Chapter 58

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 58

Chapter Title: Aslan Kingdom's Hero Sage (5)

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Unlike when I was caught off guard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by Rayleigh and Kina's pincer attack, the severed arm wasn't regenerating easily.

Was it because of the holy sword's power?

The stump writhed as it tried to regenerate, but the speed was noticeably different.

"She's definitely strong."

I looked down at my severed arm and murmured.

It was genuine admiration.

I hadn't intended to sacrifice an entire arm from the start.

Her swordsmanship was far sharper than I'd anticipated.

And the holy power shooting from the holy sword was so dense and potent that it blew off my entire left arm.

She covered her exposed chest, her face flushed red as she glared at me.

No matter how much of a warrior she was, she was still a woman.

No woman enjoyed having her breasts on display.

"Haa, haa."

But my real goal wasn't just to expose her chest.

A thin red line ran between her large breasts.

Through the gaping wound, Arubis's and my demonic energy were corroding her body.

A small crack had formed in the divine power that protected her.

And through that crack, the dungeon's demonic energy was seeping in little by little.

It was a carefully calculated strike.

One worth sacrificing an arm for.

A new status ailment appeared above Sage's head.

It had landed perfectly.

And as the demonic energy corroded her, the colors of various curses—including the ones Amy had cast earlier—grew darker and more intense.

This was the strategy I'd relied on while conquering this game.

The one surefire way to take down adventurers far stronger than the dungeon's traps and monsters.

Adventurers with a certain level of power maintained a mana barrier to resist the demonic energy permeating the dungeon.

That barrier protected them from corruption, no matter how deep into the dungeon they ventured.

It dealt almost no damage, but it wounded the mana barrier surrounding their bodies.

Once breached, demonic energy seeped in, layering curses and debuffs, weakening the adventurers until the elite monsters finished them off.

That's the attack I'd used on Sage.

'I could kill her if I wanted, but it'd be better to capture her intact.'

She was even more tantalizing than Bergio.

What kind of cries would she make once corrupted?

A fallen hero wielding a holy sword...

It was an irresistible scenario.

Confirming the enhanced curses, I opened my mouth.

"You're on a different level from that knight who came before."

"What?"

"Oh, you didn't see him? The owner of the head I sent back. He was so pathetic he couldn't even scratch me. And yet he was a knight captain? I figured he must've bought the position with bribes."

A lie.

He'd been one of the toughest opponents I'd faced.

Someone I wanted as a subordinate.

"Don't insult him. Don't tarnish that man's honor! Lord Bergio isn't someone a worm like you gets to speak of!"

Rage burned in her eyes.

She'd stopped bothering to cover her chest.

As she assumed her stance, two pristine white hills came into sharp view, topped with a pair of blooming cherry blossoms.

"Was he your mentor? He seemed awfully weak for one. Maybe you followed the wrong teacher?"

Her eyes blazed with unquenchable fury.

She was consumed by rage, blind to everything around her.

In that instant, the hero vanished from my sight.

Clang!

The holy sword and demonic sword clashed once more.

The air trembled from the massive collision of forces.

Sage's breasts jiggled with each impact.

Quite the spectacle.

"It'd be troublesome if the hero lost her reason."

I parried her holy sword with one hand and said.

"You bastard... I'll kill you. I'll tear your limbs apart until no one can even find your corpse. Then Lord Bergio can finally rest in peace..."

She gnashed her teeth and swung her sword.

But the precise sword path from before was gone, lost to her rage.

I kept trading blows with her while bringing up Bergio.

"You have considerable strength. Unlike that man. Once he realized he had no chance, he dropped to his knees and begged for his life. The pathetic look on his face right before his head came off..."

"Uaaagh!"

I praised her skill while disparaging Bergio, and Sage flew into a rage again.

The "Trauma" above her head turned pitch black.

'Avenge me.'

Sage knew this voice was a hallucination.

It had to be.

