Ch.145Chapter 145. Final Chapter (1)

No one understood what had happened.

Why Rinasien appeared here, how she managed to approach the Demon God without being detected, why she was covered in blood with disheveled hair—nothing made sense.

Above all, the Hero’s party and the Goddess were shocked to see the Demon King’s horn that Rinasien had used to stab the Demon God.

It was a quest item that neither Lin nor the Hero’s party could ever forget.

The horn, proof of the Demon King’s subjugation, should have been safely stored in a sacred casket inside the imperial treasury.

And that treasury could only be opened with the imperial seal ring.

Understanding this connection, Lin and Airan looked at Rinasien with suspicious eyes.

Thanks to Rinasien’s surprise attack, Lin was freed from the curse of slowed movement and cautiously asked her.

“Rinasien, what did you do to Princess Ganal?”

“Liiiiiiin!”

But Rinasien, clutching the horn tightly, screamed at him.

“I came to you! Why are you mentioning another woman? I know I did wrong, so please stop being so spiteful—!!”

Her response was completely off-topic.

But Lin could easily guess what had happened to Ganal by looking at Rinasien’s blood-covered appearance and the imperial seal ring on the hand holding the horn.

“You killed someone who did nothing wrong…”

Airan and Garin’s faces also twisted in horror as they realized the same thing.

Ganal, who had been dragged from the Zuramon Archipelago unprepared and died in the midst of politics and power.

Indirectly, this all happened because Airan sent that letter—a guilt she would have to carry for the rest of her life.

[Do you know who you just stabbed, girl? Are you prepared for the consequences?]

“Who are you? All I see is that pathetic bastard Rainford, but your voice is female? Are you also trying to seduce Lin, you bitch?!”

This woman is insane.

Facing Rinasien who had gone mad beyond the point of no return, the Demon God was forcibly subjected to mirror therapy.

Judging that she wasn’t someone who could be reasoned with, the Demon God tried to escape by drawing on demonic energy, but instead, a burning pain spread throughout her body from the wound.

[Nnnggh?! M-my power is being absorbed?!]

Not only that, but black energy flowing from the horn was enveloping half of Rinasien’s body.

Just like Rainford and the Demon God who each possessed half a face.

The Demon God knew well what—or who—this darkness was.

Red glowing eyes appeared on the half of the face engulfed in darkness.

[Angria… it’s been a while, hasn’t it?]

[Tiana? How is this possible? Weren’t you dead?!]

[I was merely in a deep slumber.]

The Demon God’s shock greatly pleased the Demon King.

Rinasien and the Demon King took a long, deep breath.

[Ah~ Still the same disgusting air in this disgusting world.]

Unlike the composed Demon King, Angria was losing power amid excruciating pain.

Though she didn’t understand how, this firmly embedded horn had completely neutralized the Demon God.

What she didn’t know was that this horn was a mass of resentment that Tiana had been accumulating since the moment she became the Demon King.

Created solely for revenge, this anti-Demon God item was spreading like poison through Angria’s body, paralyzing her and her powers the moment it pierced her.

[Aaagh! Kuk! Urrrgh!!!! Remove this at once, Tiana!!]

[Why should I? Do you know how long I’ve waited for this moment? I’ve been waiting since you forcibly corrupted me.]

The darkness grabbed Angria by the back of her neck.

With a cracking sound, her head was forcibly pushed forward as the Demon King began to kindly explain the depth of her grudge.

[I could have endured any torture. I could have withstood any pain inflicted on this body. But the one thing I could never forgive, even after ten thousand years or hundreds of millions of reincarnations, was how you violated my purity in front of the only one I loved, and how he sacrificed his life trying to save someone as defiled as me.]

The Demon King didn’t stop there and glared at the Goddess who had remained silent since her descent.

[And I will never forget you either, Justini, for ignoring my pleas when I begged you to save him instead of me!!!!]

After the Demon God, she poured out boundless resentment toward the Goddess.

[Why did you do it!!! I asked you to save Gilles’ life, not mine, so why!!!!]

The Goddess closed her eyes tightly, overwhelmed by rising guilt.

After a moment, Justini answered the Demon King in a trembling voice, almost sobbing.

[I’m sorry.]

What came out of her mouth was an apology.

[I was deceived by the Demon God and didn’t know. I realized too late, and all I could do was purify the demonic energy from Gilles’ soul and reincarnate him…]

[That was Gerero!!!!!!]

Lin’s eyes widened at this completely unexpected revelation.

Excluding his life as Mr. Lee the transmigrator, his previous life was as the Second Hero, and before that, he was the tragic lover of the First Hero?

At this point, he suspected his soul itself might be cursed.

[I didn’t want salvation or happiness for myself! I only wanted you to save him, but you made him a Hero and took him to the Abyss while I was paralyzed with shock. And what was the result?! Betrayal and a miserable death! And after failing to complete the punishment, now you’ve turned Lin into a demon race too…?]

Tears of blood flowed from the red glowing eyes.

[I didn’t know. I simply chose the purest and most honest soul as the Hero…]

[You always claim ignorance! You didn’t know I was kidnapped by the Demon God! You didn’t know Gerero was dying after being betrayed by the Demon God’s schemes! You didn’t know how much pain Lin was carrying! With all that power, to claim ignorance is the height of arrogance!]

