The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 231

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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 231. The Spider and the Empress (8)
Imperial Underground Chamber.
Savage flames blazed in brilliant orange, dyeing the space in their glow.
Within air so scorching that even breathing became labored.
I gripped my sword as I regarded the woman before me—dark-haired, wearing thick-framed glasses.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Oh? How convenient. I had some things I wanted to ask you too.”
Melina twirled the mace in her hand as if inviting me to speak first.
“Why did you betray the Empress?”
I recalled Camelia’s words about Melina.
The smile that graced the Empress’s lips as she gazed down upon all creation with that perpetual arrogance.
It wasn’t difficult to discern how particularly she regarded this Maid named Melina.
“Had you retained the Empress’s trust, you would have held considerable power within the Empire.”
“Why did I betray Camelia? That question contains a misconception.”
Melina pushed her thick-framed glasses up as she continued.
“I never served that woman from the start.”
Melina’s lips twisted into a savage smile.
“…But she was your benefactor who saved you from the Demons.”
“A benefactor? You say benefactor?”
Ahahaha!
Melina burst into laughter, clutching her stomach.
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding. I was never kidnapped by the Demons.”
She smiled wickedly as she continued.
“I was ‘sold.’ By another human.”
…
“Though much time has passed, those memories remain vivid.”
Taking my mother’s hand as she promised to buy me sweets, following her to a dilapidated building.
Rough-looking men waiting inside, already prepared.
My mother’s bright smile as she received a pouch of gold.
“But I was fine with it.”
“…Fine with it?”
“Yes, because I gained a new family.”
Melina’s expression grew hazy, as though intoxicated.
“Unlike my father, who lived perpetually drowning in alcohol, unlike my mother who beat me whenever she felt bored—I found a true family that treated me with kindness and warmth.”
“That family you speak of… surely not…”
“That’s right. The Demons.”
…
So that was it.
That’s how it had come to be.
“I was happy. I believed without doubt that this time, I would finally live a happy life.”
But.
“That damned woman…! She took everything from me…!”
I remember it.
The seven-colored light that suddenly soared high into the sky one day.
The hateful blessing of the Seven Gods.
-Aaaaaargh!
-P-please, save me!!!
That light, which swept through the city in the blink of an eye, consumed even her second set of parents.
-Hmm. You’re not a Demon Human.
A platinum-haired girl descended leisurely upon the ruined city.
That girl, possessing power inhuman and godlike, approached her as she lay dying beneath the collapsed debris.
-You were trapped here?
-…Yes. Y-yes, that’s right.
Terrified, she nodded stupidly, unable even to grieve her parents’ deaths.
And.
-Follow me.
Melina became the servant of the enemy who had trampled her happiness.
“To me, who lived without even daring to dream of revenge… that person found me.”
Amon, the Archbishop of Ruin.
Through meeting him, she could dream of revenge once more, something she had forgotten.
“How is it? Does this answer your question?”
“To some extent.”
Just as Mephistopheles betrayed the Demons and sided with humanity.
So too did she betray humanity and side with the Demons.
“Then it’s my turn to ask.”
Melina smiled wickedly, gripping her mace.
“Why did I tell you my story so kindly?”
Whoosh!
Before I could answer her question, Melina’s body vanished as if dissolving into thin air.
‘No.’
She hadn’t vanished.
She had simply moved so fast that it appeared as though she had disappeared.
Crash!
My reflexively raised sword collided with her mace.
A dizzying impact transmitted through my arms.
My vision inverted as my body was lifted off the ground.
“Dale!”
Elisha wove her web into a net, catching my body as it flew backward.
“Ugh.”
I rose from the net, enduring the sharp pain in my arms.
Melina pushed her horned-rimmed glasses up as she watched me struggle to my feet.
“So? Do you understand now why I told you my story?”
“…Damn, what a temperamental personality.”
I clicked my tongue and gripped my sword.
“If you ask a question, isn’t it courtesy to give them time to answer?”
Whoooosh!
Deep grey flames erupted along the blade of my sword.
“…Hm?”
Melina squinted, staring at the ashen flames.
Unable to comprehend what she was seeing, she held her gaze fixed on the flames before slowly shaking her head.
“Why does that bastard have the same aura as… No, that’s impossible. It can’t be.”
“What are you muttering about by yourself?”
“Hmph. It’s none of your concern.”
Melina answered curtly and raised her spiked mace.
Whoosh!
Black flames wrapped around the spiked mace, blazing fiercely.
It was the same type of power the Apostles of Destruction had wielded.
Or rather, to be precise.
Whoooooosh!
Far more intense and savage.
‘At least at the Bishop rank.’
Since the Apostles of Destruction possessed power that fell just short of the Archbishop rank, a Bishop would be nearly equivalent to the other Archbishops.
“Now then, this time I’ll crush your skull for you!”
Melina laughed broadly and kicked off the ground.
Her body dissolved into the air as if vanishing, then reappeared before me in an instant.
Whoosh!
