*
Head glanced toward the deeply dug spike trap and smirked with satisfaction.
“Life and death are absolute. No matter how much of a hero you are, you won’t be able to defy fate.”
Just as he finished speaking—
Vroom-vroom—!! a blade of compressed air flew toward him.
“This is… Void Slash?!”
One of the Ten Heroes. The technique of the Dragon Slayer, Drake.
It must have been inspired by Emperor Rock creating a sonic boom using sheer strength. It sent chills down his spine to think how a mere hero relying only on the Holy Sword’s power could use it.
“Wolf Fang.”
“What…?!”
The wind stirred. A momentary sprinkle of rain droplets scattered into the air as a man in a Black Knight helmet charged at him, swinging his sword.
Clang! The sound of the revolver colliding with steel echoed. Head barely blocked the blade with the gun.
A wound was left on his right arm. Drip, drip, blood splattered onto the sandy ground.
“… How? How did you suppress Life and Death?!”
“I’m a bit of a romantic.”
“Shut the hell up!!”
Once more, he aimed for Licht’s face and heart, pulling the trigger. But the Black Knight was like a raindrop, dodging every bullet.
If he had fought before the odds shifted, the situation would have been completely reversed. Naturally, Drake’s swordsmanship had a long preparation stage.
He thought he would have at least learned Shadow Slash. There’s no way a hero from another world would put in years of effort learning a technique.
‘Should I have taken the year-end exam myself?’ he lamented inwardly.
He had relied only on the powers of the Universe.
But now, what was this scene? Feeling disheartened, the Demon King watched the Celestial Demon’s techniques and the hero using various Holy Swords.
To counter Licht, who attacked and vanished from sight, Head once again brought the gun to his temple.
“Your suffering is useless!!”
Bam, the sound reverberated, vibrating the air. Simultaneously, a massive bullet appeared beside the Black Knight.
A high-speed rotating bullet intended to strike from the side.
“No matter how unavoidable the attack….”
Even against such an opponent defying physical laws, Licht simply summoned another sword to counter it.
“Awareness, Reflection.”
In the rain-soaked battlefield, something jet-black fell again. The sword that previously embedded itself in Head’s body, utterly obliterating his heart and veins.
The Mind Sword, capable of altering the terrain around him. Just as its trigger pulled down to the end—
“… This is too obvious. Head.”
The area where the awareness was embedded became the reference point, flipping the ground at a right angle to create a wall. An instantly formed defensive barrier.
“You flipped the ground to create a wall?!”
“Pretty simple, right?”
Seeing that spectacle, Head couldn’t hide his astonishment. His bullet attempted to pierce through the wall made of rock and sand, but—
Bang. Boom. Those sounds repeated as Licht executed the same movement multiple times, utilizing his chance to shift to another location.
“… It’s blocked.”
The massive bullet, halted by the wall, ceased rotating. With vacant eyes, Head gazed at the sky. A book with the death and life of a person recorded through the Universe’s power.
He pulled out the Life and Death book and dropped it onto the ground.
“Life and Death means nothing. The Universe and Awareness are useless. A hero who can even block my Holy Sword.”
“No, how do you understand human speech? I’m the Black Knight….”
“Let’s see if you really are.”
Head took off the monocle he was wearing and loaded the last remaining bullet into the revolver.
Click. The final bullet loaded in.
“I’ll personally confirm whether you’re a hero or not. Black Knight Lee Soo-hyun.”
He spoke as blood trickled from his eyes.
*
I saw the changed appearance of Head Ake and thought.
‘Is this the third phase?’
Normally, he would have chosen to commit suicide with the gun here. In the first pharmacy I saw, there were seven bullets loaded.
‘Now there are eight.’
It could mean the number of times he’s regressed. He looked like he was on his seventh regression.
‘… Something’s strange. Way too strange.’
They said I didn’t exist in Head’s regresses. And if he had regressed that many times, was it best for our Pina to become the Nameless Saintess?
