CH.739 Thoughts of the Hero’s Party in the Past
With the fight over, Kanata headed for Anastasia’s body. Well, more like the biggest chucks, as she was literally all over the room. The Hero’s final assault had thrown around enough force to cause winds to stir in the room, so the already spread out parts were even more spread out.
“Lucia!” He yelled. “Heal her!”
He didn’t even wait for the Saint to respond, or turn to see if she heard what he requested. Instead, he ran around the room, gathering every piece of Anastasia which he could pick up. Sadly plenty of her was atomized by Hajime’s touch, so there was a lot missing.
By the time he was finished, Lucia and Arcadia had gotten to their feet, and were slowly walking towards the body parts of the demon.
The two of them had heard her story plenty of times, but this was the first time they saw her. And even for the few seconds they did, they agreed with Kanata’s opinion of her.
She was the most beautiful person they’d ever seen. An ethereal beauty that could only belong to an angel.
Stories of angels and demons were told to them when they were children. How the System would send its angels to protect people when things were wrong.
These stories are what led the young Lucia to pray for one of these angels to appear. She had been born before a real war broke out between the Demon Lord and the rest of the world, but the stories were there. Stories of a great and powerful person who did whatever he wanted to gain more power. He would take people from their homes and twist them into his own forces.
Lucia had prayed for an angel to appear, to protect them from this ‘Demon Lord’. But, one never appeared. Not until he arrived. Not an angel like told in the stories, but just a man. Still, Lucia felt that he might be the one, and as a System Mission to assist him appeared before her, she knew he would be the one to end the threat.
He may not have been how stories described angels, but to Lucia, he was the closest thing to an angel she believed she’d ever see.
So when he, a person who was basically an angel, told her about the one he believed to be an angel, she didn’t believe him. How could she? The one he described was no angel. They were a demon. Just another troop of the Demon Lord, like the blood sucking vampires were. There is no way a demon could be any better.
That was so childish. She realized that now as she looked at the pieces of the demon. No. The pieces of an angel. She was the angel sent to protect them. Even if she looked like a demon, she acted like an angel. And she gave her life for them.
Lucia knew she wouldn’t be able to do it. She had resurrected people before, but she had limits.
A stab through the heart, a decently easy fix. A cut off leg which caused someone to bleed out, she could fix that. Even a victim of a vampire, some who had lost all of their blood and had been left as a husk, she could fix.
But there were limits. If they didn’t have enough of their body mass, she wouldn’t be able to heal them. She figured that out when a man had been brought to her. When he arrived, he was still alive, but lacked both of his arms and legs, having been ripped off by a monster serving a vampire lord, one of the lieutenants of the Demon Lord. He passed away before she could heal him, and when she attempted to heal his dead body, preparing him for resurrection, his body didn’t respond to the healing.
The other limit was the head. Minor injuries to the head she could heal, but crushed skulls she could do nothing about. She had seen many people with their heads crushed, and she had to leave them behind, as there was nothing she could do.
Kanata told her that is because she couldn’t heal their ‘brains’. It wasn’t something she had been taught about, but Kanata knew of them, so he told her about it. It was the place that hosted the person’s soul. Everything that makes them them is held there. But her magic couldn’t heal major damage to the brain.
So she knew she couldn’t do anything to save this demon. But she tried anyway. She knew this demon had saved her. Saved them. She remembered it. The moment when the Demon Lord touched her. She knew it happened. She didn’t know what it did, but based on the room and the body of this demon, she could imagine. She was like this demon was. She and Arcadia both. But somehow she healed them.
And if the demon. No, the Angel. If the Angel could do it, she could as well.
She tried and tried. She tried to have Arcadia assist her. She tried everything within her power, their power. … but it wasn’t enough.
They managed to put her mostly back together. Her body was in one piece, though it still lacked most of her arms and legs, only being short stumps. Her face was also broken. Empty eye sockets where her golden eyes had shone. A nose missing. A deformed mouth with no teeth. And her long white hair was no more like individual strands.
Worst of all was the inside of her head. Lucia had felt healthy brains. She had felt damaged brains. She had fixed ones with minor damage.
But with this angel, there was none of it left. It had been splattered across the room, and no matter what she tried, Lucia could not create a new one for her.
Thus, no matter how many times she tried, the angel would not wake up. She was gone.
She turned to face the hero, with tears in her eyes. She didn’t need to say it. He knew from just the look. Anastasia was gone and there was nothing they could do.
“Brian, a question.” Lua said. “How do you know all of that?”
“Simple. Soul Magic. Well, all of that is a skill, but it originates from a Soul Magic spell. I basically read their emotions and intentions. I did it for all of them for the entire time I was following them.” I answered. “Eventually I got the Mind Reading skill and used it in combination, adding these sections in when needed. Makes for a better story.” I explained.
“... Yes, it does.” Lua agreed, seeing how the person she was named after acted.
Arcadia wasn’t sure how to feel. She had never seen this demon before today. Of course she had heard about her, and she believed Kanata wouldn’t lie. But maybe she wasn’t as amazing as he said.
No. She was more amazing. Arcadia knew that for a fact. She had seen it.
Kanata had been teleported away by the Demon Lord. She never even considered he could do that, but she should have. They saw his Dungeon Terminal on his arm. She knew some dungeons could teleport their masters and founders, as long as they were inside the dungeon. The Demon Lord had used that very ability to teleport away from the surface.
So who is to say there wasn’t a dungeon that could teleport an invader. She just never considered it. The Hero’s sword should have made it impossible. But now she knew. It only protected him from what the Demon Lord could do, not from what the dungeon could do.
