episode_0575

-Geugeuggeuggeukgeuk… .

A giant iron sword was raised, scraping the floor.

After a magical storm passed, the only ones left on the top floor of the Demon King’s Castle were the hero party and the Demon King.

The Demon King’s red eyes, which had been burning fiercely, suddenly dimmed as if they would go out at any moment, and from that appearance, everyone, including me, vaguely realized that this battle was not far off.

-Wheww!!

“Ethan!!!”

“Okay, leave it to me and go, warrior!!!”

The hero runs towards the Demon King with his magic barrier gone, leaving Ethan to take charge, while Ethan prepares to block the last Sword of Destruction while holding onto the swords in both hands tightly.

Just looking at their synchronized movements, it seemed like they had been on the front lines together for at least a few months. That could also mean that they know each other well.

Although Ethan was a character destined to end up as a loser and a prince in the original work, the Ethan of this world is simply the successor to the next Duke of Blackwood.

In the swordsmanship department, he would have shared swords with the most number of opponents, such as Geumjo Segi, so he would be familiar with them in many ways, and he also had a lot of experience in the same battlefield.

Even if we don’t want to know about each other’s swords, we can’t help but know them.

-Kakang, kagagagagang!!

“Ugh, ugh …

Ethan desperately blocks the Demon King’s sword while standing on his own two feet without any help from the warriors.

Thanks to the passage of a magical storm, the ominous magical energy that had been deeply engraved on the sword had almost been washed away.

Agnes, who had used large-scale magic several times, was sitting on the floor catching her breath just like me, while Natalie and Thomas were buying time by blocking the newly emerging Demon King’s followers.

“Hyaaaa …

Along with him, a warrior named Jo Se-gi runs towards the Demon King’s head with a holy sword and a pledge.

The holy sword, shining with the blessing of Serista, powerfully pierced the Demon King’s crown.

-Ppaggeuk!!

“… … .”

“… … .”

“… … .”

-Ppa-geuk, ppa-geuk-geuk!!!

The sound of a sword breaking into a black helmet. And then the black body of a human figure slowly crumbling and breaking apart.

Along with that, numerous ominous magical powers that had been wrapped in the shell of the Demon King until now began to leak out from the cracked area.

“Come together with Serista! It’s not over yet!!”

“Yes!”

Everyone except for Seongjo Segi gathered around Seraphine’s words, and in the center where everyone was gathered, Serista’s sacred barrier surrounded the warrior party.

The black energy that rushed towards us as soon as we were freed let out a strange scream and disappeared as soon as it reached Serista’s wall, and we just waited inside the wall for this uneasy energy to completely disappear.

‘Shaaah!!’

-Whew, whooow… .

After finally exorcising the evil spirits that were rushing towards us, the outside situation became very quiet.

Most of the special energies disappeared as soon as they reached Serista’s wall, or they seemed to have scattered all over the outside of the Demon King’s castle, so the pattern of immediate tantrums that came out after subjugation was somehow ended.

… It really felt like the ending was near.

‘… This will really be the end. If you know how to deal with phase 2 properly, you can finish it without going into phase 3.’

The Demon King’s second phase in ‘Luminor Academy’ is a vicious pattern from the player’s perspective in many ways.

By killing the Demon King, the mass of thoughts inside him will burst out and fly to one of your comrades, and the comrade who is hit by the ideology will become the new Demon King.

That was the pattern for the birth of the 2nd phase of the Demon King of 『Luminor Academy』 and the 3rd phase hidden boss.

‘If you start off without knowing what’s going on, you’ll definitely end up with a trashy ending.’

The method to save your comrades who have become the new Demon King and Hidden Boss is simple. Just absorb the Demon King’s ideology and ‘subdue’ the strengthened comrades.

Of course, there is no option to not punish a comrade infected by the Demon King. Whether you leave your comrade in the Demon Realm and return, or treat him as if nothing happened and bring him back to the Empire, the bad ending is guaranteed.

If you leave it in the Demon Realm, it will be said that a new Demon King has been born, and this generation’s hero will not be able to complete the mission to subdue the Demon King.

Even if we somehow manage to tie him up or subdue him and bring him back to the empire, the Demon King will soon be resurrected in the middle of the empire, so the outcome is obvious without even needing to be mentioned.

