The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP8. The Coming Doom

Se-in suddenly felt something falling from his eyes.

Let’s take a look in our hands, it was a black liquid.

“…uh?”

She began to panic. And, black tears were also flowing from the corners of her colleagues’ eyes.

And then she began to feel a splitting pain in her head.

“Ugh, eww!”

She and her colleagues all held their heads. The hallucinations became more severe and their vision began to blur.

She could feel that she was losing herself.

My body feels heavy. My hands are shaking, my head hurts so much that it feels like it’s going to burst, and I feel numb. All five senses feel foreign.

The Demon King spoke to Ainzel, who was looking at his companions with surprised eyes.

“Hmm, you must have absorbed my magic power, yet you still remain conscious. This is surprising. Your mental powers seem quite strong, warrior.”

Ainzel looked at the Demon King with a distorted face and began to approach his companions.

“Don’t come near me!”

Lena shouted. Ainzel froze in place.

“Right now… I’m on the verge of losing my mind… You fucking… kill us right now.”

“…what?”

Ainzel said with an expression on his face that said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You put your dick in my ear? Kill me! Before that little shit controls me and makes me a fucking idiot!”

Her eyes were filled with fear as she spoke.

It’s natural. Death is cruelly equal to everyone, and that’s why it’s scary. But she still asked to be killed.

Rather than lose himself and be controlled by the Demon King, he would rather choose death.

Ainzel realized that and grimaced.

Lena looked at Ainzel with longing eyes.

“Kill me… Please kill me. I can’t let this control me and end everything.”

Beatrice also shouted.

“If we continue to be controlled like this, you will die. We may even turn our weapons against humanity. So… before that happens, please kill us.”

Ainzel’s hands trembled and he bit his lips hard. Blood flowed out of his lips.

He approached them with the holy sword in his hand.

Then, with trembling hands, he brought the holy sword to Lena’s neck.

Lena closed her eyes.

Crunch.

With a single flash, her neck flew into the air.

Her blood splashed on Ainzel.

He continued to cut off the necks of his other colleagues without stopping.

They all had expressions of unusual calmness.

Ainzel looked at his hand, which was covered in blood.

It was red. It was a dark red color, like all the red things in the world put together.

He killed his own comrades.

He knew right away that the memory of that day would remain even if he turned back time.

It was sad and painful.

But… do you regret it? No, it isn’t.

Even in this situation, he felt no regret at all.

Even though he had lost his sense of regret, he felt no regret.

Instead, his head began to wring out thoughts.

Think. Think. Think about how you can kill the Demon King.

Even if he died now, even if he went back in time, he couldn’t kill the Demon King like this. He knew that.

So then, what should we do?

What can he do?

… he couldn’t figure out. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what to do.

“Hmm, the sight of a warrior killing his comrades… isn’t as bad as I thought. Should I say it has a certain tragic beauty? However… I can’t waste any more time.”

The Demon King’s attack flew towards Ainzel.

He gave up. Even if he died and came back to life, he couldn’t stop the attack.

And the attack was stopped from extending any further. By none other than Grandis.

“Demon King… Even if you are confident of your victory, aren’t you ignoring me too much? It looks like you used up a lot of black magic to make the warrior’s companions your own. And… I still have something to complain about?”

The Demon King looked at Grandis with cold eyes and said.

“Grandis… I kept watching you, but you don’t know what you’re doing and are acting wild.”

Grandis said with a twisted smile towards the Demon King.

“I was never your subordinate from the beginning. What do you think you’re mistaken about?”

The Demon King spoke with a cold gaze.

“Then… die.”

The moment the Demon King’s attack came flying again, Grandis grabbed the back of Ainzel’s neck, who was standing there blankly.

“Yeah… I just remembered. How would I get you in the most trouble?”

Only then did the Demon King open his eyes wide, distort his face, and speak.

“Grandis… you b*tch…!”

Grandis laughed at the Demon King and then teleported away.

