“Stop him!”
Flashy magic spells slammed into the earth like hammers. The demons fell silent, at a loss for words.
A scene normally seen only in myths was being reenacted. Not magic beams, but cannons bombarded the battlefield again and again. The ground shook. A commander shouted as he struck one of his subordinates on the back. Stop him, he ordered.
But how exactly were they supposed to do that?
“General. The enemy forces are too strong.”
“Our second defensive line has been breached…… Our minotaur unit has been completely wiped out!”
Every demon present was an elite soldier. Even if the battle seemed hopeless, they would gladly charge forward. Yet even these elite demon soldiers were stunned by the sight unfolding before them.
A human was running alone through a rain of spells. He seemed to be sprinting down a highway. The human swung his greatsword without caring about the rain of spells and magic arrows around him. Every time his greatsword flashed, dozens of demons collapsed, their guts spilling out.
If they were ordered to sacrifice their lives, they would do it. If sacrificing themselves meant their side would achieve victory, they would gladly give up their lives.
However, stopping that human was utterly impossible.
“You cowards. And you call yourselves His Majesty the Great King’s army?!”
The commander slit his own soldier’s throat. He was a man who had killed more allies than enemies over the course of his life.
“Fight! Even if you die, do it only after stabbing him with your spear at least once!”
He raised his spear and shouted at the top of his lungs. The moment he did, hatred began to fill the demon soldiers. They formed up with their fellow soldiers around them and advanced step by step.
“Damn it! We can’t die twice!”
“It’ll all be over once we cut off that monster’s head! Let’s show them the arrogance of demons!”
“Kurub! Kuhub! Kuhla, kuruhub!”
The demon soldiers charged forward, uttering their distinctive battle cry.
They had families, too. They had beliefs of their own. They might have looked different, but that did not mean they were any different from humans. Even the courage in their steps, though they knew they were going to die, was the same. And so, it was all meaningless.
The fact that they could only die by my hand.
Was it because I was overwhelmingly powerful? In the first place, yes. I was powerful. I did not want to hide that fact.
Even so, there was a chasm between us that they could never bridge. Therefore, no matter how bravely they marched, no matter how crazed they became after watching their comrades’ heads be severed from their bodies like bundles of straw, they all met grisly deaths at the tip of my sword.
In the end.
“Kh! I, Baal, am to fall at the hands of an ordinary human……!”
Great Demon Lord Baal’s dungeon had been completely breached in the blink of an eye. This was the place that had made the entire continent tremble in fear.
My cold greatsword made a sharp shunk as it pierced the Demon Lord’s heart.
“Calm yourself, Demon Lord.”
I looked down at Baal.
The demon once known as the world’s nightmare, called the unrivaled Great Demon Lord, was dying. The vast labyrinth, with no fewer than 120 floors, had now been reduced to a rather large grave.
“You truly were my greatest enemy.”
“As a warrior, I wish to offer you my respect.”
“Khh.”
Baal smiled bitterly.
“I see. So there are still humans who know how to show pride, huh?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You were the one who forced that ideology upon us humans. The idea that we should have pride. You were strong enough to do that.”
“Ha! So Baal’s 5,000 years of life were not in vain. ……My conviction transcended the boundaries between species and even reached humanity. As someone destined to perish, what more could I hope for? Are there any other demons who have achieved something this great? No. Most likely, there are none…….”
Baal closed both his eyes.
“It was not a bad life.”
Though born a low-class demon, he had managed to conquer the demon world. The king who had expanded his dominion into the human world had reached the end of his life.
I bowed toward the king’s corpse in salute.
A group of unique individuals came running toward me as I paid my respects. An archmage, a knight captain, a thief, and a saint—they were my friends, who had faithfully accompanied me through thick and thin for more than twenty years.
“You bastard!”
The knight reached me first and choked me. “It hurts! I said it hurts!” Even though I shouted, my words went unheard. He had spent nearly ten hours on the battlefield by this point. How he still had that much strength left was a mystery to me.