The day after we defeated Kyoya, the three of us returned to the Great Ello Dungeon via Ronant's teleportation and pushed onward in a hurry.
Kyoya had held us up, and we'd been forced to retreat once to recover from the injuries and stamina we'd lost in that fight.
But the battle hadn't stopped just because we were resting.
It sounded like the fight between the
The gist of it was that Iena was buying time while Sophia couldn't finish her off.
The Upper Layer of the Great Ello Dungeon had become chaos—parts of it were flooded, other parts were frozen solid, and only a few zones were still intact.
If I set foot in there, I'd probably die from some cause or other almost immediately.
The fight between Iena and Sophia was deadlocked, but the battle on the surface had already been decided.
They'd managed to defeat the Queen Taranect.
However, the combined army of the Human race and the Demon race had fought hard, only to take a devastating blow from the remnants of the Nightmare that had spilled out of the Great Ello Dungeon. They'd been forced to retreat.
That said, even if the combined army had won, with the Upper Layer of the Great Ello Dungeon looking like a hellscape, they wouldn't have been able to storm the dungeon.
The same went for the Nightmare remnants that had driven the combined army back—they were apparently running around aimlessly on the surface.
As things stood, everything was at a stalemate.
But that would only last until Iena and Sophia's fight reached its conclusion.
Iena was said to be the strongest of all dragons, but Sophia appeared to have the advantage in their battle.
Water and ice.
Similar attributes, but ice had the superior compatibility.
Every water-based attack was frozen and blocked.
That was why Iena couldn't find an opening to press her attack.
Sophia, on the other hand, also had to deal with the flooding in the Great Ello Dungeon.
She was freezing the water pouring in to suppress the flooding, so she couldn't focus entirely on her fight with Iena.
Result: stalemate.
But Sophia still held a slight edge, and sooner or later, Iena would fall.
Once that happened, things would start moving.
If Sophia became free, and if the situation in the Upper Layer of the Great Ello Dungeon stabilized, then the Nightmare remnants still lurking on the surface could return to the dungeon.
If that happened, the scales would tip all at once.
Sophia's strength surpassed even Iena's—she was stronger than the strongest dragon.
Meanwhile, we had lost Gouka to Kyoya, and my soul was in tatters from spamming Mercy Resurrection.
I could probably only manage a handful more resurrections.
With the Demon King still holding back, we had no room to fight Sophia.
That meant, before Iena and Sophia's fight ended, I absolutely had to defeat the Demon King and break through to the System Core rumored to lie beyond the depths of the Great Ello Dungeon.
But...
When I saw that sight, my courage faltered.
I'd just defeated Kyoya, had my own soul whittled down, and relearned just how naive my resolve had been.
I'd thought that this time, I'd truly steeled myself—but the moment I laid eyes on that scene, my determination threatened to dissolve into mist.
Could resolve alone overturn this?
The deepest layer of the Great Ello Dungeon.
The Demon King was waiting there.
Flanked by two Queen Taranects.
And surrounding the Demon King and the Queens, rows upon rows of spider Monsters stood in formation.
Their total count was impossible to grasp at a glance.
Most of them were weak, tiny individuals, but even so, their sheer numbers were overwhelming—more than enough to deliver a crushing sense of visual despair.
So this was what we had to break through...
"Oh, you made it. Representatives of humanity."
The Demon King's voice echoed through the chamber.
I'd heard it once before, during the World Quest declaration, but it still felt jarring—the Demon King's appearance was that of a girl who hadn't even reached her teens.
Novels sometimes had beautiful young Demon Kings, sure, but seeing it in reality was profoundly disorienting.
It would almost be easier if she looked more overtly wicked—that way, I wouldn't have to hesitate.
Maybe I was still thinking that way because my resolve wasn't deep enough.
I should be the kind of person who wouldn't dull their blade no matter who stood before them or what form they took.
And yet, the Demon King sitting in her chair looked exactly like a frail little girl, and try as I might, she kept chipping away at my determination.
"Well, I say 'you made it,' but honestly, I'd rather you hadn't come. Still, now that you're here, there's nothing for it—we have to fight. The dragons, well, they can't be helped, but if I could've had it my way, you Reincarnators would have stayed somewhere far from any battlefield."
Those words sounded sincere.
Something in her tone let me sense that.
Her personality shone through, and it eroded my resolve even further.
This fight had only come about because someone had to break the current impasse.
Even the Demon King hadn't started it because she wanted to.
Neither side was right or wrong—she'd simply made a choice because something had to be sacrificed.
Cut one down to save the other.
Save humanity, or save the gods.
That choice had simply split in two, and this was the result.
"At this rate, we'll have to fight, but just to get it out of the way one last time—let me see, when you're a Demon King in a situation like this, there's supposed to be a standard line, isn't there?"
The Demon King cleared her throat.
"'Well met, Hero. Join my side, and I shall give you half the world. What say you?'"
It was a line riffing off the Demon King from a famous game in my previous life in Japan.
A strange wave of nostalgia washed over me, and the line matched the current situation so absurdly well that I couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
Part of me felt it was an odd time for humor, but the fact that she was clearly saying it in earnest meant I had to respond with equal sincerity.
"I'm sorry. The answer is no."
I had come this far to avoid sacrificing half the world—half of all humanity.
"I see. That's a shame."
The Demon King gave a slight shrug.
She probably hadn't expected that proposal to work either.
But she couldn't help asking, clinging to that one thin thread of hope.
I understood that feeling all too well.
"Then I suppose we begin."
At the Demon King's words, the spider Monsters—including the Queen Taranects—began to move.
It had begun.
It had already begun.
The battle between Hero and Demon King, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
A fight I could not afford to lose.
My power as the Hero was minuscule. But even so, I could not afford to lose.