Ch.202The Final Moment (4)

*

Maria caught Sylvia as she fell to the ground and looked up at Ash, swallowing hard.

The sight of her younger brother literally disappearing before her eyes, only to reappear behind the Demon Lord’s back, was astonishing even to Maria, a genius archmage.

“Teleportation…”

A complex spell indeed.

One must calculate everything from the clothes worn to the items carried, as well as the coordinates and distance of the destination. Even the slightest mistake could cause fatal errors in this high-difficulty magic.

Of course, Maria could use this spell too, but not in the way Ash had just demonstrated.

Even Maria, who inherited the Stafford family name, could only teleport herself between two pre-calculated locations, and only when completely naked.

That’s why during the hero party’s journey, she only used it to quickly travel to towns when supplies ran low to purchase necessary items.

If she could have used it offensively like Ash just did, to get behind an opponent, perhaps so many comrades wouldn’t have died in their previous campaign.

Maria closed her eyes, remembering her fallen companions.

Not just Sylvia, but countless comrades had fallen here.

They had died in this hellish castle, slain by monstrosities armed with vile malice.

‘Ash…’

Maria wiped the blood around her mouth with her thumb.

Ash’s blood.

Just by consuming it, Maria’s magic had changed.

Unfamiliar demon magic, illusion arts utilizing spirit techniques.

These were unknown spells that even Maria, said to be unrivaled in magical knowledge, had never encountered, yet she could easily dispel them just by drinking Ash’s blood.

‘Spirit techniques… is it.’

Fortunately, Sylvia was still breathing, though a large hole had been torn through her chest.

Maria quickly created wax with her magic to plug the gaping wound in Sylvia’s chest as she held her.

She could hear the faint beating of Sylvia’s compressed heart.

She wouldn’t die, but given the severity of the wound, Sylvia wouldn’t regain consciousness today.

So who would kill the Demon Lord?

Maria slowly raised her head to look at Ash.

“Ash…”

With Sylvia lying in her arms, Maria was thinking two things.

One was a pointless lament: ‘If Ash had accompanied the hero party on their journey, would the outcome have been different?’

The other was a clear realization: ‘I truly am no longer human.’

“GAAAARGH!”

A blood-curdling scream violently scattered Maria’s thoughts.

The heart that Ash had thrust at the Demon Lord was melting into its skin like a poker dropped on ice, slowly burrowing deeper inside.

The sound of flapping loose skin as the creature struggled resembled the wing beats of a pterosaur.

But unlike the sound, the Demon Lord’s body couldn’t take flight.

Instead, it collapsed to the ground as if crumbling.

Ash, trembling uncontrollably, let his body fall onto the Demon Lord’s back.

Without strength or energy to hold on, he used his weight to pin down the Demon Lord.

Then he pressed Alice’s heart, embedded in the creature’s back, even harder as he coughed up blood.

“It’s over… let’s end this,”

“N…o”

The Demon Lord writhed in a chilling manner.

Then numerous tentacles emerged from beneath its belly with bizarre movements.

They looked like dozens of insect legs.

“Ugh!”

The tentacles instantly wrapped around Ash and Pia’s necks.

Thanks to Maria’s protection magic still in effect, they weren’t being strangled, but the two were thrown far from the Demon Lord’s body by the tentacles.

Fortunately, Pia cradled Ash’s head in her arms as they rolled across the floor.

Maria rose to help Ash but quickly stopped to cast a spell when she saw tentacles flying toward her and Sylvia.

She could defend herself somehow, but she couldn’t leave the unconscious Sylvia behind.

“This… disgusting mechanism…”

The Demon Lord slowly rose, supporting its wobbling legs with several tentacle bundles.

The remaining tentacles crept around to its back and gripped Alice’s heart embedded there.

“KEEEK!”

The Demon Lord’s body jerked violently as the tentacle bundles began to burn.

Ash, barely opening his eyes in Pia’s arms, heard the Demon Lord’s agonized groan through his fading consciousness.

Though it had shown pain when cut by Sylvia’s holy-powered sword, it hadn’t appeared so fatally wounded.

Ash was now certain that Alice’s holy power was the key to defeating the Demon Lord, just as he had suspected.

“Pia… are you okay?”

“…”

“*cough* Can you… hear me?”

Pia didn’t answer.

