Chapter 304
Chapter 304
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 304
Chapter Title: Memories (2)
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“……You opened a dimensional gate?”
Archlich Dorgo muttered in surprise at Demian Haksen’s sudden appearance.
“How did a knight open a dimensional gate? Did he have an accomplice? Or did he use some kind of relic? Either way, it’s astonishing.”
Demian Haksen chasing him all the way here was outside of his expectations.
But it wasn’t a major problem. With the Empire’s Greatest Sword neutralized, Demian Haksen alone couldn’t turn the tide.
“You should’ve stayed buried and died quietly back there. To chase after me like this… I’ll make you regret that choice…”
Suddenly, a headache assaulted his mind. It was the worst headache Dorgo had ever experienced.
“Guh… kuhk… Kraaaagh!”
Dorgo clutched his head with both hands. He desperately wished for the pain to pass quickly.
Along with the headache, strange memories surfaced. Dorgo stared blankly as he began to read through them.
“What… What are these memories…?”
The volume of memories gradually increased. Soon, Dorgo recalled every single memory from his past life.
“Demian Haksen… Death Knight… The seven authorities… I remember. I finally remember. Why had I forgotten something this important until now?”
Dorgo slowly turned to look at Demian Haksen.
“Demian Haksen, my loyal knight. I never imagined we’d reunite like this.”
“……Have you regained your memories?”
Demian Haksen asked in a voice full of suspicion. Dorgo nodded.
“Yes, I remember everything now. Our relationship. Everything we did together.”
The look in Dorgo’s eyes as he gazed at Demian Haksen began to change.
The calm gaze wavered. It flared up like a flame meeting the wind.
“You dare… You undead scum killed your master?”
Dorgo bellowed in rage.
“Do you even know what you’ve done? The grand plan I prepared for over a thousand years was ruined because of you!”
Dorgo thrashed about wildly, his red eyes blazing.
“That ritual! Past Regression wasn’t meant to be used now! It shouldn’t have been used by trash like you! Aaaargh! Uwaaaaaagh!”
After raging for a while, Dorgo forcibly calmed his excitement.
“……No, the ritual can be prepared again. If I can just get my hands on this world, as long as that happens, preparing the ritual again will be easy!”
Dorgo glared at Demian Haksen once more.
“Demian Haksen, this time I’ll turn you into a perfect slave. I’ll break you so thoroughly you’ll never even dream of rebelling against me…”
“Hah.”
Dorgo’s words cut off at the sudden sound of laughter.
Dorgo looked at Demian with an incredulous expression.
“Surely you’re not laughing right now…”
“Hahat, hahahahat!”
Demian Haksen threw his head back and burst into laughter.
“Dorgo… Dorgo has his memories! He returned from the future just like me!”
Dorgo couldn’t understand why Demian Haksen was laughing so joyfully.
“Ha… haha…”
As that went on, Demian’s laughter slowly died down.
Demian lowered his head and stared at Dorgo. His eyes overflowed with ecstasy and murderous intent.
“I was just regretting it nonstop. That I killed you too easily.”
Killing intent radiated from Demian. Dorgo felt a chill run down his spine from the eerie aura.
“E-Epsilon!”
Unable to bear the fear, Dorgo reflexively shouted.
“Stop Demian Haksen! Keep that bastard away from me!”
The Four Great Demon Lords immediately positioned themselves in front of Dorgo, forming a barrier to protect him.
Demian Haksen sneered at their actions.
“You crude knockoffs dare to block me? Perfect. I’ve been wanting to smash you all anyway.”
Demian Haksen assumed a stance as if he were about to spring forward. Then, he muttered in a small voice.
“Three Wheels.”
In the next instant, Demian Haksen’s body vanished.
A blue flash engulfed the Four Great Demon Lords.
* * *
“Demian Haksen!”
The first to act was Iota.
Iota burned draconic mana as he blocked Demian’s path.
“This time, I’ll have my revenge!”
A fist covered in dragon scales tore through the air.
Demian didn’t dodge the fist. Instead, he threw his own punch.
The two fists collided.
If Iota’s fist looked like a rock, Demian’s seemed like an egg by comparison.
But the result was different. The egg shattered the rock.
Iota’s fist crumpled. The muscles in his forearm burst. Black blood scattered.
-Kraaaagh!
Iota screamed in agony. Demian showed no mercy.
He lightly kicked off the ground and leaped into the air, stomping directly on Iota’s head.
Iota’s head slammed into the ground. The impact shattered the earth.
“Demian Haksen!”
Next, Epsilon charged in. Epsilon swung down a massive iron orb.
Demian swung Dawn from below upward. The rising longsword clashed with the falling iron orb.
With a deafening roar, the iron orb shattered. Metal fragments embedded themselves in Epsilon’s skin.
-Impossible…
Demian swung the raised sword as it was. Epsilon’s head was severed, blood erupting.
Demian tried to rush toward Dorgo again. At that moment, a massive magic circle unfolded in the sky.
“Danger. Demian Haksen. Must kill here.”
The rotund man.
