“Has it started yet?”
Yona looked up at the sky.
In the bright, clear weather, the sun was high up, announcing noon.
The time she had promised Priest Vigrind was approaching.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“What could possibly be not okay?”
“I’m just worried about you going alone.”
Yona chuckled at Alex’s words.
It felt nice.
From her usual position of worrying about Alex, it was a bit refreshing to get worried myself—though, now that she thought about it, she had received her share of concern before.
It felt strange since it seemed like a long-forgotten memory.
“Nothing much. I just have to show up with Vervaria and laugh my heart out. After that, the priest… I mean, Vigrind said he’d take care of everything.”
“Do you think the Saint can handle it?”
Yona hesitated to answer Alex’s question.
While Vigrind had a bit of courage, ever since becoming the Saint, something had changed, and he had been more subdued lately.
But since he had his original temperament, she figured it would probably be fine.
“It’s okay. Vigrind gets things done when he wants to. You can trust him.”
At least he hadn’t been hostile towards her in that situation, so it was probably safe to trust him.
Swallowing that thought, Yona changed into her Saint’s robe.
It was a fascinating sight, as always.
The letters that had adorned her right arm seemed to melt away and flow down, wrapping around her body until they formed her Saint’s attire.
In an instant, Yona had changed her clothes and called out to Vervaria with a serious expression.
—Well, she tried to.
“Saint.”
Before she could even call him, Vervaria appeared.
The sudden appearance of Vervaria cast a huge shadow over Yona, Alex, Kaiyak, and James.
Up until now, Vervaria had always appeared under dark clouds, dramatically splitting them apart. But this time, he showed up without any sign at all.
“Ah, whoa! You scared me!”
Having been thoroughly startled, Alex pulled out his shield to protect himself, and Yona pushed him aside in annoyance.
She had told him to only show up when called, so it was no surprise she was startled by his sudden entrance.
“He has appeared.”
“Well, that makes sense. You did show up.”
Yet, Yona looked at Alex.
Even though Vervaria had popped up out of nowhere, she felt a bit touched by how Alex had instinctively raised his shield to protect her.
It was a complicated feeling for Yona, but as Vervaria continued speaking, she looked up at him, her expression blank.
Yona was in a daze, but at Vervaria’s next words, she looked up at him with a blank expression.
【This is not the time for jokes, Saint. The Duke, Damian, has shown himself.】
“…Duke? Demon Duke?”
Vervaria’s bright yellow eyes looked down at Yona.
Though the serpent-like face made it hard to read expressions, for some reason, Yona could tell what Vervaria was feeling.
His face was hardened.
With tension running high, Vervaria looked down at Yona.
【The Demon Duke, Damian. He is someone who became the Demon Duke in a human body, not a demon.】
*
“Stay back—!”
Priest Vigrind shouted with a fierce cry.
In front of her stood a transparent barrier glowing with a golden light, bolstered by the white barriers emanating from Bishop Poby and the others.
“Saint! Are you alright!”
At Ludvik’s shout, Vigrind nodded and formed another hand sign.
Then, golden patterns began to swirl around Ludvik before bursting forth with a bang.
Ludvik aimed his spear and kept Damian in check.
Damian, who had already absorbed the lives of many knights and priests, silently fixed his gloomy gaze on Ludvik.
“She…”
After briefly glaring at Ludvik, Damian spoke as if he had suddenly remembered something.
Ludvik, still aiming his spear, kept his silence, glaring back at Damian.
“Is she something precious to you?”
“I have no reason to answer. What reason does a hero need to protect her?”
“She is precious to me.”
Ludvik opened his eyes wide.
The king of a fallen nation and a slaughterer of kingdoms, Damian was a being who had lived through endless time.
The last king of an ancient kingdom said to be far away in the Great Desert, and the maddened king.
It made no sense that he was now trying to possess Vigrind.
“She is the one who will bring me death. She is the one who will finally fulfill my long-held wish. So I will not allow any interference.”
Damian stretched out both arms.
The pale tips of his fingers began to draw incomprehensible characters, and the speed only increased.
With each movement of his fingers in the empty air, black lines were sketched alongside.
Unfathomable letters.
Letters that have not been written in this world.
With each movement of the black lines, a letter was being formed.
“Rise. Rise and heed my command. Remove those who stand in my way.”
The letters tangled together and soared into the sky.
