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Chapter 23
Since the earth veins located in the giant forest within the country of Eddos created strong magical properties in the air, several research facilities and experimental grounds were built here when the Ancient Magic Kingdom of Zaales was still prospering. More than a thousand years later, these places had been turned into relics and ruins, regularly looted by adventurers. Kyle now stood in front of one of those, yet this one had yet to be found as it was at least a month of traveling away from the nearest settlement.
‘You really love to use us dragons, human!’
However, if you fly over here, it would take you a day at most. Kyle thanked Ghrud who had happily taken him along while on his way to see the Dragon King Zeurus.
“So here…I see.”
‘It must be another research facility built when my main body was alive, but I did not know of this. They must have built it without my permission,’ Shildonia commented while she remained inside the stone.
Walking further into the facility, Kyle found traces that it had recently been used by someone. Reaching the lowest floor, they were greeted by a large open space. Machines filled every corner, most of them Kyle didn’t even know what their function was, but there was a large case of glass that stood out in the center. Standing in front of this glass case was the former Demon Lord, with his black wings growing from his back. It had been two years since they directly met in person, and that was only one of the few other times. Yet, he still emitted a strong, unmistakable presence. Next to him the Heart of the Divine Dragon glowed, which should have been lost since the collapse of the Demon Lord’s castle. The black-winged one was reading a book, not even looking at Kyle even after he had entered the room.
“Yo, we meet again,” Kyle called out to him, only to be ignored. “Not gonna ask why I came here? Well, I think you can guess at this point…I’m here to kill you.”
“I have no reason to fight you,” the black-winged one responded with a voice that conveyed no emotion.
“You’re aware of what you’ve done, right? You made all of humanfolk your enemy, so you must have seen this coming.”
“I’m not the Demon Lord anymore, so I don’t see why I have to fight you.”
One would consider this some kind of joke in bad taste, but the black-winged one was dead-serious. It almost felt like he had no will of his own, just sitting there in wait of something.
“…Yeah, seems like she was right. I understand who you are right now.”
‘Indeed. In that glass case, you’ve been sleeping…for the past thousand years.’
“You’re a magic being, created when Zaales was still around—and also a former human.”
Kyle remembered the truth of the black-winged one he had learned from Mera. When Zaales was still standing, a group of scientists attempted to strengthen the innate mana of a person, using forbidden rituals to achieve this. One of them was the fusion of souls. Since the innate mana inside an individual was tied to the soul, the fusion of souls would lead to an exponential growth of this. However, if this was conducted on adults, their memories and personalities would mix together, which made them lose their sanity. For that reason, they conducted these experiments on small infants that had barely been born.
‘And a result of that research must be those black wings. Because of the repeated experiments, your soul changed shape, turning into that of a demon…Or rather, I think you must have gotten fused with a demon child too, right?’ Shildonia joined in to ask.
Of course, she had immediately put a stop to these kinds of experiments, but they still happened in the end. When the fury of the gods struck Zaales, causing its downfall, most of the researchers involved in this probably came together to revel in their fate. The bones scattered across the room spoke as much of that. And as a result of that, the black-winged one had been forgotten, too.
“And yet, you survived. For even a thousand years and more…” Kyle said and looked at the broken glass case.
‘Judging from the looks of it, you must have woken up several years ago because of an earthquake. And as a result of that, you haven’t forgotten, right? The goal of the experiments—is to seek out greater strength. Well, that is how you were created, so who could fault you for that.’
“So your goal wasn’t just to travel back in time…You wanted to achieve the soul fusion that would result from that.”
“That’s right. I wouldn’t have been able to withstand more of these experiments, but logically speaking, a fusion with the same soul as I have would be possible. That’s why I tried to accomplish this by traveling back to the past. Luckily, this facility had such a device that would accomplish this,” the black-winged one answered as if he just wanted to clear up the truth. If moving through time is possible, it would need the Divine Dragon’s Heart. It was probably stolen right before the fall of Zaales. And the fact that it was possible was proven through Kyle and his fused soul.
“And in order to fill the heart with mana, I judged that using the forbidden ritual to exchange the life force of humans. And to gather the most amount of souls, I decided to become the Demon Lord.”
Becoming the Demon Lord was the best course of action in order to obtain souls. He saw this as the expected result and didn’t distinguish between good or bad. The concept of just and evil didn’t even exist within him, and he was only like a machine that sought to complete its goal.
‘To strengthen yourself, you wanted to rot out all of humanfolk…’
“That’s why you tried to kill every human being?”
“That’s right.”
He probably never once considered him weird in that way.
“I managed to make it pretty far considering how I started, but since my plan ended up in failure, I’m trying to think of my next course of action.”
As if that was the extent of what he wanted to talk about, the black-winged one looked down at his book again.
