Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~

◆ Death God, Zarxis

「What do you mean?! Say that again, Zarxis!!」

Suddenly, I was seized by the neck and lifted.

I struggled to move my body.

「Let go… Of… Me… Labrys… It… Hurts… I might… Die…」

「Hm!!」

「GUHA!!!」

Labrys didn’t seem very interested in my suffering since he immediately released me once I complained.

I fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

「It’s as… I said… Rena… She found a lover. The man… They call him ‘Hero of Light’…」

After hearing that, the man before me trembled in fury.

Appearance-wise, he looked like a normal human. A very big, muscular human. He had swelling muscle on both of his naked arms, around his thick neck and on his strong jaw.

But Labrys’s human form was merely an illusion, a temporary shape held together by magic. His true form… It was far from anything that could be even remotely described as human. After all, this man wasn’t human. He wasn’t from one of the divine races from Elios either.

He was known to the people of Elios as an Evil God.

But why was I being choked? Well…

After I returned from the human kingdom named Rox, I came to visit Labrys. I told him about what had happened during my time there. At first, he wasn’t all that interested in hearing my story but once I got to the part about the Hero of Light, he suddenly grabbed my neck.

Now… Now he was cursing non-stop while I nursed my bruised neck.

「Fu*k! Rena. Is. MINE! I’ll kill anyone who dares to TAKE HER FROM ME!!!」

His shouts made me ponder about something…

… Since when did Rena belong to him?

Rena was one of the three most beautiful goddesses of Elios.

Labrys wasn’t as ugly as Modes, but he wasn’t that far behind from the Demon King in regards to ugliness. There was no reason for Rena to be interested in him.

And that unreasonably possessive feeling wasn’t exclusive to Labrys. There were so many gods out there competing for her heart. Not that any of them managed to catch her attention…

But all of them secretly believed they were the ones who Rena loved.

[TL: Those poor Gods + Reiji]

Elios had been in turmoil ever since news about Rena’s supposed lover spread. The name of the rumored male was Reiji, the human hailed as the ‘Hero of Light’. Nobody knew where he had come from. His power was terrifying, almost to the level of Oudith.

[TL: lololololo]

Not only powerful, but he was also rumored to be extremely handsome too. Supposedly he was so handsome that the rumors about him became staple gossip material in the goddesses’ gatherings of this world.

It was the first time Labrys had heard of the human hero since he was always inside his labyrinth.

That was why he was so angry.

「Zarxis! Drag that Hero of Light into my labyrinth! That’s an order!」

How haughty of him.

Why did I have to obey his orders in the first place? I’m not even his subordinate.

Just thinking about it was already irritating.

Then again, Labrys was hostile toward both Modes and Elios, and we needed him as our ally.

Moreover, my body was inside his labyrinth. If I don’t obey his commands, he could make things quite difficult for me.

We were on the deepest floor of the Underground Labyrinth of the Minon Plain.

In the middle of it was Labrys’s throne, which was decorated quite magnificently. … Alright, I have to be honest. That throne was as distasteful as that God was crude.

The entire labyrinth was filled with terrifying power. It was originally made by dwarves, then given to Labrys. Created from special materials with the special dwarven crafting skills, the labyrinth was incredibly tough.

Even I couldn’t use my domain magic in this labyrinth. It had been especially made for Labrys. Which is why that coward never left his labyrinth.

「Are you serious? You expect me to bring the Hero of Light into this labyrinth? I don’t even know where he is right now!」

Such a coward. He didn’t dare step out of his lair to vanquish the hero by himself. No, no. I had to bring the hero to his home turf, where he had the full advantage.

Could he be any more shameless?

「NATURALLY! Is that too difficult for you, Zarxis?! IN THIS PLACE, I’M INVINCIBLE!! But that Hero doesn’t know that. ONCE HE GETS HERE, I’M GONNA KILL HIM WITH THIS AXE OF MINE!!!」

Saying so, he took his axe.

Labrys grabbed his ax, a huge magic weapon with a double edge. The edges were crafted in the form of his crest. He swung his ax toward the sky, the movement alone producing a shockwave inside the room.

That shockwave alone was enough to disintegrate my half-decayed body. Had I taken the full brunt of his attack, I probably wouldn’t have managed to survive. I touched the damaged area and drained the life force of the people above ground to sustain me for a while.

My body had been obliterated by that traitor Modes.

Somehow, I survived. But I did not come out unscathed. My body was broken, heavily wounded. Over time the degradation worsened, bit by bit.

