Ch.195Chapter 195 – The Reason a Demon Lord is Needed

The spirit arrow shot from Pine’s bow pierced through Gigas’s body, and the chaotic battlefield suddenly fell silent as if a mouse had died.

Both demons and elves who had been entangled in battle stared blankly at Gigas, miraculously quieting the battlefield.

Gigas looked down at his own body and opened his mouth.

[Cough…!]

Blood flowed from Gigas’s mouth with his cough.

Red blood soaked his chin.

After finishing that short cough, Gigas looked up at the sky.

[Demon Lord… I’m sorry…]

With those final words, Gigas bowed his head deeply.

And with a flash of light, he transformed into a small boy, buried within the body of the tree giant that Sera had summoned.

Silence fell once more.

Then, the elves’ cheers began to fill the forest.

“We won!!!!”

“We defeated the giant!! We killed their commander!!”

“Only small fry remain! Finish them off quickly!!”

Amid the cheers of joy, when the commander’s orders came down, the elves immediately began swinging their weapons at the demons.

The demons, whose morale had instantly plummeted with the defeat of their corps commander and who were already at a numerical disadvantage, quickly found themselves surrounded by elves and were soon being eliminated one by one.

While watching that scene and catching my breath, I heard a somewhat cute sound from beside me.

“Hnngg…”

Sera plopped down on the ground, seemingly drained of strength.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. Just, the tension suddenly left me.”

Sera smiled faintly as she answered my concern.

“What about you, Kay? Are you alright?”

“Of course.”

I smiled as I answered Sera’s concern.

Then I noticed Baphomet’s dumbfounded expression behind us.

“Even Gigas…”

Baphomet’s face had turned pale blue, as if he hadn’t expected Gigas to be defeated as well.

‘Come to think of it, I’d forgotten about that one.’

I had been so focused on Gigas that Baphomet had slipped from my memory.

And with Sera’s summoned tree giant there as well, it was no wonder my attention had been diverted.

“Everyone, I’m back!”

Pine descended from above, riding her griffon, with the lich flying down alongside her.

The lich immediately spoke to Sera.

[That was truly excellent, young alchemist. An impressive golem.]

“Oh, that wasn’t really my power…”

Sera began to blush shyly, looking embarrassed.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and called to her quietly.

“Sera.”

“Yes?”

“I survived thanks to you.”

Sera’s eyes widened at my words.

“We all survived thanks to you.”

At my words, Sera bowed her head for a moment.

And after a while, she looked up at me with slightly reddened eyes and smiled.

“…I’m glad I wasn’t a burden to you, Kay…”

I smiled quietly at Sera’s words.

As Sera bowed her head deeply to compose her emotions, I turned to the lich and spoke.

“Can we consider this our victory now?”

[I believe so, but… your companions are still fighting, so let’s hurry to help them.]

The lich said this while extending his hand to me.

A moment later, I felt magical wind moving at my feet.

Then I turned to Sera.

“Sera.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to check on the others, so stay with Pine.”

Sera, her eyes still red, nodded at my words.

When I looked at Pine, she smiled and pointed to herself.

“Leave it to me.”

With Pine there, Sera would be safe even in the worst-case scenario.

“Then let’s get going.”

[Follow me.]

With that, I kicked off the ground and began flying through the sky with the lich.

As we passed over the tree giant Sera had summoned, I could see a small child buried in its embrace.

‘Is that Gigas’s true form?’

After briefly glimpsing the blood-soaked boy buried in the tree, I looked down and saw Baphomet still staring blankly up at Sera’s golem.

‘Is he worried about his comrade?’

For some reason, I thought Baphomet’s face showed that kind of light.

‘If my companions had been defeated, would I have made that same expression?’

That thought crossed my mind as I looked at Baphomet’s face.

I turned my head away, feeling that if I didn’t move now, it would be hard to tear my gaze from that face.

It had been a series of events that were already difficult to look away from, and I didn’t want to waste more time.

