Chapter 241 – The End of the Battle (1)

[How?]

The Demon King, whose body had been cut in half, expressed his bewilderment.

As expected, even though his body was clearly split in two, the Demon King did not return to being a corpse.

Having abandoned his human body, he wouldn’t die unless his core was destroyed, just like other liches.

Knowing this, I didn’t stop my sword.

I needed to find and destroy the core before I lost this sensation, this ability to attack the enemy by transcending space.

I swung my sword in the opposite direction again, and continued to thrust my sword into the Demon King’s body.

Each time I swung my sword, the sword energy bypassed the evil energy surrounding the Demon King’s body and cut through him.

With his upper and lower body already separated, the Demon King’s arms were severed, and holes were punctured in his chest.

Simultaneously, flames erupted from the cut wounds.

This time, the robe covering the Demon King’s body couldn’t withstand it.

The flames burned the Demon King’s body—not just the bones, but the entire robe.

As the robe that covered his body disappeared, the bones were gradually exposed.

Those bones continued to be cut by my sword energy, but unfortunately, the severed bones didn’t fall to the ground.

This was because the evil energy surrounding the Demon King’s body was holding up the severed bones.

[I don’t understand. A sword that transcends space? Did the hero have such an ability? No, even if not a hero, did such a technique, such swordsmanship ever exist?]

The severed skull floating in the black evil energy moved its jaw as it looked at me.

It seemed the Demon King was amazed by my new technique, even as his body was being cut apart.

Well, even I who was using this technique now found it incredible.

An attack technique that surpassed the enemy’s defense.

I had never seen such swordsmanship on Earth or in Ea.

Moreover, this technique itself had nothing to do with the divine power of the three dimensions.

It was pure swordsmanship using mana, a human technique.

And that technique burned away the robe the Demon King was wearing, revealing where the core was.

After burning all the robe and continuously cutting the bones into pieces, the core finally revealed itself.

The core was deep in the neck bone, just below the Demon King’s skull.

A place that wouldn’t be visible unless the neck bone was cut away first with a sword.

My frantic cutting of the bones had paid off.

Whether surprised by the sword energy or damaged by the divine power attack, the Demon King still didn’t seem to realize that his core had been exposed.

Instead, the Demon King was reflexively restoring the severed bones.

That’s why the form was still maintained despite my frantic cutting of the bones.

It was all because of that terrifying evil energy.

This was also why the Demon King was surprised by my space-transcending sword but not afraid.

If the core hadn’t been in that body, the Demon King might have been invincible because of that evil energy.

But the Demon King couldn’t do that.

He couldn’t have hidden the core elsewhere and used magic to disconnect from the outside.

So I was certain that the Demon King’s core was inside that body.

Just as I could see with my own eyes now.

“There it is!”

With those words, I pushed all the power I had into my sword.

Instead of infusing the three connected divine powers in sequence, I simply pushed all the divine power and mana into the sword at once.

Craaack!

If it had been any other sword, it would have shattered at this moment.

Even my sword, which was supposed to never break, wasn’t intact.

Fine cracks spread throughout the entire sword, and divine power and mana leaked profusely from these cracks.

The moment I pushed power into the sword, my body and mana circuits were also ruined.

It was no wonder that the pathway was damaged when I pushed in power that my body could barely handle.

A wound that couldn’t be healed in a short time.

But I didn’t think about the aftermath.

Anyway, the sensation I had created by downing those potions was gradually fading.

In the end, it was a forced awakening following Hoffman’s example.

Such an awakening couldn’t last.

This was my last chance.

I pushed the gradually breaking sword with all my might toward the Demon King surrounded by evil energy.

Perhaps sensing the threat from my sword, the evil energy surrounding the Demon King grew thicker, but I didn’t stop my sword.

As the sword energy bursting from my sword was about to touch the evil energy, once again the sword energy transcended space.

Bypassing the evil energy protecting the Demon King, the sword energy penetrated the Demon King’s neck bone.

Sword energy directly striking the black orb in the neck bone.

Crack!

I thought I heard such a sound when the sword and the orb made contact.

And the next moment, the sword energy split the orb, and the small orb caused a tremendous explosion.

Booooom!

Literally, evil energy exploded outward.

“Ugh!”

Even I, who was right in front, was caught in the explosion and thrown backward.

I could feel the walls shattering, the ceiling collapsing, and the floor breaking.

‘Surely I’m not going to die?’

The impact was so great that such a thought crossed my mind as I was thrown backward.

The pain wasn’t even felt as I flew all the way to the back wall and collided with it.

My entire body must have been shattered at that moment.

If I hadn’t possessed divine power, I certainly would have died on the spot.

But fortunately, I had divine power.

And not just any divine power—I was a hero with divine power from three dimensions.

After hitting the wall, I was able to regain consciousness quickly.

“Is, is everyone alright?”

My shout of concern for my companions sounded strange.

It seemed my throat hadn’t fully recovered yet.

Upon checking, it wasn’t just my throat that hadn’t recovered.

When I touched it, there were gaping holes in my neck and face, and my left arm was missing.

My armor was also in such a mess that it was unusable.

