Chapter 150: The Hero and the Demon King’s Army – 3

Chapter 150: The Hero and the Demon King’s Army – 3

Dragons, the Dragonkin, ancient beings… there were many titles for them, but with a few exceptions, there were almost no derogatory terms.

Such was the immense power these beings possessed.

First off, unless they were a small species, they were gigantic, flying through the sky and looking down upon those on the ground.

Furthermore, being massive meant they had immense physical strength, so no one dared to disregard them.

……Of course, there was occasionally an anomalous being like the Demon King who would call them ‘lizards’ as a derogatory term, but that was always an exception.

Therefore, even when the Demon King’s subordinate unleashed the shackles of their clan to capture the Hero, they merely found it annoying.

But……

“…Is the Hero insane?”

“We must descend to the ground! The clan’s casualties are…”

What greeted them was not the dumbfounded or overwhelmed expressions other humans showed when they saw them, but rather

Lightning that suited the word ‘divine punishment’ and meteors that evoked the word ‘doomsday’.

A few foolish clan members, lacking both thought and fear, directly took the lightning and meteors as if to show off their power… and were literally fried.

At that sight, few clan members insisted on remaining in the sky.

“The opponent is human, they say. Those who will stand before them. Change into forms comfortable for fighting them. …And make them pay dearly for daring to touch our clan!”

“”Yes! The one who dared to harm our clan shall not return alive!””

The King of the clan issued a command, looking far more orderly than the vampires from earlier.

These beings, bound by kinship and solidarity, formed the most systematic legion, excluding the undead legions which were based on unconditional obedience.

At that command, about half of the clan, including the King, changed their appearance and size to resemble humans.

Of course, their inherent power hadn’t changed, so while their appearance was human-like, their transcendent strength remained the same.

The remaining clan members flew very low, steadying their breaths to unleash their clan’s most iconic and powerful attack.

Clang!

They were momentarily flustered by the sudden, utterly out-of-place sound of breaking glass in the serious battlefield.

Compared to the lightning and meteors still sweeping the sky, though subsiding, it was such a trivial sound.

But… the next moment, a crimson flash shot past, and one of the clan members’ necks was severed.

“Vampire…? No, something’s… different?”

The quiet words of one clan member represented the feelings of all the others.

A crimson color, so similar to a vampire’s, yet decisively different.

As that crimson flash ended with the neck of one clan member, they saw it.

The Hero’s eyes, filled with determination, a sense of mission, and will, simultaneously gleaming with the thought of annihilating the clan before her.

What was visible in the Hero’s eyes was indeed a heroic will… but unfortunately, the Hero’s eyes did not sparkle brightly like a Hero’s should.

They merely… shone dully and darkly, only gleaming to kill the clan members before her.

It was a kind of abyss.

Not a being inherently noble and fantastical like a chosen Hero of God, but the eyes of a human desperately striving to achieve something, even if it meant becoming ugly.

An obsession not to lose something, and at the same time, a tenacious resolve to protect it at all costs.

The Hero’s eyes gleamed with these two things, making her gaze closer to fear and reality than to nobility and sublimity.

“…So this is roughly what it feels like?”

What was even more terrifying was that… the neck and body of the clan member, severed by the Hero’s Holy Sword, began to rapidly crumble.

It was a phenomenon even worse than being shriveled up by vampires, having blood and vitality sucked out.

And the Hero… gripped the Holy Sword, smiling as if satisfied with the sight.

“Sorry, but for the sake of my loved ones, I have to see your Demon King. So…”

Crimson blood bloomed chaotically.

From above, to below. It maintained that simple direction, but everything else was disordered.

In some ways, it felt like she was just swinging wildly, but it wasn’t easy to block.

The clan’s mighty and sturdy bodies, and the attacks they unleashed to counterattack, were all merely pulverized by that disordered crimson line.

“You’ll have to move aside. Cleanly.”

“…What are you doing?! Clan members in the sky! Shoot!!”

The King of the clan felt it too clearly at that moment. This being before him was not the Hero.

She couldn’t be the Hero.

A Hero is someone whose mission is to save the world, and for that, they always embody brightness and will, standing with everyone.