Everyone had been pointing out the same thing to the Goddess all along.

Now she needed to acknowledge and accept it.

And the Goddess had already accepted it when she descended to this land.

[You incompetent goddess who created heaven and earth without preparation and can do nothing! Do you know how much misfortune and tragedy has spread across this world because of your sisters!! This kind of world deserves to perish.]

“Tiana? Demon King! What are you saying?!”

Denarua, who hadn’t recovered despite her long rest, pushed herself up from the floor and shouted toward Tiana.

“We agreed to become a family and live together.”

[Denarua, this is the only way. We can only lick each other’s wounds, but we can never truly heal them.]

The Demon King’s declaration of the world’s end shocked not only the demon warriors.

“Tiana!!!”

The Abyss escaped from Luci’s hand and took human form.

The Abyss, in the form of Aibis that they had seen in the Zuramon Archipelago, looked at the Demon King with trembling eyes.

She, who had always sharpened her spear of revenge while watching others’ regrets, couldn’t comprehend this situation at all.

“We agreed to take revenge, didn’t we? Against the Demon God and Goddess who made us like this and killed Gilles! We agreed to tear them apart and create a world without pain!”

[There is no world without pain, Aibis. Don’t you understand yet? The one I loved has suffered through three lifetimes and is still immersed in sorrow. How long must I watch his suffering? With each generation, he only suffers more! I’m ending it here. Destruction is the only answer.]

The Abyss glimpsed uncontrollable madness in the Demon King’s bloody tears.

That madness, created from the fusion of grudge and resentment, was difficult to comprehend even for the Abyss, who was quite insane herself.

Slowly, it was becoming the demon sword’s turn to regret.

[Bullshit! No matter how strong you are, I am the source of demonic energy! In a war of attrition, you must obey me!]

Angria was right.

Even while being drained of power, the Demon God was continuously trying to infiltrate the Demon King’s mind.

But Tiana giggled at the Demon God’s threat before bursting into laughter.

[Hahahahaha!!!! Did you think I wouldn’t anticipate that?!]

The black energy surrounding Rinasien was gradually fading.

[There’s no need to maintain myself in a world that’s going to perish anyway.]

“Tiana…?”

The Abyss, pale with shock, called out to the Demon King.

No, it can’t be, it can’t be what I’m thinking, the Abyss denied again and again.

[What sickened the world was endless greed, desire, and selfishness. The chaos that comes from them. But what will destroy the world is unpredictable confusion.]

Crack!

Rinasien’s hand, not possessed by the Demon King, grabbed the black energy covering her face.

“Enough talking! I’ve waited long enough. Give me Lin! Give me the power to possess Lin!”

[How about that? This scoundrel is my great warrior.]

“Give it to me!”

[Don’t worry.]

The Demon King’s bloody tears stopped.

[I’ll give you everything I have.]

“Tiana-!!!!”

With the Abyss’s death cry, Rinasien tore off the black energy.

Riiip- Splat!

“Aaaahng.”

Then, as if to show off, she opened her mouth wide and devoured the Demon King’s black essence.

With each greedy bite and swallow, horns began to sprout around Rinasien’s head, and demonic wings emerged from her back.

“Slurp, smack, smack.”

Having finally consumed the Demon King, Rinasien grinned at the Demon God.

“Not enough, give me more.”

Screeeech-!

Angria felt the pain of being torn from Rainford’s body, soul and all.

[Kyaaaaaaaaaah-!!!!]

“Everything is mine! This power, and Lin too!”

Through the horn embedded in her back, the Demon God’s power was being drained.

It was happening at a completely different speed than when she had superficially absorbed Lin’s demonic energy.

The Demon God was gripped by the terror that she would be completely devoured by Rinasien at this rate.

[Unlink! Unlink-! Why isn’t it working?!]

The link, already twisted once by Luci’s true name release attack, wouldn’t let the Demon God go easily.

This too was the result of the higher powers withdrawing the heavenly fortune they had been providing.

[Sister! Save me, Sister! Sisteeer-!!!]

But the Goddess could only watch with wide eyes, swallowing her tears.

Only then did Angria remember that due to her own schemes, the Goddess was in a state of powerlessness, unable to do anything except provide buffs.

[Ah… am I dying? Me? But I’m a god…?]

Screech… CRACK!!!!

[Uwaaaaaa!!! Sisteeer-!!!!!!!!]

Finally, Angria, stripped of all her power, was twisted and sucked into the Demon King’s horn along with Rainford’s body.

[Sister… Sister…! I was wrong. Please…! Ple- Urrrgh-!!!!]

And so, the Demon God Angria was sacrificed to a mere human who had devoured the Demon King.

“Hick… hic… heuk… he….”

Transformed into a perfect demonic form, Rinasien stuck out her tongue to its full length, drooling with an ecstatic expression.

“Lin…!”

Slowly, Rinasien brought the horn to the center of her forehead.

“I’ll save you…! I’ll save you from these wretches!”

Blood vessels sprouting from her forehead embraced and accepted the Demon King’s horn.

“You’ll be with me forever! Rejoice, for this is my happiness, the proof of my eternal love!”