Childhood Friend Of The Zenith – Chapter 1204

Crack-!

A snow-white hand burst out of the egg. My eyes went as wide as lanterns at the sight.

“……a hand?”

It was a hand.

A real hand.

Not the hand of a monster or some other fiend, but a human hand. White to the point of pallor, slender besides.

And not just slender—withered. So thin it looked like only bone, a hand that seemed frail.

Crackle.

Like that, the hand slowly slid out of the egg. Soon an arm, then a head popped free.

The rest of the egg shattered in an instant. The fragments broke apart and something collapsed onto the floor.

It was a human shape.

Naked, bones showing, tangled with black hair.

By age, roughly under ten.

More than five, less than ten—that sort of number.

The problem was—

‘Heavenly Demon.’

The identity of the human form that burst out like that was the problem.

‘……It’s the Heavenly Demon.’

However emaciated and puny, that was someone I knew all too well.

The Heavenly Demon.

The devil sent by Heaven and the culprit who sparked the Orthodox–Demonic War. And this Heavenly Demon looked similar to the form I’d seen back then at Pacheon Palace.

“…….”

I narrowed my eyes and stared at the Heavenly Demon.

Rattle.

Shaking the egg shards from her body, the Heavenly Demon lifted her head.

The universe held in her eyes made my body freeze. It was always like that. Whenever I looked into her eyes, my body kept locking up.

Fear and terror.

My body had frozen with those feelings.

‘……Is it the same now?’

I wasn’t sure. Am I still bound by those feelings even now? Is this fear? Is this terror?

No.

‘I don’t think so.’

This is different from fear or terror.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be something defined by those feelings.

Press.

The Heavenly Demon moved.

All the while staring straight at me.

“Ah…….”

A faint voice slipped out. It was the voice I knew.

“Ahh…….”

As if speech itself felt strange, she briefly tore her gaze from me and looked around. My eyes trembled as I watched.

After a long look, the Heavenly Demon fixed her gaze on me again and—

“Ah…….”

—began to approach slowly.

“……!”

She staggered toward me on that frail body. Moving like that, but it was obvious she couldn’t come any closer; the iron bars were in front of her.

Except—

Tap.

Her white fingertips brushed the bars.

Screeeech—!!

And the bars spread open.

“What?”

What on earth is happening? I barely had time to be surprised at the bending bars before—

Screeeeee—!!

The Heavenly Demon even broke the bars of the cage I’d been locked in, opening up a space.

Then she simply stood there in front of me. As if telling me to come out.

“…….”

I slowly stepped out past the bars.

‘What on earth.’

What is going on here? For the Heavenly Demon to appear now—

‘……Is it because I swallowed the Blood Demon’s energy?’

I didn’t know the reason. Maybe the being called the Heavenly Demon had already been born by now?

Am I witnessing with my own eyes a sequence that was already set?

Such doubts unfurled.

“Sss…….”

The being called the Heavenly Demon was always like that to me. Alien and strange.

The more I learned, the more it was so. The more I came to know her existence, the more.

While I was looking at her, filled with many emotions—

Slide.

—the Heavenly Demon responded to me. She held out her hand.

“…….”

What am I supposed to do? I stared at the hand she offered.

“……Uh.”

The Heavenly Demon let out a low sound. Was she telling me to take it?

Can I take it?

That thought flickered for an instant, but—

Slide.

—before I knew it, I had taken the Heavenly Demon’s hand.

“…….”

There was no particular change. Nothing happened, nothing was different. Only a cold sensation touched my hand.

Except—

“Uh.”

—making a sound that didn’t suit her, the Heavenly Demon beamed.

“…….”

At that radiant smile, my heart went cold and still.

It really felt like it stopped beating.

What kind of face is that?

What makes her smile so brightly? What delights her so much that she smiles like that?

Why.

‘Why do you smile when you look at me.’

Is the Heavenly Demon smiling at me?

My face twisted, now that her present behavior overlapped with the Heavenly Demon of before.

Tap.

I let go of the hand I’d been holding. The fool didn’t even shake me off. At the mere release, the Heavenly Demon’s expression grew.

Why?

That question filled her eyes.

“……What even are you.”

A nameless irritation surged up.

“Why are you doing this again. You…….”

Why are you always so intent on turning me inside out whenever you look at me.

“What are you.”

What do you want from me that you’re this chaotic.

“What on earth do you want from me.”

I don’t know what the existence called the Heavenly Demon means.

That’s how it was now.

I hesitate to lay my resentment before the one I resented even unto death.

Am I even allowed to resent her?

She is an evildoer. A demonic overlord above even being classified as the Dark Path.

I hesitate to resent the monster who started a war and invaded the world.

What kind of nonsense is that.

