"...What?"
Balk let out a stupefied voice.
His eyes darted between the spear piercing him and the Demon Lord.
Blood dripped from his hanging mouth.
"Huh... no, this... why..."
Balk finally grasped the situation.
He was utterly bewildered and began spitting out meaningless words.
This was no act.
Balk was genuinely panicking.
Then came the sound of a snort.
It came from the Demon Lord.
"Pathetic. Did you truly believe you could dominate me?"
The Demon Lord spoke in a low voice.
What it carried was not rage.
It was profound contempt.
Balk, meanwhile, tried to explain through the blood he was coughing up.
"M-Milord Demon Lord... this is... a misunderstanding. No, actually—"
"Don't bother finishing. It's unbearable to listen to."
The Demon Lord swung the spear.
Pulled by the centrifugal force, Balk went spinning through the air.
He was sent hurtling far, far away.
He landed splayed out, his blood pooling outward in every direction.
His limbs twitched weakly with faint spasms, showing no sign of rising.
The Demon King placed a hand against his own chest.
There, mana concentrated, and dozens of black serpents were dragged from within his body.
The Demon King crushed them in his fist.
The serpents dissolved into wisps of white smoke and evaporated away.
The subjugation spell Balk had implanted was destroyed.
The Demon King shook his scorched hand lightly.
"Fool. The notion that you could bind me was nothing short of naive."
With a sigh, the Demon King slowly turned toward us.
Our gazes met and locked.
The scales and carapace covering his head peeled away and crumbled apart.
And from within emerged the face of a woman with gray skin.
Dark blue hair cascaded from her head, and two horns grew from her temples.
Her golden eyes shimmered with an almost mystical radiance.
The previous Demon King had been a woman of the dragonkin.
Her true face had not changed at all from those days.
"I've kept you waiting. Now the nuisance is gone."
The Demon King allowed a thin smile to cross her lips and lowered her spear.
She spread her arms wide with a familiar ease.
"Sage. I never thought I'd see you again."
"...I feel the same way."
I thought everything had been settled ten years ago.
I had meticulously destroyed the bodies to prevent exactly this, ensuring no one could ever be revived.
Perhaps preventing every possibility perfectly is nearly impossible.
The one outcome I least wanted has come to pass.
The Demon King stares at me.
Then her gaze shifted to the Royal Capital.
She cast detection magic, expanding her awareness without limit.
The Demon King is searching the world.
As if filling the blank of ten years, she gathered countless scattered pieces of information.
Having finished her assessment, the Demon King turned a pitying gaze upon me.
"You were so full of fire about killing me and restoring peace to the world, but judging by how things stand, it seems things didn't go as planned."
"...Did you foresee this turn of events?"
I couldn't help but ask.
The Demon King's tone carried an air of inevitability.
Her manner even carried something that felt like affection or kindness.
The Demon King nodded at my question.
"Of course. Humans are foolish beyond measure. In the end, through their own mistakes, they will always destroy themselves."
A scathing irony it was.
The Maou possessed a clear-eyed perspective.
I could not refute her words.
In fact, I found myself agreeing from the depths of my soul.
I knew well enough that humanity was foolish.
I had tasted that truth firsthand.
The Maou offered a wry smile then.
I caught a glimpse of sympathy in it.
"Still, I never expected you'd become an undead. Your source of power is the Valley of the Dead, is it not? Truly, you've touched upon the most forbidden of taboos. Even I have no desire to approach that place."
"I didn't exactly dive in willingly."
Events from my former life flashed through my mind.
Memories laced with pain.
I felt the sensation of a non-existent heart beating.
The Maou spun her spear a few times, then settled into a light stance.
Just as I remembered.
A peerless spear technique, capable of deflecting attacks from all directions.
"Now then. We have much to discuss, but it is soon time for us to die facing each other. Steel your resolve."
"So it comes to this after all..."
Balk, who had plotted my demise, was dead. The former Maou was all that remained.
I thought the meaning behind this fight was lost, yet she seemed ready for it.
The Demon Lord shouldered her spear and exhaled. Her golden eyes gazed into the void.
"This body contains the factors of both Hero and Saint. They are crying out to me to kill you."
"I see..."
I recalled Balk's words. The Demon Lord standing before me was a hybrid of the current generation's Hero and Saint. She had used those as the cornerstone of her resurrection. Personality-wise she was identical, yet she had become a different being from the woman she once was.
"Well, even setting aside the physical circumstances, I wish to fight you. You wouldn't want to remain defeated, would you? It's the previous Demon Lord's pride."
The Demon Lord bared a savage grin. She was more aggressive than I'd imagined. She strongly desired a duel with me. There was no falsehood in that.
"Previous... so you do acknowledge me as the Demon Lord."
"Hmm? Is that so strange? You surpassed me and even slew the current age's hero. There should be no issue with claiming the title."
The Demon Lord tilted her head. It was as if she wanted to say, "What are you talking about?"
To her, I was undoubtedly the Demon Lord. In a manner of speaking, we were fellow Demon Lords. It seemed, without my realizing, that she had already acknowledged me as such.
However, now that I have been resurrected like this, I will not let you have your way. I will win this battle, and once more claim the title of Demon King.
The Demon King exuded a refined killing intent.
Her stance was flawless.
If one entered her range, she would unleash a devastating strike.
The movement that had pierced Balk was nothing to her.
The Demon King, her gaze fixed upon me, allowed a smile to grace her face once more.
"Fate is an ironic thing, is it not? Who would have thought I would become the one to slay the next Demon King."
"Are you dissatisfied?"
"Not in the slightest. While I harbored no regrets, I was able to see the world after my death. And now, an opportunity to avenge the sole defeat of my lifetime has come around. There is no way I could be dissatisfied."
The Demon King took only a few steps forward.
Then, she raised her sharpened fighting spirit to its absolute limit.
Glancing at the person beside me, she murmured with a hint of regret.
"The only pity is that the Hero is not here. Where did that woman go... But to ask is tasteless. I can guess well enough without asking. Humans are that sort of creature."
"..."
The Demon King had surmised the Hero's end.
When facing us, who sought to save the world, had she foreseen this future even back then?
(...She almost certainly knew.)
Given her personality, it was not an impossibility.
She would have faced us regardless, and challenged us to the battle that would decide the world's fate.
"A clash between two Demon Kings—truly a rare opportunity. Shall we both savor it?"
The moment the Demon Lord spoke, the atmosphere in the space groaned.
It was a sensation of tightening, of constricting.
The earth trembled, and cracks raced across it with an audible sound.
"---O Demon Lord, once a Sage. Let me show you the power of my predecessor."
Chitin and scales writhed, once again covering her head.
In the blink of an eye, it formed the shape of a helm.
In that instant, her foot kicked off the earth.
The former Demon Lord, spear in hand, charged.