Return (2)
“I fought alongside my comrades there. The battle raged on for days and nights.”
Against the backdrop of a battlefield where the allied forces clashed with the infernal legions, the man’s voice seeped through softly.
The scene unfolded rapidly.
The sun rose from the horizon, climbed to its zenith, and then dipped below the opposite horizon, leaving darkness to blanket the world.
The brilliance of the realms bursting forth in various places dimmed the light of the moon and stars.
From the hellgates that opened everywhere, a magic that distorted reality poured forth.
The man fought at the heart of the battlefield. There was no pause, no retreat.
[Clang!]
The axe broke first.
[Crash!]
Soon after, the sword shattered.
Deprived of weapons, he grabbed the arms of fallen comrades or enemies and continued to fight. When even that was no longer possible, he crushed the skulls of demons with his bare hands.
For seven days and nights, the white tundra was stained a dark crimson. The man, having slaughtered hundreds of demons, finally brought down the incarnations of the four demon gods.
“My mission on this land was complete. Having earned the right, I could return home whenever I wished.”
Victory was already within reach.
Even without him, the allied forces would secure triumph.
Thanks to the sorcerers, more than half of the hellgates were closed, and the demons and monsters that continued to pour out had lost much of their momentum.
Though the allied casualties exceeded ten thousand, they were still capable of dealing with the remaining monsters and closing the hellgates.
[Hadashe! Hadashe!]
[Worship the god of war who slaughtered the demons!]
[For the great ancestors! We eat and fight!]
The allied forces were busy singing the man’s praises.
And rightly so. The man’s presence was nothing short of divine.
A holy fire surged from deep within him, enveloping his entire being like a flame, transcending the divine and exuding an overwhelming presence.
Yet, leaving behind the cheers and adoration, the man was lost in unspeakable contemplation.
He knew.
Unless he personally killed the demon gods’ true forms and destroyed their great hells, this victory would only bring a fleeting peace.
“Even if I left, my comrades could easily win this battle. But the demon gods, once recovered, would soon breach the continent’s borders again.”
At most, a few hundred years. At the least, before a generation had passed.
By the next invasion, he would have ascended, and the continent would be engulfed in flames once more.
Should he return to his longed-for home, buoyed by the cheers of all?
Or should he, with his weary body, finish the fight against the demon gods who showed no sign of emerging from their lairs?
[…Sigh.]
The deliberation was brief.
With a light sigh, the man dashed forward, leaving the cheers of the allied forces behind.
[Wha, what!]
[Hadashe! Where are you going…!]
“It’s not that I didn’t miss home.”
The man spoke from outside the scene.
Dalen didn’t ask where that home was.
It was the place the northerners called the Eternal Palace, where high orc warriors were said to arrive after dying in battle.
Or perhaps it was the place described as heaven in the paladins’ creed. Whatever the name, it didn’t matter much.
[Human hero! How dare you charge in unarmed…!]
In the scene, the man charged at the strongest-looking demon among the survivors.
Even with his exhausted body, he could have crushed it barehanded if he wished. But he didn’t.
[Crunch! Snap!]
He simply surrendered his body to the demon’s claws without resistance.
His body, harder than steel, was torn apart, and red blood spilled onto the white ground.
[Ha, Hadashe!]
[Advance the mechanical units! Save the god of war!]
Beyond his fading vision, he heard the screams and cries of his comrades.
[Hehehe, oh great lords of the great hell, please wait a little longer. Soon, I shall offer you a sacrifice worthy of your satisfaction.]
With the demon’s sinister laughter behind him, the man’s vision went dark.
”…What, did he just die like that?”
“That’s how it seemed on the surface.”
“If he’s dead, he’s dead. What’s with ‘on the surface’?”
“Have a little patience. I know Koreans are known for being impatient.”
”…”
Of all things, criticizing another country’s temperament. As if the northerners, who are quicker to throw an axe than words, aren’t impatient?
Just as he was about to retort, the scene brightened. A red and yellowish view. The clinging, toxic smoke.
”…Hell?”
Having experienced it hundreds of times beyond the screen and several times on this land, he knew.
Though different from the hells he knew, the place where the man opened his eyes was also one of the demon-controlled territories.
“That’s right.”
The confirmation came immediately. And the scene’s time accelerated.
[If we offer the human hero as a sacrifice, the vacant seat of the archdemon will surely… Aaargh!]
The man tore apart the demon’s grip that had killed him. Though his body was destroyed, only his soul remained, but for him, who had transcended the hierarchy itself, it was not difficult.
[My altar… my sanctuary…!]
The hell of the demon who killed the man collapsed within hours. The man immediately followed the path connected to the altar to the next hell.
The increasingly accelerated scene captured the long battle. It was a journey of destroying countless hells, as numerous as the demons themselves.
”…”
A day passed. Five hells were annihilated.
A month went by. The number of slain demons exceeded a hundred.
The concept of time in the fantasy world differed from the earthly realm. A thousand years could be a day, or a day could be a thousand years.
