The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 283

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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 283. Interlude – Demon God
The Deepest Part of the Abyss.
Upon the blazing land where savage flames flickered as if to devour the entire world, an incongruous, frigid silence descended.
“What is… this?”
Amon’s voice trailed off, his expression clouded with confusion.
The Abyss’s flames that should have flowed into his body were instead converging toward an entirely different direction.
‘Why?’
I was well aware that Dale possessed a spark of Destruction similar to my own.
Yet even so, I had believed it to be merely an infinitesimal fraction of the sparks scattered across the entire Continent.
After all, there had been instances over the past five hundred years where the spark of Destruction had dwelled within human bodies.
I myself was one such human who harbored the spark of Destruction.
‘No, I am different.’
There was one distinction.
I possessed the power to draw other ‘sparks’ toward myself.
In other words, I did not merely harbor the spark of Destruction—I possessed the authority to absorb the remnants of power scattered across the Continent when the Demon God vanished five hundred years ago.
That is why I called myself the ‘Master of Destruction.’
I had no doubt that I was the true successor to the Demon God’s legacy.
It could be no other way.
No one else dared to absorb the sparks left behind by the Demon God.
But.
“What are you… exactly?”
Then why were the flames burning in the Deepest Part of the Abyss converging toward that gray-haired Candidate, not toward me?
“How… how can the sparks turn toward you when I am the Master of Destruction?!”
A cry that bordered on a wail.
Under normal circumstances, I would have provoked him with mocking words.
“Kgh, uh.”
Unfortunately, I had no leisure to pay attention to Amon’s words.
‘What is this.’
Flames flooding into my body like a torrent.
My consciousness wavered precariously beneath the overwhelming surge of power coursing through my entire being.
“Ah, uh.”
It burns.
My body ablaze, my mind boiling, my soul melting away.
Burning, burning, burning, burning, burning.
I thought I had grown accustomed to enduring pain as naturally as breathing, yet this agony far transcended what could be borne or withstood.
‘S-stop….’
I attempted to block the flames flooding into my body by any means, but the Abyss’s fire surged relentlessly toward my stigma, as if it had finally found its true home after a long, wandering existence.
“Kgh…!”
As my body trembled violently from the power boiling within me.
“Yes… if only you… if only you were gone…!”
Amon glared at me with fierce, glinting eyes.
‘I’m screwed.’
A foreboding chill crawled down my spine.
And as always, such premonitions proved devastatingly accurate.
“Die!!!”
Amon lunged at me with a savage cry.
‘Damn it.’
With the inferno continuously pressing in from all sides, I couldn’t even attempt resistance, let alone escape.
As Amon drew ever closer and despair bloomed in my mind—
Whoooooosh!
Something within my chest began to glow.
‘This is… the Seven-Colored Stone?’
It was an item I’d received from Camelia as a reward after resolving an assassination attempt at the Imperial Palace.
I’d tucked it into the pocket of my Candidate Program uniform and nearly forgotten about it entirely.
‘The fact that it’s glowing now means…’
The Seven-Colored Stone’s function was remarkably simple.
Once, anywhere, anytime.
It could summon the ‘Empress.’
Whoooooosh!
A woman with platinum blonde hair materialized in the air amid brilliant radiance.
Camelia extended her hand toward the charging Amon.
A seven-colored luminescence brimming with terrifying magical power blazed forth.
“Grrgh…!”
Amon staggered backward, swallowing hard as the light struck him.
“Are you unharmed?”
“Ah, y-yes.”
“…Your appearance suggests otherwise.”
Camelia bit her lip as she watched me hunched over, enduring the relentless flames.
“Fear not.”
Camelia stepped before me, a faint smile gracing her lips.
“This time, I shall protect you.”
“W-wait, this is dan—”
“Hehe. I am well aware of the danger.”
Camelia nodded quietly.
“But did you not say so yourself?”
Recalling a conversation from long ago, Camelia stepped forward toward Amon without hesitation.
“A hero must act accordingly.”
Her stigmata blazed with light as a seven-colored aura erupted outward.
“Stand aside, Empress…!”
Amon’s face twisted demonically as black flames ignited in his hands.
“How dare you presume to command me? There is no one in this world who can give me orders… well, actually, now that I think about it, there might be one.”
“Damn it!”
Not only had the flames of the Abyss been stolen from him, but now the Empress herself had intervened.
Amon swallowed the curses threatening to burst forth and stamped his foot.
Whoooosh!
Savage black flames erupted, engulfing the Empress.
Boom! Crash!
The seven-colored radiance and black flames collided in a tempestuous clash.
The earth trembled as if struck by an earthquake, and a deafening roar reverberated across the land.
Screeeech!
The evenly matched collision of the two forces soon shifted—the black flames began to gain the upper hand.
Like a ravenous beast devouring its prey, the black flames gnawed away at the seven-colored radiance.
“Ugh…”
Beads of sweat formed on Camelia’s forehead.
As the power of her blessing was consumed by the black flames, a dizzying pain spread through her body.
