Side Story Chapter 1

The river of blood is slowly drying up.

It happened in the highlands of the Western Front, where the battle against the remnants of the Demon Army had not yet ended.

* * *

The Morg’s Citadel is made up of countless towers.

It appears to be made up of countless skewers stuck into the ground.

Among them, the basement of the tower is hidden in the most remote place.

Each of Morg’s two major factions, the Light Hall and the Dark Hall have their own secret underground spaces.

One of them is the ‘Dark Side’, the deepest part of the Dark Hall.

The underground space stretches more than 600 floors below the ground.

And on the lowest level, the 666th floor is the headquarters of the Dark Hall.

It was a space known only to the Dark Hall’s delegates, inaccessible to Imperial monitoring, demonic gaze, and even the head of House Morg.

At the bottom of a spiraling staircase with no end in sight.

There, a lone woman sits on a throne, her eyes closed.

Tsutsutsutsutsutsuts……

She is a mage who checks the mana flowing through her veins.

With her red hair and white skin, she is clearly a master mage who has reached the peak of her powers.

Morg Mu Camus.

She trusts no one and relies on no one.

She has stood alone her entire life, battling the world tooth and nail, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, and living each moment as if she had never been hurt before.

“Huu…….”

Finally, Camus opened her eyes from her meditation.

By nature, when a mage checks their mana, they are very vulnerable.

As the saying goes, ‘A mage who checks their mana is like a crab or a shrimp who has just shed their shells’.

That’s why Camus always meditated only on the 666th floor of the Dark Side, where no one else was allowed to enter.

Absolute self-righteousness.

She trusted no one, so she didn’t do any favors.

Only she could guard and protect her own body.

…….

“Did you finish your meditation? It took longer than usual?”

When Camus opened her eyes, she saw an unbelievable sight.

A mask with a stork’s beak.

A woman in a grim, ominous mask had emerged from behind a stone pillar.

It was a wonder that any outsiders existed on the 666th floor, where only delegates of the Dark Hall were allowed to enter.

“…… More than usual?”

More than anything else, this statement made Camus frown.

This meant that the mysterious intruder in front of her had been watching her meditate a lot and for a long time.

In reality, Camus had been meditating longer than usual, so the words were not just a taunt.

kuleuleuleuleuleug!

Mana boils around her.

Camus summoned flames and iron skewers and hurled them at the intruder in front of her.

“I don’t know who you are, but die, and I’ll ask questions later.”

As a master of the art of death, Camus was more comfortable and accustomed to dealing with the dead than the living.

Especially when it came to interrogating prisoners or spies.

But.

kwakwakwakwang!

Her eyes widened at the unbelievable sight.

Flames and iron skewers, flew in from the other side, offsetting Camus’s attack.

And then something else happened that stunned her.

Sssssssssssss……

Tree branches as long and thin as a woman’s hair hang down in front of Camus.

Wraith Tree.

A tree of mana that takes root in the minds of mages and nourishes the karma of souls.

An incomprehensible being that feeds on abstraction and metaphysics and delivers its harvests to the material world.

It was also the signature of the eighth demon lord, Seere.

“No way! Seere, I definitely destroyed that guy along with Snake!”

Camus was aghast.

It was a natural reaction.

The demon lord she’d slain so long ago had returned to life.

But.

“Calm down, I’m not here to fight.”

The masked woman neatly parried Camus’ attack and took a step back.

“What are you, a demon lord? How do you possess the power of the 8th Corpse?”

“Like this.”

In response to Camus’ question, the woman shrugged one shoulder.

Then something crawled out of her shoulder.

“Se, Seere…… that?”

Camus stopped in her tracks, about to shout in surprise.

What was in front of her now is something that is a bit lacking to say that it is ‘Seere, the demon of necromancy’ who once brought this world to the brink of destruction.

“……Why is it so small?”

Camus opened her mouth halfway in disbelief as she looked at the tiny, insignificant Seere.

The mysterious woman tilted the mask on her face in a pointed manner.

“Because I’ve absorbed most of it.”

“……demonic power, is that possible?”

“It is possible.”

Then Camus made a face of disbelief.

“What kind of a crazy bitch are you, eating demonic power because you had nothing else to eat? You’re no ordinary crazy bitch, and you’ll do the world no good by keeping you alive.”

“Don’t lie down and spit on me.”

“……?”

Camus shakes her head in confusion.

Then, the woman removed the mask that covered her face.

Red hair, red eyes, and a vaguely familiar face.

“……!”

Camus’ eyes widened.

It was Camus standing in front of Camus.

“W-what is it?”

“What is it? It’s you.”

The unmasked Camus smirked and walked forward.

“I thought you were a lot older, but you’re not that old? It’s me too. You’re still pretty no matter how old you get.”

“……?”

Camus walked forward and stood in front of the confused Camus.

Camus then revealed her identity.

“I’m you from the parallel world.”

“What the fuck…….”

“Does that sound like shit?”

“…….”

Camus, in her 20s, raised her head.

