I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 98

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

Chapter 98

 

It was a situation that couldn’t be understood even when seen with one’s own eyes.

 

Sometimes when receiving people’s cheers, he would mistake himself for having truly become a Hero. However, Johnny knew. What people believed to be his achievements were all accomplished by someone else.

 

He was not a real Hero.

 

His sponsor Dahan had promised to make him a real Hero, but he didn’t even want such a thing.

 

But then.

 

“…Huh?”

 

Silence lingered.

 

What Johnny held in his hand was unmistakably the Holy Sword. The legendary sword that chooses its own master, and brings Divine Punishment to those who are not recognized just by touching it.

 

‘A fake?’

 

Could it be a device prepared by the Holy Nation to humiliate Johnny, knowing he was a fake Hero? If the Pope lied and the Saint acted accordingly, wouldn’t anyone be deceived?

 

However.

 

Johnny remained frozen, only slightly moving his eyes to look at the Pope behind the Saint.

 

And he had to acknowledge it.

 

The undignified gaping mouth, the trembling eyes. Even the hands shaking like someone intoxicated. If that was acting, she should be a Theater Actor somewhere rather than a Pope.

 

The Saint was the same.

 

Massive Divine Power was bursting from her entire body, but conversely, her body was deteriorating at an incredible speed. It was natural since the Goddess had descended again into a body that was already unhealthy.

 

“You’re quite overexerting yourself.”

 

Johnny, who had been nodding in agreement, was startled. The voice didn’t belong to anyone who was supposed to be in this place.

 

A tone filled with boredom beyond leisure. Yet it was a voice that somehow felt familiar.

 

“To hand over the Holy Sword to a human who hasn’t completed a single Trial.”

 

At the same time, the Saint’s, no, the Goddess’s face contorted mercilessly. With blood flowing from the corners of her mouth, anyone who didn’t know better would say she looked no different from a demon.

 

-The causality is sufficient.

 

The Goddess, who had been saying only what she wanted without caring about people’s reactions, responded to the other’s words.

 

Naturally, people’s gazes had no choice but to turn toward that target.

 

“Gasp…!”

 

Sounds of consecutive gasps could be heard. Only the Pope showed a puzzled expression.

 

It couldn’t be helped. The target they had suspected of not being the real Hero, who had stolen Johnny’s achievements, was standing there.

 

It was Jude. Shtidy had said she met him as a junior at the Magic Tower.

 

“For something like that…”

 

Jude approached with a sneer. His face remarkably resembled the youngest member beloved by the Guard Unit, but his expression and atmosphere were completely different.

 

He looked more noble than the Lords they occasionally encountered, more than the Kingdom Nobles.

 

Could silver-gray hair feel so beautiful? Just by walking slowly, he exuded an overwhelming presence.

 

“You already seem to have no strength left.”

 

Jude, standing before the Goddess, brushed her chin with his fingertips. Blood drops flowed down his fingers.

 

-Do you think I wouldn’t know your plan? How does it feel to have what you were preparing snatched away before your eyes?

 

The Goddess grabbed his wrist and answered with a twisted smile.

 

-I personally designated that one as Hero. The distorted laws have found their place. The sword created to kill me has turned toward you.

“Well…”

 

Jude whispered in the Goddess’s ear.

 

“I’m truly grateful.”

 

Suddenly, tremendous light burst forth. Massive Holy Power surged.

 

“Ah, ahhh…!”

 

A desperate scream burst from the Saint’s mouth along with blood.

 

-You bastard…!

 

Jude, who had stepped back, wiped the blood that had splattered on his face with his hand and looked up at the ceiling.

 

The Saint collapsed, blood gushing from her entire body, and the bright light that escaped from her flickered on the ceiling.

 

-Draw your sword, my Hero! Kill that thing! That is your reason for existence!

“Did you think that could kill me?”

-This is my domain! A thousand years of accumulated history will crush you!

