Ch.200The Final Moment (2)

*

I couldn’t muster any strength in my body.

Along with a slightly numbing sensation, I felt the blood draining from my entire body.

As I clutched my trembling body, a dry cough erupted from deep within my chest.

The momentary confusion at this sudden situation was quickly overshadowed by the relentless coughing that showed no signs of stopping. At some point, I realized blood was mixing with it.

“Huh…?”

Simultaneously, my vision tilted toward the floor.

With a thud, my head hit the floor, and the chillingly cold sensation of marble reached me before the pain did.

I lay collapsed on the floor, coughing and spitting blood.

“Ash!”

Both Pia and Sister Maria called my name as they rushed over.

Their voices were filled with panic.

Understandably so—I was equally bewildered.

What on earth was happening to me?

“Ash, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“…Cough!”

Once again, droplets of blood violently erupted from my throat, soaking the floor.

“Silvia! Ash is—!”

Sister Maria lifted my body and called for Silvia.

But there was no response from Silvia.

Worried that she might have fallen victim to the Demon Lord, I painfully raised my trembling face.

“…That’s…”

Numerous mayflies were flying around Silvia.

They were the same insects that had flown around the cocoon when the Demon Lord was still sleeping inside it.

“Hey, Silvia!”

“It’s no use. The spirits are covering Silvia’s eyes and ears.”

Pia shook her head as Sister Maria shouted toward Silvia.

Sister Maria was naturally wiser and more knowledgeable than Pia, but in terms of years lived as a spirit, Pia overwhelmingly surpassed her.

“Spirit magic… Could this be affecting Ash’s condition too?”

Sister Maria looked down at me with a tense expression.

Even though she had become a spirit, she knew very little about spirits.

That’s why, even when fighting the Demon Lord, she only used magic to support Silvia, just as she had when she was alive.

Maria held my body with trembling hands and recited a protection spell.

I slowly shook my head and parted my bloodless lips.

“…Sister, don’t.”

“Ash, are you okay?”

“It’s meaningless… that. You’re just wasting mana.”

As the pain from hitting my head subsided, I was finally able to grasp the situation.

The sudden deterioration of my physical condition was certainly alarming, but upon reflection, it felt somehow familiar.

Sister Maria shouted at me as if pressing for answers.

“What are you saying? We have to try!”

“It’s magi…”

“What…?”

“I’ve been poisoned by magi…”

“How do you know that?!”

“Because I’ve experienced it before…”

That’s right.

I had already been on the brink of death from magi poisoning once before.

Of course, there was a difference—back then, my condition had deteriorated gradually over nearly a week, whereas now it had worsened suddenly. But that was probably because the magi emitted by the Demon Lord was exceptionally potent.

“S-shit…”

“…Ash.”

I cursed through trembling lips, and Sister Maria was startled to see me like this.

Well, she had probably never seen me curse before.

I had never uttered a single curse word before entering this forest.

I must have been influenced by Silvia without realizing it.

“…”

Too weak to speak further, I painfully turned my head to look at Pia.

When I was poisoned by magi before, Pia had taken me to the green lady who saved my life.

Of course, I didn’t expect the green lady to help me now, but Pia, who had saved me once before, might know something.

I looked at Pia with faint hope in my eyes.

But Pia looked at me with sad eyes, then closed them tightly and shook her head.

“Ha… cough!”

Ah, I see.

It’s not possible.

“Magi…”

Sister Maria, who had been muttering, firmly gripped my hand and shouted loudly toward Silvia once more.

“Silvia! Ash is dying! Holy power, we need holy power quickly!”

Silvia still couldn’t hear.

Upon hearing the words “holy power,” Pia picked up Sister Alice’s heart that I had dropped when I collapsed and placed it on my chest.

“Haah…”

I felt slightly better, but it wasn’t enough to heal my body, which had already deteriorated from magi poisoning.

Considering how Silvia had once just stomped her feet helplessly while watching me die, it was clear that even her holy power probably couldn’t heal my current condition.

But I no longer had the strength to explain this to Sister Maria.

“Silvia!”

Sister Maria’s sharp, scream-like shout tore through the air.

At that moment, Silvia turned to look at us.

“…Ash?”

The Demon Lord’s spirits all stopped fluttering at once and moved far away from Silvia.

It was as if they were deliberately clearing the space between her and me, showing her my current state.

And behind her, the Demon Lord’s chilling, reptilian eyes gleamed.

Those eyes curved like half-moons, as if smiling.

“Ah…”

In that moment, I realized.

I had been wrong.

Until now, I had thought of the Demon Lord as a tremendous monster or a being wielding immense power.

Like the Demon Lords in history books and fairy tales, I had judged, without ever having seen one, that their frightening aspect was their overwhelming presence that stimulated human fear and their terrible malice that human ethical consciousness could not dare to challenge.

But that wasn’t it.

That wasn’t the most frightening thing about the Demon Lord.

“…Kuhak,”

The Demon Lord’s greatest weapon was cunning.

*

When I realized my condition was due to magi, a question simultaneously arose in my mind.

I clearly had holy power bestowed upon me by Sister Alice.

Of course, the magi was so potent that it had completely consumed that holy power, but there was still time left before the limit Sister Alice had mentioned.

Yet why had the holy power in my body run out so quickly?

