f It Doesn’t Fall After 10 Strikes, Strike 100 Times, and If It Still Doesn’t Fall, Give Up(2)

I grabbed the Demon King’s horns, slammed her to the ground, and decisively pierced her heart with my sword.

The undeniable heartbeat felt at the tip of the sword, thump, thump.

This would have been a fatal wound even for Morgan who had the Sword of Recovery.

Yes, but unfortunately, it seemed this fatal wound didn’t apply to the Demon King.

“…I don’t think this is right.”

“Kuhaha! As expected of someone prepared by the goddess, you’re different from the others. Ah, I certainly took a proper hit there.”

The Demon King rises, staggering, with my sword still piercing her heart.

Fearing I might lose my sword at this rate, I retrieved the sword I had stabbed into the Demon King and took a defensive stance.

And as I took my stance and remained cautious, the Demon King showed off by instantly closing the penetrating wound on her heart where my sword had been pulled out.

The blood that had been flowing from the tiny hole stopped, the flesh closed up, and even the blood she had been vomiting from her mouth ceased.

Clearly an abnormal level of healing power. No, can this even be called healing power to begin with? It was a recovery ability that should be called a miracle at this level.

Of course, I wouldn’t die just from having a sword stabbed into me either, and in fact, when facing Morgan, I had even thought of counterattacking after taking her sword.

After all, the avatar bodies can quickly recover with quite high regeneration as long as vital points aren’t hit.

But even I would die if my heart was completely pierced by a sword. Of course, if blocked with magic power, how many things could pierce my body, but anyway, I would die too.

However, the Demon King was different.

To think she would rise and recover as if nothing had happened even though my sword had pierced her heart, which would be a vital point for any living being.

I voiced my complaint about the unfairness of this sight that seemed like using a cheat in the game system, but the Demon King burst into laughter for some incomprehensible reason.

“You’re the first one in truly 100… no, 200 years who dared to try to teach me. Moreover, that strike really brought me close to death. If you were here, I could have such experiences countless times. I’m truly starting to enjoy this myself!”

“You’re insane.”

I dismissed the Demon King’s words as she shouted while bursting into laughter.

She says if I were here, she could have such near-death experiences countless times? Doesn’t she think she’d die if a sword pierced her heart like this time during that process?

‘It seems that’s probably the case.’

And I inwardly affirmed the expectation I would mock as foolish.

For some reason, the Demon King was clearly confident. Confident that she absolutely would not die.

Then what could be the reason for this?

Immortality? No way, it’s not immortality.

No matter how different games and reality are, the gap isn’t so large that the Demon King, who died normally, would become immortal.

In the game, the Demon King certainly died normally at the hands of user characters and other representative NPC characters, and her death marked the end of the main story. So there was no chance that the Demon King had become immortal.

Judging by how she said she nearly reached death from my attack just now, it seems the Demon King really almost died. Of course, there’s a possibility it’s a lie, but intuitively, it didn’t feel like a lie somehow.

To summarize in one sentence: currently, the Demon King is confident she won’t die for some reason, and in reality, she won’t die – a content that doesn’t particularly have any results.

And to prove this, it seemed I would have to directly confirm it myself.

“Now then, entertain me more. I’ll kill you with my full power too.”

“Very well, I’ll oblige.”

The Demon King declares she’ll accept all my attacks with her arms spread wide.

At the same time, seeing the demonic energy covering her body front and back without gaps, unlike just now, I swung my sword at her with all my might.

Thinking that I don’t know how many times I’ll be able to kill her, but I’ll keep swinging my sword until she falls.

I didn’t stop swinging my sword.

If she evades an attack, I cut. If she blocks an attack, I cut. As she deflects an attack, I cut.

I had no initiative. Against the Demon King who no longer underestimated me, it was impossible for me to take the initiative in a one-on-one melee.

Therefore, after honestly exchanging attacks one by one and continuing offense and defense for several minutes, the fight quickly flowed in an unreasonable direction.

The Demon King, with her whole body wrapped in demonic energy, rushed at me vigorously, recovering instantly even when taking my attacks as if her demonic energy never depleted, while I attacked her, losing at least 1/10 of my HP each time I received one of her attacks.

As much as I could do. With all my might.

The excitement that made my body boil was still there, and using it as a driving force, I moved without rest.

But naturally, in such an unreasonable fight, it was inevitable that the balance that had tilted at some point would collapse.

“Haa… cough, cough!”

“What’s this? Don’t tell me it’s over already. If you’ve dirtied my mood and entertained me, shouldn’t you oblige me more?”

“Damn…”

I, who reached my limit first, coughed up blood and fell to one knee on the ground.