 

After the Goddess’s cry, Johnny felt his body begin to move.

 

Suppressing his fear, he aimed his sword. What the opponent’s true identity was didn’t matter right now. The safety of the fallen Saint was the same.

 

That thing is the Demon Lord. If one is human, if one is a living being of the Continent, it’s an existence that must be destroyed.

 

He felt tremendous power dwelling in his body.

 

Dahan had said. A Hero is like a law itself. The owner of a destiny that will surely triumph against the Demon Lord.

 

Even if he himself had no qualifications, as long as he was directly recognized as a Hero by the Goddess, there would be no defeat.

 

“I’ll support you!”

 

Mana and Holy Power dwelled in his body. His spirit was elevated by the sense of omnipotence. The moment the Holy Sword’s power was added, it seemed like nothing would be impossible to achieve.

 

Recalling the strike that had cut through the Dragon, Johnny swung his sword.

 

The massive power that burst from the Holy Sword cut through the wall and brought down the ceiling. It was such tremendous force that even Johnny, who had swung the sword, hesitated for a moment.

 

The Demon Lord, Jude, couldn’t dodge and was split in half.

 

“Still immature.”

 

But that body soon wavered and disappeared.

 

“You’re not utilizing all the power you possess. I can see you’ve made efforts, but devote yourself a bit more to training.”

 

He touched his arm and shoulder to correct his posture. The startled Jude swung his sword again, but the Demon Lord only disappeared like a mirage.

 

“And you lack awareness of the power you possess. If you make a mistake, it’ll be a massacre. Can you handle it?”

 

He whispered as if genuinely pitying.

 

In the direction where he had just swung the Holy Sword, he could see Shtidy sitting collapsed and Albeng holding her. At the thought that their lives might have been lost if the position had been even slightly off, Johnny’s mind snapped to attention.

 

Above this place were thousands of people. He couldn’t be certain of the attack’s range, but there was a possibility that quite a few people had been caught up in it.

 

The Demon Lord, who had been giggling while looking at them for a moment, said:

 

“I don’t think I’d lose if we fought now… but that wouldn’t be fun.”

“Let, let go!”

 

Before anyone knew it, the Pope was caught in his hands.

 

“P-Pope!”

“Your Holiness…!”

 

Johnny hesitated. He wasn’t confident he could attack only the Demon Lord without harming the Pope. If he accidentally cut the Pope, the consequences would be unmanageable.

 

Heavy footsteps echoed from the corridor in large numbers. It was certain that Holy Knights who had detected the anomaly were rushing over. Johnny let out a sigh of relief. If he joined forces with the Holy Knights, they might be able to stop the Demon Lord.

 

“Filthy demon bastard…!”

 

The Pope struggled and released Holy Power. The Demon Lord chuckled and…

 

“Kuh, kuhhk…!”

 

Broke the Pope’s neck.

 

“A barrier that activates the moment life is severed. You hid it well. Indeed, you had reason to be so confident.”

 

The Demon Lord muttered this and threw down the lifeless Pope.

 

Johnny gritted his teeth. It was a desperate situation, one where it was overwhelming just to follow the flow.

 

However, there must surely be a way.

 

Though he felt nothing, that thing had definitely mentioned a barrier. There must have been something else that the Goddess had arranged. If he joined forces with the Holy Knights as he had initially thought, he would be able to defeat that thing.

 

“Come now, try achieving victory against a demon.”

 

The Demon Lord said, spreading both arms. Johnny frantically swung his sword again.

 

The wall behind the Demon Lord completely collapsed.

 

In that moment, Johnny instinctively sensed something was wrong.

 

The Demon Lord’s form, split in half, became hazy and disappeared as before. Befitting his epithet as the Deceiver, he must have pulled some trick.

 

But that wasn’t the problem.

 

From beyond the collapsed wall, something… something very black and dark…

 

Johnny looked at the Pope’s corpse disappearing, consumed by the darkness flowing out. A terribly ominous feeling. His body trembled with instinctive fear.

