The Depths of the Demon King's Castle
At last, they had reached the deepest chamber of the Demon King's Castle.
On the long road here, cutting down countless powerful enemies, the bonds within the Hero's Party had twisted beyond any hope of repair.
Even so, Logan silently poured himself into his role alone. To protect Irene—and to bring this wretched journey to an end once and for all.
The devoted support of the Subjugation Force, led by Anastasia, had also been an immense help in getting them this far.
And so, at the end of that long march, what awaited the Hero's Party was Demon King Belzegor, seated upon a colossal throne that seemed woven from bone and darkness itself.
Around him swirled an ominous miasma that writhed as if it were alive.
“Kukukuk... So you wretched dogs of the Church finally managed to crawl your way in here.”
Belzegor rose slowly from his throne, a sly, serpentine smile spreading across his face.
He looked nothing like the grotesque monster Logan had vaguely imagined.
Rather, he bore a form that was twisted in some way yet uncannily human, and in his eyes lingered something far more complicated than simple malice.
The words that followed were enough to throw the entire Hero's Party into disarray.
“Tsk, tsk... How cruel the Goddess is. That she would so zealously shelter these wretched creatures who cannot even follow her own revelation properly—honestly, I will never understand it.”
His voice carried not the hatred or fury one might expect from a Demon King, but a deep resentment laced with something like bittersweet resignation.
Follow the revelation? What on earth is that supposed to mean?
Not only Logan, but Rian and Irene alike wore expressions of confusion.
“We have come to execute you in accordance with the Goddess's divine revelation! Do you have any idea how many people have suffered because of your wicked ambitions?!”
“Th-that's right! When I think of all the terrible atrocities you've committed...!”
Rian and Irene cried out reflexively.
At their outburst, Belzegor chuckled low and long, as if watching children bicker.
“Poor little things... You don't even realize you're merely being used... No wonder that merciful Goddess of ours pities creatures like you and takes such pains to look after you.”
Belzegor's gaze suddenly settled on Logan. His eyes wavered, ever so slightly.
“Dear me... Especially you, of all people... truly, you have it the worst of all.”
“...?”
Logan frowned, unable to make sense of it. There was unmistakable pity and compassion in Belzegor's eyes.
It was the last thing one would ever expect from a cruel, wicked Demon King.
As the members of the Hero's Party grew unsettled by Belzegor's unexpected demeanor, Sera shouted sharply.
“Everyone, stay focused! This is Belzegor's insidious trick! Demon Kings have always delighted in clouding men's hearts and luring them into ruin! Do not be deceived by his words!”
“KHAHAHAHA!!!!”
At Sera's cry, Belzegor erupted into maddened laughter, as though he'd been waiting for exactly that.
“I see... So this generation's church has produced quite the little wonder! Truly, nothing could be more repulsive! Aren't YOU the one deceiving the Goddess more than anyone else alive?!”
“Silence, you filthy Demon King!”
At his insulting taunts, Sera lost her composure for an instant and screamed back, every trace of her usual holy, benevolent poise vanished.
At her sudden transformation, the other party members froze in momentary bewilderment—but they quickly recovered their senses and gripped their weapons anew.
Right now, nothing mattered but felling the Demon King.
“Yes, good. Dogs of the Church! Let us play, then—once and for all!!!”
As Belzegor threw his arms wide and roared, the overwhelming miasma erupting from his body shook the Demon King's Castle to its foundations.
And so the final battle began.
Demon King Belzegor.
His strength was no empty reputation.
He was on an entirely different level from any demon or monster they had faced before.
The high-tier magic Irene unleashed with all her might, the beams of divine power streaming from Sera, the brilliant blade of the Holy Sword Elysium wielded by Rian—
Belzegor brushed aside or contemptuously deflected every attack the Hero's Party threw at him, or else canceled them out with even more potent dark magic.
“KHAHAHA!!! This Hero's Party is utterly pathetic! O Goddess Asteria! This time, at last, I will prove that my path was the righteous one!!!”
KWAAAAAANG—!!!
The party was swept helplessly away by the massive sphere of dark energy Belzegor hurled, their bodies slammed hard against the wall.
“Urgh!”
“Kyaaaah!”
“Kukuku... Good. I'll start by dealing with that Church witch—the one who irritates me most.”
With a vicious smile, Belzegor extended a hand toward Sera. Blackest dark energy began to condense above his palm.
Faced with that overwhelming magical pressure, Sera's face drained white with terror.
“Wh-what are you all doing?! Stop him, NOW!!!”
Sera shrieked. Rian and Irene rushed to shield her, but an invisible wall of pressure raised in Belzegor's other hand blocked their path, keeping them from even drawing close.
N-no...! I can't die like this...!
Just as Sera, feeling the shadow of death descend upon her, sank into despair and began to close her eyes—
BANG!
With a sharp crack, something streaked across Belzegor's field of vision.
“!!!”
Belzegor reflexively wrenched the dark energy meant for Sera aside and fired it at the incoming object instead.