Camus in front of her looks no different from Camus in her 20s, despite the fact that she is now well into middle age.

“Let’s just call it ‘you on this side’ and ‘me on that side,’ because I’m from a different world anyway.”

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”

Camus on this side said through gritted teeth.

“Demon Kills. We kill people who use demonic powers. We just have to kill them all.”

“……Oh. It’s a lot hotter over here than it is in the West.”

Soon, fire and skewers fly from Camus on this side.

Camus on that side blocked it, using Seere, who was tied to the roots of the Wraith Tree, as a shield.

[Kyaaaaaaah! Camus-nim! It hurts so muuuuuch! I’m not Decarabiaaaaaa!]

Looking at the screaming and wailing Seere, Camus on this side half opened her mouth in disbelief.

Then.

“Can you trust me?”

Camus from that side throws a token of reconciliation to Camus from this side.

…tug!

It was Baal’s head.

Camus on this side opened her eyes wide.

“This is Baal, the First Demon Lord, did you kill this guy?”

“Technically, only the shell, it looks like the main body is hiding somewhere else.”

Camus from that side continued, unconcerned.

“I’ve never been able to locate Baal’s true body, and I’ve slain many demons, but no one seems to know. Perhaps Baal itself has no great desire to conquer the human realm, the problem was that there were too many low-ranking demons who wanted to continue its legacy.”

“How do you know such things, bitch?”

“I told you, you’re me and I’m you, which is how I got in here.”

When Camus from that side finished speaking, she looked around.

The seals on the door that responded only to Camus’ body, the familiar array of pillars, and the magic circles on the floor.

Everything was as she knew it.

Finally, Camus from that side blinked, her eyes moist.

“This is where Master died. I still get teary-eyed when I think of Uncle Snake…….”

“What? Snake? Master? Why is that filthy beast a master?”

“What? Beast? Are you calling Uncle Snake a beast?”

“……?”

“……?”

At this, the two Camus exchanged sharp looks.

“I have only one uncle, Uncle Adolf. He, too, died in an all-out assault by demons. Snake, that despicable, filthy man is nothing but a dog who sold his soul to a demon.”

“If you insult my master, I will never forgive you.”

“Shut up. Snake is a shameless traitor who caused the deaths of Uncle Adolf and Mother”

“Not to me.”

“It’s different from what you just said. I am you and you are me.”

“Maybe not.”

The mood of reconciliation, which had been created only briefly by the shell of Baal, quickly became as precarious as a sheet of thin ice.

Right then.

“I sent you to hold her hand, but what if you start playing the game?”

A muffled voice came from behind the stone pillar.

Then, a shadowy figure stepped between the two Camus.

Vikir. A hound who had crossed many lives.

An old man covered in wounds was standing there.

A moment.

“……!”

Camus from this side froze.

The man’s eyes were deep and intense, enough to make even the most arrogant and stubborn person in the world freeze in her tracks.

Moreover, just by looking at them, for some reason, her body felt weak and her heart trembled, as emotions she had never experienced before in her life suddenly sprouted from the depths of her heart……

“Hey, what are you looking at!”

But Camus on this side was forced to snap out of her reverie by the shout of Camus on that side.

Camus on that side rushed over and grabbed Vikir’s arm.

She turned to Camus on this side and gave her a stern warning.

“Don’t set your eyes on someone else’s husband.”

“I am you, and you are me?”

“Oh, I guess not!”

Camus on this side snorted in disbelief.

Then, turning to the other version of herself and her husband (?) in front of her, she asked.

“So. Why are we here?”

Camus on that side replied.

“Let’s hold hands.”

“Hands? What, are you suggesting we do nail art?”

“I’m you and you’re me, so you know my personality. If you make one more sarcastic remark, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m you and you’re me, so you know my personality. Go ahead, kill me.”

“Ha, is this bitch is really…….”

Then Vikir shook his head, as if he’d seen this coming, and stepped between them again.

“Let’s join forces.”

“Join forces on what? Slaying demons?”

“There’s more. There’s something else, something more fundamental.”

“……What’s more important than slaying demons?”

“To restore humanity.”

“!”

Vikir spoke up, answering Camus’ question.

“Since the Age of Destruction, 99.99% of humanity has perished. On this side of the world, Tudor, Bianca, Sancho, Piggy, and countless others met a different fate. The same goes for those who were used as hosts for demons.”

“What can you do about it? The dead are dead. They can’t come back now…….”

Camus on this side shook her head, her voice bitter.

Perhaps she was thinking of Respane or Adolf, who had died in the war against the demons.

But.

“There is a way to resurrect them all.”

At Vikir’s words, Camus on this side raised her head.

And in front of him stood Camus from that side.

Thump-thump.

Camus stamps her foot on the floor with a smile on her face.

And on the floor, a large, yet incomplete magic circle can be seen drawn.

Suddenly, Camus on this side’s eyes widen.

She looks more agitated than she has ever looked before.

And then.

The voices of the two Camus come together as one.

“Liquor of complete revival!”