The Last Place Hero's Return

Hector—no, the being that could no longer be called Hector—let out a clumsy groan. In stark contrast to the ferocious black flames engulfing him, the light in his eyes was hollow, like a candle snuffed out. Amon had completely devoured both his soul and his body.

I was reminded of the clone of Amon I had seen in the Abyss with Elisha not long ago. The difference this time was that the one before me was very much alive.

Sensing that something was terribly wrong, Yurina ran toward me with urgency in her eyes. “D-Dale!”

I raised a hand to stop her. “Don’t come.”

“B-but...”

“Take the others and fall back.”

Even if this was merely a clone and not the true body, the opponent was the top-ranked Archbishop, the absolute apex among countless demons. And that fire was another concern.

Elisha’s words echoed in my mind. “The residual power inside Amon’s avatar and the flame within you feel extremely alike.”

I didn’t know the exact reason, but according to her, Amon wielded a power akin to the Primordial Flame inside me. Since that was the case, keeping my party close to us was too dangerous. Although this was just a clone, I had no idea how much of Amon’s strength it had. Fighting alone was the safer option. If it were just me here, then the worst-case scenario would be me dying, which wouldn’t matter.

“Dale...” Perhaps she sensed what I was thinking, Yurina trailed off, her expression clouded with sorrow.

I said, “And, Yuren, I have something else I need you to do.”

“Something?”

“When those guys saw me earlier, they said, ‘So, this is where you were.’ There won’t be just these three demons roaming around.”

It hadn’t seemed like they were specifically searching for me. Most likely, their target was the cadets who had entered the Demonic Realm. While I had no idea how they learned about the academy’s class schedule, this was an alarming situation.

Yurina’s face hardened. “You mean?”

Our party could subdue demons without much difficulty because each of us far surpassed the level of an ordinary cadet. But the others were a different story. They weren’t capable of defeating demons; rather, they would likely be too terrified to even resist properly.

“Damn it!”

* * *

Yurina scanned the surroundings anxiously, spreading her senses as far as she could to locate the other cadets. But the Demonic Realm was vast, and the parties were scattered everywhere; it was nearly impossible to pinpoint their positions.

If only Elisha were here! She bit her lip in frustration.

At that moment, Morris stepped forward. “If it’s about finding the others, leave it to me!”

He started chanting a spell. With each line of the incantation, the surrounding trees and brush trembled, leaves shaking noisily. Then, Morris’s face twisted in pain, and he shook, as though he had released too much mana at once.

“Just... a little... more, please,” he muttered.

Cold sweat streamed down his forehead. His breathing grew ragged, dampening his clothes. Then, with a cry of triumph, several vines slithered across the ground like living snakes. He exclaimed, “Found them!”

“This is?” Yurina asked.

“If you follow the vines, they’ll lead you to the others. The thicker ones are closer. The thinner ones are farther away, so start with the thickest.”

“Thanks.” Yurina grabbed hold of the thickest vine and nodded. “There’s no time, split up. Iris, go get Professor Kane first.”

“O-okay! Got it!”

At Yurina’s command, the party dispersed in perfect coordination.

* * *

Good. I’ll leave that side to them.

I narrowed my eyes at Hector, no, at Amon’s clone, wrapped in black flames, and muttered, “Ignite.”

Ashen Flames roared to life and coiled around me.

A voice came from the clone. “T-that flame?”

What? This bastard can talk?

“I see. Y-you... are... the one he mentioned, the heir... of Ruin.”

Now that I thought about it, Melina had once said something similar about me being the heir of Ruin.

“I don’t know who keeps calling me an heir.” Gripping my flame-wrapped sword, I strode toward Amon’s clone. “But I have zero interest in being anyone’s so-called heir.”

The clone’s movements halted abruptly. “I see.”

“What the hell do you ‘see,’ you bastard?”

“You know nothing... of the Ruin.”

“Do I need to?” Ruin or whatever else it was, right now, my only focus was this fight. I flicked the tip of my blade with Ashen Flame surging along its edge. “Stop flapping your gums and come at me. I don’t have time to stand around chatting with you.”

“Insolent.” Amon’s black flames flared violently. “How dare... a mere heir defy... his master.”

From the sound of it, he seemed to think he was the master and I was his heir. Since when had I signed up to be anyone’s heir? I replied, “Give me a break.”

