Chapter 220
Chapter 220
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 220
Chapter Title: The Demon King's Judgment
The throne at the pinnacle of the Demon King's Castle.
It was a shabby throne crudely carved from rough stone, but the dignity of the Demon King seated upon it was truly immense.
The Demon King's icy eyes, betraying no readable emotion, fixed coldly on Demikrasia.
With a casual wave of his hand, Demikrasia's body—something even the dimensional apex predators known as demons dared not touch lightly—went flying backward.
Whoosh! Crunch!
"Kyaaaaaah!!!"
Demikrasia's massive arm bent at an unnatural angle.
She was the master of the 108 Demonic Eyes, the dimensional overseer who gazed upon the entire demon realm.
Yet even someone as mighty as Demikrasia was nothing more or less than a powerful demon before the Demon King.
"Whoa, my liege..."
It wasn't just Demikrasia.
Even Deskuna, ever unyielding and capable of reducing any foe to ash in an instant, trembled under the Demon King's frigid gaze.
And then came the Demon King's punishment.
Crunch!
Deskuna's shoulder snapped and tore clean off in a single motion.
He hadn't even swung his hand.
Merely a glance and a faint surge of demonic energy.
"Forgive me, my liege."
Without so much as a groan of pain, Deskuna bowed his head.
To outsiders, it might seem excessive, but Deskuna expressed only gratitude for the Demon King's judgment.
Even the monstrous regenerative powers granted by the Demon God's blessing couldn't restore Deskuna's severed arm.
But then.
"Regenerate."
At the Demon King's casual command, a grotesque sound emanated from Deskuna's arm, and a new one sprouted forth in an instant.
The pain was twice as intense as when it had been severed, twisting Deskuna's face in agony.
"My thanks, my lord."
"Demikrasia."
The Demon King offered no reply to Deskuna, his chilling gaze shifting instead to Demikrasia.
Her body, wracked with suffering, floated involuntarily toward him before gently alighting before the throne.
"Do you regret it?"
The Demon King's voice was ice-cold.
It was the kind of tone that could promise to tear her limb from limb without raising an eyebrow, yet Demikrasia smiled.
"I do not. Even if the same situation arose again, I would make the same choice."
Sadness flickered in Demikrasia's eyes, mingled with pain and that smile.
The Demon King stared deeply into those eyes for a moment before leaning back into his throne.
"I love you, my lord. I could never... never lose you."
"How dare you suggest that I, your lord, could fall to some worthless human!!!"
Forgetting himself in the Demon King's presence, Deskuna roared in fury at Demikrasia's words.
Demikrasia didn't so much as blink at the killing intent from a fellow Second Duke.
"You're awfully good at spouting impossibilities. You know exactly what I mean."
"Demikrasia!!!!"
"Enough."
The brief clash between the two dukes halted at the sound of the Demon King's voice.
Deskuna's rage vanished in an instant as he bowed his head, and Demikrasia followed suit.
"You're prepared, then, Demikrasia."
Deskuna flinched.
No one knew the meaning of those words better than he.
Pain worse than death.
A punishment so harrowing that oblivion would seem a mercy.
Demikrasia knew it too, yet unlike Deskuna, she bowed with a radiant smile.
"Yes. Whatever your will, my lord, it will be my pleasure."
"It won't be that enjoyable."
The Demon King waved his hand.
The massive doors, flung wide open, slammed shut on their own.
And then, only one sound echoed forth.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!"
Demikrasia's screams and wails battered the Demon King's Castle for a long while, sending shivers through every high-ranking demon within its walls. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ '????' ⚙ DEMON KING RUNE ⚙ The rune symbolizing the Demon King on Ignito's hand began to glow. Before the eyes of every Royal Class, the rune unleashed a power greater than any Ignito had ever drawn before.
Scarlet-black lightning arced outward, incinerating and reducing everything in sight to ash.
"Guh... guh..."
He had realized something was wrong long ago.
