The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits - Chapter 220



EP10. The Falling Twilight

Silence bursts forth. The whole world is silent. Silent. It seems as if one is sinking into silence.

In that fleeting moment, I looked at the incomprehensible sight and thought.

It’s red, he said.

Apparently, the Demon King said he would offer a sacrifice.

Even though I didn’t know what the sacrifice was for, the situation before my eyes hinted that something unusual was starting to happen.

That would be the case… Except for the Demon King, all of the demons who had been running wild in this battlefield until just a moment ago lost their forms in an instant and turned into a handful of red blood.

The blood of the demons began to fly towards the Demon King who was lying on the ground with his sword stuck in his head.

The Demon King pulled out his sword with black magic, blew away the panicked Se-in, and spat out blood. After that, he stood up, clearly in a state that could not even be described as being normal.

The bloodsucker swallowed the Demon King in an instant. A red ball of blood was created, which gradually shrank in size.

In an instant, the red sphere, which had become just big enough to fit one person, gradually disappeared.

What he saw was the Demon King with strangely shaped wings, his eyes had turned into reverse eyes, and his injuries were nowhere to be found.

No… Looking closely, I could see that the wound wasn’t completely healed, but rather that there was a grotesquely shaped piece of flesh tangled in the gap.

“I didn’t want to… do this. It’s my last resort, and… it’s basically like admitting my defeat.”

The Demon King who said that let out a “kekeke” laugh.

“I never thought that I would be the one sacrificing myself, my clan, and the elite warriors who came here to fulfill my will.”

A chilling wind howled. I hardened my face against the eerie air that seemed to strangle my throat.

I pondered over why the Demon King had become like that. Clearly, there was no power that could restore black magic. If that were the case, why had one of his missing arms and the wound on his abdomen from the sword disappeared?

Eventually, I came up with a hypothesis.

It is not ‘recovery’. The nature of black magic is destruction and erosion. Since it cannot destroy itself, the remaining nature is erosion. That means…

It has eroded itself.

Since he had forcibly constructed his body by eroding himself, there was no way it would look normal.

I gritted my teeth. I had no idea what to do. It was so sudden.

The Demon King rolled his eyes and closed them.

And then, the explosion happened.

All I could see was red. All I could hear was screams. After the explosion, I looked around with a blank expression.

The vast space was flattened with nothing left, not even a corpse left behind.

The screams and torn flesh of those caught in the explosion echoed around the area.

I clenched my teeth. What happened to my comrades? What about Grandis? Worries rose in my mind. However, I couldn’t just panic, so I swung my sword.

The blast of energy was aimed at the Demon King, or rather, at the being that I don’t even know what to call it anymore, and the blast lightly sliced ​​through its flesh.

And then, the torn flesh regenerated in an instant.

I frowned at the sight. I couldn’t tell how far it would regenerate, so it was hard to find a way to stop it. Not only that, but as it regenerated, its appearance became even more monstrous.

“Attack!”

Then, I heard a voice in my ear.

And then, the soldiers stood up and began to charge at the Demon King all at once.

The two knight orders worked miracles, the magicians of the magic tower scattered magical truths, and the forest fairies began hunting all at once.

It frowned at the sight and waved its hand away.

The number of those rushing in alone was extraordinary. Blood was dripping down the sky. Nevertheless, the advance continued.

They kept going, knowing that the end of defeat would be the destruction of everything precious to that monster or whatever it was.

As it waved its hand again, black magic shot out as if it were a given.

Just before it could blow away the advancing ones, a barrier of light blocked the dark magic.

It was Beatrice. She came up to me and said,

“Something feels strange. If you look closely, the Demon King’s body is slowly… losing its shape.”

I looked at it. Just as Beatrice had said, the flesh was slowly changing into grotesque shapes.

But what does that matter? As someone who can sense black magic, I was more concerned about the Demon King’s black magic that was continuously increasing.

The black magic that grew endlessly without any limits. I hardened my expression at the eerie aura.

However, the Demon King vomited blood and collapsed. When he regained consciousness and stopped using black magic, I realized something was strange.

And before my doubts could subside, a giant meteorite fell from the sky.

“…That?”

“It’s a meteorite that the magicians of the Magic Tower created with the help of Peria. Let’s hope that we can use it to end the Demon King.”

The meteor slowly descended from the sky. The soldiers evacuated from its sphere of influence, and the Demon King simply watched silently, wondering what was going on.

By a meteorite, it disappeared in an instant. I found that fact strange.

The moment I thought that, flesh suddenly rose up. And then, it came together to form one shape.

It was already difficult to think of it as a living being, let alone a humanoid. The flesh continued to grow in size, forming a pile that resembled a huge mountain.

[Ugh… Ugh…]

A voice was heard. Everyone froze and said nothing.

[It’s meaningless. Your attacks… No matter what kind of attack is made against me now, as long as I have even a little bit of my form left, I will be revived by eating myself up.]

At those words, I shouted loudly. I wanted to correct the fact that there were so many people who would be shaken by the mere fact that they were immortal beings.

“Don’t be fooled! Even if he comes back to life, his physical condition is not normal right now! He can’t even attack his allies right now, and his form keeps collapsing!”

[Hahaha, yes, that’s right. Certainly, the current me… is not normal. My body will surely collapse and I will die within a few hours. The price for forcibly exceeding the limits allowed to a creature by offering a sacrifice. I thought it was my last gamble, but the collapse came sooner than I thought, so it failed.]

Well, then, there might have been a way. If only he could hold out for a few hours.

[Did you think you could endure this state of me and win? That’s ridiculous. I said it clearly. This appearance… is proof that I have admitted defeat.]

The lump of flesh continued to grow in size and squirm.

[On a subject I thought I could never fail on, I failed. I failed. I failed. Where did I let my guard down? Where did I become arrogant? … It doesn’t matter anymore. If I fail, someone else can do it for me.]

“what?”

[This appearance is the appearance of me absorbing their power by offering up my subordinates as sacrifices. In other words, it means that I have a huge amount of black magic in my body.]

“What does that mean…?”

[I will offer myself as a sacrifice… to summon another Demon Lord. Your power is already all but finished by the explosion I caused the first time. Now, if you can finish me off within that time, do it.]

If that were true, defeat was a foregone conclusion.

[Okay, well… Try everything you can. You’ll find that there’s only despair left.]

I took out the holy sword.

He took a gamble and failed. And yet he risked his life for the next one.

“Then… I can’t help it.”

All I can do is gamble, too.

‘I might die… I guess.’

Maybe I would have failed and died in despair and regret after doing this. Or maybe I would have been engulfed and died.

Even so… there were things that had to be done.

My body trembles with fear. My instincts are ringing the alarm.

I laughed.

Knowing fear, taking a step forward. That’s why I became a warrior.

It’s natural for a warrior to take risks.

I grabbed the holy sword and rushed at the fleshy creature.

And then he put the holy sword into it.

[Ha, that’s not even funny. That kind of thing is meaningless…]

“Isn’t that it?”

I smiled at the Demon King and said. The fleshy thing twitched and told me that it realized something was strange.

[What, to do…]

“When you mix divine power and black magic… it explodes.”

[What, stop!]

I poured divine power and black magic into the flesh.

“And the magic… amplifies whatever it is.”

Magic power flowed in.

There was an explosion and I lost consciousness.