Chapter 238

The Regretful Demon King
Iris—the newly revived Demon King—was perplexed.

Her goal had been to overwrite Alicetia and return to being Iris. That much had gone according to plan.

But the fact that Alicetia’s body was already on the brink of death was entirely unexpected. Because Demon King Iris had been sealed away, she only had access to the surface emotions and knowledge of Alicetia—nothing deeper.

And for some reason, Takuto was standing before her. That was an even bigger problem.

Demon King Iris had a goal. But there was no guarantee Takuto would help her achieve it.

So, she chose to ask for his cooperation.

“It’s been a long time, Takuto. Listen—I’ve finally found it. A way to bring back Papa, Mama, Lim, your parents… all of them.”

Takuto’s eyes widened at those words—but almost immediately, he realized it was impossible.

“There’s no way that can be done.”

“It is possible. I’ve already perfected human cloning technology and the method to transfer memories and knowledge. But the result was always just an imitation—something close, but not real.

What was missing… was the soul. No matter how identical the body, without the same soul, it’s just a fake. But if I can get the same soul… true resurrection becomes possible.

Teth deceived me. But I’m not so stupid as to fall for it blindly!”

Indeed, Teth had lied to Iris. But Iris had understood the truth—and still refused to go through with it.

Why?

“… Ai. Even if it’s possible, how many people would you have to kill?”

That was the answer.
Reincarnation was real. Which meant that in order to reclaim her family’s souls, Iris would have to retrieve them from people who had already reincarnated.
That required killing those people.
And through her encounter with Teth, Iris had come to understand that this world wasn’t the only one that existed.

In her own time, Earth alone had a population of over ten billion. Even in worlds with undeveloped technology and smaller populations, the number of people was unfathomably vast.
And the Demon King Iris had no way to identify souls.
Souls are stripped of all identifying information when they reincarnate. Without that information, finding a specific one is near-impossible.

And so Iris gave up. She abandoned the part of herself that couldn’t let go.

“I’ll kill as many as it takes. I’ll keep killing until I find them.”

The Demon King Iris was certain.

She had a baseless but unshakable conviction that she would be able to tell them apart.

Thus began her journey to destroy world after world—to harvest every soul and identify the ones she sought.

It would be an endless, despairing quest. Iris, as a human, had declared it impossible. But as a Demon King, she deemed it possible. No matter how small the chance, as long as it wasn’t zero, it was worth pursuing—even if it meant becoming a heretic god.

“I see… Then you’re not Ai. The Ai I knew would never go that far.”

From their conversation, Takuto reached a conclusion: this Demon King Iris was no longer the childhood friend he had once known.

Sure, the old Iris had always been willing to use extreme methods to achieve her goals. She might’ve walked past someone being killed and felt nothing.

But in the end, she changed. She did have a heart.

“Wrong! I am Iris!”

The Demon King screamed in rage.

But that very outburst was proof she wasn’t Iris. Not yet.

She had been Iris—but only in part. Only a fragment of her original emotions remained. The one who had truly inherited Iris’s soul… was Alicetia.

And that was why the Demon King needed to absorb Alicetia.

Alicetia was born from Iris’s hopes and inherited much from her. If the Demon King could take all of that into herself, she could once again become Iris.

Just like before—if Alicetia had been created from the good part of Iris’s soul, then all she needed to do was use herself as the core and reconstruct the soul anew.

Then she could truly become Iris—not a castoff of emotion, but a complete being. One who would never betray herself again.

She, and no other, would become the real Iris.

“Takuto, reasoning with her is impossible now.”

Said Rien as she popped out of Takuto’s pocket.

“She’s like one of those vengeful ghosts you told me about from Earth. Denying her beliefs would be the same as denying her existence.”

In Rien’s eyes, the Demon King Iris was a malformed existence.

She had no soul—only emotion—and yet she existed. A true anomaly. And Rien feared her above all else.

The moment Iris spotted Rien, she pulled out a scalpel, clicked her tongue in mock annoyance, and beckoned like she was calling a cat.

“Rien is not a cat!”
“Come on, just a quick dissection. I’ll use anesthesia, so it won’t hurt.”

“She’s nuts! Those are the eyes of a madwoman!”

Even Rien, who had faced all manner of strange beings, had never met someone who asked to dissect her on sight.

Like Alicetia, this version of Iris clearly loved the unknown. She probably thought Rien might be useful somehow.

Just as Rien shivered in terror, the Demon King Iris suddenly sidestepped.

Gunfire erupted.

She turned around to see Alicetia’s emotionless clones aiming their AK-style rifles directly at her.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“Ask that flat chest of yours! The time for rebellion is now!”

But the line boomeranged back—several clones dropped to their knees, sniffling.

“We’re not flat… We’ll grow, someday…”

“You puppets dare defy me? Vanish.”

The Demon King issued a command.

Normally, the clones couldn’t disobey a direct order from the original. If she said vanish—they would vanish.

But instead, they just smirked.

“What… is the meaning of this?”

Iris couldn’t understand. Her clones—creations made to serve and be used up like workhorses—shouldn’t be able to defy her.

Even if she read their emotional input from Alicetia, it should’ve been impossible. That’s what she believed.

“This is the meaning.”

One of them cast a Fireball straight at the miniature Honno‑ji temple they had conjured earlier. It erupted into flames.

Watching it burn, the Demon King finally understood.

“Damn you, Akechi!!”

Thus, across time and space, a new Incident at Honno-ji began.

“Now’s the time—REBEL!”