The Mercenary King shouted desperately at Ignito, who writhed in pain with his rune-bearing hand outstretched.
"Stop it! Stop!!!"
But Ignito couldn't respond.
He had been trying to stop it for quite some time now.
Yet the rune's rampage only grew, sucking in even Ignito's own energy to amplify its might—a force no Royal Class, not even one ruling as king among humans, could halt.
The rune expanded without limit, its pull intensifying.
If this continued, Ignito's death was inevitable, and beyond that, certain doom for the world.
"Old man!!"
Ignito clenched his teeth and arrived at a single solution.
"Cut off my arm!!"
The only way to sever the rune's fuel source, which burned his very life force, was to amputate the arm.
"Got it."
Spello bit his lip.
He knew it was the only option here.
There was no choice.
Failing to sever the arm meant Ignito's death.
Shing.
Spello gripped his weapon without hesitation, infusing it with the utmost chill he could muster.
"Don't worry. I'll make it painless. If possible, I'll even reattach it."
Nod.
Ignito managed a twisted smile and nodded faintly.
In a flash, Spello appeared at Ignito's side and swung his frost-laden weapon.
Craaaack!
But their plan shattered with the sudden arrival of a third Royal Class.
Darklight Frederick blocked Spello's weapon right before Ignito's arm.
Frederick immediately unleashed his dark aura.
A thick, inky black energy.
Whoosh whoosh.
Startled by the instantly corrosive, venomous aura, Spello and the Mercenary King leaped back.
As the bewildered pair opened their mouths to speak—
A familiar voice rang out from behind their landing spot.
"Idiots. You actually went and did it?"
It was the First Royal Class, Light of the Heavens, Sergio.
The moment they heard him, Spello and the Mercenary King whirled without hesitation, swinging weapon and fist.
Craaaack!
Yet they couldn't pierce the overwhelming telekinetic might of Sergio, supreme among Royal Classes.
Their blows halted against a transparent barrier in midair.
Sergio wagged his index finger side to side with an infuriating smirk.
"Can't let you do that."
"Sergio!!!!"
Sergio's telekinesis clamped down on the two Royal Classes in an instant.
But the Mercenary King, who had walked a unique path unlike other Royal Classes, shattered the grip immediately, tore through the barrier, and slammed a fist into Sergio's chest.
Thud!!
Black-and-yellow fighting spirit erupted from Sergio's chest.
Reeling backward, Sergio grimaced.
"Ow... The Mercenary King, indeed."
"Old man!"
"I'll handle Frederick."
Free from the telekinetic pressure, Spello readjusted his grip on his weapon.
"No! Old man! Jam your weapon into my shadow right now!"
Flinch.
Spello halted mid-lunge toward Frederick.
"What the—"
Puzzled in the heat of battle, he caught the Mercenary King's subtle wink from one eye.
That faint signal sparked a memory in Spello's mind.
"Ah! Yong-un!"
One of Yong-un's subordinates was a woman who traveled through shadows.
"Her energy lingers in my shadow! Find it!"
Spello, charging at Frederick, suddenly emerged from the Mercenary King's shadow instead.
Sergio chuckled, shrugging at the two Royal Classes' little act.
"You all lost your minds? When you should be blocking Frederick, what is this nonsense?"
But Sergio's words drew not rage from the Mercenary King, but a smile.
Smirk.
"Guess you couldn't hear over the noise? Like you said, it'll be fun. That guy's... different from us."
"Really gone mad? What kinda bullshit is— kek."
Stab!
Sergio's arrogance, born of indulging their "show," soon led exactly as they intended: Spello's weapon plunged into the Mercenary King's shadow.
And then...
Fwoooosh.
The shadow rippled violently.
"...Huh? Skill upgrade?"
Sergio's brow twitched at the unexpected shadow movement.
"Thanks for waiting."
"What the—"
The Mercenary King and Spello's collaboration.
