The Last Place Hero's Return

A low laughter echoed through the space beyond the crack in the air. I ground my teeth as I spoke the name, no, the title, of the being beyond the rift. “The Prophet of Eternity.”

“Well, that is what people call me,” he replied.

“Not exactly. It sounds more like that’s what you wanted people to call you,” I said.

“Hahaha. Believe whatever you like.”

I frowned as I looked down at Mephisto’s corpse. “So, what exactly is going on here?”

“Nothing special. We simply had a small disagreement.”

“A small disagreement,” I muttered. For something so small, the outcome didn’t look very small at all.

“Hahaha. Well, you could call it karma.”

I looked into the rift. “I heard you were the one who betrayed him first.”

“Betrayal... betrayal, you say. I don’t recall ever betraying Mephisto.” His voice remained smooth and shameless. “What Mephisto wanted was the destruction of the Demon God. I wanted the same thing. When two people share the same goal, you can’t exactly call it betrayal, can you?”

I asked. “And the man who wanted the Demon God destroyed was the same one who told Amon how to descend into the Abyss?”

“Yes. To destroy the Demon God, it was necessary to revive him first.”

I now understood why he had told Amon how to reach the Abyss. It was so that Amon could absorb the flames of the Abyss and become the Demon God. No. I clicked my tongue and shook my head. Judging from that utterly calm voice, I could guess that the Prophet of Eternity had never intended for Amon to become the Demon God.

“So, you turned me into the Demon God instead?” I replied.

“That’s right. Amon would have lost control and rampaged, but I believed you would be different.”

“What made you think that?” I asked.

“Because within you lies a power that can extinguish flames.”

He knew about the Blessing of Resurrection as well, but how? The fact that I possessed the Blessing of Resurrection was something no one knew, except my party members. Everyone who had ever seen me “revive” had been killed. In fact, in recent times, I had barely even used the blessing during battles. None of my party members had ever contacted him. And it was even less likely he had obtained information from the demons who were already dead.

A cackling laugh rang beside my ear. “Hahaha. Curious how I know that? Because you are the seed I have waited five hundred years, desperately, painfully, for to sprout.”

What kind of nonsense was that? I simply replied, “That explains absolutely nothing.”

“Hahaha! Just accept that such a thing exists... Anyway, Mephisto and I succeeded in working together to revive the Demon God, but it seems he wanted something different from me.”

“What did he want?”

“The continuation of this world. Mephisto wished for this world to continue on peacefully, forever.”

His words implied that he didn’t. In simple words, the Prophet of Eternity had no desire for this world to continue.

“Hahaha! Quite unlike a demon, don’t you think?” asked the Prophet of Eternity.

“And you’re nothing like a hero either,” I replied.

“Oh? That’s almost exactly what Mephisto said. Hehehehe.”

“Ah, by the way, do you know why Mephisto betrayed the demons and sided with the heroes?” he asked.

“No.”

“There was a female demon he cared deeply for, Serpente, I believe her name was. Apparently, he wanted to turn her into a human.” The Prophet of Eternity continued, his voice laced with mocking amusement, “He came up with the idea that if the Demon God dies, then the Demon God’s soul stigmata will disappear as well. That means the demons could become human.

“And then, he could live happily and peacefully with the woman he loved in a world without the Demon God! Not as a demon, but as a human. Isn’t that hilarious? Those idiots who would have died long ago if it weren’t for the Demon God’s soul stigmata, struggling so desperately just to become human again.”

“I’m not sure if it’s funny,” I replied.

What it did tell me was that this man’s sense of humor was completely broken.

The Prophet of Eternity continued, “Well, anyway. I’ve already taken care of the variables that could interfere with our goal, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Our goal? Hah.” A hollow laugh slipped out of me. “Since when did you and I become close enough to be lumped together as ‘we’?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” The Prophet of Eternity sounded genuinely confused. “You and I share the same objective, don’t we?”

“What are you even saying?”

“You want this world to end too, don’t you?” he asked.

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”

I’ve never once wished for this world to end.

“Hahahahahahaha! Nonsense? You think it’s nonsense?” The Prophet of Eternity burst into roaring laughter. “No, think carefully. If you didn’t wish for the destruction of this world, there’s no way you could have absorbed the Primordial Flame.”

“What?”

“The Primordial Flame is the essence of the Demon God, destruction itself. It does not dwell within those who do not desire ruin. Deep down in your heart, you wish for the end of this world. More than anyone else... perhaps even more desperately than I do.”

I wish for the end of this world?

“Cut the crap,” I shouted.

But suddenly, a scene flashed through my mind. It was the memory of an endless snowfield stretching to the horizon, and the raging blizzard howling through the air. I could vividly recall the white breath escaping from my lips and the cold so biting it felt like my very soul would freeze. Memories from that day, memories I had locked away deep in the closet of my mind, sealed behind a heavy door, came surging back. And then, the power of the Primordial Flame rampaged on its own, with Ashen Flames blazing fiercely.

“See? I was right,” said the Prophet of Eternity.

“Shut up!” I bit down hard on my lip as I forced the raging flames back under control. The ashes that had been swirling around me gradually began to fade.

