Chapter 150: The Sage Listens to the Demigod’s Monologue

I raised the keepsake sword and swung it down from above.

It was a deadly attack that could even cut off a dragon.

“…gh.”

The demigod narrowed his gaze as he confronted it head-on.

The trajectory of the slash moved away as if avoiding his gaze.

It wasn’t like I did it on purpose.

The demigod distorted the space around me to divert the sword’s path and avoid the slash.

However, that’s naïve of you.

I already expected this level of interference.

I readjusted the direction between each moment.

I changed the angle of my wrist and started to slice another way.

The demigod then realized his interference failed and quickly transferred away.

I had already sensed where he might transfer to beforehand and pierced the sword from behind him.

The sword was embedded inside the demigod’s chest.

However, it didn’t actually hit him when you looked closely.

The chest region of the demigod was hollow.

Did he only transfer away the parts where the attack would land upon?

Though I was impressed by his skills, I flipped the sword around and struck sideways.

The demigod transferred again and retreated further away.

We faced each other at a reasonable distance.

Quite some time has passed since the battle had begun.

The morning sun was already about to peek from the horizon.

The demigod was slightly short of breath.

It was due to continuous magic power consumption.

Although he had a huge pool of magic power, it wasn’t enough to make him last for long periods of combat.

Meanwhile, I had a practically inexhaustible supply of magic power from the Valley of the Dead, so there was a fundamental advantage for me.

The demigod swiped at the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

“I… can’t afford to lose here. I have a mission to save the world…”

I felt something odd about his appearance.

None of my attacks should have been that effective against him so far.

Although I had managed to cut his limbs several times, the demigod had quickly reattached them every time.

All the magic I had cast was easily dealt with by his space magic.

There shouldn’t have been enough damage that made blood leak from his mouth.

He looked far too worn out for someone who was supposedly only suffering from excessive mana consumption.

I visually analyzed the demigod’s body.

Then I pointed out what I noticed.

“You used your own lifespan to cast your spell. Why are you so desperate?”

“It is because the death of the Demon Lord leads to humanity’s peace.”

The demigod gripped his chest as he coughed.

He spat out blood and trampled on it, disgusted.

“I was just a mediocre magician until recently, just a boring man with an affinity for space magic.”

The demigod confessed about his past.

Regarding the fact that he was a mediocre magician, it was already within my expectations.

If he was well-known prior to his transformation into a Herald, then the spies would have found out about it a long time ago.

Since they couldn’t, it meant that he didn’t achieve any sort of merit in the past.

The demigod glanced at the blood he spat onto the ground.

He then took a deep breath and asked me.

“Do you know about the ritual magic that produces Heralds? It was a taboo spell carried out in the Holy Scepter Kingdom.”

“I know about it. The Steel Knight, Valkyrie… and also you received that magic.”

“Indeed. We were compatible with the magic. However, I was different from the other two. I was merely a powerless, ordinary person who volunteered for the ritual magic.”

Both the Steel Knight and Valkyrie were probably referred there by other people.

Both of them were famous, powerful people before then, so the nations likely asked them since they had potential.

It seemed the moment the ritual magic became a realistic possibility, they had already decided on the candidates.

On the other hand, the demigod offered himself to be experimented on.

If his words were to be trusted, he was formerly a normal magician.

For such a person, their affinity for space magic would have little use.

Space magic basically consumed a greater amount of magic power compared to other kinds of magic, plus it was difficult to handle.

And the few people with an affinity for it were mostly unable to handle the consumption.

If a mediocre person were to possess such affinity, most of the time we would have considered them as useless.

“There were many people who volunteered, but everyone except me ended up dead. Out of those people, only I managed to become the False Herald. Thanks to the ritual magic, I gained an unparalleled ability over space magic. However, I thought that wouldn’t be enough. That still won’t allow me to win against the Demon Lord.”

The demigod glared strongly at me.

His slightly bloody eyes contained a bottomless obsession.

Although his expression hardly changed, his eyes reflected his fiery passion.

“So I inscribed another twelve forbidden spells onto my body. It was a very painful procedure that made me think that I would end up dead, but I somehow managed to endure. All of this to subjugate the Demon Lord —and to bring the world peace.”

The inscriptions all over his body are apparently some sort of forbidden spell.

His white hair was probably an aftereffect of the pain.

Since he had already done so many reckless things, I understood why he dared to use his own lifespan to cast the spells.

Rather, it was more amazing he managed to survive all that.

It must be due to his mental fortitude.

His strong feelings to gain power and subjugate the Demon Lord granted him that miracle.

It was simply something that couldn’t be explained by logic.

At that time, the demigod joined his hands and increased his output of magic power.

He closed his eyes and muttered something.

It seemed to be a chant of some sort.

I braced myself with the sword in hand.

He cast all those spells earlier without chanting… Why is he chanting now?

I had a bad premonition.

I shot a bolt of lightning imbued with miasma.

It dissipated before it could even reach the demigod, drawn into a distortion of space.

He seemed to be full of openings, but, as expected, magic still didn’t work against him.

Meanwhile, the demigod’s spell was finally completed.

His magic power radiated to the surroundings and interfered with the entirety of the nearby space.

A rift appeared in the wasteland where dawn soon came.

The sky and land were indiscriminately turned up and began to transform into a white space.

I tried to interrupt it using my magic, but nothing was effective.

—The world turned inside out.

That was the only expression I could use to describe the phenomenon that just happened.

The wasteland disappeared in no time and we were now standing in the middle of empty space.

As the demigod lowered his hand, he convulsed and almost collapsed right then and there.

He was sweating out a waterfall and his eyes were beyond bleary.

His complexion was closer to that of a corpse.

Even in his current state, he managed to speak firmly.

“This is a subspace. I cut off our connection to the outside world. In this isolated plane, you wouldn’t be able to receive your supply of magic power.”

“…Fumu.”

My connection with the Valley of the Dead was indeed cut off.

I doubted that I would be able to receive a steady supply of magic power in this state.

He exhausted all his might just so he could weaken me.

The demigod coughed violently.

Sticky blood leaked from the gaps of his pressed hand.

As he released his blood-stained hand, he declared with a raspy voice.

“Since the Hero of this world has already died, then I will defeat evil in his stead. I can’t allow myself to be defeated here.”