The unending cycle of light and darkness.
I am one of the protagonists of that eternal story.
Of course, I have already defeated the existence known as the Hero.
In the story of the Hero and Demon King, who is the one who always falls?
It is the Demon King.
It is a hackneyed story where the Hero saves the world and the light triumphs, yet the darkness that was hiding somewhere emerges once again.
Since I have already defeated the Hero, is there any reason to fear the Demon King?
‘There is.’
Fear?
Demon King Ingram.
Excluding the gods—no, perhaps even including them—he might be the most powerful existence.
The Demon King losing to the Hero?
That is nothing more than an act.
In the past, the Order of Darkness owed a debt to the Goddess of Light.
The debt was that the first human created by the Goddess of Light died at the hands of the Demon Clan.
Therefore, in the battle between light and darkness, light was destined to be the victor.
The Demon King’s role?
It is simple, he assists in the growth of the incomplete Hero.
Whenever necessary, he sends subordinates of an appropriate level to provide experience points and aid in rapid growth.
At first glance, it might be incomprehensible.
No matter how much of a debt is owed, he secretly helps his polar opposite and even sacrifices his own life.
And that is despite the overwhelming difference in power?
He has no choice because the Demon King is born with a fate where he has no choice but to ‘love’ the Hero.
That is a secret story known to no one.
It was when the God of Darkness and the Goddess of Light gathered to complete the story to construct their world.
It was the story of light and darkness, the Hero and Demon King, that everyone knows.
For the sake of this story, the God of Darkness used all his authority, power, and remnants to create the Demon King and the Demon Clan.
Specifically, when creating the Demon King, he went as far as tearing away a portion of his true body, so one can understand how great that devotion was without further explanation.
The God of Darkness worked so hard for one reason.
He believed that no matter how much of a past debt existed, he could not create a story that lacked probability.
In other words, by making the Demon King extremely powerful, he intended to create the probability that the Hero could never surpass him, no matter how much he struggled.
Here, the Goddess of Light exerted one absolute condition for the sake of the debt.
[The Demon King has no choice but to fall in love the moment he sees the Hero.]
Love.
That was a desperate condition.
No matter how much powerful strength and authority he was born with, the Demon King could not help but love the Hero, and ultimately, he would even sacrifice his own life for him.
The curse of love created by the Goddess of Light, that shackle, was passed down through the generations of Demon Kings.
The moment they saw the Hero, they fell in love at first sight and cast aside their own safety, their forces, and all the glory bestowed by the God of Darkness.
It was the same for Ingram.
He loved Velator the Hero.
That was why he revealed his hatred and rage toward me after that man’s death and it is the same even now.
The Demon King’s love for the Hero remained unchanged, and with his death, Demon King Ingram finally revealed himself.
[“Aaaaah!”]
[“Gugh!”]
Suddenly, an image unfolded within my mind.
It was a type of powerful authority that shared the Demon King’s vision.
It was similar to the shared vision that Salmora the Plague Legion Commander had shown before but it was far clearer and more vivid.
I felt a sense of realism as if I were present at the scene.
What I could discern through that fact was the Demon King’s strength.
An absolute authority that could make a Legion Commander seem like nothing.
Just by receiving his will, I could feel an overwhelming presence.
[“There is no longer any light in this world.”]
The things dying within the shared vision were the believers belonging to the Order of Light.
It was not just the believers.
The pure white priestly robes of those who could be considered high-ranking, such as Bishops and Archbishops, were being stained red.
The Demon King did not even lift a hand, he was merely watching.
His subordinates—those familiar faces—were the Six Corps Commanders.
[“How dare you! Darkness can never resist the light!”]
Resistance met them in the midst of the helpless slaughter.
– Flash
An immense light fills the field of vision.
The protagonist of that brilliant light was a young girl.
She, who had her eyes covered with a pure white cloth, was.
‘The Maiden of Light.’
She was the Maiden of Light, the only existence capable of communicating with the Goddess of Light.
Generally, people think of a Saintess as the proxy of the gods but that is not the case.
A Saintess simply refers to someone chosen by the light and designated as a member of the Hero’s party.
The only existence who could truly communicate with the Goddess of Light, who could sacrifice both her eyes to look upon the inner light, was the Maiden of Light.
One cannot dare to face the light.
Of course, one is free to look, but they must give up both eyes as the price.
By her status, the Maiden of Light is an existence that has no choice but to look at the light.
Thus, both her eyes were burned away, and through this, she had effectively earned the qualification to face the light.
And now, she was exercising her authority gained at the cost of sacrifice.
[“Sssss!”]
They burn.
The bodies of the surrounding Demon Clan.
It was no different even for the Legion Commanders.
It was a power strong enough to deal damage even to the Legion Commanders, who naturally exert powerful barriers through Martugi.
It had to be.
The divine power possessed by the Maiden of Light is infinite.
Since she can communicate with the Goddess of Light and use her own body as a medium for divine power, that authority is equivalent to a portion of the authority used by the Goddess of Light herself.
[“The Maiden has raised the light!”]
[“Rise, Apostles of Light!”]
[“Let us drive out the darkness!”]
The Maiden’s performance.
The followers of light, inspired by this, rose up and attempted to counterattack, but.
