Ch.205The Final Moment (7)

*

Just the disappearance of the Demon King from nearby made breathing feel considerably easier.

Slowly catching my breath, I regained just enough strength to lift my body. I embraced Alice, who was now only her upper body, and prepared to leave, fulfilling her request to be taken to Maria.

Alice looked like she could die at any moment. Her breath against my neck was so faint it was barely perceptible.

“Pia. Can you teleport us?”

I had barely managed to stand up, and I didn’t have enough strength left to climb over the collapsed walls and descend. Of course, I couldn’t wander around the castle either, as I didn’t know the way properly.

If I wasted time getting lost, Alice might die. She was the one who made today’s outcome possible.

Of course, none of this would have been achievable without me, Silvia, Maria, and Pia, but the greatest credit undoubtedly belonged to Alice.

She had burned everything she had—to kill the Demon King and to save me.

I desperately wanted to grant Alice’s modest final wish: to see the friend she had spent her life with. Such a beautiful wish.

“Sorry… Ash.”

But Pia shook her head.

“Your magic power is almost gone, Ash.”

“…You’re right.”

Indeed, I could barely feel the flow of magic within my body. It seemed Maria had used up almost all of it while fighting the Demon King.

I had been quite confident in my magic reserves, but apparently it wasn’t enough to cover all those spells Maria had cast.

I held Alice tightly and said, “What should we do…”

“I’ll help you.”

At that moment, a youthful voice came from behind me. Slowly turning my head, I saw a demon boy staggering, covered in blood.

“…Are you okay?”

“I’ll manage…”

He looked seriously injured, which was understandable. He had faced the Demon King alone with that young body while I was dealing with Silvia, who was trapped in the Demon King’s illusion.

Given that his shoulder had been cut by Silvia’s sword, I hadn’t paid much attention to him. He must have passed out then and only just regained consciousness.

The demon boy took a deep breath through his nose, exhaled through his mouth, and said, “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve been awake for a while…”

“Really?”

“Yes. I wasn’t unconscious for even ten minutes. I just didn’t dare intervene while the Demon King and the Hero were fighting.”

“…”

I could understand that. The battle between the Demon King and the Hero was so shocking that it was clearly etched in my vision even as I was dying.

To be honest, both the Demon King and Silvia looked like enormous monsters.

The demon boy traced his horn with his index finger. There was a large crack in his horn.

“Damn it.”

“…Are you sure you’re okay?”

The demon boy continued with a grimace.

“Stop asking. We have something more important to do right now.”

“…Yes.”

I held Alice tightly, trying to prevent her body from getting cold. The boy looked at Alice in my arms with a complicated expression and said:

“I’ll take you there.”

“…Can you use teleportation?”

“No, I’ll take you with a flying spell. I need to see that lizard’s end with my own eyes anyway.”

“I see…”

I nodded. Despite being hostile to the Demon King and friendly to us, the boy was still a demon—an enemy of humanity and holy power.

In fact, when we first met, Alice had even tried to kill him. Yet now he was helping us.

I bowed my head in gratitude. “Thank you. Really.”

“It’s nothing. You helped me recover my comrades’ bodies.”

The boy slowly approached the hole in the wall and said, “Jump down when I do.”

“Got it. Pia, come here.”

Pia approached me hesitantly. She seemed dejected, probably thinking she hadn’t been helpful. But that wasn’t true.

Without Pia, I wouldn’t have survived today. If she hadn’t indulged my stubbornness, we might not have defeated the Demon King.

Just as I was about to say something to Pia, the boy said, “Jump now.”

“Ah, okay. Pia, hold onto me.”

As Pia wrapped her arms around my waist, I jumped down with the boy. He skillfully lifted our bodies into the air.

Once airborne, we could see Silvia not far away, easily spotted thanks to the gleaming holy sword she held.

“There she is. Silvi—”

At that moment, I lost my words. The demon boy did too.

“…What is she doing?”

“…”

Silvia was cutting the Demon King’s body into small pieces.

