The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 228

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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 228. The Spider and the Empress (5)
A hidden passage lay concealed behind the wall.
Within the passage, a dark corridor stretched endlessly into obscurity.
“This is….”
“A secret passage within the Imperial Palace, it seems.”
“A secret passage?”
“It was constructed to allow the imperial family to escape should the Imperial Palace fall to enemies or become completely surrounded.”
“I see.”
Right.
For a place called the Imperial Palace, it wouldn’t be unusual to have an emergency evacuation route like this.
“But what happens if an outsider discovers the imperial family’s secret passage?”
“Normally, summary execution on the spot. Why else would it be secret?”
“…We should restore it to its original state quickly, before anyone sees.”
Elisha and I entered the passage and sealed the wall behind us once more.
A soft whoosh.
Primordial flames ignited at my fingertips, illuminating the corridor.
“Using Primordial Fire as a torch substitute… it feels oddly complicated.”
“Well, didn’t you once use it as a lighter substitute?”
“Ahem. Now that you mention it, I suppose I did.”
Elisha led the way forward with an embarrassed expression.
“Do you still sense that presence?”
“The distance is considerable, but… I can feel it deep within this passage.”
Elisha narrowed her violet eyes, peering down the endless corridor ahead.
“We should proceed as discreetly as possible from here on.”
With those words, Elisha wrapped my head in webbing.
[Can you hear me?]
Elisha’s voice resonated within my mind.
Rather than using communication magic, she was transmitting her voice directly through the vibrations of the webbing.
‘This way, we won’t trigger any mana detection.’
I nodded at Elisha in acknowledgment.
[Yes, I hear you clearly.]
[Good. Let’s move.]
I dimmed the flames and proceeded through the passage.
After more than ten minutes of traversing the corridor.
The narrow passage gradually widened, revealing a vast cavern.
A rustling sound.
Accompanied by an unfamiliar presence.
[There are people here.]
Within the cavern, figures clad in gray robes scattered about, moving in various directions.
[What are they doing?]
[Well, it seems like they’re searching for something….]
Then.
Among the throng of gray-robed figures, a white-haired man stood out distinctly.
Unlike the others wearing animal masks, this man’s face was exposed for all to see.
‘Mephistopheles.’
The Archbishop of Ruin—Mephistopheles himself.
‘So Seto was telling the truth.’
The intelligence that the Eternal Order had joined hands with Mephistopheles and infiltrated the Imperial Palace.
Given the source, I’d initially suspected it might be false information, but seeing him now, it appeared to be genuine.
‘What in the world are they doing here?’
People moving about busily, as if searching for something.
“Are you certain this is the place?”
At that moment, the Bear Mask Man turned his head toward Mephistopheles with evident frustration.
“Yes. It should be somewhere within here.”
“…Sigh.”
The Bear Mask Man exhaled a quiet sigh.
“Those Apostles of Ruin—where exactly did they hide the ember….”
“Wait.”
Mephistopheles raised his hand, cutting off the Bear Mask Man’s words.
“…Who are you?”
Mephistopheles turned his head, his eyes narrowed to slits.
‘I’ve been discovered.’
I’d done my best to conceal my presence.
Tsk.
I clicked my tongue and was about to rise from my crouched position when.
Clang, clang.
The sound of metal rang out.
“As expected of you, Mephistopheles. I thought I’d concealed my presence well, but here we are.”
From the opposite end of the corridor where Elisha and I were hiding, knights clad in golden armor appeared.
‘The Golden Knights?’
The order that protected the Imperial Palace, and the knights said to be the strongest on the Continent.
‘Why are they here?’
They could have been pursuing the Eternal Order that had infiltrated the Imperial Palace like I was.
‘But then there’d be no reason for them to hide.’
What reason would the police have to hide from thieves who’d broken into a house?
And more than that.
They ‘knew’ that the intruder in the Imperial Palace was Mephistopheles.
“The Golden Knights, no less… How resourceful of you to conceal yourselves in such a place.”
Mephistopheles narrowed his eyes, glaring at the knights.
“The blessing of Ruin can erase the traces of magical energy, after all.”
“…The Archbishop of Ruin has already recovered enough power to use ‘Blessing’?”
“Haha! Already? Did you think infiltrating the Golden Knights was something that could be accomplished in a day or two?”
The knight at the front shrugged his shoulders and smirked.
“Amon has already recovered that power long ago.”
The Archbishop of Ruin, Amon.
The strongest archbishop among the Six Archbishops, ranked first in the hierarchy, and the Demon Human who played the most decisive role in unsealing the Demon God in his previous life.
And.
‘The Demon Human I killed first the moment the Demon God broke free from the seal.’
When the Demon God awakened in the Abyss.
The Archbishop of Ruin was engulfed in the Demon God’s flames and burned to death.
‘For the strongest archbishop, it was quite an anticlimactic end.’
That was the nature of the Demon God.
Whether enemy or ally.
It simply pushed everything in this world into the abyss of ruin.
