Chapter 307
Chapter 307
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 307
Chapter Title: Power of the Past (3)
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“Kraaaagh!”
Dorgo let out a scream. Demian glared coldly at him and growled.
“Does it hurt? We’re nowhere near done.”
Demian channeled black magic into Dorgo’s body through Erebos.
The black magic transformed into flames, igniting Dorgo’s entire form.
“Aaagh! Aaaaagh!”
Dorgo screamed as he tried to pull Erebos out. But it was impossible with his own strength.
-Demian! No, Lord Demian…!
Epsilon cried out desperately. He looked like he wanted to drop to his knees, but his dying body wouldn’t move an inch.
-Please spare my mother! I beg you like this!
Demian scowled at Epsilon’s plea.
“Why are you using honorifics with me?”
-I remember everything! Who you were in your previous life!
A flicker of surprise crossed Demian’s face. But it was only for a moment.
“You’ve regained your memories… and yet you’re telling me to stop?”
Demian’s voice began to tremble with rage.
-I know what she did to you! B-but… b-but…
“Shut your mouth.”
Demian shot Epsilon a piercing glare. The sheer menace silenced him.
“Don’t spout nonsense. Just sit there and watch. After I kill this one, you’re next!”
Demian had no intention of leaving anything Dorgo had touched untouched.
Undead, humans, knowledge—it didn’t matter.
“Anything connected to Dorgo will be erased from this world! Not a single trace will remain!”
Demian spat his fury as he thrust Erebos even deeper.
“Kraaaagh!”
Dorgo’s head and back arched backward in agony.
* * *
A lich was a black mage who had turned their own body into an undead.
The undead body was near-immortal. No matter how grave the wound, it wouldn’t die.
That wasn’t all.
A lich stored their soul in a magical artifact called a life vessel, hiding it away.
As long as the life vessel remained, even if the body was utterly destroyed, the lich would not die.
That was why Dorgo had lived for ages without fear of death or pain.
Pain was something he had long forgotten, barely even a memory.
“Aaagh!”
But in this moment, Dorgo felt that forgotten pain vividly.
The pain itself wasn’t the real issue. The problem was that his soul, stored in the life vessel, was being destroyed.
This was dangerous. If his soul was fully obliterated, Dorgo would meet his end.
Was it because death loomed so close? Memories of the past flashed before him like a panorama.
-Dorgo, thank you for choosing me.
In a sunny forest.
Beside a gently flowing waterfall, a man with blue eyes spoke to Dorgo.
-And I’m sorry. Because of me, you became a traitor to your own kind.
-So I swear here and now: I’ll make you happy, no matter what.
The man knelt before Dorgo and took his hand.
Back then, Dorgo wasn’t a skeleton like now. He had the form of a living human.
-This is the proof.
A wooden ring carved from a tree was slipped onto his flesh-covered finger.
In that instant, Dorgo snapped back to reality. The excruciating pain assaulted him once more.
“Luin…!”
Dorgo cried out amid the torment. Strength returned to his eyes.
“I can’t… die like this…!”
Gritting his teeth, Dorgo gripped Erebos and strained with all his might to pull it free.
“I haven’t avenged Luin yet… I haven’t seen him again…!”
“Feeling wronged? Good. Now I can return even a fraction of the pain you caused me.”
Demian twisted Erebos. Bones shattered, intensifying the agony.
“Aaagh!”
Dorgo’s body trembled violently. Resignation clouded his eyes once more.
That was when it happened.
-Looks pretty dangerous.
An unwelcome voice whispered in his ear. Dorgo’s eyes snapped wide open.
‘Bael, how…!’
-Don’t freak out. It’s nothing much. I’m just speaking to your soul.
‘Don’t talk nonsense! You’re sealed in hell! How…!’
-Voices can be transmitted, easy. How else would we recruit followers?
Bael spoke nonchalantly.
-But this isn’t the time for chit-chat. You might actually die like this.
Bael whispered mockingly with a chuckle.
-Dorgo, use the key. Break the pact holding us back. Then I’ll help you and your children.
‘Don’t toy with me! Do you know how many sacrifices we made to banish you? And now you want me to set you free?’
-Hahaha, you said “we”?
Bael let out a laugh.
-Betrayed by the Salvation Corps, and you still talk like that?
‘That’s…!’
-You lost your lover because of it. And you took a massive hit yourself.
‘Shut up…!’
-So you abandoned your body and became a lich. Why? To get revenge on the Salvation Corps.
Those words stirred emotions Dorgo had buried.
Betrayed by comrades, losing his lover—that day.
The despair and rage she felt surged vividly within him.
-Dorgo, if you die like this, who’ll avenge Luin? No one will even remember you.
