Let the World Burn

Before we climbed the final floor of Demon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠King Castle, we pitched the tents and made ready to camp.

Making camp in the middle of enemy ground was a dangerously stupid thing to do, but we had already cleared every foe on this floor, so it shouldn't have mattered. More than that, the long battle had worn us ragged, and getting our condition back was plainly important.

Not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that the tents had been pitched for rest.

"Tighter. Deeper—deeper♥"

A familiar voice slipped out between the tents and into my ear. Elisia first, was it?

She was a fine tank, the sort who never spared her own body for her teammates when things turned grim—and now she was rolling her hips, fawning over the Hero. At the sound of her moans I felt my cock, quiet until then, begin to rise, asserting itself against my pants as if it meant to shove straight through them.

"Gulp."

No matter how many times I heard it, I never got used to it. Telling myself that I, at least, had to hold on to my reason, I slipped away from the tents and made a show of scouting the area. There was no chance any enemy was left.

"They ought to be done by now."

Staying gone too long would look just as strange, so I came back.

"Haa—haa. Out scouting, were you, Leon?"

"Yeah."

I answered short and looked away. Elisia, maybe still caught in the afterglow, studied my face, but the mask seemed to irritate her, and her gaze dropped almost at once.

"Aaaahn, Hero♥"

An unusually loud moan, a voice making a fuss of itself. It belonged to the saintess, Ellis.

To keep her power as a saintess she had to preserve her virginity, and yet, to lure the Hero, she had offered up her back hole with her own hands.

"I love your cock, Hero♥…… Your cock is driving me crazy♥"

Schlick, schlick. Schlick, schlick.

Even the sounds I least wanted to hear reached me, raw and wet. Moans more exaggerated than usual were brushing my ears.

Is it because the fight dragged on so long? Those moans are ridiculously overdone.

The Hero's cock, as I knew it, wasn't that big. There was no way moans like that could be real.

"Shoot it all inside me—knock me up with that thick, glorious Hero cum♥"

"Haaaaaaahn♥"

The saintess's turn ended, and from the wet slap of it, the archer Priya's had begun.

Priya, who always carried a silent, solemn air, was lewd enough to climb onto the Hero's waist herself and clamp her pussy down around him.

"Hnn—L-Leon's right outside. If you shove it in that deep……"

She whispered as if she were doing everything she could to smother the sound. She would never know how loud her moans really were, or how thin and cheap the fabric of this tent was.

"Ah, ahhnnk—hhk! Ahhk, aaaaah!"

At Priya's panting I felt myself swelling thicker still.

"If you pound me like that, Leon will…… Ahhk♥ Your cock's too big, Hero, s-stooop!"

Lewd cries packed the tent, and unlike the two before her, they slammed flesh to flesh for a long while.

"Haa. Let's rest a second. Hey, Vivian—get over here and wipe this off."

The one always stuck with the cleanup was the mage, Vivian.

She had guarded her chastity to the very end and refused to mix her body with the Hero's, but at the entrance of Demon King Castle a demon had wounded her badly. She collapsed, and in the end the Hero raped her. I knew perfectly well why she had ignored his temptations and his coaxing and held out all this time. There was still nothing I could do.

"Slurp. Slurp. Slurp."

"This is all you've got? My dick isn't even getting hard. Quit just nursing the head and do it properly!"

That's just because you blow your load like a fucking virgin.

My arms began to shake, but there was nothing I could do. All that was left was staring off at some distant ridge and looking away.

"Hnn……"

I couldn't bear the sounds of what was being done to Vivian. Using scouting as an excuse, I moved until I was out of earshot—and Elisia followed me.

"Leon."

"Talk."

"This might be the last time. Can't you take the mask off just once? We've fought in step for three years. I'm dying to know."

"No. The moment I take this off, a curse could take me."

"Then it's fine. We killed the Demon Duke yesterday and I got curse immunity, so just once—can't you take it off?"

I used my ability lightly, only to test whether she was lying. Even then, she showed no intention of turning back.

So the immunity is real.

