High School DxD: Return of the Crimson Dragon Emperor

Chapter 536: Chapter 526 She smiled helplessly and told me she felt so foolish for having lived in such a tiny world

”She smiled helplessly and told me she felt so foolish for having lived in such a tiny world. That’s what she said.”

That was the exact moment she—who had lived in isolation, opening her heart to no one but the young god—was finally freed from the chains that had bound her.

From then on, she began making moves to connect with the humans and devils she had once avoided.

Though flustered and unsure of what to do, the girl in the vision summoned her courage and reached out to others on her own.

It started with simple greetings, which gradually turned into conversations, slowly expanding her circle of friends.

Before long, people began gathering around the very girl who had once been so feared.

Just as the world was finally ready to accept her—

One day, she was kidnapped by a group of humans and devils.

”I had stepped away for just a moment. In that brief window when my attention was elsewhere, she vanished. I knew who was behind it immediately.”

The mastermind was—a fellow god, just like him.

A faction of evil gods had begun to act, seeking to reshape the world entirely for their own selfish desires.

To achieve their goals, they wanted the young god’s power.

Kidnapping her was simply a means to take a hostage and make him easier to control.

And those who physically carried out the abduction were mortals blinded by the divine favors promised by those evil gods.

”I wanted to ask someone for help. But they were cunning. They cornered me with every trap imaginable. At that point... there was nothing I could do.”

He couldn’t rescue her by force, nor could he rely on anyone else.

With her held hostage, his only option was to quietly obey everything the evil gods commanded.

Just to save her.

Just to see that smile one more time.

However—that wish was never granted.

”While she was imprisoned, she used the knowledge she had acquired to construct a spell. She secretly created a powerful magic that exceeded even the expectations of the gods. That magic was—”

—A spell that amplified the power of the one she loved, in exchange for her own life.

She cast the magic that converted her own life force into power for the young god.

It was a spell that could only be activated if the target was within visual range.

In other words—she ended her own life right before his eyes.

”She probably thought that if her existence was bringing him pain, then... That was likely her reasoning. As her life slipped away, these were her final words:”

’Please protect this world... the world that you loved... and that I finally learned to love...’

Holding her cooling body in his arms, the young god cast healing magic over and over again.

Yet none of it had any effect, and her strength slowly faded away.

And the moment her heart stopped completely—something snapped inside him.

Fierce, unbridled rage consumed him—toward the gods who had abducted her for their own selfish convenience, toward the mortals of the lower realm blinded by greed, and above all—toward his own powerless self that had failed to protect her.

Swallowed by his fury, he unleashed a devastating curse.

A curse of ruin, dooming the world to repeat destruction for eternity.

An overwhelming despair meant to obliterate the gods before him, himself, and everything else.

Even knowing it would trample her final wish, he couldn’t stop.

”And that’s how Roswald was born, huh...”

The vision shifted once more.

Before I knew it, the young god was lying on his back deep within a lush green forest—missing an arm, with a gaping hole pierced through his abdomen.

The curse was destroying everything, exactly as he had desired.

Having unleashed it, he too suffered its ruin, standing on the brink of utter annihilation.

I’m going to fade away like this.

In an unknown land, without anyone to see me off, dying all alone.

A fitting end for someone like me, he thought, preparing to close his eyes—when suddenly:

A strange light shone above his head.

As he watched through his fading consciousness, a single young boy emerged from the light.

Even in his dying state, the god was shocked.

It was a phenomenon he had never witnessed, despite having traversed the world.

He dragged his body across the ground, crawling toward the boy.

Looking closely at the child’s face, he realized something.

This boy wouldn’t last much longer either.

Looking closer, his clothes were tattered, his body was covered in wounds, and he was terribly emaciated.

The boy retained a sliver of consciousness, but he was in no state to speak. Using what little power he had left, the god peered into the boy’s memories.

Through them, he learned that the child belonged to a different world entirely.

And—that he was a war orphan.

The boy had been caught up in a war between humans, losing his family in the process.

Asem spoke up.

”He was a child not even ten years old—it was impossible for him to survive alone. Yet, no one helped him. ’We don’t have the power to help, we can’t save him,’ they said, and everyone turned a blind eye. As a result, the boy was wounded, weakened, and finally collapsed. Right at that moment—he was swallowed by a dimensional vortex.”

Why that boy?

Why was he summoned right before the young god’s eyes?

Perhaps it was guided by what one might call fate—the will of the world itself.

The young god tried to save him... but having lost almost all his power, he could only buy the boy a tiny sliver of time.

To simply prolong a inevitable death might seem like a cruel act.

Even so, the god used his power.

—If only so that he, as the one seeing the boy off in his final moments, could hear his last words.

Thanks to the god’s power, the boy faintly opened his eyes.

The god asked him: Was there anything he wanted to leave behind... any final wish?

In a raspy, fading voice, the boy whispered:

’Hey, God... If a wish can really come true... I hope the world becomes a place... where no one vanishes anymore... Dad... Mom... Big sister...’

And with that, calling out the names of his family, the boy breathed his last.

With his weakened body, the god pulled the young boy into a tight embrace.

Tears streaming down his face, he screamed into the void:

Why must the world be so utterly unreasonable?!

Just when someone is about to find happiness, it gets ripped away.

When they seek peace, that wish is trampled underfoot.

The arrogance of the strong throws the world into chaos, while the weak hide behind their helplessness, turning a blind eye to the suffering.

This was never the world he had sought, nor was it the world she had grown to love.

A world where such absurdity was allowed could only be wrong.

And so, the young god came to a single, unwavering resolve.

”I lost the person I loved. Far from keeping her final promise, I trampled right over it. And because of my foolish actions, I couldn’t even save a boy I should have been able to rescue. So then, what’s left for me?”

Asem pushed back his hood, revealing his face to me.

He wore his usual light, easygoing smile.

Yet coming from Asem right now, there was an unmistakable sense of deep sorrow and pain behind it.

”To fulfill my promise to her this time. And to create the world that the boy whose body I inhabit wished for. Those are the merely two vows I carved into my soul.”

Author’s Note:

It was unusually serious this time!

~Afterword Mini-Story~

Ignis: ”It’s just the two of us today, isn’t it?”

Issei: ”Yeah. ...Don’t try anything weird, alright?”

Ignis: ”Eh?”

Issei: ”I won’t be able to handle all the straight-man retorts on my own.”

Ignis: ”Oh, what a shame~♪”

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