The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 38

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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 38. Last Words (7)
Whoooosh!
Flames roar to life.
Fierce, ravenous fire surges forth as though ready to devour the world itself.
Gray ash swirls violently around the raging inferno.
“What in the—!”
Ashtaroth gazed at the flames descending upon him with ravenous hunger and hastily invoked the Blessing of Distortion.
Violet demonic energy unfurled like a spider’s web, consuming the space around him.
The warped space crystallized into a colossal shield, enveloping Ashtaroth.
And then.
Crash! Crack! Shatter!
The collision of distorted space and blade.
The sword that moments before had bounced back pathetically against the warped space now began pushing through the space itself with brutish, overwhelming demonic power.
With each surge of power, the flames burned more savagely.
The blade, engulfed in fire, cleaved the distorted space in two.
“This insane—!”
Without even time to gasp in shock, Dale’s sword pierced through the fractured space like a beam of light.
Slice!
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
Excruciating pain radiated down his left forearm as it was severed clean away.
Ashtaroth staggered backward urgently, clutching at the spurting stump of his left arm.
“Tch! Damn it!”
All pretense of composure evaporated as Ashtaroth spat out crude curses.
He detonated the demonic energy coursing through his entire body and glared savagely at Dale, now wreathed in flames.
“I’m absolutely fed up with this!”
I had anticipated some variables, to a degree.
Plans that proceed exactly as intended simply don’t exist in this world.
‘But there has to be a limit!’
He had breached the Illusory Veil in an instant—a barrier woven using two hundred subordinates as sacrificial offerings.
A mere Candidate Program member possessed strength rivaling seasoned professors.
I thought I had killed him, only for him to resurrect in moments.
‘I was certain his demonic power was completely depleted, so this time he couldn’t possibly interfere.’
Yet suddenly flames erupted from his body, and now he was channeling demonic energy in torrents from all directions—energy I was certain had been exhausted?
‘What kind of monster is this?’
Ashtaroth stared at Dale with an expression of utter disbelief.
At this point, he couldn’t help but wonder if the world itself bore him malice and was actively working against him.
“Tch….”
While Ashtaroth stood bewildered, clutching his severed left arm and struggling to comprehend the sudden turn of events.
“Hah.”
I too gazed down at my own body, now engulfed in flames, wearing an expression of equal incomprehension.
‘What in the world is this?’
Even though I was engulfed in flames, I felt no pain whatsoever.
My clothes didn’t turn to ash, and my skin showed no signs of burning.
‘Primordial Fire…?’
If the flames wrapping around my body were indeed Primordial Fire.
Then why was this Primordial Fire, which hadn’t budged an inch no matter how hard I’d tried before, now blazing across my entire body?
‘That’s not what matters right now.’
I pushed aside the questions flooding my mind and turned my head toward Iris.
“D-Dale!”
Iris’s eyes widened as she watched me engulfed in flames.
I strode toward her.
“What on earth is happening… Ow!”
I flicked her head with a light punch.
She covered the spot with both hands, her eyes glistening with tears.
“W-Why did you do that all of a sudden?!”
“Didn’t I tell you to stay put earlier?”
“B-But!”
“No buts about it.”
I let out a deep sigh and positioned myself in front of Iris protectively.
“This time, don’t you dare step forward. Stay here.”
“…Yes.”
Iris nodded with a dejected expression.
I turned my back to her and faced Ashtaroth.
Thud.
At that moment, Ashtaroth’s left arm, which had been rolling on the ground, brushed against my foot.
Clutched in Ashtaroth’s left hand was a tool curved like a spoon.
‘A tool for gouging out Iris’s eyes, they said.’
My heated mind grew cold.
‘If it weren’t for the Primordial Fire, Iris’s eyes would have been carved out by now.’
The flames wrapping around my body spread into my very soul.
Roaring, roaring.
The inferno in my heart transforms into a colossal fire demon, consuming the world.
“Ashtaroth.”
I speak to Ashtaroth, who watches me with wary eyes.
“You asked which of us is more beloved by the divine, didn’t you?”
According to the records, Primordial Fire is a power created by the Demon God.
But strictly speaking, isn’t the Demon God also a divine being, just like the Seven Gods?
“So stop standing there dumbfounded and let’s finish this confirmation.”
Boom!
I stomped my foot roughly and spread the demonic energy overflowing within the barrier across my entire body.
Mana surged forth with such violent intensity that my meridians felt ready to rupture.
For someone who had suffered from chronic mana deficiency across my previous life, this sensation was entirely unprecedented.
‘I’m uncertain why the Primordial Flame has suddenly begun to stir.’
Yet I could roughly discern why mana now flooded my stigmata.
‘The Primordial Flame burned the Tree of Creation and generated mana in the process, or so I was told.’
In other words.
The Primordial Flame possessed the ability to generate mana by incinerating something.
‘Then what exactly is the Primordial Flame burning right now…?’
The answer was painfully obvious.
I gazed down at the flames engulfing my body and let out a hollow laugh.
