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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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A hastily assembled team, composed of the few heroes who had barely survived Hailen’s collapse. They would certainly be more helpful than being alone, but the fact remained that it was a makeshift team.
“Is there an archer among you?”
They exchanged glances before shaking their heads.
It couldn’t be helped. Having an archer, regardless of who it was, was always beneficial.
Someone needed to hang back a bit, assess the situation, and keep the enemy in check for better efficiency.
“Then I’ll take the archer role.”
They accepted my words without much suspicion.
“You were an archer? You certainly don’t look like you could take down a Demon Lord in close combat.”
“Yeah, being an archer makes sense.”
The only regret was that even with this arrangement, a mage couldn’t be replaced.
‘It would have been nice if Yuseora were here.’
She could have filled the mage role to some extent. No, she could even perform things beyond a mage’s capabilities in certain areas.
But regrets aside, I needed to strategize based on the current mage-less situation.
‘It will depend on who the opponent is.’
So we began to focus on searching for the remaining Demon Lords.
Fortunately, as an archer, I had a suitable aptitude for searching.
While I couldn’t pinpoint the enemy’s location solely based on their energy like Libero, I could sufficiently sense their presence using my hearing and sight.
After searching for an hour, just as those who followed me were about to become suspicious, I finally found a Demon Lord.
It was deep within a relatively intact building.
‘Definitely a Demon Lord.’
Now that I was this close, I could feel the distinct energy unique to Demon Lords. Libero’s case was very unusual.
Perhaps it was a characteristic of early Demon Lords, but he possessed very little power as a Demon Lord, his only strength being swordsmanship, so he didn’t stand out much even among humans.
The 71st Demon Lord also had relatively weak power as a Demon Lord, perhaps due to his parasitic ability.
‘But this energy…’
It was clearly a Demon Lord’s energy. Moreover, it was a familiar energy. The problem was that I hadn’t encountered that many Demon Lords.
‘The 71st, Libero, and Guineus.’
And if I included brief encounters, there was the 54th Demon Lord, Raus, whom I met on the carriage to Sak, and the 31st Demon Lord I saw during the entrance exam.
But the somewhat perplexing fact was that four of them were already dead.
‘But this isn’t Raus’s energy…’
This energy felt distinctly unpleasant. Of course, it was possible that there was another Demon Lord with similar energy. To confirm their identity, I had no choice but to find them myself.
“Let’s keep going.”
And finally, the moment I infiltrated the building and confirmed their identity, I froze. It was someone who shouldn’t have been there.
“Guineus?”
Long, flowing jet-black hair, a broken and bent horn, and severely torn wings. It was definitely Guineus. But she shouldn’t have been here. I had already killed her.
‘There’s no way I mistook her.’
I had received the message confirming her death, and I had even unlocked the third inherited stigma with the SP I received as a reward.
So why was she here?
As I hesitated with that question,
“Now’s our chance! Attack!”
Those who had followed me rushed past me and charged. They seemed to assume that I, as the archer, would naturally stay back. And I understood why they were in such a hurry.
‘Is Guineus injured?’
She was leaning against the wall, sitting down, with a deep gash across her chest. So they wanted to quickly defeat her before she could recover.
But…
“Everyone, cover your ears!”
Her combat strength didn’t lie in physical power.
At that moment, Guineus, who had appeared to be collapsing weakly, smiled. And she whispered something softly.
‘….’
I could have used the wind authority to completely block the sound, but I could tell what she had said from the shape of her mouth.
‘Kill each other, now.’
Her mental domination was powerful. She could even control other Demon Lords if she ‘persuaded’ them through conversation. If she used that ability on humans…
‘Damn it.’
A whisper was enough to control a large number of humans. That was how she had managed to control the economy by running the Company in Sak.
And now, it had resulted in this disaster.
“Wh-What! Why are you suddenly attacking me!”
Fortunately, a few people had covered their ears as I instructed.
But those who had doubted my instructions, even slightly, were all under her mental control.
They were suddenly being attacked by their former comrades.
“It’s mental domination! To break free, we have to kill the Demon Lord’s main body!”
But it seemed they could no longer hear my instructions.
Those who were suddenly attacked began to swing their swords against their former comrades. Come to think of it, the term “former comrades” was a bit ambiguous.
They had only been together since they followed me an hour ago.
“Die!”
“Fuck, I’m in my right mind!”
It was no longer possible to distinguish who was under mental control and who wasn’t. This was the result of a lack of bonds and trust between comrades.
In this situation, there was only one thing I could do.
‘I have no choice but to target the main body myself.’
Since I was a bit further away, I hadn’t been caught in the brawl.
Eliminating Guineus’s main body as quickly as possible would minimize the casualties. With that judgment, I drew Night Shadow and started approaching her.
At that moment, I saw the movements of those under mental control change. It seemed she had given them a new order to intercept me as I began to approach.
But the reason I drew Night Shadow wasn’t to deceive Guineus, but to escape the sight of the mind-controlled heroes.
‘Wind Authority.’
Unlike Elsie’s Optical Modulation, I couldn’t fool a Demon Lord with something like Night Shadow. That had already been proven with the 71st Demon Lord.
Therefore, without trying to hide my approach from Guineus, I used the wind authority to quickly dash forward.
