I held the Gem of Desolation high for all the territory’s people to see.
Unlike the Gem of Greed or Corruption, the Gem of Desolation had a clearly recorded shape.
There wasn’t a single person who didn’t recognize that cursed gem.
“Huh? The Gem of Desolation?”
“Why was that inside his stomach…?”
“But I’m sure Lady Padania destroyed that gem!”
“Wait! That guy is Lady Padania!”
“The Hero hid the Demon King’s gem in their own body? Seriously?”
“Son of a bitch. So that’s how he survived for 200 years!”
The Hero coveted the Demon King’s gem.And used its power to live for 200 years.
Someone that wicked could no longer be called a hero.
That kind of narrative quickly took hold among the people.
And the conclusion of that line of thought was…
“Didn’t you say he was one of Kaeld’s party members?”
“Y-yeah, that’s what I heard.”
“Lord Kaeld, what’s going on?”
“Your party member is one of the Four Great Heroes?!”
“Not only that, they even consumed the Demon King’s Gem! How do you explain this?!”
My party members who had approached Kaeld earlier had quietly backed away by now.
Kaeld stood with an oddly detached expression, his eyes calmly closed.
That guy putting on a saintly face? I didn’t like it one bit.
[In any case, looks like it’s over.]
‘Yeah. Things went better than expected.’
[Of course it did. You laid the groundwork thoroughly. He was too focused on your new technique to notice.]
‘Right. Poor guy. So much effort into tailing us, and now it’s time to let him rest.’
[…You are going to kill him?]
Of course.
Impelium’s warning to not kill was still nagging at me, but there’s no way I could just let a Demon King’s pawn walk away.
That’s when it happened.
“So you were playing me from the start, weren’t you, Mide Mohan?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Then you will have to be devoured.”
“What?”
“No, everyone here must be devoured. What happened today will be erased from existence!”
I immediately understood what he was aiming for.
Maximizing his power.
He was going to enlarge that black hole of his.
To the point where it could swallow the entire territory.
This was what I feared most.
Before the regression, he had used that black hole to block our party’s escape.
Sensing we couldn’t possibly outrun it, I had tore the space to hide my companions.
‘Not this time!’
Time seemed to slow.
His fingers began to move.
I reached into my cloak and pulled out the vial of Greed.
His thumb and middle finger began to press together.
I mixed a drop of his blood, still clinging to my sword into the vial of Greed.
And just before Sobius could snap his fingers…
Gulp.
I drank it.
A wave of nausea hit me, threatening to make me black out.
[You okay? That was the hardest part of the plan, right?]
‘…’
[Relax. You didn’t drink shit, just water that tastes like shit.]
Shut up.
Suppressing my urge to vomit, I glared at Sobius.
Snap. Snap.
He kept snapping his fingers, wearing a confused expression.
I poured all my disgust over the taste of that vial into my words.
“What’s wrong? Something not working?”
“W-why isn’t my power activating? Huh?!”
He spotted the vial in my hand and his eye went wide.
“You predicted even this…?”
“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”
His face went pale.
It was the look of someone who had completely lost.
‘It’s over.’
So what now?
I couldn’t let him live, but should I kill him right here?
Or should I try to extract more information about Idria first?
Then…
“Heh… Hehehe.”
“Quiet. I’m thinking.”
“Lady Idria… You were right.”
“What?”
“The one to stand in your way wasn’t Bion. It was Mide Mohan. He is your true nemesis.”
“…”
“Two hundred years, I shattered the lie you painstakingly created. For that sin…”
Flash.
Madness flickered in his eyes.
“…I shall pay with my life!”
Tap.
With lightning speed, he grabbed the Hero’s sword.
And drove it straight into his own heart.
“What the…”
Was he insane?
No.
Sobius had made a cold, calculated decision.
The light vanished from his eyes.
At the same time, his body began to change.
A black hole began to swell from his abdomen, devouring his body from within.
“A black hole?!”
Impossible.
I had just stolen that power from him.
