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Chapter 991
There was a distinct difference between defeating a Demon Lord and killing a Demon Lord. If it came to defeat, we might have won a dozen times already. We had continually weakened and damaged him over and over again, paying blood with blood. Deedee, Celeste and Shao were dead. Lydia and Salicia were out of commission. Terra’s mech was destroyed. Now, there was just a beaten Terra, Bernice who was out of bullets, an entangled Carmine, an exhausted me, and Miki, who had all of her focus on keeping his soul in his body.
We had pushed him closer to death than he had ever felt before, and all sanity seemed to have left the demon lord. His only goal now was to kill Miki. Killing her was life for him. We had pushed him into this corner time and time again, not giving him a chance to flee. His pride ultimately overwhelmed any caution he had in the beginning, but now that it came to this, he was like an unstoppable monster. With a roar that sounded more animal than human, he began to race at Miki. It was a horrifying sight that even made her flinch.
“This ends now! Final Blow!”
I attacked him using my last attack. He barely even blocked it, taking the attack head on. I felt him strike me. I felt something pierce my stomach, and then I was slammed into the ground. I looked up in shock to see him stumbling away. My attack had struck him, but the blow had only served to further make him inhuman. His skeleton was exposed in numerous parts. Blood dripped down his body from every pore. He no longer had lips or eyelids. He acted like he no longer felt pain.
{Last Chance Activated.}
I then looked down to see a hole in my stomach. I went to cast magic, but I realized I couldn’t cast anything but light heal. My mana was exhausted. I was slipping in and out of consciousness. Desperately, I rolled over, trying to crawl toward the skeletal monster that was once the demon lord.
“You won’t.” Carmine had managed to free herself and attack, but without her shield, he quickly dispatched her.
“Die, demon!” Bernice had managed to find a blade.
She had been a fast swordsman before a sharpshooter, but he handled her sword like it was nothing, letting it embed in his arm before striking her in the face. She flew back. It was unclear whether she was alive or dead.
“You’ll stop here!” Terra leaped between Miki and the demon lord, raising a wall of earth.
He smashed through it. She raised another. He smashed through it as well. By the time the third went up, he had closed the distance, and before she could get another, he was on her. She had stumbled back onto her butt, and could barely raise her arms defensively before he raised his foot and smashed it down. Terra’s head was crushed, and she died right there.
He lifted his head, and his eyes fell on Miki. She was the last one standing on the field.
Chapter 992
The world was dark, and the wind was whipping around the pair of them wildly.
“I have to say… I’m impressed. I’ve never been pushed to this state before.” Even his voice came out raspy and inhuman. “I will take great pleasure in resurrecting you all and torturing you for all eternity.”
He bared his teeth in what might have been a smile if he had any flesh to speak of. It was a bloody and horrifying smile. Miki’s legs were shaking, and it was all she could do to remain standing. She still did as she had been ordered through. She put everything into locking his soul in his body.
Although it had looked like she had only stood there since the beginning, from the moment she had locked down the demon lord, they had been in just as viscous of a struggle as any of them. Normally, Miki could lock down a person’s soul, and it would remain locked for some time. However, the demon lord was able to break against that wall, tearing it down and freeing his soul.
After so many times fleeing his body, keeping his soul in there was like trying to hold a fish underwater. Miki had to maintain her control every second, and if she slipped for a moment, his soul could leave and jump to someone else nearby and hide. Finding out who might be impossible, as he would use all of his power to hide.
Thus, she had nothing left. She couldn’t cast a single spell in defense. She was as helpless as a lamb for the slaughter. Still, she held his soul, keeping it in his body and praying for a miracle. She did as her Master had ordered her until the very end.
“Do you have any last words?” He responded.
Now that victory was assured, his madness had subsided, and his arrogance had resurfaced. He wanted to savor this moment of victory.
“You’re going to die,” Miki declared with a defiant stare despite her own shaking.
Feeling something off, Aberis looked up, and then made an irritated noise. “Another meteor! When had he summoned that? Your Master was truly an irritating bastard!”
