Kyaaaah—!
One of the two demons screamed and swung a hand at me.
Its swollen, demonized hand and claws were more than enough to smash anything they hit, so I leaned back to dodge, then charged straight at Ellen.
"Eleeen――!!!"
I was going to rip that disgusting woman limb from limb, but the other demon blocked my path and ruined it.
Kyaak—!
"Tch...!"
My current weapon was the curved sword, which wasn’t exactly ideal for fighting demons. And in [Lord of Cinder] mode, using fire didn’t help much either, since demons had high fire resistance.
With those two demons keeping Ellen covered, it looked better to switch weapons.
"Haa... Right. No need to obsess over the curved sword."
I cooled off my rage-hot head and swapped weapons.
The Black Knight Greatsword, the best weapon for dealing with demons.
That alone should be enough to grind those two demons into paste.
But if Ellen had prepared some countermeasure, then I’d go one step further.
Think.
Remember the days of pain.
Remember that hated time.
Drag up the memory of that day, filled with nothing but despair.
As I widened the crack in my mind, despair seeped through it and touched the essence of humanity.
Once touched, that essence turned into darkness and sank into my body, which meant I was becoming Hollow.
And then the dark soul buried within humanity awakened and spoke to me.
- Despair.
'Get lost. Like hell I'm going to despair!'
I'd already despaired more than enough. There was no way I was going to do it again in such a pathetic way.
Before the darkness in my heart could swallow me, I forced it under control and made it completely my own power.
"[King of the Dead]."
This was probably the best way to deal with demons.
*******
"[King of the Dead]."
When Hieta, who was fighting Ellen, murmured those words, his appearance began to change.
His hair lengthened and turned into something like a cloak, and the Black Knight Greatsword in his hand was swallowed by darkness before changing into a deep blackish-red.
"This is...!"
Seeing that, Ellen suddenly felt the urge to bow her head.
The other spirits, Shido, and even the members of [Fraxinus] observing from a distance felt the same.
"W-wahhh...!"
"Rio!?"
Rio, who hadn't cried even after seeing Tobiichi Origami's reversal, burst into tears at the sight of Hieta's transformed form.
"U-uncle...!"
"C-calm down."
Rinne kept patting Rio on the back to soothe her, but the crying wouldn't stop.
For Rio, who had such a strong heart, to start bawling in an instant.
It was the instinct engraved in their genes speaking.
Kneel.
Lower your head.
The king has come.
Show your loyalty.
Hieta, who should have been burning like kindling to light up the darkness of the night sky, now pressed down on the surroundings with that same presence, becoming even darker within the darkness.
His eyes held emptiness, and yet his vitality had not vanished.
Though he had become Hollow, he had not lost his reason. He was the king of humanity, and the king of the dead.
"Hoo... Yeah, never doing that again."
As Hieta muttered that, the two demons, sensing danger, spewed chaos fire and poison respectively.
Kyaaaak—!
Kyaooo—!
Claws wreathed in chaos fire swung at Hieta, while purple poison mist spread out behind them.
Vandersnatches and Ellen were in the middle of putting up barriers with [Territory] to block the poison.
In other words, Hieta alone was the one affected by the poison.
But his opponent was an undead who had faced countless powerful foes.
"What a load of crap."
Hieta, irritated by the filthy pattern he had experienced firsthand in Dark Souls 3, swung the blackish-red Black Knight Greatsword.
A simple vertical slash.
Its result was anything but simple.
BOOM—!
With a sound that shook heaven and earth, the demon’s arm that had swung the claws was cleanly severed, and the Vandersnatches lined up behind it vanished.
That wasn't even the end of it.
Whoosh—!
Kyaaaak—!
Hieta's hair whipped forward as if it had a will of its own and attacked the demon deep in the cavern.
That sharp strike carved a deep wound across the demon's chest, and from the injury, the chaos fire sustaining the demon's power dripped out in drops.
"Next."
Hieta looked at the wounded demon, searching for his next target.
Kyaoooooo—!
"Ugh, you're loud."
Frowning at the wounded demon's howl, Hieta took up the Black Knight Greatsword and set his stance.
Fwoosh—!
The wounded demon gathered chaos fire and, in a final struggle, wrapped its claws in it and flailed wildly.
But attacks only mattered if they actually landed.
They did no damage at all to Hieta, who had already taken stance and was slipping past the attacks.
"Rest in peace."
Shhk—!
The wounded demon's neck was cut clean off.
As Hieta looked at the fallen head, Ellen and the Vandersnatches simultaneously swung their swords at him.
Clang—!
"Tch!"
Hieta didn't dodge. He blocked them head-on, showing the difference in their level.
"You die today, Ellen. That's a settled fact."
"Don't talk nonsense!"
Ellen pushed her output even higher and attacked Hieta.
With Ellen putting everything she had into it for the first time in her life, it would have been hard for anyone to endure.