Bergio had been slain by the Demon King and crossed a river of no return.

Yet...

"Avenge me."

The figure of Bergio beside her now, shedding bloody tears and repeating the words, looked exactly as he had in life.

He alternated his gaze between Sage and the Demon King as he spoke.

"That bastard is the Demon King who killed me."

"It's all lies."

"I fought honorably and died like a true knight."

"You must win."

"Kill him! Kill him! Target his severed left arm! He won't be able to block even if he knows!"

"Attack first! Pressure him so he can't swing his sword!"

The voice was harsh and vicious, nothing like Bergio's gentle tone in life.

Even knowing it wasn't real, it felt like the dead man had come back to life.

"Lord Bergio..."

Sage moved as if entranced by the voice.

Attacking when he told her to attack.

Breaking through when he urged her to.

Just like when she'd learned the sword from him in the past.

Like a disciple blindly obeying her master.

The problem was that the Bergio she saw and heard now was no more than a phantom born from her trauma.

And that phantom's advice...

"Guhk!"

Was leaving ever deeper wounds on her.

'Lord Bergio...'

Even as wounds multiplied on her body, Bergio's apparition demanded increasingly reckless assaults.

Pure offense, abandoning all defense.

Sage's sword grew heavier with each swing.

The myriad curses weighing her down.

She felt the blessing that had resisted them fading away.

She turned her head to check on the priests.

And there...

"Now you too shall become the Demon King's faithful apostle."

She saw Amy kissing the foreheads of the dazed priests.

The priests began carving the filthy symbol of the devil onto themselves at the spot she'd kissed.

"Aaaah..."

Instead of cries of pain, they moaned in ecstasy, grotesque smiles twisting their faces as they stared blankly at Amy.

Blood trickled from their foreheads, covering their faces, yet the priests smiled on.

Corrupted, they clasped their hands together as they gazed at Amy.

"Aaaah..."

A horrific hymn that grated on the ears echoed through the dungeon.

A new status ailment appeared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠above Sage's head.

Confirming the priests' annihilation, she belatedly scanned her surroundings.

"Kuaaagh!!!"

The knights were all dead.

"Kyaaagh!"

Crack!

The mages had all frozen solid or been pierced by the wind, dead.

Every party member except her had been wiped out.

All the blessings that had shielded Sage ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were gone. Only vicious status ailments and curses floated chaotically above her head.

Nothing but the holy sword and hero's blessing remained to protect her.

No one was left.

She had failed.

Miserably.

She'd gotten all her comrades killed.

"Avenge me! Hurry!"

The intensified hallucination of Bergio urged her on.

He craved revenge.

He wanted her to kill the enemy with her death.

'Yes. Kill the Demon King and die.'

That would be her atonement for the comrades who'd died due to her misjudgment.

"Hraaah!!"

Sage charged at the Demon King with everything she had.

"Foolish. Do you still think you can win?"

The Demon King swung his sword.

Clang!

The hero was defeated.

"Amy, good work."

I praised Amy as she bandaged my severed left arm.

The moment the stump touched, the flesh and bone began writhing into place.

The sensation was profoundly strange.

I looked at the priests Amy had brainwashed.

Having carved the devil's symbol into their own foreheads, the corrupted priests reached out to me with both arms.

"Aaah, Demon King..."

There was a decent-looking priestess among them, but I didn't touch her.

If I did, she'd crumble to dust. Better to use priestesses like her as broodmothers.

"It must've taken effort to corrupt them all. You did well."

"Not at all, my Demon King. It was easy, actually. There was hardly any direct combat."

Aside from the few knights guarding them, they had no real combat power.

The bulk of the knights—Frederica, Rebecca, and those fighting them—had been stalled by the gargoyles' ambush.

"It's not hard to make fools who believe in a foolish god believe again."

I stroked Amy's head.

"Use the women with high mana as broodmothers for the monsters. Have the rest serve as missionaries for the cult."

"Understood."

