***

One by one, the skeletons that were outside the protective coating began to crumble to the floor. The attack seemed to have been properly carried out on the Demon King.

“Cough…!”

August coughed up blood.

The impact on the protective coating was also tremendous. It was very difficult just to withstand it so that the protective coating would not crack.

“Just a little more, August…!”

I screamed just as I stepped onto the ground. Now, even if I wanted to help anymore, I couldn’t.

If August was in so much pain, I wondered what the inside would really be like.

‘Meyer is okay, right…?’

It’s in a state of attribute transformation now, so it won’t be affected by the holy power… Even if we exclude the attributes, it is still proto-massive energy, isn’t it? Frustrated, I immediately opened the status window.

Sure enough, Meyer’s physical strength was quite worn out. Still, it was not a dangerous situation yet. I breathed a sigh of relief quietly.

Crash!

The protective coating that could not hold out broke. Shattered like shattered glass, the protective coating soon glowed and scattered into the air.

Soon, the holy power trapped in the protective film hit us in a gust of wind.

“Ugh!”

“Keu…!”

We raised our arms and covered our eyes.

As the wind died down, the situation inside the protective membrane gradually revealed itself.

The skeletons, which filled the inside, collapsed to the floor or became powder and scattered without maintaining their shape.

Meyer barely supported his sword and exhaled roughly over the tomb of white bones. I had never seen him so tired.

In front of him, the oddly twisted Demon King was struggling to pull up his magic somehow.

[T, a-ahhhhh…]

The blow seemed to be quite deadly. The shape of the Demon King rose jaggedly. Meyer stepped slowly toward the Demon King.

No matter how tired he was, this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment to dispose of an enemy. A vow to somehow kill the Demon King oozed from Meyer’s toes.

“Goodbye, Demon King,”

Meyer raised his sword. Under the sword, which shone brightly with holy power, Meyer’s golden eyes were tinged with joy.

“Today I will completely break the curse of my blood.”

[Ha, haha… Do you think this is it?]

The Demon King bluffed while not even maintaining his form properly.

The red eyes of the dying Demon King, who was repeatedly kicking like that, turned towards me beyond Meyer.

[Don’t expect everything to go according to your plan, O support wizard, blessed by St. Marianne. It’s not that I didn’t make any arrangements!]

“I can’t believe he has so much energy left in him even on the brink of death… He is indeed the Demon King.”

Julieta muttered in disgust. She seemed to think that the Demon King was making a last stand.

But knowing how the worst of the situation was playing out, I could not sit through the Demon King’s words.

No way.

I confirmed Meyer’s medical condition. The transformation of attributes was still in place. There was no sign of magi biting into him, as the holy power was just covering him.

If there were no variables, he would continue to defeat the Demon King safely.

Yes. If only there were no variables.

“「Rain of Fire」 !”

With a not-so-welcome voice, sparks suddenly flew in the air.

The panicked expedition members looked at Axion, who looked even more puzzled and hastily exclaimed as he looked at the flaming sky.

“It wasn’t me!”

“I know! Fuck, Meyer! Kill the Demon King!”

Knowing the situation right away, I shouted to Meyer, swearing harshly. But it was too late.

“I will be the last hero who defeated the Demon King!”

Fabian suddenly appeared and with a cry of joy, thrust his sword out from behind the Demon King. His sword pierced the place believed to be the chest of the Demon King at once.

“How is he here…!”

Nova exclaimed incomprehensibly. It was obvious.

Only seven people could enter the dungeon, and none of the last seven had died.

So there had to be no one except us…

I bit my lower lip. I had a thick sense of déjà vu.

When Fabian defeated the Demon King in the second round of the game in which he was the main character, Meyer appeared from somewhere.

I didn’t think too much about it at the time, thinking that it was the game’s directorial permission…

Don’t tell me that the Demon King dungeon has a different number of people that can enter it? Or was there some exception…

The game setting is better connected to reality than I expected, and I should have thought enough about the possibility of other people intervening.

But it is too late to look back now. Fabian had already entered the dungeon and thrust the final blow into the Demon King’s chest.

