Goetia takes it out with the hand not gripping Sirzechs's hair.
"The Evil Pieces."
A chess-inspired item. Created by Ajuka Beelzebub, it's a system for high-class devils, whose numbers dwindled in the great war, to form elite peerages. Unlike the legions of devils in their prime, it grants immense power to a select few subordinates. Used on non-devils, it reincarnates them as devils. Even the dead can be turned.
"No need to explain, but this is your creation. When we came to this world, we studied you and learned of this item—its functions, history, rules, and materials. Honestly, we were baffled. What kind of joke is this?"
Goetia doesn't hide his scorn or irritation.
"Let's list the fatal flaws of the Evil Pieces. The obvious issue: it mimics chess—or rather, it doesn't."
The Evil Pieces resemble chess but aren't chess.
"The King's power determines the piece's value? Consuming multiple pieces makes stronger peerage members? There are Mutation Pieces? What's the point of mimicking chess? Where's the chess in this? Just the pieces' shapes and names? If you didn't intend to emulate chess, don't force it. Create an original system."
Worse, the Evil Pieces system inherently wastes piece value. Using a Knight or Bishop piece for someone with a value of 1 or 3 requires the same piece. Reincarnating someone with a value of 8 could use eight Pawns, one Queen, or two Rooks, but waste occurs in some cases.
Extreme example: forty-five Pawn pieces would suit a King better than a chess set, creating superior peerages.
"Why do all of you—from Satans to bloodline nobles—have the same number of pieces? Differentiating between high-class, top-class, and Satans makes sense. Elite few? That fits some nobles. But Satans should command armies, battalions of personal soldiers."
"Elite few" sounds nice, but it means lacking the know-how to lead an army. Wars are won by numbers. No matter how Sirzechs is ten times stronger than the former Lucifer, or how wise Ajuka or Falbium are, individuals are limited. Even pulling in top Rating Game players wouldn't change the numbers.
If another mythology attacked seriously, could devils really wage war?
"Why make not just other species but pureblood and mixed-blood devils into peerage members?"
"It's like a pathogen. Especially using it on partially infected patients to fully infect them…! They should be eradicated completely!"
"Berserker has a point, but what's the sense in using Evil Pieces on devils? You created reincarnated devils because purebloods dwindled, but the purpose is completely broken."
Mixed-blood devils are understandable—to restore diluted blood. But purebloods? Just build relationships normally. Soldiers, wives, concubines—if the bond allows, make them peerage members. Why enslave your own kind? If it's for Rating Games, you're weighing entertainment against your species' survival.
"No point debating this, Goetia."
Samael, strangled by Trihexa, speaks.
"Their shoddy brains lack the capacity for such thoughts. Just a bunch of brainless idiots. Especially you, Sirzechs Gremory. Your Knight, Okita Souji. Why make a key figure from an organization excluding foreigners in a country debating isolationism your peerage member?!"
Samael's words turn coarse—perhaps his true self.
"Are you stupid? Of course it'd cause trouble! Even a Joi patriot would be a stretch, but at least betray the Shinsengumi as a human first! Don't secretly reincarnate them as devils and drag them into history's shadows! That's not why I arranged your connection! I meant for you to kill the Shinsengumi's Okita Souji! Even a billion steps conceded, you ignored the problems from making Okita a peerage member! Don't mess up other countries for fun! Clean up your mess! I burned through thirty-two terminals to cover that incident! Even in another's body, death's pain is real! Why did I have to die thirty-two times in a year?!"
Samael vents pent-up frustration, not from confidence in his plan's success, but from finally confronting the target of his anger.
"Why didn't you evolve the Evil Pieces system?"
If they didn't notice chess as a flaw, this question is laughably absurd.
"Why use the same system for centuries? Why not try different methods? The Evil Pieces haven't changed since creation. You might say a century is short for a devil's lifespan, but a century is a century! Learn from humans. Their mobile devices' evolution, especially this past decade, is remarkable. Legally and functionally, there was room for change. Why didn't you?"
The Evil Pieces emerged around the same time as chess in the human world. Modern chess was established by the late 15th century, so the Evil Pieces likely were too.
Over five hundred years, devils used the Evil Pieces but never reached their prime. A devil's ten-thousand-year lifespan might make it seem short, but they squandered five hundred years of growth.
"You didn't fail to change it. You didn't see the need. You didn't even try to notice the problems."
