Chapter 231: The Demon King's Castle (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 231: The Demon King's Castle (3)
The day he first met the souls of the heroes in the Prona Kingdom, they had told Cloud their stories.
Among them were those who lacked the strength and could only seal the Demon King, and those who were powerful enough to kill him.
To have met them all, one would have had to at least die and come back to life.
That was why Cloud had been so sarcastic toward the Demon King. But the Demon King answered with a peculiar expression.
“‘Did you die and come back to life?’... That’s not entirely wrong. But it’s not entirely right, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“All the Demon Kings were me. At least, the ones you humans remember.”
“W-What?! That’s impossible!” Angelica cried out instinctively. She flinched when the Demon King’s gaze fell upon her, but when he tilted his head as if to tell her to continue, she swallowed hard and went on.
“Your Majesty, you are the son who inherited the blood of the previous Demon King, are you not? But…”
“Ah, yes, that. It was quite an unpleasant feeling, having two of myself with their own egos existing at the same time.”
“What does that…”
While Angelica was bewildered by his cryptic words, Cloud frowned and said one thing.
“Division of the soul.”
“Correct.”
The Demon King nodded.
“This makes me even more curious about your identity… but it matters little, I suppose. Just as you said, every time I fathered a child, my soul was split. When one half died, it would merge back into one.”
“…”
“The feeling of two divided souls becoming one is truly unpleasant. It’s like forcing two different colors that have faded into one another to merge back into a single hue. The sense of dissonance is even greater when the soul has been separated for a long time due to a seal. What do you think would happen if one experienced that for hundreds of years?”
“…”
“It erodes you. No matter how high one's station, there's no escaping the flow of time. How much more so if one repeatedly endures the decomposition and fusion of an incomplete soul…”
The Demon King’s expression, which had been shifting through resentment and anger, settled back into weariness. He leaned back on his throne, tilted his head, and stared at the ceiling.
“Whatever the outcome of our battle, my soul will be split in two again. I do not want that. I’ve grown too tired. Therefore, I will not fight you.”
There was no trace of an overlord in the Demon King. He was not the monster of legend that threatened humanity. He was merely a mortal, exhausted by the shackles that bound him.
“…Don’t be ridiculous.”
Her eyes wide with fury, Frillite shot up from her spot and swung her greatsword at the Demon King.
CLANG!
The greatsword struck a transparent barrier and bounced off. She swung again. And again, the blade failed to pierce the barrier.
She brought down the greatsword, now massive and wreathed in red sword aura.
The barrier remained unscratched.
Red mana erupted from her, spreading out to engulf the entire area. Hundreds of weapons formed from sword aura materialized in the air and rained down upon the Demon King.
BOOOOOOM!!!!
After all the weapons had been spent, a small crack finally appeared on the barrier.
Frillite struck the crack frantically. It grew larger until the barrier finally shattered, and she thrust her greatsword forward.
CLANG!
The greatsword, aimed to run the Demon King through, was blocked by a newly formed barrier.
“…The times I have met my end were not because I was weaker than you heroes. Know your place.”
The Demon King extended his hand, and an invisible force pressed down on Frillite. It wasn’t enough to crush her, but it was more than enough to make her realize the gap in power between them.
Frillite let out a hollow laugh.
“To think the nemesis I’ve chased my entire life is… this. How absurd.”
Frillite remembered the moment she was chosen as the Hero. She remembered the hopeful expressions of the priests. She remembered the relieved faces of the citizens. She remembered the flicker of pride that had bloomed on the stoic faces of her family members.
All of it was a burden she carried on her shoulders.
“What was I…”
What had she been chasing, striving so hard for?
“And them…”
The warriors who fought alongside her—what had they given their lives for?
If she could, she would cut off the Demon King’s head right now and claim retribution for all their sacrifices.
She wanted to stand proudly before the dead, having fulfilled her duty as the Hero.
But she couldn’t.
The Demon King was nothing more than a tired, toothless lion, yet she lacked the strength to defeat even that.
More than anything, she no longer had the will to fight with all her might.
Forcing a fight on someone with no desire to battle was an act unworthy of the honor she had always pursued.
A powerful sense of emptiness washed over her.
If she had known it would be like this…
“I would have rather, back then…”
“Back then? What?”
A voice from nearby made Frillite flinch. She turned to see Cloud, who had approached her at some point, watching her with narrowed eyes.
“Are you talking about the Parasite incident? Thinking you would have rather died back then than suffer this humiliation?”
Frillite’s eyes wavered as Cloud’s voice grew colder.
