Book 8: The Ninth: Chapter of the Final Battle: “The Extinguished Light; the Spreading Darkness—Despair”
Book 8: The Ninth: Chapter of the Final Battle: “The Extinguished Light; the Spreading Darkness—Despair”
The voice of the God of Light…
It was a voice that I could not recall, no matter how hard I tried right now. I didn’t even know whether it was a male or female voice. At the time, I had thought that it was Scarlet’s voice, so I had not paid attention to it.
What a pity. It was the first time—and probably the last time—the God of Light had spoken to me personally. And I had overlooked it just like that.
Whatever, it doesn’t matter whether I heard or not!
“Waking me up… Was it to tell me to become the Demon King and save the world?”
Then I’ll do as He wishes!
“Teacher, what do you mean by your words just now?”
I turned and saw Elaro grasping the edge of the chair, looking up at me with interest.
He was dressed in a black outfit threaded with gold; Alice and Charlotte had modified it from Awaitsun’s clothes. With his golden hair, thick eyebrows, and huge blue eyes filled with righteousness, he looked… very mismatched.
He’s not cut out to be a bad guy at all! When Elaro isn’t smiling, he looks really righteous. When he smiles, he looks really warm and kind. Even clad in all black, he still doesn’t look like a villain. Tch! If this guy really was a villain, then he’d definitely be the ultimate two-faced kind. Even if he were to stab someone over and over again, that person probably wouldn’t believe that Elaro was the culprit!
Sadly, Elaro’s personality was just like his appearance. He would probably be more willing to stab himself than someone else.
Elaro anxiously asked, “Is there really going to be a war? Can it be avoided? You are the Sun Knight. As long as you go back to the Church of the God of Light and give an order, everyone will listen to you, won’t they?”
“I can no longer return to the Church of the God of Light,” I said calmly. “Lesus and the others would never forgive me for ordering Adair to kill those five hundred holy knights, much less heed my orders.”
“Did five hundred people really die just like that?”
Elaro looked really upset and did not dare to look at me. Ever since a few days ago, when he had found out about this matter, he was constantly looking utterly miserable. Only when I yelled at him to “crawl back to the Church if he wasn’t happy with it,” did he set that dismal expression aside.
Hmph! If a war really were to happen, five hundred people would be nothing, right? If the Church of the God of Light had every intention of storming the Demon King’s Castle, the number of dead holy knights would have to be calculated in the tens of thousands!
Hm? I smiled. “How rare.”
“‘Rare?’” Elaro was confused.
I gave no further explanation, because the very next second, all my generals entered the hall.
Adair walked in front, fully clad in black armor, looking both imposing and awe-inspiring. Awaitsun was right on his heels. His also had an excellent aura, but his face was far too eye-catching; the first impression would always only be his face. Illu, on the other hand, walked in as he always did, sluggishly and unwillingly. Any slower, and he’d be crawling.
Finally, Alice led Charlotte in. Both of them were wearing black clothes. Alice’s black and red ensemble made her even more ethereal, whereas Charlotte’s puffed-out black skirt made her look cute rather than beautiful.
Awaitsun was wide-eyed as he watched his wife walk to his side. When Alice smiled and greeted me with a cheerful “Your Majesty,” he looked ready to cough out blood.
What exactly are you doing?
“I’m working, of course!” Alice said proudly. “I’m the Great Demon King’s Midnight Princess! Who do you think has been arranging your teleports recently? Mistress Scarlet has been busy summoning undead armies day and night! I’m the one who has been arranging the use of magic circles to send you off!”
Awaitsun was speechless—although he couldn’t utter a single word in the first place. He turned to look at me with a worried expression. Your Majesty, this is…
“Hehe—hahaha!” I laughed until I was almost out of breath. “Awaitsun, you had better watch your back. Your usefulness is being eclipsed by your wife’s. If it turns into Alice protecting you in the future, then you’ll be losing a lot of face!”
Awaitsun smiled sheepishly. He must have never been able to handle Alice; he didn’t even admonish her.
One, two, three… Even if I count Scarlet and Charlotte, there are still only six people. The number of subordinates looks a little dismal, but that’s alright, I can collect them slowly. Gathering twelve of them seems like a good idea, hehe—
As I was imagining having twelve subordinates kneeling in neat rows before me, Adair suddenly bowed. “Your Majesty, I have something to report!”
“Speak.” I casually waved my hand. If I find an elf to be my subordinate, that should be very brazen, right?
