The Oracle
The grand conference hall reeked of blood from the dark energy skill unleashed by Chairman Karl.
The acrid stench of gore forced the branch leaders from various nations to instinctively cover their noses and mouths.
"Grrr..."
"Graaaah!"
The Italian and Indian branch leaders, now transformed into blood-red zombies, staggered about, clacking their teeth as they sought their next victims.
"R-run... we have to run...!"
"Save us!"
Caught off guard by the chairman's sudden rampage, the representatives from each country fell into chaos, milling about in panic without knowing what to do.
At least the pope and paladins like Jeong Hyun-seop, whom I'd tipped off in advance, snapped out of it and stepped forward to protect the branch leaders.
"Stay behind us! We'll hold off the zombies with our divine power!"
"Ah! Thank you!"
"Hnggh!"
Most of the branch leaders rushed behind the paladins, but those confident in their own strength stepped forward instead, drawing their swords on Chairman Karl, who was cackling madly.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Chairman Karl?!"
Australia's branch leader, Oliver Simpson, bellowed like thunder.
To him, this abrupt situation seemed like nothing more than the chairman's capricious tyranny.
"You complain to the Union headquarters, and now you're spamming skills like this?! This is a clear violation of the accords!"
"The British branch won't stand idly by either!"
All those who bravely stepped up were veteran hunters boasting levels rivaling the Iron-Blooded Pope.
But even their heated words couldn't stop Chairman Karl's maniacal laughter.
"Kuhahaha! And what will you pathetic worms do if you don't stand idly by?! I've already obtained power greater than anyone in the world!"
Chairman Karl abruptly stopped laughing and coldly scanned the room.
"Today, using this platform, I will fulfill my new mission for the future. And anyone who stands in my way will not go unpunished!"
Chairman Karl cast Blood Terraforming once more, and countless tendrils of blood erupted from his body.
Shwaaaaa—
Simpson and the other branch leaders unleashed their skills to block the blood tendrils surging toward them.
Woooong—
A brilliant white glow emanated from Simpson and the branch leaders' bodies as they swung their swords in dazzling arcs to fend them off.
Clang! Clang! Chaaang!
Sword dances unfolded frantically in every direction.
But the encroaching blood tendrils only paused momentarily—it was impossible to block them completely.
In the end, they were forced back behind the defensive barrier of divine power erected by the pope and paladins.
"Kuh... kgh!"
"Kuhahaha! How long do you think that barrier will protect you?!"
Whether to conserve his dark energy or not, Chairman Karl commanded the hunter soldiers positioned on either side.
"Kill them all!"
"Yes, sir! Slash 'em down!"
The hunter soldiers charged in unison, launching attacks from both flanks.
The people inside the barrier, who used ordinary mana, counterattacked in response, and before long, the conference hall had devolved into a chaotic melee of an asura field.
Chairman Karl, watching the scene with satisfaction and a sly chuckle, turned his gaze back to me.
"How about it, you brat?! You'd try to protect all their lives, wouldn't you? But..."
"No. I'm sitting this one out."
"What?!"
Only now realizing I was standing there with my arms crossed beside the Iron-Blooded Pope, who was maintaining the barrier, Chairman Karl's eyes widened as he shouted again.
"You're supposed to be the hero! A hero should protect these people...!"
"I only came here to slay the Demon King."
"!!"
"You—the hellish Demon King from the demon realm! The Red Sheep!"
I pointed straight at him, and his eyes bulged before he started giggling like he'd snorted something.
"Heh heh heh... Kuhahaha! Yes! I am the Red Sheep! The incarnation of the hellish Demon King!"
Ever since Chairman Karl and Leah had appeared earlier, he'd been glaring at me, pouring out inexplicable rage.
Why? When has he even seen me to look at me with such resentment?
This life, and even in past regressions, I had no real encounters with him.
Yet beyond the simple hostility a Sword Cult follower might have toward a hero, there was something deeper, more primal in Chairman Karl's eyes.
...I've seen that look somewhere before.
The Iron-Blooded Pope's gleaming axe blade, offered up to defeat me when I was the Demon King—purely holy in its ferocity.
Reflected in it, my own expression, my eyes... I'd seen that exact gaze.
Rage toward someone who possessed what I lacked. The baseness called jealousy.
That's what filled his eyes now.
The envy and self-loathing of those who walk in darkness toward those who stride straight and brightly on the path of light.
That was my jealousy. So what fueled his?
Seeing him cackling gleefully while unleashing his degraded Demon King skill was pathetic, almost pitiful.
They say even the rich covet the poverty of the poor.
Karl Rutledge, the UHN chairman—a pinnacle of respect and the ultimate insider—had just shattered his hard-earned reputation in an instant.
All to hurl himself into the darkness he'd so desperately craved.
At least, I'd thought he'd scheme from the shadows, wear a mask, disguise himself as someone new to play the Red Sheep or fake Demon King.
I'd prepared countermeasures for that.
But for him, playing fake Demon King might be the point.