“But I was the one who killed Targ and ruined your plans, remember?”
Kyle attempted to provoke him, but he showed no reaction, no emotion that one would normally feel in that situation. And that was all because the black-winged one had no desire or emotion of his own. But with this, Kyle figured out the identity of the black-winged one, knowing that there was no point in talking about it more, and trying to understand him was futile. He couldn’t stop himself either, because his sole existence was based on obtaining such strength. For that reason, Kyle drew his blade.
“Sorry, but I’ve gotta ask for some of your time,” said Kyle to Shildonia.
‘This is partially my fault, and something I have to atone for. In fact, I got you wrapped up in this…so don’t hold back, no matter what,” answered Shildonia with conviction in her voice.
“I have no reason to fight you,” commented the black-winged one, but Kyle shook his head.
“Yeah, you don’t. And you’re not at fault, either. However, you are not needed anymore,” muttered Kyle and judged that any further conversation was pointless.
He leaped at the black-winged one with his blade, to which the demon responded by defending himself. And thus began the battle not to live another day, but to end it all once and for all, hidden from the eyes of the world.
Kyle’s first attack was simple, almost like it was intended as a greeting. In response to that, the black-winged one took this attack with his shoulder—which led to Kyle’s arms shivering from the recoil. Yet, the opponent suffered no injuries.
“As sturdy as I remember…Just like last time,” Kyle furrowed his brow at this familiar sensation.
‘No mistaking it. The surface of his body is like a thick shell of mana, acting as a defensive mechanism.’
According to Shildonia, he constantly emitted mana at every point in time, and any regular magic user would probably die in a single moment of trying this kind of defensive method that only existed in theory.
‘But since his soul has been fused many times over, granting him unfathomable amount of mana, it’s possible. This is how he protected himself from Flame-Eye’s ultimate attack, too.’
As Shildonia finished those words, black spheres appeared around the black-winged one, flying toward Kyle. He managed to fend them off with his sword, but they were a lot more impactful than they looked, making it feel like just blocking them took all of his strength. And as if that wasn’t enough, more magic attacks from the black-winged one himself.
“Oh, that one is definitely bad.”
It was the highest level of destruction and supreme-tier magic [Disintegrate], which was impossible to block or defend against, spelling instant death. Having witnessed Urza disintegrate with this ability in his previous life, Kyle was especially cautious of his ability. The black-winged one’s fighting style was rather simple, just blocking attacks by taking them to the face while firing off attacks. The black spheres were physical attacks, and then there were long-range magic attacks. However, Kyle knew just how to kill this very Demon Lord. First, using attacks that pack enough damage to finish him off that way. Ancient Dragon Juvars’ fangs managed to accomplish that. However, this meant Kyle would have to use an attack that packed the same punch as the final flicker of life from a dragon who had been alive for millennia. Kyle’s final trump card was the lump of magic that he used to finish off Juvars. That should be able to pierce the black-winged one’s defenses. However, it would take too long to prepare and leave him wide open, not exactly convenient for close-range combat like this.
Because he had Irumera and Ghrud with him then, he could focus all he needed, and Juvars’ gigantic size made it easier to hit him. What Kyle needed right now was something else. Namely, something that could erase his absolute defense for only a moment. During the last timeline, it was something he mostly achieved out of pure luck and because even the Demon Lord had run out of steam.
“But this time I’m prepared,” Kyle said as he took out a magic stone.
Through that, the black-winged one was engulfed in flames, but it didn’t even seem to have done any damage. But at the very least, it acted as a bit of a diversion, and he had bought plenty of them after the war had ended. Back at the castle, he was hoping that his allies would wear him out to then use these. So, he had more than enough on hand, ranging from ice to flame, just throwing them and lying in wait…
“…Did he fly away?”
The black-winged one flapped his wings and ascended into the air.
‘With his wings, of course he would, no?’ said Shildonia, pointing out the obvious.
In the previous life, he never did that in order to protect the dragon’s heart, though. With him out of range, Kyle’s sword wouldn’t be able to hurt him any longer, but he could still move just fine. Meanwhile, Kyle had never had much experience with flying opponents, especially those who could freely move above his head to attack from dead angles.
“Damn it, learning bastard…”
In the end, Kyle was absolutely backed into a corner.
“Guess I can’t pick and choose the moment for him to run out of steam…Better drag him down on the ground then. And…”
‘You don’t have to say it all the time. I’m prepared.’
“…I’m sorry.”
‘It is what must be done,’ Shildonia grinned.
Kyle didn’t want to use this final ace in the hole. Freeing the magic energy within the jewel placed in the sword to raise its impact and power. However, the jewel would then get out of control, and although it would be enough to destroy the black-winged one’s defense, it also meant certain death for Shildonia. And Kyle was forced to use this yet again, after subconsciously relying on it in his previous life.
