Ch.204The Final Moment (6)

*

The moment the Demon King saw Silvia, he felt greatly relieved inside.

He knew Silvia’s sword couldn’t cause him any significant harm.

Judging by the absence of wounds on Silvia’s chest, where there should have been a gaping hole, it seemed the Saint had somehow saved her.

The Saint herself was nowhere to be seen.

Based on her strange appearance with no lower body, she was likely in no condition to fight.

‘The Hero alone cannot kill me.’

The Demon King thought this with a vicious smile.

Of course, it took less than a second for that thought to change.

“…What?”

His severed wing wasn’t regenerating.

His body continued to plummet toward the ground.

Only then did the Demon King notice.

The sword in Silvia’s hand was emitting a brilliant radiance.

“…!”

That was not Silvia’s sword.

“No…”

“What’s wrong?”

Silvia grabbed the falling Demon King by the neck and hurled him forcefully toward the ground.

Boom!

With a sound like an explosive-laden shell detonating, the Demon King crashed into the floor.

Even for the Demon King, whose thought processes were far faster than an ordinary human’s, the impact was so powerful that being thrown and hitting the ground felt simultaneous.

Spider web-like cracks formed distinctly on the solid marble floor, radiating from the point of impact.

“Guh!”

The Demon King immediately rose to his feet.

His wings pushed his body up in an eerie movement that made it seem as if his body rose on its own.

But Silvia wasn’t one to be intimidated by such movements.

She immediately swung the holy sword.

The Demon King let out a disgusting roar and swung his sharp forelegs at Silvia, but she easily blocked with her own sword in her left hand, then adjusted her grip on the holy sword in her right hand mid-swing, changing the angle of her strike.

A golden trail of light that looked like a massive wall appeared in the air, bending at a 90-degree angle and flying in from an unexpected direction.

The Demon King’s elbow, caught in that trajectory, was cut more than halfway through, dangling before it could no longer hold and scattered into the air.

“Hero…!”

“…!”

The Demon King opened his maw wide and spewed out dense demonic energy.

It was both a threat and an attempt to create an environment conducive to healing his severed body parts.

Silvia was highly conscious of the demonic energy.

Even though Alice had rescued Ash from the brink of death, the demonic energy accumulated in his body remained unchanged.

The demonic energy already built up in Ash’s body was dangerous enough, but if he inhaled any more, there might truly be no remedy.

Silvia immediately struck upward with her sword-gripping fist, closing the Demon King’s mouth.

With a terrible bursting sound difficult to describe, teeth as long as fingers shattered and scattered into the air.

Silvia pushed the Demon King’s body against the wall and charged at him.

Both swords in her hands pierced through the Demon King’s abdomen and firmly embedded into the wall behind him.

Before the Demon King could scream, Silvia immediately raised her foot and forcefully kicked the hilts of the swords stuck in his stomach.

Boom!

With another sound like a shell exploding, the Demon King’s body was propelled through the wall.

Without hesitation, Silvia immediately leaped through the hole in the wall.

*

“…”

“Well, Silvia was always like that.”

Sister Maria murmured quietly, then kneeling on one knee, looked at Sister Alice who was lying on my lap.

“How is… Alice?”

“She collapsed right after healing Silvia. She’s breathing, but…”

Sister Alice’s condition couldn’t be described as good even with empty words.

No, the fact that she survived at all was nothing short of a miracle, and even that miraculous revival occurred with more than half of her body missing.

Despite this, she had squeezed out all her remaining holy power to share with me and Silvia, and afterward, Sister Alice’s body looked no different from an abandoned corpse with the amputation surface exposed.

In reality, the holy power flowing from Sister Alice’s body now was even smaller and fainter than when only her heart existed.

“…Alice”

Sister Maria looked at Sister Alice with a pained expression.

“Thank you, my friend. You saved me… me who was trapped in that body, turned into a puppet…”

“Sister…”

I stroked Sister Alice’s face and naturally placed my finger under her nose.

Her breath was as thin as if it could stop at any moment.

