The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits - Chapter 197



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The Demon King closed his eyes and opened them again. It was still the same. It was still too early for his condition to completely improve.

The wound left by the Archangel was much bigger than I thought. It wasn’t something that could be shaken off in just a few days.

But at this level, I thought it was rather fortunate. The archangel had clearly given up on survival at the last moment. It was a blow that a being of equal standing had unleashed while giving up its own survival, so if it ended with only this much damage, it was something to be welcomed with open arms.

Even though he clearly thought that way, the Demon King’s dissatisfaction gradually built up because his body did not move as he wanted.

However, even though his physical condition was not normal, it did not mean that he could not do anything. The Demon King grimaced as he squeezed out a spell with his black magic.

Suddenly, pain struck him. At the feeling, the Demon King waved his hand and scattered the spell. Instead, the Demon King decided to use his power.

Using power is different from weaving a spell or forcibly identifying the form of power you handle and using it. It is a power that was originally created by God and granted to the top of the demon tribe by God himself. It cannot be the same as using power artificially by borrowing from God.

That is why the Demon King used his power without hesitation. The power worked fine even in a state where he could hardly move his body.

How should I set it up?

okay.

The Demon King decided to pour all of his dark magic into it. The more magic he poured into it, the more possible futures he could see. He thought that rather than doing nothing, he would rather use all of his dark magic.

First of all, the future I want to see first is Miran, the future with the highest probability if things continue this way.

The Demon King opened his eyes wide. Beyond them, he could see the future.

…

Ainzel was worried. How could he win?

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The Holy Sword is virtually unusable. So, another method had to be found.

Because there was something precious. Because there was still something to do. I couldn’t even think about anything other than winning.

Finally, Ainzel gave an answer.

“Now, we must attack with all the strength we have.”

Now that the Demon King has fallen, there is nothing we can do.

Ainzel thought so. Of course, the difference in power was large at the moment. Even one of Ainzel’s strengths, the absolute dispel that he could use on a dark magician of a lower level than himself, was impossible because the system for using dark magic was completely different. Even under such adverse conditions, Ainzel thought he had to attack.

‘If not now, the power gap will become even more severe.’

If the Demon King were to become healthy, they would have to deal not only with the Demon King’s subordinates, but also with the Demon King himself. If they were to end up in that situation, they would have no hope of winning. No, it was obvious that they would end up in the abyss.

In order to win, he would even sell his soul. If he could protect what was precious to him and live peacefully among those precious things, he didn’t care what would happen after he died. That was the best answer he could give with that level of determination.

It could be said that it was something that came to him instinctively as he experienced countless times while returning from death. What he felt while fulfilling his mission as a warrior was that things that seemed impossible could not be solved unless they were at first glance crazy.

So, Ainzel denounced the need to squeeze out all the power right now. His comrades accepted his words, and Beatrice, as the leader of the sect, declared a holy war to the believers. Peria, as the leader of the empire and the de facto idol of the magicians, spoke of war. Lena sang of revenge for those who dared burn the sacred World Tree to the fairies of her homeland.

As a result, humans and fairies joined forces to attack the Demon King’s subordinates.

And they were wiped out.

The reason was simple. No matter how much you searched for the optimal time, no matter how much power you gathered, no matter how much strategy you thought about…

The power gap was just too big.

There was one reason why Ainzel went ahead with the operation, even though he thought it was reckless. The thought that there were five people who had reached the realm of Transcendence. And even if he was not as good as those who had reached Transcendence, he was confident that he had reached the pinnacle of the Master realm.

I thought that I could somehow make up for the soldiers’ lack of skill. No matter how strong the demons were, I thought that I had at least a small chance of winning, so I went ahead with the attack.

But who would have thought that those with the name of Grand Master would be held back and unable to do anything by only half of their forces? No, not to that extent, but to be pushed back altogether.

In such a situation, Ainzel faced Kaledar alone. He was the strongest knight among the Oman clan. He fought against such a man.

And died.

Ainzel collapsed as a corpse, and his comrades and Grandis also died, unable to endure any longer.

It was a frustratingly easy ending.

…

The Demon King smiled after peeking into the future. What is this? Isn’t it so absurdly easy? Is this the most likely future? When I thought about it, I couldn’t help but laugh.

But the Demon King soon hardened his face again. He had only glimpsed one possible future. It was still too early to let his guard down. The Demon King decided to look into the future when he decided not to attack.

…

Ainzel decided not to attack the Demon King now. Even if the Demon King had fallen, he couldn’t pour all his strength into it. That would be too much of a crisis management issue. That kind of gamble was only possible when he had the ability to return from death, but now was not the time.

Instead, Ainzel wanted to gradually reduce the enemy’s forces and create a situation where the enemy would invade first.

Since the Demon King has already fallen, the enemies will not dare to attack them until the Demon King’s condition improves. They know this. So, instead of confronting them head-on, they will beat the Demon King until he recovers, weakening the enemy’s capabilities, and on the contrary, by uniting the power of the entire world, they will increase the capabilities of their allies.

In such a situation where the allies’ capabilities have been increased, the enemy is made to attack first, and the allies, on the other hand, take the most advantageous defensive form. In such a situation, no matter how strong the enemy is, they cannot properly demonstrate their capabilities.

The choices are polar opposites of the most likely future, but the direction is surprisingly effective.

And the result was exactly the opposite, the same as the choice I made to fight.

Ainzel succeeded in significantly reducing the capabilities of the Arrogant Regiment. It was only natural. Five Transcendents were waging guerrilla warfare. There was no way for an ordinary demon to stop them.

However, even if they had reduced their capabilities in that way, the problem still remained. They had not been able to eliminate the core forces, that is, the high-level and top-level demons. In the end, they were only able to deal with the low-level and mid-level demons.

Ainzel felt regretful about that fact, but eventually took the form of Mercury when the Demon King fully recovered.

Those who gathered under the grand name of the Human Federation were all working together to defend the land of humanity. Their combined numbers were approaching one million, a power far too abundant to be simply a defense force. The sight of such powers gathered together was truly spectacular.

And the spectacle came crashing down so easily, so absurdly.

The superior demons and the highest demons are beings that are comparable to the Master and Grand Master, respectively, just by their very existence. However, the fact that they took over the main force implied a simple truth. It was a completely different form of war than what humans had originally thought.

The inspector rushes to the wall and destroys it. No, he completely destroys it. Who would have expected that? Unlike the lower and middle level demons, the upper level demons can show a form that is completely beyond imagination.

The Human Federation could not help but be bewildered by the sight that was so different from what they had imagined.

In the end, the Human Federation had no choice but to give up its advantage on Mercury. It simply decided to launch an all-out war using overwhelming numbers.

And they were torn apart by the hands of the highest-level demon, Kaledar, and the upper-level demons he led.

The reason was simple: the Grand Masters, who were supposed to counter Kaledar and stop such transcendent powers, failed to do their job.

No… To be more precise, all the Grand Masters were defeated by the Demon King and died.

Including Ainzel, who reached the extreme of Master, it was 6 to 1. In that fight, Ainzel, his companions, and Grandis all lost their lives to the Demon King in that one battle.