A surge of questions filled my head, making my blood rush. ‘Why?’ flooded my mind.
At that moment.
“… Now it’s starting to get interesting. Yeah.”
Head grotesquely twisted his neck back and turned his gaze toward me. He was still bleeding from his eyes.
“Hero of Conviction Lee Soo-hyun.”
“… What did you say?”
“I’ve now fully activated Awareness. That’s why my power didn’t work on you.”
Grin. Every fiber of my being recoiled at that maniacal grin. I thought Head always maintained Awareness.
He learned everything through Awareness, recorded it in some manner, and based his calculations on that — at least that was how the settings said it should be.
Thus, he was able to execute strategies since he couldn’t grasp real-time updates.
‘Could it be….’
Had he turned on complete Awareness, assuming he was regressing? A chilling thought sent every nerve in my body on high alert.
“How well you prattle on while wearing that ‘Ideology Helmet’ that doesn’t come off, hero.”
Was that the name for the special privilege given by the creator? How intriguing.
“People aren’t defined by the equipment they wear.”
Didn’t matter if Pina wore the Masterpiece, or if she donned pure white saintly garb; she remained the same person.
“I’m not anything grand like a hero.”
I merely wish for one person’s happiness. If I could save others along the way, that would be great too.
I’m just too greedy in that I don’t want to leave regrets over what I should’ve done at a certain time.
I felt that keenly during a fire disaster. A person’s life is limited. So I must do what I want before I die.
“And there’s one guy who’s quite a piece of work.”
The creator of Black Heart must’ve thought that putting me in this lousy game and calling me a hero was a joke.
If being a hero is that, I’m just a Black Knight.
Right now, taking down the Demon King isn’t following some noble will of the gods or something.
I didn’t care for the warnings from the status window; I slashed down.
For the happiness of one person, to see the bright smile of the one I love.
If I’ve been unhappy for years, isn’t it time I became happy?
“If this goes on, my head’s going to explode…. If I don’t get him this time, I’ll surely kill you next time.”
As he twirled the revolver around his finger, it transformed into a red scythe.
So this setting of the reaper of another world summoning heroes was real. I was baffled by the fresh phase.
“… That kind of light thought is why you won’t succeed.”
Woo-oo-oo-oo—!!
The howl echoed through the rain. An image began to manifest behind me.
A gigantic white wolf, the size of a great snowy mountain, appeared.
It was a wolf sculpted with only Pina Grancia in mind. Though not as powerful as Demon King Kill, its might was still significant.
‘Less risky than a skill that guarantees death upon failure.’
I stomped the ground hard and took a heavy leap forward. No trickery, just an honest charge.
Every muscle in my body screamed in agony. The accumulated wounds were not few. It felt like I had been slammed by a moving car.
‘If I don’t completely annihilate this guy now…!!’
The world would rewind again, and while this iteration of Pina Grancia might find happiness—
‘The next version of Pina will be miserable.’
I gritted my teeth and endured the pain rushing in. If I let this guy go now, her misery would be certain. Even if it’s a world unrelated to me.
‘Just the thought makes me sick.’
I love her. No matter how she looks, I want to cherish her.
With sword in hand, I ran. My legs, solid as stone, moved.
I exhaled deeply, filling my lungs, and boiled my blood throughout my body.
“White Wolf, Shadow Fangs… Clearly the white wolf behind me is an illusion.”
The Demon King of All Knowledge calls me the hero of conviction.
“The real body is the shadow behind it, the black wolf.”
But the conviction I hold isn’t much.
“So, if I just slash through the shadow…!”
“Who says?!”
Pure love is invincible. What a common conviction this is.
Isn’t it a truth that applies anywhere? I scoffed toward Head, who swung his scythe at my shadow.
“Sorry, but they’re both real. Because my love is like that.”
How dare you claim Pina is a fake! Ridiculous.
