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Chapter 145: The Remnant (2)

He was ranked number five among the Demon Kings, the first Demon King to be killed by the hero party 300 years ago.

The Demon King of Carnage didn’t know of the Moonlight Sword. Vermouth had yet to find the sword at that point, so he used the Holy Sword to cut the Demon King’s head.

The fight had continued all night, collapsing every plain near the Demon King’s castle. That was how the plains had been transformed into hilly lands. During the terrain change, an underground dungeon was revealed. Although no one was sure when the dungeon had been built, Vermouth had found the Moonlight Sword inside after that disastrous fight.

‘It’s a Demon King’s remnant, but the Demon King of Carnage wouldn’t recognize the Moonlight Sword.’ Eugene continued his train of thought.

However, Eward — who seemed to be resonating with the remnant — accurately recognized the Moonlight Sword. The existence of the Moonlight Sword hadn’t been passed down among the Lionhearts’ descendants, let alone the world. The only people who remembered the Moonlight Sword in the current generation were the reincarnated Hamel or long-living beings that had lived since that generation.

“Well, well.” With a scornful smile, Eugene dug his fingers into his chest as if he was grabbing his heart.

Badump, badump, badump.

His heart pounded faster. His rage and his hatred were mixed into one desire: to kill.

“Fucking great to see you again, you son of a bitch.” Eugene spat.

The Demon King of Carnage didn’t know the Moonlight Sword, but the Demon King of Cruelty did.

Of course, he did. The Demon King of Cruelty had been torn apart by the Moonlight Sword’s light.

Tempest said the darkness spirit that wrapped around Eward was a Demon King’s remnant. Eugene was also sensing it since he vividly remembered what had happened 300 years ago. The Demon Kings he had fought against had extremely disgusting, ominous, and horrible presences.

He could feel both the Demon King of Carnage and the Demon King of Cruelty from the darkness spirit. The spirit was too small, considering that it was a remnant of two Demon Kings. However, it was understandable. That miserable thing was what had become of the Demon Kings after they had died 300 years ago.

“Pathetic.” Eugene didn’t even bother hiding his rising desire to kill them. “You should just have collapsed into specks of dust if you are dead. Why did you prolong your pathetic lives by leaving your remnants in your weapons? Did you two hold each other’s hands and hope to resurrect yourselves because you thought it was okay now?”

Badump, badump, badump.

His heart kept on pounding, but he didn’t calm down. Instead, he used his mana to make it beat faster.

“Yeah, you may have even succeeded.”

Eugene’s hair rose up. His mana flame and the lightning within blazed up more fiercely — he was using Ignition.

“If I wasn’t here.”

He had already taken out the Moonlight Sword and the Holy Sword. Though he had said there was no going back when it came to using Ignition, so what? If he was worried about the aftermath, he could just wipe everything out, eliminating the need to worry in the first place. Besides, he couldn’t worry about his safety when he was looking at those disgusting beings right before his eyes.

He wasn’t sure what that magic circle and the sacrificial offerings were for. However, it was pretty obvious how they would be used since that darkness spirit had been born from two Demon Kings’ remnants.

No — if he didn’t kill them now, there would be one more living demon king, bringing the total of living demon kings to three. 300 years ago, he had gone through all that trouble to kill three demon kings. How could he let it go to waste?

“What in the world…?!” Hector’s face turned pale as he backed down after he stopped the bleeding of his severed arm. He looked back and forth between Eward, floating in the air with the darkness, and Eugene, wrapped around in an unbelievably fierce flame.

Hector knew how everything had started.

The Captain of the First Division of the Black Lion Knights, Dominic Lionheart, didn’t take any pride in being a Black Lion and a Lionheart. The thought ‘I am special’ had previously motivated Dominic to work hard for the Lionhearts, but the Lionhearts didn’t treat Dominic as someone special.

His grandfather was the Immortal White Lion, who was known as the living legend of the Lionhearts. However, his family was still a collateral family, since his grandfather hadn’t become the Patriarch.

That fact made him discontented. This discontentment was considerably heightened and distorted when Eugene, a collateral family member, became the main family\'s adopted son.

“…What…are you?” Dominic dryly laughed as he stood up.

Dominic had never felt as close to death in his entire life as when he had felt the unidentified power just now. The form of death that Dominic had just felt was none other than the moonlight.

