Chapter 342: The First Hero and Demon King

The hand pressing on the wound was almost frantic. A normal human would bleed out and die if left like this.

The Demon King, who had to give his all when facing the Hero, moved without hesitation for a follow-up attack, thinking.

‘It’s a relief I used up all my magic power before this fight started.’

Since the opponent was the ‘Hero’ and he was the ‘Demon King,’ the recovery rate of wounds he sustained was bound to be slower, but it was nothing compared to wounds inflicted by magic-infused attacks. Even now, it was slow, but his wounds were visibly healing at a noticeable pace.

Clang! The menacing greatsword swung down but was blocked by a dagger. The Hero, wielding the dagger in reverse grip and pushing back against the greatsword as if in a contest of strength, glanced at the sky. Seeing this movement, as if checking the time, the Demon King smirked.

“Got a hot date or something?”

Having earned the right to converse during battle by ‘fighting his best’ and ‘injuring the Hero,’ he followed the Hero’s gaze and looked up at the sky. Three moons, almost completely overlapping, caught his eye.

When those perfectly overlap and appear as one, it’ll be midnight. In other words, it’s almost the next day.

…No wonder he’s been getting more and more impatient in his movements.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t today the day you were brought to the Demon Realm, all broken and battered?”

“….”

There was no reply, but it was easy to guess.

The Demon King, giving up the power struggle, subtly shifted his body to evade the Hero’s weapon, which had already transformed into a long sword and was being swung at him. He then slashed upwards diagonally with his greatsword.

An amused voice followed, separate from the relentless attacks.

“Are you planning to offer my head as a gift to the dead before the day is over?”

“….”

“Ah, right. Maybe it’s not just my head that you’re after.”

Clang! Bang!

The Hero seemed to have abandoned technique and started pushing with brute force. Unlike his unskilled opponent, the Demon King flexibly responded, accepting what he could and deflecting what he couldn’t.

He didn’t stop taunting with his now unrestricted mouth.

“The day’s about to turn, will this be enough?”

“….”

The Hero narrowed his brow without a word.

Certainly, at this rate, it would take a lot of time. Damn it, even though the Demon King didn’t use magic, he was disgustingly strong.

‘…In that case.’

Red pupils darted around. Without stopping his attacks, the Hero glanced at the Demon King as if pondering something, and then checked the sky again.

As if to add a variable to this stagnant battle, a different light flashed in his eyes.

The Hero subtly bent his legs and quickly retreated.

“…Hmm?”

Movement so fast that the Demon King couldn’t keep up. Even for a Hero, such speed, leaving afterimages, was not easily achieved. The Demon King’s gaze belatedly followed him, but clearing what was obstructing his vision was the priority.

Whoosh!

A dagger flew, carrying power and speed incomparable to anything before. This too was a level that even a Hero couldn’t easily achieve.

It was too late to block, and it was clearly impossible to block in his unprepared state. Choosing to evade, the Demon King turned his head… then flinched. As if knowing he would move that way, another dagger was right in front of his nose.

If that was all, he could have dodged by just tilting his head back, leaving only a scratch. But there was one more dagger flying towards his chest.

“Ugh…!”

The Demon King almost knelt, bending both knees and tilting his head and upper body back as far as he could. Simultaneously, he swung his greatsword, accurately deflecting the dagger flying towards his chest, having already calculated its speed and grasped its position.

A dagger passed over his face, and the sound of blades clashing was heard….

Clang! Thud!

“Huh…?”

He definitely deflected it.

He heard the sound of blades clashing, and vibration was transmitted to his greatsword. It definitely meant he had deflected it, but what was this that had pierced his shoulder?

Before he could accept and understand the situation, the Hero seized the gap in the Demon King’s pause and charged in. This time as well, he seemed to have used that crude technique, moving as if he had teleported.

A momentary, explosive movement that even transcended the Hero’s standards.

Thwack!

The Hero, reaching the edge of his vision in an instant, aimed for the heart and thrust his sword.

“….”

He could feel life force draining from his body. The Demon King, Kaber, looked down at the sword piercing his chest with a face of disbelief.

“…It’s over.”

The ‘battle between the Hero and the Demon King’ had ended.

The proof was that the restriction to do his best to kill the Hero once a battle started was lifted.

“It really is over.”

Either way, one of them had launched an attack to cut off the other’s breath and seized victory.

Whether he killed the opponent or was killed by the opponent, he had achieved one of the goals given by the world, so in this ended battle, the Demon King had no remaining duty.

‘It was always my victory though.’

Even in this state, he could struggle to kill the Hero, but the thing that was forcing his movements had disappeared, so why would he? Kaber had no intention of moving as the world wanted.

He felt gratitude towards Deon Hart, let alone resentment.

…So it’s really over.

“Ah, haha.”

Regaining composure and thinking back on the attack that brought the end a moment ago, he belatedly realized.

“He threw daggers in quick succession.”

Another dagger was hidden behind the first dagger.

“One with a reasonably ordinary speed, and the other with that strange technique, huh.”

It was still based on Hero standards, but Deon Hart had thrown a dagger casually to induce him to deflect it. If it had been truly threatening, the Demon King would have dodged or, even if hit, minimized the damage to his vitals. Furthermore, right before that, he had already shown ‘the technique’ once, planting the thought that he wouldn’t be able to use it again and drawing out complacency.