It was armor from the imperial treasury, but it seems even such armor couldn’t withstand this explosion of evil energy.

Fortunately, the holes in my neck and face were rapidly filling in.

In the underground plaza where black evil energy was swirling.

No longer could I sense the Demon King’s presence in this plaza.

Not with mana detection, not with my heightened senses.

‘Could it be that I’ve defeated the Demon King?’

With such thoughts, I checked on my companions.

Fortunately, I could sense the mana of all my companions.

It seemed no one had died.

This was also evident from the voices I heard.

“I, I’m alive.”

Following Yerim’s words,

“I’m fine too.”

The princess’s voice was heard.

“I’m safe as well.”

“I haven’t died either.”

After that, Zahina and Yelena’s voices were also heard, and finally, Irene’s voice came through.

“Um, I, I’m okay too.”

Though her tone and voice were no different from before, I checked the sword I was holding.

A sword that was supposed to never break, now half-shattered.

Unfortunately, this sword seemed like it would only last for one more swing.

‘Will the Emperor scold me…?’ Or maybe the princess would.

I threw away the shattered armor and stood up.

Whoosh.

As I rose, the evil energy that had filled the room also disappeared.

The ruined underground plaza came into view.

The place where the Demon King had been looked as if a massive bomb had exploded.

The ground was deeply cratered, and the high ceiling was half-destroyed.

Other places were also in ruins.

The wall behind me was also shattered, covered in blood, perhaps from my collision.

The undead created by the Demon King had all turned back into corpses.

The same was true for the Demon King.

Despite the massive explosion, bones remained at the spot where the Demon King had been.

Clearly the Demon King’s body, the Demon King’s bones.

Not a trace of mana or evil energy remained in those bones.

The Demon King’s bones had returned to being a corpse.

All my companions were safe.

Though they all looked disheveled as if they had been rolling on the floor, no one seemed seriously injured.

It was probably because, unlike me, they had properly set up defensive barriers.

My companions, who had just barely gotten up like me, were not gathered in one place but were standing in a strange formation.

“What are you all doing?”

As they stood up, all my companions were positioned as if surrounding Irene.

There was one empty spot, but that was my place.

I moved to fill the empty spot.

Irene looked around at us with a surprised face.

My companions were extending their hands toward Irene with stern expressions.

It was as if they were about to attack Irene.

“Master, I’m scared. Why is everyone acting like this toward me?”

Irene spoke to Yelena with a frightened face, but Yelena tilted her head with a serious expression as she looked at Irene.

“It seems like it read the memories, but couldn’t copy the personality?”

“Maybe it chose the wrong person. It seems to have underestimated Mage Irene.”

Zahina added to Yelena’s words.

“Why are you all acting like this?”

Irene looked at the two mages with a frightened face at their words.

Yelena coldly asked in response to her question:

“Why do you think we’re acting this way?”

“I don’t know.”

Yelena told Irene what she had done wrong as Irene shook her head.

“That’s not right. If it were Irene, she would have figured out the reason.”

Listening to the mages’ conversation, I nodded.

“This isn’t the rational and logical Demon King from earlier.”

The princess answered my words.

“It’s because he lost his body. It’s probably some kind of evil spirit or remnant of the Demon King.”

The Irene surrounded by us now wasn’t the genius girl we knew.

No, Irene was the same, but the one answering now wasn’t Irene.

As the princess said, the one speaking through Irene’s mouth was the Demon King, or rather, the ghost of the Demon King.

The Demon King who had lost his core and body.

Befitting the God of Death, even after losing his core, he hadn’t vanished but had seeped into someone else’s body.

It was impressive that he hadn’t vanished in the final moment and had entered Irene’s body, but the Demon King had chosen the wrong person.

“There’s no point in continuing to pretend. Irene would never speak like that. It’s impossible for the Demon King to imitate an Earth human, especially a genius girl who survived in the Apocalypse world.”

At my words, Irene, or rather the Demon King, silently lowered her head.

We tensely drew upon our divine power and mana.

Was it because he was the Demon King?

Unfortunately, not even a trace of evil energy could be felt from Irene.

It seemed unaffected by the divine power of the heroes and holy maidens.

“Why did he choose to parasitize Irene?”

I could think of several reasons for Yerim’s question.

First, it would have been impossible for even the Demon King’s ghost to enter the bodies of holy maidens and heroes with divine power, so there were only two people here that the Demon King’s ghost could enter.

Yelena and Irene.

The Demon King chose Irene, who appeared weaker and younger of the two.

But the Demon King had underestimated Irene too much.

At that moment, the Demon King, who had been hanging his head, opened his mouth.

“I didn’t expect to be found out.”

Irene, or rather the Demon King, raised her head.

Her expression was completely different from Irene’s usual expression.

“So will you kill her? This child? This child who left her world and followed you all, trusting you?”

After looking around at us with a mocking face, she quickly changed her expression.

“The Demon King is hiding deep inside. It’s fortunate. You just need to kill me. Please kill me.”

Speaking in a calm voice, it was Irene, not the Demon King.

And I raised my sword at her words.