I, who had wandered endless years in darkness, and he, forever surrounded by light, could never want the same thing. But watching him toss aside what I'd longed for and fought to protect like a used rag—it grated on me.
Still, if it made exposing his true nature this easy, that was a silver lining.
Whatever he lacked, I could fill it and reap the rewards.
What could this man, at the peak of all power yet never chosen by the gods—not even noticed by me, a Demon King—possibly desire?
It was an oracle.
The divine nomination that you are the protagonist of the world.
I gave it to him.
Whether he knew it or not, Karl Rutledge had just received a true oracle from the Demon King.
[You are the Demon King.]
Perfect. A little flattery, and he reveals himself right away.
I'd roughly gauged his intentions and hyped him up, and he'd proudly confessed it himself.
Now, all I had to do was step in and take him down, and my tumultuous goal—"Catch the Demon King within a week and return home to my brother with the cradle"—would be achieved.
I smirked back at him.
"Insolent hero brat."
After laughing his fill, Chairman Karl's face hardened coldly again.
"I planned to declare myself Demon King after dyeing this meeting in blood and hanging your head. How did you know to reveal it first?"
"D-Demon King?!"
"Heavens! Chairman Karl... the Demon King he's been searching for...?"
Most who heard Chairman Karl's words were even more shocked than when he'd started killing people.
"Shut your traps, all of you!"
Chairman Karl unleashed Blood Terraforming again, slamming into the barrier the Iron-Blooded Pope had created.
"Kgh!"
Thanks to the ample divine power I'd replenished in the waiting room, the Iron-Blooded Pope only felt a slight tremor and held the barrier firm.
But the Blood Terraforming, forged from three thousand lives, was no joke. If this kept up, even maintaining the barrier would reach its limit.
Especially with the hunter soldiers' relentless assaults—it wasn't easy protecting the weaker branch leaders while upholding it.
I wasted no more time and shot toward Chairman Karl.
"Wicked Demon King! Receive the hero's sword!"
A suitably heroic line, and once I tangoed with him a bit, the quest completion would be in sight.
"Stop the hero!"
"Uwaaaah!"
The hunter soldiers attacking the branch leaders turned to block me, defending their king.
That's right—gotta thin out the small fry for flavor.
The moment I hit the stage, I swung my holy sword from left to right, meeting them head-on.
Golden divine power arced brilliantly from my blade, slicing through the hunter soldiers.
From my earlier scans with Analyzer on the way in, most were Sword Cult followers.
A couple of regular hunter soldiers had already switched sides to the pope after the Demon King declaration, so I cut down the rest without hesitation.
"Kaaaagh!"
Confirming the hunter soldiers screaming and collapsing as they lunged with skills, I fired bursts of divine power at the remnants.
Larry Oldman, Canada's branch leader guarding Chairman Karl's front, gritted his teeth as his protecting soldiers fell and charged at me.
"Hero, how dare you!"
Slash!
Larry's single-flash sword strike cut me down.
Or so he thought.
He valued pure martial prowess, earning even Chairman Karl's notice.
His swift appointment as branch leader for this anti-hero op was thanks to Larry Oldman's exceptional swordsmanship.
One-Flash Sword.
Rare was the blade that severed a neck so cleanly.
Yet even as that near-divine technique unfolded now...
The hero didn't fall.
The next instant.
Larry's face twisted grotesquely.
He'd clearly pierced the heart dead-on, then followed up to behead for good measure.
But suddenly, the divine sword aura rebounded.
Larry dodged on instinct, but not fully.
"F-fuck."
Larry spat a curse and looked down at his lower body.
The divine sword aura had slashed horizontally across his abdomen.
Slowly, he crumpled.
And behind him stood the fake Demon King, staring straight at me, ignoring his fallen subordinate.
Chairman Karl extended Blood Terraforming, absorbing the blood from the collapsing Larry.
"Kghack! D-Demon King?!"
Larry, turning his horrified face toward Karl, didn't even finish before shriveling into a skeletal husk like a withered branch.
"Hm. You've got the Demon King vibe down pat."
"?? What the hell are you babbling about, you punk hero?"
Chairman Karl, giving me a baffled look, slowly gripped his beloved sword, Blood Gladius, and aimed it at me.
"Hero, today you die here, but I, the Demon King, will live eternally, etching my name into history for generations. But I won't let you, who first named me Demon King, die ugly."
"Not bad lines. Keep going."
He said it with uncharacteristic seriousness, but knowing he was a fake, I couldn't play along straight-faced.
"Tch! As expected, I can't let you die easy! Blood Terraforming!"
Chairman Karl swung his red sword aura with the skill and charged at me.
"From the start, I hated you calling yourself a hero, God's proxy! I, who built and shaped everything from the world's pinnacle with these hands! I'll prove today that I'm far closer to the divine than a worthless punk like you!"
Clang! Clang! Pa-papak!
Swords, blood tendrils, and divine power tangled and whipped wildly, shooting off in all directions.
Chairman Karl, utterly convinced his skill would carve me up, stepped back moments later with a dumbfounded noise.
"......Huh? Why is this."