“How are you that strong?” he asked as he swallowed the blood rising up in his mouth. The Demon Spear didn’t shatter amid the awful moonlight, but Dominic was gravely injured after swinging the Spear. His mana flow had reversed, damaging his Cores, and his left leg was left mangled because he had stepped back two seconds too late.

“What have you done just now?” Dominic asked desperately.

Some other collateral family members had similar grievances as Dominic. Of course, they didn’t blatantly reveal their grievances. Instead, they had secret meetings among themselves — blabbering about the Lionheart’s future and dreaming of a future where the collateral family members — no, they themselves became leaders of the next generation.

Dominic knew them very well since it was one of his jobs. The Black Lion Knights existed for various reasons; one of them was to hunt those worthless bugs that ate away at the family’s pillar.

That was why getting close to them was easy.

As a Black Lion, Dominic thought that those bugs were a group of pathetic losers.

However, he liked their plan of using the main family’s first son, who had gotten kicked out after being treated like trash.

“I was almost there,” Dominic hissed.

Was everything a coincidence? No, it was fate.

Just as the name suggested, darkness spirits lived in darkness. However, darkness didn’t necessarily mean dark places without any light. It also referred to a human’s mind where light and darkness couldn’t be clearly distinguished. Since there was no light that could purify it, a human’s mind sometimes became darker than anything.

Dominic never heard the spirits’ voices, but he felt a certain desire deep inside his heart.

His position as a Captain of the Black Lion Knights was very convenient for secretly meeting Eward, who was locked up in the house of Tanis’ parents. After distracting the Black Lion tasked to keep an eye on Eward, Dominic had impulsively met Eward that night. Still, he didn’t question why he had such an impulse so suddenly.

Eward was the first son who was treated like trash; even Dominic thought Eward was trash. However, Dominic saw darkness deep inside Eward’s eyes — malice, not desire to kill, toward his mother, grandfather, and the many servants of the Bossar family.

In the beginning, his plan was to deliver a black magic catalyst. If Eward became a black wizard, the Lionhearts’ honor would be irreparably damaged. It was even better if Eward ended up running amok afterward.

Besides, Dominic had no lingering feelings for the Lionhearts, so he was going to ruin the main family himself. After doing so, he would seek asylum in Helmuth or other countries, welcomed as the owner of the Annihilation Hammer.

But when he saw Eward’s eyes, Dominic handed him not the black magic catalyst he had prepared, but the Annihilation Hammer. There was no voice telling him to do that, but he somehow knew that he had to. Ever since darkness seeped into his heart, Dominic had been predestined to hand over the Hammer to Eward….

Eugene opened his arms wide.

All of his power was concentrated on Akasha — his Cores were being overloaded from Ignition, and the Ring Flame Formula had amplified his mana so massively that it would have been impossible for others to control it.

Akasha shone. A large magic circle appeared first, and dozens of smaller magic circles overlapped the large magic circle. Eugene wanted strong, destructive magic so he could pour out the emotions he was currently feeling.

As Eugene began casting his magic, Mer assisted him.

Dozens of different types of magic were cast simultaneously. Dominic and Hector couldn’t properly perceive which magic circle was which at first and how the different magic circles were connected. However, they felt the attack that erupted in front of them was a magical disaster.

“Ahhhh!” Dominic let out an outcry as he thrust the Demon Spear. Amid the light created by Eugene’s magic, the Demon Spear’s darkness spread. Although the Demon Spear emitted darkness, Dominic’s body couldn’t last any longer. Standing beside Dominic, Hector also tried to block Eugene’s attack in any way he could.

“Akasha,” Eward muttered. His eyes were still black, with red dots in the center. He slowly reached out his hands and tapped on an empty space with his long fingers.

Pop!

The waves from Eugene’s attack, which had spread widely in the darkness, burst apart.

“Wynnyd, the Holy Sword, and the Moonlight Sword. Now, you even have Akasha,” said Eward bitterly.

Eugene didn’t respond. He just looked at Eward. Eward’s eyes remained unchanged, and his face was pale.

A gruesome smile spread over his emotionless face.

“…Eugene, you…surely got all of my father’s love.”

Again, Eugene didn’t answer. He just smiled.

From what Eward had said, Eugene figured out what kind of a being Eward was.

He was influenced by the darkness spirit born from the remnants of the Demon Kings. Due to that influence, he had received a part of the Demon Kings’ memories. However, the Demon Kings weren’t reigning in Eward’s mind. It was just their residue. Eward was just a child who didn’t know his limits, trying hard to digest the remnants of two Demon Kings who had died 300 years ago.

