Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Story of the Demon King Defeating the Princess and Saving the Hero
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Like a moth hurling itself into flames, the hideous creature lunged toward the brilliant light, thinking.
'You're my friend who shines just as brightly, the Hero who'll save this twisted world.'
"Graaaaaah!"
Iven squeezed out his last ounce of strength and let out a howl like a Red Blood Savage, charging at Bulki while clutching Lije's severed head in the Ashen Wolf Human arm.
He couldn't die at his friend's hands.
So his friend had to kill him without even recognizing him.
"I'll kill you!"
Bulki yanked back the sword he'd swung and cleaved straight down at the onrushing Iven.
Boom!
It crashed down like a bolt of lightning, and Iven's chest burst open.
The Hero raised his sword over the fallen Iven, its glow evaporating even the rainwater.
"I'll... kill every last Demon."
Bulki swung his sword down. But it clanged against the broken straight sword that something from Iven had yanked over and ricocheted away.
"What?"
The Hero staggered back in shock. But he wasn't the only one startled. Iven, his face shoved into the mud, barely managed to lift his head and saw his own sword dropping right in front of him.
Fate wouldn't allow him to die.
Purple-black sap oozed from Iven's shattered sword, touching both Lije's head and his pierced chest.
"Urgh... aaagh!"
Iven seized the sword with the Ashen Wolf Human arm-its fur burned clean off, muscles fully exposed-and toppled backward. The blade made a desperate bid to sever the sap connecting to Lije's head.
It wouldn't cut even with the sword, so he tore at it with his teeth and draped it around his neck. But Lije's head was steadily seeping into the gaping hole.
"Li... Li!"
Iven flailed in panic and looked toward Bulki. The name Lije, barely forced from his lips, refused to fully escape thanks to the princess's curse.
Writhing in agony, groaning as if he'd swallowed hell itself, Iven seethed with rage beyond words toward the source of it all.
"Graaaah!"
Iven rammed his own arm into his torn-open chest and roared.
Bulki couldn't shake off the disorientation-like the brief daze from an Ashen Wolf Human's howl-clutching at his head and clamping his hands over his ears. This roar packed far more punch than any ordinary Ashen Wolf Human's.
As if other powers had fused into it.
Iven seized the moment and fled even faster, even farther, beyond Bulki's reach.
He bolted without a backward glance, as if toward the continent's edge. Vomiting blood all the while, he staked his fully awakened abyss on a vow.
'Princess! Mariel Sonain, cursed with the filthiest malediction! Someday, someday, I'll butcher you and spike your head on the castle walls. I'll chew every scrap of your flesh and toss the remnants to stray dogs. I'll burn you with my hatred. I'll save the Knight Order, turned into your puppets by that curse!'
Dying bit by bit even as he ran, he glanced back once more to confirm his friend kneeling there in futile despair. The princess who had devoured the Knight Order would surely come for Bulki next. He'd stop her. He'd return one day, no matter what. And then...
'I'll defeat you and save the true light of this world-the Hero-with these hands!'
On this day, the fate of the world twisted sharply.
***
Iven gasped for breath at the highland's edge, near where it met the sea. No spark of life remained; his consciousness seemed to have fled entirely.
Suddenly, a woman emerged from the darkness, cloaked in robes blacker than the shadows.
"My name is Iveldra, you pitiful sinner."
Iven barely raised his head to gaze at her.
Her eyes were veiled by a mask adorned with black feathers. She extended a hand to him. No will left within, he reached out reflexively, ignorant of who she was or the fate awaiting him.
"Now, come. The Demon King awaits."
The instant Iven grasped her hand, the two vanished from the world like smoke snuffing out.
***
"I, Emperor Luiel Sonain, command thee: Knight Bulki, step forth and swear fealty by inheriting the sword of the Holy Brazier."
Bulki advanced slowly in his golden full plate armor. The news awaiting him upon his return to Sonain still had him grinding his teeth.
Iven had tried to stop the Brnaun protesters himself but failed. Many subjects perished in the explosion they triggered. Unable to prevent it, Iven took responsibility and was hauling the bodies to the mass grave when he encountered that corpse feeder-and died.
He was a knight who had acted rightly, yet church law branded him a criminal for harming subjects. That was the unavoidable official stance from the capital.
The corpse feeder's appearance with Iven's sword had thrown the princess's plans slightly off course, but this account was accepted by the subjects, the church... and even Bulki.
Iven would have thrown himself at the protesters, death be damned, to stop them.
He'd fulfilled his duty to the best of his ability.
