Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

[Translator - Kie]

[Proofreader - Kawaii]

Chapter 344: The Final Battle (3)

***

Erebos pierced through Dorugo's chest and emerged from her back.

Dorugo's eyes widened in shock.

She stared at Damien with eyes full of pain.

Damien didn't avoid her gaze.

Their eyes met.

In that brief moment, numerous emotions welled up in Damien's heart.

But Damien suppressed them all. The thrill of revenge could be savored after Dorugo was truly dead.

"Farewell."

Damien manifested Erebos's power. Erebos began to burn Dorugo's soul.

"...!"

Dorugo's hung wide open, but no scream came out.

The pain was too intense.

She grasped Erebos with her four arms and desperately tried to pull it out.

Damien mocked her efforts and thrust Erebos even deeper.

"Aaaaagh!"

Finally, a scream erupted. But Damien didn't stop.

"Aaagh! Aaaaaaagh!"

At last, Erebos completely annihilated Dorugo's soul.

As her soul vanished, Dorugo's head dropped.

Her four arms went limp.

Her massive body slowly crumbled. Her reverse-jointed legs folded almost touching the ground.

And so, Dorugo was finally dead.

"..."

Damien silently looked at Dorugo's corpse.

He had finally severed their long and bitter connection.

At last, he had obtained the peace he desired.

And yet, why?

He felt no joy. No sense of relief.

Instead, he only felt a pressure constricting his heart. It was truly strange.

"...This is completely different from what I expected."

Perhaps it was because Dorugo's death didn't feel real yet.

Damien tried to pull Erebos out of Dorugo's body.

In that moment, a chill ran down his spine.

Suddenly, it felt as if he'd fallen into a winter lake.

His muscles tensed all at once.

Damien quickly pulled Erebos out and moved as far away from Dorugo's corpse as possible.

Damien glared at Dorugo's body.

"...Kahah."

Just then, laughter came from Dorugo's mouth.

"Hahaha... haha..."

Along with the laughter, Dorugo slowly raised her head. Her eyes overflowed with ecstasy.

"Finally... they're finally gone."

The two heads attached to Dorugo's torso began to crumble into dust.

"Their thought forms... those insufferable things have fallen away!"

As her laughter grew louder, Dorugo's presence began to grow stronger.

"Now I can feel it! Their power! Their authority!"

Her massive body melted away. But it didn't flow to the ground. Instead, it gathered towards her center.

From within the viscous liquid, a naked form emerged.

Muscular limbs.

Taller than a Human.

A woman with a body attractive enough to stimulate every human desire appeared.

"As I expected. I knew it would be possible with Erebos."

Dorugo said with a chilling smile.

"Damien, thank you for your cooperation."

***

Damien couldn't help but be shocked by Dorugo's completely changed appearance.

He seemed to understand why he wasn't happy despite having killed Dorugo.

He had instinctively felt it. The fact that Dorugo was not yet dead.

He had been fooled.

What Dorugo had revealed was not her own soul but thoughtforms left behind by the Demon Lords.

Pride and Sloth were known to be the strongest among the Demon Lords.

The thoughtforms they left behind couldn't be ordinary.

They must have been preventing Dorugo from taking their powers and authority.

"You've suddenly become very silent."

Dorugo said to Damien. Her red lips shone seductively.

"But you shouldn't do that in front of me. Besides, I have a lot of debts to collect from you, don't I?"

The darkness transformed into cloth and wrapped around Dorugo's body.

Her sensual figure was fully revealed.

"Time stop didn't work, did it? Then I'll have to use this on you."

Damien's vision began to shake violently. He couldn't distinguish up from down, let alone sky from ground.

When he came to his senses, Damien was floating high in the sky.

"...Cough!"

Before he could grasp the situation, a sharp pain surged through his abdomen. Blood burst from his mouth.

Only then did Damien realize.

Dorugo had kicked him. At a speed so fast that Damien couldn't even notice.

But this much was okay. The Soulflower of Tranquility had withstood the shock...

"Didn't I tell you that you're still in shock?"

Damien looked up. Dorugo was floating in the air.

"Looks like I'll have to hit you a few more times to bring you to your senses."

As soon as she finished speaking, Dorugo's figure split. It was as if numerous mirrors were reflecting Dorugo's image.

This wasn't a doppelganger technique. They were all real bodies. She had merely extended her form by distorting space.

"Grit your teeth."

Countless Dorugos moved simultaneously. Fists and kicks came flying from all directions.

Innumerable strikes were delivered simultaneously. Damien's body flailed about in midair.

