Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Tragedy
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"What in the world!"
[Judgment of Glory].
Boom!
He dragged his hammer along the ground, hurled it forward, caught it again, crossed both hammers and thrust them ahead, spun around once more, then slammed the hammer down. Bulki now wielded his hammers with complete freedom, pressing the enemy far faster than he ever had against Saint Holden.
"Didn't I tell you, Hero? I am your abyss. I will take everything from you. In the end, to save someone else... and kill someone else."
The Demon King met him head-on without yielding, warping space itself to redirect incoming attacks elsewhere.
"This one's best blocked by that shield knight."
With that, the Demon King raised his sword-scarlet right arm, emblazoned with the emblem of the Red Blood Savages, toward Elis's corpse. In an instant, it stretched out like tentacles from some massive exploding bacterium, devouring what remained of Elis's body and sword.
"Stop it!"
"You told me to block you."
As he parried Bulki's strikes with his other arm, the Demon King transformed the one that had consumed the corpse. It'sharpened into a long, pointed lance-the exact shape of Elis's sword.
"Hero! Behind me!"
Barrier that Withstands Even Raging Torrents.
"Damn it all!"
[Formation - Rock Guarding the Sword].
"So this is how you thrust it out."
Knight's Spear Piercing the Heavens.
Screeeeech!
A beam of karma far blacker and denser than Elis's erupted from the Demon King's arm. The rest of the group barely endured it, huddled behind Rondnel's sturdy barrier.
"Why are you so cruel? How can you be? She was just a child! She'd never even fought demons! But that's exactly why she could have become a better knight than me!"
"A better knight than you?"
The Demon King saw a grief in Bulki's eyes that mirrored his own.
Bulki, meanwhile, sensed an inexplicable familiarity in Iven's gaze.
"What... damn it!"
Startled, Bulki hastily unleashed his aura, but not before the armor on one shoulder shattered completely. Iven frowned at the sight.
"You're still far too lacking."
The Demon King lowered his sword. The Hero wasn't yet ready for his plan. Oblivious to this, Bulki kept his weapon trained on him and demanded again.
"Why go this far? Why mock us by revealing all your attacks, and defile the innocent? What is your reason, Demon King?!"
"Still don't get it, Hero of Helred? Five years ago, the corpse-eater who stole your friend and fled... that was me."
Bulki nearly lost his mind in that moment. Then the Demon King clawed open the center of his own chest-as if tearing out his heart or strangling his throat-and drew forth his own broken straight sword, now too wretched to call a blade, cursed and shattered as it was.
"Kill me. Kill me harder! If you can't stop me now, not only will you all die, but all of Helred will perish!"
***
The king of the Blue Moon wolfkin, his teeth all shattered and blood pouring like a waterfall from his maw, still stood amid the explosion.
"This... your death's... strongest attack?"
"What? Not enough, Blue Moon?"
Riu heaved for breath in the aftermath of her [Sword Draw], pushed to its utmost with her aura, but she smirked faintly, satisfied with the enemy's damage, and asked. Yet the king of the Blue Moon wolfkin simply readjusted his stance.
"Still... lacking. My death. I... will surely... survive."
"Survive?"
"Gehenna... is barren. So we starve, we wolfkin... lost our god, despised."
"And that's your excuse for invading us?"
"That... is the Great Demon King's will. What have... we done wrong? We wolfkin... just live. To survive... we obey."
In that instant, his straight, long horn gleamed a deeper shade than dark blue, and new fangs-longer than before-sprouted from his broken jaws.
"I, king of the Blue Moon wolfkin... if my horn doesn't kill you... I grow only stronger."
Ultra-fast regeneration. Worse still, she had no idea how much tougher he'd become. Riu instinctively knew this fight would drag on.
"You... are truly... strong."
"You too... Blue Moon."
In the heart of the ruined marketplace, a knight and a demon spoke. Neither laughed nor raged-they simply acknowledged each other. The massive king of the Blue Moon wolfkin readjusted his stance and asked.
"You... stronger than... that Hero?"
Riu released her grip on her sword as well, to draw it faster next time.
