Hellfire in the Fake Hero's Village
As soon as I opened the carriage door upon arriving at the village of the fake hero, an overwhelming wave of dense demonic energy and the thick stench of blood hit me. The scene unfolding before my eyes was far worse than I'd imagined.
First off, about a fifth of the village was already being devoured by pitch-black flames, collapsing into ruin. And these weren't ordinary flames—they were Hellfire, the inextinguishable blaze wielded only by demons, burning everything to ash before it would ever die out.
“Kyaaak!!”
“Demons!! Wh-why are there demons…!!”
“S-save me!”
The villagers' screams echoed from ahead. The Hellfire was spreading from the outskirts toward the center, as if deliberately herding everyone into one spot. If I delayed any longer, they might all burn alive before I could lift a finger.
But just as I'd made my decision and was about to leap from the carriage—
“Ugh… urk……”
A groan from behind me made me whip my head around.
“Ley… Leysila?”
This was bad. My hopes and expectations had been utterly shattered. After two years of peace, counseling with the villagers, I'd believed her trauma had improved at least a little. But now it had resurfaced.
The horrific memories of losing our parents twice to demons' hands. My sister, face drained pale, hands clamped over her ears, had buried her head in the carriage corner, curled up like a small animal, trembling uncontrollably.
“Leysila……”
I bit my lip hard without realizing it. At that moment—
Shing.
The sound of a sword being drawn came from beside me. Selina had silver daggers gripped in both hands, poised to kick open the door and charge out. She clearly intended to spill blood alongside me for atonement.
But I seized her shoulder firmly as she was about to burst forth and shoved her back.
Thud!
“Ugh! Wh-what are you doing?”
I met her questioning gaze head-on, grinding my teeth as I answered.
“Protect my sister. Even if it costs your life.”
“Wh-what? But if they're using Hellfire…”
“Shut up. I'll handle it—you just guard my sister.”
“…Got it.”
Selina's lips twitched as if she had a lot to say, but she nodded with effort. Confirming her response, I kicked off the carriage floor and hurled myself straight into the heart of the burning village.
The scorching heat at my feet, the screams swirling in the air. Feeling every bit of it with my entire body, I drew the battered sword from my waist.
Just like two years ago—unacknowledged by anyone, pointed at as a fake, yet swinging my blade to sever demon necks and save lives. Without hesitation, I plunged into the hellish center where the Hellfire flickered.
“…Ngh!”
The moment I leaped into the village center, the rushing heat choked my breath.
-Kyaaak!!
-Kweeeek!!
The first to charge with shrieks were the lowest dregs—6th Grade monsters crudely infused with demonic energy. Goblins and orcs with grotesquely swollen skin, sanity gone, driven only by destruction.
A minor nuisance for ordinary knights, mere warm-up for me wielding White Breath. Slash!
I swung my sword short, severing the first goblin's neck. Before blood could spray, the white energy of White Breath incinerated the wound.
I didn't break stride, diving in to shred their formation into chaos.
“Help! My child's trapped!”
A woman's wail from under collapsing debris made me turn. A massive spider—a 4th Grade monster thick with demonic energy—was baring its fangs at them.
Sizing it up, I kicked off the ground, vaulted onto its back in one leap, and drove my sword deep into its head, twisting viciously.
-Kieeeek!
With a nauseating screech, its body toppled to the ground. I yanked my sword free and shouldered up the fallen pillar.
Pushing out the dust-covered, shaking child, I barked shortly.
“Run—and don't look back.”
“Th-thank you… thank you.”
Wiping sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. Regretting not keeping up even light exercise in these two years since properly using this body, I threw myself back into hell's maw.
After that, the cycle repeated without pause: butchering rampaging monsters across the village, dragging flame-trapped villagers out one by one.
My lungs burned to the brim, arm muscles screamed, but I couldn't stop.
Fake hero or real—it didn't matter. The sole reason I'd gripped a sword was simple: so no more people like my sister and me would ever appear.
“Hoo… right. Just a bit more.”
Dodging flames, following the direction villagers fled, I headed toward the village center.
The wide plaza untouched by Hellfire. But instead, a suffocating demonic aura crushed the area.
Over the terror-huddled villagers, a massive shadow loomed.
That was… the aura before a General Grade or higher demon appeared.
I slowly raised my head.
