‘Now!’
At the very moment the hero’s sword was driven into Reinhild’s heart, the mage crushed the magic stone he had prepared in advance.
It was a precious magic stone refined from the highly pure mana pooled in the heart of a dead dragon. It was a dragon heart.
It was the only keepsake left by his father, who had lived out a human lifespan and passed away and a priceless item that defied valuation, but the mage placed no meaning on such things.
What mattered was that, after long years of research without a single chance to use it in the field, the opportunity had finally come to test this magic. That alone was important.
With a hand that held fast the mana trying to scatter, the mage traced hand-seals and cast rapidly.
For a practiced mage, moving one’s hands for seals that draw out the form of a magic circle could be skipped, and a simple incantation would suffice; it had been a while since he had had to move his hands while casting.
However close the mage was to a dragon, he was in truth not even half. He was just a mixed-blood. To activate an ancient magic known only from records with a bare incantation was difficult.
‘Faster!’
The mage focused with all his strength so that his concentration would not waver.
He absolutely had to finish the casting before Reinhild’s breathing ceased. If in that interval the High God sensed something amiss and intervened even a little, all of this would be a failure.
So, with his mouth he chanted a decoy incantation as if casting an offensive spell, while in his mind he lined up the incantation for the sealing magic.
A ridiculous situation, where his right hand, mouth, and brain had to work separately. In that situation requiring tremendous mental strength and focus, ten seconds felt like ten hours.
Just as Xion slowly withdrew the hero’s sword lodged in Reinhild’s heart, and as Reinhild coughed up a final mouthful of blood and breathed his last…
… the magic was completed.
“Done!”
The mana of a dragon, the most powerful lifeform that exists in this world and the hero’s power bestowed by the High God…
Those two mixed and wrapped around Reinhild, who was full of miasma.
That force pressed on Reinhild’s body as if it would burst him apart.
It was, if anything, fortunate that Reinhild had already drawn his last breath.
Otherwise he would have died feeling an unimaginably horrific pain.
KWA-BOOM—!
All manner of mana tangled together and erupted like an explosion.
From the aftershock, the entire area of the Demon King’s castle shook as if it would collapse.
“Whoa!”
In the wind that blasted like a typhoon, the mage struggled not to be swept away.
Even amid that, Xion stood firm at Reinhild’s side without the slightest movement, guarding before him so that branches and stones whipped up by the wind could not mar Reinhild’s body.
‘Hard-hearted bastard.’
Anyone would think he was drunk on the sense of accomplishment of having slain the Demon King.
After a long while of wild, lashing wind, it settled, kicking up a vast cloud of dust as it died down.
Until the wind calmed and the surroundings grew quiet, Xion only kept watching Reinhild without even blinking, so that he could hold the image of Reinhild in his eyes for one second longer.
Reinhild who had looked at him with a face full of resentment to the very end…
“It worked, hero. Congratulations on having subjugated the Demon King.”
The mage clapped and stole a glance up at the sky.
Had He noticed? By now He must have realized this was all a show.
But even if the god perceived all these facts, nothing would change.
No matter how divine He may be, He cannot undo dragons’ magic, magic in which there is not a grain of faith to sustain Him.
The magic had succeeded perfectly, there had been no outside interference, and the Demon King had died.
Of course, he would resurrect in five hundred years.
Blood from the Demon King, wetting the hero’s sword, ran down the blade and fell drop by drop to pool on the ground.
It felt as if they were tears that had gathered in Reinhild’s eyes but could not fall; blood was shed in their place.
Xion wanted to wipe away the tears that had gathered in Reinhild’s eyes.
‘Rein…’
Had the mage not restrained him, he surely would have done so.
“Don’t touch him now. Don’t forget why we made him suffer by stabbing the Demon King’s heart.”
Xion had wanted Reinhild to meet a final moment without pain. But the mage had insisted, again and again, that the sword had to be driven into the Demon King’s heart.
That the hero’s blade must be planted squarely in the very center of the heart.
That this was the only way to cure Reinhild’s holy-power intoxication.
“…”
Xion clenched his fists and held back the urge to reach out toward Reinhild.
In a sealed state, Reinhild’s body would undergo natural healing for five hundred years.
