The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 177

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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 177. Assault (3)
A colossal demonic beast emerged from the rift.
Or could it even be called a “demonic beast”?
Its form was crushed and mangled, like a clay figurine abandoned by a child at play.
A grotesque visage composed of countless scraps of flesh fused together.
The Ten-Eyed Demon Beast I had faced before possessed a rather unsettling appearance, yet compared to this mass of flesh before me now, it seemed almost endearing.
“…ugh.”
Elisha covered her mouth with her hand, retching.
It came flooding back.
-Kyaaaaaah!
-Elisha! Q-quickly, run!
A burning village.
Screams echoing through the air.
A tragedy that unfolded in a small village of fewer than two hundred souls.
Villagers fleeing and the demonic beasts pursuing them.
And, and, and.
-Buooooooooo!
A horrific shriek that seemed to tear the very soul asunder.
The mass of flesh, dozens of meters in size, extended its tentacles from that enormous body and ensnared the fleeing villagers like a fisherman catching fish, hoisting them aloft.
Crunch, crunch crunch.
The villagers were dragged into the creature’s maw and devoured alive, chewed to pieces.
Enna, who had teased me with insects caught in the forest. Oliver, who taught me exercise, saying strength was vital for farming. Philia, who secretly baked sweet pastries for me without Mother’s knowledge.
The people I had known.
The world I had lived in.
Was crushed beneath the demonic beast’s teeth.
Reduced to an unrecognizable pulp.
-Ah, ugh.
-Kugh! I-it’s too late to run!
-H-honey, here! Let’s hide Elisha here!
My parents, seized by terror, had hidden me away in the closet.
Through the gaps in the closet door, I could see.
My parents being dragged away by the tentacles.
Their screams, faint yet piercing.
The sound of flesh being chewed, bones being crushed, entrails being pulverized.
“Ah, ugh.”
I clutched my throbbing chest and gasped for breath.
“Tch tch. Remembering it all, are we?”
“Jackal….”
I clenched my teeth, biting down hard.
“Well then, since you’ve recalled those memories, let me reunite you with your parents after all this time.”
“…What?”
Jackal tapped the mass of flesh that was the demonic beast with the back of his hand.
Gurgle, gurgle.
The creature’s flesh shifted and reformed into a human shape.
The figures of a man and woman twisted in agony materialized across the surface of flesh.
“Oliver… Philia….”
“Hmm? Ah, ah, I seem to have made a mistake.”
Jackal shrugged with a grin spreading across his face.
He tapped the mass of flesh once more.
Gurgle.
With a repulsive sound, the flesh transformed again.
The shape it created was—
“…Ah.”
Elisha’s eyes widened in horror.
“Mother… Father….”
She stumbled backward, her face drained of all color.
“Ah, ugh.”
That day’s memories.
The screams echoing from afar.
The sound of bones crushing, flesh pulping.
It flooded her mind.
It consumed her soul.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp!”
I tried to draw upon my mana to steady myself, but for some reason, the power I had always wielded as naturally as breathing refused to respond.
“Why… why can’t I…?”
With trembling eyes, I looked down at my stigma.
“Professor.”
Dale approached her and grasped her shoulder.
“Step back for now.”
“…Dale.”
Leaving Elisha behind, I turned toward Jackal.
“Hmm. So you’re the Candidate that Mephistopheles spoke of.”
Jackal regarded me with interest, arms crossed.
“He said to be wary of a certain Candidate…”
I clicked my tongue and opened my mouth.
“That bastard really does go around selling my name everywhere.”
“Heh heh heh. Consider it an honor. In all the decades I’ve known Mephistopheles, this is the first time I’ve heard him warn anyone about someone.”
And so.
Jackal slowly raised his hand toward me.
“I’ve even prepared a gift for you.”
“A gift?”
“Tsk, tsk. Why do you think I gathered nothing but rabble to send to the Academy?”
Jackal drew a sharp dagger from his waist and dragged it across his palm without hesitation.
Blood poured forth, drenching the intricate patterns inscribed upon his body.
Crack, crack, crack!
Dozens of fissures tore open around Jackal’s form, and from within them came a torrent of demon beasts.
Each and every one exceeded the Ten-Eyed Demon Beast in power.
“Honestly, I wonder if I should really be expending this much force just for a single Candidate…”
Jackal shook his head with a slight smile, extending his hand toward the dozens of creatures.
The patterns etched upon his body blazed with an ominous light.
“My children.”
“Grrrrgh!”
“Kraaaaaah!”
The demon beasts writhed in apparent agony, their cries piercing the air.
Jackal issued his final command to the thrashing creatures.
“Kill him.”
Boom, boom, boom!
The Ten-Eyed Demon Beasts surged toward Dale.
“D-Dale!”
Elisha attempted to desperately fire webbing in Dale’s direction, but her mana suddenly seized, leaving her unable to release it.
“Ugh!”
Elisha was thrown backward by an onrushing demon beast, tumbling across the ground.
In mere moments, the horde of creatures descended upon Dale so densely that his form vanished entirely beneath their writhing mass.
‘Why… why won’t my mana move?’
Elisha’s expression grew frantic as she pressed her hand against her stigma, attempting to draw forth her mana, yet it remained stubbornly immobile.
“Tsk, tsk. Why won’t your mana move?”
“You… what exactly have you done?”
“Nothing.”
Jackal shook his head with unhurried composure.
“I’ve done nothing at all.”
“Then why—!”
“Do you know that a stigma connects not merely to a hero’s body, but to their very soul?”