"Of course. The Hero's sword outpowers and outpaces mine, but we don't call that strength. You know that too, don't you, Blue Moon?"
Blue Moon-Saharon-let out a low growl of laughter and replied.
"Of course. Strength... isn't that."
"Then tell me, Blue Moon. Among the demons invading Helred now, how strong are you?"
Blue Moon crouched even lower and answered.
"If I can't stop you... demons die for sure. But if you can't stop me... all humans die. Even if every race's kings... horns... all charge me at once... they can't stop me. Except the Great Demon King."
Riu glanced at the sky once, then gripped her sword with both hands.
"So killing just you solves everything."
"Yes... strongest knight."
The strongest warriors of their camps-champions, knights, Demon King. The two supreme beings on this battlefield realized they were each other's perfect death.
"My sword's name is Il, meaning guardian. I'll now face you as my strongest foe. Have a name, Blue Moon?"
"My name... Saharon, Blue Moon. Solely to survive... horn raised... king of all wolfkin. I am the Demon King, knight."
"Simple enough. Come again, Demon King. This time, I am your death!"
Boom!
As Riu's feet tangled her in the marketplace-nearly obliterated by her battle-the Mountain Giant's king in the central castle, Demon King Nepil, rose once more.
***
What, then, are demons?
Demons are the rejected. Children abandoned by the god they once believed in, forsaken by the current one. Unless it's myth, there's no absolute line dividing demons from humans or other creatures. I define demons as those driven to the desolate western continent Gehenna at myth's end, and continue from there.
If a devil believes in Miplas, is it not a demon? If a human curses Miplas, is it a demon? The church-hid truths of myth answer these.
So what must demons be?
Demons are rejected... but must resist. If the current creed is right, they follow-but for vengeance against their god's killer, they rightly raise horns. Thus, demon invasions stem from Miplas worshippers' standards alone. I assert here that calling them demon revenge wars is more apt.
Thus, a demon's lament is growing strong to protect themselves and prosper their kind. Self-respect, survival for the godless-inextricably linked.
Finally, what must a Demon King be?
Excluding other races turned dogs of Miplas, one bearing their entire race's lament. Some raise horns to grow strong, some to protect, some to prosper, some to survive.
And their king, igniting the lament of those bearing their race's lament.
Inheritors of Great Demon King Lucifer van Ivelhac's will.
Demon King, Yeruusa Ha Horn.
Demons, inherit the horn.
"This should suffice, no?"
The witch penned her book with a smile both unsettling and fatal.
Opposite what she'd written of knights and Heroes, this tale too would spread like the last. In the end, this tragedy would complete in the witch's hands.
The author of this tragedy, the witch manipulating it to her whims-her existence would eventually be revealed.
Yet the world knew not who she was.
That too was tragedy.
"Ah, now the sorrow to topple the Empire arrives."
The witch sensed the Mountain Giant's king rising again. And knew all fates were about to invert.
***
"The mountain rises again!"
His upper body half gone, the Mountain Giant king Nepil truly stirred a storm of earth and dust as he heaved his colossal frame upright.
"Think I'll let you? Fall!"
Graveheim blocked him, but Nepil absorbed the crushing force and crawled grotesquely, desperately, toward the Emperor's colossal statue.
"Nngh!"
Graveheim groaned. The harder he pressed, the stronger Nepil's rising force seemed.
"Why do you come to kill us so relentlessly?! Why?!"
"Nepil! Go smash that rampart! Harpia! Aid Nepil!"
"As the Queen wills."
At Kirumin Jai's command, amid the chaos the one harpy who never touched ground streaked like an arrow toward Nepil.
"Omer, net grasping swirling clouds."
Nia, still airborne and blasting demons, invoked her aura again. A sturdy net of light snared several harpies and slammed them to earth. But the one called Harpia slipped it effortlessly, appearing right before Nia.
"Omer, anchor like black sky mountain dropping on thunderclouds."
She poured green light and attacks anew, but the harpy dodged all and seized Nia, hurling her straight to Kirumin Jai.
"Kyaa!"
"Damn human bitch! Die!"
Boom!
In a flash, Kirumin Jai's karma engulfed Nia.