Lambda manifested black magic. Red lightning poured down from the magic circle like a torrential rain.
Demian read every flow of the lightning. He dodged the pouring thunderbolts by a paper-thin margin and broke through.
“……Is he even human?”
He then slashed the bewildered Lambda. Lambda’s body split in a straight line from head to groin.
With three downed, only one Demon Lord remained.
“No matter who you are, I can’t just stand by and watch you harm Mother.”
Cita swung her vibrating sword widely. The sound expanded, engulfing Demian.
Demian stomped the ground hard with his foot.
Mana and shockwaves spread widely, dispersing the sound.
“You blocked it this easily…?”
Cita panicked greatly. Demian didn’t miss the opening and charged.
Demian’s body accelerated, brushing past Cita. Her abdomen split open longways, blood bursting forth.
The Four Great Demon Lords fell in the blink of an eye. Seeing this, Dorgo muttered blankly.
“We lost? Those kids are stronger than in the previous life? I invested all the materials meant for Demian Haksen into them?”
Demian began walking toward Dorgo. Dorgo snapped back to reality.
“Y-You dare… point your sword at me again?”
Rage appeared on Dorgo’s face. He ground his teeth and shouted.
“You’re an undead I created! Without me, you never would’ve become this strong! And yet you repay my grace with betrayal…!”
Demian kicked off the ground. He closed the distance in an instant and slashed Dorgo’s shoulder with Dawn.
The bare-bones shoulder was severed powerlessly. The cross-section revealed marrow.
“……Huh?”
Dorgo didn’t immediately realize his shoulder had been cut.
“AaAaagh!”
Dorgo clutched the severed area and screamed.
“Why… why does it hurt? Th-This body shouldn’t have any sense of pain!”
A body reduced to bones couldn’t have nerves. So Dorgo shouldn’t feel pain.
But Demian’s swordsmanship was special.
Back when he was a Death Knight, Demian had created a new swordsmanship to kill Dorgo.
A swordsmanship that could sever souls.
The reason Dorgo felt pain now was because his soul had been sliced.
“You must be in a lot of pain.”
Demian said in a calm tone.
Now that he stood before Dorgo, his mind had cooled coldly.
“You’d better get used to it quickly. You’re going to die in agony.”
Demian raised his sword again. Seeing this, Dorgo screamed desperately.
“Do you think you’ll get away with this? You’ll end up submitting to me in the end! And when that time comes, you! Your family! I’ll kill them all…!”
Fury exploded in Demian’s eyes.
The plan to kill him slowly vanished from his mind in an instant.
Demian swung Dawn toward Dorgo’s neck. But Dawn failed to sever Dorgo’s neck.
A longsword had suddenly appeared to block Dawn.
Demian followed the sword with his gaze. There stood Hella Fallen.
“Sorry, dear. I don’t particularly like this guy either, but I can’t just let him die.”
“Last time I saw you, I should’ve killed you preemptively. My mistake.”
Demian’s voice rumbled low like an enraged beast.
Hella Fallen smiled as she spoke.
“Dear, it looks like you want to kill me. But before that, you have unfinished business. Those kids haven’t died yet.”
As soon as Hella Fallen finished speaking, a massive energy erupted.
The Four Great Demon Lords were rising to their feet.
The Demon Lords’ bodies began to grow larger. Their limbs twisted and deformed.
Their human forms vanished in an instant. In their place, monsters appeared. They had finally revealed their true forms.
Behind him, the Four Great Demon Lords.
In front, the head of Pandemonium.
Even surrounded by powerful foes like a sandwich, Demian let out a chuckle.
“So, I can’t kill Dorgo until I deal with all of you?”
“Dear, you understand perfectly. But I wonder if that body of yours can handle us.”
As Hella Fallen said, Demian had overused his authorities, leaving his stamina and mana nearly depleted.
The little mana he had left had been completely exhausted by using Three Wheels just moments ago.
“Humiliating. To receive pity from trash like you.”
Demian spat with thorny words.
“Don’t worry. I have plenty of ways to kill trash like you.”
Demian removed the bracelet from his wrist.
The black mana contained within the bracelet was released.
“……Black mana?”
Hella Fallen muttered in bewilderment.
“Why does a knight have black mana? It’s utterly useless.”
“Block it!”
At that moment, Dorgo shouted urgently. Hella Fallen tilted her head, not understanding why.
“Block it? Block what…?”
“Stop Demian Haksen from absorbing the black mana!”
Dorgo screamed desperately. But it was already too late.
Demian gathered all the black mana scattered in the air and absorbed it.
Demian ceased operating the Five Elements Harmony Technique.
Black mana and mana were different powers. Thus, to handle black mana, he needed a different mana cultivation method than the Five Elements Harmony Technique.
He activated a mana cultivation method he hadn’t used in a long time, but one that was all too familiar.
The absorbed black mana rampaged like a wild beast inside his body. Savage power filled his entire form.
This mana cultivation method had no name.
It wasn’t something Demian had created out of longing.
It was something he had developed while serving as Dorgo’s slave, killing people.
Nameless Qi Technique.
The Death Knight’s power had awakened.