Jackal tapped his left chest as he continued speaking.
“Then the mana dwelling within that stigma is no different.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“It means a heart demon has taken root within your mind.”
A heart demon.
I had heard of such things before.
When negative emotions—fear, dread, worry, anxiety, despair—become too overwhelming, the vital channels close and mana ceases to flow.
‘I’ve… fallen into a state of heart demon?’
Elisha’s eyes trembled as she gazed upon Jackal.
No.
It couldn’t be.
When I was young, the day Jackal’s hands trampled the Rural Village and my parents died.
From that day forward, I had waited for this moment alone.
The day I would meet Jackal again and take my revenge upon him.
And yet.
Now that we finally faced each other, I had succumbed to fear—unable to even channel my mana, trapped in a state of psychological paralysis?
“Damn it…!”
Crack.
Elisha clenched her teeth, biting her lips until blood seeped forth.
With the sharp pain came a moment of clarity.
The mana that had remained utterly frozen began to stir, however slightly.
“E-E-E-Elisha….”
“Come here, dear….”
“…!”
Familiar voices reached my ears.
Elisha’s eyes widened as she lifted her head.
Mother and Father—formed from gathered flesh—extended their hands toward her, their voices calling out.
“No, ahhhhh!”
Elisha screamed and fell backward.
The sight of Father reaching toward her, Mother’s gesture beckoning her closer.
Nothing in this world terrified her more.
“Ah, ugh. Ahhh.”
Elisha crouched on the floor, her body curling inward.
She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, trembling like a frightened child.
‘It’s the same… as back then.’
When I hid in the Closet, watching the scene unfold outside.
When I silently observed as tentacles dragged Mother and Father away.
A helpless, powerless little girl.
“Tch, tch, tch. Now do you understand?”
Jackal approached her with a repugnant smile.
The old man’s eyes raked across her form, licking her with their gaze.
“A hero ranked ninth? The Spider of Grotesque Eyes? No, no, no. That isn’t your true self at all.”
Jackal continued, his wrinkled mouth curling into a thick smile.
“This is your genuine form.”
Helpless and powerless.
A little girl capable of nothing.
“This is the true face of the hero Elisha Baldwin!”
Tch, tch, tch!
Jackal burst into laughter, clutching his belly as if seized by something hilarious.
“What a shame! Your disciple should have witnessed this pathetic display!”
“….”
“But… it seems your beloved disciple is already dead.”
Jackal turned his head with a leisurely expression.
Dale Han, surrounded by his minions and completely obscured from view.
What miserable fate that gray-haired Candidate had met was something I could discern without needing to witness it with my own eyes.
“…sigh.”
Then.
A faint chuckle escaped from Elisha’s lips.
“Hmm? What’s so amusing?”
“I’ll admit it.”
Elisha nodded one last time before continuing.
“Jackal, you knew far more about me than I expected.”
The true face she had desperately concealed behind that cold exterior.
The bare visage of a frightened little girl.
Jackal had seen through it all perfectly.
“However.”
Elisha smiled faintly and turned to look toward where Dale stood surrounded by the demonic beasts.
“You know nothing about my disciple.”
“What?”
When Jackal narrowed his eyes.
A massive inferno erupted from among the demonic beasts.
The demonic beasts surrounding Dale were engulfed in the flames, letting out pitiful screams.
“Grrrrgh!”
“Cough, cough!”
The demonic beasts that had encircled Dale were swept up in the ash-fire and shrieked in agony.
“What is this…?”
Blazing ash-fire.
Through the scattering gray smoke.
“Hah.”
Green eyes gleamed brilliantly.
“…Alive? Among those demonic beasts?”
Jackal’s eyes widened as if unable to comprehend.
Thud, thud.
With the final footsteps, Dale emerged from the gray smoke.
Dale paid Jackal no mind whatsoever, not even sparing him a glance despite his expression frozen in shock, and walked toward where Elisha stood.
“…Dale.”
Elisha, mortified that I had witnessed such a pathetic display of myself, turned away with a hardened expression, avoiding his gaze.
“I’m sorry. I….”
“My thoughts differ.”
“…Differ how?”
“That arrogant bastard spouting off as if he knows everything about you, Professor—I see it differently.”
Dale continued quietly, his gaze fixed on Elisha.
“I don’t know what past you’ve endured. I don’t know what you were like as a child, or how deeply you’ve been wounded.”
But.
The Elisha Baldwin I know.
“Is cold, taciturn, harbors a mischievous streak beneath the surface, and occasionally reveals something almost endearing.”
I reached out and rifled through Elisha’s pocket.
I withdrew the cigarette pack nestled inside and offered it to her.
“You are the most magnificent and formidable hero I’ve ever laid eyes upon, Professor Elisha.”
“Dale…”
“Well? Did that move you?”
“No, to be honest, it’s rather cringeworthy.”
“What.”
“I’m tempted to record that and broadcast it across the Academy’s speakers.”
“No.”
How could she entertain such a horrifying notion…!
“But… well, I suppose it did help.”
Elisha extracted a cigarette from the pack in my hand and placed it between her lips.
Click.
As I ignited the tip with a lighter, Elisha slowly rose to her feet.
Inhale, exhale.
After drawing deeply on the cigarette, Elisha gazed at the parental effigies crafted by the flesh-mass demon beast, and a smirk played across her lips.
“Thanks to you, I can now destroy Mother and Father with a clear conscience.”
“….”
No, Professor.
That phrasing sounds rather ominous, doesn’t it?

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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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