### Chapter 410 – Room 206, The Curse Room – ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’ (12)
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 272 (+40)
Current Location: Room 206, The Curse Room – ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 1]
— Han Kain
Just as the ceiling of the restaurant crumbled, Miro plummeted onto the table like a missile from the sky.
“Eek! M-Miro?”
Elena screamed and took a step back.
Miro was looking… weird.
Her eyes were vacant, her skin paler than usual, and her movements were oddly stiff, almost like a puppet on strings.
“Who are you? Is this really Miro?”
— Crack!
A bizarre sound echoed from her joints, shaking the entire restaurant.
“Yikes!”
— Thunk!
Elena slammed her chair down with a battle cry, but the sound was more like a metal thud than a wooden crash.
“W-wow! She’s become incredibly tough! Maybe you should try possessing her—”
Instead of answering, I grabbed Elena’s arm.
Right now, Miro wasn’t in a state to be possessed. Someone—probably the “Demon King”—was controlling her body.
Trying to jump into her body at this moment would be downright dangerous. Plus, Miro’s blessing ‘Invariance’ makes possession no walk in the park.
“Let’s get out of here!”
As I kicked the restaurant door open, a gigantic alligator turned to look our way.
In a split second, I hesitated.
Is it under the Demon King’s direct control like Miro?
If that’s the case, possessing it would also be risky.
— Flap!
A jet-black aura extended from where I stood and began to coat the alligator’s body.
Soon, the monstrous alligator started wriggling toward a giant with snow-white fur, clamping onto its leg.
“Run!”
Outside the city, it was pure, unspeakable hell.
“Yo-ho-ho! It’s a festival today!”
Before me, a skeleton captain taller than 3 meters was beheading citizens left and right, gulping down their heads.
Beside him, a monster with a snake’s body and a human face swallowed a child whole.
In this moment, a truck with spider legs rolled sideways, trampling people beneath it.
Watching this spectacle, Elena started to retch.
“Gah!”
I thought I had seen it all when it comes to brutality, but this was beyond any hellscape I could imagine.
Suppressing the urge to vomit, I commanded the skull captain to slice the snake in half with the power of my grimoire.
“Ugh!”
“Kain?”
A sudden headache struck me. I was scared of being controlled by the Demon King if I used the embodiment power too much.
The embodiment power usually lasts 10 minutes at best.
It’s not meant to be used back-to-back.
“Is there anyone else?”
“Seungyub…”
“Huh?”
“Seungyub is alive!”
Everyone else, including Ahri, was dead.
「Companion Location Information (*)
Park Seungyub: Outside Paradise」
There wasn’t any specific location, just the vague term “Outside Paradise.”
According to Ahri, Seungyub was already missing before the rewind.
Did he make it out to the city outside? If so, he wouldn’t have been affected by the rewind.
“Is that… a good thing?”
“That’s a big problem!”
Good? Not at all!
I was secretly hoping Seungyub was alone and made it out.
If a resurrected prisoner starts his killing spree, surely Seungyub would be caught in the chaos too!
We had to do something, no matter what.
“Dear citizens still alive! Please do bite your tongues and promptly exit to die!”
Amid the chaos, a deranged announcement blared from a building.
With my hands over my ears, I ran wildly alongside Elena, trying to think.
What on earth should we do?
Elena asked, “Shouldn’t we use the Descent now?”
“…”
I thought of that! I’ve been thinking about it since earlier!
But when should I use it?
The monsters are everywhere, so should I use it now?
These are clearly summon creatures called forth by the Demon King!
The power of the Descent is not infinite, and it has time restrictions!
What if I just end up killing a bunch of summons and then run out of power, only for the Demon King to pop out afterward?
I realized Elena understood my hesitation.
“Shouldn’t we wait? We can use it after the Demon King shows up, right?”
That’s a problem too, but can we even win once we do use it?
The Demon King turned the entire city into hell before even revealing its true form.
It’s a whole different level from that useless Apollyon we faced outside the hotel!
“Ugh!”
I felt fear creeping in.
A fear I hadn’t felt in a long time gnawed at my heart.
The prisoner is on the verge of resurrection.
Seungyub wasn’t able to escape.
And now I can’t even figure out the right time to use the Descent.
— Oooooh!
A strange melodic sound echoed from somewhere.
In response, a dark hymn began to echo throughout the city.
Citizens hidden here and there stepped outside with rapturous expressions and started to float slowly into the sky.
Ah, salvation! The rapture!
As it’s written in the gospel, when Jesus returns, the faithful shall ascend to heaven.
So, I must embrace the call.
Surely, there’s a kingdom above for all of us—
— Snap!
“Uh, uh, uh…”
“Kain, focus!”
“…”
For a brief moment, I nearly zoned out.
No matter how many filters protect my mind from the status screen, my inner struggle is wholly mine.
A weak mind swayed by fear can’t withstand the Demon King’s temptations.
Unlike me, Elena seemed unfazed and not scared at all.
