Chapter 325:

Chapter 325:

------------------

HELHEIM SCANS

Join our Discord for release /invite/dbdMDhzWa2

------------------

At first, he didn’t feel anything.

No sense of time, no sense of space.

Only darkness and emptiness existed.

Where was he?

How long had he been like this?

He tried to recall something, but there was nothing he could remember.

Complete nothingness... ambiguity.

One thing was certain, he had lost myself.

It felt as if the boundaries of his existence had crumbled, everything was blurred.

There was no fear, no relief, no confusion, just something that "used to be him."

He felt a dreadful void.

His consciousness shattered into pieces.

There was no need to resist.

Yet, at that moment when he was struggling without knowing why,

He began to feel something very faint in the pitch-black darkness.

A very slight movement.

A tiny fragment of light.

Though it felt distant and unreachable, he was staring at it for some reason.

He didn’t know what it was or why he was so desperate to see it, but the light drew in all of his consciousness.

"Go forward," a whispering voice said.

In a space where he had felt nothing, the light and sound were overwhelming stimuli.

‘...What is this?’

The voice continued.

Sometimes it was informal, sometimes polite, sometimes it was a man's voice, a woman’s, an old person’s, a child’s...

The voices were different, but they all demanded the same thing.

To move forward.

“Huff!”

He sat up.

Just a moment ago, he couldn’t even feel my body, but now his senses were so clear that they felt almost raw.

‘...Where is this?’

The first thing that returned was pain.

His skin felt like it was freezing cold while also being scorched.

When he rubbed it with his hand, he felt the sticky sensation of mud.

Uuuuuung—

As he gathered my mana and divine powers, fortunately, the mud slowly peeled off.

But the space was still dark and gloomy even in the bright light.

Everywhere he looked was an endless pitch-black world.

It was meaningless to keep his eyes open.

He stood still, unsure of where to go.

The voices that urged him to move forward had long since vanished like an echo.

He was about to take a step forward, aimlessly.

{Dopple, can you hear me?}

A familiar voice.

He stopped instinctively.

‘...Maktania?’

{Thank goodness, the terminal is working properly.}

‘No, how... is this possible?’

{Because you're my champion. How does it feel to be a priest receiving divine revelations?}

‘...It’s amazing.’

He then asked the most pressing question.

‘What’s the situation outside?’

{It’s okay. You can rest easy.}

Rest easy?

An unexpected answer.

‘Okay? Does that mean Avalon is safe?’

{Yes. As soon as you jumped in, all 50 masses of mud started to merge into a sphere. The waves stopped. The demonic energy subsided. Now everyone is out on deck, watching.}

As he said before, the Demon King’s power was not infinite.

In an extremely unstable state, when a massive amount of prey voluntarily jumped in, it seemed the decision was made to focus on him, abandoning other targets.

...Right at that moment, another voice echoed in his mind.

[Ugh...]

This time it was a more familiar voice.

[It’s already cramped as it is, and now something else crawls in.]

It was ???.

Unlike a thought-form, he groaned in pain and finished with a low curse.

[Damn, I felt like I was dying again when the connection was briefly severed.]

Despite his usual grumbling, Hero couldn't help but smile faintly, forgetting the situation for a moment.

What a noisy way to end things.

After laughing for a while, the endless darkness didn’t seem so suffocating anymore.

[Alright, let's move. You know better than anyone what needs to be done, right?]

{Dopple, listen carefully.}

Grrrrrr—

Just then, a terrifying roar echoed from a distant place.

It was a chilling sound, like thousands of monsters roaring simultaneously.

The black mud surrounding me shook violently.

But it wasn’t just anger contained within.

[It’s trembling in fear. Let’s go finish this.]

{Don’t worry. We’ll endure this together.}

[...Who said “we” would?]

{It will be very hard and painful, but I believe in you.}

The direction he had to go was already decided.

He started walking toward the direction of the roar.

The first few steps were easier than he expected.

However, the hero's stride never halted for even a moment.

Though he couldn't see or feel anything, he kept moving forward.

...And then it happened.

{Doppel.}

A warm voice echoed in his mind.

{It's time to say goodbye.}

That one sentence was enough for the hero to understand what Maktania was about to do without any explanation.

A deep emotion and sorrow pierced his heart.

The hero's gaze fixed on the faint light that appeared in the pitch-black darkness.

‘Thank you for being human until the very end.’

He heard a clear, laughing voice.

{Sometimes, that's what makes you endearing, your stupid moments.}

‘...What?’

{It's not for humans. Foolish.}

...Indeed, the Demon King's subjugation would also benefit the Celestials.

Just as the hero was about to accept that reasoning, Maktania said something unexpected.

{It's for you.}

‘...For me?’

{Everyone, including you, is fighting for this world, for humanity. So, can't I at least do this for you?}

The hero felt a warm sensation enveloping his body.

{Fighting fiercely, shouting, and moving forward—that's been your life, hasn't it?}

Maktania continued speaking gently.

{Despairing and agonizing over endless suffering and absurdity, yet never giving up—that's who you were.}

‘Maktania.’

{Could you keep doing that until the very end? So that everyone can see and feel it clearly.}

‘Maktania!’

The light pierced through the darkness that blocked the hero's path.

With a violent tremor and a flash of light, the black mud crumbled helplessly.

Tap.

Without saying a word, the hero ran down the path that had been revealed.

{...Run, my champion.}

The voice, likely created by the hero himself, echoed like a hallucination in his ears.

Tap.

The hero kept running.

He knew that soon the boundary of his existence would collapse, and he would return to a meaningless illusion with no form left, but he didn't stop.

A quiet voice whispered as the Demon King's agonized roar grew louder.

[...Tch, to think it would end like this.]

‘.......’

[Aren't you afraid?]

For the first time, the hero slowed his steps.

‘...And you?’

[I don't know.]

‘That's surprising. I thought you'd pretend not to be scared until the very end.’

The hero's tone was half-mocking, but the voice didn't get angry.

It just murmured in a calm voice.

[What is a human?]

‘...You.’

[Even after embracing hundreds of thousands, I still can't understand.]

A hollow laugh echoed in his mind.

[Knowing that you lose everything at the end and still moving forward.]

‘You....’

[Do all humans live with such feelings?]

Struggling in pain to achieve what they want, growing, and eventually fading away—that was the typical pattern of human life.

‘Then I guess we're all achieving what we want at the end.’

[Haha, is that so? If you say so, it must be true.]

The hero's words seemed to bring some relief to the voice.

[Though we started differently, the process was similar, and the end will be the same... You'll die as a human, won't you?]

‘.......’

[If that's the case... then I suppose I didn't do too badly either.]

With those words, the voice was no longer heard.

Instead of the cores the hero had desperately protected, the voice's residual thoughts were sucked into the black mud.

It was the most burdensome thing the Demon King had absorbed thus far.

Kuaaaaaa—!

Not a roar, but a clear scream.

A painful wail filled the space.

The hero was close.

He moved his body in the direction of the sound.

Step.

Only a few cores that most strongly supported his identity remained now.

When they were slowly devoured, he felt a bit bewildered.

It seemed that all the definitions of who he was and what he had lived for would vanish along with those cores.

But they didn't.

When those cores finally left him, instead of despair, a strange sense of peace found him.

The space that had been filled with countless colors, sounds, and scents was now quiet.

...There were still things that hadn't left.

"......."

And finally.

The hero exhaled a long breath and stopped.

The Demon King's trembling eyes stared at him.

"Haha...."

A smile resembling so many others spread across his face.

------------------

HELHEIM SCANS

Join our Discord for release /invite/dbdMDhzWa2

------------------