Ch.185Report on the Downfall of Charity (27)

Leonardo adjusted his stance. He picked up the Knight of the Scabbard’s sword and a Venelucian cutlass.

“Ha! You pathetic cripple who can’t even draw a sword, how dare you talk about what’s yours? And strictly speaking, it’s not even yours, is it? It’s ‘hers.'”

His elongated tongue spewed mockery. The Knight of the Scabbard trembled with excitement. Leonardo’s taunts continued.

“What? Did you plan to finish your incomplete love? Were you thinking of grabbing her by the hair and taking her to some dark place after putting her back together?”

Laios charged with a demonic scream. But he was thrown back. Leonardo had swung the scabbard. The sound of crushing steel rang in their ears.

“You made such a fuss because you couldn’t draw one measly sword!”

Leonardo gripped the scabbard with his tongue and grabbed the sword handle with his hand. But it wouldn’t come out. He tried again with more force two, three more times, but the sword stubbornly resisted.

“Uh…”

As Leonardo faltered, Kain rushed in. He swung his staff, knocking the sword away. Quickly picking up the sword, he slashed Leonardo’s tongue, cutting it again and again. Like striking tough vines with a large blade.

Leonardo let out a horrific scream. From each wound, shadows and flesh spilled out, writhing. As if they were alive, they transformed into fingers, toes, arms, and legs.

But the transformation stopped there. Laios charged in, adjusting his stance, and knocked Leonardo down. Steel gauntlets dug into his head like clamps. He gripped it firmly and ground it against the floor.

The thing that was Leonardo screamed and resisted, but the Knight of the Scabbard didn’t stop. He raised his fist and struck down. With each thunderous blow, the pavement beneath the monster crumbled.

Finally, Leonardo went limp. Laios staggered backward. Winged humanoid monsters flew down from the sky. Leonardo still clung to life, but was dragged up to the high ship in the sky without much resistance.

“Laios.”

Kain planted his staff on the ground. The Knight of the Scabbard picked up the sheathed sword again. He seemed somehow drained of strength.

“Do you still intend to stop me, Kairos?”

A moment of silence passed. Kain sighed.

“If this were the Empire, I would. But this is Venelucia. I’m a foreigner here. Officially, I don’t exist here.”

With his face hidden behind the black helmet, Laios’s expression was unreadable. But he too remained silent.

With a screeching sound, more beasts flew down from the sky. Kain was briefly on guard, but they just grabbed the monster that had attacked Kain earlier and carried it up into the sky.

“Did they come because they sensed Leonardo had turned into a monster?”

“Yes.”

Laios nodded.

“Indeed. I cannot see ahead. Even if I could see in the land of darkness, it wouldn’t mean much. Still, I can see a different world.”

Kain recalled the desolate landscape Elisabet had shown him. A barren land with only black and red. And a tree larger than a great mountain, dead and withered.

“I read your memories, Laios.”

Laios bowed his head slightly. Kain remembered him sharing fruit with Ismene.

“Are you truly heroes?”

“We received a revelation,” Laios’s words were filled with determination.

“Ismene and I were born with the fate of heroes. We will stop the Demon King.”

“Do you still think so?”

“God’s will has never been wrong.”

“Have you never resented it?”

“I’ve never resented God.” But Laios’s voice was drained of energy. “I only resent myself.”

“Why?”

Laios looked up at the sky. His beasts were pulling monsters from all over Venelucia. Leonardo’s subordinates struggled reluctantly, but there was no mercy.

“I resent my weakness and incompetence. I resent myself for not being able to protect even one precious thing. I resent my lack of talent. If only I had even a fraction of your skill… So I won’t stop. All I know how to do is keep moving forward while taking hits.”

Laios nodded. To Kain, it seemed like he was affirming himself.

“Yes. That’s all. This task is almost complete. Just one more. Just one more to collect, and everything will end. Kairos, if there is punishment I must receive, can it wait until after?”

The Patience, Günther. He would be in Empire territory.

“If you attack him on Empire soil, I will stand in your way. I too have my reasons. But… I want to know why you must do this.”

Laios pointed to the sky.

“Look. At those monsters.

Like the Demon King did in the wasteland, the seven heroes and the Black Phoenix Faith priests they taught know how to handle shadows, death, and darkness. But they’re not as good as the Demon King himself. That’s why they use mediums.”

Kain guessed he was talking about the Black Phoenix Faith and the asas plant.

Asas helps express the darkness within people, and the Black Phoenix Faith priests fan the flames, driving people to narrow-mindedness, nurturing only hatred and resentment.

“The Black Phoenix Faith priests were also given the authority to baptize from them. The power and flesh to throw away all morality and manners that block them, and to destroy everything that drove them into this terrible life… that’s what those monsters are.”

“But how could this happen? You sealed the Demon King.”

Laios shrugged and laughed.