I wanted to resuscitate my body but to do that I needed a huge amount of life force. Although I was currently sucking the life force of humans, the vitality of those inferior life-forms was like a drop of water into a bucket. The efficiency was low.

I could gain a tremendous amounts of life force by sucking the vitality of an angel, but it was too risky. I couldn’t afford to stand out at the moment since I wasn’t on friendly terms with neither Modes nor the gods of Elios.

For the same reason, I couldn’t target other divine beings. And so, I was left with no other choice but to suck vitality from inferior life-forms.

My primary target was the humankind.

Humans were the beloved race of my enemy, the God of Elios, thus I must destroy them for sure. I had already sucked several kingdoms’ worth of life force until they died. Those humans had already been forgotten by the gods of Elios and turned into livestock by demons.

As for the case of the Kingdom of Rox, I wasn’t the mastermind behind that incident. It had all been planned by those Striges. Thanks to that, I ended up meeting Modes’ subordinate, the Dark Knight, while I was there. By now, I was sure Modes knew I had survived.

And since that female follower of the Hero of light saw my figure as well, I assume Elios is aware of my survival, too.

I couldn’t stop wondering why all of them gathered in that kind of place. Whatever the reason, gathering life force will be much harder for me from now on. But… If I don’t suck more life-force immediately, my body will crumble to nothing soon enough.

What should I do?

Sucking such small amounts of life-force was a bad move.

I had no other choice but to drain a large amount in one go to resuscitate my physical body. And I already had a good target.

The Hero.

He had a huge amount of life-force inside him.

It might just be enough to bring my body back to life.

And so, I agreed to fulfill Labrys’s order.

「Fine, then. I’ll do it. I’ll be the bait and lure him here. Modes is probably the only one who can beat you while inside this labyrinth…」

「Do… Not… SPEAK THAT NAME IN FRONT OF ME!!!」

Labrys shouted at me, but I knew that he was just trying to mask his fear.

It seemed like he was still scared of Modes, huh. Upon taking a closer look, I discovered that he still trembled in fear. His figure that always seemed so big, so imposing to me…

… Now seemed so small.

「That’s right! Let’s capture that Hero guy and use him to lure Rena here! When she comes, Rena will be yours.」

I suggested a plan to lure Rena into his labyrinth to cheer him up.

It would be troublesome if Labrys didn’t want to fight that betrayer again. Except for the gods of Elios, he was the only one who could stand up to Modes.

To do so, I had to make him leave the labyrinth.

「Nice plan you got there, Zarxis! Yes, this Labrys is the only one worthy of that goddess.」

Labrys stopped trembling in fear the moment the topic changes to Rena.

I looked at him and sighed.

Well, then. How should I lure that Hero into this labyrinth?

◆ Black Haired Sage, Chiyuki

We rode griffons at maximum speed toward the Ariadya Republic.

The weather was sunny and the breeze was comfortable, making the trip quite pleasant.

Riding the griffon alongside me was Sahoko, clinging to my back. On the griffon beside us rode Nao and Rino, while Reiji flew in front of us on his pegasus.

From the side, Nao smiled at us.

「Quite a comfortable riding experience, right, Chiyuki-san?」

「Yes. But I wonder why we aren’t allowed to go faster…」

Thinking about it, we rode on the back of a demon beast in the fight against Nargol, when we defeated the dark knights. When I saw them fighting on those wyverns’ backs, a thought kept circling my mind. “Why couldn’t we do the same?”

But wyverns were only found in Nargol, so we chose griffons and hippogriffs in the demon beasts’ place. It was troublesome to tame them, but in the end, we succeeded. Looking back, there were only good memories.

I smiled, remembering them.

「What are you smiling for, Chiyuki?」

Suddenly, Reiji was by my side.

He had been flying ahead of everyone but, at some point, he slowed down enough to be keeping pace with the griffons.

He was riding his pegasus by himself. Rino had wanted to ride with him, but it was unanimously decided that it would have been unfair. They had to take into consideration Nao’s and Sahoko’s feelings since both of them were more on the conservative side.

Moreover, Reiji’s Pegasus wasn’t a tamed beast. It was a gift from Rena.

The pegasus was an extremely precious creature that no one aside from the Holy Knights could ride. Reiji had been given a special exception.

I was told it was Rena’s way of apologizing for leaving us behind in the Rox Kingdom.

The Hero riding the pegasus against the blue sky.

It looked like a scene coming out of a picture.

It vexed me to think so, but it suited him.

(~’.’)~To Be Continue In The Next Release Xp~(‘.’~)