The Heroes Who Executed Me Are Obsessed With Me

After that, I don't remember much.

Clay madly cut, tore, and blew up the circuits. In the process, his body was injured by the circuits that stretched out as if in a final struggle, but he never stopped.

The circuits, whose master without a proper body had weakened, were already losing their power. The one that pierced Tia was as good as the last of its strength.

—Stop! I said stop!

Elhaen's cry was heard. He, who had become a being with nowhere to go, was heard screaming in a terrible voice.

But Clay did not listen. He just smashed the circuits that maintained the existence of Elhaen a little more.

"Your Majesty...!"

The demons, who had been staring blankly at him, also lent their strength to getting rid of the circuits. They destroyed, crushed, and broke them together.

—Sto... p. Chapters fırst released on N0veI.Fiɾe.net

The voice grew faint. Clay also staggered. Due to his severe injuries, he could no longer move properly.

"Keo, heok."

In the end, his breath was cut off, and he collapsed in his spot.

"Your Majesty!"

Syltanaro came to his side and held him.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

His mind grew distant. Clay looked ahead. The circuits were in tatters, and Elhaen's voice had become incredibly faint.

Was this victory?

All the demons looked at the scene unfolding right in front of them in silence. But none of them let out a cheer.

Because the Demon King, Clay, was lying there, looking like he was about to die.

"Syltanaro."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Did we win?"

Syltanaro could not answer that question. Because Elhaen's existence still remained.

"Clay."

Athanasia, who had approached him, said.

"I'll take care of this."

"Athanasia?"

"Even if we've trapped him here, he's not just any god."

She swallowed dryly.

"There will be an immense explosion of power when we try to annihilate him."

It meant it was dangerous to be here. Clay let out a hollow laugh.

"I have to… avoid it?"

Elhaen had ruined everything of his. He had shattered his life, his story. And yet, was he not even allowed to watch the end?

He carefully turned his gaze. Nael and Yuru were collapsed. They had been running so wild.

Tia was sitting on the floor, her head bowed. He couldn't even tell if she was still breathing.

"......"

Clay himself couldn't explain what he was feeling right now. But one thing was certain.

"I wish it hadn't been."

His face contorted as much as it could.

"The end of my story."

When he first became the Hero, he was filled with joy. He believed that at the end of a bright future, those who had been with him all along would be standing by his side, smiling.

And yet,

"Why in the world."

Tears flowed down his cheeks.

"Why."

No matter how much he pretended to be calm, no matter how much he pretended not to be, in the end, he couldn't erase the feelings of the boy who had started all of this.

That pain was something he could not shake off, no matter what.

"...Clay."

At that moment, Tia's voice was heard.

Clay's eyes widened.

Tia was lifting her head, her body trembling.

"This."

She extended her hand. As if to give something.

In it was a green light. Clay barely managed to get up and head there.

It was a key. A key shining with a green light.

"It's the power, the World Tree, gave me."

The power to grow.

The source of the power that had given birth to the World Tree.

"I wanted… to give it to you."

The power that could have saved her from a fatal wound if she had used it herself.

"Please, in overcoming your suffering, even a little..."

She couldn't speak anymore. Clay just looked at her.

Then, he slowly reached out and took the key in his hand.

At the same time, she stopped moving.

"......"

Clay just looked at such a Tia. Without a word. Unable to do anything.

Then he turned back.

"I… will do it."

He decided to execute Elhaen himself.

"Everyone, retreat, from here."

Whether Elhaen exploded or he took him down with him, it no longer mattered to him.

"I..."

『Clay.』

A voice was heard.

『The halo.』

The halo? Clay reflexively looked towards where Yuru was. The halo was above her head.

When Clay approached and took it in his hand, it disappeared as if melting away.

『The power that comes out when Elhaen is annihilated is not just buried in destruction.』

For some reason, the tone was incredibly benevolent. To the point where he wondered if it was the same Crea he had met before.

『It will be, a single chance.』

A single chance.

What could that mean?

『Ask Syltanaro, Athanasia, and Selimia to place their hands on you.』

An instruction he couldn't understand. However,

"Syltanaro, Selimia, Athanasia."

As if possessed, he called the three of them and had them hold onto him.

"Ah."

In that moment, his eyes widened.

『Yes, now you understand.』

He was feeling the power of the ancient gods. Omniscience, Blood, Eternity, Immortality, Creation, and something else.

『Don't you think there should be one more basis for a god?』

That was,

『A holy body.』

A vessel that can contain a divine being.

『You are a being who can gather us all together.』

The fate of a vessel.

But that wasn't just about giving one's body to someone.

『You, can choose with our power.』

The one and only ending that could be chosen with the power of the ancient gods, by imbuing the power generated from annihilating Elhaen with the power of birth given by the World Tree.

『Clay.』

The voice said.

