Side Story 1. A Warrior in a World Without the Civil Servant (1)

The winter of 1625 was unusually cold. Saintess Hillis thought so.

Oh, was it because she was rolling in the mud right now?

She stepped on the collapsed Warrant wall and clenched her teeth as she gripped the Holy Spear tightly. "Ahh! Mother in heaven! Answer my prayers!"

Hillis exuded divine power beyond her limits. It was a foolish act that ate at her life, but she could not help it. Tens of thousands had already died. There was no time to think about the future at a time when millions of people were about to die.

- Caoooooo!!!

The howl of the family member of the Demon King that had destroyed a country more than 120 years ago echoed the battlefield. When the monster, whose power exceeded the great demons, howled, the soldiers who could not use mana collapsed from heart attacks.

"Gather your mana! Wake up!"

The knights at the vanguard barely held on to their senses and maintained their sword auras at General Bloody's cry against the large-scale flood of demons.

"Saintess!" Bloody cried.

"I know!"

Hillis focused her divine power on Bloody. He clenched his teeth and raised his martial arts to its limit. Golden grains spewed out of his whole body, giving off vitality. He began to shoot golden strong auras and hack away at the family member of the Demon King.

"Waaaah!"

The knights and soldiers let out cheers when they saw Bloody's power. His power was so great that the crowd of demons gathered in the aftermath of the Demon King's family member was annihilated.

However, Bloody, who received the cheers, felt like death. With each blow, his body was overloaded to the point of collapsing, but Hillis’s divine power kept healing him. The limitation was clear. It was a forbidden technique where as soon as the support of the divine power was cut off, his body would split into pieces and die.

"Hold on a little longer! My father is coming soon!" William, with a bandaged left eye, assisted and encouraged his friend.

Bloody clenched his teeth. Even though he had already cut down the family member of the Demon King thousands of times, the monster was still constantly regenerating. “Damn it! Let's just die together today!" He tried to swing his sword surrounded by a strong aura again but someone grabbed his shoulder.

"You did well."

"Hyung?!" Bloody was puzzled at Doomstone’s sudden appearance. "Why are you here, Hyung?! You should be stopping the summoning of the Demon King!"

"My father went there. So stop the Dance of the Fireflies and get treatment." Doomstone used the Dance of Fireflies to mercilessly attack the family member of the Demon King, leaving Bloody behind.

The monster's body was broken down even before it could be regenerated by the golden strong auras emitted from his fists. The family member of the Demon King, which was being broken apart without being allowed to regenerate, stopped regenerating as if it were overloaded. To be exact, rather than stopping, the regeneration was extremely slow to the point it was not visible.

After confirming that the regeneration had stopped, Doomstone withdrew the Dance of the Fireflies. "Keuk! Is it still too much to embody the Dance of the Fireflies?” He grimaced at the sudden pain. This was because he had just exceeded his limits and had not yet gotten used to his state.

"Haha, as expected of Hyung, you're a monster...”

After undoing the Dance of the Fireflies, Bloody fainted in intense pain. The skin all over his body began to crack, but with Hillis's divine power added to the naturally strong bodies of the Crows, he barely avoided death.

Doomstone clicked his tongue, saying that his younger brother had gotten weak, then told William, "I'm sorry, but I'll ask you to look after my younger brother. I have to deal with other monsters."

"Oh! Yes! I will do that!"

Then Hillis ran to Doomstone and cried, "Please take me, too! I should be able to help!"

Doomstone looked at her nonchalantly. "If you were in good condition, you would have been a great help. But it seems you’ve already gone over your limit?”

Hillis took out the rosary, which was hung on her neck.

Seeing the rosary, Doomstone’s eyes opened wide. "I don't know what it is, but it has a lot of power. But I'm fine without it."

Upon his determined words full of confidence, Hillis blocked him. "I must go to the place where the Demon King is being summoned! My only sister is there!"

Doomstone smiled and nodded when he saw her strong and desperate eyes. "You have good eyes. All right." Having agreed to her request, he shouted loudly to the point the whole area reverberated. "You guys stay and take care of the demons!"

As if responding to Doomstone's cry, an army of Crows on green deer flocked over from afar.

"Uahahaha! It's a fight!"

"Kill them all!"

Although it was only an army of a thousand, the power of the Crows made hundreds of thousands of demons unable to defeat them. The demons that clashed with them simply began to be slaughtered.

