Grimacing at a sickly sweet stench, Ramunera opened his eyes to find himself lying on a serving platter inside a kitchen.
Turning only his head toward a familiar sobbing voice, he saw Kirki weeping openly like a frightened child.
He was gagged, making it impossible to ask her anything, but resting on a plate practically naked save for a single scrap of cloth made the reason for her tears painfully obvious. To make matters worse, the thick glaze slathered across his entire body was almost certainly some kind of seasoning.
(It seems they intend to eat us.)
Ordinary undead wouldn't have the culinary forethought to coat humans in sauce before devouring them.
In fact, effortlessly slipping past the Four Lights barrier—a sacred holy relic—was impossible not only for common undead, but even for members of the Imperial Six Knight Generals. If anyone was capable of such a feat, it would only be someone like Four.
Which meant that headless undead possessed power on par with Four himself. Yet it hadn't carried itself like anything particularly special, implying that monsters of Four's caliber were simply wandering around in droves.
"Khaha! As if anyone could beat something like that!"
No wonder Kirki, hailed far and wide as the War Princess, was reduced to tears. It was glaringly obvious now. These creatures weren't merely a matter of being undead or not. They belonged to an entirely higher plane of existence—beings that ordinary humans like them would revere as gods.
Demon Kings? Dragon Kings? To monsters like these, such titles were absolute garbage. They possessed legions capable of matching Four. If anyone could possibly stand against them, it would take an entity truly divorced from the natural order of this world.
Those grim contemplations were cut short when an undead dressed like a chef walked into the kitchen. The chef set a cloche over the platter holding Ramunera and Kirki, then carried them off into the dark.
After being moved for a short while, the cover was lifted, bringing Ramunera face-to-face with a genuine monster. It was a man of diminutive, dwarf-like stature with a body as round as a bloated balloon.
"—!!?"
He tried to scream, but the gag muffled his voice into an incoherent gasp.
(What in the world is this guy...?)
He almost felt like laughing. No, this was wrong—this creature was on an entirely different level! The suffocating pressure alone was enough to induce nausea. Not even Four could ever hope to defeat something like this. The overwhelming magic power radiating from him threatened to scorch the skin, feeling far more wicked and sinister than even Kai Heinemann's seemingly bottomless depths.
(Why do I keep running into monsters like this one after another?!)
Tears welled up in his eyes. Naturally, terror accounted for most of it, but the rest was born of sheer, bitter frustration. Until now, Ramunera had never doubted his own strength. But what was the reality? First, he had crossed paths with an inhuman monster in Kai Heinemann, and before a single day could pass, he was confronted by a creature that felt even more terrifying. In the end, the strength he had prided himself on amounted to nothing more than a pebble on the side of the road. Facing that helplessness was excruciatingly painful.
"AND who are these LIVESTOCK?"
"Our scouts captured them. They have been washed so they may be eaten alive, then coated in our finest secret sauce. We trust this will please you, Lord Rot King."
"Splendid DEATH! Tearing apart screaming human livestock! That texture steeped in despair is delightfully firm and sooooo rot-tastic DEATH!"
Listening to those vile words and watching the balloon-like man's grotesque face twist with gluttonous desire sent a wave of revulsion crawling up Ramunera's spine, like vermin squirming beneath his skin.
Driven by blood-chilling dread, he screamed with every ounce of strength he had left.
Yet, mercilessly—
"Then let us begin at once, starting with the most succulent part, the head—"
The balloon-like man's jaws unhinged, stretching wide to swallow Kirki whole.
Kirki and Ramunera had been nothing more than slum orphans until Four took them in. For as long as he could remember, the two of them had grown up together like siblings. And now, without even the strength to resist, he was forced to watch her get devoured alive. That was—
(Don't you dare mess with us!!)
That—that was the one thing he could never forgive! Even if this monstrosity was some supernatural god—!
Seized by a fury so intense it shook his very core, Ramunera let out a muffled, beast-like roar through his gag, when—
"Beelzebub-de-boo♪ Beelzebub-de-boo♪"
A sing-song voice echoed directly inside his mind.
"Who's THERE DEATH?!"
Snapping his gaping maw shut, the balloon-like man tilted his head back toward the ceiling, shouting in confusion.
As if in answer—
"Supreme Great One-chama. I found them, yes I did-dechu."
A bipedal fly abruptly materialized out of thin air. It was unquestionably the very same fly Kai Heinemann had summoned earlier. But it was no use. Ramunera couldn't sense that terrifyingly lethal aura from the insect like he could from the balloon-like man. Surely the same would hold true for Kai Heinemann.
Yet Ramunera's grim assumption was shattered by the sheer horror spreading across the balloon-like man's face the moment he laid eyes on the fly. It was the exact same look of absolute dread that Ramunera and Kirki had worn moments before.
"You are—"
Before the balloon-like man could finish his sentence, the crimson flesh mansion shattered into dust, instantly flattening into a barren expanse.
"IMPOSSIBLE... This cannot be DEATH!"
Countless grotesque aberrations surrounded the panicked balloon-like man. In perfect unison, every single one of those horrors bowed low to the ground.
Standing just beyond them was the true monster, Kai Heinemann, holding a foreign sword in his right hand.