There was nothing but reasons to resent her.

I don’t wish to live blaming someone, but if I had to choose someone to blame, it should have been you.

The one who wrecked my life this badly should have been you.

If I were to pour out curses, they should have been for you as well.

‘Why do I—’

—do nothing when I meet those eyes.

“Disgusting.”

Not the Heavenly Demon—me.

I was disgusted with myself, who could not resent you.

I clenched my teeth.

It was laughable how my head had been stuffed full of matters about the Blood Demon. Now only the Heavenly Demon was filling me.

I swallowed my irritation. I swallowed the rising anger. And I simply looked at the Heavenly Demon.

At that moment—

Slide.

—the Heavenly Demon moved her hand again and grabbed my pant leg.

I felt that touch and my insides trembled.

Why did she grab me? When I looked at her with that question in my eyes, the Heavenly Demon smiled the same smile as before.

“……What.”

Why do you keep grinning like that?

I hated that smile. It felt like the something I’d barely managed to stack inside would shatter.

So I had to clear it away again. That touch. That smile.

It’s right to clear the Heavenly Demon away here and now. I knew that, and yet—

Hesitation smeared into the hand that reached out.

At that idiot-like behavior, just as I was about to finally explode—

Snap.

“Huh?”

“Ah.”

It broke.

The Heavenly Demon’s hand that was holding me.

“What is this…….”

Her hand scattered into fragments like splintered wood. My eyes widened at the hand that crumbled down with a dry rustle.

Without realizing it, I bent down.

I cupped the Heavenly Demon’s broken hand—

Shssssk—!!

—and the moment it touched my body, her flesh collapsed.

“Uh…… uhh?”

Why is this happening?

Why is it suddenly breaking apart?

My hand trembled thinly.

“Ah.”

The Heavenly Demon only showed a dull reaction to her own body. If anything, she seemed more surprised that I had come closer.

What’s more—

“Ahh.”

—even as her body was crumbling,

she looked at me and smiled again.

I was busy being shocked at the disintegrating body, and you were busy smiling at me.

With that body of yours.

Brush.

Something touched my cheek. It was the Heavenly Demon’s hand. With the hand that hadn’t broken yet, she stroked my cheek.

“Hee-hee.”

She smiled with her eyes, delighted by something.

“……you.”

At that response my face twisted all over. Complicated and composite—hard to express with a single emotion.

I couldn’t define it.

But at least one thing I knew.

‘I—’

—I don’t seem to resent you.

I realize it now.

I do not resent you. I was certain.

How can I not resent the Heavenly Demon? Is that possible? Or is it because I too am a sinner?

I sink under a flood of thoughts.

As a thousand thoughts rose and I hesitated—

Shssssss—!!

“……!”

A crack ran through the remaining hand as well.

Seeing that, I moved to catch it without thinking—

—but I couldn’t. If I caught it, it would crumble beyond repair.

“Ah.”

The Heavenly Demon belatedly reacted to her hand, now completely broken. In her eyes there was no fear.

If anything, only a small regret.

What was she regretting? I thought I knew even that.

The Heavenly Demon regretted that she could no longer touch me.

“Ahh…….”

In those now-woeful eyes, her smile grew faint.

What is it you want to say?

Her eyes spoke a myriad of things, but unable to do anything else, she said nothing.

Such was the Heavenly Demon’s state.

With those entirely breaking hands, with barely remaining fingertips, the Heavenly Demon patted my head.

With every stroke, the breaking hand soon lost all trace.

Shudder.

Cracks ran through her completely, and she crumbled away and vanished.

“…….”

My gaze lowered.

At the place where the vanished Heavenly Demon had been, something remained. A black lump.

A pitch-black lump. I stared vacantly at it, then reached out my hand.

It was something I did without thinking.

Slide.

I scooped up the lump. Cold. Cold and pliant. Afraid it might break, I held it carefully and lifted it up.

“…….”

As I stared at it, dazed—

Kwoaaaaaa———!!!

—an explosion thundered from behind.

Heat surged. The hot wind turned my head. The heat was enough to make it turn on its own.

Fwoooosh.

Flames burst out and the iron door melted. Someone stepped through the huge hole.

Whoosh—!

I looked at the man who appeared in a rush.

“Ah…….”

Red-lit eyes emerged through the heat.

A man with a massive build and a ruggedly masculine face.

Someone I knew well. Someone else I wanted to resent but could not.

My pupils jolted when I saw him. It felt like what I’d been holding back would spill and burst.

Looking at the young man whose face crumpled as he looked at me, I spoke without meaning to.

“Father…… what do I do?”

“……?”

I asked him a question I had never asked in my life.

The young man who heard me—

—the eyes of my father in his younger days creased.