The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 123

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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 123. Extreme Situation (3)
I arrived at the 3rd Floor after dispatching the horde of demonic beasts rushing toward me.
Despite descending deeper into the underground, the interior of the 3rd Floor was paradoxically flooded with even brighter light than the upper levels.
The entire surrounding space was drenched in a deep orange hue, as if I had stepped outside at the peak of sunset.
“…An unpleasant place.”
Elisha squinted as she gazed upon the orange-tinted terrain around us.
This was not the magnificent sunset one might witness on a resort beach.
It was the sky visible during a massive forest fire.
The sky, where black storm clouds and flickering flames intermingled, resembled the apocalyptic day depicted in the scriptures of the Seven Star Church.
“Dale, have you been here in your previous life?”
“Yes.”
I nodded quietly and continued.
“This is where I fought my final battle against the Demon God.”
“….”
“Well, to be precise, it was a few floors deeper.”
Elisha’s expression hardened as she looked at me.
“What kind of being was the Demon God?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
Elisha narrowed her eyes.
“Didn’t you say you fought your final battle against the Demon God?”
“Yes, I did. Though calling it a ‘final battle’ is rather grandiose—it was quite a one-sided affair, really.”
I smiled bitterly, recalling the battle from back then.
A hazy memory, as if shrouded in thick mist.
From within that murky recollection, I conjured the Demon God’s form as best I could.
A black silhouette.
A body so immense its scale was incomprehensible.
Eyes burning with crimson flame.
“Professor Elisha, if you were to fight a typhoon, a tidal wave, or an earthquake, could you truly understand what your opponent ‘is’?”
“That would be…”
“That is what the Demon God was.”
I couldn’t even be certain it possessed a singular consciousness.
I had never exchanged words with the Demon God, nor even locked eyes with it.
It moved like a machine executing predetermined commands.
The Demon God simply scattered endless destruction to obliterate the world.
“I cannot speak for other gods, but the Demon God I witnessed was far closer to a ‘calamity’ than a ‘deity.'”
“…I see.”
Elisha nodded, her eyes growing heavy and distant as she regarded me.
Imagining the harrowing battles my previous self had endured, her chest tightened as if she had swallowed a stone.
‘The lowest-ranked hero, they called him.’
A self-deprecating image of Dale recounting his past life flashed through my mind.
He had been the lowest-ranked hero, he said.
His entire life spent chasing after others, always trailing behind.
‘Is that truly the case?’
Elisha’s eyes narrowed as she studied Dale intently.
It was likely true that he had graduated from the Academy last in his class in his previous life.
Though it was difficult to believe looking at Dale now, it was probably also true that he had been lacking in many ways compared to other heroes in his past life.
‘But.’
If Dale truly had been the ‘lowest-ranked hero’ as he claimed.
If he had been a hero who always lagged behind, fell short, and arrived too late.
‘How could he have become one of the Last Five Heroes?’
Amid this unsolved mystery.
Elisha’s gaze upon Dale grew progressively deeper.
‘Dale.’
What exactly were you in your past life?
“Professor?”
“Ah, my apologies. I was lost in thought for a moment.”
Elisha brushed away the thoughts swirling in her mind and followed me down the corridor.
“What’s on the 3rd Floor that brought you down here?”
“You’ve experienced firsthand how the beasts dwelling in the Abyss are far more savage and possess far greater power than those outside, haven’t you?”
“Painfully so.”
Recalling the ordeal of being harassed by hordes of beasts on the way down, Elisha shook her head wearily.
While the beasts outside could still be classified as ‘living creatures,’ those dwelling here were nothing but monsters that pursued only blood and slaughter.
“Among them, there are individuals particularly influenced by the Demon God. They devour even their own kind and reign like ‘kings.'”
“…A king of beasts, then?”
“Precisely the king of this 3rd Floor. They too are bound by the seal and cannot venture beyond their designated territory.”
“Hmm.”
Elisha’s eyes narrowed as she posed her question.
“Does that mean there are ‘kings’ on the 4th and 5th Floors as well?”
“Well… presumably, but I’ve never actually seen them.”
“You’ve never seen them?”
“No. The Demon God killed them before they could crawl out of the Abyss.”
“…The Demon God killed them? Aren’t beasts the Demon God’s subordinates?”
Why would the Demon God personally slay his own subordinates instead of letting heroes do it?
“As I mentioned before, the Demon God is less a deity and more akin to a natural disaster.”
I shrugged and continued forward.
“In any case, my objective is the beast king that rules this 3rd Floor. A creature called Behemoth.”
“Behemoth… Just how powerful is this beast?”
“Strong enough to have torn apart 557 heroes and 12,000 soldiers armed with magical artifacts single-handedly.”
….
“Probably no Archbishop below the Archbishop of Madness could stand against it.”
“Wait, wait! Are you saying you’re going to fight that monster?!”
Elisha cried out with a stunned expression.
I suppressed a smirk and nodded.
“That’s the only way it could be called an ‘extreme situation,’ after all.”
“Dale… you Candidate…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be the only one fighting anyway.”
With the blessing of Resurrection, I won’t die even in the worst circumstances.
“On that note, I have one request for you, Elisha.”
“What kind of request?”
“Please wait outside its domain, and if I haven’t emerged after three days, pull me out of the domain.”
With Elisha’s “web,” she should be able to safely extract me from the domain.
