Chapter 116 – The Hero's Return (6)

“It’s an honor.”

The pale-faced man blocking my path.

He placed a hand on his chest with dignity and bowed like a nobleman.

“I am the Vampire Lord, Jubile El Mion.”

His attire, his gestures—everything about him blatantly screamed vampire.

A duel request had arrived.

“By drinking the Hero’s blood, I shall demonstrate the power of my clan!”

Nope.

I thought it was a duel, but they were swarming me.

Vampire warriors. A real headache.

By modern standards, each one of them was A+ rank or higher.

Their regeneration was excellent, and they grew stronger the more blood they absorbed from their opponents.

In other words, uh.

They were like mosquitoes.

I poured mana into the Holy Sword and swung it horizontally.

“Dodge!”

The vampires who failed to dodge bled profusely, unable to comprehend their sudden separation from their lower bodies.

The thirty surviving vampires charged as if taking flight, ignoring the deaths of their comrades.

I swung my sword once more, and the remaining vampires turned to ash.

In that opening, the Vampire Lord who had rushed to my side glared, his eyes flashing.

He had used the deaths of his comrades as a shield to seize an opportunity to attack me.

His hand swung as if to snatch me.

His hand dissolved into a pool of blood.

The dark red blood spread out like a living thing, covering me like a net.

*Thwack.*

“!”

It actually damaged my HP.

Incredible! You’re something else, Vampire Lord!

I immediately landed an elbow blow to his mouth.

“Kuaaak!”

Teeth scattered like harvested corn.

A shame, but it looked like he’d have to close his vampire business.

But there was no need to worry.

I’d provide thorough after-service.

*Slice!*

The golden blade split him in two.

With this, he wouldn’t have to worry about making a living anymore.

I had easily annihilated the vampire unit, but now hundreds of crimson fireballs were flying into my vision.

*BOOM, BANG!*

Unquenchable flames consumed the corpses on the ground where I had stood.

A unit of mages was openly preparing their next attack.

In a many-against-one situation, the best way to turn the tables is to get right into the enemy’s midst.

That’s probably right.

Right?

I walked right into the lion’s den.

The mages could no longer attack, fearing they would hit their own allies.

*Fwoosh-!*

Oh, they’re firing anyway?

But it didn’t matter.

The magic these guys used had no effect on me.

-Anti-Magic Shield has been activated.

As the fireballs exploded, the enemies rushing me were baptized in flames.

They screamed like mad from the heat, rolling on the ground.

*Whoosh, shhwick!*

Mana-infused arrows flew toward me.

They must have realized that any magic cast at me would be reflected, causing even greater damage to their own side.

I ignored the arrows and swept away the surrounding enemies.

With every swing of the sword, my mana drained rapidly. But with Phase 2 activated, I had mana to spare.

The arrows were doing more damage than I expected.

I looked at my depleted HP and glared at the archers.

-HP: 45,239 / 45,255

It went down by 16.

I should take care of them first.

I made a U-turn and charged toward our elven archers.

These guys were from a different tribe than Ria, the High Elf.

High Elves usually prefer a vegan lifestyle, but regular elves love meat.

Which is why they sometimes even hunt people, I’d heard.

But today, they had chosen the wrong prey.

Seeing me charge, the elves fell back, and one with a massive tower shield stepped forward to block the way.

Then he drew a long spear.

Tactics?

A good choice.

When many face a single strong individual, there’s nothing better than tactics.

Of course, that didn’t apply to me.

*Shhhk!*

One swing of the Holy Sword wiped out the elves.

“Everyone, get out of the way! You things have no pride as soldiers of the Demon King’s army!”

Just then, a muscular ogre over three meters tall with fitting green skin appeared.

Everyone cleared a path for him. Seemed like a pretty strong guy.

Suddenly, a ring was formed for the ogre and me.

He held a battle-ax befitting his size and spoke to me arrogantly.

“Hero. My name is—”

*Slice.*

I couldn’t be bothered to look up, so I cut off both his legs.

I could see the look of astonishment on his face as his height was forcibly reduced.

I brought my sword down on his neck like a guillotine.

I felt some kind of barrier touch the Holy Sword, but honestly, I couldn’t tell. It just got sliced through.

The battle resumed.

The fight was one-sided.

*Slice, slice!*

I cut down hundreds.

*Thwack, squelch!*

I cut down thousands.

“Lightning!”

More than ten thousand enemies were incinerated.

At a glance, the battle seemed to be in my favor because of my overwhelming strength.

But I’m not a game character.

Meaning my stamina isn’t infinite.

Even in an MMORPG, you can’t play your character indefinitely.

Because the person playing the game also needs to rest.

*Shhk.*

Something grazed my cheek.

I wiped away the trickle of blood with the back of my hand.

Thanks to the prolonged battle, adrenaline was pumping, so I didn’t feel any pain. Just a tickle.

