Ch.133The End (4)

After continuously firing bullets until Ju-an recovered, he finally opened his eyes with a much improved complexion.

“…Lite?”

As soon as I realized Ju-an was okay, I immediately stretched out both arms and hugged him.

“Hic… you really… really scared me…”

Even knowing someone can come back to life, watching a loved one die before your eyes is terrifying. Or wait, is it because if Ju-an disappeared now, he wouldn’t be able to come back?

Whatever the case, Ju-an is alive now. That’s enough.

I don’t know how many years of my lifespan I just burned. Roughly calculating, I probably lost about 3 to 4 years.

Still, thanks to this ribbon that Leo and Yongin made for me, my body didn’t become deathly weak. I can still move somehow.

“Why, why are you here?”

Ju-an asked with a deeply shaken expression, as if he couldn’t imagine I would come all the way here.

“I just ended up here somehow.”

Let’s end this emotional reunion here and focus on defeating the Demon King. Obviously, we don’t have the luxury to chat like this in the middle of enemy territory.

With that thought, I turned my head to check our surroundings and saw Parthia looking much younger than usual, Yongin with scales covering his entire body, and Selene in a blood-soaked maid uniform.

Strangely, I couldn’t see any enemies. But these people were clearly fighting until just now. So where exactly is the enemy?

“Ju-an? Where’s the Demon King?”

“There.”

Ju-an pointed at a black lump on the floor. Could that possibly be the Demon King? If so, that’s pretty pathetic.

“Is that thing really the Demon King?”

“No. You’ll see in a moment.”

Ju-an, who had already gotten to his feet, said while assuming a fighting stance.

Just as I was about to ask if the enemy was hiding somewhere, that black lump rapidly regenerated and instantly took human form.

As soon as the Demon King revealed itself, Ju-an rushed at it and cut it to pieces in the blink of an eye.

Then Selene sliced the Demon King into even smaller pieces with her dagger, and Yongin breathed fire, reducing those pieces to ashes.

Thanks to that, the enemy was surely dead. But Parthia, seemingly unsatisfied, glared at the pile of ashes with tears of blood, and the remains disappeared without a trace.

This feels too anticlimactic. I didn’t expect the Demon King to end like this…

…Wait, didn’t that black lump just regenerate?

“Ju, Ju-an? Don’t tell me that thing regenerates?”

“Yes. Right now we’re slowing down time as much as possible to buy time, but if our mana runs out…”

Before Ju-an could finish, something black formed on the empty floor, regenerated, and took human form again.

And then the same scene I had witnessed earlier unfolded again. Thanks to that, I could roughly grasp the situation.

These people had been defeating that monster over and over again.

I had certainly hoped the enemy would be a monster without self-awareness rather than human. But I never wanted a monster like this.

“…What exactly is that thing?”

“I don’t know either. But thankfully, it seems to have no self-awareness.”

The Demon King’s monstrous appearance definitely reduced my aversion to killing it. No, what we’re facing isn’t human, so it shouldn’t even be called killing.

Anyway, the enemy is a monster incapable of thought. So it will only use monotonous attacks, making it somewhat easier to deal with.

However, we’re still at a disadvantage. How do we defeat something that regenerates from absolutely nothing?

I came here planning to fire a life bullet if necessary to land at least one effective hit. But now that strategy has become useless, barely buying us 10 seconds.

Still, I don’t regret coming this far since I was able to save Ju-an.

While I was lost in these thoughts, the Demon King had already died and revived three times. Is that thing really dying at all?

What would make this situation even more desperate? Losing allies? Or the enemy getting stronger?

Losing allies would definitely make the situation more desperate. I can explain that better than anyone.

“Miss! If you use any more of your power, you could really die!”

Because one of our allies looks like she’s about to disappear right before our eyes.

“I know! But even if it costs me my life, I must kill this thing!”

Parthia, who had become excessively young from overusing her power, continued to glare at the enemy with tears of blood.

