Chapter 646: The Control Devil fights for a better world? Don't make me laugh!
Ainz: "??? That's strange! Two different Doomsday Companions, and different companion choices? This is unprecedented in the guild's history... wait, wrong world."
Aqua: "It's the first time, but is there anything strange about it? Maybe the system just felt like a change of pace. Or maybe it's broken! Did you break it, Ren?"
Ainz: "Nothing, I just feel like I'm about to witness history. Or perhaps a catastrophic bug."
Kushina: "Stop witnessing history. Why don't we ask Makima what's going on? She's the one in the middle of it."
White Blood Cell: "She's barely said anything in the Chat Group. She's quite the silent observer."
Nami: "Haha, you probably forgot, she once tried to attack a group member. She wouldn't dare say much after Ren taught her a lesson. A very... thorough lesson."
Platelet: "Hmm, it seems that's how it was. Ren-niichan is strict!"
Emilia: "So now... what about the companion mission in this world? Should we be worried?"
Exusiai: "I think it's best to just ask Ren, Ren. He always knows the score."
Ren: "I'm always here."
Aqua: "Tsk tsk, a peeping tom, always here but never speaking. Stalking us like a creep!"
Ren: "Haha."
Ren didn't get too entangled with Aqua, who liked to pick fights. Another debt added to the account. He'd definitely have to teach that idiotic goddess a harsh lesson when he got a chance to meet her. A spanking would be quite good, perhaps in front of her followers.
Ren: "Makima, tell me if the situation is urgent."
Makima and Himeno stood by the window, the glass cold against their reflections. The world outside had become unrecognizable from its usual state.
The midday sun had disappeared, completely replaced by a thick darkness that seemed to swallow the light. It was an unnatural night, heavy and oppressive.
On the street downstairs, brave people had walked out of their homes, wanting to see what had happened. Their whispers were swallowed by the silence.
"Devil?!"
Himeno's first reaction was that devils were affecting reality on a large scale. Her hand instinctively went to her eyepatch, sensing the shift in the atmosphere.
Power bared her sharp teeth, a cold glint flashing in her eyes. "Are we fighting again? I hunger for blood!"
"Uh... preferably not!" Higashiyama Kobeni shrank her head, clutching her knife with trembling hands. She really didn't want to lose her life just to earn some money; she was scared. She just wanted a normal job!
Makima simply watched calmly, her golden eyes reflecting the abyss outside.
What Himeno said was more or less correct; it was indeed related to devils.
But it was far more complex than a simple devil incident.
As one of the Four Horsemen, the Control Devil, Makima understood the existence of Hell.
Devils exist because of human fear of what they represent. If killed in the human world, they revive in Hell and return to the human world. It was an eternal cycle of fear and rebirth.
Hell is very special. It does not appear in the reality of the human world. It is a separate dimension, a twisted mirror.
But now.
Hell had descended.
In her eyes, Hell was rapidly merging with the human world. The boundaries were dissolving like sugar in water.
And... the aura of devils was appearing. It was a cacophony of terror.
Looking up at the sky.
Countless huge and cold muzzles hung down from the darkness, looking like a sky-covering curtain meant to kill the world. They were monolithic, silent sentinels of death.
And there were bizarrely shaped things appearing twistedly throughout the city. Iron hooks dragging across the pavement, poisonous mist seeping from the sewers, headless giants roaming the streets, countless eyes blinking in the shadows... and so on.
Makima knew that those were the sources of the devils' fear. The primal terrors that birthed them.
The canopy of firearms came from the Gun Devil.
"Gun Devil?"
Makima murmured in confusion. Her usually stoic face showed a flicker of doubt.
This anomaly was created by the Gun Devil? No, it didn't have that kind of Power. The Gun Devil was destruction, yes, but this... this was foundational.
And this darkness came from the primordial devil, the Darkness Devil.
One of the primordial devils that had never experienced death. An entity as old as fear itself.
Far more terrifying than the Gun Devil, one of the strongest devils in Hell, representing one of humanity's original sources of fear, which is darkness.
The Gun Devil could not possibly use the Power of the Darkness Devil. They were on different tiers of existence.
And there were also familiar fears present.
War, famine, death... their fears were spreading like a plague. The Four Horsemen were gathering, it seemed.
"Gun Devil? What kind of devil is that?"
Himeno happened to hear Makima's murmur and asked a strange question. Her voice was puzzled, devoid of the recognition that should have been there.
"..."
Makima simply stared at Himeno's single eye and realized she wasn't joking.
She didn't remember the existence of the Gun Devil.
But this shouldn't have happened. The Gun Devil was global trauma, etched into the collective consciousness.
News of the Gun Devil had leaked, and Himeno was one of those who knew. Everyone knew.
The current situation made her think of a devil she once admired.
The Chainsaw Devil. Pochita.
Makima had yearned to obtain the Chainsaw Devil.
It was very powerful, possessing the unique ability to erase the names of devils. To consume them and wipe their existence from history.
Devils devoured by it.
Their names would, without exception, be completely forgotten by humans. The concept they represented would cease to exist.
It could be said to be the true death of a devil.
Because of this, it became the most feared existence among many devils, and at the same time attracted a group of fanatical devil followers.
And Makima was the only existence in the world who knew the names of the devils devoured by the Chainsaw Devil. She remembered the nuclear weapons, the Nazis, the other horrors lost to time.
There was a similarity to the current situation. A rewriting of reality.
But even if traces of the Chainsaw Devil appeared, Makima now had no fluctuations whatsoever. Her heart beat steady.
Because she no longer needed the Chainsaw Devil.
The reason she wanted to obtain the Chainsaw Devil was precisely because of its ability to eliminate devils. To build her ideal world.
For Makima.
There were unhappy factors in the world such as death, war, and hunger. She wanted to eat them, to erase them.
Makima had always hoped to rely on the Power of the Chainsaw Man to eliminate these unhappy factors and create a better world. A world of control, yes, but a world of peace.
The Control Devil's dream is actually to establish an equal relationship with others?
If this were said, it would surely be treated as a joke by countries around the world.
One should know that Makima was an existence feared by countries around the world. She was the necessary evil, the leash holder.
But the truth was so.
The Control Devil had always only been able to establish relationships through fear, but Makima actually yearned for a close, family-like feeling. She wanted a hug, not a salute.
Now she no longer craved the existence of the Chainsaw Devil, because she had discovered an existence that could create a better world more easily than the Chainsaw Devil.
That was her master, Ren.
In the Chat Group, she also saw the information and the @ from Ren.
Makima: "Hell is rapidly entering the human world, and the source of fear belonging to devils is spreading. Besides that, there are also signs that the Chainsaw Devil might appear. It seems the barrier between worlds has shattered."
Ren: "That doesn't sound very urgent then."
Stella: "? Hell is about to corrupt the human world, how can that not be terrifying? Ren, your standards for 'urgent' are skewed!"
Hell devils are things most humans fear. They are nightmares made flesh.
The two appearing intertwined, it doesn't look pleasant at all. It was an apocalypse in the making.
Ren: "No rush. Ais, Skadi, Exusiai, Ch'en, are you ready? It's field trip time."
Ch'en Sir: "Phew, I used some Power to quickly deal with this police call, ready. Lungmen is secure for now."
Exusiai: "...Cough, Ch'en Sir, you don't have to be so eager to arrest us. Don't you think the companion task is more important? Besides, I was just borrowing that apple pie!"
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