+++ Calamity of Cowardice +++

"To become the one and only Death God."

As those words exited her lips, Cowardice faltered, and more tears streaked down her cheeks.

Even just a little movement, it pain seared everywhere. It wasn't just any pain, it was so, so excruciating, that she wondered why she deserved this.

All her life, all she did was run away from pain. Even when she inflicted pain on others, she always ran away from it. Now, not only had she failed her master, but she also couldn't run away from pain.

What a cruel mockery.

"I…will this end?" She asked, her voice still painful. "Please, tell me…"

"I see."

The same voice of the man who captured her spoke. She couldn't see him, and her heart wondered if he was smiling cruelly at her, but the way he spoke, was empty.

So he wasn't a sadist.

Maybe, maybe there's a—

"It'll end soon then," the man said. "I'll make sure it'll be quick."

"Quick? W-wait, what do you mean? We had an agreement, you told me I wasn't going to be harmed!"

She heard a click. An ominous click.

"Look. I don't know why so many of you demons turn into…whatever you are. All I know is that there are a lot of miserable people in this world, who, for some reason, become corrupted."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You can't turn your back on me! I gave you what you wanted!"

"And the thing is, all of you are disasters incarnate. Maybe, at some point, you were all pitiful souls that should have been saved from this fate. But that's gone now. From my perspective, you're not you anymore. But still, there is something inside there trapped and malformed."

His words, didn't make sense to her, and she tried to struggle and break free, but none of it worked. It only caused more pain. Even when she tried to heal herself, it was painful, and it did nothing. Her remaining AP was being drained as fast as it was being recovered.

Almost as if they calculated the appropriate permanent damage to make sure she was always one foot into death's door.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

"We all shout those same words when it's finally our turn. Sure, some will say that they aren't afraid of death, but, that's of course a lie. But at the same time, sometimes, it is the only way. You won't be turned back to who you were, and we can't keep you alive when you're like that."

"I'll do everything, everything—"

"And even if we can turn all of you back into who you were back then, I think that's an even more cruel fate, because then, you'll bear the sins you committed in that state. I wouldn't place even my worst enemy into something like that."

"Please, please—"

"In other words, I'm merely upholding the terms I gave you. You won't be harmed anymore, because you, the remnants of whatever is trapped inside there, will be freed from all of this."

She heard a loud bang.

"I hope you'll find peace."

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Hans watched as Cowardice fell silent.

He had extracted everything he needed to know. To be honest, even if she was an awful creature, Hans found the catharsis of inflicting torture on them mortifying. He remembered Alizée back in the deepest parts of his memories.

This woman seemed awfully similar to Alizée. The only difference was, there was no way to turn back the clock to change things.

Except for him to end it here.

There was silence behind him. He was sure they'd question him about why he did this, but Hans had a simple answer to that. It was pointless not to give her mercy. Even if she told them more, once they set out, everything would change anyway, and anything else that she would say outside of the big picture would be more of a detriment than useful.

That, and they were spending too many resources just keeping her here. When he heard what Hubris was planning, that was more than enough. They needed to get there, now, and they needed everything to defeat him.

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I'll end this damned nonsense.

He curled his fist.

I hope you found peace.

Because he wouldn't, not anytime soon. He doubted he ever would. He somewhat even felt envious of this creature, because unlike Hans, she found peace on the other side. All Hans found whenever it was his turn to be killed, was more battles.

"...So that's that then?" Adelyn asked, and Hans turned to her. "You just killed her."

"Is there anyone who disagrees with what I did?" Hans asked.

No answers. Being face-to-face with a calamity, watching her writhe and struggle, it was strangely human, in the worst way possible. Well, they were humans, Hans reasoned. They were simply pushed to the most extreme because of some dark magic shtick.

In any case, his allies seeing it up close must have convinced them that Hans did the right thing, and well, no one protested.

They soon got out, broke the news, and began analyzing everything they learned. There would be a lot of work planning and preparing for the expedition eastwards. Fortunately, they learned about something too…

+++

Astelia City

August 6, 1539 CE

"So it seems like the entire crisis is manufactured so people flee to the Imperial Capital?" Hans asked.

