Sarkegaar had joined the fray, transforming into the form of one of the paladins, and stabbed Riverierre Lanze in the back under the guise of joining him.
Piercing his heart, right through his back.
It was a fatal wound.
It should have been.
But I watched as an even more horrifying sight followed.
“K… Huuup!”
-C-clang!
As soon as Riverierre Lanze understood the situation, he used his divine power to repel Sarkegaar. Sarkegaar, who was weak to divine power, was sent flying into the distance and slowly picked himself up with a grunt.
The paladin then brought his hand to his own heart, which was still throbbing and dripping with blood.
-Fwoosh.
The wound was closing by the second.
Despite the blood trickling down from his lips, Riverierre Lanze was regenerating his pierced heart and was returning to perfect health.
“That’s crazy… Are you even human after what you did?”
“What are you talking about, you demon?”
The iron-faced Riverierre spat out a handful of blood and wiped his mouth.
“This is what humans are like.”
He looked at me as his wounds finally closed up, ready to fight once more.
“The gods accept my faith and make the impossible possible. This is something that only humans can do. It is possible because the Five Great Gods love humanity.”
Riverierre Lance seemed to think that divine power was a human prerogative.
“Therefore, it is my mission, my duty, to retrieve the Divine Relic from impious beings like you as soon as possible. It is a way to repay the love of the gods.”
Riverierre Lanze’s fanaticism was different from Lydia’s.
Lydia Schmidt’s fanaticism was wild, but Riverierre Lanze’s was disciplined.
A cold fanaticism that was honed through years of service as a paladin. It had polished off all foolishness, bluster and doubt, and left nothing behind but stoic devotion that edged into insanity. Riverierre Lanze looked at Sarkegaar who was rising again after being struck away by him.
“A being who takes on the appearances of another, you have a lowly servant indeed.”
“….”
I knew the strength of Riverierre Lance would be impressive.
But I didn’t expect him to be this strong. His heart was pierced but he simply recovered from it. He’s like a creature that wouldn’t die unless you blew its head off.
Now I’m not even sure if it would be possible for him to die when struck with a rain of thunderbolts.
Even with Sarkegaar, Loyar, and me together, was there a chance of victory?
Fighting paladins was a pain.
I was experiencing it in the worst way possible.
Strengthening their bodies with divine power, protecting themselves with the same power, channeling it into their swords, surviving injuries that should have killed them.
If that wasn’t a zombie, I don’t know what was.
Not all paladins were like this, but Riverierre Lanze was the pinnacle of paladins, who could do all of the above.
Riverierre Lanze rushed forward once more and began to attack Sarkegaar.
-Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Crunch!”
Both Sarkegaar and I.
We could only focus on dodging the furious attacks, as if we were helpless against the onslaught of a rampaging beast.
-Crack!
Realizing that Sarkegaar’s attack could penetrate his defenses, Riverierre Lanze did not relent on his assault.
Sarkegaar’s blade, which he had created by transforming a part of his body, was able to penetrate Riverierre Lanze’s defenses.
However, it would have made no difference even if the attack was successful.
-Whoosh!
He would never allow himself to be fatally wounded, and even if he was, he would just regenerate it.
I couldn’t even begin to fathom the depths of his divine power.
The only way to win was to endure his attacks until his divine power ran out, but I didn’t even know if I could survive until then.
“Your Highness, you’ll have to think about retreating!”
Sarkegaar’s shout pierced my ears.
I could.
I had the option of ending the fight right then and retreating. I knew it was definitely something to consider.
I succeeded in rescuing Olivia and Adriana, and I did it as Valier.
But if I took that road, Adriana and Olivia would be at risk again.
Also, if we would retreat now, the survivors would suspect that our goal was their rescue. If people thought that the demons saved Adriana and Olivia….
They couldn’t say anything for sure, but their misunderstanding and suspicions could lead to an outcome much worse than this.
Or worse yet, Riverierre Lanze would just turn a blind eye to it and try to use Olivia for his own ends once more.
If I don’t kill him now, everything that was done today would have been worthless.
“No, one of us has to die today, whether he or me.”
That’s why.
I didn’t back down.
“You still think you have a chance, child?”
Riverierre Lanze looked at me scornfully.
“I do. I won’t die here. I’ll kill you, and come back alive.”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
Just as Riverierre Lanze had his fanaticism.
I too had that kind of fanaticism in me.
“That’s just the way this world works.”
The miracles that always seemed to happen in my favor will happen this time, too.
I didn’t doubt it for a second.
Self-Suggestion?
Word Magic?
I didn’t know.
I just knew it was true, regardless of whatever anyone else believed.
This second life of mine was punishment.
There’s no way my punishment would end by dying in this place, in front of this fucker.
