The ultimate extreme of [Will].
The moment I cut down Venenum, I knew.
"...I've grown stronger."
At the same time [Sword of the Conqueror] evolved, I realized something else too.
That the [Hero's Egg] inside me had stirred once again.
That the vessel holding my power had grown larger yet again.
That I had surpassed another one of my limits.
A massive step toward becoming a [Saint].
I could feel it clearly: that one brief battle had brought me more valuable growth than the countless fights I'd gone through in hell.
If I had to put it into words, it was exhilaration. Excitement.
The sense of growth that fed a demon's instincts had sunk deep into my roots.
"...So in the end, a monster really is a monster, huh?"
[Growing through battle].
...It didn't feel bad.
If anything, it felt like I understood a little more about what "I" really was.
Looks like making [Will] my "ash-gray" really had been the right answer.
Thanks to that, I still didn't have a complete solution, but I could at least see the path ahead.
The track leading toward the truth of my identity.
*
"........."
Silence.
The hall of Walpurgis had fallen completely silent.
The clown lost in delusion, the emotionless giant, the slothful angel, the composed vampire, the winged one watching from the sidelines, the beastman who had been fuming, the fairy with wide eyes, the dragonkin laughing in delight—
And the demon who had created this very stage.
Every last one of them kept their mouths shut.
Not a sound escaped anyone.
Perfect silence.
For a banquet hall, a place that should have been full of noise, that kind of stillness ought to have felt unnatural.
But not now.
It could only be this way.
The power the ash-gray demon had displayed.
That single slash had shown just how far the limits of [Will] could go.
Even for Demon Lords who had lived for thousands, tens of thousands of years, it was a radiance they had never seen before.
An unknown power, unlike anything shown by any Demon Lord or Hero that had existed until now.
And that power had manifested in the hand of the subordinate first brought here by the [first Demon Lord].
"......"
"That demon..."
"...Is that really a demon...?"
"Hm..."
"...What an absurd ability."
"Hey, Guy..."
"R-Rio was that strong?!"
"Wahahaha! That's Rio for you! This is getting fun!"
As if it were only natural, the Demon Lords' gazes gradually shifted away from Adelio and gathered on Guy Crimson instead.
"...Ha."
Because he knew Adelio's true nature, Guy had managed to stay relatively calm—but as he felt all those eyes on him, an arrogant smile slowly spread across his face.
"Looks like you've all taken an interest. Fine by me. Since the nuisance is gone, I'll introduce him properly now."
Then he strolled over to Adelio's side, slung an arm over his shoulder, and gave him a few casual pats.
No one seemed to care that the center of the hall had been annihilated, or that Venenum was dead. The Demon Lords and even their subordinates were waiting only for whatever Guy would say next.
Even Kazaream, the very one who had brought Venenum here...
"This guy is my new close aide, specially brought up from hell—and our spy who'll infiltrate humanity's side. The [new Hero], Adelio Ruber."
As always, Guy Crimson skipped every bit of context and explanation and only blurted out the bare outline of Adelio's status.
"?! A Hero...?"
"Infiltrate humanity—"
"—A spy...?"
"[New Hero]? What in the world..."
Naturally, the Demon Lords who knew nothing about me were thrown into confusion.
'...Great. So I have to explain everything again...'
*
Explaining myself to the Demon Lords in Guy's place took quite a long time.
To give the conclusion first, just like with Chronoa, I hid the fact that I possessed the [Hero's Egg].
It was still far too early to let the world know that a monster carried a Hero's Egg.
Just imagine it. Monsters and Demon Lords existed as the world's absolute evil, and at the same time its necessary evil—so what would happen if people learned that such beings could become Heroes, the very edge of righteousness?
How many humans and monsters alike would be thrown into chaos?
That was why, as long as the line between humanity and monsters remained so sharply drawn, I absolutely could not reveal the truth.
Not until, someday, [that slime] appeared and created an [ideal nation] where humans and monsters could live together.
Of course, Milim and Ramiris already knew what I was. Milim had inherited senses from the [Holy Emperor Dragon], and Ramiris had the intuition of an [Arbiter]. But neither of them was the type to spread it around on purpose, so I didn't have to worry about those two.
And as for the other six, none of them had any special ability that would let them see through the fact that I possessed the [Hero's Egg], so that was fine too.
...Though Dagruel and Dino, having once served under Veldanava in the distant past, did seem like they had noticed something.
'...Dagruel is one thing, but Dino might be a problem.'
Wasn't it said that demons and angels were never meant to mix?
Maybe it was because he was one of that mad angel's companions, or maybe it was simply because I was a demon, but Dino felt especially troublesome to me.
'...I'll need to think of a way to deal with that too.'
Venenum's sudden appearance had already caused enough of a headache. I felt like I wouldn't be at ease unless I spent these next three hundred years preparing countermeasures in advance.
...Just as I was thinking that—
"Now then, let's begin the agenda of the real Walpurgis."
Guy's trademark bombshell had begun.
'......?'
And in that instant, I felt it.
That a truly enormous problem had just appeared.
"My aide just claimed a spectacular victory, so shouldn't he receive something worthy of it?"
Here we go again.
That meaningful smile. That ominous tone.
Every alarm in my Hero's instincts was screaming at me to stop that Demon Lord right now.
"Ah... so it's that..."
"Hm... Certainly. For someone this strong, he'd need that."
"Well, now that that Cryptid bastard is dead, it'd be better to make that the agenda instead."
"Yeah! Rio absolutely needs that!"
Unlike me, who only had a bad feeling without knowing the details, all the Demon Lords seemed to understand exactly what Guy meant and nodded along.
Which only made me more uneasy.
"Then let's settle it. From this point on, the agenda will be deciding Adelio's [epithet]."
...For the first time, I regretted trying to step out into the world.
An epithet meant sticking something in front of my name like Guy's [Lord of Darkness] or Milim's [Destroyer], didn't it?
'No, why the hell do I need an epithet like that—!!'
I wanted to protest Guy's declaration, but Rain and Misery blocked me in an instant. In the end, I couldn't move a muscle and had no choice but to watch the Demon Lords' discussion play out...
*
Thus, after a debate that lasted more than half a day, Adelio Ruber's epithet was finally decided.
And in later years, his story would be distorted by future generations and passed down together with that title.
It split into two tales: the first "heroic exploit" of the [Hero] [Sword of Spirit] Adelio, the swordsman of spirits, and the "legend" of Ruber, the [right hand of the Demon Lord], the [Grand Duke of the Underworld]. Those stories would be handed down to later generations for hundreds of years to come—
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