“Yes. Why remain silent now that we’ve come this far? You already know how the Demon King was sealed. I asked you then, ‘where’ was he buried? His body is surely in that cold wasteland. But where are his severed limbs?”

“…”

“Yes.” Laios staggered. He placed his hand on his heart and calmed his breathing.

“Yes. Your guess is correct. They ‘shared’ pieces of the Demon King. They cut him up and ate him. It was to fragment and scatter the Demon King’s power, but it was meaningless.

The Demon King’s power didn’t diminish but grew stronger. With his soul and reason cut into seven pieces, all that remained was revenge, hatred, and resentment.

Ismene’s body is becoming a giant tree. A tree of hatred that will overturn the world and ultimately destroy it. Even asas won’t be necessary then.”

“What happened to the heroes?”

“The heroes gained the ability to use the Demon King’s power. Because they shared pieces of the Demon King. But they’re not as powerful as the Demon King. That’s why they use tools like faith and poison. Of course, the biggest reason is the seed of hatred engraved in that land.”

Kain recalled Elisabet’s story. The original sin of the Empire. The resentment of the Life Tree Order people who split into two factions and fought, and those who lost their lives innocently in that land.

The reason why had disappeared, and only emotions remained. The resentment and sorrow firmly rooted in that land would have continued to grow.

Eventually, it became hatred. Hatred so intense that anyone who set foot on that land would willingly surrender themselves to it.

The Demon King didn’t create hatred. Hatred created the Demon King. Hatred is the cause, and the Demon King is the result. If you can’t eliminate the cause, removing the result is meaningless.

“What was the crusade for?”

Kain asked without thinking. But he found the answer himself. The crusade didn’t go to defeat the Demon King. It went to create the Demon King.

Emotions have no form. Sometimes great hatred can’t even find its target. But if there is just one target that can be hated, despised, and cursed without consequence.

Wouldn’t it be appropriate to call it the Demon King?

And Ismene is becoming the next generation’s Demon King.

It’s a vicious cycle. Didn’t Elisabet say it too? Hatred calls for hatred, and dislike calls for dislike.

The saying “you have to experience it to understand” is wrong. Those who suffer merely feel the same injustice and anger. They don’t reflect; they feel hatred and push back harder.

Infinite crusades. Eternal Demon King. It’s as simple as the cycle of trees and seeds. If more hatred and dislike spread in the world, people could easily bring out their own Demon King.

Anyone. Anything can become a Demon King. Just as no one is born a hero, the same applies to Demon Kings. The Demon King, like a hero, is merely ‘chosen.’

Is there no hope?

Unconsciously, Kain clenched his fist. Pain surged again. Reality contains only pain. As if imagining dreams and happiness is a luxury, pain constantly pulled at him.

“…But not everyone.”

Kain looked at Laios. Laios was silently looking down at the ground.

“Not all seven heroes could use the Demon King’s power. Only one refused it. Of course, she couldn’t openly rebel. She was too timid for that. Instead, she pretended to eat it but secretly buried it in the ground.”

“…The Humility, Arianne.”

Kain understood why Laios had left her body alone. She had no piece of the Demon King, so there was nothing to retrieve. But he couldn’t forgive her either.

Did it matter?

In the end, Black Phoenix priests infiltrated her circle too, and the Samarians threw themselves into hatred and became monsters. She couldn’t have done anything alone.

But Laios wasn’t finished.

“And that piece came to dwell in me.”

Kain looked up. Laios, on the contrary, hung his head.

“I was abandoned then. I never recovered from the wounds inflicted by the monster, and I went blind. I wanted to stay by Ismene’s side, but that was my limit.

But I was alive. I was as good as dead, but I was still breathing. I wanted a mission and… revenge. Then this piece came to me. I too…”

Laios picked up the sword. The sword that still wouldn’t come out of its scabbard.

“I too can use the Demon King’s power. I can create monsters too. So I turned the heroes into monsters. To return Ismene’s soul dwelling in their bodies to its rightful owner.

If only. If only she could regain some of her senses, not as a monster twisted by hatred like now…”

Something like ecstasy could be heard from within the black helmet. At the same time, Kain saw a faint light flowing between the scabbard and the sword’s guard. But it eventually faded. Laios dropped his head weakly.

“That’s all, Kairos. I am a hero. I, chosen along with Ismene, am a hero. Until the moment I fulfill my mission, I will not stop. Even if Ismene has fallen, I must not.”

“Why?”

“Because I was reborn as a hero.”

With those final words, a large dragon descended from the sky. Laios mounted it. All collection and gathering was complete.

At the same time, all the darkness that had engulfed Venelucia was pulled up. From the monster ship came a trio of Leonardo’s subordinates and the monsters taunting them.

The fleet of monsters began to sail again. Using clouds as waves, it headed toward the center of the crimson sun.

A ship of fools, without rudder, sail, anchor, or oar.