Volume 2, Chapter 7: Fortis’ Courage, Part 4: Until We Meet Again

The Demon Lord was there.

Atop the boorish pitch-black throne. The chamber without a sound.

His hair a deeper shade than black, and those slovenly eyes. A jet-black coat draped over his entire bocy. With shadows stuck to his face, and an irritating look to his eyes, a delicate-looking man.

Compared to any other Demon Lord I had chanced upon before, his appearance was lacking in majesty, and on that, my memories of the past played back. Nothing had changed in his figure since the last we locked blades.

There wasn’t another Demon to be found. Even when he was supposed to be a Lord, he had no one to follow him.

There was only one point that differed from my last memory of him. Simply the fact that the man was not asleep.

It seems he truly was waiting for me.

Without saying a word, without any preparations for attack, only his eyes followed me, and those pupils of his were stagnated with an unfamiliar darkness. They didn’t even take in the glint of the Holy Sword gripped in my right hand, and all they met with were my own eyes.

.. I’m scared.

I took a step forward.

The gap between this pressure pushing down on my entire body, and that dignity that equated close to nothing.

The fact that I felt no fear from looking at him was all the more scary. If it was my first meeting, then I would likely have been caught off guard.

As if I were walking through a bog, my feet were heavy.

The moment I thought to let out my voice, the Demon Lord opened his mouth.

Befitting his appearance, it was a depressing and dark voice. A voice I was hearing for the first time.

What was he to say to me? I tensed up my shoulders, and waited, but his words made me forget my very situation.

“Back hip circle.”

“.. Eh?”

Back hip.. circle?

What is he talking about..? I sought out meaning from his expression, but the Demon Lord’s face didn’t change at all.

The man before me continued to look in my direction, with eyes that didn’t seem to be focused on me, as he talked on.

“In the past, I couldn’t do a back hip circle. Do you know of it? Back hip circle? You use a metal horizontal bar, and you do this sort of spinning motion around it.”

“W-what are.. you even..”

“I think it was around elementary school.. they tried to make us do it in gym class, but I just couldn’t do it. I never even thought of trying to be able to do it. Because I never thought myself capable, I didn’t even put in the effort. In the end, up to the very last moment, I couldn’t do it. In the first place, I was never the best at physical activity.”

I couldn’t understand any of the words he was letting out at length.

No, besides a small portion of it, I could comprehend the vocabulary. However, I cannot understand the reason of such a talk unfolding here.

I can’t read his intent.

Leaving me to the wayside, the Demon Lord went one.

He was full of openings, but I didn’t even have the will to attack him.

The only thing I could understand was that this meaningless banter wasn’t the sort of thing to occur before the world’s decisive battle.

“And so, naturally, even when I went graduated to middle school and graduated to high school, and even after I entered college, I could never do it. Well, I’ve never seen anyone in college doing a back hip circle on a horizontal bar, but.. I guess that doesn’t really matter. What I’m trying to say is that, in the end, even when I went out and became a working adult, I never became able to do a back hip circle. Even when most of my past memory’s faded away, I wonder why that’s the only thing I can remember.”

Fuuuh. The Demon Lord let out what was clearly a sigh, before his lips curved.

“.. But it seems that right now, I can do pretty much anything.”

I had never even imagined this Lord as one to laugh, but what had dimly grazed his face was surely.. a smile. It wasn’t one of ridicule like Gloria’s, and it wasn’t anything like an honest smile of joy. I’m sure it was his self derision.

The Demon Lord’s words didn’t stop. It was as if he was a completely different person from the one I met before.

His words came out disinterestedly, but I could feel an emotion I couldn’t understand behind them.

The topic changed quite suddenly.

“Then have you ever heard of the Magic Lamp?”

“Magic.. Lamp?”

Listening to his words is a waste of time. I should initiate an attack. But my hands won’t move.

These words without meaning, without intent, were binding my movement. It wasn’t something like a Skill.

I knew. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to move. I wanted to listen.

I had the feeling that the reason for both of my defeats lay somewhere in there.

“Yeah. It’s in the One Thousand and One Stores.. A fairy tale from the Arabian Nights. A tale of a genie that came out from rubbing a musty oil lamp.”

“I don’t.. know it.”

Fairy tale.

It’s a story I’ve never heard of before, and I’m not sure what he’s trying to say. Perhaps there nothing I should say here.

I couldn’t see an atrocious nature in him, and yet my shoulders trembled.

In this case, having him direct killing intent at me would be.. much easier.

