The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Translator: Marctempest
Editor: Rynfinity

Chapter 56

Mephisto’s predatory eyes looked as if he was gazing at delicious food.

“…!”

Only then did the people, who had been frozen in place, snap out of their stupor at that gaze.

The Inquisitor of the Sacred Fire Order, Priest Bali, shouted.

“A foul being has set foot on the sacred grounds of the Order! Everyone who can fight, surround him!”

Following Priest Bali’s command, the monks moved in perfect harmony to form a defensive formation encircling Talos.

Some monks and priests, who had managed to keep their wits about them, joined the encirclement.

The encirclement was a tactic from the great monster warfare.

– Pathetic creatures, putting on a show.

However, the expression on Talos’ face, trapped inside the encirclement, was filled with mockery.

He reached out his hand towards the sky.

– Be engulfed in nightmares and despair.

A purple mist formed around him and quickly spread in all directions.

“Ugh, what is this?”

“Is it poison?”

Those engulfed by the mist were thrown into confusion.

However, the confusion did not last long.

One by one, the monks staggered and then collapsed.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

“Ah, no, save me…”

They groaned in pain even as they lost consciousness.

After a while, every priest who had kept their senses fell unconscious.

< Detecting mental curse.>

< Protecting user’s mind under system authority. >

< Curse nullified. >

Only Aden remained completely unaffected in the mist.

Aden quickly moved to Joseph and the Kertel cult leader to check their conditions.

Joseph had already lost consciousness and was groaning like the others.

“Ugh…”

However, the Kertel cult leader, though not in good condition, was protecting his body with holy power, befitting the leader of a cult.

Thanks to that, he was able to maintain his consciousness within the mist.

– It’s Mephisto’s Nightmare Mist. Those who inhale this mist are trapped in nightmares and slowly lose their vitality. They won’t die immediately, so you don’t need to worry.

That was a small relief.

Meanwhile, there was another person who could still move within the mist.

The highest-ranking monk, Priest Bali.

As the strongest monk in the Order, he held out the longest, maintaining his sanity.

“You devil! What have you done to my brothers!”

Despite sweating profusely and panting, he swung his mace in extreme anger.

Whoosh!

– Such a feeble attack.

However, Talos easily caught the mace with one hand, rendering it useless.

Priest Bali struggled to retrieve his mace, but it did not budge from Talos’ grip.

Unable to retrieve it, he abandoned the mace and threw a fist as large as a cauldron lid towards Talos’ abdomen with all his might.

But…

– Pitiful.

Talos didn’t even blink, as if he had been hit by a feather.

He swung the mace he had taken from Priest Bali.

“Aaaargh!”

Priest Bali, hit by the mace, was sent flying.

Unable to withstand the shock, Priest Bali fainted.

– Hahaha! The human realm is truly delightful! I covet it because I envy this abundance!

Talos laughed loudly.

The mist he exuded blocked out the moonlight.

The defeat of the Order’s strongest force.

Grab.

The Kertel cult leader, who had been trembling on the ground, grabbed Aden’s pant leg.

Was it a gesture asking for help, to be saved?

No.

“Run away.”

The cult leader was telling Aden to flee.

“You cannot defeat that Talos, that demon. You must flee, somehow.”

The cult leader’s face was filled with regret.

He gave a bitter smile.

“If it weren’t for you, I would have never realized the truth. Thank you for your help. All of this is my foolishness coming back to haunt me. It’s my sin for not being able to doubt others… So you, an outsider, do not need to be dragged into my sins.”

Even in the moment of his own demise and the downfall of his brothers, the cult leader was worried about others.

Aden couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at this sight.

‘This old man is still the same.’

Despite the changing world and passing time, the nature of the Kertel cult leader remained unchanged.

He was the same consistent person who reminded Aden of their first meeting in his past life.

“Don’t worry.”

Aden lightly brushed off the cult leader’s grasp and…

“Just watch.”

