It was painful.
Agonizing, unbearable pain threatened to knock Caron unconscious at any moment, and yet it made one truth clear—this place was no mere illusion.
But Caron endured it willingly. He clamped both hands around the Demon King's arm, the one that had pierced straight through his chest, slick with his blood.
Just moments ago, Sloth had been certain of victory. Now his voice carried a note of shock. "...Why are you not collapsing? Your core has already been destroyed."
Indeed, the strike had pierced the core nestled near Caron's heart. Perhaps he would never wield mana again from this day forward. But on his lips spread a thin, feral smile.
Whoosh!
The Azure Mana he had scattered deliberately throughout his body now resonated violently. Though his core was shattered, the countless muscles he had honed without rest since birth were brimming with that same mana.
"If illusion and reality are mingled here..." Caron said, his eyes glinting, "then at least this much is real."
The Demon King of Sloth flinched and tried to withdraw his hand. But he couldn't—not even at the last moment.
Shrrrk!
Pluto unleashed the power of Void it had devoured before.
That power seeped into Sloth's form, forcing the figure, which had been wavering between reality and illusion, to solidify into a tangible body. Pluto's darkness sucked at him, pinning the Demon King of Sloth in place.
"You filthy—!" Sloth roared in fury.
But before he could finish...
Thrrrk! Thrrrk! Thrrrk!
Three Guillotines thrust through his chest.
"Arghhhhh!"
His scream rang in Caron's ears. In desperation, Sloth severed his own right arm to break free, but Caron's clones gave him no escape.
Slash! Slash!
The summoned clones hacked through Sloth's limbs, severing arms and legs without mercy.
Yet Caron's clones couldn't last forever. Out of more than five, only two remained; the rest dissolved into nothing as his mana scattered.
"Grrrrrraaaaaaahhh!" Sloth shrieked in anguish, writhing in a torment he had never before known.
How? How does this wretch wield the power of Void? he wondered.
Guillotine carried that poisonous force into his body, spreading it through his veins. It was a venom beyond venom—an accursed power that devoured even dark mana, ripping his mind apart from within.
It was impossible and unbelievable.
"Void... How did Void...?" Sloth howled.
Void was the one Demon King who granted power to none. The oldest, most primeval of them all, who even now dwelled far away, veiled by an eternal shroud. Every Demon King sought only one thing—to seize the throne where Void sat and consume the Demon Realm entirely.
Void kept no servants. Void never left that veiled domain, only waited in silence behind the curtain of eternity.
Caron gave a hoarse, bloodied laugh and said, "Hah... Shit. Looks like it actually works."
"Whyyy?!" Sloth screamed, madness in his eyes.
This had never been in his calculations. This human had absorbed only half the authority of Slaughter... so Sloth wondered how Caron radiated the power of Void.
That boundless force that turned everything into nothing... Before it, even the Demon Kings' authorities vanished like mist.
Cough.
Caron staggered, coughing up blood, yet still pressed forward. His chest bore a gaping hole, but by fortune—or fate—the strike had missed his heart by a narrow margin.
Ironically, the Demon King of Sloth's attempt to destroy his core had spared his life.
"...Owner, you cannot endure much longer," Guillotine muttered with a tinge of regret.
Though Caron had narrowly avoided having his heart pierced, the core that sustained his mana had been shattered. Under such a shock, it wouldn't be strange if he collapsed into a cripple at once.
Yet Caron's gaze still burned with clarity.
"If not now... There won't be another chance," Caron said, then coughed.
Mana without its center surged wildly out of control. The last standing clone dissolved into smoke, and Caron's entire body screamed in agony. With the core gone, even the pathways of his mana began to twist apart.
His vision blurred into darkness, but Caron forced himself to take another step forward.
Exactly ten steps.
Ten steps ahead, Sloth writhed in torment. That couldn't be an illusion. Illusions didn't thrash and scream in agony like that.
Sloth had already lost his right leg and left arm. His howl split the air as dark mana poured out of him, but it was no longer guided with intent. It spilled uncontrollably, like the berserk mana of rampaging knights.
Caron staggered forward, his breath ragged. His mouth was full of the taste of blood. The backflowing mana sent fresh streams of blood pouring from his lips without pause.
His bleeding was so severe that his vision swam, white and unfocused.
Whoosh.
Guillotine barely held the raging mana inside Caron in check, and because of that, Caron could force out the last of his strength to take another step.
Sloth glared at him with bloodshot eyes and screamed, "...So that's it! You've become an Apostle of Void! Ha... Ha! The one who dared to say he would slay Demon Kings—!"
Caron had no idea what Sloth was babbling about. The Demon King rambled on like a madman.
"Void... Yes, Void must have wanted the Demon Kings to be erased after all. Otherwise, how could this be explained...?" Sloth continued.
Whoooosh!
Arms burst up from the ground again and clutched at Caron's legs. Yet this time they held no strength.
Crack!
Caron stomped them to pieces and raised Guillotine high.
Only one step remained.
He steadied his breathing, drawing every last shred of strength and mana into his arms.
"...Do you think slaying me will change anything?" Sloth rasped. "Caron Leston, I'll give you one final offer. If you've made a pact with Void, why not with me as well? I will aid you. Together we'll sever the head of Lust, that wretched harlot—yes! Even Havoc! Did that bastard not toy with you? Even Havoc—"
"Die," Caron's voice cut like steel.
Slash!
Guillotine severed Sloth's head.
At once...
Screeeech!
A plume of black smoke burst from Sloth.
Craaaaash!
