231 – The Demon King
The day they first met the spirits of these warriors in Prona Kingdom, they told Cloud about their past.
Among them, there were those who stopped sealing the demon king due to lack of strength, and there were also those who killed the demon king because they were strong enough.
So, to say I’ve met them all, I had to at least die and come back to life.
It was for that reason that Cloud mocked the demon lord. However, the demon king answered with a strange expression.
“Did he even come back to life after he died? That’s not wrong. It’s not entirely true.”
“What do you mean?”
“The demon king was all me. At least the Demon Lord you humans remember.”
“Yes, yes?! Nonsense!”
Angelica yelled reflexively. The moment the demon king’s gaze caught him, he shrank, but he nodded his head as if to ask him to speak, swallowed, and continued.
“You are the son who inherited the blood of the previous demon king, right? By the way…”
“Oh, yes that. It was such an unpleasant feeling. It means that there are two me who have my own self.”
“What is that…”
Anjelica was devastated by the unknown words, while Cloud said with a frown.
“The division of the soul.”
“That is the correct answer.”
The Demon King nodded.
“This makes me more curious about your true identity… But, well, it doesn’t matter. As you said, every time I gave birth to a child, my soul was separated. Then, when one of them died, they came together again.”
“…”
“The feeling of two separated souls coming together is unpleasant. Because it is forcibly attaching things that have discolored to other colors and harmonizing them into one color. In particular, the longer the souls have been separated due to the sealing, the more severe the sense of separation when they are united. How would you feel if you lived through that for hundreds of years?”
“…”
“Worn out. There is no answer in front of the flow of time at any higher level. Even more so, if the disintegration and fusion of souls that are not in a perfect state are repeated…”
In the face of the demon king, who had changed little by little to passion, such as resentment and anger, boredom sat down again. He leaned back on his fist and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.
“No matter what the result of fighting you, my soul will be divided into two again. I don’t want that I’m so tired. So I won’t fight you.”
I couldn’t find the face of the king in the demon king. He was not a monster threatening humans that had been told in legends. He was just a mortal, weary of the bonds that bound him.
“…Don’t be funny.”
Opening her eyes, Frillite spurred her seat and went out and swung her greatsword at the demon king.
Kaang!
The greatsword bounced off the transparent screen. She swung the greatsword again. Again, the greatsword could not pierce the curtain.
She took down the huge greatsword wrapped around the red sword.
There was not even a scratch on the curtain.
Her The red mana that bloomed from her spread all over her and covered the area around her. Hundreds of sword weapons that covered the sky rained down on the demon king.
Quaguaguaguagwang!!!!
After consuming all the armor, a small scratch was finally engraved on the veil.
Frillite pounded frantically at the nick and the nick grew larger, until finally her shroud shattered, she stabbed her greatsword.
Kaang!
The greatsword stabbed to penetrate the demon king was blocked by the newly appeared barrier.
“…The reason I faced death in the past is not because I am weaker than you warriors. Know the subject.”
As the demon king stretched out his hand, an intangible energy pressed Frillite. It wasn’t that she couldn’t stand it, but it was enough strength that she realized the gap between herself and her demon lord.
Frillite let out a blank laugh.
“It’s absurd that the nemesis I’ve been chasing all my life is like this…”
Frillite remembers the moment she was chosen as a hero. She remembers the look on her young face, the expectations of her priests towards her. She remembers her appearance as the citizens were relieved. She remembers the pride that bloomed on the expressionless faces of the family members.
All of that was a burden she had on her shoulders.
“What am I for…”
What on earth have you been chasing after?
“They…”
What did her warriors, who fought after her, risk her life for?
I wanted to get the price for the sacrifices I made so far by cutting off the devil’s head right away.
I wanted to be proud in front of the dead by fulfilling my duty as a warrior.
But she couldn’t.
The demon lord was just a tired, toothless lion for her, but she didn’t have the strength to defeat even that.
Above all, she didn’t even have the energy to fight with all her might.
Forcing her to fight against those who don’t have the heart to fight her is not befitting the honor she has sought.
A strong sense of collapse came over me.
If only I knew this would happen…
“I’d rather then…”
“Then. What?”
Frillite was taken aback by her voice that came from close by and turned to her side. Cloud, who had approached her, was looking at her with her eyes narrowed.
“Are you talking about the time of the parasite? Do you think you would rather die then if you knew you would be humiliated like this?”
Frillite’s eyes shook at Cloud’s voice that gradually grew colder.
“Oh, no. It’s not like that.”
