Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 502

Riana was taking down the death knights one by one with lightning, as if sniping them from a distance. She was telling me that she would handle them herself.

I had told her not to interfere, but she must have thought I was in danger.

Boom! Flash!

She believed it was all because of her. She thought it was all her fault.

Crash!

“Ugh... Aaaah!”

“...”

Olivia, unable to match my strength, let out a bestial scream as she was knocked back by my blow.

Riana was stopping the death knights that were charging at me. death knights were top-tier undead beings. However, Riana had slaughtered countless monsters in Port Mokna and had never failed in defending it. She summoned dozens of bolts of lightning that struck the death knights. Their flesh burned away until only bones remained, which then turned red and burned to ashes.

Though they were undead, they had been resurrected from corpses that hadn’t been dead for long, and some still had faces.

As the leader of the Holy Order, Olivia had not had many direct encounters with these knights after dispatching them to Port Mokna. But Riana had commanded them for a long time, and had spent a lot of time together with them on missions.

Riana knew better than anyone who she was killing for the second time. She was paying the price for her sins by summoning dozens of bolts of lightning to strike the bodies of her comrades, turning them to ashes without allowing them a proper burial.

Olivia was possessed by an evil spirit, and the holy knights that had been dispatched to carry out the purification ritual had been resurrected as death knights, unable to have a proper death. They were fighting against beings that had once been their allies, not the monsters from the Gate.

Riana had made a mistake. She had committed an unforgivable sin.

But what about me, then? Trying to justify all that had happened through my intentions was a pitiful desire. Even if my intentions were good, even if I had tried to save everyone, it was true that all of this had happened because of me. Was it really unfair for the conglomeration of vengeful spirits to use Olivia, someone precious to me, to judge me?

Just as I believed my actions were justified, perhaps the wrath of those spirits was justified in its own way. Without my existence, all the problems in the world wouldn’t have occurred. The hatred towards the Demon King, blamed as the cause of everything that had occurred, might not be so unjust or absurd after all.

Even as the death knights were being neutralized one by one by the constant barrage of lightning, Olivia didn’t stop. Olivia, whose rational mind was being suppressed, didn’t seem to be attacking me with any sort of finesse or skill.

“Grrr...” She let out a low growl like a beast, swinging the cursed sword Tiamata at me like a club.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

It wasn’t difficult to block the powerful swings. However, the problem wasn’t the rough swings themselves, but the corrupting power Olivia wielded.

Even if I snatched Tiamata from Olivia’s grasp, nothing changed. As soon as I took Tiamata from her, Olivia would reclaim it, disrupting the tempo of the fight. Unlike me, Olivia could use Divine Power without Tiamata, making such a struggle for control dangerous for me.

Even if I took Tiamata away, Olivia would continue to use the power of corruption and decay.

Unable to harm Olivia, I was only able to defend myself, and my entire body was increasingly exposed to the aura of corruption and decay.

My skin began to grow necrotic, and my entire body started to die. As my nerves died, my senses dulled, and even my vision blurred.

I couldn’t use the healing power of Tiamata. If this dragged on, I wouldn’t die from sword wounds but would become a living mummy, withering away from the power of corruption.

I had to make a decisive move. I needed to take some action against the mass of vengeful spirits controlling Olivia.

“Grrraaaah!” Olivia, once again, lunged at me with her sword like a beast. Dodging and deflecting her strike only increased the rate that my body was being consumed.

I made my move.

Clang!

I grabbed the blade of the cursed sword Tiamata, tainted with the power of corruption, with my bare hand.

Sizzle!

White smoke began to rise as if my hand had been dipped in acid, and my hand began to die. However, I didn’t just grab the sword.

Clench!

“Ugh... Ah...”

With my other hand, I grabbed Olivia by the nape of her neck. Now, neither I nor Olivia could escape.

Clang! Bang! Bang!

Olivia struggled to break free from my grasp, but ultimately, my physical strength was superior. Olivia could only corrode me with the power of corruption, but she couldn’t wound me.

Tiamata belonged to both Olivia and me. Olivia held the hilt, while I held the blade. Since both of us were holding onto it simultaneously, neither of us could claim the sword or lose it.

But my body continued to rot and die.

“Tiamata...” I said to Tiamata, in the form of the cursed sword, altered by Olivia under the will of the vengeful spirits and evil spirits.

“Become a holy sword.”

I issued a command opposite to the one I had used when I killed Leverier Lanche.

