The Hero Party Advances Once More
"Haa... huet... chururup!"
"Haa... huaet... chururup!"
Iren and Lucretia had moved far beyond their mutual embrace and kiss on the bare sheets. Now they lay together on the bed, eagerly licking one another's intimate folds and savoring the rich taste of each other's most secret parts.
While Lucretia received that reward for her mission, Jae-hyun watched Estia, Ron's mother.
"Beautiful as always," he murmured.
Time had already grown late into the night. After treating her mind, he had only focused on telling her of the continent's current state and how Ron and Lin had survived. He had yet to claim her body.
Now the moment had come to take her.
"Thank you," Estia said, head bowed in thanks even as fear lingered in her eyes at his praise.
From this day forward she would serve the Demon King Jae-hyun. It was far better than being forced into a sex doll by Andrew, the second son of the late Count Gray, the man who had murdered her husband and crushed her son and daughter into the cruel world at the tender ages of five and four.
She had already come to understand that humanity could become even more wicked and cruel than demons.
And Lin—though she had become a black mage and was now bound to the Demon King—still possessed a strong will and was clearly receiving a great deal of affection from him.
Even as a man who had claimed his own daughter, Jae-hyun was a Demon King, so Estia chose to respect him by thinking not through human eyes but through those of the demon race.
She had already made up her mind to offer her body to the Demon King.
Like Lin, she had chosen to become his concubine, so while she felt tension and fear, she had no desire to resist and no thought of defiance.
Instead, gratitude welled within her for the man who had freed her from the life of a toy, given strength to her children, and avenged her husband.
Both Gray and Andrew were targets of revenge against Ron and Lin—men who had killed their father and trampled their mother in the most horrible way. Yet to Estia they were also devils who had murdered the loving husband she adored and abandoned their five- and four-year-old children to the harsh world.
When Ron and Lin, black mages, regained their consciousness and told her the truth, Estia felt no anger toward her sons and daughters. Instead she wept with sorrow for them.
Thinking of how much hardship they must have endured to become black mages at such young ages, she cried until tears poured down her face.
Now she would become the Demon King's concubine, together with her daughter, and share his favor. She wanted nothing more than to live with her children from this day forward.
"Hehe."
Smiling at her resolute expression, Jae-hyun pressed his lips to hers and began to kiss.
Chururup! Chueop!
Responding like a mature woman, Estia moved her lips skillfully against his, and soon she felt his hands gently caressing her breasts and hips. With no will to resist, she actually enjoyed his touch, and her body quickly began to heat up.
Black Magic
Flames of demonic energy roared to life, engulfing her entire body in ecstasy as Jae-hyun's power surged deeper into her soul.
***
The overwhelming force of the Saintess Lucretia, wings spread wide, appeared suddenly in the place where everyone thought she was dead. She had revived as a demon, the Habsburg Empire's princess Seria.
The shock left behind by Lucretia was immense.
Even the Demon King was not present, yet the Saintess of the Astraea Holy Kingdom had become a subordinate and possessed such terrifying power. The Hero Party stood in stunned silence.
Even Ji-ho himself grew dizzy, needing a moment to calm his mind and rest.
"Huu."
A long sigh escaped his lips.
Lucretia's power was truly unbearable. Her recovery ability was the only exception, but even now he could not defeat her.
Jae-hyun had also sent Seria to extract Lucretia, knowing she would not die but could be captured.
Yet Lucretia's absurd regeneration and recovery abilities had been beyond expectation. If the fight had continued, Ji-ho would have been forced to reveal one of his hidden trump cards.
He had felt it himself: even at full power, only grinding her down would never bring down the Demon King. Still, with his companions he was certain he could defeat Jae-hyun.
The real problem lay afterward. Even if he defeated the Demon King, using that method would leave him with no strength left. In that case the risk of Lucretia slaying them all would be enormous.
The emotions the Saintess held toward the Demon King were far more than mere love—obsession, madness, and ownership swirled together around it. To Lucretia, Kim Jae-hyun was existence itself.
At that moment Jae-hyun had begun slowly tasting Estia's body, while his arch-enemy Ji-ho found himself entangled in a far higher difficulty than expected.
"The difficulty has even surpassed Korean difficulty level. Damn it."
The phrase "Korean difficulty" referred to a game mode higher than the infamous Lunatic difficulty. Ji-ho saw defeating the Demon King as an even more merciless challenge, perfectly comparable to Korean difficulty.
Yet somehow the girl Seria—once an ordinary child—had become a demon girl brimming with terrifying power and experience, elevating the difficulty beyond even Korean difficulty.
