Chapter 5
I looked around the area where the artifacts were displayed.
It would be difficult to just take the Heart of the Demon and leave like this.
But the finish line was right in front of me, and I couldn't give up that easily.
There had to be a way.
At that moment my eyes landed on the numerous artifacts exhibited in the main hall.
If this place displayed the largest number of artifacts in the country, there might be something here that could weaken the power of the Heart of the Demon.
Oh, right.
Before entering the main hall I had subdued some guards and taken a few potions.
I couldn't be sure they would work in reality.
The temptation the Heart of the Demon sent felt, in a way, like a status ailment.
If there was a potion that could remove or nullify status ailments for a certain time, maybe I could carry the Heart of the Demon out safely?
I had to check, but they had said the items were going to be auctioned, so they were very unlikely to be replicas.
I didn't have much time left.
It was uncertain when the unconscious White Witch would wake, and by now the Hero Association had probably noticed my intrusion.
Soon, several heroes would arrive to capture me.
This was not the time to hesitate about whether it would work or not.
I took out the pouch of potions I had hidden in the darkness.
Please, be there, please...!
A blue potion came into my sight.
That was it.
A status-ailment immunity potion.
Its exact name was Mind Protector.
I hurriedly opened the cap and downed the potion in one gulp.
It slid down my throat with a strange swallow.
Thick and familiar sweetness.
It tasted like watermelon.
But I didn't feel anything different.
Still, it was a potion, and with a cool name like Mind Protector I expected some flashy effect or change — but there was no effect, nothing at all.
There was only one way to find out.
I reached for the Heart of the Demon that had fallen to the floor.
“Hmm.”
Different. Clearly different.
The moment I gripped the Heart of the Demon I instantly dismissed my doubts about the potion.
I still wanted to take the Heart of the Demon, but the urge wasn't as severe as before.
If before it had felt like I would die without it, now it was just that I didn't want to let it go from my hand.
This was something I could endure.
That solved the problem of taking the Heart of the Demon.
All that remained was escaping safely.
I wrapped myself in darkness again.
Because my magic was low it couldn't take the form of armor.
Even so, it was enough that they couldn't tell who I was.
I stepped toward the exit of the museum.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets suddenly slotted into the floor at my feet and I had no choice but to stop moving.
They were already here.
Because I had expended too much stamina fighting the White Witch, I hadn't realized the heroes were surrounding me.
A careless mistake.
I spread the little remaining mana and scanned the area.
They hadn't shown themselves, but I detected three people.
If I were at full strength maybe I could handle it, but in my current state facing three heroes at once was too much.
Completely exhausting my mana earlier had been a reckless move.
Then I felt movement behind me.
“He was already dying, huh.”
One of the heroes who had been hiding struck with a sneak attack.
A sword aimed at my head came down fiercely.
Since I had been concentrating on the opponent's movements from the moment I sensed them, responding wasn't difficult.
I twisted my waist and caught the blade, pulling it toward me.
When I pulled the sword the attacker had brought down with greater force, the flow of his strength was taken and his balance completely collapsed.
I didn't miss the opening.
Thwack!
“Ughhh!”
My fist pierced his solar plexus, his body arched like a bow, and he flew away far off.
My movements were a beat slower than I expected.
Countless bullets rained through the air during that brief moment, and attacks from other hidden heroes poured in.
They weren't as powerful as the White Witch, but they were still overwhelmingly burdensome for me right now.
The hail of bullets was annoying, and one of them I couldn't see.
One of them shot from afar. The other attacked while concealed.
Their bullets began to pierce my defenses.
A stinging pain hit my thigh and blood splattered.
A bullet had gone through.
Once I allowed one attack, it became even harder to defend against the subsequent strikes.
Blood flowed under attacks I couldn't see.
My health and mana were at the bottom.
The situation was utterly desperate.
To make matters worse, I heard numerous footsteps from outside.
Damn...
Could it be the guards had already fully recovered?
It was already hard enough; if even the guards arrived it would be a straight path to a bad ending.
Well, the game hadn't even started so maybe it wasn't an ending yet.
Armored troops poured out of the main hall's front doors like an ant swarm.
Clack.
In an instant the guards who had formed ranks surrounded me and leveled their muzzles at me.
“Surrender immediately. Devil Knight!”
Even in such a desperate situation I felt embarrassed at being called Devil Knight. I must have really lost it.
I slowly raised my hands to show I surrendered.
“What are you waiting for. Kill him now!”
“He raided the artifacts that were going to be auctioned! If you shoot him now, the artifacts for auction…”
A small argument broke out between the heroes and the guards about how to handle things later.
Now's my chance.
I wasn't about to die quietly.
I slowly fell to my knees, clutching the Heart of the Demon so tightly it felt as though it might shatter in my grasp.
