Running Hound (1)

[...I remembered why I brought you back.]

Piggy's voice was trembling slightly.

At the same time, a memory of the past flashed through Vikir's mind.

It was the same events that had unfolded before and after the regression.

'When did we bully you?'

'It's just a friendly gesture, I'm going to see you for a long time.'

'Hey, why are you crying and XX, are you trying to make us look bad?'

'Hey. Don't cry. Have a drink.'

'Ew! That's so dirty! It's all over my tights!'

'Wahahahaha! You puked, you crazy guy, you've been so colorful since OT!'

'From now on, your nickname will be Puke! Puking Piggy!'

'I'll call you Puke until I graduate!'

In his previous life, Piggy couldn't handle the bullying and dropped out, becoming a low-level government employee and struggling to make a living.

His parents had gone into debt to send him to the Academy.

Then, when the Age of Destruction began and the Great War against the demons began, Piggy volunteered to go to the front lines, where he made many contributions to the Allied Forces of Humanity by implementing numerous supply strategies, intelligence analysis, and collection measures.

He was a respectable comrade in arms.

Although he left disappointed in the world and in himself, but he was strong enough to overcome his own trauma and join the Allied forces after seeing the Hell Tree rise in the Academy, the Imperial Capital burn, and his classmates and civilians die.

But just a few months into the war, Piggy is assassinated.

Vikir still remembers the devastated look on his parents' faces when they saw their son's cold, dead body.

So Vikir turned back and twisted the causal chain.

'You try to make a nuisance of yourself in the Academy one more time, and I will not only kill you but your father and mother as well.'

The Night Hound terrorized the bullies who had been harassing his friend and deterred them from repeating their misdeeds.

That small act of kindness rolled like a snowball and eventually made a huge difference.

The result is the ultimate darkness, driving a sword into the heart of the mightiest demon!

[I guess I, too, on the other side of the world line, thought you were my only friend.]

Piggy's words reminded Vikir of Piggy's last moments before he regressed.

Vikir had collected Piggy's body then, too.

At the time of the assassination, Piggy hadn't died.

When he was first found bleeding to death, many people turned away.

In their defense, it was war and the situation was urgent.

It was more urgent to heal one wound on a great hero than to spend the time and effort to save a dying Piggy.

More people would be saved that way.

The world is efficient.

The world runs on cogs of cause and effect, and each of those cogs, large and small, has a place, a role, and a value.

The small, insignificant cogs are left out in the cold while everyone else looks the other way.

In distrust of the world, in loneliness, in bitter cynicism and resentment.

Just then.

A hand closed Piggy's eyes.

Wrinkled and scarred, covered in sticky blood, and completely covered in burns and sword marks.

...but a big and warm hand.

There was a boy there, a boy he'd met at the Academy, many, many years ago.

Piggy stared at Vikir with narrowed eyes.

It was a face he recognized. The servant of the boy who had shared the same room in the Academy dormitory.

The hand that had wordlessly handed him medicine when he was beaten and crying.

When no one else was around when he was traveling, he would quietly sit with him.

When eating alone, he would sit across from him and stare off into space.

When Piggy failed a test, when Piggy missed his mom so much, and when Piggyg thought about ending his life, he would appear from time to time to comfort Piggy.

And now, many years later, in his final moments, whether by coincidence or necessity, the boy's hand is still covering Piggy's eyes.

The boy was the only one who was nice to him throughout his entire school career.

Though it was only a small, fleeting act of kindness, it remained in Piggy's heart as big and warm as the sun.

Suddenly, Piggy remembered the voice he had heard during his midterm exams at the Academy.

Now that he thought about it, it was definitely the voice of a servant boy.

'It's okay now.'

The servant boy had said as he closed Piggy's eyes.

It had a far greater effect than any other magic in the world, making the pain in his body and mind vanish in an instant.

The pain of his birth, the guilt of his parents, the obligations of being a child, the burden of his studies, the loneliness of not making friends, the world that had finally turned its back on him, the pain of his body, and one word that relieves it all.

'...Please go to a place where you are comfortable.'

It was the 'consolation of a friend.'.

And as Piggy heard Vikir's voice from beyond the time-shift in a vision, he heard a vision that Vikir had often heard, too.

'... He is a good man.'

He remembers it clearly now.

It was Piggy's last words to him, not from beyond the time axis, but from his own memories.

It was the same voice he'd heard every time he'd poured Piggy's blood into demons like Amdusias, Cimeries, Andrealphus, and Flauros since his regression.

[Many people say that humans are black-haired animals.]

"...."

[The humans I have experienced are animals that remember the kindness they received.]

The human Piggy looked at Vikir and smiled broadly.

"You're a good man, Vikir."

It was a smile that could light up the world.

Even Piggy, with his distrust of humanity, his cynicism, and bitterness, who had left the gates of destruction wide open without closing them, could not be as cold to Vikir as he was to this one man.

It was impossible to turn away from him.

Like the intangible link between Seere and Camus in the past, Piggy's residual thoughts became a strong, unyielding bond that connected him to Vikir on the other side of the world line.

