Chapter 465. **The End**
—
The end of everything.
And thus, it was named **“the End.”**
All beings—including Annihilation—were bound to instinctively fear the End.
There had never been a single exception.
But for the first time—
…an exception was born.
Facing the **Origin of the World**, the End felt its own inadequacy.
That primordial existence did not fear the End.
Rather, it began attacking with all its might, intent on driving the End out of the world.
Even if its influence throughout the world was still small, being pushed back to this extent was a stain upon the name of the End.
The End was meant to be both the first and the last.
Even if the opponent was the world itself, it should never have been overpowered.
Yet the Origin of the World mercilessly drove the End back.
It couldn’t even properly counterattack—let alone fight on equal footing.
This was the first time the End had ever encountered something that opposed it so completely.
—*I am the one who protects the world. The Origin of the World. The totality of the world itself.*
The Origin spoke.
Declaring itself to be the world, and everything within it.
—*You are merely an “End” that scatters destruction upon prepared worlds. A being that can do nothing on its own—one that cannot even begin. An ignorant existence.*
It dismissed and scorned the End as nothing.
The End could not refute it.
The name “End” spoke only of conclusion—it could never be a beginning.
In a sense, it was an extremely passive existence, one that could only scatter ruin once everything had already been thoroughly prepared.
Thus, it could not contradict the will of the world.
It could neither surpass it nor fight back.
Such helplessness was unprecedented for the End, leaving it in utter confusion.
—*A pitiful being born as the End, yet unaware of what it truly is. You cannot surpass the will of the world. Nor can you bring an end to the world. So tell me—can you truly be called the End?*
Indeed.
The End had never once brought about the **end of a world**.
The Destructions of the heavens spread ruin by erecting towers across worlds, expanding their influence, and then erasing the Origin of the World.
But the End did not yet even know *what* it existed to end.
What did it exist for?
Could a being that could not end anything truly be called the End?
It was lacking.
Lacking.
…Lacking.
For the first time, the End felt **despair**.
The Origin of the World had established its own existence.
But the End had not yet established itself.
What was lacking had to be filled.
At that moment, the despair the End tasted connected to **Primordial Despair**.
Despair that had existed since the beginning defined even the despair the End now felt.
「Despair is the beginning.」
「Without despair, nothing can ever begin.」
「From the primordial era onward, all beings have evolved through despair!」
「O End—despair. Despair even more deeply!」
Primordial Despair urged the End on.
Repeating curse-like words, driving it to fully sink into despair.
And then, astonishingly—
The End began to feel a sense of **kinship** with Primordial Despair.
It believed this would fill what it lacked.
If it could not truly begin as the End, then it would become something that *could* begin.
Thus, the End engraved **Primordial Despair** upon itself.
*Kuaaaaaaah!*
Instantly, the End counterattacked the Origin.
Faced with the End’s drastically changed presence, the Origin of the World could only scream.
To think it would evolve.
To realize its own insufficiency and then fill it!
Evolution was the true power of despair.
Those who felt despair—and overcame it—rose higher still.
Some liken despair to death, but the two are fundamentally different.
On the contrary, despair is the power of **beginning**.
Especially Primordial Despair—the driving force that once gave rise to worlds.
However—**Primordial Despair** was not originally related to the **Primordial Armor**.
The Primordial Armor had been created through the **First Flame**.
「I am the one who ignited the First Flame.」
Primordial Despair existed even before the First Flame.
Originally, it created the First Flame so that all might despair.
It intended to burn everything, spreading death everywhere.
Yet after the burning, the world regenerated—stronger than before—and entirely new life even took root.
Only then did Primordial Despair realize it.
That it itself stood at the **beginning**.
But no one awakened its slumbering will.
Not even the Primordial Dragon God noticed its presence within the First Flame.
It was merely engraved by chance during the creation of the Primordial Armor.
It functioned only to amplify despair when its wearer faced desperate circumstances.
「Now that beginning and end have met—can this not be called the true End?」
Having tasted the End’s despair, it finally awakened.
A true end had called forth a true beginning.
The two became one.
And the being completed as the perfect End declared—
「I am the one who is the End itself. Origin, I shall grant you your end.」
*
*
Primordial Despair was forcibly peeled away.
And then merged with the End.
…For a moment, I could only stare blankly at the scene.
Before I knew it, the Origin of the World was screaming as it died.
In an instant, the tide of battle had reversed.
“Stop it—are you truly going to… end the world?”
At Rundmal’s panicked voice, I clicked my tongue in disbelief.
The one who originally intended to destroy the world was Rundmal.
And now he was saying this?
