Chapter 191 : Sacrifice (7)
Sacrifice (7)
The rough, ragged breathing resounded dully in his head.
"Haa... Haa..."
Iridescent blood of demonkin dripped from Ian's cheeks and chin.
All around him, the golden generals that had served as the Grand Duke's guard were heaped up in piles, butchered like slabs of meat.
And in the middle of that mound of corpses—
Clutched tightly in Ian's hands, the jet-black greatsword Vladiark was sunk deep in the center of the Grand Duke of Pride Lucifer's solar plexus.
"... Remarkable. Truly astounding."
Lucifer, even with a sword driven into his chest, oozed golden blood from his lips and smiled arrogantly.
There was no sign of pain—only a look of wonder on his face.
"One who has pierced my chest... Not a single soul has done so in thousands of years. Insignificant creature—I shall grant you the rare privilege of speaking your name."
The Grand Duke's gaze was still cast down as if staring at all things beneath his feet.
Ian looked up at the Grand Duke, his eyes full of frigid contempt.
"I don't need a name from the likes of a vermin."
― KWAAAJIK!
Ian twisted the hilt of Vladiark with brutal force.
"Kh...!"
Lucifer's brow furrowed slightly.
"You have skill, but your judgment borders on idiocy."
Lucifer clicked his tongue and sneered.
The vitality of a Grand Duke of the demon realm, who possessed a demigod's stature, would not be extinguished just because his heart was pierced.
The one truly holding the other's lifeline was not Ian, with the sword in Lucifer's chest, but rather the Grand Duke, who looked down at Ian from such close range, able to turn him to ashes at any moment.
But then—
"... Hm?"
Lucifer's golden pupils trembled for an instant.
Dozens of grotesque tendrils extended from within the greatsword impaling his chest, wriggling out and burrowing through his body.
Only then did he realize that those tendrils were extending through his mana circuits, taking root everywhere, and greedily sucking in his supreme, condensed demonic energy like a whale.
—SHUAAAAAA!
"What is this?"
"You've finally noticed?"
Perhaps because Lucifer's mana was so vast, it had taken a while for Vladiark's effect to be felt.
"But...it's too late."
The process of Vladiark draining power was already accelerating.
—SHUAAAAAA!
"You little...!"
Lucifer's once-proud face twisted in an instant.
He immediately grasped the blade of Vladiark with both hands, trying to wrench it from his chest.
― CRACK! CRACKLE!
"Khhaaaah...!"
But that resistance only served to further provoke Vladiark's predatory instinct.
The more Lucifer tried to pull the sword free by drawing on his demonic energy, the deeper and wider Vladiark's tendrils spread, devouring his power with gluttonous hunger.
"Just quietly disappear like this...! Pride!"
Ian clamped his legs around the Grand Duke's waist and drove Vladiark in even deeper.
"Kh... Khaaaaaah!!"
Pain the likes of which he had never known in his life—a sensation of his soul being erased.
Even the demigod Grand Duke of Pride could not withstand it, unleashing a beastly scream.
"A lowly creature dares to...!"
Rage blazing in his eyes, Lucifer seized Ian's head in his massive golden hand.
― CRUNCH!
"Guh...!"
A grip so powerful that it felt his skull would be crushed instantly.
The sound of bone twisting rang mercilessly in Ian's ears.
—SPLAT!
Moments later, Lucifer's thumb, slick with blood, mercilessly gouged into Ian's left eye.
"Kkhhh...!"
His optic nerve was mangled, the vitreous humor burst, turning half his vision pitch-black.
Agony like his brain was being dug out with a hot iron slammed through Ian's body.
"Ghhhhh!!"
Yet Ian did not back down an inch.
If he faltered for even a breath, the chance to pierce the heart of a demigod would never come again.
Even if half his head exploded here, he had to finish this bastard for good, here and now.
"Khhhhh...!!"
"GAAAAAAAH!"
Blood tears streaming from his ruined eye, Ian clenched his teeth so hard they nearly shattered as he pushed down on Vladiark's hilt.
—SQUELCH!
― CRUNCH!
Soon, the greatsword burst out completely through the Grand Duke's back.