The tenuous hope that the parallel world might have a different ending.

As a result, Vikir regressed. No, the parallel time axis was skipped.

By Piggy's arrangement, which led Andras to choose and summon Vikir.

It was the result of a collaboration between Piggy from this world line, Piggy from that world line, and Andras of this type.

A small, seemingly insignificant act of kindness to a stranger is the miracle that saves the world.

...And of course, there were those who could not understand this improbable and unreasonable coincidence.

[Shout nonsense! How dare you fool anyone with such a ridiculous development!]

Andras. Jack Merridew.

He was awakened by hanging himself with an umbilical cord while he was still in his mother's womb, and he made a strenuous effort from an early age to get rid of Piggy from his natural birth.

Sending snakes to the cradle, deliberately forcing them into dangerous places, kicking them out of the family, etc.....

[I didn't know that that lowly bitch would run away from the palace, but I should have just killed her right away. Ugghh!]

However, Piggy shook his head.

[Even if it weren't for you, I would have died of my own accord, with all kinds of distrust of humanity and hatred of the world.]

[...!]

[If someone had said to me, 'You're a good guy,' it wouldn't have happened].

Piggy seemed to be imagining himself on another worldline.

However.

[On this side of the world, I've come to know and understand a lot about humans. My family, my friends, and the people around me are all valuable and important].

Tudor, Sancho, Bianca, Sinclair, and Dolores, his classmates from Colosseo Academy.

And the countless companions who joined forces with him in the Hell Tree, the comrades-in-arms of Tochka who shared his burning thirst.

With their faces in his heart, Piggy stepped inside the coffin.

And, of course, Piggy chose.

[I will close the gate.]

Andras's two selves are divided into 'the one who opens the gate' and 'the one who closes the gate'.

The gate that Andras(J) opened cannot be closed by Andras(J). It must be closed by Andras(P).

Conversely, Andras(P) cannot open a gate that Andras(P) has closed. It must be opened by Andras(J).

The gate opened by Jack can only be closed by Piggy.

The gate that Piggy closed can only be opened by Jack.

In the end, it was clear that without either of them, something irreversible would happen.

Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsuts...

The gate Andras had opened was being closed by Piggy.

[Nooooooooooooooo!]

Andras screamed, but it was too late.

deng-geong- deng-geong- deng-geong- jjeog! peoeog!

The gate slammed shut, severing the bodies of several giant demons that had been slowly pulling themselves out of the portal above.

The nebula-eating serpent, the leader of the insects, the king of the vampires, the scorpion that spewed dark venom, the woman who was beautiful on the outside but no one could tell what was inside, the desert-eating monkfish, the lord of all things rotten, the centipede that scales mountains, the one who walks beneath the sea, the giant that tears up the earth, the fire-drinking lion, the bird with wings that covers the sky, the executioner of the graveyard, the corpse that lies rotting in the swamp, the tentacles that burrow deep, and so on....

…kung! …kwakwang! …kuleuleung!

Dismembered body parts of demons fall to the ground, causing an earthquake.

[Ugh... Uuuuuuggh...!]

Andras shuddered with rage.

Even now, the 62 portals are slowly closing.

[You can't do that! If you want to close them, I'll keep them open!]

Andras clenched his remaining magic power.

Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsuts...

If Piggy closes and Andras opens, the result is the same anyway.

From now on, it's just a matter of who has more magic and who can interfere with the door the fastest.

However.

"Are you sure you're not forgetting me?"

Andras felt his heart split in two, then four.

Vikir was standing in front, driving his sword into Andras' heart.

…ppuug!

Vikir continued to drive the sword into Andras's body.

Kazanbai has been destroyed and Asmodeus is in the hands of Kirko in the distance.

Only one of the twin swords that symbolized Andras remains, and even that is now destroyed.

Furthermore, having failed to steal Piggy's soul and body, Andras is left with only half of himself.

In such a situation, there was no way that Vikir, who had developed as many as nine teeth, would be pushed aside.

peopeopeopeopeopeopeopeopeog!

Andras's body was crumbling in real-time.

The hound knew victory was within reach.

He pushed harder and harder to break his prey's neck.

...at that moment.

"!?"

Vikir's eyes widened to tears.

Black blood splashed from Andras's body.

It flows into Vikir's body through his wounds.

Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsuts...

Just as Piggy's blood had shocked the demon, Andras' blood was causing Vikir to experience a strange phenomenon unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

[Didn't I tell you? I inherited the lineage of the founding legend, the First Emperor.]

It is not the blood of a demon, but the blood of a human being.

A relic of an ancient hero who was said to have possessed the most unique ability in the history of mankind, a unique ability that allowed him to rise to the pinnacle of all mankind.

It was his power as a member of the Imperial Family, the Golding Family of the Prophet Clan.

[Now, this is a 'Spoiler'. I'm about to show you your future.]

Andras laughed as he gripped Vikir's arms tightly.

[...After a lifetime of entangling yourself with demons, Aren't you curious how your life will end?]