“…You want me to pull you out?”
“Yes. By then, its stamina should be significantly depleted. Oh, I’ll give you a separate distress signal. Under no circumstances should you enter the domain before that.”
There was a risk that Elisha herself could be caught up in it.
“Don’t tell me… you’re planning to fight it for three straight days and die?”
Making such a request made it clear that I had never even considered the option of “not dying” in the first place.
“It’s fine.”
“Fine? What do you mean it’s fine?!”
Elisha’s expression twisted fiercely as she grabbed my shoulders and shook them.
“Three days! You’ll be dying continuously without rest the entire time!”
Physical wounds might be healed by the blessing of Resurrection, but the agony of death carved into the spirit doesn’t disappear.
“If an ordinary human experienced the kind of pain most would never endure even once for three straight days, what do you think would happen to you? Your mind would break before your body!”
“327,821 times.”
“…What?”
“The number of times I’ve died consecutively.”
I smiled faintly and tapped my temple twice.
“If I endured that, surely I can endure just three days?”
Even if I died for three straight days, it would be only a few hundred times at most.
“Dale… you Candidate…”
Elisha stared at me with trembling eyes.
“What kind of life did you live in your past life?”
“What kind of life… you ask.”
I turned my body away with a faint smile.
“An endless one.”
Leaving Elisha standing there in a daze, I stepped into Behemoth’s domain.
* * *
Its body was approximately fifteen meters long.
Its face resembled a bull, and the two horns rising from its forehead evoked images of a demon.
Its entire body was covered in black skin dozens of times harder than steel, and its savagely swollen muscles exuded a presence as if they would tear through the skin itself.
“Grrrrr.”
Black flames swirled within my exhaled breath.
Twelve pupils gleaming with crimson light turned toward me.
“It’s been a while.”
I waved my hand slowly toward Behemoth.
In response, Behemoth’s long tail swept across the ground before standing on end.
“KRAAAAAAA!”
A roar that shook the very soul.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The king of beasts reigning over the Abyss charged forward with savage fury, stamping his feet.
Whoosh!
A fist larger than most human bodies swung down with a vicious sound-breaking force.
I made no attempt to resist, taking the full brunt of the descending fist.
Crunch! Crack! Splinter!
My body crumbled.
My limbs twisted at grotesque angles, organs spilling from my torn abdomen, my severed head rolling across the ground.
“Grrrrr.”
In a blink, Behemoth crushed the insect that dared invade his domain, then turned his massive form, exhaling breath tinged with black flames.
Then.
“You brat, that foul temper of yours never changes.”
A voice from behind.
Turning my head, I saw the insect I’d just crushed standing perfectly alive.
“Grrr?”
Behemoth’s eyes narrowed at the incomprehensible situation.
But only for a moment.
“KRAAAAAAA!”
If it had come back to life, then I’d simply kill it again.
Behemoth roared savagely and charged toward the insect that dared violate his domain.
“Hah.”
I watched Behemoth charge at me and drew a light breath.
I drew my sword and took my stance.
The primordial flame, ignited by the recent ‘death’, surged violently and spread throughout my entire body.
“Bloom.”
Whoooosh!
Ash-white flames erupted around my blade.
Gripping the sword, I drove my feet forward with brutal force toward Behemoth.
Crash! Boom! Clang!
At first, we were evenly matched.
Using ‘Ignition’, I continued pouring forth surging mana, unleashing sword strikes, fists, and magic in relentless exchange with Behemoth.
But that too was fleeting.
As the duration of the ignition ended and the primordial flames that had engulfed my body extinguished, the battle shifted decisively in my favor.
“Roooaaaarrrr!”
Behemoth charged forward with a savage roar.
Crunch, crunch!
Severed limbs rolled across the ground.
Splatter!
Crushed organs stained the floor.
Crack, crack!
Brain matter spilled from his mangled skull.
And yet.
Still.
Even so.
“Hah.”
I rose.
I rose.
I rose.
“…It’s been a while since I felt this.”
The sensation of desperately clawing and fighting against an opponent I had no right to face.
I hadn’t experienced it much since my regression, but in my past life, I’d grown sickeningly familiar with it.
“Hm.”
A tingling thrill coursed down my spine.
The forgotten sensation awakened every cell in my body.
‘That’s right.’
This is the life I’ve lived.
This is the path Dale Han has walked.
“Grrrrgh!”
Behemoth seized my body and tore it apart vertically.
Everything below my waist was ripped away.
Squelch.
I drove my sword down upon Behemoth’s arm with the blade in my grip.
The sword, wreathed in ash-grey flames, pierced through his tough black hide and carved into Behemoth’s flesh.
“Roooaaaarrrr!”
Barely more than a surface wound.
That’s fine.
This is only the ‘beginning’ after all.
‘If once won’t work, I’ll try ten times. If ten won’t work, a hundred. If a hundred won’t work, a thousand.’
Death is abundant, and my life never ends.
“Grrgh, grrgh.”
“What? Why are you backing away?”
I turned to face Behemoth as he retreated hesitantly, and a cruel smile spread across my lips.
I staggered to my feet, sword clutched firmly in hand.
Ash scattered through the air.
Between the gray smoke, a flash of green luminescence pierced through.
A hero who had once struck terror into countless Demons and beasts across lifetimes.
“Then what do I have to lose?”
The Immortal Specter bared its fangs with savage ferocity.

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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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