The Hero's Despair and the Reluctant Plan
"Hoo..."
Jason let out a long sigh. Having been summoned to this world, he had immediately been humiliated by the Demon King. From that moment on, he had sworn to kill the Demon King no matter what.
In Earth, there had been no major threats for five years, so his instincts had grown a bit dull. But since he had arrived in this world, and the Demon King here had shown power far beyond his imagination, even using his trump card would probably not guarantee victory.
However, without the Holy Sword, he had to obtain power through some other means, and there was only one weapon that could serve as a substitute.
No, it could not perfectly replace the Holy Sword, but it was still the strongest weapon excluding the Holy Sword.
'I can't win against them alone.'
Fearing the Demon King's overwhelming strength, Jason realized he had no chance of victory by himself. But he didn't need to fight alone.
He had never thought he could defeat the Demon King by himself.
The Demon King possessed an incredibly powerful army of darkness, and the current forces of that army far surpassed any Demon King forces that had invaded the Intermediate World in the past—over forty million.
His trump card would at least solve the numerical disadvantage, but to actually defeat the Demon King, he needed the power of strong allies.
In that regard, it was truly unfortunate that Saintess Lucretia was captured by Jae-hyun. First and foremost, her beauty and figure—said to be the second most beautiful after Irene the Flash Magic Swordswoman—were a great loss. What was even more regrettable was the vast Holy Power she possessed.
Currently, no one in the Intermediate World possessed Holy Power on the level of Lucretia. Moreover, since the very existence of priests had become rare, the possibility of someone with her kind of Holy Power was virtually nonexistent.
If the Goddess Astraea had personally selected her, that would have been one thing. But even if she had chosen her, it would have been impossible for the Goddess to intervene so heavily in the current situation.
Jason knew that the Goddess could only intervene in the Intermediate World in very limited ways. If she could interfere as freely as she wanted, the Demon King's invasion would have been handled directly by Astraea herself.
Since that was impossible, they had instead created priests and Saintesses to channel the power.
And there was a way to deal with the matter of those who possessed Holy Power. With his hidden card's power, the issue would vanish in no time.
It would be even easier if he could create a platform for the Goddess to intervene more actively, but Jason had no intention of granting her too much influence. His goal was not the salvation of the world, but to dominate this world and do with it as he pleased.
"I also need to bring in the top powers of this era—Jason, Griffith, and that Kyle guy—and my wives who are still on Earth: Rachel, Ruina, Silvia, and Kim Da-gyeom. If all of them are properly equipped with their own powers, we can overwhelm them with sheer numbers."
Jason had been working hard on his plan, but there was still one serious issue he had to solve.
Conquering the continent and turning this place into a world where he could live comfortably was part of the plan, and his hidden card's power could exert enormous influence over the current balance.
Starting with the Dragon Lords, they were already allies. For the sake of opposing the Demon King, he could receive the help of all the Dragons, and the Elves and Dwarves would also lend their support.
Yes, the plan was excellent.
"But I have to get out of here..."
The problem was that he was trapped inside the barrier Jae-hyun the Demon King had set.
He had sensed that the barrier was targeting his soul, likely for dimensional travel, so it probably wouldn't kill him right away. In fact, it hadn't—he had simply been left behind.
But trapping him without killing him was a different issue.
"Damn it... I provoked him too much."
Jason regretted the overzealous provocation only after the fact. But the water had already been spilled, and now he was sealed. He couldn't expect to escape until he shattered the barrier with his own power.
If he had obtained the weapon in advance, even this kind of barrier would have been easy to break. But right now, without it, he was in trouble.
Even if he opened a spatial rift, there was no holy weapon inside the rift. Such weapons were limited in number, and most holy weapons were consumables that gradually lost their power the more they were used. They were not supreme-grade holy weapons.
The Holy Armor—Achilles.
The Holy Shield—Aegis.
The Holy Helmet—Hildegrim.
The Holy Ring—Andvaris.
The Holy Spear—Brunhild.
The Holy Bow—Astrea's Bow.
And so on.
These were not weapons that matched the Holy Sword in origin, but excluding the Holy Sword, each was a legendary item possessing terrifying power.
And Jason knew where the materials for these items were hidden.
The previous Demon Kings had no idea, but he did. They were all sealed in remote locations across the vast northern wasteland of the continent, on the icy lands.
"Huuu..."
But he had not brought any of those weapons. Holy weapons chose their owners, and none of them had chosen him.
Since he already possessed the Holy Sword, swearing loyalty to them would have weakened their very existence. So, as weapons belonging to the Egosword—which had a degree of self-awareness—they had hidden their true master from him.
They saw no need to serve the bearer of the strongest weapon, the Holy Sword, so they did not choose him as their master. Thus, Jason could not obtain their power.
