NOVEL NEXT Chapter 172
The fear emitted by the demons and their oppressive magic is something that ordinary humans struggle to endure.
Even for the knights who have trained for a long time in the imperial order, it was no different.
As the war heroes retired one by one, the fragile peace that had lasted for over a decade contributed to their diminishing battle instincts.
– Cough!
– They’re coming in greater numbers!
– Don’t scatter!
– Is the Saint safe?
– Phew!
– Ugggh!
The sound of slashing through demon creatures, the piercing noise…
And the horrific sounds of human screams and bodies being torn apart.
This place was no longer just a forest path.
A bloody battlefield.
– Ugh…! I… I want to live!
As despair gradually consumed this place, everyone was searching for their own way to survive,
but the green-haired boy, in contrast…
– Charge!
was rushing forward.
Against a great demon.
– Clang!
– Sizzle!
His sword imbued with sacred power collided with Lucifer’s spear, its red and black swirling together.
“Nice movement.”
That was as far as Lucifer’s evaluation went.
– Whoosh.
Edwin’s new form, slicing through the black mist, vanished.
– !
– Shhh!
And then, a new form, scattering green light from its eyes, appeared behind him, launching an attack.
– Ka-Boom!!!
Lucifer instinctively twisted his body to evade a strike.
An illusion.
When dense sacred energy mingles with dark magic, its movement leaves behind an afterimage, appearing a beat late.
Thus, the Edwin he was seeing was just one or two seconds behind…
But that wasn’t the end.
– !
While Lucifer dodged Edwin’s sword strike,
– Charge!
his new form and afterimage were already aimed at Baal.
“Kieek?!”
– Thwip!!
Baal immediately fired poison needles in all directions.
– Whoosh…!
However, even after taking a stance from five directions, the incoming attack brushed past…
An illusory massacre.
– Gash. Gashgashgash.
The sound of the great demon’s skin being sliced by the sacred aura echoed a beat late.
In an instant, Baal’s five spider legs fell away.
– Thudthudthud.
“This… is absurd?!”
It was an unprecedented swordsmanship.
The holy sword would typically weigh down as a longsword.
With two hands for durability, it was indeed hefty…
Using it at sword speed like this was a technique unseen in the Empire.
Of course, the reason it was possible was based on Edwin’s abilities.
The elasticity and acceleration qualities he had acquired while facing Bunea, Markosias, and Caeran…
“Edwin, my student, I’ll support you!”
With the Saint, Psyche, directly assisting him, they achieved overwhelming speed against the great demon.
“Kieeek! Is that the quality of a hero!”
– Drip…
Having given up five legs to the sacred sword, Baal just stood still.
For him, pain was a nonexistent sensation.
He only sought to repay it to the enemy before him.
“Kieeek!”
– Crack.
With a different ferocity, Edwin tightened his grip on the sword and spoke to Yeriel.
“I’ll finish up quickly, so just wait a bit.”
…
Edwin said that, but Yeriel couldn’t stay silent either.
“Listen, girl. In the past, I was the one who cast the curse of the archangel upon your grandfather.”
Because Lucifer’s gaze was on Yeriel.
“You’re just like me. An existence that cannot coexist with humans.”
She felt it.
This being was a demon using the same power of corruption as her.
– Ssssh.
“I see. So up until now, you were suppressing what was manifested with sacred power?”
“!”
Lucifer had moved right in front of Yeriel, placing his hand on her chin and openly sharing his thoughts.
“If I were to make a prediction, one day all your companions will die by your hands.”
“…!”
“Or your body will become a demon creature because you couldn’t endure it… I guess it’s one or the other. Isn’t it already your limit?”
Just as he said, Yeriel knew all too well that she couldn’t freely wield the power of the archangel.
Moreover, without letting Aria and Lev worry, she kept that concern hidden…
Her body had already reached its limit.
“So, girl, it’s better for you to quietly follow me.”
“I… won’t fall from grace…!”
“…You’re really providing some terribly despairing words.”
With disdain in his eyes, Lucifer continued.
“The curse of the archangel will gnaw at your life until it manifests. No matter how much of a saint you are, unless you’re the demon king, this curse cannot be lifted. Isn’t this enough of unnecessary argument?”
“…!”
Arian whispered to Yeriel, influenced by his pitiless tone.
“Yeriel, you don’t need to listen to him.”
“Aria…?”
“Trust me.”
– Ssshhhhh!
With those words, Aria’s sacred power began to unfold.
As Lucifer watched that scene and Edwin battling Baal, his patience reached its limit.
“It can’t be helped…”
He had no choice but to forcibly extract the corruption and bring despair.
“You, the girl of Artina, will be the one to kill that man.”