A mocking voice echoed from beyond the rift. “Hmm. So you’re still planning to deny it? Well, if that’s how it is, it can’t be helped.”

Accompanied by a snickering laugh, he continued, “I’ll help you reach the point where you want to end this world.”

The fissure hanging in midair began to shrink. When it finally disappeared completely, silence fell over the wide training hall. Gasping for breath, I collapsed to the floor. “Damn it!”

The Demon God, the Prophet of Eternity, Mephisto, and the end of the world—countless thoughts tangled together in my mind like a knotted mess of threads. Slowly, I turned my head and looked at Mephisto’s corpse. A pure white flower had grown through his skin. Unlike the miserable sight of him coughing up blood and dying, the flower that had taken his body as nourishment was indescribably beautiful.

As I stared at the flower, I thought about the Prophet of Eternity. He possessed a blessing similar to mine. It probably wasn’t the Blessing of Resurrection. After all, blessings were inherently unique. But there were several blessings with similar effects. For example, if there were two blessings named the Blessing of Thunder and the Blessing of Lightning, they wouldn’t be identical, yet from the outside, their effects would appear quite similar.

It meant that if the Prophet of Eternity, like me, possessed a blessing that made it so he could not die even if he wanted to, everything could be explained. I hated to admit it. But part of me understood why he wished for the destruction of this world. Just as he had said, in the past, the one who had most desperately longed for death was none other than myself.

But now, things were different. A life that had once walked only in pursuit of death had a reason to keep living. There was a story I didn’t want to see come to an end. Thus, staring at the place where the rift had vanished, I quietly steeled my resolve.

“I’ll... stop you.”

* * *

The victory ceremony, a festival celebrating the great victory in the war against the demons, had filled the academy with excitement. The cadets had gathered in the central plaza of the academy, loudly chatting about the recent war.

“Wahahahaha! Humanity is finally free from the threat of the demons!”

“Kyahaha! I heard every single Master gathered this time!”

“Damn! I wish I could’ve seen that myself!”

“Says the guy who jumped through the Warp Gate and ran away first.”

“T-that was...!”

Iris looked around at the lively crowd with a faint smile. “Everyone seems incredibly excited.”

“Well, it’s the greatest victory since the Great Five Heroes killed, well, sealedthe Demon God five hundred years ago,” I replied.

Yurina tilted her head and leaned closer to peer at my face. “Hmm, but Dale, why have you been making such a gloomy face since earlier?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Don’t give me that.” Yurina, in her Yuren disguise, frowned and gently touched my cheek. “It’s because of the Prophet of Eternity, isn’t it?”

Her words struck the mark so precisely that my shoulders flinched. Just then, some passing female cadets shrieked when they saw Yuren stroking my cheek.

“Oh my gosh, look over there!”

“I-I heard rumors that Yuren was close with that bottom-rank cadet, but...!”

“Kyaaah!”

Yurina coughed and hurriedly withdrew her hand. “Well, anyway, today’s the victory celebration, so lighten up a little.”

I chuckled softly and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Big Brother! What are you doing standing here? They’re about to start the victory commemoration video, so hurry over!”

“A victory video?”

“Hehe! It’s a video introducing the heroes who made great contributions during this war!” Berald’s eyes sparkled as he clenched his fist enthusiastically. “You were the one who defeated the Archbishop of Ruin, the leader of the demons! Of course, there’ll be a segment about you, Big Brother!”

“As if.”

To begin with, my battle with the Archbishop of Ruin had taken place deep within the Abyss. There was no way any footage of it existed. And if they publicly announced that the person who had killed the Archbishop of Ruin was the lowest-ranking cadet of the Hero Academy, people would probably think the entire war victory had been fabricated. Most likely, the hero credited with killing Amon would be Camellia, who had descended into the Abyss using the Seven-Colored Stone.

“Umm, b-but surely, they’ll show something about you, Big Brother? After all, you’re the one who led this war to victory,” Berald said.

“Well, maybe I’ll appear as one of the cadets who bravely fought without running away,” I replied.

Since I had been unconscious for the past two weeks, I had no idea how the victory ceremony video had been prepared. While chatting idly with Berald, I found a spot with my party members at the edge of the plaza.

“Oh, it’s starting, Dale,” Iris said.

A massive hologram appeared above the plaza, and a rather dull video about the war began to play.

—Five hundred years ago, our ancestors, the Great Five Heroes, after a glorious battle with the Demon God...

“Here we go.”

They’re seriously starting from the history five hundred years ago? This is going to take at least thirty minutes. Shaking my head, I grabbed the cold beer sitting on the table and began gulping it down.

Suddenly, the screen distorted with heavy static. The cadets watching the video started to murmur among themselves.

“What’s that?”

“Is the broadcast glitching?”

“If this is how it’s going, they might as well just play some porn instead.”

Then, the footage changed to something completely unexpected. On the screen appeared the faces of Amon and me.

“Wait! The true Master of Ruin you mentioned earlier.”

“Yes. From now on, you are the Demon God.”

I was shocked. “What the hell?”

Why the fuck was that footage playing here right now?

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