But that didn’t change the time the man felt. Even as the seasons changed several times, the fight did not end.
[Human hero! How dare you step into the forbidden place!]
After an indeterminate amount of time, the man’s steps finally reached the great hell.
Defeating the demon gods was not difficult. The lost body was easily restored with the divinity he had acquired by destroying hundreds, thousands of hells.
“After annihilating the great hell, I returned home. That’s what the people of this land call ascension.”
The man spoke softly. Dalen suddenly turned his gaze.
Beside the scene showing the ruins of hell, there was a scene showing the battlefield on earth where the man had died.
[The demons are vanishing!]
[The hellgates are closing on their own!]
[The god of war must be alive. He’s gone down to hell himself and is defeating the demons’ true forms!]
The people were cheering. They knew.
The man’s death was not a futile end, and that he had descended into hell to defeat the demons and demon gods.
“It’s been a long time since I reminisced about this day. The old memories are coming back…”
”…I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“If you were going to return anyway, why did you fight?”
Dalen raised an eyebrow. Though the battle was won, the man never tasted the fruits of victory.
He had returned home immediately. His body on earth remained torn, and his place was empty at the victory ceremony after the war.
“Why fight, you ask. That’s a good question.”
The man laughed. He placed his hand on his belt and slowly stepped back.
Dalen, tearing his gaze from the pillar of light, turned to him. Black eyes, black hair. Tall and solidly built.
For some reason, the man looked lonely. But he was as strong as he was lonely.
“You said you needed the power to defeat Enaxagus.”
”…Yes.”
“I can give you that power. But now you must choose. Will you stay, or will you return?”
If that solitude and strength felt familiar, was it just an illusion? The man spoke again to the silent Dalen.
“I’ll add the same question. You asked me why I fought.”
With his hand on the sword hilt, he asked.
“What is the reason you’ve been fighting all this time?”
”…I can still fight.”
Lucia exhaled heavily. The metallic scent of blood and the sticky sweetness lingered in her mouth.
Whoosh―!
As she raised her hand, the holy sword traced a simple arc in the air. In an instant, it slashed through the air dozens of times and plunged toward its target, a pure white holy sword.
[Kraaaah!]
The centipede-like demon, its legs severed and a sword lodged in its heart, let out a wail.
The eerie scream, impossible for human vocal cords to produce, cracked the ground and spewed purple poison. The scream of a high-ranking demon descended in its true form was a spell in itself.
“O god of war…!”
Of course, the spell couldn’t penetrate the wall of divine power.
Blocking the poison with a miracle, Lucia swung her hand once more.
In that simple gesture, the holy sword’s wave pattern spewed white flames.
The demon’s scream, akin to a spell, became its last words. Watching the demon turn to dust in the holy flames, Lucia collapsed to the ground.
”…Phew.”
It had been a fortnight since the labyrinth city was attacked.
In just two weeks, the allied forces had been pushed back to the Platinum District.
The city alliance, the guild federation, the Tsarist state and the Eastern Three Kingdoms, even the imperial noble faction that rose against the royal family and the pantheon.
Despite the combined might of all the kingdoms on the continent, they were powerless to halt the advance of the demon army. Even with the aid of other races like the elves, it wasn’t enough.
Contrary to the Golden Palace’s prediction that they could hold out for at least three months, now, just two weeks in, the last bastion, the Platinum District, was on the brink of falling.
The reason was the unification of the powers of the Five Great Hells. Enaksagus, having absorbed all the evil gods, wielded the authority of each hell with masterful precision.
“If only we had known a little sooner.”
At the very least, they could have prepared some form of defense.
Though whether that preparation would have been effective was uncertain. Regardless, what was done was done. Lucia gritted her teeth and raised her hand.
Crack—
The holy sword twisted and withdrew from the demon’s heart, swiftly returning to its master’s grasp—Leredonatel, the sacred blade.
Thud!
With trembling arms, she drove the sword into the ground, using it as a staff to stand.
The demon’s corpse, which had been twitching until the end, gradually stilled.
Lucia instinctively checked her body and heightened her senses in all directions.
“Damn it.”
She sensed at least three more within a few blocks. Each led a formidable legion of elite monsters, mid-level demons or higher.
The mages of the Tower Alliance and the remaining forces of the Platinum Knights were holding them off, buying time.
The problem was that the knights and mages were being slaughtered in exchange for that time. Demons, descending in their true forms and supported by high-level monsters, were disasters that only transcendents could hope to handle.
“We have to hold on. Until Dalen arrives.”
Muttering out of habit, she moved her legs. Her divine tattoos flickered precariously, and with a single leap, the body of the high-ranking paladin soared to the height of several stories.
In an instant, she cleared the ruined building, and the city’s panorama unfolded before her eyes. Her blue gaze reflected the crimson scene.
Streets crumbling and ablaze. Blood and flesh scattered everywhere.
Above all the carnage, the sky and sun were stained a deep, blood-red, casting a crimson shadow like a shroud.
Rumble…
The unified Great Hells under the evil god Enaksagus cast their shadow over the fallen labyrinth city.