Chapter 59
Chapter 59 - The Demon King Appears!(3)
I gripped Bestak and Espada in both hands and used ether.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. Three forces coursed through my body, radiating a brilliant light. The moment I felt the energy kick in, I kicked off the ground.
'Seven Sword Pierce!'
Pip pip ping! Seven magical blades generated from Espada in my left hand flew like arrows. Though the demon lady seemed a bit surprised, she calmly deflected all the blades.
The demon lady's face showed full bewilderment.
"Bug. Your mana should be depleted... how can you use skills..."
"Seven Sword Pierce!"
Why, you ask?
Because water ether restores not just health but mana too.
But I have no obligation to explain. I just kept swinging my swords while smirking unpleasantly.
Crackle!
Magical blades now skillfully emerging even without incantations continued pouring towards the demon lady.
"If you're jealous, get reborn into another world with a silver spoon!"
Crack, crackle!
Sparks flew each time the magical blades met her sword.
She deflected all my attacks effortlessly again.
"One more time!!"
This time I swung both swords simultaneously.
Thud thud thud! A total of 14 blades poured from all directions as if to devour the demon lady.
Indeed, using both hands made control that much harder. But I focused all my concentration on controlling the magical blades.
"Pointless...!"
The demon lady frowned sharply and easily deflected the incoming blades again.
Clang clang clang! Seven magical blades collided with her sword and crumbled helplessly in mid-air.
"... Seven?"
And at that moment. The demon lady noticed something was off and widened her eyes.
But it was already too late.
I made a throat-slitting gesture with my thumb along with a knowing smile.
"Sucking up is fine, but did you really need to advertise his weakness?"
"...!!"
By that point the game was already over.
The remaining seven magical blades that had disappeared from the demon lady's view had already flown behind Polluxius.
A belated realization crossed the demon lady's face.
"Your Holiness!! Run...!"
The demon lady turned around frantically with a horrified expression.
Thud!
A heavy flesh-ripping sound erupted.
Polluxius stared at his stomach with wide eyes.
"...Ah. Huk."
There was a massive hole.
Outside that hole, magical blades crackled and sparked.
Sticky red liquid poured endlessly. Polluxius stared at his own flowing blood in disbelief.
Polluxius's bloodshot gaze slowly turned behind him.
"This... can't be... how... m-mana... should have been unable to use... such manipulation... just how...!"
"A dying man sure has a lot of questions."
I spat out those brief words and released Seven Sword Pierce.
Splurt. With a horrific sound, Polluxius's internal organs spilled out through the hole.
Polluxius' body collapsed to the ground.
"...Oh Goddess."
A brief utterance. Then the light faded from Polluxius's eyes.
He was dead.
"......"
"......"
A cold silence.
The heroes who were fleeing couldn't even open their mouths at the overwhelming turn of events.
Beep. A status window appeared to imprint the situation that no one had properly processed.
[The 7753rd Demon King, the Fallen Polluxius, has been eliminated.]
[All heroes who participated in the subjugation will receive 1000 Paraiso gold coins and +5 to all stats.]
[The top 10 contributors will receive random treasure chest rewards.]
Simultaneously, other panels appeared before everyone's eyes.
[Level Up!]
One was a level up panel. And the other one:
[Hero #163417413 Park Jeong-yong's Contribution: 1st Place]
[Random Treasure Chest: 'Giant's Relic Box' has been awarded.]
[1st Place Special Reward: Received additional 1000 gold coins.]
This panel was probably only shown to 10 people including myself, regarding the special item rewards.
The rewards were given. In other words, the subjugation was complete.
"Is it... over?"
Only then did everyone seem to realize it, and the venue began to stir.
The stirring soon turned into murmuring commotion, and the commotion soon changed into shouts of joy.
Clang. Heroes and defense forces alike threw down their weapons and embraced each other.
"We, we won!"
"We're alive! We survived!"
"Woaaah!!"
The atmosphere reversed in an instant. What was like a funeral turned into a festival atmosphere.
As I was leisurely nodding while looking at the Demon King's corpse.
Suddenly, a piercing scream rang out.
"Ah... ah...! Ah! Ahhh! Your Holiness! My Pope, Your Holiness!!!"
A seductive yet chilling distorted voice.
I caught sight of the purple-skinned demon lady running towards Polluxius's corpse with a horrified expression.
Come to think of it, there was exactly one person here who would mourn the Demon King's death. I watched that scene carefully with narrowed eyes.
At that moment, my gaze catching the demon lady became sharper than ever.
"...Kuh!"
The older lady, who had been rushing forward in a hurry, suddenly came to a halt. Then, she gathered the dark aura into her greatsword and swung it with full force.
Boom! The aura exploded with a tremendous roar.
There I was, already appearing before it with black and white twin swords thrust forward.
The demon lady took in my face and ground her teeth audibly.
"You... bastard...!"
Screech, screech.
The colliding greatsword and twin swords spat out an unpleasant flame.
Sik. I twisted my lips upward.
"To think you blocked Lotus Flower. The dog is better than its master, huh?"
I said that as if I was quite impressed.
Mocking her master who was killed in one hit. The demon lady's face immediately contorted with rage.
"Shut that mouth...!"
"Don't even try making requests that won't be listened to. If you want to threaten, you should do it with force, Sister."
Gugugu. The aura we emitted vibrated the air with a clear presence.