"Ugh... Guhaaah!"
Golden blood gushed from Lucifer's blue lips.
A sense of violation from being impaled by a hunk of iron.
A hideous humiliation he had never experienced in thousands of years.
"Khhh...!"
The fact that the divine vessel he nurtured to reach godhood had been penetrated by a mere creature—this tore Lucifer's pride and reason to shreds.
Unbearable shame erupted like a volcano, turning his mind white with rage.
"How dare you...!"
Lucifer wrenched at Ian's skull with both hands.
― CRUNCH!
"Gaaaah!"
Ian's face was mercilessly crushed and twisted.
—RUMBLE!
Lucifer aimed to pour his demonic energy like a thunderbolt through Ian's blasted eye socket and blow out his head.
This lowly, insolent creature would never withstand the supreme demonic energy of the Grand Duke—he would melt instantly.
"Begone! Creature!!!"
How dare you touch me—die in agony, regretting your sins down to your soul's last dregs!
—SHUUUUUU!
However—
"Ha... Haa..."
Far from exploding, Ian's breath soon calmed.
"... What?"
Lucifer's blazing eyes widened.
"... How can this be?!"
For the first time in his life, the Grand Duke of Pride let slip a gasp of bewilderment.
The demonic energy he poured into Ian like a waterfall settled stably in Ian's dantian.
"It's useless...!"
― CRUNCH!
"Kghhhh!!"
Demon-Infused Constitution.
A body with absolute immunity to all curses and demonic energy.
No matter how much demonic power the Grand Duke poured in, as long as it carried a curse, it was meaningless to Ian.
On the contrary, it only served as nourishment.
"... Why! How can such a thing—such a being exist...!"
Even in his shock, Lucifer did not relax his grip in the slightest.
Instead, he squeezed out every last bit of demonic energy, twisting, intent on crushing Ian's skull.
"Khhaaaa...!"
But the harder he squeezed, the weaker his grip became.
Ian was neither tainted by demonic energy nor had his head crushed by the Grand Duke's strength.
"Such a being..."
Soon, the Grand Duke's confusion transformed into a bitter, despairing helplessness.
To think the power he was so proud of, on the cusp of ascension, could not even burst a single human's body.
The mere fact that he, who regarded mortals as insects, struggled so pathetically was an affront to his pride.
And for the Grand Duke of Pride, that pride was his very identity—the root of his existence.
In this moment, it was truly as if his soul's heart had been pierced.
"... I see. So that's what it is."
Lucifer slowly let go of Ian's head.
Then, looking at Ian, he let out a hollow laugh.
Ian, his breath tinged with blood, spoke.
"You accept it? Your defeat?"
Lucifer nodded slowly.
"Yes. It is my defeat."
But in the golden eyes of the man facing death, there still flickered unbroken pride.
"However, I did not lose to a creature like you. No, I lost, having been fooled by the despicable schemes of my five—or rather, six—siblings."
"... What?"
"Did you think this would be the end, creature?"
Lucifer raised both arms to the sky.
"I too was but a sacrifice for the demon realm's descent."
—KUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGU!!!
"What... Khh...!"
As his very existence began to collapse, Lucifer unleashed a vast storm of demonic energy upon the world.
― KWAAAAAA!
"Kh—Kh!"
It was a storm that rivaled the explosion of a star.
No matter how much power Ian possessed, it was impossible for him to endure such overwhelming force.
"Aaargh!"
Eventually, Ian was flung aside, crashing down atop the shattered fragments of earth.
― CLATTER! THUD!
"Ugh—guhaah...!"
His limbs fractured, his ribs and spine battered without mercy.
His organs ruptured.
"Khhhhh...!"
Staggering, Ian forced himself to his feet.
As soon as he restored his sight with the Authority of Projection's elixir, the first thing he checked was the spot where Lucifer had fallen.
"He's gone."
Lucifer's body had vanished without a trace, leaving only a massive crater.
But the dense demonic energy he had scattered was far from gone.
Ian looked up at the sky, where that tremendous power emanated.
"... Dear god."
A dazed sigh spilled from his lips.
The sky was torn to shreds.
Massive, ghastly fissures covered the heavens.
