Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 501 [Illustration]

I soon arrived at Port Mokna, a whirlwind of thoughts in my mind.

What was I supposed to say when I met Riana? How was the exorcism and purification progressing?

So many questions needed to be asked, and so many things needed to be confirmed. However, when I arrived, the atmosphere at Port Mokna was ominously tense.

“It seems there’s a problem.”

“... It does look that way.”

There were an unusually large number of troops stationed on the walls, as if preparing for battle. A chilling sense of foreboding crept down my spine, perhaps prompted by y Qi Sense.

I sprinted through the base and leapt onto the wall in one bound.

“My L-Lord... Demon King...”

“Reinhart?”

The soldiers were not the only ones on the wall. Riana was there too, her expression grave. She seemed both surprised and guilty, perhaps not expecting that I would arrive at this moment.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I... I don’t really... know...” Riana replied.

Riana’s face was pale with fear.

Far away, on the horizon, someone was approaching the base from the plains outside Port Mokna, staggering and stumbling. The figure was clad in a once-splendid priestly robe, now drenched in blood.

Olivia was making her way towards Port Mokna, her hands covered in blood as if she had done something terrible. She moved toward us under the moonlight as if she were possessed.

“What in the world...?”

Olivia, who had left to exorcise and purify evil spirits, was returning as if she had been overwhelmed by something. An ominous aura emanated from her entire body, like steam rising into the night air.

***

Olivia possessed a supernatural power known as Divine Spirit. I knew better than anyone that Olivia had a natural resistance to mental interference and coercion.

Yet, even she was being mentally dominated by something. It was clear that her trait did not offer complete immunity.

Could it be that the malevolent spirits were so powerful that even Olivia had been subdued by them? freewēbnoveℓ.com

The soldiers on the wall seemed to be gripped by a bizarre fear as they watched Olivia, who had been tasked with exorcising and purifying spirits, staggering back in such a pitiful state.

There was no way to know exactly what had happened, but Olivia was clearly under some mental domination.

Riana stood frozen, watching the scene unfold. Had the holy knights and priests who had gone out with her perished? At Olivia’s hands?

“I’ll handle this,” I said calmly. “No one interferes.”

Riana nodded, looking tense. “Alright.”

I leapt from the wall and walked towards Olivia.

As Olivia drew near, she lifted her head and looked at me. Her eyes, which had seemed vacant before, regained their focus. Though she was still far away, I could immediately discern the emotions behind her gaze.

Her face was twisted, and her lips trembled.

Fear. Anger. Hatred. All I could see were negative emotions.

Olivia glared at me with obvious loathing and hatred, and a dark energy began to surge from her body.

Olivia had mastered the power of the God of Purity, Ouen, and though she rarely used it, she had also mastered the opposing power, the power of Kier.

Was she using the power of corruption now that she had been consumed by the malevolent spirits?

Olivia, enveloped in a dark aura, took a step forward. She had lost her staggering gait, and charged at me with powerful strides. In an instant, Olivia, who was moving like a beast, lunged at me.

This was my first real battle since reaching Master class. I never imagined it would be against Olivia who had been possessed by malevolent spirits.

What had happened to Olivia? Could she be made to return to her senses? Could I do it?

Though confused, I had, over a long period of time, honed the ability to find calm amidst chaos and fear. My mind was a jumble, but my heart was steady.

The task at hand was to subdue the maddened Olivia. At that moment, there was nothing else I needed to focus on.

Exhale...

I steadied my breath, calmed my mind, and concentrated. I meticulously controlled and refined the flow of mana, compressing it to the extreme to prevent any unnecessary discharge. Compressing and compressing it further, I used it solely to enhance my body.

Olivia lunged at me like a beast, her arms shrouded in darkness, and I deflected her attack with my bare hands.

Crack!

The sound of our arms clashing was chilling.

“How dare you, mere spirits...” I said softly. “Who do you think you’re messing with?”

I struck Olivia’s solar plexus with all my might.

“Ugh...!”

Thud!