Truly, ‘calamity’ was the most fitting expression for such an existence.
‘Anyway.’
The Apostles of Ruin had hidden themselves within the Golden Knights?
Then why weren’t they joining hands with Mephistopheles, another Demon Human, instead of glaring at each other as if ready to kill?
‘What in the world is this situation?’
I narrowed my eyes, observing the cavern below where tension hung so thick it seemed ready to explode at any moment.
“Amon has already… recovered his power long ago?”
Mephistopheles bit his lip firmly.
“Did you really think I would believe such nonsense?”
“Well, whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter.”
The knight drew his sword along with a shrug.
“The embers of ruin have already ignited.”
“Tch….”
Whoooosh!
Black flames erupted, wrapping around the knight’s blade.
“Damn it…! Everyone, prepare for battle!”
The Bear Mask Man shouted, hefting an enormous hammer.
Following him, the masked figures drew their weapons one by one.
Boom!
Clang! Crash! Clang!
In an instant, the underground cavern beneath the Imperial Palace transformed into a fierce battlefield.
[What exactly is happening, Dale?]
[I have no idea.]
I had only been pursuing traces of the Eternal Order, yet I found myself witnessing an unexpected battle between the Apostles of Ruin and the Eternal Order.
‘Did this same event occur in my previous life?’
If that were the case.
‘Who in the world killed Camelia?’
The Apostles of Ruin and the Eternal Order.
Amon and Mephistopheles.
Who was connected to the Empress’s death, and why were these two even fighting in the first place?
“Die!”
“Gaaahhh!”
As I wrestled with these questions.
The battle between the knights and the Eternal Order grew increasingly fierce.
I had expected the Eternal Order to have the advantage with Mephistopheles on their side, but the tide of battle was flowing in the exact opposite direction.
“Haha! So this is the power of ‘Eternity’? It’s just annoyingly persistent—nothing special!”
“Ugh!”
“Aaahhh!”
Members of the Eternal Order fell one by one beneath the knights’ onslaught.
Mephistopheles himself was gradually being pushed back by the coordinated assault of the knights.
‘This is….’
The Eternal Order wasn’t weak.
The power wielded by the Apostles of Ruin was simply overwhelming.
‘Far more than what I had known.’
‘At this rate, the Eternal Order will lose.’
Suddenly.
A single fact brushed across my mind.
‘Among the Six Archbishops, Mephistopheles was the only one whose death was never confirmed.’
That’s right.
Mephistopheles had vanished without a trace one day.
Until the day the Demon God was resurrected and the world faced annihilation.
‘What if he didn’t vanish—what if he died here, which is why no one ever learned of his death?’
If that were true, it would explain Mephistopheles’s sudden absence.
If he had met his end in the underground chambers of the Imperial Palace alongside the Eternal Order, such information would never have reached the world.
“Aaahhh!”
“Cough!!”
The battle tilted ever more toward the Apostles of Ruin.
The knights, wreathed in black flames and wielding their blades with savage ferocity, were each powerful enough to rival an Archbishop.
‘In my past life, they were never this strong.’
I had faced the Apostles of Ruin several times before, but they were never absurdly powerful like this.
“….”
I couldn’t fathom why the Apostles of Ruin were so formidable.
I couldn’t understand why Demons were fighting each other.
But one thing was certain.
‘If this continues, Mephistopheles will die.’
And if he did, there would be no one left to explain this tangled, convoluted situation.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and pushed myself to my feet.
[Dale?]
Elisha’s voice echoed in my mind, but I paid it no heed.
Boom!
I kicked off the ground and charged into the fray.
“What—!”
I swung my ash-shrouded blade toward the knight whose eyes widened in shock.
“Ugh! W-who are you?!”
“What is that thing?!”
The knights’ formation, which had been holding firm, crumbled under the sudden assault.
“Now is our chance!”
Mephistopheles seized the opportunity and launched a counteroffensive.
Like a tower crumbling from its foundation, the knights fell one after another.
The tide of battle had shifted in an instant.
I wove through the ranks of knights, wielding my blade with savage fury.
“Aaaaah!”
“Ugh! Cough—hack!”
Each of the Apostles of Ruin possessed strength comparable to an Archbishop.
Yet they could not withstand me, Mephistopheles, and the combined might of the Eternal Order.
The corpses of knights accumulated with each passing moment.
The battle between the remaining Apostles of Ruin and the Eternal Order continued, but the outcome was already decided.
“You are….”
Mephistopheles stared at me with trembling eyes.
“We have much to ask each other, but let me know this one thing first.”
I turned to face Mephistopheles and continued.
“What is your true purpose?”
Why was a Demon Human fighting alongside a hero against his own kind?
Without resolving this question, no conversation would hold meaning.
“….”
Mephistopheles remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking.
“…My purpose is singular.”
Mephistopheles spoke in a low, measured voice.
“To prevent the resurrection of the Demon God. That is my purpose.”
“…What?”
To prevent the Demon God’s resurrection?

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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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