Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

Chapter 339: Mount Carion (2)

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As Ruin moved, a torrent of slashes rained down.

The entire field of view was covered in slashing attacks. There was nowhere to dodge no matter where Damien looked.

Damien desperately deflected Ruin\'s slashes. Even so, he couldn\'t block them all, and cuts were carved into various parts of his body.

\'He\'s so strong it makes me want to fight more.\'

Ruin\'s skills had increased dramatically compared to when they first fought.

No, to be precise, it wasn\'t that his skills had improved, but that his true abilities were now being revealed.

\'Does he get closer to his original strength as he regains his senses?\'

It was just as that thought occurred to Damien.

A slash that flew in from outside his field of vision slit Damien\'s throat.

The first death.

Damien immediately woke up again. He rubbed his neck with an unpleasant expression.

Damien spat on the ground as he got up. In response, Ruin charged again.

The battle resumed.

Ruin\'s slashes poured down like a storm. But this time, Damien wasn\'t so easily overcome.

Unlike before, he was now familiar with Ruin\'s movements. Damien evaded Ruin\'s attacks by a paper-thin margin.

Perhaps not expecting Damien to be able to dodge, a slight hesitation could be sensed in Ruin\'s movements.

Damien didn\'t miss that opening. He kicked off the ground and closed the distance.

Dashing like lightning, Damien sliced through Ruin\'s neck. As his head was severed, Ruin vanished on the spot.

"Huff, huff."

Damien exhaled heavily. But his face was very bright.

When he first met Ruin, he had died thousands of times.

But now he had achieved victory after dying only once. It was truly remarkable progress.

Just then, Ruin\'s thought form materialized again. Damien fired up his fighting spirit to battle Ruin once more.

"Wow."

But Ruin didn\'t immediately pounce on Damien. Instead, he shouted with a broad smile.

"Damien! I didn\'t expect you to kill me so quickly!"

Ruin had regained his senses after being killed just once.

Damien lowered his sword with a deflated expression.

"Why did you come to your senses so soon?"

"What? Did you want to kill me more? I\'m hurt."

Ruin said in a cheerful voice.

"Thanks to my thoughtform getting stronger, I can now resist the emotions."

Ruin plopped down on the ground. He patted the spot next to him, gesturing for Damien to sit as well.

Damien trudged over and sat down in front of Ruin. Ruin spoke with a pleased expression.

"You must have had a hard time killing me since I\'ve gotten stronger. You\'ve really improved a lot."

"Even so, I\'m still far behind compared to you."

"Well, that can\'t be helped. I\'ve been training longer than you after all."

After saying that, Ruin looked Damien over and asked:

"You don\'t look so good. Don\'t tell me you met Dorugo?"

"Yeah, it was a shitty encounter."

Damien briefly explained what had happened with Dorugo. Ruin\'s expression turned serious as he listened.

"So she ended up laying hands on the Demon Lords\' bodies after all."

"It was nothing. I can kill her next time we meet."

Damien said in a voice full of conviction.

It wasn\'t arrogance or overconfidence. After all, Damien had managed to behead Dorugo.

Even though he couldn\'t completely kill Dorugo due to the Authority of Sloth.

However, Ruin shook his head and denied Damien\'s words.

"It\'s not something to think of so lightly. The Four Great Demon Kings couldn\'t properly absorb the bodies of the Demon Lords, but Dorugo is different. She was a Demon Lord himself after all."

"If she was a Demon Lord, then she\'d be able to make all that immense power her own. It certainly would be dangerous... Wait, Dorugo was a Demon Lord?"

Damien asked Ruin back in shock. Ruin replied with wide eyes.

"Huh? You didn\'t know?"

"You never told me!"

"Ah, that\'s right."

Ruin scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Dorugo was the Demon Lord of Lust. Then she abandoned her demon body because of me. To be precise, she burned it."

"Burned it?"

"Dorugo\'s power was brainwashing. She used that power to carry out widespread memory manipulation so that no one would know about her past."

Ruin continued speaking with his arms crossed.

"But no matter how great a Demon Lord is, there had to be a price for that level of memory manipulation. So Dorugo paid with her own body. That\'s why only dregs remained of Dorugo\'s main body."

