The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP8. The Coming Doom

I am angry. I hate them. In the same world, just thinking about them breathing makes me sick and unbearable.

That’s why he ran wild on the battlefield. He killed enemies who were desperate to live, cut off their arms and legs, and drank their blood while savoring their screams.

He realized that the sweetest feeling of all was none other than hatred.

When you surrender to hatred, you don’t have to think about anything. No guilt, no despair, nothing. Just fight, knock down, and kill repeatedly, surrendering to the joy and pleasure that runs up your spine when you kill the object of your hatred, and the world will be painted over.

He couldn’t forget that feeling even when he wasn’t on the battlefield.

So, he would secretly seek out the warlocks in the imperial capital, chase them down, and then annihilate their families.

He didn’t care what their circumstances were or what they did. After all, in Ainzel’s eyes, they were just warlocks.

No, I didn’t want to be interested, exactly. They just had to be the object of hatred. Otherwise, I didn’t want other emotions to creep in and blur the hatred.

Before long, when the number of people he had killed had reached several hundred, rumors began to spread among the people of the capital.

There are rumors that the demons are killing people and burning their houses.

When Ainzel heard the rumor, Imperial Intelligence had already learned that many people were dying and began investigating the incident.

He laughed when he heard the rumor, whether it was true or not.

“Me… Me, a demon? Are you saying that what I do is something that could be mistaken for a demon?”

From the perspective of others, what he did did not seem to contain any kind of cause. All that was felt was an act of murder filled with malice and madness. Ainzel realized this and laughed.

“It doesn’t matter. Yes, it doesn’t matter at all. We have to erase the stain from this world, even if it’s just one more person…”

But he did not change his actions. He still went out secretly and killed the warlock, and the sword contained no regret or remorse. Only a near-infinite hatred.

So he killed the warlock that day and burned down his house.

And then the imperial intelligence agents appeared before him.

“…I’m surprised that you’re the culprit of a serial murder case.”

Ainzel said with a numb look in his eyes.

“Imperial Intelligence Service…?”

“Yes, since you know so well, I guess we can understand what we are going to do now. To be blunt, warrior, can you tell us what exactly you have been doing?”

When the agents asked him, he frowned and spoke without even thinking about erasing the traces of the murder he had just committed.

“…I just killed the warlocks.”

“A warlock?”

“Yes. Warlock. There is a way to distinguish a warlock, so I was just cleaning up the trash. Don’t bother me and go now.”

“So, what are you going to do after we leave…?”

Ainzel looked at the agents with sparkling eyes, smiled, and said.

“I’ll finish cleaning up the trash.”

“…Are you saying that you will continue to kill the people of the empire?”

“Yeah. What does that matter? Imperial citizens and all, black magicians are a cancer that is eating away at this world. If we leave them alone, they will probably cooperate with the demons, so it’s better to root them out in advance.”

“That being said, it’s just too much of a technique…”

“Ha, when dealing with traitors to humanity, should we consider their suffering? Wrong. Rather, it would be right to kill them as painfully as possible. That is the right thing to do. Don’t you think so?”

“,,,Then we will go now. I guess there is no point in going any further.”

Seeing them disappear, Ainzel magically erased the blood stains on his clothes and began to walk away, to find another prey.

…

Ainzel’s reputation had been considerably tarnished. Even so, it was only a single failure, and on top of that, there was a traitor. The value of a famous general who had never been defeated was different from that of someone who had suffered defeat at least once.

Humans love bright stars, but they love the sight of stars falling even more. In fact, it wasn’t such a big failure, but people all started to exaggerate the fall of the undefeated warrior.

The reason why this was possible was because everyone was predicting victory. Both Grandis and Malecidus were winning, and the battle was turning in their favor, so they could afford to hope for a fall.

The Emperor responded quickly. Ainzel, who had been in charge of almost all operations, lost his operational control. The Emperor suggested a compromise, saying, “I’ll cover up the murder case, so follow me,” but Ainzel turned a deaf ear and said he understood. That kind of thing was not his concern.

He was now cut off from his past. All he had left was the desire to kill the demons, especially the demon king.

He trained like crazy without any operational control. And his colleagues looked at him with worried eyes.

“Are you practicing while thinking that there are many victims because of you…?”

“I hope it’s not too much… .”

However, even though Ainzel continued to train hard, he still felt that he was lacking.

More, more, more. A stronger force was needed.

With this much power, he couldn’t fulfill his duties.

Not only himself, but his colleagues as well.

They had all reached the extremes of being human, but I dare not say that it was enough.

To be honest, even if all of the warrior’s companions joined forces, would they be able to defeat Grandis? Ainzel thought, ‘No.’ In that case, how could they defeat the Demon King?

The Demon King’s power was overwhelming. Others may not know, but Ainzel knew how overwhelming the Demon King was when he first started his activities. He was not skilled enough to kill the most disgusting and despicable person.

If I don’t get stronger…

In front of Ainzel, who was thinking like that, the holy sword suddenly began to shine with light.

Ainzel instinctively felt something inside the holy sword.

It was a remnant of the souls of past warriors.

They are nothing more than evaporated remains of knowledge and emotions that do not even possess the power or form of thought.

However, it was possible to convey their knowledge to some extent by responding to Ainzel’s will.

The Holy Sword told Ainzel a location.

A place where you can gain strength in a short period of time.

I couldn’t tell exactly what place it was, except that it was a place where I could gain strength and the general location.

It was something that might have been a threat.

However, Ainzel decided to go to that place to gain strength.

A few days passed, and Ainzel and his companions prepared to leave for the place. In fact, his companions did not completely believe Ainzel’s words. Even if they had learned the records of the past, they could not expect the place to remain the same, and even if they could really gain power, they did not know what dangers or restrictions there would be.

However, Ainzel did not care about their opinions and went to that place by himself, pursuing his own will. His colleagues could not bear to send him away alone, so they followed him.

The Empire initially opposed it. The thought of a Master-level force being absent all at once, and for an unknown period of time, was not something to be taken lightly.

However, the warrior’s companions were eager to follow him, and in the end, the empire had no choice but to give in. The situation was not all that bad to begin with.

That’s why Ainzel and his companions were able to come here.

Ainzel looked around.

A huge mountain peak came into view, and Ainzel searched it thoroughly.

Even though he tried to sense magical power or divine power, he could not feel anything, so Ainzel was unable to find the place he wanted for several hours.

In a last desperate attempt, Ainzel detected not only divine power and magical power, but also black magic.

Then, I felt a very small energy.

It was a very faint and weak energy, but once I felt it, the energy revealed its presence with a heavy weight.

Ainzel started to chase after the energy. His companions suddenly started running, and they chased after Ainzel without knowing what was going on, and they reached a certain place.

The place was a dark but softly lit cave.

They moved their feet nervously, not knowing what might pop out, as they could not see inside at all.

At that moment.

[Welcome, warriors and their companions of this generation.]

A voice echoed in my head.