Chapter 341. I'll Do My Thing (1)

Leo felt as if he were about to lose consciousness. He could do nothing but bite his lip and endure the horror that spread from his wound.

"Master! Master!"

Rigor cried internally.

Rigor, freeze the wound,

Leo ordered.

"...You can't fight like this. You're not ready to face a Demon King..."

Rigor's voice trembled.

Even if it's just me, I'll still fight,

Leo replied through gritted teeth.

Ssssh.

The hole in his abdomen froze solid under the chill that his blade Rigor emanated. The bleeding stilled for the moment, but it was only first aid to buy time.

Pain kept surging. It was a kind of agony Leo had never felt in his life. He felt as if he would fall to the ground at any second. But he couldn't allow himself to collapse. No—he must not fall.

He forced a smile at Seria, who stood behind him, and said, "It's all right..."

"L–Leo!" Seria cried.

"I can endure it. So please—hurry..." Leo managed to finish his sentence.

The mana spilling from him spread outward, taking up space. It was at most 7-Star mana. It was a pitifully small force against a Demon King. Yet Leo kept his eyes wide open and stared ahead.

Black petals bloomed like an illusion. He had seen those petals before. Years ago when he and Caron had first visited the imperial palace, his always-monstrous cousin had fainted. Back then, those same petals had fluttered. The Queen of the Succubi—no, the Demon Queen of Lust—had scattered them. Yes. It was definitely that wretched one.

"Younger children can't match up to the older ones, they say—but in this house there is no older sibling who measures up to their younger. Isn't that right, Leo Leston?" Lust mocked.

From between the black petals a woman with a sensuous figure emerged. She slowly licked the red blood from her fingertips. The sight struck Leo not so much as repulsive as unbearably sensual. Resisting her dark mana had been almost impossible. Had the others been ordinary knights, perhaps they would already have fallen under her sway.

But Leo ground his teeth and swung Rigor.

Creak.

The chill and the Azure Mana fanned outward and froze the petals.

Leo stamped forward.

Screee!

Rigor's pure white blade cut through the Demon Queen hidden within the petals. White paint spread across a world filled with black.

"How fitting for the lineage that holds Rael's blood. Your resistance to dark mana is considerable. If these had been any other knights, they would have gone mad with lust long ago. Hehe. You would make the perfect toy," Lust said.

The petals swarmed and smothered Rigor in an instant. It couldn't hold them back. Even such an ancient blade was powerless beneath the Demon Queen's overwhelming force.

"What face would he make if you died?" the Demon Queen of Lust purred as she reached out again.

Her attack wasn't fast. Leo could see paths by which he could dodge. But he didn't move. If he dodged, Seria would die. If the Grand Saintess fell, he couldn't live with himself.

...It'd be better for me to...

Leo thought.

He flung his body forward as if that would make things right.

For a brief, awful moment Leo glimpsed Caron's image. He wondered, if it had been Caron—if that lunatic had been here—what choice would he have made? He thought for a heartbeat, but the answer was already clear.

Caron was strong. He could have easily batted that hand away.

But that was something only Caron could do. Leo, who had spent his life trailing behind Caron, could never match him. He had to give up trying to fight like Caron.

"Leo, please—dodge!" Seria screamed from behind, but he only smiled all the wider.

There had been only one plan from the start. If he could buy even a little time, someone would arrive to save Seria.

So Leo gladly threw himself toward the reaching hand.

Puuuk!

The hand pierced him again. This time it struck his chest, not his abdomen.

"Argh!" A cry tore from his throat.

The pale white hand speared through him to the upper right of his heart. Because he had twisted his shoulder at the last moment, he avoided instant death. A sweet fragrance rode the wind.

Leo looked at the Demon Queen with bloodshot eyes.

"If things were different, I would've made you my puppet," Lust whispered, stroking Leo's jaw with her left hand.

Leo could only look back at her, powerless. He no longer had a voice. All he could do was stand and endure the pain.

His mind began to blur slowly.

Perhaps it was because he had lost too much blood, or maybe it was the Demon Queen of Lust's dark mana taking hold—Leo could no longer tell the difference.

...Is this how I die?

he thought.

He felt no bitterness. Surviving this long against a Demon Queen had been a miracle in itself. Still, there was one small regret.

Will he cry when I die?

he wondered.

He had wanted, at least once, to see Caron's face wet with tears—the one who always nagged him—just that once. It seemed this life wouldn't grant him that.

Leo gave a short, breathy laugh and thrust his sword out, but the blade carried no strength. It couldn't pierce the Demon Queen of Lust.

Clang!

Rigor fell from his hand and hit the ground. Leo no longer had the strength to grip a sword. A wave of helplessness spread through him; the light in his eyes began to fade.

The Demon Queen of Lust peered into his failing gaze and smiled all the more deeply. In a silky voice she whispered, "If you have any last words, say them. I'll be sure to tell Caron. Okay?"

Leo cracked a crooked grin and answered, "Fuck... off."

Spit.

He spat a mouthful of blood-mixed saliva at her face.

It seemed like something Caron would've done. There were far more things he had yet to accomplish, but he had no regrets.

Ha...

Leo thought.

His parents' faces rose first in his mind. Then the other elders of his family, and the faces of his cousin siblings.

"...Le... Leo... ooo!"

For a moment he thought he heard Caron's voice. To hear Caron speak in the final moments of his life—what an infuriating man.

