The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP7. At the End of Darkness

In the middle of Tyrantus, where the great World Tree bends down and swallows him, Ainzel held his sword and prepared his equipment.

The warlocks had retreated, but I had been dealing with the monsters that had been coming for several days, so I didn’t even have time to check my equipment. I had to do it now, while I still had the time.

“Hey, that black sword you’re holding right now is something I’ve never seen before?”

Iverkas tapped Ainzel on the shoulder with a playful smile. He was so busy fighting that he didn’t have time to examine his sword.

“…Yes. It’s a new sword I acquired a few months ago. You used the Holy Sword before, so it’s impossible for you to have seen me using another sword.”

Even after the battle was over, only Iverkas spoke to Ainzel. The other fairies stood at a distance, looking at him with slightly wary eyes.

“I used black magic…”

When he heard the fairies chattering, Iverkas said with an embarrassed expression.

“…Don’t take it too seriously. The warlocks have invaded this place, so it’s inevitable that you’ll feel uneasy. You’re a hero who’s saved this country before. Everyone will soon know your true intentions.”

Ainzel said with a slight smile.

“I don’t care. People tend to reject things that are different from them, and I don’t think that’s any different just because they’re fairies. They’ve changed in many ways compared to the past.”

Ivercas looked embarrassed.

“Uh… Then do you want to go to the palace? Magnus will be very happy to see you.”

“Fine. I don’t want to make people uncomfortable, and the warlocks haven’t completely retreated yet.”

Ivercas nodded at those words and said.

“If that’s your choice, then I’m sorry.”

Rather than answer Iverkas’s words, Ainzel chose to look up at the sky.

Wedge! A black spear appeared right next to Ainzel. Ainzel shook his hand that had deflected the spear and then spoke.

“What a stupid surprise attack.”

Ainzel commented on the surprise attack.

“Oh my… It was a dark magic that I worked so hard to cast, but it’s such a shame that it was blocked so easily. You even deflected the spear from the side with your hand that was wrapped in a self-defense weapon.”

“Yeah, so you’re done with your training now? How did you find a way to use black magic in front of me?”

As Ainzel grumbled, the warlock stroked his beard and said.

“Well, I did think of a way.”

As he said that, numerous warlocks surrounded Ainzel and Iverkas.

“Well, you guys couldn’t do anything even though there were several master-level players mixed together, so what do you think you can do now?”

The black magician let out a laugh at Ainzel’s mocking remark.

“Ah, of course we ran away rather ugly without doing anything… but that was just because we fought without being fully prepared, and from now on it will be a little different.”

“Ha, you talk well. So, what does it mean when you say, “We all jumped out together and brought the equipment, so it’ll be different now~”? Come on. Don’t just open your mouth.”

The warlocks took out their items and spells that contained their extreme powers.

I had been saving them as much as possible because they could become my ultimate weapon, but now that it had come to this, I had to eliminate the warrior.

Ainzel maintained a confident demeanor on the outside, but inside he seemed to be burning.

The principle behind his ability to destroy black magic was that he could figure out what his opponent was doing and penetrate their techniques to the bone, all from his overwhelming knowledge of black magic.

But will he be able to destroy it when he comes out with black magic that even his master doesn’t know about?

If he had the talent to match his level, he could have analyzed and destroyed it on the spot… but unfortunately, he had no talent at all.

‘It’s amazing. How can there be such a difference between handling black magic and learning black magic? I thought you were a genius at handling black magic.’

Ainzel remembered what his master had said to him and snickered.

‘Maybe today is the day I die.’

Ainzel’s eyes felt even redder.

Even if it was a fight he couldn’t win, he would fight.

…

“Fuck… I have to hurry, hurry.”

Lena clutched her forehead. Her heart grew impatient at the thought of warlocks running wild in Tyrantus.

Common sense dictates that if you just traverse the continent and head towards Tyrantus, there’s a high chance that the situation will already be over, so Lena moved to the vicinity of Tyrantus through the warp gate.

And all that remained was to move from the neighboring countries to Tyrantus.

As she ran quickly, she arrived at an area.

‘Barrier?’

It wasn’t a physical barrier or any special restrictions. The only thing the barrier did was report the intruder to the owner of the barrier.

The problem was that the barrier stretched far across the mountain range.

‘Is there a wizard who can create a barrier of this wide an area?’

At this level, it was master-level. It didn’t make sense that a master-level person would be stuck in such a small country.

There weren’t many master-level magicians in the empire. They would have made a name for themselves in the Magic Tower, or at least in other countries.

But, there are traces of a master-level wizard left in the mountains of this country?

Of course, she wasn’t detected by the barrier, but the question was the same.

Lena tried hard to ignore the question and ran.

Using the Blessing of the Wind, one could cover distances of several days in a matter of hours.

And then there was a look in her eyes that could not be overlooked.

Monster corpses were strewn everywhere.

And another thing that is visible is traces of the undead.

And it’s not just any ordinary undead, that’s…

“Mountain of Death…?”

Lena said in a disbelieving voice.

The undead that had been harassing them during their fight with Grandis were now visible before their eyes.

The bigger problem was that the Mountain of Death was not destroyed by anyone else.

The master himself destroyed the undead. Lena could tell.

That means the warlock and the wizard, the masters of this realm, are on the same side…

“They are the same person…”

Lena tilted her head. It seemed that this area was centered around a village, and she wanted to find the owner of this area in that village, but she had no choice but to ignore it.

And then, at that moment, she discovered something else strange.

“Traces of the fire spirit?”

Traces of the fire spirit’s existence. And even those that were not very recent.

Something, things seemed to be going strangely wrong.

Lena picked up the pace.

…

Fuck, I cursed inwardly.

They were carpet bombing us with strange black magic that I had never heard of before, and all I could do was to use a barrier to withstand it.

Even though Iverkas did counterattack to some extent, it didn’t produce any significant results.

What was needed now was support. Retreating from here would mean pushing back the front line, so retreating was not even an option.

Perhaps the only fortunate thing is that the enemies were unable to indiscriminately unleash what could be called their own extremes.

I bit my lip. I felt something flowing – probably blood – but I didn’t have time to wipe it away as I drew on my dark magic.

No matter how much the Death Knight swung his sword, it was difficult to turn the situation around since it was already unfavorable. In the end, I had to do it.

I used black magic.

It was the Sword of Darkness, the most powerful black magic I could use.

A dark sword of equal rank with the Hammer of Light and the Spear of Chaos fell from the sky.

That alone would have killed several warlocks with their bodies torn in half, but that wasn’t enough.

I pulled out a huge sword several times the size of my body.

“Is this the Black Magician’s extreme…”

The most powerful black magic available to the Master, who was at the limit of human power, was the one that spread fraud to everything around him.

Even though I might die, I made up my mind to at least take everyone here.

I thought about it and regretted it inside. Ah, shit. I knew I would regret it, but this is fucking bullshit. I shouldn’t have come. What about my parents? What about my hometown?

Even though I thought that, even though I knew this would happen, I had to move.

I put on a shield and charged.

Boom! A sound that was hard to believe came from the sword was heard, and one of them was transformed into a handful of blood and flesh.

I swung my sword like crazy.

And when the shield finally ended, I sensed that my life was coming to an end.

I saw the warlocks trying to fire a single shot at me.

Time slowed down.

When I faced death, to be honest, I didn’t feel particularly scared.

Even though my ability to regress was gone, I still didn’t feel fear. Even right before I died.

And then, with the wind, the upper bodies of those warlocks disappeared.

The sight of only the lower body remaining felt quite bizarre, but that was not what surprised me.

“Why are you… here… .”

Green eyes appeared.