When Kanata was teleported away from them, Arcadia believed she and Lucia would be fine. They had been fighting well up until that point. But as soon as Kanata disappeared, she felt herself weakened. Not a major drop, but enough to affect her.
It took her just a second to realize why. Kanata’s sword. It had boosted their Strength and Magic stats, making them more powerful. But now Kanata wasn’t here. They were no longer boosted by his sword.
She did as much as she could, but the Demon Lord was stronger. He casted magic faster and his spells were more powerful. Using her Unique Skill, Arcadia tried to defend herself and Lucia, just long enough that Kanata would get back to them. She knew he was coming, she could feel his mana from here.
But she wasn’t strong enough. Her barriers wavered and she saw as the Demon Lord touched Lucia. How she died, her body exploding where she stood.
It caused her to flinch, her barrier fully dropping. And then the Demon Lord came at her.
She didn’t know what happened after that, as the next thing she knew, she was laying on the ground. She just about heard some words being exchanged between the Demon Lord and someone whom she didn’t recognize by voice. She turned her head to see a … demon.
She was a demon, right? Descriptions of demons matched up with how she appeared. But more importantly, she was the demon. The one from Kanata’s tales. She was the demon who gave Kanata his sword.
Arcadia quickly felt her body. She assumed she would be injured, but as she felt herself, she noticed that she was in perfect health. But when she attempted to move, she felt slow. As if the world was restricting how quickly she could move.
She heard the final words from the demons, no, from Anastasia’s mouth.
“Let’s end this, Hero.” The demon said, as the Demon Lord rushed at her, touched her and splattered her across the room.
Kanata dispatched the Demon Lord in his anger, leaving only chunks of him remaining. Then he gathered what he could of Anastasia, asking Lucia to put her back together.
Arcadia knew it was impossible. For them. If the demon herself was still alive, she knew they could do it. That demon had done it. And not just once but twice. She had resurrected both of them.
Arcadia didn’t know how or why. She didn’t understand the demon. She never could. That demon. Powerful enough to resurrect two people who really should have been gone. And to do so while also having to hold back the Demon Lord. That shouldn’t be possible.
But she had done it.
So how could she not save herself?
Kanata was angry. Angry at this world. Angry at himself. Mad even.
He was careless. He should have used all of his power from the start. Not let the Demon Lord heal himself after each injury. But Kanata didn’t think that way.
Kanata could use Appraisal, so naturally he had appraised the Demon Lord. That is how he learned his name. Hajime Maō. A Japanese person, like he was. He knew it had to be so. Yes the elves of this world had Japanese names, but Anastasia had told him. Told him that Hajime was born a human. So he must be like he is. Someone who reincarnated, but instead of using their powers for good, they used it for their own selfish desires.
Still, Kanata didn’t want to kill him. That person must have a reason for doing what they did. Kanata wanted to exhaust him, not kill him. He knew the weakness of the Demon Lord’s ‘build’. He had many, many powerful abilities. But each of them needed an ever increasing amount of mana. So as long as they could force him to use all of his mana, they’d win. Arcadia could then strip his skills, turning them into skill orbs, while Lucia could drain his power into experience potions.
They could take him in, without killing him. And he could question him on everything.
But he was wrong. He underestimated the determination of Hajime Maō. He realized that as soon as he was teleported away.
He appeared on the surface, by the army he left there. They were surprised to see him and tried to ask questions, but he didn’t have the time to answer.
He shot back towards the castle, breaking through a few walls on his way to the dungeon entrance. Then through the dungeon itself. Luckily his Heroic Instincts guided him down the right path.
He arrived in the core room of the dungeon, only to see the impossible. The demon he had met on one of his first days in this world. An otherworlder, like him and the Demon Lord. Anastasia.
She was here. But why? She said she couldn’t oppose the Demon Lord. So why was she here?
“Let’s end this, Hero.” Her voice snapped Kanata out of his thoughts and he focused on the Demon Lord. But it was already too late.
He saw him move, and normally he would have been fast enough to intercept him. But he was off balance, his legs still in the position he had stopped in after his mad dash back to this room. He knew he couldn’t make it. But he tried.
He put as much Strength and Mana into his legs as he could, flickering forwards at speeds even higher than he used during his charge back to this room. But he still wasn’t fast enough.
Hajime laid his hand on Anastasia, and she splattered. Her blood and guts thrown around the room, including onto his face.
And from that point, all Kanata saw was red. Maybe it was the blood, maybe it was something else, but it didn’t matter. He had wanted to save Hajime Maō, but now he knew better. There was nothing left to save. He had just killed an otherworlder. Someone like them. He deserved death.
So Kanata cut him down. Sliced him over and over again. He didn’t stop until he was sure there was nothing left. No piece large enough that the Demon Lord could heal himself.
He then gathered what he could of Anastasia, asking Lucia to heal her. He knew it was impossible. In his heart he knew that. But he had to try. Anything to save her. She had given everything to save the world. So much more than he ever could.
He remembered her promise. “And I won’t forget you, Kanata Otehon. Even if the whole world does, for me, you are always the Hero who promised to Save the World.” That promise repeated in his head.
And he made his own promise. He would make sure the world wouldn’t forget her. She was the True Hero. The Prideful Demon who was the symbol of Victory.
Sadly the Hero wouldn’t be able to keep that promise. Because the person behind Anastasia was very much alive, and he couldn’t have her remembered. After all, in the future he knew, she was forgotten. Only to be remembered as a succubus-like demon who gave the Hero his holy sword.