“Lies.”
Reinhild’s mutter was sunk as low as it could go.
It felt like the world was collapsing.
No matter how much he shouted that it was a lie, the thought of “what if” kept creeping in.
Whether it was the influence of brainwashing magic, or the inertia of all the time he had believed anything the butler said, everything the Demon God said felt like the truth.
‘No, that cannot be!’
Reinhild forced himself to shake off the Demon God’s voice clawing through his head.
“Xion could not possibly be dead!”
“Did you truly think we would not know what that one is plotting?”
Reinhild’s face went pale.
The Demon God and the High God. If those two gods knew Xion’s plan…
“The former Hero you pine for failed long ago.”
“No…”
“How do you think we managed to bring you here when you had the dragon’s protection.”
The dragon’s protective magic Ainel laid was aimed at Xion, not set for Reinhild’s sake.
Even if Xion died, that magic would not vanish, but its potency would weaken.
If, as the Demon God said, Xion died and the magic that protected Reinhild weakened because of it…
Then the Demon God, who had been waiting for a chance to abduct Reinhild, would have found the opening to slip into Root.
If so, then perhaps Xion really…
“No!”
Reinhild shook his head hard.
He had to shake off the useless thoughts clawing through his mind.
He did not want to be swayed by every word the Demon God spoke.
“Did you truly believe such a flimsy plan would work.”
“Xion’s plan is not flimsy!”
“You thought that because it was prepared over a long time, everything would be perfect. But five hundred years is a long time only to humans. Do you still not understand that to one who existed far longer, it is but an instant.”
“Do not talk about the time Xion waited for me like that!”
His heart hurt.
It was pain on a different level from the sting felt when your chest is torn and bleeding.
It was the first time he had ever truly wanted to kill someone.
Even as tears poured without him knowing when they began, Reinhild did not blink and glared at the Demon God.
Murderous intent thickly pooled in his eyes.
Of course, even that must have looked to the Demon God like the last thrashings of a gnat.
“Do not worry. Within a few hundred years you will go to his side. If I followed my feelings, I would rip out your heart here and now as punishment for the trouble…”
“U… hhk…”
The thick miasma spewing from the Demon God pressed Reinhild down again.
Struggling to endure did no good.
In the end, Reinhild collapsed, bowing his head before the Demon God.
“Regrettably, that role will be handed to the next Hero.”
When the Demon God stretched out his hand, an enormous surge of magic burst forth.
Vmmmmm.
The vibration in the air ran along his whole body.
Above Reinhild’s head, something long and sharp was summoned.
Something that bore the High God’s power and the dragon’s aura, and still carried Xion’s trace.
Floating in the air as if ready to pierce Reinhild’s throat at any moment, it was none other than the Hero’s sword.
‘…Xion… Xion’s sword…!’
He had to take it back.
He had to take back the Hero’s sword, the scrying orb, everything connected to Xion.
Reinhild reached for the Hero’s sword without thinking.
Pain like his outstretched right arm was being shredded ran through him, but he gritted through it.
‘Xion entrusted this to me!’
The Hero’s sword was something Xion had handed him with worry for him in his heart.
It was not something the Demon God could wave around at will.
“Give it back!”
“Do not move at your own whim without permission.”
“Ghaaak!”
The force crushing Reinhild grew even stronger.
His right arm turned as heavy as if a giant iron ball were hanging from it.
Thud.
Before it could reach the Hero’s sword, his arm was slammed into the blankets.
“Kh… hff…”
Panting for breath, Reinhild managed to lift his head.
The Demon God watched with a chilly gaze. Outwardly expressionless, inwardly impressed.
‘His magic should be spent, yet he slipped his bonds.’
Even after losing his power and becoming a wreck, did he still have the ability to fight a god’s power?
It was welcome news to the Demon God.
If the Demon King was stronger than expected, it meant the day he would regain his original strength and die for the Demon God’s sake was not far off.
“Hah, ha…”
Even while he panted harshly, Reinhild tried to sort his thoughts.
‘Just now… what was that?’
A moment ago, when he was trying to break free of the Demon God’s power and force his body to move, he felt a strange churn in his heart.
Was it just his stomach twisting from fear?
‘No, it was not that.’