[“Trivial things.”]
They were inevitably blocked by a flat voice devoid of any emotion.
[-Swish!]
Something grazed past the Maiden of Light and with that, the situation was over.
[-Splurt!]
The Maiden’s body, divided into dozens, hundreds of pieces, rolled across the ground.
The miracle she had raised was ended by a single gesture.
By the gesture of Demon King Ingram, the Maiden called the proxy of light was reduced to annihilation in an instant.
‘As expected.’
A single move.
Through that one attack, I could realize how powerful the opponent was.
He, Demon King Ingram, is strong.
He was an existence who had reached a realm that I cannot aspire to right now.
That is only natural.
Unlike the Hero, the Demon King is a completed existence from birth.
He is the source of darkness that even a Hero who has grown repeatedly cannot normally kill.
To face such an opponent while I have recovered less than half of my energy?
Absurd.
‘I would need to reach at least 70% of my status to barely be able to face him.’
The Demon King was that powerful—an existence truly worthy of the word absolute.
[“I speak to the humans.”]
The Demon King, who had occupied the Order of Light starting with the Maiden of Light, began to convey his will once more.
[“I will give you a ten-day deadline. Peacefully raise the white flag and accept my—the darkness’s—dominion. There shall be glory for those who submit.”]
Ten days.
It is a tight timeframe and that time meant.
‘It means he will no longer stand by and watch the Order of Victory grow.’
The cycle of light and darkness promised at the beginning of time has been broken.
Of course, that must be the result of the God of Darkness and the Goddess of Light plotting together.
As the Order of Victory is growing rapidly, they must have had no choice but to pull out their final card to keep it in check.
And that method was the death of the Hero, and the revenge of the enraged Demon King Ingram.
‘I’ve been played.’.At that moment, I realized that I had fallen into their plan.
Demon King Ingram was a stubborn existence who could not be persuaded even by the God of Darkness.
It had to be that way because he was an existence created through the source of darkness, possessing a self that would not yield to any god’s threats or persuasion.
The only thing that could control him was the beloved target known as the Hero but the Hero is dead by my hand.
And it was only natural for the Demon King, who loved him, to step forward.
It would inevitably be extremely difficult to block the Demon King, who was unified by thorough vengefulness and hatred.
[“If you still cannot abandon hope despite the ten-day deadline, there is only one future you shall face.”]
[-Whoosh]
The Demon King’s body floats into the air.
Our vision, which was sharing his sight, could also look down from the incredibly distant firmament.
[“It is exactly this.”]
[-Vrrrroom!]
Something is generated upon his black-painted fingernails.
It was nothing more than a tiny sphere.
In a way, it was to the point where one would believe it if told it was a miniature version of the Great Demon Orb I displayed not long ago.
‘True Demon Orb.’
That is the True Demon Orb, the Demon King’s original technique.
Long ago, what the Demon King had passed down to me was merely a technique devised for the likes of Legion Commanders who found it difficult to control Magical Power.
But for the Demon King, who is the source of Magical Power and rules over all Magical Power, worrying about the limits or size of Magical Power is nonsense.
A formidable technique created by extremely compressing the control of Magical Power—that was the True Demon Orb.
It was one of the techniques called the Ten Evils+Demon that the Demon King boasted of, far more powerful than the Great Demon Orb.
The small sphere, which seemed to have absorbed all darkness, falls toward the ground.
[–Flutter]
Its appearance, falling slowly like snow and fluttering along the flow of the wind, made it hard for anyone to think of it as a powerful technique, but the moment it fell upon the brilliant structures of the Order of Light, it displayed a tremendous power that devastated everything.
[-Rumble!]
A nuclear bomb?
The destruction exerted by the True Demon Orb was a power that could not be compared to mere nuclear weapons.
Annihilation would be the correct word.
The Order of Light, which until a moment ago consisted of magnificent temples, and the entire city returned to nothingness.
[-Crackle, zap!]
The only thing left there was the energy of annihilation that slaughters all life.
Just as the Great Demon Orb does, the True Demon Orb completely turns the area into a zone of death where not a single blade of grass can grow.
‘It is no different from the past. No, has it actually become stronger?’
In the past, as a Legion Commander, I had often accompanied Ingram.
I felt a shiver at the sight, which seemed even more developed than the power I saw back then.
[“The ten-day deadline is given to the existing humans. However, those belonging to the Order of Victory are different.”]
Watching the destroyed scene, the Demon King conveys his will again.
[“Every person belonging to the Order of Victory, including Kim Si-won, shall die amidst endless despair.”]
That was a warning directed at me.
Rage toward me, the one who killed his beloved, the Hero.
[“Experience that ruin and despair!”]
With that will as the last the shared vision vanished as if a TV had been turned off.
[-Flash!]
Shortly after that, Falsehood, who had been sharing the Demon King’s vision beside me, let out a scream, “Th-This?!”
“……” I looked back at him.
“M-My power… the tier is dropping…..”
The tier of the guy who seemed to be about to grasp the Lord Tier Status just a moment ago was not just falling, but approaching a General Tier.
It was because the number of believers of Victory, which had been increasing at a rapid pace, had not only stopped but was rapidly decreasing as people began to desert.
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