Meyer’s eyes turned upside down as he missed the Demon King’s final moments. Losing control in anger, he tried to swing his sword at Fabian.

“Fabian Ignis, you bastard…!”

“Meyer! Come this way! Spread your distance from him!”

I cried hastily.

Meyer’s sword paused. Meyer looked back at me as if he didn’t understand.

“Meyer! Hurry!”

I continued to rush Meyer.

In the game, Meyer defeated the Demon King in the same manner as Fabian, eventually being swallowed by magi and becoming the second Demon King.

Of course, that was because Meyer was the nucleus of the demon king, so nothing would happen now…

But to be so sure, I was struck with apprehension.

An uneasy feeling that everything would flow like the game, just because people had changed.

If it flows as I predicted… Now Meyer’s physical strength is too poor. It is stable to recover for the time being and aim for the second round.

Sure enough, as soon as Meyer stepped back to my prompting, a black magical vessel slipped out of the Demon King, pierced by Fabian’s sword, like a blast.

The Demon King erupted into a final laugh.

[Ha, ha, hahahahahaha!]

“What the! Keuk…!

Magi scattered from the Demon King quickly covered Fabian. His nose, mouth, and eyes pulled the magi in. He shook it off and struggled, but it never left him.

Magi is a poison to humans. Fabian, who was forced to continue inhaling such magi, screamed in pain.

(T/N: Meyer has the magi of the Demon King, not just magic. Magi and magic are different.)

“Guaaaaagh!!”

“What is this…”

Nova mumbled in a daze. Meyer, too, was unable to enter the unexpected scene and could only watch the scene.

The Demon King and I were the only two people who knew what was going to happen next.

I gritted my teeth.

It was an unexpected final game.

***

Fabian, who had lost everything in Deca’s betrayal, was driven only by stubbornness and hatred.

He trudged through the overgrown forest. A trickle of blood ran down his steps and covered the ground.

Fabian opened his blurry eyes.

The end of the sky was so dark that it was impossible to distinguish night from day. The root from which all darkness was spewed out… The place where the gate to the war against the Demon King was opened was very close.

He didn’t know how much time had passed since he arrived here. Fabian quickened his pace.

He had to hurry before Jun and her party entered the dungeon. There was a limit to how many people could enter the dungeon.

If he entered the dungeon first, the Black Knights, who knew nothing, would unexpectedly omit one last person.

If that one person was Meyer or Jun… He couldn’t stop laughing when hethought of their panic. Fabian chuckled even as he was dying.

The malice of somehow thwarting Jun and Meyer was at Fabian’s back.

The world peace that would be protected at the end of it all has long since been dimmed and forgotten from memory.

Hatred was a stronger motivating force than goodwill. Despite his serious injuries, Fabian was able to enter the gate before anyone else, without the slightest rest.

It was next to impossible to survive in a dungeon alone, and that too in the Demon King’s castle, with his injuries.

But Fabian had an idea. He had the memory of the first round, and he remembered every single detail of how the Demon Castle worked.

Therefore, until the Black Knights were established, he could hide from the demons.

‘If my body will bear it.’

Fabian smiled as he moved his limbs, which were slowly losing feeling.

What a shabby and insignificant end. He never thought about it in the first or second round.

The moment Fabian entered the dungeon against the Demon King with only his venom, an unknowable power began to surge up and his wounds began to heal.

“What’s this…”

Fabian looked at his body in confusion. His limbs, which were heavy as if they had been attached with lead, were extremely light.

“Ha, hahaha!”

Fabian laughed softly.

He didn’t know why, but it was clear that the protection of St. Marianne had been granted to him.

As expected, I’m the warrior to defeat the Demon King!

If this happened, it was a different story.

In the meantime, let’s raise the level while dealing with the demons little by little. And then, at the last moment… Just before Meyer defeats the Demon King, I’m going to choke him out.

The Demon King’s experience will be mine, so it will be worth fighting Meyer, who has used up all his strength against the Demon King, and the honor of having defeated the Demon King will also be mine…

Fabian’s blue eyes were bent. The future ahead of him shone with victory and glory.