Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 198

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 65

I could capture Adam again to neutralize the demonic energy.

But Aphene wouldn’t let that happen.

Kyrillos was already beyond helping me effectively.

‘Then…’

This was the method I had reserved until the very last moment.

There was only one way left.

The box containing the Demon King’s core wouldn’t open.

Aphene knew this too, which is why he completely ignored me.

Probably only the Demon King, its owner, could open it.

Ordinary swords or Kyrillos’s magic were powerless before it.

I had no choice but to do it myself.

I rejected Adam and picked up the holy sword that had rolled across the marble floor.

Whether it was because of the Saint’s power, or the holy sword’s will to destroy the ominous mass of demonic energy before it, the holy sword didn’t reject me.

When I lifted the holy sword, something Aphene never expected, he widened his eyes in panic.

‘Sorry, but I’m also someone chosen by the Saint.’

Aphene, who had been grabbing Adam by the collar and sneering, rushed over frantically.

“You, you, how can you…!”

“If it won’t open, I’ll have to destroy it along with the box.”

I brought down the holy sword I had lifted with both hands.

“Noooo!”

Aphene screamed as he ran toward me.

“Stop! If you destroy that, you’ll die too! Don’t you value your life!”

Of course I value it.

But other people’s lives are precious too.

At that moment, black demonic energy poured out uncontrollably from the Demon King’s heart that the holy sword had split.

It was an amount that would overwhelm and consume any ordinary person with demonic energy.

However, I didn’t give in and infused the holy sword with holy power.

White divine power faintly enveloped my surroundings.

The divine power I had stored up until now was disappearing through the holy sword in an instant.

A lump of blood rose up from my throat.

But I couldn’t lift my hand to wipe my mouth.

The white divine power and black demonic energy collided with each other, scratching the skin of those around us.

And that applied to me at the center of it all as well.

Clang!

The holy sword, still embedded in the Demon King’s heart, scraped against the marble floor with a sharp noise.

Thump thump.

I don’t know whose heartbeat it was.

But what was certain was that my heart and someone else’s were beating together.

One was already growing cold, pierced by the holy sword.

In a final struggle, it was releasing demonic energy to separate me from the holy sword, but the sword that had pierced the core wouldn’t fall.

“No one can kill me. No one in this world can kill me!”

Aphene clawed at his own face with his fingers as if in agony.

But the holy sword that had pierced the core remained as it was.

“That can’t be, that can’t be…”

Aphene despairingly tore at his own hair.

However, the Demon King’s heart was crumbling like powder from where the holy sword was embedded.

And at the same time, Aphene’s body began to collapse as well.

As if the heart and he were one and the same, he too crumbled and fell apart.

As if punishing the Demon King who dared defy the laws of life and lived eternally.

Aphene’s body completely disappeared without leaving a single trace.

Where Aphene had been, only his black robe and the jewels he had worn remained.

“Huk, huh…”

After confirming Aphene’s disappearance, I gasped for breath.

But my body felt agonized as if I couldn’t breathe properly.

My body collapsed just like that.

I had no strength in my legs.

And I fell clutching my chest.

I naturally thought I would die.

I had taken the Demon King’s demonic energy head-on, and instead of defending with divine power, I had focused all my attention on destroying the core.

Despite being prepared for death, the pain was more agonizing than I expected.

‘So it wasn’t a lie to avoid death after all.’

I slowly closed my eyes.

It was painful, so very painful.

Was I dying now too?

The cold marble floor cooled my cheek, which was covered in scratches from the demonic energy.

Crack.

And then, the relic shattered.

Your Hero has—

In the end, Adam’s final words didn’t reach me.

And the relic, which had taken the demonic energy along with me, began to crack and then shattered.

“Eve!”

Adam came running.

But I couldn’t take him into my sight.

Instead of answering, I retched and coughed up blood.

“No, this can’t happen!”

Someone grabbed me and shouted.

But my ears were ringing and my eyes wouldn’t open properly.

Shaking me wouldn’t change anything.

I need to get up.

Adam is crying.

I made a promise…

But my body, already attacked by demonic energy, wouldn’t respond even to Adam’s voice.

THE END

At that moment, fanfare played and the final message appeared.

I let out a small gasp.

It was the final phrase I always saw after killing the Demon King.

Seeing it like this is nice again.

Congratulations. You have completed the Quest conditions for ‘Aria the Saint’.

I closed my eyes while reading the final message in my blurring vision.

My terribly heavy body began to float.

As if my consciousness was gradually fading away…

But I wanted to be buried and sleep like this.

—”Iberis!”

“Huk!”

I came to my senses with a start, as if cold water had been poured over me.

I bolted upright and examined my body.

I was sure I had collapsed while coughing up blood, but my body was perfectly fine.

I couldn’t feel the terrible pain that had coursed through my body the moment I destroyed the Demon King’s core.

I got up, pressing my hands against the floor that was completely white.

A white space with nothing in it.

I had been to this place before.

It was the same situation as last time.

However, something was different.

“…Saint?”

I called out to the owner of this space.

However, the Saint did not appear.

Suddenly feeling something missing around my neck, I checked and found the Sacred Relic was gone too.

‘Could it be that I’m dead?’

Since the Saint was also dead, it wouldn’t be strange if this place where she had been was the afterlife.

I had certainly prepared for death when I did what I did, yet I felt regret.

If it hadn’t been me, Adam would have died, so it was an unavoidable choice.

It’s better for Adam to live than me….

That was the moment.

Your Hero is attempting to regress.

‘…What?’

The Sacred Relic was clearly broken and gone,

Could it be because this space was created by the Saint?

Could it be something the Saint, who was the owner of the Sacred Relic, did?

“W-wait a minute. Adam!”

I stood up from my spot and shouted.

Even though he couldn’t hear me and couldn’t see me, it was an instinctive action.

Regression, regression of all things.

Doesn’t that mean he’s going to die?

I frantically called out to the Saint.

“You said you wanted to save the Hero too!”

I screamed in frustration.

It didn’t matter if no one could hear me.

Seeing that messages were appearing, this wasn’t the afterlife.

I had probably entered the Saint’s space again.

If that was the case, she would be watching me from somewhere.

Then, in the white space that had nothing, the Saint’s figure appeared.

【”Congratulations.”】

The Saint spoke calmly.

For someone who had brought me to such a place, her reaction was different from what I expected.

“Congratulations?”

Then the Saint looked at me.

She looked more mature than the Saint I had seen in that previous dream.

Rather, she looked like someone who had been worn down so much that she couldn’t feel any emotions anymore.

That withered-looking Saint turned to look at me.

She was saying congratulations, but she seemed to have neither relief nor regret.

She was merely an existence created from the wishes of the Saint when she was alive.

She just moved her lips slightly.

【”Because you completed the Quest.”】

What…?

At her words, I hesitated and took a step back.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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