[…You shouldn’t take him lightly. Hamel, that idiot just crushed your magic with one finger.] Tempest warned Eugene.

‘I know.’

After his magic collapsed, all of his scattered mana returned to Eugene. His Cores, running wild due to Ignition, swallowed the mana again.

Zinng!

Akasha built layers of barriers around Eugene.

‘He may not be the Demon King himself, but he is something similar. It will be too arrogant of me to fight him with magic.’

Eugene was pretty confident in his magic skills. To top it off, he even had Akasha. However, it was still impossible to fight a being that was similar to a Demon King. The only people who could do so 300 years ago were Sienna and Vermouth. Unfortunately, Eugene wasn’t at their level yet.

“Cough…!” Dominic stood up amidst a pile of debris. As he coughed up blood, he looked at his arms. Rather than him holding the Demonic Spear, it simply laid on top of his bizarrely twisted arms.

Besides Dominic, Hector was lying unconscious, but Dominic had no obligation to care for Hector, nor was he composed enough to do it anyway. Dominic tried to walk backward, but his mangled arms led him forward.

“…Stop….” Dominic begged the Demon Spear.

He didn’t want to fight this brainlessly — destroying everything nearby. There were other ways to fight Eugene even if Dominic’s power was weaker than Eugene\'s. That was what Dominic thought, but the Demon Spear didn’t listen to his pleas.

The darkness had previously protected Dominic from the magic disaster incurred by Eugene. Now, it rose up and coiled itself around Dominic’s arms. Trembling, Dominic watched what the darkness was doing.

Crack.

Crack, crack.

Everything was tangled into one — his mangled arms, ripped flesh and muscle, and crushed bones. Dominic’s newly formed arms looked more like lumps with scales than human arms.

“…Haha….” Dominic dryly chuckled as he blankly watched his newly formed arms. They now looked bizarre, and his fingers were glued to the shaft. Dominic and the Demon Spear were now connected as one, and soon, Dominic’s head was eroded by the evil memories that remained in the Demon Spear.

Creak….

Dominic grinned and lifted the Spear above his head. Eugene had seen that movement before.

…Crack…crack! 

The scales spread from his arms to cover Dominic’s shoulders, chest, and back. Next, another set of arms sprouted out from Dominic’s back.

“You aren’t surprised.” Holding the giant Annihilation Hammer that was as big as his height, Eward looked down at Eugene. “...You… are truly interesting. How can you not be afraid even in a situation like this? Ciel and Cyan were. Everyone became afraid when they came here.”

Eugene checked the people who were hanging on the tree. Fortunately, everyone was okay. It meant that they weren’t ready to be used as sacrificial offerings yet.

‘Yes, that’s it. The remnant… of the Demon Kings’ has gone berserk.’  

Eugene concluded so for now. Many factors made the remnant run amok — the memory of the Moonlight Sword, the defeat they had experienced 300 years ago, and a sense of humiliation, wrath, and hatred. Eugene lowered his stance.

“…I can now….” Eward grinned, looking at the Annihilation Hammer. “...Kill you… and make everyone inside this forest into sacrificial offerings.”

“Is that so?” Eugene nodded, smiling. “I don’t know about that.”

Eugene didn’t know what Eward could do. However, he would find out, since he would be deeply involved in this fight. No matter how any of this had started, the ending was already decided.

Eugene was going to kill Eward.

“I’m not going to ask every little detail, such as what you are thinking, what happened to you or why this happened.”

After being blurred for a moment, Eugene’s view expanded. In his hands, he felt violence and destruction that wanted to go on a rampage.

“I can just finish this by killing you. If I kill Dominic, Hector, you, the spirit, and the remnant, all of this will be over. As for the reason that drove you to do this? If needed, I will make something up after I kill every one of you.”

Eugene opened his arms wide once more. His power was now split between Wynnyd and the Moonlight Sword; Ignition was still on, overloading his Cores, and the Ring Flame Formula brought his mana to such heights that anyone else apart from him would have found it impossible to contain.

“You guys did this because you are a bunch of idiots,” Eugene spoke as he gritted his teeth.

Mer had never experienced such severe desire to kill. Eugene’s desire had no trace of compassion or mercy. There was only a desire to annihilate the opponent. She tightly shut her eyes, trembling as she felt Eugene’s vicious emotions. She didn’t know what was going to happen from now on, but she didn’t want to know or see that. The Eugene — no, the Hamel she knew, wasn’t such a scary person.

