The golden tower cracked open to either side.
The gap widened under its own weight.
With a thunderous roar, it split perfectly in two.
Amid the swirling dust clouds, I held my sword ready and watched intently.
Soon, a humanoid shape emerged from the tower's cross-section.
Its outline was hazy.
From the contours of its body, it might be female, but it lacked eyes or a mouth.
Its hue was gold, but its form resembled a clay figurine.
The humanoid turned its head toward me.
It radiated no hostility; it simply stared, seemingly vacant.
I addressed it.
"You are the false god, aren't you?"
"—Why. This is. For the people's. Happiness."
Ignoring my words, the false god murmured.
It was a clear girl's voice.
A sense of dissonance washed over me regarding her assertion.
"You call this happiness?"
"—All as one. Everyone. Together. No fear. Of death."
The false god spoke in broken fragments.
This was her motivation for absorbing the people.
"—Demon King, will... interfere. Then... everyone... can be saved."
"Being fodder for you is never salvation. It is merely abandoning the will to live."
I deny this flatly.
The False God shook their head.
"—Wrong. Everyone, is alive. Here, they do not die. Eternal... life."
"This isn't a physical matter. It's about the spirit. The sanctity of life is being insulted."
As I refuted this, I acknowledged my own self-loathing.
To have transformed humans into undead and still utter such words.
The one insulting life was none other than myself.
Even so, I had to convey it.
The False God was not righteous.
I continued my assertion, as if trying to convince myself.
"You have devoured countless worlds in the past, I presume. You then wielded the lives you accumulated as power to gorge upon a new world."
"—No. I am... protecting... anxious lives. Everyone... is happy."
The False God was trembling.
Hugging themselves with both arms, they let out a pained groan.
I pressed on regardless, piling words upon words.
"So you are affirming a state where the self and emotions are shattered, and beings have been mashed together?"
"—Dying, is pitiful. Being alive, is happy. There is no... mistake."
"I see. I understand your position."
I paused and let my shoulders relax.
That was the end of our quarrel.
We had understood each other's views thoroughly.
Further discussion was unnecessary.
Upon that, I spoke.
"Let us acknowledge it. We are alike. We both try to save people with selfish ideologies. Our thoughts and methods merely differ."
I and the false god were the same at the core.
We harbored the notion of saving others, and to that end, we ran amok without choosing our means.
We affirmed our own descent into madness, upheld our ideals, and tried to crush differing justices.
"We both carry lives upon our backs. Countless ones. We staked those lives upon our shoulders and fought to the death."
I pointed the tip of my inherited sword at the false god.
She was out of range, but it did not matter.
It was a distance that could be closed in an instant.
Her life was in my hands.
"I shall inherit the lives and wills you carry."
"—No. I don't want to die. Dying is... very scary. Everyone is scary."
"I will not let you escape. Give up."
I teleported before the false god.
I flashed my sword before she could react.
It cleaved her golden body diagonally.
The upper torso that had leapt upward fell back to the ground and rolled.
Grey smoke poured out from the cross-section.
"…Ah, ah—"
The golden tower rapidly withered away.
All that mystique and majesty was fading beyond recognition.
Its brilliance was lost, beginning to discolor into a dull, dark hue.
The false god lying on the ground reached out her arm.
Her hand grasped at nothing.
She whispered weakly.
"This… is death. Everyone's… lives… are vanishing… disappearing…"
Her faint gaze swept around and found me.
In a voice that might fade away at any moment, she said:
"Don't… forget me."
With those words as her last, the false god ceased to move.
She now only emitted smoke from the cross-section.
Before long, she had shrunk to the point where her form was indistinguishable, losing all volume.
Certain of her death, I sheathed the relic sword.
"…………"
The tentacles that had been squirming all around had long since withered completely.
The dispersed smoke had spread as a dense miasma.
I absorbed every last drop of it.
The power of the false god flowed into me.
Within my body, I controlled it and made it my own.
The strength of the beast permeated me as a part of the Demon Lord.
Thus drew to a close the long war against the beasts of the outer world.