“Hmm~ So you’re this generation’s Hero? You really are… pitifully weak~”
Vylian stood in the middle of the path where autumn leaves fluttered.
Her black boots pressed firmly down on the chestnut-haired girl’s head.
No matter how the girl struggled, she couldn’t move her even a fraction of an inch.
The girl’s jet-black hair spilled out like a waterfall, and an ink-colored aura spread silently from her as the center.
A playful yet dangerous smile played on the corners of her lips.
Just by standing there, she stained the entire world with the silence of death.
The lush plants of a moment ago withered into charred blackness in the blink of an eye. The green grass melted into a thick, black liquid, and even the air felt heavy against the chest.
A few wild rabbits nearby touched a hint of the aura and instantly twisted into hideous Wights with bared fangs.
[Corrosive Sovereign] Vylian Mimilusi.
The Demon King who controlled the concept of [Corruption].
Before her, all life faced only the fate of being eroded, rewritten, and crushed.
Where there was a Demon King, there would naturally be a Hero.
Since transmigrating to this world, Vylian had calmly accepted her setting as the final boss.
As a modern youth who had read plenty of light novels, she knew better than anyone that she must not give the only person capable of killing her any chance to develop.
So, she came in person.
To crush the Hero, who had been born less than two hours ago, at the [Starter Village Entrance].
The Demon King was composed, but the Hero beneath her feet was already on the verge of collapse.
Analis Kachi caught the scent of roses wafting from those pristine boots, drifting into her nostrils strand by strand.
She lay prone on the ground, her head held down so tightly that even breathing became torture.
Under deliberate control, the corrosive aura did not turn her into a skeletal Wight.
But every breath felt like fine needles tearing at her lungs, the pain causing fine beads of cold sweat to break out on her forehead.
Analis gripped her [Refined Iron Sword] tightly, her knuckles turning white as the blade shook uncontrollably.
In the next second, however, the longsword was consumed inch by inch by the ink-colored aura, turning into flying ash.
Only two hours ago, she had just awakened her [Hero Aptitude].
When the Executor handed this refined iron sword to her, his eyes were full of expectation.
“Lord Hero, the future of the world is in your hands!”
She never imagined that this “future” would only last for two hours.
Trembling, Analis pulled up her panel.
[Status Window]
Name: Analis Kachi
Level: 1
Class: Hero
Small Hope: No matter how desperate the situation, a glimmer of hope will always remain.
Resilient Growth: The more setbacks you face, the stronger you will become.
Will Unyielding: A powerful will and immortal conviction will transform into your source of power.
Bane of Evil: Your conviction will cause your power to have a suppressing effect on the concept of evil.
Before she could even begin to grow, her attributes were pitifully thin, like a blank sheet of paper.
She stiffly raised her head and looked at the girl stepping on her.
A row of information instantly made her eyes sting with pain.
[Status Window]
Name: Vylian Mimilusi
Level: 999
Class: Corrosive Sovereign
Will of Corruption: You are the master of the concept of corruption. All decay in the world empowers you; you are the incarnation of the Will of Corruption.
What?
The [Corrosive Sovereign]?
Huh?
Was this a joke?!
Shouldn’t the normal process be leveling up starting from Slimes and Goblins, meeting companions, challenging the Demon King’s officers step by step, and finally fighting the Demon King?
How could the final boss be thrown right in her face at the very start?
She couldn’t win!
It was absolutely impossible!
“Why are you the Demon King! I won’t accept this! I only became the Hero two hours ago!!”
Analis broke down, despair almost drowning her.
Vylian’s smile deepened, the corners of her mouth curving into a “w” shape.
“Miss Hero, instead of complaining, why don’t you try guessing what your fate will be next?”
Analis grit her teeth.
It would be nothing more than being consumed by corruption, with even her soul finding no peace.
Though her whole body was shaking, as the Hero, she was unwilling to bow her head and beg for mercy.