There was more.
There would always be more suffering to come.
There would always be more for me to endure.
There would always be more sorrow, more pain, more anguish.
If I died here, without any miracles happening…
I would be disappointed that this was the extent of my punishment.
“There is too much at stake for me to die here.”
None of you can kill me until I’ve savored it all.
Even if, in the midst of it all, I get crushed, trampled, driven insane or even killed.
If I can fight through it all and find happiness through it all.
I haven’t reached the end yet.
“Even if your gods descended upon this place and tried to kill me, I would not die. Riverierre Lanze.”
It was neither a belief nor platitude, but simply a statement of fact. That declaration made Riverierre Lanze’s eyes gleam with a light unlike anything he had ever shown before.
“You have crossed the line to blasphemy, demon.”
Disgust.
It was the disgust of a fanatic facing another fanatic. What I felt about him. He felt about me.
My punishment has not yet ended, and so until then, I can not die.
I will ensure that Olivia is no longer burdened with sadness.
I will not allow her to go back to a life where she can’t even wonder what it means to be herself, under the shackles of sainthood.
Both Adriana and Olivia.
I will pull them out from this pit of fanaticism, greed and dogma.
Every place we lived in, every location where humanity has existed there was a cesspit for its own reasons. To come to the realization that there is a world beyond that bleak place you were bound to, is what I want for both of you.
I will set you free.
To give them the ability to live a life of choice, a life of self-reflection leading to decisions based on their own struggles. Not one where they had no recourse but to succumb to what was forced upon them.
Adriana.
Olivia.
I will give you freedom in the truest sense of the word.
“I.”
“Will.”
“Kill.”
“You.”
I made a vow more chilling than any I had sworn before.
Riverierre Lanze prepared his sword at my words.
I didn’t say anything to suggest it was even possible.
But he seemed to sense that something had changed in my demeanor.
Let it happen again.
A miracle.
Come to me.
You still have a lot in store for me, don’t you?
There was still a lot I needed to go through.
You’re raising me up to eventually make me fall one day.
But I’m not all the way there yet.
I want a miracle that would allow me to take the life of an enemy I could never defeat as I was right then.
I want it.
I was preparing for a miracle.
Rage.
Burn the fuel called anger, to bring forth a miracle.
I must be furious.
It had always been my will that pushed me beyond my limits.
Riverierre Lanze loathed me. Unwilling to communicate with me any longer, he prepared to attack once more.
“Die, demon!”
-Rumble!
A shockwave of earth-shattering force exploded from Riverierre Lanze’s blade. I narrowly dodged the blow, but I was forced to roll several times across the ground. Sarkegaar was putting up a fierce fight, but he only dealt minor damage as the iron wall that was Riverierre Lanze remained firm.
A wall that rebuilt itself every time it was knocked down.
Blue and white light began to gather to his greatsword.
An explosion of magic and divine power. As Saviolin Turner had once shown, wizards weren’t the only ones capable of wide scale attacks. He was going to kill me with a huge attack and then try to flee the area.
He seemed to have decided that this was the finishing blow.
Tiamata was my only source of divine power, since I couldn’t draw it from within myself.
Only under limited conditions was I able to harness Tiamata’s power.
Riverierre Lanze, the strongest paladin of Towan.
Tiamata, the Divine Relic of Towan.
In the end, we’re both using the same power, and I was losing.
Technically, it was an even match, but as long as we were using the same kind of power, I’d run out of divine power first.
Whether he’s a heathen or a crazed fanatic, the time and experience he’s accumulated couldn’t be faked.
“Fade away with the light.”
That was what a war hero who returned victorious from the Demon World War was.
I must surpass the undeniable power he held that came with age.
He was a madman who wouldn’t die unless it was a fatal blow to the head.
In the end, I must rely on my strength.
Rage.
As well as.
My conviction (Self-Suggestion) and my words (Word Magic).
And the destiny that awaits me.
I will not die here, for that fateful time has yet to come.
A miracle that can kill this monster.
I already knew what it was.
As he prepared to strike again, I grasped Tiamata with both hands.
Though it’s impossible for me to empower it.
I spoke.
With determination and fury.
“Tiamata.”
At the moment that the man before me struck a beam of destructive light that would engulf me.
I directed Tiamata, that was unleashing a surge of divine power in all directions at him.
I commanded.
“Become a Demon Sword.”
-Fwoosh!
”!”
The white light emanating from Tiamata became a blazing darkness.
To kill an infinitely regenerating monster blessed with the power of the goddess of purity.
Naturally.
I needed the power of its greatest antithesis.
-Vwoom!
This burning shadow was not the end. I was shrouded in darkness as a deluge of light washed over me, and I cut through them.
