Chapter 390: Final Battle
"..." I only have 20% mana left, so I decide to manage the magic carefully to avoid dying. I generate a small sword and put Violet inside the sword while taking a one-handed stance.
’My balance is terrible.’ My spine doesn’t let me get into a good position, and the damage leaves me a bit wobbly in my movements. I start taking slow steps towards Hana and Sakura.
Both of them are also ready, although Sakura seems frightened that even in this state, I’m still moving. Hana has a look of hatred, probably because I killed her brother.
Hana rushes towards me with her giant war hammer, while Sakura creates copies of herself to provide magical support.
Hana delivers a powerful upward strike, and I barely dodge it, trying to thrust, but she blocks it due to my low mobility at the moment.
I stomp the ground hard, cracking the rocks, and with my tail, I throw some stones at Hana’s face, forcing her to defend by raising her hammer.
"[Earthsplitter]" I use earth magic to open a large hole, making Hana fall into it. I jump, using her head as a step, pushing her further down, and then go after Sakura.
[Earthsplitter] is an earth magic that creates a large-scale fissure in the ground, opening a big hole.
With my sword, I cut through her clones without any problem. The power difference is notable between them and me. In the end, they are just clones with only a fraction of Sakura’s strength, which is far below mine.
"Without the buffs from the other heroes, you’re just trash." I say, completely decimating the horde of clones before they can use magic.
"H-Hana!" Sakura tries to retreat, creating more clones, but I approach her quickly with unsteady steps as my blood drips to the ground. I use the darkness to restrain her.
"Too cowardly to fight?" If I had her ability, I would use it much better, turning each clone into a bomb and sending them to attack the enemy without stopping, forcing the expenditure of mana.
"G-Get away from me, you freak! Y-You should be dead." She speaks as I manage to get close enough, then I knock her down with my tail, climbing on top of her. Hana is still trying to get out of the massive hole created by my magic.
"H-MMM!!" She tries to scream, but I shove my hand into her mouth as I drop the sword, holding the lower part of her jaw and pulling.
"HHMMMMMM!" She lets out a strange scream as I tear off her jaw. My vision becomes completely blurred before returning.
’This is bad...I need to finish this quickly.’ I notice her trying to use magic, so I crush her arm and rip it off. She struggles desperately, trying to get me off of her.
"It’s hard, isn’t it? Besides the power consumption, the pain, the fear of seeing your comrades die, and not knowing if you’re next, you also have to deal with me..." I speak in a dry, hoarse voice, the coppery taste becoming unpleasant as it’s my own blood.
’It seems she’s gone up.’ Not wanting to waste any more time, I shove my hand into the division between her eyes, crushing her brain.
She can’t even resist. They naturally have less magic than me, so fighting me, seeing their comrades being killed, and still being exposed to my chaotic mana is extremely detrimental both mentally and physically.
"Just you and that bitch spinning around there left." I murmur, getting up and seeing Hanna. She has changed weapons, it seems they all had storage rings or something similar to have multiple weapons for the fight.
"A...lance...planning to stay far away?" I murmur with blood dripping from my mouth as I pick up the sword on the ground.
’15%...’ Normally, my mana shouldn’t be depleting this quickly, but it turns out that my passive abilities are consuming my mana rapidly to keep me alive, as I currently have horrible injuries.
"Do you think you can defeat me in this deplorable state, Demon King?" She speaks with coldness as the sword falls from my trembling hand.
’Damn it...’ My nerves are completely messed up, I no longer have the strength to hold the sword.
"I think...yes, after all...I am the Demon King." I say, assuming a fighting stance.
She rushes at me quickly, and now that I’m so weak, she’s as fast as I am. Dodging her lance, I grab the shaft and spin, ending up above the shaft and trying to strike.
She rotates the blade, and as I jump back, I stumble when I touch the ground, opening a gap. She takes advantage of this to deliver a thrust that I can’t dodge.
The lance makes a severe cut in my abdomen, and I use my tail to cover the wound and stop the bleeding, preventing my organs from falling out.
