Chapter 19: The Lifted Veil (2)
Chapter 19: The Lifted Veil (2)
I tumbled across the ground as if falling and positioned myself behind the bastard's back.
Normally, you'd stab or slash from behind, but knowing that an ogre's hide was impossible to pierce with my feeble strength, I didn't get greedy and threw my whole body into shoving him.
Considering the ogre's bulk and power, I genuinely used every ounce of strength I had. So much so that my body practically bounced back in the opposite direction. Honestly, I thought my shoulder shattered.
Perhaps my desperation reached the heavens, because the bastard's body pitched forward.
I scrambled up from the ground and stood a step away, checking his position.
Right in front of him was a cliff. If he fell from here, victory would be mine.
His upper body had already fully extended over the edge. At that angle, he'd fall headfirst. Unless he fell feet-first, it was impossible for him to climb back up from that position no matter what he did.
......That's what I thought, but this damn ogre bastard.
In that very state, he twisted his body and grabbed my ankle!
'Fuck!'
Damn it all, I hadn't accounted for the length of an ogre's arm.
My body was yanked down and my vision spun wildly.
Through the shrinking clouds, I could feel in real-time that the sky was growing distant.
And then.
KWA-BOOM!!
A heavy impact transmitted through my entire body.
'Ugh.'
My insides felt thoroughly scrambled.
I forced down the rising nausea and, somehow, placed my hands on the ground to get up.
Thud.
......Thud?
Ah, right. I was holding a dagger. But had the ground always felt like this?
I steadied my shaking vision and looked around.
Demons surrounded me on all sides. And not far away stood the Hero and the Demon King.
......Huh? No, wait, what the hell is this?!
Even worse, the one beneath me was that ogre from just moments ago. The place my dagger had struck when I tried to brace against the ground was none other than his neck.
'So even an ogre gets pierced if you put your weight behind it... No, that's not the point!'
I fell right smack into the middle of enemy lines, didn't I? And I killed one of their comrades right in front of their eyes, didn't I? That's the situation, right?
Perhaps because of the sudden intrusion, silence reigned all around.
Even the Demon King remained silent. Consumed by the thought that I had to get out of here fast before they came to their senses, I began moving my feet recklessly.
Where my survival instinct pointed me was none other than the Hero.
The light radiating from his body, as if he intended to self-destruct, looked somewhat ominous, but I had nowhere else to go.
The demons had the area completely surrounded, so dying was certain no matter which way I went, and going toward the Demon King was obviously out of the question.
The Hero, already half-dead and now on the verge of self-destructing, was my only lifeline. Unable to express the feeling, I stiffened my expression and walked, careful not to let my legs tremble.
Reaching the Hero's side took no time at all.
The Hero, who had been staring at me with wide eyes from the moment I fell, met my gaze and then let out a hollow laugh.
Then his lips quivered as if he wanted to say something... but I couldn't hear a thing.
'Has he no strength left even to speak?'
It wasn't strictly necessary, but since I was curious what he was trying to say, I kindly grabbed his shoulder and brought my ear close.
Then, mixed with a rasping breath, a faint voice flowed into my ear.
"You really are...."
"......?"
There were no further words.
What, was that it? What on earth had he wanted to say....
'!?'
That was when I sensed the anomaly.
The light radiating from the Hero's body began pouring down upon me.
Startled at first, it didn't take long for me to grasp what he was thinking.
'He wanted to transfer his power to me.'
─Even at the cost of giving up self-destruction, his only chance at killing the Demon King.
Rather than joy or gratitude, a feeling of regret washed over me first.
A Hero's power cannot be deliberately transferred.
The closest alternative was scattering fragments of power across the continent.
With no way of knowing who would become the owner of those fragments, the Hero's will was, literally, utterly useless. That was the only option....
Just as I suspected, I felt the Hero's power pass right through my body.
Far from settling, it didn't linger even a little. It passed through smoothly like a current of water through a net, then lost its light and crumbled piece by piece like scorched ash before scattering far, far away.
It would probably spread across the entire continent just like that.