“You…! What have you done to Tiamata!”
I charged forward, toward the horrified cries of Riverierre Lanze.
My guess was right.
I couldn’t defeat Riverierre Lanze with the same power, so I summoned an opposing force of darkness, and I used that to pierce through the light.
With this antithetical power, I could break through his ironclad defenses and end his life.
I only had one chance.
To slay him before he realized what had happened.
I cut through this endless light.
Shrouded in fathomless darkness, impenetrable to the light, I reached the horrified Riverierre Lanze in a flash.
I knew that in a single moment, life and death will be determined, and history will be rewritten.
The difference between life and death was decided in a matter of seconds.
Revision.
[Used 1,000 achievement points]
And then.
With the demonic power of Towan surrounding me, I drew back my sword in response, shouting at Riverierre Lanze who was trying to stab me.
[Word Magic]
“Stop!”
“Kuh! This… this is…!”
One step.
A single moment
Life and death was defined by that small margin.
Toward Riverierre Lanze, whose movement was momentarily sealed by my words.
-Pooh!
“Ku…hah!”
I succeeded in plunging the Demon Sword Tiamata into his heart.
I successfully converted Tiamata into a Demon Sword.
That was the miracle I was hoping for.
Then, I used [Revision] to strengthen the power of Word Magic and sealed Riverierre Lanze’s movements in that critical moment.
And this was the result.
Riverierre Lanze was mortally wounded.
This time, it was truly fatal.
“Kk, kk… Kuh!”
He clutched the Demon Sword Tiamata, which was stabbed into his heart, only to have spat out blood.
The strength of the paladins was getting weaker by the minute. Already on their last legs, they began to flee when they saw Riverierre Lanze on his knees with his heart pierced.
Better to live to tell the tale than to die in a losing battle.
“K… Kuh… Kgh….”
“Man, you’re really tough.”
Even after his heart was pierced by the Demonic Sword, Riverierre Lanze did not die instantly.
Judging from the clusters of white light all over his body, it was clear that he was holding on to his life with his divine power.
Even though he had been struck by the power of the corrupted Tiamata, he was still able to use the power of Towan, albeit faintly.
I hadn’t expected him to be this monstrous.
“How… how could Tiamata… be….”
But there was a limit in resisting a fell power that eroded your ability to wield divine power itself.
It’s a power coming from the same being, but presented as opposing forces.
Riverierre Lanze may have survived Sarkegaar’s attack, but he could not withstand the unholy power that flowed through the Demon Sword Tiamata.
Instead, he was dying an ugly death, clinging tightly to life, resisting the inevitable out of desperation.
I stared down at his kneeling figure as he tried to pull the blade out of his heart, unable to budge it an inch.
As I watched his final moments, Loyar, still in the form of a lycanthrope, approached me.
“My lord. I’ll go after the fleeing paladins.”
“Very well. Take Sarkegaar with you.”
Sarkegaar looked somewhat shaken up from seeing me fight with a holy sword that had been suddenly turned into a demon sword, but he hadn’t forgotten this important task.
“Don’t miss a single one. No one must know that I am the wielder of Tiamata.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Technically, Olivia shouldn’t have seen my demon-self wielding Tiamata, since Sarkegaar would have dropped her off at a distance. There’s no way Olivia could have seen this.
“Who are you… What are… you….”
Riverierre Lanze mumbled, while bleeding from his mouth.
“The Demon King.”
“Why do you want me… No… Why did you… Why did you attack… Why did you… Why did you take Olivia….”
Only when he stood on the brink of death, did Riverierre Lanze seem to have some doubts.
Why did someone who claimed to be the Demon King save Olivia and Adriana? How could the demons know the location of their base? Who was this demon that wielded the Divine Relic of Towan?
What was all this talk about Miss Temple?
The paladin spoke in a dying voice.
“Let us work together… Demon King….”
“…What?”
Riverierre Lanze explained weakly.
“You… want to rebuild the Demon Realm… do you not…? Then… the fracturing of the empire would only benefit you… I will help you… If we work together… a common purpose… For you too… It would be an offer you could not refuse….”
I couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.
“If you’re going to say that, you should have said it sooner.”
I couldn’t believe that he’d be negotiating a compromise only in the face of death.
“I mean, it’s like you’re begging for your life.”
“You too… You’ll need me….”
If he said this while he was in his right mind, one would think that his fanaticism was so intense that he would betray humanity for the sake of the divine empire.
But now, since his life was in danger, his words just seemed like a pathetic appeal for mercy.
He had given up everything in the face of impending doom.
“You sacrifice your fellow faithful for the sake of your damned ambition, but you have the gall to beg for your life to a demon when death comes for you.”