’She also seems tired...’ She is exhausted as well. It turns out that my own mana is so strong that it causes damage, and defending against it consumed a large part of the heroes’ energy.
Of course, my current mana is so low and unstable that it no longer has this harmful effect, but the previous effects have been maintained, and it seems the buffs she received have now completely worn off.
"[Passage Light]" I use an extremely simple magic, but with 5% of my mana in this spell, it causes an overload, exploding into a blinding light.
[Passage Light] creates a magical light sphere that follows you, remaining active for a few hours and illuminating the environment.
The magic that received so much mana at once becomes a ball of light so bright that it hurts the eyes. I hear Hana scream in pain, and I take the opportunity to jump on her body, knocking her down.
She, with a lance, can’t use such a weapon from so close, but she can still deliver a powerful punch to my stomach, making me cough up blood. Without much time to think, wanting to finish this before I pass out from exhaustion, I lean down to her neck and start biting.
The sound of crunching flesh spreads, not that I can notice it. I just keep chewing, and chewing repeatedly, feeling her movements slow down until I have literally devoured her neck, completely separating the head from the body.
I can’t swallow, the internal damage forces my body to spit out all the flesh I chewed, my throat seems to burn as my vision starts to spin completely.
Fortunately, I’m conscious enough to collect her soul, and with that, I’ve collected the souls of all the heroes except Ren, Amiya, and Yuki, who passed out from being spun at high speed for a long time.
I have the darkness tentacle bring Yuki here, fortunately, beings created from darkness are living beings, so the tentacle continued to fulfill its duty without draining more mana from me.
’I’ll have to send her whole body.’ The tentacle puts her on the ground next to me, and soon I send Yuki into my universe, with that, she will lose her ability to return all damage to the one who caused it.
"H-Hahaha, I-I won." I say with pure joy and a smile on my face, despite the blood pouring violently out of my body. But the immediate relief demands even more from my body, which was moving based on pure hatred and desire for revenge. Without that, it collapses completely.
Blood begins to flow without stopping from wounds that were protected by solidified blood. My vision practically darkens.
’I-I need to get out of here...’ Amiya is alive, I have a deal with the stars and I shouldn’t kill her, and with her alive, if I pass out now, I will be killed by her. I start spending the rest of my mana to go to the only place I imagine being safe.
I can torture the heroes later after I survive this. For now, I must seek help to avoid dying.
The teleportation circle starts going to the coordinates of my master, who is not in the war and will be able to take care of me.
...
...
...
"Master, is this good?" I ask Master Thalruk as I show him a magic ball I made.
"That, it’s like that, Eclipsya, you are such a good disciple, you can already solidify mana after just a few hours of training," he praises me, and I smile at him.
"Yes, it’s even quite easy," I say, placing the ball on the ground. Suddenly, I feel a violent wave of magic, but I recognize this magic, even though it’s unstable.
’Mom?’ The master also notices and waits as a magic circle appears in the air. Soon, mom falls out of it, but it’s different from what was expected.
"M-Mom!!" I run to her desperately with tears in my eyes, seeing her condition.
"Mom, Mom, are you okay? Mom, answer me! Mom, Mom!!" I hug her, trying to talk to her desperately. She is covered in blood and wounds, and has only one arm.
Even though her body is small, I recognize her. There’s no doubt, it’s mom, who is extremely injured. My tears drip onto her body as I hug her tightly.
"Eclipsya, move away from her, she’s alive but unconscious. I’ll use magic to stabilize her," the master says, but I don’t pay attention, hugging her tightly and crying.
"Wake up!! Mom, talk to me! Please!! Answer, answer! Mom." I speak desperately, trying to wake her up. She’s cold, and the blood stains my clothes and the ground.
"A-Ah..." Before I can realize it, I receive a blow to my neck and fall to the ground, crying as I slowly feel my vision darken.
"Sleep a little, disciple, I’ll take care of Pandora until you wake up," I hear the master’s voice before everything goes completely dark, with the last thing I see being my mother lying on the ground in a pool of blood.