Chapter 1450

Davey screamed and scrambled to escape the furious Perserque while Goddess Freyja stood off to the side, singing as if she had nothing to do with the two.

People said life was a tragedy when seen up close but a comedy from afar, yet Davey had never thought Goddess Freyja would sell him out.

“Hey. Get over here.”

It was also said that lovers' quarrels were usually soon to be mended. If that quarrel was on the scale of a full-blown war, however? It would take light years for it to come to an end.

Davey broke out in a cold sweat as a blade of wind instantly sliced off a few strands of his hair. “Perserque! I’m dying!!”

He never thought of counterattacking. Neither did he try to dispel her magic right in front of her. He knew that the pursuit was his karma, and blaming her for overreacting wasn't the right move for him at that moment.

The simple truth was that he’d made her angry. It was an irrefutable fact.

While the whole situation wouldn’t have mattered if they were strangers, she was the woman he first loved, still loved, and would continue to love and cherish. So, he felt like taking a few hits rather than resorting to a drastic measure was best.

Only after his body was battered black and blue did Perserque calm down a bit. Davey figured this result was better.

He knew that awkwardly offering her something to earn her forgiveness might only make it seem like he wasn't taking her seriously. It was only at that point that he realized how dangerous his original bribe plan was.

The goddess was already done singing.

Perserque straddled him and pounded on his chest, but there was no real power behind her blows. “Haargh!”

“Get as angry as you want. I admit I messed up.”

“Even if I strangle you?”

Ever the adaptable scoundrel, he responded, “If you're the one strangling, I’ll gladly take it.”

She slowly relaxed her hands and covered her face. “Hmph. They say the one who loves more loses...”

As the situation calmed, he felt the soft sensation of her body pressing down on his abdomen.

It felt as if he'd just been released after being sealed away somewhere. As he came down to earth, he finally realized what he'd been doing just moments before.

‘What’ll she say if I bring that up now?’

“Perserque.”

Instead of responding, she sighed with her face still covered. Then, without showing her face, she lay down on his chest. Her small figure rested completely against his.

He realized once again how small and warm she was. He absolutely loved that about her.

He silently reached out a hand and patted her back reassuringly. “I’m sorry. I really wasn't planning on using all of it.” ℯℯ𝑙.

At his repeated apology, she buried her head near his collarbone and quietly said, “My heart wants me to hang you up like the Gourmet Research Society, but...”

Fortunately for him, it seemed she wouldn’t take things that far.

She finally continued, “Bring me a replacement ingredient... and you’ll be forgiven.”

“Didn't you say you'd be mad forever just a moment ago?”

“I've vented all my anger. Now, I have to be practical.”

He knew it was a cheap excuse. She slowly stood up and looked down at him, saying, “Go now. There's a child you promised to save, isn't there?”

“You knew?”

“When do you think the Goddess brought me here?” She had already seen everything. “Come back after you’re done so we can talk more.”

“Hmm. How about a goodbye kiss?” Davey asked with a grin.

Perserque gave him a look and mockingly said, “After what you did?”

He could tell that she finally wasn’t actually angry anymore. After all, she had beat him to her heart’s content, and now her anger seemed to have melted away as if she had never been mad in the first place.

“I think it’ll give me the strength to come back,” he argued in an attempt to persuade her. “I feel like I’ll find the ingredient I’m looking for right away.”

She sighed at his audacity. But then she slowly leaned down.

While still on top of him, she pressed her lips to his. After sharing a soft, warm touch, she slowly rose. “Make sure you come back tonight.”

“Hmm?”

“The other two are waiting as well. Did you forget that it’s already been days since you started running from me?”

He hesitantly asked, “You're okay with that?”

“I’ll just use this. It should be a new experience.”

She plucked a strand of hair from his head. He finally realized what Perserque meant and let out a small laugh. “Oh. Using the clone technique, eh? You never liked that.”

Yet, she didn't respond, just turned away. Davey gave a wry smile and reached out to the goddess. “Goddess of Mercy, who betrayed me. Can I leave now?”

Goddess Freyja’s eyes narrowed.

[Did you decide?]

“I’m confused, but in the end, that won't change anything. I just have no reason to hide anymore.” With those words, he ripped through the air, only to be surprised. “This...”

[The dimension entered self-defense mode. It'll take some time to just punch through.]

He just shook his head and pushed through, departing.

Afterward, Perserque looked at the Goddess, who was about to send her back.

“Goddess.” Yet, she didn’t even look at her. “A saintess was created here, and now a hero has been created too.”

A moment of silence passed.

“It feels like you're preparing to subjugate the Demon King.”

The goddess slightly raised her tablet at the question.

[Do you think those children will subjugate Davey?]

“That won't happen.”

[The system for the Antagonist and the Demon King is now obsolete.]

“But yet you created a hero?”

[I needed a guardian who can cross dimensions. A guardian with noble convictions.]

It was about time she had a guardian that protected her from dealing with minor issues.

Perserque understood her intent and quietly nodded.

* * *

Davey had vanished into the rift, leaving everyone else behind on the battlefield. Rinne was also swept along, plunging the expedition into chaos.

