Chapter 70: Daughter and father

Demon King Pedonar’s unmoved attitude, despite his daughter having been murdered in front of his eyes, wasn’t because he had demonic personality that was cold towards his child.

It wasn’t called Immortality(Z) for nothing, should I say.

Flap!

Two pairs of wings sprouted from the back of the female demon I had thought dead; however, they weren’t the ‘bat-like’ wings of a demon which I was familiar with. Those wings made of half-transparent light were definitely…

“Ether-Wings…?”

A wing formed out of violet light. Like the lightsaber before it, these wings were slightly disconnected from a fantasy world setting. Or was it that this demon had a deep connection to ‘light’? She revived the moment she had an opening despite being poisoned with Divinity which was fatal to demons.

Of course…

▷Race: Second Demon
▷Level: 999+
▷Job: Queen(Charm→Rule↑)
▷Skills: Dark Energy(Z) Vigor(Z) Immortality(Z) Charm(Z) Fortitude(SSS)…
▷Condition: Exhaustion, Anemia, Confusion

Her condition as shown on her Status wasn’t all good. Her pallid white skin, wearily drooping eyes, and sagging limbs made me feel as if I were seeing a patient.

“A sneaky shrew to the end.”

It was definitely a trick to appeal to my protective instinct as a male and make me hesitate in attacking.

“What are you saying, you cowardly bastard that steals the heart and body of a woman-!”

… I was innocent. I had nothing to do with the likes of a woman flying in the sky in the nude. Could it be that exhibitionist demon had utterly no awareness that all of her could be seen from below?

“Ahem-hem. O Hero! I understand that you are fond of Ssosia, but I think that the main enemy of demons, the Hero, being like this is problematic in more ways than one…”

The Demon King, who had put the Elf King’s wife behind him, rather stealthily joined the conversation. He had been naked just a moment ago, yet now he was fully armed from head to toe before I knew it. Perhaps it meant that he was fine with fighting right away.

I was able to figure out the secret behind his confidence without difficulty.

“Goddamn Level…”

I realized that my Level had become extremely high. In the process of wrecking the continents here and there in my endeavors to defeat the female demon, I had ended up killing many others as well. It was no mistake, however; I had judged that I had to at least reduce the gap in Level since I lost out in terms of Skill. In reality that judgement of mine was precise and along with the rise of my Level, I reached the point of being able to subdue the female demon. The growth of various Skills was just a bonus.

That being the case, I didn’t worry greatly. First, I activated Black-Box. Until now, ‘Oblivion’ hadn’t worked on that female de—Demon King’s daughter ‘Ssonia’ due to something that was protecting her. But it was bound to be effective if I were to try it now while she was dragging her feet, so dealing with her first…

“Cowardly bastard. I saw that you’ve been up to something since a while ago?”

“Hm…?”

“What do you intend on doing after hacking apart the clothing of a beautiful woman, and even erasing her intact memories? A beast after all…”

“Don’t make me out to be a strange guy! You sneaky shrew!”

I was an honest and upright youth of Korea.

▶Point Out: Student Kang Han Soo. Aren’t you a little too old to claim yourself a youth? Though it does seem like it when looking at the way you behave…

‘You saw correctly, Miss Trainee Teacher! My body and heart are still that of a fresh teen!’

▶At a Loss: So that’s what you meant… Hm-hm. Yes. That’s right.

Ssosia let out a haughty snort as she spoke.

“Hmph! You tore off the clothes of a pretty woman and even tried to wipe her memories. The circumstances say it all, yet you want to make excuses like a coward?”

“Pretty…?”

“Why? Got a problem with that?”

Greatly vexing though it was, I had none.

… Ah!

“You say that, but you took off a man’s clothes and bodly flew around in the nude. How about looking back on your own perversion?”

“That was your fault!”

“It was your fault in my case too!”

Ssosia was truly resilient. She didn’t die despite being fed a tremendous amount of lethal Divinity, which was no different from deadly poison to demons, and her memories couldn’t be wiped with Black-Box either. There was no other way than to imprison her for life.

‘When I subdue her this time ‘round, I’ll tie her up all over and toss her deep into the ocean.’

I thus rekindled my will to fight again. As for the Demon King on the terrace? The one-on-one talk with the regrettable Demon King, who had failed in child education and raised his daughter into a sneaky pervert, could wait until later… Mm?

Flash—!

Dark Energy surged out like a waterfall from Demon King Pedonar’s body. The time when I had the highest Level in all of my 11 to 17 years in this world was during the 1st Playthrough, but that record was broken this time around. In other words, it meant that Demon King Pedonar had grown closer to the peak of his strength, and he had used his daughter to buy time and adjust to his fallen Level.

The Demon King, who had become free of the aftereffects from Level reduction, spoke in a serene tone.

“O chosen Hero, I give you my thanks regarding two things. Firstly, for spending a good time with my daughter. Secondly, for sufficiently growing stronger beyond my expectations.”

