Side Story Chapter 171

-Urgh... Aghhhh...

Urus’s face contorted in pain. His red skin was scorched black by the lightning bolts infused into his heart spreading across his body.

-I am Urus Jackston, the second-strongest demon in the Demon Realm!

This place was the Human Realm, not the Demon Realm. Although his power was vastly weaker than it was in the Demon Realm, there was only one person who was stronger than him under that realm’s blood-red sky—and Urus was certain that the ranking would change if he wished it to.

Urus audibly cracked under his skin as he went through Martialization, the devils’ racial trait—but only a red devil like him could transform like this. The distinction was immediately obvious.

-It’s definitely different from ordinary devils’ transformation...

Perchilin watched the transformation curiously. Devils grew a lot bigger through Martialization. Their muscle mass increased by at least three times, and their bones also grew thicker. Their demonic power was solely focused on reconstituting their bodies, however, so they weren’t able to use their demonic power once the transformation was complete.

It was hard to understand why devils would voluntarily give up the use of their demonic power, which was a demon’s greatest weapon, but no one in the Demon Realm disregarded the danger of a Martialized devil. Those who had encountered such devils knew what it meant when all of their demonic power was focused on their bodies.

-What? I won’t be able to die in peace?

When the transformation ended, Urus grinned, revealing a set of pointed teeth. Where he had been three meters tall, he had shrunk to less than two meters. Urus looked about as tall as Cain, who was one hundred and ninety centimeters tall; at another look, the devil might even be shorter.

However, Urus seemed exceedingly robust. He didn’t have the slightest ounce of extra fat and his muscles were hard and sharply defined like a sculpture. His cold eyes made the people around him flinch in surprise despite the fact that they held no malice.

-...Right back at you.

Urus pulled the spear out of his heart without hesitation. Despite the mortal wound to a vital organ, he was abnormally well, and it wasn’t because the hole in his heart quickly filled up.

Altheon looked him up and down.

-You seem bigger than the last time we fought.

-I know. I would have been way smaller if my horns hadn’t been cut off. Damn it.

Urus tossed a cold glare at Joshua.

-I’ll crush you so badly that you’ll beg me to just kill you.

“No, you won’t,” Joshua flippantly replied.

-What?

“Your opponent is someone else.”

Urus was even more confused. What in the world was this human woman talking about?

“Don’t you think your opponent is weakened enough, Cain?” Joshua turned.

Urus crumpled up his face, finally understanding what Joshua meant.

In contrast, Cain wore a bitter smile. “Thank you, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fight him.”

“Why is that?”

“I know my state the best. Although I haven’t said it because it felt like I was making excuses for my defeat, I’m already beyond recovery.” Cain saluted Joshua with his sword. “I’m glad I could meet you in the last moments of my life and I was genuinely happy to be your knight, so I would like you to be my only master even in my next life. Would you allow me to do that?”

Such was the last, ardent wish of the generation’s best and most loyal knight. While filled with sorrow for his own incompetence, he wished to be chosen even in his next life.

Joshua quietly pressed his spear against his chest.

“Goodbye, Cain de Harry...”

Cain’s eyes widened.

He wasn’t the only one who was surprised. Ulabis’s face tightened, and Icarus was ready to jump down the platform to yell at Joshua because his reply sounded like he was saying no to Cain’s wish.

“...I understand your choice.” Cain nodded.

-Ha. Hahahaha! Understand it, my ass. You’ve been abandoned because you’re weak. Well, I wouldn’t want a weakling like you either. You look like you'd just be a hindrance to everything I do.

Every word felt like a knife through the heart to Cain. Urus was right. Cain may be known as the famous Combat Emperor, but his fancy title was just a joke and he was a knight who had been abandoned by his master. The entire continent would forget about him soon enough.

“...But I would still like to be remembered as a decent servant at the end.” Cain slowly fixed his grip on his sword.

Conviction rushed through him. The despair that weighed him down like shackles was gone, surprising even himself. Without the worries of life on his shoulders, Cain felt like he was seeing the world in a whole new light.

Cain was already abandoned, and the moment he felt his imminent death, he forgot about his meaningless fame. There was nothing holding him back anymore, so all he had to do was give his best so he wouldn’t have any regrets.