If her opponent hadn't been the king of the dead.
"You call that an attack?"
Grrrk—!
Hieta's strength, enhanced by Dark Souls, made the muscles in his arm swell.
Then, with explosive acceleration, the Black Knight Greatsword swung horizontally.
"Gahk!"
"See? I told you. Today's the day you die."
The force that had turned a combat-specialized spirit's attack into nothing was now being directed entirely at Ellen alone.
Blood burst from Ellen's mouth like a waterfall.
Even though she had barely managed to concentrate her barrier from [Territory] into a single point at the exact moment of impact, she still took that much damage.
'This is bad...!'
That was what Ellen thought.
She had dragged him into aerial combat, but he could fly using another spirit's power. And if she tried to keep up the swarm tactics, a monster with that much strength made it meaningless.
He couldn't even be taken hostage, since the opponent was all spirits.
There was no other way to say it: she had misread his strength.
"Damn it...! We're pulling back here!"
Realizing her mistake, Ellen used another Vandersnatch as a shield and retreated.
But just as she had thought a moment ago, her opponent was a terrifyingly powerful being.
There was no way something like a Vandersnatch could stop him.
"It's impressive that you thought something like this could stop me."
Watching the Vandersnatches rush toward him while activating self-destruct spells, Hieta muttered that and set his stance again.
Focus power and release it together.
Blackish-red energy gathered at the tip of the Black Knight Greatsword.
The flames of the curved sword spread across the ground and walls, so this was an attack the curved sword couldn't perform.
He gathered the power of the dark soul at the tip of the blade and swung. Dark flames spilled out and annihilated the Vandersnatch unit.
"Clean."
As Hieta looked at the Vandersnatches, all of them pierced through with holes, he felt some strange sense of satisfaction and was about to chase after Ellen when a grotesque roar echoed from behind him.
Kuooooooo—!
"Ah, right."
While Hieta was dealing with the Vandersnatches, the demon deep in the cavern and the wounded demon had merged into one demon.
Its name was the Demon Prince.
The remnant that had gathered all the chaos fire to the very end rose again and turned hostile toward Hieta.
Fwoosh—!
As the Demon Prince raised both hands, a chaos fireball formed above them.
Flames poured from the fireball and began raining down on Hieta.
"Annoying."
But that was all Hieta thought as he watched it.
He had already fought this enemy before, so there was no reason to fear it.
"Firepower against firepower. I'll show you the difference in strength."
By then, a [Witch]'s staff was already in Hieta's hand.
He activated its electricity, changed its form, and turned it into pyromancy flame.
Holding the flame above his burning hand, he extended it toward the Demon Prince and quietly named the spell.
"Pyromancy――[Black Flame]."
Dark flames burst from Hieta's hand and swallowed the Demon Prince whole.
Kueeeeeek—!
The Demon Prince screamed and writhed in agony as the dark-element flames burned through it.
It twisted violently as if trying to extinguish the fire and survive, but that only fed the kindling further, making the pain even worse.
To end that suffering, Hieta raised the Black Knight Greatsword.
"Sleep now."
Shhk—!
The Demon Prince met its death.
It had clearly been a strong enemy, but its opponent was even stronger, so it ended quickly.
Normally, he could have joined up with Shido at this point, but Hieta still had something left to do.
"I'm killing Ellen."
Having pinpointed exactly where Ellen had fled, Hieta lifted the Black Knight Greatsword and prepared a thrust.
Then his leg muscles bulged, he kicked off the air, and his body shot toward the direction Ellen had run.
Thud—!
"Gahk!"
In an instant, the Black Knight Greatsword stabbed into Ellen's body, and she spat out blood.
"Happy Death Day, Ellen."
Shk—!
As Hieta twisted and pulled the Black Knight Greatsword free, her innards spilled out and the life in Ellen's eyes gradually faded.
"Ah... Ick..."
Calling Isaac by his nickname was Ellen's final line.
As her body died, the CR-Unit that had been allowing Ellen to fly shut down.
And with that, Ellen's corpse fell to the ground.
"A fitting end."
As Hieta looked down at the corpse with cold eyes, he suddenly felt a headache.
"Ugh...!"
The power he had used was mentally taxing, so pushing it any longer was dangerous.
He might lose his reason and truly become Hollow.
"Remember...!"
Hieta remembered happy days.
Trips with his family, meeting all kinds of people after coming here, hanging out together, and more.
Those happy memories healed the cracks in his mind and filled them in, and the [King of the Dead] naturally fell away.
"I really thought I was done for."
Letting out a relieved breath after nearly becoming Hollow, Hieta suddenly felt something strange.
"Huh? Why do I feel like my body is dropping..."
He had drifted too far away from the Yamai sisters, and the wind they had given him had finally run out of power.
"Oh, shit—"
And so Hieta closed his eyes, bracing for the impact of the fall.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register