It was only going to hit in about twenty seconds. It didn’t matter though. Aberis had long since over-drafted his soul. What was one more meteor? It would be thousands of years before he regained his former strength. That was the level he was damaged. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a patient man. Why, if a man went into a time-dilated dungeon, he could cross a thousand years in ten if he wanted to.
He lifted his hands and began to summon another beam to destroy the meteor. Miki’s expression fell. She had been certain he was out of mana now. How had he managed to have so much power and strength? She could only look over the battlefield of her fallen comrades to realize that perhaps they were the arrogant ones. They had been convinced of a certain victory. For all the strength Deek and his companions possessed, they were weak in the grand scheme of things. The Demon King would be even stronger than this demon lord, and he was ultimately too much for them. Her eyes fell down, and then hope surged through her.
Just as the beam was about to shoot out and destroy the meteor, a hand grabbed Aberis’s ankle. He instinctively looked down, where I was laying. I had crawled there, a stream of blood in my wake. Our eyes met.
“Self… Destruct….”
Y-y-you… Nooooo!”
He kicked, but I held on to his ankle like a vice. Carmine jumped between Miki and the pair. She had managed to use all she had left to stand up. With the last of her strength, Carmine grabbed Miki, turning and shielding her just as the explosion erupted. Carmine’s armor was destroyed. This was the powerful Light Armor from the Twilight dungeon, and now it was scrapped. The explosion had also burned most of her back. Miki rolled her over as Carmine coughed-up blood, death overtaking her. She had used her own body to save Miki. That was because Miki still had a job to do.
“This isn’t fair at all…” A voice caused Miki’s spine to tingle.
She turned to see Demon Lord Aberis still there, but he had no legs, and half of his body was gone. He was looking up at the sky now, not at her. He was watching the meteor descend on him, a strangely calm expression on his face.
“I was… supposed to be a god.” These were the last words he spoke at the meteor hit.
The Demon Lord Aberis died.
Chapter 993
“Deek?”
My eyes opened and I lifted my body. Although I had just been resurrected, I didn’t feel weak at all. I looked around to see I was on a familiar altar that priests used to resurrect people. However, there wasn’t a single priest, but dozens. Miki also seemed to be leading them in some kind of magic circle. She had all of her tails out, and she was gasping for breath like she had just finished a marathon.
“How much time has passed?” I asked.
Everyone looked at each other before looking at me. I noticed the girls didn’t run to hug me either.
“It’s only been a few days. The priests… had trouble resurrecting you. It took Resurrection with a good amount of fairy dust and mana to bring you back.” Lydia spoke uncertainly.
Of all the girls, she looked the most beat up. That’s because she was the only one to survive. I guessed she had refused to be healed while others were dead. Thus, she had been healing naturally.
“Are… you okay, Master?” Elaya seemed strangely cautious.
“Hmm? Yeah… is the Demon Lord Aberis gone?”
“Eradicated. I held the shield until the meteor strike. There is no way his soul didn’t perish with his body.” Miki responded, sitting down as she dropped her form, looking dead-tired.
“And everyone has been resurrected?”
“You were the last.”
“Good. Ah, I think I recall a wedding in a day or two, right? I think we could all use a celebration, don’t you think?”
“Master, what exactly do you remember?” Astria asked.
“Remember? I mean, I remember everything. I was split in two, then I went to Twilight Dungeon. Ah, but I also visited Bandit’s Respite… Wait… I remember both memories!”
The girls all let out breaths of relief.
“So, it’s like that.” Lydia sighed.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I can only guess,” Elaya spoke up. “But it seems like the damage each of you took by using Self-Sacrifice had created the conditions needed for your souls to reunite upon death. You’ve now formed a new soul, a combination of the two of you.”
“We combined…” I responded thoughtfully, and then looked down in desperation. “I’m not a futa, am I?”
“Ah! No! We checked!” Lydia declared.
I raised an eyebrow as some of the girls blushed. Only Lydia would admit such a thing proudly. The things that happened while I was unconscious might be better off unknown.