*
In the depths of the Demon King’s Castle,
there lies a pond tantalizingly cracked like pixels, amidst purple darkness.
“So this is where I am…”
Invited into a dimension unreachable to anyone but the Demon King, Yellody Latashia was in awe.
This was not the artificially created fountain of souls for Caeran in the Crow Pay Guild headquarters; this was something of higher dimension magic.
“Wow…”
She continued to express her admiration,
and the Demon King Satan finally spoke.
[Originally, that fountain was just a lake, you know? But… something happened.]
Most of the magic he possessed had been consumed by Lev Denec.
So he needed to refill it.
“Wow…”
By this very Yellody Latashia, who served as a perfect magic battery.
[Now, come over here.]
First, this was the absolute space of the Demon King.
[Any demon without followers must obey my words in this absolute domain.]
There was no time to delay, nor any strength to spare.
The Demon King Satan immediately prepared to absorb Yellody Latashia.
Once he absorbed her dark magic, he would quickly take his life, release Lev Denec’s power, and wait until he resurrected and regained his strength.
[Yellody Latashia. You’ve committed a great sin… So treat becoming my offering as an honor.]
“Eh?”
At the Demon King’s final command, Yellody made a mischievous expression and began to laugh wholeheartedly.
As her sudden laughter echoed, Satan’s expression started to harden.
[Are you saying this is funny right now?]
It turned out he had changed his mind.
The only option left was to absorb her painfully, without an ounce of joy.
The moment the Demon King made that determination, Yellody’s laughter barely stopped, and her mouth opened.
“Can I just become the Demon King instead?”
– …
“The Demon King doesn’t have the qualification… Just look at the state of the Demon King’s castle… it’d be a disaster if someone like you became the king.”
It was a question that needed no consideration.
Regardless of Yellody Latashia’s qualifications as a demon king or the context of the situation, what she was saying was clearly treason.
[Ha ha.]
Above all, in this space, where one’s commands couldn’t be defied, her words could only be seen as the ravings of one who had given up on all life.
If someone who should be dead spoke in madness, that would be somewhat understandable.
[Just die.]
It was then that he frowned at Yellody, intending to kill her.
“Yip.”
– Spluck!
At that moment, the Demon King’s belly was completely pierced.
[Huh…?]
It wasn’t a blade of any sort.
Just a fist.
Someone’s fist jabbed into his back, protruding through his chest.
“I found it. The rat hole.”
[Urgh…!]
Alongside that, a voice that sounded like it could send someone into neurosis echoed repeatedly.
– Thud!!
[Hah!]
When he withdrew his fist, something that made up the Demon King’s body gushed out like crazy.
[No…! No…!]
There was no time to ask how a human had entered this place.
Yellody Latashia was still holding her belly and laughing.
“How does it feel to be stabbed from behind?”
The gray-haired man was also sneering.
“You showed me, right? The ninja extermination ending… was it?”
In this space solely for himself, the one being mocked was the Demon King himself.
“The junior’s doing. As expected, as expected…”
“What, it’s thanks to you I found my way here. It’s so easy it’s disappointing.”
[?!]
The Demon King couldn’t understand their conversation at all.
He didn’t grasp why he found himself in such a situation.
Even after all, those two were supposed to be a demon and a human.
Even if he looked kindly, they were enemies of Caeran and those who hated him.
[What happened…? Cluck…!]
– Thud.
“I guess it’s time to take the breathing tube out.”
That was the last sound the Demon King could hear.
– Thump.
Lev turned his new form to gaze at him and asked,
[?]
– Bam!
As he slugged him right in the face.
…
For a demon, undergoing permanent execution through sacred power was somewhat terrifying.
It meant never waking up again, experiencing things never experienced, coexisting with anxiety about the future.
This would mean eternal obliteration.
But the current Demon King was different.
He denied death and feared starting anew through resurrection.
[Hah… Hah!!]
When he opened his eyes again, as if he had a nightmare in the Fountain of Souls, what he found was… an ending that had already been predetermined.
“Ah, I’m alive again.”
“Junior, let’s wrap this up and go.”
“Then, senior, help me out.”
– Puff!!!
Thus, the Demon King just repeatedly died and resurrected, over and over, until the fountain of souls he possessed was completely drained.
…
How much time had passed?
“Being a Demon King is truly a nuisance.”
After slaying the twenty-first demon to permanently obliterate the Demon King and weaken the great demons, the status window finally appeared.
– Ding!
[Achievement Completed]
[Successfully defeated Satan, the ruler of the 72 demons, the king of Pandemonium, and the authority of the Shadow Realm!!!]
Leaving me with one final task,
the ending of this game…
was finally taking shape.