Chapter 361: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 361
I saw myself walking out of the mirror, a scene so surreal it seemed to belong in a nightmare.
Only after watching Yan quickly subdued by Elijah and the mirror-Yan did Agatha manage to react.
"Break that mirror now!"
The most loyal servant to Agatha's command was Borden.
Borden threw the spear he was holding. The spear advanced toward the mirror, but another spear flew in and deflected Borden's spear. It was Borden who had emerged from the mirror.
The Borden who came out of the mirror was bloodless and pale like a vampire.
Elijah bound Yan with chains and commanded.
"Attack."
At Elijah's simple command, the doppelgangers that jumped out of the mirror ran across the field, loaded cannons, and fired guns.
Their movements appeared skilled and seemed to lack any fear of death. When fearless soldiers faced soldiers confronting a nightmare, the winner was determined even before the battle began.
***
Caesar couldn't take his eyes off the situation Agatha had shown him. He thought Elijah wouldn't simply stand by, but he never expected him to counterattack with such an extraordinary artifact.
"That me in the mirror could use the same charm magic. Even the artifacts we were holding were copied exactly the same."
Agatha's tail lost its strength and drooped.
"I thought Elijah would have something up his sleeve, but I never expected it to be like this. Who would have guessed that I would face myself on that battlefield."
"How are things now?"
"We've set up camp near the vampire castle and are discussing countermeasures. Well, although we say we're discussing countermeasures, nothing is progressing. Actually, it's fair to say that morale has been completely broken."
Agatha leaned on Caesar's shoulder.
"I brought all the troops I could gather with the intention of giving Elijah a good beating, but after being so miserably defeated, even I don't even feel motivated anymore. Perhaps Elijah was an unbreakable wall all along."
Agatha held Caesar's hand.
"... So don't try to confront Elijah. We know nothing about Elijah, but Elijah knows too much about us."
"Have you given up on fighting Elijah?"
"This world seems cruel, Caesar. Elijah is the one who started the demon realm war and killed my family and friends, but if you don't have power, you can only be defeated."
Agatha's tears fell drop by drop. The tears fell onto Caesar's hand that was holding hers.
"I'm sorry, but I don't want to lose any more of my people. Especially the thought of you dying is unbearable."
Caesar silently comforted the crying Agatha.
The more he did so, the more his heart burned. Regret for not being able to stay with Agatha when she was struggling and anger toward Elijah who made Agatha cry mixed together, burning his heart.
"I'll go meet Elijah."
"No. Don't go. You'll die."
"I won't die."
"Yan couldn't do anything and was defeated. No matter how strong you've become, your mirror self will be just as strong. If Elijah joins in, you might end up like Yan."
"Since I saw how Yan was defeated, I won't fall for the same method. I'll be as careful as possible."
Agatha looked into Caesar's eyes. They were the eyes of someone who had already made up his mind.
"Promise me. If it seems dangerous, you will definitely run away."
Caesar linked his pinky finger with Agatha's.
"I promise."
***
Viewed from the sky, the Friedrich Border was quiet.
That was equivalent to saying it lacked vitality. Although it was summer when wheat should be emitting a blue glow, the farmland was desolate and there was no sign of people.
Occasionally, only fierce stray dogs were seen with their noses to the ground, searching for food.
"Can it be this empty?"
Raven's hand pointed south.
"I think there's something far over there."
When Gloria followed Raven's hand, she saw black smoke. Something was clearly being burned.
"If it's not a forest fire, they must be preparing a meal, right?"
Gloria's imagination was poorer than expected. When they went to where the black smoke was coming from, they saw people.
However, what the people were burning was the village itself.
"Oh no, oh no!"
People wailed as they watched the burning houses and warehouses. Judging by the potatoes that had popped out of the warehouse, it seemed to be a food storage.
The people who had set the fires looked down coldly at the weeping villagers and muttered.
"There is no homeland. There is no homeland. There is no homeland."
All of them muttered in the same rhythm and tone, like brainwashed people. Villagers charged at these men with pitchforks. The men subdued those with pitchforks with strong force and then whispered in their ears.
"There is no homeland. There is no homeland. There is no homeland."
"Aaaaargh! You madmen!"
Gloria gripped her greatsword tightly.