Flash!

Tiamata, which had been exuding a dark aura of corruption, returned to its original form, emitting a burst of holy golden light.

“Aaaah!” Olivia screamed, as if the light itself were causing her immense pain.

Still holding the blade and not the hilt, I continued to grab onto Olivia’s neck as she tried to escape the range of Tiamata’s Divine Power. Olivia, too, didn’t let go of Tiamata despite the pain.

The will to corrupt Tiamata against the will to restore Tiamata to a holy sword... The collective will of the vengeful spirits clashed with mine.

Rumble!

Tiamata fizzled, emitting both white and black energy simultaneously, creating a hazy mirage. It was a battle between my singular will and the countless wills of the angry and vengeful spirits.

I couldn’t win. A single will couldn’t overcome so much collective resentment. Yet, I didn’t think of losing. I would show them. Just as I continued to hold onto my grand desire, I wouldn’t let go of what I held.

I was ready to let go of myself, but I wasn’t prepared to abandon anyone who loved me, nor did I intend to.

Anyone who loved me and anyone I loved, no matter who it was... If peace could only be achieved by abandoning them, then I didn’t need it.

‘I will acquire everything. I will have everything and, in the end, crush these damn evils and rise.’

The black aura emanating from Tiamata was being pushed back, and I was definitely pushing it back.

“Ugh... Ah... Aaaah!”

I did not let go of Olivia’s neck even while she continued screaming in pain, still overwhelmed by the vengeful spirits. My right hand was already blackened and dead, and the blackness had moved all the way up to the wrist, but the hand that I should have lost the ability to command still did not let go of Olivia.

I was willing to lose a hand if it meant I could turn things back. If there was even a slight chance of reclaiming what had been lost, I would offer something even greater.

“Get lost...” I said.

It was a message to Tiamata, whose blade was still in my left hand, and to the vengeful spirits possessing Olivia’s body.

“Get lost, you damned spirits!” I shouted, not with a wish, but with a will.

Flash!

The world was covered in a red radiance, and finally, the evil spirits were unable to withstand the Divine Power pouring out of Olivia’s body.

***

Rooooooar!

The vengeful spirits ultimately lost the battle for dominance and fled Olivia’s body, unable to withstand Tiamata’s Divine Power.

The expelled spirits coalesced in the air, forming a massive dark cloud. It hovered in the sky, as if shocked, spreading out and taking a massive form.

Olivia lost consciousness and went limp. I held her in my arms.

Was that massive thing what had been controlling Olivia’s body? The collection of spirits floating in the air was even larger than the giant stadium within the Temple.

Could something that massive, even in spirit form, fit into a human body? I was forced to confront the enormity of what Olivia had been enduring.

Just how many vengeful spirits were gathered in that cloud?

Roar!

Moreover, it was growing larger, as if attracting more vengeful spirits. Though I couldn’t see ghosts, my keen Qi Sense made it clear that it was absorbing wandering spirits, sucking them in like a black hole as it grew larger.

The conglomeration of spirits formed by Riana’s massacre was just the beginning. The massive swarm was growing larger and larger on its own, and I could only stare up at it in a daze.

For the moment, I had managed to expel it from Olivia’s body. But what if it grew so large that I couldn’t handle it, and it went on a rampage again? How could I possibly exorcise or purify such a massive conglomeration of angry spirits?

Its size was overwhelming. I managed to expel it from Olivia’s body, but I couldn’t purify it with the Divine Power I had, and Olivia wouldn’t be able to either.

What if it tried to possess someone else, such as Riana, Harriet, Charlotte, Airi, or even Ellen? I would have to fight the same battle again. And by then, the scale of this collection of spirits would have grown, and it would become even more impossible to handle.

If it tried to possess someone else in order to kill me, would I have to watch others wearing the same expression as Olivia had as they tried to kill me? Holding Olivia, I looked up at the writhing mass of spirits.

“Why do you have to do this?” I asked. “If you hate me and want to kill me, why don’t you just try to kill me yourselves? Why did you have to do this?”

I was willing to bear what I had to bear. I could understand their anger towards me, and I would have welcomed them attacking me directly. There was no need to go about borrowing the hands of those who loved me.

I chose to speak to the swarming mass of resentment, which could be considered a meaningless act, because I didn’t know what else to do.

“Why...?”

Unexpectedly, I received an answer. The massive conglomeration of vengeful spirits responded. It was like the voices of countless beings mixed together, more an echoing resonance than actual speech.