“Yes, that’s it. That’s the Cain de Harry that I know.” Joshua smiled.

Cain tightened his grip on his sword, a surge of emotions rising inside him. Was he happy that Joshua’s cold response wasn’t true? No, Cain was ashamed of his old, pathetic self who had given up on fighting and was obsessed with meaningless things like fame and glory. However, he had no intention to die a pathetic death, overwhelmed by those wrongful emotions.

Cain’s mana filled the council chamber, his golden aura saturating the air with power. The change surprised even Cain himself.

‘I still had this much energy left in me?’

Cain couldn’t wrap his head around it.

‘Did His Majesty...?’

“I see that you’ve overcome your limit, so I guess I really can say goodbye to the old Cain de Harry.”

Cain swallowed. Did he overcome his limit right before his death?

‘...I overcame my limit on my own,’

Cain thought, delighted.

Cain’s aura surged with fresh power, enough to startle Urus even after finishing his Martialization.

Joshua had one more bit of help for Cain—secretly.

-Gluttony, let’s make a deal.

The power inside Joshua instantly responded. He had already handed the power of Lust to Perchilin, but the power of Gluttony was still dormant inside Joshua because Tshchary had stated that he wished to choose his own Evil Sin if he was only allowed one. Joshua had easily granted permission.

-I already know that it was you who snatched the Four Great Angels’ authority from the Four Paladins who invaded the Palace.

Gluttony clattered its teeth.

-Don’t feign innocence with me. You know that I have the power to just seal you away forever like the Demon Spirit.

Gluttony’s teeth immediately clacked shut. Joshua smiled.

-I need the authority of Gabriel, the Great Angel of Recovery. I don’t care if the power shatters and disappears from the world afterward, so restore my knight to his original self.

The Sin angrily gnashed its teeth.

-Who am I to make such a demand? Would you prefer to be destroyed instead?

Gluttony’s teeth clicked weakly.

-I think you’re mistaken here. You don’t have a say in this, but I can make sure that you have a decent owner.

Gluttony tapped its teeth together inquisitively.

-Yeah, I promise.

A pool of faint light spread out from Joshua and permeated into Cain. It happened so quietly that no one else other than Joshua noticed; even Cain didn’t notice the change in himself. He was busy taking on the devil.

-That’ll do it.

‘I really can’t figure you out,’

Lilith grumbled.

-I’ll take that as a compliment.

‘It’s a compliment.’

Joshua didn’t listen to Lillith’s answer because Cain and Urus were making their first attacks.

-—What!?

Urus was shocked. He rubbed the fist he had struck Cain’s sword with. It burned like he’d stuck it into a fire. Urus was three times—possibly even five times stronger than before at least, but Cain had blocked Urus’s attack with ease even though he had had trouble stopping a single one of Urus’s attacks before his Martialization.

-No way!

Urus threw hundreds more punches in the span of a breath. Not only were his attacks fast, but the damage was astounding. The marble pillars exploded into clouds of dust without even being hit, a testament to the sheer destructive power of Urus’s fists, and yet...

-Try stopping this too! Hurt and kill: Darkness Guillotine!

Urus gnashed his teeth and raised his foot high into the air because Cain had left himself vulnerable to attack after the last collision between Cain’s sword and Urus’s fist.

An outrageously powerful shockwave battered the chamber.

A mere human had easily stopped the attack that Urus once used to shatter the earth for hundreds of meters in the Demon Realm. The devil’s lips trembled.

-Did I get weaker?

“No.”

The answer came from behind Urus, not from his opponent. He found the silver-haired woman standing there, looking at him.

“You haven’t noticed? The opponent you looked down on got stronger.”

-A mere human...

“Why don’t you look back now? It looks like that ‘mere human’ is about to kill you,” Joshua casually replied.

Urus flinched and jerked back around. Cain had already nullified the shockwave from Urus’s last attack and was already close enough to strike the demon.

-No...!

Urus couldn’t believe that Cain was that fast.

That was the last thought that Urus had before Cain’s greatsword cut through Urus from head to toe in one strike.