Let's start our meeting concerning the Demon Lord.
Please wait, Lady Olivia.
It appears to me there are people unworthy attending this meeting here.
Lady Verda and Lady Lydia have taken a liking to them,
so we have to accept their participation.
Mere guests that don't even serve Sir Varvatos?
Council of Seven,
they as well as Lydia are indeed guests.
I'm sure some of you find it odd for them to attend this.
However, their contributions must not be ignored.
I shall start by saying this to you.
I have changed my views on this Demon Lord.
With his declaration of war upon us, we must now defeat him.
Meaning our next battle will be to defeat the Demon Lord?
We will face him with the full might of our armies,
and settle everything within that same day.
By full might, do you mean you intend to deploy
all Top Four Heavenly Kings on the same battlefield?
I intend to take the battlefield myself, as well.
How lovely!
This is truly wonderful!
How long has it been since you and I fought side by side?
There's no need for you to fight at all!
Please wait!
If you do that, then the defenses of each region will!
Our enemy's forces will attack us all at once.
Your concern is a valid one.
Which is why we will settle it within one day.
However, the Demon Lord has declared that he's immortal.
How do you intend to overcome that, Your Majesty?
That's a secret.
The battle will commence three days from now.
You have but one order.
Destroy the castle
controlled by the enemy.
The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody
If there's anything you need,
please feel free to summon me.
Thank you very much, Miss Latima.
What's Lady Lydia...?
She went to give instructions to her men,
since we operate under a different command structure from Lord Varvatos's army.
Is that so?
Should I tell her you asked for her?
No, don't mind me.
History should have changed for certain now.
Those who were supposed to have died still live,
and Lydia hasn't been cursed, either.
That self-proclaimed god told us to correct history.
So if we return with things like this...
Exactly what you're thinking will happen.
Do you need me for something, Demon Lord?
The history they've laid out isn't so easily overturned.
At this point, a powerful corrective force would take action,
and Lydia would ultimately meet the same fate.
Did you come here from a different era, then?
Cut the foolish act in front of me.
I know you're currently Ard Meteor,
but there's no need to keep wearing that mask around me.
I am you,
and you are me.
Would you continue to wear your mask when standing before a mirror?
What do you mean by that?
Good grief... Can you not understand unless I show you this?
What?!
There's no reason to be surprised.
You were sent back to this era.
So it's not that strange that I would be, too.
We are indeed the same person.
The worlds we were born into may be different,
which is why we've had different experiences up until now,
but we both lived as Varvatos,
we were both reborn as Ard Meteor,
and then I gained many things only to quickly lose them.
You haven't yet lost anything, have you?
For me, it was no good.
Nothing ever worked out.
Which is why I even cast aside the name of Ard Meteor.
Now I'm just known as The Complete Failure, Disaster Rogue.
You can call me that, too.
How did you manage to come to this era?
The same way you did.
God?
The moment I agreed to his proposal
I found myself in this era.
Ironic, isn't it?
In order to achieve my goal
I have to go by the name I despised to death back then.
Your goal? What on earth are you plotting?
I'll save Lydia.
I want to atone for my own sin.
That's all.
It's the same for you, isn't it?
Join me.
There's no need for us to fight.
I'd like to ask two questions.
Did you discuss this with the current me from this era?
I hate myself more than anything else.
Especially who I used to be in this era
since my foolishness cost me Lydia.
No, forced me to kill her myself.
My other question.
Why are you fighting against the me of this era?
If you want to save Lydia, then opposing him is the height of folly.
Certain circumstances prevent me from joining forces with him, no matter what.
I'm destined to fight him, in fact.
Just as that self-proclaimed god gave you a mission,
he assigned one to me, as well.
This is what he said to me:
"Destroy the world."
How does destroying the world relate to saving Lydia?
You remember how Lydia died, right?
Of course.
I could never forget it.
Then there's no way you can't understand how I feel.
Her mind was violated by that curse,
and she lost her allies...
Many things like that ate away at her
until that day finally came.
In order to face the final Outer One in battle, I would need to shoulder great risk.
Yes, even the risk of losing Lydia.
That was unbearable to me.
So I thought I would overlook and ignore that last enemy.
When placing Lydia's life on the scales against eliminating all Outer Ones,
I chose Lydia.
Then why?!
Why didn't you just share those feelings?!
If you had, then it wouldn't have wound up like that! Would it?!
It was my fault.
My fault that Lydia stormed into the enemy territory all alone!
My fault that she lost in battle and got turned into a threat to the entire world!
You know I couldn't bear that guilt.
That's why I killed myself.
Yet the world wouldn't just let me rest.
It reincarnated me as Ard Meteor,
and everything new that I obtained
kept getting taken away from me by my own failures.
All my endeavors, my hopes, and my dreams.
At this point, I'm positive I'll just keep racking up more sins.
So I wanted to finally end it.
I wanted to atone for this guilt and end it all.
I'll save Lydia,
become a hated threat to this world,
and have her kill me.
Once I have Lydia tread down the path I was forced to walk,
it'll finally be over for me.
You should prepare to commit this final sin with me, as well.
Join me.
I...
Don't do anything stupid.
I'll give you some time.
I'll await your reply three days from now at The Ruined Earth.
Sir Ard, breakfast is ready to be served.
Miss Latima, have you been with Lady Lydia for a long time?
