Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: A Hero More Demonic Than the Devil
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Ashy had sensed something in Baria, after all.
Demonic energy? Traces of black magic?
I'm not entirely sure.
Anyway, after getting a rough grasp of the village's situation, Ashy sprang into action.
And it was highly effective.
Just a few minutes after she started her rampage and curses flew, the black mage appeared.
He emerged cloaked in a dull black robe.
"Oh man, I've gone and gotten myself caught."
A man's voice, brimming with mischief, rang out clearly.
Even from a distance, I could make out every word he said.
The black mage was deliberately letting his voice carry.
Ashy swung her holy sword toward the black mage.
A blade of silver sword energy surged straight at him.
The startled black mage rolled desperately out of the way.
But he couldn't dodge the sword energy.
"Whoa, no warning, just straight-up attacking? You sure you're a hero?"
The sword energy sliced the black mage clean in two, separating his upper body from his lower.
His body split right down the middle.
Yet his words didn't stop.
"Even if it's a clone, that hurts!"
He wasn't the real body—he was a clone.
Ashy, having seen through that, didn't let up on the chaos.
She unleashed sword energy in every direction, turning Baria into a total wreck.
Boom!Kaboom!
A hero's strike shattered the magic circle.
The air roared, and the ground cracked open.
Villagers clung to one another, trembling in fear.
For Baria Village alone, it felt like a catastrophe had struck.
"H-Hero! The village is collapsing!"
"Our village is done for. The hero's destroying everything!"
"What are we supposed to do about this...? We have to report to Baron Yuteron..."
Ashy paid no mind to Baria's fate.
She was fulfilling her duty as a hero, so she felt no qualms.
Only the clueless villagers felt wronged.
They could do nothing as their lifelong home crumbled, leaving nothing but barren, empty land with dust swirling in the air.
In the face of the greater cause of exterminating the black mage, their haven was a willing sacrifice.
"Aaaah, stop! Stop it!"
The half-black mage flopped around wildly, screaming.
Like a fish thrashing on dry land.
It was pretty eerie.
Ashy didn't exchange a single word with the black mage.
She focused solely on her task, demolishing Baria in the process.
A purple magic circle shimmered.
"Oh ho, going ahead with the summoning like this?"
"This throwaway village is doomed anyway. Might as well go all out. You crazy bitch!"
Ashy swung her holy sword.
It looked reckless, but it wasn't.
Her blade precisely bisected her targets.
"Aaaargh! It huuuurts!"
The black mage's clone tore apart in shreds.
Only after slicing him into chunks like meat did Ashy finally pull back her power.
The sight of blood bursting like fireworks sent chills down my spine.
"...!"
In this world based on a novel, protagonists and villains kept reappearing over and over.
His overly flippant demeanor, his screams, his enjoyment of toying with foes using clones—it all felt familiar, more so than other side characters.
A black mage came to mind: one who survived to persistently torment the protagonist Luke even after countless deaths.
'Grape?'
I didn't know the details.
The author never provided them.
He operated as a black mage for Hell Chain.
From grunt to executive, he'd committed countless atrocities, yet he stubbornly survived even as Hell Chain's black mages were systematically hunted down.
Of course, he ultimately met his end in the final battle, slain by the Demon King Baal he himself summoned.
"It's Grape."
Ashy knew him too.
She must have clashed with him in her past life, so there was no way she wouldn't.
It was a grudge built up over a long time.
If she could finish him off here, things would go much smoother afterward.
But to do that, she needed to lure out his real body somehow...
Was it possible?
Grape's clone lay in tattered pieces. Ashy examined them and smiled faintly.
The moment she resolved herself, her ash-gray hair began to turn silver.
Her mana surged, glowing brightly.
A pair of pristine white wings unfurled.
Pure-blooded celestials were born with three pairs of wings, but Ashy wasn't pure-blooded.
Her human heritage left her with just one pair.
And even those only sprouted after her awakening, so they were never described in actual combat scenes.
'...She survived past the ending, so she can use celestial traits too.'
The fact that Ashy was a regressor hit me viscerally.
The symbol of nobility responding to the angel's mana fluttered proudly.
"Ahh..."
The villagers bowed their heads.
Brilliant light poured from around Ashy—it was only natural they'd be awestruck unconsciously.
"You fucking bastard."
Despite her exalted status, crude curses spilled from Ashy's lips, but no one paid it much mind.
They were all lost in the vision before them.
"Found you."
She traced the demonic energy feeding the magic circle backward.
A skill that only appeared in the novel's late stages—she wielded it effortlessly.
It wasn't surprising that Grape had let his guard down.
Demonic energy followed a different trajectory from normal mana; he wouldn't have expected anyone to analyze and counter it perfectly.
Fwoosh!
Ashy vanished in an instant.
Having pinpointed Grape's location, she demonstrated ultra-high-speed movement.
Crack.
A fissure appeared in the black dome.
