Chapter 426

Fwoooooosh!

The instant the Arch Lich faced the enormous fire dragon that burst from the spearhead, it realized the truth.

Too late.

There was no avoiding this attack.

The Spell it had not yet managed to unleash and the magical power that had been on the verge of completion scattered beneath the flames rushing straight toward it.

The fire dragon, blazing with hellfire, opened its jaws at the Arch Lich, which had frozen in place, oblivious even to the pain.

Kwooooooong!

Blue flames swept in every direction with a thunderous roar like that of a dragon. The terrible heat distorted space and vaporized everything in its path.

The Arch Lich felt the magical power and barriers surrounding it melt away. It even felt a sensation it had long since forgotten.

It’s hot.

Fwoosh!

Blue hellfire filled the Arch Lich’s vision. The fire dragon swept over its entire body and continued onward without stopping.

Straight toward the enormous black door towering over the center of the ruined city.

The Gate.

No!

The Arch Lich’s red eye-lights flared wide as it stretched out a hand, but no voice emerged. The fire dragon swallowed the Gate, which was as large as itself, whole.

The moment the unprecedented mass of magical power gathered from the life force of hundreds of thousands of humans collided with the flames, a blinding flash erupted.

Fwoosh!

A pillar of light rose into the sky, bright enough to be seen from hundreds, perhaps thousands, of kilometers¹ away.

Darkness and blue flames collided with one another, then soon blended together. The forest of buildings that had been struggling to remain standing bent at the waist, and a ring of wind burst outward.

Krrrrooooom—

A roar and tremor beyond description shook the world.

The gray sky split apart, and the dense fog blanketing the entire city scattered like heat haze.

Then, as though everything that had just happened were a distant dream, silence descended.

Ah.

The Arch Lich gazed hollowly upon the world.

The scene looked no different from before, but it knew. Everything had changed, itself included.

Everything had collapsed like a sandcastle.

The Arch Lich slowly turned its head. Its trembling red eye-lights settled on the lone figure standing tall as an iron tower.

—“I should have killed you.”

The single sentence broke the silence.

Jin Taekyung opened his mouth, his complexion utterly bloodless. The accumulated damage and mental exhaustion from his endless battles made him look as though he might collapse at any moment, but his voice alone had not lost its strength.

“Yeah. You should’ve killed me sooner.”

The Arch Lich fell silent.

It had no one but itself to blame for missing its chance to end Jin Taekyung’s life.

One brief lapse in vigilance had reduced everything to nothing.

My king. Please forgive this disloyal servant.

The Arch Lich begged forgiveness from its king, wherever he might be.

If it had killed Jin Taekyung without delay… If the monster that had sided with the human had not been reborn as a new being and driven that damned sword into its chest…

Everything would have gone according to plan.

It would have survived and completed the Gate. At the head of an unimaginably vast monster army, it would have hunted down those verminous humans, slaughtered them, and burned the city to the ground.

All while awaiting the great king’s eventual return.

But the plan it had believed perfect had fallen apart spectacularly.

All because of a single human.

Jin Taekyung.

The Arch Lich’s fading red eye-lights flared with the last of their strength.

A vow to itself and an oath of vengeance spilled toward Jin Taekyung.

—“Remember me. Remember this body, which will one day trample your souls beneath its bare feet.”

Jin Taekyung spat out a wad of phlegm.

“Big talk from a bastard who’s about to croak. Go on. Say, ‘Asmodeus² is a fucking son of a bitch.’”

The Skeleton King hesitantly opened its mouth.

—“Asmodeus² is a fucking son of a bitch…”

“…Not you.”

—“Ah, I know. I just wanted to try it once. But I cannot say that I feel good after uttering something so blasphemous.”

“What’s the problem? You’re a king now, too.”

—“Oh. That is true.”

I swear upon the River of Death that I will tear those two apart.

The Arch Lich stretched both hands toward Jin Taekyung and the Skeleton King.

Its skeletal hands clenched as if they would crush the two figures standing far away, but nothing happened.

Instead, a wind that had blown in from somewhere brushed against its entire body.

Whoooooosh.

It was collapse.

Beginning with its hands, which turned to ash and scattered, everything that made up the Arch Lich began to crumble.

Its arms. Its legs. Its chest.

And finally, even the skull housing its red eye-lights.

—“Please survive. Until the day we meet again…”

Its final voice, filled with resentment, vanished into the wind.

The wind grew stronger and swept onward, carrying the ashes of what had once been the Arch Lich.

Everything caught within the range of One Annihilation sank and crumbled wherever the wind passed. High-rise buildings, heaps of concrete, overturned cars, and corpses long since emptied of life…

Even the enormous, unfinished Gate that would have marked the beginning of an even greater war.

Fssshhh.

As Jin Taekyung silently watched it all, clear chimes rang in his ears—sounds that only he could hear.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Countless System messages filled his vision. They were a victory salute announcing that everything was finally over.

But Jin Taekyung had already exhausted every last bit of his strength, and his body was tipping toward the ground.

I did it.

With that final thought, a deep and peaceful sleep overtook him.

The Skeleton King carefully caught Jin Taekyung as he fell and saw the faint smile on his lips.

—“…You worked hard.”

Devious though he may be, he really is a pretty decent human.

