Chapter 264
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 264
Ciel and the others stared blankly at the now-sealed dimensional gate.
“Did we… succeed?”
Whoosh—
The massive vortex of mana gradually dissipated. The terrifying energy and ominous aura that had been pouring from the gate subsided, and the sky began to clear as if the nightmare had never happened.
Only when the tremors of mana had completely vanished and the characteristic crimson sky of the Demon Realm reappeared did the reality of their victory sink in.
Roen and the rest of them… they had stopped the great calamity that threatened the entire continent.
Just as everyone began to sigh in relief, having prevented total ruin, a sharp gasp broke the silence.
“Keuk.”
Roen suddenly collapsed.
“Lord Roen!”
Ciel, who had been staring blankly at the sky, rushed over in a single bound to catch him.
“Haa, haa…”
In Ciel’s arms, Roen clutched his heart, his entire body trembling violently. Seeing his condition, Gillean’s expression hardened.
“This is dangerous.”
“What’s happening all of a sudden? Is it because his mana circuits overloaded?”
Gillean shook his head at Carmilla’s frantic question.
“I don’t think so. Of course, activating such a massive magic circle and manifesting an Authority to close the gate puts an immense strain on the mana circuits. But His Majesty accounted for that. He should have had more than enough power left.”
“Then why is this happening? He usually heals from any wound!”
Roen’s current body was capable of regenerating in an instant, even if his heart was crushed or his head exploded. A simple mana circuit overload couldn’t explain this level of collapse.
Gillean narrowed his eyes. “If I were to venture a guess… it’s that the King’s body was not designed to exist after the great work was complete.”
“…!”
“The King’s body, sublimated through the succession ritual, was designed to exist only until the moment the goal was achieved. Now that everything is over, it has served its purpose.”
A body that has served its purpose has nothing left to do but crumble into dust. Soon, it would scatter like a mirage and return to the world.
Ciel cried out, her voice cracking. “Then what do we do?!”
“What else? He has to switch to a new body. Though I’m not sure if there’s enough time for that.”
There was a homunculus Roen had prepared back at the Demon King’s Castle. If he could quickly transfer his soul and karma into that vessel, he would survive.
“Then hurry!” Ciel shouted at Gillean while supporting Roen.
Aside from Roen, Gillean was the only one present who could use spatial magic. They needed him to get from the Shaitan Meteor Crater straight to the Demon King’s Castle.
But Gillean just shrugged. “Well now, I don’t see any reason why I should.”
Now that the prophesied destruction had been averted, Gillean had no reason to remain loyal to Roen. Besides, if Roen died, the Covenant of Obedience binding him would be broken. Through Roen’s demise, Gillean would finally regain his freedom.
“Hey, do you have a death wish?”
Carmilla immediately grabbed Gillean by the collar and hoisted him up. Gillean just smirked and looked at Roen.
“That said, it’s not that I can’t help you. If you’ll just promise me one thing.”
Thud.
Gillean flicked his fingers, pulling a large coffin from the void beyond the barrier. Inside lay the body of a woman who looked as if she were merely sleeping.
Gillean looked at her and said, “Since you’re bringing people back to life anyway, what’s one more?”
*
The Demon King’s Castle. The Altar of Revival.
My soul and karma were transferred to the homunculus just moments before my previous body completely disintegrated. Opening my eyes, I clenched and unclenched my fists, testing the new body’s motor functions.
‘…A success.’
Ariel must have performed the transfer ritual for me after I passed out. Thankfully, it seemed to have worked.
Stagger—
I tried to stand, but my legs gave out, and I collapsed.
“Lord Roen, you should rest for a moment,” Ciel said, helping me up.
I shook my head. “No, there’s no time.”
Even though I could barely support my own weight, there was something I had to do first.
“I have to finish the Revival Ritual before the converted mana disappears. If I wait any longer, I won’t be able to bring the others back.”
I had succeeded in converting the immense power of chaos into pure mana using the continent-spanning magic circle. But this vast amount of mana was volatile. If not used quickly, it would soon vanish. Before that happened, I had to resurrect the one million innocent people.
I rose from the altar and hurried to the laboratory.
Charrr—
I accessed the Imperial Seal and entered the information of the woman from Gillean’s coffin into the magic circle. He was a bastard, but a promise was a promise.
“Alright, let’s begin the Revival Ritual.”
The ritual was meant to bring back the one million people sacrificed in the Human-Demon War. Their sacrifices had made it possible to close the dimensional gate and prevent ruin; now it was time to grant them new life.
Woooong—
As the magic circle activated, the immense mana I had sent to the castle was injected, and the World Tree rooted deep beneath the castle began to glow. The tree’s roots supplied mana to the laboratory, which spanned dozens of floors underground, initiating the homunculus cultivation.