His eyelids grew heavy. If he closed them now, he thought, he could sleep a long, comfortable sleep. He couldn't hold on any longer. And at last Leo let his eyes fall shut.

Darkness swallowed him. Nothing remained to see. Nothing.

He accepted his fate there, slipping away into the dark.

***

Flashhh!

Pillars of light burst upward on all sides. Upon the earth corrupted by dark mana, a miracle of the gods descended.

Whooosh!

The pillars pierced the dark skies of the Demon Realm, carving out a domain of pure sanctity.

The Demon Queen of Lust, Laia, gazed at the light that surrounded her and smiled brightly. It was beautiful. So beautiful that the word slipped from her lips without thought. "Lovely."

She gave a careless push to the young human before her, and his body collapsed to the ground with pitiful ease. From him, no trace of life could be felt.

He had to have died.

Ordinarily, she'd have lifted her foot and crushed his head, but Laia didn't bother. She had no taste for playing with corpses.

And more than that...

"Leoooo!" someone cried out.

Laia had no time for such things when that loathsome wretch came charging at her with a face twisted in rage.

Claaaang!

A sword containing mana at its utmost limit struck Laia's body. She raised her hand swiftly to keep her head from being severed, but even so, she couldn't absorb the full impact.

Shhhhk!

Black petals scattered into the air. Under normal circumstances, she would have slipped away through them, shifting her position with ease. Yet, this time, her dark mana refused to obey her will.

That cursed light pillar was the reason.

"Caron Leston!" Laia cried in a voice brimming with rapture.

It was Caron Leston, the boy she had once met in the imperial palace, who now stood before her as a grown man. From him, she felt a murderous intent so intoxicating it nearly stole her breath away.

Perhaps, from the very first time she had seen him, she had been waiting for this moment.

"Your cousin is dead. Tell me, Caron—what kind of face will you make?" she asked with a cruel gleam in her eyes.

She had lived for countless ages. As a demon, she had endured endless strife, climbing step by bloody step to the peak of the succubi.

Her time as the loyal servant of the Demon King of Sloth had not been unpleasant. Yet strangely, before all that, her memories vanished into emptiness. She couldn't recall how she became a succubus, nor what her life had been before.

They were memories long lost. And she had never cared to find them. She had been content, after all, to live as the Queen of the Succubi.

But that changed at one point in her life. She couldn't say with certainty, but it seemed to have begun the day she met Caron Leston.

The day she delivered the Demon King's will in the imperial palace—the day her head had been severed by that chilling, dark blue blade.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

From then on, an uncontrollable greed had consumed her. A strange sense of déjà vu haunted her, and she ached to uncover its truth. So, she followed the pull of that greed.

And it had led her to this very stage.

"Welcome!" Laia exclaimed.

The stage wasn't as she had originally intended. She had planned to slay the Grand Saintess and display her corpse as a trophy. Still, this wasn't a bad scene at all.

Leo Leston, Caron's dearest cousin, the one who had been with him for nearly half his life, lay crumpled on the ground.

Perhaps that was why.

From Caron, she felt a hatred more searing than ever before, and that hatred sent Laia spiraling into ecstasy.

"Haaaah..." She let out a moan of pleasure, licking her lips with her tongue. She couldn't contain her excitement.

Among the memories she had stolen while devouring the power of Slaughter, there had been fragments tied to this human.

They were about Caron Leston's previous life as Rael Leston, over three hundred years ago. And in those memories, she had found traces of herself.

All the more reason to give everything she had now.

"I want you to remember me for the rest of your life," Laia said. "I want you to think of me and drown in rage, to writhe in agony every time my face comes to mind."

Escape was impossible. This domain, wrought by that revolting Grand Saintess, pressed down even upon the power of a Demon Queen.

But Laia cared little. She had never planned to flee. This stage was meant for her end, dazzling and complete.

Shaaah!

As she released her dark mana, dark petals whirled through the air. The illusions of a succubus began to bleed into reality.

Crkkk.

The boundary between truth and dream wavered, and Laia's body was veiled in petals. She stood upon that border and fixed her gaze on Caron.

Whoosh.

Caron's body flared with a dark blue light. The sword in his hand radiated a murderous aura denser than ever before.

"If you wish, I could let you dream forever in bliss," Laia offered sweetly.

"Forget dying peacefully," Caron snarled. "I'll tear your limbs apart and strip the flesh from your bones."

Laia's lips curved in delight and she said, "That sounds fun."

"...I'll make you beg," Caron vowed, his voice shaking with rage. "Beg me to kill you."

A fierce wave surged forth.

Caron was a human, yet one who could rightly be called a Demon King himself. His power, far beyond all mortal limits, warped the dream-reality border as he advanced.

Laia spread her arms wide, her smile dazzling as she said, "I've been waiting for those words."

After a wait that spanned centuries, this moment had finally arrived.

Even if her end lay here, it mattered little. For in this man's memory, she would carve a scar that would last forever.

Krrrshhh!

Laia's dark mana clashed with Caron's, birthing a violent storm.

Flashhh!

The light streaming from the pillars suppressed her corruption from fully invading reality. It felt like being ensnared in an inescapable trap.

And yet, she felt more alive than ever.

Ssshhhh.

Dark mana surged into her delicate hands, a sinister red glow burning in her eyes.

"Now then," she whispered, "It's time to dream."

It would be her final dream. And so, Laia stepped forward willingly.

"Die," Caron said.

Shhhhk!

His hatred exploded, a vortex of wrath that swallowed everything.