He aimed Baalzebul at Talos.

“Impossible…”

The cult leader tried to say more but reached his limit and his consciousness faded.

Curse spoke to Aden with concern.

– Aden Albireo, Mephisto may be an insignificant fool who hasn’t even received a name from ‘Under’. But with your current abilities…

“Yeah, it will be hard to win.”

Aden had known this from the moment he first saw Talos.

“But running away is also impossible.”

At the same time, he knew that fleeing from Talos was not an option.

“If you can’t run away, you have no choice but to fight, right? Besides…”

Even now, the wailing of the Life Vessel echoed in his ears.

The sound grew louder instead of quieter. It reacted to the dense dark magic emanating from Talos.

“I will hunt him.”

Because of this, Aden felt an overwhelming desire to hunt him.

Aden’s eyes gleamed like those of a hunting dog targeting its prey.

It was the same look as the one who had been called ‘the nemesis of Talos’ during the Great War.

To defeat Talos alone, one usually needed the strength of a Sword Master.

And to hold out without losing, at least the skills of a Semi-Master were required.

< Activating Banshee’s Spirit Shield.>

Aden summoned the shield.

A silver, translucent shield appeared in the air.

Mana increases.

Strength increases.

Agility increases… >

A surge of power coursed through Aden’s body, and his mana was amplified.

His heart pounded, and his blood boiled.

「 The penalty of Berserk induces madness.
Strong willpower suppresses the penalty of Berserk.
User’s realm grade temporarily elevates.
Realm grade: Top-tier Sword Aura. 」

Thanks to the amplification effects of Banshee’s Spirit Shield and the Lich’s Life Vessel, Aden could once again demonstrate the strength of a Semi-Master.

Unlike at the Imperial Banquet, he didn’t have to gather all his strength at once.

At least for the duration of maintaining the Berserk Ability, he was no different from a full-fledged semi-master.

– “There are two people who can move unharmed within my fog… how peculiar. And this intense aura…”

This was Talos’s impression when he looked at Aden.

While Priest Bali appeared to be struggling just to endure, Aden seemed completely fine, which the Talos found astonishing.

He smacked his lips as he looked into Aden’s eyes, filled with determination and murderous intent.

– “Your soul must be very valuable.”

To the Talos, a strong soul was both a means of supreme pleasure and an elixir that made him stronger.

Right now, the Talos considered Aden to be a very precious delicacy.

– “Poor and foolish being. Be my nourishment…”

“Talkative bastard, aren’t you?”

Aden interrupted him.

Based on all the experiences he had accumulated so far, Aden thought of the best strategy.

When the weak fight against the strong, the best method is to make the opponent lose their rationality.

No matter how strong someone is, if they are shaken psychologically, they can die by a blind sword.

“Shut up and come at me, Mephisto.”

-…!

When Aden called his name, Talos, or rather Mephisto, flinched.

Mephisto was sensitive to his true name being called.

– “H-how do you know my name…?”

“Well, I guess your stupid story of being demoted to a doormat after trying to scam the Demon Lord is well-known even in the Middle World. If you’re going to scam, do it properly. What a disgrace to the titles of deceit and lies.”

– “What?!”

Maybe because Aden had hit a sore spot, Mephisto lost his composure and became furious.

– “You insolent wretch! I will tear you apart!”

Mephisto lunged at Aden, slashing with his claws.

Aden rolled to the side to avoid the attack.

Pshhh!

The ground where Mephisto swung his claws was gouged deeply.

The slash imbued with dark energy had the power of a sword aura.

If Aden got hit even once, his body would be split in half.

After that, Mephisto continued to slash at Aden randomly, like an enraged goblin swinging a longsword.

Each time, Aden narrowly dodged or deflected the attacks with the Banshee’s Shield.

‘It’s a relief that the gate to Tartarus hasn’t opened yet.’