Boom! Boom!!!

“Aaak!!”

The price of losing the buff when Davey disappeared was quite painful.

However, it was what they had originally predicted. The expedition had pressed on knowing the cost would be heavy, with casualties and heavy injuries.

The reality still hurt nonetheless.

“May your soul move on to a better place.”

It was as if the imps had been waiting for him to disappear before launching a relentless assault. The tentacles that sprang up from the earthquake didn't attack, yet it felt like they were sucking the group’s vitality away, and the gigantic monsters that appeared from the rift were extremely dangerous.

The damage suffered far exceeded their expectations. The first casualty appeared in an instant, when an imp managed to impale a young but skilled knight with its thorn. Despite the Great Saintess rushing to treat him, he died, unable to overcome the shock.

Bathed in the desperately dark and heavy atmosphere that hung over the expedition, the Great Saintess painfully came to realize the inadequacy of her power.

“Ah...” She couldn't believe the impact of a single person's absence. “If only... if only I was stronger.”

The Transcendent-Class members were generally eccentric, but the Great Saintess and the Sword Saint were incredibly self-sacrificing individuals.

Aris came up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and consoling, “Don't say that. If it weren't for you, most of us would be dead already.”

Of course, she was able to protect some people. In fact, a significant number of higher-level knights had survived thanks to her power. But alas, she couldn’t protect everyone perfectly.

“Still... the destination feels closer than we thought.”

Aris, gripping her holy sword tightly, sensed a massive aura of power not far away. The resistance grew fiercer, yet even though what they sensed was a considerable presence, it didn’t seem like the high-ranking imps were fully engaging yet.

“Our goal’s right in front of us! The awakening site is closer than expected. Once that guy finishes its awakening, we'll have to face the nine imp leaders and the Imp Lord.”

No matter how fatal Aris’s power was to the imps, they’d be instantly surrounded and torn apart the moment the awakening finished.

They had to stop it before it was too late.

“Let's move out, Aris.”

“Okay...”

The predicted awakening was still a long way off, but that was only for the imp head. She couldn’t predict how long the Imp Lord’s awakening would take. Therefore, they tried to quickly regroup and enter.

The surviving members of the expedition quickly finished their preparations at the base camp and resumed their advance.

Enemies kept popping up to interfere. Unfortunately, the numbers and resistance quickly grew fiercer despite the short distance, and more and more knights went down. They wanted to push forward like they’d originally planned, even if it meant stepping over their comrades’ corpses, and so pressed on, biting back their sorrow.

Once they reached their destination, only six knights remained standing. Fortunately, the two Transcendent-Class members and three from Aris’s party remained.

They had suffered all that damage in... less than a single day.

Looking around, they saw a massive altar with a gargantuan egg resting on it.

“That's... the Imp Lord?”

The expedition was speechless.

The gigantic, perilous-looking egg, surrounded by imp leaders standing in place like statues, sent chills down their spines.

Of course, as soon as the expedition entered, some of the monsters and imps began to move once more. It seemed to be a form of self-defense ingrained in their bodies. Yet, only a few of the leaders managed to exit their motionless trance.

“Indeed... most of the imp leaders can’t fight! This is a chance we won't ever have again. Hero Aris, reserve your strength.” The Sword Saint wrapped up his cracked beloved sword and took out a spare. “We'll open the path for you, even if it costs us our lives.”

“Great Saintess, he asks for your support.”

“You can rely on me...” When she responded with a firm expression, the higher-level knights nodded in agreement.

Their goal was to clear a path for the hero’s party to reach the Imp Lord’s egg. They doubted they could defeat the imp leaders, but they had to make the impossible happen.

“GRRRAAAHHH!!!”

When an imp leader spread its massive, rock-hard wings and flew up, dozens of nearby mutated high-level monsters surged toward the expedition at once. The Sword Saint took a deep breath and charged forward without further hesitation.

Despite their qualifications as Transcendent-Class fighters, he and the Great Saintess’s conditions were anything but good. In fact, some of the higher-level knights were already showing symptoms of the beruul curse.

Even though they'd chosen people with high resistance, the concentration of the curse so deep proved dense beyond their expectations, spreading even faster.

Clang!!

A powerful Aura Blade clashed, blocking one of the imp leaders from approaching.

At the same time, the members of the hero party quickly dove through the opening they had created.

Inside the half-translucent egg rested a monster that looked like an imp from their bible. They couldn’t let that thing wake up. They had to destroy it.

Aris, smile already solemnly wiped from her face, shouted, “I’m counting on you!”

The imp leader hurriedly turned to block her advance.

They were also desperate for survival.

But.

“Hey. Where are you looking?”

Crack!!

No matter how much stronger the imp leader was, the prowess of a Transcendent-Class mercenary wasn’t something they could dismiss. The imp leader tried to drive off the troublesome members of the expedition and protect its king, but it couldn't stop the warriors who threw themselves at it without regard for their lives.

Two knights quickly fell victim to its attacks during the assault. But thanks to their sacrifice, the Sword Saint, boosted by the Great Saintess and her buff, managed to leave a large wound on the imp’s tough wings.