“You have no integrity. You’re willing to use any means to achieve your ends but the moment the circumstances change, you can discard anything, even the sacred teachings that you so revere.”
“Riverierre Lanze, you are not worthy of serving Towan. You haven’t been worthy in many ways for a long time now.”
At my words, Riverierre Lanze stared at me, his eyes slowly losing their light..
“You… are truly a champion of Towan…?”
“Well, you don’t think so?”
Riverierre Lanze looked up at me with difficulty.
He stared into my eyes.
“Such… is….”
As if he was trying to find something in my eyes, something that he had lost long ago.
“Yes… A champion of Towan was by nature… someone who punished wicked men.”
Towan’s Champions.
Neither demons nor undead were their prey, but rather, they hunted down men of wicked hearts.
They have been in charge of slaying fallen warlocks and cultists for generations, and even the last Champion of Towan before me was also slain while fighting cultists.
A Champion of Towan hunted down their fellow humans, rather than the undead or demonkind.
“The Demon King being a Champion of Towan… in fact… maybe it’s not so strange… I don’t know….”
He continued staring at me, as if seeing me for the first time.
Only on his deathbed did he accept that I was Towan’s champion.
His defeat had convinced him of everything, that his defeat was Towan’s will.
The gods were omnipotent.
Therefore, he died in accordance with their plan, they had forsaken him..
Therefore, he was in the wrong.
His fanaticism was steadfast even in death.
He seemed to have accepted those facts when facing his impending death, even the fact that Tiamata had been transformed into a Demon Sword, seemed to have been acknowledged as a part of some divine plan.
If Towan was truly on his side, he could not have been defeated.
He had to admit that, despite all the doubts he had about me, I was truly Towan’s champion in the end.
I pulled Tiamata from his heart and held it to the kneeling Riverierre Lanze’s throat.
He spoke.
“I-I believed I was just.”
It seemed like a plea, but it wasn’t
To put in the simplest terms, he believed that the champion of Towan had come to slay the wayward paladin that served the very same god.
That’s why he had one last defense: He believed himself to be just.
He may indeed have been just.
He may have believed that the justice he believed in was the right way.
That was why he mumbled an excuse as his last words.
-Slice!
I sliced Tiamata from one end to the other, finally ending the life of Riverierre Lanze.
The life of a heathen, taken by a corrupted Divine Relic.
In the end, Riverierre Lanze had fallen twice to the same man.
I stood still, silent, in the ruined monastery.
It was the site of a clash that shook the earth.
But now the only things that were here were scorched ruins, billowing smoke, and the pale winter moonlight that illuminated the world.
I looked away from the decapitated body of the former Commander of the Knights Templar, his head rolling away helplessly, I blankly stared up at the night sky.
I was not where I should have been, after all.
I wondered what I should say.
If I told her that, once again, I couldn’t be there because of something beyond my control.
What would Ellen say?
No, I didn’t know if I even had the right to say that now.
I’ve planned and accomplished a monumental task: the elimination of the former Commander of the Knight Templars and a secret religious order that threatened to split the empire apart.
I wondered what excuse to deliver to Ellen.
That should have been funny, but it didn’t feel funny at all.
“….”
Standing under the winter night, a message popped up in front of me.
[Special Achievement - Inflection Point in History]
[The death of a key figure (Riverierre Lanze) who was supposed to be present in the original story has been confirmed].
A turning point in history caused by killing someone.
This was a first.
[You have obtained the “Apostle” trait as a reward for a special achievement].
Talent: Apostle
Description: You became the true master of Tiamata.
It was simple.
I knew what this meant.
Tiamata as a Demonic Sword, Tiamata as a Holy Sword.
I became the first true champion of Towan, the first being in history to wield both.
Deep into the night.
Thunderous cheers erupted from the still heated venue of the Miss and Mister Temple pageant.
The long, long contest had come to an end, and now all that remained was the announcement of the winners.
Glittering flakes of dust drifted down from the auditorium ceiling.
Olivia Lanze, a strong favorite for the win, was not present.
The reason for her absence was unknown.
-This year’s Miss Temple is a first-year from the Royal Class! Miss Ellen!
But Ellen had beat out all the other strong contenders to be crowned this year’s Miss Temple.
Amidst the applause and cheers, Ellen, dressed in her snow white gown, was presented with a crown and bouquet of flowers.
Her classmates from the Royal Class, both A and B, were also clapping and congratulating her.
However, Ellen’s face was stoic as she accepted the honor. As she held the colorful wreath and bouquet of flowers that signified her victory, her gaze was lifeless.
She only needed one vote, but she got most of them.
Most of them, except for that one vote she was awaiting.
So many people had chosen her.
But Ellen couldn’t help but feel that the world had abandoned her.
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