I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 152

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

Chapter 152

 

Twitch.

 

The body that had been lying there like a corpse moved slightly.

 

A severed arm. Blood flowing endlessly. Life force draining away, and a body collapsing.

 

It was a state where an ordinary person could never move, but he moved.

 

For the sake of struggle.

 

Until the very last moment when his breath would cease, he absolutely could not stop.

 

But what could he do with a body already dying? Even a body trained and hardened through countless trials was now only defenseless. Because there was no divinity, the power that had filled his body as it served its purpose and died.

 

Therefore, he moved.

 

Instinctively. Toward what he needed to move.

 

What he reached desperately crawling was the Holy Sword. However, the Holy Sword that had already lost its contents was no different from his own dying form. He could not live with this. He could not fight.

 

So he moved again.

 

And he reached it.

 

* * *

 

Spirit’s Tear. Essence of Hellfire. Great Demon’s Horn. Dragon Bone and heart. World Tree’s branch, Eternal Ice.

 

Fragments of ancient gods, each containing six different divinities.

 

-Eternal Ice that freezes even time itself. Extremely cold energy. The power to stop everything. In the beginning, the world was frozen like that.

 

Such a voice was heard from somewhere.

 

Could it be the Demon Lord’s voice?

 

He could not be certain.

 

-The essence of Hellfire that burns everything. As the essence of Hellfire melted time, the frozen world began to move.

 

It was mythology.

 

The mythology of this world, the Middle Realm. Stories passed down from before the gods disappeared and the Goddess came to be worshipped as the sole deity of this world.

 

-King of other gods, Spirit’s Tear. The endless great ocean. Through its concession, the continent was born.

 

The world that had not moved at all melted away, and the sea split to raise the continent.

 

A single continent.

 

-The Mother Tree worshipped by Elves, the World Tree’s branch. Roots that grow everywhere. Master of immense life force. Through it, various life forms were born.

 

Through it, soil for life to grow was created, so the tree that had stood alone and lonely gave birth to descendants.

 

Beasts and Elves, all kinds of Monsters and finally even Humans were born. They once lived together as brothers but soon grew apart.

 

-Dragon Bone and heart containing infinite wisdom. The source of all mana in this world. Thanks to it, life gained wisdom.

 

Perhaps it was because wisdom was born. They calculated their own gains and losses, and scattered to fulfill their greed.

 

War settled into the peaceful world.

 

-Terror hidden in the abyss, Great Demon’s Horn. Complete severance of all senses. Finally, they could enter rest.

 

And death descended.

 

Though war ended, death did not disappear. Only the Elves who shunned war and worshipped the World Tree kept their distance from death, but even that was not complete.

 

-I have contained the fragments of these six gods.

 

I feel the divinity extending from my back.

 

Master Sevian’s magic. The precious secret art that all Mages pursued. The forbidden technique that made external body tissues controllable as one’s own held the six expelled divinities to prevent them from running wild.

 

Small.

 

It was a small power. They were fragments of things that had died long ago, and even after resurrection were not whole.

 

However, the moment those six became one. An omnipotence that could not be judged by quantity or size surged up.

 

My senses expanded madly.

 

-What is this.

 

I can feel the continent, the world.

 

Everything happening in this world right now feels vividly clear, as if I could grasp it in my hands.

 

I had thought only this place was hell, but it wasn’t.

 

The world was collapsing. Slowly, from places far from this battle, from the edges of the world.

 

People were each preparing for their final moments.

 

Some screamed, collapsed, sometimes fulfilled desires they couldn’t satisfy, took their own lives, or used drugs to fall asleep.

 

Everywhere was hell.

 

-It’s only natural. The Demon Lord fought the Hero in the Middle Realm.

 

The Hero must always triumph over the Demon Lord. That is fate and law. It was a law written by the Goddess, a law that takes precedence over all else.

 

Everything flows for the sake of that law.

 

The Demon Lord is strong. The Hero cannot win with the power they have cultivated alone. This is especially impossible for an incomplete Hero who has skipped several trials.

 

To cultivate the insufficient power, the world converts everything into strength.

 

-Just as it did a thousand years ago in the Demon Realm.

 

The king of the Demon Realm. The pinnacle of all dark magic, the lord of evil. A benevolent ruler and an immoral being. The moment that disgusting traitor realized this, he gave up resistance.

 

He abandoned his existence to avoid losing the world he had barely managed to obtain.

 

And he made a promise. That he would surely escape from this cursed fate. That he would finish the revenge he had postponed.

 

Thus the Demon Realm continued to exist, leaving only its wretched form behind.

 

But in this world, there is no such being.

 

The Hero is ignorant and powerless. He doesn’t even know that the world is being destroyed. Even if he knew, there would be nothing he could do. Only the Demon Lord’s sacrifice can save the world.

 

-I have no intention of doing so.

 

Even if the entire world perishes, it is not more important than my survival.

 

“Is that so.”

 

A voice came from somewhere.

 

It wasn’t the Demon Lord’s voice. It was a voice I had heard before. The senses that had spread vastly and distantly failed to detect the presence beforehand.

 

Even though it happened at close range, that was the case.

 

It’s only natural. Just as when a human looks at a forest, they perceive the scenery but don’t sense the wild beasts within. Just as when looking at a vast sandy beach, they cannot distinguish each individual grain. Everything in the world feels like scenery to me, and humans are merely like tiny specks of dust.