The Demon King’s expression seemed genuinely thankful and not mocking.

I responded with a divine fist.

“Eat this and go to hell.”

Bam—

The shockwave that followed afterwards blasted away the Demon King’s castle without leaving a trace; that’s how immense the power contained in my punch was.

My Level had risen to the point where it was hard to increase any further even with a Hero’s fivefold EXP perk, and the maximum efficiency of a Skill rose according to your Level. Master Mollang’s power, Holy Sword 2, Blessing, synergy effects… this combination was a truly mighty one. It was definitely so, and yet…

“O Hero, that was quite the fierce punch. I had given up when I heard you went missing in the northern continent, yet for you to have returned this strong, I am extremely thankful and delighted.”

“What the…”

I was rendered speechless—my fist had been blocked by the Demon King’s palm. This wasn’t logically possible, the reason being that the Demon King’s Dark Energy(SSS) wasn’t capable of resisting my Divinity(Z).

But upon involuntarily examining the Demon King’s Status…

▷Race: First Demon
▷Level: 999+
▷Job: Demon King(Hero→Level↓)
▷Skills: Dark Energy(Z) Immunity(SSS) Swordsmanship(SSS) Immortality(SSS) Indestructible Body(SSS)…
▷Condition: Recovery

A wry laugh escaped my lips.

What was this, this unbelievable jump in ability? Not only his Level, but also his Skill ranks had overall increased.

On top of that, the controlling power of Demon King Pedonar’s Z-rank Dark Energy began to pressure me; however, I lightly sent it flying as smoothly as water using Divinity. But what if I didn’t have Divinity’s protection?

I had almost been reduced to Demon Follower A.

“O Hero who possesses Divinity without the Holy Sword, I see that your usage of Dark Energy is severely poor. I shall teach you a lesson—this is how you handle Dark Energy.”

The Demon King, he who had easily fallen to a single blow of mine from the 1st Playthrough to the 4th, launched a counter-attack after having blocked my punch. He tightly wound Dark Energy around his right arm, then thrust his fist towards my head.

Pwooof-!

It was the sound of air being ripped apart.

Even the force contained in the Demon King’s fist, which had easily crossed the boundary of the speed of sound, was on a whole different league from before. I was astonished, because this had gone beyond a simple leap in advancement.

“The hell is—Kuh!”

I gave up on taking a countermeasure and retreated, as the current Demon King couldn’t be explained by Status. The rank of his Skill was lower than his own daughter, yet his movements easily surpassed and overwhelmed her combat ability.

“Dark Energy is the malice of all creation.”

Demon King Pedonar, who had closed as much distance as I had made, shed his usual light attitude and threw forth a heavy punch.

I blocked with a cross-armed guard coated by the power of Divinity.

Crick.

Yet the bones of my arm that received the punch became fractured, following which Dark Energy invaded through that gap and gradually caused that fracture to widen.

Wasn’t I in real danger? I had blocked the Demon King’s Dark Energy(Z) with my Divinity(Z), yet the result was completely different from what I expected. And the damage I suffered didn’t end with a broken arm—even my natural recovery ability enhanced by Blessing and Holy Sword 2 had become slowed. I had not seen this coming.

Even if it were Z-rank, wasn’t this too outrageous? A single punch of the Demon King was even stronger than the kick of his daughter, who possessed four transcendental domain Skills. Why?

But without giving me the time to even solve my question, Demon King Pedonar’s next attack followed up.

Chwaa-

The black Dark Energy shot out from the Demon King’s fingertips came at me like tentacles. I had chosen to give up responding to his attack and retreat in order to heal my broken arm, but the Demon King persistently chased after me.

And in an entirely unexpected way at that.

Flap-!

Two pairs of Ether-Wings sprouted from the Demon King’s broad back, and the demon horns protruding from either sides of his head grew even longer and thicker, while horns that weren’t there before newly appeared from his shoulders, knees, and the tops of his feet and hands. Even his nails and toenails grew long like that of a wild beast.

“So this is transformation…!”

Ssosia hadn’t managed to transform due to me ceaselessly driving her into a corner, but that wasn’t the case for Demon King Pedonar. He had finished transforming in truly an instant, and charged over at me while shooting out a blue light like that of a booster from his Ether-Wings.

Puwaang!

The Demon King approached me like he were sliding across ice. He hadn’t even drawn the Demon Sword by his waist as if it were an ornament, and this time it wasn’t a display of arrogance but of pure confidence.

And once again an attack of Dark Energy came at me.

Boom!

I calmly deployed the power of Divinity to block the attack, but an unknown impact suddenly assailed and shook it once again.

“Huh… How the…”

The mass of Dark Energy, which had yet to even make contact with me, had melted into air and disappeared, but then penetrated through the power of my Divinity and dealt a direct blow to my body. It was a usage of Dark Energy that went far beyond my knowledge and common sense.