Murmuring inwardly, the Skeleton King was about to carry Jin Taekyung somewhere safe and comfortable when it remembered something.

—“Ah, right. The sword.”

Was it called Hero’s Soul?

It did not know who had named it, but there was no doubt that the sword held a mysterious power.

That sword had awakened it from the brink of Erasure when it had still been the Skeleton Warlord. It was also thanks to the sword that it had managed to deal such a devastating blow to the terrifying Arch Lich.

—“I almost forgot. I need to make sure to keep it safe.”

It did not take long to find. The sword that had remained embedded in its target’s chest until the very end lay quietly where the Arch Lich had stood only moments ago.

But after picking up Hero’s Soul, the Skeleton King tilted its head.

—“Huh? Something feels strange.”

It was a peculiar sensation, difficult to explain.

It could not quite put its finger on it, but… how should it describe the feeling? The sword was undeniably a fine blade, yet it no longer possessed the same mysterious quality as before.

—“Did I pick up the wrong sword?”

But no matter how thoroughly the Skeleton King searched the area or examined the blade, nothing changed.

It scratched its golden skull and pondered the matter for a while before finally reaching a conclusion.

—“Hmm. I guess this is it.”

It was probably just a fleeting impression. The sword looked exactly as it remembered, and it had seen the weapon fall from the Arch Lich’s chest with its own eyes.

Then why does this feel so unsettling?

It made no sense at all.

The Skeleton King shook its head and slid the sword between its pelvic bones for safekeeping.

As it headed toward the unconscious Jin Taekyung, it remained unaware of what had happened the moment Jin Taekyung exhausted all his strength and lost consciousness.

Mist-like black energy had mingled with the wind scattering into the distance.

And the golden light dwelling within Hero’s Soul had left the sword to pursue it.

But one being was different.

The black energy drifted away on the wind.

Reduced by Jin Taekyung to a tiny, powerless fragment of a soul, the Arch Lich stared wide-eyed at the dazzling golden light blocking its path.

This is impossible.

The words it had spoken to Jin Taekyung and the Skeleton King before losing its form had contained no trace of falsehood.

It would return in the near future. With even greater power and an even larger army of monsters, it would stain this land with blood.

Life Force Vessel.

The highest order of black magic available only to the undead—a vessel capable of preserving a fragment of the soul.

So long as it had that, the Arch Lich could escape eternal Erasure.

Or so it had believed, until that brilliant golden light barred its way.

—“You… What are you?”

The Arch Lich was now only a pitiful fragment of a soul, utterly insignificant compared to the power emanating from the light.

The black energy writhed violently with rage, confusion, and fear.

Yet even though the Arch Lich’s thoughts reached it, the golden light did not respond. It merely shone brighter and swelled larger.

Then, in the next moment, the Arch Lich realized what the light truly was.

That is not magic. It is a soul.

The soul of someone it had once shattered and trampled beneath its feet. A fragment of a soul that had lost even its form, yet remained within the sword through sheer will alone.

Suddenly, the Arch Lich recalled a memory it had buried deep within its mind.

“How noble, human. What is your name?”

That day, when blood had formed rivers and corpses had formed mountains.

One human had remained standing until the very end in a city filled with nothing but destruction and death.

—“Lei Fei.”

The Arch Lich—or rather, the black energy—stopped dead.

A dazzling golden light burst through the air and swept over it like a wave.

Fwoooooosh!

…Damn it.

That was the Arch Lich’s final thought.

The battle raged fiercely around the main force.

While the S-rank Hunters had moved toward the rear with part of the army to clear a path for the suicide squad, the tens of thousands of monsters had seized the opportunity and charged.

“Fire Rain!”

Kwaaang!

The mage units in the rear unleashed an area-wide spell, and a rain of fire poured from the sky.

Hundreds of monsters burned to death, reduced to charred lumps. The mages clenched their fists at the sight.

Then—

Whoooooosh! Thwack!

“…Huh?”

One of the mages wiped the blood from their face with a bewildered expression.

The face of the comrade who had been smiling at them only moments ago was gone.

No—it had burst apart.

A black spear had crossed the distance like a beam of light and struck them.

Whoooooosh! Boom!

Another spear flew in and skewered six or seven mages like meat on a spit.

Only then did the belated screams erupt.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Death Knights! They’re Death Knights!”

“Fuck, what the hell are you talking about? Didn’t we take care of all of them?”

“I-I don’t think so! It looks like they hid their elites separately among the others!”

Those words soon proved true.

Having clearly recognized the absence of the S-rank Hunters, the elite monsters revealed themselves, and an unstoppable slaughter began.

Slash!

Kwaaang!

Death Knights, Liches, and dozens of Wyverns that had remained out of sight appeared and launched a ferocious assault.

People died without end, and monsters surged forward without pause.

With even the S-rank Hunters away from their positions, deep despair settled over the faces of those risking their lives to hold the line.

It’s all over.

Then, just as everyone thought of death—

Shiiiiing!

A Death Knight’s sword stopped in the middle of cutting through someone.

No.

It crumbled into ash.

“W-What the hell…?”

The Hunter who had narrowly escaped death looked around and gaped.

The sight before him was unbelievable.

First, hundreds fell.

Then thousands crumbled.

Before long, monsters numbering in the tens of thousands were turning to ash and scattering.

Whoooooosh.

At long last, the war was over.