Ch.201The Final Moment (3)

With her chest pierced and suspended in mid-air, Sylvia had never hated her eyelids as much as she did at this moment.

Ash was right there, lying there bleeding,

Yet these inconsiderate eyelids kept trying to close.

Was this karma for not sleeping properly these past few days?

No, if we’re talking about lifestyle patterns, Sylvia’s sleep habits had been abnormal for years already.

Ha, no.

“Karma” was such a shameless expression.

Hadn’t she desperately longed for it?

True eternal rest.

The death she had yearned for so much was waiting behind her slowly descending eyelids.

If she closed her eyes now, Sylvia could rest.

She could give up, she could lose.

She could finally cast off the shackles of being a hero that had prevented her from resting, giving up, or carelessly accepting defeat until now.

Despite it being the situation she had longed for so desperately, Sylvia used her last strength, burning her fading life force, to force her eyelids wide open.

“Ugh… urgh, A… Ash…”

What a fucking shitty situation.

The goddess must really hate her guts.

Sylvia gritted her teeth at that thought.

The first love she had ever experienced in her life was dying before her eyes.

She possessed power that could overwhelm the Demon Lord, yet she had been defeated so absurdly.

She had finally reunited with the friend she had missed so much, but that face was the one thing she couldn’t see.

The moment of death she had longed for was approaching, yet she had to resist it desperately.

Sylvia felt as if fate was spitting in her face, throwing mockery filled with malice.

Goddess, how long do you intend to torment me?

How much more must my soul be crushed before this cursed pain ends?

If this pain will never end, why was I born into this world?

A life born to suffer eternally under the empty title of hero.

This life I want to abandon and throw away—you even deny me the chance to end it on my terms.

“Kh, urgh.”

A sharp pain spread from her teeth as she clenched her jaw so hard it felt like her jawbone would crumble.

The terrible pain, like a saw scraping against her nerves, jolted her mind awake and forced her closing eyelids open once more.

Her chest, already pierced by the Demon Lord, had lost all sensation.

The tentacle writhing like a worm inside her body kept poking at her heart and lungs.

She wanted to burn that monstrosity invading her body, but Sylvia’s holy power was entirely consumed in keeping her dying life intact.

Even if her holy power could heal her, the situation wouldn’t change unless she removed the tentacle.

Yet if she diverted her holy power from healing to attack, Sylvia would die immediately.

She had already dropped her sword.

No matter how she tried to pick it up, her arms had no strength, and the ground was too far away.

Pain.

Eternal pain that could never be resolved with any card Sylvia had left to play.

Pain that wouldn’t end until someone saved her spread throughout her entire body.

She could give up, but then Ash would die.

“F… uck,”

What if you don’t give up?

Will watching Ash die somehow give you a clever solution?

What will you do?

The instinct toward death, or the desire for rest, whispered in Sylvia’s mind, urging her heart.

Let’s rest.

Let’s stop now.

You’ve suffered enough.

You’ve tried hard enough.

It’s okay to stop now.

No one could blame us.

Let’s go together.

With Ash.

There will be plenty of time to be with him in heaven.

Sylvia.

You really tried hard.

I, no one else but you yourself, will acknowledge it.

We really did our best.

“…No,”

Best, my ass.

“Best” is a word you use when the result satisfies you.

This is good enough even if I fail.

I have no regrets if I’ve done this much.

You can proudly say you’ve done your best only when you feel that kind of satisfaction.

Is this situation satisfying?

Me dying, the Demon Lord living, Ash dying, and even Maria disappearing?

Go to hell.

I don’t mind dying.

But I absolutely cannot let Ash die.

“Urgh,”

Sylvia tightly shut her bulging eyes.

As if coated with glue, her eyelids stuck together once closed.

That was it.

A moment when even the strength to lift an eyelid was precious.

Sylvia slowly inhaled.

Even as she felt excruciating pain in her lungs, scraped by the tentacle, Sylvia didn’t stop regulating her breathing.

And in an instant, Sylvia held her breath and lifted her limp arms with all her might.

“GRAAAAHH!!”

With a sound that was either a scream or a battle cry, Sylvia grabbed the tentacle protruding from her chest with both hands.

The tentacle writhed with a large recoil.

Sylvia could tell from that movement alone that the Demon Lord was surprised.

“How persistent. I’ll split your body in two right now.”

The Demon Lord began to inflate the tentacle that had pierced Sylvia’s torso.

Sylvia held her breath tightly.

The veins on her hands, arms, neck, and temples bulged prominently.

“Gaaah!”

“Are you trying to burn the tentacle with holy power? Useless. Before you can gather enough holy power, already…”

“SHUT UUUP!”

“…What?”

Sylvia firmly gripped the tentacle with her hands, veins pulsing.

Then, keeping her left hand fixed, she pulled her right hand forward.

Yellow pus burst from that hideous flesh filling Sylvia’s chest.

As Sylvia’s right arm fell limply, the torn tentacle was thrown to the floor.

Soon, Sylvia’s body, barely hanging from the end of the tentacle that had lost its front part, began to slowly slip off.

“Well, you crazy bitch.”

The Demon Lord spat out the curse as if disgusted.

Sylvia gave no answer.

Judging by her limp arms and head that had fallen forward right after cutting the tentacle piercing her chest, she seemed to have fainted.