If only I'd listened more closely to that story-about the protesters-none of this would have happened. So Bulki thought. But that wasn't what mattered most to him now.
The Demon-that corpse feeder who'd thrown him into confusion-had wielded Iven's sword and mocked Lije's corpse.
That primal fury toward Demons now gnawed at Bulki. He had identified his foe, the evil he must vanquish. And the princess, witnessing it, was immensely pleased.
Bulki ascended the cathedral's steps amid drifting petals. He pondered deeply.
The world's distortions and his role in it. His fate and his enemies. The legacies of his two friends, stolen by Demons and Iven's final words.
Iven had told him: Bulki might not save everyone, but he could make the world a little more just. Bulki dwelled on that.
"Only you can do it."
And the princess had cheered him on.
Wearing an expression of deep emotion, Bulki clasped the princess's hand and bowed. He affixed the cape she offered to his armor. Upon hearing Iven's body had burned, he'd had the breastplate-the chest guard-engraved not with the standard eagle beak of regular knights, but with an emblem of a flat book and straight sword.
He traced the emblem with his fingers, tears streaming down his emotionless face. As the Holy Brazier's flames drank those tears, the Empire's emperor, Luiel Sonain, stepped forward to proclaim.
"Before the Holy Brazier, I solemnly decree the Empire's edict. Henceforth, Bulki of Brnaun shall be known as Bulki Sonain. Fulfill thy duty as the Empire's Hero. This is sealed by thy betrothal to my cherished daughter, the Princess and Saintess Mariel Sonain, under Miplas's blessing."
Bulki knelt, and Princess Mariel Sonain took her place beside him.
"Bulki Sonain! Dost thou swear, as one knight, as a subject, and as the Empire's mighty sword, to be this world's eternal guardian forevermore?"
Bulki rose, lifting his gleaming sword, and swore.
"I, Hero Bulki Sonain, raised by the great Mir's choosing, bear grave responsibility. Now awakened to my destiny, to annihilate all mine enemies-all Demons-and to safeguard the Princess and Saintess Mariel Sonain, I swear upon my proud comrade, the greatest knight who ever lived."
Under Mir's blessing, Bulki cried out.
"I proclaim here and now: Behold! I shall shatter the Demons and forge a new era! Yerutsa Rahav!"
"Yerutsa Rahav!"
All the subjects echoed in unison. Afterward, cries of "Yerutsa Rahav"-Inherit the Sword-filled the grand cathedral, then the entire Empire.
On this day, the world's greatest Hero was born.
***
The forbidden land at the heart of the western continent. The black demonic fortress, Tehom.
Its name meant abyss, and the abyss's master-the Great Demon King-sat upon the Throne of Sin, gazing down at Iven. His sclera gleamed black, while pupils that should have been dark shone gold.
His upward-curving horns thrust skyward, as if proclaiming to the world his station as Great Demon King, piercing to the highest heights.
"Are you the Iven of whom my black maiden, Iveldra, spoke?"
Iven could manage only groans of "Ugh... augh." The other Demon Kings watching couldn't resist piping up.
"He couldn't even face a Hero properly like that."
"Great Demon King, place no hope in trash like this."
"Have you ever laid eyes on our sire?"
"This form and shape are quite the spectacle."
"Grarara..."
The King of the Blue Moon Werewolves, the Queen of Night Hobgoblins, the princes of the Red Blood Savages, the King of Dream Demons, and the King of Mountain Giants. Every Demon King awaited the Great Demon King's decree as they eyed the corpse feeder.
"Enough."
In that instant, the air grew thick as if gravity had intensified, silencing every Demon King.
"I, Lucifer van Ivelhac-as told by the witch-see that your sword mirrors mine perfectly. Thus, honoring Iveldra's will, I shall craft you into my mightiest puppet. Serve as my puppet, follow me, and slay the princess... and I shall pluck the girl you clutch from death's jaws. For death belongs to me."
Lucifer van Ivelhac-king of all western Demons and Great Demon King-descended his throne like some jester, sauntering toward Iven with mocking words.
"Iveldra, my dearest Death's Mir. This wretched sinner you've chosen shall become my strongest puppet-and my brother, bestowed horns equal to those of the other Demon Kings."
Lucifer proclaimed to all assembled Demons.
"His name is Iven van Ivelhac. My horn to slay the Hero... the worst Demon King!"
The Demons erupted in outrage, howling as if spewing blood. Their cries shook Tehom-no, the entire world.
On this day, the world's most perilous Demon King was born.