 

However.

 

Even within such perception, it soon began to register as maddeningly large.

 

I realized who had spoken to me.

 

-Hero.

 

I couldn’t help but realize it. Everything in the world was being decomposed and absorbed by the Holy Sword held in his hand.

 

That intense wave of power. There was no way I couldn’t sense the world’s hostility rushing toward me to defeat me.

 

-How ridiculous.

 

Who dares to oppose whom? No matter how the world’s laws may be written, I who have gathered the power of six gods in one place am the rightful owner of this world.

 

How should I punish this foolish and pathetic world that cannot even recognize its own master?

 

Should I simply watch it die quietly? That would not be enough. Wouldn’t it be better to punish it with my own hands before it destroys itself?

 

“The contract.”

 

The Hero opened his mouth.

 

“Fulfill the contract.”

 

-You.

 

I stopped my raised hand as it was and looked into the Hero’s face. I pondered those words.

 

-You’re not the second one.

 

Though he bore the form of the human Emperor, he was not. He wasn’t even the third one.

 

The one holding the First Hero’s Holy Sword that the Third Hero had used. The one occupying the human Emperor’s body was.

 

-The First Hero.

 

Emperor Epeldor.

 

How could a human who died hundreds of years ago be in this place? Along with a slight interest, wisdom flows forth.

 

After the Hero’s death, humans strived to recreate the concept of a Hero with great power. The Second Hero Ruin Epeldor was their first success.

 

The body used was a child of a woman who had conceived the Emperor’s seed. He was thus a descendant of the First Emperor.

 

The soul used was the First Hero’s residual thoughts extracted from the Holy Sword. The greatest potential was planted within him.

 

As a result, he received the Emperor’s name, ascended to the Emperor’s throne, and finally obtained the Emperor’s sword. It would have been the optimal environment for the soul contained in the sword to take over the body. If this ritual had been prepared in advance, it would have been more difficult for this not to happen.

 

“Fulfill the contract.”

 

The First Emperor, Epeldor, pointed his Holy Sword and said so.

 

As if he would swing it at me if I didn’t fulfill the contract. How laughable. How insolent.

 

However, I did not punish the Hero.

 

-Contract.

 

Not fulfilling a contract is an act that diminishes one’s dignity.

 

If a contract was truly made, it is proper to keep it.

 

If I had made a contract with the Hero. What contract could I have made with someone who died before I was even born.

 

After a moment’s contemplation, just as I was about to punish the Hero. A memory surfaces.

 

It is not mine. But it is mine.

 

A memory from a thousand years ago. A memory from when the Hero subjugated the Demon Lord. The memory of a coward who gave up resistance and decided to protect the world.

 

The secret pact the Demon Lord made with the Hero during the brief moment when the Goddess’s eyes were covered. The second of only three contracts the Demon Lord made during his near-eternal existence.

 

-Do you desire liberation.

 

The Demon Lord spoke to the Hero.

 

He revealed how the fate the Goddess imposed upon them, the Hero’s fate to save the world, actually worked.

 

He told them of the terrible end they would face. He recited the fate of spending their entire lives as the Goddess’s chess pieces, only to eventually become her prey.

 

“I want it.”

 

Even those who didn’t believe at first came to realize it. That the Demon Lord’s words were not mere deception.

 

The wisdom of the First Tower Master, who transcended humanity, realized it. That the Demon Lord’s words were truth. The Saint, who could even revive the dead, realized it. What had become of their souls.

 

And so they made a contract.

 

The master of the underworld gathered people. He threatened and persuaded them. Thus he created an organization. The Dawn Order was born.

 

The Hero became the Imperial Emperor and supported them.

 

The Tower Master devised meticulous plans, and the Saint covered the Goddess’s eyes.

 

The Elf departed. She returned to the Great Forest to try to reclaim their god.

 

“Liberation from the gods.”

 

Liberation from the Goddess.

 

The age of humans. To reclaim an age of humans who would not be toyed with by divine beings. They made a deal with the Demon Lord they were supposed to kill. They chose to become true Heroes.

 

They sought to save the world.

 

-Then.

 

Must I fulfill that contract. A brief question. But wisdom provided the answer.

 

I will fulfill it.

 

Though it’s not a contract I made directly, the Demon Lord is like my other side. There’s no reason not to fulfill the contract he made.

 

-The world shall receive salvation.

 

But you must know. Dawn is darkest just before the break of day.

 

I reached behind my back and broke off the wings made of tree branches. Then I pulled them out.

 

The World Tree is the tree of life. The mother who gave birth to all life.

 

But its more widely known role is.

 

-The World Tree is the tree that connects worlds, extending its roots to the Demon Realm and supporting the Heavenly Realm with its branches.

 

The sky that had been struggling to hold collapses. The ground trembles.

 

The world doesn’t collapse just because the World Tree is gone. Just as it has been for the past thousands of years.

 

But what matters is the symbolism. Every action I take is a supreme ritual.

 

-From the collapsed sky, one world will fall. From the earth, one world will rise.

 

The Heavenly Realm that the World Tree had been supporting falls down through the split sky. The Demon Realm where the World Tree had taken root rises up, parting the ocean.

 

The world expands.

 

The world that had been gradually heading toward destruction thus gained a brief reprieve.

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