The overlapping voices of countless beings echoed across the field as if a single word could create an echo.

“Do you think only your death will suffice...?”

That voice was filled with utter despair and resentment.

Buzz!

The spirits buzzed, for lack of a better term to describe it. I could feel their emotional turmoil as a buzzing sensation on my skin.

“My son. My husband. My wife. Brother. My daughter. Mom. Dad. My lord. My love. Friends. Hometown. Everything. You took it all from us. Why should one thing be enough as repayment?”

The numerous words that erupted simultaneously were fragmented, but they all pierced directly into my mind, without entering my ears. The mass of spirits did not have a singular will. Was this the collective sentiment of those spirits? Was it like a hive mind?

Those spirits resonated with each other, becoming one through the pitiful yet vicious bond of anger, resentment, and despair.

A conglomeration of pure resentment...

It looked down on me from the sky, and I could feel the resentful gaze of countless spirits.

“Because you took everything from us, we’ll take everything from you. That’s... fair. We’ll kill you, take everything you have, and destroy it all.

“Because you destroyed us, we have the right to destroy you. We have the right to take everything from you.”

Antirianus had told me what Sarkegar had said to heap pressure on Eleris just before the Gate Incident. Sarkegar had said that, since humanity was the one that destroyed the Dark Land, the Dark Land had the right to destroy humanity.

The Gate Incident was triggered, and now, those words came back like a boomerang. Those whose lives were destroyed, those from whom everything was taken from, those who were killed, all spoke of their rights as the broken ones because I was broken.

Only a few had been directly involved in this matter. The spirits swarming in the sky above me were outsiders to most of the world’s events. They hadn’t decided anything, nor had they voiced their opinions. They were merely victims, many who had been killed thanks to Riana’s decision.

They had the right to destroy me. Yes, they surely did. Who else but they had the right to destroy me, hate me, and break me?

The conglomeration was growing larger. If left unchecked, it would grow so large that no one could handle it. Then, it would make me fight those I loved.

If its purpose was to cause me pain and suffering, then it would do so.

“You must fear me,” I said to the resentful gaze directed at me. “You don’t have the confidence to control me directly. You don’t have the guts to attack me directly. You don’t have the confidence to kill me, so you resort to this petty method of making me kill my people with my own hands.”

There was no answer, but I felt the massive collection of resentment writhing.

I provoked them further.

“How many of you are there? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Or millions? If that is the conclusion of all your anger and desire for revenge, if that is all there is to your hatred, your anger, your desire for revenge, then isn’t it lacking? Isn’t it too pathetic?

“Weak beings. You were weak in life, and you are still weak, even in death.”

Their grudge against me was the basis for their resentment, but fundamentally, they had died because of their weakness. If they had been strong, they wouldn’t have died. If they had been as strong as the hero, Ellen Artorius, if they had power, they wouldn’t have had to run, and they wouldn’t have been killed.

I taunted those weak spirits, that collective, saying that their method of causing me pain was ultimately the way of the weak, and that even as a collective, they were weak.

The spirits didn’t answer, but the writhing within the cloud and the threatening undulation said it all. The spirits were angry.

I had no confidence that I could overcome them, but I couldn’t leave this growing conglomeration of spirits unchecked. I couldn’t let this swarm possess another being. I didn’t want to fight against those I loved. I couldn’t let them control others anymore.

“Let’s see if your resentment is stronger, or if my will is stronger. Let’s test it.”

If those spirits hated me, that was something I had to endure. I couldn’t let others bear the burden I had to bear. I didn’t think I could endure it, but it was something I had to take on.

If their hatred, anger, and desire for revenge were directed at me, regardless of justification, then I had to let their resentment and hatred possess me instead of possessing someone else.

“Possess me,” I said.

The spirits focused their gaze on me.

“Why? Are you afraid?” I taunted, offering one last provocation to them.

I did not need to say anything else.

The conglomeration of despair and hatred began to vibrate.

Rumble!

“Cursed Demon King. Yes. We will curse you. We’ll make you destroy everything you love with your own hands.”

The massive cloud of darkness began to condense.

The spirits changed their minds. Instead of making me kill those I loved with my own hands, they intended to make me destroy those I loved.

I spread my arms wide. “Come, weaklings.”

I offered the pitiful beings, who had been given no other choice but to be sacrificed, the opportunity to destroy me.