The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 155

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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 155. Interlude – Snake Hunting
“You….”
Jade Bastian stared at Sophia with trembling eyes.
The moment he opened his mouth as if to say something.
Whirrrrr!
“Ugh!”
The artificial stigma carved into his right chest flickered with a dark blue light.
Grotesque tendrils like tree roots sprouted from the location where the artificial stigma was inscribed.
“What…?”
Sophia turned to look at the collapsed Jade Bastian, her expression pale.
“What, what is this? Wasn’t the artificial stigma supposed to be complete?”
Though he had borrowed the power of the Demon Human, Jade Bastian himself had said the artificial stigma was “complete.”
“It’s not a problem with the artificial stigma.”
I approached the collapsed Jade Bastian, clutching my chest.
I placed my hand on the artificial stigma carved into Jade Bastian’s right chest and focused my consciousness.
‘As I thought.’
It was exactly as I had suspected.
“If it’s not a problem with the artificial stigma….”
“Then there was a problem with the magic stone the Demon Human gave you.”
“….”
To begin with, stabilizing the artificial stigma would only have a temporary effect, and the aftereffects would create multiple problems in its structure.
‘There’s no way the Demon Human would help complete the artificial stigma research with purely good intentions.’
There must have been some other scheme based on Jade Bastian’s artificial stigma research.
“Ah, what do I do? Oh, right, you said you know the Saint of the Holy Kingdom, didn’t you? If you contact the Saint….”
“No. There’s no need for that.”
I placed my hand on Jade Bastian’s right chest and slowly drew forth the primordial flames.
If the Demon Human had done something to the artificial stigma.
‘Then burning away the stigma itself will solve it.’
Whoooosh!
The roaring primordial flames consumed Jade Bastian’s right chest where the artificial stigma was inscribed.
“Ugh! Cough!”
“Bear with it a moment longer.”
To begin with, the artificial stigma was nothing more than a counterfeit mimicking a true stigma, not the real thing.
Even without complete mastery of the primordial flames, destroying the artificial stigma was not a difficult task.
Sizzzzzzle!
Ash-gray smoke rose with the sound of flesh burning away.
Jade Bastian gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain.
But that lasted only briefly.
“Ugh! Stop! Stop this!”
Perhaps the pain was too severe.
Jade Bastian screamed, thrashing violently.
“Berald. Come hold the professor down for me.”
“Ah, understood.”
Berald approached hesitantly and grasped the convulsing Jade Bastian’s body.
I placed my hand once more upon the artificial stigma of Jade Bastian, who writhed with saliva dripping from his mouth.
Sizzzzzzle!
“Ugh! Cough! Aaaaaahhhhh!!!”
Another scream pierced the air.
Perhaps another thirty seconds elapsed.
Ash consumed Jade Bastian’s artificial stigma without remainder.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
Jade Bastian exhaled ragged breaths, his face drenched in sweat.
He looked at me and asked in a trembling voice.
“Have you… always endured such agony?”
“….”
His words rang true.
The pain Jade Bastian felt now was scarcely different from what I experienced when wielding Ignition or Escalation.
“How on earth….”
“I’m accustomed to it.”
“….”
At my matter-of-fact reply, Jade Bastian’s eyes trembled faintly.
An expression similar to the one Elisha had worn for me long ago.
Gazing upon something so utterly devastated, I rose to my feet with a bitter smile at that tender, pitying gaze.
“You should rest until your body recovers.”
“…Very well.”
Jade Bastian nodded and collapsed onto the floor.
“…You.”
Sophia, who had been quietly observing, looked at me with trembling eyes.
“What exactly are you?”
“….”
I suppose.
Having witnessed me subdue Jade Bastian with ease and incinerate even an artificial stigma before her eyes, such a question was inevitable.
“I’ll explain the details later.”
“….”
“Berald. Can you go with Sophia and bring Iris back?”
“You’re staying here, brother?”
“Yes. I still have matters to attend to.”
Berald nodded and departed alongside Sophia.
“….”
“….”
Alone with Professor Jade Bastian in the forest.
An awkward silence descended.
“There’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“…What is it?”
“Why did you hide your research on artificial stigmata from me?”
Professor Jade Bastian knew that I possessed the blessing of resurrection.
For research on artificial stigmata, it would have been reasonable for him to reach out to me first rather than to a Demon Human.
Even if I died from seizures as a side effect, I would simply be revived.
“….”
Professor Jade Bastian exhaled a deep sigh at my question.
“If you’re asking whether I didn’t think of that method… I’d be lying.”
But.
Professor Jade Bastian shook his head with a bitter smile.
“I simply couldn’t bear to watch any more of my precious students die before my eyes.”
Even if that student possessed a blessing that would resurrect him even in death.
“….”
Precious student.
At those words from Professor Jade Bastian’s lips, I allowed myself a faint smile.
“I understand. I won’t press the matter any further.”
“…Where are you going?”
Professor Jade Bastian asked as he watched me turn and walk deeper into the forest.
I glanced in the direction Serpente had fled and lifted the corners of my mouth.
“I’m just going to do a little snake hunting.”