"How about Youngest Lady remain in the back?" Mac suggested as he slaughtered the demons in front.

Leisha shook her head and poured magic on the demons. "I’ll refuse, Vice Captain!" She was shooting magic with great effort and smiled broadly at Doomstone. "You can leave this place to us and go ahead. And it's hard to say this to a stranger, but run away if my father seems like he is about to cause an accident."

Hillis was flustered by Leisha's advice. "Instead of stopping him?"

"If you want to try stopping him and die, it's up to you."

Hillis could not smile recklessly at Leisha's playful words. It was natural considering the Doomstone’s prestige. "Khmm! Then let’s go. It's going to shake a little bit!"

Doomstone lifted Hillis with one hand and jumped high.

"Kyaaaaaak-!"

When Doomstone suddenly started jumping through the air at a speed faster than a train, Hillis couldn’t help but cling on and scream.

-o-

At the temporary headquarters of the Demon King Worshipping Church in the Demon’s Territory, Libra held a ceremony to summon the Demon King by controlling black mana in front of a huge altar.

"It's a wicked heretical ceremony.”

Behind Libra, Leo, wearing a golden mask, was sick and tired of seeing the overflowing black mana from the altar.

At Leo's grumbling, Libra said with a smile, "I don't think it's something to be said by the person who provided the Holy tribe’s descendent, which is the core of the wicked ceremony."

On the altar, Vibrio, the paladin who followed Leo, was uttering an incantation, emitting divine power with blank eyes.

"Hmph! Everything is just a temporary alliance for the revival of the temple!"

It was clear that if the Demon King was summoned, the temple, which was half destroyed by the Blood Emperor, could regain its strength. It was natural because the natural enemy who could fight the Demon King was the power of the temple.

"How tearful to dream of revival at the sacrifice of your beloved subordinate." Libra openly mocked Leo.

Even after hearing the mocking, Leo only bit his teeth and said nothing.

"By the way, I'm glad we completed the preparation for the ceremony before the Crow of Death could properly take action. We were almost forced to hold the ceremony in the northernmost part of the Demon’s Territory because all the bases were destroyed.”

This place, where they were holding the ceremony to summon the Demon King, was not so far from Valhalla, the northernmost front base of the empire. It was because at the end of May, Sagittarius, Galak Blade, safely brought the horn and summons of the Demon King. At one time, they were frightened just from the fact that Doomstone began to move.

"Come to think of it, the thing that the Archbishop had was recovered by you, Leo, right?"

What Marquis Balta had was retrieved by Scorpio, the Witch of Greed, but the letter held by the Archbishop of the Great Temple was recovered by Leo, the cardinal.

Thanks to the rapid retrieval, they were able to speed up the ceremony.

Libra was sincerely grateful, but Leo felt a sense of shame because this act was him forsaking his beliefs.

"U-huhuhu. The Great One will soon open its eyes! Then the wicked warrior who is fighting a bloody battle with Aquarius will also have his life ended!"

Libra looked at the altar and laughed as if he had obtained the whole world.

-o-

Zendia dropped his Spirit Sword and knelt down helplessly. "Keuk! I lost!" He gritted his teeth angrily and glared at his father.

Galak vomited blood and laughed full of relief, receiving a fiery gaze with a constant fighting spirit. "Hahahaha! It seems I won! I don't know how long it's been since I had a fight that almost killed me. Has it been about 120 years?”

Zendia ground his teeth. "Are you teasing me because you won?”

"Ahahaha! The loser talks a lot. I want to talk more, but time's up."

"Why! Why can’t I beat you, Father!?" Zendia urgently asked.

Galak shrugged. "That's a task you have to figure out on your own. All right. Take it as the last homework this father will give you."

Zendia's instincts were screaming that if he let him go like this, they wouldn’t be able to meet again. "If it's homework! At least have an answer in mind before leaving!" he shouted.

Galak burst into laughter. "Kuhahaha! If I had prepared something like that, I wouldn't have heard all my life that I’m a selfish person." Then he smiled cheerfully. “You'll get stronger. Someday, you'll overcome the limits like me. I'm proud of that future of yours." He called his favorite sword, the Phantom Sword. "Then it's goodbye." It was a sincere smile.