I kicked off the ground and charged. Ashen Flames surged upward. Pitch-black fire and Ashen Flames collided head-on. The earth flipped and twisted. Trees were uprooted and flung away like pebbles. The dense undergrowth that had blanketed the ground was reduced to ash and scattered into the air. It was a banquet of destruction against destruction. As two beings far beyond human limits collided, the Demonic Realm itself seemed to scream.

When the deadlock finally broke, I was forced back first. A dizzying agony spread through my body. The black flames were so hot that I felt as though they would melt my very soul. Amon was strong. Specifically, he was on an entirely different level from the lackeys we had fought earlier. I could clearly understand why he held the top rank among the Archbishops. Moreover, this was only a clone. How powerful would the true body be?

Then again, even in my previous life, no hero had ever defeated Amon. He had single-handedly driven back the allied forces of the Tri-Nation Alliance, then descended alone into the deepest reaches of the Abyss to resurrect the Demon God. However, he was devoured by that very Demon God afterward. In any case, the fact of the matter was that no hero had ever beaten Amon.

Amon’s clone curled its lips into a faint, mocking sneer. “Already... finished? Disappointing.”

“Oh? Weren’t you the one hyping me up as some great Heir of Ruin? And now you’re disappointed?”

Of course, I hadn’t exhausted all my strength. I hadn’t used the Blessing of Resurrection, nor had I invoked my Flame Body. The only power I had drawn upon in this fight was the Primordial Flame. I had deliberately refrained from using the power of the Tree of Creation. This was just a clone, after all. As long as Amon’s true body still existed, I couldn’t reveal all my cards.

The real question was whether I could defeat him without using the Tree of Creation’s power. Well, I had a game plan. “Guess I’d better step up so I don’t disappoint the great and mighty Lord Amon!”

With a savage grin, I charged at the clone. The flames tangled together. Black fire coiled around me, sending waves of searing pain through me, but I advanced, pushing straight through the raging black flames with my bare body.

Amon let out a hollow laugh. “So, that is your solution? Do you truly think a human... can endure... the agony of my Black Flames?”

The black flames he wielded did not merely burn flesh. They incinerated the soul itself. And the agony of a soul being scorched resulted in pain beyond description. Humans would scream just from holding a hand over a candle flame. No matter how strong a hero’s will was, none of them could endure the torment inflicted by the black flames.

The black flames burned into my flesh. Skin charred and split, acrid smoke rising from my body. A vast, tidal wave of pain crashed over me.

Amon watched me force my way through the heat. He knew better than anyone the suffering the Black Flames caused. No human alive could withstand it. He slowly said, “Give up.”

Even as my body burned, I twisted my lips into a grin. Step by step, I moved toward Amon’s clone. It was as I had thought. Since the battle began, the clone had barely moved from its spot. No, more accurately, it couldn’t move.

It was like a puppet suspended by strings, incapable of moving like a living being on its own. If Amon was controlling it from afar, precise, complex movement would be difficult. It meant that if I could break through this black flame, subduing the clone afterward wouldn’t be difficult. Besides, enduring pain had never been particularly difficult for me.

“Is that all?” I said to the clone.

“What?”

“Now, I’m the one who’s disappointed.”

Ashen Flames surged, bursting through the black flames. I thrust my sword forward. The blade pierced straight through his heart. Ashen Flames flared along the steel, burning away the soul stigmata carved into the clone’s chest. And then, like a puppet with its strings cut, Amon collapsed.

“Ah, ugh. H-how... did you endure... the pain?” he asked.

“I’m used to it.” With my body mangled and half-melted, I let out a dry, rasping laugh.

Amon exhaled in disbelief. “Remarkable.”

“Weren’t you just disappointed?”

The soul stigmata faded, and the clone’s body slowly crumbled into black ash, scattering into the wind. “Remember this, heir. Soon, you will face me again, face Ruin itself. And next time, it will not be so easy.”

I stomped hard on his head, twisting my lips into a feral smile. “No, I think you’ve got it backward.”

“Ah, ugh.”

“It won’t be me facing you.” I ground my heel down harder. “It’ll be you who faces me.”

The Archbishop of Ruin would one day come face to face with me, Dale Han. And when that day arrived, I would show him. “You’ll witness your idea of Ruin itself being destroyed.”

I twisted my foot sharply before turning away. Swept up by the wind, the scattered black ash vanished without a trace.