『After a long and arduous history, you, a human, have come to lead the demons and face the end in the place of one of us.』

A strange and strange thing.

『Perhaps this was, your true destiny.』

If he was a divine being born in this world, and had reappeared as a human despite being sealed by Elhaen,

『Can we entrust it to you?』

Crea asked.

That question was also heard by those who had their hands on Clay. To Syltanaro who held Blood in her bosom, to the immortal Athanasia, and to the eternal Selimia.

—Don't talk, nonsense.

And to Elhaen, who was crawling wretchedly within the circuits.

—You are the one who made it this way. All you can do is to despair and suffer.

He now cursed Clay.

—You won't be able to forgive anyway.

As if to say that even if he made a different choice, he wouldn't be able to handle it.

—Can you make it as if it never happened? All of this!

He probably couldn't. Clay knew all too well that his own nature was not so holy.

Nevertheless,

"To struggle, is to be human."

No matter what name and rank he was given, he was still human.

"You should know that best, Elhaen."

A being who, even if weak and messy, ends up begging for another ending.

"I will live as a wretched being like you."

Even if he regretted and despaired, if he thought that pain was better than the story now.

In an instant, threads appeared on Clay's body as he walked forward. Those threads connected with Syltanaro, Athanasia, and Selimia.

—What...

A halo appeared above Clay's head.

—That can't be. It can't be anyway. I created you. I...!

Clay did not answer. He just walked and stopped at the place where the center of Elhaen was felt. Pushing everyone away with his hand, Clay moved his gaze.

There was the collapsed Beatrice. He lowered his gaze again.

—I said I created you! I did!

"Elhaen."

Clay said to Elhaen, who was shouting and shouting and shouting again.

"I'm not grateful at all."

A life where he was born, wandered, lived the life of a Hero, gained a brilliant relationship that could not be described, and then died a glorious death.

He had just been running, fell, and ran again, and found himself here.

Clay looked around.

The gazes directed at him.

He let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

"Now, it's done."

He had done as much as he could. Anything more was not in the plan. Unlike Elhaen, Clay just decided to throw everything into the unknown.

Towards what might be his true destiny.

—Stop. Stop. Stooooop!

Clay's hand fell upon Elhaen's existence.

A key was inserted there.

Elhaen's existence was shattered, and the circuits broke and scattered. And with an explosion, everything was shattered into pieces.

In the scattering vision, Clay saw a cluster of light as brilliant as a rainbow. Something he couldn't explain what it was.

'The past.'

Perhaps it was the brilliant scene he had seen as a child.

***

♧

The wind blew.

At the moderately felt warmth, Clay carefully opened his eyes. It seemed to have hurt a lot, but now his body felt light.

Saaaaa.

Hearing the sound of the wind blowing once more, he got up from his spot. He brushed off the grass from his head without realizing it and then realized. The fact that the halo above his head was gone.

Where had he come to?

Had he been sent flying by the power of omniscience that could send him anywhere? He asked inwardly, but there was no answer from Crea either.

As if everything had been used up and disappeared together.

He slowly started to walk. The incredibly peaceful scene was so strange it felt out of place. However, it was not unfamiliar.

As if remembering something, he continued to move. Then he found a single tree. A familiar tree.

"Ah."

Only after seeing that tree did Clay look down at himself. Starting from his hands, which should have had calluses.

But for some reason, his body looked tender. There was a puddle of water under the tree, so he looked down into it.

And he froze.

He stood there for a long time. As if he had no intention of moving, just blankly.

"Clay~!"

Then, at the voice he heard at some point, his eyes widened. And he lifted his head. From far away, with the sunlight at their back, someone was running over.

"I've been looking for you for a long time!"

As if chiding, but with a look of great anxiety, Clay held his breath as he looked at her. Blonde hair and blue eyes. The young girl of the past, who should only exist in his memories.

"Clay?"

She was tilting her head, looking at Clay.

"Are you okay?"

"......"

What should he explain?

If he had reached a place he couldn't go to again. If he was now starting everything over from a point in history where Elhaen did not exist.

"Clay."

She opened her mouth.

"I won't say thank you or sorry."

However, she was different from the her who only existed in the past.

"Because I don't know what this means."

Had he brought everyone? Even Clay himself didn't know what had happened.

"Still, if this is the story Clay chose."

She said, with a face completely ruined by tears.

"Will you show me how the end of the story is different?"

Life goes around and around. Following choices that even one cannot be sure of.

But sometimes, there were times when certainty didn't matter.

Because sometimes, you just want to know what it was you wanted to see.

Clay looked ahead.

There would probably be numerous branches of existence that had returned here together. The numerous branches that might become a mess.

He took a step forward towards her. Towards the wheel that might be another mire, but had escaped from someone's plan.

On his face, as his lips quivered, the wind was caught slightly and bent upwards.

< The End >