Chapter 121: Victory’s Price [2]
If they were, this world would have become a battleground of golems against golems, not humans against humans or humans against monsters.
"...As expected of Gerhard."
Luina was no different from Aint.
No, the shock was even greater for her, who had been prepared to sacrifice her life.
"...We can win."
Not a slim gamble that risked life, but hope for a certain victory.
"Gerhard!"
She called his name without realizing it. And Gerhard responded.
"You don’t have to shout so loudly, I can hear everything."
Gerhard’s appearance wasn’t in the best condition, but his eyes were still alive. He threw potions to Luina and Aint.
"Luina, Aint. I’ll leave the rest to you."
"What do you mean?"
"Huh? Why suddenly?"
"Wooden can no longer fight."
Flash-
A blue light enveloped the golem. When they opened their eyes after closing them due to the brightness, the golem had disappeared without a trace.
"It used up all the core’s magic power for that last attack."
It would be impossible to operate for a while.
"The same goes for me."
And the same applied to Gerhard. After all, he had put even his own mana into the core to deliver the maximum blow.
His completely drained mana heart was throbbing painfully.
"But..."
<No, you can do it. Your patron has done more than enough.>
Look at his condition. Gardner whispered.
<His arm is broken.>
Though it was slowly regenerating, it was still a serious injury for now.
<Above all, that cursed reptile is gone!>
The joint attacks of Aint and Luina were certainly organic and could sufficiently wound Andromalius.
Yet, they couldn’t seize a decisive opportunity because there were two opponents.
The black snake whose scales couldn’t even be damaged by ordinary aura.
They couldn’t find a way by just attacking recklessly, and Luina had wanted to gamble with her own life.
Though it had been disrupted when Gerhard suddenly intervened.
Anyway, the situation had improved.
"Yes, understood."
Luina downed the potion in one go.
"You wouldn’t ask for the impossible. I’ll trust you."
Over the past semester, an indescribable trust had built up between Luina and Gerhard.
Some might say it was Luina’s one-sided trust... but at least she believed that if Gerhard said something was possible, then it was.
"Aint."
With her firm gaze, Aint’s expression also changed.
"Yes, Senior."
"Can you stand?"
"Of course."
Aint swallowed the potion and gripped his sword. There wasn’t a place that didn’t ache. There were more than a few places where his bones had cracked.
Nevertheless, he had to fight. Because lives, the continent depended on it.
And because this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for victory.
The two knights began to move again.
***
"...Malius?"
Among those on the battlefield, the one most shocked by the snake’s death was neither Aint nor Luina.
It was Andromalius. The master of the now-dead snake.
"...This is absurd! To a mere toy like that...!"
The black snake, Malius, was not just a snake. It was both his avatar and a part of him.
Malius’s death wasn’t simply the death of something separate, but the disappearance of a part of Andromalius.
"...!"
But there was no time to mourn, as the situation wasn’t over yet.
The demon could neither endure nor acknowledge the current humiliation.
"...Fine, I’ll kill you all. Every last one of you!"
He faced the two knights who were bringing forth their blades with an even more ferocious momentum.
The demon clenched his fist. Aint and Luina lowered their stance.
Immediately after, the knights kicked off the ground.
A pure white light and a blue radiance drew long trajectories, targeting one goal from different directions.
Black demonic energy greeted them.
Booooom!
Dust rose as various scars were carved.
Shattered fragments scattered in all directions, and the shockwave swept around.
The demon’s demonic energy surged. Wriggling like a living snake, it stabbed at the knights’ gaps.
However, the knights were not alone. They covered each other’s gaps as their swords intersected.
It was the most beautiful dance.
A sacred dance that trapped and slaughtered the demon.
—!
Gradually, the wounds on the demon’s body increased. The tough outer shell was not as it used to be, and the broken hand created an unavoidable weakness.
—!
The power of the natural enemy raged like a fish in water, eating away at the demon’s energy.
"You Armian seed, not even worth eating...!"
The more brilliant the light, the more the darkness lost its intensity.
The more the sword light scattered, the more the form of the demonic energy disappeared.
Nevertheless, the demon didn’t fall.
"Do you think I’ll lose?!"
The spilled blood became poison, and the fragmented demonic energy obeyed its master’s command even in that state.
"I am Andromalius! Count of Hell and Commander of 11 Legions of Hell!"
He roared, standing on two feet and facing the humans.
"I am the vanguard of Hell, come to conquer the middle realm!"
The demonic energy boiled. More violently, more ferociously, more savagely.
"So what?"
But what stood before him weren’t insignificant humans.
"Then I am the Armian that you all hate so much."
The natural enemy of demons.
"I am the successor of the first Emperor, whose name alone makes your kind tremble!"
The adversary of Hell.
<Go, Aint! That’s nothing but a last desperate struggle!>
The cause that thwarted the wishes of all demons.
The first Emperor’s sword shone brilliantly.
The white light, which had destroyed and consumed demonic energy to grow, expanded incomparably.
————!
Light and darkness intersected.
"Ah."
Andromalius touched his chest.
Blood gushed from his chest, which had split open a moment later.
Crack, and then another sword pierced his heart.
"I-I...!"
The demon’s eyes rapidly lost their vitality.
"Don’t think... I’m the last...! This is just the beginning...! Eventually, the middle realm will be ours...!"
<Typical third-rate villain dialogue.>
That was the end.
Andromalius, having lost his vitality, collapsed.
Immediately after, the corpse turned to dust and scattered.
"...This."
<Demons are not beings of the middle realm. Therefore, they aren’t even allowed to leave behind corpses.>
Thus, the demon died.
It was a miraculous achievement from a desperate situation.
But it wasn’t a satisfactory ending for everyone.
"...This is ridiculous. The body just disappears? I broke my back stopping it, and I get nothing?"
A certain merchant who had hoped to use the snake’s corpse to create various things was in despair.