It is recorded in literature, and explicitly declared by the human God himself.

But this girl before him…… except for holding the Holy Sword, and excluding her will, she was completely the opposite.

Especially, her obsession to reach the Demon King had transformed into ruthlessness, creating a unique eeriness and sense of terror, rather than the brightness a Hero should possess.

“…Prioritizing a few loved ones over the world, becoming ruthless for it, and bearing all that responsibility alone. Is that it…?”

With the clan members’ breaths shooting forth, the King of the clan quietly spoke.

That human before him was absolutely not the Hero.

Therefore…… the King of the clan felt an ominous premonition.

He momentarily suppressed the burning rage he felt towards the one who had harmed his clan, and thought coolly.

The being called the Hero was, in fact, just a human who was quite strong in herself.

Skilled and powerful, but still just a human. Especially when wielding the Holy Sword, her strength increased even more, but she was still barely human.

Therefore, few monsters were truly afraid of the name Hero.

A Hero, as seasoned as they come at the end of the Great War, was only that strong, so a newly appeared Hero would naturally be much weaker than that.

However, that conviction seemed to be shattering before his eyes now.

The King of the clan hastily changed his form, steadied his breath, and quickly unleashed a breath attack.

The breath attacks unleashed by the clan were by no means weak.

The surrounding area was already melting and utterly devastated, the heat was scorching.

However…… for some reason, if it was that human within. If it was that severely wrong human, who was not even a Hero yet fought with the Holy Sword.

He couldn’t shake the thought that even that might not be enough.

Clang!

Perhaps due to the heat, a slightly muffled, yet still clear sound was heard.

At that sound, all the clan members watched their surroundings warily, but unlike last time, the Hero did not shoot forth with a flash.

Nor did a hellish scene unfold in the sky.

And so, as they were feeling bewildered, the ground began to tremble.

“……My God.”

“W-what in the world is that?”

And, before their eyes, from the ground, a gigantic mountain of ice surged up.

A massive ice barrier, a mountain, blocking all the breath attacks being spewed.

The light of the ice, perhaps because it was being hit by the breath attacks, had a reddish tint.

The first to regain his senses in that bizarre sight was the King of the clan.

At what was clearly the Hero’s… no, that human’s doing, the King first tried to heal the mana-depleted clan members.

……He tried to heal them.

The alien divine power emanating from the gigantic iceberg was blocking and hindering all healing.

And so, watching his clan members, who could receive no healing even as they gradually weakened, the King began to feel a growing sense of crisis and anger.

He didn’t know how precious the loved ones that girl spoke of were, but for the King, each and every one of his clan members was precious.

Although he was momentarily flustered when one of his clan members died as soon as the battle began, he and the other clan members were also feeling rage.

Therefore, the King of the clan, even with some risk, intended to personally smash that iceberg that was hindering their recovery.

And that was a mistake.

In that unexpected situation, something clearly appeared in the eyes of the King, who was trying to break the iceberg with the power of his massive main body.

Behind the iceberg, the girl changing the nature of the divine power surrounding the Holy Sword, and at the same time… the girl trying to do something by overflowing with divine power.

He tried to warn his clan of the danger… but it was too late to show it.

As the King’s massive and powerful body shattered the iceberg, the Hero leaped into the sky and swung the Holy Sword.

“No! You bastard!”

However, completely ignoring the King’s scream, lightning fell, following the Holy Sword, which shimmered with divine power like crackling electricity.

It was perfectly identical to the lightning that had earlier transformed the sky into hell, only now it was imbued with divine power.

The girl’s movements were nothing special.

She hadn’t swung her sword wildly like before, nor had she moved as fast as a flash of light.

She merely……

One stroke.

She drew a thick and deep stroke in the air.

And that single stroke summoned a gigantic lightning bolt, a divine punishment, from the sky.

It was truly the same lightning as when God had punished the arrogant in the past.

Even if the King of the clan hastily cast blessings to protect his clan, it didn’t even budge, blocked by that alien divine power.

One might wonder what kind of Hero would change the nature of divine power and use it, but that was no Hero.

She was a human, more monstrous than any monster, consumed by obsession.

And so… the lightning swept through the clan, leaving only the King who had lost his people.