Damien listened to Ruin\'s words with a shocked expression.

"She discarded even that cleanly in order to be with me. That\'s how Dorugo abandoned her demon body and became human."

Ruin stared into space with a complicated expression.

After pondering for a moment, Damien asked Ruin.

"Why did Dorugo go that far?"

The Dorugo that Damien knew was an extremely selfish and cruel individual.

But the Dorugo he was hearing about from Ruin was different. She seemed devoted to the point of foolishness.

"We were engaged to be married."

"Ah, engaged... What?"

Damien\'s eyes grew even wider. Ruin tilted his head and said.

"Huh? I didn\'t mention that either?"

"No... You two were... like that?"

Ruin lowered his face as if embarrassed. His cheeks were tinged slightly red.

"Anyway Damien, you shouldn\'t take Dorugo lightly."

Ruin deliberately changed the subject. Damien decided to let it slide.

In truth, Damien hadn\'t fully recovered from the shock either.

"You said Dorugo handled space and time, right? Dorugo would have absorbed her main body and the bodies of other Demon Lords. That means she has at least three Demon Lord powers."

Of course, Dorugo\'s main body was just dregs. The problem was the other two Demon Lords.

"Time and space... Pride and Sloth were the strongest among the Demon Lords. Even I had a hard time killing them. Since they\'re corpses, she won\'t have their full power, but if she absorbs both, she could surpass Pride or Sloth at their peak."

Right now, Dorugo was an even more powerful being than a Demon Lords in their prime.

Considering the legends of the Demon Lords, even Damien found it hard to guarantee victory.

"I don\'t care if she\'s a Demon Lord or whatever. I\'ll stop Dorugo even if it costs me my life."

Damien said firmly. But Ruin shook his head.

"Even that won\'t be enough."

"We won\'t know until we try."

"You feel it too, don\'t you? That you can\'t use your full abilities with that body."

Ruin said, pointing at Damien\'s body.

"Your body is too weak compared to your skills. Even if you fight prepared to throw away your life, you\'ll die before your opponent."

Damien could only close his mouth at the cold assessment.

In reality, Damien had suffered serious internal injuries just from briefly using the Soulflower of Tranquility.

Even now, methods to make the Soulflower of Tranquility even stronger were constantly occurring to him.

But he couldn\'t use them because his body couldn\'t keep up.

"I have no choice but to do it anyway."

Damien said without hesitation. Ruin let out a deep sigh.

"If that\'s your decision, then there\'s nothing I can do. But don\'t try to die. If you die... it would be too pitiful for those left behind."

Ruin\'s words pierced Damien\'s heart like an arrow.

The faces of those left behind, his family, came to mind.

What if Damien used the Soulflower of Tranquility to maximum power and died together with Dorugo?

The world would become peaceful. But his family would not.

"...Why are you giving me advice? I intend to kill your lover."

It was something Damien had been curious about all along.

Even knowing that Damien planned to kill Dorugo, Ruin had not held back his advice.

"Because you\'re going down the wrong path."

Ruin said without hesitation.

Damien was at a loss for words. He was newly struck by what kind of being Ruin truly was.

Just then, Ruin suddenly spoke with a mischievous expression.

"But it seems you\'re aware that you\'re receiving help from me? How admirable."

"..."

"Hm? Why so quiet? Don\'t tell me you\'re embarrassed?"

"...I am aware."

When Damien reluctantly answered, Ruin\'s smile deepened.

"Then will you grant me one request? If you do actually manage to defeat Dorugo..."

Ruin\'s words trailed off.

After hearing Ruin\'s full request, Damien couldn\'t help but frown.

"...Are you out of your mind? Asking me to grant such a request?"

"If you really don\'t like it, you can ignore it."

Damien fell into thought for a moment. Then he spoke with a displeased expression.

"...Fine. I\'ll grant your request."

"Really?"

"But only that far. Don\'t ask for anything more."

"Of course not."

Just then, one of Ruin\'s eyebrows trembled slightly. His eyes had already begun to turn black.

"Time\'s up. Shall we fight again?"

At Ruin\'s words, Damien gripped his sword and said.