“Did being revered by those around you as a demigod chosen by the Seven Gods make you feel as though you had truly become divine?”
Amon twisted his lips into a cruel smile and unleashed an even fiercer torrent of flames.
“Do not forget, Empress.”
Whoooosh!
Ferocious flames wrapped around Camelia.
“Even the Seven Gods themselves are nothing but kindling before the flames of Destruction!”
“Ah, ugh…!”
Engulfed in the inferno, Camelia bit her lip.
Her once porcelain skin melted and charred grotesquely.
Since bearing the title of Empress, had she ever suffered wounds of such magnitude?
As her body burned, Camelia’s expression twisted violently.
“Haa, haa!”
Had she been able to retreat from the flames, the situation would have been far better.
‘That is… not… possible.’
Glancing back at Dale, Camelia instead stepped forward toward the black flames.
A life spent crushed beneath the weight of the title “Empress.”
-When someone precious dies, everyone grieves.
In a life where she possessed everything yet remained bitterly alone, she had met him.
-And in my experience, it’s better to have someone by your side when you’re suffering.
The only man who saw her not as the “Empress” but as “Camelia.”
‘How absurd.’
She who had been called the Iron Woman, who had kept men at a distance, was now willing to stake her life for a mere Candidate Program member who hadn’t even graduated from the Hero Academy.
Camelia wore a faint smile as she took another step toward the black flames.
Even if my flesh burns away, even if my soul turns to ash and vanishes.
“I shall not retreat.”
A seven-colored aura blazed brilliantly through the black flames.
“This damned woman…!”
As Amon spat out a curse and hurled his fist—engulfed in black fire—toward Camelia.
—Thud.
“What?”
A hand intercepted his punch.
Before he could even identify who that hand belonged to—
“Berald’s Martial Arts.”
Mountain Shattering.
Craaaaaash!
A fist wrapped in ash-tinged flames struck Amon’s face with brutal force.
“Gack!”
Amon was sent flying backward pathetically.
After tumbling across the ground for a moment, he looked up at Dale with trembling, disbelieving eyes.
“You… you can move…?”
The ember sleeping in this Deepest Part of the Abyss was one of the most powerful remnants of strength the Demon God had left behind.
Not only had I absorbed it all in less than ten minutes, but I could move as well?
“You are… exactly what?”
Dale stood above him, wrapped in ash-tinged flames.
My heart pounded violently just from meeting his gaze.
Like pure instinct.
Amon averted his eyes, unable to properly face Dale.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
Amon retreated backward, still sprawled on the ground, his face twisted in terror.
Whoooosh.
The black flames that had enveloped his body slowly began to drain away, flowing toward Dale instead.
“This is….”
Amon’s expression turned hollow as he watched the black flames escape his body.
Yes.
Now I had no choice but to accept it.
“I see… so that’s how it was.”
Amon stared at Dale with vacant, hollow eyes.
“…It was never me.”
The true master of Destruction was not himself, but the gray-haired Candidate Program member standing before him.
“You… were the true master of Destruction all along.”
“How amusing. And here you claimed to be merely a successor?”
I clicked my tongue and took a step toward Amon.
In that instant, my body lost its balance and swayed.
‘Damn it.’
Though I maintained an outward appearance of composure, the truth was I was far from unscathed.
The flames not yet fully absorbed into the stigma were raging wildly.
Combined with the fire flowing from Amon’s body, my consciousness was on the verge of becoming clouded once more.
‘Why is the fire in this bastard’s body flowing into me?’
I couldn’t understand what was happening at all.
“You’ve been singing about Destruction, Destruction all this time—what the hell is it that you’re making such a fuss about?”
“…You don’t know what Destruction is?”
“Isn’t it one of the Demon God’s powers?”
“Ha.”
Amon let out a bitter laugh and continued.
“Destruction isn’t one of the Demon God’s powers—it’s something closer to the Demon God’s very essence.”
“…Essence?”
“Just as the essence of the Tree of Creation is eternity, Destruction is the Demon God’s essence itself.”
“Wait.”
Destruction is the Demon God’s very essence?
“Then the Demon God is….”
“The Demon God already perished five hundred years ago. All that remains is his fragmented embers.”
“What are you talking about?”
The Demon God perished five hundred years ago?
That’s absurd.
I clearly saw with my own eyes in my past life the Demon God breaking the seal and appearing—
‘No.’
Let me retrace my memories.
The last thing I remember is Amon reaching the Deepest Part of the Abyss, and there a massive inferno erupting as the Demon God appeared.
Since I couldn’t see Amon after that, I naturally assumed he had died at the hands of the unsealed Demon God.
‘What if Amon didn’t die at the Demon God’s hands—what if Amon himself became the Demon God?’
If that’s the case, then now…
“Could it be… that what you meant by the true master of Destruction is….”
“Yes.”
Amon slowly raised his hand and pointed at me.
“From now on—you are the Demon God.”
Huh?
I’m what?

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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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