Mephisto was significantly weakened after crossing from the underground world to the surface.

If this was a world where the gates of hell had opened and Mephisto could use his full power, Aden would have been reduced to a bloody pulp by now.

Seeing his attacks continuously failing, Mephisto’s already blood-red eyes became even more bloodshot, and his gaze turned fierce.

– “Graaaah! I will definitely kill you! Then I will tear your soul apart and put it back together repeatedly, torturing you forever to find out how you knew!”

It seemed that the earlier provocation had hit a bit too hard.

– “You will pay for the insult of calling me a doormat!”

The previously dignified appearance, talking about how pitiful and foolish Aden was, had completely disappeared.

He was now like a raging mad horse.

Seeing such an extreme reaction, Aden asked Curse.

“Hey, what did you do to make him like this?”

– “Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that I did anything wrong. When the Under Warrior needed a sparring dummy, or the Under Witch and the Undertaker needed a test subject for their research, I just lent him out. Despite being weak, his life force was tenacious, making him the perfect candidate.”

“…”

‘Under’ was a title given to the legion commanders favored by the Demon Lord in the underground world.

These were commanders and lords considered second only to the Underlord in strength, even within the monster-infested underground world.

Having clashed with them during the Great War, Aden personally experienced just how insane and psychotic they were.

Therefore, he knew how horrifying the things Curse mentioned so casually were.

It was no wonder Mephisto’s eyes had gone completely mad.

That creature must have gone through nightmares so awful he’d beg for death instead.

Aden reminded himself just how cruel theDemon Lord was.

‘Hmm, I guess I should buy more Holy Potions.’

– “…I feel a bit uneasy.”

Regardless, it was good that Mephisto had lost his sanity.

It created openings that Aden could exploit to launch attacks.

‘Mercenary King’s Sword Technique, Single Strike Thrust.’

Aden’s Aura Threads spun and concentrated at the tip of his sword, rushing towards Mephisto’s side.

The condensed bundle of Aden’s materialized aura pierced Mephisto’s side with formidable power.

A large hole appeared on one side of Mephisto.

– “This won’t be enough to harm me!”

However, the flesh and blood around the hole in his body wriggled and healed back up.

“Damn it, does this guy have regeneration as a passive skill too?”

The trolls, Leonberger, and now even Talos.

Recently, every enemy he’d faced seemed to have regeneration as a basic trait.

– “Didn’t I tell you? Despite being weak, his life force was tenacious. And should someone with regenerative mana be saying that?”

Indeed, he was not in a position to talk, given that he possessed regenerative mana.

Still, a creature with such size and appearance having regeneration felt akin to a high troll.

At that moment, a brilliant idea flashed through Aden’s mind.

He smiled meaningfully.

‘Against a troll-like creature, it’s best to counter with a troll.’

Just then, Mephisto’s claws rushed towards Aden’s head.

Aden quickly raised his shield to block.

Boom!

Aden was flung far away but managed to land properly with a skilled roll.

This created a significant distance between him and Mephisto.

‘Now’s the time.’

Aden decided to use his newly acquired ability.

“Wraith Subjugation.”

—

< Activating special ability, ‘Wraith Subjugation.’ Please select the wraith to summon.>

< Currently available wraiths: 1. >

—

As he attempted to use Wraith Subjugation, he once again felt the hateful gazes of the spirits.

Among them, he chose the one exuding the most intense hatred.

“Summon High Troll Shaman.”

Sssss.

A portion of Aden’s mana was consumed, creating a black mist.

The mist coalesced into a semi-transparent black figure.

With fierce eyes and a protruding jaw, a giant over 3 meters tall held a staff in one hand.

Tinkle.

The bell attached to the staff rang out.

– “Grrrr…”

A being who once sought to conquer human territories and rule as the king of trolls.

But his ambition was shattered by Aden, making him a failed king.

It was the High Troll Shaman that Aden had defeated at the Atilla Fortress.