The mace engulfed in black flames approached with a terrifying sound of tearing air.
Crash!
With a sound like thunder, sword and mace collided.
Flames tangled together.
Grey and black flames snarled savagely, each trying to devour the other.
“Ugh…!”
The impact was strong enough to numb both my arms.
Melina’s martial prowess, wrapped in black flames, exceeded what I had imagined.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The mace swung relentlessly in a flurry of attacks.
Crack!
With each blow I parried, my feet sank deeper into the corridor floor as if struck by a hammer driving nails.
‘At this rate, I’m being pushed back.’
Then.
“Hah.”
I drew in a deep breath, pulling forth even more power from the primordial flames.
“Ignite.”
Ashen fire wrapped around my body, burning with savage intensity.
Sizzzzle!
Thick gray smoke billowed forth alongside the sound of flesh charring away.
Ashen fire that consumed life itself, burning ever brighter.
My mana, which had been rapidly depleting, erupted outward in a violent surge.
Boom! Rumble rumble!
And then, collision once more.
The sword engulfed in ashen flames struck the mace with brutal force, sending it flying.
“Ugh?!”
I drove my clenched fist toward Melina, who stumbled backward in shock.
Berald martial arts.
Mountain Shattering.
Krrraaaaaash!
The underground chamber trembled as if an artillery shell had detonated, threatening to collapse entirely.
The walls of the Imperial Palace Underground, treated with special magic and unmarred for decades and centuries, shattered like glass struck by a hammer.
“Ugh…!”
Melina staggered backward, reeling from the impact of my fist.
“…Hah. Are you really a Candidate?”
She squinted her eyes in disbelief.
She had known that Dale Han, a Candidate, possessed extraordinary power worthy of Camelia’s interest, but she had never imagined he could fight on equal footing with her while channeling the full power of Ruin.
“Why? Would you like me to show you my Candidate credentials?”
“Sigh.”
Melina exhaled and shook her head slowly.
“I’ll admit you were stronger than I thought.”
However.
“You were unlucky.”
“…Unlucky?”
“Yes.”
Melina shrugged and turned her gaze toward the primordial flame seed burning brilliantly.
“You happened to encounter me in a place where the seed of Ruin is burning.”
With those words, Melina extended her hand toward the primordial flame seed.
“Ruin! Final destination of eternity!”
Melina cried out with a reverent expression, like a priestess offering prayer to a god.
“Devour my flesh, burn my soul, and grant me the power to punish your enemies!”
Did her cry reach the flame seed?
Whoooosh!
A fist-sized flame separated from the primordial seed and flowed into her body.
“Grrk…!”
Melina gasped, clutching at her body.
The aura radiating from her form had exploded exponentially compared to before.
“Hehe.”
Wreathed in black flames, Melina’s lips curled into a smirk as she hefted her mace.
“Well then, shall we begin again?”
“Ah. So that’s how it works.”
“Pardon?”
“No, it just seems like a good method.”
I turned my gaze back to the Primordial Flame.
Though a portion of its power had been absorbed by Melina, the Primordial Flame burned with undiminished ferocity.
Whoooosh!
I extended my hand toward the Primordial Flame.
“Come.”
Unlike Melina, who had invoked it with reverent prayer as though addressing a god, I commanded the flame as one might summon a servant.
“Hah.”
Melina let out a scoff, her expression one of utter disbelief.
“What exactly are you doing?”
Did she truly believe that merely handling the same ‘flame’ would grant her a portion of the seed’s power as it had for her?
“Pfft!”
The sheer absurdity of the notion sent Melina into uncontrollable laughter.
“Ahahaha! You have absolutely no idea what that flame is!”
The Flame of Ruin.
The body of the Demon God itself—a power also called a fragment of its very soul.
It was a force only Amon, the Archbishop of Ruin and the ‘Incarnation of the Demon God’, could wield, and it held a rank far above even Camelia’s Seven-Star Blessing—the Flame of Ruin itself.
That’s right.
Literally, ‘divinity’.
“No matter what you do! That flame will never obey you!”
Leaving Melina to her cackling laughter behind me.
I opened my mouth once more.
“You brat, ignoring me even as I speak?”
I glared at the fiercely burning flames, my eyes narrowing.
“Hey.”
Whoosh!
In that instant, the raging flames trembled, swaying violently side to side.
“Why aren’t you crawling over here?”
I commanded once more, my eyes blazing with ferocity.
“….”
Melina’s mouth clamped shut, and she exhaled a deep sigh—unable even to muster a hollow laugh.
“So you weren’t just a figurehead after all.”
Tsk, tsk. Melina clicked her tongue in disapproval.
“I’ll say it once more. No matter what you do, that primordial flame will not move—”
Whoosh!
The primordial flame, which had been swaying left and right, began creeping slowly toward me.
“Huh?”
Whoooosh!
Unlike Melina, who had only absorbed a fist-sized flame, the entire primordial spark flowed into my body.
Melina’s mouth fell open as she witnessed this.
“…What?”
Why is it moving?

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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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