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HELHEIM SCANS
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Everything was pitch black.
The thick, oppressive demonic energy was so dense that it obscured even the faces of comrades only a few meters away.
Out of the darkness, tendrils, claws, and teeth emerged.
The monsters, twisted to their extreme by the malevolent energy, had taken on the worst possible forms, far beyond anything human imagination could conceive.
These nightmarish creatures charged at the death squad as if to devour them whole.“Evergreen!”
A tendril, coming from a blind spot, grabbed the ankle of a nimble girl and lifted her into the air.
Evergreen was whisked dozens of meters up from the deck.
Just before she could be slammed to the ground, Luke displayed superhuman strength and severed the tendril.
Boom!
But it wasn’t over.
As they fell, clinging to each other, teeth and claws rushed toward them, as if competing to strike first.
They would have been in grave danger if the Hero had not sent a timely halo their way.
“Thank you, professor!”
The overwhelming numerical disadvantage.
Even facing a single one of these creatures could easily devastate a small village, yet each member of the squad had to contend with more than a hundred.
However, their resolve didn’t falter.
“Get lost!”
Even Evergreen, who had nearly become a corpse on the ground, wasted no time firing arrows at the monsters the moment she touched the earth.
The others were no different.
In the pitch darkness, facing the monstrous howls and stench of the creatures, they held their ground without flinching.
The Hero’s words echoed in their minds:
“It’s time to break the cycle of evil.”
“For the glorious future ahead of us!”
The few remaining elves naturally recalled the burning great forest.
They remembered their families and neighbors, who turned to dust in Theo’s hands, and the rotting World Tree along with their leader.
Their grip on the bowstring didn’t waver.
The magicians from the Magic Tower were the same.
They spent countless nights together for decades, researching and debating with their fellow magicians.
Though they sometimes argued due to their stubbornness, they cherished one another.
When those colleagues were brutally murdered and then reappeared before them as liches, they wept tears of blood.
The once bright intellect and curiosity had vanished, leaving only decaying skeletons, casting destructive spells.
“Die!”
“Let it all out!”
Even if it meant destroying their mana circles, they would see this through to the end.
The magicians in the engine room crawled on the ground, pouring out their mana, while those on the deck unleashed magic with all their might.
“For Dorempa’s revenge!”
“North Hail!”
The northern demi-humans who lost their revered chieftain needed no prompting, and neither did the other humans.
There wasn’t a soul there who hadn’t lost loved ones to the forces of evil.
The root of all the misfortune they had experienced throughout their lives was always them.
Now, they had a chance to root out that evil for the first and last time.
No one wanted to retreat.
Standing firm with their backs against each other, they held back the monsters like a breakwater.
“Hold on! We can’t retreat!”
“This tragedy ends with our generation!”
As the Hero hurried to provide support and ensure their survival, his gaze turned once more to the Demon King’s Castle, shrouded in a crimson-black barrier.
Rumble!
It wasn’t far away.
However, the atmosphere around the Demon King’s Castle was so alien it felt like an entirely different world.
The demonic energy rose like a tornado, connecting the ground and sky, with lightning flashing inside, emitting a terrifying glow without pause.
Each bolt seemed large enough to engulf Avalon whole.
But what was most frightening was the gradually emerging presence of the Demon King.
Of course, the descent wasn’t complete yet.
However, everyone there could clearly feel the deep, dark presence slowly permeating the world.
“Two hours,”
Larze whispered as she passed by the Hero.
“We have two hours to reach the front gate of the Demon King’s Castle. Any later, and we’ll be too late.”
She gauged the distance.
Without the monsters’ interference, it would be a journey of less than 30 minutes.
But….
Whoosh!
A gust of sword wind momentarily scattered the demonic energy, revealing Avalon’s path forward.
Screech!
The monsters were literally throwing themselves to stop Avalon’s advance.
Flesh was ground up in the treads of the endless tracks, and even after being crushed, they continued to attack.
The walls of corpses continued to form, forcing Avalon to blast them apart with its main cannon to progress.
And yet, the commanders of the demon army had not even shown themselves.
‘Time is running tight.’
It might be necessary to disembark from Avalon.
Going on foot would be faster.
‘It’ll consume more energy… but it’s better than arriving late after the descent is complete.’
As the Hero calculated the timing, familiar silhouettes suddenly leaped off the deck.
“Yaaah!”
“Clear the path! Hurry!”
“Ugh… It’s do or die!”
It was the Lotus Knights.
As the Hero looked at them in surprise, the Dawn Knights led by Yussi followed suit.
Yussi grabbed the Hero’s arm as she passed him.
Her low voice followed.
“Let’s go. To fulfill the captain’s dream.”
Their early charge had not been agreed upon with the Hero.
It was much more dangerous than fighting with the support of Avalon.
…But in terms of ‘reaching the Demon King’s Castle quickly,’ it was the most efficient.
Vroom!
As they fell to the ground with the Hero, Yussi raised her alchemy glove, glowing red-hot.
The transmutation circle spun in a spiral, with complex symbols floating in the air.
At the same time, a sphere of massive energy formed near their landing point.
Simultaneously, the elemental particles in the atmosphere responded to her command and began to converge.
Boom!
A vortex of elements continuously combined with a deafening roar.
The sphere, emitting intense heat and light from a series of chemical reactions, rotated rapidly and shot forward.
“Run….”
A flash of light and flames.
Dozens of gigantic monsters blocking their way instantly evaporated.
It was a strike as powerful as a full-powered blast from Avalon.
Yussi, staggering for a moment, pushed the Hero’s back.
