Chapter 27: Something that can never be compromised (10)

“Thunder, how long are you planning to wait?”

“As long as it takes. They have no other choice. They must come to the underground.”

In the dark underground, a warrior of the tribe expressed dissatisfaction.

The humans were cornered like rats, so why not attack now? However, Thunder, who stood firm, quietly dismissed the complaint.

The logic was simple: the seal had long been broken by the mana explosion, and with the corrupted mana source emanating from the mana stone, their enemies were bound to come here eventually.

Even now, the mana stone was drawing in the dark mana of the Demon King.

Once all of it arrived at the fortress, the Demon King would descend. There was no need to fight the enemies directly.

“Tracking Wolf, search every possible location the Hero could be at.”

“Heh, I’ve been waiting for you to say that, Chief.”

The only lingering concern was the Hero and the Saintess, who had disappeared into the river without being dealt with.

Feeling unsettled, Thunder called out a specific warrior.

Tracking Wolf spun a short scimitar with a disturbing grin.

His face bore scars from burns, and his demonified body now sported two extra pairs of grotesque arms.

“…Don’t let your guard down.”

“Don’t worry. They don’t have divine blessings anymore, right? Besides, with this power, there’s no way I’d lose.”

As demonification progressed, some warriors were eager to unleash their newfound powers, and Tracking Wolf was no exception.

Once cautious in his role as a tracker due to his keen sense of smell, he had abandoned his careful nature entirely.

“…Prepare yourselves. They are coming.”

Clang! Clang!

Hearing movement ahead, they drew their weapons.

Following their chief’s lead, the warriors clashed their weapons together.

Thunder found himself welcoming the humans who arrived sooner than expected.

He himself struggled to suppress the boiling power within, so how much longer could the warriors endure? With humans arriving earlier than anticipated, Thunder felt relieved.

Suddenly, ice expanded, freezing the door before shattering it to pieces.

A massive fireball followed, filling the underground chamber, intensifying as it was fueled by the spreading wind.

“Ha! They still have time for their petty tricks?”

The resistance of the demonified Thunder exceeded expectations.

He endured the intense flames with his body alone, extinguishing them completely, ensuring no harm came to his warriors.

“…The more tricks, the better, I say!”

The steam from the melted ice filled the underground chamber.

Though it would soon dissipate, it was enough to obscure visibility for a while.

Using this moment, Natalia, aided by magical sight, began swinging her sword.

The sharp clash of metal rang out as her blade was easily blocked.

Undeterred, she twisted her sword and thrust forward. Despite lacking divine blessings, her strikes carried considerable weight, surprising Thunder slightly.

“You don’t have those precious blessings anymore.”

“I brought courage instead.”

Among the Hero’s party, Natalia suffered the least from the loss of blessings, aside from Laura’s use of the abnormal ancestral awakening.

As the young lady of the Knightheart family and a royal knight, she had undergone rigorous training long before receiving the blessing of the sword.

Though the blessing had made her stronger, she was already skilled with various weapons.

Natalia, Laura, and even Sera were heroines who had gained divine blessings later in life.

Unlike most, who were born with blessings, they had developed abilities to thrive even without them.

“Ha! Courage alone achieves nothing!”

“Guh…!”

But courage was not enough to overcome Thunder, who had absorbed significant dark mana.

Despite enhancement spells, Natalia was overpowered, her arm restrained and her body thrown against the wall.

She struggled to rise amidst the swirling dust.

The first battle was an unmistakable loss for Natalia.

The morale of the warriors soared, and they charged at the humans.

Likewise, the humans readied their weapons for combat. Strategy and formations no longer mattered.

Their weapons were mismatched, and some among them were complete strangers.

Their only choice was to fight with everything they had.

This determination allowed them to hold their own against the much stronger Red Tail warriors.

“Arcane Arrow. Frozen Ground. Binding Roots. Chain Explosion. Flaming Shield.”

Flame-based protection formed around allied forces, while numerous spells targeted Thunder.

Even without divine blessings, the magic was nearly as powerful as before, forcing Thunder to take them seriously.

“Magician, you don’t seem to be in great shape.”

“…Shut up.”

Through the smoke emerged Thunder, severely burned yet already healing.

He lunged at Laura with his monstrous arms.

With the protective barrier sustaining the injured, Laura was the only mage who had come underground.

Though powerful, her deteriorating condition made it unnecessary for Thunder to exert his full strength.

“You’re barely hanging on, aren’t you? How many more spells can you cast?”

“Ugh…this is nothing…”

Laura’s petite body was lifted high as Thunder choked her.

Though her ancestral awakening had transformed her into a more draconic form, she was still an untrained, fragile girl.

All she could do was struggle desperately.

“Let her go!”

Natalia rose with difficulty and rushed to save Laura, but it was futile.

Even with blessings, the outcome against Thunder was uncertain, let alone without them.

“Where’s that Hero you believe in? The Saintess? No one is coming to save you.”

“…No…The Hero…will…come…”

Huff… Huff… Yes, the hero will definitely come.

Despite everything, Laura and Natalia refused to give up.

Alongside them, the remaining soldiers and adventurers held on.