“Corrosive Sovereign, even if you kill me, it’s useless. The Hero cannot be extinguished. Even if I fall, thousands more will appear!”
The Hero couldn’t be killed — or rather, the concept of the [Hero] couldn’t be killed.
As long as a [Demon King] was born, a [Hero] would inevitably be born into the world.
Just like a priest and a young boy.
Or a tragic fate and a pair of lovers.
“You’re right. That’s why I thought of a more interesting idea~”
Vylian stood on her tiptoes slightly, looking down at her. Her voice was sweet but bone-chillingly cold.
“Since I can’t kill you, I’ll just make you fall.”
“I’ll have you occupy the concept of the Hero while being unable to fulfill the Hero’s mission. That way, a new Hero will never be born again, right?”
Analis looked blank, completely unable to understand what the Demon King was planning.
If she was eroded by the concept of [Corruption], the concept of the [Hero] would simply choose another master anyway.
Seeing her ignorance, Vylian laughed even more happily.
“I’m going to plant a curse on you.”
“It will make your mind occupied by ultimate pleasure, dominated by instinct, so that you can never lift the [Holy Sword] again.”
“A Succubus… you’ve heard of them, right?~”
Since killing the Hero wouldn’t work, she would just ruin her.
In that case, how could someone who couldn’t even control their own instinctive desires come to crusade against her?
It was a perfect plan.
Analis’s face instantly turned bright red, filled with both shame and anger.
“Wh-What on earth is that! You! You! You’re going too far! You filthy Demon King! I’ll fight you!”
She spat out a curse in her anger. Just thinking about that scenario made Analis feel like she was about to collapse.
Instead of being forced into becoming a Succubus, she would rather fight to the death! To die a glorious death in light and fire!
In an instant, a dazzling holy light erupted from her body, warm and sharp, piercing straight into the sky.
A Hero’s will could indeed transform into power in a desperate situation.
Vylian’s heart tightened suddenly.
As expected of the Hero, to actually be able to explode with power in this state!
She immediately retreated, a world-destroying corrosive power condensing at her fingertips, prepared to wipe out the threat once and for all with a single strike.
But in the next second…
It seemed that because the force of her backward kick was too great, she ended up kicking Analis hard in the back instead.
Thud
Analis rolled five or six times through the pile of fallen leaves like a rag doll. Her forehead hit a rock, drawing blood, and her eyes rolled back as she fainted completely.
The forest fell into an instantaneous silence.
Vylian: “…”
She was silent for two seconds before she couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“What was that? It was just a bluff. You gave me a scare.”
Indeed, how could a Level 1 Hero who had just been born turn the tables?
She walked slowly to the side of the unconscious girl, a strand of pale pink cursed power condensing at her fingertip.
A small heart-shaped mark flashed and disappeared, sinking into Analis’s lower abdomen and vanishing completely.
“It’s done.”
Vylian chuckled. “Just wait, Miss Hero. I’m looking forward to seeing what you look like when you’ve completely fallen.”
Ink-colored mist slowly swirled around Vylian. Smiling faintly, she was about to turn and vanish into space, leaving gracefully.
But at that very moment, a sharp, stabbing pain suddenly exploded in her mind.
A set of forcibly sealed memories broke through their shackles and surged in.
Various scenes of the future, things she truly didn’t remember, appeared before her eyes in the form of a manga.
Vylian stumbled, falling heavily onto the fallen leaves, her face pale.
‘Who… Who sealed my memories?!’
Vylian hurriedly sorted through the memory fragments that had just surfaced in her mind.
Fighting, crying, begging for mercy, despair.
And the person who suffered a crushing defeat like in a galgame was none other than herself.
Vylian’s expression changed abruptly.
She stared blankly at the unconscious Analis on the ground, her mind a total void.
An absurd and horrifying thought gripped her tightly.
‘No way… My true way of dying in the future… was actually being… by this Hero…’
‘This isn’t right at all!!’
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