The problem was that, right now, a certain amount of holy power was pooled in Reinhild’s heart.
Had Reinhild been conscious, he would have repeatedly expelled the holy power and absorbed miasma in its place; but in an unconscious state, the holy power would surely try to seize Reinhild’s heart entirely.
Recovery of mana undertaken in that state would be no different from feeding the holy power, giving it the fuel to swell in size.
After five hundred years like that, even if Reinhild awakened, his whole body would likely melt away at once in unimaginable agony.
That would be little different from merely postponing death by five hundred years.
To prevent that, the hero’s sword had been thrust into Reinhild’s heart.
No other blade, but the hero’s sword.
The hero’s sword had the ability to emit holy power, but conversely it also possessed the function to absorb and gather it.
By Xion piercing Reinhild’s heart, a portion of the holy power pooled in the heart was absorbed, and the remainder was guided to scatter and dissipate into the air.
Even so, holy power that tormented Reinhild still remained.
But that was fine.
Because the heart had been damaged, Reinhild’s mana recovery would be slower, and once a sufficient amount of miasma was replenished, his body would naturally expel the holy power even during sleep.
When he awakened, Reinhild would be much weakened, for the most crucial organ for mana recovery, the heart, had been damaged and his mana circuits entangled; but that, too, was fine.
Because Xion would remain by his side continually.
So that Reinhild would never feel pain again.
“What happens now?”
“According to the records, the High God will descend in the form of light to grant the promised reward to the hero. Unlike when He delivers an oracle, you can have a proper conversation… so be careful not to hurl insults at a god.”
“…”
To witness Reinhild’s death and yet not utter a single complaint… He couldn’t even gather Reinhild’s body, lying sprawled on the ground and growing cold.
It was the moment when being born a hero felt more miserable than anything else.
Reinhild had died knowing nothing to the very end. Xion’s heart hurt so much as if the one pierced by the sword had not been Reinhild but himself, yet it tormented him that he could not speak a single word to the culprit.
He felt that even being stabbed by a real sword wouldn’t hurt this much.
“Straighten your face, hero. He’s coming.”
The sky, full of thick miasma, parted and light poured down.
The High God had promised a single reward to the hero who had slain the Demon King in His stead, and He descended to this place to keep that promise.
[Oh, hero.]
From within the cascade of radiance came a buzzing voice.
Xion had obtained the chance to speak with the accursed god.
But he could not get a word out.
He was spending all his focus on restraining himself from rushing the deity, and so could not open his mouth.
He had to endure, for now.
Even if he rushed in, his blade would never touch the High God.
For now.
[My thanks for subjugating the Demon King, hero.]
It did not sound particularly thankful.
A moment earlier, the High God had realized that the Demon King had not, in fact, died.
It was a ludicrous situation.
Had He noticed a little earlier, He might have been able to disrupt the Demon King’s false death.
If only there had been a gap. Just a single second. A second may be very brief for humans, but a god can stretch that time into an eternity.
The reason they could implement this magic, which required vast mana, was because there had been a magic stone refined from a dragon heart. Had they expended that one and only stone and still failed, they could never have attempted the same again.
But the High God had not known their plan, and thanks to Xion keeping silent until the final moment when Reinhild’s breathing ceased, He could not catch on to the end.
A meticulous hero, Rexion West.
He would have liked to ignore Xion’s wish.
But a promise is a promise. As all of this proceeds within the bounds of a contract, to refuse the promised reward would impose a heavy burden.
A being who has much must pay a great price for even trifles—that is the way of gods.
In the end, the High God had no choice but to grant Xion’s wish.
[Just one. If there is something you desire, speak it.]
Somehow, it sounded as if teeth were grinding in the god’s voice, but that must have been his imagination.
“…”
[If you have no wish, you need not speak. To fight for the peace and welfare of the world without desire, that is the true duty of a hero.]
“…My wish is…”
After a long silence, Xion barely opened his mouth, swallowing the curses that were about to burst out.
He had to endure, thinking that all of this was for Reinhild.
He could endure.
If it meant that he and Reinhild could be together again.
Xion spoke aloud the wish he had earnestly prayed for, time and again.
“I wish to live and breathe until five hundred years from now… until the moment when the Demon King Reinhild awakens and then closes his eyes once more.”
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