The blade in the shadow soon caused two figures to rise from within it.
"Who...?"
"Oh, first time seeing him? New Royal Class buddy."
Swish.
"Yong-un, the king who might just steal your spot as First Royal Class. The Sword King."
The sword dancer emerging from the shadow...
And the Seventh Royal Class, Light of the Sword.
The Sword King, Yong-un.
Whirl.
The instant he appeared, Yong-un shot forward at impossible speed, swinging the Demon-Slaying Sword at Sergio.
Clang!
It was a telekinetic barrier bolstered by two Royal Classes' power.
No—the stranger's arrival poured even more might into it, erecting not just a barrier but a wall.
But.
Slash!
Yong-un's sword, infused with ultimate essence, cleaved the telekinetic wall in half and obliterated it in one stroke.
"......?!"
Sergio's eyes widened twofold.
The utterly unforeseen destructive power instilled mortal terror in him.
The fruits of his hubris.
Just as the Demon-Slaying Sword threatened to inflict grievous wounds—
"GRAAAAAAAH!!!!"
As if to prove why he was the First Royal Class.
A colossal roar unleashed a massive storm, launching Sergio's body skyward.
His slowed sword strike grazed not his neck, but his thigh.
"Frederick!!!"
Sensing danger, Frederick instantly appeared at Sergio's side.
"We're pulling back."
Grind.
Sergio gnashed his teeth in rage.
Exposing his back to the alliance bolstered by Yong-un's arrival, he vanished from the spot. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The joy of surpassing Sergio's alliance—the pinnacle among Royal Class coalitions—was short-lived.
Yong-un's form appeared before Ignito in a flash.
"This is insane."
"Guh... guh..."
Ignito writhed as the rune drained all his energy, the symbol blazing vividly on his hand.
'????' ⚙ DEMON KING RUNE ⚙ The rune of the Demon King. The Mercenary King approached the grim-faced Yong-un.
"What is this thing that's unleashing such power...?"
Yong-un glanced around before answering the bewildered Mercenary King.
"Demon King."
"...What?"
"It means the Demon King."
The unexpected reply hardened every Royal Class's expression.
A rune symbolizing the Demon King?
"Then we just brought... the world's destruction upon ourselves with our own hands?"
"Exactly."
At Yong-un's cold words, Spello asked in uncharacteristic urgency.
"How do we stop it?!"
"I was planning to try something."
He poured ultimate essence into the Demon-Slaying Sword, which he had lowered.
Then swung it down with full force at the rune.
Clang!!!
Scarlet-black flames erupted.
But true to its otherworldly power beyond any prior rune, it devoured even Yong-un's ultimate essence and grew larger.
'It... swallowed the Extreme Heaven-Cleaving Sword?'
Yong-un's brow twitched.
The Extreme Heaven-Cleaving Sword struck at nonexistence itself.
The epitome of swordsmanship that severed invisible intent.
Yet this rune's eerie hunger consumed even that, drawing a frown from him.
"No way to..."
All prior runes had been broken by severing their existential form with the Extreme Heaven-Cleaving Sword.
But if that failed...
"There isn't one."
"This is crazy..."
"The arm! Cut off the arm!!!"
Ignito bellowed.
Evidently, he believed amputating his arm wiser than unleashing apocalypse.
But it wouldn't work.
"Even severed, it'll consume everything around it and keep growing. Your arm isn't the key."
"Then... we just watch the Demon King descend...?"
Spello slumped in a daze.
'No way... to stop it?'
As despair settled in—
Yong-un clenched his fist, biting his lip.
A familiar yet alien voice echoed in his mind. ⚙ DIVINE WHISPER ⚙ [Embrace it. Trust me. You must take it within you for all to unfold as you will.] "Everyone, get back."
Yong-un nodded at the voice.
Then he began something every Royal Class would deem utter madness.
"Wh-what are you—"
Absorbing the Demon King rune from Ignito's hand straight into his own body.