‘Even though I don’t have Gravitus…’
I had the relic I picked up from the guy who had just fallen. A 2-star relic, Sharp Cutter. A fairly light sword with increased cutting power due to divine power.
‘Wind Authority.’
I reached Guineus in an instant and transferred the wind authority to the sword. Then I used an ability I hadn’t possessed before.
‘Overload.’
The cutting power imbued in the sword began to emanate as a sinister black energy. Speed was key from here on out.
Since the sword lacked weight, I couldn’t tear her apart in one blow like with Gravitus. I had to cram in as many attacks as possible in a short time.
‘With the current overload, the sword can withstand eight strikes.’
I had to deliver eight consecutive attacks. If Guineus had even a moment to recover in between, the attack would be futile.
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. If I hadn’t refined Libero’s swordsmanship with Freya, it would have been an impossible attack.
‘The acceleration is sufficient.’
Libero had been able to push even a healthy Guineus to the brink of death.
If I had inherited even a fraction of his swordsmanship, I should be able to defeat Guineus in this state.
And although I didn’t know how she had reappeared…
‘You disgust me every time I see you.’
I swung the sword.
Perhaps her agility as a Demon Lord remained despite her injuries, as the blow was slightly off, severing her left arm. But it wasn’t a problem. It was a place I would have had to cut eventually.
‘Just a change in order.’
Besides, from now on, even her vaunted Demon Lord body wouldn’t be able to keep up.
The acceleration of the wind authority intensified, and my swordsmanship finally entered the realm of time. Although a little late considering my opponent was a Demon Lord, time stopped.
I could no longer control myself. I simply entrusted myself to the senses I had honed in the second trial and the refined Libero swordsmanship from Freya.
I swung the sword, and the next strike followed without a single gap. As soon as one finished, the next one came, and then the next.
The moment the eight consecutive strikes ended, the sword, destroyed by the overload, shattered and scattered into particles.
“Ha…ha…”
My held breath burst out violently. Gasping for air, I checked Guineus’s state.
‘I did it.’
It wasn’t just the sword that was shattered. The Demon Lord Guineus’s body was also torn to pieces, beyond the point of recovery.
I wasn’t unscathed either.
‘This…’
I couldn’t use this often. At least not against Demon Lords.
I felt certain of that. I wiped my philtrum with my sleeve, and blood smeared on it. Even if I could accelerate with the wind authority, it wasn’t without strain on my body.
Libero, although an early Demon Lord, had a stronger body than ordinary people and possessed some regenerative abilities, but I, until recently, was a human with a body weaker than average.
‘If I use it consecutively, my body will break down.’
By the way, Guineus’s death notification hadn’t appeared. It wasn’t that she wasn’t dead.
Shattered to this extent, it was safe to say she was dead. But the fact that the notification hadn’t appeared…
‘This situation is definitely not normal.’
I turned my head to check on those who had followed me. I was worried that someone might have turned into a chaos beast in the midst of the commotion, but they were heroes after all.
As Guineus died and the mental domination completely dissipated, they immediately ended the lives of their comrades whose chaos beast transformation was in progress.
I suddenly recalled my experience of going outside the barrier with Gwen for the first time. Back then, I almost lost control, and when I came to my senses, Gwen had her sword against my neck.
So, that was the basic protocol for heroes.
“Let’s go back.”
The two who had survived weren’t in good condition either. There was a support mage within the trial barrier, so we needed to go back and get them treated quickly.
As I led the way back, one of them said,
“You weren’t an archer.”
“No, I apologize for deceiving you.”
“No, I don’t blame you. If it weren’t for you, we would have all been annihilated. I’m just grateful to you for saving my life.”
After that, we didn’t speak as we carefully made our way back to the trial, wary of encountering the other two Demon Lords.
We had only traveled together because we shared the goal of defeating the Demon Lords; we didn’t have any particular bond.
And I keenly felt that limitation through this battle.
‘If Guineus hadn’t been injured, we wouldn’t have even been able to attempt to subdue her.’
Of course, it was also true that our team composition wasn’t a good match against Guineus.
But it was precisely because she was injured that I was able to defeat her. If it had been a different, stronger Demon Lord instead of Guineus, we would have had to retreat.
Even without the mental domination, it was hard to imagine their attacks coordinating effectively.
‘But if I had brought Yuseora or Elsie…’
They always followed my orders without hesitation during mock battles. I wasn’t sure if they would follow them as well outside of mock battles, though.
‘Those two…’
Lost in thought for a moment, I shook my head. It was impossible for them, who were inside the trial, to come out now anyway. It was pointless to worry about it.
‘I’ve finished everything I needed to do anyway.’
I had reduced the number of Demon Lords to two, so all that remained was to return to the trial barrier and wait for the reinforcements that might or might not arrive.
Just as I took a step with that thought, the ground suddenly shook.
‘What…?’
I barely managed to keep my balance and looked up.
A black figure was visible in the distance. It was gradually rising and growing in size from the direction of the city center, which had been completely devastated by Stella’s magic.
And I already knew what it was.
‘Why is that thing here too…!’
Following Guineus, another Demon Lord, previously believed to have been subjugated, had appeared. But the level of danger was on a completely different scale compared to Guineus.
“The 31st Demon Lord?”
The Demon Lord, said to be the strongest enemy in human history, was rising.
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