The Last Place Hero's Return

In a room where darkness had fully settled, a pained groan slipped through the lips of a man with his hood pulled low over his face. Entwined with his groan, black flames coiled around his body, flickering dangerously as they burned.

A young man wearing a white mask slowly approached him, and a mocking voice echoed through the room. “My, my! You’re a complete wreck. Does it always get that bad whenever one of your clones dies?”

With the light, casual steps of someone out for an evening stroll, the white-masked man tilted his head and asked playfully, “Want me to regenerate you?”

“No need.”

The man engulfed in black flames—Amon, the Archbishop of Ruin and the demon who stood closer to the Demon God than anyone else—shook his head. Unlike the roaring fire wrapped around him, his expression was cold as ice.

“Really? What a shame. Wounds like that would heal in the blink of an eye,” said the white-masked man.

“Get to the point. Why are you here?”

“Why else would a hero seek out a demon? Naturally, I’ve come to judge an evil fiend in the name of justice.”

“You spout nonsense so easily.”

The masked youth folded his arms leisurely and shrugged. “Hmm. Is it really nonsense?”

Amon stared at the white-masked young man before him, the one known as the Prophet of Eternity, with eyes that had sunk into chilling depths.

“So, how was it, meeting him?” asked the Prophet of Eternity.

He didn’t specify who. But it wasn’t difficult to guess who he meant.

“Impressive,” Amon replied.

“Right? It sounds like bragging if I say it myself, but the more you see him, the more remarkable he is,” the Prophet of Eternity said.

Bragging? What kind of relationship do they have for him to put it that way? Amon thought.

The Prophet of Eternity looked at him. “Hm? Oh, you’re wondering what he and I are to each other? Let’s see... Would you understand if I said we’re something that’s been waiting a very long time to bloom?”

“I don’t understand at all.”

“Tsk, tsk. You demons really are devoid of sentiment.”

Amon let out a deep sigh and slowly shook his head. “That gray-haired cadet, Dale, was it?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“He was astonishingly strong. I won’t deny that he has the potential to become ‘Ruin.’ But he’s still just a brat. As long as I exist, he will never become the master of ‘Ruin.’”

“Haha. Yes. I know.”

As long as you exist, that is. The Prophet of Eternity thought.

He smiled brightly and continued, “So, about that, I have a proposal.”

“A proposal?”

“Mm. I’ll grant you the one thing you desire most.”

“Ha! Grant me what I desire most? What could you possibly know—”

Cutting Amon off, the Prophet of Eternity beamed. “To be specific, I’ll let you reach the deepest part of the Abyss.”

Amon’s eyes widened in shock. From the moment he had carved the Demon God’s soul stigmata into his chest, reaching the deepest part of the Abyss had been his most desperate wish, his lifelong obsession. There was only one reason he needed to reach that place. Only by reaching the deepest part of the Abyss could he achieve what he wanted to actually do.

“You can break the Demon God’s seal if you get there, right?” asked the Prophet of Eternity. “No, no. That’s not quite correct. ‘Breaking the seal’ isn’t the right way to put it. Because the Demon God died five hundred years ago.”

Amon kicked off the ground violently and lunged at the Prophet of Eternity. Towering black flames erupted, crashing down upon the masked man. With a flick of his finger, a deep green energy burst forth from the soul stigmata carved upon the Prophet of Eternity’s body and collided with the black inferno.

The surrounding earth screamed and twisted. From that single clash alone, the land within a radius of hundreds of meters was swept away by the shockwave and reduced to barren wasteland.

Then, on the desolate ground, pure white flowers began to bloom like snow. The wasteland instantly transformed into a garden overflowing with blossoms. Standing serenely upon that sea of flowers, the Prophet of Eternity gazed down at Amon.

Amon bared his teeth and glared at him. “You...!”

Five hundred years ago, the Demon God had not been sealed; he had been annihilated. That was a truth known only to Amon, the one who had inherited the Demon God’s power more deeply than any other demon.

“How? How do you know that?” Amon shouted, almost convulsing.

“How do I know? Haha. Think carefully. How do you suppose I know something like that?” A smile curved across the Prophet of Eternity’s lips. His smile was fresh and radiant, just like the flowers blooming across the earth. “Because I killed him.”

“What?”

“I was the one who killed the Demon God five hundred years ago, so isn’t it only natural that I would know?”

Amon staggered backward, his face drained of color. “W-what?”

The Prophet of Eternity had killed the Demon God five hundred years ago? Then that could only mean one thing.

The Prophet of Eternity turned to him. “So, will you accept my proposal?”

Amon kept his mouth shut as his thoughts were a tangled chaos.

“Think about it. This is your chance to become the Demon God.”

Only that sweet voice echoed in the air. It was too sweet to spit out, unbearably sweet.

* * *

Inside Elisha’s office, breaking the stiff silence that had settled over the room, I finally said, “I apologize. I suffered quite severe psychological shock during the treatment process.”

“What kind of treatment did you go through to end up like that?”

“That’s... ngh!”

No! Don’t think about it!

“Ah! Well, yes. You seem fine now, so that’s a relief.” Elisha cleared her throat awkwardly and turned her head aside.

