Published at 4th of May 2021 8:00 pm

Chapter (420) Hero and Demon Lord

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Haru, Miri, and I headed directly for the lowest floor, the 15th floor.

I cut the gorilla-like monster that appeared at the lowest floor in two and reached the front of the door leading to the boss room. I felt a strong presence.

“Haru, Miri, stay vigilant.”

An Oni race man stood alone there.

Was that the true appearance of the Demon Lord?

He had an excellent body build and was completely different from the King of Tsuaobal that we met before.

To verify, I checked that man’s job - - that was when I noticed.

I couldn’t appraise his job.

“Master - - that Demon Lord - -”

“Yes … I can tell even if you don’t mention it.”

The Demon Lord was already dead.

I thought I was about to challenge the last boss but the Demon Lord was already dead.

Normally it would be an over-the-top development but I didn’t feel that way.

That was because I was shown that there was an enemy that surpassed the Demon Lord in that room.

“I know you’re there. Come out Hero-sama.”

After I said that, a black-haired man in his late twenties - - the Hero Alessio appeared from the shadow of the Demon Lord.

He looked normal compared to the giant Oni - - but I could feel a ridiculous amount of power.

“Hey, I was tired of waiting. Although, originally it was the role of the Demon Lord, not the Hero, to wait.”

“You were tired of waiting so you defeated the Demon Lord? I thought he was your companion?”

“The world would never allow the Hero and the Demon Lord to be companions. I told you that previously.”

Alessio said with a smile.

“In the first place, the Demon God, the Demon Lord, and I all wish for slightly different things.”

“I recall Libra-sama told me that the Hero and the Demon Lord had joined hands because they had the same goal of reviving Metias-sama.”

But she did not dive into the specifics of it.

“I take it that you are already aware of the Demon Gods’ goal? To counter the calamity coming to this world and save all the people living here by sending their souls to Earth. A magnificent plan of realizing the Noah’s Ark legend handed down in Ichinojo-kun’s world.”

Perhaps he heard about the Noah’s Ark from the Demon Gods or Daijiro-san.

Alessio said that and then looked at the Oni man.

“This Demon Lord’s goal was to return this world to its original state.”

“Original state?”

Isn’t the world in its original state a world without Demon Gods?

“Ichinojo-kun, don’t you think it is strange? We, humans, possess all kinds of jobs and are assigned status depending on those jobs. There might be some minor ability differences depending on the race and there are unique jobs but that is all. No matter how hard a Lv1 Apprentice Swordsman tries, he can never beat a Lv40 Sword Saint; if a Petite Fire cast by a Lv10 Apprentice Magician and one cast by a Lv10 Magician clashes, the Lv10 Magician’s Petite Fire will win. Putting aside an exception like you, experience is given equally to anybody who defeats a monster. As though this world was meant to be a kind world where everything tries to be equal and all races are equal. But even though it is salvation for those who do not have it, it is despair for those who had it. Before the Goddesses came to manage this world, this world was heaven for the Oni race. Originally without jobs, Oni had status dozens of times higher than the Hume race. Precisely like the story of Momotaro with his dog, monkey, and pheasant companions but add in dozens of people and then they would finally be able to defeat an Oni. But thanks to the introduction of jobs to this world, the ability of the people of the world was raised and the Oni fell. They didn’t think well of it and chose to be hostile to the Goddesses.”

Listening to the Hero talk about the Demon Lord, I glanced at the corpse of the man who became the Demon Lord.

In the end, how many years ago was it before the Goddesses managed this world?

At the very least, 1200 years ago, in Miri’s previous incarnation as Kaguya who transferred to this world, the Goddesses were there.

“This Demon Lord, the Oni race, continued their hostility toward the Goddess without forgetting their grudge?”

“Yes. And it seems that he believed that if all the Goddesses were destroyed, there would be no job system in the world. Even though even the Goddesses do not know what would happen if the world no longer have Goddesses.”

Alessio commented with an exasperated smile.

He’s right. The Goddesses were part of this world’s system too.