The Demon Lord brought out another tentacle and stabbed Sylvia’s back as she was falling helplessly from the tentacle, lifting her up again before his eyes.

She was also a kind of shield.

A shield to prevent Maria from casting magic.

But perhaps because he was too focused on lifting Sylvia?

The Demon Lord failed to see it.

Something was flying toward him.

“…!”

Belatedly reacting, the Demon Lord held Sylvia out like a shield against whatever was flying toward him.

It must be Maria’s attack magic, obviously.

The Demon Lord thought this as he prepared for the incoming impact.

But it wasn’t magic.

“Uah!”

What was flying was a person.

The fragile spirit mage dying from demon energy poisoning.

Ash Staff.

In his hand was a bizarre mechanical device of unknown origin. Even to the Demon Lord’s eyes, this ugly contraption was imbued with an unusually large amount of holy power.

Although the amount of holy power it emitted was minimal, the Demon Lord could tell that the potential holy power stored inside was enormous and highly concentrated.

That’s dangerous.

By the time the Demon Lord had this thought, Ash’s body was already close enough to almost collide with Sylvia.

“…!”

But even that brief moment was enough for the Demon Lord to react.

Although he might be overwhelmed by Sylvia, the Demon Lord had the ability to crush weak ordinary humans more easily than killing insects.

Not just magic or spirit arts, but even his basic reflexes were different from ordinary humans.

No, to begin with, having killed the previous Demon Lord to take this position, he was a strong being even among demons.

That’s why he was the Demon Lord.

“How dare you,”

The Demon Lord instantly spewed out eight tentacles.

The tentacles pierced through various parts of Sylvia’s body after going through her back.

Then they all extended toward the approaching Ash.

A strike from behind Sylvia’s concealed back.

It was a cunning strike made with the judgment that human reflexes could never avoid it.

“…”

Moreover, the Demon Lord wasn’t being careless.

He was cautious and cunning enough to have devised a strategy to avoid direct confrontation and wait for Ash to die from demon energy poisoning.

Therefore, the Demon Lord deployed magic simultaneously with the extending tentacles.

Black chains that bind the target appeared from all directions and flew toward Ash.

He also unleashed spirit arts.

Winged, one-eyed flesh creatures obscured Ash’s eyes and vision, draining energy from his body.

Even if they collided like this, it would be impossible for Ash to thrust that heart into the Demon Lord.

‘For a last struggle, this is too pathetic…’

The Demon Lord, who only made a victory declaration in his mind after setting up multiple layers of meticulous safety measures.

However, that thought couldn’t continue to the end.

“…!”

The chains and spirits surrounding Ash shattered and tore apart before even touching Ash’s body.

It happened so quickly that even to the Demon Lord’s rapid thought process, it seemed to be destroyed almost simultaneously with activation.

‘What!’

The Demon Lord finally turned his gaze elsewhere.

Not at the approaching Ash, but beside him.

Maria, with blood all over her mouth, was extending her hand toward Ash.

‘Dispel…!’

The Demon Lord was shocked that Maria had broken his magic.

Clearly, last time Maria had been unable to dispel the Demon Lord’s magic.

Dispel, the cancellation spell, was not a simple spell.

One had to know and understand the spell the opponent was using and configure the cancellation spell accordingly.

In other words, theoretically, the cancellation spell would only be effective if one could also cast the opponent’s magic.

That’s why Maria couldn’t dispel the Demon Lord’s spell last time.

She couldn’t understand the Demon Lord’s magic mixed with spirit arts.

‘…Maria!’

But now Maria had broken the Demon Lord’s spell.

She even blew away the spirits.

She had understood it.

Just by becoming a spirit, Maria had grasped this magic that the Demon Lord had created independently.

Maria.

One of the few who survived among the hero’s many companions and reached the Demon Lord.

The epithet praising such a Maria was too simple.

Genius.

The Demon Lord realized once again how fearsome that short and simple epithet was.

Indeed, even on that day when she died at the Demon Lord’s hands last time, the Demon Lord ultimately couldn’t break through the defensive magic Maria had cast on Sylvia.

Unable to defeat Sylvia in close combat and with magic blocked by the barrier, the Demon Lord had pretended to be dead after suffering the humiliation of having his neck cut by Sylvia.

‘Maria, and Sylvia…’

For the past few years, the Demon Lord had served the great chaos god from outside this world.

Neither the goddess who created this world nor the demon god who was the father of demons, but the void and chaos god who devours everything in the outside world.

Thanks to that, he had obtained a body from the abyss that could withstand Sylvia’s sword strikes, but he still couldn’t defeat Sylvia in close combat.

He still couldn’t surpass Maria in understanding magic.

‘You two are the only ones who interfere with me.’

Therefore,

“I’ve won!”

The Demon Lord shouted his victory declaration once more.

What Maria had removed were only magic and spirit arts,

The tentacles were still flying toward Ash and piercing him.

There was no doubt.

The tentacles that had pierced through various parts of Sylvia’s body flew straight at Ash’s head and heart.

And they would pierce that fragile skull…

“…?”

Ash disappeared.

Literally, he vanished while the Demon Lord was looking straight at him.

“What is this…”

“Th… anks…”

The voice came from behind the Demon Lord.

“…Syl…via.”

The Demon Lord hurriedly turned his head.

He saw Ash swinging the heart toward him, spitting blood through clenched teeth, and a spirit clinging to Ash’s body, bursting into tears.