I had forgotten about it. The cold feeling running up from my navel. Fear.

The Demon Lord raised his voice into a laugh. It was a dry chuckle.

Looking upon the scene, I doubt there’s a single one who’d call this man a Demon Lord.

I finally noticed the reason. He was much to lacking in anything one could see as desire.

“Just by brushing up against a lamp, all sorts of wishes could be granted. That sort of story. Having lost any and all restrictions, a magic tool to grant any prayer. I sometimes thing. Of lucky Aladdin whose hands it happened to fall into.. just what sort of thoughts went through his mind.”

I don’t know. I don’t know anything.

With an aloof attitude, he avoided my wary eyes. And the Demon Lord’s face changed.

A sigh, and a sinking voice.

“Hero..”

『Hero』

It was a word I hadn’t heard from another in a long time.

There’s barely anyone left in this world to call me by that name. It had truly been a long time since anyone named me as such, that it took a moment for me to realize he was calling out to me.

Perhaps this man is all that’s left to call me by that name. The final enemy I failed to kill. The final enemy to know me as a Hero.

“Hero.. I’m.. surely a 『Cheat』.”

“Ch.. eat?”

He folded over his legs, sent those abyssal eyes at me, and sighed.

I couldn’t tell the motives behind that word. But it had been the one with the single most emotion packed into it.

A voice that sounded as if it was tired of everything. Back when I was a human, when I had lived as a Hero, the voice used by those with things they should have protected. A child who’d lost his parents, a young man who’d lost their lover, a soldier who’d gone up against the forces of evil, and survived their own defeat.

“Even without doing anything, I’ve become able to accomplish anything. Without any of the effort, I’ve become able to do anything. I’m sure there’s no worth left in any of it. That’s why, to me, you’re the only lingering attachment I have to this world.”

I couldn’t possibly understand the words from this Demon Lord.

But it’s not like I didn’t have anything left to think.

Still, more than that, I understood that the die had been cast. That the formalities had been gone and done with.

Demon Lord and Hero. What we had to do had been determined long ago. I was already resolved. I wasn’t negligent.

That was something my opponent was well aware of.

“Now, it sure has been a while, Hero. You, who may be the one to kill me. You, who may be the one to be killed by me. My arch nemesis. The only one I’ve ever recognized as an enemy of my own volition. Have you trained yourself enough? Do you remember our last battle?”

Our last battle. The blows from my Holy Sword that were unable to leave a single scratch on him flashed back in my mind.

The Demon Lord who barely moved.

After tens of hundreds of thousands of years, just what has changed in this man? His face held a gentle spot of delight.

The fact that I was to meet him the first I stepped foot into the Demon World was just a coincidence.

The second time, I sought him out, and demanded a battle.

And surely, this third confrontation is fate.

That’s why, no matter the numbers that Demon Lords exist in, thie man is the one that must be killed by me.

As a Hero.

I put more light, more soul into the Holy Sword.

My past retreat. Where even in his normal state, he boasted immense defensive power to render any blade inept. The Demon Lord who broke my blade.

And I didn’t know his name. The man introduced himself for the first time.

“.. Right, my name is Leigie. The Lazy King governing the sin of 『Sloth』, and your.. enemy. I’ve already taken care of anyone to interfere. Now, Hero, come and..”

The Demon Lord’s fingers mover ever so slightly. My senses were honed to a level higher than ever before.

I immediately jumped to the side to evade. The door behind me was blown off its hinges.

『I’ve already taken care of anyone to interfere.』

As I thought the one who launched an attack on Gloria was this man!

The Lazy King who named himself as Leigie muttered in a slovenly tone without any intonation.

I kicked the ground, and used my wings to accelerate.

Leigie’s gaze intersected with the killing intent in my eyes.

Without letting out any words, the Demon Lord’s lips moved to themselves.

『.. try to kill me.』

＊＊＊＊＊

What I was given as a Hero, and honed as an Angel were all directed towards battle.

The shaking of my hands, and the shaking of my body had ceased.

I stepped in. The floor shattered before my feet. The strongest concentration. The strongest condition. There wasn’t any space left in my soul for me to feel fear against this Demon Lord. The greatest, and most powerful enemy of all was before me, and the all the experience I had ever gotten over my life was whispering for me to defeat him.

My awareness was suddenly delayed. I could clearly see the bags that had formed under his eyes.

Leigie. Leigie the Depraved.

The name rolled around my tongue.

Without his name, there was never a way to look into him.