"We should go down right now, Master."
"Wait."
"Shouldn't we save those people right now!"
"Look over there."
Caesar pointed to the plain beyond the village. The plain was filled with as many people as grains of sand. They all muttered in unison.
"There is no homeland. There is no homeland. There is no homeland."
Countless people were moving south, holding pitchforks, shovels, and sickles. Raven read the magic waves flowing from their bodies. They were all humans dominated by the emotion of anger.
Their anger didn't blaze like kindling but was quiet like embers, and that quiet anger appeared as vast as a huge lake.
The sound of wailing stopped.
"There is no hometown. There is no hometown. There is no hometown."
The villagers had already been assimilated and began moving south. Where are those countless crowds heading?
'This is the kind of thing only those devil cult members would do.'
Caesar gripped the reins tightly.
'Pepe, what exactly are you thinking?'
I need to meet one of them quickly before Elijah and Pepe clash.
***
Sith looked at his reflection in the broken mirror.
When he saw his hollow eyes, rough beard, deeply sunken cheeks, and skin that was nearly ashen, Sith looked so exhausted that he might collapse and die at any moment.
In reality, Sith was extremely tired. Having not slept for over a month, he couldn't distinguish whether he was awake or walking through a dream.
Nevertheless, Sith kept his mind sharp to avoid falling asleep. If he fell asleep, his consciousness would break, and he would lose control over the soldiers he had gathered thus far.
Sith put a handful of strong stimulants in his mouth and chewed. He couldn't even taste them anymore; it felt like stones rolling around in his mouth.
An ordinary doppelganger would have died long ago. But whether it was due to the two horns seated on Sith's head or because of his obsession, he had somehow endured.
Sith punched the mirror.
Crack!
The mirror shattered into pieces. Sith took his sword and left the carriage. He could see millions of citizens following him. They all walked like zombies, dragging their feet.
"There is no hometown. There is no hometown. There is no hometown."
Sith walked mixed among the crowd.
"We're almost there."
Beyond the people, soldiers could be seen.
They were all Elijah's soldiers, armed with cannons and guns. They froze when they saw millions of people approaching like zombies.
In the crowd's hands were farming tools like pitchforks, shovels, and sickles. The soldiers couldn't help but feel a sense of dissonance seeing farming tools that should sustain human life transformed into weapons of slaughter.
And the commander who would have to order the massacre of so many people could not bring himself to move his lips.
"Prepare to fire!"
The soldiers moved as if they were wind-up dolls, following predetermined motions. They loaded shells and grabbed the trigger ropes. One pull and the shells would fly, turning people into bloody chunks.
"Don't come, please don't come."
The soldiers moved their dry lips in prayer. Please stop. Stop here and just go back.
"Fire!"
But the crowd, brainwashed by Sith, had already entered the range. At the command to fire, the artillery soldier closed his eyes tightly and pulled the trigger rope.
Bang!
The artillery soldier pulling the trigger rope didn't have the courage to look at the crowd.
The elderly, children, young maidens, all died equally without distinction. But there were more living people than dead ones. More would continue to come. The soldiers naturally prepared for the next volley, and the artillery officers gave commands.
"Fire!"
The shells spewed fire and swept through the crowd.
"They are not civilians! They are enemies who side with the rebel Sith!"
Under the encouragement of the officers, the soldiers moved like wind-up dolls.
They repeated the cycle: pull the trigger, load the cannon, pull the trigger, load the cannon. They did not look at the dying civilians. They knew that while they could preserve their conscience by sympathizing with the enemy, they would die themselves, so they moved mechanically, relying solely on orders.
The wind of change in this scene of indifferent slaughter came when a man riding a black lion appeared on the battlefield.
"Everyone stop."
At Elijah's command, the officers ordered a cease-fire. The officers' bodies were soaked in sweat as if they had taken a shower. Elijah looked at the citizens who had died in vain.
They were all civilians, people of the Friedrich Border.
"I'm going to meet Sith."
Elijah rode the steel lion toward the crowd that was walking mindlessly.
As Elijah approached, the crowd stopped. And they opened a path. Sith was on the opened path. Sith walked silently toward the battlefield covered in blood.
Eventually, Sith stopped and said to Elijah:
"Don't come any closer."