“This can’t be! Could it be that ‘Conviction’ has covered ‘Awareness’?!”
Head was barely stopping the white wolf’s fangs with his scythe.
Cough…!
Because of this, he couldn’t defend against my thrust, piercing his heart. This should be enough to kill him. It was time for the Demon King to exit stage left.
“Is it over?”
As I looked at the fallen form of the Demon King, my tension eased. He probably wouldn’t regress again. If I truly am the Hero of Conviction.
“Now I can’t go back to the past.”
As long as I stop him from regressing through conviction, that’s all that matters. He had just blocked Awareness completely. No, was it even complete from the start?
“Cough, ha ha ha!!”
“Still alive, huh. Head.”
“Lee Soo-hyun. You’re really the best!!”
He trembled, spinning the scythe once more. The Holy Sword transformed back into its revolver form.
“If you bet your life, I should be doing the same!!”
“… Huh?”
Head, bleeding profusely from his heart, raised his hand towards the sky. What was he planning…?
“Catastrophe.”
As he finished chanting, the surroundings plunged into darkness. I looked up, anxiety creeping from the impending doom.
‘This madman!!’
Descending like a meteor.
Cough! Haah!! Even your fleeing allies will get caught in this size!! This is my ultimate move!!
An overwhelmingly massive bullet spun, falling from the sky.
“With Awareness activated, it won’t misfire, and it’ll wipe out everything in its radius. So, what are you going to do?! ‘Hero of Conviction’?!”
Head Ake, speaking with blood pouring from his mouth and eyes. Is this truly the end?
“Demon King Kill.”
There was no other way. Even if I used this skill and died.
‘Pina must either become the Nameless Saintess or avoid injury.’
I too had no choice but to risk my life to protect her. As I cast Demon King Kill, blood flowed from my eyes and mouth, identical to Head’s.
“What do you plan to do with such a half-baked imitation of real Dragon Kill?!”
Head laughed at me as blood spilled from him, but I didn’t care and stomped hard off the ground, making a grand leap. I initiated the third technique, Featherfall.
‘What kind of weight is this?!’
My hand holding the sword trembled violently. I had to succeed in this counterattack to continue on to Demon King Kill.
“You’ve made a foolish choice. You’ll be crushed like that…”
At that moment, something transparent and sparkling began to appear in my line of sight.
“Pina Grancia!! Are you trying to interfere even at the end?!”
The glass knight’s magic. Mirror Mirage.
Transparent duplicates made of glass were taking the blow of Head’s ultimate move.
*
A fleeting moment passed.
Utilizing the opponent’s power against them—Featherfall.
Identifying the weakness—Reverse Scale Stab.
Void Slash focused on cutting power inspired by Emperor Rock’s sonic boom.
Finally, Shadow Slash.
The ultimate skill combining all of the Dragon Slayer Drake’s tricks. Demon King Kill was complete.
“I… was not wrong…”
The downward strike of the sword severed something. Demon King Kill struck the Demon King of All Knowledge, causing Head Ake to crumple and collapse to the ground.
A crimson line was drawn toward the academy’s sports field, and amidst that chaos stood—
“You’re wrong, you bastard.”
The Hero of Conviction, Lee Soo-hyun, alone.
“Licht..!! Behind..!!”
While he was lost in the euphoria of victory, a panicked voice echoed across the battlefield.
“Behind? I just dealt with that….”
Bang—.
In that instant, another gunshot rang out.
“My… last… shot… If I get hit, I can still survive…”
Thud. Head crashed down, his eyes rolling back as he lay on the ground, expending his last effort to fire.
“This… bastard….”
Lee Soo-hyun, hit in the heart, staggered backward, immediately conjuring a glass barrier to try and block the bullet, but it was already too late.
“No! Nooo!!”
Someone rushed in. The sound of heavy footsteps approached.
‘Pina….’
He lost consciousness, staring at the glass knight hastening toward him.
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