At Amy's gesture, the corrupted priests rose in unison.

They shuffled off into the dungeon's depths.

Some of them would sacrifice themselves for powerful new units.

"Check the battlefield outside. If any enemies remain, join the fray and wipe them out. Once combat ends, distribute appropriate rewards to the monsters who fought well."

Yulia and the other female subordinates bowed their heads and swiftly exited the dungeon.

"Now, how should I prepare you..."

Sage felt her fading consciousness returning.

A sensation she thought she'd never feel again.

She'd believed she'd died after her final clash with the Demon King.

'I'm... not dead...'

In the end, she hadn't died.

She'd tried to go down honorably with her comrades.

But everyone died because she wasn't good enough.

And yet she survived again, tenaciously.

Tears welled up.

Her face burned hot, and she began sobbing uncontrollably.

"Hic, sob... Lord Bergio..."

She'd accomplished nothing.

Neither revenge nor victory.

Just thoroughly ravaged by the Demon King.

Clank.

Her arms wouldn't move.

Her legs either.

Both arms and legs bound in iron chains, she was imprisoned in a cell.

A dark ceiling.

The damp underground prison, with water dripping from cracks in the stone, brutally reflected her reality.

Was the kingdom finished now?

They'd lost significant forces, but it wasn't enough to topple the kingdom.

This failure would force them to find new ways to combat the Demon King.

So she couldn't give up either.

She had to find a way to escape somehow.

And then.

A voice came from beyond the bars.

"You're awake?"

A familiar face.

The priestess who'd visited her during her trauma episodes, casting Cure to dispel them.

The one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who'd banished Bergio's hallucinations.

"You're... alive?"

"Of course. I didn't die."

Her twisted smile looked off.

A vivid red devil's symbol drawn in blood on her forehead.

Sage belatedly realized all the priests had carved the devil's symbol into their own foreheads.

"Y-You fell to that Demon King too?"

"Oh, of course! I finally realized the grace of the Demon King and started walking the true path. Isn't that fortunate?"

The woman in black priestess robes smiled brightly.

"The Demon King even gave me a very important mission."

"Snap out of it. You're seeing hallucinations. You're being used."

"My, our hero is still trapped by the ghosts of the past. Well, someone of your caliber who so deeply believed in that foolish god... it's understandable. But if you follow the Demon King, even better things await."

Madness gleamed in the priestess's eyes.

She twitched with every word, looking down at Sage.

"Because you can receive rewards that even a god won't give."

With that, the priestess shed her robes.

Swish.

As she lifted her clothes, a bulging lower belly came into view. Swollen like a woman five months pregnant, it bore an erotic tattoo. Her groin was wrapped tightly in white spider silk.

"I've become a broodmother for the giant spider. Its children are growing inside me right now. In time, they'll hatch and devour me to become part of the Demon King's army. Even weak, stupid bitches like me get to serve thanks to his mercy... Aaah, to become part of the Demon King like this... Isn't it blissful?"

"Y-You're insane. You're all mad."

Sage couldn't believe it.

How could such devout priests change like this?

"It's okay. You don't understand yet, Hero—the joy of becoming part of the Demon King's army. But you will soon."

The priestess reached through the bars.

"Now it's time to carry out the mission the Demon King gave me."

Black light glimmered from her hand.

"Cure."

Black light bloomed from her hand and slowly seeped into Sage's chest.

A nauseating revulsion pounded at her heart.

"Don't! Don't send that filthy energy into me!"

Clank! Rattle!

"Haa, how can you be so foolish... Watching a fallen hero awaken to the truth and become a true sister might be entertaining..."

Though I won't get to see it all.

Finishing her spell, the priestess opened the door, entered, and spooned soft soup into Sage's mouth.

Ptooey!

"I won't eat it. Not food from you people."

"Well, alright. The Demon King said not to force it. See you tomorrow then."

The priestess left.

Sage watched her retreating back, vowing she would never break.