Then Trail shouted.
[No, it’s a different power than the one you stole!]
‘What? What do you mean…’
[Look!]
Thunk.
At first, a twig dropped from the black hole.
Then a piece of clothing.
Then an animal carcass.
Then…. a human.
The moment I saw the shriveled corpse, everything became clear.
Trail was right.
The power Sobius used in death was different from what I had taken.
I screamed with all my strength:
“He is throwing up everything he has ever consumed! Xenia, Serein!”
It all happened at once.
The moment Xenia and Serein deployed their shield spells, Sobius’s Reverse Flow erupted.
Our party rushed toward me in a panic.
Lisel asked,
“Mr. Mide! This wasn’t part of the plan, was it?!”
“No. Damn it.”
I had thought his last resort was only to absorb things.
Who would have thought he could throw it all back up?
I looked over at Xenia and Serein.
“You two okay?”
They didn’t even have the strength to respond.
Their grinding teeth were answer enough.
Crack. Crack.
Even though they were using all their power, the shield was already starting to crack.
Offense spoke.
“The space inside the shield is already full. The density is insane.”
“Yeah. There is probably enough to bury this entire territory several times over.”
“So he is trying to crush us to death.”
“Exactly. In just a few minutes, this entire territory will be buried under that vomit.”
Everyone’s faces had gone pale.
I quickly thought through the next steps and gave the order.
“Xenia. Serein. Cancel your spell on my signal.”
“…..”
“You are worried it will crush the entire territory if you do, right? Don’t worry. I will absorb everything he is vomiting out.”
The party members’ eyes widened in sudden realization.
It was because I had just stolen that guy’s black hole like ability.
“Mide… can you really do it?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
I drew my sword.
To be honest, I had my doubts.
Even if it was the power of the Demon King, could I really use an ability I didn’t even understand how to activate?
But now I could feel that those doubts had been mistaken.
‘This is weird… It’s like the image just draws itself in my head.’
[Hmm.]
‘No need to hesitate anymore.’
“Haah!”
I swung my sword at the same time.
A thin line of light tore through the air, similar to my Spatial Rend technique.
But instead of fading, the line curled into a sphere and began to grow.
It quickly became several times larger than the hole Sobius had created.
‘Hm… I thought the size would be similar.’
[Maybe the size changes depending on the caster?]
‘Who knows.’
In any case, I focused all the force of the suction solely on Sobius, so the people of the territory wouldn’t be harmed.
And the moment I felt certain it would work, I shouted,
“Now! Cancel the shield spell!”
Xenia and Serein didn’t even have the strength to reply, they just released the spell.
The next moment.
Everything that had been trapped within the narrow barrier exploded outward.
Kuwaaaaaam!
At first, the torrent surged in every direction.
But just before it could reach the spectators.
“Aaaaah!”
“Huh? Huh?”
“I-It’s going back in! Into Sir Mide!”
“What is that hole?!”
“It must be something the Hero created!”
“Sniff… We are saved.”
Even during my duel with Sobius earlier, he had created a similar black hole, but it had been the size of a fingernail, too small for anyone else to see.
Thanks to that, this ability was now being revealed to the world as my technique.
I shouted,
“You are the one being devoured!”
Sobius had already become part of the vomit itself, he didn’t even have a mouth to answer with.
But the thing was crying.
—Uuuuu…
What are you so sad about?
Why did you pretend to be the Hero and aid Idria?
What about the people who believed in you, who put all their hope in you?
What about your party members?
“Don’t cry. You don’t even deserve to grieve, ‘Fake Hero.’”
A massive stream of vomit was sucked into the hole I created.
He was being absorbed by what was now a part of himself.
I watched the final moments of one of the Four Great Heroes with a strangely calm heart.
Then…
“Hyung! Over there!”
It was Adwin’s voice.
I instinctively looked up.
Zzzzzck!
Space split apart.
Idria!
She tore through space in a frantic descent.
What? She is descending in person?