* * *
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
Serpente sprinted through the forest with urgent, frantic steps.
Her breath came in gasps that filled her throat.
A chilling terror rippled down her spine.
‘What the hell is that monster?’
She recalled the blazing ashen flames.
A monster that overwhelmed the descendant of the ‘Great Sage’ with such crushing power as if handling a child.
Of course, she knew that Jade Bastian excelled in magical theory and research ability, but his direct combat prowess wasn’t quite at the level befitting the title of Great Sage’s descendant.
‘But there are limits to that!’
Still, fundamentally, he was a master who had left his mark on an entire field.
Even if his combat ability was inferior, it was only lacking compared to such a grandiose title as ‘Great Sage’s descendant’—he was easily at the level of a high-ranking hero.
‘And he even used the Fragment of Corruption!’
The magic stone she had given to Professor Jade Bastian.
The magic stone called the Fragment of Corruption contained Mephistopheles’s power.
‘And yet.’
He lost.
And it wasn’t just a defeat—it was a one-sided annihilation without even a shred of meaningful resistance.
At the hands of a mere Candidate.
“No, that bastard can’t possibly be a Candidate.”
Serpente flicked her long forked tongue irritably, her eyes narrowing.
What Candidate in this world could possibly possess the strength of an Archbishop?
‘I need to report this to Mephistopheles.’
I’d heard about the existence called ‘Dale Han’ from Mephistopheles before.
But seeing him in person, he was far more dangerous than what Mephistopheles had described.
Dangerous enough to become a serious obstacle to Mephistopheles’ plans themselves.
‘First, I need to escape from here.’
Fortunately, it seemed the pursuer hadn’t caught up.
Serpente quickened her pace, dashing through the dense undergrowth at high speed.
“Phew.”
After completely leaving the forest behind.
Serpente slipped into an Abandoned Building within Valhalla City.
It was a hideout that Demons conducting infiltration missions typically used to conceal themselves.
‘First… I need to report to Mephistopheles.’
Crack.
As Serpente placed her hand in empty space, a portion of the air warped as if glass had shattered.
She reached into the fractured space and withdrew a crystal sphere gleaming with murky black light.
The only means to contact her master, Mephistopheles, the Archbishop of Corruption.
Just as Serpente was about to channel demonic energy into the crystal sphere, her hand trembling.
“Wow, you sure picked a clever spot—hiding in a crumbling ruin like this. Is it because you’re a snake?”
A voice echoed through the darkness.
“When did you…?!”
Serpente spun around, her expression one of shock.
At the entrance of the hideout stood a Candidate with dark gray hair, regarding her with a cold, mirthless smile.
“What, did you really think you wouldn’t be followed?”
“You…”
Serpente’s eyes darted rapidly across her surroundings.
Dale stood at the entrance of the hideout.
The only remaining escape route was through the window…
“Hold still.”
Whoosh!
Flames erupted, illuminating the dim room with dancing firelight.
Serpente swallowed hard as she watched the savage flames flicker and writhe.
Through ‘Whisper’s Blessing,’ she excelled at manipulating others from the shadows, but her actual combat prowess ranked among the lower tier even among Bishops of her kind.
There was no way she could fight a monster who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with an Archbishop, let alone a Bishop.
“What… what do you want from me?”
“Well, that’s something I’ll have to think about carefully from here on out.”
I dragged two chairs scattered in the corner over and sat down, gesturing for Serpente to join me.
“Come on, have a seat. We have quite a bit to discuss.”
“Ugh….”
Serpente trembled, her face drained of all color.
After a moment of hesitation, Serpente settled into her chair, a seductive smile playing at the corners of her lips as she whispered.
“What if we had a different kind of conversation… rather than just talking with our mouths?”
Her sweet whisper reached my ears.
I smiled faintly and flicked my hand with a casual gesture.
Whoooosh!
The palm-sized ember swelled in an instant, surging forward as if to devour Serpente entirely.
“Kyaaah!”
Serpente shrieked at the heat of the flames and fell backward onto her rear.
For a demon who supposedly orchestrated countless incidents from the shadows in her past life, the sight was rather pathetic.
‘Well, her combat ability was always terrible anyway.’
While Serpente was certainly troublesome due to her exceptional infiltration skills and the blessing of her whisper, her combat prowess was far inferior to Bishop Harris, whom I had fought alongside Professor Elisha in the Empire Borderlands Rural Village.
“If you try anything funny again, this won’t end as a warning.”
“…Yes, I understand.”
Serpente reluctantly settled into her chair.
“Let’s see….”
I turned on the Hero Watch’s power first.
‘I should record this on video just in case.’
Perhaps I could use it later to threaten or provoke Mephistopheles.
Honestly, the chances of threats or provocations working on Mephistopheles were virtually nonexistent, but Serpente was still his favored subordinate, so it was worth considering.
“Well then.”
After switching the Hero Watch’s camera to recording mode, I turned to Serpente, who sat in a composed posture, and spoke.
“First, look at the camera and tell me your name and age.”
“…Yes.”
Hmm.
Something about this atmosphere feels a bit off.

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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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