Yet, she couldn’t ask Eugene to stop. His anger, hatred, and desire to kill right now were legitimate. If Eugene was facing an ordinary black wizard or a demonfolk, he wouldn’t have been this infuriated. The thing before him wasn’t a Demon King of the past. It was a residue that may or may not become a demon king. On top of that, he had killed the Demon Kings himself. Although he hadn’t cut off their heads, he had mutilated their limbs and stabbed their hearts dozens, even hundreds of times.

“You guys will be killed because you are a bunch of morons.”

The Demon Kings hadn’t crumbled into dust; they had survived. And now, using Eward Lionheart’s body, they appeared before Eugene.

Tempest let loose a hurricane.

He let his wind run amok, turning the ground upside down and pushing away the darkness. Dominic threw himself against the rampaging hurricane. Although he wasn’t sure why he felt thrilled and hateful at the same time, he grabbed the Demon Spear with his four arms.

Dominic looked different; his size was also different, and Eugene was reminded of the Demon King of Cruelty, whom Eugene had killed 300 years ago. At the top of the Demon King’s castle, he had skillfully used the Demon Spear with four arms as he fought against the heroes.

“You are disgusting,” Eugene spoke with spite.

Dominic was just imitating the Demon King and didn’t actually possess the Demon King’s dreadful power. However, the dark demonic energy emitted by the Demon Spear brought back a distant memory that Eugene didn’t want to recall.

No, the memory wasn’t shameful. The Demon King of Cruelty was the one who had lost in the end. It was a glorious tale of heroism for Eugene. He could brag about it while he told the stories in front of others if only he hadn’t run into the damn Demon King again like this.

“Aaaahhhhh!” cried Dominic.

Rumbbble!

As Dominic spun the spear shaft using his four arms, the Spear was swallowed by pitch-black darkness. A little behind Dominic, Eward marched forward with the Annihilation Hammer.

He could see, feel, and realize many things. As an intense feeling of being omnipotent rushed over him, Eward trembled. The information was being engraved in his head — the truth of black magic. Humans couldn’t understand it; they shouldn’t understand it.

With knowledge of this ‘truth’, Eward came to a conclusion. He needed more blood from the members of the Lionheart clan to complete the magic circle and turn the spirit into a ‘Spirit King.’ Specifically, he needed the blood of the members of the main family, but the young twins from the main family weren’t enough. Eward needed blood from that thing before him.

300 years had passed after the Great Vermouth and his party slayed the Demon Kings. Eward was the descendant who had the purest Lionheart blood. He had only met his ancestor from 300 years ago as a portrait or a statue in the main house, but strangely enough, he could now vividly see the ‘Great Vermouth’ in his head.

He wasn’t scared of a large army or a Demon King. Wrapped around in white flame, he marched forward with a cold, pale light in his hand….

“…Yes….” Eward saw Eugene.

Dominic thrust the Demon Spear, but it was deflected upward by the Moonlight Sword’s light. Tempest’s storm that followed shattered the darkness. Dominic ran forward with a weird sound — maybe it was a scream, maybe an exclamation, maybe a shout of concentration.

He was using a grotesque spear skill in which he freely used his four arms, but he still couldn’t get the upper hand in this fight. Eugene swung the Moonlight Sword, tearing off Dominic’s arms as easily as cutting a piece of paper. Before anyone knew it, Eugene thrust the Holy Sword that lit up the darkness and pierced Dominic’s body.

“…like you.” Although he wasn’t sure why, Eward felt thrilled as he watched Eugene stab Dominic with his sword. Eward idolized Eugene’s flame. Eward could diligently spend his entire life learning the White Flame Formula, but he would never reach Eugene’s level. That was why Eward wanted Eugene’s talent. Eugene’s talent that was recognized by Eward’s father and everyone else in the Lionheart clan.

Therefore, Eward happily accepted the truth inside his head: Eugene Lionheart had to be sacrificed for the spirit to become a Spirit King. In fact, Eward wished to make Eugene into a sacrificial offering even if he didn’t need to.

Eugene was the one who had forced Eward to wake up from his happy dream three years ago. That day, Eward had faced a harsh reality after waking up from his dream. He had changed himself to live in reality.

If this was how his childhood had come to an end, he now wanted to have a Coming-of-Age ceremony. Since he hadn’t had a Coming-of-Age ceremony, he was going to have it now by completing the spirit using Eugene, who woke Eward from his dream, as a sacrificial offering.

Eward lifted the Annihilation Hammer high in the air.