They twisted together and soared into the sky.
What was so densely tangled that it could only be seen as a black line finally formed a single character in the air.
A character that Ludvik couldn’t recognize.
A character that was hard to comprehend.
But there was one thing he could understand.
That character was ominously foreboding.
The character began to melt away.
Once it melted, it quickly turned into black liquid, which spread out widely as soon as it hit the ground.
– Gooooh!
And from within that—
An unknown cry reverberated.
The crying sound that echoed from the black water.
Eventually, a gigantic black hand suddenly burst up from the water.
Just as a hand popped out, an arm followed.
Then another hand emerged, reaching out with another arm.
Hands now planted firmly on the ground.
Hands so enormous they were bigger than Ludvik himself, massive hands.
With those hands on the ground—
– Graaaah!
Accompanied by a monstrous roar, a black humanoid slowly revealed itself from the head down.
Completely black, it looked like the shadow of a human had turned into a giant.
No eyes, no nose in sight.
Only its gaping mouth spewing growls revealed a crimson interior as it continued to roar.
Just from the part that was visible, it was already three times larger than Ludvik.
This gigantic black giant was making its appearance.
– Gooooh, GraaahHH!!
“Shut up—!”
Ludvik bellowed as he stomped the ground.
Using the hand that the giant had just planted on the earth, he sprinted up to the giant’s shoulder.
“Get lost, foul one—!”
The luminous spear he raised unleashed brilliant white radiance.
The razor-sharp tip of that spear plunged straight into the giant’s crown, and in that moment, the giant’s roar also ceased.
Ludvik felt a sensation in his hand that confirmed it.
There was definitely a sensation of stabbing and penetrating; even if this was a strange creature, if he destroyed its head, it would have no way to survive.
As he pulled the spear out from the giant’s head, black blood erupted with a splatter.
The blood splattered onto Ludvik’s body, and while roughly wiping the blood that splashed onto his face, he glared at Damian and said.
“Vampire, cut the nonsense.”
“Nonsense, huh.”
As Ludvik said, the giant seemed to be slowly collapsing.
The cries had stopped, and its movements came to a standstill.
Standing triumphantly atop the giant’s head, Ludvik declared,
“I’ve lived countless ages; surely, not a single being like you has existed among them.”
“Is there no one like you among them?”
“What…?”
That was the moment.
When Damian snapped his fingers, the black blood that had sprayed from Ludvik suddenly began to spread rapidly.
The blood that had splattered on his clothes, body, and face started to cover Ludvik completely—
“Hero—!”
With Priest Vigrind’s piercing scream, her golden light came crashing down on the black giant like a massive hammer.
– KWAANG!
– KWANG!
– KWA-GWANG!
The divine hammer resounded and kept smashing into the black giant again and again.
Not only that, but the brilliance itself poured down to purify the black giant.
However, disregarding her efforts, Ludvik was completely covered in black blood.
So thoroughly blackened that even his true form was unrecognizable, it soon seeped into the giant’s body—
And vanished completely.
Yet, seemingly uninterested in that sight, Damian muttered while watching the divine hammer continuously strike the black giant’s head to save the hero.
“Such strong divine power. Truly worthy of being called a messenger of the heavenly gods.”
“Shut up—!”
With Vigrind’s shout, divine energy poured down onto Damian as well.
The divine powers unleashed by other priests, even Bishop Poby, hit Damian head-on but disappeared like smoke without causing any harm.
Only Vigrind’s divine energy, each time it poured over Damian’s body, caused a thick smoke to rise up.
Yet, as if he relished that pain, Damian rarely curled the corners of his mouth and smiled.
“Pain, such pain. How long has it been since this body felt pain? Yes, just like that. Keep it coming. Let it happen.”
Every time Vigrind’s divine energy struck him, dozens of lives flew away.
They quickly recovered, but still, his life force was steadily being drained.
If he absorbed that divine energy as it coursed through him.
How much more torturous would that be?
As long as he was alive, the divine energy would undoubtedly siphon his life rapidly.
Ultimately, it would surely take away even the last breath of human Damian.
Ah.
It approaches.
At last, death is coming for me.
Damian was ecstatic.
Behind him, the black giant, exuding an even stronger aura, rose completely to the ground and bellowed thunderously.
– GOOOOOOOOO——!!!!!
Despair spread across Vigrind’s face as she looked up at that sight.
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