Inside giant cultivation tanks, homunculi began to grow at an impossible speed. Simultaneously, the genetic information and records from the Imperial Seal were transmitted. In accordance with that data, the karma stored in the Karma Orb began to inhabit the cultivating homunculi one by one.
“Haa, haa…”
I gasped for breath, struggling to manipulate the vast torrent of mana flowing into the World Tree. Fortunately, the ritual had begun successfully, but a problem remained.
To complete the ritual for one million people, the activation of the Orb of Life was essential. The problem, however, was that I had set the Orb of Life to activate with the death of Roen’s homunculus as the trigger.
According to the plan, letting Freya kill a fake homunculus would have been fine, but…
‘Now, I’m the one inside this body.’
I let out a hollow laugh and looked down at my hands. Was my fatal mistake not anticipating that my original body’s lifespan would end the moment I closed the gate?
The problem was, I couldn’t just transfer to a new homunculus and be resurrected. My soul originated from an external world, so there was no record of it in the Imperial Seal required for the ritual.
In the end, I couldn’t be revived through the World Tree. If I lost this body, I would truly die.
And in the midst of this realization…
“The human army has invaded the Demon King’s Castle!”
A messenger burst into the laboratory with urgent news. Freya had finally arrived to kill me.
*
“The Demon King’s Castle is in sight!”
The expeditionary force, formed to subjugate the Demon King who would bring about the world’s ruin, had arrived. They had pushed back the infighting demons and advanced with unstoppable momentum. Today, they had finally reached the gates.
Squeeze—
Freya gripped her sword tightly, staring at the castle beyond the black mist.
‘The Orb of Life…’
The Chairman—no, Ain Soph—had said that with the Orb of Life, any miracle was possible. It was a legendary artifact that could restore this broken world. He had said that combined with Elena’s divine power, it might even be able to bring back those who had died in vain.
Securing the Orb of Life was the final objective of this expedition.
“Everyone, to your positions! Cover Freya!”
As they reached the entrance, Leonhardt and the expeditionary force engaged the demonic beasts to clear a path for the Hero.
Kiyaaa—!
Kuooo—!
While the others fought, Freya charged into the castle alone.
“Freya!”
Leaving Leonhardt’s fading voice behind her, Freya pressed forward. She cut down the demon soldiers and gargoyle statues guarding the halls one after another. Contrary to her expectations, there were no high-ranking demons or Venerables inside.
She moved quickly through the strangely empty castle until, at last, she reached the heart of it.
“You’ve come.”
Freya came face to face with Roen once more. He stood on an altar at the top of a high flight of stairs. His complexion was ghastly. He looked as if he was in agony, struggling even to stand upright.
Freya slowly climbed the stairs toward him. When she reached the altar and met his gaze, Roen slowly parted his lips.
“You’re a little late.”
Roen spoke to her as if nothing was wrong. Freya swallowed the myriad emotions boiling inside her and asked about the artifact.
“The Orb of Life… where is it?”
Roen pointed to his own chest. “I have it. To be precise, I absorbed it into my body for eternal life. But it seems there were side effects, as it didn’t integrate properly. If you kill me, you can take it.”
“…”
Was that why Roen couldn’t stand properly? Or was he lying to her again? She couldn’t tell.
Vwoom—
As Freya hesitated, Roen summoned a sword from his subspace and gripped it.
“Come, Hero Freya. The time has come to end this long story.”
The sword in his hand was the iron training sword Freya had once gifted him. Freya bit her lip, rushed at him, and swung her blade.
Clang—!
Sword met sword. At Freya’s attack, Roen immediately lost his grip and fell backward.
“Haa, haa…”
His confident challenge was rendered meaningless as he lay on the floor, gasping for breath. He was in no condition to fight. In fact, his very life seemed to be flickering out.
Freya pointed her sword at his neck, looking down at him with cold eyes. “Get up and fight, Demon King Roen. You’re better than this, aren’t you?”
“I’d love to, but…”
Thump.
Roen tried to push himself up, but his strength failed him, and he collapsed back onto the floor. The side effects of the soul transfer followed by the large-scale ritual were too much. He could barely breathe, let alone fight.
Feeling the cold steel against his neck, Roen quietly clenched his fist.
‘Is this the end of my story?’
After working so desperately to save this world. After struggling so hard to escape his fate. Was a meaningless death all that remained?
For a moment, despair and anger surged within him, but Roen quickly composed himself.
‘No.’
Perhaps this was the right ending.
‘I was already dead once.’