“Run!”
He had no intention of leaving her defenseless.
This time, the Hero grabbed Yussi’s wrist.
“You fool!”
“Shut up.”
“Save your strength. You can shoot that again, right?”
“…After a short rest.”
“Alright, rest. On my back.”
The hero slung Yussi over his shoulder.
At the same time, the Lotus Knights and the Dawn Knights charged into the open space.
Karen, riding Shadow, was at the forefront.
The mobility of the Rune Wolf was overwhelming.
She shot forward in an instant, firing arrows wildly at the nearby monsters.
“Look here! You ugly bastards!”
If Evergreen, with his high-tension longbow, boasted overwhelming destructive power, Karen was an archer who utilized a short bow for rapid fire and suppression.
The monsters, quickly turned into pincushions, roared as they chased after her.
The monsters that had momentarily scattered now regrouped.
“Uraaah!”
Whenever monsters swarmed too close and put her in danger, Gerald, sitting behind her, would assist with his powerful spear techniques.
Gerald, gripping the Shadow’s body tightly with his legs, swung his spear like a windmill, shattering the tentacles and claws of the monsters in one go.
Karen wouldn’t want to admit it, but she had great synergy with Gerald, who delivered powerful strikes with each blow.
As they successfully herded the monsters and returned, they were met by the rapidly heating barrel of the main cannon.
Woooooong—
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HELHEIM SCANS
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Avalon squeezed out all his remaining magic.
“Shadow!”
As the Rune Wolf sharply turned, the main cannon fired with a thunderous roar, spewing a magic bullet.
Once again, the front line was blasted open.
The monsters hurriedly gathered to block the path, but...
Crack-crack-crack—
Cuculli erected ice walls and laid down ice sheets, slowing their movement.
In the meantime, the children of the extreme squeezed into the gap.
“Professor! Go!”
“Leave this to us!”
“Don’t worry about anything!”
Aileen, Karen, Gerald, and about twenty others.
It seemed they had already reached an agreement among themselves.
After assigning Leciel, Ban, Luke, Evergreen, and Cuculli to the hero, they rushed out to face the swarming monsters.
…Their still youthful faces showed no trace of hesitation.
“I want disciples who will see the end of these enemies with me.”
Full circle.
These were the words they remembered hearing before they even became the hero’s disciples.
At the time, they didn’t understand the weight of those words at all.
Their minds were filled only with the desire to serve the hero, the greatest of humanity, and to receive the benefits of that.
But over the past few years,
The children had experienced many things and changed.
They finally realized what their talents, efforts, and the fruits of those efforts were all for.
‘…This is the moment we’ve longed for.’
The hero, the light of this world and its only hope.
At the same time, their proud teacher.
It was enough just to send him to the Demon King’s castle without a single scratch.
Of course, it would have been better if they had the ability to stay with him until the end, but that was likely the role of another friend.
The children of the extreme glanced back once before charging toward the wave of monsters.
Not just them, but other troops also began jumping down from Avalon one by one.
It seemed they intended to clean up the pursuing monsters and follow closely behind.
…The hero’s footsteps moved forward almost simultaneously.
A rational decision.
Cold logic.
It was what he had emphasized to his disciples so many times.
The best thing to do in this situation, the way to ensure the survival of the most of their comrades, was…
To stop the Demon King’s descent as quickly as possible.
“…….”
The weight of everyone’s expectations and lives pressed down on him.
His breath caught in his throat for a moment, but he couldn’t stop.
He mustn’t stop.
“Let’s go.”
The hero charged forward with his disciples.
The enemies stepped forward, ensuring he wouldn’t have to swing his sword once.
Forming a wedge with the hero at the center, they charged forward.
Luke and Ban slashed through the monsters rushing head-on.
Luke, in his chaotic form, wildly swung his greatsword, unleashing bursts of firepower, while Ban provided steady support with his stable swordsmanship.
Leciel and Evergreen took charge of the rear.
With powerful sniping, Evergreen held back the large monsters, and Leciel swiftly cut through their weak points before retreating.
In the air, Cuculli, transformed into a dragon, was blocking the flying monsters.
Her capable shaman brother, Waldif, was riding on her neck.
Even while dealing with the flying monsters, the two of them occasionally used magic to support the ground forces.
The support troops from Avalon were also diligently catching up by now.
Larze, Maktania, Izaro, Lucas…
The hero moved forward, receiving everyone’s support.
“Professor, may you have a victorious return.”
“See you in a bit!”
“Thank you, always!”
When the commander of the Fifth Legion, the Scholar of Madness, Astaon, blocked the path, Luke and Evergreen left the formation.
“Doppel! Just keep running straight!”
It seemed Maktania intended to take on the Fourth Legion Commander, the Priest of Solitude Meragon.
From that point on, the hero also had no choice but to step forward and wield his sword.
He dashed forward, slashing with his sword of hope in a state of near-transcendence.
Reaching the Demon King’s castle as quickly as possible.
That was all that was left in his mind.
Swoooooosh—!
Before he knew it, black rain began to pour down, creating an eerie balance with the red blood spreading beneath his feet.
The hero desperately hoped that balance would be broken, but no matter how much the sky roared with thunder, it didn’t change.
His breath caught in his throat once again.
How much more must be paid as the price to reach peace?
“Professor! Go!”
“You must win!”
“Ah… Mother.”
But he kept running.
This world, which had lost its rationality and happiness and had only been groaning in prolonged agony.
In that place, ■■ ran breathlessly.
“So, you’ve come this far.”
…A worn-out voice blocked his path.
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HELHEIM SCANS
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