Pick Me Up!-Chapter 307.2: Ragnarok (12) (2)

“What happened to Tell... it was my fault.”

The old man sat on a broken bench.

A voice filled with regret slipped from his lips.

“I was the former representative of the All-Gods. After observing the end of the universe, I left the responsibility to those children. They were pure beyond compare. They loved their own lives more than anyone.”

“......”

“My twisted desire... brought about this tragedy.”

Lucadis closed his eyes.

I let out a small laugh.

“So what? You gonna try and undo it all?”

“What has happened cannot be undone. That’s the law of the universe, isn’t it?”

His wrinkled eyes looked at me.

“But you intend to defy that current.”

The old man looked up at the sky.

Above, swarms of fragments writhed.

“The more you resist the flow, the stronger they will return. Like trying to climb an unscalable waterfall. Even we, the All-Gods, resisted with all our might—and were utterly defeated. They... can truly be called infinite.”

“......”

“There’s a common law across Möbius, across Earth where you came from, and the countless other universes. In the past, I was unbelievably foolish. I dared to go against that current.”

The old man lowered his gaze.

“When I created the System, I wanted to surpass it. I poured all my knowledge, everything that earned me the name ‘Sage-God,’ into it. And what was the result? As you can see—it ended in disgrace.”

A bitter smile spread across his face.

“As long as Möbius exists, they’ll come—those infinite things.”

“Infinite, huh.”

“No matter how strong your power...”

“If they’re infinite—”

I clenched my cloak and stared at the chaos covering the sky.

“If they really are infinite... then that makes it more fun.”

I wanted to test it.

My hands were itching to move, even now.

“Someone once called me the Chalice of Infinity. So what about them? The classic clash of spear against shield—the one that pierces all, versus the one that can’t be pierced. Aren’t you curious which wins?”

“But the years it will take—”

“There’s an end.”

I reached out my right hand.

Shrrrrrk.

Dragon scales unfolded, weaving into the shape of a sword.

“There’s a winner and a loser.”

“......”

“Destiny? Gods? Infinity? Don’t make me laugh. I don’t believe in that kind of crap. What I believe in...”

The sword in my hand.

And—

An unyielding will.

“If you’ve lost to them, then shut up and stay out of my way. You’re just a hindrance to the fight.”

“...You...”

“Who decided things can’t be reversed?”

“......”

“You telling me to give up? That it’s impossible, that I can’t win, so I should just quit?”

I don’t regret it.

I don’t regret standing here.

In all the time I’ve fought—and all the time I will continue to fight—

“If they’re coming, let them. I don’t avoid fights that walk up to me.”

GROOOHHHHH!

The fragments let out a screeching wail.

Their eyes locked onto me.

Take a good look.

Your enemy is right here.

Remember this clearly.

I will shatter your rules.

Laws etched across the whole universe? I don’t give a damn.

I do this because I want to.

“This battle... it may affect the existence of other universes.”

“Is that so?”

“Universes connected to Möbius might begin to shake. They’ll probably label you as ‘Evil.’”

“Well, good. I hate being cheered for.”

To save one from Townia, I would kill tens of thousands in another world.

Doesn’t matter.

Someone out there may come to hate me, revile me.

That, too—doesn’t matter.

“...Hahaha...”

Lucadis let out a laugh.

Then, his body began to scatter into light.

“O, one who has transcended.”

“......”

“Are you truly going to surpass it all?”

“I’m not surpassing anything.”

I continued,

“I’m going to win.”

This was my war with them.

One day, a result will come.

And that outcome—I was confident of it.

The one who wins...

Is me.

I will win.

Billions of fragments, tens of millions of cores—

Those freaks with glowing eyes, and the unknown forces lurking behind them—

I’ll wipe them all out. Not a single one left.

Until they stop interfering with everything.

KRRAANG!

The ground began to split apart.

Skyscrapers crumbled and vanished between the cracks of chaos.

The city was now completely gone.

「O, one who has transcended.」

Lucadis, now without a body, had turned into a crystal of light.

「Let me bear witness to your path of conquest.」

That light was soon drawn into my chest.

The crystal of the Sage-God.

<Before I go, there’s something I must tell you.>

“What is it?”

<About your... path of conquest...>

I listened to his voice.

Lucadis, stammering, managed to continue:

<Si—Siris-chan...>

Leaving just that name behind, Alpha ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) Zero vanished.

I let out a hollow laugh.

Losing his mind at the end, it seemed.

Siris?

It rang a bell, but I couldn’t remember.

Well, it didn’t matter.

There was no night or day in this battle.

No eating, no sleeping, no resting.

There was no need to wear the skin of a human anymore.

GROOOHHHH!

The fragments howled, loud enough to crush the sky.

Looks like they’ve found their prey.

Shhhhk.

I let the Dragon Scale Sword hang low.

I climbed up the side of a half-collapsed building.

KIAAAAAAAK!

Hundreds of thousands of fragments swarmed toward me.

Until I die—

No one gets out of here.

There won’t be another incident like what happened with Icar.

As long as I hold this “border,” the fragments won’t show themselves anywhere else in Möbius.

I flicked my cloak.

Waves of golden light rippled from its hem.

In this place...

I opened my left hand.

A golden radiance swept across the ruins of the city.

Time will pass hundreds of thousands of times faster than outside.

Eventually, the warped space-time will misalign this dimension.

No one in, no one out.

This place will be fully severed from Möbius—recognized as an entirely separate space.

A boundary that exists, yet doesn’t exist.

“Remember this.”

Shhhhng.

I pointed my Dragon Scale Sword at the enemy.

Gods or whatever—they were probably watching me from somewhere.

“My name.”

This was a declaration of war.

A gift from me to all of you.

Let’s begin.

BOOM!

I kicked off from the edge of the building.

The Dragon Scale Sword in my right hand extended far, like a lance.