‘There is no other way…All my magic, gather on my blade!’
As the jewel and blade began to glow, Kyle carried five magic stones with [Explosion] engraved into them, throwing them up. The impact was strong enough to make the whole facility shake, luckily not bringing the whole building down. As a result, the black-winged one was pressed down onto the ground.
“Here we go! This blade will finally reach you!”
Clad in a strong glow, the blade was firmly in Kyle’s hand as he approached his opponent, who fired off magic at him to keep him at bay.
“…Just kidding!”
But then, Kyle threw the sword at him. The black-winged blocked this off with a black sphere, and he realized that there was no resonance between the sword and jewel. Kyle simply faked it and tried to throw the black-winged one off-balance. The black-winged one never doubted what they were talking about. His mind wouldn’t allow him to doubt others. And at the same time, he didn’t react in any way to Kyle charging at him. He thought that Kyle had no way of hurting him, and he was simply prepared to use [Disintegrate] if he got too close. However, the item Kyle had in his hand got aggressively stabbed in the black-winged one’s abdomen. It was a knife so small he could hide it in his palm. The only weird part about it was that its blade had a red glow, and the fact that it could easily cut through the black-winged one’s absolute defense, something that not even Shildonia’s blade could achieve. He only prepared this because he knew about the black-winged one’s true identity.
“Juvars’ fang reached you. So, I figured this bad boy from the Divine Dragon Valzed would reach you, too.”
Kyle used the [Blessing] he received from Cairys to adjust the Divine Dragon’s heart, turning it into this small knife. Since the Black-winged one didn’t know that two of these hearts existed in this world, he couldn’t possibly predict it. Kyle then continued on with his attack, slashing the knife from the abdomen up to the demon’s shoulder. As a result of that, the hood fell off his head and revealed his face—a normal face. The only thing that stood out was a twisted and broken horn on his forehead. It was probably cut off clean to keep his demonification in check. Other than that, his face was like that of a young man—no, a young boy.
And seeing that youthful face created another wave of regret in Kyle’s heart. His real age would still be over a thousand years, but it had only been a few years since he was reactivated. Strictly speaking, Kyle was fighting a young child who wasn’t even ten years old. This was the true identity of the Demon Lord, and the reason Kyle didn’t bring his allies, especially Lieze and the girls, with him—because he didn’t want them to be responsible for the murder of a child. Targ also said it himself—that he couldn’t leave the Demon Lord alone. That he felt bad for him. It’s the kind of sympathy you would have for a lost child. Kyle fully regretted learning about the black-winged one. If he hadn’t known, if he hadn’t asked Mera to tell him, he could have treated him like a simple foe who had to be dealt with.
‘It is not your fault. The blame lies with me and with my real body. All you’ve done…is save him from his misery.’
So came Shildonia’s voice from the sword, but it didn’t help make Kyle feel any better.
“I’m sure you didn’t wish to be born like this. But, I won’t tell you to accept that. Resent me for all you’d like,” Kyle said and continued to swing the knife until the black-winged one was completely gone.
The black-winged one seemingly couldn’t even feel any pain, as his expression did not change. Only after he must have run out of strength, he sagged down on the ground. Even as he looked at Kyle in his final moments, no emotion was conveyed in his eyes. And then, just as he had done in the past timeline, his body began to crumble and disappear. Even though Kyle managed to kill him a second time, he felt no sense of accomplishment whatsoever. All that filled his heart now was pain and a feeling of regret. He didn’t want to stay here a minute longer and opted to get out of the facility as quickly as possible when he spotted the glass case that the black-winged one had rested in for all those years. He spotted something looking like a plate near the lower party, where he could faintly spot a few letters.
“Hey, is this…”
‘Yes. It reads Arnoa.’
“So he had a name…All right then. Sorry, Arnoa, you might not be all too happy about it, but I’m never going to forget you.”
One of the leftover feathers of the black-winged one that must have fallen off his wings during the battle was now floating down in front of Kyle’s eyes. He subconsciously reached for it, but shook his head and wanted to leave the facility. However, with one last turnaround, he went to grab the Divine Dragon’s Heart.
“Gotta get this with me, yeah.”
‘But are you sure that was the right thing to do? If the dragons learned of the fact that you altered the heart in such a shape, what would they think? I bet that Zeurus would pass out from the shock.’
“But you were the one who came up with the idea?”
‘I didn’t think we’d actually do that. Using even a miracle from the gods…Then again, my blade is made from Zeurus’ fang, so if only he’d be a bit stronger…God damn peridontitis fool!’
“I don’t think that has anything to do with the strength of the—Wait, the ceiling!”
‘Hurry up and escape already!’
Even at the very end, he just fumbled over his own actions again.
CClaw Translations 