My opponent, however, seemed to feel differently.

The sole surviving elf who had just fired the arrow bared his teeth.

“The Hero’s cheek is wounded!”

The elf raised a hand and boasted as if he had just beheaded me and put my head on display.

It was just a tiny scratch.

But for the enemies, it was a turning point.

-HP: 25,141 / 45,255

As the saying goes, even a light drizzle will soak your clothes.

My HP shield had taken a lot of damage too.

“Kuaargh!”

Just then, I saw something howling and shaking its body.

The general-class entities in their army were finally starting to move.

The concept of a general in the Demon King’s army is a bit different from a human one.

It refers to the strongest among countless monsters. A being that can overwhelm others with sheer power.

“Hoo.”

I caught my breath.

The enemies were numerous. It was impossible for me to break through here alone.

“Are you okay?”

Oh, you were here?

I completely forgot.

“What are you talking about? I’ve been fighting this whole time, you know?”

When?

“I used Charm on the dumber-looking ones to make them fight each other.”

“Good for you.”

“Hero, we don’t have time.”

I know.

“What’s the situation?”

“Siegfried is fighting well.”

“Good.”

Inside the castle, all hell had broken loose.

To think the Undead Demon King would come in person.

I had actually just come to retrieve the Holy Sword. But as luck would have it, the Demon King was right in front of me.

To protect those around me, and furthermore, to protect the place where I live, the Holy Sword could serve as a deterrent to war.

But the best way to stop the Demon King’s advance…

…is to cut off the source.

In war, people inevitably die.

The person you just had a meal with could die.

Someone who swore they’d survive to propose to their lover back home could die.

Why does war happen?

It might be a clash of ideologies resolved through force, or it could be sparked by someone’s personal gain.

In war, people die.

To at least fight like a human and die like a human.

No matter how you look at it, that’s the bare minimum.

The way that Undead thing operates is disgusting.

It corrupted the heroes who came to save humanity and made them its underlings, and it revived the dead to serve as its puppets.

It infuriates me.

I remember my fight with the Demon King of the Other Side.

In a way, he and I were similar.

Our goals were aligned.

I fought for the liberation of the continent.

He fought for the liberation of the unjustly treated demons.

That’s why we fought with all our might, and now that the fight is over, we can be amicable.

But this Undead thing is different.

This thing and I are like oil and water, now and forever.

*Swish, thud!*

A general-class attack. It packed a punch.

The real battle had truly begun.

I need to hurry.

The people inside the castle won’t be able to hold out much longer.

* * *

“Waaaah!”

The battle at the castle gate had become surprisingly manageable.

Aside from them getting used to it, the enemy monsters’ offensive had weakened considerably.

The people knew why.

“What in the world is that…”

a soldier muttered.

The scene unfolding beyond the castle walls was hard to believe even when seeing it with their own eyes.

The densely packed army of the Demon King.

A single person was breaking through it.

A golden sword, so brilliant it was visible even from a distance.

Every time it was swung, dozens, hundreds of monsters were cut down.

“So that’s the real Hero…”

“I’ve just earned the greatest bar story of my life.”

The soldiers muttered in awe at the incredibly inspiring scene.

The other heroes had betrayed humanity, but the first Hero had not.

Even after returning to his world, he had taken up his sword again to help this world in its time of peril.

Watching such a Hero, everyone, young and old, man and woman, felt their eyes well up with tears.

“Hero…”

They knelt and bowed their heads as if in prayer.

Fat tears rolled down, splat, splat, falling to the ground.

But this was only the situation at the castle gate.

The battle inside the walls was another story.

“Kugh…!”

A fallen knight coughed up blood, struggling to get up. But he couldn’t.

Tears of frustration streamed down his face.

It was overwhelming.

This wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre.

“Oh my, is it over already?”

The Undead Demon King, Gamigin, sat with her legs crossed on a throne made of corpses.

She beckoned with a finger.

An already unconscious soldier was pulled into her hand.

*Crunch.*

She cruelly tore the soldier’s body apart.

His bones shattered, the soldier died instantly.

Gamigin smeared the soldier’s blood on her lips and looked into a mirror.

“Hmm, I accidentally forgot my makeup kit. What a disaster.”

She leisurely glanced at the platinum-blonde woman held captive beside her and curled her lips into a smile.

“Do you happen to have any I could borrow? I am meeting the legendary Hero, after all. I should at least look presentable.”

“Pfft…”

“Are you laughing?”

“The Hero… would despise a tattered rag like you…!”

The platinum-blonde woman, Queen Diana, openly mocked Gamigin’s hideousness.

Gamigin’s entire body was covered in stitches where flesh had been sewn together.

Patches of her skin were different colors, a result of grafting flesh from various people.

“You never know how things between a man and a woman will turn out, do you?”

“Eup…!”