This wasn’t the Dark Energy that I knew of.

“Cough!”

I vomited black blood from my mouth, and I realized due to my immunity being weakened by the Dark Energy that invaded my body, I had become poisoned by something; however, I had no way of finding out what it was at this instant.

‘I’m gonna die at this rate.’

I truly couldn’t think of anything else but this line. I hadn’t even imagined that Demon King Pedonar could be so strong. Wasn’t he supposed to be a pathetic character who loses to the power of love and friendship?

But it was at that moment.

Pause.

The Demon King abruptly stopped his attacks and spoke.

“If I were facing the chosen Hero as a Demon King up to this point, then starting now I will be guiding the boyfriend of my daughter as the father of a tomboy.”

“Who the heck is her boyfrien—Kugh!?”

The Demon King resumed his attacks without giving me the time to even speak, but this time something was different—the emission of Dark Energy. It was a method of application that I was also capable of.

‘Should I block with Divinity? Or with Chaos?’

I hesitated choosing between the two for a fleeting moment before I impulsively chose the third option.

Chwaa-

I met his attack head on using my SSS-rank Dark Energy, and mustered the power of my Z-rank Divinity which I could spare and counter-attacked.

Tak.

But my Divinity was once again easily blocked, while my Dark Energy was also being pushed back due to the lack of my proficiency and understanding. Nevertheless, I was able to barely hold on this time by mimicking the Demon King’s technique.

“Impressive.”

“You’re the one who’s changed too much.”

I glanced up at the sky, which drew forth an immediate response from a certain somebody.

“Where are you leering at?! You cowardly bastard!”

The Demon King’s daughter, who had nearly jumped out of her skin as she completely closed her thighs, was wearing underwear. It was of a cute design that was unbecoming of a sneaky woman.

A yellow chick of all things…

“O Hero, are you not in the middle of conversing with me right now?”

“Tsk.”

From the underwear to the Demon King again!

Afterwards, we endlessly clashed against one another. I didn’t grow exhausted, having received the blessing of Infinite, but the Demon King’s tenacious Dark Energy gnawed away at my soul and body, bit by bit.

It was already too late by the time I had understood the workings of this mechanism.

“It appears you are having a very difficult time.”

“Goddamn…”

Sway.

It had now become difficult to even support my own body. I would’ve been able to manage somehow had I been given even the briefest moment to rest, but the Demon King gave me no openings to do so.

I had no choice but to acknowledge the facts as they were now.

‘I’m gonna lose to the Demon King?’

It was something I had never considered before. Excessive arrogance it might have been, but as I grew stronger with each regression, I had a record of defeating the Demon King alone four times already. It was impossible to worry that I would lose—in my strongest ever condition at that!

No, that was wrong. That I had become so strong was the problem. Forget the gap in skill widening as the Demon King’s penalty decreased, it had grown even closer.

And that was what had ended up endangering my life.

Shiing-

The Demon King drew the Demon Sword at his belt for the very first time. Even the sword, which had used to break like a stalk of straw, emanated a dangerous aura and sense of great power. Was it a Demon Sword that grew according to the wielder’s strength? This blade that was the envoy of death gradually drew near, but Demon King Pedonar came to a stop and murmured to himself with a faint laugh.

“To think that my daughter would finally find a man. You live and learn.”

“Dad!”

The Demon King’s daughter, Ssosia, flared up in response, and I was the same—a demon as sneaky as that being my girlfriend? I had imagined it only for a brief moment, yet I didn’t feel like going on living anymore.

“If you’re a king, then stop with the humiliation and kill me like one!”

“I’m humiliation?!”

Ignoring the Demon King’s daughter who had become fully clothed and was shrieking at me, I kept my eyes on the Demon King as I struggled to recover however I could.

But then…

“Receive my unofficial patch.”

After uttering this strange line, the Demon King held his Demon Sword in a reversed grip, and straight away cut his own belly, disemboweled himself.

Splurt!

No blood nor innards came spilling out, but instead, an immense amount of Dark Energy poured forth from the cut like a fountain and shrouded the world in darkness. A Demon King committing suicide? A bizarre thought that even a passerby slime would wobble at; however, this was the undeniable reality, and not the end of the fantasy world I was so familiar with.

Something had deviated.

“Father and daughter both insan-”

My consciousness was also engulfed by the darkness, swallowed like the world was.

Immediately afterwards…

▷Sir Hero, has your adventure been enjoyable?

An unaffected voice that could be dimly heard.

I really wanted to kill the owner of that voice.

▷The path of a true hero is truly difficult, but you formed countless bonds with others which encouraged you who did not lose your hopes and dreams. From them you learned friendship and love, and after maturing together with them you defeated the wicked Demon King at last. Congratulations, truly!
▷Shall we look at your grading now?

But what followed… was an outcome that exceeded my imagination.