Even if I may have been a human, I wielded the foremost power of the Surface World, and his ability to block that without anything to guard himself meant there was no way he wasn’t a long lived Demon.

But I think I was just running away. With that power before me, I had broken. I was running from his existence. Because if I was to learn of him again, I would have no choice but to fight him.

But at times, I did wonder whether I would see him again. Even if I didn’t as one on the vanguard of heaven, most information about Demons naturally entered my ears. As natural as it may be, I did have knowledge of that name.

Leigie. Leigie the Depraved.

One who pulled their bowstring against the Heavens, one of oldest Demon of them all. Leigie Slaughterdolls.

I already knew his characteristics. The characteristics of an Acedia Demon.

It was an absolute defense. That was all.

That enhancement was separate from his base specs, but there’s no way his offensive power or speed is anything too high. At the very least, he should be less than Gloria in that aspect.

The threat of his invisible attacks lay in that he sent them out from a distance impossible to detect. If Leigie and Gloria had directly confronted one another, then she would likely have been able to employ some form of tactic.

What I need is a destructive power great enough to destroy his soul, and that was my.. reason for defeat.

Have I trained myself? .. There’s no need to ask. At the start, it was just something that had been handed to me, but I surely trained that power. As a Valkyrie, so as not to face defeat a second time. In the years since I was reborn, there’s no way I was just playing around.

Regret, regret, regret.

There was no way I could fill it in with my human body.. the sheer difference between us.

The magician’s words of pity repeated within my head.

I don’t need to think of defense. The power I have now, what I never had before. The Fortis Authority. My heart will never break.

“The truth is.. I did feel a little sorry for it.”

The moment my sword was about to reach him, before my eyes, Leigie, who should have been but a step away, grew farther.

My sense of distance was upturned. My suppositions, and the disparity of truth. I used the momentum that was causing me to topple over, and took another step. With all my power, I gripped the sword in both hands, and aimed for his heart.

.. And at that moment, he became farther again.

It’s not my imagination. It’s not an illusion.

.. Farther? No, that’s wrong. Leigie was still sitting on the throne.

The one moving away was.. me.

The throne was just a few meters in front of me. I put more power into my feet, and dove in. the moment before the blade reached him, my field of vision shifted.

It wasn’t my eyes playing tricks on me. It wasn’t that my body was being manipulated.

“I’m sorry for not taking you on earnestly last time. Well, I was sleepy, so there really was no helping it, but.. if I had been a little more serious back then, perhaps I wouldn’t have to go through these regrets. The thought alone kept me up at ni.. oh, wait, well, um..”

While talking on, Leigie’s arm gave a small movement.

An impact sent my entire body flying.

Oh shi..

By the time I noticed it, it was too late. My body crashed into the wall, and was pressed against it. By an invisible feeling of pressure.

It was a force that made my body feel it would be ripped apart. My creaking body and the wall both let out their screams.

Leigie presented out the palm of his hand. He started turning his hand in a circle. Accompanying that motion that looked like a joke, the points of pressure twisted.

While looking upon that scene carelessly, Leigie politely, as if he was trying to buy time for something, began to explain.

What foolishness is this.. no, it would be strange for me to think that he only had a single power.

I’m fine, the damage is within expectations. My bones aren’t broken, and I haven’t suffered anything fatal.

And more than that, I was impressed. On the fact that Leigie initiated an attack on his own.

“『Aport』”

Turning my blade on a being without resistance, yet having it fall flat.

It was a situation as if my everything had all been meaningless, and that had been the greatest fear I held.

The Demon Lord is to attack me, and I’m to counteract. In that case, I can still be a Hero.

Even if that Lord had yet to even rise from his throne.

“『Teleportation』 and 『Psychokinesis』. Of course, here, they have different names, but.. it seems that all the powers I ever wished for have come into my hands.”

While he went on about his own Skills, his face held no scorn, or anger, or sorrow.

The Demon Lord stood. Even when there was no need to stand, he rose. The past two times, he had laid sprawled out the entire battle, and yet he stood.

“Hero, I will pay respect to you as a Demon Lord, by killing you. You will kill me, and I will kill you. Even if it felt like a pain, I’m sure that’s what I should have done.”

Even when all he did was stand, even when it’s not like his power rose at all, a premonition of my entire body being swallowed up made my arms tremble.

I frantically moved my crushed body, and touched whatever was pressing down on me with the Holy Sword.