'Feels like I'm a damn lightning rod.'
Receiving the Hero's power in one body but unable to store it, just letting it flow right through.
'......How foolish.'
The Hero should have felt that clearly too, so I didn't understand why he wouldn't give up.
The power he kept pushing into me gradually weakened, and along with it, the Hero's body collapsed against me as if leaning on me.
His end was approaching.
'Ah, our eyes met.'
As if soothing me, he smiled faintly.
In that moment, a compulsion seized me that I had to say something, but until the surging power cut off completely and every last gleam of light vanished, and until the moment his body went limp, I couldn't utter a single word.
Captured by an indescribable feeling for just a moment, my expression hardened at the sense of wrongness I felt from the Hero.
'......He's dead.'
My only lifeline.
I checked again, but no breath could be heard. His pulse didn't beat in the slightest.
In my shock-numbed mind, a forgotten fact resurfaced.
The silence that had fallen when I dropped down. That silence....
"......."
"......."
......Was still continuing.
The instant I realized that fact, the gazes pouring in from all sides began to bother me immensely.
As I flinched and discreetly stood up, the eyes of those watching me slowly rose as well.
Ah, it would have been better if I'd remained oblivious to the end.
With all those countless eyes tracking my movements, my body stiffened rigidly from the tension. It was even worse knowing that the Demon King's gaze was among them.
M-my legs trembling must just be my imagination, right? No, it feels like my hands are shaking too.
'It's definitely not my imagination!'
This state was dangerous.
The demons were a race specialized in the law of the jungle. Having diligently studied before coming here, I knew all too well that showing weakness in front of them would get me devoured.
And so, I intended to leave the scene as quickly as possible, but.
"Cough."
Drip.
Blood suddenly burst from my mouth.
It was what I'd been forcibly holding back from the moment I landed here.
'Damn it, why now of all times...!'
I bit down hard on the tender flesh inside my mouth.
I knew my whole body had taken a significant shock when I landed. But since I'd held up unexpectedly well, I'd thought I was more or less fine. Yet it chose now of all times to spill out.
To put it in extreme terms, I wanted to trade this godforsaken body in for a new one.
And on top of that, the Hero's limp body was so heavy.
'I need to run, but this is just dead weight. Should I just drop him and bolt?'
Just as I was seriously contemplating it, the Demon King's tightly shut lips slowly parted.
"You, your name?"
What was his intent with this?
Was he saying that if I ran, he'd find me and kill me, so I shouldn't even think about fleeing? Maybe he intended to learn my surname, track down my family, and kill or threaten them.
Since the probability of surviving by running away was extremely low anyway, giving my name or not was irrelevant.
More than that, family, my family, huh....
"......Deon Hart."
White strands of hair scattered in the gentle breeze and tickled my cheek. I swept back the intrusive locks and stroked the corner of my eye where red pupils resided, smiling faintly.
There. I gave you my name. Now go ahead, do whatever the hell you want.
I'd steeled myself that firmly, but the words that came back were completely unexpected.
Something I'd never even imagined, words I'd thought were utterly impossible.
"Any interest in joining the Demon King's army?"
For the first time in my life, I received a recruitment offer from the Demon King.
I wasn't happy. 'Offer' in name only; in reality, it was the same as having no choice at all.
If I refused here, what would happen was obvious without needing to see it.
But I would not be swayed by threats like this!
Readjusting my hold on the Hero's corpse, which kept slipping down, I boldly expressed my refusal right before the Demon King.
"I refuse to do paperwork!"
......I said it in a roundabout way, sure, but it was still a refusal.
I'd heard that Legion Commanders, surprisingly, were buried in paperwork. I had no intention of being stuck here and buried in paperwork to boot.
"Then don't do it."
"......?"
"Hmm, what high-ranking position doesn't require paperwork...."
Excuse me? Hello?
"Well, if there isn't one, we can just make one. How about the 0th Legion Commander? You like it?"
N-no, wait a minute. Are you insane?
The 1st Legion Commander held a role akin to the Demon King's proxy, and he wanted me to be the 0th Legion Commander? My skills hadn't even been proven yet!