This was precisely the moment Ji-ho would face the nightmare of facing strong foes after defeating the Demon King.
"I'm sorry, dear. I wasn't helpful at all..."
"I'm sorry for getting in the way."
"There's nothing I can say..."
"I'm sorry..."
Rachel, Ruina, Silvia, and Kim Da-gyeom all approached him at once, offering apologies.
In the battle against the Saintess they had been unable to help. Instead they had helplessly been suppressed by her aura.
With them it was truly unforgivable. They had sworn to help in Ji-ho's fight, yet they had been suppressed so thoroughly as to provide zero assistance.
"I'm sorry. I burdened you."
Even the Archangel Gabriel approached him and apologized. Ji-ho shook his head in response to her words that carried the meaning of their reunion after eight thousand years.
"No, it wasn't your fault. The opponent was bad. It would have been better if she had been a demon. But she was a Saintess who used holy power. And on top of that, a Saintess who wielded the Wings of the Goddess. The compatibility was truly the worst."
Lucretia's power was indeed immense, yet limits clearly existed. Her subordinates could resist her domination for at least a moment. That was proof.
However, when Gabriel and Ji-ho's wives became bound by Lucretia's power, they could not move at all. It was because her power was light itself.
If she had wielded dark power as a subordinate of the Demon King who led the Dark Legion, they might have been freed. But holy power, being light, could not deal great damage to others of the same element. That was why even Michael, Raphael, and Uriel had been unable to release them.
"The important thing is that if Lucretia and Seria attack together, it will be quite dangerous."
Ji-ho had truly grasped the crucial point.
Lucretia, the Saintess who could unleash her god-like special abilities once she spread her Wings of the Goddess.
Seria, whose combat ability revealed rich experience that even Ji-ho found astonishing.
Especially the pain from Seria's small fist that had struck his abdomen remained deeply etched in his mind.
"I know Seria's fist from direct experience. It's not simply because her physical strength is good. That fist isn't something obtained after ten or twenty years of training. It is power that can only come after prolonged training far beyond that level. I honestly have never seen such deep understanding of martial arts in anyone."
"Is that so?"
Rachel asked with a serious expression.
"Yes. Perhaps the girl who appeared as the Habsburg Princess Seria is not truly Seria, but some other being."
"Not truly Seria, but some other being?"
Rachel tilted her head in confusion, but Silvia and Kim Da-gyeom—who were mages—and even the quietly listening Jason and Griffith showed clear interest.
"Hmm. Indeed, she may be a different existence."
Griffith, who had heard Ji-ho's opinion, began to suspect that Seria might truly be another being. He had been the one who brainwashed Irene, and he had watched the steady growth of the girl Irene had given birth to—Seria—after her pregnancy with Ferdinand's child.
Seria's personality bore no resemblance to Ferdinand at all; instead it resembled Irene's pure personality before she was trampled by him.
"For now we don't know the details, but we should all stay alert. Fighting against her today was actually a very good experience. We were able to confirm the powers the enemy possesses."
Although they had learned little about Seria, it was a great gain to know the level of her physical strength. And confirming the limits of Lucretia's powers was also a significant gain.
"Moreover, I too have gained new insights today. When we fight next time, I won't suffer the same defeat as before."
"Ah! You have new insights?"
Ruina asked Ji-ho with bright eyes, hoping his growth would make him even stronger.
Both Jae-hyun and Ji-ho had come to this world from another dimension, and their growth far surpassed even Irene, the genius who emerged only once in a thousand years.
Ji-ho had gained those insights from the fight with Lucretia moments ago, and they would undoubtedly make him stronger.
"Yes, so rest for a while. I need to organize these insights."
His companions' morale, which had been crushed by Lucretia's power, recovered at once. Without showing it outwardly, the dragons—including the Dragon Lord—felt hope upon learning that Ji-ho had grown even stronger.
The archangels and ordinary angels alike felt the same relief.
Yet Ji-ho felt unease despite his rapid growth. The Demon King Jae-hyun would grow at a similar pace.
From the beginning Ji-ho had been wary of Jae-hyun's growth speed and had started the war so quickly that he had no time to build up his companions' strength.
"But hope still remains."
For now Lucretia and Seria were still threats, but Ji-ho decided to focus first on defeating the Demon King. Once the Demon King fell, the Dark Legion would lose its core and begin to fight among themselves, and he intended to use that chaos to their advantage.
Thus the Hero Party led by the ancient hero Ji-ho, having recovered morale thanks to Lucretia's suppression, advanced once more toward the Demon King's Castle when Ji-ho finished resting.
Toward defeating Kim Jae-hyun.