Unlike before, when she had only extended a hand, now her whole body, with that purple hair I remembered from before the regression, was flying toward the vomit.
[W-What the hell is she doing?]
‘She’s gonna die even if I don’t interfere.’
Indeed, Idria’s body was already falling apart.
Her skin cracked, and thick black blood oozed down.
In a voice torn by agony, she cried out:
“Sobius! Take my hand!”
“He doesn’t even have hands anymore, Idria!”
“Ghhk.”
I swung my sword at Idria.
But she didn’t even try to dodge, and instead reached out toward the half-erased mass of Sobius’s remains.
Stab.
My blade pierced her shoulder.
“Aaaaahhh!”
Idria’s scream echoed.
But even then, she didn’t turn to look at me.
Hey, at this rate, you are seriously going to die.
[Kill her. Now.]
‘…Are you okay?’
[What kind of question is that?]
‘Your voice sounds a little… off.’
[Nonsense. This is your chance to end it. Kill her. End it… once and for all.]
His words helped steel my resolve.
My earlier strike had been too soft.
This time, I would destroy her core, her very heart!
I poured all my strength into my technique.
‘Cut What I Want to Cut!’
It happened all at once.
My blade stabbed through Idria’s heart.
At the same time, Idria grabbed Sobius and tore space open.
Guhhak.
Her eyes, always devoid of light, now looked different.
They weren’t dark.
They were… fading.
“Let’s… go home, Sobius.”
Idria held something invisible tightly to her chest.
Adwin shouted,
“She is taking Sobius’s soul with her!”
So that was it.
The rift in space began to close.
Recalling the sensation I had just felt through my blade, I said,
“You are already dead. I shattered your core just now.”
“Mide…”
She was already gambling with her life just by appearing here, her nature was fundamentally incompatible with Bion.
And now, even her core was destroyed.
Idria was essentially dead.
I said,
“That guy’s the one who shattered your most precious lie. And you still risk everything to save him?”
“…”
“Well, that was surprisingly anticlimactic. Thanks to that, I think I can finally retire.”
“You, who are loved by all, wouldn’t understand… just how precious these children are to me.”
She coughed up blood as she spoke.
“They loved me, even though no one remembers me. Even though no one acknowledges me.”
“…”
“Bion.”
She looked past me, toward the sky.
“I don’t want to die. Save me, Bion.”
And with those final words, the space vanished.
Trail spoke.
[You okay?]
‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that?’
[You have been saying weird things for a while now. There’s nothing wrong with me.]
‘Your voice is completely off, though?’
[…]
‘Anyway, let’s wrap this up.’
I cancelled the ability.
Then looked around.
The people of the territory still hadn’t mentally processed what had just happened.
I took a deep breath and shouted,
“Everyone! It’s over!”
“…”
“There is no longer anything threatening you. You can all rest easy now.”
The townsfolk, who had collapsed on the ground, began to stand.
Their faces were filled with joy and relief.
“Uwaaaaaaaah!”
“Hero! Hero!”
“The Hero saved us!”
“Uuhh… I really thought we were gonna die…”
“That damned bastard Padania!”
“W-Who was that woman who appeared at the end?”
Even in all the chaos, one citizen had the presence of mind to ask that question.
I raised my voice.
“She was the Demon King of Lies and Deception, Idria! And Padania was her servant!”
“J-Just as we thought! Damn it!”
“One of the Four Heroes… was a servant of the Demon King?”
“She was carrying the Gem of Desolation around to begin with. What kind of hero carries a Demon King’s core?!”
Oh, uh.
Sorry.
I’m currently carrying three of them.
I discreetly tucked the gems into my pocket and declared,
“That’s right. Padania was a pawn of the Demon King. And Kaeld, who had Padania as a party member, is a fake Hero!”
“…!”
“The first oracle was a lie created by Idria. The second oracle is the real one. Which means…”
I took a deep breath.
And with a voice that made even my throat tremble, I shouted,
“I am the real Hero!”
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