"Stop that bastard!"
Spectacular magic hammered the ground like mauls. The demons were left speechless.
A legend was being reenacted. A rain of magic—no, a barrage of cannon fire—poured ceaselessly onto the battlefield. The earth shook. The battle enforcer cracked his whip across the soldiers' backs and screamed at them. To stop that bastard.
But how on earth were they supposed to stop him?
"Co-Commander. The enemy forces are far too powerful."
"They've already broken through the second line… The Minotaur unit has been annihilated!"
All the Demonkin were elite soldiers. No matter how dire the situation, they would have charged forward willingly. But even the Demonkin elites were horrified by the sight before them.
A single human was sprinting straight through the downpour of magic. As if racing down a boulevard. Unfazed by the deluge of spells and arrows, the human wielded a greatsword. With every flash of the blade, a dozen or so Demonkin elite soldiers collapsed, their innards spilling onto the ground.
If their lives were demanded, they would give them gladly. If sacrifice was needed for victory, they would accept it without hesitation.
However—there was simply no way to stop that human.
"You cowardly bastards. Is this really the army of His Majesty the Demon Lord?!"
The battle enforcer tore the head off a friendly soldier. A man who had killed more of his own than the enemy over the course of his lifetime.
"Fight! Even if you're going to die, at least thrust your spear once before you drop dead!"
He gripped his halberd and let out a piercing war cry. The demon soldiers instantly filled with spite. Aligning their ranks with the comrades on either side, they advanced one step at a time.
"Fuck it! If you're dying once anyway, might as well die twice!"
"Just take that monster's head and it's all over! Show them demon pride!"
"Kruh-hup! Kruh-hup! Kruh-hla, kruh-hup!"
The demon soldiers let out their characteristic war cries and charged.
They had families too. They had convictions. They looked different, but they were no different from humans. The courage behind those steps—taken even in the knowledge of death—was the same. That was precisely what made it all so hollow.
The fact that they had to die at my hands.
Was it because I was overwhelmingly strong? Yes, for starters—I was strong. I had no desire to hide that.
But between them and me lay a gap that could never be bridged. No matter how bravely the Demonkin stepped forward, no matter how they went mad watching their comrades' heads slice away from their bodies and scatter like straws before their eyes, they still met their screaming deaths on my blade.
At last.
"Guhh! That I, Bael, should be killed by a mere human...!"
The Demon Lord Bael's dungeon was breached in the blink of an eye. That very place which had plunged an entire continent into terror.
With a dull thud, my cold greatsword plunged into the Demon Lord's heart.
"Rest easy, Demon Lord."
I looked down at Bael.
The Demonkin once called the world's nightmare and an unparalleled Great Demon Lord was dying. The grand labyrinth, consisting of a staggering one hundred and twenty floors, had now been reduced to little more than a massive graveyard.
"You were without question my greatest rival."
"......"
"As a warrior, I pay you my respects."
"Heh."
Bael let out a bitter smile.
"So, then. There were still those among humans who yet carried pride."
"No."
I shook my head.
"It was you who forced that pride upon us humans. That's how powerful you were."
"Hah! Then my five thousand years of life were not meaningless after all... You surpassed the limits of your race and reached humanity with conviction. As a mortal, what more could one ask for? Was there ever a Demonkin who achieved such a feat before? No. There never was......"
Bael closed both eyes.
"It wasn't a bad life."
Born as nothing more than a low-ranking Demonkin, he had conquered the Demon Realm and even set his sights on the Human Realm. The great king now drew his final breath.
I bowed respectfully toward the king's corpse.
Then a group of companions came running over to me. The Grand Mage, the Knight Commander, the Great Thief, the Saint—all of them had shared joys and sorrows alongside me for over twenty years.
"You bastard!"
The knight lunged at me and locked me in a headlock. I was screaming "It hurts! It hurts!" but he wouldn't let go. He himself had spent nearly ten hours rolling around on the battlefield. I had no idea where he was finding the strength.
"Congratulations, Lolita."
While the two men tussled, three women approached.
"Heh. So you actually conquered Bael's dungeon! Not bad."
"What do you mean? From the very beginning, I was certain that Master Lolita would succeed. She has the blessing of the Twelve Gods, after all."
The knight huffed in annoyance and grumbled.
"Oh, great. Look at this and you'd think this guy single-handedly smashed the Demon Lord's Castle. A poor bachelor can't even visit a dungeon without getting teased. Tch."
Everyone except the knight burst out laughing. After spending a decade in some remote mountain village looking like a man who'd spent years living rough alongside a bear, he had the nerve to mutter like that—how could anyone not laugh? Watching this scene from afar, it finally hit me.
Ah, it's over.
I really did conquer Bael's dungeon.
The news that the Great Demon Lord had fallen shook the continent. Every human, regardless of nation or station, erupted in celebration.
They had done nothing but wait for the day the Human Realm would be destroyed. Dozens of armies had launched campaigns to seize the Demon Lord's Castle, but every last one had been annihilated. Most people had given up hope. And yet the Hero's party had led a band of adventurers and mercenaries to slay the Great Demon Lord.
The birth of a hero!
Across the entire continent, festivals raged for ten days and nights without pause. For the past twenty years—ever since the Demonkin had spread plague across the surface—every place where humans lived had been nothing but a funeral ground. Those were terrible days. Now the nightmare was over. Humanity celebrated with wild abandon, as if making up for the last twenty years.
The sounds of toasts and laughter drifted over the city. There was something almost desperate about it. And rightly so—because there were those who deserved compensation but would never receive it. Many had crossed a river from which there was no return. The humans laughed, then immediately burst into tears, and then started laughing again……
"Adventurer Lolita."
The Empress herself had graced the festival with her presence to honor the Hero. She was not the only one. Every single sovereign of the twelve nations that ruled the Human Realm had attended. One by one, they paid their respects to the great Hero.
"You have slain the Demon Lord on a small scale, and on a great scale, you have saved all of humanity. How could every great sovereign across the continent not express their gratitude to you? Lolita. You shall be honored by all while you live, and your name shall endure for eternity after you die."
The Empress knelt. She presented the sword with both hands. At the same time, the other sovereigns knelt as well.
Tens of thousands of spectators surrounding the venue held their breath. The supreme ruler—kneeling! Moreover, there had never been a single person in all of history before whom twelve sovereigns had knelt simultaneously. They were now witnessing the birth of a new history.
I received the Empress's sword.
"I am deeply honored, Your Majesty."
A tremendous cheer echoed through the night sky of the Imperial Capital. Mages launched bursts of colorful fireworks into the air at precisely the right moment. Lolita! Lolita! Lolita!…… The voices chanting the Hero's name carried on and on.
With this, all dungeons had been conquered.
I was the adventurer of adventurers, and there was no dungeon I could not clear.
Then a voice came over the speakers.
'The hidden dungeon, Bael's Demon Lord's Castle, has been conquered.'
'An unprecedented achievement! Congratulations—you have conquered all 72 dungeons.'
……Though I was only the strongest adventurer inside a monitor.
'I' let out a sigh.
============================ Author's Afterword ============================
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