“Never thought I’d end up as kindling.”
The Primordial Flame was burning my body to generate mana.
As proof, gray ash—the kind produced when Resurrection’s Blessing activates—scattered around the ferociously burning flames.
‘If the Primordial Flame is indeed using my life force as fuel to create mana.’
Theoretically speaking.
Couldn’t I generate nearly infinite mana as long as the Primordial Flame continued to burn?
“Haah.”
A tingling sense of omnipotence coursed down my spine.
My body felt weightless, as though I’d cast off the heavy shackles that had bound my entire frame.
I could sense it instinctively.
All those techniques I’d merely imitated superficially until now.
Everything I’d trained for endlessly in the Snowy Wasteland.
‘Now.’
I could wield them completely.
“I’m coming.”
Rumble!
With each light step I took, the earth trembled as though struck by an earthquake.
The distance closed in an instant.
I drove my clenched fist forward toward Ashtaroth, who backpedaled with wide eyes.
Berald’s Martial Arts.
Mountain Shattering.
BOOM!
A tremendous shockwave swept across the surroundings alongside the violent impact.
“This insane—!”
Ashtaroth cried out in shock and activated Distortion’s Blessing.
Space warped and blocked the shockwave, but only for a moment.
Distortion’s Blessing shattered instantly, and Ashtaroth’s body was caught in the shockwave, sent flying backward.
“Cough!”
Ashtaroth collapsed, blood spilling from his mouth.
“Haah, haah!”
Ashtaroth heaved ragged breaths as he staggered to his feet.
He gazed toward Iris in the distance, then clenched his jaw tightly.
“…Damn it.”
Unless the Illusory Veil and the blessing of distortion both failed to work.
He had no means left to oppose this immortal monster.
‘I’ll abandon the Seven Eyes.’
If he retreated now, he couldn’t know when another chance to claim the Seven Eyes would come, but at this rate, he wouldn’t obtain its power—he’d simply die a dog’s death in this place.
“Dale Han.”
Ashtaroth glared at Dale, his expression twisting savagely.
“I will remember your name. Without fail.”
Snap.
As Ashtaroth snapped his fingers with his remaining arm, the violet veil that had engulfed the surroundings vanished.
Cool night air swept in, and the darkened night sky stretched overhead.
Just as Ashtaroth turned to flee beyond the Academy’s grounds.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Dale stamped his foot lightly, and the flames enveloping his body spread wide like a veil, consuming the surrounding space.
“This is… surely a barrier?”
Ashtaroth stared at the wall of flames that now surrounded him, his mouth falling open.
No.
Had he truly resorted to barrier magic now?
“You… weren’t you a Candidate in the Warrior Department?”
“Why? Is there a school rule saying the Warrior Department can’t use magic?”
“….”
Ashtaroth clamped his mouth shut, as though he couldn’t even muster a response.
“Not only do you possess the blessing of immortality, but you can also wield swordsmanship, unarmed combat, and magic…?”
Grind.
The sound of teeth grinding echoed through the air.
“No, seriously. Damn it. This is absurd.”
Ashtaroth tore at his hair, muttering crude curses.
“Do you not understand the concept of moderation?! Huh? How is this even possible?!”
Ashtaroth let out a scream that bordered on a wail.
Well.
His feelings weren’t entirely incomprehensible.
The ‘Archbishop’ who reigned over thousands and tens of thousands of Demons never imagined he’d be cornered like this by a mere Candidate—not even a professor.
No.
Considering the absurd power the Archbishop possessed, even if he fought the entire Academy’s faculty, he wouldn’t have been unable to escape.
‘But.’
What did that change?
“Earlier, you said those orphans—not even heroes—deserved to die simply because they happened to be here by misfortune, didn’t you?”
When I had just arrived at the Illusory Veil searching for Ashtaroth.
I had a memory of hearing such words from beyond the Illusory Veil.
“Same here.”
I bared my teeth in a savage grin and leveled my blade at Ashtaroth.
“You were unlucky enough to cross paths with me today.”
Wasn’t that reason enough?
“Wait, just a moment! If you kill me…!”
Before Ashtaroth could finish his desperate plea.
I channeled the torrential mana surging through my entire body into my blade.
A roaring inferno erupted.
The flames enveloping my body intensified, and fire blazed along the length of my sword.
For an immeasurable span of time, I had wielded a blade.
Yet this unfamiliar sensation—one I had never experienced before—sent an electric thrill coursing through me.
“Ha.”
A dry laugh escaped between my lips.
Suddenly, a brief conversation I’d shared with a dear friend in my past life surfaced in my mind.
-Did you know, Dale? They say that once you reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship, you can cleave the heavens with your blade alone, without relying on mana.
“You were wrong about that, Yuren.”
I tightened my grip on the hilt.
A sensation I had never felt during those times when I struggled with insufficient mana.
As though wings had sprouted from my back.
Things I could never accomplish before began to crystallize vividly in my mind.
The Solar Blade.
Ninth Form, Twilight.
A blade of savage, roaring flames carved through the sky.

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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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