“Whew. By the way, how are the demons?” I asked.

“They’re still completely off the radar.”

“Hmm!”

After causing that much chaos, they had shown no further movement. Or perhaps it was precisely because they had stirred up such chaos that they were lying low.

“In any case, there’s a meeting in the headmaster’s office regarding this incident. Would you like to come along, Dale?”

“Is it really appropriate for me to attend?”

Elisha shrugged. “If not you, then who?”

Well, I did attend the Summit Conference. There is no reason to exclude me now.

“Understood. Let’s go,” I said.

“Follow me.”

I headed to the headmaster’s office with Elisha. After a brief knocking, we heard a response.

“Come in.”

Inside, Headmaster Ryu sat alone. Or rather, the word “alone” was only half accurate. He was the only one physically seated at the table. Floating holograms in the air displayed the faces of Pope Marianne and Empress Camellia.

“You’ve arrived.”

“We’ve been waiting... hm? You came as well.”

Perhaps it was because we hadn’t spoken in a while, ever since the break ended and she returned to the Empire, Empress Camellia asked with a faintly excited expression, “I heard your condition wasn’t very good. Are you fully recovered?”

“Yes, I’ve recovered,” I replied.

“Hehe. That’s a relief. If there is anything you need, you may tell me at once.”

“This hardly seems the time to concern ourselves with such trivial matters...” Headmaster Ryu rubbed his temple as if a headache were coming on.

“Silence. How dare you interrupt while I am speaking?”

The only thing that came back was the Empress’s sharp rebuke, brimming with irritation. Recently, Camellia had gained a reputation for having mellowed somewhat, but that assessment applied only in very specific circumstances. To be precise, unless she was dealing with me, she was the same as ever.

“As the headmaster said, I think it’s more appropriate to discuss the demons rather than me right now,” I added.

“If you insist, then I have no choice.”

Letting out a deep sigh, Headmaster Ryu looked between Camellia and me. He shook his head, as if clearing away the cluttered thoughts in his mind, and said, “So, Professor Baldwin. Have there been any changes in the demons’ movements?”

“No. They haven’t shown any notable activity.”

“Hmm.”

Pope Marianne frowned. “What do you suppose they’re planning?”

Headmaster Ryu and Empress Camellia also fell silent, their expressions heavy.

“This is merely my personal speculation,” Professor Baldwin began, her eyes sharpening, “but I believe a large-scale invasion by the demons is imminent.”

A large-scale invasion by the demons. In other words, war with the demons was right around the corner.

* * *

“Do you have a reason for thinking so?” Lionel asked.

“There were no fatalities,” Elisha replied.

“Hmm?”

“I’m referring to the recent incident in the Demonic Realm. Not only were there no deaths, there wasn’t even a single injury.”

“Wasn’t that because the cadets and Professor Kane responded swiftly?”

“That certainly played a part, but it still makes no sense that not one person was injured.”

In other words, Elisha was suggesting that it had been a deliberate act.

“Are you saying the demons didn’t actively attack the cadets from the outset?”

“Yes.” She gave a quiet nod and continued, “Yurina, Morris, and Professor Kane, who acted quickly to subdue the demon at the time, all expressed similar opinions.”

“They didn’t press the attack?”

“No.”

“So, according to your view, their true objective from the beginning was to kidnap the cadets.”

“That’s correct.”

The kidnapping of the cadets was one of the possibilities we had already considered.

“If their goal was kidnapping and that plan has now failed, wouldn’t that actually reduce the likelihood of war?”

“What’s important isn’t that their objective was kidnapping.”

“Then what is?”

“It’s that demons, who are normally driven by destructive impulses, displayed enough unity and restraint to execute a kidnapping operation without causing a single casualty.”

So, the demons’ unity had increased.

“Right now, the demons are gathering under the Archbishop of Ruin and moving in a far more organized manner than before. And among the archbishops, the Archbishop of Ruin is the most proactive when it comes to breaking the seal of the Demon God imprisoned in the depths of the Abyss.”

Which meant he wouldn’t hesitate to make an extreme choice, even if it was war.

“I see. It’s a reasonable argument. But it’s difficult to conclude, based on that alone, that all the demons have rallied under the Archbishop of Ruin.” Lionel shook his head slowly.

“The demons have multiple factions. The Archbishop of Depravity commands only a small following, and the Archbishop of Beasts supposedly lost his entire force in last year’s demonic monsters incident.”

But many archbishops were still remaining.

“Even if their activities have recently diminished, the Archbishop of Dreams and Fantasies, the Archbishop of Desire, and the Archbishop of Madness are still alive and well. Under those circumstances, could the demons’ forces truly unite so completely beneath the Archbishop of Ruin?”

For a moment, Elisha was at a loss for words. She glanced subtly toward Dale and bit her lip. How could she possibly say it? The Archbishop of Dreams and Fantasies, Astaroth; the Archbishop of Desire, Laxasia; the Archbishop of Madness, Seto; and even the Archbishop of Beasts, Jackal—four out of the six archbishops had all met their end at the hands of a single cadet.

“Why have you suddenly fallen silent?” Lionel asked.

“No, it’s just... That is...” Cold sweat trickled down Elisha’s back.

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