Chapter 237 – Battle with the Demon King (1)

The moment I felt the divine power disappear, a terrified scream came from behind me.

“This can’t be… Suddenly I can’t feel the goddess. The divine power is gone.”

It was the scream of Princess Meliya, the saintessn of Ea.

“This is impossible. To sever the connection with the gods. Such a thing shouldn’t be possible.”

Seemingly satisfied with the saintessn’s words as she flailed in terror, the Demon King who had cast the spell opened his mouth to address us.

[For a long time, those called Demon Kings, the adversaries of the gods, why did they fall to heroes?

And why did I, the Demon King of Death, continue to experience failure while facing multiple heroes?

At first, I too thought the problem was the hero who defeated the Demon King, but that wasn’t it.

When one hero was defeated, another hero would appear to challenge me, and each time a new hero appeared, that hero was stronger.

Look. After killing one hero and defeating another, hasn’t a hero chosen by the gods of two worlds come here?

Of course, that hero must have a limit too, but there’s no reason to wait for that unknown end.

Instead, I, the Demon King and God of Magic, found another way.

My enemies are not the heroes, but the gods who send them.

Of course, even I, who deals with dimensions, couldn’t approach the divine realm where the gods reside, but that didn’t matter.

I only needed to block the connection between the divine realm and this world, or rather, the connection with the heroes and saintessns.

This place is the beginning. I, the King of Death and God of Magic, will now cut off the interference of the gods from all of Ea and all other dimensions, starting with this dungeon!]

Perhaps he had a lot built up?

Though not as emotional as before, even now as just bones, the Demon King was quite talkative.

That was fortunate.

Thanks to that, we were able to buy time to accept the situation of the lost divine power.

Of course, not everyone was calm.

“What should I do? Without divine power, I’m just a princess who doesn’t know how to fight, not a saintessn…”

The saintessn of Ea couldn’t escape her despair even during this precious time, but the others were different.

“Magic is fine. Mana is moving well too.”

“I’m fine as well.”

After the reassuring answers from the two apprentice mages, Zahina’s words were heard.

“My mana is fine too. I guess my mana wasn’t coming from the land of the Divine Tree after all. Perhaps it’s fortunate that the connection with my race was cut off?”

As I made a troubled expression at her black humor, Yerim, who had checked her divine power, gave us a small piece of good news.

“It’s not that we can’t use divine power at all. The powerful divine power that the god bestowed upon me after I became a saintessn is gone, but the divine power I originally had is still remaining. It’s a really small amount, and it will disappear once I use it all, but I think I can do the work of one priest for a short while.”

At Yerim’s words, the princess who had been floundering opened her eyes wide.

“Oh, that’s right. But this is too little. I only have the divine power from when I was an apprentice priest. I wonder what meaning such divine power could have against the Demon King…”

Hearing Yerim and the princess’s words, it seemed that the divine power they possessed had reverted to what they had before becoming saintessns.

And the same was true for me.

Unlike the two saintessns, I couldn’t feel even a bit of divine power.

Unlike the two of them, who had cultivated their own divine power through their faith even before becoming saintessns, I had no faith from the beginning.

In the end, all that remained in my body now was mana.

I had returned to the state of a Sword Master from before becoming a hero.

Is this what they call strong bad luck?

In an instant, the situation had become incredibly unfavorable, but at least it wasn’t the worst-case scenario where fighting itself was impossible.

Moreover, if even a tiny bit of divine power remained in the two saintessns, I could still use one of my techniques.

“Princess and Yerim, don’t use your divine power until I tell you to.”

“What?”

“Understood!”

The princess made a puzzled expression at my words, but Yerim nodded immediately without asking.

The princess seemed to find my forceful instruction strange, as she had been taking care of a naive hero until now.

Still, with Yerim, who had worked with me before, there was no need for me to give separate warnings.

“When it’s urgent, just do as you’re told! You can get explanations later!”

At that time, Yerim would (well) explain it like she just did now.

Thus, we were able to finish assessing the situation before the Demon King finished speaking.

We had all been doing other things while the Demon King was talking earnestly, but I didn’t feel sorry for the Demon King.

Besides, we had heard everything the Demon King said.

Honestly, it was just self-praise that we didn’t even need to listen to, but we could infer one piece of information from those words.

That the Demon King had used magic to block the power of all dimensions connected to this place.

There was something that should have been felt in here from the beginning that couldn’t be felt.

It was an aura that should have been felt most strongly in this place, and one that had been pressing down on us until we entered here.

Namely, evil energy.

Just like the divine power bestowed by the gods, evil energy couldn’t be felt in here either.

Thanks to the Demon King’s words, my suspicion had become half-certain, so it was time to confirm.

Just as the Demon King’s words ended, I asked him directly.

“If you’ve cut off the connection with other dimensions to block divine power, wouldn’t the same be true for evil energy? Don’t tell me the Demon King can’t use evil energy anymore?”

[Of course. My power of evil energy also comes from another dimension, the demon realm. But it doesn’t matter. I am the King of Death with evil energy, but I am also the King of Mana, the God of Magic.]

Even in a situation where only bones remained, the Demon King’s confidence hadn’t changed.

Moreover, since he was speaking logically now, it was difficult to argue against it.

However, it was still unpleasant to hear for the listener.