"Indeed," Elisa said.

They were now having another leadership meeting as they finished gathering the remaining information they needed for the expedition. Recently, they also captured another lesser demon wandering near the frontlines.

They questioned him intensively, again, in Fort Knox, and they got a lot more to confirm what the Calamity of Cowardice revealed.

"The more people he eats when the day comes," Elisa frowned. "The more likely for him to achieve immortality. That's worrying, considering when I left, so many people had already fled to the Imperial Capital."

"You told me that everyone, even in the Imperial Army, is thinking that it's where humanity will make its last stand?"

"Indeed. The government had been essentially, unknowingly, following the pope's decrees, which I had to forcefully sign, to move people, weapons, and supplies to the capital," Elisa grimaced. "See, this is why I told you all that I suspected this from the start. We should have—"

"We have time," Hans said, and General Kohler agreed.

"We've been in contact with the Eleos Imperial Army command," General Kohler said. "It seems that they demand we begin evacuations from the west, and send people to Armonia."

"But as I've said, that's why we have to act—" the Empress was cut off.

"But notice, if Hubris has what he needs, why would he demand to move more people to Armonia and the Imperial Capital?" General Kohler asked, before he nodded to himself. "Indeed, it's because he needs more livestock for his plan."

"Must be why the demon's pattern of attacks is the way they are," Hans said, as things finally started to make sense. "It feels like while they attack major population centers, they never fully attack them all. Instead, it creates fear and panic everywhere else, and people move."

"They're still doing that in the east," General Kohler said. "That means, they still need more warm bodies, going straight to their trap."

"This is just way too horrifying," Adelyn looked down at the long table they were using. "Why? Just why? Why would the 'pope' do any of this?"

"It's hard to tell," Elisa bit her lower lip. "Back then, he was just a normal guy. Then, ever since he returned from the Dungeon of Harmony, he changed. Since then, the first demons truly began appearing."

"Dungeon of Harmony?" Hans raised an eyebrow.

"It's the most massive dungeon on the continent," Elisa said. "It lies beneath the Imperial Capital, and was said to have been conquered more than a thousand years ago by the founders of the old Virtus Empire. In fact, the Holy Church and the Holy Empire were proclaimed in the Dungeon of Harmony. My people then proclaimed ourselves the savior of the world, and our ancestors conquered everything, and that journey ended with the fall of the Vanus Republic."

"A dungeon huh…?"

Wait…

Now that he noticed something—

"Hans."

He froze, and so did everything. He once again felt a black hand grabbing him from behind, as a woman's voice whispered to him.

"You've been so stalwart you never reached the precipice of true virtue or corruption until now. Indeed, you're the most immune to his influence, no matter how far you are pushed down, you'll never wish to be corrupted or turned into a saint."

She laughed.

"So prove to me that you were the right pick for this task, and kill that man who attempts to defy my world's taboo."

Then, that eerie feeling was gone. Hans didn't remember anything again, except for the urge to go there and end all of this, once and for all.

There had to be a reason, after all, that they were summoned here.

Maybe this was it.

Someone had to prevent a calamity so massive, that whatever greater being brought them here to stop it. The only way to do that was to get someone who could endlessly repeat a timeline until such a threat was stopped.

If that creature gains immortality by doing all this…

The faces of those who suffered began to flash endlessly in Hans' eyes. Those civilians. Soldiers. Friends. Even Adelyn, and Alizée, this was all the fault of that creature—Hubris.

Hans curled his fist.

"I see…" Hans nodded to himself. "So there's a chance that all this started there?"

"Perhaps," the Empress nodded. "I don't fully know either, to be honest."

"I think it's clear already."

Everything, everything must be the design of that thing.

"So, it's settled then," General Kohler asked. "We're going to be preparing for the Spearhead Plan?"

"Even if there's still some time left, I'm afraid that waiting any longer is not an option," Adelyn declared.

"Then we'll ride out soon. With the entire Ygeian Expeditionary Force."

Hans stood up.

"We'll liberate this entire world from the grasp of the Calamity of Hubris—the 'pope' himself."

[END OF ARC IX: PURE JUSTICE]

[END OF VOLUME II]

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