Metias-sama may have tweaked the Jobless skills a little but the Goddess-samas should not be able to manipulate everything regarding jobs.

If that was possible, they would have robbed the Hero of his job and skills once they recognized that he was an enemy and in the first place, they would not even prepares Demon Lord skills that could oppose Goddesses and Demon Gods.

“Then what is your goal? You mentioned it was different from the Demon Gods too?”

“I only have one goal, to continue being the Hero. That is all.”

Alessio stated.

“Hero has the skill called 『Humanity’s Hope』 that ehas an interesting effect. The Hero’s status would rise depending on the strong feelings and wishes of the people to the Hero. That’s why when most of the people in the world hoped that I won against the evil Demon Lord’s Army, my HP was over 10,000. Even then, the Demon Lord was strong. But when it became peaceful, sadly my status dropped significantly. Everyone told me that I was their hope but as soon as the world was peaceful, that was it. The Church put me under house arrest as well. That’s why I thought of it. The world does not need a Hero unless the world is in turmoil. Now that monsters are overflowing from dungeons around the world, the world wishes for me.”

The Hero’s strength was swelling up.

It seemed that he wanted to fight.

“Right, I need to say something before fighting.”

“What is it?”

I drew White Wolf Fang as well.

Haru and Miri also prepared for battle.

“I am Japanese.”

“ - - !?”

“But only genetically. To be accurate, I am just one of the clones of the Hero, made from the genes of a human who was bestowed with the Divine Blessing of the Hero. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change that I am a Hero and a transmigrator. I have it too, the power to do a little tweaking under the pretext of the world. Maybe I was supposed to fight the Demon Gods.”

“Don’t give me this excuse of maybe. That’s enough, so get out of here. I will save the world on behalf of the Hero.”

“Ahaha, that won’t work. I tweaked this boss door a little so it won’t open unless you kill me. So - -”

Just as I felt the Hero’s spirit rising.

“If you want to pass, you will have to defeat me! Hyaha!”

He suddenly yelled as his tension burst and he charged at me.

That was the Hero’s fighting style!?

Our swords clashed.

It was heavy!

Even though my current physical attack was over 4000, why couldn’t I push it away easily?

“This damn!”

Just as I tried to push the sword away with all my might - - pain ran through my solar plexus.

I was kicked while our swords were locked.

Normally, performing a kick in that situation would break your balance.

“Eh? No way, it didn’t have much effect? It was a kick with the Paralyze Sword effect added to it.”

Alessio said such a ridiculous thing.

Just like how I could release a Slash with a kick, he could release a Paralyze Sword skill with just a kick?

It would have been dangerous if I hadn’t raised my resistance to abnormal conditions by increasing my Demon Lord level.

“Sorry about that. I trained too.”

I tried to imitate Alessio and sent a kick but it was easily avoided.

Even though my status experienced explosive growth due to my Growth Cheat, the Hero was better at combat technique.

“Master, I will back you up - -”

Just as Haru voiced her intention to enter the fight - - I thought I saw a shadow approach her and I heard the sound of swords clashing.

Talwi’s sword and Haru’s sword collided.

“Stand down, you can’t win against me.”

“Don’t be too sure about that - - Flame Dragon Fang!”

Flames shot out of Haru’s dagger toward Talwi.

Talwi lightly avoided those flames - - but a myriad of Dark Threads set by Miri were stretched across the direction she avoided toward.

“Tch!”

Talwi clicked her tongue - - immediately after that, her eyes were dyed red as she rotated her body against the laws of physics and tore through the Dark Threads with her sword.

She activated her Beast Blood.

“Oops, you shouldn’t look away - - Shining Thunder”

“Thunder!”

I intercepted Alessio’s Shining Thunder with my own Thunder Magic.

“Onii, leave this fight to me and Haru! Focus on your own.”

“Understood! I’ll end this with haste, Hero-sama.”

“You won’t be able to defeat me that easily!”

The Hero’s sword and my White Wolf Fang clashed once again.

Concentrate, I concentrated on everything.

Sword? Kick? No, that is a feint - -

“Shining Fire!”