Yes.
If... What if you had to weigh your own life against Lady Lydia's?
What would you do?
That's a foolish question.
I would do anything for Lady Lydia.
Hey! You're late!
What were you doing, shitting?
Seconds!
You always eat a lot, don't you, Sylphy?
That's because I'm growing woman!
Growing?
What?!
If you have something you want to say, then say it!
No, it's nothing.
What's the matter, Ardy?
Ardy, are you the Demon Lord?
No, I'm not.
Sorry for asking such a strange thing.
It's fine.
Ard—
Hey, Ard!
You free today? You're free, right?
Huh?
Today, you're hanging out with me. Got it?
So good!
This is amazing!
You there, young lady!
Care to spend a night of passion with me tonight?
Hey, Ard! You should try, too!
You'll never be a full-fledged warrior if you can't enjoy fooling around with women!
Idiot.
Huh? Idiot?
The one who calls someone an idiot is the idiot! Idiot!
And you just called me an idiot, big dumb Lydia!
Shut up!
Don't punch people!
Ow!
Wh-Why you!
Punching a maiden in the face is the worst!
A maiden? I don't see a maiden around here.
All I see before me is a barbaric horndog!
Why, you!
Well?
That help clear up your thoughts some?
Honestly, for an idiot, your intuition is awfully sharp.
If you had to sacrifice everything to regain something you lost, someone precious,
what would you do?
You can use flight magic, right?
What about it?
There's something I want to show you.
This place is?
The very sin I committed.
Ghosts?
Why would the spirits of the dead...?
Lydia!
You fiend!
You killed my child!
I hate you, hate you, hate you!
Give them back!
I'll kill you!
Lydia...
It really is hard.
I know I have to face it,
but I always want to run away from it.
What is all this?
This is a city where only demons once lived.
Long ago, we attacked this place.
It was a strategic point for us in the war.
A place we had to seize no matter what it took.
It was easy enough to take down the castle and its defenders,
but holding it was a challenge.
The common people living in the city wouldn't listen to us.
Worse yet, they'd attack us at night.
So we decided to kill them all.
If we didn't, we'd be sacrificing our own allies.
So we took what we thought was the best action.
But you were facing demons, right? In which case...
It's fine? Because we were facing monsters?
I don't think that's very true.
Humans and demons aren't that different.
And I'm just a murderer.
I'm aware of that fact,
yet I'll continue staining my hands.
Perhaps those who truly should be called monsters are those like us.
Did you know? I've already decided how I'll die.
I'll fight, and fight, and fight through it all,
and once I've created a world where there's no threat to humanity,
a world where no one has to be sad, even demons if possible,
then I'll die a pitiful, miserable death.
I'm not someone who's worth bending your ideals or sacrificing yourself to save.
What about how we feel?
If you die like that.
You always have to atone for your sins.
At the very least,
I have to, or I won't be able to die with my head held high.
So...
Please don't try to change the way I die.
Welcome home.
Ah, I'm hungry!
Something simple will do, just serve something.
As you wish.
Where did you two go?
Running off in secret is not fair!
We were worried about you.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Didn't mean to make you feel lonely.
Here's something to make it up to you, Ireena, Ginny.
Pretty.
It's lovely.
Really? That's great.
Not fair, not fair!
It's not fair that those two get something!
Sylphy, you're practically my sister, aren't you?
Ard, my blood is boiling with the pending fight.
Join me for a late-night drink.
Very well. I'll accompany you.
I am a god!
Slay them.
Don't expect to even scratch my forces.
Ow! I screwed up!
Too weak! You suck!
I just can't get fired up when facing beasts.
However, I'm Alvarto Egzex,
and to make the boring interesting is my creed.
Now behold!
We who are born in chaos, live in resentment,
and embrace nothingness at the end.
O-Oh no!
Run!
Open, Hell's Gate!
Your expression of love is wonderful and intense, my lord.
Tch.
That damn dumbass doesn't differentiate friend from foe!
This is why I don't like adding him to our battle lines.
Setting our internal enemies aside, the Demon Lord's army is a nuisance.
We kill them and kill them, but there's no end.
It truly is an infinite army.
At this rate, we won't even be able to get close to his castle.
If anyone is able to, it would be...
Jeez, this is annoying!
We could handle this a bit easier if he were here!
But he ran off somewhere while we were advancing!
That's unthinkable!
Well, he probably has his own things to take care of.
Sylphy, I'll leave this up to you.
Huh?
Where are you going, Big Sis?
Can I hear your answer?
Will you save Lydia alongside me?
I... won't save Lydia.
How did you come to that conclusion?
Because that's not what she desires.
I learned what her desire is.
She wants to shoulder the title of Champion,
and die in a way that repents for her sins in the end.
That's what Lydia said.
Can you truly say that you want to grant that wish of hers?
Very well.
Then let's get this foolish farce started!
That's some nice magic equipment.
Hmph.
What a boring technique.
How about this?
Such analytical ability.
Grasping the full scale of magic
and constructing a spell to cancel it
was a special skill of ours.
I guess we won't be able to settle this.
I knew I shouldn't have turned you against me.
A stalemate or a mutual death.
Did you think I couldn't predict that's how this would turn out?
If you did, then you're wrong.
Did you not question it?
Why I would have the battle start the same day I heard your answer?
Don't tell me you—!