What was it that drove them to fight so desperately? Thunder Runner felt a deep, unsettling irritation.

“Then let me prove it to you. The hero, the saint, all of it is nothing but illusions. In this world, strength is the only truth. The weak can do nothing.”

With that thought, Thunder Runner began to tighten his grip.

One by one, I’ll make them die as painfully as possible.

That was the resolve forming in his mind at that moment.

“Stop this!”

“…And you are?”

From the distance, a familiar figure appeared at the entrance—a woman.

She was once a lover and a companion with whom dreams of the future were shared: the Unyielding Rock.

“Why… Why have you become like this?”

“…For the sake of the tribe.”

Dropping Laura against the wall, Thunder Runner spoke as if offering an excuse. Though he always claimed his actions were for the tribe, today his words seemed hollow.

“Look at yourself! Is this truly for the tribe? Becoming a monster bent solely on destruction—is that what’s best for them?”

His skin was grotesquely deformed, claws sprouting from his hands.

Soon, wings, horns, and a tail—like a demon—would follow. Thunder Runner raised his voice, almost in desperation.

“Then what? Should I have stayed quietly in that cursed land and died like a dog? In those conversations with them, I realized one truth: Power is everything! Unless we dominate the humans, there is no future for our tribe!”

“You’ve gone mad…”

More than anything, he wished his lover would not condemn him.

He wanted her to understand. But all he received was reproach from the Unyielding Rock.

And then, he noticed the hero standing beside her.

“Why is the hero with her? I sacrificed everything for the tribe, but why is my love standing with these hated humans?”

He couldn’t comprehend it. He refused to.

“So, they were right after all… The women blessed by the gods are destined to belong to the hero.”

Unable to accept his lover’s condemnation and consumed by the transformation of his body, Thunder Runner decided to deceive himself further.

“Move aside!”

“You call me a monster?! No, the children raised on hatred and vengeance will become far worse monsters than I ever could!”

Robbed of his rationality by the demonic energy, Thunder Runner wielded his sword without hesitation—even against his former lover.

But before the blade could strike her, the hero intervened, enduring the blow.

His expression was one of sheer pain.

Once, twice, the massive sword clashed with the hero’s weapon, each time accompanied by a thunderous crash.

The hero gritted his teeth, barely withstanding the relentless onslaught.

“Die! Die! I said, die!”

With a swing to the left, the hero twisted his body, raising his blade.

Again, the clash brought searing pain and deafening noise to the underground chamber of the fortress, where the morning light began to seep through.

The hero’s sword was unable to completely block Thunder Runner’s strikes.

Surely, he had sustained severe injuries. Yet, the hero rose again, defiant.

“Huff… Huff… I will never fall!”

“No. This ends now.”

Once more, sparks flew as Thunder Runner’s vertical slash rained down.

The hero barely raised his blade to block it, his body at its limit.

Unable to deflect the blow, the contest came down to whether he could push back or not.

The clashing swords screamed as the pressure mounted.

This was no longer a battle of skill but a pure test of strength. Amid the standoff, Thunder Runner realized his blade was slowly being pushed back.

True courage was not about subjugating the opponent with overwhelming power.

It was about facing a mighty foe even in the absence of strength.

For the first time in this world, the hero faced an enemy without divine blessings, wielding a strength greater than ever.

Courage turned despair into hope. Against all odds, the battle concluded with the hero’s victory.

“Hah… Celebrate your victory while you can. Soon… the human world will fall…”

Thunder Runner’s chest was pierced by the hero’s sword.

Even as his life ebbed away, he did not stop laughing.

Regardless of his death or the death of his warriors, the advent of the Demon King was already underway.

While he regretted not being able to witness it, he found some solace in the outcome.

“Hero, what are you planning to do…?”

“No, stop… Don’t!”

The hero, confirming Thunder Runner’s death, walked unhesitatingly toward the mana crystal, the source of the corrupted energy.

A violet gemstone containing the Demon King’s power—there was only one way to deal with it.

Natalia and Laura, realizing his intent, desperately tried to stop him, but their exhausted bodies could no longer move.

If the crystal were destroyed, the power of the Demon King and the corrupted mana would explode, turning the area into a wasteland of demonic energy.

The only way to resolve the situation safely was for someone to swallow the crystal, sealing the Demon King’s power and all the accumulated energy within their own body.

Before the corruption completely overtook their soul, they would then have to take their own life.

This was the hero’s decision.

“Sorry, but this is a pretty heroic death, isn’t it?”

“No! I won’t let you!”

“Hero, you’re from another world! You don’t have to do this! Let me—!”

Desperately trying to stop him, Laura and Natalia knew they must not let the hero sacrifice himself.

Understanding this, the hero rendered them unconscious.

At that moment, a wall connected to the underground oil storehouse crumbled, and a young girl appeared.

“What are you doing…?”

In her hands was a shattered ring, her nun’s robe marked with scorch marks. With disbelief in her voice, she addressed the hero. Her name was Sarah.

What she saw was the hero, walking toward the crystal, with Laura and Natalia unconscious behind him.

To be continued.