“You are… different though,” Terra responded, sounding uncertain.
“How?” I stood up and then blinked. “Ah… why is everyone so short.”
“You… might want to look at a mirror.” Elaya moved a hand, creating a magic mirror in the air that showed my entire body.
I looked in it to see the changes. My face had somehow become a combination of Deedee and Deek’s features. So, I had a softer, more attractive face, with long lashes, soft lips, nice cheek bones, but also a strong chin and a distinctly masculine appearance. My body was tall. I was as tall as an Osterian, 6 ft 6 inches by my guess, the same height as Alysia. My muscles were extremely lean. My skin was smooth and pale. I had dark, silky hair that flowed down my shoulders, and my eyes were a piercing blue. In short, I was…
“Really hot.”
“Master is a stud.”
“If Master says he’s well, can we play with him now?”
I was stunned, not sure what to say. I had once been a fat, short guy that people would call a pig. While I would never say I was ugly, I was plain at best. Over time, I had grown to a standard height, and lost weight, and gained muscles. Even then, I might have been sort of attractive, but my face was still my face. Now, I looked like a pretty boy. I was too tall, muscular, and rugged to be confused for a woman, but Deedee’s features had made my skin soft and silky, my hair smooth, and my body lean.
“It’s not just your body that has changed, but also your soul,” Elaya spoke up.
“My… soul?”
“Deedee’s soul was karmic, and your soul was mana. The two souls combined to form something else. She possessed a piece of mana in her karmic soul leftover from you, and you contained a piece of miasma in your mana soul, a result of your entanglement with dungeons. This allowed your souls to perfectly unite. A combination of light and darkness, perfectly balanced. Neither will win.
“You mean… yin and yang?” I asked.
“Oh? You’ve heard of the yin-yang soul? Yes, this is what you possess now. It was a mythical thing. Usually, miasma corrupts mana or mana purified miasma. One wins out in the end. With you, that will never be the case. It should also go without saying you’re immune to the effects of the malacrum and silvthril blades.”
“Demon Lord Aberis had something like that.”
“He was trying to make it, using spells and tricks to which I couldn’t guess. It did make him immune, but it was an incomplete soul. Yours is complete. More than complete. Both of you had a nearly full soul. They’ve combined, making your soul nearly double in size. Your soul is larger than anything I’ve ever seen. The strength of it cannot be understated. You saw how far Aberis managed to get by burning his soul force. His soul was a tattered broken thing compared to you.”
“Is there a risk my soul will split again?” I asked cautiously.
“No. It’s far too thick. The union was perfect. This is an event that I don’t believe has ever happened before. You Deek, are truly unique now.”
“I see…”
“What does Master want to do now?” Lydia asked.
“I don’t feel very tired at all,” I said. “I’d like to test this body out, and see what its limits are.”
“Oh? Do you want to spar? Xin is busy trying to fix the dungeon. She might be the best to spar with.”
I stood up, and as I did, something down below started to grow erect. “Actually, I had other tests in mind. You will all be needed for it.
“M-master!” Terra blushed.
“So bold!” Elaya cried.
“E-even that’s bigger!” Celeste added excitedly.
I grabbed the girls up in my arms, preparing to ravish them. The girls who were present were Lydia, Terra, Miki, Celeste, Shao, Elaya, Astria, Carmine, Salicia, and Raissa. It was certainly a lot of girls, but now that I towered over them, it didn’t seem like too many at all. In fact, they felt just right. I stopped just as I started fondling them and looked up at the priests still in the room.
“Ah, you guys might want to leave. This entire room is about to become a splash zone.”
The priests, with bright red faces, fled the room.
“That man, I’d be jealous if I didn’t respect him so much.”
“Did we defeat the Demon lord just to replace him with another?”
“I don’t know, but did you see that thing, I feel sorry for those girls.”
I felt in good spirits, and also much bolder than I used to, but that didn’t mean my skin was made of stone. I blushed at some of the words spoken as they left the room. I mean, I didn’t stop, but I made sure every woman present left satisfied.