Elisia hid the greed in her voice and came toward me slowly, strength gathering in her arms as if she meant to tear the mask off by force if she had to. She wasn't like that day to day, but when she put her strength behind it she could raise muscle that looked ready to split her skin. If it was her, she could do it.

"No."

I refused one last time. Curiosity and greed had already taken her head completely. With a moan, she ripped the mask from my face.

"Oh my♡"

Elisia's eyes and face flushed hot.

"Why would you hide a face like this behind a mask all this time……"

At the sweetness of her voice I nearly lost my head and pinned her down. I caught my reason again and gave the command.

Elisia lowered her arms and moved to the front of the tent.

"Hoo…… that was close."

That hadn't been a curse. It was my unique ability—Hypnosis.

Hiding my face had been the first condition for being accepted into the Hero's Party. The reason they gave was that this was work for a greater cause, and they didn't want party members falling for one another. Meanwhile he was in the tent fucking whoever he pleased—an obvious contradiction—but I endured it, stubborn to the end. The one who could save the world wasn't me. It was the Hero. I wasn't the protagonist. I was a side character. Even with a worthless ability, simply being allowed to stand with them was an honor.

That was the hypnosis Leon had laid on himself. Now he had forgotten even the fact that he had cast it. Forgetting had been part of the hypnosis too.

"Aaaaaahn♥"

Vivian's moans reached him even across a fair distance. Leon's cock swelled enough to split his pants, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything about it, and only put more ground between them.

The next day.

All of them, faces still deeply flushed, gathered their gear and climbed the stairs. Fitting for the last floor before the Demon King, the enemies were endless—but the perfect balance of Hero, mage, archer, saintess, and tank, mixed with my hypnosis, kept it from becoming a real problem.

"Damn it—help me, quick! I've been hit with Mind Split…!"

"I know."

I laid a first-stage Hypnosis fitted to the moment, hypnotized the Hero, and broke the crowd control. We barely forced a path through and came to a massive door. We were almost unhurt, and before us was the door with the Demon King waiting beyond it.

The Hero raised a hand to open it. In that instant, a single line appeared.

It was a bolt from a clear sky. A host of demons ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still held the ground near the door, and whoever among us was left behind was as good as dead. The minimum number allowed through the entrance of the first floor had been six. Set against that, this was the Demon King's trap, meant to split the last of the party against itself.

"Leon."

But a trap like that would never work on this Hero's Party. If a moment like this came, it had already been decided who would be sacrificed.

"It's the end anyway. Don't save your mana. Cast it."

The Hero didn't spare even a word of thanks for Leon, who was giving himself up. He thought it only natural. He was the Hero.

"Fine."

And Leon, with hardly a complaint, cast the fourth stage—Super Reality—on every one of them. Super Reality, the power to turn impossibility into reality, demanded a great deal of mana, and Leon's was nearly spent.

"Everyone, inside."

Not one of them looked at Leon.

Elisia, full of curiosity and feeling, had lost all interest in him because of the hypnosis. Cold, sharp Priya had always read a situation with a cool head. Vivian, between whom and me there had been a current, couldn't turn her head for the guilt of it. Only the saintess Ellis, out of apology, meant to offer a prayer to her god on his behalf—but the moment the Hero told her to conserve her Holy Power, she stopped at once.

"Fucking pieces of shit."

The Hero wouldn't have known it, but he, too, was an ordinary man—the kind who could curse.

With what mana remained, he hypnotized himself and met the demons charging in.

Leon had spent himself buffing his teammates, urging them on, and killing his own wants and feelings. He was no great help in a fight. But whether it was the hypnosis he had cast on himself or not, he did not fall—even with a great hole through his shoulder and his gut, even with his left shoulder sheared away.

"Fuck. If I'd known it would end like this, I should've lived however the hell I wanted."

He had been wearing a presence close ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to invincible. The moment he saw that final line, he dropped.

And that was the last thing he saw.

He opened his eyes again.

A pure white space with nothing in it. It had been a long time ago, but he had been here once before.

Leon touched the body that had been restored to normal, pushed himself up, and soon a single passage filled his sight.

Without a moment's hesitation, I chose Villain.