Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Raith stood in frozen for a while.

First of all, the lady ate his attack, it made a lot of sense considering that the abyss brought the quest saying she was a vassal of the ruler of gluttony.

‘Just how small am I?’

Raith asked himself inwardly.

These rulers are supposed to be humans and yet, one has a dragon as a vassal, another is a dragon hunter, another tamed a wyvern and made it so destructive, just by tearing the skin of another one, Hallan Lamar’s power gained unreasonable power.

‘Am I playing down on how strong the power of a ruler can be?’

Raith wondered. He had never truly considered the [Greed] part of his power something impressive. If there was anything impressive about it, it was the fact that he could still other’s skills but he had [Devourer] to fill in that role.

So he had seriously been considering it to be a flop. But at the same time, he knew that even though [Devourer] and [Greed] sounded almost likely, they were different. [Devourer was more useful than [Greed].

While [Greed] can only absorb skills, [Devourer] can absorb conditions and soul.

Has he been looking down too much on the significance of the rulership?

A dragon… vassal of a human.

It was still unbelievable for Raith. He clenched his sword tightly anyway and didn’t take his eyes off the dragon who glared at him from where she was.

Raith held Bal to his front with both hands on its pummel and pushed one leg forward. Ready to lunge his next strike.

“Infinite flash”

Wham!

Raith disappeared and appeared in front of the lady with a gust of wind. Her gaze however remained fixed, unmoved at first, then just as he brought the sword from below, intending to arc a slash across her chesy–her eyes slowly went down, almost sinking into her lower lids.

Her composure was so perfect, too perfect.

Raith halted the strike midway and sent himself into the air, landing away from her. Back where he started.

A large webbed crack fell on the ground he was standing upon a second on her.

It made him wonder.

‘What in the hell is that?!’

His eyes were wide open at her–

‘Wait! She’s gone!’

Before he could turn his eyes her force crunched him from his left, rupturing his skin. He was rolled away, wheeling into several pillars before landing on the ground and toppling to a stop.

He tried to stand up but his left leg and hand were totally broken, his skin in that area was purplish and bleeding.

He couldn’t stand up and had no choice but to crawl. He tried to crawl–

But immediately cried out in pain as he felt his spinal bones cave in, as if the world fell on it.

The lady standing on him, pulled him by his hair and lifted his head causing an even more striking pain to sail through his body.

“I suppose you do not die easily. I suppose there is a trick to it. How are you able to escape death every single time… it is impossible for one to escape death. I have lived a thousand years to know that.”

Her voice was laced with malice and had lost the gentleness they had from the beginning.

Even her face had lost its smoothness and looked more like she was very stressed.

She clasped her hand around his claws and clasped tighter until her frozen claws began to carve into his head, blood rolling down from each point. His eyes rolled out and sclera became red, and blood rolled down from his nose and his ears.

His agonizing cry filled the hall until his voice became inaudible and a while later, he died.

She stepped away from his corpse and watched him closely, with a wrinkled face and a tired gaze.

Her frown deepened with each passing minute until interrupted by a cough.

/cough

/cough

The third cough splurts out blood on her palms.

“Foolish human”

She averted her gaze from Raith and was about to walk down her throne but stopped.

The human she had just killed was standing behind her.

“Impossible.”

She muttered with trembling eyes. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑙．𝑐𝘰𝘮

“Yes, everyone makes that face when they realize… There is no trick to it. Death is my ally.”

The wrinkles on her face seem to grow with each passing moment, making her look more tired.

Raith materialized Bal.

“You are probably injured and fighting me in that state is devastating for you. So, why not allow me to offer a deal that will do both of us good.”

She glared at him but blinked a second later and sighed.

“Speak pervert.”

“Of course… Wait! What?! Why would you call me a pervert?!”

She rolled her eyes down and up. Nothing more needed to be said, he got the idea.

“See, this is a condition, I can’t fully explain but it’s not like I go around fighting people naked.”

Her discontentious gaze was unchanging even with his explanation. Seeing that it wasn’t helping, he felt awkward and just went on to the main topic.

“Anyway…” He cleared his throat and continued, “…leave this place. I don’t know what you are doing but you can leave this place and we both can forget you exist.”

[I see you are ready to lose a hundred levels and start from the beginning]

‘Shut up, will you? Do you think a prideful existence like her will agree with a scamming deal like that?’

[What do you plan to do exactly? Do you even have a plan?]

‘…not really…’

[Oh…damn]

[You will lose a hundred levels]

“Why will I agree to a foolish deal as such? And what gives you the gut to think you measly perverted human can offer me a deal.”

“Because I am a ruler.”

The lady’s gaze went blank for a second, no expression of any sort could be read on her face. However, the next minute she let out a loud burst of laughter, laughing till she began to stumble, holding her stomach.

Raith was put in a very awkward situation.

‘What is funny? I really am a ruler…’