"……Now then."
And so, the central district of the Royal Capital.
The grey-haired man Laplace was making his way through the city, gazing down at the Royal Capital's devastation with calm, still eyes.
His destination lay directly above the Royal Capital.
Yes—the sky above. A place that could normally only be reached by using wind-attribute magic or a specialized Bloodline Magic.
But if it was Laplace, he could do it.
His Bloodline Magic—
Evil God's Barrier Curtain—
was an application of it. By combining the effect of "generating a barrier at any location" with this magic's unique property of "Rejection," he could—
in midair,
create
a barrier
and use it
as a foothold,
making aerial movement possible.
He couldn't match the full freedom of movement granted by the Sky Witch's—
Seamless Great Eagle, but for light, short-distance travel, it was more than sufficient.
For Laplace, this level of feat was child's play.
One day, while experimenting with his Bloodline Magic, he'd vaguely thought, "I wonder if I could do something like this?"—tried it, and it had worked. That was all it amounted to.
……but it seemed that wasn't the case for other people.
Everyone else in the organization, even fellow Bloodline Magic users, looked at Laplace as though he were some kind of monster.
Even Crono, their boss, had been visibly surprised—saying something like, "I know all about that magic, but I've never heard of anyone being able to move through the air."
It was around then that he realized.
Not out of vanity, but as plain fact—he truly was what one would call a genius.
Keeping that fact firmly in mind,
He spoke, quietly stating what had crossed his mind at that moment.
"……So what? That's kind of the point, isn't it?"
The superior magic he'd inherited, his extraordinary talent beyond all measure—
Without something to aim them at, without knowing what he wanted to use that magic and talent for, none of it meant a thing. He understood this all too well, precisely because he'd always known how to draw out magic's full potential and possessed the innate ability to do so.
So he kept searching. He kept chasing after something he could pour his whole being into, yet no matter what he did, he couldn't find it.
And at the very end of that search—at the moment he'd killed his own father with his own hands, in the instant right after he'd thought he would surely die having never found it—
He finally found it.
A conviction—a "feeling" so powerful that he would gladly stake his entire life on it.
And so—
"No matter how much the world might reject this feeling. No matter how clearly it might be classified as evil, if one were to divide things into good and bad—"
The plan he'd spent decades on had finally reached fruition.
Laplace spoke of that core conviction—the desire he had decided to lend his aid to.
"I won't deny it, and I won't let anyone else deny it either. Even if the entire world turns against it—"
He said all of this with the full conviction that this was, without a doubt, his own "feeling."
"— I, at the very least—absolutely. There's no way I'd ever deny that."
As he reaffirmed this resolve, he rose to a vantage point high above—from which he could once again survey the entirety of the Royal Capital.
Chrono's Sixth Creation Magic, and Yurugen's—empowered by its support—
Netherworld of Salvation
—had been activated. A considerable amount of time had already passed since vengeful spirits from the past had completely engulfed the Royal Capital.
Which meant the hellish tableau now unfolding across the Royal Capital must have reached its peak.
They had been arrogant about the magic they were born with, refusing to confront the feelings they should have faced.
And now the very people who had greedily indulged in the laziness guaranteed by the positive legacies of the past were being devoured in turn by the negative legacies they had ignored.
A ruin brimming with the cruelest irony—so perfectly, devastatingly logical that it made one's chest go hollow.
This was the sight his boss had yearned to witness with all their heart, and that Laplace himself thought he might enjoy seeing—if only he could.
Certain that this scene now stretched out before him, Laplace finally reached the Royal Capital—
"......Huh?"
He saw something impossible.
To all of you who have been reading from the very beginning—thank you for your patience!
Creation Magic resumes its serialization today...!
Sorry for the shorter chapter—I wanted to fit in a Laplace-focused segment while also checking the story's flow so far.
Next time, I'll include another Royal Capital installment, and from there we'll finally see the clash between Laplace's organization and the Third Princess's faction led by Ermes—the final battle begins!
I hope you'll enjoy the climax of Chapter Three from here on out!!