…

Grandis looked at her ruined estate. It had been intact until a few days ago. It meant that while she was away, the Demon King had completely destroyed her estate.

She smiled hollowly. The vassals who had been loyal to her, the children who had smiled brightly, they had all disappeared without a trace.

As she ran her hands through the ashes of the ruins, Ainzel spoke.

“Why did you save me?”

Grandis looked back at Ainzel and said.

“…Well, I don’t know for sure, because I just wanted to see the Demon King’s troubled expression. I lost everything, and I just wanted to annoy him a little bit like that.”

Ainzel looked at Grandis and said.

“…Then how were you able to survive being consumed by the Demon King’s black magic? Did you endure it too?”

Ainzel couldn’t understand how Grandis could be affected by the Demon King’s power without even frowning.

Grandis looked at Ainzel and said.

“Well, why should I tell you?”

Ainzel looked at Grandis quietly. Grandis burst into laughter upon seeing Ainzel’s expression.

“Phew, your expression is funny. Well, okay. I’ll tell you. I didn’t absorb the Demon King’s black magic from the beginning. Of course, that was possible because I’m a black magician of my caliber. If you absorb the Demon King’s black magic, you can never let it out of your body again, but if you don’t absorb it from the beginning, then it’s okay, right?”

“Is that possible?”

“So I’m okay? The Demon King’s power is to infiltrate the opponent’s body with his black magic and forcefully subjugate their soul to himself. I’ve read the nature of that black magic, so I’m sure of it. No matter how strong you are, if you don’t have the mental strength to endure it, you’ll instantly lose your very existence to the Demon King. And even that’s a problem because as time goes by, you’ll absorb more black magic.”

“Then how come you are okay?”

“It doesn’t really matter if you simply have the ability to control black magic. Oh, of course, it would be impossible for someone below a certain level, but even among masters, a high-level black magician… Yes, a black magician of that level would be able to control the Demon King’s black magic. Of course, he can’t control it completely, so he can only control whether or not he accepts the black magic into his body. That’s how I avoided the Demon King’s black magic from infiltrating my body.”

Ainzel looked at Grandis at those words.

Maybe, just maybe, there would be a clue to defeating the Demon King.

Ainzel spoke to her hurriedly.

“…Do you hate the Demon King?”

Grandis said, pointing to his estate filled with ash.

“…You call that a lie? Look here. My entire territory disappeared because of the Demon King. Isn’t that obvious?”

At those words, Ainzel strode towards Grandis and spoke.

“Then… do you want to kill the Demon King?”

Grandis heard that and said.

“Of course. If only I could… But there is no way to kill the Demon King. Unfortunately.”

Ainzel said to Grandis.

“If there is a way for me to kill the Demon King, can you help me?”

Hearing that, Grandis laughed and said,

“Ha, how is that possible? Are you out of your mind because all your comrades died?”

Ainzel looked at Grandis and said.

“I can turn back time. If I die and turn back time, I can change my past choices.”

Grandis looked at Ainzel at his empty words.

“That can’t be possible…”

But Ainzel’s eyes were so serious, there was no sign of madness.

Looking at those eyes, Grandis unconsciously accepted Ainzel’s words.

“You… teach me black magic. If I can absorb all the black magic the Demon King emits into my body and make sure my allies are not affected, I have a chance of winning.”

“Ha, if you do something like that, you’ll end up being defeated by the Demon King…”

“If it’s mental strength, it’s enough. Even if I die, I can endure until I die.”

At Ainzel’s words, Grandis looked at him and smiled.

“Yes… That’s right. But why should I help you? Why would I help a warrior who is notorious for slaughtering demons every time he goes out to battle?”

Ainzel continued to look at Grandis after hearing those words.

Then, his knees slowly lowered.

“You… you alone, even if I die and go back to the past, I will never attack you.”

His head slowly bowed.

“So please help me.”

Finally, his head touched the floor of the ruined territory of Grandis, in front of the demon race he hated more than anything else.

“I want to kill the Demon King.”

The warrior spoke to her with his head bowed.