The world of darkness shattered like glass.
"Carooon!"
"Caron, my lord!"
The voices of his comrades rang from behind. Caron heard them faintly as he tilted his gaze upward to the sky.
"Ha..." he exhaled.
The black smoke streaming from Sloth vanished into places unseen.
"Only his soul slipped away, barely intact. He is not unscathed. Owner! Owner, destroy the Demon King's throne, and all this will end! Owner, stay with me!" Guillotine shouted.
"Leo! Lay Caron down at once!" Seria ordered.
"Caroooon!" Leo cried.
Caron's body crumpled without strength. He was about to fall to the ground when Leo caught him in his arms.
"Saintess, please... Please, do something for Caron!" Leo pleaded.
"I'll do everything I can, so shut your mouth!" Seria snapped, already gathering holy power in her clasped hands as Leo lowered Caron to the earth.
Flat on the ground, Caron struggled to turn his eyes toward her face.
"Tell... my grandfather... to go to the... Demon King's castle... and finish it..." Caron whispered.
"Your core has fallen. Caron, where is the Dew of the World Tree?!" Seria cried.
"My pouch of dimensional space... You have the authority too... You can take it out," Caron said.
"Do not lose consciousness. If you do, you will die. Leo! Fetch a medic, anyone—his bleeding is too severe!" Seria shouted.
The sky above had already turned blue and distant. Though Seria and Leo's faces were right before Caron, they blurred like distant shadows. His eyes could no longer hold them in focus.
So in the end, was I not strong enough to handle even one Demon King? he thought.
Perhaps it had all been greed.
To completely annihilate a Demon King with only power at the peak of 8-Star... He wondered if such a thing was even possible.
If not for the variable of Void's power, he would never have made it this far.
In the end, it was all his fault. And because of that, Caron felt no regrets.
"I'll just... rest..." he murmured. His eyelids fell shut. He could no longer resist the weight of helplessness.
"Owner. Owner! Ownerrrrr!" Guillotine shouted.
Guillotine's voice was the last thing Caron heard before his consciousness slipped away.
His final memory was of Seria and Leo weeping at his side. Then a heavy, peaceful darkness enveloped him.
***
It was too late.
Halo stood over Caron's collapsed body, his fist clenched tight. His grandson's frame was already drenched in blood, his face drained of all color.
Caron was little different from a corpse.
Even though Halo had teleported here at once with the aid of the mages, all that awaited him was the wretched, broken form of Caron.
Sabina, who had come with him, dashed forward with a frantic shout, "Caron!"
But she never reached him.
"Lady Sabina, you must leave him to the Saintess," Leo said, blocking her path.
Sabina turned toward him and asked, "...Leo. Are you truly all right?"
Leo's face twisted with anguish. His eyes were bloodshot, his expression strained as though he could collapse with a single touch.
"He's... He's still breathing," he said hoarsely.
Caron lived.
Though no spark of life radiated from him, though even his core had been destroyed—still, he lived.
"Light above, take my life if you must," Seria whispered.
Spreading wings of radiance, she poured all her holy power into Caron's wounds. A miracle strong enough to open the eyes of the blind suffused his body. At last, the bleeding ceased—yet Caron remained unconscious.
"The Dew of the World Tree?" Halo asked.
"I gave him the whole vial," Seria said. "But the mana wouldn't absorb..."
"The core is destroyed," Halo said grimly. "Of course he cannot absorb it."
He stepped closer, his voice hard, and kneeled carefully at Caron's side.
A shattered core meant every shred of mana Caron had cultivated was gone. He could awaken, yes—but never again would he wield a sword.
The bright future of the Ducal Family of Leston had been cut short, and everyone present knew it.
Halo grasped Caron's hand. Once calloused and strong, Halo's hand was now cold as stone.
"Saintess Seria," Halo said stiffly.
Seria only shook her head and said, "The core... cannot be rebuilt. I am sorry."
"Just save his life. I don't care about the core. Just save his life," Halo said.
"...My lord?" Seria asked.
"He has lived all his years shackled by vengeance, never knowing freedom. At the very least, let him have the chance to live free," Halo replied. His voice was steady, but his plea was desperate.
Seria forced a weary smile and nodded, then said, "Yes. Do not worry."
She could save him. If she couldn't, she would never have become Grand Saintess.
The Warrior couldn't fall here. No—Caron, the man himself, couldn't die here.
Fwoooosh!
Seria's desperate prayer flowed into Caron's body.
The ghastly wounds closed, skin knitting together, though his internal organs remained ravaged by dark mana.
Just a little more, Seria told herself.
Her holy power was nearly spent, but it was enough—as the other priests chanted and funneled their strength into her.
Seria focused and sent her light deeper, intent on purging the corruption inside.
But then...
Whoosh!
Her holy power was shoved back at once.
Flaaash!
She tried again, harder, but Caron's body still refused to accept her light.
And then, she understood that the remnants of mana still lingering within him were repelling her power.
"...Why?" she whispered.
Seria wondered why the mana hadn't dispersed even though the core was gone. She had seen countless knights fall with shattered cores. By all her experience, this was too strange—unnatural.
Halo caught her troubled look and asked cautiously, "What is it?"
"Caron still has mana inside him. It's forcing the holy power out," Seria explained.
At her words, Halo's eyes widened. He leaned over Caron's body, searching desperately, and after a moment he cried out urgently, "Leo! Tell the mages to summon the elders here at once! Sabina! You come to me now!"
...Perhaps there was still a way.
Perhaps even a miracle.
Hope had not yet been lost.