“Then?”
“That’s… so…”
Cloud sighed at Frillite, who couldn’t answer properly. He tapped the ring on the ring finger of her left hand.
“Forgot?”
“Ah…”
“As long as it is attached, don’t think about dying at will. If you don’t, I know you’ll be really angry.”
“…That’s right.”
Frillite’s expression improved as she nodded. Cloud patted her on the shoulder while glaring at her demon lord with a displeased expression.
“What is a nobleman who is said to be several hundred years old doing with a child who is only twenty and a few years older at most…”
“That is a very unfortunate story. I was in a position where I was attacked one-sidedly.”
“Don’t be rude. So what now? The atmosphere was strange, so I listened to your story, but you know that a situation can’t be solved just because you don’t want to fight, right? If you say you didn’t know, I’ll dismiss you as a simple idiot and kill you.”
“To say that even after seeing the previous one. Are you bluffing in front of your lover?”
“Does it look like a bluff?”
“…I don’t think so.”
Facing Cloud’s menacing eyes, the demon king decided to give up. He is a human with a vast soul that even he cannot grasp. He didn’t have to be hostile to an opponent whose competence was unknown in this situation.
“I know very well what you mean. As long as I exist in this world, you will be treated as warriors who failed to fulfill your mission, and you will be excommunicated someday.”
“I know. So what’s the answer?”
“I will disappear.”
“What?”
“It is literally. I will disappear from this world.”
A faint light blooms in the purple eyes of the demon king. The barrier guarding his side grew in size and covered the entire castle, and all the blue lanterns that illuminated the corridor were turned off.
At the same time, a magic circle was engraved on the floor of the corridor, and instead of lanterns, the dark corridor was illuminated.
The magic circles densely engraved with runes began to pile up. When the overlapping runes reached the point where they could be seen as a single line, powerful magical power flowed from the magic circle.
Angelica, amazed at her magic power, pulled her hair out.
“Eh, Maou-nim?! Oh, I heard you don’t fight!”
“Shouldn’t you be arguing about that?! Come here quickly!”
Haley shouted, spreading the bloody curtain with all her might. Angelica hurriedly went inside her tent and Frillite also grabbed Cloud to hide her body with the tent.
“Cloud, too, come on-“
“You don’t have to. It’s not like offensive magic. It’s dimension shift magic.”
The demon king’s eyes were bright.
“Are you even aware of this? Your true identity is unknown. It is a series of surprises.”
The shape of the demon king saying that was like a broken analog TV screen.
As if it would disappear at any moment.
“I am truly amazed.”
I never thought I would have taught myself dimensional magic. Although the level of perfection was as crude as that of a tattered golem because magic was added to the limit, dimensional magic was dimensional magic. Since it is magic that only those who have reached the extreme can understand its reason, being able to use it, albeit crudely, was close enough to a miracle.
But.
“You will fail. It.”
Jiji Jik- Parat-
The shape of the demon king, which had been fading, shrank and completely disappeared.
Chae Jae-jaeng – Kuung-!!!
The magic circle that filled the floor shattered like a window. At the same time, the demon king who had disappeared appeared in its original place with a strong impact sound as if it had fallen.
The demon king who reappeared was bleeding from all the holes in his eyes, nose and mouth, and he was in shock rather than in pain.
“Failed..?”
Obviously the magic was perfect.
Because his body and soul turned into particles, and he accurately sensed the moment of teleportation.
But…
‘I got hit by something.’
Some unknown force stopped him from teleporting and forcibly bounced him back to his original coordinates. He hastily materialized in order not to disappear, and as a result suffered serious internal injuries.
What the hell is that power…
‘Come to think of it…’
The Demon King remembered what Cloud had muttered right before the dimension shift. He said it would definitely fail him. It was clear that that person knew about this situation.
It was the moment the demon king raised his head to interrogate Cloud. He noticed that the barrier surrounding the castle was about to break.
“Oops… It’s all over.”
With his dejected smile, the barrier was broken and a dragon broke the ceiling and landed in the corridor.
Huge tree trunks came up enveloping the castle, breaking the wall of the corridor and crashing into it. The stems came together to take the form of a female elf, and soon changed from inorganic to organic.
She pulled out a vial full of dark red blood from her bosom and threw it on the floor at her, breaking it.
The blood scattered on the floor gushed out, and just like the tree trunk before, it took on a human-like shape and turned into a pale, middle-aged person.
Haley’s complexion turned blue when she saw him.
“Tongue, blood king..?”