The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

97 – EP6. Great Change

I exhaled.

“You came again today. Do you have a reason to fight me even though you’re facing such losses?”

Countless monsters, monsters, and more monsters.

I threw the bone fragments from my bag. The figure of the Death Knight was formed, and I flicked my finger, creating sparks.

“… What am I doing right now?”

Saying this does not matter since the Black Magician controlling these monsters will not give me an answer anyway.

I shot out fire.

The monsters burned and melted away.

But there were still more monsters coming than the ones I was eliminating.

“… Spear of Chaos.”

I decided to use the most powerful magic I could use. Spear of Chaos. It was a great magic I learned in the distant past, also called the Miracle of Brightness, one that was put in awe and admiration.

The flames dissipated. The water flowed and the wind embraced. The earth was swallowed by everything.

A giant spear was created. It was unclear whether it was a flame that devoured life, or a waterway deep inside, or a breeze that brushed past, or a crumbling land. It simply took the form of chaos itself.

I shot out that spear.

Chaos greedily swallowed everything on its path towards itself.

Everything on the straight path disappeared.

“Is it still not enough?”

I drew out my bow. Instead of bothering with unsheathing the sword, I thought it was better to leave close combat to the Death Knight.

As I shot arrows infused with black magic power, the monsters decreased one by one.

“Surely, without Sein, the processing speed has slowed down.”

But I don’t regret it. No matter how many monsters there are, they can eventually be dealt with. If sending Sein to the empire can reduce the number of sacrifices, it’s better that way.

I fought against the empire’s pursuit squad and won, so the gathering of monsters seemed trivial. After all, there were no strong monsters appearing since I provoked the monsters living nearby.

And they should know that fact too. So why are they engaging in such meaningless and futile actions?

I shot an arrow. The monsters inherently possessed dark magic within them, but even so, dark magic effectively killed them.

Dark magic inherently had the properties of destruction and erosion, opposite to the properties of sanctity and purification possessed by divine power.

Dark magic from beings other than oneself was poisonous without any ritual.

The erosion of dark magic was sufficient to drive the monsters to their deaths, and I felt familiar seeing the monsters fall one by one.

But as this continued, I felt something odd.

There were significantly more monsters than usual, as if they had brought the kingdom’s monsters along.

“What are they aiming for?”

No matter how many monsters they brought, they couldn’t possibly overwhelm me. However, bringing all these monsters probably meant… they intended to wear down my stamina or something similar.

And the moment I realized that, a man dressed in a black robe appeared.

“You’re truly remarkable, warrior.”

“It’s you?”

I knew instantly that he was the one behind sending the monsters.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because you sent the Golden Lion to the empire. We were already short on sacrifices, and capturing a few thousand ordinary humans through you would be more efficient.”

“Hmm… It won’t be easy, though.”

I pretended to be strong with my words and tried to analyze what he said. Why would he claim that capturing ordinary humans through me was more efficient than just capturing them directly? Did they have criteria for the humans they kidnapped? Such thoughts crossed my mind.

“Of course, it won’t be easy. Swordsmanship, archery, magic, miracles… even black magic learned from who knows where. We are aware that they all represent master-level skills. But that’s precisely why capturing you is worthwhile and why we’ve worn you down.”

I chuckled at him.

“So, you appeared at this moment because you think I’m sufficiently worn out?”

“Yes. Not just your magical power, but also your stamina seems greatly depleted.”

The statement that they found me worthy to capture due to my level implied a lot. In other words, the higher my level, the more valuable I was as their so-called ‘sacrifice.’ Whether this applied to any level or only to those with specific high levels, I didn’t know.

Now that I heard such words, they seemed to have a good understanding of my level. Certainly, my stamina and magical power were running low. Depending on the opponent’s level, there was a possibility I could be defeated.

The opponent began to harness dark magic. Judging by the level of this dark sorcerer, it was clear that their skill was impressive.

“This level is that of a High Expert… No, it must be Master level.”

Indeed, this was why they were so confident. If a Master level were to attack alongside these monsters, they would surely have the confidence to defeat me.

The problem was that the opponent happened to be a Master level “Dark Sorcerer.”

If the opponent were a Master level mage, archer, swordsman, or at least a priest, there would have been a possibility of me losing. However, I had the confidence that I would not be defeated by a Dark Sorcerer.

In that moment, a certain memory crossed my mind.

“Listen carefully, even if there comes a time when you must kill me with your own hands, never, at least never let yourself be killed by mine. Do you understand?”

…Of all the memories that could have resurfaced, why did it have to be this one? An uncomfortable memory came back to haunt me.

I furrowed my brow and gripped my sword. The amethyst embedded in the sword glimmered.

The opponent prepared a spell formation. I easily distorted and destroyed the spell formation.

“W-What! To interfere with my spell formation and twist it, this should not be possible!”

The opponent said in a shocked voice.

“It is possible. If I am able to clearly see what kind of dark magic you are using.”

“Hero, are you saying that you can clearly see my dark magic?”

“That’s right.”

The opponent frowned and prepared the spell formation once again.

I also distorted and destroyed the spell formation.

“Damn it!”

If the opponent were at a similar or higher level than me, it would not have been effective. However, the opponent’s level was lower than mine. In that situation, since I already knew the spell formation, it became incredibly easy to destroy it.

“Why would you teach me this? Hm… Don’t die to black magic anywhere, especially not to a black sorcerer like me.”

An uncomfortable memory struck my mind once again. I gritted my teeth.

The Dark Sorcerer sent monsters towards me. It seemed like they were buying time to complete the spell formation.

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I used Death Knight to fend off the monsters and attempted to distort the opponent’s spell formation, but their spell formation was completing faster.

And so, I ended up directly taking the opponent’s spell formation.

“Argh!”

Instinctively, I let out a groan, but nothing actually happened.

I was left puzzled, but this was a chance to ambush the opponent who had come all this way. I hid my body among the painful monsters.

“Yes, it’s a curse that stimulates the entire nervous system, causing the whole body to burn! Even if you were able to destroy other spell formations, at the point where you couldn’t destroy this one, it’s your defeat!”

Ah, so it was that kind of curse.

I remained hidden among the monsters, protecting myself with a barrier, and casually scratched my cheek as if nothing had happened. A curse that was meant to cause pain had no effect on me.

“Should be used as a sacrifice, it must not be tattered. As fresh as possible…”

As he spoke those words, I seized the moment when he approached and lunged at him, thrusting my sword.

“Ugh!?”

Unfortunately, he managed to block the attack with a protective shield. It was weaker compared to shields made of magic or divine power, but it could at least withstand one of my attacks. I felt regret for missing a golden opportunity.

“How is he… still unharmed?”

The dark sorcerer, flustered, raised his voice, to which I replied.

“Because he’s cursed; that’s why it doesn’t work.”

“What did you say!?”

“You should’ve just used dark magic from the beginning. I’ve forgotten how to feel pain, you know.”

He began to visibly panic.

However, repeating this situation would likely increase the chances of being interrupted by monsters. So, I decided to deal with the monsters first.

I poured dark energy to create undead.

What the undead demanded wasn’t a difficult condition like a Death Knight, nor did it require a significant amount of dark magic relative to its power. What the undead required was simply an abundance of corpses, corpses, and more corpses.

The Mountain of Death began to rise.