With a single punch, Olivia was sent tumbling across the plain, rolling dozens of times along the ground before coming to a stop.

I couldn’t use my sword since I couldn’t kill Olivia.

“Ugh...”

Despite being flung so far away, Olivia staggered to her feet again. I had intended to knock her out. Perhaps I should have hit harder.

“Ugh...”

Olivia began to cover her face with one hand, letting out a suppressed groan.

“Ugh... Ugh... Ugh...”

A bizarre cry came from her mouth, and red tears flowed from Olivia’s eyes. Was it because of the torment she felt over the spirits controlling her, or the agony of having to fight me against her will? Or perhaps both?

Dark smoke rose from Olivia’s body, taking on human-like forms that appeared and disappeared repeatedly. It seemed that so many spirits were inhabiting her body that it couldn’t contain them and was releasing them.

“Ugh... Ugh... Ugh...”

Olivia’s appearance was pitiable yet terrifying and grotesque. It was impossible to tell whether Olivia was the one in pain, or the spirits themselves.

“Ugh... Ugh... Ugh!”

Screech! Rumble!

The black smoke emanating from Olivia’s body let out a loud wail, sending out a massive shockwave that uprooted and blew away all the grass growing on the plain.

—Die. Die. Die.

—Save me!

—Why me?

—I want to live. Ugh...

The shockwave was not the only thing it sent out. The wail also carried with it a bizarre hallucination, as if thousands of voices were whispering in my ear simultaneously.

For a brief moment, it felt like my head was going to explode.

While I was momentarily dazed by the overwhelming whispers that threatened to shatter my sanity, Olivia appeared in front of me.

Bang!

Her fist struck me, and the dull impact of the blow sent me flying back several meters.

Sizzle...

“...”

I had managed to block the blow, but the area on my wrist where Olivia’s fist had struck me was turning black and decaying. It was the power of the God of Corruption, Kier.

When I killed Leverier Lanche, I had drawn upon the corrupted Tiamata to kill him, as he could constantly regenerate his wounds. Leverier Lanche, once tainted by the power of corruption, could not continue to heal his wounds and perished.

Olivia’s attacks, imbued with Kier’s power, had pierced through my mana barrier and attempted to decay my body.

Whoosh!

I summoned Tiamata and channeled Divine Power into the wound. It’s not entirely impossible to heal, but the process was certainly slow, since Kier’s power suppressed the healing power of Ouen. My wrist tingled.

Olivia had always been strong.

—Ugh...

But this time, it felt like I was facing not just Olivia, but tens of thousands of enemies who hated and resented me all at once.

The whispers didn’t stop. The curses and screams of those who did not want to die assaulted me as if they were a curse, muddling my mind.

I needed to focus on the battle. I had to subdue Olivia, but I couldn’t hear what I needed to hear. The whispers, like a direct assault on my mind, occasionally caused me to experience a dizzying sensation of vertigo.

Bang! Bang! Thud!

Olivia’s physical onslaught did not cease either. Her attacks, imbued with the power of corruption, pierced through my defenses and caused my body to decay in real-time.

The power of the God of Purity, Ouen, when reversed, became a massive force of corruption. It was an unholy power that seemed to burn my skin just by coming into contact with it.

The only reason I could withstand this onslaught was because of Tiamata’s power. The spirits possessing Olivia must have enhanced her physical capabilities and Kier’s Divine Power. Olivia’s command over Divine Power had always been strong, but never to this extent.

Swish!

“...!”

Tiamata vanished from my right hand and appeared in Olivia’s. Olivia and I shared Tiamata, so, in a bizarre turn of events, Olivia had snatched Tiamata from me. But that wasn’t the end.

Rumble!

A black lightning bolt fell from the sky, and Tiamata, which had been radiating Divine Power, quickly transformed into its cursed demon sword form.

It was now the demon sword Tiamata. Olivia, who was wielding it, charged at me.

There was no time for a power struggle over Tiamata.

Bang!

I had no choice but to summon Alsbringer and block the blow. The time when Olivia’s strength overwhelmingly overshadowed mine was now in the past.