Selene, with a sad expression, struck the back of Parthia’s neck with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry, Miss.”

Then Selene took out a scroll from inside her clothes, attached it to Parthia, and Parthia instantly disappeared somewhere.

“I apologize. If Miss continued fighting like this, she would truly die, so I sent her back to the base.”

It was already hard enough with four of us, and now we’re down to three. If we lose one more person in this state…

It’s okay, we still have about four more people coming as reinforcements. We just need to hold out until then.

Come to think of it, holding out until someone arrives feels like a familiar situation.

“Ju-an, doesn’t this remind you of the old days?”

“Are you talking about when we fought that regenerating demon?”

“Yeah. We were really lucky back then.”

I saved Ju-an who was seconds away from death. Until then, I still thought I was the one taking care of him.

But as time passed, I grew weaker while Ju-an became stronger, and now our relationship has completely reversed.

It’s a bit sad, but I guess it doesn’t matter now that I have someone to rely on.

Even as I was having these carefree thoughts, the situation was deteriorating rapidly.

Ju-an and Selene were doing okay, but Yongin was in a state that couldn’t be described as “fine” even as a white lie.

Now Yongin looked more like a dragon than a human.

“Um… are you okay?”

“Honestly, I can’t say I’m doing well.”

A voice more like another life form than a human came from Yongin’s throat. Could it be that the more power he uses, the more dragon-like he becomes?

“Are you worried about losing your sanity?”

“This form is merely my original appearance emerging due to lack of mana, so don’t worry.”

Fortunately, there was no such restriction. That appearance was just because he lacked the mana to maintain human form.

…But doesn’t that mean his mana is almost depleted?

No, this is a problem I could solve by transferring my mana to Yongin.

But would giving mana to Yongin be beneficial? It might be better to give it all to Ju-an to buy more time.

“Um… between you and Ju-an, who needs a mana potion more?”

“If you have such a thing, give it to the Hero immediately.”

“Why?”

“You know which ability is more useful—breathing fire or slowing down time?”

Yongin’s response was somewhat irritable, probably because he was quite exhausted. It’s clear that Yongin is pushing himself too hard.

So Yongin will be leaving soon too, leaving only two of us… this is really bad.

Are we really going to die here? When I still have so many things I want to do in this world?

Should I grab Ju-an and retreat for now, then come back to fight later?

While I was having these pathetic thoughts, fortunately, I heard familiar voices from behind.

“Is anyone here… Senior?”

Ha-eun and Taeyang arrived, looking much better than I expected.

“Attack this damn Demon King first!”

“What? Okay!”

The quick-thinking Ha-eun instantly began filling Parthia’s vacant position. Now if only Taeyang could fill Yongin’s place…

…But would an ability to break someone’s mind work on a mindless monster?

“Taeyang? Does your ability work on monsters like that?”

“No.”

“…”

Let’s look at the positives. At least Ha-eun has nine clones, so effectively there are 12 people holding out here.

As if to prove me wrong, the Demon King’s regeneration speed seemed… faster than before.

Additionally, Yongin was clearly reaching his limit. Others must have noticed too, as Selene took out another scroll and said:

“You look like you’re about to die too, so please go back.”

“I can still fight more…”

Before Yongin could finish, Selene attached the scroll to him just as she had done with Parthia, and he instantly disappeared.

Thanks to that, our situation, which had been somewhat balanced, began to deteriorate. Is there any brilliant solution here?

While I was thinking this, suddenly the enemy’s regeneration stopped. Did we actually succeed?

But this ominous energy still lingering around suggests otherwise. Still, I hope the Demon King died anticlimactically.

“Finally… I’ve returned.”

When an unfamiliar voice came from behind, my body instinctively began to tremble violently.

Still, I needed to assess the situation, so I forced myself to turn around and saw something in human form.

“Now I’ll return everything as it was.”

And I knew with every fiber of my being that we were fucked.