So, as usual, I grumbled a bit without much thought.

“God of Magic my ass, you’ve been getting beaten by our mages every time.”

Of course, it was just an ordinary insult to an enemy, and not even a significant taunt.

But those words seemed to have properly touched the Demon King’s nerves.

[…I see. It was you lot who broke my magic. It was you who destroyed my gate, and you who stopped the great magic of merging dimensions. Yes, with you around, it would be difficult for me to be called the God of Magic.

Indeed, you must be eliminated. I was going to make the others my subordinates after their deaths and keep them by my side, except for the hero, but that won’t do. I’ll have to annihilate the others along with the hero.]

Suddenly, I felt sorry for my companions.

It seemed that there might have been a chance to continue life even after death, but I had apparently blown that away.

“Judging by your expression, you’re not thinking something strange again, are you? Sir Knight sometimes has odd thoughts.”

Somehow knowing, Yerim interjected from beside me.

Certainly, now wasn’t the time for irrelevant thoughts…

[Very well. Let’s settle everything here and now. Both the pawns of the gods and those who interfere with my magic.]

With those words, the Demon King raised his hand.

Massive mana began to gather in the Demon King’s skeletal hand that emerged from within his robe.

Whoosh.

The mana was so intense that it created a strong wind in the sealed underground plaza.

Absurdly, the wind created by mana was strong enough to make it difficult for the two powerless saintessns to keep their balance.

‘He might not be the God of Magic, but he could be the God of Mana.’

As I had such thoughts, our mages cast their spells.

“Spatial Severance!”

“Shield!”

“Wall of Wind! Wall of Water! Raise a Wall of Earth!”

Yelena’s spatial magic isolated us from our surroundings, followed by Irene’s barrier that enveloped us.

Finally, the magic called by Zahina surrounded us with walls of wind, water, and earth.

The mages had blocked our surroundings so densely that the Demon King couldn’t be seen, but unfortunately, those defensive walls didn’t last long.

[Go.]

All the defensive walls that the mages had worked hard to create crumbled at the Demon King’s gesture.

The Demon King released the mana he had gathered in both hands with that gesture.

That released mana created just one spell.

Dispel.

The earth wall crumbled, the water scattered, and the wind subsided.

The severed space shattered, and Irene, who had spread the shield, coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground.

“My goodness… What absurd… This isn’t even a proper dispel spell.”

As her deployed magic was destroyed in an instant, Yelena looked at the Demon King with an incredulous face.

The Demon King seemed to enjoy seeing the mage look at him with a surprised face.

[With powerful mana, there’s no need to bother breaking magic formulas one by one. It’s enough to destroy everything with sheer force.]

Moreover, the mage looking at him with a surprised face was the one who had interfered with him several times.

It was natural for even a rational Demon King to feel good when such a mage was staring at him in a daze.

[From now on, this space will be dominated by my mana. I’ll show you now that even with high magical knowledge, you can’t do anything if you lack mana quantity.]

Perhaps because of this, the Demon King showed me a small opening.

From the moment we entered this room, powerful mana had been spread around the Demon King.

It couldn’t be seen with the eyes, but thanks to mana detection, I could feel it.

That mana was the kind felt when creating a powerful defensive wall.

Without divine power, it would be difficult to immediately penetrate such a defensive wall.

So I had been watching for an opening all along, and only now could I move.

“There’s not just mages here!”

Perhaps because the Demon King was talking so enthusiastically, I couldn’t help but say something as I rushed towards him.

As expected, the Demon King snorted at my words.

[How ridiculous. A mere knight who isn’t even a hero!]

If it had been the former hero who was an apprentice knight before becoming a hero, or other heroes, the Demon King’s words would have been correct.

But I was a proper knight even before becoming a hero.

A free knight who had fought against the Demon King’s army for years, and a swordsman who had mastered swordsmanship.

And a Sword Master recognized by the Empire.

Sword energy rose from my sword.

[Sword energy? How?]

At the Demon King’s surprised words, I also snorted as I swung my sword.

[If you have mana, you don’t need divine power. You can just destroy everything with mana.]

The difference in mana between the Demon King and me was extreme, but I threw back the words the Demon King had just said.

Along with those words, I also delivered the sword energy.

I pushed the sword energy into the opening the Demon King had created.

Crack!

The opening in the mana. The sword energy that pierced the gap in the barrier broke through the robe and shattered the Demon King’s bones.

A splendid sound was made, but I couldn’t help but frown.

I had clearly stabbed where the heart should be, but only the sound of bones breaking was heard.

It seemed that this Demon King’s heart or core was not in the place I had thought.

[Impressive. Did you notice that small gap? And such swordsmanship and mana. Who would have thought a Sword Master-level knight would become a hero? Is that possible?]

The Demon King let out a surprised groan as he hurriedly retreated.

I couldn’t chase after the retreating Demon King.

The small opening I had just seen disappeared immediately, and I saw the broken bones quickly regenerate through the torn robe.

[I underestimated the opponent who pushed me this far. Are you a hero after all? Very well, I’ll face you properly.]

It had been a decisive strike, but it seemed I had only irritated the Demon King unnecessarily.

Thanks to that, the Demon King raised his hand towards me first.

Once again, the Demon King’s magic poured out.

This time, towards me.

The magic of the God of Magic pressed down on me.