I shook my head and said:

“I know you’re worried… but we can’t miss this opportunity. I’ll take care of Sister Alice. Go help Silvia.”

“…Alright.”

Sister Maria nodded obediently and stood up.

But her expression was heavy with lingering attachment and guilt, and her movements were slowed by hesitation, as if turning her back on Sister Alice was painful.

“…”

For some reason, I felt a strong sense of dissonance from Sister Maria’s behavior.

Sister Maria was someone who would clearly say no if she didn’t want to do something.

Regardless of the situation or conditions, she was a person with strong self-esteem who wouldn’t allow anyone to interfere with her opinions and actions, and she never did anything her heart rejected.

But now, she wasn’t like that.

While clearly expressing with her whole body that she didn’t want to go, she was slowly moving.

Was it because she knew how urgent the current situation was?

Or was it because she was a spirit who had no choice but to follow my request?

If Sister Maria, having become a spirit, had lost her free will and had no choice but to follow my orders, that would be quite terrible.

It would be no different from me taking away Sister Maria’s will.

But unfortunately, this wasn’t the time to worry about such things.

Even with Silvia wielding the holy sword, the opponent was still the Demon King.

I closed my eyes tightly and said firmly:

“Please, Sister Maria.”

“…Yes.”

“You can use all your remaining magic. I’ll… rest a little more and follow soon. Pia is here. I’d like her to help me get up in a bit.”

Pia made a disgruntled expression.

She was probably worried about me, who had been dying until just a moment ago.

When Sister Alice’s holy power awakened me, Pia’s eyes had turned bright red from crying at seeing me alive and well.

Pia spoke with a trembling voice:

“Fine… Ash will do what he wants anyway… I understand. But… are you really okay?”

“…”

“What if you die again… what then…”

“Again? I haven’t died yet.”

“It’s as good as death. Even now, you’re barely breathing, and the demonic energy in your body is still there.”

“Yes… but I don’t think I’ll die.”

Pia was right.

The holy power I received from Sister Alice was barely keeping me alive, and my condition wasn’t much different from Sister Alice lying in my arms.

Every breath felt like my lungs were burning.

My bones and organs all ached as if twisted, and the swollen areas on the soles of my feet felt like large tumors with a burning sensation.

The abundant magic power I had was now almost depleted from maintaining Sister Maria’s protective magic.

But it didn’t matter.

Pia might not like it, but I was prepared to die at any time.

Conversely, this meant that even if I was willing to die, I couldn’t even touch a hair on the Demon King with my power alone.

To fight the Demon King… no, to be of even the slightest help to Silvia, I desperately needed Sister Maria and Pia’s cooperation.

I gently stroked her hair and continued:

“At least I won’t die right now.”

Sister Maria slowly turned her body and slipped into the hole in the wall as if being sucked in.

At that moment, Sister Alice’s body in my arms twitched violently.

“…ria?”

“Sister Alice? Are you okay…”

Sister Alice’s golden eyes flashed open, and her thin, trembling arm rose to barely touch my shoulder.

A voice as fragile as those fingers that brushed my shoulder barely escaped through Sister Alice’s lips.

“Did you… just say… Ma… ria…?”

“…”

*

The Demon King, who had been blown through the castle wall, flew over the moat before finally hitting the ground and rolling.

As a result, the two blades stuck in his stomach collided with the ground, mangling his insides.

Despite writhing in pain, the Demon King managed to pull out the loosened holy sword from his body thanks to the hard impact with the ground, and tossed it away.

Just touching it briefly caused the Demon King’s hand to bubble and burst.

With his insides feeling like boiling water had been poured into them, and his palms completely burned, it was difficult even to stand up.

But this was his chance.

The only chance to escape from Silvia.

The Demon King staggered to his feet.

After pulling out Silvia’s sword that was still embedded in his stomach, he quickly extended tentacles to replace his lost wings.

“How foolish, you’ve kindly released me outside,”

If he could soar into the night sky now, everything would be over.

It was laughable that the Hero had made such a fatal mistake.

“…Grrrr”

The Demon King slowly placed his forelegs down and prepared to leap again.