I had reached Master class, and Olivia had not. Moreover, I was different from ordinary Masters. I could perform Mana Reinforcement with extreme efficiency, allowing me to produce more powerful output using the same amount of mana compared to other Masters. Additionally, I possessed an overwhelmingly large amount of mana.

Therefore, in terms of raw strength, I was superior.

Crack!

“Krghhhh...”

The clash of swords pushed Olivia back. She growled like a beast and retreated. In terms of both strength and mana output, I surpassed Olivia. But there was another issue.

“Damn it...”

The decaying energy from the cursed Tiamata was causing my body to rot.

‘Is this what it feels like to die in real-time?’

If the opponent who was wielding this power were an enemy, there would be no problem. I would simply kill them quickly instead of allowing the contest to turn into a drawn-out fight.

But I couldn’t kill Olivia, and if this turned into a prolonged battle, my arm would eventually be ruined. And if that happened, it would be over.

Zing!

“Ugh...!”

In addition, the periodic onslaught of the wailing spirits seemed to strike not only my ears, but directly at my mind. I was not subjected to just physical attacks, but the power of corrupted divine energy and the curses of the spirits as well.

Even one of those attacks would have driven an ordinary person mad or be enough to kill them.

I couldn’t kill Olivia. But if I didn’t, I might die.

—Kill the Demon King...

A cry that echoed that of the wailing spirits drifted in from afar, carried by the wind. A group of beings was approaching from the horizon, making their way across the plains.

Screech!

They were phantom horses. They were gliding across the plains, carrying knights on their backs.

Death knights... They all looked as if they had died not long ago.

The holy knights who had been dispatched for the purification ritual had perished and been resurrected as death knights by the power of Olivia and the spirits that were controlling her.

Olivia and I had once struggled to stand against a single death knight in Raziern, the capital of the Kingdom of Levaina, during the attack by the demon god cultists.

In the time since then, Olivia had gained the power not only to defeat death knights, but also create them with her own hands. However, she was using that power to attack me.

Dozens of phantom horses charged at me. Back then, we had found it difficult to even handle one. In fact, it was Olivia who had dealt with the death knight back then, not me.

However, just as Olivia had gained the power to control death knights in the time between, I had also grown beyond comparison, and even more so since my journey to Rijaiera.

I took a breath.

Whoosh! Slash!

Before the charging phantom horse could react, I sliced through both the phantom horse and the death knight simultaneously. The being that had been an Edinan holy knight not too long ago was split in two.

The chilling thought that this was nothing more than killing an ally twice lingered in my mind.

It wasn’t just these death knights that I had to deal with.

Bang!

My real opponent was Olivia Lanche, who had just charged at me from behind and kicked me with such force that it sent me tumbling across the ground.

The impact did not feel severe, but the side where I was struck still throbbed. The problem wasn’t the impact; being in close proximity to Olivia caused the decay afflicting me to progress.

The death knights, with their otherworldly mobility, circled around and charged at me again. I stood up again, gripping Alsbringer.

Alsbringer lent its wielder more power when the enemy they faced was stronger or more numerous. I was stronger than them, but Alsbringer still gave me more power when my enemies were more numerous than me.

The increased power brought with it a sense of exhilaration. I tried to envision how to counter the bizarre mobility of the phantom horses and deal with them, and how to subdue Olivia.

Flash!

All of a sudden, lightning illuminated the world.

Rumble!

Thunder ripped through the air.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Lightning bolts rained down on the death knights charging at me. The flesh of the recently-deceased death knights burst, and their true bodies, their bones, glowed red-hot and began to turn to ash.

I turned my gaze towards Edina’s walls. Amidst the despairing expressions of the people that manned the wall, I saw Riana with her hand extended.

Even though these death knights were resurrected forms of the holy knights who had died, Riana seemed to feel the same way I did, that she was killing her allies a second time.

Her actions had cost the lives of comrades she had fought alongside for a long time, and now, even in death, she had to deal with their dishonored existences with her own hands.

Despair and guilt filled Riana’s eyes.