“Dark Ice!”

I used a combination magic of Darkness and Ice to dispel the Shining Fire attack.

“Hoo, you even anticipated the attributes.”

The Hero laughed and admired the counter-attack magic using conflicting attributes.

That said, the spells were not completely offset as the wall behind the Hero was frozen while the wall behind me was reddish from the heat.

“It was really a coincidence that the attributes were conflicting.”

I commented as I jumped away from the Hero and chanted a follow-up spell.

“Thunder!”

The Hero parried with his sword the Thunder Magic that boasts the highest speed.

The Hero’s sword was charged and glowed with a pale light.

“Continuous use of magic … and tremendous power.”

“You too. Stopping thunder with your sword is not normal.”

At this rate, I couldn’t afford to assist Haru and Miri.

I had the advantage in the fight due to an overwhelming difference in status but I would be done in if I was distracted by their fight.

“In that case, try taking this attack! Boost Oil Create!”

Oil shot out from my hand.

The oil produced by the amplification of magical power could be called a flood of oil.

When that happened, the Hero drew his sword.

“Slash!”

And cut the oil with the flying sword wave that was my specialty.

“You might have planned to ignite the oil with the heat from my charged sword but I won’t directly touch it if I send a flying sword wave.”

“Yeah I know. But it isn’t just liquid oil that burns.”

“What!?”

Immediately after the Hero’s surprised exclamation, the heat from the charged sword ignited the vaporized gasoline oil and the flames consumed the Hero.

It happened in an instant. Normally that would have been my victory.

But using Thought Trace, I read the Hero’s thoughts.

He was anxious for a moment but now he was just thinking of one thing.

Alessio endured the heat for that moment and was thinking of his next move to reverse the flow of the battle.

So I didn’t stop to take a breather and immediately moved on to my next attack.

“Boost Tidal Wave”

The tidal wave of water swallowed everything, including Alessio’s body.

That’s bad, the power was too strong.

If I didn’t do anything, the water would deflect off the walls and swallow me up as well.

It would have been dangerous if I didn’t quickly freeze the approaching water with Ice Magic.

And then I intended to aid Haru but it seemed that it wasn’t required.

“The victor is determined, Talwi-san.”

“Why? Even if it is two vs one, why can’t I win?”

As I was rushing to cast Water Magic, the battle on the other side was settled.

Talwi was strong but Haru’s status had increased tremendously because of Kin Strengthening and above all that - -

“The decisive difference in strength between me and Talwi-san lies in this sword. A lone sword cannot beat the loyalty I have toward my master.”

I would rather she called it affection but that was Haru’s strength.

I looked at the Hero collapsed under my feet.

It seemed that he had regained consciousness but he didn’t have any strength left to stand up.

“ … I see, it’s my loss huh? It wasn’t a paper-thin difference but an absolute loss.”

“Yeah, it is our win.”

“It was quite a good life. I don’t mind if you kill me. There is a twin-headed snake called Amphisbaena in the boss room and behind it, in the Goddess Statue room, are Metias-sama, Minerva-sama, and Tet-sama.”

“There are only three Demon Gods?”

I confirmed that and took out my scepter.

Even if the door would not open without killing the hero, I moved forward without doing so.

“Big Bang!”

The big explosion that heralded the beginning of the world destroyed not only the door that led outside the boss room but also space itself within the boss room.

For an instant, when the door was destroyed, I saw the twin-headed snake, Amphisbaena, who was the true boss of this dungeon, disappear.

And then, the destruction spread further and finally reached the door on the other side.

The three Demon Gods were within the range of my strongest magic but they were protected by a spherical barrier and were unharmed.

“No way … so you were holding back that much when you were fighting against me.”

“Kind of. Oh yeah, I forgot to say, Alessio. Try to throw away that useless title of Hero and become Jobless once. You would see the world differently.”

I said and called out to Haru and Miri.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

“Yup -”

The dungeon was being repaired by the black thread-like substance.

We stepped on the repaired floor, jumped into the boss room before the door was repaired, and entered the Goddess Status room which remained open.

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