A feeling extremely unpleasant, subtly disagreeable, and yet not entirely hateful, familiar…
‘Divine power!’
Reinhild had been able to move thanks to the divine power pooled in his heart.
The magic imbued with miasma did not respond at all, so how could he move with divine power?
Was it possible because it was a force opposed to the Demon God’s power?
‘This is no time to dwell on this.’
He had found a way to move.
It was dangerous to yank out and use the divine power he had purposely planted to balance the miasma, but no other method came to mind now.
‘There is no time.’
The Demon God’s miasma boring into his body had been gnawing away at the divine power for a while.
At this rate, it was certain that the divine power would run dry soon.
‘Before I lose all the divine power, I have to get out of here.’
Xion is definitely alive.
I have to return to his side.
Because Xion will be waiting.
‘But how?’
Even if he tried to move and run, it would be hard to slip from the Demon God’s hand, who was far faster than he.
Surely, he would be caught before he took a single step.
‘If he notices how I am moving, the Demon God will rip out all the divine power.’
There would be only one chance.
He had to find a way.
He had to wait for the Demon God to show an opening, then somehow…
‘There is no opening…’
Reinhild’s face twisted hard.
With the balance between miasma and divine power broken, his magic raged, his blood vessels felt as if they were burning, and his heart pounded as if it would burst.
A body that had been crushed all along ached everywhere, and his head felt like it would split.
Avoid the foe who had been hard to escape even five hundred years ago?
In this state?
‘I… cannot.’
The more he watched the Demon God to seize an opening, the larger the negative thoughts grew.
Despair and hopelessness.
The very kind of emotions the Demon God loved most.
Amused, the Demon God moved his lips to increase Reinhild’s torment.
“Rexion West, that man was too greedy. He thought to imitate a god and tried to issue an oracle, and it cost him.”
“Xion… is not dead.”
“If the High God has not disposed of him yet, that is good for me. Dragging him here and choking the life out of him before your eyes would be a sight.”
Reinhild squeezed his eyes shut.
He wanted to cover his ears, but he could not move his arms.
‘Do not be shaken by that drivel!’
That is all lies and nonsense.
You must not be swayed.
“If that displeases you, it would not be bad to twist my contract with the High God and make Rexion West the next Hero. The human you cherish would pierce your heart twice over, Demon King. With this very sword.”
The Hero’s sword aimed at Reinhild’s heart.
Thump, thump. His heart, once pierced by that sword, thrashed.
‘No…!’
Do not listen to what the Demon God says.
I will never move as the Demon God wants.
Do not waver. Do not be shaken.
‘…Waver…?’
As Reinhild strained to shake off the Demon God’s words no matter what, something flashed through his mind.
Perhaps the only way out of this situation.
‘If I can throw the Demon God off balance… an opening might appear.’
Reinhild looked at the Hero’s sword that had come right up to his nose.
A sword that brought ruin to those imbued with miasma.
With his magic weakened and only the density of miasma pooled in his heart grown thicker, the sword was far more threatening to Reinhild than before.
A sword that had pierced his heart long ago, now aiming at the scar it left— to Reinhild, it felt like a hand of salvation.
‘The Demon God does not want me to touch the Hero’s sword.’
It was clear.
The Demon God had not stopped Reinhild for the crime of moving on his own; he had tried to keep Reinhild’s hand from reaching the Hero’s sword.
If he touched the sword without the dragon-hide glove, Reinhild’s heart would shatter.
‘The Demon God wants me to recover.’
Then what Reinhild had to do was set.
“As soon as I restore this broken vessel, I will—”
The Demon God broke off mid-sentence and scowled.
On Reinhild’s face, which had been twisted with pain until a moment ago, a smile had appeared.
“What scheme is this, Demon King!”
“That vessel you want—”
“?!”
Reinhild drew up the force pooled in his heart.
Vmmmmm.
Not miasma, but divine power.
“I am going to smash it all to pieces.”
‘Move!’
Reinhild gathered the divine power pooled in his heart and moved his arm.
Vmmmmm.
He felt the remaining divine power in his heart blaze up and vanish.
“What are you doing, Demon King!”
The Demon God shrieked and tried to stop him, but this time Reinhild moved first.
His arm, which had been buried in the bed, thrust forward, and—
‘Got it!’
He touched the Hero’s sword.
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