I found it odd.
“Aren’t you scared?”
“Not really.”
“How? What do you believe in? There are no survivors, and we have to stop this mess by ourselves! The Descent? Even that’s iffy right now—”
“Wasn’t this common back then?”
“What do you—”
“When the sea god emerged from room 202, and when we all fell for the whale’s trick in room 203. The despair felt about the same, don’t you think?”
“…”
“Of course, there’s a difference between you and me. You fundamentally believe in ‘yourself,’ and I don’t.”
I’m not dumb enough not to understand that.
The person I typically believe in is mostly ‘me.’
Elena also believes in ‘me.’
I started trembling in fear because I couldn’t trust myself, but Elena didn’t seem scared.
What an irony!
— Boom!
Lightning struck from the sky, and oddly-shaped demons with red wings began descending.
— Bwahahaha!
The earth trembled with laughter as the devils from above gazed down at the toys scattered across the ground, relishing the torment of the survivors still fortunate— or unfortunate— enough to be alive.
And then…
With a thunderclap, Miro fell from the heavens once more.
“Ah, hi.”
Just moments ago, her movements were awkward, but now she was speaking just fine.
Has she gotten used to the control?
An ominous wave began to radiate from Elena’s body.
“Elena…”
“Hang in there! You need to escape. Kain, it looks like you need some time. Oh, and!”
Elena smiled brightly.
“It just occurred to me—could this be your ‘true self’?”
*
I thought as I sped along the wriggling road.
‘True self’—what does that even mean?
… I actually know the answer.
I’ve sensed subtle changes in myself for a while now.
Every time I see Elena or Ahri, my heart races more than usual.
Looking at the demons and monsters infesting the city, a kind of fear settled in, almost as if it were normal.
In just a few days, I could feel my mind returning to that of a fresh-faced freshman at K University.
But why?
Because the Indomitable Reason severed my connection to the grimoire for too long.
“The grimoire darkened my soul, right?”
I had a vague understanding of what that meant.
Also, a sad realization crossed my mind.
“…”
— Yo-ho-ho! Where are my cute little friends hiding!
We don’t need a fresh-faced Han Kain in this hotel.
What’s needed here is the grimoire-wielding sorceress who has forsaken her humanity.
— Flap!
I summoned the grimoire again and gripped it tight with both hands.
*
“Gyaaaah!”
“Ugh! Ugh!”
“Aaaaah… Aaaaah…”
The whole underground was filled with people’s screams.
It was so loud it hurt my ears, but that didn’t mean I could stop the “work.”
Very soon, wriggling tendrils continued the task at hand.
“How much more do I need to put in? I’ve already added quite a bit!”
Just as I was about to get anxious, I heard footsteps approaching from behind.
“Remarkable.”
Who is it?
A girl, around her late teens, with cute brown hair.
She was pretty enough, but nothing compared to Ahri or Miro.
“Are you the heir to Kardirov or something?”
“What are you talking about? Kardirov is—”
The moment I stopped speaking, she chuckled smugly.
“You and that blonde girl killed Kardirov, right? I know all about that. Back then, I was secretly anticipating it.”
“Anticipating?”
“I thought you’d have some grand vision to maintain the city. That’s why I let it slide.”
The girl cast a despondent look around.
“Gah!”
Suddenly, a wriggling tendril tossed an old woman toward the flickering “Indomitable Reason.”
“… So, you’re trying to restart the Indomitable Reason?”
It’s cruel, but for now, it’s the only way.
The mayor couldn’t find another way, and that’s why he’d been feeding the Indomitable Reason with people every day, right?
“Is there no other way?”
“I have no idea. If I did, I wouldn’t have let the mayor off the hook… But if that’s the case, why kill the mayor?”
“Because he tried to kill me.”
She wore a thoroughly disillusioned expression.
“That was it, huh? Aaaah…”
“Well, I do have a plan.”
“A plan?”
“If I can somehow reboot the Indomitable Reason, a good number of the monsters left in the city might disappear, don’t you think?”
“Once the Demon King awakens, that’s a different story.”
“Yeah, I figured that much.”
“What are you trying to say—?”
“So you’re the reincarnation, huh? I gave it some thought, and the only type of person who could suddenly pop up in this scenario would have to be a reincarnation.”
“… What?”
“You’re serious, huh? You’ve been alive all this time, reincarnating over and over? Whatever the case might be, if you want to prevent everything from ending, it would be best to help me.”
“What?”
“With how the monsters are raging through the city with no solution in sight, your best bet is to clear them out and then give me a shot against the Demon King.”
“…”
“So please help. Without the Indomitable Reason and the Soul Furnace, we can’t deal with this mess, can we?”
In that moment, I could feel despair wash over the face of the reincarnation.
She didn’t seem very mentally tough for someone who once stood up to save the world.
Her voice, trembling as if she might burst into tears at any moment, echoed in my ears.
“How much more do I have to sacrifice?”
I know the answer to that.
“As much as you need.”
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