Silvia would surely follow soon.

But she had recklessly left both her swords embedded in the Demon King’s stomach without retrieving them.

This meant that even if Silvia appeared now, she would have no means to destroy his wings or body parts, the Demon King clearly understood.

“Hnngh!”

The Demon King gritted his teeth to endure the pain.

Black saliva mixed with demonic energy dripped from between his tightly clenched, broken teeth.

Enduring the pain, he spread his wings as wide as possible and swung them down forcefully.

The Demon King instantly soared into the air.

Rising toward the sky under the moonlight, he looked exactly like a dragon from legend.

“…Stop!”

Silvia shouted as she ran toward the Demon King.

The holy sword was in Silvia’s hand.

Apparently, she had allowed the Demon King time to take flight while retrieving that sword.

The Demon King mocked Silvia as he flew into the darkness of the night sky.

Silvia, who had been running quickly, leaped toward the Demon King.

“It’s useless, you fool!”

The Demon King’s exclamation was true.

Even with Silvia’s superhuman jumping power, it was no match for a flying dragon.

She was too far to reach the Demon King who had already risen into the air.

“Don’t be ridiculous, after coming this far!”

Silvia threw the holy sword in mid-air.

The large sword flew toward the Demon King like an arrow.

However, the Demon King had already anticipated this.

“Hnngh!”

The Demon King deflected the incoming holy sword with Silvia’s sword that he was holding.

That she would throw her sword at him was a move the Demon King could easily predict.

That’s why he had taken flight with Silvia’s sword.

The Demon King was certain of victory.

Five years ago, and today.

They had failed to kill him.

All the absurd powers the goddess had prepared to kill him.

He had endured and survived them all.

“I admit, you were stronger than me, Hero. Indeed, the Demon King was destined to fall to the Hero.”

Silvia’s body slowly began to fall to the ground.

The Demon King looked down at her and sneered.

“But I have overcome destiny.”

Silvia’s body disappears among the trees of the forest below.

The Demon King spread his wings wide once more.

“The new world I will build…”

The Demon King couldn’t finish his sentence.

“…!”

His body began to rapidly fall toward the ground.

This wasn’t a fall.

This wasn’t falling, but being pulled down.

“What…!”

The Demon King discovered teal-colored chains gripping his feet and tail.

Unbreakable chains made of magic power.

This was clearly an ancient high-level magic that humans had once used to hunt dragons long ago.

A very old magic that could now only be found in ancient books.

There was no way an ordinary magician would know such magic.

The Demon King ground his already broken teeth.

“That woman again!”

“Where do you think you’re flying, vermin?”

Maria was positioned at eye level with the falling Demon King.

Unlike Silvia, flight magic was so simple for Maria that she didn’t even need to chant a spell.

The Demon King looked at Maria and screamed in desperation:

“How can you use such magic…!”

“Ash gave me permission to use all my magic.”

Looking at Maria who answered so brazenly, the Demon King hurled insults:

“Disgusting creature! Even in death, you continue to interfere!”

“That’s because you did something stupid trying to control me.”

“Release me at once, you phantom!”

Maria chanted a spell.

Descend, quickly, pull.

Maria’s pronunciation, so fast and precise, was like watching a native speaker of the magical language.

The Demon King used spirit magic to attack Maria.

“You really can’t use magic properly.”

Maria muttered as she dispelled all of the Demon King’s spirit magic.

“Impossible…”

“Before, I couldn’t even imagine the existence of spirits, but now it’s different.”

“Maria!”

“Now that I’ve become a spirit myself, I understand roughly how it works.”

At that moment, the Demon King felt all the scales on his body stand on end.

It was like getting goosebumps for a human.

At this eerie warning from his instincts, the Demon King turned his eyes to look below.

The ground had drawn closer.

There, Silvia was waiting, firmly gripping the holy sword and staring directly at him.

The teal chains wound around him more rapidly, dragging the dragon down to the ground.

“No, stop!”

“How interesting. When I was dying under your torture, I said exactly the same thing.”

“…Stop, wait a moment!”

Silvia answered:

“No.”

.