“If the Origin of the World is destroyed, this world will return to nothingness. What I sought was evolution for myself—not to erase the world entirely—”
“Sounds like a dog barking.”
“…What?”
“You want to stop the world from returning to nothingness? Then kill yourself.”
“……”
“Why? Can’t you? Because your own life is too precious? Rundmal—look at what you’ve done. And I gave you chance after chance.”
My anger kept rising.
I had given him countless opportunities—truly countless.
It was Rundmal who threw every one of them away.
Even before we fought, I made it clear that our battle could lead to the world’s destruction.
Even after he kidnapped Dietrich, I sent Satan—and Winter—to persuade him.
Even during the battle, I kept offering him chances to stop, putting myself at risk in the process.
That wasn’t all.
Satan warned that Rundmal might be under the heavens’ control, which was why I cut his rune—to draw out his true intentions.
Even when the Guardian Knights begged him again and again to stop—
Rundmal did not stop.
He even dragged out **Ruin**, the one pulling the strings behind him.
And yet, even then, Rundmal never seized a single chance.
It wasn’t because I was weak, or inferior to him, that I simply endured his attacks.
It was because I was risking myself, desperately trying to stop him.
Because I couldn’t decide the world’s destruction on my own.
I considered killing Rundmal and planting the **Tree of the Creator**—
But in the end, I didn’t kill him.
I only drew out the Ruin behind him.
I knew very well how dangerous that was for me.
If not for the protection of the Dragon God Council, I would have had to fight Ruin as well.
I simply hoped Rundmal would realize he was being manipulated—repent, and sever his connection to the Origin of the World.
And yet—
Even after all that—
“N-No…!”
Watching the Origin of the World being dyed by the End,
Rundmal screamed.
“It can’t be stopped anymore, Rundmal.”
No matter how much regret there was, it was too late.
The moment Dietrich opened the altar with the Guardian Holy Sword,
The power of the End surged—and evolved even further, into **the one who is the End itself**.
How could one stop an End once it had begun?
If it hadn’t started, perhaps—but once it had, even I could do nothing.
“If I kill you, that will stop it…!”
“You really do keep making the stupidest choices.”
I was sick of it.
Why was he this foolish?
Killing me would not stop the End.
At best, I would vanish after bringing about an inevitable end.
Worse still, Rundmal maintained the domain that had overturned the entire world—his connection to the Origin of the World.
It was attachment.
He simply couldn’t let go.
Even if the world returned to nothingness, he clung only to his own completion.
“…I’m tired of persuading you. There’s no reason left to spare you.”
I took a deep breath.
Until now, I hadn’t truly attacked.
I had only blocked—or taken hits.
Even cutting Rundmal with dimensional slashes wasn’t meant to truly kill him.
I cut his rune to draw out his true self, and cut the world’s boundary to drag out the heavenly being behind him—that was all.
But Rundmal?
He attacked me with everything he had.
Enough to force the awakening of Primordial Despair.
I could have died because of it—
“Primordial Spear! World! Devote yourselves to me!”
Rundmal summoned all his divine power.
An energy even greater than the attack that had nearly killed me began to gather.
If I took it head-on again, there would be nothing left of me.
This time, I might truly die.
Perhaps it was a case of the first button being fastened wrong.
Rundmal might be thinking the same—that he should have completely erased me with his very first strike.
All traces of leisure and amusement were gone from him.
And yet, he was still making the wrong choices.
…I raised the **Primordial Sword**.
This time, I truly had to cut him down.
《Summoning “Wilhelm’s Star.”》
《Summoning “Randolph’s Star.”》
《Summoning “The One Star.”》
《Three stars begin to shine.》
《All authorities engraved upon the constellations are activated.》
In the sky—where there should have been nothing—
Three stars were engraved, shining brightly.
《The “Lord of Stars” descends!》
《The “Martial God” offers devotion!》
The Lord of Stars. The Martial God.
Both were Hidden Classes I possessed.
The true form of those classes began to manifest within me.
*Fwaaaaaah!*
Filled with starlight and Golden Scale—
A radiance bright enough to illuminate the dark world in an instant spread from me.
“Die, Destruction!”
Rundmal hurled the Primordial Spear once more, pouring all his divinity into it.
He was abandoning the stature of a Primordial God, determined to erase me alone.
As I watched the Primordial Spear rush toward me with overwhelming force—
“Heaven.”
The Heaven that splits heaven and earth.
Wilhelm’s swordsmanship.
A newly created technique—now wholly my own.
I swung my sword and opened the sky.
And then—
“……”
The world fell silent.
Where the blade had passed—
Nothing remained.
Only an empty, brilliantly opened sky.