*

A few minutes earlier.

Silvia swung her sword at the Demon King as he fell to the ground. The Demon King desperately lashed out with his tentacles.

Silvia didn’t care. She had seen these tentacles many times before. She was confident she could block them as they flew straight toward her body.

But contrary to Silvia’s expectations, the tentacles didn’t try to pierce her. Instead, they curved gently and wrapped around her sword arm.

“…!”

“Keeeeek!”

As the Demon King crashed to the ground, Silvia forcefully brought down her sword-wielding hand. The Demon King immediately pulled strongly on her arm entangled in his tentacles.

Prominent veins bulged on both the tightly stretched tentacles and Silvia’s ensnared arm.

“Giiiiik!”

The Demon King struggled desperately, spitting saliva between his broken teeth. He knew well that if Silvia swung her sword now, everything would end.

He kept trying magic and spirit arts, but Maria deflected them all. The only thing the Demon King could do was physically block Silvia’s sword.

“Silvia, hurry! I’m almost out of magic power!”

Maria shouted to Silvia. If her magic ran out, she wouldn’t be able to block the Demon King’s magic and spirit arts.

Silvia needed to cut down the Demon King immediately.

“Hnnngh!”

The muscles on Silvia’s forearm bulged.

“No… stop!”

The Demon King’s tentacles tightened around Silvia’s arm as if trying to cause necrosis.

It was a battle of pure strength against strength. The tip of the holy sword trembled as Silvia’s arm and the Demon King’s tentacles pushed against each other.

“Just… die already!”

However, Silvia had never been overpowered before. That fact remained unchanged even if her opponent was the Demon King.

Gradually, the tip of Silvia’s holy sword descended toward the Demon King.

“No… no!”

“Shut up!”

The holy sword, emitting golden flames, slowly approached the Demon King’s neck. Even before the sword touched him, the Demon King was already screaming in agony.

Just one thrust, and everything would be over. Silvia channeled even more strength into her arm.

That’s when it happened.

“…!”

Crack.

An ominous sound echoed from inside Silvia’s arm. She grimaced in extreme pain.

Both the Demon King and Silvia could see her arm swelling where the tentacles gripped it. Clearly, Silvia’s strength had overwhelmed the Demon King, but her arm couldn’t handle her own power.

The Demon King seized the opportunity and squeezed Silvia’s arm tightly.

“Argh!”

Silvia dropped the holy sword. The Demon King instantly unwrapped the tentacles from her arm and swung them toward her neck.

“Ha, humans!”

Of course. No matter how great a hero she was, no matter how tremendous her strength, her frail body was still human.

In the end, the difference between species revealed itself at this final moment. The Demon King rejoiced.

“I’ll break your neck!”

The Demon King pulled hard on the tentacles wrapped around Silvia’s neck.

“Idiot.”

Silvia muttered briefly, caught the falling sword with her left hand, and thrust it straight through the Demon King’s chest.

The Demon King couldn’t even make a sound, let alone scream. The last sensation he felt was a terrible burning, as if hot lava was flowing into his body from the holy sword’s blade.

The light gradually faded from the Demon King’s red eyes.

“…”

Maria chanted a spell. A low-level wind magic, Wind Cutter. Such a trivial spell that even Ash could use easily flew toward the Demon King’s neck and severed his head.

The tentacles wrapped around Silvia’s neck loosened. The large, skeletal body of the dragon slowly fell to the side.

“…”

“It’s over.”

“…”

“Silvia… is your arm… okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Silvia approached the fallen dragon’s body, still gripping the holy sword in her left hand. Then she slowly knelt on one knee before it.

Maria asked Silvia, “Silvia…?”

“…”

Silvia slowly raised the holy sword in her left hand.

“Silvia. What are you—”

“…I beheaded him before.”

“Huh?”

“I said I beheaded him before. I confirmed he was dead. The limp corpse, the severed head dripping blood… I confirmed it all.”

“…”

“But he was still alive.”