But if they were his wives, and the top powers of this era, they would surely meet the criteria.
"First things first, I need to get out of here."
But that meant he had to escape first. Ferdinand, Griffith, the Dragon Lords, and everyone else believed he was their last hope.
If he had been trapped here for nine days, unable to break free from the Demon King's barrier, how utterly humiliating would that be?
He also had to worry about the morale of his allies crumbling, which only added to his headache.
"Damnable Demon King... If only I could somehow get my hands on the Holy Sword again."
To be honest, the fact that Jae-hyun had become the Demon King yet still wielded the Holy Sword was shocking. The Demon King was the pinnacle of those belonging to darkness and the owner of the Demonic Sword.
The Holy Sword and Demonic Sword ranked among the highest-grade weapons, equal to the very sources of light and darkness themselves.
That fact was proven by the fact that their power varied greatly depending on the user and could theoretically grow without limit.
Yet the idea that the Holy Sword followed the Demon King—the pinnacle of darkness—was simply unbelievable.
Even if he had been the Hero, would that have been possible?
Back then, he had served for fifty years, yet the Holy Sword had fiercely refused to return to Earth with him.
It had angrily rejected the idea of returning to this world, insisting that it belonged here. Eventually, overwhelmed by its resistance, he had had no choice but to leave the Holy Sword behind.
Other holy weapons like the Holy Spear or Holy Bow were also scattered across the northern wasteland. But the only one familiar to him was the sword. Apart from the Holy Sword—the symbol of the Hero—there was no other sword worthy of being called a holy weapon.
However, there was a sword that wielded powerful holy power without being the Holy Sword itself. It was not inferior to the other holy weapons.
If he could obtain that sword...! And since the Holy Sword was no longer its owner, all the other holy weapons—excluding weapons of the same type—would be able to lend him great assistance. He wouldn't have to worry about holding back.
Arming himself with the holy weapons!
"...First, I have to escape... This is troublesome."
Being trapped inside a barrier whose range was not particularly wide caused immense stress. Especially since he should have been spending a pleasant time with his beautiful wives at this hour.
But now he was stuck in a tiny space with no way out.
"Annoying. That bastard has not only monstrous strength but also self-repair ability."
Jae-hyun had estimated that it would take him at least a week to break through the barrier. But Jason's own judgment said at least two weeks.
If he simply concentrated all his power and unleashed a magic spell at the same time as his fist, he could shatter the barrier in an instant. But the backlash would strike him as well.
That was precisely the kind of thing he wanted to avoid. Although concentrating his power into a single point to break the barrier was easy, the real difficulty lay in ensuring that after the attack landed, the shockwave didn't spread everywhere but instead targeted the barrier itself before fading.
He had also considered breaking the barrier by launching continuous attacks. However, the barrier's self-repair ability meant there was a high risk of failure midway, and the barrier grew stronger the more it was damaged—the recovery speed increased with damage.
And he had no desire to spend twenty-four hours non-stop attacking the barrier just to escape.
Differing from Jae-hyun, who only sought revenge as his reason for existence, Jason was merely pursuing simple ambition and the pleasure of this world. In terms of desperation, he was already falling behind Jae-hyun.
* * *
Nine days later.
"Hahaha! Success! It's a success!"
Having successfully escaped the barrier, Jason laughed heartily. He had suffered greatly, but it was finally over. He had broken through the irritating barrier and come out.
Using the new tenth-circle magic he had prepared and practiced for nine days, combined with his fist technique, he had shattered the barrier in a single strike. And just like that, he had escaped.
What remained now was to summon his wives on Earth and use them to their full power, while also activating his hidden card.
"Has the barrier been broken?"
Griffith arrived in a flash the moment the barrier shattered and opened the door to say.
Because the summoning ritual for the otherworldly hero had been performed in secret, the place where Jason was currently located was located deep underground in the imperial palace. Since Griffith or Ferdinand, as a duke and emperor, could not be confined in the basement all day, they had installed only monitoring magic there and mostly performed normal duties.
Like, for example, waging war against the army of darkness.
But they had been nearly despairing ever since the Hero, Jason, had gone missing for nine days. The only hope—the ancient Hero—had supposedly had a conversation with the Demon King, and now he had simply vanished without a single word for nine days. They couldn't shake the thought that the ancient Hero had been slaughtered by the Demon King.
And now that he had returned, they couldn't be happier. For Griffith, it felt as if hope had been reborn.
"Where exactly have you been, Ancestor? We were truly worried about you."
Griffith naturally called Jason "Ancestor," deliberately leveraging their blood relation to build closeness. But Jason accepted the relationship without any displeasure.