An invisible something was ripped through, and vanished. My body was released. I landed over the carpet. I had a slight hope, but it doesn’t look like Leigie took any damage.

I let out a short breath. My head hurt so much it felt it would split. I didn’t have enough oxygen. I didn’t have enough Mana.

I’m sure my heart felt fear. Before the existence who defeated me without me having any means to resist. It was a form of trauma.

But I’ll ignore that. I had confidence. I had always fought on. A majority of my enemies had been above me.

The reason I won against them was simply.. because I never gave up.

First, I’ll have to land an attack. A blow with all my might.

My target is the Demon’s heart.. his soul core. As long as Leigie is taking up human form, its location should be in his left chest.. where a heart was supposed to bear.

I can’t release energy at him. I’ll have to slash at him directly..

I put my breathing in order. My sword was already fully loaded with power.

Teleport, Aport. It will be next to impossible to approach him, but if I fail the first time, then perhaps I can close in the second.

I wanted an opening. I chanted magic.

Leigie’s movements were slow. That psychokinesis thing was linked to the Demon Lord’s movements. I saw that clearly.

I cut away the palm shot at me. It’s difficult to dodge, but as I thought, it’s fragile. As long as I inflict an attack on it, it’ll disappear.

White light flickered on and off as it gathered in my left hand.

With depressing eyes, Leigie looked at me.

“Hah.. hah..”

“.. Ah. You’re really looking the part there.”

historical

“『Crescent Thunder』!!”

Leigie’s slovenly posture was swallowed up by the white thunder I released.

It was a lightning attribute offensive magic possessed by Heroes.

The carpet caught fire, and the throne was taken in by it. Imbued with a holy element, that lightning was originally supposed to deal heavy damage to dark forces. But General Class was one thing, and I didn’t think that it would have any effect on this Lord.

The moment I fired it, I let my body dance through the sky. I took flight. The ceiling was high, and I was able to soar about.

I took a great spin, and swooped down to try and behead him from behind. At that moment, the scene before me changed.

Leigie, who was supposed to be before my eyes, disappeared, and the blade’s edge cut through the air.

I had predicted it before hand, so I didn’t stiffen up.

I carefully examined the power of my foe. Aport. There’s no forewarning of it. I can’t go against it. From before Leigie’s eyes, I had been transported to the end of the room. A wall close in up to my nose.

I was able to tell the Demon Lord’s positioning in an instant. When I’m this close, then I can tell every one of his actions, even without looking at him. I hit down the invisible hand lowered on me with my sword, and ripped through it.

I kicked the wall, and moved my wings again, as I accelerated towards him. Ours eyes met. Those eyes of his were certainly keeping up with my movements.

I put power into the sword, and simultaneously sent out an incantation-less 『Cresent Thunder』. Leigie’s befuddled expression disappeared into the light.

I continued to raise my speed even further, and dived straight into the light. The moment I entered it, I heard a voice from within.

“AS I thought, I’m not suited to killing.. hah.. it was something I already knew, but..”

Leigie’s presence disappeared. No, it moved.

From in front of my eyes, to behind. This time, it wasn’t that I had moved, but Leigie.

A few meters to my rear.

Mater transportation. It truly is a fearsome power. But sometimes, such fearsome power comes with restrictions.

Is it effective time? Distance? Or perhaps limited uses?

I won’t give him the time. Can he use it consecutively? Various thoughts flew through my head.

I began moving a speed that felt it would make my heart burst. It doesn’t really matter if I die. My body creaked as it displayed abilities beyond my limits.

My consciousness accelerated. I turned around, and shot lightning again. Speed and power. I want an opening. Just a small gap, a space of a single breath is enough. Without him avoiding, a small space without him using a Skill.

I shortened the few meters in an instant. I instinctively cut off the invisible power lowered on my right arm.

I kicked the ground. My step was too powerful, and my right ley let out an ominous sound. It’s likely broken. I don’t feel any pain. I don’t really care.

Having had Mana poured into it past its limit, the blade of the Holy Sword expanded. A materialization of pure energy, a sword of light.

Just one step. One more step, and I’ll reach him. Leigie turned his eyes from my blade, and directed his gaze on my hand.

At that moment, my field of vision fell.

As If I were falling, I approached the ground. My mind went blank for an instant.

I tried to move my arms, but they wouldn’t move. What I should have had held up before me, the sword that should have been in my grasp, was falling alongside me.

An impact. My chin hit against the carpet. My arms won’t move. My legs won’t move. As if I were watching a long dream, my body lacked a sense of reality.