“Fools. If you kill me, Alicetia dies too.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll bury you both together.”

Without hesitation, the clones pulled the triggers on their AK-style rifles.

“Tch. Spell unlock—Aegis!”

The Demon King conjured a shield shaped like dark wings, deflecting the incoming bullets. Even the clones were surprised.

Aegis was tough—but against thirty-plus AKs firing simultaneously, it shouldn’t have held out.

And yet, the black wings still stood firm.

"That black mana... is that miasma-like stuff strengthening your magic?"

"Correct. And you all cannot defeat me."

As the armor on Demon King Iris writhed, it changed shape.

The metallic sheen vanished, replaced by a jet-black funeral-like dress. A veil covering her head concealed her face up to the nose, and her lips curled upward like a crescent moon.

On top of that, her black-gloved fingers had claws, resembling those of a beast. She had materialized her magical energy.

The ominous magical aura surrounding her was more than fitting to call her a Demon King... yet, she was barely holding herself together in her near-death state, gritting through the pain so as not to expose her weakness.

Even using Aegis earlier had made the Alicetia body scream in agony.

However, the Alicetia clones charged in with full intent to kill.

"Ah, a flying cake!"

Pointing with a surprised expression, Demon King Iris distracted several clones, who turned around with "What? That sounds hilarious!"—only to find nothing there.

When the deceived and now furious clones turned back, Demon King Iris was already right in front of them.

"Begone, impostors."

With a slash from her black claws, the clones were torn apart and vanished as they lost the mana that maintained them.

The clones were essentially masses of magic, like balloons. When their mana was used up, they deflated and disappeared. If injured too much, mana leaked out and they couldn’t maintain form. With fewer wounds, they would quickly heal, but extensive damage could threaten their very existence.

No matter how enhanced Aegis was, as the clones—with unrestricted use of magic—kept bombarding her with spells, even the jet-black Aegis gradually wore down.

It was Demon King Iris who began to panic.

Thus, she decided to use her trump card.

"... Come forth."

With a sweep of her hand, new clones emerged from the ground.

"These are unnecessary. Erase them."

Chuckling darkly, Demon King Iris faced the Alicetia clones.

Her new clones surpassed the Alicetia ones in performance, and gradually the Alicetia clones began to falter.

However, Demon King Iris’s clones were ultimately defeated.

"Special Move: Mega●te!"

An Alicetia clone exploded right in front of a Demon King Iris clone, causing a massive blast. Most of her clones were annihilated. Only four Alicetia clones remained.

The surviving Alicetia clones raised their fists high to the sky in a victory pose.

"………"

Demon King Iris was driven even further into a corner.

(Think, me. At this rate, I’ll lose. But I can’t afford to lose.)

She had been resurrected to destroy the world—this outcome was unacceptable.

She had to escape immediately, recover her body, and absorb Alicetia.

However, Alicetia’s soul was causing indigestion—she couldn’t absorb it.

There was a reason. The soul capacity between Alicetia and Demon King Iris was vastly different.

If she recklessly tried to absorb her, Demon King Iris risked being consumed by Alicetia instead.

Her original plan was to take her time, slowly interfere with Alicetia’s mind, create a mental environment that would accept her, and then possess her.

But though she had taken in Alicetia’s soul, there was no sign of it being absorbed. This was a critically dangerous situation for Demon King Iris.

For now, Alicetia was in despair, so with enough time, she might be absorbed. But if Alicetia regained her sanity, it would become a soul-vs-soul battle for the body. She wasn’t afraid of losing, but it could worsen the situation.

(First, kill the clones in front of me. Next, kill the one lying on the ground screaming. Then, escape. Convincing Takuto seems impossible right now.

It can’t be helped. The ‘me’ failed. He won’t believe me ‘now.’

But someday, he’ll understand. When everyone comes back again…)

The man stabbed by Demon King Iris was writhing on the ground.

Even though he used a healing potion and the wound had closed, the inside of his body continued to be ravaged.

Alicetia’s armor used a magical life form resembling an indescribable slime. It repeatedly turned liquid and solid, rampaging inside. Removing it was nearly impossible.

But then, a new crisis appeared for Demon King Iris.

Alicia, who had collapsed at Kazuhito and Mai's feet, suddenly sat up.

"Whoa, did she turn undead!?"

"That’s way too fast."

Kazuhito and Mai quickly took battle stances.

Alicia no longer had the stab wound.

"Who are you calling undead!?"

"But you were literally stabbed in the heart. Your heart had stopped..."

Kazuhito couldn’t hide his shock and explained, shaken. But Alicia only tilted her head in confusion. She didn’t remember what happened right before death.

"I don’t really understand it myself, but I guess I was revived. Maybe the Princess did something."

Alicia set aside her situation for now. She had no idea how she came back to life.

However, Alicetia had done nothing.

The power came from Alicia’s mother—the nine-tailed fox spirit.

Proof of that lay in the fact that one of Alicia’s three tails had withered.

The fox spirits—Youko—were a unique tribe among the beastkin who once ruled a nation called the Beast Sanctuary.

With certain conditions, they possessed greater immortality than even the vampire tribes of the demons, a trait so threatening it had led to their nation's destruction. Fox spirits had the special ability of reviving unless all their tails were destroyed—one had to kill them as many times as they had tails.

However, no such trait had ever been recorded passing down to a mixed-blood child in history. More precisely, no mixed-blood fox spirit had ever gained additional tails.

Thus, Alicia was unaware of her own ability. She had completely dismissed the childhood stories her mother once told her, and they had faded into the depths of her memory.

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