There are countless issues. For instance, the raw material—a mineral mined only in specific places. Goetia's plan failed, but if Agreas were taken, it'd be over. Or, like the Lion King, an entire island could be erased, making recovery impossible.
Also, reincarnated devils die in Rating Games. Some surpass and kill their masters. All counterproductive.
A third party like Goetia might see this clearly. But Sirzechs and the new Four Satans had peerages and subjects. Unlike Goetia, new to this world, they had centuries. Why did they cling to stolen thrones for so long?
"You're leeching off other mythologies, preying on humans. You can't even fully utilize the Evil Pieces that cause such problems. If asked, I could list countless flaws. What have you been doing these centuries? Playing on your thrones?"
The Evil Pieces are just one example. Not just devils—the biblical factions' beings lament dwindling numbers, fear extinction, despair God's death, yet slack on living.
"You lived in this Underworld. But saying you wanted to live lacks conviction. You weren't desperate, serious, or earnest. You didn't face the crisis of extinction. Your response to despair was too late. Until today—"
You weren't really trying to live, were you?
"As living beings, you neglected the basics. Did you even have something you wanted to do? Not just drifting with the times—if you were serious about being Satans, answer me. If our view is wrong and you were earnestly living, say it. What did you want to do?"
"Ha, haha."
A dry laugh echoes.
"Hahahahahahaha!"
It's not the strongest Satan, the genius of spells, the magical girl, the King of Men, the hero of charity, the steel angel, or the criminal professor. Not God's malice or the beast of Revelation.
It's King of Magecraft Solomon.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha—guh!"
"What's with the sudden idiot laugh, idiot king?! Just die quietly!"
"Not even allowed to laugh?! Let me ask straight: why do you hate me, Dad?!"
"What do you think I've seen these three thousand years? Born from Truth, what do you think I've been forced to witness?"
It was a hellish three thousand years. A nightmare itself.
"Nothing but ugliness. Nothing but pain. The first thing I felt was your insane, rage-fueled obsession! Your abnormal anger over the Queen of Sheba's death! No one would be happy born like that! No one would enjoy living like that! If you believed in humans, couldn't you have made Truth a bit prettier?!"
A beast's desperate plea. Couldn't you have done better? Couldn't you have reduced tragedy directly? You believed—no, knew—humanity could defeat me.
"…Wait, Trihexa."
"What, Goetia? I'm done with the ring's whereabouts. Let's kill him and search ourselves."
Ignoring Trihexa's reckless yet efficient remark, Goetia suppresses all emotion and asks, praying it's a mistake.
"What did you say? You were linked to Truth for three thousand years, yet you only saw sad things?"
"No, I'm technically the waste mud—huh?"
They realize it.
As Evils of Humanity defeated by humans, they notice the unnatural truth.
"You showed your weakness, both of you."
Solomon smirks, materializing a brass vessel.
Seeing it, Trihexa and Goetia move to retreat. Goetia deduces its nature and power from mythology; Trihexa has faced it before.
Solomon's trump card. An absolute sealing Noble Phantasm. The vessel that sealed the 72 Pillars and sank to the lake's bottom. The key to building Truth.
"Secret of Babylon: Forbidden to the Depths!"
But the vessel's target isn't Trihexa or Goetia, nor the Satans or Servants.
Solomon aims for Samael, discarded by Trihexa. Too weak to resist, Samael can't shift to another terminal without dying. God's malice is cornered.
"Ah, I see. That was your plan all along, Solomon. Fine. Even if my dream of paradise is crushed, in a different form, you'll carry it on…"
Samael is sealed in the vessel with Millicas's body.
"Ideally, I wanted Samael's true body. But Hades's old man is tricky. I didn't know how Samael possessed a devil's body—what laws or rules bound it. So I chose this method. Results aside, maybe I should compromise on the process."
"No, that's not allowed!"
Trihexa lunges, but—
"Too late, Trihexa."
A moment faster, Solomon opens a magic circle and tosses the vessel in. Trihexa tackles him, pinning him down.
"Honestly, I've been waiting for that idiot snake to show up. But you guys got in the way. You found us. I needed a moment where neither I nor Samael would die, and the vessel's activation wouldn't be interrupted."
Solomon beams with a genuine smile, devoid of anger, filled with accomplishment and狂喜. Seeing it, Trihexa cries in rage, sorrow, and despair, unable to form words, only sobbing.
