Chapter 239 – Chapter 239. Fallen Warriors
When Celica heard that she was going to fight Barmash, he initially thought it was just an ordeal to build up his strength in preparation for the future and wanted to move on.
There might be something else he’s aiming for, but he didn’t bother to dig deep into it.
Because she is different now than when she first returned to her past.
I decided to be respectful of whatever she planned, as I believed that she would not do anything to harm us, as she only moved for the sake of the party.
“Margaret. Did you know from the beginning?”
But isn’t that a matter of a level that can be accepted by common sense?
It’s the demon king…
No matter how much she is a hero, she may not know mentally, but she is in a state that cannot be said to have been completed physically.
“Yes, because before leaving the practice, he only talked to me. Because he is currently in an unstable state of mind. Since you don’t know when it will explode, you have to deal with it while you can…”
“Don’t talk nonsense! Being the demon king. Something like that now…”
“Dave.”
Before she could vent her astonishment at him, Celica, who had left Varmash’s side, quietly began to approach me.
The bloody expression he had shown in the previous fight had disappeared without a trace, and he had a very unconcerned appearance.
“… Celica.”
“Did you say you believed in me?”
Even when I called her name, she just said what she wanted to say.
“Whatever I do, it is for all of us.”
“Believe. I believe, but…”
Anyway, that’s too reckless.
“… What a cruel fate.”
Faced with me who was about to say that, her face was drawn with nothing more than a sense of ease.
“Because I always felt anxious when I couldn’t even tell what was true and what was false. No matter how grounded it is, it doesn’t lead to certainty, and I’ve always felt anxious that maybe it’s not the result I thought…”
“… Celica.”
“By the way, since the demon lord reacts to the clash of forces now… To put that confusion to shame, a sense of calm came right away.”
Before long, Celica’s gaze gradually withdrew from me.
It glanced over at her party, who were staring at her with her tense face, and soon began to fixate on a black figure in the distance.
Unlike us, who can only feel its existence, as if we are clearly seeing what exists beyond it.
“Because it was always the worst.”
The moment she faced that mighty being head on, her voice began to tremble.
“Everyone around me is dying. Everyone who wasn’t around blames me, doesn’t understand my feelings… Even though I know they weren’t wrong, I ended up watching their deaths or killing them with my own hands.”
Fear…
Yes, it was definitely an emotion I would call fear.
Even at this moment, when you are not the existence beyond, the anxiety that the future that you are so afraid of will come.
“I wandered alone in a world where everything collapsed like that. Even though I know I need to find you, I have believed that the time when I dare to stay far away and anxiously call out your name will last forever.”
All those emotions begin to be encroached into joy as the existence of the beyond stands out.
“I learned that none of that is a future that won’t happen.”
As if he had been longing for an encounter with a being beyond that, as if he had been longing for a meeting with the existence beyond, as if he was freeing his heart from the madness he had been immersed in in the future.
“That’s right, if you’re not the demon king…
“If the person I fell in love with isn’t the Demon King, then I can handle whatever future awaits me. If it’s not you… If it’s not you Dave…”
The moment I saw that face, I realized that I was mistaken about something.
The Demon King is coming towards this place.
That fact never frightened her.
The most desired moment. An opportunity to be liberated from the tragedy that has been felt while peeping into the memories of the future.
The confidence she would have by facing him and fighting head-on was the ‘salvation’ she longed for.
Not as noble heroes fighting for a cause.
With the mind of a madman who is tired of wandering, now mad, who wants to be freed from a nightmare full of tragedy.
“Now I can finally be freed from that terrible nightmare, but there’s no way I can stop now, right?”
“… Celica.”
“Of course, I know it’s a future that won’t happen now, but it all felt like reality to me. Even if you get past the present, you might fall into it again someday.”
As much as it all felt real, she must have been reminded of the fact that she could transform into a madman at any time.
So, she said that she would atone for the sins she has committed.
“So at least, I want to prove that I can at least make amends in this way.”
Faced with her strong will, I withdrew her hand to reach out to her, giving up on stopping her.
The same goes for Ymir and Heira.
Both of them stepped back as if they had their own ideas, and Celica soon began to take her own steps in front of her.
“Serica!!”
The one who stopped Celica’s steps was Verdia, who was sitting down.
After that, she began to take her own steps towards Celica, straightening her trembling body.
“Serica, I know everything. What did you do this for!”
“… Sister Verdia.”
“Yes, you are not wrong. To the end, to fulfill my duty as a hero… If it’s something like that, I won’t blame you anymore. If you’re going to catch the demon king, I’ll be with you. Even though I’m weaker than you, still… !!”
“No, you have to stay here.”
Verdia screaming with her gibberish, and Celica, who cuts off her words and silently expresses her own opinion.
Then, with a bitter smile on her lips, she spoke to Verdia in a calm voice.
“Because if I go wrong, unnie has to lead the rest of us.”
“It’s wrong, it happens…”
“Since you’ve experienced my power, if you’re my sister, you’ll surely be able to act as a more ideal hero than me.”
Assumptions for the worst.
That would mean that even she couldn’t guarantee her odds of this fight.
That’s why, with Verdia as her insurance, she will silently accept the fate that awaits her.
“Serica, no. I can’t let you go for that reason… !!”