“The Church of the God of Light has officially declared war against you.”
“… What?!”
I leaped up and unintentionally let out an explosion of dark element. Everyone was forced to kneel on the floor from the sheer magnitude of the element.
I had thought that the death of five hundred holy knights would have been enough to stop Lesus from sending out an army, but that guy actually chose to declare war against me! Those five hundred people had died for nothing. How many more holy knights need to be killed before it’s enough?
Bastard! For what reason did I choose to become the Demon King?!
Awaitsun revealed a pained expression. Your, Your Majesty, we will make the necessary preparations for war. Please do not head over there personally—
Instant Teleportation!
A huge army is an easy target. I barely wasted any energy in finding the Holy Temple’s army, and having the sensing ability was an even more rule-defying ability. Although the army’s camp was huge, no matter where the tents of the generals were hidden, there was no way to hide them from me.
That’s why, only Lesus would choose to do something as foolish as crusading against the Demon King!
As long as I intentionally target the army’s generals every time I see the expedition troops—come one general I kill one, come two I kill both—killing off all of them, let’s see who else would dare to lead the army?! An army with no leader; how could they even begin a crusade?
The Twelve Holy Knights were even easier to spot. To me, the holy element surrounding them was even brighter than the sun in the sky!
In a short amount of time, I found them in a huge tent. They were sitting at a long table, and after a headcount, I realized that all Twelve Holy Knights had gathered together. Are they holding a meeting… Wait a minute, twelve?
I counted them a second time in disbelief. There really were twelve of them. How could that be?
I’m standing right here! Who’s in there? Who dares—dares to replace me?
“What the hell are you all doing?”
I appeared above the long table, floating in the sky, looking down at all of them. The twelve of them were seated at the table, and at the head sat Lesus alone.
Normally, Lesus and I would both sit at the head of the long table. On my side would be the good, warm-hearted faction of the Twelve Holy Knights, and on Lesus’s was of course the cruel, cold-hearted faction.
But now, Lesus was sitting there alone. He was not sitting in the middle; his seat was still to the side, making the other side a little empty. There was no one at my seat…
The Twelve Holy Knights were all looking up at me, startled and unable to react. On the other hand, I was just trying to figure out who the extra one was—Hah! One guy was actually wearing my Sun Knight uniform… Elijah?
I had not thought that it would be him. What is going on? Even if both Adair and I left, there is no way they could choose Elijah to take the place of the Sun Knight. Does the Holy Temple really have no one capable left? They had to go and pull someone from the king’s court?
I eyed Elijah and asked, “Why are you wearing my clothes?”
Elijah smiled sheepishly. “Someone has to pretend to be the Sun Knight, so that when the Sun Knight returns, no one will question why he had not joined the crusade against the Demon King.” At this point, he surveyed everyone else. “They worked very hard to ensure that after you returned, you could go about as the Sun Knight like usual.”
“It’s a pity that I will never return to be the Sun Knight again!” I whirled around to look at Lesus. “Are you unable to understand that?”
“Where’s Vidar?” Lesus ignored my question completely.
“Truthfully, I have no idea!” I smiled and said, “After I had him half-beaten to death, I had him thrown into the dungeons. I really don’t know whether he’s dead or not.”
I had made that up. Actually, I had not seen Vidar at all in the past few days. All I knew was that after half the dungeon had been destroyed, Awaitsun had him and Tayder moved to another dungeon. The Shadow Cathedral may have just been too well-prepared, or it could be that previous demon kings captured a lot of people, but it turned out that the Demon King’s Castle had a lot of dungeons.
“How about I bring Vidar over, and he can be the opening blood sacrifice? What do you think?”
I did not believe that this would stop Lesus from starting the campaign. He was already bringing all the holy knights of the Holy Temple to meet their deaths. What difference does it make if Vidar dies as well?
“Do what you like.”
… What? I was stumped. Although I knew that there was no way I could use Vidar to stop Lesus from starting the war, I had no idea that Lesus would be so emotionless, not even asking for his life to be spared.
“I had no hope that Vidar was still alive,” Lesus fixed his eyes on me and said slowly, “after I found out that you really had those five hundred holy knights killed.”
“Sun, I can’t believe you did that!”
I looked at Elmairy, expecting him to cry. His eyes were red, but they weren’t about to spill over with tears. He was glaring at me with rage, glaring so hard that his eyes were turning red.