Blood streamed from my wounds, running down my arm and soaking into the Heart of the Demon.
Thump.
A fierce pain erupted in my chest as the Heart of the Demon began to pulse rapidly.
An unending thirst and an indescribable sense of fulfillment struck me at the same time.
Even the protection of the Mind Protector potion I had stolen from the guards began to feel meaningless in the face of this overwhelming urge.
My dried-up mana surged like a tide, and an endless wave of euphoria consumed me.
My body burned hot, as if I were about to ignite, and the pain twisted into pleasure that rattled every nerve.
The inexhaustible mana pouring out from the Heart of the Demon filled me to the brim — I could barely contain it.
If I didn’t release this uncontrollable desire, I felt like my body would explode with a pop.
The solution was simple.
To tear apart and slaughter the enemies before me.
To ravage and toy with them in the most brutal ways I knew.
My head grew hazy, and my body began to move on its own.
My wounds had long since healed, and the darkness shrouding me deepened, becoming pitch black.
I slowly rose to my feet yet none of them dared to move.
No, they couldn’t.
I could feel what they felt.
The terror flickering in their trembling eyes, the suffocating pressure of prey before a predator.
Every emotion they felt seeped into me, as if it were my own.
Then, from among the guards, a scream-like command erupted.
“F-Fire! Everyone, fire!!”
Tatatatatang!
The muzzles surrounding me all flared at once.
A desperate command and a barrage of bullets.
Their pathetic struggle looked almost adorable.
Countless bullets riddled my body.
Chest, head, abdomen, arms, legs — holes opened everywhere, and blood gushed out, spilling onto the floor.
Soon, the rain of bullets ceased, and silence followed.
No one, except me, could even breathe. Their bodies trembled where they stood.
“Why? Y-you can still keep trying... Struggle all you want…”
My words slurred the bullets embedded in my face made speaking difficult.
I must have looked miserable.
My whole body was riddled with holes, blood and entrails threatening to spill from torn flesh.
Yet looking at their trembling, terrified faces. I couldn’t keep the corners of my mouth from curling upward.
The darkness cloaking me gathered my flowing blood and filled in my wounds, restoring my body.
I hadn’t even bothered to block their attacks because I wanted to see those faces.
When I took a slow step toward them, the guards collapsed to their knees.
Even those who called themselves heroes could do nothing but freeze in place, trembling.
The sight of them drowning in despair and fear — it was breathtaking.
If I could, I would have turned them to stone, preserving their expressions for eternity in display.
Kwah-gang!
A tremendous explosion suddenly pierced through my body.
A white bolt of lightning.
So, the princess from dreamland had awakened.
I wanted to see that face filled with fear and despair.
As I slowly turned my head, I saw her: a disheveled mess.
The hair that once reached her waist was partly burned away, clumped with blood and dust.
She was barely breathing, yet she glared at me with defiant eyes.
“Did you sleep well, princess?”
“……”
When she drew forth a surge of blinding lightning, her body blazed as she charged at me.
But her struggling was no different from a moth flying into a flame.
When I caught her by the throat, her body reverted back.
Someone like her wouldn’t fall easily into despair.
But her end that was a future already written.
Even if I did nothing, she would crumble in time, drowning in her own despair.
“Khuh… keh, keh!”
Even so, her eyes still burned with fighting spirit.
Ah… how much more beautiful would that face be when despair finally painted it over?
The thought thrilled me beyond reason.
I pulled her close, holding her in my arms.
“You poor child… do you even know your own end?”
“Kh… khuhk!”
“Even if I don’t break you, you’ll destroy yourself. You’ll shed tears of blood from a terrible betrayal, surrender yourself to evil. You’ll fall, and in your fall, you’ll shatter everything. Poor child, I shall bless your end.”
Her eyes trembled violently, and her once-blue irises flared white.
A bolt of lightning, incomparable to before, struck down upon my head.
Kwagagagagang!
The ceiling of the main hall collapsed completely, a lightning strike powerful enough to fell everyone there.
Of course, my body was seared by that immense current.
And just like waking from a nightmare, my sanity returned.
What… what had I done?
I immediately pulled something from the pouch and threw it into the air.
A massive black rift split open in the void, and I kicked the Heart of the Demon into it as I hurled myself through.
A Black Gate. The primary means of movement used by demons.
It had been impossible to use due to the museum’s protective magic.
But the White Witch’s final attack had obliterated the main hall, breaking the seal.
In an instant, I was hurled onto a barren, dusty plain.
My head throbbed like it had been hammered.
My body was thrumming with strange vitality.
Where I was that didn’t matter right now.
I turned to where the Heart of the Demon had fallen nearby.
Its black, gem-like form flickered with a sinister energy, its aura flicking like a snake’s tongue toward prey.
I thought back on the power it had given me and on the things I had done with it.
What… what in the world had I done?