‘Wait.’

A battle that was hard to look away from.

It was an intense battle, so that wasn’t an incorrect expression.

It was a dangerous fight that made me forget about the captured Baphomet until now, and temporarily forget about my comrades engaged in combat.

“Hey, lich.”

[What is it?]

I quickly addressed the lich.

+

The roots of the World Tree.

The entrance to the seal where the Einherjar sleep.

There, a succubus was opening a gate.

‘If I can just continue like this…’

Looking at the gate that was slowly beginning to open, the succubus felt half relieved and half worried.

‘Should I really be opening this?’

If she had said this to herself just moments ago, she would certainly have gotten angry at such nonsense.

Outside, the corps commanders were risking their lives to create an opening for her infiltration.

In fact, some corps commanders had even considered their own deaths as a possibility.

Fortunately, since she had seen the elves struggling against Gigas’s advance, the succubus didn’t doubt the success of the operation and was determined to complete it.

Until a man grabbed her from behind.

“Is there a reason you’re looking at me?”

The succubus trembled at the cheerful voice of an old man behind her.

Yes, it was this man.

The old man who appeared behind her as soon as she had deceived the elves and infiltrated the World Tree.

The succubus had quickly tried to use the elves she was controlling to subdue the old man, but it was in vain.

A red-haired woman who had come with the old man, riding what appeared to be a red-haired elf like a horse, spewed threads from her fingertips that made the enthralled elves fight each other, subduing them all.

“Sigh. I wanted to go out and find some collections.”

“That’s not allowed, Phobia. You’re my escort right now. Please be satisfied with that woman.”

The succubus thought there must be some criteria for what this “collection” referred to.

The woman had shown little interest in the elves that the succubus had enthralled.

At least she could determine that it involved appearance, gender, personal preferences, and various other factors.

Perhaps she was simply moody.

‘More importantly, who is that person…?’

The succubus’s eyes kept turning toward Phobia, sensing a faint aura of kinship from her.

Noticing the succubus’s gaze, Phobia approached with a smile.

Then suddenly, she licked the succubus’s face with her tongue.

“Eek…!”

It was a tongue movement like someone tasting delicious food in advance.

Phobia licked her own lips and said:

“This one’s face is decent too. Should I take her instead?”

“Please restrain yourself. You’re doing something very important right now.”

Fortunately, the old man dissuaded Phobia, so the succubus was able to live.

However, the fact that voices begging for death had been echoing from behind her all this time heightened the succubus’s fear.

Somnus quietly spoke to her:

“You needn’t worry. Until you summon the Demon Lord, we will protect you.”

‘It seems like you’ll get rid of me after I summon him!’

The succubus continued opening the gate to the demon realm while unknowingly shedding tears.

Looking at the succubus, Phobia turned to Somnus with curiosity.

“Hey, Somnus.”

“What is it?”

“Why do we need the Demon Lord?”

At Phobia’s question, Somnus smiled and clasped his hands together.

Then he slowly answered.

“Because it’s fun.”

‘This person is weird,’ the succubus cursed Somnus inwardly.

And Somnus smiled and said:

“That was a joke.”

“So what’s the real reason?”

“Well, the biggest reason would be…”

Somnus smiled and said:

“Without a Demon Lord, there can be no Hero.”

While opening the gate, the succubus listened to Somnus’s words.

And Somnus immediately continued with a smile:

“A Demon Lord can be born without a Hero, but a Hero cannot be born without a Demon Lord. Do you know why, succubus?”

‘Should I answer?’ the succubus wondered briefly while continuing to open the gate.

The answer came not from the succubus, but from Phobia.

“Is it because a Hero is someone who faces the Demon Lord?”

“A Hero is a being who confronts the Demon Lord.”

Somnus briefly clasped his hands as if in prayer.

Then he unclasped them and said:

“No matter how excellent a hunting dog’s bloodline is, without prey, it’s just a dog.”

