The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 117

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 117. Final Evaluation (7)
Black hair and crimson eyes.
A boy who appeared to be barely ten years old, with a small frame that barely reached my chest.
But.
“…You.”
Crimson eyes gleaming with madness.
With a single step forward, an overwhelming presence that bent the very air around him.
Without needing to reveal his identity, everyone present naturally understood that the boy before us was no ordinary being.
“Hehe! I’m Seto!”
The boy extended his hand toward me with an innocent smile.
My expression hardened at the name he’d given.
‘Seto, the Archbishop of Madness.’
One of the six supreme Demons standing at the apex of tens of thousands.
A monster confidently occupying one of those positions stood before my eyes.
“…Everyone, get back!”
Elisha stepped forward, crossing both arms.
Whoooosh!
Hundreds of silver threads erupted from her fingertips.
A violet aura that hadn’t appeared during the earlier exam now coated each of the hundreds of silver threads.
The threads writhed in midair like living things, converging on Seto.
And then.
“Hee.”
The boy grinned widely and took a step forward.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The ground shook violently.
Crimson spikes erupted from the earth, savagely severing every last one of the hundreds of silver threads.
“So you’re the ‘Spider of Malice’?”
Seto’s eyes narrowed as he regarded Elisha.
“Hmm.”
With a snap.
He flicked his hand lightly.
Crash crash crash crash!
“Ugh!”
A thick crimson mist flowed from the viscous red substance that covered the surroundings, coiling around Elisha’s body.
Elisha twisted her body urgently, but she couldn’t shake off the crimson mist enveloping her.
“I’m not interested in you.”
Having subdued Elisha in the blink of an eye, Seto passed her by and approached me.
His eyes sparkled like stars as he leaned toward me.
“I came to meet Dale.”
“….”
He came to meet me, I suppose.
‘Why?’
At least until now, I’d done nothing that would entangle me with the Archbishop of Madness.
As I continued pondering how I’d become involved with the Archbishop of Madness in the first place, I shook my head.
‘Now isn’t the time to question reasons.’
Regardless of why, the Archbishop of Madness had come seeking me.
And now he stood before my eyes.
“Gasp… Dale! Run, quickly!”
Elisha’s urgent cry reached my ears.
I turned to look at Elisha, bound within the crimson mist, and bit my lip firmly.
‘Run.’
My opponent was ‘that’ Archbishop of Madness.
In terms of pure martial prowess alone, he ranked second among the Six Archbishops.
A monster among monsters—even other Archbishops avoided him.
There was no way I could simply flee from such a creature.
‘And….’
I glanced back at my party members.
“Gasp…!”
“Ah, ugh….”
“I… can’t… breathe.”
Yuren, Iris, and Camilla—crushed beneath the overwhelming pressure emanating from Seto, unable to even draw proper breath.
Among them, Yuren seemed in the best condition, but even that meant he couldn’t move properly.
‘Albert… has he already lost consciousness?’
I stared down at Albert, collapsed on the ground with foam at his lips, and ground my teeth.
Even if I could escape, I couldn’t abandon my comrades here and flee alone.
I clenched my fists, staring at the Archbishop of Madness.
‘Can I win?’
I envisioned a battle against the Archbishop of Madness in my mind.
I’d never fought him in my previous life, but I’d heard endless rumors about him.
‘Thunder God Raonel Ryu died at the hands of the Archbishop of Madness.’
No matter how rapidly I’d grown recently, I couldn’t defeat the current third-ranked hero, Thunder God Raonel Ryu.
Much less the Archbishop of Madness who killed him.
‘Even if I use Ignition, I could endure to some degree, but victory is impossible.’
If I entered an ‘Incarnation’ state like when I fought Ashtaroth, I could crush the Archbishop of Madness effortlessly.
‘But that’s not something I can control at will.’
I didn’t even understand how I’d entered that state back then—I couldn’t bet my comrades’ lives on such a possibility.
‘I need to find a way to avoid fighting altogether.’
Had this been any other Demon Human, I wouldn’t have entertained such half-baked thoughts.
But my opponent was the Archbishop of Madness—someone no one could predict.
Perhaps.
There might be a way to get through this situation without fighting.
“So, what business do you have with me?”
I stepped forward to block my party members’ path and fixed my gaze on Seto.
“Hehe, the reason I came looking for you is….”
Seto extended his tongue and licked his lips with a long, deliberate motion.
“I just came because I was curious.”
“…Curious?”
“Yeah! I heard about you from Mephistopheles and became super curious! I just had to know what kind of human you really are!”
….
So he’d infiltrated the Hero Academy Test Site for such a trivial reason.
I furrowed my brow as I watched Seto grinning widely.
“But….”
Seto tilted his head slightly to peek past me at my party members, then let out a sigh.
“I’m a bit disappointed—it’s not what I expected.”