It couldn't withstand her breakthrough and was shattering.
"Hero...?"
Ordinary humans couldn't even catch a glimpse.
Her speed outpaced human dynamic vision entirely.
As the villagers dumbly scanned their surroundings, an explosion echoed from afar.
Thick demonic energy gushed out like crude oil.
'Already?'
The Ashy I'd seen up until now was plenty strong.
Strong enough to effortlessly kill Drake, who was set as the current strongest.
Yet it seemed Ashy hadn't been going all out before.
Strength described in words had its limits.
It was worlds apart from seeing it with your own eyes.
Mountains crumbled before me, skies shattered.
Overwhelming power that could cleave oceans or spill the blood of thousands.
Just as words and images convey differently, the explosion of power in reality was...
Immense beyond measure.
I swallowed hard.
I couldn't tell if my legs were shaking or if it was the ground quaking.
"What in the world is happening..."
The village chief of Baria muttered.
I wondered the same—what was going on?
About ten minutes later, Ashy walked back from the distance.
Dragging her holy sword, she held something in one hand.
"...Ashy!"
Ashy had triumphed over Grape.
It was the obvious outcome, but witnessing it firsthand felt off.
What Ashy held was Grape's head.
Cleanly severed below the neck.
"Hey, start the demon summoning right now."
Ashy tossed Grape's head onto the dirt ground.
It rolled with a thud.
"H-How did you beat me? Why are you so damn strong?!"
Grape's severed head writhed.
It had to be the real body, not a clone, yet he was still alive.
Ashy stomped on Grape's head as she spoke.
"Demon summoning. You doing it or not?"
"...Why would a hero want a demon summoned? I just don't get it."
Grape was genuinely puzzled.
His voice dripped with confusion.
He could never understand from his common-sense perspective.
How could he grasp that Ashy was a regressor who'd endured him in her past life and was gunning for him early?
"Shut your trap."
"Guh...! Dirt's getting in my mouth!"
"Summoning the demon or not?"
If he wouldn't summon the demon, she had no further business here.
She'd finish him off completely and leave.
'Demons can be found elsewhere.'
Eliminating a major threat like Grape would make future actions far easier.
Fewer victims too, probably...
This situation was a win all around.
"You want me to summon...?"
"Not doing it? Then just die like that."
"...I-I won't die. I've got an immortal body!"
"Let's test that."
Grape thrashed and screamed hysterically.
Claiming he wouldn't die no matter what.
Ashy aimed her holy sword at Grape's head.
Silver mana glowed, energy rippling.
Grape wasn't truly immortal.
He just had special powers beyond the norm, but he wasn't invincible.
"...".
Grape's movements stopped.
A sudden realization that this wasn't good must have hit him.
"I-I'm summoning it!"
Thanks to Ashy's rampage, the sacrifice summoning circle was collapsing.
To survive, Grape hastily initiated the sacrifice summoning.
The air's trembling shifted.
The dome's cracks sealed, and the purple magic circle vibrated.
"Sacrifices...!"
"Brought a few over. That should be enough, right?"
Blood pooled at the magic circle's center.
Ashy showed Grape four human maggots.
Grape wriggled with a baffled expression.
It seemed to affirm they were sufficient.
"If I see any sign of using villagers as sacrifices, I kill you on the spot."
"...You'll let me live if I do as told? You won't!"
Grape, desperate to survive.
He snapped angrily at Ashy.
Ashy shrugged nonchalantly.
"Might let you live. No one knows. Wanna die instead?"
"...Fuck...!"
Grape ground his teeth.
The harsh grinding sound carried all the way here.
Hummm.
The magic circle resonated.
It wailed.
"Gaaahhh! Hero! Hero, pl-please spare us!"
"I swear I'll never do it again! I'll live right, so pleeease—gaaahhh!"
The human maggots screamed.
Devoured as sacrifices in agonizing torment for the demon summoning.
"Ugh... uuu..."
The villagers recoiled at the sight, horrified.
They stepped back a couple paces, faces pale with fear.
Their gazes toward Ashy brimmed with terror.
Who was the hero, and who was the demon?
Honestly, it was hard to tell.
"...I'll offer up all the demonic energy I've gathered so far! Hero, no matter how strong you are, you can't take down a demon alone! You'll regret giving me this chance!"
Demonic energy flowed from Grape's head.
The magic circle greedily absorbed it.
Soon, cracks formed beneath the black dome.
Craaaack.
A demon's arm clawed its way through the rift in space.
— Summoner's wish, desire... well heard.
The demon's voice echoed across Baria Village.
Villagers who glimpsed the demon began fainting one by one.
'Fuck, this is no joke...?'
Primal fear invaded my body.
Could she really hunt a demon?
I shot Ashy a glare.
Unlike my worry, Ashy just boredly picked at her ear with a blank expression.
The emotions I was feeling seemed utterly ridiculous to her.