Chapter 239 – Battle with the Demon King (3)

With the addition of another divine power, the storm of evil energy that we had barely been holding back was now being diverted much further away.

It was now at a level where we didn’t need to desperately block it anymore.

We all looked at our companion who had suddenly emitted this new divine power.

Zahina, who had suddenly revealed divine power, was staring blankly at her wooden ring while conversing with someone.

“But I’ve already been cut off from my race and the Mother Tree. Someone like me, an exile, cannot take on such a position.”

She appeared to be talking to the ring.

However, both I and the others seemed to understand who she was speaking with.

The sudden appearance of divine power, the wooden ring she was looking at, and her race.

In the end, her conversation partner could only be the Divine Tree.

In truth, it was unbelievable.

Just because the Demon King had restored the connection with other dimensions, Zahina had somehow connected with the tree god in the land of the Divine Tree.

Moreover, as she said, Zahina was an exile who had been cut off from her own race.

“It doesn’t matter? You say it has nothing to do with that connection? But wasn’t the connection between the Divine Tree and the clan the very identity of our Divine Tree race?”

But it seemed that for the Divine Tree connected to Zahina, such connections didn’t matter.

And I could guess what Zahina was discussing with the Divine Tree.

“Ah, I see. In that case… I understand. I accept. I will become the first daughter of all Divine Trees.”

Whoosh!

With those words, the divine power flowing from Zahina’s body intensified even more.

Now it was divine power equal in magnitude to that of the other two saintesses.

It was a form of divine power I had never felt before, but it was clearly divine power created from the divine power of the Divine Trees.

“My goodness… Could it be that Zahina unnie has also become a saintess?”

At Yerim’s question, Zahina, who had been examining the divine power, thought for a moment and then nodded.

“By Earth or Ea standards… Yes, that’s right. It seems I’ve become the first daughter of all Divine Trees. A saintess.”

Everyone showed slightly complex but still happy expressions at Zahina’s words.

Although the sudden turn of events was utterly bewildering, Zahina becoming a saintess was still good news.

Moreover, at a time like this, it was an invaluable gift.

Of course, everyone, including myself, was curious about how Zahina had become a saintess, but Zahina didn’t seem inclined to explain right now.

“It seems they had their reasons for choosing me. But now doesn’t seem to be the time to explain that.”

Zahina was right.

At this moment, the Demon King, who had converted all his mana into evil energy, was becoming accustomed to his strengthened evil energy.

The Demon King, who had been bent over simply emitting evil energy, was slowly rising to his feet.

Yet the evil energy he was emitting hadn’t diminished at all.

He had simply adapted to the overflowing evil energy and could now move with it.

Thanks to the time it took for the Demon King to adjust to the evil energy, Zahina had been able to become a saintess, but I wished we had a little more time—it was quite regrettable that time was so short.

Still, the Demon King didn’t seem to have fully adapted yet.

If that was the case, it was still our turn.

“All saintesses, including Zahina, support me with divine power! Mages, provide magical support too!”

At my words, the saintesses snapped to attention and quickly sent divine power to me.

Woong.

A divine power shield spread around my body.

Meliya’s divine power, full of inclusiveness, Yerim’s direct and fiery divine power, and another divine power overflowing with life force surrounded me.

With the divine power of three saintesses enveloping me, the powerful evil energy pouring down was pushed aside.

Indeed, with the divine power of three saintesses, I could block the evil energy sufficiently without using my own divine power.

I channeled the divine power I had been using to block the evil energy into my sword instead.

And once again, I rushed toward where the Demon King stood.

The Demon King, who had already retreated toward the wall to avoid my attack, seemed to have nowhere left to escape.

Whoosh!

Wind blades flew in front of me as I charged, followed by spells cast by Yelena and Irene that poured down on the Demon King.

Unfortunately, all those spells were blocked by the evil energy pouring out from the Demon King and faded away in vain.

Just as powerful mana could overwhelm the mana of spells, the evil energy was overwhelming the spells as well.

Absurdly, the creators of these spells that couldn’t withstand the Demon King’s evil energy were all considered grand mages.

That’s how extraordinary the Demon King’s evil energy was right now.

But even such extraordinary evil energy couldn’t block the divine power shield created by the three saintesses.

I continued to advance forward through the evil energy, like cutting through waves.

Right up to where the Demon King stood.

And once again, I thrust my sword.

Unlike before, this attack was properly infused with divine power.

This attack couldn’t be blocked like the previous one.

Whoosh!

As I expected, the sword burned through the evil energy surrounding the Demon King and pierced his body.

The sword, precisely embedded in his chest.

From the sword that had pierced the Demon King’s body, flames rose again.

I continued to channel divine power through the embedded sword.

Divine power from two dimensions alternately poured into the Demon King’s body.

Whoosh!

The flames engulfed the Demon King’s entire body.

The flames were so intense that the Demon King almost looked like a god of fire.

But even in this situation, the Demon King neither dodged nor screamed.

He simply raised his head that had been lowered.

And the Demon King moved his burning jawbone as he looked at me.

[I should have done this from the beginning. It was a mistake not to let go of magic because of memories from when I was alive.]

The voice the Demon King sent through message magic was extremely calm.