"First, I believed in you, Goetia. If it was you, if it was you all, the Human Order Correction Formula, I believed you'd fulfill what humanity lacks and lead them to the next stage. And you did—you created an Evil of Humanity and heroes to defeat it."
Issei Hyoudou and Asia Argento.
Anyone would do. Truly, anyone. A Satan born from humans to kill gods. A hero, not straying from humanity, to slay Satans. Sacrifices were needed to reach them.
"Next, I believed in my beloved queen. The woman I loved, who loved me, yet betrayed me, whom I killed. I knew. Something she left behind disrupted this snake's plan."
"You…!"
"Yes, but why? Why did she betray me?! Why did she mess up my plan so much?!"
Solomon could never grasp that day's truth. Not that he forgot—it was never clear. Despite God's wisdom and perspective, he didn't understand.
Why did the Queen of Sheba reject his ideal? Why tamper with the near-complete Truth? For the first time, consumed by rage, he killed a human.
"Who incited her to betray me?!"
Only Samael knew of her betrayal. Naturally—the God of the Bible never noticed her intent, and Solomon's accomplices didn't see his true heart.
"Then, I believed in Rider, Astolfo. He'd act as he pleased, ignoring humans or devils. Odds were he'd side with the biblical faction. That became reality, and he sent the Satans here at the perfect time."
This was why Solomon summoned Astolfo, the uncontrollable, reason-evaporated knight. He was certain Astolfo would betray him, making him a perfect piece to set the board.
"And I believed in a visitor from a slightly different parallel world—someone who inherited Archer's coffin!"
"Wh—"
Cutting off Trihexa's words, Solomon declares without hiding his irrepressible urge.
"Yes, your reaction confirms they're here! I had no proof, no certainty, no traces, no omens! I don't know their face or name, but they must be exceptional. That doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. Archer said it, and because he did, I firmly believed someone would carry on his will! Humanity isn't so broken as to waste a man like him's death!"
Solomon doesn't know of Savior's existence. Archer never spoke of him, nor of his great deeds after death. But Solomon genuinely believed someone inherited Archer's conviction. No logic, no evidence—just an obsessive certainty they existed.
In reality, Savior's presence made this situation possible.
"Above all, I believed in this world's humanity. Their—no, our—accumulated achievements would lead me, lead humanity, to the future! I believed they'd promise a radiant world!"
They birthed ugly pain, spewed filthy sorrow. But they also built beautiful things, piled up noble deeds. Humanity's history is defiled by one man.
"Why, Dad?! Why?!"
"You call me that? You understand my plan, my dear child, my star's bastard, our three-thousand-year achievement? Then join me in my ideal. Let's fire the celebratory cannons!"
Solomon places a hand on his chest, his expression ecstatic. No sorrow, resignation, despair, hatred, or rage—just pure, warped joy.
"Finally, humanity can move beyond the Age of Gods, to a Human Order somewhere else! Thank you, truly thank you! I was right to believe in you! I was right all along!"
Laughing, sneering, chuckling, laughing.
"My ideal is fulfilled. It was too long a journey. Too long a three thousand years. At last, I can atone. At last, I can surpass the Lord. Congratulations, humanity! By your own power, I can become the God you desired!"
Solomon crushes his heart with magic.
Final Noble Phantasm: To the Future with Truth, activated.
Note:
Hint 1: In a parallel world, Solomon secured over a millennium's worth of energy somewhere.
Hint 2: 3000 ÷ 2 > 1000.
Hint 3: Trihexa knew only half of human history's darkness (physically, not consciously).
Hint 4: Trihexa's components include not just Truth but also System's waste.
Hint 5: Trihexa's strength is nearly equal to Goetia's.
Hint 6: Truth doesn't collect negative emotions.
Hint 7: In this work, the Beast class can be inherited or changed.
Hint 8: The Queen of Sheba's death inverted Solomon's ideal of "becoming a god to protect humanity."
Hint 9: The distinction between ####, ####, and ???? is meaningless.
Hint 10: Solomon's corpse was fed into the System.
Hint 11: The System contains a spell for the One God's descent.
Hint 12: Three thousand years ago, Solomon was wished to become a god.
Hint 13: Solomon wanted to prove humanity's potential.
Hint 14: The beast of Truth is a catastrophe misidentified by humans, causing the greatest calamity in human history.
Next time: Beast X Manifestation
***
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