As if it fancied itself the new Demon King, a colossal black-winged figure descended slowly, wings blotting the sky.
The sheer power could devour even a General Grade effortlessly—a Legion Commander Grade demon. And that disgustingly writhing exoskeletal form was one I knew all too well.
One of the few direct subordinates of the Talpi Eclipse Lord among the Seven Eclipse Lords, the one that had given me the most trouble during the Demon King subjugation journey.
“Kargos… so you survived after all.”
Kargos landed lightly on the ground and, scanning the villagers like toys, locked eyes with me at the plaza entrance.
“Hero…!”
Its pupils quivered. Instinctual fear made its massive wings twitch back a step.
But only for a moment. It soon raked me up and down, then spread its wings wider with the world's most vile grin.
“No, no need to fear now. I've amassed enough power to become the new Talpi Eclipse Lord!!”
Kargos bellowed in a mad voice brimming with confidence.
“I'll kill you and fulfill the foolish Demon King's dream of devouring every life on the continent in his stead!!”
“…Hah.”
I let out a small sigh and adjusted my stance.
Whoosh!
I hadn't fully regained the sensations from back then. But I drew up the purifying energy slumbering in my dantian as best I could, and soon White Breath began to creep up the blade.
At the same instant, Kargos hurtled in with its twin pairs of massive wings, and its huge talons clashed against my sword in midair.
Kwaaaang!
The first clash. A heavy impact numbed my wrist, shoving my body deep into the dirt, sliding back.
My grip tingled, and shattering pain surged from wrist to elbow to shoulder.
Definitely not the same as before. Had it succeeded in the final evolution stage where its Eclipse Lord had failed? Its demonic density rivaled the Lord's itself.
…How many humans had it devoured?
If only I hadn't been exiled…
Swallowing the sudden surge of hero's responsibility and regret, I regrouped. Seeing me flung back amid dust, Kargos burst into genuine glee, splitting its hideous maw in laughter.
It flapped leisurely toward me, then turned its head to the cowering villagers in the plaza corner.
“Kuhaha! Do you know who this man is?!”
“Eek!!”
“Please, just spare the children!!”
The people shrank at Kargos's demon-laced voice. Mocking the humans who'd just gazed at me with desperate hope, it roared.
“Did you think this sudden 'hero' would save you from hell? Far from it! That bastard fooled God and everyone despite not being chosen by the Creation God—the infamous fake hero Kail!!”
“……”
At those words, every eye in the village snapped to me.
I felt their hopeful gazes drown in bewilderment and distrust in an instant.
But I had no leisure to react to its three-inch tongue. I reset my stance, raising White Breath once more.
Kargos, feeding on their despair like nourishment, wrapped itself in sticky demonic energy and black Hellfire, then charged me ferociously again.
Kwaaaaang!
The second clash. My White Breath's pure white sword aura met its black Hellfire head-on.
An immense shockwave unlike the first erupted outward. The ground cracked like a turtle's shell, hurling nearby ruined buildings into the air like a storm.
The problem was the vicious demonic aura and aftershock blasting straight toward the huddled, defenseless villagers behind.
An ordinary human body would shatter bones and rupture organs from even a graze.
“Sh… shit…!!”
I bit my lower lip and stomped the ground hard.
No time to redirect the impact—I twisted my body forcibly to block their front.
Muscles screamed, but I poured strength into my legs to lunge forward—when faint, trembling voices from afar froze me solid in that split second.
“K-Kail…? That criminal who defied the heavens…?”
“That guy's the fake hero?”
“Ah… a fake hero, mimicking real power like a clown, coming to our village…”
“Didn't the demons come here because of him??”
Resentment. Contempt. Utter resignation laced their mutters.
In that moment, the thread of my reason—taut with utmost focus—snapped.
The voices of people I'd rolled bone-crushingly to protect moments ago became sharper than any honed blade, stabbing into my back.
Even after severing the Demon King's head, branded fake, kneeling on the Holy Kingdom's cold floor, shunned and finger-pointed by the world—that horrific memory strangled my throat anew.
“Guh, guh….”
My legs, poised to spring, rooted to the ground as if nailed there.
My vision shook. My body utterly rejected my mind's command to block.
The black Hellfire and demonic wave surged to swallow the villagers, but like a fool, I could only stand frozen, breath held.