy in his right hand as he looked up at the sky, then down at Satan once again.

 

“Hmph, expressing sympathy to those not permitted entrance to the Underworld, are we? Now, my reasons are nothing complicated…”

 

As soon as the arcane energy in his right hand was released, the arm mutated into a hideous tentacle.

 

“What… what is that!?”

“My resurrection was incomplete.
I was forced to end my part without the powers I was supposed to obtain.
It was due to the fact that they… or rather, HE, interfered.”

 

Gaspard spoke without a care in the world as he approached Satan, causing the latter to shiver with a cold he had never experienced before.

 

“That is why I want it! The power I was entitled to!”

 

Gaspard’s voice gradually grew hoarse.

 

“I WANT IT, I WANT IT, I WANT IT, I WANT IT! POWER!! ULTIMATE POWER!!”

“S-STOP–!”

“Put your mind at ease and let yourself be consumed! One who defeats the Devil King is entitled to his power! Ahh, long have I waited for it to be mine!”

 

The tentacle that was Gaspard’s right arm split into countless threads and morphed into a giant maw that closed in on Satan.

 

“NOOOOOO–!”

“A plot five-thousand years in the making…!”

 

The maw swallowed Satan whole, and after several crunches, all was still.

Then, the following moment, a beam of darkness streaked up at the heavens and summoned a curtain of lightning.

 

“KAH…! KAAAHHHHHH!!”

 

Gaspard, with a face full of anguish and also joy, absorbed the power into himself.

The lightning bolts shattered rock, shook the earth, and rended the skies.
And when they reached Gaspard, they disappeared.

 

Before long, all was silent.
Idïa and Lloyd knelt before Gaspard.

 

“”We welcome you back into this world, our King.””

 

Their eyes downcast, they paid due respect to the figure of absolute power standing before them.

Bulging muscles, golden hair, pale blue eyes…

 

“Hehehe… Now everyone, especially THEM, will know at a single glance who Master Gaspard truly is.”

 

Idïa’s lips bent subtly into a smile.

This body was etched with an unquenchable rage.
The muscle mass of Asley, the beautiful hair of Giorno, and the pale blue eyes of Lylia…

 

“My resentment fails to fade away.
I shall show them the most torturous circles of Hell…”

“Master Gaspard, we would–“

 

Gaspard raised his hand, interrupting Idïa, and said,

 

“You have my permission.”

 

To do what, he did not say — but Idïa understood regardless.

 

“Hehehe… your wish is our command, Master Lucifer.”

 

What had been permitted was the utterance of Gaspard’s true name.

The despair would only grow worse from this point on, and soon, this dark world would be considered Hell itself.

 

“I have returned! And I shall have my revenge… Asley!”