The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits - Chapter 216



EP10. The Falling Twilight

“…sorry.”

Those were the words that the Holy Sword said to Ainzel when he first looked at her. Ainzel looked at the Holy Sword and spoke in a voice that showed he did not understand.

“…What does that mean?”

Ainzel made an annoyed expression and spoke to the Holy Sword.

“Stop this nonsense. What the hell are you talking about? You don’t even need to ask where this place is… Why did you call me here?”

The Holy Sword lowered its head with its mouth closed.

“Isn’t this your inner space? Get out quickly. Why did you call me? I’m from outside… Yes, I think I was definitely fighting the Demon King.”

At Ainzel’s words, the Holy Sword looked at Ainzel and said.

“…You are on the verge of death right now. Here, I am using the spirits that were already connected to you once to communicate with you one last time. After all, since this is the last time, you can think of the time multiplication as almost as if the time outside has stopped. If you leave here, you will die in less than a second.”

Ainzel stared at the holy sword with an expression that asked what was wrong. Seeing that expression, the holy sword lowered its head, then raised its head again and looked at Ainzel and spoke.

“…I shouldn’t have accepted you as a warrior again.”

When Ainzel said that, his face completely crumpled and he had a cold expression.

“What are you talking about? This is ridiculous. You were the one who chose me from the beginning. What are you talking about now?”

“…Look at you now. You’re on the verge of death. Is it right to react like that in that situation? Also, it’s not pleasant to see you become like that again because your mind is worn out.”

“Then, what on earth do you want me to do? In the first place, who gave me this power…”

“Yeah, I am. That’s what I’m saying. Do you think this is normal?”

“Normal? From the moment I caught you, the word normal became meaningless to me. Why are you doing this? Didn’t you just have to maintain balance?”

“Yeah, that’s right. … I thought so. But you know, after seeing it fall apart once, it’s not very pleasant to see it fall apart again.”

“Who said it was falling apart? I…”

“No, you are definitely falling apart right now. Don’t you feel like you’re starting to get used to the pain?”

“…”

“You think it’s okay because you’ve already gotten used to it? If that’s true… I can only say that it’s really amazing.”

“…I’m still okay. I can still hold out longer.”

“Take a look at your body and tell me.”

Ainzel examined his limbs. There were cracks all over his body. Seeing this, the Holy Sword continued.

“That reflects your mental state. You threw away things that you shouldn’t throw away as a human, and forcibly put them back together. That’s how you became whole, but even if you were to recover, what was already broken would be even easier to break. You won’t be separated again… Your mind was already greatly cracked by being separated once. You must have held onto me because you thought you could endure it since you’d already experienced it, but that… That was wrong. You shouldn’t have done that.”

“You chose me too.”

“Yeah. That’s why I can say it. That I was wrong.”

“You chose me to do this, and now you’re telling me to stop?”

Ainzel approached the Holy Sword and held it tightly by the shoulder. In his eyes, emotions beyond anger, perhaps even hatred, were swirling. The Holy Sword looked at Ainzel calmly.

“All my life… All my life, I have hated this power. I regretted the moment I caught you. But now that I have caught you myself, you tell me to stop… What on earth does that mean?”

He waved his arm. It was clearly cracked.

“What does it matter that it ended up like this? I, I can still fight. And, if not me, there’s no one else to fight. That’s why I caught you. I chose with my own hands the thing I’ve hated my whole life. Are you laughing at that choice?”

“I’m not laughing at you. I’m not. I chose you again because I thought you were worthy of being a warrior. But at least I know that you’re a moth to a flame, so I have to tell you. I’ll make it clear. You,”

The girl pursed her lips and lowered her head. Then, the Holy Sword spoke with a pained expression.

“You, this is the end. This is the limit.”

“Why are you setting my limits? I’m still….”

“Don’t lie. I told you not to lie. You already know deep down that you have reached your limit. So why are you being so stubborn?”

Ainzel bit his lip. He also guessed that if things continued like this, it wouldn’t be long before he went crazy.

“If you find a way, a way.”

“Find a way? How?”

“If I could change the point in time when I regress, I could figure out how to do it…”

“You’re already wrong. The ones who decide when you’ll regress are… copies of the three goddesses embedded within me. You could call them artificial egos? They decide when you’ll regress. They decided that was the optimal time, so you ended up fighting the Demon King one-on-one. In short, that means there’s almost no chance of winning outside of that.”

“…So, are you saying we should just lose like this?”

“There’s nothing I can do. There’s no way.”

“There’s no way? What’s the point of everything we’ve done so far? Should we just give up everything because the odds are slim?”

“…uh.”

Ainzel pushed his face towards the Holy Sword and spoke.

“I can’t tolerate that. Even if I lose my mind and become an idiot… I’ll struggle ugly to the end.”

“Why are you doing that?”

“Because you’re a warrior.”

After hearing those words, the Holy Sword looked blankly at Ainzel.

“In the past, when I first caught you, I knew nothing. I caught you in ignorance, and I was unprepared because I was forcibly chosen as a warrior just because my mind was fit to handle your power. That’s why I caught you without knowing what it meant to be a warrior, and that’s why I floundered in pain.”

“Yeah, you too now…”

“No, it’s different. I became a warrior because I knew exactly what it meant to catch you. To struggle. To fight. That’s how I became a warrior. On that note, quitting now would be betraying my past self.”

“…Even if your mind somehow manages to hold on without collapsing, there isn’t much time left. If you continue to fight the Demon King and die over and over again during that time, what are your chances of winning?”

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“Why do you say such things when you know that the odds of winning aren’t important?”

“Yes, I know! The odds of winning aren’t important. All warriors of all time have fought in adverse conditions. How can you consider odds of winning? We’re fighting a brat who upsets the balance! But, among all the masters who’ve captured me, the pain you’ve endured is beyond measure.”

“Why are you asking about that? Your role is to maintain the balance, so if you just do that properly…”

“I’m the one who keeps the balance. Yes… but, I’m tired now.”

“…what?”

“How long must I continue this endless fight? How long must I watch those who captured me suffer and agonize while continuing this mission? Sometimes, I feel like it would be better to just see the balance and everything come to an end.”

“…”

“Can you see it?”

I looked at the man in front of me. He was blond and had cold, sunken blue eyes.

“…He is a warrior of the previous generation.”

“Yes. A warrior from the previous generation. Right before you.”

The Holy Sword moved its hand slightly.

The perspective changed. In a landscape where raindrops were pouring down like crazy, a man was holding a middle-aged woman and screaming while bleeding.

The woman’s body was so brutally mutilated that it was enough to make one frown just looking at it.

That wasn’t all. There were countless corpses strewn around the area.

“…This is.”

“The traitor to humanity exposed the identity of the warrior, and his entire family died.”

“…”

After that, the girl showed Ainzel numerous scenes. They were all scenes of people writhing in pain.

“Everyone who caught me was like this. They always got nothing but pain… Yes, the 6th master was beheaded as a traitor after defeating the Demon King. See, everyone is like this. If you catch me, everyone will end up like this.”

The girl took a moment to catch her breath and opened her mouth.

“Yeah… I half expected you to say you’d fight through the pain and all. But, but… I was exhausted because I’d been looking at this scenery all my life since I was created.”

Ainzel was silent for a long time.