“You killed them!” Chikus howled; he was instead the one in tears. “You said that you would never harm holy knights! You said that! Why did you kill them? Why—“
“You were the ones who forced my hand!” I yelled back at them. “I had already warned you, don’t come and fight me, but in the end you still chose to send an army out!”
“Because you promised me!” Ceo shrieked. “Sun, don’t you remember anything at all? You promised me that even if you became the Demon King, you wouldn’t lose yourself. You’d still come back and be the Sun Knight!”
Even Roland spoke out. “Sun, I truly shouldn’t have agreed with you. I knew that being the Demon King would make you lose yourself, yet I still held onto hopeful thoughts. I…” Having reached that point, he could no longer continue, too consumed with guilt.
I looked at all of them, and spelled it out clearly. “I did not lose myself. It’s just that I finally saw everything clearly, and stopped meaninglessly fighting against it.”
“Your ‘saw everything clearly’…” Aivis stood up and said sternly, “is why you could just kill the holy knights that you had always cared for the most on a whim?”
On a whim? If you hadn’t insisted on sending out troops, then why would I have had to choose to sacrifice the minority to save the majority! Anger welled up in me, and I roared at everyone below me. “I don’t need to be lectured by any of you!”
“Sun! This is your last chance. Take this!”
Lesus cut me off and drew out a long box from beneath the table. Wrapped around it were layers of bindings. If I remember correctly, those seals were made by the Pope himself, to prevent the holy element from leaking out…
As I suspected, the moment the box was opened, the light became blinding. It was the Divine Sun Sword.
I squinted. I was obviously blind, but every time this thing appeared, it would still be blinding. Although it was not as potent to me as it was against undead creatures, it still gave me a terrible headache.
“Put it away!” I threatened, “If not, I will throw it to the far corners of the world!”
However, Lesus walked closer and raised the Divine Sun Sword up high. “Take the sword! Sun, as long as you take the Divine Sun Sword, then we won’t need to go to the point of war!”
“…”
I landed on top of the table and looked down at Lesus. Between us was the Divine Sun Sword. Unlike the others, who had faces full of fury, Lesus looked superbly calm and assured.
“Even now, you’re still unwilling to give up? Lesus, even if I wake up after I take the sword, what about the lives of those five hundred people? Give up!”
“Even if the situation could only be described as hopeless,” Lesus looked straight at me and said slowly, “would you give up on any one of us?”
Although it sounded like a question, both his tone and expression were sure. Because I would not give up on any of them, they are not willing to give up on me too?
I surveyed them. They all looked righteously indignant, full of fury, but not a single one of them had actually drawn their weapons. What sort of fury is this…?
“Lesus… Everyone, you all agree with Lesus’s actions? You want me to take the Divine Sun Sword, and then follow you all back to the Holy Temple?”
All of them hesitated, but then started nodding. Even Chikus, the angriest, nodded.
I averted my eyes and looked down at the Divine Sun Sword again, seeing Lesus’s unflinching gaze at the same time. Finally, I reached out and took hold of the Divine Sun Sword, feeling a huge amount of holy element surging from within. It was probably because the Demon King and a death monarch were here. The Divine Sun Sword must have sensed the danger, and therefore, had been absorbing holy element desperately. It must be glowing really brightly right now.
The tiny space was filled with light and darkness. I could feel the incompatibility between light and dark even more strongly while gripping the Divine Sun Sword. The limitless holy element coursed up from the sword, and started battling with the dark element within my body…
At the same time, I noticed the hope lighting up on everyone’s faces. Even now, they were still full of hope, as if the death of those five hundred people was just a minor problem… But that is not minor in any way!
I gripped the sword tightly, and dark element started corroding the Divine Sun Sword. I smiled and said lightly, “Lesus, I’m not giving up on a single one of you. I’m giving up on all of you.”
Lesus’s expression changed and he roared, “Everyone! Start gathering holy light!”
At his order, eleven of them started gathering holy light. Only Roland stood off to the side, his face full of regret because he could not help.
Lesus had always had an imposing aura that could make everyone follow his orders blindly. Even if he was giving out orders to go against me, not a single one of them had hesitated!
“Hahaha—“
I almost died laughing. The Twelve Holy Knights were still merely holy knights. Even with all their holy light gathered, they were not as powerful as the Divine Sun Sword. Even the Divine Sun Sword was useless. What can any of you do by gathering holy light?