(What is happening?)
It made no sense. Just as with the fly monster, Ramunera couldn't sense a trace of power coming from Kai Heinemann. Yet despite that, the balloon-like man threw himself down, frantically begging for his life.
Kai Heinemann simply dismissed the balloon-like man as utterly beneath notice. And as if to prove the truth of his words, he obliterated the balloon-like monstrosity with overwhelming force, showing not a single shred of mercy.
Presently, the two of them were being escorted back toward their designated evacuation point at the plaza of Babel by Kai Heinemann.
Just what kind of existence was this person? Of course, Ramunera understood that he was a genuine Transcender, operating on a level entirely removed from Four. Otherwise, there was no way he could have crushed an incarnation of despair as effortlessly as stepping on an ant. But the question haunting Ramunera went far beyond such superficial power.
"Um..."
As Ramunera forced out a timid voice, Kai Heinemann stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"Hm? What is it?"
His expression was gentle and rich with emotion, carrying the warmth of a normal human as he addressed Ramunera and Kirki.
"Why did you save us?"
"Did you want to die?"
When Kai Heinemann knitted his brows in confusion, Ramunera frantically waved his hands in denial.
"N-No, not at all! I'm truly grateful for your help."
"Hm? Then I don't understand the point of your question."
"What I mean is... why did you go out of your way to protect us back there?"
"Well, leaving you to die would have left a bad taste in my mouth, I suppose."
"Is that... all?"
"Is being saved by me really so surprising?"
"N-No, it's not that, but..."
Even so, Kai Heinemann was an entity who commanded legions of incomparably powerful Transcenders. He stood in an entirely different dimension from that balloon-like monster—the absolute pinnacle among all Transcenders in history.
Had such an almighty figure truly stepped in to save them simply to avoid a lingering guilty conscience? It completely clashed with Ramunera's understanding of what a Transcender was supposed to be.
"Let's see. If I had to put the reason into words... it's probably because I'm a human."
"W-Who is?"
Unable to make sense of the absurdity, Ramunera blurted out the question before he could stop himself.
"I am, obviously."
"Huh?"
"Because I'm a human."
"Is that supposed to be a joke?"
At Ramunera's thoroughly baffled inquiry, Kirki nodded vigorously in agreement beside him.
"Not you two as well..."
Kai Heinemann dragged a hand down his face in pure exasperation.
"I am a human from the tips of my toes to the crown of my head. I always have been, and I still am now."
He casually stated something that should have been an utter impossibility.
Yet looking at Kai Heinemann's expression and listening to his tone, it was impossible to believe he was lying. In truth, there was no reason for a man like him to bother with falsehoods in the first place. If so, what did that mean?
"A-Are you... truly a human?"
Ramunera asked, his voice trembling.
"Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you. No matter who claims otherwise, I am a human."
This Great One was a human? The very same being whose supernatural might had unilaterally crushed that balloon-like horror, an avatar of pure despair?
"You're truly a human, then...?"
If that was reality—
"I just finished saying that, didn't I?"
He had clearly answered the exact same question far too many times already, his reply thick with weary irritation. This Great One was a human. In that case, this Great One had—
"You broke through, didn't you?"
Ramunera could feel an undeniable passion surging in his chest. He was trembling from head to toe, tears blurring his vision.
Of course he was moved. To anyone who dedicated their life to the pursuit of martial strength, remaining indifferent to such a revelation was simply impossible.
Equal to Four? Don't make him laugh. In literally every conceivable metric, this Great One belonged to an entirely higher realm. Now he finally understood why those monstrous Transcenders knelt before him in boundless reverence.
He wasn't merely strong. Despite dwelling within the frail, finite vessel of mortal flesh, this Great One had effortlessly shattered the very limits of humanity to stand as the absolute strongest existence in this world.
"Broke through? Broke through what?"
"No, that is enough. I have learned everything I needed to know."
"I-Is that so?"
Lord Kai stared at Ramunera and Kirki for a few seconds, his cheek twitching faintly, before letting out a massive sigh.
"You two as well, huh..."
He murmured the words with an air of complete defeat.
Once Lord Kai escorted Ramunera and Kirki safely to the plaza, he melted into the surroundings and vanished without a trace.
"Ramunera, what are we going to do now?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
To the current Ramunera, their lofty status among the Imperial Six Knight Generals was nothing more than a paper tiger. He didn't harbor the slightest lingering attachment to it. Far outweighing all else was a burning, unquenchable desire to serve by Lord Kai's side.
"Yeah. I figured you'd say that."
"Aren't you thinking the exact same thing?"
"Yeah. I'm going to follow Lord Kai."
Of course, Ramunera had no illusions that Lord Kai would accept them right away in their present state, and openly abandoning their mission now would only invite a swift purge at Four's hands. For now, they would remain at the academy under the guise of their surveillance duties and bide their time for the right opportunity.
Besides, even if they had few fond memories of it, the Empire remained their homeland. He intended to do everything he could to convince them of the impossible heights that Great One had reached.
"In that case, we have paperwork to take care of."
"Right."
Exchanging glances, the two of them shared a quiet chuckle before setting off into the city.
As he walked, the breeze brushing against Ramunera's cheek felt remarkably, delightfully fresh.