The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 291

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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 291. Demon God Dale (8)
“What in the….”
Pope Marian’s mouth fell open in shock, unable to comprehend the situation unfolding before her eyes.
Even if negotiations hadn’t gone smoothly, I never expected an ambush to break out so brazenly with all the Masters gathered in one place.
“Are you out of your mind?!”
“Well, that’s what I’d like to ask you.”
I shrugged with a composed expression, and Pope Marian’s face twisted savagely.
“Johan!”
“Tch…!”
Johan sprang to his feet and drew his sword.
“You bastard!!!”
So this was what it meant to be a Master.
Despite having split a solid wooden table—reinforced with special magic to the point where it could dent steel—clean in half with my head, there was nothing more than a small scrape on my forehead.
Whoosh!
A brilliant white aura blazed along the blade’s edge.
Johan’s sword descended in a beautiful arc.
Hum!
If one honed the concept of ‘orthodoxy’ to its absolute limit, perhaps this was the kind of sword strike that would emerge.
There was no flashy technique, no ornate flourish.
Yet the arc traced by the blade contained a wonder that drew gasps of admiration.
‘But that’s all it is.’
A smirk tugged at my lips as I watched the incoming blade.
Johan’s mastery of the sword was complete enough to justify the title ‘Sword of Holy Nation’.
‘And nothing more.’
Ash-colored flames wrapped around my body and burned.
An immense torrent of mana erupted from the stigma and spread throughout my entire being.
Whoooosh!
“Ugh!”
There was no need to even draw a sword.
With nothing but the pure release of mana, Johan’s ferociously swung blade noticeably slowed.
A gap in mana so overwhelming that comparison itself became meaningless.
If mana served as a kind of weight class among Heroes, the difference in our classes now exceeded that of a five-year-old child fighting an adult man.
‘Originally, the gap wouldn’t have been this wide.’
High risk, high return.
By absorbing the remnants of the Demon God, I had taken on the risk of potentially turning the world to ash, but in exchange, I had grasped power befitting that burden.
“Johan!”
A burst of white radiance exploded from Pope Marian’s body.
The brilliant light that swept through the room flowed into Johan’s form.
“Haaaaah!”
With just the blessing, Johan’s mana amplified by two or three times in an instant.
It was such a tremendous transformation that one could understand why Marian, despite being a support-type whose combat power was difficult to assess accurately, confidently held the second position in the Master rankings.
‘Just from blessings alone, magical power amplified two to three times over.’
Of course.
“Fear.”
Even so, it was merely a five-year-old child becoming ten years old.
Kwaaaaarrrrng!
The entire Headmaster’s Office trembled with a thunderous roar.
Blazing cinders greedily consumed the white light clusters, intensifying their momentum.
“This is insane…!”
Johan stared at his own magical power being consumed by the cinders, his expression frozen in shock.
He had known since Dale opened the warp gate before that his magical power exceeded common sense, but wasn’t this even worse than back then?
‘And unlike then, he doesn’t even seem to be struggling!’
Back then, while unleashing an enormous amount of magical power, he had wavered precariously as if his breath might stop at any moment.
Now, without any sign of difficulty, as if it were only natural, he was crushing me with an absurd amount of magical power.
“Dale!”
At that moment, Camelia sprang to her feet.
I had harbored a faint hope that the Empress’s intervention might calm this insane situation.
“I shall fight alongside you!”
“Damn it all…!”
At Camelia’s bold declaration of support, Johan couldn’t help but curse with unbecoming vulgarity for a priest.
There was already no hope of victory against Dale alone, and now the Empress was joining in?
Johan clenched his teeth and turned to look at Marian.
Had I been alone, I would have fought to the bitter end, even sacrificing my life, but behind me stood Marian.
The Pope who bore responsibility for the future of the Holy Nation and the Seven Star Church.
“…I’ve lost.”
Johan lowered his sword and hung his head.
“Fortunately, while words don’t work, force does.”
“You…!”
“Now do you understand?”
“…Understand what.”
“Reality.”
Creak.
I righted a chair scattered on the floor and sat down to continue speaking.
“I don’t know exactly how much power the Eternal Cult Leader possesses.”
However.
“At minimum, he was a powerhouse five hundred years ago capable of bringing the Demon God to death—an achievement the Great Five Heroes ultimately could not accomplish.”
I slowly turned my gaze to survey the five Masters gathered in the room.
“So I ask you this: Is there anyone here who believes themselves stronger than the Great Five Heroes?”
“Hah. Do you call that a question? Of course I am greater than the Great Five Heroes.”
“…Yes, of course.”
Yeah, well.
Camelia certainly has the standing to say such things.
“What about the rest of you? Does anyone here believe they surpass the Five Great Heroes in strength?”
“….”
“….”
Silence descended upon the room.
“The Eternal Cult Leader’s purpose is to bring about the end of this world.”
“…The end, you say.”
“Yes, precisely. The literal meaning. A rather archaic way of expressing ‘let’s all perish together,’ I suppose.”
“….”
“If I’m a bomb that might detonate at any moment, the Eternal Cult Leader is a bomb guaranteed to explode.”