"Goodbye? Are you going to say such irresponsible things to the end?!" Zendia shed tears as he grabbed the fallen Spirit Sword. If he had at least one more chance he wouldn't have let him go like this. He had no more power left, he just trembled in helplessness.

-o-

Leaving his son behind, Galak was excited by the touch of the Phantom Sword that he held after a long time.

"It's been a while."

At his greeting, the Phantom Sword cried pleasantly.

When he stood in front of the altar, black mana soared as if it had been waiting.

Libra on the altar burst into the square and shouted hurrah, "Hahahaha! Our God! Come to this land and lead us!"

The power that made his whole body tremble far exceeded the power of the Demon King 120 years ago. It was obvious.

120 years ago, the Demon King's body barely reached the level of a madosa, but now it was at the level of a great madosa. The fanatics surrounding the altar worshiped the Demon King in tears.

"Ohhh, our God! Blessing!”

Libra stood in front of the just summoned Demon King, thrilled, and opened his arms. "In order to bring you back, I...! Cough!” He vomited blood from having his stomach penetrated by the magic of the Demon King.

"Wh-what?!"

The Demon King grabbed its head with great effort and spoke as if throwing up. "Silly things. Keuk! Even after a long time! Kuuaaaaah!" After a painful scream, the Demon King exploded black mana.

The fanatics who believed in the Demon King were crushed like bugs by the violence of black mana spreading in all directions.

"Argh!"

"Save me!"

"God!"

While the fanatics were brutally dying, the Demon King clenched its teeth and shouted, "No one can control my mind!"

Galak smiled brightly at the cry of the Demon King. "That's my Wayne!"

The Demon King's body reacted to Galak’s voice and shot magic. He cut down the magic lightly, and the Demon King looked at the old warrior.

"I see... You didn't have to do that."

After 120 years, the Demon King and the warrior, who met again, aimed weapons at each other.

"I spent my whole life in order to kill you, Wayne," the warrior said.

The Demon King did not ask about the old story. It was obvious.

"Ah, really, you are foolish, selfish, but lovely."

"I'm here to keep my promise. I'll split your heart!"

The Demon King smiled brightly, shedding a stream of tears of blood.

"Come!"

Hurry and clench my heart and break it into pieces.

Instead of words, the Demon King shot black mana at the warrior. The warrior cut the magic with the Phantom Sword and raised his martial arts to the limit.

Golden grains of mana spread in all directions to counter the black mana of the Demon King. When the Demon King raised its hand high into the sky, black lightning struck from the sky. The warrior raised his sword and accepted the lightning directly. Then, using its power, he shot a golden strong aura containing black lightning toward the Demon King.

The Demon King confronted the warrior's strong aura by making a huge black mana bead and shooting it. The two forces confronted each other and caused a huge explosion that engulfed the Demon King and the warrior. They rushed toward each other even in the gust of wind caused by the explosion.

The Demon King’s arm flew off due to the warrior’s sword while Demon King’s black magic penetrated the warrior's abdomen.

The Demon King’s body regenerated again because its core, the heart, was not destroyed.

After seeing that, the warrior forcibly restored his body using his lifespan. Upon recovering from hundreds of thousands of serious injuries, he finally put his sword into the Demon King’s heart.

"Keuhuk!" The Demon King vomited blood and smiled brightly. "Thank you, my selfish and foolish warrior."

The Demon King kissed the warrior’s lips. The taste of the last kiss was bloody but nonetheless affectionate.

The warrior smiled with a face that could shed tears at any moment and touched the Demon King's cheek. "You idiot."

The Demon King smiled faintly. "Huhu... Who are you calling a fool? Oh, I’m sleepy."

The warrior said something that he could not say 120 years ago. "Then you should sleep. I'll go to your dream, too, so good night."

"Yes... In my dreams... Let's meet...”

The Demon King slowly disappeared from the arms of the warrior as if turning to dust.

The warrior shed tears that he had held back and grabbed the empty air.

"Cough"! He supported his body by inserting his Phantom Sword into the ground.

In exchange for using all of his life, his whole body began to crack like the dry earth.

"Are you leaving?"

Despite the sudden question, the warrior did not look back. He was not so stupid that he could not recognize an old friend's voice.

"Yes. It's goodbye."

Ah, I can finally sleep comfortably. The warrior slowly closed his eyes.

In the place where the Demon King and the warrior were, only a black handle remained.