It wasn't fatal since it lacked the power of a hero, but the wound was definitely a significant hindrance.

At the same time, monsters appeared in front of the hero’s party. Two additional imp leaders had emerged.

The number of mutated monsters frozen during the Imp Lord’s awakening didn't increase, but the situation became serious with the sudden appearance of two imp leaders.

“Aris. We'll clear the way for you,” Girul said as he and Mary activated the power they received from her. “This fight is our victory if we’re able to take out the Imp Lord! Don't forget that. Our purpose here is to assist you.”

Mary nodded in agreement. “I feel like it’s not far from awakening, so we don’t have much time! They must be desperate, too.

Aris wanted to scream that there was no way that was going to happen, but the egg's heartbeat became louder before she could even open her mouth.

They'd already lost Ballin—their priest, comrade, and friend—to an imp leader. She simply couldn't accept the insane idea of leaving those two monsters to just her two remaining companions.

However, she also couldn't say no.

Aris clenched her teeth so hard it felt like they’d shatter. Still, she soon left the charging Girul and supporting Mary behind, diving toward the egg that was barely ten meters away.

Naturally, the imp leads tried to prioritize blocking Aris, but the might Girul and Mary exuded was enough to tie up their feet.

Slash!!

In return, Girul had to pay the price of having one of his arms cut off. He nonetheless solemnly shouted, “Go!!!”

Aris held back her tears and wrapped a white glow around her sword. Then, she fiercely lunged toward the Imp Lord's egg and swung her sword.

[Flash Sword Trajectory]

[Single Strike Lightning]

Her ultimate strike, fatal to imps and mutated monsters, struck the translucent egg.

Crack!!!

The egg instantly began to crack under the pressure. Her attack was effective!

Yet, it wasn’t long before her expression darkened. She felt that her power hadn't been the reason the egg cracked.

Boom!!

An invisible shockwave abruptly flung her back, and she tumbled away, rolling several times.

“Aargh.Cough.”

Aris writhed in pain, unable to breathe from the horrific agony. She could do nothing but watch as the crack in the egg grew larger, and the massive imp that had been sleeping slowly opened its eyes and shattered the egg completely.

She had not broken the egg. Just before her attack, it had finished its awakening.

The Imp Lord slowly emerged. The power it emanated was terrifyingly dense and dark.

“The prophecy! When the Imp Lord descends upon this land... the apocalypse will begin.”

Those who had fought the imp leaders until their bodies were covered in wounds stared at the awakened Imp Lord with hollow faces.

Thud. Boom!!!

At the same time, an invisible force brutally pressed most of the already-dying expedition into the ground.

The Sword Saint groaned, unable to believe that he could be so overwhelmingly suppressed, even with his wounds and fatigue. “Cough. What kind of power is this...”

He saw the knights instantly turning black as the beruul curse intensified, and he also sensed a change in him and the Great Saintess. The same was true for the members of the hero’s party. Even they, who were practically immune to the beruul curse, began to show dark symptoms all over their bodies.

“Is the Imp Lord’s curse somehow on an entirely different level from all the others?”

Unlike Aris, who stood dazed but curse-free having lost all will to fight, the rest of the expedition couldn't even withstand the pressure and slowly perished.

Finally, the Imp Lord slowly moved. It grabbed a single motionless imp’s head before swallowing it whole.

Then, it grinned at Aris.

It had the look of a hunter toying with its prey.

“G-G-Great Saintess!” Just then, Aris, still trembling with fear, managed to shout, “I’m going to use Final Light!”

She had grown up hearing about Final Light. It was an ultimate power that burned a hero's strength and soul to purify an entire area. Naturally, the price was steep—the hero’s soul would be torn to shreds.

“We've lost...”

Those who finally realized their defeat were solemn.

“Since I’m going to die anyway, I might as well kill something before I go,” one knight shouted. “If I can become the stepping stone for the next generation of heroes to slay that monster, I’ll gladly die!”

The two transcendent mercenaries also nodded.

The Great Saintess softly said to Aris, “We're sorry, Hero. We at least wanted to send you out alive.”

Aris offered a bitter smile at her words, then turned to her companions. “I’m sorry, Girul and Mary.”

“Don't say such a thing,” Girul said with a wry smile. “You're the one who will suffer the most.”

They would merely be caught in the area of purification and vanish, while Aris and her soul would be shattered to pieces.

The pain would be indescribable.

Mary weeped as she looked at her best friend. “We're sorry, Aris. We put too much of a burden on you.”

The Imp Lord slowly approached, coming to stand before Aris. Its massive shadow engulfed her figure, as if to completely wipe out her light.

Finally, Aris, with a dignified posture, pointed her sword straight down and began to amplify her power, ready to burn all the strength within her for one final move.

That was when it happened.

A crack formed in the space behind Aris, which had been darkened by the shadow. It was as if a ray of light had merged with her own fading light, causing the darkness around her to shine brilliantly.

Then, someone’s finger poked through the gap and began to forcefully tear open the void, as if pulling open a solidly locked sliding door.

“I promised, didn’t I?”

He had promised to protect everyone.

‘You have no idea how furious I am that I couldn't protect everyone.’