A burning heat tore through his abdomen.
It felt as if every nerve in his body had been scorched and his brain was melting.
Alex looked at Enya’s face, now right in front of him, with a fading gaze.
“Sorry.”
He gave up on swinging his sword at the very end.
He knew full well that doing so would have been foolish.
He knew, and yet he still chose it.
“Back then or now...”
Red blood trickled down Alex’s lips.
“I guess I’m still a foolish bastard.”
Maybe he had been a little selfish.
Maybe he had asked someone else to carry his suffering for him.
But then and now, Alex’s choices had always been the same.
He chose to bear every wound himself.
“Hurts like hell.”
He thought he had experienced enough ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) pain in life, but the agony of a blade lodged in his stomach went far beyond imagination.
All he could do was barely suppress the urge to scream out.
Alex let out a faint laugh.
He thought he was dying... then a conversation he once had with Ludger resurfaced.
‘Leader. Leader, you once told me to stop hurting myself. Because it was too sad of a thing to do.’
He could speak so sincerely because Ludger had gone through something similar.
No—now that Alex knew his true identity, could it even be called similar?
He must have experienced horrors far worse than Alex ever had.
‘Leader was right. It is a sad and foolish thing. But you know, Leader... you told me that, yet in the end, you still haven’t managed to fix that part of yourself either.’
Becoming the Demon King fighting against the world proved as much.
‘In the end, you and I were just fools.’
That realization hurt him deeply.
The thought that people like them would never be rewarded and would simply disappear like this.
Srrrk.
The blade lodged in his stomach was pulled out.
Alex’s legs gave out, and he slowly collapsed backward.
He shifted his gaze toward Enya.
“Ah.”
Enya, who should have been expressionless under brainwashing, was now visibly distressed.
“Wh... why am I...?”
Her trembling eyes darted between her blood-stained sword and Alex, lying collapsed on the ground.
“I... I didn’t mean to...”
The pure-white ring gripping Enya’s mind gleamed even more intensely.
The panic on her face was erased once more—like a mask being pulled down over her expression.
The one controlling Enya issued a command.
Finish off the fallen man.
Shiver.
Enya lifted her sword with trembling hands.
Even if she tried to resist the command, her body rebelled violently.
Her expression twisted.
She seemed emotionless, yet she was terrified... and grieving.
A tear streamed down one of her eyes and slid along her cheek.
No sound came out, but Alex could feel Enya screaming silently.
“So this is the price of chasing romance, huh.”
Facing death, Alex smiled in a strange kind of enlightenment.
Images of his comrades flashed through his mind. He felt sorry for all of them.
But more than anything, it was Ludger who weighed on his heart.
“Leader.”
Alex forced his blood-soaked lips to move.
“Don’t... become like me.”
Enya’s sword descended toward Alex’s neck.
* * *
Ludger, who had been cutting down holy knights and priests, abruptly turned his head.
“Alex?”
For a moment, it felt like he heard Alex’s voice.
Of course, that was impossible. Alex was far below, fighting the Crusaders in the First Checkpoint City.
Hearing his voice here, in the middle of this brutal battle, could only be an auditory hallucination.
But that was why Ludger felt uneasy.
Perhaps something had happened to Alex.
He understood the possibility.
In a war like this, hoping that no one would be sacrificed was pure greed.
Even the comrades who had survived everything together were in grave danger.
Even if he had gathered people who wouldn’t die easily, the same rules applied.
But Ludger’s thoughts couldn’t continue.
Far ahead, more of Lumenis’s fanatics appeared, blocking his path.
“Pathetic dogs.”
Armed with fanaticism and hatred, they charged him knowing they would die.
In fact, they seemed to desire death in this holy war—believing that throwing their lives at the Demon King would bring glorious closure to their faith.
It was ironic.
Some fought desperately to live, while others sought death to prove their devotion.
Of course, Ludger had no intention of sparing them or correcting their misguided beliefs.
In the end, it was kill or be killed.
That was war.
“Dealing with each and every one of you is a waste of time. I’ll end this at once.”