"Alright. I\'ll learn a thing or two."

Ruin\'s eyes turned completely black.

Soon after, the battle began again.

* * *

Damien opened his eyes in reality.

Balhard was still flying through the sky. Strong winds whipped at Damien\'s hair and clothes.

Damien looked up at the sky to gauge the time. Only a few hours had passed since Balhard began flying.

Despite fighting Ruin endlessly in the mental realm, not much time had passed in reality.

\'Ugh, he gets noticeably stronger with each death.\'

Damien complained as he touched the places where Ruin had cut him.

He thought the gap had narrowed, but it was just an illusion. There was still an immense gap between them.

\'Is it really true that we have the same talent?\'

It was just as Damien was thinking that.

The smell of blood wafted through the air. Damien spoke to Balhard.

"Hold on, let\'s go over there."

-Huh?

TBalhard was puzzled by the sudden order but still changed direction.

Damien lowered his head to look down at the ground. He could then see the source of the bloody smell.

"Kyaaah!"

"Aaaagh!"

A village was being plundered.

Men with sturdy builds were beating women and children to death with farming tools.

"Why, why are you doing this?!"

"At least spare this child... Aagh...!"

Though the women begged while holding their children, the men were merciless.

Going to Mount Carion was urgent, but he couldn\'t just pass by after seeing this.

Damien leapt down from atop Balhard\'s head. As he landed on the ground, all eyes focused on him.

Damien looked back and forth between the men and women.

Unlike the terrified, crying women, the men\'s expressions were extremely vicious.

"Stop and get out of here. Or I\'ll kill you all."

The men reacted to Damien\'s words.

"Who the hell are you?"

"If anyone\'s going to leave, it should be you!"

"Or do you want to die too?"

The men threatened Damien while holding their farming tools. Damien clicked his tongue and said.

"If that\'s how you want it, I have no choice."

In that instant, the men\'s torsos split open as if sliced by a blade.

"Guh!"

"Gaaah!"

The men all collapsed, spitting blood. Looking down at them, Damien spoke in a cold voice:

"A bit shallow."

He could wound ordinary people just by raising his killing intent.

As Damien watched the scene unfold, he realized he could have completely torn the men apart, but held back to avoid traumatizing the villagers too severely.

However, he couldn\'t just let them live either. Just as Damien was about to finish them off...

"K-Knight, sir! Please, please stop!"

A woman who had nearly been killed by the men ran over and begged. Damien asked with a perplexed expression:

"These men tried to kill you. If I don\'t finish them now, they might seek revenge on you later."

"This man is my father!"

Damien couldn\'t help but pause.

"What are you saying..."

"It\'s true! That man over there is my husband!"

"That one is my brother!"

The women\'s pleas only increased Damien\'s bewilderment.

"If they\'re family, why were they trying to kill you?"

"W-We don\'t know! Since this morning, they suddenly started saying strange things..."

"They suddenly tried to kill us! No matter how much we begged, they wouldn\'t listen!"

"Ugh..."

Just then, one of the men lying on the ground muttered painfully:

"Must... gather sacrifices quickly... to offer to..."

Damien frowned and grabbed the man by the collar. The man coughed up blood.

"Sacrifices? Who are you trying to offer sacrifices to?"

"To Her... the most beautiful... to Her..."

"I\'m asking who \'Her\' is!"

Damien shouted angrily. The man spoke with difficulty:

"Dorugo... must offer to Lord Dorugo..."

The moment he heard the familiar name, Damien had to bite his lip.

He instantly understood what had happened.

Dorugo had brainwashed people to gather souls and corpses.

The reason she only brainwashed the men to kill their families was simple.

That way, the souls of those murdered would suffer and emit dark magic.

"Need... sacrifices..."

"Must... kill..."

"Will offer... to Him... to Him...!"

Even as they were dying, the men cried out Dorugo\'s name.

These men who had been fathers, husbands, and brothers unhesitatingly tried to kill their families due to Dorugo\'s manipulation.

Disgust welled up inside Damien. At the same time, memories of the past surfaced.

He recalled that day when he killed his own family because of Dorugo\'s schemes.

"...That fucking bitch."

Damien muttered a curse under his breath.

***