The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits - Chapter 198



EP9. ■■

The Demon King smiled.

‘I’m so speechless I can’t even speak.’

In the end, that was the extent of it. Six people died by themselves… No, it was worse than that.

It wasn’t like those six people were defeated by a narrow margin after a fierce fight or anything like that.

…

Ainzel looked at the Demon King in front of him with a blank expression.

He looked at the man who called himself Laplace, the Demon King of Arrogance. And his hands trembled.

I couldn’t understand. Why, why did they end up like this?

It was to the point where he even felt it was unfair. After going through countless regressions and seeing the difference in talent, he had to forget it, and that unfair feeling that he had to forget was now finally eating away at his mind again.

‘Why can’t I even get a single wound…?’

The Demon King in front of him was looking around after leaving the six wounded. He was also looking at them with a look of extreme boredom.

“…It’s boring.”

The Demon King opened his mouth. And Ainzel looked at the Demon King with eyes filled with astonishment.

“The future I’ve already seen… The scenery I’ve already seen… It’s boring. You guys are always like that. You only bring me boring victories.”

I think I heard that the power of the Demon King in front of me was the ability to foresee the future. However, even after recalling that, Ainzel was dumbfounded. I clearly heard that the Archangel fought on equal terms with the Demon King, so why are they in this state?

Grandis was crawling on the ground, clenching her fists. Her clothes and body were covered in dirt and blood. It was the opposite of her usual easygoing self.

She had a look of anger in her eyes. There was an enemy right in front of her, an enemy right in front of her, and she couldn’t fight it, let alone defeat it, let alone inflict a fatal wound, not even a small scratch. She was feeling angry about that fact.

As soon as the Demon King turned his gaze away from him, Grandis launched a surprise attack.

And the Demon King, as if the attack was not worth blocking, leisurely dodged it with graceful movements and then grabbed Grandis by the neck.

“Ugh… .”

Grandis glared at the Demon King. However, the Demon King spoke with an unwavering gaze.

“I already knew it. You have never once failed to meet expectations. As long as you have this power… it will always be that way.”

Knock knock!

Grandis fell down without even being able to utter a single word. Her neck was broken and she died. The Demon King threw the corpse away as if he had no interest in it.

Ainzel looked at that sight and thought.

Why, why did this happen? Did I misjudge so much? Was that Demon King really that strong?

They never once caused any significant damage to the Demon King, let alone any damage at all. Even a desperate blow, which was probably the power to foresee the future, was avoided with a slight nod of the head. Ainzel felt helpless.

The Demon King he had faced before, while not being able to defeat him, could still inflict damage. Sometimes, he would inflict damage that could be considered fatal. That was why Ainzel was able to aim for victory until the end, even in the midst of extremely harsh circumstances and occasionally losing his mind. Because he thought that he would eventually be able to win.

But does it make sense that you can’t even put on a single piece of raw fish?

The combined power of the six of them was likely to surpass even the demon lord in front of them. However, the fact that they were unable to inflict even a single wound on him made him feel incredibly miserable. Regardless of the total power or skill, the outcome of victory or defeat was already determined.

“This is, this is…”

No. Ainzel said absentmindedly.

How can you possibly defeat an opponent who can’t even inflict damage, an opponent who already knows the future and can read what they’re going to do?

Ainzel looked at his hands. They were shaking uncontrollably.

I was feeling scared.

There was also a feeling of not wanting to die. It was embarrassing to say that there was no such feeling now. However, the fundamental fear that made his hands tremble violently was…

‘Because I knew I couldn’t win.’

No matter what he did, he couldn’t win. Ainzel knew that. Even though those close to him were losing their lives to the Demon King one by one, he couldn’t do anything. That fact made him extremely angry and scared. His hands were shaking.

‘If I had held the Holy Sword…’

Could something have changed? he wondered absentmindedly.

If I had decided to take the pain and walk the thorny path I had been on, would things have been different?

Ainzel clenched his fists as he thought about that, then relaxed his hands again.

‘That can’t be true.’

He couldn’t even leave a single wound on his enemy. However, he didn’t think that he could do anything just by going back to the past.

Yes, even if he became a warrior, there was nothing he could do. He felt angry at that fact.

It was always a familiar feeling that I lacked the skills, but I was still so angry.

Ainzel stood up for the last time and swung his sword. The Death Knight he had created had long since been destroyed. Defeat had already been decided. He knew that. Nevertheless, he was angry. He wanted to inflict a wound, even a bruise, on the standing Demon King. He wanted to carve a look of shock into that bored face.

That’s why Ainzel ran.

He swung his sword. The Demon King naturally tried to counterattack Ainzel, and time slowed down.

The feeling of being on the verge of death that he had felt countless times. This moment when time slowed down. He dodged the Demon King’s counterattack and swung his sword.

And the Demon King made a surprised expression. However, the sword strike did not reach him. The Demon King took a step back to dodge.

Ainzel realized that his last attack had failed and let go of his sword. The sound of the black iron blade hitting the ground rang outwardly, almost too clearly.

The Demon King took Ainzel’s last breath.

…

From noble mtl dot com

The Demon King didn’t feel much emotion even when he thought about the future like that. That was natural.

The power he possessed was the most powerful of all powers. Even the Demon King of Desire and the Demon King of Sloth in the Demon World could not keep up with him. The Demon King of Wrath was given the power for war, not for battle, but he failed to use it properly, and so he was defeated. However, he was different.

Having the power to foresee the future has a greater meaning than you might think. In other words, you can avoid attacks that you otherwise would not have been able to avoid.

In a battle with an archangel, a being of the same level as oneself, it was inevitable that one would take damage. It was an attack that could not be avoided even if one knew about it. However, there was a difference between an attack that could not be avoided even if one knew about it and an attack that could be avoided if one knew about it.

In the first place, if someone is attacking you even if you know about it, then you can’t say that they are weaker than you. At least, only those of the same level can you talk about winning against your power, even if they are weak. If you can’t avoid the attacks of those of a lower level than you, then you can’t even become a Demon King.

Knowing that, Laplace was simply calm. However, even if he thought that way, it did not mean that he could ignore his enemies. He was the Demon King of Arrogance, so he would be more arrogant and lofty than anyone else, but even so, he was not stupid enough to create variables in the work that the Demon God had directly ordered him to do.

He immediately began to see another future. No matter what happened, this time, he could not tolerate even the slightest variable. If it were his usual personality, he would have said that he could not do anything about such trivial things and ignored them, but this time, it was different.

However, even as he thought that way, the Demon King was secretly thinking that there was no way he could be defeated.

…

I closed my eyes and opened them. How can I win?

If you know that the enemy’s power is to foresee the future, then there is a high probability that most of your thoughts have already been read by the enemy.

So what I have to do is something completely different from what I normally think I would do.

Maybe no matter what I do, my fate has already been decided.

But I decided not to think about that. If fate is already determined, there can be no such thing as the power to see the future. Ironically, the power to see the future is of no help at all to a fate that is already determined.

That’s why I don’t believe in fate. That’s why I decided to do things that countless future selves wouldn’t have done in order to win.

“First of all, we need to start by reducing the enemy’s forces. As for the Demon King… we’ll think about it later.”

But is there any other way to reduce the enemy’s forces other than for Nana, her companions, and Grandis to run wild? I wasn’t sure about that.

“…ah.”

And at that moment when I was thinking that, I saw light.