She already knew exactly what Ash was thinking.

He would try to approach the Demon Lord again.

He would prevent the Demon Lord from removing the heart embedded in its back.

But Pia knew with certainty.

If he did that, Ash would surely die.

Even with Maria’s protective magic, Ash was inhaling a lethal amount of demonic energy at this very moment. One more tumble like that would certainly kill him.

Already the wet sound of blood splattering with each cough was louder than the cough itself.

That’s why Pia didn’t answer Ash’s question.

But Ash could also clearly read Pia’s thoughts.

“Pia… I’m… dying anyway. It’s too late…”

“N-no, that’s not true.”

“So you were listening…”

“Ugh,”

“If I’m going to die anyway… might as well save the world first, right?”

“No… don’t do this… Ash, please.”

“It’s a good opportunity. If now… Sylvia won’t see me die,”

“Stop talking… stop it, Ash…”

Ash slowly pressed his hands against the floor.

But no matter how much strength he put into his arms, they only trembled, unable to lift his body even slightly.

Pia grabbed his arm and said:

“No… no, I’ll take you outside right now, Ash… home… let’s go back to our home, okay?”

“…I can’t.”

“What does it matter what happens to the world! If Ash dies, what good is any of it!”

“I’m a man too… I want to try being a hero”

“Don’t joke around!”

Groaning painfully, Ash collapsed on the floor and exhaled a faint voice mixed with labored breathing.

“If I die with… the Demon Lord…”

“…”

“Tell Layla… Mom… Dad…”

“Ash…?”

“That I… tried… my best…”

“…N-no, you can’t.”

Ash’s head dropped.

*

Pia felt the connection binding her and Ash gradually fading.

As a spirit who took human form but was entirely different from humans, Pia could clearly feel goosebumps rising all over her body.

Maria was probably feeling the same sensation.

Only now did she clearly understand.

Even if Ash, the spirit artist, died, spirits like Pia and Maria wouldn’t die.

They would simply return to being spirits of nature.

They would lose their current forms and thoughts, becoming merely part of natural phenomena.

Just like the green lady who had become a massive tree.

The name Pia, and perhaps even the name Maria, would all disappear when that time came.

The name Ash, and all memories of their time together, might scatter and vanish like the blowing wind.

“…Ash.”

Pia slowly uttered Ash’s name.

Perhaps this would be the last time she spoke his name.

“…”

The connection hadn’t broken yet.

Pia could feel the chains of fate binding her to Ash corroding and breaking one by one, but she also felt that they hadn’t completely severed.

Struggling, fighting.

It must be because Ash’s body, despite being so contaminated with demonic energy, was desperately holding on.

Of course, Pia understood all too well that the purpose of this struggle wasn’t survival.

Even the dying Ash’s final intention was crystal clear to Pia, who had spent her entire life with him.

“Idiot…”

Pia shed tears.

“Ash is a real idiot.”

The word “idiot,” which Pia had always used to tease Ash, felt particularly cruel today.

Pia embraced Ash’s body.

And in an instant, the man and the spirit vanished.

“…GRRRGH!”

The Demon Lord wove several bundles of tentacles together like ropes to bind the mechanism.

A single tentacle couldn’t withstand the flowing holy power and would burn up completely.

The thickly woven tentacle bundles roughly pulled out the heart.

Despite writhing in pain as if his entire body were being twisted in molten lava, the Demon Lord finally extracted the heart.

“…This is… the end.”

The Demon Lord didn’t throw away Alice’s heart, even knowing the tips of its tentacles were burning.

It wanted to show them.

To show that it had won, that they had failed, that the evil outer god would devour this world,

That both humanity and demonkind would perish, and a new order and chaos would take root upon those ruins.

It wanted to declare complete victory by destroying this heart.

“You have…”

But the Demon Lord’s words were cut short.

Everything happened in an instant.

“Lost…!”

Pia, embracing Ash’s body, suddenly appeared before the Demon Lord’s eyes.

Ash’s limp hand touched Alice’s heart held by the tip of the Demon Lord’s tentacle.

And then,

“Gah!”

A pure white fist had bulged out from the heart.

In that fist was a snow-white sword, somehow held there, containing intense white flames.

It was a brilliant and powerful flame that instantly illuminated the dark midnight ruins as if it were day.

.