I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 147

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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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Chapter 147

 

The Demon Lord is the ruler of the Demon Realm. It means the king of demons. However, it can also mean the king of magic.

 

The magic of the Demon Lord, who has reached the pinnacle of dark magic, twists logic and brings despair. Before great magic, everyone has no choice but to kneel, which is why the First Hero who overcame it is still praised to this day.

 

“So, behold. That is clearly the king of magic…”

 

Feeling helplessness, despair, and awe, Albeng, who had collapsed to the ground, recited a passage from scripture.

 

“Called and named the Demon Lord.”

 

If that thing before his eyes wasn’t the Demon Lord, then what else could be the Demon Lord?

 

He had witnessed the battle between Shtidy and Kaella. He had watched the endless magical bombardment and the meteor that could destroy the world.

 

Certainly, those too had been overwhelming. Frightening. For Albeng, who had only managed to maintain his strength while his other companions grew stronger, it was even more so.

 

However, none of those had made him feel as much terror as he did now.

 

“…Perhaps the divine oracle is being completed right now, at this very moment.”

 

At first, there were some clumsy parts. It was just a simple magic circle that even Albeng, who wasn’t particularly versed in magic, could recognize. According to what he had learned in general education, it was the lowest-grade atmosphere manipulation magic. However, the result it achieved by expanding in an instant was.

 

Reversal.

 

Rainwater shoots up toward the sky.

 

He barely manages to resist his body trying to float up along with it. The stuffy air becomes clear in an instant, and the dark clouds in the sky scatter. It’s unbelievable that such a miracle was accomplished with just the lowest-grade atmosphere manipulation.

 

Of course, if that had been all, he wouldn’t have been so shocked.

 

‘That thing’ was evolving faster than anything else right now.

 

As if the initial magic was nothing, magic circles instantly spread out to the surroundings. Cain and Sherry, sensing something strange, aimed for his back but were blocked by ice pillars that shot up.

 

The two of them had already far transcended human limits. No matter how hard ice might be, it wouldn’t pose any obstacle to them.

 

An explosion from within occurred the moment they tried to break it.

 

Hundreds of ice fragments pierced into their bodies. Another explosion occurred before them as they tried to step back and reorganize their stance. The explosions that initially occurred at intervals of seconds soon accelerated to become immeasurable.

 

Endlessly flickering magic circles. At the same time, new magic circles were being drawn.

 

It was the soul chains he had seen before.

 

“Souls…”

 

Albeng, who possessed outstanding talent as a priest, could see them. The souls scattered across the battlefield. He could also hear them. The terrible song created by the mixture of their screams.

 

He wanted to close his eyes and cover his ears. But he couldn’t. He looked around with terrible disgust.

 

“This place was a banquet hall.”

 

God feeds on human souls.

 

Faith is a kind of ritual and contract. The Goddess bestows grace upon humans. What humans offer in return is faith. And their souls after death. Being with the Goddess forever in heaven means becoming nutrients in her belly.

 

That was the secret of the religious order passed down from Albeng’s ancestor, who was the first Pope and Saint.

 

Not many knew about it.

 

At most, high-ranking clergy. Fools who were guaranteed wealth and power in exchange for predetermined future destruction.

 

“The Demon Lord, who is the Goddess’s adversary, must also grow stronger by feeding on souls.”

 

Albeng realized.

 

Going to find the Emperor to defeat the Demon Lord had been the worst choice. If they had truly wanted to save the continent, they should have attacked the Demon Lord among themselves.

 

But what meaning did any of that have?

 

The result would be the same anyway. If they defeated the Demon Lord, people would be ecstatic. Praise for the Hero, the sword and representative of the Goddess, would continue. The priests’ holy power would diminish, and people’s faith, which had been declining, would rise higher than ever before.

 

Everyone would become the Goddess’s food without knowing it.

 

One way or another, the result was the same. Whether eaten by the Demon Lord or eaten by the Goddess. For humans, only the ending of becoming someone’s food remained.

 

“Finally.”

 

A voice reached the ears of the collapsed Albeng.

 

“The end of the long wait approaches.”

 

It was the Saint who was known to have lost her reason due to two divine descents by the Goddess.

 

* * *

 

After dozens of explosions erupted, nothing remained in that spot.

 

Had they died without even leaving corpses behind?

 

‘No.’

 

They had dodged.

 

He didn’t know when or how they had dodged, but it was certain they had escaped before dying.

 

“That was close to death.”

 

Such a voice came from behind.

 

It was the man’s voice. He had the unconscious woman tucked under his arm at the waist, muttering as if finding it absurd.

 

“….”

 

“Unfortunately, this is a body that has faced the Demon Lord. Among the demons I’ve defeated so far, there weren’t none with this level of skill.”

 

With those words, he thrust his sword into the magic circle. The chains that had been completed and extending out collapsed. It seemed impossible to absorb souls while dealing with them at the same time.

 

“Bind them.”

 

The moment he finished speaking, roots that sprouted from the ground constricted their bodies.

 

This seemed unexpected. My mana hadn’t moved at all. Even when they tried to struggle free, more roots only bound their bodies.

 

The World Tree’s roots are tough.

 

Even the elves’ spirits, which were made in imitation of the World Tree, were difficult to cut through by ordinary methods. The World Tree, being the original, went without saying.

 

It was the moment I approached them to take their lives directly.

 

A sharp sword strike flew at me. Even the ice pillar I reflexively created was cut through in one blow. I tried to dodge quickly, but my right arm, which I couldn’t avoid in time, was severed.