Somnus smiled and said:

“If we intend to create a Hero, shouldn’t we summon his counterpart and prepare the stage in advance?”

“Can you really create one?”

“We’re missing one important ingredient.”

Somnus calmly clasped his hands and spoke.

Seeming to know what the ingredient was, Phobia muttered:

“The Philosopher’s Stone, you mean.”

“If we can get our hands on that, all that remains is to complete the Hero.”

Phobia fell into quiet thought and then spoke.

As if remembering something, she asked:

“By the way, who are you going to make into a Hero?”

“Naturally, our Dragon Slayer.”

“Not the test subjects?”

At Phobia’s question, Somnus quietly shook his head.

Then he smiled and said:

“The Dragon Slayer has abandoned many things to reach that strength. He is more than qualified.”

“From the way you’re talking, it seems that experiment was successful.”

“Yes. It succeeded, which is why we’re being so bold now.”

Somnus smiled and said:

“After repeated experiments, we were able to identify the components necessary for a Hero’s awakening.”

“Components?”

“The components that satisfy the condition of a Hero being ‘summoned from another world.'”

Somnus clasped his hands.

“We found the commonalities by practically dissecting the bodies of the Red Templars.”

“Hmm… restoring them all back to normal was hard labor.”

At Phobia’s complaint, Somnus smiled and said:

“There’s no reason not to use the test subjects we went to the trouble of summoning, right?”

“True. The Regent was very pleased. Something about dramatically increasing military power, and so on.”

When Phobia mentioned the Regent, Somnus’s face darkened slightly.

“That youngster.”

Seeing Somnus mutter with displeasure, Phobia stopped talking about the Regent.

Then she smiled brightly and said:

“But it feels like you’re rushing things a bit, don’t you think?”

“Ah, that’s correct. I am in a hurry.”

Somnus smiled and said:

“I don’t have much time left.”

With a regretful expression, Somnus said:

“I wonder if this old body can hold out until the Dragon Slayer awakens as a Hero. I resent this aged body of mine.”

At first glance, it sounded like he was lamenting his old age.

But the succubus somehow felt that wasn’t the meaning.

Because at that moment, Somnus’s atmosphere had briefly felt strange.

‘For some reason, I really disliked it…’

The succubus couldn’t understand why she felt that way.

Then Somnus smiled brightly again and looked at the succubus.

“Well, that’s enough talk. Thanks to me, you’ve been able to greatly reduce the time needed to create the gate, so that’s fortunate for you too, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but…”

The succubus felt something was off.

She had a persistent feeling that they were meddling with something that shouldn’t be touched.

‘Should I just quietly stop?’

But if she did that, she wouldn’t be able to face the corps commanders and the Demon Lord.

Yet at this rate, it seemed like they were all dancing in the palm of that man’s hand.

‘From the way he’s telling me everything, he probably doesn’t intend to let me live anyway…’

As the succubus was contemplating what to do, Somnus suddenly raised his head.

“Oh my. We should hurry.”

Somnus smiled and said:

“You have quite sharp instincts.”

“What do you mean?”

Just as the succubus expressed her curiosity.

Something heavy was cutting through the air, flying toward them.

And Phobia stood up.

“Hah!”

Threads shot from her fingertips, entangling with the heavy object and deflecting it.

-Boom!

A halberd embedded itself in the wall with a heavy sound, and the succubus couldn’t help but cry out:

“That’s!”

It was a halberd she remembered seeing before.

And it seemed Phobia recognized it too.

“Oh my, that’s!”

The next moment, the halberd turned to dust and disappeared, and someone descended from the sky.

-Boom!

With the heavy sound of armor, a man landed on the ground.

And as if recognizing who he was, Somnus spread his arms wide and smiled.

“It’s been a while, Test Subject 13.”

The one who had landed was Kay.

“Why are you people here?”

At Kay’s question, Somnus merely continued smiling.