Ludger dispersed mana around him.
Another 7th-Circle spell was forming.
* * *
Clang!
The strike that should have cut through Alex’s neck was blocked by a massive greatsword.
Alex, who had fully expected to die, rolled his eyes upward to see who had saved him.
Terrina Lionhowl.
She had stopped Enya’s downward strike with Giant Killer.
Alex could not ask why.
Terrina’s eyes—fixed on Enya—looked ready to explode at the slightest provocation.
Enya’s unfocused gaze shifted to Terrina.
Her lips moved—not by her own will, but under the will of the one brainwashing her.
“What do you think you are doing, Commander Terrina Lionhowl? You, who should be leading the Crusaders, are protecting the Demon King’s subordinate?”
“......”
“Such conduct is outright treason. Before you are even court-martialed, immediate execution would be justified.”
“Immediate execution, is it.”
Terrina’s lips twisted.
“You really love saying ridiculous things, don’t you? You brainwash my precious lieutenant without permission, and now you dare interfere with my fight?”
“How strange. Thanks to me, you won, did you not? With your skill, you could not have defeated this man. Because of me, unnecessary casualties were avoided. Your attitude is baffling. It is neither rational nor logical.”
The one borrowing Enya’s body—the Cardinal of Lumenis—spoke.
“You are the Empire’s Protector, are you not? You belong to the Security Bureau and lead the Nightcrawler Knights who deal with criminals. Someone like you should understand exactly what I am saying.”
“Oh, I know very well. To minimize casualties and win battles with as little loss as possible, sometimes one must set aside human sentiment.”
“And yet you still stand in my way?”
“I should be the one asking. What do you see when you look at me?”
Murderous intent surged from Terrina’s body like a rising tide.
“Do you see me as a puppet you can order around as you please? Do you see my lieutenant... my subordinates... as tools you can twist and break however you like?”
Crack, crack, crack.
Giant Killer pushed Enya’s sword aside.
“Clean out your ears and listen. I am human. Fundamentally different from scum like you who sees people as tools.”
“So you intend to oppose me now?”
“I never liked you to begin with. But do you know what infuriates me the most?”
Terrina’s eyes widened—glaring not at Enya, but at the presence hiding behind her.
“You made my precious lieutenant shed tears.”
“It seems the Empire’s fate has reached its end. For the Protector to act so emotionally, its future is clear.”
“I can see your future clearly.”
The brainwashed knights who had encircled Alex began shifting to surround Terrina instead.
But the Nightcrawler Knights moved to block them, shielding their commander.
Their expressions were grim.
Even brainwashed, the attackers were still their comrades.
It made swinging their swords unbearably difficult.
But the opposition felt no such hesitation.
They swung their blades without the slightest hesitation, cutting down the brainwashed knights as if no moral burden existed.
Armed with sacred power, they were far stronger than ordinary knights. Even with the Nightcrawler Knights’ superior numbers, a fair fight was impossible.
And yet the Nightcrawler Knights stepped forward anyway.
Because the thought this is not right would not leave their minds.
“As the commander is, so are the subordinates. Perhaps it isn’t such a bad end—for someone like you to die by the hand of your loyal lieutenant.”
The Cardinal controlling Enya spewed such filth while pouring sacred power into Enya’s blade.
Golden holy light flared brilliantly, melting nearby building rubble the moment it touched.
“I wonder if you have the courage to cut down your own lieutenant.”
“Did you not hear what I said? I have no intention of injuring my proud lieutenant.”
“And yet you dare fight me?”
“Of course. That is why I drew my sword.”
“A laughable claim. You cannot even strike me.”
“I cannot.”
Terrina spoke as if acknowledging it.
“But I can do this.”
“...!”
Sensing something sinister hidden beneath Terrina’s words, the Cardinal urgently scanned his surroundings.
Cunning and quick-witted, his reaction was fast—but still too late.
Others had already moved before him.
“Disciple!”
“Understood!”
Two shadows dropped from the sky, swinging their weapons at a perfectly synchronized moment.
Surrendering wind, steel slashed—and something was cut.