"You don't need to worry about opposition. Those who witnessed this scene wouldn't dare dream of objecting."
Only then did I fully realize it.
Something had gone very, very wrong here.
In the end, crushed by the treatment that only elevated the more I refused, I had no choice but to accept the very first proposal: the position of the 0th Legion Commander.
* * *
KWA-BOOM!!
When Deon Hart dropped down with that heavy sound, the Hero was shocked beyond words.
If not for the sword lodged in his stomach, he might have shot to his feet.
After all, the outcome was already decided.
The Hero had failed to kill the Demon King, and all that remained was to die at the Demon King's hand.
A Hero who cannot kill the Demon King has no reason to exist.
Every honor and privilege a Hero received stemmed from being 'virtually the only human capable of killing the Demon King.' It was only natural that failing to do so would mean losing all of it.
To put it bluntly, the Hero of this moment, having been defeated by the Demon King, had become a human not worth saving.
'Then why.'
Why, when he could have simply fled.
Why did he come to this place of certain death?
Deon Hart. His duties included not only those of a 'comrade' but also reporting the battle's outcome to the Empire.
So rather than barging into this side where death was assured, quietly slipping away would have been far more advantageous.
Yet he had charged into the heart of enemy lines, and was now boldly walking in this direction, just like this.
'Ha, haha.'
Amidst his labored breathing, a hollow laugh leaked out.
Could it be that some sense of camaraderie bloomed in that brief time? And so you came here to retrieve my corpse at the very least?
──Even while facing the Demon King?
Perhaps because of the sword in his stomach, a strange sensation bubbled up from his lower abdomen and swirled around his heart.
Unable to open his mouth from the indescribable feeling, his lips merely quivered for a long while. As if finding that frustrating, the man grabbed his shoulder as if urging him, leaning his ear close.
Thanks to that, the Hero was able to make one reckless choice.
"You really are...."
Contrary to your public image, a person recklessly kind and loyal.
If the next generation's 'Hero' were to be born, I hope it would be you.
He began pouring out all the power he had summoned for self-destruction, with the intent to transfer it to him.
As a Hero himself, there was no way he didn't know that a Hero's power could not be deliberately transferred.
Even so, this was the one path of survival for this person, whose fate after his own death was all too obvious.
Having boldly crossed the limit set by the world, the Hero called out to the world, which must be watching this situation right now.
'World, are you watching?'
It would be. For a 'Hero' is an existence chosen and empowered directly by the world.
So it would be watching, and it would know.
'This was entirely my own arbitrary action.'
So.
He knows nothing.
I alone will bear the full price for defying the world's will.
'Let any wrath for this act be directed solely at me.'
The world, which had been weighing the sin, delivered its judgment.
In that instant, the Hero bit his tongue from the horrific pain. A scream that couldn't escape surged deep within his throat.
A pain as if something sharp was tearing through muscle and stabbing into bone. In that state, pushing his power forward made even his head ache as though it would split.
It was likely a warning and punishment from the world, but he ignored it. Swallowing the blood that surged up from within, he pushed his power even harder, braving the agony of his soul shattering.
'Please. Even just a single fragment....'
I cannot leave such a person to die at the hands of the Demon King. So please, grant him the power to resist.
But his desperation ultimately did not achieve its goal.
All the power that had been poured toward Deon merely lost its light and scattered outward, into the continent.
Like birds passing through a cloud, they passed smoothly through his body and, without a single fragment remaining, rode the wind and rode the sunlight, vanishing into the void.
'......So, it truly cannot be done.'
Looking at the larger picture, there was no loss.
Though he had crossed the permitted limit, the Hero had nonetheless chosen to 'transfer' his power at the cost of his 'life.' And having received the price of that 'life,' the world was now bound to achieve his objective: the 'transfer.'
So that power that vanished like that would not be repossessed by the world. It would remain on the continent, like the power of other Heroes who chose 'transfer,' and give rise to another 'hero.'
But if so, then Deon Hart is.