KWAAAAAANG—!!!
“Urgh!”
The powerful explosion brought one wall crashing down. Behind it stood Logan, crossbow in hand, gasping for breath.
He had seized an opening and tried to strike a vital point with his crossbow—but the Demon King was no easy prey, after all.
Still, thanks to his ambush, Sera had narrowly escaped death.
Logan immediately prepared his next move and shouted.
“I'll buy you time—everyone, get a grip and regroup!!!”
At his cry, Rian, Irene, and Sera finally came back to themselves and began raising their mana and divine power once more.
Naturally, Belzegor had no intention of standing idly by.
“A mere insect dares to face me one-on-one? You seem to specialize in cowardly little tricks—how utterly insolent!”
Furious, Belzegor hurled himself at Logan with terrifying momentum.
SHWIIIIING!!!!
In the blink of an eye, Belzegor's demonic claw was upon him, lunging for Logan's heart.
Logan's eyes flew wide—but he did not panic. He had anticipated this. Calmly, he drew something from inside his coat and hurled it to the ground.
FLASH—!!!
“GRAAAAHHH!!! This cowardly little trick!!!!”
Blinded by the searing light, Belzegor clutched at his eyes in agony.
Accustomed as he was to the perpetual darkness of the demon realm and his castle, a sudden flash of light was a fatal weakness for him.
What Logan had thrown was a flash grenade crafted specially with the help of the dwarven elder Baldur.
Fortunately, Logan had tipped Sera off in advance, and her protective light magic had shielded the Hero's Party from the blast's effects.
But the flash's effect lasted only the briefest of moments.
“You wretch—!”
KWAAAAAANG—!
Enraged, Belzegor detonated his mana, obliterating everything around him.
Logan shrouded himself in mana to defend, but the sheer force of the shockwave swept him up and slammed him into the wall.
“GRAAAAGH!!!”
Through the pain of bones that felt ready to shatter, an anxious voice reached Logan's ears.
“Logan—!”
It was Irene.
How long had it been since he'd last heard her voice, worrying over him?
Absurdly enough, even in the middle of all this, her cry gave him a brief flicker of strength.
Gritting through the pain, he staggered to his feet, drew a dagger, and charged at Belzegor once more.
The Demon King sneered at the sight of a boy running at him armed with nothing but a little scrap of metal, and swung his enormous hand to crush him like a bug.
But then—
CLANG—!
“!!?”
The instant the dagger met the Demon King's claw, an unexpected screech of metal rang out—and Belzegor was knocked backward.
Wh-what in the world...?
Belzegor could not hide his bewilderment. This boy's physical strength was nothing compared to his own.
And yet... what was this strange sensation, as though the elemental advantage lay against him?
The only being who could ever hold such an advantage over him was a Hero wielding the Holy Sword—
Logan did not miss that fleeting gap in Belzegor's confusion. He swung his dagger all the more fiercely.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
“Tch!”
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Belzegor hastily gathered himself and parried Logan's assault. The unexpected resistance startled him, but it was nothing beyond his capacity to handle.
Yet with every exchange of blows, Belzegor's suspicion hardened into certainty.
There was something undeniably special about this boy. This power that seemed to hold the advantage over him...
“KHAHAHA!! Yes—so THAT'S what it is! Now I understand!”
“...?”
Logan found it strange that the Demon King would suddenly burst out laughing mid-battle with such cryptic words, but he had no leisure to dwell on it.
Right now, only one thing mattered: bringing down the Demon King. Logan pressed Belzegor harder and harder, until at last a critical gap opened in his defense.
“RIAN!! NOW!!!”
At Logan's shout, Rian—who had been gathering his strength all this while under Sera's support of divine power—stepped forward.
The Holy Sword Elysium in his hand blazed with dazzling light as it condensed an enormous mass of energy.
“That's right, I've waited long enough!? It ends here! Demon King!!”
“NOOO!!!”
Belzegor sensed the danger too late and scrambled into a defensive stance—but Logan doggedly bound his feet in place, and Irene, too, activated the supreme-grade binding spell she had prepared, sealing his movements entirely.
“GRAAAAHHH!!! You vermin—!!!”
And at last, Rian's Holy Sword pierced through Belzegor's heart.
THRUST—!!
Under the overwhelming power of the Holy Sword, Belzegor's body erupted, spewing black mana in every direction.
KWAAAAANG—!!
Caught up in that explosion, Logan was flung along with Belzegor to the far corner of the hall.
Belzegor lay collapsed, mortally wounded.
As his consciousness faded, he gazed at Logan, panting nearby, and let a sneer curl across his lips.
“Heh... you poor... child... Why do you not rejoice...? The Demon King you so despised... you have struck me down, and yet...”
“.....”
Just as Belzegor said, there was no trace of triumph on Logan's face.
No matter how evil the Demon King might be, watching someone die before his very eyes was never a pleasant thing.
Worse, those pitying eyes Belzegor fixed on him even in death, and those incomprehensible words, left Logan's heart more tangled and uneasy than ever.