And it was there, that I finally noticed my arms weren’t connected to my body.

A heat as if to burn through my body broke out through my torso. It was, as if to corrode away my body, moving up.

I didn’t feel any pain. The arms that casually rolled on the ground before me. Still clutched around the Holy sword, their cross section, as if finally remembering their original form, began to spurt out blood.

My conscious became distant at once. I somehow withstood that with will power, and glared at my arms.

It was a slash. My disembodied arms. It was something that I had seen time and again on the battlefield, the traces left behind by a blade.

.. That can’t be.. when did he..

Leigie wasn’t holding a sword. When I had just been a step away from reaching him, the Demon Lords hands were surely empty.

This is bad. It isn’t such a bad thing to die, but it’s bad for an incomprehensible attack to assail me now.

I don’t have any more time. Having lost its weilder, the Holy Sword’s power would dwindle the more time passed.

Right before my consciousness was to go out, Leigie looked down over me, and muttered.

“.. Do you know of dolls? Hah..”

.. Human.. form..

My flickering sight. On those words, I finally realized that a power besides that of Leigie had been close.

Human.. form. Leigie Slaughterdolls. The last name was one’s way of life, and his way was Slaughterdolls.

I.. see..

“It was a nice match, Hero. My regrets have, more or less.. died down, perhaps.”

“Don’t.. screw with.. me.”

Regrets have.. died down?

Nice match?

Not yet. I’ve yet to lose.

I had stepped in more than enough. The distance to Leigie was already less than a single Meter.

There was still power left in the Holy Sword.

“Don’t.. look down on a 『Hero』!!”

The form of the Demon Lord turning his back to me right above. A clear gap.

I wrung out my remaining power, and yelled.

A new 『Cause of Death: Blood Loss』 message came up, and I revived. Jumping up, I moved forward.

In concert with my will, the sword sparkled.

The strongest blow. With all my Mana, with all my existence backing it, that blow closed in on the Demon Lord’s back.

At around the same time, the heat ran up my chest again, but it’s too late.

The tip of the sword pierced into his left chest from behind.

“.. So you were.. still alive..?”

“Wha..”

This can’t be..

The sword I had wrung out all my power into. The strike that should have pierced through his flesh, and then his Soul Core, had come to a stop.

My hand felt numb. I felt a hart response all over my arm.

The heat and pain encroaching on me, bit by bit. I ignored whatever response was sent by my sense of pain, and rotated the holy sword.

It’s no good.. he’s too hard. I got through his flest, but I couldn’t inflict anything on his core.

I have.. no chance of winning.

Just like before. No matter how much courage I wring out of myself, no matter how much Mana I have, no matter how many Skills I learn, no matter how far I withdraw, if I can’t even damage him, my victory is.. impossible.

My knees buckled, and the ground closed in on me. Power was leaving my body. What was pierced was my own left breast.. the aim was my soul core. It’s a fatal wound.

It’s.. alright. I’m not scared. I won’t lose. I’ll beat him. I have to beat him. If I don’t stand here.. then who will?

I’m sure that my heart.. has yet to break.

If Leigie’s regrets were to be me, then the final regrets left in me.. the reason I, reluctantly enough, fought on half by habit, yet still chost to stand on the battlefield after death.. That reason must be.. none other than this Demon Lord.

A scene like a revolving lantern passed through my head.

Without being able to move a single eyelid, I died.

＊＊＊＊＊

If I wasn’t able to find any particular reason, then I’m sure that was the reason that I had no choice but to live in solitude.

My grey rat-colored hair was constantly bathed in a highly concentrated Mana of light, and at some point, it had changed to a vivid silver color.

It wasn’t just an ordinary silver, but a silver close to blue.

No matter how many times I looked at it, the silver blue hair reflected at me never truly felt like my own.

Even though, by now, I should have been accompanied by that silver a far longer time than my association with that gray.

The form reflected in the water’s surface, smoothed over lie a mirror.

All that was there was a single Hero.

An aloof hero. Having obtained the epithet of 『Silver Blue』by others before she noticed it, a lone Hero.

Serge of the Silver Blue. Serge Serenade.

Not taking about a single comrade, the one who continued to fight against the enemies of humanity. The sword of hope.

“Haha.. ha..”

My laughing voice was shaking.

The Hero Class was powerful. It was to force a single human to live the life of a single sword.

It improved the human body to fight against those of evil. It enhanced physical strength, inflated one’s Mana, and granted powerful Skills.-->>

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