“Maybe a type like me is the Hero’s preference? We’re both murderers of the century; our personalities might just click.”

“Unlike the likes of you, the Hero is… Ugh!”

A long arm extending from Gamigin’s throne choked the queen.

Even as she suffered, no one could raise their sword to help her.

“Kugh… Your Majesty…!”

“Dammit…!”

All the knights who had participated in the battle on the wall were unable to stand.

The only ones standing were those revived by the curse of undeath. They raised their swords against their former comrades.

“If you listen to me now, I might just forgive you.”

Gamigin looked down at the handsome, golden-haired young man with a smiling gaze.

Among the dead and incapacitated on the wall, Siegfried was the only one still standing.

Even so, his body was a wreck.

“How amusing.”

Against one, he might have stood a chance. But now, seven Fallen Heroes stood before him.

Not only that, but there was also the giant, octopus-like creature summoned by Gamigin.

Monstrous beasts rampaged everywhere, destroying houses and devouring fleeing humans.

Literally unheard-of, hideous monsters were pouring into the city.

“Don’t even think about waiting for the Hero.”

Gamigin knew why the knights hadn’t yet given up hope.

It was because the Hero they believed in was out there.

“Let me explain. First.”

This time, Gamigin tried to inflict despair not with force, but with words.

“The Hero isn’t the all-powerful wish-granting box you think he is. If he were, would the other heroes you trusted and relied on have betrayed you? Oh, right. I should mention this first.”

Gamigin drew her finger through the air as if conducting.

Projection magic.

Siegfried’s eyebrow twitched.

The image projected in the empty air was of the Hero fighting alone.

“And second. No matter how strong the Hero is, his stamina isn’t infinite. He’s getting tired even now.”

She wasn’t wrong.

If the Hero could single-handedly kill tens of thousands, there would have been no need for the hundred-man knight order he once commanded.

“Third. The Holy Sword is already broken. It’s a toy, not even half of what it was. It has a blade made of ether, but who knows how long that will last.”

Gamigin knew.

The Holy Sword was functioning temporarily thanks to the Hero’s overflowing mana.

But only the power of the goddess could truly replenish the Holy Sword.

It wasn’t something a Hero lacking divine power could sustain.

“You know it in your head, but you don’t want to admit it, do you?”

“What is your purpose…”

“How dare you ask a question. I never gave you permission, you insect.”

“Oof…!”

“I’ll say it again. The Hero will die. And he will become one of my collection.”

Diana bit her lip, letting out another low groan of pain.

She was so powerless.

She had thought she’d become overwhelmingly strong, but before the power of a true Demon King, she was like a mere child.

Siegfried gave Diana a look.

He had more or less recovered his breathing.

‘No matter how strong the Hero is, it’s difficult to break through a massive army mixed with 5-star or higher monsters alone.’

If he’s alone.

Siegfried smiled.

“Oh my, he’s smiling? He looks much better when he smiles.”

Gamigin laughed with the clarity of a young girl. But then, as if that had never happened, she raised her index finger at Siegfried, her eyes bloodshot.

“But when did I give you permission to smile?”

The Fallen Heroes charged to kill Siegfried.

At that moment, it wasn’t Siegfried who moved, but a spear that flew from the side, piercing a Fallen Hero’s waist.

“You damned monster bastards.”

A knight who wasn’t dead yet spat a curse and got to his feet.

Of course, a Fallen Hero wouldn’t die instantly from a piercing wound.

He turned his body to kill the knight who had dared to throw a spear at him.

There was no one who could stop the charging Fallen Hero.

The knight faced his death with defiance, unarmed.

A momentary opening created by his death.

Siegfried appeared before the Fallen Hero like lightning and swung his sword.

The Fallen Hero sneered, raising his sword and activating a skill to pierce Siegfried’s body.

*Clang.*

What Siegfried drew was a jet-black sword.

The moment the Fallen Hero saw the sword, which possessed an ominous and gloomy aura completely opposite to the Holy Sword, his body was already being sliced apart.

“To draw the Demon Sword Balmung. You’re trying so hard to save your master. It’s so pitiful I almost want to tell my underlings to watch and learn.”

Siegfried scoffed at Gamigin’s words as she licked her lips.

“Don’t misunderstand, Demon King. I’m not trying to save him. I’m preparing to welcome him.”

He couldn’t afford to be embarrassed on the very first day of their renewed master-servant relationship.

Siegfried adjusted his grip on the Demon Sword, raising it to his face.

It was then.

*Kwoooosh!*

A pillar of light descended from the night sky where the moon had revealed its face.

Gamigin and her minions stared at the sudden pillar of light.

“What is that?”

The Hero raised his sword.

The Holy Sword erupted with light.

And from the hexagonal tiles forming around him, light began to rise.

“That is.”

Gamigin blinked at the incomprehensible sight.

It was a knight order.