Watching him, Belzegor smiled faintly and seemed about to leave his final words.
“Still... it is some small comfort... that the Goddess... seems to... cherish y—... GAHK!”
But before Belzegor could finish, Rian raised the Holy Sword once more and drove it mercilessly down into his heart.
THRUUUST—!!!!
“Wicked Demon King! How dare you try to beguile my comrade even with your dying breath!!!”
“.....”
With Rian's cry, the light drained completely from Belzegor's eyes. His body slowly began to crumble into black dust and scatter on the wind.
Hisssss...
The moment the Demon King's form vanished entirely, the oppressive, wicked aura that had weighed down the entire castle lifted as if it had never been.
There, Rian raised the Holy Sword high with a cry of victory, and Sera and Irene likewise beamed with joy and relief.
But Logan could not share in their elation.
Something far greater than the physical toll of the fierce battle against the Demon King had just slammed into his mind.
Struck by a violent headache, he staggered toward the nearest wall and leaned against it.
“Hah...! Hah...!”
He had only just begun to catch his breath—
“!!!”
FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASH!
Suddenly, countless images came flooding into his head at breakneck speed, like a raging storm.
Against Logan's will, the visions began to play forcibly inside his mind.
Like a film he'd watched in a past life, vivid, crystal-clear scenes unfolded without pause.
It began with the moment he was first born into this world—
His first meeting with Irene, his childhood friend, the one he'd sworn to love and devote himself to with everything he had.
Her smile, radiant as sunlight.
The horrific assault of monsters that engulfed their village.
The moment he found Irene crying in terror amid the ruins.
All those years of working and training without a single day's rest, to protect her, to give her a better life.
The overwhelming emotion of holding his first adventurer's license.
The countless dangerous commissions he took on as he grew.
His meeting with Anya, a mysterious girl ravaged by illness.
Those warm days spent nursing her back to health and, for a brief while, sharing his heart with her.
And then the day he finally took Irene's hand and climbed up to the imperial capital he'd always dreamed of.
His own image, comforting and encouraging Irene as she struggled in the unfamiliar surroundings.
Next... the moment they joined the Hero's Party.
Irene falling in love at first sight the very first time she laid eyes on the Hero, Rian—
That exact scene.
The painful journey that followed, all of them together for the subjugation of the Demon King.
The looks Irene cast toward Rian—and her cold, averted eyes turned away from him...
And then, at last, the felling of Demon King Belzegor—
Right up to this very moment.
Past and present memories raced breathlessly past him.
And then—
The visions refused to stop. They pressed onward, into the future.
...
..
.
Rian and Sera. The two of them, faces drawing closer and closer.
And Irene, unable to bear the sight, turning away—weeping, grieving.
And then—
At last—
“Logan......”
Irene, struggling under the pain of heartbreak, coming to him—leaning on him, seeking comfort.
The moment Logan saw that scene, an overwhelming emotion swelled in his chest before he could stop it.
Some might call it selfish, but this was the moment he had longed for, all this time.
He had never given in hopes of receiving anything back, it was true.
But honestly?
He had wanted to be connected to her.
He had wanted to be loved by her.
In the visions that followed, Logan and Irene were at last wed.
The moment he had dreamed of even in his sleep had become reality.
Irene in her white wedding dress was blindingly beautiful.
...This is... my future...?
He couldn't believe it.
Such a happy future had been waiting for him all along.
Logan was swept up in overwhelming emotion.
But then—
Wait... what...?
The scenes after the wedding were nothing like the happiness he had dreamed of.
“Rian....”
Even as Logan's wife, the Hero Rian still dwelt deep within Irene's heart.
She secretly sought out news of Rian, and whenever he attended any event, she would run to wherever it was held just to steal glimpses of him from a distance.
Logan knew all of it—and held his tongue.
Because he loved her far too much.
And...
Because she was carrying his child.
If this child were born, perhaps she would truly open her heart to him at last—so he clung to that thin, threadlike hope.
But.
The moment the child was born—
“A.. Ah.. Ah...”
Logan's last hope shattered to pieces.
“Ah... Ah...! Ah...!”
The newborn baby had neither his black hair and blue eyes, nor Irene's brown hair and black eyes.
Golden hair gleaming like sunlight, and fresh green eyes.
This face was, unmistakably—
Rian.
“What's wrong, honey? Our baby is finally here, and you're making that face... Oh my...!?”
“W-wait, Logan... something just went wrong, this is a misunderstanding...!”
“You believe me, don't you, Logan..? Right...? Please... say something... anything...!”
Her excuses and her pleading no longer reached his ears at all.
He had never given everything with the expectation of something in return.
No—honestly, he had wanted it. Her heart.
Was that truly such a terrible sin?
And in return—not gratitude, not love.
Only a betrayal so cruel, so unspeakably vile.
His pure devotion—
His sacrifice—
His everything—
Thoroughly. Completely.
Deceived. And trampled into the dirt.
“AAAAAAAARGH—!!!”