“N-No. It’s not like that.”
“Then what?”
“It’s just… well…”
Seeing Frillite unable to answer, Cloud sighed. He tapped the ring on her left ring finger.
“Did you forget?”
“Ah…”
“As long as you’re wearing that, don’t you dare think about dying. If you do, I’ll be seriously angry.”
“…I won’t.”
As Frillite nodded, her expression softened considerably. Cloud patted her on the shoulder, then turned to glare at the Demon King with displeasure.
“What’s a guy who’s lived for hundreds of years doing to a girl who’s barely in her twenties…”
“That’s a rather unfair accusation. I’m the one who was just attacked.”
“Stop playing the victim. So, what now? I listened because the mood was strange, but you know this situation won’t be resolved just because you don’t want to fight, right? If you didn’t, I’ll just assume you’re a simpleton and kill you.”
“You say that even after what you just saw. Are you putting on a brave face for your lover?”
“Does it look like I’m bluffing?”
“…I suppose not.”
Meeting Cloud’s menacing gaze, the Demon King decided to concede. This was a human with a soul so vast that even he couldn’t fathom it. There was no need to antagonize an opponent whose capabilities were unknown in a situation like this.
“I understand what you’re trying to say. As long as I exist in this world, you will be treated as heroes who failed their mission and will one day be excommunicated.”
“You get it. So, your answer?”
“I will disappear.”
“What?”
“Literally. I will disappear from this world.”
A faint light emanated from the Demon King’s violet eyes. The barrier protecting him expanded to envelop the entire castle, and the blue lanterns illuminating the corridor all went out.
Simultaneously, magic circles were etched onto the corridor floor, illuminating the darkness in place of the lanterns.
Layers of magic circles, densely packed with runes, began to stack upon one another. When the overlapping runes became so dense they looked like a single line, a powerful surge of magic power flowed from them.
Horrified by the sheer amount of mana, Angelica tore at her hair.
“Y-Your Majesty?! Y-You said you wouldn’t fight!”
“Is this really the time for that?! Get over here, now!” Hailey shouted, having summoned a blood barrier with all her strength. Angelica scrambled inside, and Frillite grabbed Cloud to take cover as well.
“Cloud, we have to hurry—”
“There’s no need. This isn’t an attack spell. It’s dimensional travel magic.”
The Demon King’s eyes glinted with a strange light.
“You can even identify this. I truly cannot fathom your identity. It’s one surprise after another.”
As he spoke, the Demon King’s form began to flicker with static, like a broken analog TV screen.
As if he would vanish at any moment.
“I’m the one who’s surprised.”
To think he had taught himself dimensional magic. Although it was crudely constructed, like a rag golem from tacking spells together to their absolute limit, dimensional magic was still dimensional magic. It was a magic whose principles could only be grasped by those who had reached the pinnacle, so being able to use it, however clumsily, was nothing short of a miracle.
However.
“It’s going to fail.”
Zzzt— Fwoosh—
The Demon King’s fading form shrank and vanished completely.
Shatter— CRASH—!!!
The magic circles covering the floor shattered like glass. At the same time, the Demon King reappeared in his original spot with a heavy impact, as if he had fallen from a great height.
The reappeared Demon King was bleeding from every orifice—his eyes, nose, and mouth—but he seemed more shocked than in pain.
“It failed…?”
The spell had been perfect.
He had clearly felt his body and soul turn to particles and teleport.
But…
‘Something repelled me.’
An unknown force had blocked his teleportation and forcibly flung him back to his original coordinates. He had hastily rematerialized to avoid annihilation, suffering severe internal injuries in the process.
What in the world was that power…
‘Come to think of it…’
The Demon King recalled what Cloud had muttered just before the dimensional travel. He had said it would fail. That human clearly knew something about this situation.
The Demon King raised his head to question Cloud, but at that moment, he noticed that the barrier surrounding his castle was on the verge of breaking.
“Well now… It’s all over.”
As a hollow smile graced his lips, the barrier shattered. A Dragonian smashed through the ceiling and landed in the corridor.
Giant tree trunks wrapped around the castle, breaking through the walls and invading the corridor. The trunks gathered into the form of a female Elf, then transformed from an inorganic substance into a living being.
She took a glass vial filled with dark red blood from her clothes and threw it to the floor, shattering it.
The scattered blood surged upwards and, just as the tree trunks had, took on a humanoid shape, transforming into a pale, handsome, middle-aged man.
Seeing him, Hailey’s face went deathly pale.
“Th-The Blood King…?”