He began examining his burning arm, and as the Demon King watched, the flames on his arm started to die out.

No, it wasn’t that the flames were dying out, but that the divine power was being consumed by the evil energy.

Divine power being consumed by evil energy.

And not just ordinary divine power, but a hero’s divine power directly bestowed by the gods.

“Impossible. For a hero’s divine power, the divine power of the gods, to be overwhelmed by the Demon King…”

From behind, I heard Princess Meliya’s groan as she witnessed this scene.

Indeed, as she said, it was hard to believe.

A sight that no previous hero’s party had ever seen.

Even the Demon King who had killed the previous generation’s hero hadn’t overcome the hero’s divine power.

He had merely used Earth’s weapons.

Even then, the hero’s divine power hadn’t been overwhelmed by evil energy.

But I couldn’t ignore the scene before my eyes just because it was hard to believe.

The Demon King’s evil energy had now become strong enough to overcome a hero’s divine power.

The divine power flames that had enveloped the Demon King gradually subsided.

The Demon King’s body was covered with evil energy instead of divine power flames, and that evil energy, even while extinguishing all the divine power flames, was trying to attack me.

“Damn it.”… I clicked my tongue and retreated, withdrawing my sword.

As I pulled out the sword, the remaining flames were all extinguished.

The torn robe and shattered bones were all filled in with black evil energy.

[Now I understand. Why I and other Demon Kings were called Demon Kings and not Demon Gods all this time. It was because we lacked evil energy.]

The Demon King said this as he lowered his skeletal hand.

Rumble.

Simultaneously, the ground shook, and skeletal arms burst through the floor.

I quickly swung my sword to cut down the emerging arm bones, but the places where arm bones sprouted weren’t just around me.

Arm bones had burst through the ground throughout the entire underground plaza.

“Earth, please bury these bones!”

“Spatial Cutter! Cut them down!”

[The divine power doesn’t burn them immediately! These aren’t ordinary skeletons!]

My companions behind me frantically cast spells and sprinkled divine power, but unlike before, the skeletons didn’t fall immediately.

Instead, they moved their broken arms to pull out their skulls, then dragged the rest of their bodies out.

What emerged from the ground weren’t ordinary skeletons but undead almost on par with death knights.

These weren’t undead that had been buried here, but undead created by the Demon King with evil energy.

Perhaps because he couldn’t create armor, their defense was inferior to death knights, but still, their black bones were on a completely different level from ordinary skeletons.

In the end, I had to return to where my party members were to help my companions.

While I swung my sword to defeat the attacking skeleton knights, the Demon King continued to create undead with his overflowing evil energy.

[This energy, this evil energy, was not meant to be used to turn living beings into undead. It was meant to be used to directly create a race of death.]

The Demon King, enveloped in black evil energy, continued to create wraiths, skeletons, and corpses.

Absurdly, among the corpses the Demon King created were some I recognized.

There were corpses of knights and soldiers who had fought alongside me against the Demon King’s army.

“Ah… the knights…”

It seemed my companions also recognized some of the corpses.

Princess Meliya’s face turned pale as she saw the corpses being created, and both Irene and Yelena were frozen stiff.

The only ones who seemed relatively fine were Yerim and Zahina.

The people Yerim knew were from Earth, and the Demon King wasn’t summoning Earth people.

Of course, there were no elves visible either, but that didn’t mean Zahina didn’t know any of these people.

“The previous hero’s party has returned.”

I could see the previous saintess and knights we had defeated on Earth being recreated.

Unlike before, the knights returned not as skeletons but as corpses, and the saintess was created not as the Demon King’s saintess, but as a mindless corpse.

The underground plaza, though not small, was filled with undead.

A field of corpses with familiar faces appearing here and there.

[To commemorate my becoming the God of Death, the Demon God, I have revived those you know.

Now, how about catching up on old times? Enjoy your reunion, and then all of you can become my subjects.]

Calling himself a Demon God because he could create corpses revived with evil energy.

It sounded plausible, but it was ridiculous.

“The corpses aren’t even alive, what kind of Demon God is that?”

I mocked the Demon King while frantically swinging my sword at the approaching undead.

Far from being a Demon God, this time he just had more evil energy instead of mana. The problem was that I could only mock him with words.

Because there was no end to the killing.

It was useless to chop up the skeleton knights that were close to death knights.

It was the same with slicing through flying wraiths and smashing familiar faces.

The Demon King continued to create undead with his overflowing evil energy.

[Just die, buried under them.]

Moreover, the Demon King now stood at a distance, merely sending undead.

As the Demon King said, at this rate, we would run out of strength and become corpses.

That couldn’t happen.

And it wouldn’t happen.

After swinging my sword to cut off the face of a decaying knight, I turned my head to look at Zahina.

At that moment, Zahina was also looking at me.

Zahina looking at me with a surprised face.

“How? Did you know?”

“It’s obvious! Do it now! There’s no time!”

At my words, Zahina extended her hand toward me.

And she asked:

“The Divine Tree has decided to appoint a warrior to act on its behalf. Knight Egger, will you become the warrior of the Divine Tree?”

A question unlike her.

I knew what that question meant.

It was the question a god asks when appointing a hero.

I answered.

“Yes!”

Another divine power poured into me.