I surveyed the Masters with eyes sunken deep in thought.
“Can you truly stop him without me? Him, who accomplished what even the Five Great Heroes could not?”
“That is….”
Johan trailed off, his gaze averted.
“This isn’t a matter of faith. Whether you believe in me or not is frankly irrelevant.”
That’s right.
This isn’t about who to trust or not.
There’s no room for such complacent talk.
“This is a matter of reality.”
“….”
“You asked me earlier if I was in my right mind, didn’t you? I’ll turn the question back on you. What exactly were you thinking, Your Holiness, when you asked me to die?”
“I….”
“After I’m gone, what then? Can the Masters gathered here combine their strength to stop the Eternal Cult Leader? You’re already struggling to contain just me.”
“That, that is…!”
“Justice without power is hypocrisy, and conviction without strength is deception.”
I continued, holding Pope Marian’s gaze.
“I ask again. Can you stop the Eternal Cult Leader with your strength alone?”
“….”
Pope Marian closed her eyes tightly.
For her, who had devoted her entire life to the Seven Star Church, the very concept of a ‘Demon God’ was so profane that merely speaking the word made her stomach churn.
Something that could not be compromised with.
Something that could not be tolerated.
Such an entity.
“I….”
But.
The wall of reality looming before her was so immense that it rendered even such revulsion imperceptible.
Vast enough to crush the very convictions she had carved into her soul throughout her lifetime.
Towering and unfathomable.
“…I withdraw my previous statement.”
Pope Marian opened her mouth, her voice trembling.
“I will cooperate with you.”
“M-Marian! What do you mean—!”
“This is the Pope’s decision.”
“But—!”
“Johan!”
Thud!
Marian stamped her foot heavily on the ground.
“If you continue to defy my orders, I will use the Pope’s authority to excommunicate you from the Seven Star Church.”
“….”
Johan bit his lip roughly and lowered his head.
“…Is this satisfactory?”
Marian turned to look at me with sorrowful eyes.
If the Eternal Cult Leader was the approaching apocalypse, and only the Demon God offered the sole hope of escaping it.
Then she would willingly break her convictions and join hands with the Demon God.
Because that was her responsibility and duty as the Pope.
“Yes. I will respect the Pope’s choice.”
I could sense unresolved conflict and hesitation lingering in Marian’s expression, but there was no need to press the matter further.
‘For the Pope, this alone represents a tremendous decision.’
There are fewer people than one might think who can break their faith for the sake of present reality.
Especially for a religious figure who has lived their entire life on faith and belief in God alone, such a compromise must feel like a denial of their very existence.
‘And all the more so when that compromise involves the Demon God, whom they have despised their entire life.’
For this reason, I extended my hand to Marian with the utmost courtesy and respect.
Marian grasped my outstretched hand, a bitter smile playing at her lips.
“A Pope who shook hands with the Demon God… Perhaps I will be remembered as the worst Pope since the founding of the Seven Star Church.”
“But without your choice, there would be no future generations left to remember anything at all.”
“…You speak quite cruelly for someone who appears so unassuming, Dale.”
“What do I appear to be like?”
“Hmm. Well, I’d like to say more, but there’s this one woman over there giving me a rather frightening glare.”
Pope Marian glanced toward Camelia, shrugged her shoulders, and took a seat.
“Phew. So then.”
Raonel, surveying the chaos of the Headmaster’s Office with a complicated gaze, let out a deep sigh and spoke.
“What do you intend to do about that video? We’re willing to cooperate despite knowing your identity… but I suspect most Heroes won’t be.”
“There is someone who can help with that.”
“Someone who can help?”
“Albert Huber, a Candidate in the program.”
“…The son of the Huber Family? The ones who control the Continent’s finest information guild?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Raonel furrowed his eyes and continued speaking.
“Even for the Continent’s finest information Guild, covering up an incident of this magnitude would be difficult….”
“We won’t be covering it up. Quite the opposite, actually.”
“…What?”
Raonel stared at me with a bewildered expression.
“In that sense, I’d like to ask you all for a little ‘performance.'”
“…?”
Leaving the Masters behind with their questioning gazes, I let my lips curl into a smirk.
* * *
A garden overflowing with pristine white chrysanthemums.
The White-Masked Man sat leisurely in a rocking chair, humming contentedly to himself.
“Now then, how will this play out….”
He was murmuring in anticipation when—
“L-Lord Cult Leader!”
An urgent voice calling out to him.
“What is it?”
“These… these videos have appeared on the Heroes’ Community….”
Multiple videos played on the screen the follower had turned on, each with the same composition but different people.
-Raonel Ryu… From now on, you are the Demon God.
-Camelia Padshah… From now on, you are the Demon God.
-Marian… From now on, you are the Demon God.
-Johan Basillio… From now on, you are the Demon God.
-Kalid Han… From now on, you are the Demon God.
In the videos, Amon—or rather, something that appeared to be Amon—engulfed in savage flames, declared to each Master in succession that they were the Demon God.
“Ha.”
The Eternal Cult Leader let out a low chuckle as he watched the videos.
“Look at this bastard….”

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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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