And immediately after, he used ‘that’ technique again to throw a dagger. If the timing had been off even slightly, it would have caught up to the dagger thrown earlier and they would have collided with each other, ruining the plan, yet he boldly moved, calculating it well.

“Retreating to create distance and then charging in to attack, that was also that technique, right? Surpassing the limits of the physical body momentarily, I mean. I didn’t know you could use it consecutively.”

“…I didn’t know I could either.”

Having used the technique once, his body was already broken, and before it could even recover, he had to squeeze out strength again as if wringing it dry. Because of that, his whole body was in tatters now. He couldn’t even lift an arm properly, so it was needless to say more.

If he could have just lifted a dagger, this conversation wouldn’t be happening now.

Whether he knew his feelings or not, the Demon King spoke in an exceptionally light tone.

“You should be grateful you’re a Hero. That must put a lot of strain on your body.”

“….”

He admitted it.

Putting power that transcended limits into throwing daggers strained his arm, and moving quickly in an instant strained his legs. Once would be one thing, but he had even used it again before fully recovering.

It was thanks to the Hero’s insane recovery ability that he was moving so normally now, otherwise, he would be crawling on the floor.

Moving his body, which had recovered in the meantime, he took out a dagger. Kaber, who was quietly watching this, sat peacefully on the floor and pointed to the opposite side.

“You don’t have to do that, I’m going to die anyway. I can feel life force draining from my body even now.”

Just because he was a ‘Demon King’ didn’t mean the rate at which his breath stopped was only slightly slower; death was certain.

The feeling of strength leaving his body was unfamiliar. Was this what death was like?

“So, how about we have a conversation until I die? I’ll tell you old stories. Stories that only I know now, very old and forgotten.”

As if uninterested, the dagger was raised.

Kaber smiled sweetly without a hint of impatience. A voice as soft as a snake’s whisper filled the quiet space.

“Aren’t you curious about how the first Hero and the first Demon King were born, how their cycle began?”

“…Cycle?”

“Right, Heroes are born to kill Demon Kings, aren’t they? But, haven’t you ever thought about it?”

—Why do Demon Kings keep being born?

The dagger, which seemed ready to plunge down at any moment, paused, fixed in the air. Kaber’s eyes curved, filled with amusement.

“Demon Kings also keep being born even after death, just like Heroes. You can think of Heroes as being born because of Demon Kings, but why do Demon Kings keep being born? Isn’t it strange?”

“….”

Demon Kings who continue to be born like Heroes, and ‘cycle’.

He understood what he was trying to say. Deon quietly retracted his dagger and sat down a distance away.

Kaber smiled silently as if he expected it, and rested his chin on his elbow, propping it on one knee. He didn’t seem to care about the sword stuck in his chest.

“Well, you probably noticed to some extent by now, but Demon Kings are born to kill Heroes. In the end, Heroes are born to kill Demon Kings, and Demon Kings are born to kill Heroes.”

“…Why bother?”

He couldn’t help but ask back.

If that was the case, it was meaningless. If it was going to be like this, it shouldn’t have started in the first place. Deon frowned at the incomprehensible cycle.

Kaber, looking into his red pupils, curved his eyes and spoke gently, as if explaining to a child.

“Deon, Heroes and Demon Kings are errors of the world.”

A story older than any story, not even found in ancient texts anymore, began to flow slowly from his lips.

“First of all… we need to start from when the world was first born.”

“….”

“When the world was first born, and therefore when there were no rules, the world began to establish the most basic rules to detailed rules, one by one, as weights to become the center of balance.”

To pick some of the most basic rules, it would be things like ‘all objects fall from above to below’ or ‘all life has the duty to preserve its species’.

“As the world gradually extended its reach to even more detailed matters and created rules, its hand finally reached living beings, ‘humans’. At the time, the world was in the process of creating all sorts of life and setting their average standards, and this is where the problem arose.”

“….”

“[To what extent should human talent be?]

They were a race with intelligence, no less. They would become one of the core races forming this world, so if even a little went wrong, the balance would be disrupted. The world had to decide carefully.

“As you know, rules or anything else are rarely established at once, right?”

Because rules and laws, and finished products, come from all sorts of trial and error.

“To find a suitable level of talent that would not break the ‘balance’, the world began to create humans of various standards. Naturally, among the many cases, there were also humans who were the most outstanding in all aspects.”

“…That was the first Hero.”

“Correct. Humans corresponding to the biggest error among the trials and errors the world conducted. That is the first Hero.”

At the time, the world was also considering the balance of other races besides humans, so the world, which had postponed it to a lower priority, began to find this non-standard human an eyesore as things settled down to some extent.

An existence that exceeded the already decided average talent standard too much and shook the balance of the world. Humans whose lifespan even exceeded the standard, so it was unknown when they would die.

“Then the Demon King is….”

“An existence hastily created to kill such a Hero.”

The world could not just wait for humans who shook the balance just by existing to die of natural causes. Therefore, the world created an existence to kill him.

Creating it from an already existing race could potentially create variables through breeding, so as a disposable, non-breeding, completely new race.

That was the first Demon King.”