In the end, it was a truly evil development in that you had to kill a character who was a ‘companion’ in some way to see the ending, so even I, who likes most parts of ‘Luminor Academy’, was not very fond of this final hidden boss pattern.

‘Although a version that progresses without sacrificing comrades was added in the free DLC.’

It was a natural patch because it was a part that received a lot of criticism. No matter how good the sacrificial ending is in eliciting emotion, there are just as many people in the world who want to see the happy ending as those who want to see the sacrificial ending.

Thanks to the additional DLC, the Demon King’s second phase can now be resolved with the ‘Soul Blocking Ring’ that can be obtained in Part 4. Even if the Demon King’s ideology rushes to an ally, if that ally is equipped with a Soul Blocking Ring, the ideology will not be possessed and will bounce off once.

In that case, it would be a simplified 2nd phase where you could completely destroy the ideology by killing it with concentrated fire, and it would be a way to skip the hidden boss.

‘The problem is that there is only one soul-blocking ring that can block the Demon King’s ideology.’

That part can be hit by Seraphine’s future poem, so it’s not a problem.

It seems that the players’ protests were severe, but even if I don’t know about other aspects, Seraphine’s future vision never deviates from predicting this last sacrifice.

‘Once the Demon King is defeated, his soul will immediately move on to find the next victim. And when I saw it in the future, his soul ran towards Luke Yang without hesitation.’

Before entering the Demon King’s castle, Luke was currently wearing the soul-blocking ring that was supposed to block the Demon King’s ideology as Seraphine had advised, and she had already kept some distance from other people in case the ideology that was bounced off by the ring’s effect could target another body.

As the rest of the group, excluding Luke, prepared for the final battle while keeping a suitable distance apart, a green mass of magical energy emerged from the remains of the broken Demon King.

‘Please, let’s finish it safely without any problems.’

As I focused on the green mass, my heart engraved with the desire to return to Blackwood Mansion as soon as possible, the thing quickly and without hesitation leapt to one side.

-Ssaaa …

The direction it jumps out is, of course, towards Luke, who is left alone… .

“… … Huh?”

…was not the direction.

Because as soon as the Demon King’s ideology appeared, it shot without hesitation at me, who was lying on the floor exhausted.

“Release!!”

“Rosewood!!”

“Release!!”

I could hear my colleagues calling my name from all directions as they sensed something strange, and exclamations of embarrassment reached my ears.

First of all, I have to avoid it somehow. Since I don’t have a soul barrier ring right now, I can’t stop that mass of thoughts from infecting me.

The problem is that I used all my magic power from the Mana Blast just now.

It is impossible to push the body back by using shock waves or nights, and there is no way to do it.

… Now it was too late to get up and dodge.

‘Oh, shit.’

If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have just not come.

What kind of riches and honors did you expect to enjoy by struggling through the devil’s realm for over a week to get here?

If this was the future where I would become an unwanted hidden boss and be defeated by my comrades, then the Demon Realm would never have come.

‘I was satisfied just by having Ethan by my side.’

This damn world, it doesn’t give Lilith a happy ending in the end.

As I was looking at the green ideology flying towards me, cursing that the world had been a beggar’s world from beginning to end, I felt helpless.

“Release amount!!!”

Someone who was closest to me suddenly blocked my path.

“… … Huh?”

It happened so quickly that I had a hard time recognizing who had blocked my path.

… Of course, there was only one woman with such swaying blonde hair in the air within the warrior party, so it was easy to figure out who Inyoung was before long.

“Keuheup… !!”

“… Three, Seraphine?”

Why, all of a sudden?

At that moment, so many questions popped into my head that I was confused.

Because even I, who had played 『Luminor Academy』 24 times and half of the time, was witnessing a scene I had never seen before.

This was the first time that Seraphine’s vision of a sacrificial lamb missed the mark in the final battle with the Demon King, and it was also the first time that someone else was hit by the Demon King’s ideology instead of the person designated as the sacrificial lamb.

“Princess!!!”

“Seraphine!!!”

‘What happens in this case?’

As she was panicking, not knowing why this error had occurred, Luke and other people came out from afar and rushed towards her.

… It seems like I was just about to be infected thanks to Seraphine blocking it with her body, but what if Seraphine got infected instead of me?

‘…Fuck.’

Whatever the process, it meant that we had to assume the worst possible battle.