The devil’s whisper was sticky and relentless, seeping into the cracks of his mind.
-Humans will praise the Salvation Corps forever. They’ll forget the true hero died like a dog!
Before he knew it, Dorgo had forgotten his pain, hanging on Bael’s every word.
-So break the pact. Free us. You know how.
Even so, Dorgo hesitated.
Breaking the pact was simple, as Bael said. But unleashing them would turn the continent back into a monster-infested wasteland.
As Dorgo wavered, Bael drove the wedge home.
-Luin, I’m sorry.
It wasn’t Bael’s voice. He was mimicking someone now.
-We don’t want to live in your shadow anymore. We want our names etched in history as the origin, the heroes.
That moment.
The moment of betrayal by his comrades.
The moment Luin lost her life.
-So disappear.
Rage blazed in Dorgo’s eyes.
Unconsciously, he opened his subspace and seized the key inside.
Click.
The key slotted into something invisible. Dorgo twisted it.
In that instant, everything changed.
* * *
Demian instinctively looked up at the sky.
“…What?”
Something that had blanketed the world had just vanished.
“Hahaha!”
Suddenly, Dorgo burst into laughter. Demian scowled down at him.
“It’s… all over now! You! Me! All of humanity!”
Instinct screamed danger. Demian moved to destroy Dorgo’s soul completely with Erebos.
At that moment, something erupted from beneath Dorgo’s feet. Demian condensed protective aura to block the attack.
The impact exceeded expectations, shoving his body back. Erebos slipped free from Dorgo’s body.
Demian glared at Dorgo in shock. More precisely, at the thing that had attacked him.
A translucent rectangular pillar.
If his eyes weren’t deceiving him, that was…
Then, a dimensional gate ripped open right beside Dorgo. A man leaped out.
He looked human, save for one thing: horns protruding from his forehead.
The moment Demian saw the man’s face, he cried out in horror.
“Bael…!”
Bael, emerging outside, first looked down at Dorgo. Dorgo lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath.
“Dorgo, you’ve suffered. Rest easy now. I’m here.”
Bael smiled brightly at Dorgo. Dorgo glared up at him.
“You’ll keep your promise?”
“Promise? Oh, sure. But it’s kinda annoying.”
Thud.
Suddenly, Bael stomped on Dorgo’s head, smashing it into the mud.
“Know your place. The pact’s broken—you’re useless now.”
The smile vanished from Bael’s face. The cruel face of a demon emerged.
“Because of you, we were trapped in hell. Remember that not killing a traitor like you right here is already a huge mercy.”
Humiliation twisted Dorgo’s expression. Only then did Bael lift his foot.
“Demian, we meet again so soon.”
He turned to Demian, looking delighted, like reuniting with an old friend.
“You have no idea how much I missed you. You’re the most fun guy I’ve ever met.”
Unlike the beaming Bael, Demian was plunged into confusion.
Summoning a ducal demon required an enormous sacrifice.
Yet Bael had descended to the surface as easily as going for a stroll.
And that wasn’t an avatar—it was his true body.
The overwhelming aura he emanated, enough to put even Demian on guard, proved it.
But the real shock was yet to come.
“Oh, right. Let me introduce my subordinates.”
Bael clapped his hands, and a massive dimensional gate tore open.
Demons poured out in droves, each radiating monstrous power.
-Your Excellency, as ordered, we’ve gathered demons from viscount to marquis rank.
A bull-headed demon knelt before Bael and reported. Bael nodded in satisfaction.
“Asta, well done.”
-It’s an honor to serve Your Excellency.
Asta rose. That was when he spotted Demian.
-To bare killing intent at Your Excellency? A mere human overstepping bounds.
“Asta, best not to touch that one.”
-No. I’ll drag that insolent human before Your Excellency right now.
Asta strode toward Demian. The size difference made it look like an adult facing a child.
Asta opened his palm. A long-handled flail materialized.
“Demian~ That guy’s marquis rank, so don’t underestimate him.”
Asta raised the flail high, snorted heavily, and swung down ferociously.
The flail targeted Demian’s head and descended. An explosion rocked the air.
“Whoa.”
Bael let out an impressed whistle.
“Asta, I told you not to let your guard down.”
The one embedded in the ground wasn’t Demian.
It was Asta, smashed into the earth.
Just now, Demian hadn’t only parried the flail—he had leaped over Asta’s head and brought Erebos crashing down.
“I don’t know why so many pests keep getting in my way.”
Demian passed Asta and faced Bael.
“I’ve got no business with you. Get lost.”
“Trying to kill Dorgo? Can’t have that.”
“Then I’ll just have to remove you first.”
Demian circulated his Nameless Divine Art.
The darkness pooling on the ground reignited.