The fishy iron smell lingered in my mouth before staining the dragon scales visible in my sight red.

The Demon King shrugged her shoulders as if disappointed seeing me like this, and at that nonchalant action, I chewed on the curses that naturally came out.

Don’t say such things, you cheating bastard.

I wanted to shout that right away, but it was words that wouldn’t be properly conveyed anyway due to filtering, so I swallowed them and breathed heavily, trying to preserve even a little stamina.

As I glanced up at the Demon King, she was sitting with one leg stretched out on the dragon’s head, wearing a bored expression and the same detached eyes as before the battle.

Although she said earlier she would kill me with all her might, it seemed she had no real intention of doing so.

Well, I knew that too, which is why I could breathe so comfortably like this.

‘For now… I understand one thing.’

It was truly a desperate fight against the Demon King, but I could clearly realize at least one thing.

That is, this Demon King is truly a tree that won’t fall even if struck not just 100 times, but 10,000 times.

The demonic energy covering her body without gaps showed no signs of decreasing at all, and thanks to that, the Demon King’s health, which instantly returned to normal, didn’t decrease even by one tick.

Although her learning ability wasn’t that high, allowing me to succeed in taking one more life, it was meaningless to the Demon King who possessed an inexplicable immortality ability.

Therefore, I lowered my head and secretly connected a telepathy magic to Mu so that she wouldn’t notice.

Since it was a telepathy magic that Mu had left a line open on her side in advance, I only needed to pour in magic power even with Aria’s body.

The sensation of a magic power string connecting, just like when I connected to Pina earlier. Feeling that sensation, I inwardly opened my mouth.

‘Mu, can you hear me?’

[Yes, Mother. I’m listening.]

The great thing about telepathy magic is that you don’t have to speak with your mouth.

Having realized its excellence anew only now with the Demon King in front of me, I ordered Mu, whose reply I heard.

‘The subjugation of the Demon King has failed, so we’re retreating. However, don’t activate the magic right away, but 30 seconds later. I need to have a final conversation.’

[Understood. I will activate it exactly 30 seconds after the telepathy is cut off.]

Snap──

Mu immediately cut off the telepathy after replying like that.

As soon as the telepathy was cut off, I started counting to 30 inwardly while raising my body that creaked like rusted hinges.

“Ugh…”

“Hmm, have you decided to try more?”

I showed an expression asking if she was crazy to the Demon King, who brightened up and asked if I would fight more as soon as I stood up. If I did any more here, I’d really die.

And as soon as I made that expression, my body, accumulated with damage and fatigue, ached.

It would have been nice if I could use Morgan’s Sword of Recovery too, but if I used it, I’d only get adverse effects from absorbing a lot of demonic energy, so it can’t be helped.

I crumpled up that ridiculous hope and threw it in the trash bin, then asked the Demon King who stood up following me.

“Why don’t you kill me… the reason is obvious, but may I ask?”

“If you know the reason, is there really a need to hear it from my mouth? No, or do you want to hear it from my mouth because of that? Very well, I’ll tell you as you said, though it’s cliché.”

The reason why the Demon King, who declared she would kill me, kept me alive. Honestly, without even needing to hear it, it must be because I entertained her or something like that.

And this expectation of mine hit the mark exactly.

“It’s because you’re the first in several hundred years to give me such stimulation. It was far too precious to kill you easily.”

Slightly different, but not far from my expectation. It must be the mindset of a strong person who had been bored for a long time.

But before I could nod lightly at such a cliché answer, the Demon King opened her mouth, which I thought was closed, and added words I hadn’t expected this time.

“And it seems I could use you as quite an excellent companion. Your strength should be sufficient.”

“…That’s quite a disgusting thing to hear from my position.”

Companion? Companiooon?

I snorted and answered at the Demon King’s nonsensical words.

To think that the Demon King, who could be called the final boss, would try to make an enemy who had killed her twice, though not perfectly, a companion.

Is it because she stands on a higher line even though they’re both strong? It was words difficult for me to understand as well.

And for such incomprehensible words, it’s more efficient to erase them from your mind rather than trying to understand them.

I pushed the Demon King’s words from just now to a corner of my mind, then left one last word to her just before Mu’s transfer magic activated, as I threw my body down from the dragon I was standing on.

“Not too long from now, next time, I’ll kill you for certain.”

If you wait just 5 years, then I’ll kill you with the heroes I’ve raised.

The children will kill you, whom I couldn’t kill.

“… …!”

I fell from the dragon with my last words, and with the Demon King’s voice that I couldn’t quite hear over the wind sound, I disappeared, turning into light as the transfer magic activated.

At the very end.

At the very last moment, what I saw was my footprints stretching beyond the line that had been drawn.