episode_0019

Marin opened her eyes. Even after that, she had met with Arina occasionally. As old memories resurfaced, a smile naturally bloomed on her face.

Ah, right. They were in the middle of a fight, weren’t they? She had been quite lost in reminiscence. Even if it was brief, there should’ve been enough time for at least one punch to come flying. Why wasn’t there any attack?

Marin glanced at the enemy standing far away.

“Huh?”

What was it doing? The Demon King, who had possessed the Dullahan. That fearsome adversary was clutching its head, seemingly in the throes of madness.

As Marin stood there, utterly baffled by its erratic behavior, Arina’s helpful explanation came flying her way.

“The Dullahan and the Demon King are fighting for dominance over the body.”

“Aha!”

Marin turned her gaze back to the Dullahan possessed by the Demon King.

Now that she had the explanation, the situation made perfect sense.

“Grrk! Graaah!”

The Dullahan let out two distinct screams from a single body, a bizarre spectacle. The demonic energy flickered unstably before finally settling, and the screams ceased.

Who had won the battle for dominance between the Demon King and his subordinate? Arina asked for the answer.

“Who is it?”

The opponent, still covering its face with both hands, replied.

“Me.”

“‘Me’ doesn’t tell me anything. Can’t you answer properly?”

“…It’s the Dullahan.”

As it spoke, the Dullahan raised its head—its crimson eyes, brimming with murderous intent, had returned.

Well, she had expected this. No matter how powerful an entity was, winning a battle for dominance against the body’s original owner was difficult. Especially when that owner was this Dullahan.

“You could’ve just let the Demon King take over and rested—maybe you would’ve survived. But you chose the harder path, Dullahan.”

“A moment that might be my last life-or-death battle—do you think I’d let someone else take that from me? Such a waste.”

“No.”

“I will allow no one to interfere with my fight. Not even the Demon King.”

The Dullahan’s eyes gleamed menacingly.

“Yeah. I figured it’d turn out like this.”

Arina let out a tired laugh.

Of course. That guy was an irredeemable battle junkie.

BAM! CRASH! THUD! SMASH!

A fierce brawl erupted immediately. The sounds of Marin and the Dullahan clashing filled the surroundings.

Originally, Marin fought with cold weapons or bare-handed combat, and the Dullahan had lost its greatsword—its primary weapon. So, the moment strikes started landing, a clear gap formed between them.

The number of attacks exchanged was similar, but Marin skillfully blocked the Dullahan’s fists while steadily accumulating effective hits.

ZAP! Sparks flew.

“Guh!”

While Arina dealt with the undead forces, she used divine arts to intercept any attacks Marin couldn’t block, making the fight overwhelmingly one-sided.

The only reason the Dullahan had lasted this long was thanks to the black mist—the demonic energy—wrapped around it. The divine force, which had an absolute advantage against undead, was barely being neutralized by the demonic energy.

“That demonic energy is interesting. It’s like the complete opposite of divine power.”

“I never wanted this power. The Demon King forced it upon me. Because of it, I even lost control of my body for a while.”

Just as divine power annihilates the unholy, demonic energy devours mana.

Unlike divine power, which only holds an overwhelming advantage against undead, demonic energy’s ability to dominate mana made it a significant threat to humanity as a species.

“It’s hard to believe you never used it before. It’d be devastatingly effective in one-on-one combat.”

Even Arina, who had fought countless demons as part of the Hero’s party, had never known of demonic energy’s existence until now.

Had the Dullahan used it, it could’ve neutralized even Riel Frost—the one who had once struck fear into the Demon King’s army.

“The Hero’s Sacred Sword might be able to counter it… Now I understand why the Goddess created the Hero.”

The Hero possessed superhuman abilities, but in terms of pure combat prowess, they weren’t particularly special.

Based on Arina’s memory of their skill level, someone like her or Marin could defeat the Hero. Of course, there was no human in this world those two couldn’t beat.

But one question remained: If people stronger than the Hero existed, why was the system of the Goddess-blessed Hero necessary?

Was the Hero needed to face the Demon King, the master of demonic energy? Now it made sense. Completely ignoring the ongoing battle, Arina immersed herself in deduction.

By now, the Dullahan was battered beyond recognition, and the fight was nearing its end.

“Lightning Dragon Strike!”

CRACK! Marin’s attack, concentrated with divine power, shattered the Dullahan’s armor and tore through it. BOOM! The Dullahan’s body was sent flying, crashing into a ruined building. Marin muttered.

“Did I get him?”

Even if the revival spell was chanted, the Dullahan would not rise again.

Its armor was cracked and broken all over, and its terrifying crimson eyes flickered as if about to extinguish.

“This is the end. My body won’t move anymore.”

The Dullahan’s body crumbled into ashes, scattering into the wind. Arina knelt before it, wrapping her arms around her knees.

“There’s one last thing I want to ask.”

“Keh… What is it? You’re asking something of me as I die—don’t expect any crucial secrets.”

“Don’t worry. It’s just personal curiosity.”

Vampires attack humans for blood, goblins and orcs for meat and reproduction, succubi for life energy.

But undead are different. The undead are, ultimately, the dead forcibly awakened from their graves for some reason.