And beyond those cracks, rather than the blue sky of this world, there blazed the blood-red sky of the demon realm, laid open for all to see.
And from that scarlet abyss—
—GOOOOOOOOOO!!
The dreadful presence of five entities was slowly descending.
"Ah..."
Lust.
Gluttony.
Wrath.
Envy.
Greed.
The destroyers of the demon realm.
"... Shit..."
A curse grated from Ian's lips.
Overwhelming despair gazed down upon the world.
'This is—We're truly fucked.'
Even one alone was a foe to gamble one's life on—and now, five appeared at once.
'How did it come to this...?'
He had done everything to prevent this outcome from being repeated.
He thought by cutting out the roots of the great sin cult early, he'd gain much more time before facing the grand dukes of the demon realm.
'Haa... Damn. I completely miscalculated.'
Eradicating the great sin cult had actually greatly hastened the grand dukes' descent.
Still—
'I can complain later. My limbs are still attached, aren't they?'
His resolve remained unbroken.
From the start, the enemy was the pinnacle of another plane—the grand dukes of the demon realm.
No matter how he approached, there never would have been an easy way to defeat them.
'At the very least, I can buy time.'
Ian was currently stronger than Yuria in her previous life, and now present-day Yuria had gone to call her father, the Heavenly Sword Lord.
If he could last until the Heavenly Sword Lord and his knight order arrived, there was hope of victory.
'Until then, it's all up to me.'
He had to do it now.
Even at the cost of his life.
If he failed, all his comrades gathered here would die as well.
"Let's do this."
― KWAAANG!
Ian firmly clenched Vladiark in his grip to keep it from being dropped.
A burning, ferocious resolve blazed in his eyes.
'From this moment on, I abandon the thought of survival.'
Just like the final war in his previous life.
Even if his entire body should be shattered to dust, he'd fight to the bitter end.
He would burn everything he had for this last stand.
― PAAAAAAA!
Soon, from the fingertips of the five grand dukes, five different colors of annihilation gathered and swirled.
'They're coming.'
Demonic energy so massive the word 'gigantic' felt inadequate.
A calamity like Jupiter descending upon the face of the earth.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
—PAAAAT!
Ian stomped upon the ground and hurled himself at the onrushing disaster.
"W-wait! Young master Ian!"
"Honored envoy! Don't!"
"Stop! You madman!"
Racing after him, Aris, Nayuta, the Noxcar blood kin, and the Sword Fiend reached desperately toward Ian, screaming.
But Ian did not look back.
― KWAAAAAAANG!
A blinding flash brighter than bleaching the world in white swallowed the battlefield.
Ian, eyes wide open, faced the oncoming destruction.
Soon, the agony of his bones liquefying and flesh burning would sweep over him.
But then—
"...?"
There was no impact.
No pain, no overwhelming weight pressed against Ian.
As if he was sheltered beneath a giant umbrella from the rain.
Within that searing radiance of doomsday—not unlike blindness—Ian squinted his eyes.
As his vision gradually cleared—
Before his eyes stood the broad back of a man—more steadfast than anything in this world—blocking the path.
The blazing sword light that man bore split the five grand dukes' doomsday harbingers perfectly in half.
"... Well done."
A familiar, affectionate voice—one he had not heard in a very long time.
"Heavenly Sword Lord...!"
Heavenly Sword Lord, Darkan Hisperion.
He turned to Ian and smiled softly.
"Look behind you."
"...!"
As the lord instructed, Ian turned around.
Hundreds, even thousands of colossal warp gates opened in unison like stars lighting up the night sky.
—WOOOOOOSH!
Beyond those gates poured forth a legion of swords.
The banners of Hisperion and the seven families upholding the Heavenly Sword Family fluttered, the six family heads and their knights' armor gleamed across the battlefield, and even sequestered elders from the branch families arrived, drawing their famed swords with overwhelming momentum.
Darkan once more faced the grand dukes of the demon realm and spoke to Ian.
"Well fought, Ian. You've endured magnificently."
With an authority that shook heaven and earth, the Heavenly Sword Lord declared,
"Now, leave the rest to me. Your father-in-law has arrived."