The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP8. The Coming Doom

He climbed over the wall.

He has surpassed his limits.

The realm of the master. The ordinary extreme that ordinary life can pursue.

Things that were previously unknown became natural. Things that were previously invisible became visible.

And, among those things that became visible was the horizon.

Beyond the limits of our race, a distinctly felt horizon.

That was the limit of being human.

Just to reach the extreme, he gave up a part of himself.

That horizon is something you can reach, but you can’t jump over. Ainzel realized it.

It was an area that could not be reached by ‘things like’ giving up something.

But it didn’t matter anyway.

This level of power was enough for him. Even a Master’s level was enough to wipe out an entire unit.

To begin with, the state of transcendence was a state that had not been reached for hundreds of years. The state of extremes was in fact the pinnacle of this world.

Ainzel has reached that extreme level.

“…So that’s the choice you made. Good.”

The man in the past told him so and clapped his hands lightly.

“I always thought that you had to aim for the top when you put something down, but I didn’t know you would go this far and push the boundaries. You’re better than I expected.”

Ainzel looked at his past self.

“With this, you’ve moved one step further from your past self. The things that happened in the past won’t be erased in an instant… but someday, you’ll just forget about them.”

Just because you give up your memories doesn’t mean they will disappear right away.

However, the emotions that could be gained from that memory disappear, and the memory becomes colorless and slowly decays.

Not only that, he gave up on the very feeling of regret.

I have no regrets.

I have no regrets.

I have no regrets.

What remains is the reason to pursue your goals, free from regrets. What you have gained is a higher level of realm.

It was a profitable choice no matter where you looked… I didn’t regret it.

Or maybe it was something I should have regretted, but I had already lost the ability to regret it.

In exchange for giving up something as a human, he gained power.

“…It doesn’t matter.”

“Okay, then that’s fine.”

As he spoke, the man in the past slowly turned into a halo and disappeared.

The furnace disintegrated into molecules and disappeared, then turned into a white room again, and a door appeared.

He opened the door and went out.

Again, the cave came into view.

It felt like it was the first cave I’d been to in years, but it didn’t look all that different.

He didn’t know exactly how much time had passed. He started looking around.

“Oh, you came out.”

It was Beatrice. She spoke to Ainzel.

That wasn’t all. Other colleagues were also visible.

“Fuck… ft… I’ve been stuck in that fucking space for years… .”

Lena was whining, hanging on Beatrice’s back, while Sein and Feria were fiddling with their swords and staffs respectively.

“You’re in last place?”

“huh?”

Ainzel asked back at what Peria had said.

“What the hell are you talking about? You were the last one to come out.”

Ainzel stared blankly at them. Surprisingly, they had overcome the ordeal. And faster than he had.

“…Yeah, I see. Were there any results?”

When Ainzel asked, Peria shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, it feels like a step up… but I’m not sure exactly how much it’s improved.”

One step up? What does that mean?

Ainzel looked at Peria. His five senses expanded to the extreme, and he felt something incomparably clearer than before…

…I couldn’t feel her energy.

No matter how hard he tried to hide his energy, it didn’t make sense to make him, who had reached the extreme, feel no energy at all.

“…transcendence?”

Feria smiled. Ainzel’s eyes widened.

“Yeah. That place was originally created to surpass the realm. If you couldn’t surpass the realm… you wouldn’t have been able to come out in the first place.”

Ainzel didn’t know how to react to those words. In short… it was saying that all of his colleagues had reached the state of transcendence faster than he had.

“That technique itself is like that. It has a very… very unique structure.”

“Drinking?”

“Yeah, the spell. I couldn’t see it at first… but I can see it now. However, the structure itself is strange. Some parts are so detailed that I can’t understand them at all, while other parts are so simple and strangely structured that I wonder if they actually work. And… the structure is broken? It’s as if the spell was split into pieces.”

Ainzel felt at those words that she had truly entered a state of transcendence.

He looked at Feria and said.

“…I see.”

Feria sighed deeply and said.

“The trials within were really unpleasant, but… at least it was definitely effective in melting, pounding, and pickling humans to break their limits. It felt a bit like… giving them the strength to climb up a cliff and then throwing them off. Plus, this technique… is also related to time.”

“hour?”

Ainzel frowned at those words.

“Yeah, time. It seems to slow down the time inside… I don’t know how. Maybe it was God who created this place. Otherwise, this wouldn’t be possible. Anyway, that’s why the time inside and here is distorted and there’s a gap. If you calculate the time… it’s like 1 year being converted into 1 month.”

Ainzel spoke with a still blank expression.

“…okay.”

He felt empty, but he felt no regret.

It’s a good thing that my colleagues have become stronger. Ainzel thought about it and said,

“Well then, let’s go back now.”

The colleagues nodded.

Ainzel returned to the empire after a few months. It felt like a long time ago, but it wasn’t that long ago, and the battle situation hadn’t changed much. Even though they were blocked by Grandis and Malekidus and couldn’t advance any further, they had already taken a considerable amount of territory from the Demons, so just holding the front line was an advantage.

But there was one small change in the situation.

The demons gradually disappeared from the battlefield, and the number of ashen soldiers began to increase.

As soon as Ainzel heard that, his face turned pale.

It was the same before the return. Even before the return, the number of ash-colored soldiers increased, and soon, when not a single demon was seen on the front lines and only ash-colored soldiers filled the battlefield, he appeared like a disaster.

None other than the Demon King.

Can we win?

No matter how high the transcendence level was, it was unclear how much power he would be able to exert against the Demon King. To begin with, wasn’t Grandis already in the transcendence level? I had heard that even Grandis was inferior to the Demon King, but I didn’t think that he and his colleagues, who had just reached the extreme level and the transcendence level, would be able to defeat the Demon King.

If he had a little more time, he might have been able to take it down… but unfortunately, he didn’t have time.

“Ash soldiers. We must stop the production of Ash soldiers.”

But how? How can we stop the creation of the Ash Soldiers when we don’t even know how or where they are made?

Ainzel began to worry. After returning after so many years, he found himself in this situation. He had to find a way out. He couldn’t waste time. If he wasted time and the Demon King started to move, there would be no answer.

Ainzel had no choice but to go to Feria.

“…I know it’s a bit much to say, but could you help me find a place in enemy territory that seems suspicious?”

At those words, Peria blinked and said.

“If you say so, then it’s obvious that you’re not talking about the Demon King’s Castle, but a hidden place. There is a way to find it… at least.”

“Yeah. Of course it’ll be difficult… Huh?”

“I can do it. I’m not a warlock, so I can’t detect black magic, but I can sense the aftereffects of black magic. If I do that, it seems like it might be possible… I don’t know why you’re doing it.”

“Then may I ask you a favor?”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s possible, so don’t get your hopes up. But… why on earth are you asking me to find something like that? Where on earth do you have to go?”

“Ash soldiers. I’m going to stop the number of Ash soldiers from increasing.”

“Gray soldiers? Why on earth are they…?”

Ainzel’s face hardened.

“Because it is necessary.”

Then he started to hurriedly prepare to leave for the place. There was not enough time.