 

I stared blankly at the arm that had fallen to the floor, then raised my head. A sprouted root picked up the arm and brought it to my shoulder. Tremendous life force connected the two together.

 

Though there was a stiff feeling, it moved without difficulty.

 

“You’ve become a complete monster.”

 

Johnny said that.

 

“…Johnny.”

 

“Shtidy! Join in. This is too much for me alone.”

 

Shtidy, who had been sitting there as if in a daze, stood up. Her eyes fixed on the staff I was holding.

 

“Oh no.”

 

Shtidy is an excellent mage.

 

Her talent had been evident since her time at the Magic Tower, and she had achieved tremendous growth while accompanying the Hero’s trials. Enough to overwhelm Kaella in today’s battle. Perhaps she could be called the continent’s greatest mage without issue.

 

I didn’t think I would lose.

 

While she was thinking of ways to defeat Kaella, I had been contemplating ways to surpass the Demon Lord.

 

Shtidy manipulated mana. Mana gradually flowed in from the bodies of the soldiers who were still alive. By my estimation, twelve types of attack magic. It was fast enough that an ordinary person would have been helplessly caught.

 

Not for me.

 

I raised my staff and struck the ground.

 

Endless mana spread out around me. There was no need to cover the entire battlefield. A very narrow range. A small circle of only a few dozen meters surrounding Shtidy and me.

 

The mana within that circle ran wild.

 

The mana went awry. The mana that had been rushing toward Shtidy lost its way. The magic circles that had been rapidly completing collapsed. From the backlash, Shtidy coughed up blood and collapsed.

 

“Dis, pel…?”

 

Dispel.

 

A technique that distorts surrounding mana and magical power to forcibly cancel magic in use.

 

Though it’s close to a trick that can be easily ignored depending on the target’s skill level, for Shtidy who had been gathering and using others’ mana, there couldn’t be a more effective countermeasure.

 

Only Johnny remained.

 

-You’re not going to kill her?

 

The Demon Lord sneered.

 

Right now Shtidy was defenseless. Enough that I could end her life with just a flick of a finger.

 

If time passed and she recovered her body and realized why she had just been defeated, she would be sufficient interference in dealing with Johnny. But I had no desire to kill her.

 

I wasn’t trying to speak anew about the reasons I became a Dark Mage or such things.

 

Like when I killed the farmer who tried to kill me and steal my belongings. I knew well enough that when necessary, I shouldn’t hesitate to kill someone.

 

But I didn’t want to experience again the pain I felt when I had to kill the guard members including Mike. I didn’t want to experience again the emotions I felt when Birutta ended her life before my eyes.

 

Though this choice now might bring regret, I didn’t want to accumulate more regrets.

 

-Then, what about that one too?

 

I looked at Johnny charging at me with a hardened face.

 

“Explosion.”

 

Even when I attacked with magic, trapped him in ice, and bound him using the World Tree. Johnny didn’t stop.

 

It was somewhat tiresome.

 

I seemed to see the flow of fate rushing toward him. Perhaps that would indeed be the blade that would end my life.

 

I could understand how the Demon Lord had been defeated by the Hero.

 

“At first, I resented you.”

 

The power Johnny possesses is strong. Certainly strong, but it couldn’t compare to the Demon Lord who displayed overwhelming majesty with just the smallest fragment.

 

However, this world does not permit the Hero’s defeat. As long as Johnny doesn’t give up, he will not fall. It forces the Demon Lord to be unable to achieve victory.

 

Dealing with something like this for days on end would become utterly tiresome.

 

“You came to our peaceful territory and killed our companions. We who merely followed our Lord’s orders became sinners.”

 

How could one possibly defeat that? All I could do was use Deception to slightly deflect the flow of fate. In the end, it amounted to nothing more than buying time.

 

All those actions consumed massive amounts of Divinity.

 

“If there hadn’t been a shortage of manpower, we would have been thrown in prison. No, perhaps being dragged to the battlefield was also part of our punishment.”

 

I had tried to cultivate Divinity to defeat the Emperor, but instead, more Divinity was being consumed.

 

At this rate, wouldn’t I be defeated before long? Such thoughts crossed my mind.

 

“When I was suddenly hailed as a Hero and learned that those achievements were actually yours… I wondered if you held some grudge against me.”

 

His clumsy stance gradually corrected itself.

 

Was causality being reversed? Perhaps the world had accepted that Johnny as he is now cannot defeat me.

 

“But now I know.”

 

His lacking experience was being filled. With each swing of his sword, he became more skilled faster than even the continent’s greatest genius.

 

It was clearly forced, no matter how you looked at it. Johnny was just an ordinary person. He had never possessed such talent.

 

“In truth, it was us who committed evil acts. You were truly a Hero. In Belive, in Andril. It must have been the same in other places I don’t know about.”

 

As a Dark Mage, I could state with certainty.

 

There was no way such insane behavior would come without any price. Originally, he would have been tempered through the Hero’s trials, gradually shedding his humanity, but Johnny had skipped the first few trials.

 

“Perhaps even this action… even you being called the Demon Lord might have some reason. Sometimes I think that way.”

 

He would break. The vessel was not complete.

 

Contents were being forcibly poured into an incomplete vessel. There was no way it could endure.

 

“However, I will stop you.”

 

But that was a matter for later.

 

“Whatever the reason may be, I am the Hero now.”

 

Until he defeats the Demon Lord, until he defeats me, the world wouldn’t even permit him to break.

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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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