It’s like pouring a cup of water on a burning cart… My expression changed. Why is there so much holy light? It’s even resonating with the Divine Sun Sword.
Oh no! I lifted my head. I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten all about it—there was an army of holy knights here.
The holy light poured in like a flood and actually started expelling the dark element within me. Quite quickly, for that matter. It felt horrible. I hurriedly moved to fling the sword away, but at that moment, a pair of hands came to tightly clasp my hand holding the sword.
“Lesus! Let go of me!”
I had just finished yelling when another pair of hands pressed down unyieldingly on mine.
I looked at Roland in amazement. As a death monarch, with this huge amount of holy light swarming around us, he should be in ten times as much pain as I was. The lethality of holy light to him was very real!
Before I could break free from Lesus and Roland, the rest of them had noticed this situation. And they, one by one, jumped onto me as well, squashing me beneath them, with the Divine Sun Sword pressed under me… Bastards! You’re not even worried that the Divine Sun Sword could have stabbed me to death?
Being crushed by over ten people had me desperately gasping for air, not to mention the holy element that was really gradually forcing the dark element out from within me. The whole process felt like someone was using a knife to carve my flesh off piece by piece. It was absolute torture…
“Let go! You bastards, I don’t want to return. Why are you so dead-set on forcing me to go back?
“Are you all really so against me becoming strong?”
“Shut up!” Elijah was the only one who had not jumped on top of me. He glared at me furiously and yelled, “You have no idea how much effort they put into bringing you back. Yet you dare to say such things about them. You… You… Did you really think that they would never despair, would never give up on you?”
Hearing this, I looked up at everyone. Although all of them had angry expressions, they were all still holding me down desperately, with absolutely no intention of giving up.
Why won’t you give up?
“Please, save me…”
Everyone’s furious expressions froze. Elmairy, Ecilan, and some others hurriedly asked, “Sun, are you back to normal?”
“I… I’m about to be crushed to death by all of you! Get off of me!”
My roar was accompanied by a huge blast of dark element. All eleven burdens were blasted away, and then I flew up into the sky, where none of them could reach me.
“Hahaha, all of you were tricked, right? Fools! What did you think? That I had really ‘gone back to normal?’ There is no such thing as going back to normal! I am the real Grisia!”
Everyone yelled angrily, “Lies! Grisia is not like that!”
“Hmph!” I pointed at Ceo. “Then, are you really Ceo? Or are you that free-spirited Storm Knight? Why aren’t you going about flirting with people? The Storm Knight is someone who wouldn’t care even if the sky came falling down! ‘Go back to normal,’ like you said!”
Ceo was flustered, completely at a loss about what to do.
“Enough!” Lesus roared.
… Damn it, I actually jumped in shock.
Lesus lifted the Divine Sun Sword and lovingly patted away the dust on it. He looked at me sternly. “Since even the Divine Sun Sword could not return you back to the Sun you were, then we really have no options left. Sun… no, Grisia, since you do not want to be the Sun Knight anymore, I think we too should not persist in calling you ‘Sun!’
“So, Grisia…” Lesus took a deep breath, and then said, “We no longer wish for your return.”
My heart hammered loudly, and my chest seemed to contract, making it difficult to breathe. I could only yell to get rid of this strange and unfamiliar feeling. “Excellent! Then crawl back to the Church of the God of Light. I don’t want to see any of you ever again!”
“We won’t retreat!”
Lesus raised the Divine Sun Sword, brandishing the point at me. He looked furious, his eyes red. He roared, “This war will not be waged to bring back the Sun Knight. It will be to avenge those five hundred holy knights and my vice-captain!”
I flinched, finally realizing what Lesus was saying.
“You… Why don’t I just kill you now?! That way, a senile fool like you won’t bring an entire army of people to their deaths!”
Roland rushed forward, getting in between the two of us. The death monarch unfurled his three pairs of wings and glared at me with rage.
Everyone else had also drawn their weapons, standing beside Lesus. All twelve of them were of one mind… to fight against me!
Even though Lesus made such an absurd decision, they have all still decided to follow him?
I had no idea what they saw on my face, but it put them on guard even more. Lesus walked out from the back and stood before the rest of them. He had never been someone who needed other people’s protection.
“If this is your decision, and every single one of them is willing to do as you say… Then come! Like I said before, I will wait for you at the Demon King’s Castle! Pave a bloody path to me, and we’ll duel to the death!”