“Shut up and stay still!!”
The moment Verdia’s body, still unacceptable, landed on the ground.
As she slumped her knees to the ground, she soon began to look back at the man who controlled the intangible forces that oppressed her.
“Ymir, you…”
“The sky is split!! The sky split!!”
Ymir, ignoring Verdia’s babbling, vomits even more frustration.
Afterwards, the sky she pointed her finger at was clear without a single cloud.
Existing thousands of meters in the sky, the distance equivalent to over the horizon when compared to the ground, exerted an influence with just one sword.
“If the output is higher, it is a power that can overcome disasters and annihilate everything in the area without a trace. Do you think that such a thing is possible with human ability!?”
That discretion can even make full use of disasters. Even a known great wizard would not dare to venture into it.
The technology embodied in the spirit of a perfected hero was so absurd.
“That guy went to limb, not as a monster, but with a human heart. If we intervene and throw ourselves to protect it, that guy should be held accountable.”
In the yard that even those capable of displaying such power cannot guarantee victory in the subsequent fight.
Is it really possible to say that I will catch up with just stubbornness?
“… We can help him by just sitting here and praying.”
Advice filled with frustration and anger.
Verdia, who read the cold judgment contained within, looked back at Celica’s place without saying anything more.
She had already disappeared on the spot, leaving only her footprints behind, following Celica’s trail.
“Serica has already left this area.”
Even Heira, who has a remarkably good sense, barely grasped that she was out of her detection range.
After feeling such absurd speed, Verdia gave up and began to slam her fists on the floor.
Her heart reached the sky.
Even though he wanted to shoulder the responsibility for the entire world, he felt resentment for his own helplessness as he couldn’t protect even one person in the end.
– Ugh!
But right after that.
A slight vibration from the spot where her fist was lowered. After that, Verdia’s gaze, which had come to her senses, gradually began to turn to the sword in front of her.
“… What.”
A great sword that was used to split the battle with Celica in the previous battle.
Although it is a weapon that is merely a replica using faith, its power alone can exert the same abilities as those used by heroes in the past.
But now he realizes his own powerlessness and has half lost his faith.
Of course, it would be normal if the sword embodied in that belief also disappeared, but for some reason, the sword itself was vibrating and showing off its existence.
Even the tip of the sword moved gradually, even turning Celica in the direction she had left.
“Why, the sword vibrates…”
“Mikhail.”
His body trembled at the sound of the voice that followed.
After that, the eyes of everyone, including Verdia, began to move outside the gymnasium.
The orcs who heard the commotion and ran all the way here, and the blonde-haired elf who kept his composure enough to contrast with their chaos.
“You implemented Mikhail’s weapon?”
No, the atmosphere is just quiet.
What was drawn on that face was, obviously, an emotion that could be called pity.
At this moment, it was as if he had noticed something from the vibration of Verdia’s sword on the floor.
“… Melia.”
“If Mikhail’s weapon is resonating, then it must be something I felt.”
Soon after, Melia’s gaze moved upward from the weapon.
It began to turn towards the dark clouds that existed beyond.
“Mikhail.”
A hero who defeated the demon king who descended on this world a century ago, and a man who asked him to marry him during the journey.
And now, he put the name of the man he thought he would never face again, who was known to have passed away.
“Why are you still alive to this age?”
In a powerful enough force to carry the aftermath to this place.
While voicing the question of how his presence could be felt.
***
And at the same time.
-Koo-Goo-Gung, Ku-Wung!
A royal castle located at the end of the Demon King’s territory. The shadow revealed as the castle collapsed.
The officers and soldiers of the Demon King’s Army, who heard the commotion belatedly and approached, faced the swirling power there and began to tremble.
“What, what!! Why… Why is the Demon King on the move now!?”
“Wasn’t the demon lord calm down until the hero grew up!?”
Yes, historically it was.
Even if the surroundings are distorted by that mighty power, disasters such as dungeons are created, and strange mutant creatures such as monsters are mass-produced, they never move on their own until the right time comes.
It’s been like that for hundreds of years, but why is the Demon King showing off his existence by tearing down his own residence?
“No, no way, something is wrong with this!”
And the demons belonging to the demon king’s army are beings who live only parasitically on its mighty power.
As they are also living in this world, they do not want the demon king to destroy the world.
I only hope that he will demonstrate his presence for as long as possible, and that a new demon king will be reborn somewhere in this world after being executed by the warrior.
“Shit! Stop it!”
“Yes, we must stop! There are still many things to do in the Demon King’s Army, but if we go on like this… !!”
Even so, the end of those who try to go against the order because they can’t overcome their desires is a clear law.
-Quaaaaa!
The bodies of the demons being torn apart by the torrent of power spreading from their bodies.
The blood of the crushed demons stained his body, but he didn’t mind it and only trudged forward.
Even if the corpse was trampled and crushed by that foot, it was considered okay.
“At las…”
The greedy tribes that only parasitize themselves who have great power.
It will have nothing to do with the fight that will continue from now on.
“Finally, the time has come.”
Demon King Mikhail.
Having abandoned his destiny as a hero who saved the old era, at this moment, following his instinct as a demon king, he prepared to move towards his destination.
Even if it is only made from the beginning.
It is also to achieve my long-cherished wish, endlessly reminding myself.