Silvia violently thrust her sword into the Demon King’s body.

“I still don’t know. I need to make sure he’s dead.”

*

In the end, Silvia’s concern was justified. The Demon King had the ability to leave part of his body behind and regenerate from it.

It was his own resurrection method, combining the lizardmen’s unique regenerative ability with evil magic borrowed from outer gods.

Of course, even if he regenerated, he couldn’t regain his former body. That’s why he needed that cocoon-like cultivation facility and a long time to recover.

But that last resort was thwarted by the demon boy.

“I may not know magical theory, but I know magic well enough.”

Unlike me, who was only good at theory but useless in practice, he could naturally use certain spells without being taught. He said he had learned a lot by watching others.

Resurrection magic was one of them. When I asked how he knew such magic, the boy calmly replied:

“I learned it from my father.”

I could sense a momentary shadow of complicated emotions crossing the boy’s face.

“And I learned how to disrupt resurrection magic from this bastard.”

The boy chanted a spell. The Demon King’s flesh, finely minced by Silvia, gradually turned yellowish and then melted like rotten fruit.

The boy slowly caught his breath and then stomped on the Demon King’s fallen head, crushing it.

“Maria… are you there?”

Alice, cradled in my arms, whispered in a voice barely audible to my ear. Maria slowly approached and looked at Alice.

I sat on the ground, resting Alice’s head on my thigh so the two could face each other.

“Maria… are you… there?”

Alice’s gaze missed Maria. Unfortunately, it seemed she couldn’t see Maria, who was a spirit.

Maria smiled sadly and said, “Hello, Alice.”

I brought my lips to Alice’s ear and relayed Maria’s words. Alice’s lips quivered faintly. She probably wanted to smile.

“Maria…”

“I’m listening.”

“I… really… did my best…”

“I know. You always have, since the old days.”

“I missed you…”

“I missed you too, my dear friend.”

“…Maria.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry… for letting you die alone.”

“…”

“I’m really sorry…”

“What are you sorry for? You saved me.”

“…”

“Silly, you should have lived well after becoming successful. Why did you live like that? As if you were avenging someone.”

“…I know.”

“…”

“Maria…”

“Yes?”

“I did well, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did well. You never could stand losing,”

I briefly reminisced about the past. I wasn’t the only one trying hard to catch up to Maria, the magic prodigy.

Alice, who had the same tutor, also tried her best to catch up with Maria. Eventually, she acknowledged the difference in talent and switched to sword practice, but until then, she followed Maria around every day, challenging her to magic duels.

I smiled briefly at those memories that now seemed so distant.

“…Ash.”

At that moment, my name flowed from Alice’s lips. Startled by her suddenly calling me, I slowly turned my face, which was already close to hers, to meet Alice’s eyes.

Her golden eyes were gradually losing their light.

“…Sister.”

“You know… I… had something… I really wanted to tell you.”

“Yes,”

Maria’s lips trembled along with her tightly clenched fist. I quietly watched Alice’s lips.

Something she wanted to tell me? I focused my eyes and ears to catch every word.

At that moment, her head slowly rose.

“…!”

And Alice’s lips slowly covered mine. Despite her torn wounds and dry, cracked skin, Alice’s lips were still very warm.

Perhaps she had no strength left to move. Unlike the sticky kiss I shared with Silvia, Alice’s lips and tongue didn’t move at all.

Just a light kiss, touching and parting. But that kiss dropped a heavy stone into my heart, creating ripples that kept spreading.

“…Heh.”

After the brief kiss, her head fell limply.

“I love you, Ash… I’ve liked you… since we were young.”

“…Huh?”

Alice smiled. Her eyes were growing dim, her holy sword once burning brightly. It was a beautiful smile full of brilliant golden light, reminiscent of the vast wheat fields of Goldfield territory.

“…Sister?”

And Alice never moved again. I stroked her hair and quietly held her in my arms.

“She was clever, that cunning woman.”

Silvia muttered softly.

“This way, Ash will never forget her.”

.