He was never a person of this world to begin with. And he had committed an incomparably great sin. Even if it was all to prevent ruin, his choices had led to a massacre that created a million victims. Moreover, he had achieved it by deceiving the people most precious to him. It could never be considered just.
He had been given a new life, he had done enough, and now he was simply returning to the void. It was the natural order—a predetermined fate.
But if he had one regret…
‘I want to see Ciel one last time.’
If he had one small wish, it would be to see her face and exchange a few words. Leaving without a proper goodbye left a small, lingering attachment. But now, that was a wish that could not be granted.
Roen’s breathing was ragged as he silently lowered his head.
“…”
He lay helplessly on the altar, simply waiting for the end. Freya looked down at him without a word. He looked so pitiful and weak. Like a wounded animal.
As she stared at him, Freya’s mind was a storm of conflict.
‘Why did he come here when he doesn’t even have the strength to fight?’
‘And why is he offering me his neck, as if he wants to die?’
Doubts welled up in her heart. Freya gripped her sword tighter, trying to shake off the suspicion.
‘No, he’s a villain who betrayed everyone, became the Demon King, and started a war.’
He was the enemy who killed her father, a murderer who had destroyed her family and countless others across the continent. An evil man who used the Orb of Life—the key to reviving everyone—for his own selfish immortality.
He deserved to die. And yet…
Tremble—
Freya couldn’t bring herself to swing the holy sword. She could only grip the hilt harder, her heart filled with boiling sorrow and a desperate, helpless feeling.
For a long moment, Freya kept her sword pointed at Roen’s throat.
Clang—
Finally, she threw the holy sword to the ground, grabbed Roen’s shoulders, and shook him. She cried out through her tears.
“Why… Just why?!”
Why would he do such hideous things and force such a cruel choice upon her? Could this, too, be a deception, just like all the other infamous deeds he’d committed? Could it be that he became the Demon King, shouldering all the sins, just to protect everyone?
“Say something! Please, tell me, Roen!”
Freya collapsed, sinking to her knees and embracing him.
“Who am I supposed to believe? If you die too, then I…”
Everyone she loved was already gone. Her father, her family—she could never see them again. The people of her domain had been massacred, and Winter Castle, her home, had been burned to the ground. She had no reason to live, yet she had endured and trained until now, fueled only by hatred and a desire for revenge against him.
The target of her revenge was also the man she had once loved.
In this situation, if Roen—her only remaining pillar of support, however twisted—were to die, how could she go on? If even he was gone, then…
“What… what am I supposed to do?”
Freya buried her face in Roen’s chest and sobbed. Roen weakly wrapped his arms around her as she trembled in his embrace.
‘I’m sorry.’
He had done a terrible thing to her. He had killed Wodanaz and destroyed her family to provoke her, pushing her to become the Hero the world needed. And at the end of it all, forcing her to swing the sword and kill him herself… it was far too cruel.
But now, he had to finish what he started.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Roen gently stroked Freya’s hair and managed to get to his feet. He picked up the holy sword she had dropped and held it out. Perhaps because the homunculus had no demonic blood, Ascalon showed no signs of rejection.
Roen placed the holy sword firmly in Freya’s hand and covered it with his own.
“Kill me and take the Orb of Life. Then you can save your father, your family, and everyone else who died in the war. Everything will go back to the way it was.”
The Revival Ritual had already been activated. All that remained was the activation of the Orb of Life, which served as the trigger. If Freya took the orb and gave it to Elena, the ritual would be complete.
The bodies cultivated by the World Tree, the genetic information in the Imperial Seal, the karma in the Karma Orb, and finally, the souls within the Orb of Life. All of these would come together to resurrect everyone who was sacrificed.
That was the final plan he and the Chairman had agreed upon.
Afterward, the world would praise Freya, the Hero who defeated the Demon King, and Elena, the Saintess who revived the fallen. The world would be saved, and the Demon Realm would be occupied with rebuilding for generations. The Human-Demon War would end in humanity’s victory, and the resurrected would enjoy a long era of peace.
That was enough. It was finally over.
“But if that happens, you…”
“I must pay the price for my deeds. The Demon King Roen will be vanquished today.”
I took the teary-eyed Freya’s hand and aimed the holy sword at my own chest.
“Now. Do what you must, Hero Freya. There isn’t much time.”
Any more delay could jeopardize the ritual. I pulled Freya’s hand, which was gripping the holy sword, toward me.
“No! Roen, I—!”
Freya resisted until the very end, but I manifested my last remaining Authority and forced the blade forward.
Shluk—
The holy sword Ascalon slid smoothly into my fragile body, piercing my heart. The fated conclusion, finally achieved. The moment of prophecy had arrived.
I forced a smile and caressed Freya’s cheek.
“……Well done, Hero.”