 

‘Try achieving victory against a demon?’

 

The Demon Lord had definitely said that. The story the Pope had told flashed through Johnny’s mind. Somewhere in this place, something that had nearly destroyed the Holy Nation was sealed, wasn’t it?

 

If that was a demon…

 

Johnny gathered his strength and launched sword strikes several times. But even attacks whose power was immeasurable only disappeared into the darkness.

 

“For now, let’s retreat.”

 

Albeng, who had taken care of the dying Saint, said.

 

Johnny nodded. That thing…

 

It seemed they would need to think together with the Holy Nation, which had directly sealed it, about countermeasures.

 

* * *

 

When I came to my senses, the black night sky came into view.

 

I could hear the sound of a campfire crackling, and at some distance I could see Remal adding firewood.

 

The journey of the past few weeks since defeating the dragon felt like it had all been a dream.

 

“You, you…”

 

No, it wasn’t. I wished it had been a dream, but I could still vividly feel the sensation of snapping the Pope’s neck in my hands.

 

Perhaps thanks to growing considerably through the journey, my memories remained even after making the Demon Lord the target of necromantic arts. …It wasn’t rewarding at all.

 

“What the hell did you do…!”

 

To Remal, I probably looked like a madman spouting nonsense as soon as I woke up, but I didn’t have the capacity to care about such things.

 

The Demon Lord had kept his promise. Thanks to that, I was able to safely escape from that pitch-black darkness.

 

However, as I had expected, he wasn’t satisfied with just that. What happened afterward – I couldn’t even begin to guess what he wanted or why he did it.

 

-You? How disappointing. Not ‘you’, but we… no, ‘I’ did it, shouldn’t you say?

 

The Demon Lord spoke in an exaggerated voice as if acting.

 

After committing acts I couldn’t handle the consequences of, was he now trying to shift the responsibility? Of course, it was me who temporarily handed over my body to the Demon Lord. I had no intention of denying that responsibility. But all the problems were directly caused by the Demon Lord. If we’re assigning blame, wasn’t it overwhelmingly the Demon Lord’s responsibility?

 

“Don’t talk nonsense…!”

-Think about it.

 

The Demon Lord changed his tone to a serious one.

 

But I had no intention of listening. I only wanted to somehow find a way to erase the Demon Lord’s soul from this world and end this tiresome companionship.

 

-I was defeated by the Hero. My body was destroyed, and only weak fragments of my soul remained. To put it bluntly, I was in a state not much different from the other treasures you found.

 

The Demon Lord had said he could recover on his own given enough time, so strictly speaking, it would be a bit different. But it was certainly a similar state.

 

“So, you’re just an object, and the user is the problem?”

-Is this explanation insufficient?

 

The Demon Lord continued, pretending to ponder.

 

-What was the method you used to nullify the Soul Contract with your Master? Similarly, what was the method I used to nullify the contract?

 

Soul transformation through absorption. Specifically, gaining homogeneity with the contract party. It was a truly demonic trick to nullify Soul Contracts.

 

-You didn’t absorb my soul. I couldn’t absorb your soul either.

 

But we had coexisted in the same body all this time, absorbing the same souls.

 

-You, who supplemented your knowledge at the Magic Tower, should be able to understand now. Gaining homogeneity isn’t just a simple joke.

“Don’t tell me…”

 

I thought I had learned from watching the Elf King. These bastards never move with just one intention when they do something. They hide bigger secrets within their apparent intentions.

 

I seemed to have forgotten that.

 

-That’s right. From a magical perspective, you and I are the same.

 

And the more I use Soul Magic, the more I become like him. Endlessly converging into one.

 

“Ah, aah…”

-Didn’t I tell you?

 

The day I picked up the Demon Lord’s soul fragment in the Demon Realm and first used the Soul Magic I learned from him. The Demon Lord had mocked me and said:

 

-You’re already a fine demon.

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