Calling them the dead is generous—most are just moving corpses. Unless they’re higher beings like the Dullahan, they lack not just desires but even will.

So why do undead belong to the Demon King’s army? Arina voiced the question that had long lingered in her mind.

“If all you wanted was life-or-death battles, you didn’t need to join the Demon King’s army. There would’ve been plenty of worthy opponents outside it.”

Had the Dullahan opposed the Demon King—or at least not fought on his side—the Hero’s party would’ve broken through the battlefield much faster.

Ninety percent of the undead in the Demon King’s army had been under his command.

If the Dullahan hadn’t been in the Demon King’s army, if they had defeated the Demon King before the Packmule ruined the party—

‘Still thinking about this… I’m such a fool.’

Arina shook her head vigorously. It was a meaningless assumption, a foolish emotion that would earn her nothing but scorn if anyone heard.

“The reason isn’t special. I just needed a place to belong.”

“A place to belong? I never thought I’d hear such sentimental words from you.”

Arina couldn’t even imagine this insane undead feeling loneliness.

“Keh. Call it justification. If I just grabbed random people and killed them without reason, wouldn’t I just be a serial killer?”

Of course. The idea that he needed an excuse to kill people to justify joining a group made Arina frown. The very thought process was that of a murderer.

“Well, even if it wasn’t me, plenty of demons bowed to the Demon King to survive. Humans are naturally hostile toward other species.”

“Are you saying the war between humans and demons is humanity’s fault? If your kind hadn’t attacked humans, there wouldn’t have been a war in the first place.”

“I’m not saying I don’t understand why humans hate demons. I was human once, too. But after being resurrected as undead and spending centuries in the Demon King’s army, meeting all sorts of beings… my perspective changed. I realized humans and demons aren’t so different.”

“Not different?”

An unacceptable statement. Whether demons could truly be called evil was a topic frequently debated among philosophers of this era, and to Arina, it all sounded like nonsense.

Seeing Arina’s expression darken, the Dullahan chuckled.

“I knew you’d hate hearing this. But Riel Frost—there’s no such thing as absolute righteousness. Just as good and evil can’t be cleanly divided, neither can the relationship between humans and demons.”

As they spoke, the Dullahan’s body had almost entirely turned to ash. Arina looked down at what remained of its head.

“You’d do well not to obsess over what’s ‘right.’ Allying with demons might one day be an option for you.”

“I don’t recall asking a murderous undead for advice.”

“Take it anyway. Consider it the wisdom of an elder.”

With those final words, the Dullahan vanished completely. Only a pile of black ash remained where it had been.

And atop the ashes, the demonic energy flickered like mist. Arina reached out and grasped the black fog.

“That stuff’s nasty. Are you sure you should touch it?”

“I’ve wrapped it in mana, so it’s fine. No idea what’ll happen once the mana’s fully absorbed, though. Got a water bottle?”

“Yeah, need it?”

Arina took the bottle Marin handed her, emptied it, and stuffed the demonic energy inside.

“Huh? My bottle…”

“I’ll buy you a new one, so bear with it. I lost mine when I fell earlier.”

“I don’t mind, but… what’s that for?”

Marin frowned at the black fog sloshing inside the transparent bottle instead of water. Even without knowing what demonic energy was, any human would instinctively sense its ominous aura.

“It’s a power that overwhelms mana. Just studying it could yield a lot.”

From a mage’s perspective, demonic energy was a fascinating research subject, danger aside.

A completely new energy—neither magic nor divine power. The possibilities it held sparked endless curiosity.

“Hmm, well, I guess we should find the exit now.”

“No need to worry about that.”

Arina pointed behind her toward the lake. Marin turned and saw Lilit lying there—she had been knocked out and fallen into the water earlier.

“Hey, time to wake up.”

“Ugh… five more minutes…”

SLAP! A sharp smack to the cheek jolted Lilit awake. The stinging pain lingered as she shot upright.

“Eek! What the—?! Where—?!”

As her memories gradually returned, Lilit’s face grew increasingly pale.

“Y-You?! Where’s the Dullahan?! Don’t tell me—?!”

“As you can see.”

“No bodyguard, huh? What’re you gonna do now? Wanna fight? I’ll oblige.”

Arina’s words sounded generous, but Lilit stood no chance—it was closer to a veiled threat to behave.

“H-Haha, as if I would!”

Lilit knew that too. Her previous venomous expression was gone, replaced by the docile look of a puppy gazing up at Arina.

‘This isn’t how it was supposed to go! With the Dullahan, there’d be no problem!’

No one could’ve predicted running into the two strongest humans in existence. Truly, her luck was horrendous.

But there was no way her opponents would sympathize with her misfortune. All Lilit could do was curse her fate.

“First, mind telling us where the exit is?”

“O-Of course! The exit’s that way—GYAAAH!”

Agony wracked Lilit’s body. She hadn’t been hit—it wasn’t an external impact but a sensation of being beaten from the inside.

Collapsing to the ground, she drooled as an intense pain radiated from her abdomen.

“Wh-What was that…?!”

“While you were asleep, I tweaked your magic circuits a bit. If you disobey me or try to harm us, you’ll suffer pain enough to make you wish for death.”

Arina smiled angelically as she explained, but from the recipient’s perspective, that smile was anything but heavenly.