Seto’s expression turned cold and bitter.
“You’re just like all the others, aren’t you?”
….
“Protecting comrades, saving them—all you so-called heroes are equally boring.”
Seto shook his head from side to side.
“Still, because of that, I’m even more curious about your ‘true self.'”
“True self?”
“Yeah.”
Seto’s crimson eyes gleamed as he broke into a wide smile.
“The real face you show when standing at the edge of a cliff.”
He spoke with breathless excitement, his voice trembling with anticipation.
“You see, humans… no matter how well you package yourselves, you always become honest when facing death.”
False justice.
Shallow conviction.
Petty morality.
All of it disappears in that moment.
“I want to see your face in that moment, Dale.”
Seto stared at me with eyes gleaming with madness.
“In that sense, I’d like to propose an interesting game!”
“A game?”
“Yeah!”
Seto pulled something from his pocket.
A small piece of iron bent into the shape of a ruler.
“…A gun?”
“Ah, come to think of it, you’re from the Republic, aren’t you? Hehe. If you’re from the Republic, you’d know about guns.”
It was a weapon once used by the Republic but had been abandoned because it was difficult to infuse with magical power.
“This is a revolver! See these round holes here? You load bullets into them, pull the trigger, and bang! The bullet fires!”
Seto’s voice rang out with the excited pitch of a child showing off a favorite toy.
“Look, watch this.”
Seto inserted a single bullet into the revolver’s cylinder, then struck it downward with his palm, spinning it with a soft whirring sound.
“So you load one bullet like this, spin it, and fire….”
He aimed the revolver at the wall and pulled the trigger.
Click.
A faint metallic sound echoed through the silence.
“Ah, first shot’s a dud! So the next one is… here we go!!!”
He pulled the trigger again.
Bang!
A bullet no larger than a fingernail shot toward the wall with the report of the gun.
And then.
Boom!!!
A terrifying explosion erupted, and a crimson aura swept across the surroundings.
“Yes! Perfect shot!”
Seto clenched his fist triumphantly and bounced up and down on the spot.
“…This is…”
“Hehe. Pretty cool, right? Normally, infusing bullets with mana is super tedious and exhausting, but since it’s me, I can use it like this, you know?”
“….”
Of course, it was needlessly inefficient.
A Demon Human of Mephistopheles’s caliber wouldn’t need to infuse bullets with mana at all—pure mana discharge alone could produce far greater destructive power.
“So what kind of game are you planning with that?”
“The rules are simple.”
Seto loaded another bullet into the cylinder and spun it again with a soft whirring sound.
Then he pressed the barrel against his temple and grinned wickedly.
“Six shots total. Everyone here, including me, pulls the trigger once against their own head.”
Seto turned his head and slowly surveyed the surroundings.
Elisha, bound and wrapped in crimson mist.
Iris, Yuren, and Camilla, barely able to breathe under the overwhelming pressure.
Albert, unconscious with eyes rolled back.
And me.
“Hmm? That’s one too many. Well, can’t help it then. We’ll do it with six of us, excluding the one passed out!”
Seto waved the revolver with a sinister smile, still aimed at his temple.
“Blank means you live… but if you hit the jackpot, your head goes ‘pop.'”
Seto spread his hand wide beside his head as he continued.
“And then we play again. Until only one person remains.”
Giggle, giggle, giggle.
Seto’s shoulders shook with laughter.
“What do you think? Doesn’t it sound fun just imagining it?”
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
Elisha’s voice rang out fierce and sharp.
“There’s no way such an absurd game could—gack!”
“Shh.”
Seto’s lips curled into a sinister grin as he looked at me.
“How about it? If the bullet fires on my turn, I’ll spare everyone else.”
“….”
I narrowed my eyes and asked.
“What’s the order?”
“Huh?”
“How do we decide who shoots first?”
“Ahahaha! You’re actually going to play this game?”
Seto clutched his belly, bursting into delighted laughter.
“Whoever wants to go first can. But….”
Seto pressed the gun to his temple and made a “pshoo” sound with his mouth.
“After someone shoots, they pick the next person. Of course, anyone who’s already shot can’t be picked again.”
“I see.”
I took the revolver from Seto’s hand.
“Then I’ll go first.”
“Hmm. Planning to shoot when your odds of survival are highest?”
Seto’s eyes narrowed with disappointment.
“That’s too boring… Well, fine. I always keep my word anyway.”
I pressed the gun to my temple and pulled the trigger.
Click.
A faint metallic sound echoed, followed by silence.
“First shot’s a blank.”
Seto’s lips twisted into a smirk as he watched me.
“Good. Who’s next?”
Click.
“…Huh?”
Click.
“Hey, what are you doing right now?”
Click.
“Pick the next person already!”
Click.
After pulling the trigger five times in succession.
I held out the revolver to Seto.
“Your turn.”

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