The Demon Lord advances relentlessly with bold aggression.
Her spear handling is absolutely masterful.
Despite clad in armor of chitin and scales, she maintains astonishing agility.
Her footwork seems designed to nullify my sword techniques.
Moreover, the spear's power is extraordinary.
Infused with the holy sword's might, even a graze purifies the body.
Having her execute this with such supreme spearsmanship makes it excessively troublesome.
What threads through the gaps are swarms of light chains.
The chains assault from every direction.
Furthermore, unlike with the Holy Maiden, they aren't self-guiding.
Since the Demon Lord controls them with her own will, they weave unpredictable movements.
That sequence of attacks has already struck numerous times.
As a result, my body is damaged everywhere—if not for reinforcing with miasma, my limbs might have separated.
In a mortal body, I'd have died long ago.
(How ironic. Our roles are reversed from back then.)
The Demon Lord standing before me corners me by wielding sacred power.
I, in contrast, fight back with vile miasma.
This situation feels somehow fated.
Be that as it may, the Demon Lord's combat ability has dramatically improved compared to a decade ago.
Setting aside the holy sword's power and the light chains, she clearly surpasses her living self.
If it was the same as back then, I would have defeated you long ago.
(Likely due to the reincarnation magic used to resurrect you)
That is my judgment based on the battles so far.
The current Demon Lord had been implanted with a new purpose by Balk.
It was the element of "one who defeats the Demon Lord."
Something contained within the relic ash, closely resembling a form that inherited the mission of the current hero and saint.
Though a past Demon Lord, she now possessed the aspects of a hero.
As a result, her power had been dramatically raised to match mine.
It was a realm that could never be surpassed by a mere Demon Lord.
"What is the matter? Your strength should not be limited to this!"
The Demon Lord continued her relentless barrage.
Her halberd swept in every direction.
I deflected the chains of light flying from my blind spots with magic.
If I did not extend my consciousness in all directions, I would be killed in an instant.
The assault was that ferocious.
Pushing my focus to the absolute limit, I continued to move the sword that was my keepsake.
After clashing hundreds of times, the Demon Lord abruptly sighed.
She murmured in a low voice.
"...What would the hero think, seeing you now?"
"..."
Her whisper was something I couldn't afford to dismiss.
It was something I'd tried not to think too deeply about.
I tried to banish it from my mind at once, but my hand faltered ever so slightly.
There was no way the Demon King would miss such a waver.
"There's an opening."
The spear drove into my right eye socket as though to bore straight through.
Half my vision was swallowed by darkness.
A searing pain exploded from deep within my skull.
Chains of light surged forth and lashed around me, pinning my limbs in place.
White smoke rose from every point of contact.
The agony of purification had begun to eat away at my flesh.
The Demon King who had captured me tapped my shoulder with the spear and looked down at me.
She let out a heavy sigh.
"So naive. Even after becoming an undead, it seems you've yet to conquer the weakness of your heart."
"..."
I couldn't argue.
I was well aware of my own inner weakness.
Despite having no doubts, my movements turned sluggish at the critical moment.
And I hated that helplessness more than anything.
"It's over. I'll be taking back the name of Demon King from you."
The Demon Lord readied his spear as he spoke.
He was about to pierce my soul.
It would have been a painless, instantaneous end.
(—But that would be troublesome.)
I suppressed the miasma within my body.
Purification by the light chains accelerated, and the shackled areas crumbled all at once.
With my limbs gone, I broke free from the restraints.
At the edge of my vision, my heirloom sword fell.
I myself toppled toward the ground.
"What...?!"
The Demon Lord was astonished, but did not halt his attack.
The spear thrust drew close before my eyes.
I released the miasma, venting it as black smoke from the cross-sections of my severed limbs.
I used them as makeshift limbs.
They were extremely fragile, but they only needed to last this one moment.
I snatched the sword with one hand and kicked off the ground.
As the Demon Lord thrust, I twisted and leaned my upper body back.
The holy power-infused tip shattered my jaw from the upper to the lower.
It then scraped through my cervical vertebrae and collarbone in succession.
My ribs were burst open one after another, and the impact sent my armless shoulder and hip bone flying through the air.
But that was as far as I got.
The last-moment evasion had kept the thrust from finishing me off.
Having endured the spear strike, I squeezed out what strength remained and launched myself at the Demon Lord.
Stepping forward from a lunging stance, I raised the relic sword overhead.
Its destination was the Demon Lord's neck.
"Thi...s...!?"
The Demon Lord defended with a shield of scales and chitin.
The blade bit into it, scattering sparks as it gouged across the surface.
Halfway through, the tip bounced upward.
The shield had deflected its trajectory.
The relic sword veered wide, slicing clean through one of the horns that jutted from the helm.
It would not reach the Demon Lord's neck.
The blow carried through without cutting anything else.
The miasma limbs, having reached their limit, dissipated, and I pitched forward onto my face.
The severed horn clattered across the ground.
Before long, cracks spread across it and it shattered to pieces.
That was the result of my desperate attack.
When I raised my gaze, the Demon Lord was holding her spear aloft.
She stood like a towering statue, looking down at me.
"That was close. Made my blood run cold, that one. As expected of the Sage who saved the world."
The Demon King, certain of her victory, drove her spear down toward me.
Right after that, she suddenly convulsed.
Her arm trembled, and the spear plunged into the ground beside me.
"Ggh...!?"
The scales and carapace enveloping the Demon King peeled away and evaporated.
Her bare face, twisted in pain, was laid bare.
The spear crumbled in the same manner, losing all form.
"..."
I cast wind magic without incantation, blasting the Demon King away with a gust of wind.
She tumbled across the ground, unable even to break her fall.
When she tried to rise, she couldn't hold back a fit of coughing.
Viscous black liquid poured from her mouth.
While the Demon King writhed in agony, I regenerated my limbs from the miasma.
This time, I made them a bit tougher.
On the surface, they ended up looking no different from the skeletal originals.
Using those legs, I stood up.
With every slight movement, something cracked or broke elsewhere.
Unsurprisingly, I was covered in wounds.
This body wouldn't last much longer.
I looked at the Demon King, still lying on the ground.
She returned a dark gaze.
"You... what did you... do?"
"Just exploited a structural weakness."
I answered without concealment.
My jaw was shattered, but it didn't seem to affect my speech too severely.
Soon after, the Demon King made an expression as if realizing something.
"Im... possible..."
"The horn I severed was the part that served as a catalyst for resurrection. With that gone, the spell inevitably collapses. A weakness that didn't exist in life, I presume."
I was certain that my full-power strike would be blocked by the Demon King.
He was that formidable an opponent.
No matter how well I caught him off guard, an attack wouldn't land easily.
So I had launched my strike expecting it to be deflected.
The Demon King, true to my expectation, guided the blade toward his own weak point.
(Though it was a feat beyond my own power alone)
The Demon King knew that person's swordsmanship.
But the same was true for me.
Within me resided that person's combat experience.
Thus I could instinctively understand how the Demon King would wield his spear.
I picked up my memento sword and gripped the hilt firmly.
I still had just enough strength left for this much.
I was the one who prevailed in the death struggle.
All that remained was to draw the curtain to a close.
With my keepsake sword in hand, I advanced upon the Demon Lord.