It was a quietly uttered statement, but Elijah heard it clearly. Elijah stopped the steel lion. The distance between Sith and Elijah was about 500m. It was a distance where they could barely converse by shouting loudly, but Sith did not try to narrow the gap any further.
In fact, such a distance was meaningless to them. Both Elijah and Sith could have a conversation by infusing their voices with aura.
Elijah saw the small horns growing on Sith's head.
"You've become a devil, Pepe."
Pepe touched the horns growing on his head.
"To kill a devil, one must become a devil."
At Sith's gesture, soldiers who had been hiding among the crowd came forward and lined up. Their numbers filled Elijah's field of vision from the far left to the far right.
"You don't plan to kill me with guns, do you?"
"I can't kill you with something like guns."
Sith waved his hand in the air, and the soldiers loaded their guns and aimed. Their direction was not toward Elijah but toward the crowd.
"But I can break you."
"Those are not my people. They are rebels."
"Whether they become rebels or not depends on your choice."
"What do you want from me?"
"Die. Then I will spare everyone here."
Elijah didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
"You haven't deviated from my expectations at all."
Bang!
The soldiers fired their guns. The crowd collapsed at once, spewing blood.
The first to react to the gunshots were Elijah's soldiers.
"......He's insane."
"That Sith is a devil."
The crowd stepped forward, treading on corpses. The soldiers with guns reloaded and aimed again.
"That means you also know that I can kill everyone here."
Elijah glared at Sith with murderous intent.
"Have you finally resolved to become a devil?"
"You don't actually care about their lives."
Pepe drew his sword.
"You're angry at the situation itself, that you can't control your people. Isn't that the same reason you tried to kill me and Sith as soon as you failed to control us?"
"Will you continue spouting that nonsense? How did I ever try to kill you?"
Sith's teeth chattered with rage at Elijah's brazenness.
"I'll say it again. If you don't die, I will kill everyone here."
"Fine. Then I will die for you."
Elijah removed the greatsword from his back and his armor. After firmly securing the greatsword and armor to the black lion's back, he began walking toward Sith with nothing on.
"I am a monarch and king. Without people, there is no monarch."
The commanders behind him screamed.
"You cannot do this! Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty Elijah, you must not yield to that devil's threats!"
Elijah strode toward Sith with determined steps.
"Promise me. Promise that if you kill me, you will save all these people."
"Stop, Elijah."
Elijah stopped just five steps away from Sith.
"Do you think I'm a fool? You're not the type to throw away your life so easily."
"Then?"
"You must be a duplicate. Bring the real Elijah."
"Are you going to spout nonsense about me being a doppelganger?"
"Just as I am a doppelganger, you too are a doppelganger! Are you still trying to hide that fact?"
"I am not a doppelganger but a human, a monarch, and the supreme ruler of Friedrich."
Elijah drew a dagger from his back.
"If my death can save my people, I would die a hundred times over! Sith."
"You vile bastard! Won't you bring your real body right now?!"
"If you don't keep your promise even after my death, you must admit to yourself that you are a being worse than a devil."
Elijah held the dagger in reverse grip and raised it high into the sky.
"Friedrich! Be eternal!"
"You coward!"
Sith rushed forward with his sword in one swift movement. Before the dagger could pierce Elijah's heart, Sith's sword reached Elijah's arm.
Clang!
At that moment, Elijah's dagger coiled like a snake and struck away Sith's sword. Sith was surprised by the impact, which was much stronger than he had anticipated.
"Didn't I tell you?"
Sith's sword was cut off, spun through the air, and fell to the ground.
A distinct blade aura had formed on Elijah's dagger.
"That everything is predictable."
"You're the real one...?"
Elijah planted his fist into Pepe's jaw. As Pepe lost consciousness, the brainwashing of the crowd was broken, and they returned to their senses.
"Huh...? Why am I here...?"
"Uh... AAAAH! Wh-what is this? Why are there corpses here!"
"Don't shoot! Please spare us!"
While the crowd was in collective panic and causing an uproar, a man quietly approached the front of the crowd like a dark lion.
"Uh... S-Sir Hero?"
Yan raised Mercy. And swung his sword. With a single stroke, the citizens' heads flew off.
Yan looked at Elijah and said:
"All of this is for Sith."