Under that tremendous pressure, the festival atmosphere subsided once again. The scattered warriors realized this wasn't over yet.
"Kuh... ugh...!"
But it was crystal clear who had the advantage.
My surprisingly calm expression, contrasted with the demon lady's anxious face.
Knowing the cause, I raised my eyebrow.
"Must be about time for that wound in your side to start stinging?"
"Shut up...!"
The demon lady was slowly backing away with a pained expression.
The outcome of the fight was already determined at that point.
"Hm."
I slightly raised the corner of my mouth watching the demon lady.
It wasn't pity or mockery. Just a smile containing pure mercy.
"I'm kind of busy right now. I won't kill you if you just stay out of my sight from now on. Deal?"
While saying that, I slowly chanted a spell.
Chijijing. The surrounding air trembles. Simultaneously, 14 blades of magical power float up beside my twin swords, targeting the demon lady's limbs.
The demon lady silently watched them while sweating cold, then bit her lip until it bled.
"... I will... definitely have my revenge... just you wait, you heroes... especially you. The black-haired hero. I'll remember this!"
"That's too cliché even for a line from someone with their tail between their legs."
I clicked my tongue with contempt.
Whatever. Soon her body was enveloped in pitch-black aura and disappeared.
The watching crowd finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew."
Thump. Suddenly, Seolbaek collapsed beside me.
The dragon spirit dwelling within me startles and flies over to cling to Seolbaek.
"That, that was more intense than I thought. Since we had them outnumbered, I thought they'd be easy opponents...."
Seolbaek mumbled while smiling awkwardly. She tried to stand up but kept falling back down as her legs gave out. Seems she was very tense.
I smiled slightly and extended my hand to Seolbaek, who hesitated before carefully taking it.
"Th-thank you, Jeong nim...."
"I should be thanking you. I survived thanks to you."
I'm not just saying that. I really won thanks to Seolbaek earlier. Without the dragon spirit, I probably would have lost physically to the demon lady.
At my words, Seolbaek quickly bowed her head. Then she kept shaking her head while twitching her mouth.
"No way. I still have a long way to go to repay your kindness. Please! Please rely on me more, Jeong nim. Eh, ehehe."
"... Hm? Well... s-sure."
I get most scared when she acts incomprehensibly like this sometimes. I backed away slightly from Seolbaek who started grinning to herself.
Then thud, I bumped into the Demon King who was standing blankly beside me. The Demon King immediately glared at me and spoke curtly.
"What. Don't bother me if you have no business, Hero."
"Ah, right."
Lucy doesn't seem to be in a good mood since earlier. She's been staring at the heroes' corpses scattered around and mumbling something to herself.
Nothing good comes from understanding her way of thinking. Rather, it's better since she's quiet. Let's leave her be.
'Well anyway... this makes the 11th one.'
The 11th.
This makes the 11th Demon King subjugation in a month.
I trust you can roughly guess how frequently Demon Kings appear.
No lie. It's almost at P*kemon levels.
'Well... it's good for experience points and money though....'
At least it's certain that Demon King hunting is good money and experience farming.
For the first time in a while, I looked over my status along with Seolbaek's and Lucy's all at once.
[Name: Park Jeong-yong]
[Title: 163417413th Official Hero. Guardian of the Demon King's Egg. One Bound to Immortality]
[LV. 154]
[HP: 1220/1220 MP: 450/450 Physical Status: Normal]
[Strength: 166 Agility: 239 Intelligence: 51 Hero Sense: 16]
[Remaining Ability Points: 9]
[Name: Seolbaek]
[Title: 154829771st Hero, Ki Master of Snow]
[LV. 106]
[HP: 370/370 MP: 1010/1010 Physical Status: Normal]
[Strength: 23 Agility: 31 Intelligence: 133 Hero Sense: 8]
[Monster Information]
[Name: Immortal Demon King ― Lustica Asmodeus]
[HP: ???/??? MP: 0/0]
[Strength: ??? Agility: ??? Intelligence: ???]
[Details: The true blood and only offspring left by the witch Diana. Chooses a guardian to share life with through an immortality contract. The current guardian is the 163417413th hero Park Jeong-yong.]
'3 level ups just for catching that small fry.'
Looking at just the difficulty, it's not even comparable to Eldritch's Claw. Seolbaek went straight from around level 95 to level 106.
That means the experience given is almost at the same level as an Eldritch.
'Plus the money is good too.'
1000 gold coins is no joke - it's enough for the three of us - me, Seolbaek, and the Demon King - to live off of for a year.
This being the 11th time means we already have enough money to play around for 10 years. Adding the contribution rewards we just received, we could live for at least 15 years.
'Still, I wish they'd stop appearing so much, please....'
Thanks to this, I've already gotten used to dealing with small fry Demon Kings like just now.
Even so, they're just low-level Lu Bu at best.[TL/N: Warlord from the three kingdom era]
Actually, I haven't met a Demon King with a higher level than me yet.
Maybe Minerva is being considerate and only matching me with Demon Kings of similar levels. I've always been called to places with Demon Kings around my level.
I don't know if I should like this or hate it.
"Sigh. Let's just get going, Seolbaek."
"Ah, yes!"
That's as far as the complicated thoughts went. I urged my companions and left that place right away.
Now to Marktress, there wasn't even half a day left ahead. I wanted to quickly get out of this insufferable country.
So we left the ruined village behind and moved our steps toward the next village.