At the same instant, the brainwashed Nightcrawler Knights collapsed like puppets with their strings severed.
“What!”
The only one who did not fall was Enya—the body directly controlled by the Cardinal.
But his voice carried unmistakable shock.
“You cut our divine authority?”
He had every reason to be shocked.
The intruders had sliced apart the halo of light floating above the knights’ heads—the very rings of brainwashing.
A thing that should not have been physically cut or destroyed.
It was not material. It was a spiritual “blessing”—a form of divine brainwashing.
Yet a single slash had shattered it as if it were brittle glass.
As the ring vanished, the brainwashing ended.
The halo above Enya’s head also cracked and dimmed, fading rapidly.
It was unbelievable.
Cutting the uncuttable? How was that even possible?
“Wow. It actually worked?”
Mandelina, the one responsible, gave an honest reaction to her own achievement.
The thing she had sliced with her staff-blade was anti-magic.
Magic that nullifies all magic.
But now it had surpassed magic—it had affected divine authority.
“Master! We actually did it!”
“See? I told you it would work, didn’t I? Huh?”
“...For someone saying that, you seemed surprised yourself just now.”
“Wha—nonsense! As if I was!”
Normally, anti-magic alone could never show this level of effect.
Used by a single caster, anti-magic only nullifies magic, not divine power.
Mandelina’s inspiration came from the incident in the capital.
Back then, when she combined her anti-magic with Aidan’s, it briefly nullified Basara’s authority.
If the radiant rings brainwashing everyone were similar in nature to Basara’s black storm of power...
Then anti-magic might work.
All she needed was another anti-magic user beside her.
Two anti-magics, cast simultaneously, creating unpredictable synergy.
So she brought Aidan—and her hypothesis hit perfectly.
“Th-this is absurd!”
Enya—no, the Cardinal occupying her body—staggered.
Clutching at her face, he failed to accept the reality before him.
The light ring above his head flickered, threatening to vanish at any moment.
The reaction was far too intense for simple loss of brainwashing.
Terrina sensed instinctively that anti-magic had struck the Cardinal’s own mind as well.
“A powerful brainwashing authority... so the backlash returned straight to you.”
“Y-you...!”
The Cardinal could no longer form proper words.
The shock and hatred of the unexpected strike dissolved into nothing along with the ring of light.
The brainwashing was broken.
A glow returned to Enya’s once-blank eyes.
“Uh... uhh...”
Because she had already suffered a massive shock when the control first wavered, she understood immediately what state she was in.
She was finally free.
Before anyone could ask if she was alright, Enya moved.
Her feet carried her straight toward Alex.
Seeing Alex bleeding heavily from a deep stab wound, Enya froze in panic.
“A-Alex. B-Blood. You’re bleeding—there’s so much...”
“Enya.”
Alex’s lips were pale from blood loss.
“You... you look okay. Good.”
“D-don’t talk! I’ll stop the bleeding right now!”
Enya pressed a portable coagulant onto Alex’s wound, but it did nothing.
This was no ordinary wound—holy power was infused into it. No common emergency kit could help.
“A potion. I need a potion—”
She searched her pockets in desperation, only to pull out shards of a shattered potion bottle.
Everything had broken during the fight.
“So I die here.”
“Alex!”
“Still... it’s a relief. The last face I see is yours.”
Alex smiled faintly at Enya, who was sobbing uncontrollably.
Telling her it wasn’t her fault. Telling her not to worry.
“D-does anyone have a potion? Anyone at all, please!”
Some knights tossed their potions to her. Enya poured them over Alex’s wound—but holy-inflicted wounds did not heal.
At best, the potions barely elongated Alex’s fading lifespan.
Despair washed over Enya’s face.
“No... no. I still have so much I want to tell you...”
She said something, but Alex could no longer hear.
Her voice dissolved like sound sinking underwater.
His body felt weightless, numbness creeping from his fingertips.
So this is death.
His vision blurred, and he could no longer see Enya’s face.
The last thing Alex saw was—
A radiant, warm light that appeared suddenly in the empty air.