The attack that had continued for a long time suddenly stopped. Damien's battered body fell to the ground.

"Ahaha."

Dorugo laughed, throwing her head back.

She didn't mind at all that her beautiful face was distorted grotesquely.

"Did you see? This is my power! Now you're nothing! It means you're less than an insect!"

Damien who had been lying on the ground suddenly got up. Dorugo saw this and asked incomprehensibly.

"How are you still alive?"

The simultaneous attacks delivered by distorting space were not something Damien should have been able to withstand.

All the bones in his body should have been shattered, and his internal organs should have all burst and spilled out.

Yet Damien was not only conscious but even getting up.

Dorugo glared at Damien with narrowed eyes. Then, as if she had realized something, she exclaimed.

"I see. You absorbed my attacks with the Authority of Gluttony. I didn't expect you to have completely mastered Epsilon's technique in such a short time."

That was correct. Damien had absorbed Dorugo's attacks with Gluttony and then repelled them by releasing them again.

"But you couldn't block them all, could you?"

That was also correct. It was impossible to block all the attacks.

The attacks that he failed to block had destroyed various parts of Damien's body, making it difficult for him to even stand.

"Tch."

Damien spat and spread both hands.

Erebos and the divine sword, which he had dropped on the ground flew into his hands.

"Don't tell me you still intend to fight?"

Dorugo asked with an incredulous look.

The technique Dorugo had just shown was nothing.

It was just simple punching and kicking.

If Dorugo wanted, she could turn someone like Damien into dust.

"Don't resist futilely and surrender quietly. I probably don't need to tell you this, but suicide is useless. It's very easy to keep your soul trapped in your body."

"You're... annoyingly noisy."

Damien opened his mouth for the first time. His pronunciation was unclear due to the blood filling his mouth.

"Stop talking nonsense and come at me. This time, I'll really kill you."

"You don't want to show weakness even in this situation? You're irritatingly arrogant."

Dorugo clicked her tongue. Then Damien spoke again.

"I won't say it twice. Come at me."

A fierce light burst from his eyes on a face covered in blood and dust.

Seeing that look, Dorugo couldn't help but hesitate.

Damien's words were neither bluff nor provocation. He truly intended to kill Dorugo.

From Dorugo's perspective, it was an absurd attitude.

However, Dorugo couldn't laugh at Damien.

Because the only person she had ever loved had acted exactly like Damien.

Because he had never fled from any irrational battle. Because he had ultimately achieved victory.

"T-This can’t be."

Dorugo dismissed her sentiments.

"You are not Ruin. You're just an ordinary person who inherited Ruin's talent."

However, there was a reality that didn't change no matter how much she denied it.

It was clear that Damien had no intention of backing down from this battle.

Despite being shown an overwhelming difference, he didn't back down. He was even trying to fight her seriously.

From Dorugo's perspective, it was an attitude that was hard to forgive for its insolence.

"If that's how you want to be... I'll thoroughly break you. Your pride, your dignity, everything."

As Dorugo waved her hand in the air, the Four Great Demon Kings lying on the ground all disappeared. She had used the Authority of Pride to send them to another place.

Next, Dorugo created a large dimensional portal behind her.

It was too large for just one Dorugo to pass through. It was as if she was showing it to Damien.

As the dimensional portal opened, it revealed scenery. The moment he saw it, Damien couldn't help but be shaken.

The world beyond the dimensional portal was Spring Castle.

Spring Castle where his family resided and the busy servants could be seen.

He could also see his father and mother taking a walk in the garden.

"I'm going there now."

Dorugo said with a sneer.

"I'll go and torture your family. In a way that will make what happened in your past life feel like child's play."

"Stop..."

"When everything is over, I'll open the dimensional portal then. So you can watch your family's demise with your own eyes."

"I said... stop...!"

Damien said in a trembling voice. But Damien's words didn't reach Dorugo.

"Until then, you stay here and wait."

"I told you to stop!"

Damien pushed the Soulflower of Tranquility technique to its limit. He rushed to kill Dorugo.

But Damien couldn't get close to Dorugo. Dorugo had stretched the space between them like taffy.

No matter how much he ran, he couldn't reach Dorugo. Damien's eyes turned red.

Meanwhile, Dorugo moved towards the dimensional portal. As soon as Dorugo passed through, the gate closed immediately.

When Dorugo disappeared, the space returned to normal. But by then, the dimensional portal had completely vanished.

***

[Translator - Kie]

[Proofreader - Kawaii]