At first, I wondered if Sister Alice had made a mistake.

If the holy power she shared with me was only calculated for the level of magi spread throughout the forest before entering the Demon Lord’s castle, it would naturally be consumed much faster in magi several times denser than the forest’s.

Moreover, I couldn’t feel the holy power draining from my body.

Being unable to detect magi, I had no way of knowing how dense the magi here was or how quickly the holy power was being consumed within me.

Until just now, I thought I had made a terrible mistake in a way I hadn’t anticipated.

However, the moment I saw the Demon Lord stab Silvia as she turned to look at me, I realized.

This wasn’t a mistake by me or Sister Alice—it was the Demon Lord’s scheme.

‘The Demon Lord… can see holy power…’

Thinking about it, it made perfect sense.

The reason Sister Alice and Silvia could sense magi was because they could wield holy power.

Magi and holy power are forces of exactly opposite nature.

Magi consumes holy power, and holy power destroys magi.

Therefore, the Demon Lord, who wields magi, must also be able to sense holy power.

In other words, the Demon Lord immediately realized that the holy power within me was limited and was being rapidly consumed.

He could clearly see what I couldn’t.

An information asymmetry.

The Demon Lord cunningly exploited this.

“…We’ve been, tricked.”

He used spirits to block Silvia’s eyes and ears so she wouldn’t notice that the holy power within me was running out.

And he endured being torn by Silvia’s sword, waiting patiently until the magi in my body was completely consumed.

Even while being mercilessly slashed by Silvia’s sword, he only counterattacked enough to respond to her, creating the illusion that Silvia could win if she pressed on against the Demon Lord.

Silvia was certainly so focused on attacking the Demon Lord that she didn’t notice the spirits surrounding her.

Well, spirits were only barely visible to her as faint outlines anyway, so it was natural that Silvia, with all her attention on the Demon Lord, wouldn’t notice them.

In other words, the Demon Lord had targeted me from the beginning.

He aimed for the weakest being here first.

My thinking had been too shallow.

I should have realized that he would naturally target me.

If he kills me, my spirits, Pia and Sister Maria, will immediately disappear.

Silvia’s holy power is insufficient to kill the Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord targeting me was such an obvious strategy; I should have realized it sooner.

“…Silvia…”

Looking at Silvia, impaled and lifted by the Demon Lord’s tentacle, I felt this reality acutely.

After coming all this way,

We finally made it here.

And now, it ends like this.

To die like this,

Me, Silvia…

Pia, Sister Maria, Sister Alice…

To die like this,

Once again, someone dies because of me…

“…Laila.”

I recalled Laila’s face.

Still vivid, yet clearly more faded than before—my lovely little sister’s face.

Again.

Again, I failed to protect someone.

Again, I caused someone’s death.

I no longer have the strength to lift my head from the floor.

We lost.

We have lost.

We will die in defeat.

“Silvia…”

I wanted to tell her to run, but seeing her limp form impaled by the tentacle, I couldn’t say anything.

Silvia is dying.

Something I had never dared to imagine was happening before my eyes.

Perhaps, like Sister Maria’s corpse, Silvia’s body would also become the Demon Lord’s puppet, used to kill humanity.

The thought of such a terrible end—an insult to someone who had imprisoned herself in this forest to protect humanity—made bloody, dry saliva drip from my mouth.

It felt like all the blood in my body was flowing backward.

Unlike my dying body, my head was burning hot.

“No… way,”

As Sister Maria’s voice drifted in disbelief while looking at Silvia, my vision slowly faded.

Pia was crying beside me.

Pia…

Pia,

Yes, Pia!

“Ugh,”

I clutched Sister Alice’s heart.

A faint holy power flowed into my body.

Of course, the amount was as insignificant as pouring a small cup of water into flowing lava.

But I embraced even that small amount of holy power with my entire body.

Like a beggar licking every last drop of sauce from a plate, I greedily absorbed the holy power flowing from the heart.

Sticky blood overflowed through my clenched teeth.

It didn’t matter.

Just a little bit,

If I could recover just enough to speak… that would be enough.

After taking a moment to gather myself, I finally managed to speak in a barely audible voice.

“Pi…a,”

“A-Ash… No, don’t speak.”

Was she worried about me?

Or had she, as always, already guessed my thoughts?

Pia shook her head repeatedly and firmly held my hand.

“Help me up.”

“No… I won’t.”

“You said you could grant what I want,”

“…”

Pia silently shook her head.

So I tightly squeezed Sister Maria’s hand, which was holding mine.

Sister Maria slowly turned her head toward me.

“Sis…ter.”

“…Ash.”

As she called my name and gently stroked my head, Sister Maria’s face was filled with complexity.

Perhaps that’s understandable.

To Sister Maria, Silvia is a friend she gave her life to protect.

She had even returned as a spirit to finally end the Demon Lord, and now she had to watch her friend die.

Could there be anything more terrible for her?

“It was so good to see you again. You’ve grown up to be so wonderful, Ash…”

“No.”

“…Ash?”

“It’s not… over… yet. Sister.”

“What… do you mean?”

With blood rising from my throat, I spoke in a gurgling voice.

“No time to explain…”

“…Ash?”

“Drink, my blood.”

Sister Maria is my spirit.

.